I returned everything into the red purse and walked out of my house into the late morning sunshine. Sidney followed me holding the remote. I casually pointed to a small, white sports coupe parked across the street. It was a very sporty car, but was dinged in a couple of spots and looked as if the current owner didn't care for it. "That's like, Kelly's car or something. I drove it here from the place I woke up."
Sidney said, "Kelly had a Mitsubishi 3000GT? VERY nice, you hit the jackpot! We're taking that car."
"As if! That's not my car, and I don't like manual."
"What?! And drive that thing instead?" Sidney pointed to my sedan sitting in the driveway. "We ARE taking that car, even if I need to drive it."
I looked down at the little girl. "What-ever, fine."
I drove Kelly's car down the highway, watching the city give way to fields and farms, pastures and patches of forest. After about an hour Sidney instructed me to turn off the highway. She proceeded to give me directions through a maze of farm roads towards her house. Traffic was light to non-existent out here, and many of the roads were not even paved. As I was following one of the few cars I had seen out here, Sidney finally said, "We're here. My house is in those trees to the left." To my surprise, the white van in front of me turned into the long, dirt driveway towards the charred house.
Sidney called out, "Wait! Something's wrong. Keep going straight, don't follow that car!"
Looking down the driveway through the trees, I saw another white van already parked in front of the burnt building. Before the trees blocked my view again I had just enough time to see a man in a black suit standing next to it, holding one hand up to his ear as if listening to something.
I asked, "What was that?"
"I don't know. That definitely was not the police, though."
"Were those like, your 'friends' you talked about before?"
"NO. I told you my friends are good people."
"I'm so sure!"
"Those weren't my friends. Those people were..." she trailed off, looking very troubled. "It couldn't be."
"Well, somebody's totally looking through your pad."
"No, not yet," Sidney responded quietly. "That wasn't a retrieval team, they were just guarding the place for now."
"Who are they?! What are you like, trying to get me into?"
She continued speaking very softly. "My friends work for the government, for an intelligence gathering agency. They've been having trouble lately gathering good data, keeping up with all the problems in the world now. They figured what better way was there to find out what the enemy was up to than by becoming the enemy? They asked me to design my prototype device. Their superiors weren't supposed to know about our project; we didn't think they would support such an outrageous idea. Perhaps they found out and sent people here to investigate."
"What now? Think those guys will like, help me switch back?"
"No. These guys probably won't care about you or me." Her scared look turned into one of determination. "We need to get my notes back. I won't let them hijack my research. I need to be in control of it. I know a place where we can talk about this some more. Make a right here."
I made the right turn.
--------
Sidney directed me to a place called Logan's Corner. Logan's Corner couldn't be called a town. It was the intersection of two county roads, neither of them paved. On two corners of the intersection were well-kept houses. On the third was a run-down feed store. On the last corner was a two-story tavern with a sign reading "Logan's" above the door. Beyond this little cluster of buildings were fields as far as I could see. I parked on the dirt in front of the tavern.
Sidney said, "Let me do the talking. I know the owner, and I know we can plan what we're going to do here. This place also has great burgers."
It was then I realized how hungry I was. I hadn't eaten anything since waking up in Kelly's body. We walked into the tavern. It was a bit dark and decorated with several lighted beer signs. The only other person I saw in the place was a man snoring at one of the tables. Sidney walked up to the bar. "Ed! Are you back there?"
A man with a craggy face walked out from a backroom. His face broke into a wide smile. "Miss Claire! What brings you out here this time of day? Where's your Uncle? And who's... this?" He looked at me with some distaste, apparently not happy with my revealing outfit.
"Don't mind her, that's not her real body. Also, I'm not Claire. I'm Sidney."
My jaw dropped down as I heard her so quickly reveal what I thought was a secret. The man named Ed just laughed. "Sid! What are you doin' there? I thought you didn't like bringing Claire into your work?"
The girl told Ed the whole story. Both got teary-eyed through the part about Claire dying. She told about how I had saved her and then got trapped in the body of a teenaged girl. She finished with mentioning the strange men at her house.
"I'm real sorry about Claire. She was a dickens, but had a heart of gold. What are 'ya gonna do now?"
"I'm starting to put together a plan about how to get my research notes. I don't want to involve you in it, but I'd like to talk with my new friend here about it. Also, I'm hoping for a pair of your cheeseburgers."
"Sure, sure. On the house, of course."
Sidney and I sat down on a table and started talking while Ed went back to begin cooking. The whole time the sleeping man in the tavern continued to snore.