Coming Soon Next Month!

Introduction

“Did you bring it?” Mr Brown asked. He wasn’t even looking at Evelyn. Evelyn followed his gaze.”A beautiful sunset glowed over Pikes Peak. It reminded her of the sunrise that she had watched just 136 days previously, close to this exact spot. 

“Your list of demands?” She handed over the paper bag. “Yes, but I had to stop at the dollar store on the way here.”  He nodded and took the bag from her, still looking at the sunset.

“Why are we meeting here, in this park, at sunset? I have a suspicious-looking bag that makes it look like we’re doing a drug deal.” 

Mr. Brown took his eyes off the sunset and looked down. “Wait, why did you bring me a suspicious-looking bag? I asked for a plain paper bag.”

Evelyn had almost forgotten how surreal her conversations with Mr. Brown were. “Before I hand it over, I need to know why it didn’t work,” she finally said after an awkward pause. 

“Why, what didn’t work?”

“The training— you told me you could save humanity, but from what we can tell, things are still going downhill.” 

“Oh yeah, well that’s because it’s incomplete.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Evelyn asked. 

“I was hoping you wouldn’t notice until the check cleared.” 

“We didn’t pay you.” 

“What? Whose check was I trying to cash then? That explains so much now.” 

There was an awkward silence as they both looked at Pikes Peak together. 

“Are you ready to complete my training?” Evelyn asked, “And why the list of demands anyway?”

“You are asking me to come out of retirement. I need assurances.” 

“What are you talking about? You still teach.” 

“Yeah, but I retired from training agents...” He looked down at his watch, “125 days ago.” 

“Does your watch really say 125 days ago?”

“Yes, actually.”

”Your country needs you, Mr. Brown. The training is incomplete. Society is still falling apart. We need to know the next step.” 

Mr. Brown wasn’t listening anymore; his hand was rifling through the paper bag.  He pulled something out that looked like one of those cheap glasses with the fake nose, moustache, and eyebrows attached. “Nice, I see you got the latest model.” 

After inspecting a few things in the bag, he looked up. “Did you bring the payment this time?” 

Evelyn signaled to someone in a large dark SUV. A rather large man in a dark suit got out. He walked over, holding a slushie, and handed it to Mr. Brown. After tasting it, he glanced over at Evelyn. “Piña Colada, nice.” 

“I should hope so. We had to stop at three different convenience stores to get the one you asked for.” 

She paused and looked at the sunset. “So do we have a deal? When do we start?”

Mr. Brown handed her the moustache glasses disguise kit. “Right now. Put these on.” 

Evelyn put on the glasses and looked down the hill. She saw two people spending time together in the park. She blinked and saw something strange. There was a bright blue line connecting them together. She took off the glasses, and the line disappeared. When she put them back on, the line was there again. 

“What am I looking at?” she asked.

“Look around again,” Mr. Brown said.

Glancing around she saw bright lines connecting people. Some were bright blue, others were white, while others were red. There were lines between every person in the park, including herself and those around her. 

“What you are seeing are the connections between different humans. You are seeing things as I do, but in a more literal way. It helps your brain comprehend it.”

“You see these connections?”

“Always. In our last training, I taught you how to see people. Once you can see people, you can start to see the connections between them. Sometimes you humans call them relationships.”

Evelyn had forgotten how he sometimes referred to himself as an alien observing the human race. 

“What do the lines mean?” she asked. 

“That’s what you are going to find out.” He got up with his paper bag while sipping his slushie. “I’ll see you tomorrow in the classroom.”