safe & sound → t. m. r.

IV.

Skye and Newt applaud enthusiastically and Gally runs away from behind the TV and into the woods.

"Age is just a number," states Chuck.

"Correct!" I say, kissing him again.

"I love you Chucky Chuck Chuck," I murmur while kissing him.

"What the fuck? What do you think you're doing to my young son! You know he's only just turned seven! You're forty-two for gods sake, Kale!" Newt screams, pulling Chuck off of me.

I get to my feet. "I dunno he just came onto me I didn't do anything," I explain.

"But daddy, I love my mummy!" Chuck shouts, pointing at me.

"She is no mother to you, Chuck. She left you as a baby. I'm your real mother." Newt says coldly.

Chuck begins to cry. "Pappy you can't tell me what to do! I'm a big boy now, you said so!"

"Shut it boy!" Newt yells, slapping his little cute son around the head. Chuck falls to the ground, twitching slightly, tears running down his cheeks, mouth open in a silent scream. Froth pools at the corners of his lips.

"Hey, what's up?" says Alby, running up to us.

I roll my eyes, annoyed he always talks to us even though no one likes him or cares. "En oh tee aych eye enough geese!" I say, poking his chest.

"I can't spell," he says sadly, staring at the ground. "I never learned. I never could learn. The African American people were never treated fairly. I was never allowed into school simply because of the colour of my skin. My family worked their hands to the bone everyday just to put a single loaf of bread on the table to feed my eleven siblings and I—"

I roll my eyes again. "Oh grow up. You're older than me. You should be more mature, Albifier."

"I'm the real leader here," announces Skye.

Alby nods slowly, getting the idea. "You know what Skye? I think you are. I hereby elect you the new leader of the glade."

Skye smiles shyly. "Aw, Alberto Obama. You look so hot. Let's get you out of those clothes to cool off."

She slowly and carefully strips Alby down so he's completely bare and shining in the frail evening light, looking glossy and God-like. Skye gives his pants to a naked Newt and pulls on the shirt, covering her previously bare chest.

We stand in awkward silence for at least six minutes.

"Skye and I are going to go back to her hut, is that OK?" Newt asks, giggling and staring dreamily into Skye's eyes.

"No," I say sharply, folding my arms across my chest. "Why don't you ever think for our son Charles, NewtonMail? You always just think of yourself. What about me and what I want? What about our son, what does he tell his friends when they come over after school? He'll have to tell them that his daddy is with the sky. How will that make him feel, NewtonMail?" I gesture to Chuck's fallen body, still twitching.

"I'm not 'the sky' you dumb slut," says Skye, offended. "It's just my name is Skye. I'm a human, like you. Like all of you." She giggles nervously, like she's lying.

Later that night when most people are asleep, I climb up the vines with Chuck and sit on the top of the wall with him, our feet dangling, gazing out across the lush green glade.

"I wish everything was more simple," I say to him, clutching his small, young, supple hand in my own ageing one.

Chuck smiles sadly at me. "Yeah. Me too. I wish we could be together. I wish Newt would stop treating me like a kid. I wish everyone would stop treating me like a kid. Age really is just a number. It shouldn't matter in a place like this."

"Do you think Newt likes me? Like, as more than a friend?"

Chuck immediately looks heartbroken though he quickly masks it behind his youthful expressions. "I don't know. I'm not very good with things like that, Kale. I may be a big boy, but at the end of the day I am only seven while most other people here are sixteen or seventeen or eighteen."

I grin. "I'm forty-two. We can be unique ages together."

"Yes," Chuck says, climbing back down the wall and sprinting off to his hut he shares with Thomas.

Skye's p.v.o.

I wake up very early to Minho banging on the door of my hut, screaming at me to get up and get ready for when the doors open.

"Shut the fuck up Minwhore," I yell back at him.

When I get out in my running gear of a tight camo tube top and tiny matching skirt, he's waiting for me.

I roll my eyes. "I thought I told you to fuck off, Arab."

"Well, that's what I wanted to tell you, Skye. As our new leader, you need to step up and be nice to people, right? I don't want you to call me 'Minwhore' or 'arab' anymore. I'm not even an Arab. I'm Korean," Minho says all smart and giggling.

"K. Whatevs. So ... are you and Gally ... like ... a thing?" I ask, changing the subject.

Minho blushes. "Uh, uh, I don't really know," he stutters. "Are you and Newt a thing?"

"Yes. Definitely. We're really in love again. I don't think he ever really stopped loving me," I say seriously and confidently.

Minho smiles. "Well, just make sure it doesn't end like it did last time. Newts a very kind and sensitive person. Don't break my little mans heart."

"Can't promise that, lad, sorry," I say. "I'm a girl of many boys."

Suddenly there's a shout. I spot a crowd gathering around a section of the east wall. There's a shadowy figure standing at the top, looking down.

"What's those people doing?" I ask aggressively.

We stroll over to the group because Minho keeps hanging back. He's scared of seeing Gally after the puppet show event last night. I pull out my whip and even though he cries a lot we finally reach the crowd.

It's Alby at the top of the wall.