Chapter Twenty-One: Caryn
In the dark, the streets are still busy with groups of people rushing here and there like waves of streaming lights. They are not very talkative, too many are using their handhelds, and it is mostly the sound of their feet on the streets that fills the night air. No one gives us more than a brief glance at our fancy clothes; we are part of the evening rush. The light from business signs and advertisements casts our shadows around us, like fingers from a hand. I can see the lights from our hotel down the street when I hear coughing from a crumpled form against a dark building. A streetlight on the other side reflects off of red hair and I walk over to get a closer look.
“Tommy?” I ask and the form moves.
Tommy looks up at me with his pale face and continues to cough.
“Why aren’t you at Doc’s?” I ask, as I bend down to help him sit up.
“I went out to get some food,” Tommy says, between coughs. “In case my boy woke up.”
“You’re sick, Tommy. You need to stay at Doc’s house so you will get better.” I place my arms around his chest and help him rise to his feet. He leans on my arms and his knees seem to refuse to straighten completely, so I half carry him several steps before I feel a hand on my shoulder. Kai stands behind me and motions for me to move to the side. He picks Tommy up and we both walk to Doc’s house.
This time I could almost find the way without Kai and when we reach the turn for Doc’s house I lead the way. Mrs. Hubbard opens the door for us and Kai places Tommy in a bed next to Tommy Jr. Tommy continues to cough and I help Mrs. Hubbard cover him with a blanket. She promises to keep a closer eye on him, but with how his coughing sounds I doubt he will be getting up for a while.
As we are leaving Kai suggests a night swim and I am happy for the distraction. Kai and I head back to the hotel to change out of our fancy clothes and I have a hard time shutting down my mind after all that has happened today. It races over all I have seen and I try to connect the pieces, but it is like trying to jog on a tread mill and put a jigsaw puzzle together at the same time. There are so many pieces that I know would fit together if I had the time to look at all of them. But time is running out. The mayor will want an answer tomorrow and Foreman made me promise to come back. I see Tommy’s face and wonder how anyone would let him die. Then I think of the old man who wanted his mother and how the mayor didn’t want him to feel that kind of pain for hundreds of years. I don’t know what to do.
I toss my itinerary on the dresser top and stare at my reflection in the mirror. I gape back with wide blue eyes, a small nose and chapped lips. My fingers brush over my bottom lip feeling the rough ridges and sharp peaks. A hotel woman brushed my lips with some color before leaving this afternoon, but after eating the color has faded away. I lick my lips and can taste the water from the lake on them. Not a particularly romantic taste.
I sigh, change out of the dress and pull on my white one-piece. Despite the hotel’s thorough cleaning service it doesn’t seem as bright white as it did my first day. It looks more like a cream and there is a small dark spot in the hem near my ankle.
This time Kai takes me to a different spot of the lake.
“There won’t be any eels in this area,” Kai says, as he pulls off his worn shoes. “They like the quiet areas. This place is really busy during the day with kids playing around and fishermen in small fishing boats.”
“Where is everyone then?” I ask.
Kai looks back at me with a small laugh. “The lake shore is supposed to be closed once the first sun starts to set.”
“So this is illegal?” I feel required to ask.
“Yup,” Kai says and he places his shoes farther up on the bank and walks in a straight line into the water.
“Is it more dangerous after dark?” I practically yell at his back so he will hear me before diving under the water.
“No,” Kai says and then he disappears under the incoming current ripples.
I place my shoes next to his and rush to catch up. The surface of the lake reflects the sparkling lights from the city and I enjoy the colors as I take my time catching up to Kai.
After I beat Kai three times in a row we swim back to the dock and our shoes.
“I almost had you that last time,” Kai says, as he waits for me to climb out first.
“I think you might be improving,” I say. A puddle forms around my feet with each step I take.
“Might?” Kai asks. “How far did we go? Three, four miles and I kept up with you the whole time.”
I sit down on the dock and pull my hair from around my neck.
“Wait,” Kai says and he plops down next to me. “Were you holding back?”
I look down and ring out the water in my pant legs, a small smile fleeting across my lips.
“Man,” Kai says. He flicks the water off his hands and then lies down on the dock.
“You are doing very well,” I say, hoping it would help.
Kai half snorts, half laughs and drums his fingers on the wood. “Well, I was distracted.”
“I thought you were used to swimming with the poisonous creatures in this lake,” I say, as we sit on the dock with our feet hanging over the edge even though the water is too low to touch.
“I am,” Kai says, as he leans back on his elbows. The bruise under his left eye deepens the shadows on that side of his face, making him look younger and more vulnerable. “I was mostly concerned for you.”
“Right,” I say. I raise one eyebrow as I look at him.
“I was,” Kai says and I can see him look at me from the corner of his eye with his lips pressed tightly together to keep from smiling. “You were the one who made a big deal out of all the dangerous stuff in this lake.”
I look back at the water.
“Did you know I was stung by an anemone once?”
My head whips over to him. “No. What happened?”
“I was swimming near the bottom exploring and I saw this huge jigger swim by.” Kai turns to face me. “Now you know that jiggers aren’t really dangerous, I mean, they have teeth and can bite, but they’re pretty mild unless you corner them or don’t move through their territory fast enough. This one jigger had to have been seven or eight feet long. So, I back up to this rock formation with this nice vegetation to hide in and then I feel a sharp jolt in my left leg. I look down and the nice vegetation is actually a bed of anemones. I swim out of there faster than I ever have in my whole life, but when I get to the dock I can’t climb out because I can’t bend my left leg high enough to swing onto the dock and my right is holding all my weight. I end up spending the night and half of the next day in the water waiting for the effects to wear off.”
“So the anemone only stung you, it didn’t have time to latch on?” I ask. Although it shouldn’t really matter. Any contact is dangerous.
“Nope, I moved out of there before that could happen.”
“You were lucky,” I say. “They normally latch on and inject the poison. Maybe there wasn’t time for the poison to enter your bloodstream.”
“You know a lot about this stuff,” Kai remarks, as he picks at a piece of wood sticking up from one of the dock’s planks.
“I had a class on it.” I shift my weight from one leg to the other.
“I’m glad I don’t have to go to school anymore,” Kai says and he tosses the piece of wood he freed into the water.
We sit in silence for a moment. I look around for something to help change the flow of conversation and I immediately forget when I look up at the stars.
“The stars seem much brighter out here,” I say.
“It’s because of all the lights in the city,” Kai says. “Lay down and you can see them better.”
I lay down next to him and the sky spreads out above me like a carpet unfurled.
“It’s beautiful,” I say.
“If you look over there just to the right of those four stars you can see the Earth’s Sun,” Kai says as he points to a formation of four stars.
r /> “Really?”
“No, we’re too far away. But if we could travel to those four stars and used a big telescope we might be able to then.”
I smile at myself. Of course Earth’s Sun would be too far away. Even with our advanced methods of travel it still takes three days to get there. Deltan is much closer and I try to locate the six-point star pattern that marks the suns near it.
“Do you think you would ever want to travel to Deltan?” Kai asks. It is almost as if he can read my thoughts. I glance over at him and see him staring up at the star pattern I am looking for.
“I used to when I was younger. It’s the most beautiful planet ever discovered.”
“They only allow special people to live there, but I’ll bet we could get permission to move--”
“Kai,” I say. “I’m going away--”
“I know,” Kai interrupts. “But you can’t stay away forever and, maybe one day, when you come back we could travel the universe.”
A fist squeezes around my heart and I want to tell him I won’t come back, but I can’t say the words. It is even harder because the thought of traveling to Deltan with Kai sounds wonderful and exciting. My desire to completely escape from this life rises and then is crushed. A small tear escapes out of the corner of my eye. I glance over at Kai to see if he is watching, and he is. I gulp in a large amount of air, but I don’t turn away. Then he reaches over with his hand and brushes away a strand of hair that started to dry on my cheek.
I find myself starting to lean toward him, but a fish splashes in the lake and he jerks looking to where the sound might have come from. I sigh and look back up at the stars. I feel Kai settle back and then he moves and I feel his hand wrap around my own. I adjust my arm and let my fingers curve closer to his skin. My skin feels warm against his.
“We don’t have to go to Deltan,” Kai says, his voice is soft and calm. “We could travel to Earth or explore the galaxy. There are some really nice moons.”
I laugh.
“If you don’t want to leave Beta Earth we could visit Space City or tour the farmlands and mines,” Kai continues.
“That could be nice,” I say.
“Could be.”
“I think I would still rather see the rest of the universe though,” I say.
I feel Kai nod his head and he says, “Me too.”
The stars twinkle and as I look up at them I feel completely happy.