Authors: Joseph Picard
“
Are we allowed? We weren’t
allowed to touch the smaller wood one…”
“
Yup,” Cheryl said, “I even
asked. This stone’s real hard. It’d take a lot more than us to
damage it. Rupert’s been surviving just fine for a very, very long
time.”
“
Rupert’s older than my
grandpa.” One of the younger one said.
“
Yeah, and I have an uncle
named Rupert.”
“
Really?”
“
No one will get confused,
they don’t look at all the same.”
Cheryl and the kids talked about the
statue, the temple, the ruins, and Aeki, on and on. Cassidy just
couldn’t stop watching and her attention focused closer and closer
on Cheryl. She was amazing. Kind, funny, cute… sure, Cassidy had
realized that before, but it wasn’t getting any less
true.
Cassidy’s eyes begged for a blink now
and then. She was just floating in soft thoughts, her breathing
deepened, heart racing. Clear symptoms, if she had chosen to notice
it.
She was snapped out of her trance when
the teacher tapped her. “I said, do you have the time?”
Cassidy lifted her hand to show her
bare wrist. “Nope, sorry.”
“
I guess it’s not important.
My watch died.”
Another of the adults overheard, and
checked his watch. “Hey, mine too.. and my camera..!”
Cassidy remembered her own similar
experience, and furrowed her brow. “I…. I have a feeling they’ll be
fine..” This was met with mildly confused looks, but Cassidy didn’t
really have anything else helpful to add. “If they’re still not
working by the time we get back to the stump, let me
know.”
When Cheryl felt the kids had had
enough, and questions were running thin, she led everyone back
outside, to head back to the helipad.
More than a couple kids called out
“Bye, Rupert!”
They only got a few metres away from
the temple steps, when one of the adults asked Cassidy, “Is there a
café or something? Or maybe somewhere I can get some fresh batter-“
He stopped mid-sentence, looking at his camera blink back to
life.
Cassidy smirked. “Naw, nuthin like that
yet, Sir. I’ll mention you asked though. A canteen or something’s a
good idea. One of our guys makes some darn good
cookies.”
Everyone with a watch or camera were
figuring out as they walked, that all their electronics were
alright. “Are... are you guys so serious about the no-pictures in
there, that there’s some kind of jamming going on?” The teacher
asked.
Cassidy could only answer the truth,
and it was starting to bug her a little. “I don’t know. Nothing of
the sort I can think of hearing about…”
~~~
The group was given a little thank you
speech by Cheryl at the helipad, and they filed on, mostly
satisfied with the experience. Marcus was toddling up the path as
the chopper lifted off. Cassidy, and especially Cheryl were trading
waves with the kids who had seats by windows.
The chopper turned to leave, and the
opportunity to wave was over. “How was it?” Marcus
asked.
“
It was a blast.” Cheryl
said, smiling wide.
“
Yeah, more fun than I
thought.” Cassidy’s tone was unsure, inviting further
query.
“
But….?” Marcus asked,
having a hunch already.
“
Remember my first shift,
and the deal with my watch?”
“
Yeah, it’s going to be a
bit of an issue with the tours, I guess.” Marcus stroked his chin,
glancing towards the temple. “Not much of a way around it, as far
as I can see. I’m not too keen on the idea of having people
surrender watches and cameras before they go in, just to avoid
having the same conversation over and over.”
“
Well, can you explain it to
me then?”
Marcus just sort of lazily shrugged.
“He’s an old boy. I don’t think he likes technology much. Figures a
lot of it’s kinda obtrusive. Kinda nosy.”
Marcus’ folksy ramblings about the
spirit were one thing, but he was talking about real-life. “The
ghost is turning off people’s stuff?! Do you know how that sounds?”
It came out a little brasher than Cassidy intended, but the
question was valid enough. Cheryl was quiet, but seemed to be
curious as well.
“
He likes the company and
visitors, but he has the right to set a few rules. It’s his house,
after all.” Marcus put his hands in his pockets, and started
strolling back to the base.
Cassidy staggered a little to begin
following, a hand raised in a questioning gesture. “But... but
how?”
“
Ask him!” As Marcus
progressed down the path, he left Cassidy and Cheryl to stare at
each other blankly for a moment. Cassidy looked over at the
temple.
“
Dear huge statue! How do
you shut shit off!? Amen, Cassidy Stanton.”
Marcus hollered back at Cassidy without
stopping, or turning around. “He just does!”
~~~~~
:::C /16
~~~~~
Being tour guide partners, and both
being on night shift, Cassidy and Cheryl found their schedules
aligning over the weeks. It was a little bit of a challenge keeping
focused on the tours. This crush wasn’t going away, but Cassidy was
determined to remain professional, and not go off on a
rebound.
One early afternoon, Cassidy awoke to
Wanda making her bed. Not entirely awake, she just remained on her
side, and watched Wanda. After a bit, Wanda noticed Cassidy looking
at her, half asleep.
“
Hey.” Wanda said quietly.
She raised her eyebrows, and nodded a look over and behind Cassidy.
Cassidy lazily turned over to see Cheryl laying on her side, a bit
more awake, and smiling.
Cheryl was curled up, smiling, staring
right into Cassidy’s eyes with a warm smile. Wanda discretely left
the room.
“
Hey, Cassie.” Cheryl said
softly, and slowly propped herself up on her elbow.
“…
..mrrh?” It was the most
intelligent thing Cassidy could come up with, half asleep, and with
those eyes boring into her.
Cheryl’s smile widened a little. “Wanna
go hunt aeki?”
Cassidy blinked hard, and forced
herself into a more alert state, sitting up. “Say wha?”
“
Aeki!” Cheryl sat up as
well, legs over the side of her bunk. “Want to go on a
hunt?”
Cassidy felt the horrors of her own
morning breath, and aligned her brain to reality. For a moment, she
had thought Cheryl was going to pounce her. She guessed Wanda had
assumed the same thing. Wasn’t Wanda overdue for a shin-kicking or
something? “You want to go hunt an aeki? Jeez, Cheryl, you gotta
let it go about the shower. They’re harmless.”
“
No no no, I don’t want to
kill them, I just want to find one. I’m starting to warm up to
them. I just think I’d rather meet one while I had clothes
on.”
“
Fair enough.” Cassidy
rummaged for her toothbrush and paste. “I guess so. I have nothing
better to do. You got a plan?”
“
Yup! Kind of.” Cheryl
grabbed her clothes, and started changing under the blanket.
“They’re pretty docile, right? They’d probably just let us pick
them up outside if we didn’t move too fast. It would take some time
to find one out there, but we’ve seen them in the ruins during
tours while not even looking. It can’t be that hard if we
try.”
Cassidy re-adjusted her hat a little,
and got her stuff together for the shower. She took her showers
after sleeping, because Cheryl took hers before bedtime, and having
the shower at the same time proved to be too taxing on her sanity.
Bad enough that the blanket leaked a peek of thigh or some such as
Cheryl was getting dressed. “Kay, lemmie just grab a quickie. Er, a
quick shower, and a bite.”
“
Kay!”
Cassidy started walking towards the
showers, and Wanda peeked around the corner to notice Cheryl
getting dressed. Wanda couldn’t resist, and whispered to Cassidy,
“Damn, you’re fast!” Her joke only earned her an elbow in the ribs.
It didn’t stop Wanda from giggling about it though.
During Cassidy’s shower, an aeki
wandered over the partition from the neighboring stall. As it
crawled its way down the wall, Cassidy gently stepped forward and
cradled her hands around it, taking it from the wall as it clung to
her thumb and a few convenient fingers.
Well, she could just take this one out,
and the hunt would be done.
It had struck her before how brave the
aeki were to wander in here, but holding it like this, she could
see a total lack of fear. It had never known a human to be a
danger. None of the humans around here were. She enjoyed a little
moment of peace, staring at the curious creature, as it stared
back.
She put the aeki back on the wall and
finished up her shower, hastily dried off and got dressed, tucking
her hair through her hat as usual. She went to the hall to find
Cheryl waiting with a toasted bagel.
“
I thought I’d grab you
brekkie, and we could get underway right away.” But then Cheryl saw
Cassidy had a strange expression. “Oh. I thought you liked
bagels...”
Cassidy smiled softly. “It’s fine. But
we don’t need to rush. We have all afternoon to find one of those
lil guys.”
They headed out into the ruins at a
leisurely pace, feeling the sun as it climbed up the sky. Looking
around lazily as they walked, hoping to see a dark spot of motion,
Cassidy pointed out a route that would keep clear of Maxine’s
exercise yard. She didn’t need Maxine rolling her eyes at them, or
giggling. “Let’s head that way.”
Cheryl followed Cassidy’s lead. “Any
reason? See something?”
“
Nah. I just haven’t been
out that way much. May as well give it a peek.”
The path they cut wandered from the
remains of one ancient building to the next. Sometimes this meant a
near-complete wall in the way, but more often the obstruction was
far less intact. Swing a leg over a ledge, step over a bump, or
just walk over a flat, differently coloured band of earth, the last
whimper of a wall. It was hard not to wonder about the people who
once lived and worked here. Did they become the Aguei they now
knew, or did they just die off? Was that once someone’s kitchen
they just entered? Was this some shop, where the crafts, or
necessities of daily life were traded?
No longer. Now this place was just a
mystery to be looked after, for untold ages, the realm of little
meek lizards that humans called ‘aeki’.
And just where were these suckers
anyway? Aeki seem cheeky enough to show up whenever they please,
invited or not, but now that they’re looking for one, the aeki
decide to be scarce. It had been over an hour of wandering, but
neither Cassidy nor Cheryl found cause to complain.
Cheryl paused and looked over to the
horizon, out of the ruins and across endless sand. “Ya spend too
much time looking where you’re going, you don’t remember to see
where you are.”
Cassidy smirked, and took a second to
appreciate all facets of the scenery around her, and sighed. “Well,
you’re the deep one, aren’t you?” Damn those shorts.
The sun was doing its duty, and a
nearby wall offered its stark shadow as a respite. Cheryl
gravitated towards it and lazily slid down to sit against it.
Cassidy followed suit less than a metre away, resting her back
against the same wall. For a moment she wondered if putting
pressure on it was wise, but the wall had made it this far through
ages of weathering. Two people leaning on it wasn’t likely to cause
it to fall.
Cassidy ran her fingers through the
base of her ponytail, up where it came out of the back of her
cap.
“
Still wet?” Cheryl
guessed.
“
Yeah. I didn’t think it
would be much of an issue in the sun.”
“
Well, most of it’s under
that hat. We’re in the shade, your hair won’t dry out badly if you
take it off.”
“
Take it off, huh?” Cassidy
couldn’t help but smirk.
“
Yeah, seriously. You need
some time apart from that hat. That kind of co-dependent
relationship can’t be healthy.”
Cassidy relented. She leaned her head
back and pulled her hat and elastic band back, down her ponytail,
until her hair fell free onto her shoulders. She ran her fingers
though it to loosen it up, and looked back at Cheryl. Was she
blushing?
Cassidy made a passing glance around,
in case any aeki had decided to reveal itself. “They’re not
cooperating, huh?”
“
Hm. It’s no big deal.”
Cheryl said softly, “It’s not like we have to find one today. Maybe
we should have gone to that courtyard Maxine likes. I know aeki go
there.”
“
Yeah, maybe, but then we
would have run the risk of running into Maxine.” Cassidy also found
her voice becoming soft. It must have been the surrounding quiet.
It didn’t seem right to be loud.
“
What’s wrong with Maxine?”
Cheryl idly traced her finger in the thin layer of sand on the
stone floor.
“
Nothing.” Cassidy realized
she was edging on dangerous territory. “Nothing. She’s cool, she’s
just been a bit of a pest lately.”