Anders: An Auxem Novel by Lisa Lace

Author:Lisa Lace [Lace, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lisa Lace
Published: 2017-07-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

GABRIELLA

"What did you say?"

I stared at Laz, nervously sticking my thumbs into my fists. I had never seen Laz as shaken as this before. His eyes were darting back and forth. The worry lines on his face were prominent.

How did he know these things about my father? I was bursting with questions, but I wasn't getting any answers.

"Never mind about that," Laz replied curtly. He reached for some water and tilted his head back. He drank it all in one swallow.

"It's going to be hard to get me to drop that topic of conversation. How do you know so much about my Dad? Did you do a background check on me?"

"No." Laz reached into his satchel and took out a small case. He split it open, revealing a secret compartment in the back before handing it to me. "I might have known him. Is this a picture of your father?"

I took his card holder and inspected the faded photograph on the back. There were three figures in the picture, casually posed in mid-laughter in front of a Maztek military shuttle. The handsome alien on the left appeared to be in his mid-thirties. He had wavy brown hair, and tattoos peeked out from under the rolled-up sleeves of his army fatigues. The alien in the middle was considerably older. He had a silver-gray ponytail and an old scar that prevented his left eye from fully opening. Even now it looked like he could make girls swoon.

On the far right of the picture, as clear as water from the lake behind Grandma Molly's house, stood a familiar shape. It was Dad. I recognized his smile immediately. The grin that used to put me to sleep at night stretched from ear to ear.

"That's my father and Upa, next to Marshall."

"Oh my God." I traced the outline of Dad's face with the tip of my finger. A single tear rolled down my face, lingering on my chin. "How is this possible?"

"It's a long story. I might as well fix us something to eat while I think about the best way to tell it."

Laz emptied out a bag and pulled two plain brown packages out of it. He set a tray in front of me. The flimsy tray had two sections. A coin-sized lump of black dough sat on one side. The other was deeper and contained a handful of brown powder. Laz ripped open a smaller packet and poured its contents onto both ends of the tray. Within seconds, the dough fluffed up, swelling into a small loaf of bread. The brown powder started foaming and turning into a thick, questionable gravy.

"Dig in."

With one hand, I took a crunchy bite of bread, which tasted as dry and unappetizing as it looked when it was a powder. The other held the photograph. I couldn't stop looking at it.

"Is it real? If it's fake, it's not a funny joke."

"It is." Laz replied with his mouth full. He was already sopping up the gravy with the last pieces of his bread.

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