The Secret of Zormna Clendar by Julie Steimle (great reads .TXT) 📖

Ryant stared at Jennifer for several seconds. Her lips had gone white. She muttered, “Poor girl…. And you have no idea where she went?”

Jennifer shook her head. “None.”

She didn’t dare mention the FBI. Not yet. Jennifer didn’t know if Mrs. Ryant was aware of the murders that surrounded Zormna’s family. As for the rest, there was no way she would tell the teacher the complete truth. Mrs. Ryant wasn’t exactly a vault of secrets. She talked about her worries with the other teachers—a bit of a busybody, actually.

“I see.” Mrs. Ryant turned, deep in thought. She finally nodded to Jennifer and said, “Well, let me know if she ever comes back. Maybe she just forgot to tell you where she was going.”

Jennifer was too depressed to contradict her. Instead she just watched the English teacher walk back up the stairs towards her classroom. Perhaps the woman was planning her own trip to the police to help in the search.

As Jennifer turned to go on to lunch, she heard yet another person ask, “Jennifer, is Zormna sick? She wasn’t in PE today.”

Not again. Jennifer moaned, rubbing her reddened eyes with the heel of her hand. Closing them, she turned around to face her next interrogator.

But it was Jeff Streigle. He stood there like anyone would, curiously inquiring—though a degree of unease Jennifer had not seen before seeped from his fathomless eyes, unease which he was working at hiding.

What had Zormna said about him? To stay away from him because he was trouble. Ironically, it was the same thing her mother had said about Zormna’s family.

Sniffing back her already running nose while trying to maintain composure, Jennifer replied, “No. I have no idea where she is. Do you?”

Jeff flushed red then went white. “No, I—” He averted his gaze to the floor. “When did she disappear?”

Jennifer resisted the urge to scream. He was there Friday! He saw her Saturday looking for her! He knew!

“No, wait, you told me last Friday. She didn’t come back?” Jeff’s voice rose slightly. His lips were now ashy. He honestly sounded…worried.

“No, she didn’t come back!” It took everything to keep from clawing at his face. “Like I said Friday, she got in a fight with my parents and ran off. I waited all weekend at her house but she didn’t ever show up. I’m worried.”

Jeff stared off into space, running his fingers through his dark hair. He clenched his scalp for a second then let go, not saying anything for several seconds. But then he glanced back at Jennifer. He blushed. “Hey, I’m sorry. Thanks for—well, thanks for being honest with me. I—I gotta go.”

And he hurried off.

What was that? Though she had hardly told him more than she had Mrs. Ryant, Jennifer could feel that he knew what had transpired at her home, and he understood why. It was as if he could see through her into the past. It startled Jennifer.

She followed him at a distance.

They both passed the cafeteria where the lines were already getting long. Jeff jogged over the senior lawn directly to the red top where his friends were bombarding Todd with the same questions Jennifer had been fielding all day. But Jeff didn’t go to Todd, who was looking harried. He went to Alex, and whispered in his ear.

Alex looked at Jeff, going pale. Genuine grief formed on his face. The brothers didn’t say much, though their buddies were wracking their brains over where they thought Zormna might have gone. Most of them debated the FBI kidnapping theory in rabid detail.

In her descent down the lawn to where she usually met up with Kevin for lunch, Jennifer watched the brothers cautiously. Both lifted their eyes toward her. She stopped at the tree and sat on the bench, but continued to watch the Streigle brothers. Eventually Jeff pulled Alex aside to a separate spot on the red-top for an involved discussion.

Hardly touching her food, Jennifer wondered again if it truly had been in Ireland where the Streigle brothers had encountered Zormna, or some other place. Because what had started off as a conversation between the brothers soon warmed up into a debate, practically arguing. The brothers kept it down, but their expressions were intense and their gestures almost violent. Then it occurred to her, if Jeff was in fact from where Zormna was from, and if what her mother had said was true—that there were immigration laws requiring all to keep mum about their true origins to avoid any government entanglement—then the brothers were in fact worried about themselves and not about Zormna at all.

How she saw the brothers automatically took on a new perspective. Jeff had the perfect American accent—like from TV with no regional indicators. So did Alex, though Alex spoke a little more properly, with less slang. There had been nothing suspicious about them except for Jeff’s extreme scars and haunted stare. But that, they had explained away as a case of abuse.

But the coming of Zormna Clendar had been like dropping a bomb into their secret world. No wonder the Streigle brothers had freaked and avoided the blonde when she came. No wonder her parents did everything they could to make Zormna less conspicuous. No wonder Jeff ‘bullied’ her with Irish ‘racial’ slurs. He was up-playing Zormna’s Irish identity.

But if the FBI leveled Zormna’s story about being from an Irish military school (if only for a brief moment), what would that do to everyone else? Her family might get off fine, but it would destroy Jeff’s tale about how he knew the girl…because it was obvious they knew each other very well. Most likely, the FBI would soon be all over him, and possibly those in his home as well.

Those in his home…

Jennifer drew in a breath.

Facts began to knock down other facts like dominoes in her brain. Those two college boys she had spoken to on Saturday. Could they also be from that place?

Jennifer set a hand to her forehead. The crazy lady. Her parents. The Streigle brothers and their aunt and uncle. How many—dare she say it?—aliens were in her neighborhood? Again, that unsettling epiphany leveled everything she had previously understood.

“Jennifer,” Kevin arrived at the edge of their bench. “I need to talk to you.”

Glad he had finally come, Jennifer gazed up at Kevin with hope that she would be able to switch her thoughts to something more cheerful than this alien invasion. Her life was shattered enough. But Kevin’s expression was too serious.

“It’s about Zormna,” he said.

Jennifer groaned and covered her head with her arms.

Kevin sat down next to her and whispered, “I know where she is.”

What? Jennifer jumped up immediately. She almost knocked heads with Kevin as she grabbed his arms. “Where?”

“Someone might be listening.” He carefully pulled her back down, peeking over his shoulder to make sure he was not being watched. He wasn’t usually like this—even after he had heard the FBI had been watching Zormna.

Nodding, Jennifer searched around to see if any of Zormna’s FBI agents were nearby. But after glancing at the vacant spot the car usually occupied, she knew they would not be observed.

So, she peeked over at Jeff and Alex. They were still busy in their argument, too engrossed to notice anything else around them.

“I tried to call you yesterday when I saw her, but you weren’t home,” Kevin said.

Jennifer leaned in nearer, hope rising. “I was at the crazy lady’s place.”

“Well, Zormna was at the asylum near my house.”

“The asylum?” Jennifer almost yipped.

Kevin slapped his hand over her mouth, hunching closer. “Not so loud! Some guys were carrying her inside. I think they were those FBI you talked about that were following her.”

Jennifer stared at the ground, clutching the bench with her hands. “Darren was right. He said they got her aunt. Now Zormna.”

Her boyfriend recoiled with a grimace. “Zormna’s great aunt was crazy, Jen, remember? Zormna is sane. Well…mostly.”

“Right.” Jennifer felt more wretched by the minute. After all, Kevin didn’t know Zormna was not really from Ireland, and there was no way she could tell him the truth now.

“Can we talk about this later?” She leaned against his shoulder wishing she could just forget everything that had happened in those last months. “I mean if this place isn’t safe, we’d better talk in a more private place, right?”

Kevin nodded. He took one more look around, letting out a sigh. “Yeah. We also have to find a way to break her out of there.”

Jennifer agreed and stuck her hand into her lunch bag, finally feeling hungry.

*

Kevin and Jennifer could not act on anything until after school. As soon as they walked to Jennifer’s house where she dumped off her books and things, she and Kevin took a long walk through the neighborhood, just talking. Jennifer really didn’t think the FBI would stick around to listen in on her conversation since the object of their scrutiny was already in their possession. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she realized she was a non-entity in the FBI’s calculations. As far as she knew, they did not yet suspect her as an informed witness of Zormna’s alien origins. It was more likely they were spying on Darren for that sort of info.

Together, they walked down Hayes Street, holding hands as Kevin mostly talked. He related every detail he saw the previous Sunday, from the screaming that caught his attention to the gunshot that drew him outside. He described the crowd on the lawn and how they carried Zormna’s body back into the building. His voice took on a grave tone, too serious even for him. Jennifer listened to every word, shaking her head while staring towards the ground. They had been trying to think up a realistic way to break Zormna out. But with every description of Zormna’s recapture (as the girl obviously had tried to escape at least once) Jennifer knew that there was no way two mere suburbanites would be able to even get inside the asylum to break the super-ninja out. It wasn’t the movies after all.

Then, of course, there was the issue about the man with the gun.

“I swear, Jennifer, she looked pretty bad. She was wearing a hospital gown. And her hair stuck out all over. You know, ratted, like a lunatic. And you know what kind of anal chick she is, even with those crazy curls she’s got.” His shoes scuffed against the concrete as he walked.

Jennifer hmm’d, thinking. “Yes. She’s a clean freak.”

They had gone to Zormna’s house just to make sure she had not been deposited there. After all, even her great aunt had been returned after her brief disappearance. Besides, what would the FBI want from a fourteen-year-old girl anyway? That was Kevin’s thinking. Jennifer still hadn’t gotten up the nerve to tell him Zormna wasn’t actually from this world. He would take it all wrong.

They peered into the front windows. No change. The house was still vacant as ever. Jennifer decided not to show him how she broke in Saturday. Besides, she could still see the note she had left on the coffee table. It hadn’t moved.

After a brief rest on the front lawn, chatting about a lot of nothing, they got up and decided to take the short cut down the alleyway near Kennedy Street. Hand in hand, they walked slower, maneuvering around large garbage cans, plastic bags, and old rotted banana peels. Kicking the trash through the alley, their conversation dropped more into murmurs. They headed toward Murray Road so they could cross the street then continue on.

Just as they reached the opening to her own street, Jennifer stopped abruptly. Her eyes widened. She took in a sharp breath. At her feet lay the alien blonde still in her Ryant’s Renegades tee shirt and khakis. Bleary-eyed, blinking mutely at the tree cover and rubbing her head among the trash, Zormna tried but failed to get up. 

Immediately, Jennifer jumped over the garbage to Zormna’s side. “Oh my gosh! Zormna, are you ok?”

Zormna moaned, still