Then: knocking on the door. "Kaila," Mike called. "You might have a cold, but you're not too sick to get your a.s.s up and help with the horses."

Oh, thank G.o.d. This was more like it.

SOS, Melissa texted the next morning. Exhausted. Woke up in bed this morning wearing someone else's pajamas. Saw a ghost last night. Scared. PLEASE HELP! Something FREAKY going down.

Kaila dialed Melissa's number. This required more than texts. No answer.

Her mother stood at the kitchen table cutting fresh strips of Velostat plastic to wear inside their caps. The black plastic material lay on the table, reflecting the globe light of the ceiling fan.

"Mom," Kaila said, fingering the plastic, making a note to slip some to Melissa and Pia. "Can we talk about this?"

Her mother instantly stopped cutting, jerked her capped head at Kaila.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"This stuff. The Velostat. Like, why do we wear it?"

"We've been through this a thousand times."

"And you never answer," Kaila said. "I want you tell me in words, out loud, why we have to wear this stuff."

Nan stood in the doorway, her chubby arms folded over a gingham smock ap.r.o.n. "Kaila. Leave your mother alone."

Her mother looked pale as a mummy, her dark eyes shadowed beneath the baseball cap visor's shadow.

Still, Kaila persisted. "I want to talk about this. No one else in school wears a stupid wig and this creepy plastic."

"You must trust and believe in us," Nan said. "We love you."

"I know that, Nan!" Kaila cried, exasperated.

"We may approach this when you are of age," Nan stammered. "Not before."

Good G.o.d, why was her family so old fashioned? It was the stupid Southern thing, where people always had to smile and act polite even if contorted with constipation, or if someone in the family had just been shipped to the mental hospital. They never said what was real. Just like polite zombies.

"I'm going to be seventeen tomorrow," Kaila said. "What do you consider of age? How long are you going to treat me like a nose-picking toddler?"

"We shouldn't talk about this," her mother said.

Kaila knelt down before her mother. "Why shouldn't we talk about it?"

Her mother refused to look at Kaila. She pursed her lips.

Kaila grew frightened. "Mom, look at me."

Lee stared at the black sheets of plastic. "We shouldn't talk about this," her mother intoned.

"Mom," Kaila gripped her mother's elbow. "Are you programmed? Is that why you can't talk?"

Kaila was jerked upright by her grandmother. "You stop this foolishness!" Nan shouted. "Stop it now."

When Kaila looked at Nan, she expected to see anger, but what she saw was fear.

There was a long silence. Kaila knew something was seriously amiss. But to probe her mother and Nan would do no good. She realized how deeply frightened they were, and that like Melissa and Pia, they probably didn't understand.

Kaila hugged Nan. "I'm sorry, Nan. I love you."

Nan's eyes watered as she pressed Kaila to her bosom. Nan pulled Lee up and drew her close. Nan petted Lee's curly dark hair escaping from her baseball cap.

"You're both my good girls," Nan said. "Everything will be all right." Her face artificially brightened. "Now Kaila, how *bout you help me make that barbecue sauce for tomorrow? We have a lot to do for your party. Go fetch the ketchup out of the fridge."

"I found something," Kaila whispered on the phone in her room. She was on a three-way call with Melissa and Pia. "Listen." She squinted at the computer screen. "This Velostat stuff is used to make thought screen helmets."

"What stuff?" Melissa asked.

"Velostat," Kaila said. "Get online now. Google it."

Kaila read from the computer screen, "The thought screen helmet scrambles telepathic communication between aliens and humans. Aliens cannot immobilize people wearing thought screens nor can they control their mind or communicate with them using their telepathy. When aliens can't communicate or control humans, they do not take them."

Silence. Kaila knew Melissa and Pia contemplated their computer screens too.

"I bet this dude just put this up to make money," Pia finally said.

"Yeah," Melissa said. "It's probably a scam. I don't believe it."

"You asked me for help and here it is," Kaila retorted. "You even asked me to get some for you."

She paused. What if they were programmed to scoff? She believed that a mind-screen had been put over the entire planet to ridicule and make fun of anything having to do with extraterrestrials. It had to be true. People loved vampires, werewolves, ghosts, zombies. But aliens. No.

Still, Melissa and Pia went on how scared they were. Melissa related that she woke wearing a long flowered gown, something she would never wear, and two sizes too big. Kaila let them voice their fears.

"Look," Kaila finally said. "You have my word I'm going to do everything I can to get to the bottom of this."

"I hope so," Pia said. "I can feel this monster moving in me already. I don't want it!"

"I'm so tired," Melissa said. "Please help us."

"But hey," Pia interjected, "tomorrow's Kaila's birthday. So just for tomorrow let's flush all this down the toilet. Tomorrow we'll have fun."

"Pia, thanks," Kaila said. She could barely imagine the horror of being pregnant and knowing you hadn't caused it. And worse, what might be growing inside her belly.

"Tomorrow we'll have fun," Melissa agreed. "Time out."

"Okay," Kaila said. "But day after my party I'm going to go down into the bas.e.m.e.nt and face the monster."

In southern Louisiana, there were no bas.e.m.e.nts. They understood that in horror movies, someone always went down into the bas.e.m.e.nt when they shouldn't. But the time had come for Kaila to stop pretending everything was all right. Everyone she knew and loved was affected. Deep down, she was terrified, for this was something far-reaching and huge, something so far down the rabbit hole that even in the most vivid of imaginations, one knew instinctively that to step down into that bas.e.m.e.nt meant your mind would be irrevocably blown.

The Sat.u.r.day of Kaila's party the sky was blue and clear, the sun shining, the temperature idyllic. Kaila observed a bee pollenating a rose in her mother's garden, so colorful with blooming roses, marigolds, and petunias. All the talk of Velostat and secrets and monsters seemed like a dream. Last night held fear; today held hope. Why was life so riddled with contradiction? Kaila looked up when she heard car tires crunching on the clam sh.e.l.ls over the long driveway to her house.

Her extended family traveled to her birthday party from all over Louisiana: Houma, Raceland, New Orleans, Cocodrie, and Covington. Uncle John hugged her in his overalls; her Aunt Jackie, in a sky-blue polyester pantsuit and kerchief, pecked her cheek and slipped fifty dollars into her hand. Her cousins' children ran squealing in delight through the gra.s.ses, popping balloons. Nan rolled out the plastic runner and turned on the hose so they could run and slide.

Paw Paw, bless him, even though ill, had the barbecue pit smoking with the fragrant odor of sausage, chicken, and ribs. Kaila decided she'd corner Jordyn to heal Paw Paw-today. Her birthday would be perfect. She smiled, noting the folding tables covered with white linen cloths, set with red paper plates, streamers, balloons, and water bowls with floating camellias. Condensation beads formed on pitchers of iced tea under the shade of the magnolia trees.

Melissa and Pia pedaled their bikes over the clam sh.e.l.ls. Dropping the bikes on the lawn, they ran to Kaila and hugged her tightly.

"The old woman's seventeen!" Pia exclaimed. Melissa and Pia were still sixteen.

"Yeah, get a driver's license and a car so we don't have to ride these stupid bikes anymore," Melissa said, brushing her long bangs out of her face.

"Come on, girls," Paw Paw called. "Have a plate." He poked at some pork ribs on a platter.

"Can't!" Kaila said, too excited to eat.

"I'm awful proud of you, Goosy," Paw Paw said. "You know you're the apple of my eye. And the prettiest girl in town."

"Paw Paw." Kaila squirmed. Yet she could feel his love pouring from him. She knew he'd made a concerted effort to be up and out for her birthday even with the after effects of chemotherapy.

"So when're the boys coming?" Paw Paw asked.

Kaila shrugged. She peered around, expecting the hive any minute.

Pia sat on the front porch and bowed her fiddle. Several of Kaila's relatives gathered round. Inspired, Uncle John took out his fiddle and began to play Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez. Uncle Pierre sang and the clan stomped their feet and clapped their hands. The children linked arms and twirled while the adults did a do si do.

All should have been perfect and was, except-where were they?

Later, everyone sat at the tables, eating barbecue, homemade potato salad, and coleslaw. Then her mother brought out a pink and white sheet birthday cake.

"Don't worry," Melissa said. "They're gonna come."

Kaila nodded, as the candles on the cake were lit.

As everyone circled around the table and began singing Happy Birthday, Kaila jerked her chin. She heard a buzzing. She turned. The wind shifted and the barbecue smoke blew over the table. Kaila's eyes teared. There they stood, a few yards away, in a line.

"Wait!" Kaila cried. She pushed through her family and ran to the hive. "I'm glad you came," she said, looking at Jordyn.

"We would never miss celebrating your birth," he said.

They stared at each other. Kaila felt like she'd slipped in time. She basked in the moment, his warmth and radiating energy.

She wanted to hug him, but instead she pulled Jordyn to the table. "Hey, everyone, this is Jordyn. And this is Echidna and Viktor and Antonia and Toby and Lucius."

The family suspiciously regarded the hive, decked in their silver jumpsuits.

"They're from that cult in New Mexico you heard about," Kaila explained, seeing their incredulous looks.

"High school kids sure wear some weird get ups," Uncle John whispered.

Her mother, Lee, clutched her baseball cap to her head.

Paw Paw, noting the looks the family gave the hive, intervened. "Glad you're here. Kaila's been waiting for you. Now let's sing." He started singing Happy Birthday.

The hive observed the birthday ritual song with fascination.

"Make a wish," Paw Paw said.

Kaila glanced at Jordyn and blushed.

"Whoo-wee!" Uncle John whistled. "Kaila's got a suitor. From the looks of things she likes him too."

Everyone burst out laughing. Kaila blushed more furiously. She wished: May Jordyn and I be forever in love. She blew out the candles.

"Don't be embarra.s.sed, Goosy." Paw Paw smiled and hugged her.

As her mother cut the cake and handed out slices, Mike called to the hive, "Come on y'all. Eat some barbecue." He pointed to the platters on the table. Antonia slid next to Pia and Toby sat next to Melissa.

"I will try it," Antonia said. She picked up a rib, bit and tasted. She sat straighter. "This is amazing."

"It is delicious," Toby cried. "More!" He munched on chicken and pork ribs, barbecue sauce on his small mouth. "I like it!"

"Take it easy," Uncle John laughed. "Plenty 'nuff to go around."

"Did they starve them in New Mexico?" Aunt Jackie wondered. "These poor kids. Here, have some cake." She slid some cake slices before Toby and Antonia.

Jordyn put his arm around Kaila's waist. Kaila felt like she grew three feet.

"We want to ride horses," he said. He leaned and whispered, "Then we can be alone."

"Y'all want to ride horses," drawled Mike. "C'mon, I'll fix you up. But we only got five horses."

"We can wait," Toby mumbled, his mouth stuffed with white and pink cake.

"We'll stay here," Antonia said. "We want to hear Pia play fiddle." Then, softer to Pia, "I mean that. I want to hear you play music."

"I'll teach you to play if you want," Pia offered.

"You would?" Antonia said. "That is incredibly generous. Thank you."

"She plays a mean fiddle," Uncle John said.

"But we want to ride horses later," Toby called. "We want to do everything!"

Echidna, Viktor, and Lucius followed Jordyn and Kaila across the field.

Inside, the barn smelled of hay, horses, and leather. When the hybrids entered the barn, the horses lifted their heads. Stamped their feet. Jerked at their reins.

"Now what is setting these horses off?" Mike asked.

Echidna put her hand on the horse's neck.