Free Shadow of the Sun by Laura Kreitzer Page B

angels. Would I laugh at the fact that some of them were Karen’s brothers? For the first time, I was disappointed I didn’t have the Bible in my house. I wasn’t a religious person and had never felt the need to read the holy book. Thinking about praying to some big man in the sky gave me a good laugh. I wasn’t laughing now, expect for bouts of insane and hysterical mirth that I couldn’t hold in.
    I was having trouble concentrating on packing my suitcase. How could I worry about whether or not I would have time to shop in D.C., or worry that I was running low on toilet paper and Jenna would need to buy some more? How could I stand in my ordinary bedroom, around my ordinary things, trying to have ordinary thoughts, when I knew that there was an extraordinary race of angels out there? Or had I just imagined everything that had happened today—from the angels who just left my house to the three bodies sent to the lab? That was still a possibility. I was deeply bothered by the turn of events. Just yesterday I was a normal human woman, interacting with normal, everyday people, living a normal life—well, as normal as one’s life could be in my profession. Now I knew better. I had been wildly thrust into the supernatural, the real supernatural, not any of that stuff I had previously dealt with.
    There goes that random, insane laughter again.
    There was a faint ringing sound from my cell phone, snapping me from my musings. It had always bothered me when people made their ring tones into songs or weird noises, and as technologically advanced as I was, that was one strange habit I refused to succumb to. It rang again, though I could barely hear it; the sound was muffled. I had no idea where I had put it.
    It rang again, and I threw clothes around, hoping I’d find it under one of the piles. I quickly searched the floor and the bathroom. As I entered the kitchen, the ringing became louder before it stopped all together.
    Sighing, I sat on a bar stool at the island. I snatched up a banana from the bowl of fruit and devoured it. I was starving; I hadn’t eaten since yesterday. I completely forgot about my phone and thought about how empty the house felt without the angels. It was as if all the warmth they had brought with them had been sucked into a black hole when they left.
    Hercules sat on his haunches and looked at me, his tail wagging. He was my only company and had been following me all through the house as I packed.
    “ I’ll miss you too, buddy.”
    He pranced on his front paws and moved closer so I could pet his head.
    Absently, I stared at the answering machine. The screen display showed zero messages. That, and the message I had received earlier from Adam, was just another reminder of my very non-existent love life. And even that relationship had just been an additional attempt to connect with another person. But again I had failed miserably. As old as I was, I was still fairly naïve about love and men and relationships. Of course I had dated, but each time it had ended disastrously, as Karen had witnessed earlier.
    My whole life, besides the support and love of my family, I had been alone. When you’re several feet smaller and several years younger than your peers in school, they seem to shy away from becoming friends.
    I had graduated from high school when I was twelve. How was I supposed to relate to a bunch of hormone-enraged kids when all I was interested in was riding bikes with my sister or thinking of new science experiments to try out? My family and I lived in Ohio at the time, and they did everything they could to help me advance in life. Yale, among other prestigious schools, accepted me without question, and Yale just happened to have the programs I was most interested in. My family uprooted so I could go to school there and was as encouraging as ever. They had faith in me and knew I would make them proud. But since my move to Oretown, I hadn’t really seen my parents as often as I’d liked,