Separated By a Wall

Caitlin

She grips my shoulder sitting me down in the wooden chair. Wood like the trees. I'm facing the window, where I stared at the wall. I should probably put this chair somewhere else. I don't have to fantasize anymore. "So what was it like on the other side?" she asks first. The tone in her voice told me she was demanding an answer as if I was some sort of criminal and not her best friend. 

"It was great. There is this thing called books but theirs are different and they have paper and  ice cream and-" she cuts me off with a simple hand gesture. "I'm not talking about the items you saw. We can't afford to discover new things without fully understanding what we've already discovered. The Black Mercy, their planet, the medicines we could make!" Somehow, all of that stuff seemed so unimportant and so boring when I have discovered fun. "And what about people? What are the Anoch like?" I'm afraid to tell her about Ryker, Caiden, Hayden, Ryker's father Thomas, and Teresa. But I don't know why. 

Is it because I already knew about the Anoch from work? She would tell something's off? Nonsense, you've been lying to her since you started that job. Serving coffee, really?  And this is why the voice in my head is both logical, annoying and my worst enemy. "The Anoch look like humans. You can't even tell the difference." That was partly true. Unless an Anoch decided to take their shirt off for whatever reason, then they did look human. I also noticed that their eyes change color. Caiden's eyes turned a shade darker when he saw me. Hayden's eyes turned a shade lighter when we were hanging out earlier today. And Ryker? His eyes have changed too many times to count. 

"So what's stopping them from coming over to our side? They should be able to blend in with society." Teresa mentioned something about their kind sneaking over to the other side. Or trying to. Only one came back alive. I guess the rest were sent to the basement of my facility. "There are guards on our side of the wall. If they opened the door, the guards would have taken them out." I say quickly. Caitlin presses her lips together, raising an eyebrow.  

"What kind of questions did you ask them?" The Q&A. I can't even remember the answers much less the questions. Aubade. I remember Aubade. "I asked them what kinds of holidays they celebrated." She nods. "And they said?" I didn't understand why Caitlin was prying all of a sudden. She wasn't like this before. "Aubade. In their galaxy they had 18 suns. They would form a perfect circle in the sky every thousand years and the Anoch celebrated another thousand years alive." Her eyes widen. "18 suns?!? Isn't that super hot? How do they stand that?" Great. I couldn't tell her I asked about the powers, that opens up too many doors. "I guess they physically look like us but they have things that we don't." I say, choosing my words carefully. 

"What other holidays?" At the time, I didn't want to ask. They seemed so happy talking about their holiday, Aubade, and reminiscing in the moments of their past. I knew I couldn't take that away from them. And if I kept asking them about holidays the conversation would have taken a turn for the worst. I would have eventually asked what happened to their planet without realizing it and even though it's already been a decade, I can tell they're not ready to share that with me yet. 

"I didn't ask." Caitlin clicks her tongue. This was a side of Caitlin I was more familiar with. Her fascination. The first time I told Caitlin about crossing over we were sitting on the stools of the kitchen island. She was leaned over, half her body on the table, her elbows stuck together holding up her head and a huge smile plastered on her face. I used to find the fact that she would intervene in the middle of every sentence annoying, but I guess I can tell why. This Caitlin was different. She seemed more...icy. 

"Have you heard of the rumor Spectrala?" I froze. "Yes." I answer, pretending nothing is wrong when on the inside, alarm bells are going off. My head is screaming at me to get out. But I don't have a CareBot. I can't teleport. "Did you know that Spectrala was seen leaving your office building late at night with an Anoch?" How could they have seen me? There was no one on the streets. Just the police and the hover trucks.