Sea Glass

II

The next day, when the children were let out to enjoy themselves once more, Elise assumed her usual post and settled down on the border between pavement and grass. The class had separated into small cliques now; since she remained solitary, nobody approached her.

Today her task was picking out designs in the blacktop: the cracks of the concrete, the patterns of black and grey, the -- ooh, the small chips of green glass glinting among the dark rock. Was there a special kind of black rock used for blacktops, mined and shipped to schools, or was this a mix of things? What about the pieces of glass, how had they gotten there? Were they broken bottles, or were they chipped off of a crystal in some far off country that just... grew naturally?

Perhaps it was just a large black sky of its own, and the glass was its stars. That would make the lighter patches galaxies, but the cracks...?

She shivered and rubbed her arms. That wasn't something she'd like to think about at the moment.

Elise traced one such fracture with her finger, struggling to think of a mundane reason for their existence, when the faint sound of whistling reached her ears. She turned to see a familiar figure pressed against the wall like he had been before, looking like he hadn't moved an inch since yesterday. 

She inhaled sharply, eyes growing wide. Bobby had come back! He'd returned to look at things with her, and she could ask him what he though the cracks could mean.

She leapt to her feet and wasted wasted no time in running over to him, feet pounding on the pavement, and skidded to a halt in front of him.

"Bobby Zimmerman!"

He glanced at her, seemingly unaffected by the energy of her greeting, and half-smiled in amusement.

"Elise Stermann."

"You've come back! Come look at the ground with me, I've found something strange. No use studying the sky, it's more or less the same..."

He raised an eyebrow. "Really, are you sure of that?" 

"Yeah," she breathlessly responded, tugging at the sleeve of his overlarge coat and letting out a small huff when he didn't yield.

"Come on, Bobby, there's something I want to show you."

"Wait one minute. Look back up at the sky."

She sighed, but did as her asked her to.

"It's the same, you say?"

She scanned it quickly: same shade of grey, same source of sunlight, and wouldn't you know it, the cracks were still undiscovered. 

"Yeah."

"Describe the sky you saw yesterday."

Her eyes rolled skyward again, though this time in a gesture of vexation. 

"You saw it at the same time I did."

"Maybe I've forgotten."

She knew his memory of the previous day was completely intact, but seeing as this was the only way she'd get him to cooperate, she drew a deep breath and forced herself to focus on what she was asked to.

"Well, it was grey, just like yesterday, and blank, just like yesterday, and the sun shone across it, and -- hey!"

A cloud had begun to make its commute across her line of vision, a darker one, moving quicker than those behind it and leaving wisps of its tail in its wake.

"That sky-traveler there, he's different."

Bobby tucked his arms behind his back and dipped his head yes.

"Completely new portrait, now. Always look for things that may be different -- no two canvases are exactly the same."

Elise took a moment to absorb the newfound knowledge and tore her attention away from the cloud to study who had told it to her.

"Where do you go to school, Bobby Zimmerman?"

"Ahh, me? I'm too old for school."

"College?"

He shook head, and she cocked hers.

"You seem like you'd be in college."

"Why's that?"

"Because college is where they teach you all the important things."

He chuckled as he replied. "College won't teach you all the important things, far from it. I'm not in it because it can't help me with everything."

Another thing to think about, and finally she answered, "Only the sky can."

"Only the sky can, yes..."

The signal sounded for her to return, a whistle this time, and her shoulders slumped as she let out a groan.

"Ah, man. I still had something I needed to show you... will you be back tomorrow?"

He nodded once, making no move to leave. "I should be."

"Good. I'll show you the other sky I found, then."

She skipped back and forth on her feet a few times before chirping, "Bye, Bobby!" and running off to where the shouts of the others echoed across the field.

Still Bobby stood there, deep in thought and starting at something only he could see. It was only when she was far gone that he murmured, "Bye, Elise," and walked around the corner.

--O--

BohemianBeatle, 2020kpool, it's finally updated! ^^