Icarus Rising Read online

  Part Two: Thoughts

  “Listen, we’ll be busy the rest of the day, Even though we aren’t doing exactly what we’re supposed to we still need to account for any food that Cicloic can eat. We can see you both tomorrow though. Same time?” And with that Rune and Canna left Adee with her bright smile and Daedalus’s continues dirty look. He may have been on their side but that doesn’t mean Rune liked him and from the looks of it, Canna didn’t like him either. “He’s what you call the rabbits when they get away, Rune.” She growled, sitting on her bed. There are some words she’s just not supposed to hear, thought Rune. I know what I call those damn bunnies and she shouldn’t be hearing that!

  One Rune finally got his sister to bed he rested on his own mattress. His brain was scrambled from his second meeting with his friend Adee and her partner. Every few moments he checked on his sister, making sure she was totally and utterly asleep. He didn’t mind if Canna caught him writing but the very few moment he wrote in his journal when she was awake he’d get bombarded with questions. I’ve got to bad of a headache for that, he thought.

  He grabbed a pencil but couldn’t find the strength to write a single word. His mother loved writing; she’d always tell him that writing was like a handful of sand. Every particle was a scene, a word, a sentence, a chapter. She once told him that sometimes she’d drop all of the sand at once and couldn’t find a way to write. Maybe that’s how Rune was feeling now. Maybe he just couldn’t pull out a single complete thought out of the giant piles of sand at his feet. He had to many questions, to many incomplete ideas to sort through. He tried to shove them away as he had to dozens of times before but he couldn’t this time. His mind was so scrambled that he couldn’t even properly think to sort them out.

  He couldn’t sleep like this, hell, he couldn’t even sit like this. He slammed the cover of the journal down and slid it across the floor in an act of frustration. Immediately regretting his act he stood up and went to retrieve it. Adee was the one who gave him the journal in the first place, she didn’t do anything wrong. What an ass, he thought, carefully setting it down on his cot. He shouldn’t’t take out his anger on Adee or hid journal for his own jumbled thoughts. He just wanted some damn answers.

  “That’s it.” He whispered under his breath and grabbed the bardiche beside his bed. Checking that Canna was dead asleep he headed outside and towards the mall. He had a very strange feeling that Daedalus knew way more than Rune – or maybe even Adee – knew. He was in Rune’s territory now and if he could get answers he was going to get them.

  ***

  Quietly as he could Rune made his way up towards the food court once more. From the looks of it that morning both Adee and Daedalus was camping out there, but still, he needed to keep his eye out for them anywhere else. Wait, Rune thought, what in the hell am I doing? Am I really going to go barging in there “demanding” answers to stupid questions that are just keeping me up tonight? What a fucking idiot. He needed to go in there with more than a stupid reason like that! “Think of something or go home moron!” he yelled to himself, “stop being so stupid.”

  “Rune?”

  “Shit!” Rune spun around, nearly running right into Adee. She jumped back, clamping her mouth to stop her yell of surprise, “What are you doing here?” she hissed, slapping him upside the head. Rune stepped backwards towards the door, holding his head to calm the pain, “I could ask the same thing for you!” She rolled her tired eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. Man, she looked mad. “I may be an alien but we all need to pee in the middle of the night! Now answer me!” To bad he didn’t have an answer. God, he was being so stupid, coming out here for no reason.

  Suddenly Adee’s angry expression softened. Her large bulging eyes turned solemn and sad. “Are you ok?” she whispered, clasping her hand on Rune’s shoulder, “You don’t look all too great, have you even slept?” He had never seen her like this before. Sure, she had always been kind but she hadn’t ever been so... human.

  “No I haven’t,” Rune admitted, “I don’t even know what I’m doing here.” Adee sighed and out of nowhere she reached forward and hugged him. Rune was stunned but after he finally got a hold of the situation he was able to hug her back. It seemed that when he did all of his garbled thoughts seemed to organize. “Sometimes I have no idea what goes on inside that little human brain of yours Rune, come inside, everyone is still awake.”

  Rune agreed and followed Adee the rest of the way to the food court. He stayed silent mostly, trailing behind her a few feet. God he felt like an idiot but for some reason Adee didn’t seem to share the same opinion. She looked so concerned, every few seconds looking back at him, the same worried expression on her face. He didn’t mean to bother her, if anything he meant to bother Daedalus.

  “So what’s kept you up all night?” Adee said, once again checking on Rune. He crossed his arms finding himself not in the mood for talking – obviously too embarrassed. “To shy to talk all of a sudden?” she turned around and handed him a ripped piece of paper and a half-broken pencil, “Write it down then. Sometimes you can’t talk, happens all the time to me. That’s why writing is so much fun, you can say whatever you want without the judging of your own voice.”

  Rune took the paper and pencil and waiting for Adee to turn away. She was right, he felt so stupid coming here and having to tell her all the stupid things going on in his mind. But she seemed to know how it felt to feel so dumb and how difficult it was just to say thought allowed. He twirled the pencil between his fingers before gathering his thoughts up just enough to write them down.

  I’m confused about my own humanity and there’s no one I can blame.

  - Rune.

  He nudged her shoulder and shyly handed the paper to her. She stopped in her tracks to read it, taking what seemed like an eternity to just read one line. She turned the note over and started scribbling something. Still silent, she handed it back. Rune left out a heavy breath, more nervous than ever and read her note.

  You should be. There are things I need to tell you about Earth… I’m so sorry Rune. I don’t know what to say. If I told you the truth I’m afraid you’d be angry with me.

  - Adee

  He looked up at the note to see Adee staring at him, on the verge of tears. She looked terrified with all of her thoughts plastered on her face like an open book. It was filled with guilt and sadness and fear of what he might say. Suddenly all of Rune’s scrambled thoughts faded in an instant. Sure, he was still confused, maybe more now than ever before but he was more concerned for Adee now. He hadn’t ever seen her have anything other than a smile on her face and for some odd reason the only thing he wanted to do was to make her feel better.

  “Listen,” He said, grabbing her hand, “It’s ok, I won’t be angry but you don’t have to tell me. I wanna show you something though and after that, if you want to, you can tell me. I’m not going to be upset though, I promise.” Adee paused but after a moment she agreed. Rune smiled back and yanked her forward, pulling her down a hall and up towards the nearby flight of stairs.

  “My dad used to bring me here when I was a kid. It’s the rooftop but it doesn’t look like one anymore.” Rune said kicking open the rusted door to the rooftop. “He’d used to tell me stories of when he was a kid and his own dad would take him up here. Apparently my grandmother worked here, but they’d still get in trouble for going up here.” Once again he pulled Adee forward through loose vines that covered the door’s opening.

  Once they were through the reason Rune brought her up there was clear. The entire floor of the roof was covered in thick moss and giant overgrown vegetables. Adee stopped in her tracks in pure awe of the sight in front of her. Rune turned around, making sure she was ok. Once he knew she was he let go of her hand, leaving her in the doorway. “You were saying you needed to make a record of food you could eat here on Earth right? Well this food’s been growing for the last eighty years. Don’t take all the food though but it’s a nice treat once in a while. Every y
ear on Canna’s birthday I get her tomatoes, they’re her favorite.” He picked a giant overgrown tomato from a long vine before handing it to Adee. “What am I supposed to do with it?” she muttered. Rune tried to hold back his laughter. He forgot that Adee knew nothing about the food on Earth. He took a knife from his belt and cut the tomato in half before handing half of it to Adee again. “You eat it,” he smirked, “skin and all, it’s a little messy but they’re good. My dad told me people called tomatoes vegetables but they’re actually a fruit!” He took a bite of his half, careful not to get any of the juice on himself. Easier said than done obviously. Adee giggled, “You look like a fool.” She took a perfect bite of her own slice, not getting a single drop on her or her clothes. “It’s not that hard, silly.” Rune rolled his eyes and gave her a dirty look, “You know, I’m trying to be nice and you’re still showing off.”

  Another laugh. She took a second bite but this time though her chuckle, juice sputtered from her lips and flicked onto Rune’s shirt. Expecting him to be mad she stepped back, a sorry look on her face. Instead of a bark of anger Rune burst into laughter, nearly falling back. “Doesn’t matter how polite you try to be, we’re all human, aren’t we?”

  Adee stopped in her tracks, her expressions paused and her arms dropped to either side; the remainder of her tomato half rolled onto the soft ground. “What?” Rune asked, grabbing her hand, “What’s wrong?” She didn’t respond, she only stood there still as a statue. Rune looked behind him, making sure she wasn’t scared of something. The only thing behind them besides the garden was the open star filled sky. “Adee?” he said turning his head to look back at her. When he did something changed. She was still as she was before but now tears were running down her face, her bottom lip trembling and suddenly she yanked her hand away from Rune’s and covered her face. “I’m sorry.” She cried out, “I’m so, so sorry.” Rune dropped his own tomato, finding the fruit totally useless now and hugged her. He had no idea why she was so upset or if he said something to hurt her but he didn’t like to see her this way.

  She sniffled and did he best to snap out of it before Rune could say anything. She wiped her eyes, annoyed at her own outburst. “I’m sorry for the tomato.” She mumbled, “Can we sit down somewhere?” Rune sighed and nodded, decided he’d rather show her the place rather than pulling her along. She didn’t seem like wanting to talk very much let alone being touched, even if it was just holding someone’s hand.

  He led her – as quietly as possible – the edge of the roof where the remains of two rocking chairs sat. The seats were all that resembled a chair now but for the ones who weren’t afraid of heights these “seats” were perfect. Adee didn’t seem to complain as she sat down, swinging her legs over the edge and rested her bare feet on a branch that conveniently grew in the perfect place to be used as a footstool. Rune plopped down beside her leaving her in the peace and quiet and stared up at the stars. He didn’t have any sort of knowledge about what went on in a girl’s mind let alone the mind of an alien girl. Canna’s mind was something of it’s own, it didn’t matter if she was a girl or a boy she was off no matter what but Adee… well Adee didn’t have an unknown condition to blame her sadness on. Something was obviously bothering her and Rune had no idea how to fix it or how to even ask her about it for that matter. Fortunately he wouldn’t even have to open his mouth to get an answer.

  “Can I admit something?” Adee said letting out a heavy sigh. Rune nodded, choosing not to speak. She kicked out her feet, letting her heels hit the mossy wall every few moments before responding again. “I’ve lied to you and I feel bad about it. I thought it’d be a good idea to let you live your life happily. Daedalus has this thing, he always says, ‘ignorance is bliss’. I don’t know if that’s true but I wanted to believe it. I thought, if I couldn’t be ignorant to the truth then maybe you could. Maybe I should shield you from it…” She finally looked at Rune, obviously ready for him to be apart of the conversation that until this point had been totally one sided. “You’re not human, Rune.” She said, barely a whisper as if the words were slowly killing her.