Everwild

CHAPTER 12 Of Monsters and Mullets

There was no question that Nashville slowed them down, what with so many skinjacking opportunities. Mikey was the only one annoyed by how few miles they were covering. "I thought you wanted to find your family," he reminded Allie.

"I do, but I've waited this long-a couple of days won't make a difference."

She could have told him then about how she'd be stuck in Everlost for a long, long time, so there was no hurry to do anything-but she knew Mikey would ask her a million questions she had no answers to. Like what it meant to be consigned to Everlost for her "natural life," as if the universe knew when she would have died if she hadn't been in the accident. How can a date be assigned to something that will never happen?

An exploration of Nashville had turned up a sizeable vapor of Afterlights in an old burned-out factory that had crossed over. They were friendly but guarded, not trusting of outsiders-least of all a foreigner like Milos. The Nashville Afterlights made room for them in their sizeable deadspot though, and were happy to listen to all their stories of faraway places-and to them, every place was far away.

"So you've all been into the Everwild?" their leader asked-a kid who had blue hair for no reason anyone could fathom.

"Where I come from, this is the Everwild," Allie told him, and that made the other kids laugh, thinking she was making a joke.

One kid didn't laugh, though. A bone-thin, sad-eyed kid who was so hunched the other kids just called him Igor. "It's all wild," he said. "No one knows anything about anywhere-'cept of course for the Sky Witch."

Both Allie and Mikey shifted uncomfortably at Mary's mention, but neither of them said anything. Neither of them felt like sharing tales of Mary Hightower.

"But the real wild places are to the west," said Igor, and the other kids murmured their agreement. Then he whispered, "Have you felt the wind?"

"What wind?" asked Mikey.

"We don't feel wind in Everlost," Allie pointed out.

"You'll feel this wind," said Igor. "If you're goin' to Memphis you'll feel it sure enough."

Allie looked to Milos, but he just shrugged. "This is as far west as I've ever been."

"Great," grumbled Mikey. "Another problem."

"It's not a problem," said Allie. "It's just wind."

But the looks on the Nashville kids' faces said otherwise. *** While Moose and Squirrel bargained with the Nashville Afterlights, hoping to provide various skinjacking services, Milos invited Allie for another lesson.

"Enough talk of winds and worries," Milos said. "Tonight we have fun."

"If it's an evening of fun, then we should invite Mikey," she said, more of a reprimand than a suggestion-a little jab to remind him that their lessons were serious business.

Milos shrugged. "Of course, of course," he said, sounding a little like Squirrel, "but even if Mikey could skinjack, somehow I do not think he is one to appreciate country music."

Allie studied him, trying to read the mildly mischievous look on Milos's face. "What does country music have to do with skinjacking?"

But Milos only smiled.

Allie went to look for Mikey among the Nashville Afterlights, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Lasht time I shaw him," Moose said, "he wuz leaving the factory by himshelf."

Lately Mikey had been spending more and more time alone. It troubled Allie, but only slightly. Mikey was very good at taking care of himself.

That night, Milos took Allie to Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, where Travis Dix was in concert. There was some country music that Allie loved, and some that she hated-but whether you were a fan of country music or not, everybody loved Travis Dix. Allie's only problem with it was that this felt like a date, and that made her uncomfortable. Alive, she had always been too busy with sports, student government, and the yearbook to date. Besides, the boys she liked were always out of reach, and the ones who did give her attention always lacked a certain something-such as common sense, or deodorant.

She always assumed there would come a time for her to make boys a priority… but death had put a damper on that. Well, she hadn't dated in life, and she wasn't about to start now. She had Mikey as an afterlife companion, and that was enough for her.

"So why are we here?" Allie asked Milos as they passed through the front entrance and into the crowded lobby of the ornate theater. "I hope it's not just to see a concert."

"This way," said Milos. "Come."

She followed him from the lobby into the theater, where, in a few minutes, the show would be starting. Then he led her right up onto the stage. Even though Allie knew that no one could see her, she still felt uncomfortable on a stage, facing an audience of thousands.

"You have practiced soul-surfing, and have gotten better at it," said Milos, "but now, with so many people packed into one place, you can really use it!"

Milos turned to face the audience, and looked up to the highest seats way up in the back of the balcony. The nosebleed seats, Allie always called them.

"Tell me," said Milos, "how fast can you surf from here to the balcony and back?"

Allie smiled. "Faster than you!" Although she knew it probably wasn't true.

"Then you can try to beat me." Milos squinted up at the balcony, then pointed. "Do you see the usher at very back?"

Allie looked up to the center aisle between the highest seats. The soft focus and muted colors of the living world made it difficult to see, but she did pick out an usher guiding people to their seats up there. "So he's our target?"

"Yes. The first one to surf all the way up there, tap the usher on the shoulder, and come back to the stage, wins."

"And no cheating!" said Allie.

"How could I cheat?"

"You're not allowed to jump from the orchestra up to the mezzanine-we both have to go out the back of the theater, into the lobby, and surf our way up the stairs."

"Fair enough," said Milos. "Are you ready?"

"Are you?"

"Ready, set, GO!"

Allie took off, making a calculated move, by jumping into a security guard that was a little closer to Milos than to her, figuring that Milos would start with him. Sure enough, Allie felt Milos trying to push his way into the guard, but couldn't because Allie was already there. It put Allie in an early lead.

She went from the guard, to a tall old man, to a short woman with big hair, to a baby, to some guy who Allie could sense didn't want to be there.

She was already out in the lobby, and lingered in the aggravated man just long enough to locate the stairs, before bounding out to the next person. Up the staircase to the mezzanine, person to person, body to body until she reached the balcony. She had no idea where Milos was, and she didn't even know who her host was now-all she could sense was that this person needed to use the bathroom.

She had to get her bearings before she hopped to the next person-she had to spot the usher. Now that she was back in the theater, she was right in front of the steep aisle leading all the way up to the seats that nearly touched the roof. The usher was halfway up that aisle, leading a man to his seat. Allie launched herself out of the full-bladdered fleshie, and surfed through two more people, and right to the man the usher was escorting- – -But she couldn't get in because Milos was already there! He had used her own trick against her! Allie bounced off the man like rubber, and by the time she had skinjacked the next closest person, Milos's fleshie had already tapped the usher on the shoulder.

"Beat you!"

"Not yet!" said Allie, tapping the usher as well.

They left the two bewildered fans and the usher behind. In a moment Allie had surfed herself down the aisle, and out the back doors of the theater again, finding herself on the stairs. Going down, she discovered, was a little trickier than coming up, because everyone was hurrying up the stairs to get to their seats. It was like running down an "up" escalator. She surfed through dozens of people, fighting the current, not lingering for more than an instant in any one person until she was back on the ground floor, and in the theater's main aisle again.

She pushed off in a smooth regular rhythm, relaying herself through various people trying to find their seats, then she surged up onto the stage-and Milos was right beside her, reaching the stage the same moment she did.

"I win!" Allie said.

"No, I win!" said Milos.

"All right, a tie, then."

Milos laughed. "Very good! We both win!"

Allie could not believe how exhilarating this had been. She wanted to do it again and again.

Milos must have read the excitement in her face, because he said, "You see? There are many, many joys to being a skinjacker."

Around them, the house lights began to dim. The audience roared in anticipation, and Allie looked out to the darkening theater, pretending that they were all cheering for her.

"Another game!" she said to Milos. "Hide-and-seek! I'll hide in a fleshie, and you have to find me!"

Milos crossed his arms. "How could I do that?-there are thousands of fleshies here!"

She grinned mischievously. "I'll be the one thumbing my nose at Travis Dix!" And before he could respond, she was off, surfing her way through the theater.

Travis Dix took the stage with his band, and the audience cheered. In a moment he was singing his big hit, "Stomp My Heart and Shave my Mullet," and most of the audience was singing along.

Stomp my heart and shave my mullet

All your lies stick in my gullet

No more cash is in my wullet

Baby, we're through

But now I've got a better 'do' Allie chose to inhabit a college-age girl in the left mezzanine who was standing and dancing to the song with her friends. Allie carefully balanced herself within the girl, taking physical control of most of her body, but not putting her to sleep. It would be more interesting this way! Keeping her awake would be tricky, but Allie successfully hid in a blind spot of the girl's consciousness, so her presence wouldn't be detected. As soon as Allie took over, the girl's body stopped gyrating, and Allie raised her right hand, putting the tip of her thumb to her nose, and spread out her fingers.

"What are you doing?" asked one of the girl's friends.

The girl, fully awake, and still in control of her mouth said, "I

… don't know. My thumb is stuck to my nose!"

"Suzie, honestly!" said the friend. "Travis might see you, and then we'll never get backstage!"

Allie silently giggled, and began to waggle her fingers.

"Suzie!"

"I know! I'm trying to stop!" Clearly Suzie had no idea what had possessed her to behave like this. It probably never occurred to her that she actually was possessed.

Travis Dix continued to sing. Then, toward the end of the song, a beefy security guard came down the aisle and pointed a flashlight right at Suzie.

Great, thought Allie, now I got the girl into trouble.

But the guard smiled. "Got you!" the guard yelled, over the blasting music. "Now it's my turn!"

It was Milos!

Allie peeled herself out of Suzie, who shook her head, looked at her hands, and in a few moments, had put the weird incident aside and was dancing to the music again. Milos was gone, off to find someone to hide in, and Allie counted to ten, then went looking for him.

She found that this game required more than just surfing. She had to jump from person to person to get around, but also had to linger every now and then to get a good view of the different sections of the audience, because in Everlost the crowd was pretty much a blur.

She started with the upper balcony, then worked her way across, then down. There was no sign of Milos, and Allie began to wonder if maybe he wasn't playing fair.

Meanwhile, Travis Dix finished his song, and the crowd roared.

"Hello, Nashville!" he said, and the crowd roared even louder. He waited until the cheers died down before he spoke again. "This song goes out to a very special girl," he announced. "This song is for… Allie the Outcast."

Allie snapped her eyes to the stage and watched in disbelief as Travis Dix-the Travis Dix-lifted his thumb to his nose, and wiggled his fingers at the audience. To Allie's amazement, the entire audience responded by doing it right back to him!

Allie laughed out loud-a big, booming belly laugh, because now she was in a huge man with a voice that echoed like a bass drum. She skipped out of him and surfed her way back to the stage.

When she got there, Milos was peeling himself out of Travis, who now looked strangely at the audience thumbing their noses at him. Then he looked to his band, shrugged, and began the next song.

Allie couldn't stop laughing. "You win!" she told Milos. "That was great! No one's ever dedicated a song to me before!"

"Now we shall enjoy the concert," Milos said. "After all, we can have front-row seats," and he gestured to any number of fleshies in the front row, but Allie shook her head. She didn't feel right stealing the concert from fans by putting them to sleep for the entire performance-and keeping a fleshie conscious was bound to be problematic. From where they stood on the stage, Allie could see off into the wings, where a couple of roadies stood, not doing much of anything.

"Those roadies probably travel with the band," Allie said. "They won't care if they sleep through a performance."

"Excellent-but we should switch places a few times-it is never a good idea to stay in the same fleshie for too long."

So they jacked the two roadies, and watched the whole concert from backstage. Then, when it was done, to make their concertgoing experience complete, they jacked a couple of fans in the audience, so they could flow out with the crowd, and enjoy, if only for a few minutes, the charged excitement of the audience around them.

Allie almost gasped as they left the warmth of the theater, and stepped out into the cool night. It was a subtle change, but powerful to an Afterlight, because temperature change meant nothing without flesh to feel it. A gentle breeze blew through the parking lot, and it felt soft and feathery on her arms. She swore she could feel each and every goose bump, and it was wonderful!

"I think you liked this, yes?" said Milos.

She turned, and his fleshie was right next to hers, bringing up a hand, to gently caress Allie's cheek. Allie was caught off guard. "Don't," she said, taking a step away from him.

"Why not?"

"Well, for one, your fleshie's a girl!"

He shrugged. "So what? Yours is a boy."

Allie looked at herself. Her arms were covered with hair. No wonder the breeze felt so feathery.

"This is just too weird," she said, and peeled herself out. The living world shifted into soft focus, and the breeze now passed through her, so easy to ignore.

Milos peeled out of his fleshie. "I never thought to play hide-and-seek before," he told Allie. "I came here to teach you, and it is you who teaches me!"

"So what's tomorrow's lesson?" she asked.

"Ah," said Milos. "Tomorrow's is the best lesson of all!"

As they left to rejoin the others, Milos held his hand out to her as always, and as always Allie didn't take it, but she couldn't deny that she felt more and more tempted.

While Allie spent her days being tutored by Milos, Mikey spent his time practicing his own skills as well, although he practiced alone. Each day he went off to some secret and solitary deadspot, and there he would spend the day focusing on the one thing he could do better than anyone else. Change. It was the one aspect of his existence that he still had control over-or at least he could have control if he practiced enough.

Allie was off with Milos. Fine. He couldn't change that. He couldn't control what they did or said to each other. But he could grow feathers and scales. He could sprout extra arms and legs. He could even grow a rhino horn and moose antlers. And just like skinjacking, changing himself was irresistible-for who can resist their nature?

The transformations were becoming easier and easier to achieve. The hard part was changing back… but just as Allie was beginning to master the finer points of skinjacking, Mikey was mastering the art of bringing himself back to normal. It was all a matter of wanting to be Mikey McGill more than he wanted to be all those other tweaked and twisted creations. What made it difficult was that, with all the things he could be, he found it harder and harder to want to be Mikey McGill.

On the night that Allie and Milos played games at the Grand Ole Opry, Mikey was caught in the act.

He had found a nice sized deadspot-a street that had been torn down to build a freeway overpass. None of the buildings had crossed into Everlost, but someone must have had fond feelings for the street itself, because it had crossed over, along with all the streetlights, which still cast a pale glow all around him. It was careless of him to be practicing his transformations in such a wide-open, brightly lit space. Considering the transformation he was working, he shouldn't have been caught at all, because he quite literally had eyes in the back of his head, among other places. He had been trying to see how many eyeballs he could sprout. He had gotten up to fifty-three-they were popping up all over his body like large blue-eyed chicken pox, and each of them had a unique perspective on the world around him.

When he heard a gasp behind him, every available eye turned toward it, and he saw Squirrel trying to run away.

Wasting no time, Mikey took off after him, turning his arms and legs into tentacles that he used to fling himself from one lamppost to another, flying right over Squirrel's head, and landing directly in front of him. Mikey gave himself a set of fangs as he snarled, just to addle Squirrel's acorn-size brain even more.

"Please, please don't hurt me," Squirrel whined, which was stupid, because Mikey couldn't hurt him. That was the blasted problem with being an Afterlight. He turned one of his tentacles into a jagged green insect claw, and thrust it forward, wedging Squirrel's neck against a lamppost with a clang.

"You didn't see this," Mikey said, pleased at the slithery, inhuman sound of his own voice. "And if you tell anyone you did, I'll use this claw to snap off your useless little head."

Whether or not he could follow through on the threat didn't matter; it was enough to scare Squirrel into absolute obedience.

"Yes, sir," squeaked Squirrel. "I didn't see nothing! I didn't see nothing!"

Mikey forced his claw and tentacles back into arms and legs, then sucked all his eyeballs back into his body, leaving only the standard two to glare at Squirrel. His voice returned to normal. "Now, we'll go back to the others, pretend this never happened, and everyone will be happy."

Squirrel gave a few fast, brain-rattling nods. "Sure, sure, everyone will be happy," and Squirrel ran off, stumbling over his own feet.

Mikey laughed and laughed. The choice to become terrifying-if only for a moment-ensured Squirrel's silence, so it served its purpose. But Mikey could not deny how good it had felt to be a monster once more.