Globe Tracers 1: The Case of Thomas Crain

Chapter 13: School Time

Kyle:

It was inevitable. We had to go back to that clock tower sometime that day.

Allen had invited Jessica and I to church, but I let on that I really wasn't Christian myself. Jessica was, but she would never force me to go. She had always just studied on her own. I actually wanted to tell her to go ahead without me. She could worship and I could use the chance to practice and maybe work on my invention. Unfortunately, she and I being separated for that long wasn't allowed.

Jessica and I had practiced throwing lightning for hours. After about three hours, I convinced her to practice more direct blade attacks with me. Jessica doubted she would ever need such skills, but did not begrudge me the chance to at least practice my own functional attacks. On the way back to the tower, Allen driving us again, we stopped by a restaurant. While there I ate something called a hamburger with cheese. It was good, and I enjoyed the "french fries" that I was given as a side dish too. Jessica didn't take the meal as given however, she often didn't. When she was given her burger, she sighed saying that she had already tried burgers. She then asked for yogurt and dumped that between the meat and the bun when she got it. (Whatever "yogurt" is.) She said it was good... I didn't know what I was looking at, to begin with when it came to burgers, but one with a giant pile of pink dairy product added I REALLY didn't know what to do with.

From there we went to our final destination for the evening, the tower.

Allen had brought a second mattress for Jessica with him and put it down for her when we reached the floor behind the clock. He also had a bundle of blankets that he set down with it. Setting up her bed with two blankets, Jessica said she was turning in. I nodded and said I would do the same.

However, Allen asked me to come away from Jessica for a few moments.

"What's going on?" I asked as we went out on the balcony.

"I skipped out to go to church earlier while you two practiced, but did you practice your own attacks?" he asked when we were out of Jessica's earshot.

I looked up at the stars; part of me wasn't in this conversation. "Yeah, we did. Jess doesn't like direct attacks, says they're too risky, but me, they're really all I can do. The idea of actually shooting someone at a distance... well maybe if they were right in front of me I could do that."

"So, explain something to me."

"Suppose I'm an open book to you, shoot," I said turning around and giving him my attention.

"You have one of the most powerful people in the world looking out for you and you're on a planet where almost everyone is so young you have a hard time taking them seriously, am I right so far?"

"Well, I can take humans seriously..." I tried. But I could tell from the look he gave me, he wasn't buying it. Still, I was liking Allen, so I wanted to soften the blow. "Just not too seriously, so I suppose that's the gist of it."

"So why are you so worried about learning to fight for yourself?"

I had to stop at that question. I looked around, thinking. Self-defense was just a basic thing on my world, but there was more to this than that.

It was chilly out. I looked down into the street, watching the lights of cars as they passed under us. Strange to notice, but the lights of cars and the stars in the sky have a lot in common. White lights with little distinctiveness, you can't tell their shape from a distance, you only see the bright light that reflects off them. I had thought a few times... home was just a light.