Finally, his eyes locked on me. He pointed. “You.”
Without missing a beat, Owen said, “Can we help you, sir?”
“Perhaps an ice cream cone on this lovely fall day?” I deadpanned. “I’ll throw in sprinkles for free.”
“I don’t eat food with synthetic additives,” Oswald replied, eyeing the ice cream contemptuously. His gaze moved to me. “We gotta chat.”
My heart rate kicked into high gear. Did he know Ishmael and I had been at his camp? Did he know we saw him with the girl?
“All right,” I replied, sounding more confident than I felt. I attempted to inconspicuously wipe away the sweat that had broken out on my forehead.
“Somewhere private,” Oswald said, glancing around furtively.
Aside from a mother wrangling two toddlers, Super Scoop had emptied. Who did he think was listening?
“We can use the staff room.”
“Gideon…” Owen said apprehensively.
“It’s okay,” I replied, hoping it was true. “We’ll just be a minute.”
Oswald followed me into the closet-sized staff room, his gaze jumping from the ancient time clock to the unused cubbies to the bulletin board pinned with fliers for a band Laser “worked” for. (She apparently operated the sound system, but to me it sounded more like she was a glorified groupie.)
“How can I help you?” I asked Oswald.
“Are there cameras in here?”
“No. Why?”
He looked at me gravely. “There are people in this town who wish me harm.”
Yeah. And he was standing in a cramped room with one of them.
“What people?” I asked.
“People from branches of the government you haven’t even heard of.”
“I see. That sounds…” I trailed off.
Implausible? Ludicrous?
“Stressful,” I finished.
Abruptly, Oswald leaned forward and took my face in both of his hands. For a horrified moment I thought he was going to kiss me. Instead, he peered deeply into my eyes.
Have I mentioned that I found maintained eye contact immensely uncomfortable? Especially when said eye contact was with a maniacal health-supplement guru who claimed aliens gave him the fountain of youth?
“Yes,” Oswald said finally, nodding as if confirming something. He released my face and stepped back. “I knew I could trust you.”
The tension in his shoulders loosened and his easygoing smile reappeared. I, meanwhile, was more apprehensive than ever.
“You and I, Gideon, we’re connected.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
“Last night I received a message,” he went on.
“From?”
“The Visitors.”
“Aliens, you mean?”
Oswald plowed ahead without responding. “I was told to seek you out. You have a role to play in this story.”
In this story? He meant in his story. He was trying to turn me into a minor character in his alien melodrama. But this was my alien melodrama.
“What role would that be?”
Oswald leaned forward. “Last night I was taken to the ship. There were seven Visitors waitin’ for me—I’ve never seen so many at once. They spoke of the danger I’m in. They said I have to finish the elixir and get it to the masses as quickly as I can. And they said there’s only one person who can help make that happen. You.”
“I’m flattered they’ve heard of me,” I said dryly.
Oswald didn’t pick up on my sarcasm. “They’ve heard of everyone and everything.”
I glanced around the staff room, as if something in there could save me from what was surely the most absurd conversation of my life. Unless I wanted to clobber Oswald with a mop, I was out of luck.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” I finally said. “What do the Visitors claim my role is?”
“They didn’t say.”
“Convenient.”
“They’ll tell me when the time is right,” Oswald said. Again, he looked deeply into my eyes, and very briefly I experienced the power of persuasion he had over most people. I felt almost…drawn in. I felt like I was being seen. “I need you to swear something to me, Gideon.”
“What’s that?”
“Swear that when the Visitors reveal your role, you’ll be ready to fulfill it.”
“I can’t possibly promise you that,” I said.
He put his hand on my shoulder. “You have to. There’s no one else who can do this.”
I stepped back and swung the staff room door open. “Okay, fine.” I’d tell him what he wanted to hear if it meant getting rid of him. “I’ll do my best.”
“Your best is all I ask for,” Oswald said, flashing his movie star smile. “I’ll be seein’ you.”
He sauntered out of the staff room and through Super Scoop, pausing only to smile at the mother with the toddlers. She smiled back at him, utterly charmed.
I watched him go, my annoyance growing by the second. How dare Oswald come into my place of business with his alien