Wind Runner: The Complete Collection

by Edmund Hughes

  It was late in the afternoon when Tapestry finally finished her diplomacy. Malcolm had spent most of the time on his phone, feeling useless and bored out of his mind. When she finally walked over to him and nodded, he tried not to let his relief show on his face.

  “Come on,” said Tapestry. “I have to get home. Melanie is worried about me.”

  “Right,” said Malcolm.

  Tapestry hesitated for a moment.

  “You can have dinner with us, if you want,” she said. “It might be a better way of decompressing than heading back to an empty apartment.”

  Malcolm smiled.

  “Sure.”

  CHAPTER 22

  Tapestry drove them to one of the nicer neighborhoods in Vanderbrook, pulling into the driveway of a surprisingly large house. Melanie was already waiting for them at the door, wearing a flower-patterned spring dress and looking extremely worried.

  “Aubrey!” shouted Melanie. “You promised! You promised me that you would stop taking stupid risks and relying so much on your powers. This is breaking that promise! Do you understand? You’ve broken your promise!”

  Tapestry scratched her head, shooting an awkward glance in Malcolm’s direction.

  “It couldn’t be helped.” She set her hand on Melanie’s shoulders. “Look, I’m okay.”

  “Okay?” Melanie reached out and snapped off a section of still burned hair. “This only happens when your powers run low. You were close to dying, Aubrey, for real.”

  “A lot of people did die today, Mel,” said Tapestry.

  Melanie took a deep breath, continuing to glare at Tapestry for a moment. Then, she pulled her into a tight hug.

  “I was so worried,” she said. “They showed it on the news, and I just knew you’d stick your nose in. Next time, please… just let the fire fighters do their job. You have your job, and they have theirs. Separation of specialization. Stick to the normal champion stuff.”

  Tapestry returned the embrace, softly stroking Melanie’s hair.

  “I’ll try,” she said. “Sorry, Mel.”

  The three of them stepped into the house, and Melanie only then seemed to notice Malcolm. She nodded, her smile broadening significantly.

  “Hi,” said Malcolm. “Nice to see you again, Melanie.”

  “Well, at least you did one smart thing, Aubrey,” said Melanie. “I was bugging her for all of yesterday afternoon to get you over here for dinner, Wind Runner. Her other coworkers are nice, but they aren’t like her. Too focused on their jobs. No perspective, none at all.”

  Malcolm shrugged, feeling a little overwhelmed.

  This girl is too much.

  He took his shoes off and looked around the house. It was very clean and nicely decorated, but there was something off about it that took Malcolm a little while to notice. It was the style, the wallpaper, even the carpet. Everything looked as though it came from another era, teleported forward from 1975.

  “Melanie, can you keep Malcolm company in the living room while I get started on dinner?” asked Tapestry. “I’ll get the two of you something to drink. Seltzer? Cranberry juice?”

  “Water’s fine,” said Malcolm.

  He watched as Tapestry disappeared into the kitchen, returning a moment later wearing a pink apron and carrying two glasses. She smiled broadly as she passed them to Malcolm and Melanie, as though being the busy bee of the house was her favorite thing in the world.

  “We’re having steak, but I also need to recharge,” said Tapestry. “Any requests? I make excellent oatmeal cookies.”

  “That’s fine,” said Malcolm. “As long as they have chocolate chips, and not raisins.”

  Tapestry scrunched up her face at him.

  “They taste better with raisins, but fine,” she sighed. “Also, Melanie can help you get the music system set up, so you can listen to your 90s stuff and recharge. I don’t use it as much, so I’m not as familiar with it.”

  “Totally!” said Melanie. “Here, let me show you Malcolm. I installed it for Aubrey. Speakers all over the room. It’s Bluetooth, so you can connect using your phone. Just find the device in the list that comes down when you-”

  “I got it,” said Malcolm. He connected to the speakers and started playing a vintage Weezer song off one of his playlists. Immediately he felt relaxed, almost like getting a massage after working out all day.

  He sat down on the couch with Melanie. She was talking to him, word after word falling out of her mouth like water out of a faucet.

  “And she knows that she doesn’t have to! That’s the thing! It’s just that she sees it in terms of keeping the people she loves safe, you know. Which is fine by me, but sometimes I wish she would keep herself safe, for her and for me.”

  “The two of you are really close, huh?” asked Malcolm.

  Melanie hesitated. For the first time that evening, she looked as though she didn’t know exactly what to say.

  “It’s okay,” said Malcolm. “I get it. You both didn’t exactly jump to confirm my conclusion when I implied that you were sisters yesterday. I know what’s going on.”

  “You… do?” said Melanie.

  “Yeah,” he said. “It’s fine, Melanie. I’m not weird and judgmental. I just think it’s great that you’re both in love.”

  Melanie’s jaw dropped open. She stared at Malcolm in disbelief, and then started laughing.

  “Wow,” she said. “Just… wow.”

  “Uh, sorry,” said Malcolm. “Did I… assume too much?”

  Melanie sighed and shook her head.

  “It’s okay,” she said. “Look, this is going to come out sooner or later, if you and Aubrey stay friends. I wish she would just come out and tell you, but she can be a little shy and guarded, sometimes.”

  “Just tell me,” said Malcolm. “Whatever it is.”

  Melanie glanced back at the kitchen door, making sure that Tapestry was still out of the room.

  “You can’t tell her that I told you,” she said.

  Malcolm nodded.

  “We are related,” said Melanie. “It’s just a… far off connection.”

  “How far off, exactly?”

  “About… three generations,” said Melanie. “Aubrey is my great grandmother.”

  Grandmother? Wait… great grandmother…?

  “How…?” Malcolm was shaking his head. “That’s not… possible.”

  “Her powers heal her body completely,” said Melanie. “Including the effects of aging. She’s always going to be a young adult, a woman around nineteen or twenty. At least in a physical sense.”

  Malcolm brought a hand to his mouth. He blinked, still struggling to believe it.

  “She was 98 when she discovered her gift,” said Melanie. “It was just after, well… My parents, and my brother… they all died in a demon attack. My grandparents have been dead for a couple of years now. Aubrey was the only family I had left, and I was the one taking care of her. Until…”

  Malcolm listened, for once deeply interested in each and every word coming out of Melanie’s mouth.

  “It’d been years since she’d been fully lucid, but one day, I was helping her with her baking, which she is totally crazy about, by the way, and… all the sudden it was like she was there again, asking me important questions. Telling me that it was going to be okay. I was a mess during that time, and it meant so much to me.”

  “I can only imagine,” he said.

  “It took… about three months,” said Melanie. “She aged backward like, probably a year per day. All the way back to the age she looks now. I’d already been living here, taking care of her, and we both just… went on with our lives.”

  Melanie let out a breath, as though a tremendous weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Malcolm leaned back against the couch and took a sip of his water.

  “This isn’t going to make things weird for you, is it?” Melanie asked.

  Malcolm thought about it for a second.

  It doesn’t change who Tapestry is. She alway
s seemed more mature, more like a real adult, than me. Now I know why.

  “No,” he said. “Of course it won’t.”

  “Dinner’s ready!” called Tapestry. “Why don’t the two of you go and wash up?”

  CHAPTER 23

  “Bless us, oh lord and these, thy gifts for which we are about to receive from your bounty,” said Tapestry. “Through Christ our lord, Amen.”

  “Amen,” muttered Malcolm.

  He opened his eyes and smiled. Tapestry was sitting directly across the table from him. She was pretty, and he felt like he was noticing that fact again for the first time. Her skin was smooth and flawless, and she had an adorable mouth, full of expression. Along with glossy blonde hair, and a fantastic body.

  “Malcolm,” said Tapestry. “Why are you staring at me?”

  “You just…” Malcolm floundered. “You look so good. I mean… uh…”

  Tapestry sighed and glanced over at Melanie.

  “You told him,” she said.

  “He…” Melanie shook her head defensively. “He… thought we were lesbians! The truth is better than him thinking something like that.”

  A smile spread across Tapestry’s face. She leaned back in her chair, pulling the tip of her ponytail around to play with in her fingers.

  “Yes, it’s true,” said Tapestry, looking at Malcolm. “I was born in the 1920s. I married my husband, Marty, just after the end of World War II. We had three children together. I watched them grow up, and their kids grow up, and so forth. I’m very old.”

  Malcolm found that he was shaking his head, disagreeing. Or rather, he saw her point, but also saw the young woman sitting across the table from him. It was easy to reconcile her with a century of life experience, and at the same time, nearly impossible.

  “You don’t… look old,” he said, lamely. “I mean… look, I’m not going to treat you any different. I’m still going to look at you the same way.”

  “What do you mean by that?” asked Tapestry.

  “Uh…” Malcolm felt his face heat. He scratched his head.

  What do I mean by that?

  “Aubrey, this steak is delicious!” said Melanie, in a loud, conversational voice. “Did you use the new seasoning? I think it really helps pull out the flavor. Mmm, and so spicy!”

  “Malcolm…” Tapestry frowned. “Maybe we should talk about this later?”

  He nodded, afraid that if he said anything else he’d only prolong the awkwardness. The timer went off on the oven, and Tapestry stood, pulling her apron back on along with a pair of thick oven mitts. She pulled out a pan of perfect oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and set them on the cooling rack.

  The rest of dinner was a slightly tense and mostly silent affair. Malcolm felt as though it was somehow his fault for knowing the truth. The food was delicious, however, and he was still able to appreciate the first home cooked meal he’d had in a very long time.

  “That was excellent,” he said. “But I can’t eat another bite.”

  “Will you take some cookies with you?” asked Tapestry. “They’ll go to waste otherwise. Melanie doesn’t do sugar.”

  “Sure,” he said.

  “It’s dark out,” said Tapestry. “I’ll give you a ride home.”

  He nodded, heading back into the living room as Tapestry cleared the table. Melanie walked up next to him, hugging her arms across her chest and frowning.

  “She’s really lonely, you know,” she said.

  “What?”

  Melanie shrugged.

  “She doesn’t have friends, Malcolm,” she said. “I mean sure, there’s the girl Morph, and what’s his face, the doubling dude. But they’re more like coworkers.”

  “I’m technically also her coworker,” said Malcolm.

  “It’s different with you,” said Melanie. “She likes you.”

  Malcolm stared at her, and again, got the sense that Melanie had just revealed something that she shouldn’t have.

  “That came out wrong,” she said, quickly. “I mean, she thinks that you’re a good person. And easy to talk to. I think it’s why she was so reluctant to tell you the whole truth behind her age and her powers. She wanted you to see her as who she showed up as.”

  “I get it,” said Malcolm. “And I think she’s a good person too. And I’m not going to get weird around her just because-”

  “Malcolm?” Tapestry walked into the living room, and Malcolm almost jumped with surprise. “Are you ready?”

  “Sure,” he said. “Totally.”

  The first minute of the drive was totally silent and more than a little uncomfortable. Malcolm kept trying to think of an easy way to start a conversation, but second guessed every idea.

  “It’s hard…” said Tapestry. “Being young again.”

  “I can imagine,” said Malcolm. “I mean, so much has changed since your heyday. You must walk around with a constant case of future shock.”

  “Hey!” said Tapestry.

  “I’m kidding,” he said. “Well, kind of. What was it like using the internet for the first time?”

  “It was… interesting,” said Tapestry. “I never realized just how perverted men were, deep down inside.”

  Malcolm laughed.

  “Truer words have never been spoken,” he said.

  They were silent for another few seconds.

  “I’m serious, though,” said Tapestry. “My body is young again, but so is my mind. I have all of these memories, and it almost seems like they belong to someone else.”

  “What do you mean by that?” asked Malcolm.

  “The emotions don’t match,” said Tapestry. “I feel the emotions, the impulses, of a twenty-year-old.”

  They’d reached his apartment, and she pulled to a stop on the street alongside it. Malcolm looked over at her.

  “I don’t see you any differently,” said Malcolm. “And I don’t feel like I have any right to. You didn’t treat me like a stupid kid when we first met. Well, not really…”

  “So this really doesn’t change anything for you?” asked Tapestry.

  “Of course not, Tapestry.” He smiled at her.

  “You can call me Aubrey,” she said. “Sometimes. If you want.”

  “Aubrey.”

  Malcolm leaned in closer to her, not even fully sure what he was doing, or why. She was looking at him, her green eyes reflecting the illumination of the street light outside.

  Tapestry’s phone rang, ruining the moment. She looked down at it and rolled her eyes.

  “Melanie wants me to pick up more seltzer on my way back,” she said. “Sorry, I should probably… get going.”

  “You don’t want to come up? We could watch some TV or something?”

  Aubrey started laughing.

  “Does that work on the women of your generation?” she asked. “Like, ever?”

  Malcolm shrugged. He grinned at her, feeling a strange mixture of emotions.

  Nothing’s changed between us. And everything’s changed. And I like it.

  “Anyway,” said Tapestry. “My powers are going to take some time to recharge. I’ll need to take tomorrow off, and possibly the next day for them to recover to the point where I can use them again.”

  “Alright,” said Malcolm. “I’ll see you the day after tomorrow then. Aubrey.”

  “Malcolm.”

  He almost leaned in close again. She was looking at him, and the air felt hot and alive with tension. There was a tiny smile on her lips, and it took Malcolm a minute to draw his eyes away. He got out of her car, nodded to her, and closed the door.

  Tapestry drove off slowly, and Malcolm watched her round the corner before heading inside. He unlocked the door to his apartment and flicked the light on.

  “Hey,” said Rose.

  CHAPTER 24

  Malcolm stared at her, not sure what to say. He hadn’t honestly been expecting her to come back, but there she was, sitting on his couch, an amused smile on her face. Part of him wanted to run over and hug her, but he forced i
t down, taking off his shoes and staying where he was.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “I would have called or texted, but the whole being a spryte thing gets in the way of paying a monthly phone bill.” She crossed her legs. “So… was that the blonde champion who dropped you off?”

  “Yup,” said Malcolm.

  “The two of you were out there in the car for a while,” said Rose. “I take it you got at least to first base.”

  Malcolm felt his face heat up a little bit.

  “What? No!”

  “It’s okay,” said Rose. “In case I didn’t make it clear, I’m not the jealous type. In fact, I encourage you to get involved with all the normal girls you want. Just don’t bring around any other sprytes.”

  “Wow,” said Malcolm. “I’m not even sure what to say to that.”

  Rose shrugged, looking nonplussed.

  “What’s in the bag?” she asked.

  “Chocolate chip cookies.” He frowned a little, noticing her in detail. She was wearing the same clothes she’d had on when he’d first found her, a sweatshirt and yoga pants, but they were dirty, and rough around the edges. “What happened to you last night?”

  Rose shrugged.

  “I found a place to hide out,” she said. “It was kind of hard to get down into. The basement of an abandoned house. Thanks again for what you did, by the way.”

  Malcolm walked over to the couch and sat down next to her.

  “I didn’t really have a choice,” he said. “We would have both been fucked if they’d found you.”

  “It still means a lot to me,” she said. “I can’t remember the last time someone went out on a limb like that for me.”

  “Didn’t you say you have amnesia?”

  Rose rolled her eyes.

  “Is it… alright?” she asked. “Me being back here? I wasn’t sure if you’d be waiting with open arms, so to speak.”

  Malcolm nodded.

  “It’s fine,” he said. “Here, do you want to take a shower? You look like you could use a chance to unwind.”