Chapter 1-1
2015 Words
The July sun beat down on them from a cloudless sky, its golden rays falling on a windmill with blades that turned slowly. Jack almost snorted as he watched it go. Ah, the classic t*****e of miniature golf. It was an Earth ritual that he was more than happy to introduce to his Leyrian friends.
Rajel was bent over in the shade from the windmill, gripping his putter tightly in both hands and frowning at the neon-green ball just a few inches in front of his shoes. He gave it a gentle tap.
The ball rolled up the ramp…and hit a blade.
“This is fun to you?” Rajel snapped.
Standing a short ways back with one hand on the end of his own putter, Jack smiled and shook his head. “It"s tradition,” he said. “You haven"t really had the Earth experience until you"ve played mini-golf.”
Cassi was sitting on a nearby bench in a blue sundress with white flowers on it, her putter laid across her lap. “No wonder your people are crazy,” she said. “Games like this would drive anyone up the wall.”
Rajel tapped the ball again.
This time it went gracefully up the ramp and through a tunnel at the base of the windmill just before a blade blocked its path. It came out on the other side, stopping right next to Jack"s orange ball, just a few paces from the hole.
“See?” Jack said. “It"s fun.”
“I"ll take your word for it.”
With a heavy sigh, Jack followed a cobblestone path to the green. “Just be glad we got a few days off,” he muttered. “Every b****y Friendship Day. "You"re the first Keeper from Earth, Jack! The children look up to you." I thought it was over when I moved to Leyria.”
But it wasn’t. Why would it be? Just last week, Larani had informed him that he would be expected to appear at the Global Friendship Day ceremony – in India, this year – and that he had better have a speech prepared. And perhaps it could be a tad less inflammatory than last year"s.
Oh, and Anna would be coming too! She was the woman who discovered Earth, after all. And why not bring Cassi along for good measure? They could do one last review of the Earth-based Keepers just to make absolutely sure that all of Slade"s cronies were finally gone. And then Melissa had insisted on visiting her family. So, why not just bring the whole team?
He took his place next to his ball, putter in hand, and gave it a tap with just enough force to make it roll right into the hole with a nice plunk. Two strokes. Not bad for a guy who was out of practice.
plunk.Rajel took position next to his ball and tapped it gently. Of course, it made a beeline for the hole and dropped in to land on top of Jack"s ball and the one that Cassi had put in with just one stroke.
The other man paced over and sank to one knee, retrieving all three of them. Bright sunlight glinted off the purple lenses of Rajel"s sunglasses, but though he used them to cover eyes that did not see, you would never know it from the way he golfed…or fought. Or just about anything. “This game irritates me.”
“Oh?”
“Once we have a direct path to the hole,” Rajel began, “each of us can sink the ball in only one swing. Because how could we do otherwise? Spatial awareness makes it all but second nature to us. But these traps…”
Jack shrugged.
A moment later, Cassi joined them, taking her hot-pink ball from Rajel. She tossed it up and caught it in one deft hand. “I believe the traps are the point.”
Jack led them to their next challenge – a straight line of AstroTurf where the only thing that stood between you and the hole was a mechanical crocodile that opened and closed its mouth every few seconds. Seeing it almost made him laugh.
Rajel came stomping over with a petulant sigh, grimacing as he shouldered Jack out of the way. “Let me try first,” he said. “I want my turn over with.”
He dropped his ball and hit it too hard.
The damn thing rolled so fast you almost expected to see a trail of burnt turf in its wake, but even with all that speed, Rajel"s timing was off. The crocodile snapped his jaw shut, the ball bounced off his snout.
“Gods forsake me!” Rajel growled. “I hate this game!”
“Excellent!” Jack said. “Now, you"ve had the complete Earth experience.”
“Now,Cassi put herself right in front of Rajel and looked up to glare death into his eyes. “The problem is not the game,” she said. “The problem is that your mind is clouded with frustration and pent up anger.”
Rajel went red and turned his face away from her. A shiver went through him as he let out a breath. “Yes,” he said. “You"re right.”
“You wanna talk about it, bro?” Jack offered.
“Not really.”
Pressing his lips together, Jack looked up toward the sky and blinked. “He doesn"t want to talk about it,” he muttered under his breath. “Well, here"s the thing, dude. You"ve been extra grumpy since we got back from Antaur; so, I"m thinking it"s share time.”
Rajel shuffled over to the weeds and crouched down with his back turned. “It"s not the sort of thing a grown man should fret about.” He retrieved the ball with a grunt and then stood up straight. “Bruised feelings.”
“Adults can"t have bruised feelings?”
“They can,” Rajel said with some reluctance. “But in general, they deal with those feelings better than I have.”
“You"ll get no argument from me,” Cassi grumbled.
Jack shot a glance in her direction, narrowed his eyes and then shook his head. “It"s been my experience,” he began, “that even the most calm and collected person sometimes loses his cool. So, what"s up?”
With extreme reluctance, Rajel turned around and shambled back toward them with his head down. “Keli,” he said. “I…seem to have developed feelings for her. Feelings that she can"t return.”
“Well…” Jack replied. “I gotta say I"m impressed.”
“You"re impressed?”
“Yeah, it takes a special brand of courage to go barking up that tree.” Jack blushed as soon as the words were out of his mouth – not the most sensitive response he could have offered; Summer was quite annoyed – but he put his chagrin aside to focus on the issue. “She"s asexual, isn"t she?”
“You could tell?”
“I had a suspicion.”
A grunt from Rajel confirmed those suspicions.
Jack reached out to lay a hand on the other man"s shoulder, and that seemed to ease some of Rajel"s tension. “It"s okay, dude,” he said. “I won"t give you the "plenty of fish in the sea" speech – "cause no one actually likes hearing that when they"re hurting – but until you do find that special someone, you can always count on us. We got your back.”
do“You have my back?” Rajel asked. “What exactly do you intend to do with it?”
“It"s an Earth expression,” he said. “The point is you can count on me. And on Cass. And on Anna…”
“Where is Anna today?” Cassi inquired.
is“You wouldn"t believe me if I told you.”
Blinds on Crystal Hunter"s kitchen window segmented the sunlight into thin bands, but despite that, the place was still bright and cheerful. It was a simple room with wooden cupboards and an old fridge decorated with dozens of colourful magnets, all shaped like Earth letters.
Anna was on her knees in front of the pantry, loading up its lower shelves with cans that Crystal had purchased at the supermarket. Paying for food. She had spent the better part of a year on this planet, and that was still a foreign concept to her.
stillAnna wore jean shorts and a thin, white tank-top, her strawberry-blonde hair done up in a nubby little ponytail. “There,” she said, setting the last can in place. “That should be all of it.”
Jack"s mother was only a silhouette in her mind – an image painted by the spatial awareness that every Keeper gained after Bonding a Nassai – but the other woman was close enough for Anna to make out the smile on her face. “You know, you didn"t have to do this,” Crystal said. “You could have spent the afternoon with your friends.”
could“Nonsense,” Anna replied. “I wanted to spend some time with you.”
She stood up and turned around, wiping her damp bangs off her forehead. It was warm in Crystal"s little apartment, and she had worked up quite a sweat carrying those groceries up from the car. “I thought, maybe we should get to know each other.”
“Well, it"s appreciated.”
Crystal sat in a wooden chair with one leg crossed over the other, drumming her fingers on the kitchen table. Her soft laughter was almost musical. A short woman with golden hair that fell in waves to her shoulders, she looked nothing like her son. Well, at least, not in terms of colouring. Jack had his mother"s cheekbones. “But sweetheart,” Crystal went on. “You don"t have to impress me.”
“Was I that obvious?”
Crystal stood up in one graceful motion and flowed across the tiles on bare feet. “A little.” Gently, she took Anna by the shoulders. “But it"s appreciated nonetheless. I"m glad you and Jack got together. I"ve been wishing you would for, like, years now.”
yearsClosing her eyes, Anna felt a blush singeing her cheeks. She took a deep breath. “I guess we"re both a little dense,” she mumbled. “But it means a lot to me to hear you say that.”
“Love"s hard sometimes.”
“Yeah.”
It felt so nice when Crystal pulled her into a tender hug. Anna found herself leaning her cheek on the other woman"s shoulder. She could not remember the last time she had been this close with her own mother. “As far as I"m concerned,” Crystal whispered. “You are part of the family.”
“Thank you.”
Sometimes family sucked.
Claire sat at a picnic table in her uncle"s backyard, holding a piece of corn on the cob in both hands. Her mouth was open, but she paused halfway through the act of taking a bite. Her eyes flicked to each of her cousins. “What?”
There were three of them on the opposite bench – all pale; these were kids from her mother"s side of the family – and they all stared at her as if she had grown horns on the top of her head. Logan was the oldest, a young man of fourteen with a mop of blonde hair and a nose too big for his face. “Is it true?”
“Is what true?”
His younger sister, Lisa, was closer to Claire"s age. A pretty girl with long, golden hair and freckles on her pale cheeks, she leaned in close over the table. “What they said about Melissa,” she whispered. “Does she really have an alien living in her body?”
- Writer
