Alien in the House

I had my teeth clenched.
    “Jump now, baby,” Jeff said.
    “I’m at like the fourth floor.”
    “When have I not caught you?” He had a point. Turned and jumped toward him. I only screamed a little. “There we go,” he said as he caught me and put me down gently. “Safe and sound. Supposedly you do stuff like this all the time, even when I’m not around.”
    “I’m usually the one in the lead and in jeans and my Converse, not a designer cocktail dress, a velvet opera coat, and high heels.”
    “You’re doing great as always, baby. And you look fabulous doing it, too. Next!”
    Oliver insisted on going down next. He waited to jump until he was much closer to the walkway, despite Jeff’s encouragement for him to go for it sooner.
    Lorraine was next, and she jumped when Jeff told her to. Same with Claudia. Both girls seemed to enjoy the thrill. I’d really turned them into adrenaline junkies.
    Vance was next, and if I’d been careful, he was caution personified. He was so slow that White started off after him, jumped at the bottom of the fourth floor, and landed without Jeff’s help, all before Vance had made it to the middle of the fourth floor.
    “Show off.”
    White and Jeff both laughed. “It’s not as difficult for us to land well,” White explained, while Jeff cajoled Vance down the ladder.
    “Who’s going to catch me?” Vance asked.
    “No one,” I replied. “Because you’ll like it too much.”
    “Bitch.”
    “You know it. Hurry up, Vance. It’s going to be Christmas by the time you reach the rest of us.”
    He got to about where Oliver had jumped, whimpered audibly, and leaped. Lorraine and White grabbed his arms and pulled him fully onto the top of the walkway. “That was the most pathetic jump I’ve ever seen,” Lorraine said.
    “Whatever. My God, is this what you people do for fun?”
    Jeff grinned and took my hand. “Buddy up with the humans,” he said to Lorraine and Claudia. Then he took off for the Embassy. Showing judgment, Lorraine and Claudia both took a hold of Oliver. White grabbed Vance, and they all ran after us.
    Since we were going at hyperspeed, we reached the Embassy in about two seconds. However, we now only had to get up five floors. The wisdom of this gambit was eluding me.
    “There’s the fire escape,” Vance said. “And does that pill the doctor gave me kick in late or what? I want to barf.”
    “That’s from you getting upset over the jumping,” Oliver said. “You’d be much worse without Doctor Hernandez’s cure.”
    “You have a bottle of pills, MJO?”
    “I acquired some, yes.”
    Chose not to ask him how. “Super. Um, Jeff? What’s the plan now?”
    The fire escape wasn’t as conveniently placed as the one at the Zoo. We had to leap over from the top of the walkway a good ten feet. I wasn’t liking our odds.
    “Who’s first?” Jeff asked. “I think it has to be me or Richard.”
    “You go, Jeffrey,” White said. “You’re the strongest and have the longest reach in case someone doesn’t jump well enough.”
    Jeff kissed me and, without any hesitation, jumped to the fire escape. He made it without issue. “Come on, baby. Don’t worry, I’ll catch you again.”
    As I backed up, contemplated whether to keep my heels on or not, decided I should since it wasn’t slippery here, and started to run, it dawned on me that Jeff was, despite the circumstances, having fun.
    The leap wasn’t too bad—my track coaches had ensured every one of us could do every event, and I’d been okay with long jump—but Jeff was there to grab and catch me anyway. It wasn’t quite the same as when he caught me as I dropped from a great height, but it was still nice—two catches in one night. And, you know, the likelihood that I’d fall from up high was getting better with each passing moment. If I was clumsy enough, we could get a triple. Go us.
    Started up the ladder as the others contemplated how to get Vance and Oliver across without worry. I reached the top while they were still discussing it. Conveniently, I had an easy answer.
    “Hey guys! Someone went this way before and left us a path.” A sturdy rope was tied quite well to some metal on the roof, right over the walkway. Clearly my Assassination Uncles planned well.
    Tossed the rope down while Jeff climbed up the fire escape using hyperspeed and then helped me hold the rope and help the others up. Oliver had a little trouble—Bellie flew off his shoulder to perch on Jeff’s, but