by N. I. Rojas
“I’ve been suspended.” -Kyra said after a long silence. Mackenzie’s face now showed true concern.
“What?” -Mackenzie asked in disbelief; his voice a little too loud to be used inside the library. Any other day Kyra would have corrected him, shooed him, or stabbed him with her killing gaze, but not today. - “Why?”
“Miss Rose said I bullied Irving yesterday at lunch time and that I’m in complicity with you to humiliate him daily. My father will find out about my suspension as soon as he comes home and checks the answering machine.” -Kyra hid her head between her knees, hunching to find solace. Mackenzie wasn’t sure what an answering machine was, but he thought it was helpful not to ask right then. Kyra’s worries were making him feel confused enough.
“In that case, we’ll have to get there before he does.” -Mackenzie proposed, after thinking about it for a second.
“What you mean?” -Kyra asked innocently.
“We just have to get rid of it, the answering machine, and he won’t find out.” -He explained.
“Isn’t that like cheating?” -Kyra asked not sure Mackenzie’s plan was the wisest thing to do, but deeply considering his proposal anyway. - “Isn’t it wrong?”
“Isn’t like Miss Rose is doing something illegal? Then, you agree with what that witch is doing with you?”
“I don’t agree, but…” -Kyra protested.
“Then start walking, Fairy Girl, before you get grounded until roots are born from between your toes.”
Mackenzie pulled Kyra to her feet and dragged her out of the library. The rain had started to fall and the wind was blowing relentless, despite being almost summer. They ran fast through streets, making shortcuts across baseball fields and small roads until they reached Kyra’s house. They entered through the back door directly to the kitchen, where the answering machine was blinking in a small console table.
Determined to follow Mackenzie’s advise, Kyra walked to the machine, her eyes fixed in the erase bottom. She extended her hands to do what she came to do, to free herself of punishments, convinced that deleting the message from Miss Rose was the wisest thing to do. Her fingers caressed the machine and she was trembling while considered to put enough pressure to do it fast, to end with it…
“Nerd… is that you?” -Her stepsister called from the living room. Kyra shook wildly now. Her stepsister, Zoe, was supposed to be at school, not on home, in the middle of her businesses.
“Yes.” -Kyra managed to answer. - “I’ll be there in a minute.” -She said, turning to push Mackenzie to hide inside the cabinet island.
“Never mind.” -Zoe shouted back louder than usual. - “I’m on my way.”
Kyra panicked, pushing Mackenzie’s head harder, forcing him to hide into the small cabinet. His head hit the wood hard.
“Troll’s droppings!” -Cursed Mackenzie. His tawdriness made Kyra laugh for the first time that day.
“Shut up.” -Kyra whispered, trying to conceal a big grin. Her stepsister entered in the kitchen just when Kyra closed the cabinet door, pricking Mackenzie’s fingers a few times.
“What are you doing home?” -Kyra asked her stepsister innocently.
“I was going to ask the same question.” -Her stepsister said with nervous attitude.
“Well, I forgot a paper I need to my last class. I’m going to my room now.” -Kyra answered while walking to the door. Her stepsister blocked the way. The shut of the front door scared them both. - “Who’s that?” -Kyra asked running to the living room.
Minutes later, Mackenzie left the cabinet, full of cramps all over his body, and as he didn’t know how to manipulate such weird machine, he just pulled it hard until unplugging the power cord and took it with him. Curious because the stepsisters were arguing on the second floor, Mackenzie ventured to walk to the living room. There, he saw a jacket bigger than any of the members of Kyra’s family. The back of the jacket had a name engraved and it smelled strong, as a sweaty athlete. Mackenzie took it too, covering the answering machine with it, and left the house through the back door. He felt relieved now, and happy he had done another mischief. Just like old times.
He stood hidden until Kyra left the house looking for him.
Thursday evening
As night approached, Kyra walked back home. Mackenzie was at her side sharing jokes now. It was a dangerous mix of feelings Kyra had inside, as Mackenzie was the refreshment her life had been desperately looking for all this time, though she didn’t want to admit it. The security she had when stepped into her house that night, exactly at six thirty-two, was crushed by the hollow look in her father’s face. He was not a bad man, never had been severe with Kyra before, but she had never seen him this angry ever. His face was wearing a combination of sadness and disappointment that smashed Kyra’s heart with guilt.
“You have something to tell me?” -Her father asked without greeting her or waiting for any gesture. - “Because you should have known I’d find out. Where’s the answering machine?”
“I… I…” -Her words stumbled in her head and out of her mouth. She didn’t manage to say anything in her defense. Kyra had come home happy despite all the events of the day. Mackenzie stayed with her in the library and basically watched her rummaging from shelve to shelve, searching for something she never found. It was a book what she was looking, that was clear, but what kind of book? Mackenzie wanted to know. For him all books were the same. Covers full of dust and cobwebs, indistinguishable words flying all over the page.
The librarian had been giving the security round when she saw Mackenzie drowsy by boredom.
“Take your redhead girlfriend to the fiction aisle someday. There she could find life is happier, if only she gives it a chance.” -The librarian said.
“No way!” -Kyra answered back. Although Mackenzie tried at least twenty times to convince Kyra to do so, it was useless, she never agreed.
Now, looking deep into her father’s eyes, she started thinking why she didn’t visit the fiction area… Maybe that would have altered the curse of her day.
“Have something to say?” -Her father asked getting up from the chair he was seated. - “Because I received the Social Worker’s visit today. She just wanted to make sure everything was right with you.”
“You know me, dad. I…” -Kyra protested while thinking something better to say.
“Do I?” -Her father’s words slapped her hard, not in the face, but in her heart. He had never talked to her this way to her before, not even when he pushed her harder to go beyond her capacities.
“I didn’t do it. Miss Rose is wrong. That guy has been bothering me the whole year and she does nothing. As soon as I defend myself, then I’m a bully.” -Kyra confessed to her father.
“If that was happening long ago you should’ve come to me. But you kept your silence and that only make me consider you’re lying. Miss Rose doesn’t have any reason to accuse you falsely. Her duty is to protect you and she has to prevent this from happening again.” -Kyra’s father said.
“But, father, I’m telling the truth.” -Kyra tried to argue back. Her father silenced her with just giving another angry look straight at her.
“As you are suspended until next week, you are not allowed to go out.” -He started to say.
“But father… the tests for next year groups are this Saturday…” -She protested.
“And your birthday party as well.” -He reminded her. A birthday party she had feared since she has conscience. - “On Saturday, I’ll take you to school to take the tests, and when you’re done, you’ll come home to get ready. No more visits to the library until further notification. The next week and the subsequent ones, you’ll come home right after the bell rings.”
“That’s unfair, father. I didn’t do anything to receive this. You are grounding me like… forever.”
“Maybe you should get used to it. It’s useless to argue, unless you want to receive more bad news today, Kyra. Now, go to your room and stay there.” -Kyra bowed her head with respect
and resignation and started climbing the stairs to her room. - “And Kyra… I hope to see the answering machine back in place tomorrow when I return from the office.”
Kyra stayed in her room crying all night. At first, she was just mad, so she took the opportunity to call her friend Ash again to see how she was doing. She had tried the previous day, but she wasn’t home. Today finally, she could talk to her best friend!
On Saturday she would be back to normal! At least good news. They talked until Kyra’s phone stopped working and the line went dead. But that was obviously going to happen as soon as someone heard her voice with a hint of happiness. Kyra heard a knock on the door but preferred to ignore it. Maybe was her stepsister coming to make fun of her. Maybe was her stepmother to force her to do some extra cleaning or to do her stepsister’s homework. Kyra ignored the noise, no matter how many times whoever kept knocking the door. But the door opened eventually, and her father entered her room uninvited. Hidden, her head sank in the pillow, her comforter covering her whole body and head, was a better choice than having to look at her father to the eyes ever again.
“I know you are awake. I’d brought you something to eat.” -He said, waiting for it to be a peacemaker moment for them two, but Kyra was too hurt by his distrust. He believed more in a stranger than in his own blood. - “I know I was hard with you, but you didn’t give me a choice. I’m scared. I don’t know what to do with it. This is new to me. You’ve never given me a reason to consider this situation. You, always so perfect, so smart. I don’t want you to lose everything for a silly boy telling you pretty stuff. Don’t try to deny it. Miss Rose told me about the new boy. I can’t believe you have a boyfriend… and you didn’t tell me! You've barely known this… kid… for less than a week. He’s a bad influence and I don’t want you to continue talking to him.”
Angry, Kyra sat on her bed facing her father. It wasn’t the first time of the day she had been judged, labeled as problematic, bully, liar, but this was just too much.
“You can think whatever you want, dad. I choose my friends, not you. You’re blinded by all the stupid things Miss Rose told you. Now what? Are you going to talk to me about abstinence and sicknesses I can get for “kissing” a boy? How I would like to have a mother who would listen to me and just after that decide if I’m guilty!” -Kyra said harshly to her father. She couldn’t suppress her tears anymore, so she returned to her covered position in bed. Almost suffocating herself under the bed covers, but it was a happier feeling rather than having to listen to her father repeating Miss Rose’s stupidities. The apology that maybe her father intended to give was nothing Kyra could accept if it was accompanied with more unfounded allegations. The accusatory finger was pointing at her now, discharging all its rage in one single day.
Chapter 8: Hints of Ink
Friday
Mackenzie was impatient. Not just his neck hurt. Now his whole body was uncomfortable and sore. Having made a better pillow with his backpack, Mackenzie curled up like a baby in a corner. First, he dreamt about cats, wild and meek, running across the pastures, playing together, enjoying every second as if none of them were predator or prey. Then he saw the trolls, some disgusting, others kind. They didn’t get along well together despite the gentleness. Fairies came and went flying everywhere, filling the air with a weak jingling, making small things to fly high like carried by the wind. Mermaids in Merm Lagoon were what Mackenzie liked the most. There he had learned a lot about Alter Land, apart from making good friends. Maybe he was growing after all because he was feeling something he hadn’t experienced before: worry.
The landscapes were perfect. Everything co-existing in harmony. Alter Land was created with nice balance, but as any planet, constellation, system, it must revolve around one powerful energy. Mackenzie knew the role he played in Alter Land, he kept it tuned, alive.
The air was filled with soft hums coming from a distant place, but Mackenzie recognized the noise. The humming was altered and a crying was all that could be heard. This song, painful yet melodious, was a cry of help. With a soft voice that moves the wind to her command, Sirina tried to show him the terrible things to come, the gloomy sensation falling over the lands as huge blanket of poisonous fog. He wanted to go back, to avoid Alter Land to be killed by darkness and mystery but he needed to see Kyra again, know her, help her; but how he was going to do it?
Alter Land was suffering. The life there was his only responsibility. A duty he needed to assume if he wanted to protect his friends, his home, his own real life. Despite his dreams.
Mackenzie drifted from side to side, trying to fight back against that terrible dream, but the harder he tried, the more terrible those images turned to be. He tried unsuccessfully to rest and ended up awake, covered in cold sweat, and his heart beating hastily, full of panic. Sirina’s life was at his hands, that was the meaning of her melodious mourning. How much time Alter Land would continue existing without him, Mackenzie didn’t know. In the dream he could see the soil covered of black stains, and Mackenzie could only assimilate it with sickness. A disease usurping the place of eternal youth, life and fantasy.
There was no room for the form of mystery that comes with dreary misfortune. He was trying to live a life that didn’t represent him at all, didn’t belong to him. Alter Land was a paradise and Mackenzie was ruining it all. The dreams of children were protected there, the innocence, the knowledge of worlds beyond what he knew, even hope was safe if Alter Land. If he returned now, everything remains untouched, like if had never left. If he stayed in this world beyond the stars, that would put an end to dreams and thus to hope.
“Worried, un-aging boy?” -A booming voice alerted Mackenzie he wasn’t alone anymore. Mackenzie looked up, discovering a man wearing a dirty tunic. Something was dripping from the clothing, something black and sticky, mud-like. Maybe oil, thought Mackenzie in the beginning, but he decided otherwise. The man’s voice was grave and deep as thunder, and Mackenzie instantly recognized him as the man who sent him to this human place. Contrary to their first encounter, this time Mackenzie was watching the man’s face. The mystery was gone, the spell with which the man had bewitched Mackenzie was broken as a wave crashing against a breakwater. The man was ordinary, perhaps too much, but Mackenzie found him surprisingly weird. His eyes were different to all the people Mackenzie has seen in his un-aging life. - “You are taking too much time, boy. Your land is sick now.”
A condescending voice tone was making company to those words. Mackenzie felt bad for it. Bad for what he had seen in dreams and because now he discovered he had been wrong the whole time. Trying to escape from Alter Land was just a terrible mistake, a selfish wish that had been the sentence of death to the place and creatures that had welcomed him with fondness and without reservation. Yes, maybe he was growing after all, having those feelings of reproach and the urge to establish himself a fair punishment that could equate the damage, that selfishly, he had caused.
“I know. I must go back now.” -Mackenzie said, feeling no longer innocent. - “I can’t do what you asked me to. I have other things to fix.”
“But you can’t. You have changed during these days. You no longer fit there with a stained heart. And the girl is coming to age soon. The spell casted upon you long ago can be broken in just a few more days, and you will be free to choose to go back or to stay here with no more harm.”
“I have to fix Alter Land.” -Mackenzie refuted back, desperate. He could still hear Sirina yelling, trying to sing soft notes to keep the fresh air flowing in Alter Land, trying to protect Merm Lagoon and maybe his tree trunk as well. But she was alone. He was not there to help. Sirina’s father and relatives will be too busy trying to heal the bottom of the sea and its creatures. Trolls will still be fighting for hanging bridges and cave entrances or maybe for the ownership of wild fungi, the poisonous apple tree, or the sweet ivies. It will be too late if everything depended on them. And the witch? Could she do something to help? No. Mackenzie knew better than that. She’ll just take
her rusted cauldron and conjure an enchantment to transport herself and her filth to another place.
“I can help you. I can cast a spell over your mystery island to prevent further spread of disease. But in exchange you must continue with what I asked you to do. No harm is going to be done that way. No one gets hurt. You’ll be free and I’ll get what I desire as well.” -The man gave a delicate threat.
“I don’t know how to do this. Maybe I’ll just pass your offer.” -Mackenzie said, ignoring the reasons hidden in the man’s words.
“No!” -The man protested in a raging voice. - “It has to be you, un-aging boy. I’ll make this easier for you, as you are dumber than what I expected. A girl is what you must find. A girl that will lead you to the other things you have to bring…”
“I’m not good with girls. I’m a fraud interacting with them. They are so crazy and an excruciating pain.” -Mackenzie said out loud, but he knew deep inside he was so wrong. Sirina was a girl, well, a mermaid girl, and she was good to him as long as she wasn’t mad for something he did. Kyra was a girl, too, but she was much more complex than Sirina. Her emotions were so tangled up she couldn’t even recognize her heart herself.