The Flyer (The Flyer Series Book 1)

by Frédérick S. Parker

  Chapter 14

  Aaron

  When I passed through the portal with Uriah, I had my reservations. Not only did I not want to get trapped, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’ve seen my fair share of sci-fi and his world did not disappoint. It did look like Earth in many respects, like the trees, ferns and other vegetation, but it was also very different. I remembered my boyfriend telling me that rare metals like silver and gold were abundant on his home planet. He was right and they weren’t the only precious elements. Large diamond crystals jutted out of the ground, sparkling in the early morning sun. Rubies, sapphires and emeralds pebbled the ground. So much shone and glittered, I hardly knew where to look. But while the landscape was overwhelming to say the least, the household situation was the exact opposite. When Mrs. Smith led us through her front door, I felt like I’d journeyed back in time. The interior reminded me of the 1800s. Maybe even earlier. And while Uriah may have come from this world, I quickly saw that he didn’t fit in. Literally. He not only towered over his own father, but he loomed over the even smaller Flyers. It was ironic. He was the youngest person by twenty years yet he made everyone look like kids.

  When Uriah recoiled from his first telepathic experience, I’ll admit I was nervous. But it didn’t take him long to find his stride. Watching him interact with his people felt good. It was nice to see him finally relax. But as he delved deeper into their world, I began to feel left out. I could see the looks of joy on everyone’s face, but I was surrounded by complete silence. The only noise was the rustle of wings or the patter of feet. Earlier today, Uriah had been really nervous and unsure. Within half an hour of meeting the other Flyers, he looked right at home. Completely at ease. Over the last week, my boyfriend had insisted that he wanted to stay on Earth. Will he change his mind? Should he? It was obvious he belonged here. These people were everything he’d been missing. All the fears and uncertainties I’d harbored all week quickly returned. Take it easy, Aaron. You’re getting ahead of yourself. This is his first encounter with his own kind. He’s bound to be excited. Just because they’ve accepted him with open arms, doesn’t mean he’ll decide to stay. We have something great. He’ll come back. Really? What did I have to offer? Great sex? These people had an entire planet! How can I possibly compete with that? Why would he ever…? My fears and doubts were forgotten the moment I saw three Flyers take two people across the canyon in a small chariot. I immediately began fantasizing about riding in one of those things, Uriah at the helm. I loved being in his arms during our first flight, but the carriage offered a little more security. My romantic daydreams were eventually interrupted. After a long drawn out meet and greet, the mood began to change. I have no idea what the Flyers were talking about, but the look of nervous excitement on Uriah’s face began to fade. Now he looked disturbed. What is happening?! The look on my boyfriend’s face was like nothing I’d ever seen before. When he looked at his mother, it was almost like he didn’t recognize her. Like he was looking at a stranger. And she look equally unsettled. While I really wanted to check out the canyon and the river of what looked like gold below, I knew the shit was about to hit the fan. A fan that wouldn’t even work on this planet!

  Without warning, Uriah grabbed his mother by the arm and dragged her away from the winged crowd. Jedediah and I quickly followed. While I was mildly concerned for her, he clearly thought this was a long time coming. As we left the clearing, I briefly wondered if I should give Uriah his privacy, but judging by the look on his face, I don’t think he cared. His normally shimmering gold eyes were cold and his traditionally buttermilk complexion was a hard grey mask. None of the Flyers followed. They just watched sadly as Uriah hauled his mother from sight. When we were a good ways into the woods, he stopped and turned to face her. Taking a deep breath and letting it out, he retracted his wings. It was several seconds before he spoke.

  “I don’t even know where to begin!” his voice was laced with venom. “How many lies have you told me over the years, Mother? How many secrets have you kept? How much information have you withheld?!”

  What did those people tell him? I knew there was friction between my boyfriend and his mother, but this was different. He was more than just angry. He looked betrayed, deceived, cheated and broken all at once. Everything that he'd been, was gone. I didn’t recognize the young man that stood before me. Uriah’s mother also had the look of someone who was gazing upon a stranger. She seemed genuinely scared as she stared up at him.

  “What do you want to know?” her lip trembled as she spoke. “Please, I’ll tell you anything, just calm down.”

  “Calm down?!” his words sprayed out like acid. “My whole life I’ve been rejected, tease and tormented. I suffered, Mom! I suffered and it all could've been avoided! You could've saved me from all that pain, but you didn’t. You didn’t! I want to know why!”

  “I tried!” she wept. “Honey, I tried to spare you the pain, but I didn’t know how!”

  “They said you were planning to put me up for adoption. Why didn’t you?”

  “Because I couldn’t bare to lose you! You were my only child. What kind of mother abandons her child?!”

  “What kind of mother doesn’t do whatever it takes to ensure her kid is happy and free?”

  “Uriah, please! I didn’t know what to do. You know the rules of this world. When the High Ruler is absent, Flyers aren’t born! I was blindsided, completely unprepared! I did what I had to! Tell me it wasn’t all bad. On Earth you were happy, weren’t you? At least for a while?”

  “Here I was trapped in my silence. Earth was just another kind of prison.”

  “Tell me what to do. I’ll do anything!”

  “Tell me everything. I want to know what happened. I want to know every single detail that lead us here.”

  Tears gushed down her face, but she nodded. “When a Flyer is born to non-Flyer parents, it is customary for those parents to send their child away to live among his or her own people. Not all parents do this, but a vast majority of them do. The ones who don’t usually relocate near a Flyer community so their child can have people to interact with. And since Flyers tend to move around a lot, the parents follow, moving from place to place, never really settling down. That’s not the life your father and I imagined when we decided to start a family. The High Ruler had been absent for almost twenty years and we didn’t have a lot of money. The only Flyer settlement that I knew of is the one right over there and it had been abandoned for years. When you were born, I didn’t know what to do. I spent the first month of your life crying because I didn’t want to lose you. Your father finally convinced me that it was the only way for you to have a normal life. He sent word through the grape vine and a month later Theodora arrived. When she took you in her arms, I snapped. The thought of her flying away with you destroyed me. I immediately took you back, saying I couldn’t go through with it. Jedediah told her he would get me under control and that you would be arriving shortly. Accepting this, she flew away. Your father spent the next year trying to convince me to give you up, but I couldn’t. I wanted to make it work. I did everything I could to take care of you, but as each year passed, it became clear that things weren’t working. About a month after you turned seven, I had finally broken down and decided to send you away when that portal opened up near our house. I thought it was a sign, an answer to my prayers. I spent the next year saving up the money to buy a genetic suppressant. I didn’t know a lot about them, but they were my only hope of keeping you. Fearful that the portal would close at any moment, I purchased the first genetic suppressant I could find. Since the High Ruler had already been gone twenty-eight years, I assumed he would be returning soon. The moment he did, so would we. Your father was against this whole plan, but I didn’t give him a choice. He had to stay behind in order to maintain stake on our land. Here, if you abandon your property, anyone can legally lay claim to it. I wanted there to be a home for us to return to when all this was over. I’d spent every last coin on the genetic suppressant so we wo
uldn’t have been able to survive if we lost our home. During the first year, I had to bring back supplies from Earth so Jedediah could survive. After I filed your citizenship papers, I enrolled you in school. For the next six years everything was great. You had friends, you hung out, it was everything I could have hoped for. But then the genetic suppressant began to fade. When that teacher almost saw your wings, I panicked, once again fearing that someone would try and take you way. That’s why I moved us out into the country. I’d worked too hard and risked too much to have some scientist or government agent whisk you away. When I first bought the genetic suppressant, I was too distracted to ask how long it would last. The merchant who sold it to me had suggested more expensive ones, ones that I later thought probably would have lasted longer, but I didn’t have the time or the money. Over the last four years, all I could do was watch as my plan gradually fell apart. I could see that you were depressed and I did everything I could to raise your spirits, but I also had to protect you from those who might try to take you away.”

  The silence that followed was palpable. I was never a fan of Mrs. Smith, but her sadness and desperation to keep her son did yank at my heart strings. Jedediah also looked sympathetic as he gazed silently at his wife. The only one who didn’t look on the edge of tears was Uriah. When his mother told him her story, he had listened silently, but while my heart had begun to melt, his only seemed to harden. When he finally spoke, his voice was cold and hard.

  “You put so much energy into keeping me by your side you never stopped once to think about what that meant. You got your son. What did I get? You saw what I was going through and you didn’t care. What you did was selfish. You put your own happiness over mine.”

  “That’s not true!” fresh tears welled up in her eyes. “I tried to make you happy!”

  Uriah shook his head. “What’s the story about two mothers laying claim to the same child and the king offers to cut the kid in half? You cut me in half.”

  At this his mother broke down into tears. “I’m so sorry! What can I do to make it better?”

  “Nothing.” his voice was cold and final. Turning on his heel, he grabbed me by the hand and led me back toward the canyon. I’m not entirely sure he knew what he was doing or where he was going. His face was still that grey, hard mask. After what just happened, I made no attempts to object. I was in shock. Honestly, I didn’t know if he should feel sorry for his mother. While her voice was desperate and pleating, his words, while few, articulated the depths of his pain.

  When we arrived back at the canyon, Uriah stopped for a moment. I wanted to know what he was thinking, but I was too scared to ask. He appeared lost in his own universe. For a moment he looked down at our interlaced fingers, but I can’t be sure he saw them. A muscle was now working furiously in his jaw. Right when I was about to take the leap and break the silence, he closed his eyes and extracted his wings. Releasing my hand, he walked over to where a group of Flyers were gathered. Among them was the redhead with orange wings. He interacted briefly with her before returning to where I stood. Taking my hand, he led me to one of the many cabins. Right before we entered, he retracted his wings. In one corner of the cabin there was what appeared to be a large red futon lying flat on the floor. Apart from a few shelves and some cupboards, the place was empty. It looked like it was designed for two people much smaller than Uriah. The top of his head almost grazed the ceiling. While his pale gold eyes took in the room, I decided it was time to break the silence. Feeling nervous as hell, I couldn’t help being lighthearted and goofy.

  “A penny for your thoughts?” Uriah looked at me, but he maintained his silence. Right when I was winding up for round two, he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me to him. He stared at me for a second before bowing his head and pressing his mouth gently against mine. Normally his kisses are powerful and deep, but now his lips barely made contact. While he continued these weird butterfly kisses, he pulled away slightly his arms falling away from me. Taking my hand in his, he rubbed it against himself through his jeans. I didn’t know where this was going, but I obliged, first caressing him through the material, then sliding my hand past his belt, making direct contact. My boyfriend continued giving me light kisses, but his dick remained flaccid. After a minute or two, he pulled away, his face tortured.

  “It’s all good,” I said as my fingers slid free of his waist band. “I don’t know what you’re going through, but after the day you’ve had, I’d be surprised if you weren’t conflicted. We don’t have to do this.” He looked at me, but maintained his silence. Is being around other Flyers rubbing off on him? This was starting to get maddening. “Your mother gave you a lot to process. Do you want to talk about it?” He shook his head. “Do you want to go for a walk?”

  “I need to be alone,” he suddenly said, his eyes becoming distant and a second later there was a loud whoosh as his wings appeared. Without giving me a second glance, he turned and ran from the cabin. The moment he was outside, he took flight. I watched as he soared high above the trees before disappearing from sight. He needed some space. I understood that. Still, I hoped he wasn’t gone too long. I wasn’t sure how long he’d planned to stay on this planet, but I was starting to get a little nervous. What if he doesn’t come back? Perhaps his wounds are too deep. What if the portal closes and I’m trapped here forever? If Uriah does return will he want me to stay? I couldn’t imagine not having him in my life, but I also couldn’t picture never seeing my family and friends again. This is so messed up! If I did stay here, what would I do? Everyone on this planet has a role, genetically programed into them at birth. Here, I didn’t have any discernible skills. Here, I’m the alien.

  When Uriah didn’t return after an hour, I walked the ten miles back to his parents’ house. Bypassing the shimmering blue portal, I went up to the front door and knocked. Any chance he came back here? After a moment, the door open and Jedediah appeared. I guessed that he was in the middle of cooking because a curious aroma wafted around him. I was immediately reminded that it’d been hours since breakfast. It must be past noon. I took a quick peek at my watch to confirm this only to find that it had stopped at 8:07am. That’s interesting. When Jedediah said this planet couldn’t support electricity, I’d wondered why people didn’t just bring our gadgets over. Technology literally doesn’t work here. But judging by the placement of the sun, I guessed it was past noon. I’d been on an alien world for at least four hours.

  “Hello, Aaron,” Jedediah said and he gestured for me to enter. “I see my son is not with you. Happen to know where he is?”

  “No. He took off about a couple hours ago.”

  Uriah’s father looked sad. “I really wanted a different life for him, but here fathers have little say concerning their children.”

  “That sucks.”

  He nodded, then motioned toward the kitchen. “Care for something to eat? Just finished making lunch.”

  “Sure.” I wondered where his wife was, but he didn’t say and I didn’t ask.

  Jedediah looked sullen as he served us both. Taking his seat at the table, he picked up his spoon, but made no move to eat. A second or two passed before his gaze wandered up to meet mine. I noticed that there were tears in his eyes.

  “I waited ten long years to see my son. Now look at him. Absolutely destroyed.” he took a deep, shuttering breath. “Today is his eighteen birthday and now it’s probably the worse day of his life. I’m his father and I’m powerless to help him. I don’t even know anything about the man he’s become.”

  “Mrs. Smith didn’t bring you updates?”

  He snorted humorlessly. “Her updates were generic. ‘Our son is doing great! He’s so happy.’ I had no idea what was really going on. I should have came through the portal, but she convinced me it wasn’t a good idea. If I’d known how bad things were…” his voice trailed off as he fought back a sob. With his knuckles pressed to his lips, Uriah’s father stared off into space, his face crumpling under the weight of his emotions.


  I didn’t know what to say. Now my heart ached for both him and his son. With everything going on, I’d forgotten my own boyfriend turned eighteen today. I’d already wished him a happy birthday, but I wanted to do more. Especially now. But I had nothing. I didn’t even have a present for him. Looking at Jedediah, tears threaten my eyes. Uriah hadn’t been the only victim in his mother’s obsession. Her husband had suffered too. He had wanted a better life for their child, but instead he got nothing. Not having words strong enough to express my regrets, I turned my attention to the food. I didn’t know what was in the brown stew, but it was really good. When I was bursting at the seams, I returned to the Flyer settlement, hoping that Uriah had returned. When I didn’t find him in our cabin, I started asking around if anyone had seen him. Every Flyer I encountered shook their head sadly. They all seemed to know what he was going through.

  I’d been standing outside what looked like a cafeteria for about five minutes, trying to decide what to do when a small group of people exited. Their wings were a rainbow of colors. One of them spotted me and they wandered over looking curious. As they shared looks, I realized they were probably talking about me telepathically. I immediately began to feel self-conscious. One of them raised his hand up high over his head as if indicating someone very tall. Uriah.

  “Yes, I’m his… friend. My name’s Aaron.”

  They nodded. After a long silence… well, for me it was silent, they were probably chatting away about me, one of them mimed eating and pointed into the mess hall. He then pointed at me.