Present Day

"I'm worried, Alice," Mother says as I prepare to go to the Surface.

I want to say I'm not, but she’d know I'm lying. I hug her instead, my arms wrapping around her thin body, still encased in her nun's habit after all these years.

"I'll do what I can to keep us safe," I say, and that is the truth.

She breaks away and looks up at me. "I'll pray for your safe return," she says.

I wrap a scarf around my neck and pull on a jacket. I'll save my hat for later. I give her one last look before heading out, hoping it's not the last time I see her.

*****

"This is a mistake," Blind Betty says to me as I step out of my room.

I sigh. I was hoping I could leave without her telling me "I told you so" – again.

She says, "Tell me you're at least going to kill the cop."

"Yes, and I'm sure all of the other cops in the city won't come looking for us."

"Keep the Home safe. That's our #1 rule."

I clench my fists. Who is she to quote our rules to me? I've been living here all of my life, and she's been here only a couple of years.

I relax. That's her real talent, goading people into fights. I say, "I don't regret saving that little girl, even if she was a Surfacer."

If Betty had eyes, I know she would roll them.

*****

I leave Home and make my way through old subway tunnels long forgotten by the Surfacers. After I saved the girl, their police tried looking for me but stopped after a few days. 

But not the policewoman. Day after day, week after week, she kept asking about me and wandering through our tunnels. If I had killed the girl, I could understand why she was so persistent, but I hadn't. What drove her to keep looking long after the other police had stopped?

*****

A Scout – Surfacers call them homeless – guides me to where she lives, an apartment building. Scouts who lived in them told us most people who lived there were strangers.

I pity Surfacers sometimes.

He leads me to an underground garage and I find a place to wait. There are plenty of lights, but they don't eliminate all of the shadows. We’ve learned to hide in them very well.

*****

I don't know how long I wait, but it's a while. I expect police work keeps her busy.

Her car pulls up and she gets out, looking tired. She is black, and all of her clothes are black too. I hear Surfacers tend to wear that when someone has died.

Who was it? Was it a friend? Another police officer?

I follow her, looking for the right moment to reveal myself. I have to do it slowly and far ahead of her so she doesn't get scared and shoot me.

She stops, and her head drops.

"I buried a friend today, so I'm not really in the mood for this. Can we do it tomorrow?" she says.

I look around. Who is she talking to?

She opens her coat and pulls out her gun. "If what I'm holding now isn't enough reason for you to back off, then maybe this will."

She holds up her badge. "Is that enough? Or does that turn you on, knowing your target is a cop?"

She's turning in my direction, but still not looking at me. No one can see me unless I want them to.

"You really want to do this? Do you REALLY want to do this?" she says, now looking right at me.

She can't see me.

She CAN'T.

“Want to come out?”

I sigh and step out slowly, my hands raised.

"Who sent you?"

"No one."

"So you just decided to follow me for no good reason?"

"No, you were looking for me."

"I'm looking for a lot of people. You're going to have to be more specific."

"I'm… the Angel of the Subway."

"Prove it."

"The girl's name was Gabrielle. She had red hair and green eyes. She was wearing a pointy black hat."

"Anyone looking on the internet could find that out in five minutes. You're going to have to do better."

I try to think of something else to say, but all I can see is Betty’s smirking face. 

"I'll make it simple for you. She said you looked… different. Show me your face."

Betty was right. This was a bad idea. Damn it.

"Let me make it even simpler. Show me now, between us girls, or I can drag you down to the station and do it there."

Yes, this was definitely a bad idea.

I grasp the hood of my sweatshirt.

Is it worth saving that little girl?

I pull the hood back.

She stares at me, an odd expression on her face. Then she hugs me.

I don't know what to do.

She pulls back, and I can see her eyes are leaking.

"I guess you need an explanation for that?" she says.

 She puts away her gun and starts rummaging through her purse. She pulls something out and hands it to me.

A picture.

It is old, faded, and creased.

A tired-looking black woman holds two babies. One is normal. The other…

The other… has…

A mixed-up face.

Just like me.

I look up.

She says, "Hello, sis."

My legs give out.

She sits down next to me and says, "All my life, I felt… disconnected. Like there was some part of me was out there. I've been in dozens of relationships, but none of them had what I was looking for. Then about five years ago, Mom died–"

"She's dead?"

"Yeah. Sorry."

I feel a lump form in my throat.

"What… what was… she like?" I force past the lump.

"She was… complicated. She loved me, but… she kept going on about how demons and monsters were real."

"So… she… she…"

The lump grows too big, and my eyes get wet.

*****

As my eyes stop leaking, I say, "It's all right. She may have thrown me away, but I was found by a mother who loves me."

"I'm glad for you, sis, I really am. I've got something else for you."

She digs into her purse again, pulls out another folded piece of paper, and hands it to me.

I take it and open it. It says BIRTH CERTIFICATE at the top.

My name is Eve Adamson and I was born at 7:56 AM on December 25th.

That's tomorrow.

Present Day.

"One last thing."

She hands me an envelope with "EVE" written on it.

I open it.

Inside is a card which reads HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

The lump in my throat reappears and my eyes start leaking again.

****"

As my eyes finish leaking, a question pops into my head. "What do you want?"

"Right now, nothing. I just got myself the best birthday present ever. I don't want or need anything else."

I frown. "You said 'right now'. What about later?"

"Don't get me wrong, I'd love for you to come up here. But you've been living… wherever you do… for probably most of your life. I don't think you'd be willing to give that up after a single conversation with me."

"So what do you want?"

"I want to see you again. I want to know you're okay. How about once a month? How does that sound?"

*****

I make it Home just before dawn, and Mother is one of the first to greet me.

"How did it go?"

Never lie to Mother.

That is one of the most important rules, second only to keeping Home safe. Not only because it's wrong, but also because she’ll know.

"I want to go to bed," I say, and it's the truth.

As long as I don't answer the question directly, I'm not lying to her. But she's smart enough to know when someone doesn't want to do that.

*****

I make my way to the room I share with five Others. I take off my boots and jacket and roll into bed, turning away from my roommates, and pull out the items the policewoman – my sister – gave me.

Present Day means something else to me now.