Chapter One
Jacob saw the earth speed toward
him.
He cradled his head between his
arms as he braced himself for the impact. The silver, bullet shaped pod landed
on the soft beach sand in an explosion of dust. The wind twirled the sand into
tendrils and dispersed it into clouds of earth. At an amazing speed the oddly
shaped object propelled through the sand, leaving a deep trench behind it. It
plunged into a sand dune and Jacob jerked forward against the restraints
painfully.
He muttered softly, “This is not
good. Not good at all.”
Pushing against the hatch release
button, he felt a cool breeze wash over his shoulders together with a steady
stream of sand.
The hatch stopped opening with a
shudder and Jacob looked up. He looked up into a black night sky with a
constellation of stars different from which he was used to. Lifting his hands
above his head, he tried to push the hatch up and to the front, but it would
not budge.
“Not good at all.”
He took a big gulp of air. The
air was not as clean and rich as the atmosphere at home, but after living in a
chamber for six months prior to his journey here, his lungs had become
accustomed to the less oxygen rich air.
With all his might, he pushed
against the hatch again. A flood of sand cascaded down onto his lap, finding
its way into his shoes, and then with a screeching noise the hatch opened up
all the way.
He pushed against the mechanism
and released the safety constraints against his chest and across his shoulders.
Lifting himself upward awkwardly, he grabbed onto both sides of the opening
above his head, and hoisted himself up.
For a moment he sat on top of the
pod and looked at the waves rushing toward him in white, luminous foam and then
just as quickly it withdrew from him again. The place was desolated and he
breathed a sigh of relieve when he saw there were no earthlings to witness his
disastrous crash.
He slid down the side of the pod
and tried to shake as much of the sand from his trousers as he could. He was
not sure what he was going to do with the pod. He could not leave it where it
was and it was impossible for him to drag it somewhere safe. For a brief moment
he panicked when he realized he did not know how he was going to get home
again.
First things first though, and
maybe, just maybe, he would be able to fix it. He decided he would have to hide
it in the Mangrove Swamp, he could see a short distance away. He pulled first
his one arm against his chest and then his other arm, stretching his muscles.
With a grunt he bent down and
started to push against the side of the pod in an attempt to first dislodge it
from the dune. Effortlessly the pod slid sideways, while Jacob jumped back in
surprise. He lifted his hands, palms up, and looked at them quizzically.
Gravity here was supposed to be
the same as at home, wasn’t it?
He bend forward again and pushed
against the pod. Smoothly the pod started sliding across the beach.
While pushing the pod ahead of
him as it slid like a hot knife through butter across the sand, he considered
that this might be the reason why the pod crashed. Gravity on this planet was
exerting a lesser pull than the Elders of his planet had thought. So instead of
landing safely in the pre-planned ravine near his mission objective, the pull
of gravity was not strong enough and caused him to crash land instead at a
place he was yet to establish.
At the edge of the Mangrove
Swamp, he stopped.
He leaned into the pod and pulled
out his newly designed rucksack. The rucksack looked exactly like those on this
planet, and it had taken a lot of research and design planning, before the
Elders were happy with the one he was now lifting through the hatch.
He unzipped the zipper and pulled
out the clear spectacles he had to wear while he was here, to help him with his
assignment, and to help him navigate his way around this planet.
A quick peek confirmed that his
water capsules and nutrition pills were safely tucked away in a side pouch of
the rucksack. He only had a six month supply, he panicked briefly.
He pulled the rucksack onto his
back, and then after he pried the hatch closed, he pushed the pod into the murky
water. He looked for bubbles, because he was not sure if the hatch was still
airtight, and although he waited for at least ten minutes and judging from the
roots of the Mangrove Trees surrounding him, the water was not very deep. He
sighed relieved when he did not see any air escaping from the pod to the
surface of the water.
Placing the spectacles on his
face, he blinked his eyes a few times, to adjust to the glare.
He touched the frame with his
index finger across the top and his thumb around the bottom. It looked as if he
was adjusting the glasses on his nose. This took him months of practice, to
make it look natural.
In the left lens words appeared.
Mission: Find Amy Trotter.
Touching the frame again, he
changed the view to his GPS map locator. A red dot started blinking, which he
knew was her location and he estimated he was at least fifty kilometers off
course.
He started walking in the
direction the map was indicating to be his shortest route, and although at
times the map directed him to go through a building, he managed to stay on
track.
Arius was his home planet.
He was sent here to safe his own
planet, because although his planet was millions of years older than this
planet, Earth, and people on this planet had made different choices to destroy
their home, they did not make the same mistakes.
Tens of thousands of years ago
over-population had almost destroyed his planet, and then procreation was
ceased amongst those who could still breed.
Relationships on Arius were
banned, and were punishable by execution. This eradicated the planet of a great
number of people, which eased the burden on Arius considerably. Those who
refused to abide by the laws and continued having relationships in secret, were
put to death. They were killed without mercy and for the benefit of Arius,
after their seeds were harvested.
There were strict laws and
regulations in place which assisted against any rebellious uprising or to stop
the possibility of someone breaking the most important law on their planet - to
fall in love with another and then to perform the act of breeding. Jacob could
never understand the necessity of the guards in their black uniforms marching
the streets of every city on Arius or the cameras on every street within the
business districts and residential areas. Jacob had always thought these
stringent measures were unnecessary. He could not understand why anybody would
ever fall in love with another. He did not even understand the meaning of the
word, love.
New babies, such as himself, were
only fabricated in a laboratory, when necessary. Jacob grew up without
experiencing the affectionate touch of another being, or the feeling of being
loved. Although he felt compassion, consideration, and care toward others, in
many other ways he was without feeling.
Arius moved around Ra and Luna,
the planets of warmth and growth, at a different speed as the Earth moved
around the Sun. They had a different method of calculating days and years, and
on Arius, Jacob had lived for more than eighteen thousand years. In contrast to
the people who lived on this planet, people on Arius could be considered
forever young, because it was coded into their genetic structure that nobody
lived for more than twenty thousand years. Only the Elders lived past this age.
The Elders had lived since before the time when everybody else now living on
Arius, was created in a laboratory.
The tentacled beings from
Piscibra, a neighboring planet, had depleted the resources on their own planet
and they wanted to invade Arius and make it their own. The violent battle
between the people of Arius and the tentacled creatures of Piscibra had halved
the population of Arius, and the laboratory which housed the female seeds was
compromised during an invasion.
It was decided that Jacob would
journey across the space of time and light, a journey of five Arius days to
establish contact with Amy Trotter. After detailed research, performed by the
Elders, it was established that the genetic formation within the female seeds
from the family of which Amy Trotter is a descendant will be their salvation,
and Jacob was sent here to collect those seeds.
There was an urgent need for more
people to be created on Arius in order for them to defend their home.
Jacob needed to find Amy Trotter
as quickly as possible, harvest her seeds, get back to the pod and try to
repair it, and then get back to his own home before he had no home to return
to.
Jacob followed the direction on
the map in front of his left eye, reflected off the glass of the spectacles he
was wearing.
He left the city and the suburbs
behind him, as his surroundings started turning rural. He was now walking along
a black asphalt structure, which he had learned was called a highway. From the
corner of his eye he saw the sky start to turn an orange color along the rim of
the planet. Cars started driving past him with speed, lifting his pitch black
hair from his forehead in bursts of air. Jacob stared after the antiquated
vehicles interested. He coughed a few times and felt his lungs constrict
painfully when exhaust fumes, from the vehicles speeding past him, blew back
into his face.
It took a long time for Jacob to
learn the language and phrases of this planet. Of those who were initially
chosen to undergo the training, Jacob was eventually chosen as the one who was
best able to complete the mission successfully. He knew the different dialects
and practiced for hours until it was perfect, until it came to him naturally.
He knew the strange names of everything. He studied earth and its population.
He knew the history of the planet, Earth, since its creation. There was nothing
about this planet he did not study or that he did not know about.
He remembered watching an imagery
while he was in training for this mission, where there were no talking, only
singing, and there was a man walking along a similar road, but the man held out
his hand with his thumb extended upward. In the imagery a vehicle had stopped
and the man was offered, what was called, a lift.
Jacob pushed out his right hand
and extended his thumb upward.
Gravity was starting to pull
heavily on his arm, when eventually a battered vehicle stopped a short distance
ahead of him. He jogged toward the vehicle in the same manner he saw the man do
in the imagery he saw back home, and then stood next to the driver side window
of the vehicle.
The man in the vehicle asked,
“Where you headed?”
“Kloof. Approximately forty
kilometers from here.”
The man frowned for a moment.
“Get in. I am going that way.”
Jacob rushed around the vehicle.
He opened the door and sat down on the bucket seat.
The man looked at him amused.
“Suppose it is just around the corner and you are right to keep your backpack
on your back.”
Jacob berated himself. He did so
well in his training. He knew all their mannerisms and the way they did things,
especially in this country, and now his first contact with an earthling had
already resulted in suspicion.
“Why are you on the roads this
early, are you running away from home?”
Jacob took a large, inconspicuous
gulp of air. He smiled friendly. “No, Sir. My car broke down earlier, and I
decided to walk to the nearest filling station.”
“You don’t look old enough to
have a driver’s license?” The man asked curiously.
“Have been eighteen for three
months now, Sir.” Jacob remembered to look proud as he fished his wallet from
his pocket and showed the man his driver’s license.
The man slowed down and brought
the car to a stop on the side of the highway. “Here we go. Kloof.”
Surprised Jacob pushed his wallet
back into his pocket. While he was walking, the distance on the map still
looked so far, but with the vehicle it was just a short drive across the large
hill and down the other side.
Jacob pulled the door handle
toward himself and as he got out of the car, he remembered to say, “Thank you,
Sir.”
“Make sure your car is roadworthy
before you start driving it again. It is dangerous walking around out here.”
Jacob lifted his hand awkwardly
and waved at the man. He watched the battered vehicle drive away, and then he
focused on the map again.
He was almost at her house, about
another kilometer or two through the ravine and he will arrive at the little
village called, Waterfall, where she lived with her family.
Chapter Two
Amy woke up in the little room
she shared with her two younger stepsisters. She stretched and swung her legs
off the small single bed.
Walking to the bathroom across
the passage from her room, she heard her dad in the kitchen.
In the bathroom, she washed her
face and combed her fingers through her long, knotted dark brown hair. When she
opened the bathroom door again her older brother, George, was waiting
impatiently for her to come out of the bathroom, so he could use it.
She mumbled, “Good morning,” as
she brushed past him.
Reaching the kitchen, she smiled
when she saw her dad. “Morning, Dad.”
Her dad turned toward her.
“Morning, Amy. Good sleep?”
“I had the weirdest dreams.”
He was going to ask her about her
dreams, when her stepmom came into the room. Amy moved toward the toaster and
the bread bin.
She opened the container and
pulled two slices of bread from the packet. Looking intently at the toaster in
front of her, she slipped the two slices into the toaster, and pushed the lever
on the side down.
Her stepmom grunted as she walked
past Amy, “Morning.”
Amy grumbled a reply that sounded
almost like good morning.
Impatiently Amy stared at the
toaster, while she waited for the two slices of white bread to pop back up
again. She heard her dad and stepmom talking in the background, but she was not
listening to them. She was not interested.
Amy sighed with relief when the
bread jumped up at her, and she grabbed at them. Her fingertips scorched and
she quickly dropped them on the counter.
Her stepmom asked from behind
her, “Hope you will be cleaning that?”
Amy rolled her eyes. “Of course.
I always do.”
From the corner of her eye she
saw her stepmom packing lunch for her two stepsisters, Anne and Sam.
Disgruntled Amy took the two slices of toast, without buttering them and left
the room. Her stepmom was always packing lunch for her stepsisters, but not for
her. If Amy did not know better, she would think her stepmom was doing it on
purpose to hurt her feelings. Actually, Amy considered, she did know better and
her stepmom was just being mean and bitter. Amy had to fight back the tears.
Today was not a good day to start feeling sorry for herself. This was the day,
fourteen years ago, when her mom had died, when Amy was only three years old.
Although Amy could not remember her mom at all, she would have loved to have a
mother, without the word ‘step’ attached to it. Someone who would also cuddle
her, show her motherly love. She was not short of receiving love. Her dad
always showered her with attention and her dad adored her, but sometimes a girl
needed a mother.
Amy took a large bite out of the
slice of dry toast.
While she chewed on it, she woke
up Anne and Sam. She watched them scurry around the small room looking for
their shoes and socks, as she pulled herself up onto her bed and rested her
back against the wall. She pulled her knees up and slowly she ate her
breakfast.
When she licked the last dry
crumb from her index finger, she got up from the bed. She kneeled down onto the
floor and pulled Anne’s shoe from under the bed.
Holding it out to Anne silently,
Anne grabbed at it and exclaimed happily, “Thank you, Amy.”
“Put it where you can find it in
the mornings,” Amy replied off-handedly.
Anne quickly slipped the shoe
onto her foot and tied the laces.
Together Anne and Sam rushed out
of the room, when their mom called their names, announcing that breakfast was
ready.
Amy started getting ready for
school. She changed into her school uniform and then she stood in front of the
mirror on the inside of her cupboard door to fix her hair. She brushed as many
knots as she could out of her hair and tied it into a ponytail behind her head.
Her dad called her and she
quickly pushed the cupboard door shut.
Without seeing any of the other
people she shared her home with, she walked out the house through the front
door and got into the passenger seat of her dad’s car.
Her dad smiled at her when he
looked across the space between them. Sometimes Amy wondered why he never stood
up for her when her stepmom was being evil toward her, but to be honest she did
not care. She stopped caring a long time ago.
They talked and mostly Amy only
listened. She had heard it all before.
Relieved she got out of the car
when he stopped it in front of the entrance to the High School. She pulled her
bag across her one shoulder, as she stepped out of the car and then with a
casual wave across her shoulder to her dad, she walked onto the school grounds.
Amy did not notice it when every
boy she walked past stopped what they were doing, hoping that today they would
be the one who caught her attention. She walked past each one of them without
knowing the interest they had in her. She did not know that almost every boy in
school wished she would be his girlfriend.
Amy did not have any friends, boy
or girl. The girls thought she was too sulky and sullen to be friends with, and
the boys were too nervous to approach her, for fear of being rejected.
Amy did not care. All she wanted
was to finish school and to go away from this place as far as she could go. A
distant planet would not be far enough.
When Jacob walked into the
administration office, school had already started two hours ago. He walked to
the reception desk and announced to the receptionist, “I am here to register
for class.”
The woman looked up and then
around him. She looked back at him and asked curiously, “Your parents still
coming?”
For a short moment Jacob
panicked. “No. They send me to register myself.” He hesitated, trying to think
of something more to say. He added, “They are both at work.”
“Okay. Let’s see what papers you
have there.”
Jacob looked back at her, until
she pointed a longish red fingernail at the dark blue folder he was clutching
in his hands.
He lifted the folder and unsure
he held it out toward her.
She reached up and took hold of
it. She flipped open the file and then scanned the information. After a while,
she looked up again. “I have never seen a file as meticulous as this one.
Everything is in here.” She smiled friendly. “Usually there is some missing
information, but you have everything we need to register you.” She pointed her
manicured finger toward a few chairs arranged in a square around a dull brown
carpet. “Wait there, so I can get all of this in the system and see which class
you will fit in with.”
Jacob nodded his head and then
turned away toward the chairs. He sat down on the edge of the seat, while he
waited nervously for her.
About half an hour later, she
walked toward him and smiled down on him.
He stood up quickly.
“Come. I’ll walk you to your
first class.”
Jacob followed her down a long
passage and then up a set of stairs to the second floor.
Smiling friendly she said, “It is
not every day we have a new student who starts on a Thursday. It is quite
refreshing.”
Jacob remained silent and
considered that once again he failed, even after all his training. People on
planet Earth had unpredictable practices, which were difficult to calculate.
She walked toward the middle of
the corridor and then she knocked at a closed door.
The door swung open and an
elderly man, with a balding head, looked out. “Miss Jonas?”
“Good morning, Mr. Kruger. I have
a new student for you.”
Mr. Kruger glanced at Jacob, as
he swung the door open wider. He took the slip of paper from Miss Jonas and
indicated with a wave of his hand for Jacob to enter the room.
Jacob walked in and then stood in
front of the class uncertainly, while Mr. Kruger continued talking to Miss
Jonas.
Jacob scanned the room quickly
and then he saw her. She was staring out of the window to her side
disinterested, but the message on the left screen of the spectacles he was
wearing confirmed: Amy Trotter.
Mr. Kruger came into the room
again after Miss Jonas walked away laughing. “Okay, Jacob. Let’s find a seat
for you.” His eyes swept across the room. “There at the back, behind Kevin.”
Jacob looked in the same
direction as Mr. Kruger, and saw the empty seat he was referring to.
Mr. Kruger turned away from him,
back to the blackboard and started writing a math problem in white chalk across
the matt green surface.
Jacob walked toward the empty
seat.
When he walked past Amy’s desk,
he stumbled. His first thought was ‘stupid gravity’. His second thought shocked
him. He could hear her thoughts. Was he supposed to be able to hear her
thoughts, and why did she think he was an idiot?
He decided to ask her, but then
she would wonder how he knew that she thought he was an idiot. He would frighten
her if he told her he could hear what she was thinking.
He looked away quickly, when she
looked up at him with clear green eyes and he heard a female voice in his head
ask accusingly, “What?”
He walked past her desk hurriedly
and slid into the empty seat behind Kevin.
Kevin turned slightly in his seat
and smiled at Jacob.
He could not hear what Kevin was
thinking. Could he only hear her? Was this in some way supposed to help him
with his mission? The Elders never told him he would be able to hear what she
was thinking.
“Jacob.” Mr. Kruger’s voice rang
through the classroom. “Earth to Jacob. Are you still with us?”
Jacob cleared his mind and looked
away from the back of Amy’s head. He focused on Mr. Kruger.
Mr. Kruger admonished him, “I
asked you if you have done these math problems before.”
Jacob looked at the board behind
Mr. Kruger’s broad back and solved the sum within seconds. It was a basic,
elementary problem. He lifted himself from the chair, but then hesitated and
lowered himself again. The boy in the seat next to him was slumping down in his
chair. Only the top of his back and his lower back seemed to make contact with
the surface of the chair. Jacob copied him, and said clearly, “Yes, Sir. I
have.”
“Then solve it.”
Jacob gave him the answer.
Mr. Kruger frowned and Jacob
wondered why.
“Where did you transfer from?”
Mr. Kruger asked seriously.
Jacob felt everyone in the class
take an interest in him, as they shifted in their chairs to look at him. For a
moment, his mind went blank and he could not remember what the answer to this
particular question was supposed to be. Then it came rushing back to him, when
everybody started staring at him as if he really was an idiot. “I am from N.J.
Archie College in Cape Town.”
Mr. Kruger pulled his lips together
and he nodded. “Private school, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“I suppose you were ahead with
the syllabus then?”
“Yes, Sir. We did these problems
in the second term already.”
Mr. Kruger turned away from Jacob
satisfied, and Jacob sighed softly with relief. He decided he would have to
make sure he pretended not to know everything. It would be better if they
thought he was an idiot, rather than get suspicious he might be from another
planet.
When the bell rang, Kevin waited
for Jacob. Kevin saw Jacob follow Amy with his eyes and he laughed amused.
“Join the club, dude. She’s not available.”
Jacob scooped his bag up from off
the floor and swung it across his shoulder. “What do you mean?”
“Every boy in school is in love
with that one, and is yet to get lucky with her. We wondered if it was because
she might be into girls, but it turns out, she’s just not interested in
anyone.”
Jacob could not understand why
Kevin would immediately assume he had a romantic interest in Amy. During his
training he learned that love between two people, sometimes more than two
people, like a family, were very important on this planet. Could it be so
important that sometimes it was the only thing people could think about? Surely
not, because how would anything else be done? Is everything done for love, out
of love?
Kevin interrupted his thoughts.
“What class do you have next?”
Jacob reached for the schedule he
pushed into his navy blue jacket pocket. He unfolded it and read the word,
“Science.”
“Me too. I’ll walk you there.”
Jacob and Kevin walked past Amy
where she was leaning against the red brick wall in front of a class, waiting
for the class inside to be dismissed.
As Jacob walked past her, he
caught her eye and he smiled. His brilliant smile lit up his bright, cobalt
blue eyes.
Pleased he walked away from her,
thinking elated that she thought he had the most beautiful eyes she had ever
seen. She noticed him, actually saw him.
This would make it easier,
because he needed to make a plan to get to know her, to speak to her. He had to
find a way to lure her away from other people to a place where he would have to
sedate her, and then he would have to perform the surgical procedure to remove
her seeds, so he could safe his own people, to safe his own planet. On Arius
they learned from the recent violent history of the planet, Earth, that he
could have kidnapped her. It would have been easier and it would have been
faster, but the Elders instructed him to follow this path, to befriend her. The
mission had been planned in detail. If he kidnapped her, she might die and then
her bodily functions would cease, thus causing her reproductive eggs to die as
well.
He did not have a lot of time.
His home was in danger as every day went by. His way of living was being
threatened.
Chapter Three
At lunch break Jacob walked along
each corridor, past the blue classroom doors, which were all closed. He walked
toward the last row of classrooms and scanned the large field. He saw the netball
fields and the rugby fields. His eyes searched the pavilion, but he could not
find Amy anywhere. He decided to walk up to the second floor, to the library.
He entered the large, silent
room. It was brightly lit, the sun shining brilliantly through the large
windows along the entire right side of the room. He walked past the checkout
counter, and the perky girl with the two ponytails on either side of her face
smiled at him friendly. He smiled in return and then he saw Amy sitting at a
table in the back. He walked past the other tables with boys and girls huddled
closely together, laughing and joking softly.
When he reached the table where
Amy was sitting, he looked down at her for a moment. Her head of dark brown
hair was bent over a book, and she had an arm curled over a thick encyclopedia
as if she was keeping the pages down. Her other hand clutched tightly to a
yellow pen, and her hand scribbled words down quickly onto a lined manuscript
page.
He pulled the chair to her left
away from the table and sat down next to her. He could hear her curse of
agitation as she looked up from her hurried jotting, in his head.
She pierced him with her
lime-green colored eyes, as they flashed her irritation at him for being
disturbed. Her pinkish lips pulled down at the corners, and he took in her soft
cheeks, her cheekbones, her dark eyebrows, and her long, dark eyelashes.
“Am I disturbing you?” He asked
amused.
“What do you want?”
Jacob shrugged. “You looked
lonely.”
He heard her sarcastic laugh, but
out loud she said, “I am not lonely, and I am very busy. This is due on
Monday.”
“Monday? And you are only working
on it now?” He smiled.
Amy looked at him for a moment,
trying to size him up. She noticed again his blue eyes. It was the bluest eyes
she had ever seen, and his black hair seemed too black to be natural. “It has
nothing to do with you.”
Jacob laughed softly. “Are you
this hostile to everybody you meet?”
“Again. Nothing to do with you.”
Jacob was starting to feel a
little troubled, she was rude beyond reproach. He was here, taking a chance to
be friendly with her, to extend a hand of friendship. She honestly looked
lonely sitting here all by herself, while the other kids in her age group were
laughing, joking and flirting amongst themselves.
She looked at him pensively, and
he saw sadness in her eyes. There was a deep sadness hidden behind her angry
look of defiance.
After a few seconds she looked
down at her page, when she could no longer look into his eyes, when it started
to feel as if he was looking for something more. As if his eyes were searching
hers for hidden secrets, secrets she was not willing to share with anybody.
Jacob realized his approach was
all wrong. He pushed the chair away from the table and walked away from her. He
walked briskly across the industrial brown carpeting and when he reached the
checkout counter, the perky girl behind the counter asked friendly, “You didn’t
find what you were looking for?”
He stopped and looked at her
confused.
“I can help you find what you’re
looking for, if you want?”
Friendly, he smiled. “I found
what I was looking for, but I’ll check it out later.”
“Have you got your library card
yet?”
Jacob stepped closer to the
counter. He saw her happiness edged clearly on her face. Why then was this girl
so happy to be friendly with him, and she wanted to start a conversation, and
not Amy? What was he doing wrong?
“What’s your name?”
“Huh?”
The girl smiled. “Your name. For
the library card. Your grade will also be helpful.”
“Jacob Smith. Grade Twelve.”
She typed the information onto
the keyboard. “There you are.” She glanced up at him.
He sensed Amy walking toward him
and he turned slightly to watch her, but she walked past him without glancing
in his direction. Jacob felt a twinge of irritation. A feeling he was
unfamiliar with. On Arius everybody was amiable and friendly. They were a peace
loving nation and he was not used to being treated with disdain and contempt.
He looked back at the library
monitor in front of him, and leaned with his elbows on the desk as he smiled
friendly. He might as well try to fit in here on this planet, while he figured
out a way to approach the infuriating Amy. Her attitude would, no doubt, make
it easier for him to harvest her seeds when he had found the opportunity to
lure her away.
“So, now you have my name, is it
not polite for you to tell me your name?”
The library monitor smiled
pleased. “Cynthia.”
“Well Cynthia, you are the first
friendly face I have seen in a while.”
Cynthia turned back to the
library computer screen. “Most of us are really friendly, but I saw you trying
to talk to Amy. You would be better off to forget about her, she does not speak
to anybody at school. She thinks she is too good for any of us.”
Cynthia clicked the mouse on the
print icon on her screen. She waited for the card to print on the printer next
to her.
Jacob wondered why Amy would
avoid being friends with anyone. Surely, from what he had learned about this
planet, everybody wanted to feel as if they belonged. Is that why there was a
hint of sadness in her eyes?
As soon as Cynthia handed the
laminated library card across the desk to Jacob, the school bell rang,
indicating lunch break was over.
“There is a school carnival this
weekend. It is starting tomorrow morning.”
Jacob smiled charmingly. “What
must I bring?”
“Oh, no. You’re new so I don’t
think you would have to do anything. I’ll be working at the Games table, so
come and see me.”
Jacob started to move away from
the desk, when the Library Teacher came walking into the room. “I better go,
before I am late for class.”
“Okay, Jacob. See you tomorrow at
the carnival.”
Jacob smiled at Cynthia, across
his shoulder, as he walked away from the library.
His next period was History and
he ended up in an empty seat behind Amy. He kept one eye on her throughout the
duration of the class. Her hair looked soft and silky and for some peculiar
reason he wondered how it would feel to wrap his hands in it. Her back was
straight and she did not slump in her chair, like the rest of the people in the
classroom. He wondered what was wrong with her. He could not understand why
she, unlike everybody here, did not crave the company of other people.
After History, Jacob did not see
her again until he saw her walking away from school after the last bell rang.
He rushed past the other students, who wanted him to stop and talk. He made
friends quickly with everybody and they all called his name to attract his
attention. The rugby team was trying to convince him to come to practice. He
excused himself hurriedly as he kept Amy in his peripheral vision. He hoped she
walked home. He knew the distance between school and her home was only one
kilometer, so not too far to walk.
He hurried after her, and was
relieved when he saw her walk away from school, instead of being collected or
heading toward a car.
Falling in step next to her, he
said self-assuredly, “Hi.” He heard her sigh loudly in his mind, and he felt an
ache of annoyance.
Amy glanced at him. “Hi.”
He ignored her frustration and
was desperate to start a conversation with her, so he asked friendly, “Do you
walk home every day?”
“I do,” she said dismissively.
They walked a few steps in
silence, and then Jacob asked curiously, “So why are you so anti-social?”
She turned her bright green eyes
at him hastily, and glared at him for a second, before she looked back at the
road ahead of her.
He frowned when he heard her
reply in his mind. She thought nobody wanted to be friends with her. He
wondered if she ever considered that essentially it was her attitude which made
nobody want to be friends with her. He heard her wish of being away, far away
from here.
Without thinking, he asked,
“Where would you go if you escaped from here?”
She stopped walking and looked at
him shocked. “What are you talking about? Who said I wanted to get away from
here?”
Jacob replied quickly, “Nobody, I
just got the impression you were unhappy.”
After walking a few steps in
silence, he asked, “Are you going to the carnival tomorrow?”
“I am. I have to help at the cake
table.”
Jacob considered this was
probably the worst table to have someone so bitter working at. A table that
sold sugary treats.
The rest of the way, they walked
without talking and Jacob could not hear any of her thoughts, and considered
that perhaps she was not thinking of anything. He thought this weird, because
his mind was working overtime trying to figure her out. He tried to still his
mind, because maybe it was so filled with his own thoughts he could not hear
her, but try as hard as he could the thoughts kept running around in circles.
He was worried about Arius. He was chosen as the best to save his planet and he
would hate to have to disappoint his own people. This girl was rude and it was
not going to be easy to befriend her. He once again wondered what it was that
made her seem so sad. A sadness which made her appear to be aloof and detached.
They reached her house. It was a
Cape Colonial structure, which looked out of place with the rest of the more
modern houses in her street. The large ornate gate in the driveway kept the
four dogs in varying sizes behind it and supposedly kept intruders out. When
the dogs saw Amy they started yelping excitedly, their tails wagging so hard
the little Jack Russell actually lost its balance. For the first time since
Jacob saw Amy this morning, he saw her smile happily. He stared at her
confused.
Distractedly she said, “Bye,” as
she veered away from him and walked to the gate. She pushed against it and it
swung open. The dogs swirled around her legs and Amy dropped her school bag on
the ground as she crouched down to pat them eagerly, while she talked to them
in a high pitched, excited voice.
Jacob stood glued in one place as
he watched her pick up her bag, completely oblivious of him still standing on
the sidewalk looking at her. The dogs ran around her legs as she walked further
into the garden.
The garden was not well taken
care of. There was only a raggedly lawn, with not a flower or a shrub in sight.
She walked in through the front door and the dogs followed her into the house.
Jacob turned away puzzled. This
girl was confusing.
He walked up the road and four
houses from Amy’s he looked around, making sure there was nobody around who
could see him walking into the vacant yard and into the unoccupied little house
he found this morning and decided would be a suitable place to squat. He was
not planning on staying here long. This morning he thought he would be going
back home within the week, but now he considered maybe it would take a little
bit longer. He walked through the long grass, and nettles clung to his grey
school pants. He squeezed through the patio doors he managed to pry open this
morning and went into the small bedroom he chose, and where he left his
backpack this morning with his change of clothes. He fumbled with the backpack.
Eventually his fingers clasped around the container with his nutrition pills
and water capsules. He swallowed one of each of them hurriedly, because he was
starving.
He sat down on the carpeting,
under the window, where the late afternoon sun shone through the unadorned
glass, and pulled the heavy manual of Earth Applications from his bag. Many
decades ago Arius discovered the only other habitable planet within this
galaxy. They had routine reconnaissance missions past Earth and had learned a
lot about the planet as well as the humans who lived upon its surface.
Jacob flipped the manual open and
read through the pages again, trying to find an answer to how he was supposed
to handle an unresponsive donor.
By the time he glanced through
the last page of the substantial manual, it was dark in the room and he
realized that nobody had thought of an alternative, should Amy not want to
befriend him. Would he have to abduct her anyway, if he had no other choice?
He spread himself out on the dark
maroon carpeting and looked up at the sky as each star appeared in the black
velvet sky. He looked in the direction of Arius, but knew he would not be able
to see it. He felt homesick, and as he lay there looking up at the strange
constellation of stars, he fell asleep.
Chapter Four
It was a bright day when Jacob woke
up. He pulled a clean pair of designer jeans from his backpack and pulled a
white t-shirt over his head. In the bathroom he brushed his teeth and pulled a
wet hand through his hair and then shook his head. Beads of water sprayed in an
arch around his head and then his straight black hair settled back on his head.
After swallowing a nutrient pill
and a water capsule, he looked through the patio door for any people walking
past the house, before he pulled the door open and waded through the long,
unkept grass to the half open gate.
When he got to school, there was
an ant nest of people scurrying around to set up the tables for games, cakes,
curries, second-hand books, old long playing records, and many other things. A
carnival company was setting up rides on the far side of the rugby field.
Jacob saw Kevin across the field
and walked toward him to offer his help. They carried tables and set them up
where the mothers of the Fundraising Committee instructed them to put it. They
hoisted up tents and laid green tarp on the grass in front of the tables. The
tables formed a large square around a central area.
Slowly a car dealership drove
their luxury cars into the display area.
Kevin whistled appreciative. “I
am always happy when the cars are put on display. I like to sit in them and
imagine they belonged to me.” Kevin hurried off to help with the careful
parking of the cars.
Jacob stood around unsure, after
Kevin had left him, standing next to the cake table.
He saw Amy as she walked across
the grass from the direction of the school building. She was carrying a large
tray with cupcakes in a multitude of pastel colors. The wind lifted her long
dark hair and played with it. She looked down intently as if she was scared she
might fall and send more than three dozen cupcakes flying through the air. She
was wearing a floral dress with tiny purple flowers scattered all over the
white background of the material. The one strap of her dress had slipped down
and was now hanging across her upper arm. He heard her wish she could pull it
up, but her hands were too full and the tray was too heavy to even contemplate
balancing it with only one hand.
Jacob rushed forward to help her.
He wanted to pull her strap up over her bronze shoulder and put it back where
it was supposed to be. When Jacob reached her, he asked, “Need any help?”
She looked up at him startled and
almost tripped. He went to steady her and she glared at him angrily. She
frowned as she exclaimed, “You almost made me drop all of these. Mrs. Stevenson
would not have been impressed, especially after I promised I am able to carry
so many all at once.”
Jacob stepped away from her
without touching her.
He asked again, “Do you need any
help?”
“No, but you can go back there to
the car park and bring the other cakes. These people went overboard and I doubt
we will ever sell all these cakes and sweets,” she said as she inclined her
head backwards toward the parking area.
Jacob walked away from Amy. After
he walked through the long corridors of the school building to the front
entrance, he saw Mrs. Stevenson immediately where she stood at the open doors
of a white Toyota. She smiled kindly when she saw him and she put him to work
immediately.
Each time he got to the table and
delivered the trays and trays of baked goods, Amy was busy displaying the cakes
on the long tables which she had draped with bright yellow tablecloths. She did
not look up at him once and did not say a word when he placed the trays on a
table at the back of the tent.
After he carried the last tray,
Mrs. Stevenson thanked him profusely and offered him a strawberry flavored
cupcake, which he declined politely, saying it was too early for him to eat
sweets.
Mrs. Stevenson laughed. “It is
never too early for sweets, my dear.”
As he turned from the table to
walk away, he saw Amy look up at him from where she was displaying the cakes on
the table, but it was too late for him to turn back to her. It would be too
obvious that he wanted her attention and that he wanted her to talk with him.
Just then Cynthia walked up to
him. “Jacob! Good morning.”
He smiled pleasantly. “Morning,
friendly face.”
Cynthia laughed happily. “My
table is all set up, so why don’t you come and play a game. We have lots of
amazing prizes you could win.”
Jacob walked away with Cynthia
and she jabbered excitedly about the different games he could try.
He was winning every game, and
because he had absolutely no use for soft, plush toys he donated them back, to
the pleasure of Mrs. Finks, who was in charge of the games tables. A large
group was gathering around the games table as word spread of Jacob’s excellent
eye hand co-ordination and the way he was winning all the games.
Soon, without even realizing how
he did it, Jacob was considered as one of the popular students. He already made
friends the day before with most of the boys in his class, but now every girl
he came into contact with gushed and batted her eyes at him.
He spent the day with his new
group of friends. They rode on the rides. The girls clung to him afraid when
they went on the Bomber, which lifted them to enormous heights and then
plummeted back to the ground. They went on the Ferris wheel, and the swings. He
avoided Amy and the cake and sweets table as best he could, and he was enjoying
himself. He felt a sense of pleasure rush through his entire body. Usually he
was expected to always be on duty, to be responsible and act dependable and
answerable to all his actions. Now as he rode on the rides and absorbed the
exhilaration of everybody surrounding him, he felt a sense of contentment and
freedom.
The day was starting to turn to
dusk as long shadows started to drape itself across the green grass of the
field from the many tables and tents organized in a large square around the
centre display area. Students and parents were starting to clear the central
area, and the school band was setting up their instruments on a little stage to
the right of the large open space. Mothers from the Fundraising Committee were
hurrying around busily, hanging colored lanterns on string around the perimeter
of the soon to be dancing area.
Amy was busy clearing away the
plates and cutlery from her table with the help of Mrs. Stevenson. The cakes,
scones, and sweet treats were sold out quickly and she smiled friendly at the
few stragglers who still came to enquire whether there were more cupcakes to be
bought.
Jacob sat on the pavilion across
the field and he had his eyes on Amy. The girls and boys surrounding him were
talking excitedly about the dance, but it was like white noise and he did not
hear any specifics of their conversations. Puzzled he considered how unaware
Amy was of all the boys who hovered around her table for most of the day, the
boys who strolled past her table periodically, hoping to make eye contact with
her. Did she not see the way they beamed when she smiled at them as she
finished the transaction of swopping money for a slice of cake?
The school rock band started
playing their first song, just when Mrs. Stevenson packed away the last empty
platters and she smiled pleased as she walked away to her car with a few helpful
boys carrying the boxes and empty plates. Jacob smiled amused when the boys
insisted that Amy did not have to carry anything and she sat down onto the
fold-up chair when she saw there was nothing left for her to carry anyway.
Wistfully Amy looked at the first
dancers on the dance floor. He watched her pensively and he heard her wonder
why nobody ever asked her out and she was sure nobody would ask her to dance
anyway. She sank back into her chair and watched the girls and boys sway their
bodies rhythmically to the music.
Jacob let his eyes drift away
from Amy and he looked at the dancers. He studied their dance moves and then
after a few minutes he lifted himself up off the concrete step where he had
been sitting. He walked determinedly across the straight line between him and
Amy.
When he reached her, where she
was sitting in the dark shadows of the stall next to her, she looked up at him
startled. A shard of light glimmered in her green eyes.
He held his hand out to her and
bowed slightly as he remembered seeing in a black and white imagery while he
was in training.
Amy smiled up at him mystified.
When she did not reach up to take
his hand as the girl did in the imagery, Jacob felt embarrassed and wanted to
turn away from her. He kept doing things wrong. What is wrong with this place
that everything he had learned, all his training, seemed almost worthless?
“Jacob? Do you want me to dance
with you?” Amy asked hesitant.
Jacob cleared his throat. “If you
want to.”
He saw her hesitate, and then she
stood up.
They walked to the dance floor
side by side, and as they reached it, the beat of the music slowed down. Jacob
saw the dancers move closer to each other and then embrace.
He turned to Amy unsure. He
searched her eyes and then said uncertainly, “We do not have to dance if you do
not want to.”
Although he approached her and
asked her to dance, this was the second time he said he only wanted to dance
with her if she wanted to dance with him. Obviously he did not really want to
dance with her, and he was only feeling sorry for her when he saw her sitting
alone on the sidelines. Embarrassed she considered he probably thought she was
lonely, like he did the other day in the library. Mortified Amy turned away
from Jacob and the dance floor abruptly.
Jacob tried to read her thoughts
to try and understand what was going on now, as he watched her walk away from
him, but for some reason he could not pick up anything. Was it maybe because
once again his own thoughts were too loud in his own ears?
Jacob continued to stare in the
direction where Amy disappeared into the darkness, until Cynthia physically ran
into him. Sounds came back to him and he heard her laugh exuberantly. The music
was now even faster, the beat drummed heavily in the air. “Come on Jacob, let’s
dance.”
He let Cynthia pull him by his
hand onto the dance floor and then after he watched the dancers around him for
a couple of seconds, he started moving to the music. It felt good to dance with
Cynthia. He felt the beat of the music reverberate in his chest, and it was a
good feeling.
When the music inevitably started
to slow down again, Cynthia stepped closer to him, and she wrapped her arms
around his neck. He felt her body press closely to his and it felt weird to
have another living body so close to him, invading his personal space. This was
the first time in eighteen thousand years that another person has been this
close to him, and he could not decide whether he liked it or not.
Tentatively he put his arms
around her hips and together with Cynthia he swayed slowly to the music.
After the song was finished, they
walked from the dance floor back to the pavilion, where a large group were
laughing and talking loudly. Cynthia stayed close beside him and she kept
holding on to his hand. When they sat down onto the concrete step of the
pavilion together, Jacob immediately noticed Kyle and Amanda kissing. He felt
mesmerized as he watched them as they gripped onto each other, while he
wondered what the meaning of it could be. In the imagery he used to watch as
training, men and women did kiss, but never in the total abandonment of what he
was witnessing now.
He looked away from them, when
Cynthia asked, “Are you coming again tomorrow?”
He smiled at her. “The carnival
is still on tomorrow?”
“Yes, two whole days, so they can
raise funds for the school.”
Jacob wondered if Amy would also
be coming, when Cynthia answered his unspoken question, “It is compulsory for
students to be here.”
Charles put a hand on Jacob’s
shoulder and asked, “So will you be coming to the rugby practice on Monday. We
need new blood for our team and Coach is excited to try you out. You can play
rugby, can’t you?”
Jacob answered, “Of course, I
can.” Tonight when he gets home he would have to search what they called Google
and see what he could learn about this game of rugby, everybody keeps trying to
convince him to try out for it.
Cynthia interrupted Charles,
after her phone beeped twice, “I have to go, my dad’s here to pick me up. See
you tomorrow, Jacob.” She reached toward him and kissed him fleetingly on his
cheek. He lifted his hand and touched the area where her lips had rested for a
brief moment. Her lips felt so soft. He frowned briefly and then cleared his
mind, because he was not entirely sure what was going on here. On Arius he had
never witnessed a display of human affection or touching, this was all new to
him.
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