Touched by an Alien

upset about this.”
    “We’re not. Like we’d want to marry either one of them?” Lorraine said with a snort of laughter.
    “We might have to,” Claudia added, in a voice of doom.
    “Why?”
    “Arranged marriage. We’re still stuck with it. If they can make us.” Lorraine sounded angry. I couldn’t blame her.
    “Which they can’t,” Claudia added vehemently. “That’s why we aren’t getting married. We know what we want, and if we can’t get it, then we’ll just be single, thanks so much.”
    “You want to marry humans, don’t you?”
    “Yes, we all do. Well, most of our generation does.” Lorraine leaned on her hand. “Not that they’ll let us.”
    “Jeff’ll do it, no matter what they tell him,” Claudia said quietly. “You watch.”
    My throat felt tight, but I had to ask. “Is that the only reason he likes me?”
    “Oh, no, honey, not at all,” Claudia said reassuringly.
    “Why does he like me, then?” I knew why Christopher did, after all.
    They were both quiet. We started through the gate, and I forced myself to keep my eyes open. It was horrid, so I looked at the steering wheel.
    “He’s an empath,” Lorraine said finally. “He connects with people.”
    “But never as fast as with you, James told us.”
    “What’s their relationship like? Jeff and Christopher, I mean.” I didn’t want to think about the possibility that Martini only liked me because I was a human and represented release from the arranged marriage trap or viewed me as an exotic event before marrying one of his own kind.
    “Oh, they’re real close,” Claudia said. “But …”
    “But?”
    Lorraine shifted in her seat. “My mother told me most of it, I was too young too remember. Jeff’s a little older than Christopher, but they were born the same year. Christopher’s an only child. Jeff’s got a lot of sisters.”
    “That explains the ladies’ man attitude.”
    “Not really,” Claudia corrected. “Until they were ten, their personalities were totally different.”
    This was interesting. “How so?”
    “I can just remember Christopher giving me a piggyback ride,” Lorraine said. “And he was always calling ‘C’mon, Jeff.’ ”
    “Because Jeff was really shy. He was the youngest, but there’s a big gap between him and his sisters. Christopher was always the one in the lead, dragging Jeff along. Christopher was a big joker, and Jeff was always the one saying they shouldn’t do something.”
    This didn’t sound like either one of them. “They were together a lot?”
    “Oh, yeah,” Claudia said. “Jeff’s parents don’t have any special talents. So getting an empath as a son was sort of hard to deal with.”
    “My mother said Christopher’s mom sort of took Jeff under her wing. She was an empath, so she understood what he was going through. Until they’re older, empaths have a hard time blocking anything. And Jeff’s talent showed up so early, it was even harder than normal.”
    I thought about how Martini had been with me in the conference room and then with my parents. How miserable and hurt and ill all of our emotions made him. I could easily imagine what it would be like for a child—to know your parents really were mad at you, to know that someone truly didn’t like you, to feel people in pain.
    “So he spent a lot of time with his aunt and uncle?”
    “With his aunt. Richard’s been our Sovereign Pontifex since before we came to Earth, so well before all of us were born. His duties meant he was away a lot.” Claudia sighed. We exited the gate into a big desert with some mountains all around, but at a great distance. “It was hard on all of them, from what I’ve heard and can remember. But Theresa was our head diplomat, so she was busy all the time, too.”
    “They used to live in East Base, and Jeff spent most of his time there. We were there, too, until we were transferred.” Lorraine pointed. “Follow James. I think he wants to get us away from the gate.”
    “Did they change after she died?”
    “The next day, according to my mother.” Lorraine squinted. “Is their car rocking?”
    “Can’t tell, could be the terrain, it’s pretty bumpy.” Trauma could certainly make someone’s personality alter. “So Christopher withdrew and Jeff started taking care of him? Role reversal?”
    “Yes. My mother said it was as though they exchanged personalities overnight while still being them. Christopher’s never been the same since his mother died. Jeff