SPASE

SPASE: CHAPTER TEN

"Mad! Is that you?" Nick yells, using his palm as a visor to try to see better.

Maddie strains their eyes to make sure it is who they think it is. Mad... Nick is one of the only people that calls them by that name. In second grade, Maddie remembers coming home with bruises because the other kids in their class would throw pebbles at them on the playground and call them "Mad the Mastiff" because they were fat and they didn't want to get in trouble for calling them a "bitch," but still was able to make the distinction they were a dog. Nick and Melissa are the only ones that Maddie feels comfortable enough to let use that specific nickname: Mad. Maddie doesn't have any doubt in their mind who it is as soon as he opened his mouth.

"Holy shit, it is you! What are the chances," Nick says. It is like he is actually surprised to see them. Maddie feels a sudden burning in their chest. They rub it off as if it is heartburn. However, Reynolds knows the real truth and lets out a low growl.

"Well, you were fucking driving, so... there's that," Maddie scoffs. Nick looks at Maddie, tilts his head, and lets out a sigh.

"Look, I know that I was probably going a little too fast..." Nick starts.

"Probably? Probably!" Maddie interrupts. They are quick to react, given the situation. Normally, they weren't like that with Nick, despite his attitude when it comes to just about everything, but this time, Maddie can't help it. Maddie's pissed. Their shy, fat-ass is pissed, and this time, they aren't afraid to act like it. He can just deal.

Nick looks down at his shoes. Normally, he is the type to just defend himself and easily persuade a person to get on his side. Maddie loves him as a brother, but he always has to be right and get his way. Him apologizing isn't going to happen. He is too proud. Maddie is too afraid to lose him to let him know he is more wrong than right.

Maddie waits in silence, truly believing that he might be at a loss for words for the first time ever. Reynolds sits beside Maddie, waiting for their next move. Hesitant to say what he knows, Reynolds sniffs the air. He's silent. Quicker than that thought entering Maddie's mind, it leaves as soon as Nick started talking about his day.

"So, I woke up and I was in a hotel room. Crazy, huh? I asked the lady downstairs at the desk how the hell I got here and she looked at me like I was freaking stupid and had maggots coming out of my ears. You know what? I didn't even have to pay when I left! I told her I didn't have any money and had no clue how I had gotten there. She laughed her ass off and told me I could come back. I was downtown, downtown where I didn't know and..."

Nick continues on with his story about how he woke up in the hotel downtown, had no clue where he was until he ran into a man in a Cubs cap that bought him a beer in one of the pubs down the street, (a beer that he was pretty stoked about), and they talked about how the Cubs had the best season ever, and blah blah blah. Nick's story-telling gene is in full force and it's apparent. He fails his arms as he tells the story, seeming to make sure not to leave any detail out. Nick has a tendency to ramble and draw out stories. That is the Midwestern way to be. If a person isn't shy, they are long-winded.

"Then, Jimmy, you know, the guy with the cap told me about Spase... this place here," Nick says as he throws up his hands and looks out toward the horizon, which just the start of buildings from the downtown area.

Let's see what he's heard, Reynolds chimes in after being silent for so long. Reynolds is skeptical but is not heard by Nick, who just keeps right on talking. Maddie nods, as though they are listening. Maddie is actually half listening and half trying to comprehend what they are being told they needed to do or needed to "be."

"Can you believe this dude told me that this is an in-between place? Somewhere that people just come to sit when their bodies can't decide to go back to Earth as something else, like a bird or a dog or something and that they really don't have a choice what they're going to be, or if the person moves on to never go back again. He didn't really get into specifics, but I'm confused as to where the person would go. I mean, it's not like anything we've ever learned at United Methodist, let me tell you," Nick says as he begins picking at his teeth and looking around.

"But hey, no school, so I guess that's a plus, eh?" Nick chuckles, placing his hands on his hips. Maddie looks at him and can't believe how still it is up on the hill of sunflowers. The trees along the sides of the field on the hill don't move. There's no wind. The city lights twinkle off in the distance but don't hinder the view of the sky.

After a moment of silence, Reynolds and Maddie look at each other. It is kind of funny because as much as adults want to push some religious path down their children's throats, it slipped Maddie's mind that this place, Spase, changes the course of everything that they knew to be real. Maddie's thoughts snap back into their head as they hear Nick mention the Guide.

"We don't get to decide anything here because apparently some dude, the Guide, or whatever decides. Hell, sometimes the people that come here aren't even dead. We have to be dreaming or something because I'm not dead and..." Nick stops mid-sentence.

Nick finally notices that it isn't just Maddie that he is talking to.

"Wait, who the hell..." he points to Reynolds.

Maddie feels a pulsing in their lower abdomen, the pulling, like before. A huge surge of energy pulls them into themselves and somewhere else. Reynolds looks at Maddie with his tail erect. He knows something is happening.

"Reynolds, Nick! I'm..."

And they disappear into a mist.