Sky-Water

Picking up the Pieces

We found Afon sitting on the ground outside of a small store, his milky eyes tracing the sounds around him. His upbeat and innocent smile was gone and in its place, he wore a serious and apprehensive look.

As soon as I saw his blackened form in the distance, I broke into a jog, pulling the children with me. "Afon!" I called from across the street.

His head turned sharply toward us and his back straightened.

As soon as traffic was clear, I ran across the road to him. "Afon! It's me, Nuru. Are you alright?" I knelt down on my knees and put a hand on his shoulder.

He looked up at me and gave a soft smile. "Nuru. You found us."

"Where are the others?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said, "but I think they'll be back. I couldn't understand what they were saying."

"But they know where you are?"

"Yes. I think they wanted me to stay here for now. Where are we, Nuru?"

"Was Maypop with them?"

"I don't know. I... I think she might still be on the ship." Afon shook his head. "There was so much going on all at once... and I couldn't understand what anyone said. Maypop was right beside me for a while, and then she wasn't, but I could still hear her, but then I couldn't."

My body felt inexplicably heavy, and I collapsed to sit beside Afon. The children, who had been watching the exchange between us with great curiosity seemed to sense my fear and sadness because they sat down, too, and patted my arm, knee, and head to comfort me. Some of them began to pat Afon as well, causing him to turn and look at them with eyes that made them draw back.

"Who is with us?" he asked me.

"Children from the community," I said. "They helped me find you."

"Oh."

We both went silent for a while.

"The pirate crew that took you spoke English," I said. "Did you hear anything they said?"

"Yes, but what they said didn't make a lot of sense."

"What did they say?"

"They talked about an octopus in the Arctic and fought over whether some creature would be useful to the octopus or not. They argued about how much they could sell the creature for or--"

"Do you think they meant Maypop?"

"Maypop? What do you mean?"

"Remember how I said she wasn't a normal girl? She looks... Well, especially right now since her body is going through some changes... she might be mistaken for a... creature of sorts."

"What does she look like?" Afon turned to look at me with pure curiosity etched on his burned face.

I smiled. "You know, you don't look all so normal, yourself."

"Oh, well, yes, I'm sure." He attempted to smooth his hair down with the palm of his hand. "It's hard to keep yourself clean when you're stranded on the border of outer space."

I snickered. "That's not what I meant."

"But I can't look like a creature, can I?"

"Well... no, you look human enough," I said with a smile.

"Can you describe Maypop to me?" he asked after some hesitancy.

"Hm. She looks much different now than she did just a day ago. The poor girl. And this is her first time out of the Moon-Castle. She doesn't know anything about the world."