The Stelter City Saga: Ultranatural (22 page)

“
You read that too?” she
exclaimed. She remembered seeing a note inscribed above the
ingredients saying something along the lines of:
If you want extra healthy hair, tie it up in a
towel for an hour after bathing!

Ace nodded then tore the towel from his
head.

“
Ace, leave it up!” Lee
pleaded, “You look adorable.”

“
No!” he exclaimed back,
“You’re laughing at me.”

Lee held her breath, “Ok, fine, I’ll
stop.” She managed to keep quiet for a few seconds before she spat
out another laugh and had to turn around.

Ace just stood there frowning and
performed a skit about a sad child slicing his wrists. It was DH’s
signature move, and for the first time Ace found an appropriate
time to perform it. “Was the buffet line crowded?” he asked
plucking at a crumbling muffin.

“
You know actually it was.”
Remarked Lee leaning against the sink as Ace continued to empty the
plate. “Maybe they were like us and slept so much that they just
had to wake up.”

After Ace finished eating,
he brushed his teeth as then shoved the room key in Lee’s shoulder
bag
before
departing from the hotel. By the time they stepped out, the
Hawaiian sunrise had painted the sky with contrasting shades of
pink and blue. Lee still hadn’t grown used to the fact that she
wasn’t in Tarrillian City anymore. The morning climate wasn’t a
muggy chill, but a refreshing breeze. Even the streets and the
skyline were different. Pedestrians didn’t infest the sidewalks
like they did in Tarrillian. Instead, only handfuls of individuals
sprinkled the scene each of them either wearing tourist attire or
beach clothing. No matter how hard she searched, she couldn’t find
a suit and tie anywhere.

She watched as Ace called a cab, and
even that was weird. In Tarrillian, the moment one held their hand
out for a taxi, yellow cars flocked instantly. But there on the
side of a Honolulu street, it took a while before a cab pulled
up.

“
What are you doing?” asked
Lee. “The beach is right across the street.”

Ace dropped his hand and stared across
the nearly vacant avenue. He eyed the strip of sand and crashing
ocean between surf shops as if something wasn’t making any sense.
Lee finally took his hand and began leading him in that direction,
but his feet remained planted.

“
What?” she asked
mid-step.

Ace’s expression remained unchanged. He
stared blankly out at the beach only steps away as if he couldn’t
hear anything Lee was saying. “I don’t…” he finally began, “I’m not
sure why, but I don’t want to go to that beach…” his voice faded as
his eyes stared blankly at the crashing waves.

Finally a taxi stopped right in front
of him and honked to get his attention. Instead of glancing at the
cabbie, Ace locked his eyes to Lee. “Sunset Beach,” he finally
uttered, “I’ve got a feelgfing we should go to Sunset
Beach.”

Lee stifled a laugh, “You’ve got a
feeling?” First he woke up with a nightmare. Then instead of
leaving that day to find answers, he insisted on going to the
beach. As Lee stood there holding to his gaze, she couldn’t help
but feel that maybe the nightmare and this beach idea were somehow
connected. But that was silly. What supernatural event had the
power to connect two irreverent points?

“
Yes.” Ace replied as the
cabbie honked again. “I’m putting my faith in this feeling and I
want to know if you’ll come with me.”

Lee shook her head and shrugged at the
same time. “Yes, Ace, I’m coming.” Before Lee could reach the car,
Ace had opened the car door and slid down beside her. He told the
cabbie where they wanted to go, and the driver replied with, “It’s
a forty five minute drive.”

“
Is that why you have a
movie playing in the back seat?” Lee asked.

The driver flipped his car around and
began heading north. “They aren’t movies,” the man corrected,
“They’re advertisements. I find them annoying actually since I have
to listen to them all day.”

“
Can’t you just turn them
off?” Asked Ace.

“
I wish.” The driver
grumbled. “The only way to turn them off is by turning the car
itself off.”

Lee nestled down beside Ace and kept
her eyes glued to the commercials. She watched as they flashed
several beautiful images of the island along with hotel lobbies and
erupting volcanoes. It wasn’t until the seventh or eighth
commercial that Lee finally caught a glimpse of Heleow. She
stiffened as her eyes remained glued to the silver towers. They
reflected the Hawaiian sky so well that the city almost appeared
invisible. Her ears strained as the narrator advertised its new
beaches and marvelous hotels. Finally at the conclusion of the add,
Lee glanced up at Ace.

He smiled, “We’ll go tomorrow. But
today it should just be about you and me.”

“
I don’t mind that.” She
whispered back. Her cheek buried against the soft cotton of his
shirt and once more the commercials were ticking the time
away.

~Shouts of excited surfers and children
with plastic shovels infested the beach. For something that seemed
so remote, Sunset Beach was abnormally packed. So many towels and
sunbathing tourists covered the warm white sand that several times,
Lee and Ace had to weave themselves into the shallow water to avoid
stepping over someone. Even the sky was dominated by tourism. Kites
and presales drifted off shore as seagulls hung dangerously low
ready to snatch up the first lonely sandwich.

As another wave dampened the hem of
Lee’s pants, she glanced up shore at the deep green forest
blanketing the mountains blocking out any sign of civilization
aside from the small stretch of highway just through the palm
trees.

“
But I have a boy’s name!”
she was saying, “That’s not attractive at all!” Lee couldn’t
remember how they even got on that subject. It didn’t matter. One
of the things she loved about Ace was that they could talk about
anything.

Ace couldn’t help but to
chuckle and tighten his grip on her hand. “
Lee
is a name that can be used for
both genders.”

For the second time in that kooky
conversation Lee set her face with disgust. “But it’s so gross!
Like, even the spelling is icky! L-E-E, how boring is
that?”

Ace clicked his tongue as he
sidestepped a child sprinting up the shore with a boogie board over
his head. “You have a point. Three letter names are seriously
boring.”

Lee’s lips pursed together, “Okay, well
I only have two different letters in my name so, I just one upped
you… or downed, since two is less than three. Whatever.”

From the corner of her eyes
she saw Ace shake his head as an amused twinkle remained in his
eyes. Slowly she turned to look up at him. The warm white sun
lightened his eyes so that they were some bluish hue in-between the
color of his shirt and the sky. When their eyes met, Lee felt that
familiar tugging in her gut. The kind that only Ace could make her
feel; the kind that was usually followed up with a faint blush and
she pulled her eyes away to set them on the cluster of mountain
boulders along their path before her cheeks flared. “Since I am an
orphan,” she continued, “Technically, I guess I don’t have a
spelling to my name. It could be L-E-I-G-H for all I know.
Or
L-E-E-E.”

Ace
chuckled, “L-E cubed.”

“
Ha!” Lee exclaimed slapping
her knee reflexively. Silently she blamed DH for the habit as she
said, “I get it! It’s like a math term but with spelling. That’s a
good one; you’re very clever, Ace.”

“
Anything for you, angel.”
He mentioned. Lee didn’t have to look up to see him
smiling.

She smiled back. “Yet you don’t even
call me by my name.”

Ace shrugged beside her as
he replied, “I don’t even think it matters. You’re you.
W
hat’s in a name? that which we call a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet.”

“
You just quoted
Shakespeare!” Lee exclaimed blushing all the way to her toes. “And
we’re having a long walk on the beach! You’re so romantic!” Lee
stopped walking so that she could throw her arms around him
tightly. “I love you, Ace, why do you have to be the best thing
that’s ever happened to me?”

Ace stroked her hair, “I ask myself
that about you every day.”

Lee blushed. Ace wasn’t sure what was
going through her mind, but what he did know was that watching her
cheeks burn red was one of the most adorable things about her. It
was so nice to be alone with her. For a moment he forgot about
everything that had been bothering him for the past several months
because in that moment she was beautiful. She was like a precious
jewel; a million times more valuable than anything he could ever
deserve. But she was right there with her arms wrapped around him,
and she was in love.

He swallowed hard and tucked some of
her silvery hair behind her ear. Slowly Ace leaned in and closed
his eyes before his lips touched hers. The feeling of her lips on
his was gentle and soft. She was so gentle with her movements that
her kisses felt like clouds. But Ace didn’t want subtle, at the
moment. His chest felt as if it had been set on fire and he pressed
his lips hungrily against hers. He was just about to scoop her up
in his arms when Lee pulled away with an uneasy giggle.

“
Not here.” She muttered and
her face was pink all over. “There’s a lot of people
around.”

“
I don’t care.” Ace answered
quickly, even though he knew he should. Hundreds and hundreds of
eyes were probably staring at them at that moment.

As Ace sighed, Lee felt his breath
against her face. No words escaped him as his fingers descended
from her cheeks until they were once more holding hands. With a
slight tug, he was leading her back down the tourist infested
beach.

“
What do you think your real
name is?” He asked trying to ignore the fact that he was a little
irritated that Lee didn’t want to kiss him.

This was always a reoccurring topic
since neither of them knew their true identities. “I don’t know.”
she confessed, “I don’t even think I have one since I’m an
orphan.”

Ace nodded, “Understandable.” He
muttered with a grunt.

As they walked along the waterline, Lee
didn’t have to look up to see that Ace’s eyes were folded
unhappily. For a moment she nibbled on her lip and wondered if
pulling away from his embrace so hastily was the reason he was
suddenly in a bad mood. She should have asked him about it but she
knew she would have felt embarrassed for bringing it up.

Quickly, she thought of the silliest
thing she could say that would make him laugh. “But like, what if
our lives were being written down in some book? Then the author
would have to constantly be writing out our real names!” she
exclaimed.The moment the idea left her lips she knew it was a silly
one. But it was the first thing she could think of that it could
never come off as bitter.

And it worked. Ace chucked as he
collided his face with the palm of his hand. “Wow Lee. You are so
silly sometimes I don’t even know what to do with you.”

Lee beamed. “I like being silly around
you Ace. I love to see you laugh.”

At her words, Ace felt a tug in his
gut. He loved that she cared about him. He loved it so much that he
wanted to scoop her up in his arms and kiss her until his lips grew
sore. But he didn’t. He knew she wouldn’t have wanted
that.

Instead of thinking about it too much,
Ace decided to change the subject. “Alright, so if my initials were
MD-”

“
They are.” Piped Lee, “We
established this, remember?”

It was true. According to an oak tree,
Ace’s real name began with an M and his last name started with a
D.

“
Alright,” he began again,
“
since
my initials
are MD, what do you think my name is?”

If anyone on the beach had been
eavesdropping on their conversation, they would have been utterly
confused. There was so much mystery as to who they were and what
were the odds of two misfits whose earliest memory was around the
age of twelve came to meet each other?

“
M…” began Lee as she kept
her eyes hooked to the end of the shore line. “Mark, Maverick,
Marco- whoa, look! A chicken!”

Lee wasn’t kidding about the chicken.
To be correct there were several of them. All plump as a pumpkin
and covered in brown feathers clucking their way along the beach.
The whole flock pecked its way beside the outskirts of a thick palm
tree grove. A few prehistoric looking bushes sprang from the sandy
soil, most likely hiding more of the flock.

Lee planted her feet and stared at them
in amazement. This was the first time she had ever seen a real live
chicken and as crazy as it seemed, she was completely fascinated. A
hen only a couple yards away stopped pecking at the sand and gawked
up at her. As the two of them stood there, Lee couldn’t help but to
wonder why several of the little children weren’t chasing
them.

She broke from the staring contest
first and glanced around. To her disbelief there was no one to be
seen. It was as if everyone on the beach had vanished taking their
towels and beach balls with them. She spun around quickly and when
her eyes fell on a cluster of boulders by the shore, it all made
sense. The pair had walked past the rocks sometime during their
talk. She only just noticed that now they were completely alone on
a small chunk of sand nestled between a rainforest of chickens and
a large pile of rocks.