Season 1, Episode 4 - The Microwave XXXVII - "The End of the Prologue"

Late under the cover of darkness, at that moment when night is morning and morning is night, at the vague boundary line of falling asleep at a reasonable time and throwing a normal sleep cycle to the wind. That time can arrive on any night, but to be more precisely for this moment, it was somewhere around 3:42 AM on a Sunday night (or maybe it was Monday morning by then?).

When they first started the marathon, Audrey’s couch could only fit three people, so Isaac let the girls have it while he sat on the ground. Somewhere during the night, Reed joined him there. Maybe she grew tired of having to talk from the couch to the ground, and she certainly talked a lot. Any time there was foreshadowing in Spirit Hunter (and Spirit Hunter was no slouch when it came to foreshadowing), Isaac and Reed quickly got to talking about it, their conversations only making sense to themselves.

Or maybe Reed just wanted to sit closer to him in general. Who knows?

Nevertheless, the two Adzinoki sisters on the couch fell asleep some time ago, a fact Isaac and Reed only realized now.

“Well, I guess that’s a wrap then,” Isaac supposed, speaking in a low voice to avoid waking the Adzinokis. He stood up, stretched, and rewound the VHS tape.

“We got pretty far,” Reed said. “We can definitely finish it tomorrow.”

“Think the Adzinokis are up for it?”

Reed shrugged. “I’ll bribe Audrey with some candy, and I’ll give Esther some books.”

“Guess you really know the way to a woman’s heart, huh.”

“I have my moments.”

Isaac laughed quietly, then grabbed a spare blanket off of Audrey’s bed. He draped it over the sisters, who fell asleep sitting upright, Audrey’s head on Esther’s shoulder.

“I think I can see the resemblance now,” Isaac said. “Their sleeping faces look pretty similar.”

Reed finished her bottle of soda. “What a creepy thing to say.”

Isaac sighed. “That’s not creepy. It’d be creepy if I said something like...well, something creepy. I’m no creep, so I can’t just rattle creepy things off the top of my head.”

“Should start calling you Saint Isaac.”

“Wouldn’t that be nice,” Isaac supposed. He turned off the television, plunging the room into darkness. “Think I’m gonna go to bed, then. Feeling pretty tired.”

Reed sat on Audrey’s stool in the kitchen area. “Talk about absolute coward.”

“Oh, is that right? What about you?”

“Hibiscus Reed is never tired.”

“Even after only sleeping three hours a night?”

“They’re the three most productive hours of sleeping on God’s green earth.”

Isaac chuckled. “Want to talk for a little outside then? Don’t want to wake them.”

“Sure.” Reed slid off the stool and put on her dark green greatcoat. Isaac followed suit, feeling the warmth of his jacket embrace him.

Reed led the way, stepping outside into the October night, rather brisk, but not all that bad. The first real colds of October that arrive at the end of the month were never that bad, at least for Isaac, because after a whole summer, that first cold is a novelty, something new to experience. That initial cold. Isaac never got tired of it (though by January he definitely felt tired of the cold in general).

Isaac rested his arms on the railing, looking out into the city lights. Reed leaned her back against it, gazing upwards at the twelve stars.

“You ever get sick, Isaac?” Reed asked into the night sky.

Isaac looked back at her. “Huh?”

Reed kept looking upwards. “Do you get sick a lot?”

Isaac thought about it, not understanding. “Well, not really. I get wicked bad allergies around springtime, though. Pollen's my archenemy.” He grinned. “And sometimes I even get sick of you.”

Isaac expected the usual banter back, but Reed just looked tired. “So, when you feel sick, is it just your body?”

Isaac raised an eyebrow. “I guess so. Isn’t that what being sick is? When your body feels like crap and all.”

Reed sighed. "Do you ever feel sick beyond that?” She turned to face him and tapped a finger on his chest. “I’m not talking about being sick here. I’m talking about being sick here.”

She emphasized her last point by tapping him on the forehead.

Isaac still felt confused. “You mean like a headache? Sure, I get those sometimes. Usually when I sit too close to the television with the lights out.”

Reed wiped her face. “I didn’t want to, but I guess sometimes, you can’t just beat around the bush, and have to tell the truth like it is...”

From the way she looked off to the side, the way her hands trembled, the way her entire person looked tired, Isaac wasn’t sure what to say.

“Do you ever feel like your brain’s sick?” Reed asked. The second she asked, it seemed like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

“My brain?” Isaac repeated. “I don’t get it.”

“Maybe not the brain...but more like your mind. Your soul, even.” Reed held the railing. “Usually, an illness is a physical sickness causing physical pain. But...do you think your brain can get sick?”

Isaac tugged at his collar uncomfortably. A brain sickness. He didn’t know what to say, because something like that wasn’t talked about in New England. Or anywhere, really. The Unleashing was close to an apocalypse. The world turned into one big struggle for the survival of the fittest. Only the strongest states made it out. Or even beyond that. Because the city-state of Acushnet was stronger, it defeated its rival Quinsigamond in the Presidential Restoration and established New England.

Those who are strong rule, and those who are weak perish. That’s how life works, according to New England school textbooks.

A brain sickness didn’t fit into that. Survival of the fittest works on an individual level as well. Nobody talks about brain sicknesses, if they even exist, because a person should have the strength to overcome it on their own. And if they didn’t...then life would take care of them in its own Darwinist way.

Isaac knew the right thing to do would be to change the conversation topic.

He frowned. Wait? How’s that the right thing to do? I know that’s what the textbooks say to do, but...now that somebody is actually talking about it to me, face to face, it’s kind of hard to ignore.

“I don’t know a whole lot about brain sicknesses,” Isaac said, choosing his words carefully. “And, you know, maybe they don’t even exist. Someone with brain sickness could just be really tired. And sometimes those kids might just be lazy or unambitious...I think? Uh...or maybe they just happen to think there's something going on with their mind when it's really a physical sickness.”

Reed slowly nodded. “I guess you’re right.”

Reed dropped the subject and Isaac sighed in relief. The two went back to looking at the city lights of the distant downtown, but for some reason, they lacked their usual luster for Isaac.

“Reed, I didn’t mean to cut you off or anything,” Isaac said, surprising himself. “Last night in the dojo, you mentioned how you realized the world is a much bigger place than you realized. It’s the same for me. Ever since the school year started, it’s like I’m opening my eyes for the first time. There’s so much I don’t know about and don’t understand. And I guess things like brain sicknesses or not being able to get out of bed in the morning is stuff I don’t really understand either. The unknown can be scary. But I’ll keep looking for the answers so I can find that understanding.”

“But how do you know you’ll find the answers?” Reed shifted her weight to either foot. “I appreciate that you gave me a laundry list in the dojo of things to try about not making everything feel so heavy. But whenever you do something, you can’t know in advance how it’ll turn out. And there’s a whole lot more ways that the outcome can be a negative than a positive. So why bother with it?”

Isaac recalled their arguments while walking to school last Friday and in the dojo that morning.

Reed likes the grape flavor lollipop over the mystery flavor because she doesn’t know what she’ll get with the mystery. She must always assume she’ll get a flavor she won’t like, so she won’t try for it. It’s the same for the whole metaphor thing. She doesn’t know what it means, she doesn’t want to go through figuring it out because she could be wrong. The fear of the unknown makes her back off and not even try.

So lollipops and metaphors were themselves metaphors for something deeper with her. I don’t think she said them with that in mind, but...I think I get why we use them now. In their own way, they really do make the unknown into something easier to understand.

Just like that, Isaac felt a little bit of his own fear of the unknown drift off, and he collected his thoughts. “I guess you can’t know the outcome ahead of time. But if you don’t try something, then it definitely won’t happen. But if you do try something, then it might happen. The only way for something to happen is to try.”

This time, it was Isaac’s turn to tap her on the forehead. He always forgot how small she was, even standing next to her. “And don’t forget, I’ll keep pushing your propellers around until you take off and fly. Me and Audrey and all of your friends.”

“I see.” From a brief look on her face, Isaac saw that she didn’t really believe in his words about trying. Isaac decided to ignore the possibility that the part she didn’t believe was that they were her friends.

“Hey, talking about this,” Reed said. “This doesn’t change nothing between us, does it? Things won’t be weird or nothing, right?”

“Of course not,” Isaac answered. “If anything, it just makes our friendship deeper.”

“I see. Then I'll tell you a little bit more then. I’m sorry for what happened when we got to the dojo. I hate the Domino Sword, but I need it all the same. I’m a walking contradiction. It’s the one thing I’m good at. So, when Domino called me out for the whole back-scabbard thing, I got pissed off. Or maybe just disappointed in myself. And then, seeing you train with him, I got jealous, too. And then the last thing I wanted to do was admit to you that I was jealous, so I decided to make fun of you instead. But, thinking about how I talked with Audrey after the Bay Mart thing, and with you last night in the dojo, I think I get it now that all I need to do is talk with you guys when I’m feeling down about something.”

Reed tapped on the railing with a shaky hand. “Can I tell you what I was gonna say, then? About my father, before I got caught up in the lie.”

Isaac nodded. “Go ahead.”

Reed looked up at the stars. “As lame as it sounds...I was gonna say that I miss him. Isn’t that a real kicker? He never had time for me and never treated me like I was his daughter. He was always so distant. And yet I miss him all the same.”

Reed fished around in her coat pocket and produced a lighter. She raised it above her head and waved it slowly, the flickering flame following along in the night.

“And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon, little boy blue and the man in the moon...”

Isaac laughed and sang along.

“When you coming home dad, I don’t know when...but we’ll get together then...you’ll know we’ll have a good time then.”

The two laughed and sighed deeply.

“Hey, can it be my turn to tell you about something personal?” Isaac asked.

Reed nodded, feeling a little touch that Isaac would let her in on something.

Isaac exhaled, watching his breath condense in the night air.

“I’m ninety-nine percent sure Audrey has been stealing my burritos.”

The next morning. Even with no school that day, Esther woke up early that Monday as she always did. She rubbed her eyes and sat up on Audrey’s couch; she could tell from the slight snores that her sister was still asleep. As quietly as she could, Esther rose from the couch, slid on her loafers, wrapped herself in her heavy jacket, and stepped outside.

That early morning sun greeted her with a gentle light. Since the walkway of Audrey’s apartment faced east, Esther could see the rising sunlight from behind the skyscrapers of downtown Narragansett as she leaned against the railing.

The first thought that came to her deeply surprised her.

I wish someone was here to watch this with me.

Esther, who always felt most comfortable when she was alone, who had no friends, who buried herself in long nights of work, research, or even her own hobby of reading – felt lonely.

She didn’t know why. Being alone always felt nice to her. But maybe she, too, could want companionship from time to time.

Why else, after long last, would she have gone to Audrey’s that weekend in the first place?

And a bond between siblings – Esther knew she couldn’t calculate the math of it. She couldn’t break it down into equations. But she knew that a bond between siblings possessed incredible strength – but it still could be broken beyond repair.

Fortunately, Audrey always tried to mend it. Esther sighed in relief at that.

I have two years to make up for. Or maybe even a lifetime.

The door behind her opened. Esther glanced back and saw Audrey emerge, wrapped in a blanket, rubbing her eyes, her blonde hair looking rather chaotic.

“Esther...it’s 5:15 in the morning...” Audrey mumbled, almost stumbling.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Esther apologized. “I usually wake up at this time. But for some reason...I wanted to go outside, too.”

Audrey looked at the rising sun. “Well, that’s as good of a reason as any.”

She leaned against the railing next to Esther. The two stood there in silence for a moment, feeling the morning breeze, looking over the railing toward dawn.

“Hey, Audrey, um...”

Feelings can’t be expressed through numbers, Esther told herself. Express them through your words. Let her know how you really feel.

“Um...” Esther tapped her finger against the railing. “I’m sorry about what I said yesterday about you. I...I don’t think I’ve really appreciated everything you’ve done for me. You working got me through school. And for me to say things I said...I’m sorry.”

Audrey opened her blanket and placed the other end around Esther.

“You looked cold,” Audrey said.

“I’m...not used to being outside,” Esther admitted.

They looked back at the rising dawn.

“A sibling bond is a two-way street,” Audrey explained softly. “I’m sorry, too. I was always out, so you were the one who took care of the house, did the finance things and handled bills and all that. Whenever I messed things up, you were always there for me. Sometimes I acted irresponsibly since I knew you’d fix it for me. I’m sorry about that.”

“Sis, um...you’re so nice. You’re acting like our apologies are equivalent, when in reality, I have so much more to apologize about than you do...”

“Ah, don’t worry about. You can always get on your knees and beg for forgiveness if you want.”

Esther laughed, a real laugh, not the stifled giggle she always gave out. That made Audrey laugh too, the two of them leaning on that railing.

“So, um...” Esther fidgeted below the blanket. “You want to, um...get lunch at school with me tomorrow?”

Audrey grinned. “That’d be outstanding, Esther! Tomorrow’s Tuesday, that means it’s chop suey day!”

“That’s Chinese, right?”

“Chinese, mixed with a dash of that school cafeteria feeling! Oh, Isaac and Reed don’t like it, but I say it’s just an acquired taste!”

Esther kept laughing. “I’ll try to acquire it.”

Audrey raised a fist. “To the Adzinokis!”

By this point, Esther laughed so hard she had to wipe her eyes.

She raised her fist in solidarity, her grin matching Audrey's.

“To the Adzinokis!”

MAY IT NEVER CHANGE...

…AND MAY IT NEVER CHANGE US.