Senseless

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

We sat on a cliff ledge overlooking the city, Everest's head resting on my shoulder. It wasn't a very high ledge, and not in the sense that we hadn't increased in altitude, but rather that if you looked below the cliff, you'd see another almost immediately below you. I saw it as a little bit farther away than it truly was, but my dad's assurances made all my doubts about the lower ledge's distance dissolve. Having sucky sight meant sucky depth perception. I was used to it, like I was used to everything, but, really, it had never really been hard to live with. I rammed into poles a few times, or tried to step up onto a step a little too soon, but I could never feel the pain of the impact, and I didn't really care about the glances I would always receive. My eyes simply saw things differently. 

A forest covered the land to our backs, full of mystical beauty, and the wind blew grey leaves forwards so that they danced in front of us. One landed on my lap. I picked it up, twirling it around between my fingers. When another gust came, I released it back into the world. It became caught up with others, and they all swirled together into a funnel. 

"Miniature twisters," Everest whispered, her voice just barely audible. "Just like your book." 

I watched the leaves as the sun began to set, a smiling lighting up my face even as the sky darkened it. "You read it," I said. 

"It's magnificent."

I asked, "Is the world really like that for you?" It had been on my mind ever since the first verse of the first poem. 

She nodded, but not the kind of nod I typically got from people who knew about the Five A's. No, not one of those slow and sympathetic nods that made me want to strangle the life out of someone because of how pitied they made me feel. Everest's was quick and energetic. Excited. Her eyes flicked to me, wide and sparkling, for a second, as if to say, "Yes, and it's wonderful."

I liked that much better than, "Yes, and I wish you could understand." 

We stayed on the ledge long after the grey lights of the city blurred together. "Come on," I whispered as I stood up and brushed of my jeans, extending a hand to help Everest up. "I've saved the best part."

I flicked on a flashlight, and began walking deep into the forest. It didn't take me long to find the path I was looking for. I had paved it several years back, around when I was thirteen, on the day my father had left me alone at Purple Suns for a reason I couldn't quite remember. It had taken me a bit, but I'd managed to put enough stones to make it look like an acceptable trail. 

Eventually, we reached a small clearing, and I smiled, closing my eyes for a moment, allowing memories to flow freely throughout my mind. 

"Look up," I told Everest, shining the flashlight into the sky. 

She simply smiled and stared, shaking her head. 

"Welcome to Purple Suns," I said, gesturing to the large wooden structure that wrapped around a total of five different trees. It wasn't much, and I knew that, but was the closest I'd ever come to staying the night in a residence. I'd always been fond of the place, though. My father and I never had a lot money, but he made sure I still had a childhood. And building a tree house, he thought, ranked very highly on the list of "Things Fathers Need to do with Their Sons." The name 'Purple Suns' was something that needed the last word of the name in order to make sense in even the least bit, and it was currently vacant in the sky.

"This place is incredible, Achilleus," Everest was still staring awestruck at the building. "When was it built?" 

"Seven years ago," I told her, pulling out a key and moving towards the front door at the leftmost tree, which would immediately lead me to the staircase. "I was eleven."