The Girl that Glows

It lie there, in the shadows beyond the ridge. “That’s your past,” Tia said. “That’s your present,” she continued. “And, that’s your future,” she finished, never taking her eyes off the shadows beyond the ridge. Clementine shrank back with each sentence Tia spoke. She couldn’t believe it. After all this time. All the rabbit trails they had followed, the countless hours scouring the internet, the seemingly meaningless clues they had meticulously compiled. Now, they had finally found what they had been looking for. And it terrified her. Tia knew Clementine’s secret. And since Tia and Clementine shared this scary, yet pretty amazing, secret, it kind of made them best friends. You see, Tia had seen something she wasn’t supposed to see. Clementine didn’t have a roommate- before. But, when Tia came to the orphanage, she was paired with Clementine. One night, Tia woke up to get a glass of water and saw Clementine... glowing. Her eyelids had turned a bright blue, her hands green, her hair was swirling blue and green. Tia had stood there in shock. It was only her second day! She couldn’t handle it. She spent the night on the floor in the kitchen. For the next week, Tia had avoided Clementine, much to Clementine’s dismay. Was it something I said? Am I too messy for her? She was pretty messy. Finally, on one Sunday, Tia came up to Clementine and asked abruptly, “Why do you glow?” Clementine gaped at her, thinking that she had been paired with a nut job. “Uhhhhhhh,” was the only thing she could manage to say. Tia, a little uncomfortable already(ok, a lot) became a bit nervous. Is she hiding something? A look of concern crossed her face, which pushed Clementine to answer. “I.... don’t?” She said, not very sure if that was a sufficient answer. Tia gave her a suspicious look and walked away. The next night, Tia videoed her, trying to show Clementine that she glowed. Clementine woke up halfway through the video, and before Clementine could scream, Tia covered her mouth. “I’m going to show you something, and you are not going to scream,” she said slowly. “Ok?” Clementine nodded her head, not wanting to aggravate someone who she considered to be a nut job. Tia, keeping her hand over Clementine’s mouth, showed her the video she had taken. Clementine was glowing. This time, her whole face had turned bright pink, and her hair was a swirling purple. Clementine gasped, though it was muffled due to Tia’s hand. Tia pulled her hand away slowly. Clementine said, “You're not a nut job.” Tia, a little taken aback, replied “Of course! Why is that the first thing you say? Shouldn’t you be more surprised that you're glowing?” “I- I am,” Clementine gasped. “Why do I do that?” “How should I know?” Tia asked. Clementine shook her head, her eyes still looking at her pink face. “We got to figure this out,” Tia said. The next day after school, Tia and Clementine ran to the library to look for books on phenomena. They checked out exactly 13 books. Clementine spent the rest of the day reading and taking meticulous notes on the things she read, while Tia was scouring the internet, reading all of the weird alien enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists websites. Tia and Clementine became fast friends. Tia was funny and cracked jokes. Clementine was shyer and reserved. But, for some reason, they made a great team. They compiled a book of their notes, copies of pages out of books, and things that Tia found on the internet. They labeled the book “Answers,” but they seemed to find more mysteries than answers, so Tia wrote, underneath the word “Answers,” “or mysteries?” That was one of the few jokes Clementine didn’t like. Meanwhile, Clementine was terrified that one of the other children would see her glowing while she slept. So, she got thick blankets and pulled them up to her mouth. Then she wore a sleeping mask over her eyes. And, finally, she put her hair in a bun each night and tied it up with a handkerchief. Yes, she was very hot. And, yes, sometimes she became uncomfortable. And, yes, almost no one except Tia and herself came into their room. But, Clementine was willing to endure the heat and uncomfortableness so that there was no chance someone (other than Tia, of course) would see her glowing. It took Clementine and Tia around a month of grueling research before they found something. It was a website called, “itsme.com”, and one of the posts someone had entered was “I Glow and I'm Proud?” Tia, who was falling asleep, banged her head on the wall when she read it. Clementine, who was sitting on the bed, peaked her head around the bar of the bunk bed and asked, “What ch'ya do that for?” Tia gaped at her, then said, rather loudly, “Look at this, now!” Clementine, jumped off the bed, her large book falling off the bed with a loud thump. Her foot was asleep, so she tripped halfway to the desk Tia was sitting under. Tia scrambled out from under the desk, banging her head again, to meet Clementine. She scrolled through the post, occasionally stopping when Clementine said, “Stop! I can’t read as fast as you!” The post was a retelling of a kid who started glowing while she slept. Tia, who finished reading it first, jumped up and started pacing the room. Clementine stared at the computer screen, her mouth open. “Wha.....?” she said. Tia said, “We need to find this girl.” Clementine, jolted from her stupor, asked “How are we supposed to do that?” Tia put her hands on her hand and squeezed her eyes shut. After a few minutes, Clementine asked, “You ok?” Tia’s eyes popped open, causing Clementine to jolt a bit. “Do you know Nerdy Nick?” she asked. Clementine stared at her, dumbfounded. “What does that have to do with anything?” Tia started pacing again. “Well, Nerdy Nick is computer smart. Maybe he can figure out where this post was made.” Clementine nodded slightly. “But, how are we gonna get him to do it?” Tia asked. Clementine smiled. “He’ll do it,” she said. Tia stopped pacing, and asked, “How do you know that?” Clementine snorted. “Someone finally recognizes his genius? Oh, he’ll do anything for us,” she said, with a wave of her hand. Tia nodded. “Tomorrow,” she said. “Tomorrow, we figure it out.” “Tomorrow,” Clementine repeated. After school the next day, Tia spotted Nerdy Nick climbing on the bus. She grabbed Clementine’s hand and pulled her towards the bus. Clementine half ran-half tripped behind her, yelling “Sorry! She’s in a rush!” as Tia pushed people out of the way. Tia ran on to the bus, plopped Clementine in the seat in front of Nerdy Nick, and sat beside him. She flashed a grin at Nerdy Nick, who looked... scared. Nerdy Nick gave her a grimace, which he must have thought looked like a grin, and stuffed his nose in his computer. Tia and Clementine sat there until Nerdy Nick got off the bus. At that point, they followed him. “Stay right here,” Tia said, as she saw the bus drive away. Nerdy Nick looked like he wanted to bolt, so Clementine put her hand on his shoulder, saying, “She can seem scary, but she’s pretty nice.” Tia, watching the bus drive away, put on some FBI-style sunglasses and crossed her arms. Nerdy Nick gave a little hiccup-gasp and slid away from her a little. Clementine, keeping track of her watch, realized they had been standing there for three minutes before Tia finally turned to Nerdy Nick. “We’ve heard that you are skilled in area expertise that we have a concern in,” she said. Clementine sighed, putting her hand in her pockets. Oh boy, she thought. “Uh, wha-what would, uh, that be?” Nerdy Nick gasped. Tia stepped closer to him and sniffed. “Can you, uh, hack a computer?” Nerdy Nick gaped at her for a second. Clementine, giving a meaningful look at Tia, said, “Look, we need to find where a specific post was posted. Basically, where was the person when she made the post?” Nerdy Nick looked between the two of them, before replying, “Of course I can do that.” Tia clapped her hands, causing Nerdy Nick to flinch. “Excellent!” She put her hands on her hips and looked around. “Now.... where’s your house?” Nerdy Nick’s aunt was very surprised when the trio showed up. “He-llooo,” she said, clearly surprised that Nerdy Nick has brought some friends home. “Aunt Jeena, this is Tia and Clementine,” he said, still looking very uncomfortable. Clementine waved. Tia walked up to her and said, “Please don’t disturb us. We are doing very important things.” Nerdy Nick held his breath, staring wide-eyed at his Aunt. Tia grabbed a cookie off of Aunt Jeena’s counter and bit into it, her eyes never leaving Aunt Jeena’s face. Clementine walked briskly behind Tia, and quickly pulled her away from the now nervous as well as surprised Aunt Jeena. “We’ll just be in the computer room,” she said, smiling. Aunt Jeena smiled back nervously. “Well, that went well,” Tia said. Clementine sighed and rolled her eyes. Nerdy Nick typed away at his computer for no less than ten minutes before he had an address. “1042, Willington Drive, Millington, California,” he said proudly. “Oh no,” Tia said. “What?” Clementine asked. “Is this gonna be some California dreamer?” she sighed. Clementine rolled her eyes, for what seemed like the 100th time since Tia had spotted Nerdy Nick. “Thanks so much,” she said to Nerdy Nick, as he handed her a paper with the address on it. She hurried Tia out of the house. Tia and Clementine ran to the orphanage, both of them panting and gasping. Tia opened the door and staggered to their room. She fell on the floor and laid down starfish-style on the floor. “Never... do that.... again,” she said, gasping in between the words. Clementine sat down on the bed. “We need a plan,” she said. She reached for her backpack and dumped the contents onto the bed, her pencils rolling onto the floor. She walked over to the dresser and began packing. “What ch'ya doing that for?” Tia asked from the floor. “Aren’t we going to find this girl?” Clementine replied. Tia said, “Oh... yeah.” “I’ll get up,” she said. “Eventually.” Once Clementine had packed a sufficient amount of clothes, she went to the bathroom to pack toiletries. “Why did we decide to run all the way home?” Tia said to no one in particular. Clementine finished packing in the bathroom and set the backpack down on her bed. She laid out her library books on the bed and stared at them intently. Tia gave her a quizzical look, and asked: “What ch’ya doin’?” Clementine sighed and replied “Trying to decide which book would be best to bring on our trip.” Tia finally decided to get up and start ‘packing.’ But, she didn’t really pack. She just shoved clothes into the backpack, grabbed a toothbrush, and asked Clementine if they could share the hairbrush. Once they had both packed, they ate dinner with the rest of the orphans and their caretaker, Mrs. Merna. They carefully avoided any questions about what they were going to do that night. Afterward, Clementine said, “I feel bad for leaving Mrs. Merna. She’s always been nice to us.” Tia nodded. “But, if we don’t leave, we’ll never find out why you.... do what you do,” she finished. Clementine sat down at the desk to write Mrs. Merna a note. Dear Mrs. Merna, We have gone to solve a mystery. We shouldn’t be gone for long. We are prepared. You shouldn’t worry. Don’t let anyone destroy our room, please. We’re sorry if we cause you any distress. Love, Clementine and Tia Tia read the note, then let out a long sigh. By nightfall, Tia had bought two bus tickets to California. Clementine watched Mrs. Merna’s door, waiting for the lights to go out. When it did, they snuck out the window. Clementine looked back. “Goodbye,” she called. “We’re really sorry,” then took off running behind Tia. Surprisingly, Tia ran to the bus stop. Tia tried not to sleep on the bus because she knew Clementine couldn’t, but it was going to be almost three in the morning by the time they got to California. So, eventually, she fell asleep. “Did you know that you snore like a pig?” Clementine said once they arrived. Clementine was rather grumpy. She had spent the whole trip in a very uncomfortable chair, wishing she could sleep but terrified too. And, her phone had died. “We’ve got to call an Uber,” Tia said, ignoring Clementine’s question. “Well, my phone is dead, so we’ll use yours,” she said. Tia called an Uber to take them to the address. It drove them to a small house in the suburbs. They walked up to the house, accidentally scaring a cat. Tia knocked on the door, which was almost immediately opened by a little boy, maybe 7 years old. “Hi,” Tia said. But, Clementine didn’t want to make a terrible first impression on the kid, as Tia had done on Nerdy Nick. So, she took over. “Hello,” she said, sidestepping Tia. “Is your sister here?” Clementine asked. The little boy nodded. “She’s sleeping,” he said. “We’re not allowed in her room while she’s sleeping,” he continued. Clementine nodded, understanding not wanting people in the room while you glowed. “Can we come in?” she asked. The little boy nodded. Clementine and Tia stepped inside. They sat on the couch, and the little boy walked down the hallway. As soon as he was gone, Clementine jumped up. “We need to find her room,” she said and started walking towards the hallway. Tia followed her. They came across a door that had the name “Ella” written on it. Underneath it was written “California Dreamer.” Tia sighed and said “Oh boy.” Clementine gave her a look which meant “Don’t scare her,” and opened the door. On the bed was a short girl who was, not surprisingly, glowing a light yellow, her hair shimmering orange. Clementine walked up to her and shook her awake while Tia closed the door. Ella, spotting Clementine as she woke up, sat up. But, she didn’t seem surprised. The first thing she said was, “Please don’t disrupt the aura I have created while resting.” Tia sighed and put her hands over her face. Clementine replied, “We won’t,” then said, “We read your post. On itsme. The one about how you glow.” Ella nodded her head. Clementine bit her lip and glanced at Tia. Tia nodded. “I glow too,” she said. Ella, still not seeming surprised, nodded again. “I guessed that when I saw the lines across your forehead. I read them,” she said in a dreamy voice. “You..... read my forehead?” Clementine asked incredulously. Ella giggled in a light, airy way that made Tia want to gag. “No, I was kidding. But, it does not surprise me that you can glow,” she said. “Your eyes. They sparkle,” she said, waving her hands over Clementine’s eyes. Tia groaned, and said, rather rudely, “Look. We want to figure out why she glows. Can you help us out?” Ella looked at her with a slightly shocked expression. “Don’t you accept her for who she is?” she asked. Then she added, “Your aura is beginning to disrupt my vibe.” Clementine held up her hand, and Tia swallowed her words. “Of course she accepts me. She’s my friend. We just want to know why I do what I do,” she said. Ella nodded. She left the bed, waving her hands in the air. “I have never sought the answers you seek,” she said, sitting gracefully in the chair. “There is no reason for me to have the phenomenal explained to me,” she continued. “But, if I were to seek the answers you seek, I would visit The Cabin,” she finished. “What’s The Cabin?” Tia asked as Ella began typing on her computer. “The Cabin is a place beyond the ridge. It gives off a terrible aura,” she said with a shudder. Tia snorted. Clementine looked at the computer screen, which had a shabby looking cabin on the front. “It is said to be the home of an unearthly being. If there was anyone who would give you the answers you seek, they would reside in this cabin,” she said, drawing out each word. Clementine nodded, and asked, “Can you give us the address for this place?” “Physical or Spiritual?” Ella replied. Tia exclaimed, “Physical, obviously.” Ella wrote down the address with a purple pen. The handwriting was loopy and she dotted each “I” with a heart. “111, Illopa Drive, Wellington, California,” Tia read aloud. “Thank you,” Clementine said, as Tia began to drag her out of the room. “May you follow the path that Destiny has picked for you!” Ella called behind them. “Sure,” Tia grunted. “Thank you!” Clementine called. Tia called another Uber on the front porch(Clementine paid for it this time) to take them to the cabin. Beyond the ridge. The Uber dropped them off in what seemed to be the middle of the desert. They walked to the edge of the ridge, and there it was. The Cabin. It lie there, in the shadows beyond the ridge. “That’s your past,” Tia said. “That’s your present,” she continued. “And, that’s your future,” she finished, never taking her eyes of the shadows beyond the ridge. Clementine shrank back with each sentence Tia spoke. She couldn’t believe it. After all this time. All the rabbit trails they had followed, the countless hours scouring the internet, the seemingly meaningless clues they had meticulously compiled. Now, they had finally found what they had been looking for. And it terrified her. Tia was the first one to move. She began walking towards the cabin, and Clementine was forced to follow because she didn’t want to be left alone in the desert. The Cabin was falling apart, and all the windows were broken or missing completely. Tia walked on to the porch and knocked on the door, but Clementine didn’t follow her. She stayed a few feet away from The Cabin. The door opened, but no one was behind it. Tia glanced back at Clementine, then walked inside. The Cabin was dark and dusty. It was empty, apart from a table and a couch. But, the walls were covered with tapestries. It seemed to be one room, but the tapestries could have been covering a door. Tia looked around, walked over to the couch, and sat down. Clementine did a double-take, then whispered, “What are you doing?” to Tia. “Waiting,” she whispered back. “ For what?” Clementine asked as she walked into the room. “I dunno,” Tia said, shrugging. “In movies, this would be the part where a creepy old witch walks in.” “Hello, dearies,” said a voice from the corner. Both girls jumped and Clementine tried to grab on to one of the tapestries, which she pulled off, causing her to fall to the floor. “Are you lost?” The voice was soft and breathy. “N-no,” Tia said, as Clementine struggled to rip the tapestry off her head. An old lady stepped out of the corner of the room. “Then, what are you doing here?” she asked, holding out her arms. “We’re, uh, we’re looking,” Tia gasped. The old lady raised her eyebrows, waiting for Tia to finish. “For answers,” she finished. The old lady nodded. “I have not had an answer seeker here in many years,” she said. “What answers,” the old lady said, turning to look at Clementine,” do you seek?” Clementine gulped. “We-we want to know,” Clementine started, “we want to know why I.... do what I do,” she finished. The old lady stepped closer to Clementine. “And, what is it that you do?” she asked. Clementine gulped again. “I...... glow?” she said. The old lady looked confused. “I beg your pardon?” she asked. “When I sleep,” Clementine said, glancing at Tia, “I glow.” The old lady gasped, and took a step back, clutching the table. “You..... glow?” she asked, her eyes wide. Her behavior frightened Tia and Clementine, who jumped up to sit with Tia. “Y-y-yes,” Clementine gasped. The old lady looked at her, her eyes popping. She looked completely terrified of Clementine. “And, why would you think I know the answer?” she asked. “A girl,” Tia said, “Ella, she has the same...... uniqueness.” “She told us to find you,” Clementine said, gaining boldness. “Oh no,” the old lady said. She started pacing the room. “The expedition... disabling must have gone wrong. This wasn’t supposed to happen.....” she trailed off, and began mumbling to herself under her breath. “Expedition?” Tia repeated, looking at Clementine. Clementine shook her head. She stood up and took a tentative step towards the old lady. “ What, uh, what expedition?” she asked. The old lady looked at her as if she was an exotic creature. “Perhaps,” she said, nodding, “perhaps it would be better to show you.” Suddenly, a powerful wind filled the cabin. The tapestries that lined the cabin walls flew in every direction, barely clinging to the nails that held them up. The old lady’s hair whipped around, circling her face. Then, she began to float. The old lady began to float as if using the wind to lift herself. The wind was now blowing upward, as if on command. Suddenly, the old lady's eyes opened. They were glowing yellow, and the girls couldn't see anything but the bright light. Her hands were bright green, and her windswept hair was lime green. Clementine and Tia stared at her, awestruck until the light was too bright and they had to look away. The old lady floated there for a minute or two before the wind stopped. Her eyes, hair, and hands dimmed, and she drifted to the floor. The old lady looked at Clementine before she took Clementine's hand in her own. "We are Luermaneese People," she said lovingly. "The what?" Clementine asked. "The Luermaneese People," she repeated. "We-me and you- are not from this planet. We are from the planet of Luma." Suddenly, a picture of a green planet appeared out of nowhere. It was beautiful. The old lady touched the holographic picture and it zoomed in on the planet. It was teeming with glowing people, green, pink, blue, yellow. Clementine occasionally saw red and purple people. Clementine and Tia gasped at the beauty of it. "It is a beautiful place. We... wanted to expand. We wanted to spread our beauty with the rest of the universe," the old lady continued. Now, there was an image of a spaceship. The old lady was welcoming people onto the ship. "We landed on Earth," the image showed the spaceship flying through the universe. "But, people were scared of us. Terrified," now, a video was playing of people running and hiding from the glowing people."We had already distributed the troops when the Mother team landed, which I was commanding" she said, looking sorrowful. "The other teams told us to leave. They said they had found a safe space. The only thing they requested..." the old lady sighed before continuing, "was that we disabled their glowing abilities." Now, it showed an image of all the troops losing their glow. "We had never done such a thing before. Why would we disable such beauty?" she asked rhetorically. "But, we did it anyway." Now, the image disappeared. "I guess..... we failed." she finished. She looked back up at Clementine. "My name is Glutimae. I am one of the leaders of Project Beauty. And..." she looked down again, "I failed." A pause passed before anyone said anything. "Obviously you didn't," Tia said, startling Glutimae. "You brought Clementine to me," she said, taking Clementine's hand. "That can't be a mistake." Glutimae smiled, looking between the two. "Correct," she said. "Even if the mission failed, a friendship was born." She nodded, saying, "And, that is worth it." Clementine and Tia left The Cabin around lunch, but not before Glutimae could get their address so that they could write to each other. When they got home, Mrs. Merna was so glad to see them that she forgot to scold them. "Oh!" she exclaimed as Tia and Clementine walked in the front door. "Oh! My girls!" She grabbed both of them and encompassed them in a Mama Bear hug. "Oh, I was so worried about you!" Clementine, feeling guilty, said, "We wrote "Don't worry" in the note." Mrs. Merna shook her head. "Even if the President of the United States told me not to worry, I'd worry." Clementine and Tia gave a little laugh. They told Mrs. Merna that they were trying to find out about Clementine's past, but Clementine didn't think she really believed them. She sent them off to bed, giving them both a bag of M&M's. Tia and Clementine fell asleep almost immediately after they got into bed, and some stray M&M's stained Tia's sheet rainbow colors. The next day was a Saturday, they weren't sure what they should do with themselves. Everything seemed kind of boring compared to floating, glowing aliens. So they sat on the couch eating the M&M's from the night before. But, then they knew exactly what to do when Tia said, "Why don't we watch"E.T.?'" And, then Clementine fell off the couch in a fit of giggles.