Bridgeworld

by Travis McBee

  “You know when I was breaking up with Corey I mentioned you.” She said still staring through the window.

  Will felt his heart quicken and his stomach attempting to do gymnastics. Why did she mention me?

  “Oh yeah,” he said coolly, “Why’s that?”

  She answered without looking away from the window, “Because I told him he should learn to be more sensitive like you,”

  Will laughed aloud at such a proposal, “How did he take it?”

  “He told me if I wanted someone as sensitive as you the only thing I could do was date you because there aren’t any guys like you,” she said still staring into space.

  Will laughed again, “I’m sorry Abby,”

  “For what?”

  “Him saying something like that.”

  “You know what, Will?” She said softly while staring out the window at a comet racing across the sky.

  “What’s that Abby?”

  She turned and looked at him and Will saw something in those magnificently dark green eyes that he had never seen before. They twinkled up at him as if they radiated their own light and he felt his heart melt like it had so many times before around her.

  “I think he’s right,” she whispered.

  Will heart beat a frantic rhythm against his chest. He thought quickly and replied softly, “About me being overly sensitive?”

  “No,” she said taking a step closer to him so that he had to look straight down into those luminescent eyes while the smell of her drifted up towards him, “That I should date you,”

  She stood on her toes and her lips rested a centimeter away from Will’s. He breathed in the smell of her, a sweet smell of kindness, better than anything he had ever experienced. She closed her eyes and hid those incredible eyes from the world as she pressed her lips against his.

  Fire seemed to explode from Will’s lips and radiate throughout his body as Abby kissed him. He could taste the tangy sweetness of her lips and felt her breath blow from her nose onto his tickling his cheeks lightly. He reached out his hands and placed them onto her narrow hips wanting that moment to last forever.

  After a few seconds, but what felt like a joyful lifetime to Will, Abby broke off the kiss and sat back onto her heels. She stared up at Will with her big green eyes that twinkled more magnificently than the millions of stars that peeked through the window next to them, even as her cheeks blushed red from what she had just done. Will could still feel the pressure on his lips and hoped that the sensation would never fade.

  “I don’t have any amors,” He said dumbly after a few seconds of staring at the girl of his dreams

  “I’ll help you make some,” She whispered as the blush disappeared from her cheeks. She reached a hand behind his neck and pulled his face towards hers and kissed him again.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Reports and Deports

  Will had never felt more elated the night he and Abby shared a kiss in what Will had come to call the observatory, but within a week he became nearly succumbed to misery unlike any he had known at Bridgeworld. If a list was compiled to find out the worst times to begin dating someone Will’s timing would have been in the top three.

  The first weekend that Will and Abby dated was near perfect for Will. She had made him a pair of green amors of which she placed one on her wrist so everyone would know that she, Abby Phillips, was dating William Haynes. Everyone did know, including Corey, and Will was more than a trifle nervous about how he would respond to the news but Corey had simply laughed and patted Will on the back and wished him a simultaneous “congratulations” and “best of luck”.

  The following Monday had borne the seeds of discontent that would soon make Will incredibly miserable during the happiest time of his life. Will had his dream girl and that made him happier than anything else in the world, but he also had midterms coming up and that both robbed him of free time with Abby and drove a wedge of fear and worry into a heart that had been bursting with happiness.

  The Bridgeworld school year was divided evenly into two parts. They were called seasons and each season had a wonderful gift at the end, exams. The end of the beginning season was greeted with midterms that would heavily weigh on one’s grade, while the end of the final season bore impossibly hard exams dubbed, appropriately enough, finals. Midterms may have been easier than finals but Will couldn’t be sure from the way his teachers were acting. Each of them piled work onto him higher than the snow fall in Alaska, during February, in a blizzard unlike any seen before. Every night he worked in the Study Hall and even though Abby was with him they barely had a chance to exchange more than a half dozen words because of the sheer volume of what would probably turn out to be busy work.

  The work was not busy work after all as Will unfortunately found out three questions into his first exam. The tests seemed to ask about every insignificant fact that had been so much as whispered in his classes and Will found himself becoming increasingly stressed as each exam passed with greater difficulty and he both dreaded and couldn’t wait to find out his grades.

  The day before he went home for mid-break Will found himself sitting in the lounge with Abby and his two friends. He was waiting impatiently for his grades to post so that he would know the amount of damage he had inflicted upon his school career. He was only confident about one exam he had taken, P.E, which had seen him running around the gym in wide laps and performing pushups to the best of his ability. Athletics was the one thing in which Will had never doubted his ability and for that reason alone that class was pushed to the back of his mind.

  “Calm down Will. They’ll get posted soon and you’ll see that you did fine.” Abby told him when she saw him glance down at his Micro for the fiftieth time in as many seconds.

  Will flicked her a reassuring smile but the smile came out wrong and looked more like a grimace.

  “I’m fine,” Will lied, “Don’t worry about me, I’m not stressed out at all,”

  Corey looked up at Will from across the table they were sitting at and noticed the soft gleam of sweat that coated his face.

  “Yeah dude you’re as cool as an ice cube,” Corey said sarcastically.

  Corey was sitting in a chair that he leaned back on two legs with casual efficiency. His untidy blonde hair was tossed about his face as he whistled while prodding through a letter to his parents on his micro. Corey always had a way of looking relaxed and Will envied him for it.

  “Oh shut up,” Will told him as he felt his leg kick into a nervous bounce that had plagued it for days now.

  Abby placed a hand on his bobbing knee and smiled warmly at him. Will instantly planted his heel onto the floor and kept it there. He returned the smile to Abby but felt it falter as his stress bounced around inside of him with its release cut off. His leg began bouncing again.

  “So what are you doing for mid-break?” She asked Jon who was looking just about as nervous as Will.

  “Going back home I guess,” He replied to her with a shrug, “Boring old Broglio for me,”

  “Ha I hear ya man,” Corey laughed while casually rocking his chair back and forth, “It’s going to be crazy boring back home,”

  “Well why don’t you two get together since you both live on the same planet?” Abby asked them warmly.

  “Cause Jon there lives in Pecova,” Corey replied, “And I live in Mugoy. They’re on opposite sides of the planet,”

  “And that takes how long to travel to in a Pod?” Abby asked raising her eyebrows

  “Eh bout fifteen minutes,” Corey said absently without thinking about what he was really saying.

  “And do you have a pod?” she queried again

  “Yeah my parents gave me an old beat up Nexus for my thirteenth birthday,” he said with a grimace as he remembered how disgusting he had thought it was when he first saw it.

  “Well then drive fifteen minutes and hang out so we don’t have to hear you complain about how boring break was!” she sighed with copious amounts of exasperation lubricati
ng her words

  “Oh yeah,” Corey said as his brain finally activated, “Gee Abbz you’re a genius!”

  Abby slapped herself in the forehead with an open palm and stared at Will with a “Are we really friends with these guys?” expression plastered on her beautiful face. As Jon and Corey began to earnestly make plans to cause havoc Abby leaned towards Will and planted a small kiss on his cheek.

  “Cheer up baby,” She whispered sweetly in his ear

  Will let out a sigh and stared at his girlfriend who sat so gingerly on the chair next to him. She was smiling warmly at him as her hand still rested on his once again restless knee. He forced it to a stop and wove his fingers through hers and returned the smile as best he could.

  “So what are you doing during break?” He asked her smiling.

  “Oh I don’t know, probably just sleep a lot,” She laughed cheerfully.

  “Sounds exciting,” Will replied with cheerful sarcasm

  “Hey Will you going back to Earth?” Corey called out at him after looking up from his conversation with Jon.

  “You know I am,” Will called back slightly pissed off by the interruption in his conversation with Abby.

  “Well don’t get ticked big guy!” Jon advised him with a smirk that hinted that the two had been planning on doing a little traveling in Corey’s beat up old pod.

  Will opened his mouth to interrogate them on what they were talking about but a sudden rush of beeping raced around the lounge and his attention shifted to his pocket. He pulled out his Micro, an action mirrored by everyone in the room, and activated it with a press of his thumb.

  The small smile that had come to life because of Abby soon dissolved and fell off of his face. He stared down at the luminescent screen in disbelief, it read.

  Math: 2

  History: 1

  Basic Sciences: 2

  Language: 1

  Intergalactic Relations:2

  Physical Education: 2

  Space Flight: 1

  “Oh no, I bombed everything, even P.E!” He moaned and shrank back against his chair.

  “What?! No way!” Abby said and snatched his micro from his hands so swiftly and smoothly a pickpocket would have been awed.

  She gaped at the screen for a few seconds before looking up at Will with a frown.

  “Your language looks weird,” She smirked before looking back at his micro, “Translate to Ligurian,” she told it smartly.

  The micro must have complied because she stared back at the screen with a more understanding face. None the less she stared back at Will a moment later with a once again confused expression.

  “What are you talking about,” She said after a cursory glance at the small screen to confirm, “You got ones or two’s on everything.”

  “Ones are the worst grades and two aren’t much better aren’t they?” Will asked suddenly confused.

  “Of course not! Ones are the best and twos are pretty darn good as well silly,” She giggled back at him.

  Will felt his cheeks grow hot with embarrassment and he held out his hand to retrieve his Micro.

  “Ones are the worst? What planet are you from?” Corey laughed at him from across the table after looking up from his own micro.

  “Earth,” Will replied simply.

  “Oh yeah,” Corey said as if he had forgotten and the entire group of friends erupted in laughter from both the humor of the mix-up and the relief of having passed their midterms.

  * * *

  “Bye Will!” Corey shouted as he climbed into his brother’s pod

  “See you later! Behave yourself!” Will shouted back and turned to talk to Abby and Jon.

  They were standing in the hanger amid a bustle of students who were all boarding shuttles or climbing into pods to head home for mid-break. The students from Earth had been pulled aside and were made to change back into the clothes they had worn when they had arrived. After so long in the perfect fitting monogarb Will found his blue jeans excruciatingly uncomfortable.

  “You look so goofy in that get up,” Abby said for about the fifth time looking Will up and down.

  “Thanks Abbz really appreciate it,” Will replied jokingly.

  “Oh don’t be a little girl,” She walked up and kissed him lightly, “You still look amazing.”

  “Yeah amazingly weird,” Snorted Jon.

  Jon was supposed to hop on the large shuttle that had taken them to the Central Mugoy game. It was easily the largest and most crowded shuttle since most of the student body was from Broglio.

  “Where are you from again Abby?” Will asked as she eyed one of the smallest shuttles to see how much time she had left.

  “Ageo,” She replied, “It’s a little planet a lot like Earth I guess. It’s a bit smaller and um…”

  “Not ignorant of the universe around it?” Provided Jon

  “Yeah that,” Abby said and laughed hesitantly afraid to hurt Will’s feelings but loosened up as she saw Will chuckling merrily.

  “Well looks like I got to go,” Jon voiced after the brief laugh, “You two have a good break. And try not to get ticked Will!”

  “Yeah I’ll try not to,” Will laughed back and waved goodbye

  “You know they’re going to try and tick you,” Abby said as they watched Jon disappear up the ramp of his shuttle

  “Yup I know,” Will said absentmindedly

  “I’m going to miss you Abby,” He said after a moment’s pause.

  “It’s only two weeks silly,” She said smiling at him

  “Still…”

  “William! We are waiting on you!” A harsh voice, devoid of any accent even without the Lingus that sat in his ear translating his words, rang out.

  Will groaned and turned around to see Mr. Roberts standing on the ramp to the Terra shuttle that would return them home. Mr. Roberts didn’t look particularly mad but then again he didn’t look too happy either.

  “Well good bye Abby,” He told her.

  “Bye Will,” She said and stood on her toes and kissed him a brief goodbye kiss.

  He turned and walked to the gleaming black flying saucer and walked up the ramp. At the top he turned around and caught a glimpse of Abby boarding a small shuttle, barely the size of a large van. He sighed in misery at the thought of not seeing her again for weeks and walked into the interior of the ship.

  Some things in life never seem to change and the student compartment of the Earth shuttle was one of those things. Will felt like he had stepped back in time as he entered the room. Every seat except one was filled and Will plopped down into it without ceremony. Across from him Ryan looked up and nodded in recognition and Will returned the nod along with a small yet genuine smile.

  Will looked around for Russell since the freer had told him that he was also from Earth but didn’t see him in the room. On his second sweep with his eyes he figured out why, the room was only filled with freshmen, the other classes must have had their own rooms which made Will even more amazed that he had stumbled into the correct room in his blind search the first time.

  * * *

  Jacob Kenderson still ran the night shift alone at Pleasant Valley airport and he still loathed every second of it. What he hated the most was how weird things had started getting. Sixteen years ago he had seen a strange object on the radar screen for a few seconds, but after that things had returned to their normal dull state and that had suited him just fine. That is until a little over six months ago when a tiny object had rocketed across the screen, with a chorus of beeping alarms signaling it’s arrival, and disappeared into the outback.

  He hadn’t called it in, just as he hadn’t called in the strange object he’d seen over a decade before which had descended on the same strange stretch of woods. To call it in would mean paperwork, and the only thing worse than the monotony of his job, was the tedious business of paperwork. Not to mention that he could have possibly gotten in trouble for it.

  So Jacob had ignored the strange object and had tried to shut it out of h
is mind. He almost succeeded and probably would have if it hadn’t been for the massive object that descended on the outback a week later. “What the heck!” he had shouted at the screen spewing coffee out of his mouth. That time he came close to calling it in but the object disappeared after only a few minutes, and if there were two thing that Jacob hated, it was paperwork and awkward questions.

  Jacob had became a bit jittery after the two back to back appearances of UFO’s on his radar screen and began to add a bit of whiskey to his coffee to calm his nerves at night. It was a harmless amount and did work wonders for his nerves until a night five months after the back to back glitches.

  The alarm had gone off as it always did when something new appeared on screen and Jacob had taken a calming swig of his pungent coffee before glancing towards the glowing green screen. A tiny object had appeared but this time it wasn’t over the outback, it was directly over town. He watched as the small object hovered in place before descending off of the radar.

  “Oh god, it’s landed!” He moaned aloud and decided that this time he had to call it in.

  He stretched his hand out to the phone on his desk and was halfway through dialing the number when a fresh series of beeping broke through the speakers of the radar unit. He glanced down at it and saw that the object had reappeared and was hovering over the town once again. Then, as he watched, it jettisoned off of the screen at an alarming speed.

  That night Jacob decided to add a bit more whiskey to his coffee and the next morning he was nursing a doozy of a migraine as he drove home. It had started a trend for him and he wasn’t sure how long he could keep it up before he’d have to find a new job, one where he wouldn’t have alarms blaring about the strangeness of the world around him.

  Jacob sat at his desk as he usually did and was sipping on his coffee that was now mostly whiskey. In front of him the green screen of the radar showed a revolving line that swept giant hypnotizing circles about its face. It was as blank as a fresh sheet of paper, just the way Jacob liked it.