“Hey, wait. I’m supposed to walk you to the front door,” Landon said, pulling back a little.
“Maybe I’m taking you to meet the . . .” Leila stopped, searching. “Meet the parents.” She shook her head, it still felt weird, but not as weird as it’d been. “Jon and Liz. I told Jon about you. Maybe if they see you I won’t be in five-missed-calls-trouble, and will only be in late-because-you-met-a-nice-boy-that-wants-to-save-the-Earth trouble.”
She was walking up the small front steps on the stoop that led into the old brownstone when Landon stopped walking.
“Landon, what—”
She turned around, and now, standing on the step, she was almost looking at Landon face-to-face. He smiled, lowering his head a little, and looked up at her with his deep-brown eyes. He bit his lip before he spoke.
“It’s nice to see you,” he grinned. “You know, up here.”
“Shut up,” Leila laughed, pushing him a little.
And then his arm reached out, and his hand found the back of her neck, his fingers slipping through her thick, black curls. She gasped, fighting the urge to stiffen up, to push away, and he quickly let go and stepped back.
“I’m . . . I’m sorry,” Landon said, his eyes wide. “I just thought, you know, the moment felt right, and—”
Leila jumped off the stoop and grabbed Landon’s jacket, pulling him back towards the stairs.
“Wha—” he started, as Leila stepped back up on the step. Now face-to-face again, she pulled him towards her, tugging on the thick leather of his jacket. Her mouth found his, and he kissed her back, his hand finding its way to her neck again, his fingers inching their way up through her hair.
Landon gasped, pulling away from the kiss, and stumbled back once more.
“What?” Leila asked, stepping off the stoop. “It’s okay, I’m sorry, I—”
Landon held up his hand, his eyes wide.
In the fading dusk, Leila saw a large patch of hair in his hands.
Black, wild, full of curls.
Leila moved her hand up along the back of her head. Where she normally had hair, she now felt a missing patch, the hair gone and her skin smooth. A few odd splotches of hair remained, like someone had shaved her head with a dull blade. She ran her fingers toward the top of her head, and when she pulled away, a hefty part of her hair came with it.
“Leila?” Landon ventured, taking a step forward.
She screamed, the hair tumbling from her hands, as Landon reached the stairs. The lights in her home lit up and the front door quickly swung back.
“Wh-what’s happening to me?” Leila screamed, looking at Landon frantically. Landon looked up, his eyes connecting with someone in back of her, and before she could turn to see who it was, Jon bounded down the stairs.
“Get off of her!” Jon shouted, shoving Landon, who stumbled and fell back on the sidewalk leading to the house.
“Jon! No!” Leila shouted, her sobs still stuck in her throat.
“Leila, get inside!” Lisabeth’s voice exclaimed. Her hands appeared suddenly on Leila’s shoulders, tugging her inside the home.
Landon got to his feet and held out his hand, his palms up. He stepped back, clearly trying to calm Jon down. Leila could see the thin, white scars on his palms, the puffy lines along his forearms, as his jacket shifted up.
“Who are you? What did you do to my daughter?” Jon shouted, taking another step toward Landon.
“Liz, let me go! Jon!” Leila shouted, wrestling free from Lisabeth. “Jon, stop it!” She grabbed Jon’s arm, tugging back at him. “That’s Landon, that’s the guy I was talking about.”
Jon looked at Leila, and her heart felt like it was going to stop. Instead of fury in his eyes, instead of a red-faced, rage-filled man, she saw him full of . . . terror. He looked terrified. His eyes glassed over and his mouth quivered as though he were about to cry. He softened, and threw his arms around Leila, hugging her in tightly, his face burying itself against her neck.
“Jon, careful, I—” Leila started.
“I’m sorry, oh God, I’m sorry, I was so worried, you hadn’t called us back today, and I . . .” he drifted off and looked up at Landon. “Oh, oh my, I don’t even know what to say right now. I’m so embarrassed. Can I hug you, too? Is that weird?”
Landon looked over at Leila, and she urged him on with a look, nodding her head towards Jon. Landon made a face and walked over towards them, and Jon awkwardly hugged the two of them at once.
Landon stepped away.
“It’s okay, I’m fine,” Landon said, nodding at Jon. He walked back to Leila. “Are you okay?”
“What happened?” Liz asked, stepping down the front steps.
“Yes, why the screaming?” Jon pressed, moving closer to them. Leila gently pushed away from Landon, her breath quick, her heart pounding.
“I . . . I don’t know what’s happening,” Leila said, the rush of the confrontation fading into the back of her mind, replaced with the fact that her hair had just fallen out in Landon’s hands. “One moment we were,” she looked up at Landon, who promptly stared down at his feet. “It just fell out.” She looked up at Jon, who stared at her with worry. “Oh, God.”
She reached up and wiped long strands of hair off of Jon’s face, her curls stuck on his cheek and chin and neck from hugging her.
“Come on, let’s get inside,” Jon, hugging Leila from the side. “Whatever it is, it’ll be okay. It’ll be—”
Jon’s eyes went wide.
Leila felt it.
The odd feeling of movement on top of her head, of something not quite being rooted the way it was supposed to, like a loose tooth coming undone or an old fingernail falling off. Of something there, and then suddenly completely gone.
With a terrible, heart-wrenching, slick sound, Leila felt the curls slide off the top of her head and fall in a pile around her feet. She took a step back and lifted a hand to her head, running her palm over the smooth surface. Bits of hair still clung here and there, but for the most part, it was utterly gone.
Leila looked up at Jon, her heart racing, panic surging through her.
“D-Dad?” she muttered. She lost her footing, feeling woozy, and Jon quickly grabbed her and held her up.
“Liz!” Jon shouted, the sound of a sob in the back of his throat forced down as he yelled.
“Hospital! Now!” Liz yelled.
“Come on, my keys are still in the truck,” Landon said. “Plus, I’ve got some emergency lights for the roof.”
Leila felt Jon rushing her forward, and she clumsily pressed her feet against the ground, trying to walk. Lisabeth came up behind them and wrapped an arm around her waist. Jon placed her in the passenger seat of Landon’s truck and closed the door behind her.
“No, don’t, Dad, don’t leave,” Leila said, watching Jon move away from the window. Jon bolted back to her, and reached in, grabbing her hands.
“We’ll be right behind you. Right behind you,” Jon said, his eyes hard and focused. Intense. He looked to Landon. “Drive safe, that’s my daughter you’ve got in there.”
He let go of Leila’s hand, and she leaned back in the car seat and closed her eyes.
She wondered if this was how the trees felt.
XXIV
“Honestly, we’ll have to do a few more tests,” the nurse said, standing at the side of Leila’s hospital bed with a clipboard in her hand. She looked a lot like the veterinarian, Dr. Saft, only with lighter hair and wrinkles along the edges of her eyes, like someone who spent a lot of time wincing at things and hearing bad news. “But we’re having a hard time finding anything really wrong that would have led to the hair loss.”
“Kids don’t just lose a full head of hair when they are perfectly healthy,” Lisabeth said, sitting in a teal, cushioned chair next to the bed. Jon stood next to her, his arms crossed, leaning against the wall. Leila turned to Liz and noticed her red eyes and tired face. She’d clearly been there all night. “It has to be something.”