The Rainbow Maker's Tale (10 page)

“Nice?” Joel asked, flashing
Matthew a mischievous grin as he echoed his friend’s earlier
question.

“Sure,” Matthew replied;
without hesitation I noticed.

Joel made the same
talkative
hand gesture that he made before. Matthew laughed
again.

“Yes, but not in a bad way,” he
assured Joel. “She’s pretty cool.”

“Really?” Joel asked turning
towards his friend with interest now. An unfamiliar monster growled
somewhere in the pit of my stomach when I saw Joel’s reaction. For
some reason I could not explain, I felt unexpectedly angry with
this perfect stranger.

“Yeah,” Matthew repeated.

“Seeing anyone?” Joel enquired
casually.

The unknown beast rumbled
inside me again, its discontent still directed at Joel.

“Nope,” Matthew shook his head.
“Don’t know why really – she’s pretty much the nicest girl in our
year – just never seemed interested in anyone, like that.”

Matthew’s words silenced the
monster. It gave me a secret sense of satisfaction to know that
Cassie did not seem attached to any of her male friends from
school. In that instant I realised what the unknown growling beast
inside me was.

I’m such an idiot!

“Hmmmm,” Joel drawled sounding
thoughtful.

His interest didn’t bother me
any more. I was too busy trying to absorb the implications of the
fact I might be jealous of him – or any other guy – that Cassie was
interested in.

“Don’t get your hopes up mate,”
his friend laughed quickly, “I don’t know why she’s on the early
rotation at The Clinic. She’s a smart girl. Not like you!” Matthew
laughed harder when Joel pulled a face at him, but I was already
tuning out of their conversation and losing myself in my own
thoughts once again. I barely noticed when Joel disappeared through
the crowded plaza into The Clinic.

8.10am and forty seconds...

To my considerable relief,
Cassie appeared at the edge of the square opposite the entrance to
The Clinic. Breaking away from my well-trodden track circling the
plaza, I moved through the swarming pedestrians, intending to
appear near to Cassie as though I was just arriving myself.

My efforts to seem casual made
me realise once more how sad I actually was. They also reminded me
of the unpleasant monster I had just discovered buried deep inside
me, and how quickly it could rise to the surface. There was no
denying that the girl I was walking towards was the cause of this
new, angry beast.

Keep telling yourself that you
only need Cassie to find out what Scarlett thought she knew about
the space station…

As I had been doing all
weekend, I ignored my sarcastic inner voice when he piped up again.
And walking quickly, I drew closer to Cassie.

When I got near, I could see
Cassie’s face was drawn closed: her eyes flickering nervously
between the floor (and her feet) and the surrounding buildings. The
man walking alongside her must have been her father I thought,
although they were not talking and did not look overly alike.

Drawing close, I realised that
Cassie looked terrified. Surely her fear was not just nervousness
at starting the placement? She was always so bubbly and confident
at school; could anyone really be
that
good an actress?

Cassie’s obvious unhappiness
made me feel uncomfortable. Part of me wanted to do something to
alleviate whatever it was that was troubling her. Then I realised,
she would probably be more scared of the strange guy stalking her,
than the prospect of starting the Medic rotation…

Cassie and her father moved
swiftly through the throngs of people in the square, and were
passing through the entrance of The Clinic by the time I was able
to catch up with them. As the scanner beeped at the entrance,
registering her presence in the building, Cassie jumped
nervously.

Perhaps surprising her today
would not be the best idea.
I was genuinely concerned that she
would scream the place down, if I unexpectedly popped up next to
her.

Cassie was just a metre away
from me and I would have to act now, if I wanted to speak to her
before we were put onto our placement. Sidling around the edge of
the entrance and ignoring the familiar beep of the scanners, I
covered the short distance in quick strides. Leaning down to
whisper, hopefully without startling her, I matched my step to
Cassie’s and spoke.

“Hello again.” My tone was
light and sociable – in complete contrast to the myriad of
confusing thoughts and emotions that were coursing through my body
at that moment.

A glimpse of an involuntary
smile flashed across Cassie’s lips as she inhaled a surprised
breath at the sound of my voice. Better than screaming, I observed
with a slight smile of my own.

When Cassie turned to look at
me – and greeted me with a lovely smile of her own – I was
immediately happy to see that her features had relaxed completely
from the frown she had been wearing when I saw her earlier. I
hopefully speculated about whether it had anything to do with my
presence. Then I kicked myself mentally for being so
interested.

“Hi,” Cassie replied, her voice
sounding slightly shrill, which I assumed was her nerves leaking
through.

“You need to go through the
doors over there,” her father pointed out, interrupting anything
she might have been about to say and bringing us both to a stop.
“There’s a registration point in the orientation reception there
where they’ll get you sorted for your first day. Probably a lot of
walking around I would expect.”

The information was actually
quite useful, as I’d done no groundwork for this placement
whatsoever. That was very unusual for me, as I normally liked to be
prepared for behaving as people expected me to. With spending
nearly an hour walking around outside The Clinic, I hadn’t actually
given any thought as to what I might have to do once I got inside.
Disorganised and confused: this was a whole new experience for
me.

Cassie was staring at me and it
felt like she was reluctant to turn towards her father and said
“OK.”

I was about to set off in the
direction of the orientation room, when a look of confusion washed
over Cassie’s features.

“Sorry Father, did you just say
something?” she asked, uncertainty colouring her tone.

“Yes. I told you the
registration point was through there,” he pointed towards the doors
across the foyer again, although his eyes were fixed on his
daughter’s face.

“No, I mean after that.”

Cassie’s cheeks were flaming
now and I thought it might be my presence making her feel
uncomfortable and so I looked away, pretending to examine the doors
her father had pointed out. I had no idea what she was talking
about. Surely Cassie had heard the same thing I had?

“Yes…” he replied again,
speaking slowly now, seeming as lost by Cassie’s line of
questioning as I was. “I said that you’ll probably be walking
around a lot today.”

“Sorry,” Cassie mumbled
glancing away from him now. I sensed that she was not looking at me
when she spoke a second later. “I thought you said something after
that…I’m still a bit sleepy I guess.”

From the corner of my eye,
while I still pretended to be interested in something else, I saw
Cassie raise and drop her shoulders in a dismissive shrug, which
was becoming rather familiar.

The
shrug
was the clue.
She was dismissing herself: something she had seen, or thought, or
heard… I was sure of it – without exactly being sure, of why I was
sure.

What unseen but significant
thing had happened in those few moments: to make her pursue
something so forcefully with her father before dismissing her
thoughts.

It was a new mystery to
ponder…another thing that would have to take a spot on the
ever-growing list.

Politely I tuned out their
words of farewell and waited until Cassie was moving again before I
began walking too. Curiosity burned uncontrollably and a thousand
questions tumbled through my mind. Something had definitely just
happened, but I had no idea what. How could I ask her, without
revealing how closely I watched every move she made? In the end I
had to settle for the rather bland question: “Are you OK?” when she
refused to meet my eyes

“Fine.” Cassie’s one word
answer was sharp and blunt at the same time.

Her anger confused me as much
as her sudden outburst had. I didn’t know what to say or how to
react; not just because of my lack of conversational skills this
time: I had no idea what was going on.

After a long pause, she spoke
again. “Just ignore me – I’m hearing things because I haven’t been
sleeping well.” Her bleak tone told me she wanted no further
conversation.

Whatever had happened, or
whatever I’d done to upset her I wanted to take back, but I
couldn’t because it did not make sense. Or moreover, it didn’t make
sense to me.

At a loss for words I simply
said “oh,” and allowed her to increase the distance between us as
we passed through the doors to the orientation reception. The
excitement I felt this morning at the prospect of seeing Cassie and
being able to talk to her faded into the background as we entered
the orientation reception.

As Cassie and I walked into
this new, smaller space I could feel the protective mask of my
usual, secretive self, trying to slip over my unhappy face. I knew
what was happening and – for once - I resisted it. There were three
others waiting already, dressed similarly to ourselves – with the
exception that I hadn’t bothered to accessorise my day-suit as they
had – and I identified the boy, Joel, from my earlier patrol
outside The Clinic. Obviously he didn’t recognise me, but I watched
his eyes searching for Cassie as we entered, no doubt eager to see
if Matthew had been right. All I could tell was that he didn’t
appear disappointed.

The room was near silent and I
could feel the tension rolling off Cassie in waves. The sensation
was so strong I was convinced that I would have been able to see
the emotion swirling around her like a cloud if I’d looked across.
I didn’t, because I was sure it would have made her worse at that
moment in time. Instead I moved one step closer to her, invisibly
closing the gap I’d allowed to open between us earlier. My hope was
that – if nothing else – she may feel reassured by having me closer
to her.

Liar
.

I laughed at myself immediately
for believing my own excuses. My action was not all for Cassie’s
sake: Joel and the other two were making their way over to us.

Vaguely, I was aware of the
blonde girl standing beside Joel smiling in our direction as we
entered. But, I did not pay too much attention; only enough to
notice that she was
fully accessorised
, with bands on her
wrists and neck, matching an outrageously large belt at her
waist.

I’m sorry to say that I was too
distracted by the new beast that was trying to control me. The
creature was interested in only one thing: Joel. I couldn’t stop
myself from scrutinising every movement he made – whilst pretending
I wasn’t – observing how he reacted to the girl I stood close
beside.

I felt, rather than saw, Cassie
look in my direction for the first time since the unexplained
episode in the foyer. Forcing my features into a relaxed
expression, I did not acknowledge her gesture, but remained close
beside her all the same. The group of three approached us.

Joel’s instant smile and easy
manner made me envious at once. It was obvious that he was
confident and, infuriatingly, he seemed like he might actually be a
nice guy. I barely heard the initial exchange that took place as I
was consumed with carefully analysing every non-verbal element of
their interaction.
Yes, I know I’m ridiculous
.

It was obvious to me that
Cassie responded well to him: the previous anxiety that had
suffused the atmosphere around her was gone. The general chatter
seemed to ease her nerves well. I was glad for that, at least.

The girl was Olivia. I glanced
at her, whilst retaining my focus on the main conversation. She
smiled at me and I perceived a slight arrogance in her face. No
doubt she was very pretty, but she had the air of a person who was
used to everyone finding them attractive. To me her light blue eyes
appeared flat; they lacked the intelligence and spark that I found
so alluring, and frustrating, in Cassie’s features.

Consciously I tuned into the
conversation now.

“I’m Karl,” the second, nervous
looking boy squeaked, “I’m from the Black Zone.”

Cassie peeked at me once more,
smiling a little I thought at some unknown observation of her own
she made. Helpfully, she’d introduced both of us and so I did not
appear rude by standing silently as the exchange took place around
me. Joel looked at me once or twice, but it was friendly and only
in response to the conversation. I assumed he’d taken Matthew’s
earlier observation on board about Cassie not being involved with
anyone from school, and so would not view me as any form of
competition. Yes, it seemed that I was the only madman in the
group, as usual.

“Mother works in Agriculture,
which I really don’t fancy, but I’m not the best at science so
wanted to make the most of my placement here, which is why I’m on
the early rotation.” Joel said honestly.

I was sure that his openness
and self-deprecating observations would appeal to Cassie. Her
uncertainty in her own skills – however unfounded – would surely
appreciate how he felt.

“Father’s a Medic – works
specifically in emergency Medicine here – how about yours?” Joel
continued. His focus was on Cassie.

“It’s also my father who’s a
Medic – Mother is an Engineer. His work is focused on research I
think, mainly in the labs or something.” Cassie’s answer sounded a
little vague and I wondered what might be distracting her. I knew
what I hoped it wasn’t.