by Maia Starr
“Yes, maybe you are right. I have had my little birds gathering information amongst the villagers, and there are those that feel the opposition is growing bolder,” my father said.
“No, that is idle gossip. Do not believe that, father. The opposition is harmless,” my brother said. “There beliefs are not without warning. It is not natural to breed with the human females, so they are only concerned with the future of the Draqua, as anyone would be,” Greia said.
“Your brother is born of mixing with human. Don’t you forget that. He would not be here if it wasn’t for that,” my father said.
“You are taking great sides with this opposition, brother,” I said to him eyeing him suspiciously.
“They are still Draqua. I take into account the needs and wants of all Draqua, not just those that believe what you believe. I will be great king because of it. I cannot decide that one group is wrong and the other is right. I have to understand where both sides are coming from,” he said.
“Yes, yes, that is correct. You are right, Greia,” my father said.
My brother grew an arrogant smirk on his face and thrust his chest out as he boasted that father was siding with him.
“We should not take any action on this opposition group. Let us just keep an eye out for them. For now, Cylo, keep your guard with you,” my father said.
“Guard? What guard?” my brother asked.
“I have Cylo keeping a guard with him for now, until we can find out who shot him down,” my father said.
“That is not necessary. No one is after him, and I am sure that it was a space thief that shot down his ship. His ship is shiny and brand new. What space thief would not try to get their hands on it when it crossed paths with it?” Greia said.
“Yes, but space thieves hardly ever shoot on what they want to collect as bounty. What is the point in going after a ship you want to steal if you are going to shoot it down? Then there is no more ship, now is there?” I said looking at my brother. He was silent.
“What about Veiras?” I asked.
“Veiras?!” My brother shouted. “What about him? He is old and harmless,” he said.
“Yes, Veiras, his name has come up a few times in my reports,” my father said.
“For what? He is just an old Draqua,” Greia said.
“No, he is not. He was once an advisor to my father. My father fired him because they did not see eye to eye on a lot of things my father thought were very important,” my father said.
“He was an advisor to grandfather? I did not know that,” I said.
“Yes, an old advisor. Then he retired and went to live on Cuama Reef. He has been there since,” my brother said.
“Yes, that is right. But I have noticed a lot of elder Draqua have also migrated there as well over the years,” my father said.
“Yes, away from the noise of the village. I see why the old Draqua would want to retire there,” my brother said.
I thought it was odd that he was sticking up for this Veiras more and more with each inquiry that my father and I made.
“I think he is the leader of the opposition,” I said as I stood in front of my brother and crossed my arms in front of my chest. I stood solid in front of him, not letting him walk away. I watched the reaction of his face. There was a flicker of something. I did not know what it was, but he wasn’t speaking the whole truth. Then he recovered and went back into his laid-back, nonchalant tone. He picked up fruit from the table and bit into it. “Veiras is no leader. I do not think the opposition has a leader at all. It is merely a set of beliefs that some Draqua have and others don’t,” Greia said.
“Why do you think he is the leader of the opposition, my son?” my father said. Greia sighed, annoyed that my father wasn’t dropping it.
“Because he has isolated himself in an area where he can build strength in numbers for his cause. He does not like the crown, I am sure because grandfather fired him from a high position where he was allowed to live in luxury. I have met Veiras many times, and there is a lot of bitterness there,” I said.
“And because of that you hold him accountable for being the leader of a violent group?” my brother said.
“Yes,” I said.
“These are all good thoughts. I will have a special team look into it. Now speak of this to no one. You are both dismissed to your duties,” my father said.
My brother shifted and was off before my father could even finish his sentence.
“He’s in a rush,” I said as I walked out on the veranda and watched him fly. He was flying in the direction of Cuama Reef. I did not bother mentioning this to father. Perhaps there was nothing to worry about. But I would keep an eye on the situation. I had too. If I did not occupy my mind with something, then I would think of her and I could not think of her. I had to let go. I had to let time bury any memory of her, but that was easier said than done.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
MELODY REEVES
“What do you think caused your fall, Ms. Reeves? Where do you think you fell to give you this amnesia?” the reporter asked.
Cameras flash flashed all around me as I sat behind a table with the Santa Barbara police chief answering the questions of the media circus that had shown up there since I was found.
“I don’t know. I can’t remember,” I said to the reporter. This was becoming my answer to almost every question, and I congratulated myself and how perfect of an excuse it was: amnesia.
“How was Ms. Reeves found, Chief?” another reporter asked.
“Around three in the afternoon yesterday my office got a call from the Sunshine Vineyard that Melody Reeves had wandered into their winery asking for help. She wanted to use the Draqua. We went right out to the winery as fast as we could while my department also called her father, President Reeves.”
“And she knew who she was then?” the reporter asked.
“Yes, she knew exactly who she was, but she did not know where she was. She thought she was still in Los Angeles. We think that after the fall she faced in Los Angeles on the Pacific Palisades Trails, she got lost on the trails. She then found a public transit or such and got on and ended up in Santa Barbara.”
“And what triggered her memory?” the reporter asked.
“The doctor that has reviewed Ms. Reeves says that it could be anything, such as another fall, or it could have just worn off and been a temporary amnesia,” the chief said.
This circus went on for another twenty minutes until it was over. But that was just the news conference. There were still plenty of news vans and reporters parked outside of every building that I was at. It was exactly like a circus moving from one spot to another. I just wanted to get back to my place and take a bath and sleep for a long time. But I knew that was not in my future anytime soon. There was a lot of reports to fill out and questions to answer.
“Air Force One is landing at the airport,” the chief told me.
“Thank you, Chief,” I said. I took a deep breath. My father was on his way to me. This was not going to be fun. I waited in the posh hotel room that with Secret Service detail outside my door. I looked down at the crowd below, and I was glad to be up very high. I laughed, “Cylo would like to hear that,” I said to myself. I felt sad that I was thinking about him.
“Baby! Oh, my baby girl!” my father shouted as he walked into the hotel room. He was alone while his entourage waited outside.
“Hello, father,” I said as he gave me a big hug.
“Jesus you gave us a scare. I will never let you out of my sight again. That is it; you are moving into the White House,” he said hugging me tightly.
“No, no, that is not necessary. You know I don’t like politics,” I said.
“It does not matter. You are not in a good place. At least come for a month while I know that you aren’t going to lapse into amnesia again. It can happen, you know? I have the best minds telling me this,” he said.
“Father, I just fell and hit my head. It’s nothing to worry about. I am fine,�
� I said. “I can’t believe all of this media nonsense that has been going on. I wasn’t missing, I was just not remembering,” I said annoyed.
“I am going to double your detail then,” he said.
“Fine, as long as I don’t have to move into the White House,” I said.
“Agreed,” he said.
“You know, what if I ever wanted to go off the grid for a while? If I wanted to escape all this and go live in Alaska or something, do some writing. I wouldn’t be able to without a search party going out for me,” I said.
“Well, no, that would not happen because you would tell me that you’re going off grid and I would know that you are just out there finding yourself. I would know that you are just writing and exploring, not missing,” he said.
“Noted,” I said.
“Come here,” he said hugging me again. We hugged, and I was happy to see him again. I had not been gone very long, but when I was gone, I thought I would never see him again. Now I was able to see him again, and it felt good. I wondered if I did stay on Kelon, would I be able to come back to Earth on a yearly basis in order to see my father? That would keep them from thinking I am missing, I thought.
“So now. Let’s get you into a hot bath and get some food into you. Go take a bath, and I am going to order room service,” he said. I laughed at him.
“All right, dad.
“What do you want? Pizza, burgers, mashed potatoes?” he asked, listing all my favorite foods.
“How about all of it?” I said, suddenly wanting to indulge. I moved into the bathroom and closed the door behind me. It was nice to have some peace. I ran the hot bath, and a flash of the bathtub in my hut on Kelon sped before my eyes. It made me sad.
The next week after the circus had finally calmed down, I found myself back at my home in Los Angeles. My detail had doubled, but other than that, everything sort of went back to normal. People still stared at me in public, but they always had.
I stayed home a lot, not ready to venture out and hear the whispers of people saying that I had been kidnapped or something, or lost my mind. So I stayed in, and I wrote. I wrote about my experiences, but I knew that I could never tell anyone. I was writing this for me and my memory.
Ping!
I looked at my Draqua. It was a text message. “We are coming to you for brunch today,” Sally’s text message said.
I had seen Sally and Gloria once since I had been back and Gloria never stopped apologizing that she had recommended the Pacific Palisades Trail at all. She cried a lot, and I assured her it could have happened on any trail. We had a sweet reunion, but a short one: my father’s orders. But now they were coming over for brunch instead of me going to a restaurant. I still was not ready to go out in the public eye.
I responded to the text with, “Sounds good, see you soon.”
An hour later they were sitting around my outdoor table on my lush patio. I missed the lushness of Kelon, but I could not say anything about that.”
“So have you decided if you are going to see him?” Sally asked.
“He was really broken up about you being gone and all,” Gloria said.
I broke out of my daze of imagining the tall trees of Kelon.
“What? Who?” I asked.
“James, duh. Your boyfriend,” Gloria said.
“Oh, no, I don’t think I want to. He wasn’t really my boyfriend; we were just dating, and I complained about him a lot,” I said fiddling with my food on my plate.
“Yes, you did complain about him. I would say you did the whole amnesia thing just to avoid actually breaking up with him,” Sally laughed.
“Yeah, I would rather just avoid him. He was so damn boring, and he was just using me,” I said.
“For sex?” Gloria asked.
“No, to get close to my father… like all my suitors,” I said.
“True, true, that must be very hard,” Sally said.
Then they changed the topic to a benefit that an acquaintance was throwing. They dragged her choices for DJ and catering through the mud. It was then that I realized that I was also bored with Sally and Gloria. I was bored with all of this. I was bored with my life on Earth. There was nothing very exciting going on, and in fact, my disappearance was the most exciting thing that had happened in a long time.
“We should do something different. I want to go to Tahiti. I think I will go to Tahiti,” I said, interrupting them.
“Alone?” Sally asked.
“No. You guys should come. Let’s go be wild in the jungle and skinny dip in the ocean. Well, it would be you guys and of course my ten Secret Service men watching over us,” I said to them.
“Woohoo, I like that idea. I could use a bit of a vacation,” Gloria said.
“Yes, count me in too,” Sally said. “Whenever you want to go, and whenever your father lets you leave,” she laughed.
“Yeah, he is overprotective. Maybe in two weeks from now he will be more reasonable about letting me go on a vacation,” I said realizing that Sally was right and that my father would not let me go swim in the ocean at the moment. He would think I was going to have amnesia in the water and drift away. I sighed as Gloria and Sally continued their usual talk. I was bored out of my mind. This was what normal life was for me over the next two weeks. I was so bored with all of it.
Then one day out of nowhere, James showed up at my door.
“James, what the hell are you doing here?” I asked.
He walked right in, and the Secret Service stopped him in his tracks. I sighed annoyed and said, “It’s fine; let him in. He will only be here a few minutes.”
James fixed his jacket and dusted off where the Secret Service guy had touched him. “I can’t believe that you won’t see me,” he said as he walked in.
“Well hello to you too, James,” I said, rolling my eyes as he moved past me and sat on the couch.
“Why have you not returned my calls? I have been waiting. When you disappeared, I was the one in front of the cameras begging for your return. Do you know how it makes me look that you were my girlfriend and once you returned, we are not showing up in the news together? It makes me look like an ass,” he said.
“You are an ass.”
“What?” he said.
“I said you are an ass. You are lousy in bed. You are not a gentleman at all. You are not passionate, and you are the most selfish and boring person I have ever met.”
“How dare you speak to me like that!”
“I did dare, and I will say it again and again if you’d like. You are lousy in bed, you are boring—”
“Okay, okay I get it. Now just calm down let’s talk through this,” he said, suddenly becoming nicer. He held my hand and said, “I’m sorry. I apologize. I just miss you so much, Melody, that is all. I don’t know what to do with myself.”
“No. Wrong. You don’t know what to do now that you don’t have the interest of the public eye on you anymore. It is annoying, and I don’t care. I’m done with you, James, and I can’t believe that I stayed with you for so long. Now get out.”
“But that’s not what you really mean. I know that it is not. Melody, honey,” he said.
“Michael! James is ready to leave now!” I shouted. My Secret Service guy appeared and grabbed James’ arm and escorted him out all the while James was saying, “Melody, honey, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I will pay for dinner now. I will pay for all the dinners if you want!”
I just laughed and did not listen. “Good riddance,” I said to myself. I was glad to have Secret Service for the first time in a long time. If it meant getting rid of men that I did not like, then it was worth it. I kicked back and felt good about putting James in his place. My strange, boring, normal Earth life was full of these types of little visits, and the next visit was from the President of the United States.
“Melody, have you thought any more about living in the White House? I still want you to move in. It will be good for you,” he said.
“Ugh, Dad, no. I already tol
d you that I want to live here. Though I’m not even sure that is what I want,” I said.
“Well, what is it that you do want? You are the daughter of the President of the United States. I know I don’t have a lot of time lately, but we can figure something out.”
“Do you want to know what I really want?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“The one thing that being the daughter of the President of the United States can’t give me: privacy.”
“Oh, I see.”
“I just want to go off and write somewhere, like I told you. That is a dream of mine. It was pretty bad before, and now after the incident, it is worse.”