Elements of Earth: The Element Trials

Chapter 7b, 2020, Estrellita: A flowering bird of freedom

I didn't return to my library for the rest of the day. I tried to spend its entirety in reflection. Vivian and I did not play video games together. I instead started working on my assignment from Ms. V; to find connections between Estrellita and myself that I can externally verify. Unfortunately, there are few. All my memories of her are after she'd been taken for the trials. Everything I know about her life before being taken to the facility is from her thoughts or feelings during the trials. There are things I haven't seen but that I know to be true when I feel them. Like how she once lived in a bell tower or remembering her father's name. But none of that serves as evidence of her existence.

So instead I must find clues in the memories of her time as a test subject of the trials. I pace impatiently like a dog outside a rabbit hole. From my mouth spilled raving, maddening truths I observed in that other world. And so I began throwing them at the walls to see if they stick.

"The books on silicon-based insulation... No." I grip my head, shaking it. "Even if I could track down all the books Dak brought me in the infirmary, I wouldn't get anything useful." I frown. "No... Dak brought the books to Kira... Am I losing it?" I sit down at my desk, immediately looking to my bookshelf as if the answers lay there. But considering its size in comparison to the collection in my library that is more than doubtful. "The answers are always in books..." I shoot up in the chair. Volumes on insulation weren't the only books Dak brought to the infirmary. I download a copy of that book to double check.

"While I have seen every Lord of the Rings film, I've never read the Fellowship of the Ring. Dak read it to Kira." I confirm the dialogue of the book and the film are different in that scene. "There's no way I could have fabricated the memory of that. That is a point in favor of me not hallucinating it since part of it is true without my knowledge of it being so. But that doesn't prove anything in particular. It's relevant but doesn't narrow down the core issue; my relationship to Kira." I sigh and sit back down at my computer. Just over the sound of my music, I hear a faint ping. An Email from Ms. V.

Estrellita,

I'm sorry but your weekend's being cut short. I've gotten word from your father. He's coming home for an early weekend. In order for you to spend more time with him when he gets here, I am adjusting this weeks schedule. You will have half days on Sunday and Thursday, but full days Monday through Wednesday. Your assignment will still be due on Monday and I will expect you one hour early on Sunday for your detention. The group assignments that were due Monday will be due Sunday. Your group has had months to complete it so moving it up shouldn't be an issue.

Ms. V

I whisper it to myself. "Dad's coming home... Vivian!" I yelled as I ran out the door of my room. "Vivian!"

"I hear you, I hear you." Vivian got up from laying on the couch. Her hologram simulated drool. It even had drawn an imprint on her face from the couch and her hair on the side facing the pillow was puffy. "What's up buttercup?"

"Daddy's coming home!"

"Really? That's wonderful!" Vivian looked down at her disheveled appearance, mumbling something I couldn't hear. She snapped her fingers and fairy godmothered her holographic body from nappy to neat in seconds. Then she turned towards the door as if expecting him to arrive any second.

"Vivian?"

"Hm?"

"He's not going to be here till Thursday."

"Of course." A few quiet moments pass silently until she finally looks at me. "When?"

I enunciated slowly since she apparently was having trouble coming out of sleep mode. "Thursday."