True Heroes (84 page)

              Caleb smiled as she finally inched into slowly converging arms, the warmth of her shoulders pouring into his biceps as they fit into one another’s contours. Her eyes looked up through her lengthened bangs while his brown curls stayed out of his eyes with a down-turned face. From the left of Caleb, Stanley addressed her. “No, your boy was screwed out of that publicity.”

              ‘Her hair is longer, but those brown eyes haven’t yet come back from the depths of her soul. Everybody is still here.’

              Alice retained eye contact as she asked with a hint of dream, “Who’s that?”

              He smiled and turned. “Alice, this is Stanley. You can call him Rue instead of his pansy first name. He was over there with me.”

              She broke away from Caleb long enough to gently shake Stanley’s hand with averted eyes and a disinterested look before smiling widely once back to homeostasis within Caleb’s arms. David finally caught up to the stationary group. ‘Has he changed?’

              ‘It wouldn’t seem so. He’s still looking quite sour.’

              “Nice to meet you. This guy wouldn’t stop talking about getting back to you. You’ve got yourself a good man here.” She looked over towards Stanley’s midsection and flashed her massive smile. Both of his bags found their way into Rue’s massive left hand. “In any case, this old dog has to pop his paws up for a little while. Caleb, Alice, other guy.”

              He nodded around at everyone before turning towards the chair area. “See you down the road, Rue.”

              “We’re going to be late if we wait around much longer.”

              Caleb swiveled to David. “Late for…?”

              “Picnic.” He looked down again to see his answer along her face. “If no one else will celebrate you coming back, then we will.” Her eyes lit up again as she pushed away to turn to David. “I want to stop by that gift shop first.”

              “Alice…. No, wait, Alice!”

              Caleb smiled at David’s reaction. “Do you know her at all?”

              “For much longer than you.”

              “And yet, you still try to change her.” He walked towards the cluttered shop. ‘Do you notice that too?’

              ‘Notice what?’

              He passed by a woman with two teenage boys, all of their eyes averted. ‘They’re not watching anymore.’

              ‘Because I’m feeling lazy.’

              ‘No, it’s because there’s nothing more to see. Whatever I had inside of me is completely gone.’

              Power could be felt trudging through his mind with its retort unable to take form. ‘There’s still me.’

              ‘That’s true.’

              Alice was at the register upon his approach, and a bag was thrust into her hand before he could see what she purchased. She stopped short of him and looked at his extended hand. ‘She’s drinking in my smile.’

              ‘She’s not thinking.’

              ‘Yeah she is. We just can’t hear it.’

              Alice and Caleb walked with their hands playfully, slowly entwining; around them the world moved, but apart from them did it stay. As she closed her eyes and he zoomed into the details of the faces of people, they both became witnesses to the same phenomenon; every face and body they passed was drawn not to her boundless smile or to his radiant eyes, but to the hands by which they were connected. There was a resonant calm that flung and swirled around the pathway they walked, and its effects were nothing more than a glance and a thought, both soon forgotten from within their context but remembered for the thorough capitualizing of the void created by the small connection of two separate bodies. By time they reached David at the revolving door, they suddenly found that their pathway—though linear or circular—had been shifted with the subtlety of a whispered dream.

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              Beneath a scattering of blue spaces between white clouds, food was spread across a calculated area. Alice hummed with a large bite in her mouth, and shown an oblong smile to Caleb’s funny face. ‘That’s a lot of mustard. I like his voice. In my head now. That’s where it’s meant to be.’

              Benny stood from the far edge of the nondescript blanket and raised a small bottle. “To you, returned warrior, I shall toast with my heartiest wine.”

              She heard a small retort from everyone else. Alice swallowed before smiling at Caleb again. ‘He’s embarrassed. His cheeks look so cute in red.’

              “Thank you, Benny, and everyone for surprising me with this get-together.”

              “What was it like over there?”

              Alice didn’t turn. ‘Stewart asked. Caleb’s face looks so beautiful. I missed it.’

              “Well,” Caleb stammered, “it was…sandy, and sunny. I wasn’t around for very long to sight-see. But the mission was…,” his head suddenly went down while his eyes focused intently, “done the right way.”

              Her head swiveled slightly to see Stewart’s face. ‘He’s pleased with that. Change the subject.’ “Who wants ice cream?”

              She dug several pints from the chilled bucket next to her and passed them around.

---

              ‘She’s different, I say.’

              ‘How could she possibly be different? The desert warped your mind.’

              Caleb took the vanilla pint as it came to his lap. ‘Look at her eyes.’

              His head turned to glance into them before her attention was pulled aside by David. ‘She always looks at you like that.’

              ‘That’s not where the change is. She hasn’t been talking as much today.’

              ‘That I’ll agree with.’

---

              “Vanilla? Again?”

              He looked over to her with a spoon jutting from his mouth. “Yeah.” He spit out the spoon and caught it with his right hand, drawing applause. “Why would I ever need anything more?”

              ‘What a show-off. Nobody can do it like him.

---

              ‘Everybody watches her every move.’

              ‘Remarkable isn’t it?’

---

              “Alice?” ‘Her voice is so small and cute!’ “David? Do you guys mind if some of us go on a walk?”

              David shot a look over to Alice. ‘No, I want to be here with Caleb. You go please.’ He leaned in closer to her and whispered, “Would you like to go with them?”

              Alice kept her distance. “If I go, everybody will leave you alone here.”

---

              ‘Ha. She’s getting good at that.’

---

              ‘You know it’s true. Please do this for me.’

              “All right, I get it.” David stood with a grunt. “C’mon. These two want to be alone for a while.”

              Various hoots sounded—‘Andrea smiled at Caleb. Jeez now they all think we’re like that,’—as they stood with small buckets of ice cream in hand and trotted playfully away. Her head immediately spun to Caleb while her body leaned closer to his arm. “I did not say anything like that.”

              He smiled widely. “But it’s true. Maybe not for the reason they thought, but it’s still true.”

              “And how do you know?”

              “Because you’ve had that look about you since I got off the plane.”

              ‘Even when I don’t think aloud he’s a psychic.’ “About what, do you think?”

              “Not sure.”

              “Well, I do have a surprise for you.”

              “Good, then I won’t feel awkward when I tell you the surprise I have for you.”

              They smiled together and turned so that their opposite arms served as rotational pivots. “Mine first. Tell me a complicated lie.”

              He looked away for a second and thought. “I have the hips of a Brazilian belly dancer.”

              An image entered her mind: ‘Caleb in a leafy skirt, his pale skin covered in all types of jewels and cold coins, that wild hair behind a purple veil. Wow.’ “Tell me a real one, like you used to.”

              “All right. The mission was easy.”

---

              Alice closed her eyes and smiled with her face pointing upwards. ‘She looks as though she’s taking knowledge from the sun.’

              Both entities observed her for a long while. ‘She’s not talking aloud.’

              ‘She’s thinking in her head.’

              ‘How?’

              ‘No idea. I guess that’s what’s different.’

              ‘I would’ve never guessed that.’

              ‘When have you ever looked there?’

              ‘When have I needed to?’

              ‘All the time.’

---

              “It wasn’t easy, and it’s complicated because it was actually a lot harder than you expected?”

              Caleb smiled at her inflection and nodded. “You got it. You thought that all out in your head?” She nodded. “How? That’s a huge change.”

              “I don’t know. I just started hearing your voice project my thoughts in my head. It was freaky at first, but it’s nice to have privacy. I see why you and the Prince always talk alone.”

              “Oh yeah, best of conversations in here,” he said while tapping his temple.

              ‘Ask.’ “What happened? Really?”

              “I haven’t wanted to tell you about it for a reason too.”

              ‘Protecting me.’ “Don’t. Just tell me.”

              ‘He sighed heavily. He doesn’t want to tell me.’

              “It started well. I was dropped next to a village filled with military and mercenaries. They weren’t a problem. Once in the caves, some other side gave out on me.”

              “I did not,” a vague face next to Caleb’s said. “I was as clueless as him. My pull towards the skin and beyond suddenly stopped.”

              Caleb nodded. “Either way, I couldn’t defend myself. They strapped me to a chair for about fourteen hours…and tortured me for about six of those hours.”

              ‘No!’ “They hurt you? What did they do?”

              Alice felt his hand atop hers. “I’m fine now. Here and fine. That’s what matters. I don’t want you boarding a plane and breaking their arm at their court date.”

              ‘Funny, but no laugh. Keep serious. Hide happy from your voice.’ “As long as everything’s okay now, I can settle for screaming at the television when I see their picture.” ‘Dang that sounded too happy! It’s okay, he smiled. Such a big smile. Do I even know who he’s talking about? Nope. I don’t need to. Not with that smile. Wait.’ “What did you want to surprise me with?”

              “Was that your surprise? That you’re a quieter thinker?”

              She laughed and tensed her fingers under his. “It’s the start, so you start yours now.”

              “I technically already have.”

              “How?” ‘Over there. What happened?’ “What else happened over there?”

              He shifted his weight off his arms and sat up straight, crossing his legs while staring down at Alice’s right hand. “Anytime I’ve thought of something actually happening versus just occurring, I see that something that happens has a lasting effect while an occurrence can vary tremendously, but always ends. In that sense, only one thing truly happened over there.” His left pinkie gently wrapped around hers. “I was confronted by my past, everything I was, really: guilt, drive, convoluted vengeance. What I saw was what I hated. I saw my life flash before my eyes until just a few months ago. Then, I remembered something that I never knew. Everything was suddenly completely inverted just because I knew that dying there was not the right thing to do. I remembered that the lives of my family weren’t dependent on me. I never knew that before. It all started with your face in my head. You wouldn’t go away no matter how hard I shook, and I remembered why.”

              ‘His eyes are clear. He’s…peaceful.’ “What’s my face have to do with it?”

              ‘Now they’re so naturally bright. What’s he thinking?’

              “I was drawn to you again, and again, and again, and the end of it all just wouldn’t come as long as your face was there. I’m…trying to subtly say that I’m drawn to you, and I want to be with you again.”