148. Red Eye

It’s the last day of the month, and Burbank and I are ready to meet some aliens. I am a little apprehensive about the whole thing. I don’t know if they are hostile or not. We’ll have to play it by ear.

I woke up early because we’re getting a bus to Cork. We’re going to Blarney first because Burbank believes that we will be able to get to higher ground in Blarney than in Cork. I don’t know if this is accurate or if he is up to something, but I am far too docile a creature to argue with him.

After I’d finished washing up, I left my room, pulling the knob to shut the door. I found it a little greasy but didn’t think much of it until I joined Burbank and Lenore in the hotel restaurant for breakfast. They were already there drinking tea and coffee. I was wearing my green stripe number for the third day in the row, convinced that it had not started to get whiffy. I pulled on my hair the way I always do and scratched some crust out of my eye.

By the time I sat down, my eye was beginning to burn. I rubbed it, but that only made it worse. I knocked over a glass of water in my quest to blindly find a napkin. Tears streamed down my face.

“Don’t wipe your eyes,” Burbank said. “That’s how you get germs in your body. You’ve probably touched half a dozen germy things on your way down here. Elevator buttons, hand rails. Door knobs.”

I paused, remembering the slippery doorknob.

“Is that why you had to go to the store at midnight last night to buy jalapeño peppers?” Lenore asked.

I wanted to ask how the hell she knew what Burbank was up to in the middle of the night, but I was crying too much. I reached over the table violently and tried to shove my fingers in his eyes.