by Vivian Venus
Daggen, his face burning with embarrassment, followed Ryn to her truck. “It’s not normally like that, you know,” he said.
“Okay, okay.” She opened the door and pushed him inside, and then walked around to the driver’s side. She started the truck, threw it in gear, and roared off towards the road.
Daggen looked over his shoulder at the boulder that was his ship. He shouldn’t be leaving like this, but something told him that Ryn wouldn’t have left until she had him in the truck. He looked over at her. She had put a pair of dark sunglasses on, and her dark brown hair was fluttering wildly in the hot desert wind. Who was he kidding? He was thrilled to be around her again.
CHAPTER FOUR
Ryn pulled off of the dirt road and onto the paved two lane highway going into town. As she did she stole a glance at the man sitting in her passenger seat. His eyes were soft and intelligent and they looked out the window, scanning the landscape as if he were reading it like a book. He was dirty, rugged, like a mechanic or a construction worker off of a hard day’s work, and she couldn’t help but sneak a little look at his shirtless form. She scolded herself. She had sworn off men. Guys, especially ridiculously handsome ones like Daggen, were nothing but trouble. Once she dropped him off at the hospital, which is what she should’ve done the day before, she would go back to painting and to her life.
She drove down the main drag towards the small town hospital, when something caught her eye. She had passed by Gretta’s art gallery, and saw that one of her large paintings that she had for sale in the front window was no longer there. If someone had purchased it that meant she had made the biggest sale she’d had since she had moved to the desert. She slowed the car and made a u-turn, and then pulled up in front of the gallery. “Give me a second, okay? I just need to run in here and check on something.”
Ryn got of the truck and walked into the gallery. Daggen unbuckled his seatbelt and got out, stretching his arms and looking around. So this was a human settlement? It was far more interesting than he had ever seen in his studies in school. A man walking a four legged animal that sniffed at Daggen’s leg strolled by, and he smiled and nodded at the man and looked down at the creature with interest. The man pulled the leash and went on his way down the street. “Wow,” Daggen whispered. “It’s all so real.”
“Gretta,” Ryn called out cheerfully as she shut the door of the gallery behind her. “Gretta, it’s Ryn!”
Gretta’s voice came out from the back of the gallery. “Oh, Ryn! I wasn’t expecting you in today!”
“I know, I just happened to be in town and I saw the big painting sold, so I stopped in.”
Gretta hurried out from the back. She was bespectacled with short white hair and a gaudy sequined outfit and cowboy boots. Ryn gave her a warm hug. “What an amazing coincidence, honey,” she said. “The man who purchased the painting just showed up today. Matter of fact—” she leaned in close to whisper, “he’s in my office right now.”
“Seriously?” Ryn straightened her shirt. “I wish I was more presentable right now.”
“He said he knew you,” Gretta said. “From before you moved here?”
“Huh. Really?”
“Yes ma'am. Said his name was Greg Parson? Come on back, I’m sure he’d be happy to know you stopped in…”
Greg Parson.
The name echoed in Ryn’s mind, and she felt her body go numb.
Him.
Why the hell was he here? How did he find her here? Jesus, she did not need this right now. She needed to get out of there, right now.
“Oh, Greg,” Gretta said. “You’ll never guess who’s here?”
“I heard you two talking.”
Greg stepped out from the back room, buttoning the cuff of his tailored suit jacket, shit eating grin on on his face. “Hey baby. Miss me?”
Ryn seethed. “Fuck you, Greg.”
Gretta covered her mouth in shock.
“Hey. That’s no way to greet your old manager is it?” He walked up to her, adjusted his watch and then casually thrust his hands into his pockets. “Man, that painting I bought there is a real beauty. So different from that pop art shit you were doing before, huh? Never thought you’d be into plein air. Leave it to your skill to make something so pedestrian marketable.”
“I don’t want your money. The painting isn’t for sale anymore.”
“Oh, come on, Kathryn. I’m sorry about what happened between us, alright? I love you, and I love your work. Think of it as just a regular customer purchase.”
Ryn felt a surge of anger. “Just like when you ‘bought’ all my show work and destroyed them when you started representing that new girl? What happened to her? She didn’t sell enough for you?”
“You’re right, I might’ve been a bit rash. Thought it was the best thing to do to make way for the new. But I can see that I was wrong.”
She seethed. “You burned all my work. Right in front of me.”
“Look, baby, I’m sorry. I’ve got this new gallery deal for you, it’ll be huge in town. Multi-millions in sales for sure.”
“Fuck off, Greg. You’re never touching me or my work again.”
His eyes narrowed, his expression turning dark. Ryn felt a shiver of fear as she remembered that same look from the night she found him destroying all of her work, just the day after she walked into him fucking that new girl in the back of the gallery.
“Listen, bitch,” he grunted. “You may not care about the money that’s at stake here, but I sure do. It’s my fucking business, you understand? My fucking business. Your work is going into my gallery, whether you like it or not, whether I have to buy every single fucking piece you put for sale.”
The front door opened. Gretta, who had been standing frozen to the side, took the opportunity to try and interrupt the moment. “Hello, sir, come on in.”
“Is something the matter, Ryn?” Daggen stepped next to her. Her face was strained and pale, like she was fighting to stay composed. He touched her shoulder and she flinched. “Is everything alright?”
“I…I’m fine,” she said, her voice choked. Her eyes were intensely locked on Greg.
“Huh,” Greg said, “Who’s this joker? Your boyfriend?” He laughed. “He always walk around without a shirt?”
Daggen moved in front of Ryn, squaring up to Greg. “Forgive me but I don’t think that she wants to talk to you.”
“Daggen, you don’t—”
He held up his hand. He could see that she was upset and frightened, and he wasn’t going to stand for that even if it meant breaking more protocol.
Ryn was afraid of where this was quickly headed. Greg was unstable and would not back down from starting a fight; he did MMA in his spare time and loved to be able to whip it out whenever someone was “disrespecting him”.
“Daggen,” she whispered, “Please, don’t.”
“It’s okay, Ryn,” he said. “Nothing will happen to me.” He smiled politely. “Now, I suggest you leave her alone.”
“Or what?”
“You’ll get hurt.”
Greg laughed. Then in a flash he lashed out and swung his fist and made contact with Daggen’s face. Ryn screamed, and Gretta gasped.
Greg’s expression shifted from intense anger, to intense pain. His fist was connected solidly to Daggen’s jaw, every bone in his hand broken. Daggen stared at him, his head not shifted one inch from when the punch had connected.
“F-fuck, my hand!” Greg shouted, holding his mangled fist. Daggen took a step forward and Greg fell backwards onto his behind.
“I think you should leave now,” Daggen said.
Greg scrambled away without looking back. The door to the gallery swung shut.
“Oh, my God,” Ryn said, grabbing Daggen’s arm and looking at his jaw. “Are you hurt?”
He scratched his chin. “He wasn’t very strong.”
“I’ll cancel his credit card payment,” Gretta said, hurrying into the back. “That asshole won’t be stepping foot in here again!
”
“Are you alright?” Daggen said. He lightly gripped Ryn’s arm, and his touch felt like a jolt of electricity to her. She looked up into his eyes. “Who was that man?”
“He’s not worth talking about,” she said quietly. “Come on, let’s go. We should get you a new shirt.”
Ryn picked out a plaid t-shirt for Daggen from the thrift store, and the two of them walked silently down the street back towards the truck. Ryn found her body shivering despite the desert heat. The emotions of the situation in the gallery were catching up with her. She had never wanted to see that man again, and she had done everything she could to get as far away from him as possible. She had never expected him to come looking for her like this. She held her arms, trying to stop them from shaking, but it was uncontrollable. All the old feelings of fear and guilt and sadness were washing back over her. She was fighting to keep herself from crying.
Daggen grabbed her arm. “Hey. It’s okay.”
Ryn found herself burying her face into Daggen’s chest, hot tears rolling down her face. Shocked, he slowly and hesitantly wrapped his arms around her and held her closer. He had never felt this sensation before – a distinct urge to protect her, to keep her safe. He squeezed her tightly against his chest as Ryn sobbed. The longer he felt her warmth against him, the more hew knew he never wanted to let her go.
Was this…love?
Ryn pushed herself away and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’m sorry,” she said. “For this, and for getting you involved.”
“I would do it again in a heartbeat,” he said.
She smiled. “Let me finish helping you know, okay? I want to get you back home.”
Daggen laughed. “I was fine back in the desert. That was my home. Well, sort of.”
“Don’t start with that again.” She guided him to the truck. “Come on, let’s go. Maybe someone at the police station can help you.”
At that moment, a black car with tinted windows pulled up to the curb in front of them. Ryn tensed up. The rear window slowly rolled down, and she relaxed as she saw that it wasn’t who she thought it would be.
Daggen froze when he saw the face of the man in the back, and understood what this was about. “Daggen,” the man said.
“Keln. I would never thought it’d be you.”
“You know him?” Ryn asked, pointing back and forth between the two.
Daggen nodded slowly. “He’s…an old friend.”
“Get in the car Daggen,” Keln said. “We have things to discuss.” The door opened, and Keln slid over on the black leather seat to make room.
Daggen turned to Ryn. “I’ll be okay from here,” he said. He didn’t want to leave her, not now, not yet.
She raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out what was going on. “Okay…”
“It was… It was a pleasure meeting you, Ryn Tilley. Goodbye.” Daggen quickly slid onto the seat. The door shut, and the car pulled out and drove away, leaving Ryn behind. She stared after it, confused about what had just happened.
And just like that, as quickly and as strangely as he had come into her life, Daggen Trys was gone.
CHAPTER FIVE
“You don’t know how shocked I was to find out that you were my first delinquent, Daggen. Not just because we haven’t seen each other since the academy, but because you never seemed like the type to break the rules.”
“My feelings are the same, Keln. For both points.”
“What were you thinking? Making contact with a human like that.”
“Well, I never intended it to happen. I only wanted to bring the ship in for a closer look, I never actually was planning on meeting her.”
Keln shook his head. “I really hope it was worth it.”
“You know better than anyone how much I wanted to get into the human observation program.” Daggen sighed. “So what now. You going to take me home?”
“No...” He reached to his neck and lifted up a pendant that was identical to Daggen’s. “I’m just serving you the notice of the breach of protocol. This is a first strike warning. You are to return to your station, and continue working.”
“So…I’m not being grounded?”
“No, not yet.” A blue beam of light shot from Keln’s pendant to Daggen’s. “Notice served. So tell me, old friend—” He leaned in closer, dropping his voice to a whisper. “What was she like?”
Daggen looked surprised for a moment, and then laughed. “Amazing. Incredible. I…I’ve never felt this way before in my life. Just being around her…it’s impossible to describe. Women are amazing, and that one… Well I knew from the moment she wandered onto my scopes that she was different.”
Keln nodded slowly. “I won’t say I’m not jealous. It’s almost every school boy’s dream to meet an earth woman. You should count yourself lucky as one of the few who have.”
“You’re…going to wipe her memory, aren’t you.”
“Yes, of course.”
“When?”
Keln gave Daggen a suspicious look. “After I take you to your ship. What are you plotting, Daggen?”
“One day,” he said.
“What?”
“Just give me one day.”
Keln stared incredulously. “You must be joking. You’re going to go see her again. You know that a second strike means you certainly will be grounded? You’ll never see Earth or that girl again.”
“It won’t be my second strike because you wouldn’t have wiped her memory yet. Besides, it doesn’t matter. I’m willing to do it.”
“You’re a fool.”
“I might be, but I need to do this. Please, do it for me, Keln?”
“You’re asking me to risk my position out here, my very first assignment, just so you can go talk to some human girl you’ve fallen for?”
Daggen looked hopefully at his friend, silently pleading with him. Keln sighed. “Alright. One day. You have one day, Daggen. Now get out of my sight, you crazy bastard.”
A blinding light enveloped Daggen, and he shielded his eyes. Suddenly he felt a blast of hot air, and when he looked around he was no longer in the car with Keln. He had been transported back out into the desert, and was standing next to the boulder that was his cloaked ship. Yanking off his pendant he de-cloaked the ship and ran inside.
“I am sorry for not responding earlier, sir,” the computer announced. “I figured it would be in your best interest if—”
“Do that again and I’ll turn you to scrap,” he said. “Come on, we don’t have time. Let’s get this thing fixed.”
Ryn fidgeted at her easel. She brought the brush to the canvas, made a few strokes, and then stepped back shaking her head in frustration. She couldn’t paint. All she could think about was Daggen, and how she couldn’t believe how much actually missed him.
He had only been in her life for a day – no, less than a day total – and somehow he had affected her this way. And it wasn’t that he kicked Greg’s ass without even laying a finger on him. She realized she had felt this way for him far before that. From back when she watched him sleeping in her bed, from when she had bandaged his wounds and slowly gave him sips of water. The feeling had grown inside her since then, and she had found herself more and more intrigued by him until this moment – he was gone, and now she found herself wishing he were still around.
She cursed and slathered paint all over the canvas in frustration. She thought about his touch, how she had felt in his arms… Where did he go? Maybe she could ask around town and find someone who knew him? Surely someone did, if that man came and picked him up. “I’m such an idiot,” she whispered to herself. “Stop feeling this way, you’re never going to see him again.”
She stared at the ruined painting of the sunset, and then pulled the canvas down. She placed up a new blank canvas and stared at it, contemplating. She took a deep breath, and started to paint again.
Her brush danced over the fresh white space, laying down lines and shapes that slowly began to resolve into a form. Her min
d blanked out as she began to lose herself in her work, completely zeroing in on what she was doing. She was in the flow.
She worked quickly but precisely, her brush conjuring the face she saw in her mind’s eye. Just a few more strokes and… Done. She stepped back from the canvas and exhaled a long breath. It was rough and impressionistic, but it was him. Daggen, his face handsome and eyes soft, just as she could see him so vividly in her mind. She felt a little better now.
Later, she sat in a lawn chair next to a small bonfire she had made by her camper and drank a beer as she thought about Daggen. She thought about when she had followed his trail out into the desert, and how he had his little delusional episode by that rock. She chuckled to herself and sipped her beer, then stopped.