Crow - The Awakening (11 page)

"Is that it?" He rubbed his finger. He couldn't remember the number of times his finger had been pricked like that.

"Yes, sir. If you have a seat over there, I'll have your ID and phone for you in just a moment." She pointed to a small couch and Laurence sat down. It didn't take long, however. She already had most of the paperwork completed before he arrived. She waved to him and he went back to the counter and retrieved his phone and badge. It was time to get to work.

Bill was waiting for him as he walked back into the cubicle area. "Here, you can use this workstation. Your phone has a VPN connection to this workstation too."

Laurence sat down and pulled up the latest records of the hacks and the evidentiary files and logs. "This will work fine."

"Good. We're a team so if you need anything, just let me know." Bill patted him on the shoulder, then went off to another meeting on yet another crisis. Laurence didn't envy him his job. He dug into the records they had of the hacks and started digging into history of each file and compiling a list of file types and locations.

At the end of the day, Laurence packed up what he was allowed to take with him and headed out. Bill waved at him as he walked by his cubicle. Laurence smiled and waved back. As he walked to his car, Laurence looked at his new badge and phone. The phone was fully encrypted and already had a direct link to his handler, but Laurence suspected it also was recording sound all the time too, keeping a close eye on anything he did. Not that it was unusual to him. He found the setting unobtrusively tucked away in the configuration application but left it as is. Before getting into his car he pulled out a small device and walked around the car while looking at it. No red light, which meant the car was not bugged. Laurence found that strange and he adjusted his scanner. Ah, there it is, he thought to himself, good. It was expected, a routine procedure he experienced when working for the three previous agencies he had inserted himself into on this mission. Once he got into his car, he looked at his GPS unit and turned it on. "Seattle, Washington." He waited for the GPS to display a route. "Downyville, California." The GPS reset its route. He smiled and turned on his car. The GPS combination he entered in was preplanned. It sent out an encrypted code to his real boss who was waiting for a status update. The message was short. He was in.

The years seemed to fly by as Steven continued his search and spent all of his free time in the meadow with Asherah. She was no slouch when it came to technical stuff and she even helped him refine his search for his parents greatly. While he was producing no results that were solidly conclusive yet, thanks to her he could more efficiently cull databases that have no value to him, making the search more focused.

In all that time Steven had never given much thought to the stability of the seasons in his meadow. It was consistently tropical year round. He would arrive bundled up for winter, only to have to strip down to shorts and a t-shirt when he got there. Asherah always wore her basic but ornately decorated tube top and climbing shorts. Much more than that would result in heat exhaustion in the heavy tropical air. The rains also came frequently, even from a Washington perspective. Often he would find himself scrambling to cover his books and drawings as a single cloud would drift overhead and dump buckets of rain on him. It rained every day there so he had gotten used to that. His godparents would often raise an eyebrow at some of the moist textbooks he'd bring back. His excuse was easy, however. It was Washington after all.

One thing he did find most disconcerting was that the days weren't synchronized. Steven expected noon in Washington to be noon in his meadow, but that often wasn't the case. They were close, but for a time he would be visiting in their afternoon when it was morning to him. He had long ago given up trying to figure that out, however, and now it was just par for the course. He was reminded of the technicians who drove the various Mars probes who had to live by Mars time which was just a little off from Earth time. Their noon could easily end up at Earth's midnight over time.

Regardless of the peculiarities, the meadow remained his favorite place to hang out. He still spent time with Brandon, helping him with his motorcycles, sneaking in gaming on his computer, or watching various movies. But Brandon spent more time in Seattle as he began finishing up his own schooling and preparing for college. That left Steven without any peers except Asherah. Not that he complained. He wasn't particularly lonely and felt complete when they were together. He could honestly say that she was his best friend and most trusted confidant.

During that time, Asherah taught him Elvish and Common, which were both very similar and actually pretty easy to pick up. Steven had already studied several other languages for school so he was very much familiar with linguistics. Elvish was a beautiful flowing language that was much more expressive than English. It was almost sung rather than spoken. Steven imagined that Asherah felt more than a little constrained speaking his native tongue and they ended up spending most of their time conversing in Elvish before long.

He would often sit there in the meadow listening to her sing. She was as comfortable singing to him as speaking and he loved it. Her favorite song was a love ballad and it wasn't long before he knew it by heart and would often bring a guitar out to accompany her while she sang and they'd end up in a duet until he'd goof up and they'd get the giggles and totally lose it. Steven found music in general a tremendous relief and seemed to be able to make music on any instrument he picked up, and out in the meadow music fit Elvish very appropriately.

In return for her lessons, Steven helped her with her own studies, which were as intensive as his own, if not more so. Sometimes he felt like he was going to two advanced schools at once. But he found her studies fascinating. Most of the math, physics and sciences were similar to what he already knew, with some advanced topics breaking ground he had never even remotely considered before. Nevertheless, it was a fascinating distraction that helped him pass the time as the never ending search for his parents continued. Once he worked up new algorithms, hacked more databases, and applied them to the search, there wasn't a whole lot else he had to do out there except studying, drawing, and playing with Asherah.

He was jealous of the computer that she used for her studies. It seemed so... common sense. It was simple ornate cylinder that looked like brass. It had no keyboard or screens and it was completely weatherproof. All he had to do was touch it briefly and he could suddenly see what she was seeing. There were indications of an upgrade that didn't even require his touch. Just proximity. An interface hung in the air before them and even around them as they moved items around. It seemed to be connected to a vast network, and anything they wanted to know and learn was at their fingertips. All of her studies were on her computer, except perhaps for her music and art practice, which he also loved to help with.

Content with the conclusion of their respective studies for the day, Steven lay on his back in the meadow tossing a ball up in the air and catching it. Even though it was the middle of winter, the meadow appeared to him as it always did when he was there imagining, tropical and inviting. He removed his jacket and outer garments, uncovering shorts and a t-shirt that felt much better in the oppressive heat of the mid-afternoon day. It didn't rain that much today. Supposedly the meadow was in its dry season, though it still rained every day. Asherah should call it the less-wet season.

A butterfly flitted by, almost getting nailed by the ball as Steven was tossing it up. Steven grinned. Next time maybe, he thought to himself. The smell of the tropical dandelion flowers was intoxicating. They were in full bloom this time of year, more than usual. The meadow was practically covered by the rich yellow flowers. He just noticed, after all the years he has been visiting the meadow, that their presence seemed to ebb and flow with their own season. The depths of his imagination always presented unexpected surprises to him, so much that he no longer considered this an imagination but his own private sanctuary. He tossed the ball up again and a dainty hand reached out and caught it. Looking up, he saw Asherah waving the ball at him. She giggled and took a few steps back as Steven got up, then she turned around and ran around the tree screaming and laughing. Steven chased her and as he was catching up with her she gave a yelp and tossed the ball up. Steven caught it and wagged a finger at her as she gave him a mischievous look. "Naughty girl," Steven chided. Asherah giggled again and followed him back to his favorite spot.

"Today's your birthday again, isn't it?" she asked, catching up and skipping alongside him. "Are you having a party for Sally?"

"Sally?" Steven looked at her, confused. Then he remembered. According to Asherah, they don't celebrate their own birth on their birthdays, but instead they honor the parent that birthed them. In his case, Sally was the closest he had since his own mother was missing. Asherah's own mother was missing too, so she had never been able to celebrate her birthdays properly, either.

"Oh, yeah. Well, I don't know. But yep, today's my birthday. Fifteen years old today, and still no idea what I want to do with my life." Steven sighed and sat down. Asherah sat across from him, facing him, and tucked her feet under her. She grabbed one of the tropical dandelions and started nibbling on the leaves while she listened. Steven was in another funk.

"That's easy. Do what you like and are good at," Asherah said. "Wow. It doesn't seem like it's been five years already." She looked at him. He was definitely taller now than when he was only ten years old. So was she. Several times Steven had caught himself staring at her as she danced around the meadow or read her studies. She was cute back when he was ten. Now, she was gorgeous.

"I like hanging out here with you. But I'm not sure if that will pay the bills." Steven sighed. "I'm supposed to start my college classes tomorrow." He fiddled with the ball, frowning. "It's been a year since I finished school and I still don't know what I want to do." It took Jonah a year to find a suitable correspondence school for Steven.

"Why?" Asherah asked. She still had trouble grasping the concept of bills and money, but understood his indecision about what to do with his life.

Steven wasn't sure. "I've spent all this time looking for my parents and haven't gotten anywhere at all." He tossed the ball up and caught it. "I practically own the internet and still not a single lead." Asherah nodded, listening quietly while Steven worked things out. "I haven't given any thought to much anything else."

"Well, make a list what do you like doing for fun. Besides annoying me." Asherah grinned.

Steven smirked at her. "Well, computers, of course. Not that I'm going to get anywhere with that in college." He leaned back on his elbow and bounced the ball off the tree. "Sally and Jonah want me to get into agriculture," he pouted.

"You love plants. They love you. Everything you touch grows." Asherah tickled Steven's nose with the flower. He batted it away.

"Yeah. I don't hate it. I just wish I had a choice." He looked up at the tree house. It was showing its age as the tree had grown and the weather demonstrated its ruthlessness to it. The branches had large tufts of snow on the pine bows and there was a little snow on the eaves of the tree house that didn't slide off the steep roof. It was starting to represent a place of failure, however. Steven was growing frustrated with the futility of his search.

"You can also draw." Asherah loved watching him draw, especially when he was drawing her. "You're really, really good."

"There's an abundance of starving artists here already." Steven frowned.

"Artists are starving?" Asherah was shocked. She couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

"It's just a saying. Most artists don't make much of a living from their art and have to do other stuff, too." Steven looked at his sketches. He'd never considered doing that sort of thing professionally. "I don't know. Art is very personal for me, Asherah. I don't think I could just put it out there like that."

"What about bees? You keep a lot of hives and people love your honey." Asherah loved the honey too and he often brought a jar with him to the meadow for them to snack on. She got a double-sweet charge by dipping the ne're temore flowers in the honey and eating that. Steven tried it and found it too sweet for him. The flower was already fairly sweet on its own.

"Well, that would be agricultural and I'm already making a fair living off that. I've actually saved a lot of that money for the search." Steven did make a pretty decent income from selling his honey. His godparents would be tickled if he just expanded on that.

"Well, there you go then. Keep bees and draw me for fun." Asherah made a silly pose and Steven laughed.

"That's actually not a bad idea. I mean, I'm really pretty content in that regard. Brandon's getting into law school and the kids in town are all rushing around trying to figure things out. But you know, I think you've got the right idea. I'm already doing what I love right now and making a decent wage from it." Steven smiled, feeling better.

Asherah was tickled to see his mood lift. She hated seeing him distraught and stressed. She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "You're welcome."

"Shuh." Steven wiped his cheek as she sat back, blushing. Well, she did help. Bouncing ideas off her had proven invaluable many times because of her insight and instincts.

Asherah looked down at the flower for a second, then smiled. "You want to climb the tree?" He sat up and looked up the tree. They often raced each other up the tree, and she beat him often. But today he was feeling lucky. "Like a monkey!" Dropping the ball, he erupted from where he was laying and was clambering up the lower branches before Asherah could respond.

"Hey!" Asherah called after him then followed him up the tree. They sped up the tree, pulling themselves up on opposite sides of the trunk as fast as some would run until Steven reached the top and grabbed the topmost bough. Her hand grabbed his a bare instant later. "You cheated!" Asherah looked sternly at him.