36

Lifeless in Lebreima

Lottica was awake enough to know her mother was watching her sleep again. She ever so slightly cracked an eyelid and spied not just her mother but Grandmother Breima smiling at her from their airplane seats.

Another surprise in a multitude of surprises, both tiny and tremendous, over the last few days. Tremendous surprises: undead parents, mystical gemstones with supernatural powers, being Lebreiman royalty. Tiny surprises: grandparents who actually displayed their affection, Nick’s accuracy hurling a hamburger.

Lottica was unsure whether being thirty thousand feet in the jet stream on their way half way around the world to Lebreima was a tiny or tremendous surprise. In fact, it hardly seemed surprising at all. At this point, it felt fateful. Maybe, even logical.

The encounter with Beilla and Abzeig at the mall had made their course of action very clear. When they returned to their grandarents’ house and Deilune reported Beilla's plan to wrest the throne from the Breimas, they knew they had to act. They couldn’t let him get away with his murderous crimes against their family.

It was also clear to them that staying in America would pose some rather embarrassing risks, especially if security cameras at the mall identified Deilune and Linda, or the authorities investigated the "explosions" at Cemetery Hill on Halloween night too thoroughly.

There was another reason as well. To Lottica, it was the most important. She had seen her parents at the mall become revitalized when they had held each other, and she understood they were now inextricably linked to the Kareima. In Lebreima they would be in a much better position to discover the mysteries of the Kareima, Fareima and long-lost Astreima, and what these lifestones meant for her parents' future.

She didn't want to think about losing her mom and dad a second time. In all the dead-parent stories she'd read, the young heroes struggled through adversity and achieved great things, but none of them had ever won back what she had: her parents.

Granted, her mom and dad were a bit worse for wear and tear. Still, they were here. With her and Nick in their ever-loving, though somewhat tattered, flesh. Adversity can be great for building character, Lottica mused, but a mother’s comforting touch lets you sleep better at night. And, with that reassurance, she drifted into a deep and high-flying slumber.

Nick, in the row in front of his sister, couldn't sleep, his mind a pinball machine in multi-ball mode. The decision and preparations to leave had come so fast. He'd been amazed at how his grandparents had been transformed as soon as they agreed it was in their best interest to return to Lebreima as quickly as possible. Their eyes had lit up and Grandmother Breima warmly hugged Lottica and him.

In two days they had made the arrangements. Though Nick had some serious misgivings about zombies getting through TSA security, his grandfather had somehow been able to arrange it because of his Lebreiman diplomatic connections. That didn't mean that Nick didn’t sweat it in the airport as his family was escorted through security checkpoints without having to be scanned or patted down.

Who knows what airport scanners would’ve made of the Kareima inside his father? But it had all gone smoothly. Surprisingly, the biggest hassle they faced was how to take Lottica's telescope which she’d pleaded to bring with her. They finally stowed it in a hard case designed for golf clubs.

Many hours into the flight, Nick was watching another movie on his laptop, a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Zombies. Body Snatchers. He knew he should be trying to get some rest. Most of the other passengers were asleep, including his father and grandfather next to him. His dad’s complexion actually seemed improved in the few days since his reanimation. Even his soupy eye seemed firmer, though he wore dark glasses to ward off unwanted attention.

Nick wondered if the Kareima not only worked to keep his parents alive, but also was reversing the ravaging effects of their violent deaths. He also wanted to know what happened at the mall Food Court when his parents had suffered such a precipitous decline when confronted with Beilla and the Fareima stone.

They’d quickly recovered, but Nick craved an understanding how this was scientifically possible. He hoped going to Lebreima might give him some clues. Though, turning his attention back to the alien body snatchers on his laptop screen, it felt unlikely he’d discover much hard science in a reality that had turned pure fantasy.