Dents

[+Bonus Chapter] Slow Country

When 2D ushered me inside the taxi, I never considered that our stop would be the airport.

He managed to keep me ignorant to our destination for the entirety of the journey. When we boarded, he covered my eyes and guided me to our flight. I was required, by his instruction, to listen to music until we arrived. He didn't want the intercom announcements to spoil the surprise. I indulged him.

When we landed, I was speechless.

The evening drew to a close. Skyscrapers loomed over the city, ever watchful sentinels of the nightlife. Beaten rail cars were stacked dangerously along the coastline, greeted only by the occasional fisherman passerby or a junk boat sailing to whereabouts unknown. The teal waves of the sea crashed lulling rhythms on the bar of sand that stretched on into the distance. It was broken by a rocky cliffside a half mile away. Crickets chirped quiet tunes in the salty air.

"Is that... " I started, unable to find the words to describe what I was seeing.

It was the same, yet it was different.

The dock hung lopsided over the waves. The splintered foundation planks were swallowed up in a thick layer of algae. The current pounded upon the decrepit pillars of the half sunken pier. An outlying fog slithered in at leisure, a plausible threat to the star-laden skies.

While those parts were as I'd remembered them, the city buildings weren't visible on the horizon back then. Or maybe at the time I simply hadn't cared to notice.

A pile of emerald green siding was stacked haphazardly beside the house. Dozens of the planks had been replaced. The previous dingy eggshell hue it used to have had practically vanished. Where the path around the property had once been only a mudslide, it was now lined patiently with scattered pieces of flagstone. The battered screen that once swung violently with the slightest breeze had been replaced with a solid oak door that shut firmly on its hinges.

"What happened to this place, 'D?"

I was awed with the remodeling. It had been a lovely hideaway even in its disrepair. Seeing the life breathed into it again made it feel enchanting.

"New ownas," he responded, lugging our stuff out of the third taxi we'd taken in the last twelve hours.

"Wow. Who?"

"Us," he smiled keenly.

I shook my head in disbelief.

"Wait, seriously? Us?"

"Mhm."

2D nodded. A tattered suitcase slid from the stack in his arms and toppled into the grass below.

"Et's not finished yet, bu' et's comin' along, yeh?"

"I'll say."

2D swung down to pick up the suitcase that had fallen. As he leaned over, the two that he had managed to keep his grip on fell as well. I decided against asking if he needed my help. It was obvious that he did and hadn't wanted to ask for it. I picked up the first case that he dropped and stacked the other two in his arms. He smiled sheepishly.

"Fanks, luv. Could yew please get the door, too?"

"Yeah. Of course."

As I swung the door open, the dense air that built up inside from years of disuse was finally released. The overpowering scent of flowers warded off the odor of dust and age.

It smelled sort of like primrose. It was cool and sunny. It was familiar, yet I could no longer place how.

I was enveloped in complete darkness. Every curtain in the flat was drawn tightly. Not even a glint of ambient light allowed me to see where I was going. I began fumbling around the nearest wall for a light switch when 2D hollered from the roadside.