Dead Clouds

Chapter 10 (2/3): The Strings Around Our Hearts

Exhaust fans hummed a baritone tune as Radius walked by them. The genius slid his eyes from one end of the rooftop to the other. It was empty. His feet pressed into the polyvinyl roof panels as he eased his way to the center. In a simple movement, he craned his neck to the sky.

Oceans of blue dotted with white stared back at him. Radius identified them as cumulus clouds. Before, he dismissed those clouds as common and harmless. Now, as he tracked their stroll through the sky, he wondered if the cauli-flower shaped clouds were planning to strike next. Any sense of safety in the clouds left him. There was only suspicion.

"This should be a good spot," said Gold, scoping out the area, "It's just us two."

Radius nodded. He realized that an ironic advantage of living in a metropolis was the surprising number of secluded spaces. A person only needed to know where to look. Holding out a fist with faded scratches on the knuckles, the genius waited for Gold. It was time to send the signal.

Gold complied.

A streak of lightning shot down from above and swallowed the two in blinding light. Crackling and sizzling muted the exhaust fans. Thick smoke thinned until a skeletal figure became visible.

"You feel that?" asked Gold, his body shining within the dark void, "Kiri's almost here already."

"Indeed," answered Radius, "It seems we weren't the only ones highly anticipating this meeting."

The Skeleton Man steered its gaze to the mountain range of roofs that extended beyond the apartment tower. Leaping from one roof to the next, a shrouded figure closed in on the hero. Its hood wildly flapped in the wind before flying off as the figure landed on the apartment tower's roof. Kiri's spiky red hair leaned towards the direction of the wind. His dark-colored eyes fixed on the skeleton facing him.

Radius cautiously lowered his voice before speaking, "Remember. I'm leading this discussion."

"You kept me waiting longer than I anticipated," started Kiri, stopping a few feet away, "I almost worried that you'd never send the signal."

"There was no need to be presumptuous," said the Skeleton Man, "In discussions as vital as this one proves to be, formulating good questions is just as pertinent as receiving good answers."

"I don't even understand what you're saying," said Gold with a palm on his forehead.

Radius ignored his partner. He mentally compiled a list of over one hundred questions. Then, he subdivided those questions into follow-up questions. Lastly, he subdivided those follow-up questions into an additional batch of follow-up questions. The genius planted a tree of questions where branches connected to stems which connected to roots. He knew that if he conducted this discussion properly, then its contents would live forever in the archives of journals, public libraries, and universities around the globe. Bibliographies would cite him as a source for all cloud-related studies until the end of time.

He salivated.

The Skeleton Man stuck a single phalange into the air, "Question one. What is a Fog?"

Exhaust fans continued making music as the Skeleton Man awaited Kiri's response. The Fog's sharp eyes softened and his lips curled downward. He looked trapped within a memory that displaced him from the present.

"A Fog suffers through a cruel and pitiful existence," answered Kiri in a distant voice, "Though we take the appearance of humans, we're nothing like them. Humans age. Fogs grow until they reach the climax of their physical development, and then stay there... forever."

"Forever!" shouted the Skeleton Man.

Radius stabbed Gold with his glare.

The Skeleton Man cleared his throat, "Excuse me. What exactly do you mean by forever?"