AVENIR

Chapter 3: Something Out Of A Dream

"Wha-?" I recoiled in shock. My eyes wildly scanned his face. Scruffy beard, mole centered directly between his eyebrows, bags under his eyes...and those raptor eyes, always full of pain. His navy blue uniform was perfectly in place, his bicorne hat atop his head. I checked my mental picture against the person in front of me...his medallions were all in order, dotting his chest, the fleur-de-lis on both sides of his collar, the silver ribbon patched onto his hat...It was definitely him.

"Woah." I reached out a shaking hand, took the book from his gloved hand, then looked into his eyes. "Can I..."

"Oh. Right, they told me this might happen," Javert (!!!) quickly muttered under his breath. He removed a black glove, revealing a pale hand, so white it looked as if it had never seen the sun. My shaking hand pressed his palm, felt his fingers, eventually having enough sense to shake his hand. His skin was most definitely real. He wasn't a hologram sent by the society as a trick. Plus, he wouldn't have lasted outside of the city limits had he been a hologram. Perhaps he was a mirage...it felt like something out of a dream. I couldn't tell who let go first. I stayed transfixed.

He had dismounted the horse, whispering into its ear. It began grazing in the field where we had landed. Grass. Field. Things I had only read about in the stories I had scoured when I was younger. For the first time since arriving, I took in my surroundings. It was pitch dark outside, except for the stars in the sky above. The sky was as black as the surrounding air around me, but the stars shone a milky white...and they sparkled. I had never seen the stars before, having been only used to the beams of the city lights. My brother had told me about them before. He said he had spent many a night laying on his back, staring up at the stars and wishing on each and every one. "Wait until you see a shooting star, sister!" he'd exclaim. "They are magical, and they help me remember!"

"Remember what?" I'd ask.

"Remember the stars," he would say, and he would not say anything more...not even how he saw the stars in the first place. I never pushed further; you didn't push him to tell you anything further than what he wanted to say.

"Why can't I see the stars now?" I would ask, almost crying. How come he could do all of these things that I could never do, see all of these things that I could never see?

"You will one day," was his only answer. I would try to pry, but a glance from him held so much pain that I could not continue to ask. Questions filled my brain. Now, in the field with the stallion and Javert, I felt like all of my questions were being answered. I was finally seeing the stars. Silent tears streaming down my face, I laid on my back, staring up at the sky. I tried to think of wishes to make, but my mind was blank. I had been brought from the darkness of the city into the light of the stars.

Time passed. I felt Javert sit down near me. I shuddered involuntarily. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

Truthfully? I had no idea. I shook my head. He saw the tears streaming down my face and decided not to press further. Time passed.