Making the Galaxy Great

When Jason returned to Evie and Shelby, he got a second hug — this time from Evie. “That was such an awesome thing you did. How did you know they needed corn?”

“They just mentioned something about it when I was here before.”

She leaned close to him and started to whisper: “Because you were so nice, I’ll do something nice for you. What if I shuck your corn—“

“Ahh, Shelby!” Jason exclaimed as he backed away from Evie, nearly tripping and falling. “My daughter who is only thirteen. What should we all do next?”

“How about swimming?” suggested Shelby.

“Like at a pool somewhere?” asked Evie.

“Honey, Evie doesn’t have a suit with her,” said Jason. “Why don’t we do something that—”

“We can swing by my apartment,” said Evie. “I’ll just run in and get one and run out. And if Stormy’s there, I’ll tell her to start packing.”

Jason recalled the stares Evie had drawn at the farmer’s market. What would it be like at the swim club?

“Sure,” he said slowly, caving in as he so often did to female pressure.

Evie was in and out of her apartment, located on the second floor of a fourplex, in under two minutes. “She was passed out,” she said when she jumped back into the car. “No surprise.”

“Who?” asked Shelby.

Jason flinched.

“My roommate,” said Evie. Then, after a pause, she added: “I think she’s sick.”

Back at Jason’s house, Evie and Shelby changed together in Shelby’s room. He could hear them giggling; it sounded like Shelby was with one of her school friends, not one of Jason’s coworkers with whom he also happened to be having sex. He changed quickly in his own bedroom and waited for them downstairs.

Shelby trotted down the stairs first, followed by Evie, whose arrival caused Jason to forget about breathing momentarily. She wore one of his t-shirts over her swim suit top, but what he saw of the suit bottom — or rather, her bottom — was enough to make his heart lean hard against his chest. A soft moan escaped from his lips.

“No no no no no no. This isn’t going to work. We’re going to a neighborhood swim club, not a Brazilian beach.”

Evie frowned at him and held out her hands. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing, if you’re auditioning for the cover of a sports magazine,” he replied. “But this pool we’re going to, it’s families and kids. And their dads.”

“You worried the other old guys might be checking me out?”

Jason winced inwardly at the reference to his age. And he was certain that males of every age would be pitching pup tents in their trunks when Evie walked into the swim club. In fact, the pool itself might start boiling.

“Dad, her suit is fine,” said Shelby. “You should see the one mom got for spring break.”

Jason resisted the urge to tell Shelby that her mother was not a particularly good role model, and in the end he relented and they drove to the pool, which was less than a mile from his house. It was actually an old rock quarry that had been converted many years ago, complete with a concrete bottom, pumps and drains.

As Jason had feared, Evie drew plenty of stares, some admiring and some shocked. He tried to ignore them and swam a few laps, then he and Shelby and Evie played Marco Polo with a large group of teenagers (mostly boys), that included a couple of Shelby’s friends from school. They took a break and ate nasty hamburgers and fries from the concession stand. Afterward, Jason and Evie sat on lounge chairs while Shelby played volleyball with the same group of teens.

“Who’s that boy with the curly blonde hair?” asked Evie, pointing to one of the kids on Shelby’s team.

“I think his name’s Paul. He goes to her school.”

“He likes her.”

“Well, that’s good. She’s a likable girl,” said Jason, pretending not to understand as he stared sidelong at Evie’s legs.

Evie wasn’t buying it. “You know what I mean. She’s a teenager, dude. You better start thinking about that stuff.”

Jason wanted to sink further into the chair and let the sun burn him to a crisp. Nothing in his world was the same as it had been a few weeks ago. There were aliens on Earth — in his city. His 26-year-old lust object from work was now — something more complicated. And possibly worst of all, he had to face the fact that his daughter was a teenager who would sooner or later have sex. That was the most difficult change of all.

One of the boys playing volleyball had emerged from the pool, wet and muscular and tan, and he now approached them with an eager smile on his face. “Do you want to play? We could use one more to even out the teams.”

He was, of course, asking Evie, not Jason.

“No, not right now. I’m talking to my boyfriend,” she told him.

Before Jason had time to savor her reply, his phone rang. It was McCauley. He saw that he’d missed several calls from her while he’d been in the water. He sighed and stood up. “I better take this,” he told Evie.

“What is it, Agent McCauley?” he said as he walked toward the diving area at the far end of the quarry.

“Why aren’t you picking up your phone?” she said. “We have an assignment.”

“An assignment? What? When?”

“Right now. L’harra has resurfaced. I’ll explain on the way.”

Jason felt panic fall over him like a shadow. “This is not actually a good time. I’m not even home. I’m at the pool with my daughter. I’ll call you when—”

“Fleming, I can see you’re not at home, but you’re not far. Remember, you signed up for this. You’re my partner now. If you don’t want to follow through, we can just erase—”

Jason wiped sweat from his brow as his brain raced. “Okay, I get it. Where do I meet you?”

“I’m on my way to your house. And good news: your car’s fixed.”

A rusty, creaky trap door opened at the bottom of Jason’s stomach. When he walked back toward Evie, Shelby had gotten out of the pool and taken his chair.

“It was mom, wasn’t it?” she asked.

Jason shook his head and sighed. Trying to sound less upset than he was, he said: “No, it wasn’t mom. It was Agent McCauley. Apparently something else has come up with that case . . . They need me to come down to their offices, so we need to get back home. She’s meeting me there. I’ll call mom and see if she can come get you.”

“Uh uh. She had a date last night, if you know what I mean.” Shelby arched her eyebrows.

“Christ,” Jason muttered. He didn’t want to step in the middle of that shit pile, and his only sister lived an hour away. He rubbed his head.

“I can stay with her,” Evie offered.

Jason’s eyes turned to Evie, who was looking volcanically hot in her tiny bikini, stretched out on the lounge chair. Not a classic babysitter look, except maybe in porn movies, but Shelby seemed perfectly comfortable with her. And she was twenty-six, he reminded himself, which was twice as old as Shelby.

“If you don’t mind, that would be fantastic. I’ll leave you guys some money if you want to get something to eat —”

“We got this,” said Evie, waving her hand dismissively.

It was after seven when they arrived back at Jason’s house. McCauley was waiting by the front door, looking like a secret agent — or an international art thief— in black tights and a black long-sleeve exercise shirt. Perhaps their mission was to break into a museum and steal an alien artifact.

McCauley glanced at Jason’s swim trunks, then at Shelby. Then at Evie. “So you and your . . . family really were at the pool. Sorry about that, girls, but I need Mr. Fleming for a bit.”

“Why, exactly?” asked Evie.

Slightly startled by the question, McCauley hesitated. “There were some details about his description of the suspects that we realized we need to fill in.”

“Seems like a lot of questions,” said Evie. “Can’t you people get it straight?”

“Dad’s not in trouble, is he?” asked Shelby.

“No,” said McCauley firmly. “Actually he’s been really helpful. I just need him to be . . . a little more helpful. But first I need him to put on some real clothes.”

Jason raced up to his room and threw on jeans and a t-shirt. When he came back down, McCauley was standing on one side of the door and Evie and Shelby on the other.

“Bye Dad,” said Shelby.

“See you in bit, honey,” said Evie.