Jude

When my eyes spring open, the first thing I do is reach for the pager. There's nothing new; no messages, calls, or file transfers. I sink back onto the bed, blowing a strand of hair out of my face. It's been a few weeks since Dr. Jansen sent me out and told me to wait for his signal. Since then, nothing. The pager looks as advanced as a phone, but Dr. Jansen set it up to work only one-way. I can't send him anything. I can only wait for the go-ahead to reveal myself to the world, but it looks like I'll be a ghost for another day.

I sit up, turn on the TV, and flip to CNN. There's no news about people with powers. It looks like the others, whoever they are, haven't gotten their signals either. We're supposed to come together after we've gone public. We're going to be a team. The Elementals.

One day, anyway.

The motel is in a mountain-forest town in Washington. I can't say I hate it here. The scenery's nice, as is the room itself, even if the heater is broken. It hasn't been a problem yet, since I've got enough blankets to keep me warm, but it will be a problem in a few weeks.

It's nice, the place. That's all I can say about it. It's an in-between, a kind of rest period before I begin the next phase of my life.

There's a knock on the door, and I scramble out of bed. I'm not supposed to have this many plants in here, so I wiggle my fingers and force the vines and leaves out of view right before I open the door. The guy waiting there is around my age, but he's not wearing a uniform.

"Hello," I say, blinking leftover sleep out of my eyes. "Are you here about the heater?"

"I'm not maintenance," he answers, but he offers no follow-up.

I close the door just a little, to keep him from seeing too much of my room. A new neighbor, maybe? Lots of people come and go here. I try to keep to myself, but others don't always have the same idea. "Sorry," I say. "I'm a little busy—"

"Are you Jude?"

I freeze.

No no no no.

Jude Sagong is dead. There's an accident report, an obituary, and a gravestone to attest to that. The only people who know the truth are me and Dr. Jansen. I checked into this motel as a Mr. James Newman.

So for all intents and purposes...

I am not Jude Sagong.

But instead of telling him that, I slam the door in his face. My plants jerk with the spike in adrenaline. My legs are jelly, but I force myself to remain standing and look through the peephole. He's already gone.

I sit down on the bed, fingers digging under the mattress, and it suddenly hits me.

He's one of us.

"You dumbass," I mutter to myself.

I burst out the door and immediately remember that I'm in pajamas. After changing at lightning speed, I go running down the steps to the ground level, my head swiveling left and right. There's hardly anyone around, and the people I do see are not him. I'm already forgetting his face; I only saw him for seconds.

White guy, brown hair, I think over and over so I don't forget. My age.

After checking the lobby, the garage, and the laundry rooms, I go to the pool. It's covered due to a mosquito infestation, but the lounge tables and chairs remain open. One chair is occupied, and it's him. I think. I hope.

I sit down on the chair next to him, hands nervously cupping my knees. He doesn't look at me or even move.

"I'm Jude," I whisper. "Who are you?"

His eyes travel to the corners. "Taylor."

"Taylor," I repeat. "Are you..." I swallow, struggling to come up with the right thing to say. This is not how I imagined this going. "One of us?"

"Who's us?" he says bluntly.

He's being cautious. I should be, too, and I suddenly realize that I should've asked Who are you? before I said I'm Jude. It's too late. He knows I'm Jude. And as far as I know, Taylor could be a fake name. I've already lost.

"One of the Elementals," I whisper.

He raises an eyebrow. "Is that what we're going to be called?"

I smile. "I guess so. Which one are you?"

"Show me what you can do, and I'll show you what I can do."

"But you already know who I am," I counter. I can tell he knows more about me than what I've given.

"Yes, I do. But I'd like to see."

I look around. Hardly anyone, but still people. "In my room," I say.

I lead the way back upstairs, trying not to give away my excitement. He follows, silent until we're both standing in my room, surrounded by plants.

"You're Earth," he says, eyeing all the green.

I send a vine out to greet him. It snakes around his shoulder a bit and then retreats to its plant, and he laughs. It's a tired laugh, I notice. He's not as excited as I am.

"Your turn," I say.

Taylor holds up a finger, and a flame appears above the tip. It dances in the light breeze flowing through the crack in my window, and then he extinguishes it as fast as he made it.

"I'm fire," he says.

It's finally happening. All these weeks of waiting, and one simply showed up on my doorstep. I can't help but smile and clap as I sit down. My legs are still jelly, and my heart hasn't slowed any. It's so much in so little time.

"How did you know about me?" I ask. "And how did you find me?"

"Dr. Jansen told me," he replies, walking around to observe each and every plant.

"Do you know where the others are?"

"Yes."

"Huh." I glance at my pager, its black screen devoid of any notifications. "Well, he's been more talkative with you than he's been with me. Guess that means you're supposed to be our leader?"

Taylor shrugs. "Maybe."

"Maybe? I hope so." I laugh. "It can't be me. I was actually paranoid that it would be me, but I'd suck it at. I can't even pick which shoes to wear in the morning. I—"

"You talk a lot," he says.

"Do I?" I laugh again. "Yeah, I guess I do. I'm sorry, I didn't—it's just funny, I've been...you know—"

"Ah..." Taylor clears his throat. "You're crying."

"Am I?" My hands fly up to my face. Shit. I very quickly wipe the tears away.

Taylor looks around awkwardly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. It was just an observation. You can keep talking."

"It's alright, I..." I cover my face with my hands and take a deep, deep breath.

"Go ahead. Say it. I'm no one to be embarrassed in front of."

I peek through my fingers and then slide my hands off my face. "I've felt alone my entire life," I mumble. "My dad was raised on a farm in South Dakota. He joined the Army and met my mom in South Korea. I have her last name because his was Smith and he joked that there were already too many Smiths in the world." I clear my throat; Taylor's right, I talk a lot. "They had me in Germany, and then we kept moving around because of his job. And no matter how many times I told myself I would keep in touch with friends, we always just...drifted apart. It happened after every move."

Taylor finally sits, on the little ottoman in the corner. I wish he would tell me to shut up, but he doesn't.

"After the accident," I continue, "it was me and Dr. Jansen. The same way it was for you, and the others, I'm guessing. And after that, it's supposed to be us. I've been waiting for the Elementals to come together, and now you're here, and it...it feels real."

Taylor smiles. It doesn't quite reach his eyes, and I'm beginning to think it's simply the best he can do. "I'm glad you're happy to see me," he jokes.

"I am," I insist. If he is meant to be our leader, then I want him to know that I am all for this team, one-hundred percent.

He only smiles again.

"How is Jansen?" I ask.

Taylor gets up and starts looking at the plants. "He's doing fine."

"So what happens now? I thought we were going to reveal ourselves individually and then come together as a team?"

Taylor gently picks up the leaf of my lemon tree and sniffs it. Then he does the same to the roses, and the violets. He never touches the flowers, only the leaves.

"Taylor?" I repeat when the silence has gone on uncomfortably long. "What happens now?"

"Change of plans," he says. "Jansen recommended we come together and then do the reveal, already as a team."

"Oh. So we're going to get the others?"

"Rani Sharma. Water. We're going road-tripping tomorrow to find her."

"Tomorrow?"

"The car needs a break. So do I. I'll be in the room next door."

Taylor leaves before I get a chance to say anything more. But before he closes the door, he hesitates and quietly says, "It was nice meeting you."

_________________

Jude

He comes back several hours later, just as the sun is setting. He settles on the floor while I sit on the bed, sticking a bookmark into my page and setting the book aside.

"Is everything alright?" I ask.

"Tell me your story."

I blink. "Don't you know it already?"

"I want to hear it from you."

I shuffle sideways so I can see him. His back is against the foot of the bed, and he stares blankly at the lemon tree.

"My mom was driving," I say, "and humming a Korean folk tune from her childhood. My dad was in the back, looking at the map and pointing out horses. I was in the front. The other driver was a drunk. Everyone died but me—well, I mean, died permanently. I woke up with Dr. Jansen. He explained that the people performing the embalming realized there was something wrong with me, so they called him in. He was a specialist. He realized I was still alive somehow, and he brought me to his secluded place in Oregon and waited for me to wake up. We realized together that I had these...abilities. He told me he wasn't surprised because I was the third. He found a boy who could make fire first, and then a girl who could make water. Each one, he helped them, sent them off, and then told them to wait for his signal. If I was Earth, then soon he would find someone with air. I didn't know how to explain it. Neither did he. We accepted that it could be God, nature, maybe accidental mad science." I pause. "What do you think it was?"

Taylor shrugs. Closes his eyes. "I don't know."

"Whatever it was, it happened. He spent a week helping me recover and discover what I could do. Meanwhile, he orchestrated my legal death. They buried an empty casket. There was no other option to safely explain what happened to me in a way that wouldn't get the feds on my ass. I didn't mind, considering my parents were dead." I laugh. "There was no one to miss me."

Taylor doesn't laugh.

"Then," I continued, "after that week, Jansen asked if I was willing to join you and the water girl, if I wanted to be a part of the Elementals. I said yes, of course. He told me to wait here. He still had to find the air, and then he would let us know when it was time. And now I'm here."

Taylor leans his head back on the edge of the bed. "Same here," he says, eyes still closed. "Accident. Fake death. Week of recovery, and then I get told to wait. He kept in touch with me, though. He didn't tell me much about water girl or you or about air, but he kept in touch and told me that he found them. I guess it was because I was the first, and he wasn't sure where any of it was going. And then..." Taylor trailed off a bit. "Then a few days ago he told me to find you guys and gave me your info. And now I'm here."

"Do you wish it hadn't happened?" I ask suddenly. "Because I do. I wish my parents were alive and that I could go back to moving around with them, even if it meant I would never have a friend."

Taylor finally opens his eyes. "Yeah. I wish my parents and brother were alive."

"But what happened, happened," I say. "And if it had to happen...I'm glad Dr. Jansen was so helpful. And I'm glad I have a chance to do some good."

"Yeah," Taylor mumbles.

"Superheroes." I laugh. "Sounds crazy, doesn't it?"

Taylor stands up. "Goodnight, Jude. I'll see you tomorrow."

_______________

Jude

But he's not in his room. I knock three times, and then I turn the knob. It's unlocked and the door pushes in easily, and I stumble forward. The room next to mine is empty. There's no sign that it has been slept in at all, not even the slightest ruffle on the sheet. Either Taylor slept on the floor, or...

He cleaned up and left.

"Taylor?" I call, going downstairs and swiveling my head around like I did yesterday.

I'm packed and ready to go, but I still have my keys. I'm not going to check out until he tells me where we're going. I've spent weeks at this motel, and as ready as I am to say goodbye, I'm not entirely confident in what happens next.

"Taylor?" I call again, turning in a circle.

He's not in the lobby. He's not in the lounge chair. He's not in any of the other rooms; I've knocked and checked and disturbed many disgruntled patrons.

My heart starts to pound. Did I hallucinate last night? Was I so desperate for Dr. Jansen to contact me that I completely made up a scenario?

Or was Taylor real, and did he decide he wanted nothing to do with me?

I hear a noise in the garage and flinch. Rarely anyone uses it; it's a glorified shed, really. The cars in there haven't ran for ages. The people who stay here park their rentals in the lots down the short hike, or they use taxis to travel, and I've been here long enough to know there aren't any animals that go in the garage. Even they know it's worth nothing.

I approach carefully, the door creaking as I push it inwards. "Taylor?" I whisper.

The garage is dark, and the light switch does nothing. Some daylight flows in through the slits on the door and underneath the makeshift walls, but it's not enough to see more than shadows. I hear the sound again, metal on metal. It sounds like someone's closing a door, but I can't tell.

"Hello?" I say, and after that, there's no more noise.

I walk slowly toward where I think the original noise came from. My breathing creates puffs in the air. It's cold in here...and suddenly I feel heat. Several things happen at once: lights flood my vision, an engine roars to life, and heat sizzles the air.

My eyes slowly widen from their squint, and I lower my hand from my face. The headlights on the car in front of me are on, and when they go dim and I can see again, I notice Taylor in the driver's seat.

"This place a fire hazard," he says, leaning out of the window. "There's no ventilation in here."

"No one parks here," I say. The engine in closed quarters is already heating the air up. "I'll get the door."

I yank open the main doors, and Taylor slowly drives out. It's a regular sized, four-door sedan. No one will be able to tell there are two superhumans in it.

"Are you ready to go?" Taylor asks.

"Where are we going?"

"To meet Rani Sharma. She's in a motel in Wyoming."

"Wyoming," I repeat. "That's a long drive. We can switch halfway, I have my license." I pause and catch myself. "Never mind, it's not like that matters. I'm legally dead. I know how to drive, that's what I meant to say."

Taylor considers for a moment. "Sure. We can switch in Montana."

I nod. Then I glance over my shoulder at the motel. Am I ever going to see it again? It's not like it's going to disappear. I can come back to it if I please, but a small part of me knows that I won't. I have to let it go. The next phase of my life is starting.

"I'm ready," I say.

_______________________

Jude

Rani Sharma isn't here.

A man in his forties answers the door. His wife appears, too, and she shakes her head when we ask if they know the girl who had this room before them. When we show the receptionist a picture of Rani that Taylor got from Jansen, she says she can't say anything because of motel confidentiality. We wait in the parking lot for hours to see who comes out of the other rooms, but none of them are her.

The logical explanation is that Rani Sharma has already moved out. I'm perplexed, but I try not to show it. Dr. Jansen told each of us to wait, as far as Taylor and I both know. Why would Rani leave?

"It's fine," Taylor says when we head back to the car. "We'll find her eventually. Let's get Lana."

"Air? Where's she?"

"Georgia."

"Where were you waiting before you came to get us? Where did Dr. Jansen send you?"

"Michigan."

"Damn," I mutter. "How much driving have you done?"

Taylor smiles, and for the first time, it looks genuine. "Too much."

"You're not worried about Rani?"

He shrugs. "We'll find her eventually."

I try to match his nonchalance as we climb back into the car and begin heading east. I also try to catch a break in his cool facade as he drives, but there's never a hint of worry on his face.

____________

Taylor

Shit.