The Saffron Malformation (81 page)

             
He nodded solemnly, “Then you really shouldn’t go.”

             
Another glance, this one quizzical, passed over the table and Arnie asked, “Why would you say that?”

             
Leone dropped a sheet computer onto the table.  After a moment Quey picked it up and Arnie and Reggie watched his brow furrow as he read through whatever was on the screen.  After a handful of ticks that seemed to never end his eyes widened and he looked up at Leone.  “This can’t be...” he gaped at the screen and then started again.  “Are you sure this is real?”

             
Leone shrugged, “Its her old e-mail.”

             
Quey was shocked.  “I can’t believe she’d be this stupid…” he trailed off and Leone shrugged.  “Aint about stupid,” he said softly.

Bait and Switch

             
The morning Rain snuck into the garage and drove away from Ryla’s robo-tronics compound in Reggie’s old blue four door, Viona Crow found a message from her father.  She didn’t know why she’d logged into the service, she hadn’t in over a year, but something pricked her curiosity and as she sat on her bed and sorted through the 8943 new messages clogging her inbox, mostly advertisements and special offers from sites and places she’d visited in her old life, she spotted one from her father.

             
At first she was just going to delete it, but then she found herself tapping it to open.  It was short, she saw without reading, and his name was at the bottom.  She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know what it said and before she could decide she was reading.

              I doubt you still check this, but on the off chance you do I’d like to extend the hand.  I know I’ve done terrible things, things I’m wrong to hope you can forgive, but still I do.  If you asked me now to tell you how things ended up this way I doubt I could manage, and if I did… well I suppose I’d feel a bit guilty for my part.  Anyway, I want this done.  Whether you believe it or not I do love you, and I love your brother and I’ve missed you both terribly.  If there’s any way we can mend this bridge, I’m not saying it’ll be easy.  I’m saying I’d like to try.

              Richter Crow

              P.S. Leone can stay with you.  I won’t fight on that anymore.

             
Rain read the message three times before she sent a reply.

             
Hello father.  I have to admit I’m skeptical about your intentions here.  I’ve seen you maneuver through business and life with far too much cunning to trust a branch held out for me without strings to bind me after—or hang me.  But you say you’re tired of this and I must admit I am as well.  The road is a fine place to travel on, but living there makes one weary.  So, cautiously, I accept you’re offer to see about mending bridges, to work toward civility at least.  You will, of course, understand why I can not meat you in Saffron City, or at the house.  Also, you will understand why if I feel even a hint of a suspicion that Sticklan Stone is lurking about or has ever been lurking about this meeting place, I will be gone and I will never grant this chance again.  The same goes for anyone who’s not you and you alone.

             
I will be passing through Praume in three days time.  There is a dinner on the corner of sixteenth and twelfth.  I will be there sometime between eight and ten pm.  If you truly wish to talk you’ll be there.  ALONE!!  I don’t know if I can ever forgive everything but one day at a time, right?

             
Don’t bother messaging me, as I won’t be checking this again.

              After she sent the message she settled back against the pillows and headboard and stared at the wall across the room.  It, like all the walls on the third floor, was elaborately painted.  The one she gazed upon now had a mountain and a castle sitting high on a cliff overlooking a river and a village below.  A thin mist shrouded everything, dulling every angle and color.

             
She was scared.  She couldn’t deny that, but the alternative was to follow Quey’s yahoo of a plan.  Thinking about that stirred her guts.  How fucking stupid could he be?  And Arnie too, humoring him by agreeing to spend the day in that flight simulator.

             
Rain grunted frustration and threw a pillow at the castle on the wall.

             
It’d taken her some time to get up the nerve to leave.  She’d wandered down to the second floor lounge for some liquid courage as well, but when she had three shots in her and still didn’t feel any different she abandoned the idea and went to see Leone.  She wanted to say things to him, but they were things he already knew and things that would make him suspicious so she just watched him instead, and tried to form as clear a picture of him in her mind as she could.  She’d hold onto that.  If things went wrong, that would get her through.

             
“She’s a pretty girl,” Rain said as Amber walked by and he took notice.  They were sitting on the bed Ryla had given him, their legs drawn up and folded under them like they’d done when she was still taller than him.  They were listening to music, and just hanging out, also like they used to.

             
“Yeah,” Leone chuckled and blushed.

             
Rain reached out and pinched his cheek, “Look at you, turning all red,” she said with a smile and he pulled away from her.

             
“I am not,” he protested.

             
Rain looked at him, blushing and happy and she did her best to save it.  That was how she’d like to remember him most.  “It’s good,” she told him.

             
He looked at her.

             
“You’re young so it’ll probably end one day, but even if or when it does,” she trailed off, smiling.  “Its still good.”

             
He chuckled and said, “Yeah, well don’t get too much invested in this.  I mean, it’s not like we can really date given our current situation.”  He smiled and said, “Hey, Amber and I are going out for a bit.  Think we’re gunna hit the mall, maybe grab a bite.”

             
Rain laughed, “Alright, just be careful not to get raped to death by savages.”

             
“Or horribly murdered by gangs of bandits.”  They laughed for a moment then he added, “Or hell, our own father might be out there, now that really would be dangerous.”

             
Rain nodded smiling but the humor was sapped from her.  There was too much truth in that statement for her to laugh at it properly and that inspired all the courage she needed.  She ruffled his hair and said, “I’m gunna go check on Arnie.”

             
“Alright,” he replied.

             
She stood and crossed to the door, then stopped and turned.  She watched him sitting on the bed for a moment before he looked up at her.  “I love you,” she said, then added with a sly smile, “And Amber will too.  Even if you can’t go out on any real dates.”

             
Leone’s lips curled and he ducked his head to hide his goofy lovers smile.

             
Rain bounced once on the balls of her feet and then hurried away from him.  She tried not to think as she made her way to the elevator and took it down to the first floor.  She made it to the door behind the staircase without coming across anyone and slipped into the garage unnoticed.  Once there she replaced the fuel cell in Reggie’s blue four door and raced down the crumbling highway.

             
The first day went fast.  She drove in silence constantly mulling over what she would do when she arrived at her destination.  She’d sent the e-mail without a plan.  She’d slipped away without a plan.  She was on the road without a plan.  All that was fine but if she got there without a plan, things would go very badly indeed.

             
Day broke again and it did so too quickly.  Had she really driven all night, it seemed only minutes instead of hours.  The waste started to show signs of life, small batches of green and a little bit of brown, and then she saw trees and bushes up ahead.  She came to the place where the highway met with other roads, these were all in good repair.  They were the roads people took to avoid the waste.

             
She followed the pavement that kept her moving east and a half hour later there was an exit coming up that advertised food and lodging.  She didn’t feel the need for either but since she had no intention of sleeping she figured she should at least eat.

             
She ordered an egg and cheese wrap and a big cup of water from the plump woman with curly red hair standing behind the counter of a diner just off the highway.  “And can I get it foots out the door,” she added as she hurried to the rest room.  She was pretty sure the last thing she drank was the three shots of vodka back in Ryla’s Robo-tronics compound, but still she had to go so bad it burned.

             
When she came back the woman had set her water on the counter and she drank it feverishly, then bothered her for another.  Her food didn’t take long, as long as scrambling eggs and tossing them inside a flour burrito can, so soon she was back on the road.  As she merged onto the highway, mostly free of traffic save a few rigs running whatever to wherever, she took her first bite of the breakfast burrito and suddenly she was starving.  She scarfed it down inside a minute and wished she had another.

             
To pass the time she ran everything though her head over and over again.  It was a simple enough plan and that was supposed to be the best kind, or so they claimed.  As the afternoon turned to dusk she glossed over everything in her head one last time and she discovered a snag.  Her heart raced.  Everything was fucked.  Nothing was going to work.  She should turn around now.

             
Then it clicked, ‘That won’t be a problem because you’ve already taken care of it.’  Relief swarmed her and she finished the last of her water.  She’d been thinking too long and her brain needed a rest.

             
Outside the world grew darker, the sky near the horizon was a spray of secondary colors, so she reached over and clicked on the headlights.  Her eyes drifted toward the window beside her.  There were towns just off the road, buildings and houses clustered beneath massive rain catchers, nestled in amongst the trees and for the first time in years Rain allowed herself to miss living somewhere.  She’d spent so long trying to keep one step ahead, always considering where it was off to next that she rarely took moments to relish what she’d had once.

             
There was a small city off to the left of the highway.  She couldn’t see much of it, no buildings higher than a dozen stories, but she saw the massive rain breaks built over the area.  She remembered what a treat it was to go into Saffron City and stand under those filters on a wet day when the filtered water would fall onto the city, letting it drizzle onto her, soaking her clothes and beading on her skin.

             
She recalled the time she and Leone had played in the park while the filtered rain drummed down on them.  It had been when they’d lived in the two-bedroom she’d rented off campus for a while.  Leone never much liked the rain, but she looked forward to a dripping day.  She loved to play in it and on that particular day, so had he.

             
The memory brought a smile to her lips but it also made her sad.  She decided it was good she didn’t relish in the past and what might or could have been, because even if everything worked out somehow, it was unlikely she’d ever have it again.

             
Even if everything worked out…

             
Her mind lingered on that for a spell and after a while she felt comfortable she had all the glitches in her plan mapped out.

             
Near as she could tell there were only three things that could really snag her.  The first was the least likely, and that was the possibility that he wouldn’t believe her reply message.  She didn’t think that likely because her father only knew Viona Crow.  He’d never met Rain, and Viona Crow would type just that sort of letter and she would show up to a meeting she’d set under terms and guidelines she thought placed her in control.  Rain was more sly than that, however, and good faith meant nothing to her.

             
Another possible snag was that her father could be telling the truth.  Maybe he really did want to make amends.  She had to admit it could be a possibility, and couldn’t help but feel her heart flutter at the thought.  She almost laughed at that.  How much evil would he have to do for her to finally truly give up on him?

             
She remembered the last time she went home.  She recalled sitting with him in his study, drinking wine and hashing everything out.  It’d felt good, like dinner that night had, all of them around the table, laughing and telling stories.

             
‘…all except mother,’ a voice inside reminded her.

             
That’s right, there was that.

             
Her heart sank.

             
As much as she may like the idea of going home again, it wasn’t possible.  Besides, his message being sincere made the third potential snag an absolute.

She was nearing the turnpike and saw the sign that pointed north toward Praume and held the wheel steady, driving past it and toward the sign that pointed east toward Saffron City.

              The third snag was that he might actually leave Sticklan Stone behind.

             
Night was thick around her as she approached Saffron City.  You could see it an hour or more away, a tightly packed cluster of lights that sprawled across the flatlands to the east and stretched high into the air.  It was home to just over ten million people but from a distance it looked like a child’s toy.  She watched the lights as she drove and in what seemed like moments she was passing them.