A Queer Turn of Events   by Lisa Lees	Episode map Characters Extras Blog
2:5 – "I say run." Part 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Part 2: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

"So I open the door, boss?" asked Crystal.

"Open the door." So much for a rational discussion, sighed Carys.

Crystal grinned and gave Carys a thumbs-up, then she opened the door. "Alyssa! Hey!" "Hey, Crystal. What's up?" Alyssa peered in the door at everyone assembled in the living room. "I rang a couple of times. I heard you playing, which was cool, but I kind of thought I heard some yelling. Is this a bad time?" Crystal looked at Alyssa for a moment. Could there be a worse time? Should I tell her to run as fast as she can away from here? No, that's for Jami to do, if anyone. "We do seem to have a bit of a problem. But you're one of us. So I guess you need to know what's going on." As soon as Crystal had said that it was Alyssa at the door, Jami had stood up from the sofa and walked toward the door. Now as Crystal stepped back to let Alyssa enter, Jami was waiting to greet her with a smile. "Hey, Alley-cat. Come on in." Alyssa hesitated. "Is walking through this door going to change my life?" Jami's expression went blank. She started chewing on her lower lip. Whoa! What the fuck? Is Jami okay? Alyssa quickly stepped inside, going to stand by Jami.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Hi, Jami-cat. You didn't call me yesterday."

Crystal closed the door and went to sit by Sandy. She picked up her guitar, looked at Jami and Alyssa and began playing a new tune. Alyssa stepped closer to Jami and hugged her. "Jami-cat. You didn't call me yesterday." "Sorry." She stepped back, still holding on to Alyssa's jacket. "You added a piercing," she said, not wanting to say why she'd been so busy yesterday. "And you dyed your hair again." Alyssa shrugged and smiled. "You know I'm ever-changing girl." She gently touched Jami's cheek. "You're upset. What's going on? Is this about Wizzy Wig? Are you all okay?" Jami took a breath. "This is going to be hard to believe. But you need to know. Because of Wizzy Wig, and me. Come on." Jami walked Alyssa into the kitchen so she could fill her in while the others talked in the living room. Emiko had been watching Jami. Now she said to Rachel, "I need to go with them." She stood up and followed Jami and Alyssa.

Rachel slumped, putting her arms around herself and looking as if she was going to cry. Tam moved from the sofa to sit next to her.

Sandy looked at Crystal, who paused in her playing. "This tune needs to come out, babe. You know I'll be all twitchy if I don't do this."

"I know, hon." Sandy gave Crystal a quick kiss, then scooted on the floor to be next to Rachel.

"I think my head is going to explode," said Rachel. "In the past what, three months, I've gone from being an admittedly slightly kinky but privileged American Girl to being kicked out of my family, with a girlfriend who may leave the country and not be able to come back, who may be part of some weird thing I don't even want to understand, and just what the fuck are we going to do? What am I going to do if I end up all alone!"

Tam took one of Rachel's hands and Sandy took the other. "You are not going to end up all alone," said Tam.

"No way," said Sandy. "I had to leave my family. So did Kay. I know Emiko is in trouble, and I'm not sure what we're going to do about that, and about everything Jami has told us. But this is about all of us Rachel, and you're part of us. I know we're going to stick together." She glanced at Kay and James.

"Hell, yes!" said Kay. "You all aren't going to run off on some science fiction wild goose chase and leave me and baby here!"

"Run off? Hey, I'm in college!" said James.

Kay turned to glare at him.

James swallowed. "I need to make a choice, don't I?"

"I think the choice has been made for us," said Sandy. "All we have to do is to decide the details."

* * *

Emiko stood inside the kitchen door until Jami noticed her.

"Hi, Emi. What's the CD?" "Oh, I had an idea to cheer you up, maybe a song we can cover, called 'I am a Cat,' by Shonen Knife, a Japanese band I like. That was before I knew what was going on, but I'm still holding the CD." "Come sit with us?" Emiko sat next to Jami, placing the CD on the table. Alyssa picked up the CD. "I know this group! They had some pretty wacky songs. A lot of fun, actually. Hmm." Emiko folded her arms on the table and laid her head on them, looking at Jami." "Alyssa?" said Jami. Alyssa set the CD down and looked at Jami. "I'm not who you think I am. I'm not who I thought I was. There are people who will be very unhappy to find out that I'm alive. They may try to change that. And I don't mean the happiness part."

"I think you'd like I am a Cat, Jami."

"Is this stuff you've known for a while?" said Alyssa.

"Not until recently. Not for sure until yesterday. I would have told you."

"Then we're okay," smiled Alyssa, "and I'm all ears."

When Jami finished talking, Alyssa was silent for a moment, then said, "Wow. So you two need to be scarce, like instantly. What's the plan?"

"I don't know. I guess we should go talk with the others."

They returned to the living room and talked far into the night.

"Okay, short term we have to get Jami and Emiko out of here, until we see what happens."

"And how are we going to tell? We just wait until something bad happens?"

"Where Jami goes, I go," growled Carys. Tam nodded.

"Do you want me, Emi?" whispered Rachel.

"Want you, need you, love you!"

"We're all going, right?" said Crystal. "There's just no way we're not going to face this together. I could never live with myself."

Alyssa looked around the room. "It's clear that running is the thing to do, so I say run. I also say fight. Let's take this show on the road, and spread the word. Alert the queer nation. Talk about it, sing about it. Put it all in a blog, Jami. Update it on the road."

Jami nodded. "Silence is death. I'm not going to spend my life living in fear, imposing that on the people I care about."

Carys slammed a fist into her palm. "Okay, we hit the road. We find these people. We stop this, one way or another."

To be continued...