The Secret Hour

10

12:00 A.M.

MIDNIGHTERS

"My eyes are what?"

"They're..." The girl took a step closer, peering into Jessica's eyes. Jessica raised a hand to her own face, and the girl flinched as if afraid of being touched, then looked up at the sky with a puzzled expression.

As her eyes met the moon, Jessica cried out. They flashed a deep indigo, just like the panther's.

Jessica took a step back from the three of them. Those reflecting eyes belonged to cats or raccoons, owls or foxes - things that hunted in the dark. Not people. The girl's eyes looked normal now, but after that momentary reflection, she seemed less human.

"Melissa's right," Dess said.

Rex quieted the other two with a wave of his hand. He took a step closer, peering into Jessica's eyes with a calm intensity.

"Jessica," he said quietly, "look up at the moon, please."

She did so for a few seconds but dropped her eyes back to Rex suspiciously.

"What color is it?" he asked.

"It's..." She looked up again, shrugged. "No color. And it gives me a headache."

"Her eyes are wrong," repeated the other girl, whom Dess had called Melissa.

Dess piped up. "Today she said the sun doesn't bother her. I told you she was totally daylight. No dark glasses or anything."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Jessica suddenly cried, surprising herself. She hadn't meant to shout, but the words had launched themselves out of her.

The startled looks on the others' faces were somehow satisfying.

"I mean - ," she sputtered. "What's going on? What are you talking about? And what are you doing in my dream?"

Rex stepped back and put up his hands. Dess giggled but half turned away as if embarrassed. Melissa cocked her head.

"Sorry," Rex said. "I should have told you: this isn't a dream."

"But - " Jessica started, but sighed, knowing suddenly that she believed him. The pain, the fear, the feel of her heart pumping in her chest had all been too real. This was not a dream. It was a relief not to pretend to herself anymore.

"What is it, then?"

"This is midnight."

"Say again?"

"Midnight," he repeated slowly. "It's 12 a.m. Since the world changed color, this has all happened in a single moment."

"A single moment..."

"Time stops for us at midnight."

Jessica peered through the car windshield at the frozen woman at the wheel. The look of concentration on her face, the hands tight on the wheel... She did look as if she were driving but trapped in a frozen instant.

Dess spoke up next, her voice without its usual nasty edge. "There aren't really twenty-four hours in the day, Jessica. There are twenty-five. But one of them is rolled up too tight to see. For most people it flashes by in an instant. But we can see it, live in it."

"And 'we' includes 'me'?" Jessica said quietly.

"When were you born?" Rex asked.

"Huh? You mean this is because I'm a Leo?"

"Not your birthday, what time of day?"

Jessica pondered the question, remembering how many times Mom and Dad had told this story.

"My mom went into labor in the afternoon, but I wasn't born until thirty-something hours later. Not until late the next night."

Rex nodded. "Midnight, to be exact."

"Midnight?"

"Sure. One out of every 43,200 people is born within one second of midnight," Dess said, smiling happily. "Of course, we're not exactly sure how close you have to get. And we're talking real midnight here."

"Yeah. My birth certificate says 1 a.m.," Melissa said glumly. "Lousy daylight savings time."

Rex looked up at the moon, his eyes catching its nonlight with that inhuman flicker. "In a lot of cultures people believe that those born at the stroke of midnight can see ghosts."

Jessica nodded. That actually sounded familiar. One of those pirate books she'd read for English last year - Kidnapped? or Treasure Island?  -  had been about that. Some kid was supposed to find treasure by seeing the ghosts of dead men buried with the gold.

"The real story is a bit more complicated," Rex continued.

"I'll say," Jessica said. "If that panther was a ghost, we seriously need new Halloween decorations."

"Midnighters don't see ghosts, Jessica," Rex continued. "What we see is a whole secret hour, the blue time, that zooms right past everyone else."

"Midnighters," Jessica repeated.

"That's the word for us. Midnight is ours alone. We can walk around while everything else in the whole world is frozen."

"Not everything," Jessica said.

"True," Rex admitted. "The darklings and slithers, and some other stuff, live in the blue time. For them the blue time is like normal daylight and vice versa. They can't get into the other twenty-four hours, like most humans can't get into the twenty-fifth."

"Only us midnighters get to live in both," Dess said happily.

"Yay," Jess said. "I'm thrilled."

"Come on, haven't you ever wished for an extra hour in the day?" Rex asked.

"Not an extra totally weird hour! Not an extra hour where everything tries to kill me! No, I don't think I ever wished for that."

"Wow, you are so daylight," Melissa said.

"I've got to admit, things have been bad for you," Rex said, using his Mr. Calm voice again. "But it's usually not like this. Normally the slithers only watch us, and darklings don't care much about us at all. They're like wild animals. They can be dangerous if you do something stupid, but they don't go out of their way to mess with humans. A midnighter being attacked for no reason is new to me."

"It's pretty much new to me too!" Jessica said. "And I didn't do anything stupid, all right? One of those... slithers led me out here on purpose. Then the big cat thing tried to kill me. Twice."

"Yeah, we should try to figure this out," Rex said mildly, as if Jessica had been assigned a locker at school that wouldn't open. She guessed that none of those darklings had ever come after him.

"I knew you were different," Melissa said, "even before psychokitty tried to eat you." She closed her eyes, tipping back her head as if smelling the wind. "There's something funny about the way you taste."

Melissa's face went blank, almost as lifeless as Beth or the woman driving the car. Jessica rolled her eyes. Melissa was calling her different?

"But right now we should get you home," Rex said, glancing up at the sky. "There's only about five minutes left."

Jessica started to speak, a million questions on her tongue. But she just sighed. Nothing was getting explained. Everything these people said confused her more.

"Fine." As she said the word, Jessica realized how good home sounded. The panther must still be around somewhere.

Rex and Melissa pushed their bikes, walking next to Jessica. Dess rode in slow circles around them, like a bored kid forced to travel too slowly.

"Tomorrow we'll have time to tell you more," Rex said. "Meet us at the Clovis Museum? Noon?"

"Um." Jessica thought about her plans to unpack tomorrow. To finally get her life under control. Of course, it didn't look as if it were going to be that simple anymore. "Yeah, sure. Where's that?"

"It's close to the main library. Just follow Division." Rex pointed toward downtown. "Meet us downstairs."

"Okay."

"And don't worry, Jessica. We'll figure out what happened tonight. We'll make sure you're safe here."

Jess looked into Rex's eyes, seeing the concern there. He seemed confident that he could figure out whatever had gone wrong. Or maybe he was just trying to make her feel better. It was strange. Even though nothing he said made sense, Rex managed to sound as if he knew what he was talking about. Here in the blue time he stood straighter and the thick glasses didn't hide his calm, serious eyes. The guy seemed like much less of a loser than he did in the daylight.

"So, you don't really need those glasses, do you? It's an act, like Clark Kent?"

"Afraid not. In daylight I'm blind as a bat. But here in the blue time I can see perfectly. Better than perfectly."

"That must be nice."

"Yeah. It's great. And I can see more than..." He paused. "We'll explain it all tomorrow."

"Okay."

Jessica looked at the three of them. Dess circling happily on her bike, Rex's eyes clear and confident, Melissa silent, but without her usual headphones and pained expression. They all seemed to actually like this midnight time.

Of course, why wouldn't they? It didn't seem like their lives were going so great during the "daylight" hours. Here there was no one to push them around or notice how weird they were. For this one hour a day the whole world was their private clubhouse.

And now she was in the club. Great.

They took Jessica right to her door. She realized that the light was slowly changing. The dark moon had almost set, now mostly hidden behind the houses across the street.

"So how are you guys getting home?" she asked.

"The usual way. During regular time," Rex said, mounting his bike and reaching into his shirt pocket. He pulled out his glasses.

Jessica looked around, her eyes searching for any sign of the panther. "And you're sure this blue thing is almost over?"

"Happens every night, as regular as sundown," Rex said.

Jessica realized that they must be miles from home. "What about the curfew? I mean, everyone's going to wake back up, right? What if the police see you?"

Melissa rolled her eyes. "We've been dealing with curfew for years. Don't worry about us."

"But we should get going," Rex said. "You'll be okay here, Jessica. And it'll all make more sense in the morning." He pedaled down the walk and into the street. "See you at noon."

Dess's bike rattled across the lawn. "See you in 43,200 seconds, Jess," she called as she passed. "And wear shoes next time!" She laughed and pedaled to catch up with Rex. Jessica looked down at her bare feet and had to smile.

Melissa stayed a moment longer, her eyes narrowing.

"You don't belong," she said softly, her voice almost a whisper. "That's why the darkling wanted to kill you."

Jessica opened her mouth, then shrugged.

"I didn't ask to be a midnighter," she said.

"Maybe you're not," Melissa said. "Not a real one, anyway. Something about you is so... 11:59. You don't belong."

She turned and rode away without waiting for an answer.

Jessica shuddered. "Great, the biggest weirdo in the weirdo club says I don't belong."

She turned and went into the house. Even in the strange light of the dark moon it seemed welcoming as it never had before. Just like home.

But Jessica sighed as she walked down the hall toward her room. Melissa's words were still with her. The darkling hadn't seemed like a wild animal to her - more like something that hated her with all its heart. The slither had led her into a trap because it wanted her dead.

"Maybe Melissa's right."

This blue time didn't feel like a place she was meant to be. The alien light pulsed from every corner of the house, haunting and wrong. Her eyes stung from an hour of it, as if she were about to cry.

"Maybe I don't belong here."

Jessica paused at Beth's door. Her white shape was still there, unmoving, sprawled on the bed in its anxious pose.

She went in and sat next to her sister, forcing herself to look, to wait for the end of midnight. She had to know that Beth wasn't dead. If Rex had been telling the truth, she was only stuck for a moment in time.

Jessica pulled the sheet up around her sister's neck and reached out to touch the motionless cheek, shuddering as her fingers met its cool surface.

The moment ended.

The boxes and corners faded back into darkness, no longer lit by their own light. Dim streetlights slanted in through the windows, making zigzag shadows on the cluttered floor. The world felt right again.

Beth's cheek grew warm, and a muscle in it flicked under Jessica's hand.

Her eyes opened gummily.

"Jessica? What are you doing in here?"

Jessica pulled her hand away, suddenly remembering that an awake Beth could be just as scary as a frozen one.

"Hey, I, um, wanted to say something."

"What? I'm asleep, Jessica."

"I just had to say that I'm sorry for avoiding you. I mean, I know it's tough here," Jessica said. "But... I'm on your side, okay?"

"Oh, Jessica," Beth said, twisting away and winding herself further into the tangle of sheets. Then she turned her head to stare accusingly. "Did Mom tell you to do this? That is so lame."

"No. Of course not. I just wanted - "

"To be Miss Mature. To show how you've got time for me even though you're Miss Popular here. Whatever. Thanks for the pep talk, Jess. Maybe some sleep now?"

Jessica started to reply but stopped herself and then had to stifle a smile instead. Beth was back to normal. She had defrosted from the blue time without any visible damage.

"Sleep tight," Jessica said, crossing to the door.

"Yeah, no bedbugs and all that." Beth rolled over grumpily, pulling the sheet over her head.

Jessica closed the door. As she stood all alone in the hall, her sister's last words rattled around in her head. "Don't let the bedbugs bite," she whispered.

She went to her own room and closed the door tightly, suddenly feeling as if the blue time hadn't really ended. The light was back to normal, and the sound of the constant Oklahoma wind had returned, but everything looked different to her now. The world Jessica had known - the world of night and day, of certainty and reason - had been completely erased.

In another twenty-four hours the blue time would come again. If Rex had been telling the truth, it would come every night.

Jessica Day lay down in her bed and pulled the covers up all the way to her nose. She tried to go to sleep, but with her eyes shut, Jess felt as if something else were in the room. She sat up and peered into every corner, making sure again and again that no unfamiliar shapes lurked there.

It was like being little again, when night was a time of peril, when things lived under the bed, things that wanted to eat her.

There were worse things than bedbugs, and they did bite.