The brown ball of fur toppled backwards
onto its backside upon being discovered.
“Lapse?”, it exclaimed, backing
away. “Is that my name?”
Sister examined the reclining woman
more closely. She couldn't exactly remember what Lapse looked like,
but it had to be her. But how could that be? It filled her mind
with so many questions that she scarcely knew where to begin. Lapse
was still sitting on the ground, looking up at her with a frightened
look in her mismatched eyes.
“It's okay”, Sister said, reaching
out with her paw. “I suppose you don't remember me, but we used to
be friends. I'm Sister.”
She reluctantly accepted it. “I'm
sorry”, she said, “I can't seem to remember much of anything.”
“You've been gone for a long time.
Do you know where you were?”
“No...” She could see that
Sister's was terribly saddened to hear that, and it affected her as
well. “I'm sorry”, she said sheepishly.
“It's not your fault”, Sister
reassured her. “Surely you must at least remember Pack? You two
were always together.”
“Pack...”
---
“Come with me!”
she told him excitedly. “There's so much I want to show you!”
She grabbed his paws, but
he pulled them away, “We can't, it's just not right. It's too
dangerous to do strange things like that.”
“Is it strange for me to want to be
with you?” She said, drooping her head. “I thought you liked
me. I guess no one likes me...”
He shouted something, but she was
already gone away.
She opened her eyes and found herself
alone in an empty hallway. He hadn't come with her, he hadn't even
wanted to. She tried to find a window so she could look out at the
sky, but there weren't any, there was only her, all alone. Some
strangers seemed to materialize from out of the shadows in one side
of the hall, and at first she was happy to see them, but her
excitement quickly faded.
“So, all alone again?” One of them
taunted her, cruelly.
“Where's this friend that you
apparently have?” another one asked, appearing from somewhere
else.
“I don't see anyone. I bet you don't
even have a friend.” A third person jeered.
“No! I do!” she blurted out.
“He's just-”
“He's just not real!” they all
chimed in, interrupted her. “The only friend you have is an
imaginary friend!”
“Freak! No one would be friends with
a strange girl like you!”
“Freak! Freak! Friendless freak!”
they all chanted. Sobbing, she quickly turned away and ran. Someone
threw something at her, but she didn't stop. She burst through a
doorway and found a corner behind a wall that seemed safe enough, and
she curled up into a ball and hid from her tormentors, not daring to
come out even when it started to get dark.
---
Lapse said nothing, but her lip
quivered and her eyes were full of tears.
“Hey, what's wrong?”, Sister asked.
“Everyone hates me!” she cried,
sobbing pathetically into her paws.
“Hey, it's okay, I don't hate you...”
Sister tried to calm her down, but Lapse was inconsolable. She
started to tell her about Pack, but then she remembered what he had
said about her. “Just what did he do to you?” She wondered
grimly.
The sun was almost up by the time she
finally stopped crying. “This is why I just watch”, she said,
her voice hoarse. “It's the only way. I'm not meant to have
friends.” She looked at the purple horizon. “You should go now.
It's not safe for you to stay here.”
Sister felt awful for her, but what
could she do? After talking to Pack, she no longer had any idea what
to believe, and she was in no state to help anyone herself. She
hugged the poor broken woman and left as she was instructed to.
---
Nearby, a dark speck against the rising
sun, someone else was watching the scene unfold.
“I still can't believe it,” he
thought to himself, stroking the fur on his chin. “Somehow she
really has come back.” He paced up and down the deck, assessing
the situation. “Unfortunately, she can't help anyone like this.
What she needs now is a friend.”
He walked to the helm of his ship,
shielding his eyes from the sun with a dark-furred paw held aloft,
watching the other ship sail away.
“Poor little calico. Once you were a
friend to all, but now what have you become?” He sighed. “I'm
sorry to do this, but for everyone's sake, you must remember who you
are.”
And so, unbeknownst to her, a ship with
black sails slowly closed in on her as she sailed off toward the
rising sun.
---
“You stupid ass, you're two hours
late! You were supposed to be here at seven! We had plans tonight!”
“Are you blind, woman?! Look at the
weather, it took us ages to get here! And you dropped him off late
last time anyway!”
Sister jumped back, startled, finding
herself in the middle of two people yelling at each other. They were
outside, the sky was pitch black, and it was raining hard. “Excuse
me”, she said, timidly.
“You're lucky I let you see him at
all!”, one of them snapped at the other, ignoring her. “I've
told the judge all about your temper!”
“Did you also tell her that I haven't
hit you yet, despite how many times you've really deserved it?!”
“What's going on? What's wrong?”
Sister protested futilely.
“And what's all this homework?!
Don't tell me he hasn't finished it all! What were you doing all
weekend?!”
“That was a whole week's worth of
homework, he can't do it all in two days! I'm sure you're just
saving it up so we can't spend any time together!”
They continued arguing endlessly,
despite Sister's efforts to interject. She was considering throwing
herself between them when she heard a tiny cough from somewhere
behind her. She squinted her eyes and scanned the darkened yard for
the source of the sound. One of those moving rooms was off to one
side, as were some trees and bushes. Since the two people didn't
seem to be paying any attention to her, she walked in the direction
of the sound, and when she peered behind a tall bush she saw a tiny
man hiding there.
“What's going on?” she asked him.
He nearly jumped away, so Sister knew he had heard her. She crouched
down beside him behind the bush, and he looked at her suspiciously
for a moment before responding.
“They're fighting again”, he
replied, sadly. “They won't listen to you. They don't listen to
anyone.”
“Why are they fighting?”
“Because of me. They're always
fighting over me.”
Sister peered over the bush. They were
still going at it.
“It's all my fault”, said the
little man, “a long time ago mommy and daddy used to be happy, then
I started having trouble at school and they started fighting.
Eventually they split up and I hardly see daddy anymore, and when I
do it's like this.” He sniffed and wiped a tear away from his eye.
“Maybe if I was gone, they wouldn't fight anymore. They're not
watching now, I could just run away and not come back.”
She looked into his watery, frightened
eyes. “What can I do?” she thought to herself. The other two
wouldn't listen to her. She looked at them again, and thought of
Corsair and Lay arguing over her. Thanks to her, Corsair was gone
now, too. Maybe it would have been best if she had just gone away
before things got so bad, maybe then Corsair would still be around.
She looked up at the stars as the rain fell on her face, and she
realized she was crying too.
“I just want everyone to be happy”,
said the little stranger, and he started to stand up.
She put her hand on his shoulder and
gently pushed him back down. “I know,” she said, looking down at
her feet. “I know exactly how you feel.” She took a deep breath
as one of her tears landed in a puddle on the grass below. “I had
many wonderful friends, and we all got along very well, but one day I
realized that one of them was extra precious to me. I wanted to show
him something that made me happy, but he didn't like it, and suddenly
things around us started to go bad. We all started fighting over the
silliest things and I felt my friend slipping away from me, and now
he's gone.”
“Then you know why I should go”,
the stranger said, sadly.
“I know why you feel that way,” she
said, looking at him now, “I felt the same way too. But it's
wrong. It's not your fault. Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes
people fight and do things that hurt others. You can't always
prevent these things from happening. It's what we do afterwards that
really counts. If you want to make people happy, be strong and try
to make things better. Running away isn't the answer, it only brings
more sadness. Not a night goes by where I don't feel sad that my
friend is gone. I'm sure there are people who care about you and
would miss you, too.”
She hugged the little stranger, who was
still crying, though he looked up at her and nodded. “I wish I
could help you more”, she said, feeling sorry for what he was going
through.
“It's okay, thank you, miss” he
replied. “Look, they've stopped arguing now.” One of the two
had gotten into that moving room, and the other was standing in the
doorway. The rain even seemed to be letting up. “I should go
now.”
He walked over to the one who was
waiting at the door, and she hugged him and hustled him inside.
Sister waved to him from behind the bush as the door closed.
“I should go too”, Sister thought
to herself as she walked down the darkened street to her ship.
“There's something I still need to set right.”
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