Starseed by Liz Gruder Page B

sensed that they did not want her to talk.
    “Let’s keep our pact,” Kaila said. “And you have my promise I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”
    “Thanks,” Melissa said, looking at Kaila gratefully with her lazy eye.
    “One thing,” Pia said. “Your mom and grandma might be on to something. The aliens seem real interested in you. If I were you, I’d keep wearing that stuff on your head.”
    Melissa added, “You never know who you can trust.” She blew on her bangs falling in her face. “And, um, do you think you could get some of that black stuff for our heads?”
    “Um.” Kaila considered. Her mother kept the Velostat hidden and only brought it out when she needed to cut fresh sheets. “I’ll see what I can do.”
    “Just a little bit is all we need . . . for night time,” Pia said. “That’s when they come for us.”

    Kaila sensed that the weekend would get stranger. Her mother, Lee, was teaching a yoga class in the parlor, a room that once housed a huge dining table covered with china and silver. Now the room was bare with mirrored walls and a wood floor, the crystal chandelier the only hint of the room’s former elegance.
    Seven people did downward dog on mats with Lee leading the class in front. Her mother wore a blue baseball cap with a navy scarf tied over it to keep it fixed to her head. Dreamy New Age sitar music lulled in the background.
    “Draw your navel in toward your spine. Breathe,” Lee instructed. “Reach up to heaven, inhale and forward fold,” she said, bending over, touching her mat. The class followed suit.
    Kaila looked at her dogs Lucy and Woofy, and put her finger to her lips. She quietly unrolled her sticky mat at the rear of the class. The dogs sat obediently next to her, pink tongues out, pleased to accompany her. Kaila bent, barefooted in her jeans shorts, placing her palms to the mat, inhaling deep, conscious breaths. She wore a headband on her wig to keep it secure.
    Though she often rolled her eyes with her mother’s infatuation with yoga, she did the classes because they made her feel better. Something about stretching and the deep breathing made her calm. She pushed her palms forward on the mat until she looked like an inverted “V.” She closed her eyes, taking deep breaths, enjoying the sensation of being upside down.
    My whole world is upside down.
    Stop thinking, she ordered. She had to stay centered like her mother and Mrs. Bourg had said. Yes, Mrs. Bourg had said to stay centered and in the present and not worry, hadn’t she? When was that?
    As Kaila stood to begin a sun salutation, she was surprised to see Priscilla Snowden standing in the doorway. Priscilla’s long blonde hair was in a ponytail. She wore black yoga pants and a sky-blue yoga top. She smiled at Kaila, unfolded her turquoise mat, and began doing sun salutations, her body limber and pliant.
    This is surreal , Kaila thought. But she smiled back at Priscilla, pleased she had come. How did she know her mother taught yoga classes here at home?
    She observed Priscilla performing the yoga poses expertly and fluidly. Though Priscilla didn’t look at her and practiced with her eyes closed, Kaila could feel her like a glowing sun. She felt her warmth, steadiness, and tranquility.
    Kaila closed her eyes and continued the asanas, doing inversions, twists, and later, shoulder stand, all the while conscious of Priscilla. Her muscles relaxed and grew fluid, feeling like she floated in a warm bath.
    “Now it is time for Savasana,” Lee said. “Corpse pose and meditation. Please lay on your backs, palms up.”
    Everyone lay on their backs, their eyes closed. This was the real reason Kaila had come. She wanted to meditate, to clear her mind.
    There were many tricks: tell all thoughts to go, chase the wild horses out of the barn, imagine the space in between words in a sentence. It was something she practiced when her mind ran crazy with thoughts that made her feel bad.
    “Relax your cheeks,