“What’s a train?” Riela asked.
“It’s like a long line of flying cars but they moved on the ground,” Sarah explained. “And there’s none on Minos Kerala.”
“You know what I meant, you donut!” Laila shook her head in mock-indignance, and her long, curly hair tumbled in many directions at once. “Ooh, you’re going to be in so much trouble if he’s open to fixing things!” Laila looked amused. Sarah shook her head at her friend’s schadenfreude and resolved to never find out if Laila knew how to give a spanking. The girl would be positively vicious.
“Yeah. I know. As soon as I get back, I’ll tell him.” Sarah felt more optimistic now that she had a plan. There was still a good chance Ral wouldn’t want to hear her, but she had to at least try to talk to him.
Chapter Sixteen
“Hello?” Sarah’s voice echoed around the apartment as she got the front door open. The rainbow floor shimmered under her shoes and she shrugged her coat off before looking around to see if Ral was home.
The apartment was empty.
Before she got very worried, she found a message on her tablet. It was brief: “Gone on fieldwork. Back in a couple days.” It was so impersonal, it might have been written to the mailman.
She sighed and sat down. It figured that he’d gone away when she wanted to tell him how she felt. Sarah resigned herself to waiting for two days, but thoughts about Ral kept running through her mind.
What if he didn’t want to speak to her again? She knew that if he had made up his mind, she would have to respect his decision. After all, she’d pushed him away and it wouldn’t be right to assume he’d want to even share his apartment with her after what she had said.
What if he told her the only way he’d take her back was if she agreed to the worst spanking in the universe? Sarah wanted to imagine that she’d refuse, but she knew she wouldn’t really. If that’s what it took to prove how much she cared about him, in spite of what she’d said, she knew she’d go through with it. She wouldn’t do it gracefully, because accepting punishment with decorum had never, in all the weeks she’d been here, been something she’d learned to do, but she would get over his knee and stay there for as long as she had to. For as long as he wanted her to.
What if he found someone else while he was away? A chill coursed through her as she imagined him meeting some archaeologist who knew enough about stratigraphy to get all his jokes, and whose pert butt was tanned and toned from all the manual labor in the hot sun. She would wear safari shirts and probably be called something exotic and geographical, like Sydney or Dakota. By the time Sarah’s tablet buzzed again, she was imagining Ral married to Dakota; in her mind’s eye he was chasing children away from dinosaur bones and swinging through the jungle on a rope, his whole family holding onto him as a giant boulder crashed through the trees behind them. Already, she hated Dakota, and the woman didn’t even exist yet as far as Sarah knew.
Recognizing that this path only led to madness, Sarah tried to distract herself by cooking something. However, the ingredients were still unfamiliar, and the egg pods were not as easy to work as they’d appeared, and so she unintentionally made a splodgy mess that, when she put a small amount in her mouth, didn’t seem to taste like any of the ingredients. In the end she ordered food on her tablet and paid with her chip. The local takeaways were exotic and she was so glad that most of them had pictures beside the food names, so she at least saw what they looked like. Sarah ordered an Anassian stew with potatoes and dumplings, because it looked and sounded wholesome. Flipping through the entertainment options, she put on The Little Mermaid again and sang along unashamedly until her food arrived. The stew was hearty, and she felt less lonely after she’d finished it. For dessert, she got something that looked like a New York cheesecake. When she bit into it, it turned out to have a flavor more akin to mint, with a fresh aftertaste.
Although Sarah had been sleeping alone in Ral’s guest bed since she arrived, she had never felt so profoundly lonely as she did that night. Getting to sleep was difficult, and even though the thermostat had been set to keep her warm, Sarah’s skin tingled with chills and her tummy wobbled as she felt like every moment that Ral was gone, the rift between them grew and grew.
The morning light felt garish, like someone had made the sun too bright. Sarah went around the apartment getting ready, and although she knew she was alone, she kept expecting Ral to appear from his bedroom or the bathroom. When he didn’t, she felt a twinge of disappointment and regret. Why had she been so mean to him? Was it because she was scared of things working out between them? She realized that somewhere, very deep down, she still didn’t believe she deserved to be happy. It had been pointed out to her on several occasions that she hadn’t abandoned her son on purpose, and when she consciously thought about it, she knew that was true, but in her heart, she still couldn’t forgive herself. Her deepest thoughts, the ones that she didn’t usually even acknowledge, told her that she shouldn’t be allowed to be happy.
As she drifted through the next two days in a half-daze she tried to forget about Ral. After all, if he wanted to meet the imaginary Dakota and marry her, what business was it of hers? When he didn’t return after three days, however, Sarah began to worry.
Plenty of people used ‘a couple of days’ to mean ‘a few.’ There was nothing to worry about, really. She told herself those things over and over again, in the hope that they might become true. When five days had passed, Sarah went to his office after school.
* * *
Ral’s office was nothing like she’d imagined. With him being an archaeologist, she’d thought the walls would have been covered in maps with names like ‘Darkest Peru’ but instead, they were made of the same shiny black stuff as the windows. The furniture included desks and chairs, but everything was so modern that Sarah felt like she’d walked into the head offices of a tech firm.
“Might I help you?” The voice was so oily that Sarah knew who was speaking before she spun around and saw the angry man who had been so rude to her when he’d called Ral a few weeks ago. It was Ral’s assistant, Vartuk. There was no one else in the office.
“I’m looking for Doctor Rowardennan,” Sarah said.
“He no longer works here.” The man clearly didn’t recognize her.
“Are you sure? I was told to meet him here for a job interview.” Sarah decided to stir the pot a little. “He was hiring a new assistant.”
“What? How dare he? I mean… you must be mistaken. We are not currently hiring. Particularly not schoolgirls. Now get out.”
Sarah was struck with an idea. If he thought she was some entitled schoolgirl, she could use that to find out where Ral went.
“Just a minute, I got a message.” Acting like her tablet was the most important thing in the world, she made an anonymous call to the office, covering her camera with her thumb so he wouldn’t see who it was. A moment later, a ringing sound came from somewhere near the window.
“Don’t break anything.” He turned and walked pompously across the room. Seizing her chance, Sarah opened up the software she’d been using to hack into the Innovation Suite design program, only this time, she surreptitiously used it to connect to Vartuk’s tablet, then she began downloading all his saved files to her own tablet. For this to work, the two tablets had to be connected, which was why she called him.
“Hello? Who is this?” Eventually, Vartuk decided that it was either a bad connection or a crank call, and Sarah saw that he was in danger of disconnecting. She looked at her screen. The download was only thirty percent finished.
“Hey, grumpypants! Aren’t you supposed to offer interview candidates a glass of water or something?” she yelled across the office. Her attitude hit home, and he looked up from his tablet, clearly riled up. Leaving it on the desk without ending the anonymous call she’d made, he glared at her then walked straight toward her. The download was at sixty-three percent.
“Wait, I recognize you. You were at Ral’s place. You need to leave,” he
snarled, more annoyed than ever. “And if I see you here again I’ll call law enforcement.”
“Have fun with that. Everyone knows they don’t come out to the Outer planets.” She held her tablet against her body so he couldn’t see what she was doing. With a peevish look on his face, he gripped her shoulder, his nails digging into her skin through her uniform, and he shoved her out of the door, slamming it shut behind her. When Sarah looked at her tablet again, she saw that it was ninety-nine percent done, and she watched the screen change to a message telling her the download was complete a split-second before she realized she’d uncovered the camera with her thumb, and the furious face of Ral’s assistant was glaring at her.
Before he said anything, she disconnected the call and ran down the street looking for a flying car. She was afraid that he might come after her, that he would figure out what she’d done, and she wanted to be a good distance from here in case he did. It was the first time since she arrived on Minos Kerala that Sarah had struggled to flag down a ride. Glancing furtively over her shoulder, she saw Vartuk coming out of the door behind her. Trying not to panic, she ran out into the street then instantly regretted it as a flying car shot past her, the heat burning her face as she stood in terror. When the way was clear ahead, she edged forward, staring in every direction to avoid being vaporized by a flying car. Did they even vaporize people, or would they severely burn her instead? She didn’t want to find out. Behind her, she saw Vartuk standing on the sidewalk, clearly not stupid enough to follow her. After six lanes of traffic flying at various heights, Sarah made it to the other side, then managed to hail a flying car that whisked her away.
Getting a moment to look through the files she’d downloaded from Vartuk’s tablet, Sarah read through a series of messages between the pompous assistant and Ral. According to the communications between Ral and Vartuk, Ral had gone to a nearby moon on a chartered ship, and the return journey should have been three days ago. Digging into this mystery further, Sarah found another set of messages between Vartuk and someone called Big Vince. She read the final messages with a sense of dread.
Can you ensure that he doesn’t need a return flight? Regards, Vartuk.
No problem, buddy. Ship’ll drop him off, my boys’ll take care of the rest and they’ll be gone before he knows what’s hit him. Vince.
Sarah put her tablet in her purse. She had to look out of the window for a moment while she tried to calm down and think about where she was going. Returning to the apartment wasn’t an option; she was almost certain that Vartuk would have Ral’s address somewhere in the office and the evil assistant would surely try to stop her from rescuing her daddy.
Sarah had to find Ral, and that meant she’d need to charter a ship. She would have to go to the one place in Minos Kerala that Ral would never want her to be. Rerouting the flying car, she headed for the old town and tried to think grownup thoughts. She couldn’t let Ral down when he clearly needed her.
* * *
Sarah got out of the flying car with plenty of trepidation. The ground was a solid and gritty brown stone, which many of the buildings were made of too, punctuated with the occasional rickety structures that appeared to just be sun-bleached planks of wood held tentatively together by nails, filling the space between brownstone buildings. The surroundings smelled like wet dog, and Sarah had to make an effort not to pull a face as she breathed it in. This was the dilapidated area where all the ships docked, and somewhere around here was where she’d been harassed after her first day at school. Where could she charter a ship? Money wasn’t an issue, unless ships turned out to be incredibly expensive, but she had no idea where to go to charter one, and she couldn’t exactly fly it either. Her tablet’s mapping system took her to a huge rundown warehouse made of wood. She tapped on the door and a panel at eye level slid open.
“What d’ya want?” a man demanded. Sarah couldn’t even see his face properly.
“I’m looking to charter a ship, I—”
“Ya got cash?” He cut her off.
“I have my chip.” She tried to sound like she did this sort of thing every day, but it was hard when her lunch was trying to escape again.
The guy laughed dismissively. “‘Less ya are selling it, it’s no good here. Skedaddle.”
“Wait, please, it’s my friend! He’s lost…” The panel slid shut again. “Real mature, jackwad!” Sarah was torn between her instinct to run as far away from here as she could, and her need to get the job done, so she hammered on the door again but when there was no reply, she decided this wasn’t going to get her anywhere. There had to be a better way to get a ship. As she looked online for any inspiration, she remembered that Laila’s daddy ran a shipping company. It wasn’t quite the same as a charter ship business, but maybe he’d help her? After all, weren’t Flin and Ral cousins?
* * *
“We’ll depart tomorrow,” Basil said, after Sarah explained what had happened. Basil and Flin had invited her into their living room, where they were all now sat around the coffee table, and Sarah was sipping at a hot chocolate that Basil had made her.
She’d arrived at the warehouse in a disheveled state, after getting lost again and walking around the old town for two hours looking for any street name that matched up with the ones on her tablet’s maps, not daring to ask any of the old town’s denizens for directions, before she finally relented and summoned a flying car with her tablet. Her feet ached and she was tired, but she didn’t want to delay another moment.
“I want to go now!” Sarah was adamant, but Basil simply threw his hands up and sighed in exasperation.
“Just once I want to meet anyone else who understands how spaceships work. Young lady, if we fly off without the correct preparations, we won’t be equipped to help Doctor Rowardennan. Moreover, we might not even get there. The ship needs fuel, water, helium, and oxygen or it won’t move.”
“Surely it just needs the fuel to move?” Sarah pointed out. She’d been an irritatingly precocious child, and she’d never quite grown out of it. For some reason, it popped out more often when she was trying to be an adult than when she allowed herself to be little.
“Not if the people flying it can’t breathe,” Basil countered. “And even then, if we’re out for more than two days, we’ll die without any water.”
“Well, I won’t,” Flin observed. He’d been silent until now.
Sarah closed her mouth. Clearly, Basil wasn’t going to move an inch over this departure time. She wanted to ask what the helium was for, but it wasn’t the main issue at this moment in time.
Flin looked up at her, and although his gaze was as hard as every other time she’d seen him, there was now an unfamiliar softness in his eyes that told her he understood her frustration.
“We want to find him too. Or at least, I do, and Basil won’t hear the end of it unless he helps. We’ll leave as soon as we can. Share Laila’s room for tonight, so you don’t have to be at Ral’s place on your own. I doubt his assistant will find you here, but if he does, I’ll scrag him until he’s crying for his mother.”
Sarah stared at him blankly. “Scrag?”
Basil laughed. “Oh, you won’t be used to it. The Speakeasy chip translates some things into words that only make sense in certain places where your language was spoken. For example, to scrag someone was a phrase from the North of England. It’s a blunt way of saying, ‘to hit someone,’” Basil explained. “The chip doesn’t know where you’re from, and it has millions of languages to manage so the inventors decided it would be fine to not separate all the dialects of the same language.”
Comprehension dawned. Suddenly, some of the words that she heard people saying made a lot more sense.
“You’ll become accustomed to figuring it out by context. After all, the chip has no idea which words you know and which ones you don’t,” Flin added.
“How does it know my language at all? I mean, the way I speak, compared to you, Basil… surely I sound like I’m talking in Ye Olde English with th
ou, spake, and all the rest of it?”
“This sounds like a history question. Doesn’t Ral know?” Flin asked.
Sarah frowned. “If he does, he didn’t explain it to me.”
“I know this. The Speakeasy chip is connected to a series of databases for every different language. Yours is known as ‘Middle English,’ while mine is just ‘English.’ It separates languages by time but not by place,” Basil explained.
“You learn something new every day. Go play with Laila for a bit while I make dinner, then you can both go to bed,” Flin said. It felt weird being told what to do by someone other than Ral. Underneath it all, there was the added weirdness that she knew Flin wasn’t monogamous, and she wasn’t currently in a relationship with anyone. She hoped his two girlfriends, or whatever they were, were enough for him because she didn’t want things to become awkward.
Laila opened her bedroom door and a suspicious gaze turned into a welcoming smile.
“Phew! When I heard you talking, I thought you were Magda, Flin’s new slave. And she’s supposed to be at her mom’s house for the next few days. What are you doing here, Sarah?”
Sarah sat down on the purple bed, where she explained everything that happened since she last saw Laila. Laila listened in increasing horror then enveloped Sarah in a hug.
“What if I never see him again? And the last thing I ever said to him was… was…” Sarah began to cry.
“Basil and Flin will help you fix everything, and I’m sure Ral will be fine.”
“But he might not be.” Sarah didn’t want to stop worrying because it was so close to not caring. Laila sighed.
His Little Earthling Page 19