Page 69

James hands baby Henry back to Annie and walks away quickly, abandoning them in the park all alone just as it’s getting dark.

Chapter 12

Mariah

I’m grateful Ellie let me break her Christmas movie diet. Feeling her squirm next to me as Ripley runs from face-sucking aliens is comedic gold. I don’t even flinch as the story progresses since I’ve seen it close to twenty times, but somehow Ellie’s lived under a rock and this is her first experience with the iconic classic.

“What do you like about this again?” Ellie asks, tucking closer to me.

I let her snuggle up, enjoying her warmth. “It came out in the seventies, but look at these practical effects! They’re so subtle, so realistic. Like the way the egg moved—did you notice that?”

She wriggles in closer. “Yup. Sure did.”

“And then when the face hugger shot out of the egg and onto that guy’s helmet, it was blasted with high-pressure air hoses, and they used clams and mussels to make the inside of it look real and fleshy.”

“Yuck.”

“Yeah! And the part where the alien bursts out of his chest?”

She covers her eyes. “Don’t remind me.”

“They used real animal organs in the dummy body and the cast had no idea what was going to happen, so when it burst out and it was so gory and repulsive, they were completely surprised, and their reactions are genuine. It was awesome.”

“I would have shit my pants.”

I snort a laugh.

“Clean up on aisle two,” she adds.

I laugh even harder.

“Was the alien itself CGI?”

I shake my head. “CGI wasn’t a thing back then. That was an actor in a suit.”

“No way,” she scoffs, slapping me in the tit with the back of her hand. “Oops, sorry.”

I barely notice, going on. “The actor was over seven feet tall. The suit was designed by this Swedish artist named H.R. Giger. I actually have a book of his artwork at my apartment. He’s the creepiest motherfucker. The shit he comes up with are the things of horror—”

“Obviously.” Ellie gestures at the screen as Ripley comes face-to-face with the alien’s inner jaws. She clenches her whole body. “How’d they get it so... slimy?”

“Lube.”

“What! No way.”

“I’m totally serious. They bought it in gallons.”

“I had no idea you could buy lube by the gallon. Maybe we should run to Costco and go in on one together. Lifetime supply, yo!”

She grins at me, and I smile back.

“Knowing how they made it actually makes it less scary,” she tells me.

“Hope I didn’t ruin the magic.”

She shakes her head. “If anything, it’s more magical this way. I can see why you think it’s so amazing.”

My chest warms, glad I’ve opened her mind to the genre. “Itisamazing. This movie changed my life. My aunt showed it to me for the first time when I was nine—”