The Dragon Ember

Chapter Eight: Lana

I parted the curtains to catch a glance at Calvin through the window. He just sat on the porch, looking out at the forest and up into the sky. After a moment, when he thought that he was alone, his head sank to his chest and his body began to convulse. My heart ached in response. All those years, to learn how his sister's life ended. Not being able to be there. I knew how that felt. At least he regretted it. At least he had a good reason. I touched the glass. "I'll help you." I mouthed, without even realizing what I was saying.
My hand jumped from the glass when I heard shuffling into the room. It was Reed, already sitting on the couch, she gave me a pained smile. "How is he?"
"His family hasn't answered yet." I lied. "He's still waiting for a callback."
"We'll see," Reed said, "I hope we hear back from him soon. We don't have a whole lot of room here."
"We have room in the estate." I countered. Reed was being awfully cold. I'd never taken her to be distrustful of strangers. He was a boy, though, so maybe that was why she was being so wary. "I don't think he'll do anything."
Reed let out a chuckle and turned on the TV. It was set to the news, as always. Reed seemed to eat it up, every day. "We barely know the boy, besides, anyone impulsive enough to run away from home is someone to be careful of, sweetheart. You should know that."
I nodded. She was right, of course. I remember stranger danger. Reed never let me forget it, ever since I was old enough to understand what a stranger was. Still, she had no idea who this stranger was. I stopped. Did I, though? "I can always stay at my house, you can keep an eye on him here. Make sure he doesn't get into any trouble."
"Assuming his family doesn't get back to him." Reed gave me a probing look like she was looking for something. I made a mental note to go through any lies with Calvin first, so we could get our stories straight. Reed could sniff out anything, it seemed.
She smiled and got up from the couch, becoming me to her. I leaned into her arms as she hugged me. "You know, you can tell me anything, right?" She said softly. "I won't let anyone hurt you."
"I know," I whispered into her shirt. I was nearly as tall as she was now, but I still felt like a little kid whenever she held me in her arms, that cozy feeling enveloping me. Maybe I should tell her. She might know what to do. She seemed to know a little about everything. But...Calvin asked me not to tell anyone. He was obviously worried about something, and it was his own identity. If he wanted to keep a secret. I couldn't say anything, stranger or no.
I let go of her embrace and looked at her. "I'm worried about him going back home," I said finally, "If a teenager runs away, there's more to it than homesickness. It's not like he's seven."
Reed gave a knowing smile and nodded appreciatively. "Good instincts, do you think he's hiding something."
Of course, he is, I thought. "Well if his family doesn't call back that will definitely say something about his family situation. If my son went missing, I'd be standing by the phone every waking moment."
"You sure he called his parents?" Reed asked.
"I think so. Didn't really stop to listen to the voicemail, just that he called ."
"Hmm." Reed mused. "Well, keep an eye on him. There's more to his story, I just know it." Reed gave me a tight squeeze on my arm and then walked down the hallway towards the back yard.  I gave her as genuine a smile as I could manage as she left, then flopped onto the couch with a huff. This was going to be harder than I thought. Mom I could lie to, no questions asked. She never seemed to care enough to try to call out my lies. But Reed... a small knot began to wiggle into much chest hot and pulsating. The only thing that kept me from blabbing his story was the look of fear on Calvin's face when he heard people coming. I hope it doesn't come back to bite me.
A few minutes later, Calvin came back into the room, phone in hand. Ha gave me a pained smile. "They haven't tried to call back yet." He said, trying to sound casual, but he looked shaken in so many ways. Who could blame him?
"We can call them later, " I said, motioning to the seat next to me.
Calvin walked over to the couch, knees buckling underneath him. He gave a quick glance at the tv, too dazed to be amazed. "So those are moving pictures." He said numbly.
"Just the news," I said, "Just more about Trump."
"Who?" Calvin had a bemused look on his face.
I waved my hand. "Just a racist wannabe dictator. He's our president."
Calvin snorted a laugh. "Two hundred years and things are still the same" Then his smile broke quickly, replaced by a pained look. He sat on the couch for a moment, wringing his hands, almost at the brink of tears. Suddenly he looked up at me. "You remind me a great deal of my sister."
"What?" I stammered.
"It is your eyes." He said quickly, then stared blankly out into space. "You have her eyes. Some color, same intelligence, same determined look. I...I confess I don't know how to describe it."
"I noticed it too," I said. Actually, it was more than just the character of her eyes, and we both knew it. It was like looking into a mirror, staring at those eyes. The color of her skin, the curve of her face, seemed all to fade away in her eyes. They were my eyes.
"I only wished to tell you." He murmured. "I...I miss her."
The knot in my chest clenched, suddenly I was willing to lie to anyone to keep this boy's secret. Waking up in a strange time, no family, and seeing someone with his sister's eyes. It must be too much to bear.
Suddenly I had an idea. "You want to learn more about this crazy time?"
He frowned for a moment, then a slow smile spread across his face. "I think that I just might."
"Good." I grinned. "I know exactly what we're going to do tomorrow."

Despite our deepest hope, sadly Calvin's parents never called back, so Calvin had to spend another night at the house with us. He didn't seem very comfortable at first, but Reed and James went to great pains to help him feel at home. The lie worked. A little part of me did feel some satisfaction being able to fool Reed and James. When I asked Reed if I could take Calvin out on the town while we waited to hear from his parents, she seemed skeptical, but she relented after a lot of pleading and bargaining. Let's just say I have a few more chores. It was worth it to catch Calvin upon two hundred years of history.
"So this 'car'," Calvin began. He sat in the passenger seat of my newly gifted car, the one that everyone pretended didn't exist in the garage. He looked around, mesmerized by the display in the center console, the glass windows, and the doors. He did fidget every once in a while, obviously uncomfortable with the seat. "It runs on fossil fuels, with an engine."
"Yep." I had just finished explaining the basics of how cars work to him. He seemed to pick up everything pretty well.
"There were some scholars among the dragons that speculated that such a thing was possible." He said, twirling some of his hair in his left hand. "And this thing in the middle," he pointed at the screen. "Is that a phone as well."
"Sort of, it's called a display. It can play music, and also show a map that I can use to navigate. It connects to my phone."
"Fascinating." He said. I watched out of the corner of my eye as he sat back in his seat, looking around and absorbing everything from the landscape outside to every nook and cranny of the car. I'd never admitted this to Calvin, but I was surprised that he wasn't freaking out about any of this. I guess compared to losing your family, everything else was just an interesting oddity.
"Where are we going again?" He asked.
"To watch a movie," I replied. "There are places where you can go to watch movies to see stories that you normally wouldn't have yourself."
He nodded. "Like a recorded play."
"Something like that," I said. "Then we're going to go to an ice cream place. It's one of my favorite things."
"You can just go and eat ice cream?" He said, amazed.
"Modern times are pretty great." I smiled.
Calvin ended up having countless more questions after that, refrigeration, modern history, computers, space. Everything seemed up for grabs. I was able to explain most things, but modern politics was where I stopped. " All I can say is that it's a mess."
"You need not tell me," Calvin said. "In my time, Spain was always threatening to absorb Portugal back to make a unified Iberian Peninsula. It was...difficult to put it mildly." After that he was silent, his face pensive. I didn't talk much after that either.
We got to the movie theater later, and ordered the matinee tickets, and went inside. I bought popcorn and sodas since they are essential for any movie-going experience. I even bought some candy, just to be sure we had everything.
Calvin enjoyed the popcorn, the soda especially. "It's the sweetest thing I've ever tasted." He commented. That seemed to surprise him more than anything else." He loved the popcorn too. I loved watching his reactions to everything we did, like watching a little kid experiencing life for the first time. It was fascinating for me. He treated everything I thought was a little boring as a prize to treasure.
The movie was a generic action movie, the kind of stuff that you watch just for the explosions and car chases. Calvin looked like he was really there, cringing at every punch and gasping at every crash. I couldn't help but laugh. The movie was just about as cheesy as you could get, but then again Calvin had no idea it was a movie chock full of tropes, he just was amazed that as he said, "fiction could look so real."
    When the movie was over, Calvin still looked like he was in the middle of the action, nearly hopping up and down. "So nothing in the movie actually happened?"
    "It was all just actors and movie effects."
    Calvin had a faraway look in his eyes. "It was all so convincing." He shook himself out of it and gave me a wide grin. "What are we doing next?"
    "What else?" I said.