“…And then the
next thing I remember, I was with you.” Sister finished.
“That’s some
story.” Corsair stood up and stretched his arms. “But I don’t
see how that proves that the strangers are real.”
“It’s one thing
for strangers to talk to you,” she insisted, “but Michelle showed
insight. She figured out that I wasn't the same as her. You’ve
been keeping track, has anyone ever told you that you didn’t belong
there?”
“Actually,
something like that happened just before I found you.” Corsair put
a paw on his arm; it was still a bit sore. “There was something
very unsettling about it.”
She nodded. “Yes,
that’s how I knew. I could just feel it, when she spoke to me, it
wasn't like speaking to a stranger, it was like speaking to you. And
that’s why I have to help her. I have to find Steven and give him
her message.”
“That’s
impossible. I’ve been keeping track, and I’ve never encountered
the same stranger twice. Even if the strangers are real, there must
be thousands of them.”
“I know...” she
said, sadly. “But I have to do something, she’s in trouble. She
needs my help. Maybe if we all searched together-”
Sister tried to stand up,
but her leg gave out beneath her and she fell forward. Corsair
caught her as she fell and held her up. “Right now you need to
take care of yourself” he said gently.
“I’m okay”
Sister insisted, pulling herself up by Corsair’s shoulders.
“There’s no time. The sun will be up soon, and I need to start
looking. You should get back to your ship. And please, keep an eye
out. If you see Steven, give him the message.”
But Corsair didn’t let
go of her. “I’m not leaving you. You’re in no state to go out
there on your own.” He held her close. “I couldn’t bare to
lose you again.”
“But you can’t-“
she started to say, but it was too late. She closed her eyes and
squeezed him as she felt the warmth of the sun wash over her.
“It’s good to
see you again too, old friend.” the man said as he gave Corsair a
hearty hug. “How long has it been? Fifteen years?”
“Sister?”
Corsair blurted out, disoriented. He quickly looked about, he was in
a hallway and the man was the only other person in sight.
“Your sister? Is
she not with you?” The man shrugged. “I’m sure she must be
around here somewhere. But surely there are other people you’re
more interested to see?” A man and a woman walked by them and
entered the double doors at the end of the hall.
Corsair started to say
something, but he had said too much already. He didn't want to get
Sister in any trouble, so he simply nodded.
“Well, what are we
waiting for?” The man said, as he began walking towards the doors,
“let’s go and see the rest of the gang.”
Corsair fell into step
with him. “Who are you looking for?” he asked the man, to try to
distract attention away from himself.
He laughed: “Probably my
old flame, Jenna. I have a family of my own now, and I’m sure she
probably does too, but you can’t help but be curious, you know?
And lots of others, too, I hope everybody turned up.”
Everybody had. The doors
opened to a large, tall room, and as many people as Corsair had ever
seen were talking, laughing, and drinking alcohol. He thought he
spotted Sabre in the crowd, but he was much more concerned with
Sister’s whereabouts. “How will we ever find anyone in here?”
he wondered aloud.
“We start at one
corner and make our way through the crowd”, replied the man. “Come
on, we’ve got a lot of people to see.”
“A lot” was an
understatement, the man seemed to find someone he knew at every turn.
Some he greeted with a handshake, others with a jovial hug, and they
exchanged a few stories along the way. “You’re in such good
shape!” he told one of them, “Do you still play Soccer?”
“No, it’s too
hard on my knees”, said the other man, “but I still exercise
every day.”
“You and me both!”
the man said, with a wink, and then they both laughed. Corsair
wasn’t sure what to make of it, so he took another swig of his
drink and went back to scanning the crowd for Sister. There was
still no sign of her. Could she have gone back already? He doubted
it, with this many people in the room she had to be in here
somewhere. “Nice seeing you again.” the man said with a wave,
and they were on their way again.
“Still haven’t
seen her” the man remarked.
“No.” Corsair
replied distractedly, still scanning the crowd.
“I hope she came
today”, the stranger continued, “I’ve enjoyed seeing everyone
else, but I’d be disappointed if she wasn’t here.”
“I’m sure she’s
here somewhere…”
“I wonder if I’d
recognize her after all this time. It sure would be funny if I’d
passed her already.” He sighed.
Suddenly, a light-skinned
woman with dark hair and blue eyes stepped in front of them. “Excuse
me,” she said, “have you seen Steven?”
“Steven?” the
stranger replied. “Steven Hodgeman? I think I might have seen him
back by the drink table.” He pointed to a table in the distance
where a group of people were gathered. “He might not be there any
more, though.”
Sister thanked him
politely and made to leave. Corsair quickly chased after her. “Wait!
This one’s the stranger, you should probably stick with us. It’s
me”, he whispered, urgently.
“Of course it’s
you, silly, strangers don't have yellow eyes” she whispered back,
smiling at him. “You keep an eye on him, I’m going to keep
looking.” Before he had a chance to argue she had already turned
and left.
“Friend of yours?”
asked the stranger. “You could go with her if you want, I’ll be
all right on my own.”
Corsair thought he saw the
lights dim for a second. He quickly wiped the scowl from his face
and turned back to the stranger: “She only seemed interested in
finding Steven. Let’s keep looking for that woman you mentioned.”
“She’s got to be
here somewhere”, the stranger agreed, “we’ve looked almost
everywhere.”
Corsair wiped his forehead
and took another drink from his cup.
“Jenna!” the
stranger exclaimed at last, embracing a tall woman with red hair.
“It’s been so long!”
“Martin! I
thought you hadn’t made it!” She replied, giving him a squeeze
and then letting go.
“I’ve been
looking all over for you,” the stranger smiled, happily. “How
have you been all these years?”
“Oh, I’ve been
keeping busy. I’m a teacher now, you know, there’s never a dull
moment. How about you?”
“Things have been
all right, I can’t complain. It’s been tough finding steady
work, but that’s the economy for you. At least it’s given me a
lot of time to work on my music.”
Corsair scanned the crowd
expectantly as they chatted away. Nothing had happened so far, he
knew something exciting had to be coming soon. He wondered what it
might be.
“This really
brings back memories,” said the woman, “it’s just like how
things were back when we were all in school.”
“Well, almost. We
were a couple back then, rather than old acquaintances.”
She laughed. “I remember
that best of all. We had a lot of happy memories here. Do you
remember when you gave me your class ring and said you’d get me a
real one soon? Pity it didn’t work out, you were always so much
fun.”
“I’ve always
regretted it too, Jenna. We were so young then, but we really had
something…”
“You know, we
should get together again sometime. I’m sure we have a lot to
catch up on. Do you think-”
“It wasn’t the
right Steven”, Sister butted in, unexpectedly. “I found a
Steven, but it wasn’t the right one.”
“Are you looking
for my husband, Steven?” Jenna asked. “He was just over there.
I should probably be getting back to him.” She turned and started
to walk away. Corsair was certain the lights dimmed a bit this time.
“Wait! Jenna!”
cried the stranger. “I still love you!” but she was gone. And
so were the stranger, and everyone else. And the lights had gone
out.
“Great,” came
Sister’s voice, from the darkness. “We won’t find the other
Steven now.”
“What did you
do?!” He demanded of her. It was getting cold, he needed to act
quickly. Sabre and the others might still be in here. Corsair
called out to them: “Can anyone hear me? Is anyone by the door?”
“The door’s
here!”, someone responded from far away. “Follow my voice!”
He started to run towards
the sound, but he crashed into something and fell over. “I’m
sorry, Corsair”, a voice weakly responded from beneath him. “I’m
too tired. I guess I wore myself out earlier looking for Steven.”
“Come on!”
called the voice from the door. “There’s no time!”
Corsair climbed back to
his feet, lifted Sister into his arms, and ran towards the sound. He
could hear other footsteps, but they were all ahead of him now. When
he finally reached the door, there was no one left, he kicked it open
and fell straight into the water beyond, dropping Sister in the
process. “You’re the last! Climb aboard!” Cross threw down
the ladder to them as Sister emerged from the water with a gasp and a
sputter. Corsair pushed the first rung into her paws and hoisted her
up a bit and she began to climb. As soon as she was a safe distance
above he began the climb as well.
A few moments later, they
were back in her cabin. Sister was still coughing. “Are you all
right?”
“My side is a
little sore from where you crashed into me.” She said. “But at
least we made it out in one piece. We didn’t find out anything
about Steven, though.”
“Well, we did find
out that there are multiple Stevens, thanks to you.”
“The one I found
didn’t look like Steven at all. Michelle’s Steven had dark skin,
black hair, and he was average height with a fit build. The one that
stranger pointed me to had light skin, brown hair, and was short and
chubby.”
“We’ll just have
to keep looking.”
“Oh, so you’ll
help! That’s wonderful!” Sister jumped to her feet and threw
her arms around him. “I knew I could count on you, Corsair!” In
the spur of the moment, she stood up on the tips of her toes and
pressed her lips against his.
“What was that?”
Corsair asked, bewildered.
“Oh,” she said
sheepishly, “Steven showed me that. I think... it’s for someone
you like a lot...” She backed away from him and tucked her paws
behind her back, suddenly embarrassed. She wondered if her cheeks
were red, then she realized Corsair couldn’t see them under her
fur. “We should keep searching”, she said, quickly changing the
subject, “but we’ll need to split up, and I should check in on my
crew. I guess this is goodbye for now. Don’t forget the message –
Michelle was in an accident, and she’s sorry.”
“I’ll let you
know if I find anything”, he said, putting a paw on her shoulder.
“Stay safe.”
“You too”, she
said, as she followed him out the door. She waved to him on the deck
as he crossed back to his own ship, then disappeared below deck.
That was when Corsair spotted the third ship, docked to his own on
the other side.
“Don’t you know
it’s not polite to keep a lady waiting?” Lay fluffed her cheek
the way she always did, and peered at Corsair with an odd look in her
eyes.
“What are you
doing here?” he demanded of her.
“I came to help
you look for Sister, but I guess I’m just intruding. I heard you
spent all night in her cabin. I guess now she knows just how much
you missed her, huh?”
There was something in her
tone that annoyed him, but he tried not to show it. “She needs our
help.”
“Oh?” Lay cocked
her head.
Corsair told her about
Steven, the message, and about Sister’s ordeal, in as much detail
as he could remember. Her face remained expressionless the entire
time.
“It’s crazy.”
She said, bluntly.
“I wouldn’t
expect you to understand. Forget it.” Corsair replied, no longer
hiding his annoyance.
“I’ll look,
because I can tell it’s important to you, but don’t expect much.
You’re asking for something that can’t be done.”
“Maybe it can be.
There’s no way to know unless we try it.”
Lay laughed and turned her
back to Corsair. “Some things are hopeless, no matter how hard you
try.” She walked back towards her ship, swishing her tail as she
went. Halfway across, she stopped, and turned her head to the side.
“I’m glad you found her.” she said, without her usual mocking
tone, and she returned to her ship.
“Prepare to set
sail!” Corsair called to his crew, as he set the ship’s course.
Slowly the three ships went their separate ways. After they had
faded from sight, Corsair descended the steps into his cabin, opened
the door, and sat on his chair. Excitedly, he pulled out his journal
and his quill, and wrote down the message Sister had given him. He
also quickly jotted down some details about what had happened to
Sister, how she had been trapped within Michelle’s memories, and
how Michelle had sent her away. Finally, he turned to a new page to
write about what had happened last night. He didn’t remember much
about the man, or about the other people they had met, as usual, but
he remembered one thing clearly – “Sister asked the stranger
about Steven, and we found out there were multiple Stevens. We never
knew that before.” Corsair closed his journal and put it away,
smiling to himself. He stood up and glanced at his reflection in the
mirror: He was looking better; he looked less weary and his yellow
eyes had regained some of their intensity. He grinned slyly to
himself and walked out of his cabin, closing the door behind him.
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