With a friend like her...
Maureen blew back into town this morning, just as I was getting antsy about what to do with Telly. She saw him stirring in the living room and made a crack about it being unlike me to make a strange man sleep on the couch. First, I said, I can tell you for a fact that other women like that attitude in a girl even less than men do. Second, that's apparently Michelle's brother.

"You have a family? Like, a biological family?"

"Everyone does, right? Michelle's was evidently just better-hidden than most." That and I probably hadn't looked as hard as I could, because if I found them, what would I say?

At that point, Telly shuffles over and extends his hand to Maureen. "You must be my big sister's roommate. She making sure you're on board with the brain-switching story?"

"It's not brain switching, it's molecule-scale machines transferring information between brains!"

"And it's not just a story," Maureen adds. "It's true. The scandal drove the company we worked for out of business, and then there was the whole Carter thing... We're really sorry about Michelle, but Marti's not her."

But, I said, if you go down to the Boston FBI office, ask for Agent Khalil Jones, I'm sure he'd really appreciate all the information on Michelle that her brother could give them. They'd have to work through Interpol, and that's been slow going, but if Michelle is running around Eastern Europe somewhere, then knowing her likes and dislikes could be huge for them. And, I didn't add, it gives you something to do all day to keep you out of our hair.

"Now you're just being silly."

An inarticulate "nnnnnnnngggh" sound came out of my mouth while Maureen did a pretty horrible job holding back laughter. You think he's so cute, I say, you can make sure he doesn't wreck the apartment; I've got to get to work.

"But I've got to head for work in an hour, too! Besides, he's your brother!"

"That's what I keep saying!"

"You are so not helping, Mo."

She apologizes to me without losing the grin, then turns to Telly and says that he seems nice enough, but with all the crazy stuff that's happened to us this year, we're kind of wary about giving some strange man the run of the place. Heck, with all the mind-swapping that's gone on, we worry about giving close personal friends the run of the place. He says that's okay, he'll check out the city today and see if anyone he knows is home, and maybe see if he can crash with one of them. He says it in the sort of completely understanding voice that makes me doubt his sincerity.

And it doesn't look like there's anything to keep me here late and thus make Maureen deal with him. Rats.

-Martina
- posted 5:00 PM - - (archive use only)