The Stelter City Saga: Ultranatural (26 page)

The Stelter crest was the first thing
to appear before fading to the home screen. She hadn’t changed the
image either and giggled at the sight of her and Kasper wearing
bunny ears and covered in whipped crème. “First of all, Computer,
speak English please.”

“
Yes, Princess.” The
computer chimed. Normally, her computer would just say yes, but
Lotus wasn’t the only one who liked toying with the settings.
Kasper had changed the format during his last visit and no matter
what Lotus did, she couldn’t reverse it. The computer only
recognized his voice when it came to those options.

Lotus grinned; she didn’t mind being
called a princess. “Now can you change my home screen?”

“
Are their any preferences?”
asked the computer.

Lotus considered, “Nah, surprise
me.”

The whipped cream image faded to grey
before being replaced with a Hawaiian beach at sunset. Even the
picture quality was superb. Each color blended together perfectly
and the definition of the clouds against the purple sky appeared as
if they were bursting from the screen. Sometimes, Lotus thought the
computer did a better job of capturing the true beauty of nature
than Mother Earth.

“
Thanks,” she said before
double-tapping the center of the screen. Along the top perimeter, a
row of applications appeared. When Lotus dragged her finger across
the stone, she was able to slide through the setting icons. If she
wanted to, she could voice search anything. But at that moment, she
didn’t know what she was hunting for. She just continued scrolling
to the right until an appealing icon grabbed her
attention.

“
Ohh,
Living Room Lights
. What is this?” she
asked tapping on the image.

On any other software program, after an
icon was selected, a box would appear with a list of several
options. Not with Stelter technology. Instead, the image grew to
the size of a playing card as a diagonal line spread from the
emblem to the bottom left corner. As the line continued down the
screen, other options faded in beside it creating a sort of stair
step.

Stelter’s default format was always the
same. With everything virtually at Lotus’s command, she could never
change the fact that the setting icons stayed at the top of the
screen and when selected, several more options appeared in a
diagonal line. It was different but easy to use which was just the
way Lotus liked it.

“
Living Room
Lights
,” repeated the computer as Lotus
skimmed through the diagonal steps of options. “Updated February
12
^th
.
Allows one to arrange the lighting, mood, and theme of living
area.”

The heiress glanced up from her
skimming. Across the kitchen and through the high pillared archway,
Lotus should have been able to see the spacious living room if the
lights were on and if she had taken the tint off the wall of
windows around the penthouse.

“
Arrange the lighting you
say?” Lotus repeated, “Well in that case, Computer, could you take
the window tint off the main wall?”

“
Yes, Princess.” As the
computer spoke, the windows were already beginning to lessen their
tint.

Through the high archway, Lotus watched
as the elongated shadows of comfortably shaped furniture slid
across the slick wooden floor. If the Stelter penthouse had a
theme, it would have been something along the lines of narrow,
metallic and artistic. It was as if Lotus lived in an art museum
full of abstract metal sculptures. Just about everything- from the
furniture to the staircase- was made up of the same thin, grey,
glossy metal.

A fluffy white rug sat in the middle of
the floor like the white Oreo filling on a brown wood plate. Around
it formed the sofa set with each piece of furniture turned to face
a blank cement wall. Each chair looked as if an artist had taken
thin wires and set black cushions and throw pillows atop it. To
Lotus the furniture seemed to defy gravity with its toothpick-like
legs and heavy seats. Common sense would say that the legs were too
thin to hold up the seat, much less people sitting on them. What
people didn’t know was that the thin milky looking metal was
several times harder than steel.

“
Computer, I’m going into
the living room now.” said Lotus hopping off her stool. She could
hear it powering down as she slipped around the stone
island.

The moment she stepped
through the high archway, the computer’s melodic voice was speaking
to her from the living room. “Would you like for me to keep
the
Living Room Lights
application running?”

“
Yes please.” Lotus replied
as she padded across the white rug then took a seat in one of the
solo chairs and glanced out the wall of windows. Technically her
seat faced the blank cement wall, but from her angle, she could
easily glance out at the vast roof top space.

The Olympic sized pool took up most of
the flat space, along with the assortment of lawn furniture such as
tables, umbrellas, and even plastic flamingos. The penthouse view
was amazing, but not from where she sat. If she wanted to gaze
blissfully at the whole of Heleow, she would have strolled past the
kitchen and out to the balcony. From her spot in the living room,
the view was still wonderful, but it would have been better if
there wasn’t another building at the far end of it.

That was Lotus’s personal gym, though
she hardly ever used it for anything but yoga and song writing. For
the most part the tawny brick building as empty. Aside from when
Kasper came to town. Then the businessman used it as his sleeping
courters. Long ago, he had turned one of the yoga studios into a
bedroom by piling in a bed and turning the gym equipment into
spaces for hanging up his suits even though Lotus had offered to
share one of the penthouse’s spare bedrooms- since she had too many
of those.

As she snuggled against the chair’s
cushions, her gaze remained glued to the building across the roof.
She was about to pull away and speak once more to the computer when
she saw the gym’s glass door being thrust open, and Kasper marching
down the steps in his pajama pants and worn out t-shirt. Lotus
giggled to herself as he hurried along the pool. He looked silly,
stomping around in his bath slippers with a newspaper clutched in
his hand and his ashy bed head flying everywhere. By the haste of
his walk, Lotus could assume there was something important he
wanted to share. The walk across the rooftop was quite a stretch,
so Lotus turned her attention back to the computer as she waited
for Kasper.

“
So what exactly does this
app do?” she inquired. She felt funny talking to a wall. Normally a
projection from the banister above would reflect a computer screen
against the blank cement. Apparently, not when the application was
in motion.

As soon as Lotus asked, an array of
soothing colored lights melted against the wall from one of the
house’s many projectors. Nonetheless, the movement of the colors
against the wall reminded Lotus of the way light shimmered when she
was under water. Instantly her heart panged to be out surfing while
at the same time, her body felt relaxed as if she were already on
her surfboard letting the waves toss her gently.

“
Oh, that’s what it does.”
Lotus muttered to herself as she leaned her cheek against the plush
top of the chair. “It makes me feel all sleepy.” Her eyes slid half
shut as she recalled the stair step options that had appeared on
the screen in the kitchen. She could change the colors, she could
slow down the lights… she even recalled an option labeled
Rave
and she would keep
that in mind for her next ‘lazy day’.

“
Lotus!” Kasper exclaimed
when he slid the glass door open.

The celebrity sat up and watched as her
father’s apprentice stormed across the wooden floor only to thrust
the newspaper in her lap. Lotus peered down at the upside-down Avon
ad, “Oh, Kasper, how did you know I was thinking about buying
makeup?”

Without responding, Kasper snatched
back the paper and thrust the cover in her face. “Look!” he
exclaimed.

Lotus looked alright, then stared. Then
her mouth fell agape as her eyes widened with shock. A hand reached
for the paper just as the other went for her fallen
mouth.

Broken Engagement?
Was printed out in huge letters over the image of
a fare blond sprawled over a hansom brunette on an empty beach.
Their lips were locked and the girl’s hair tumbled down one side so
the camera could capture every angle of her profile. Those were
Lotus’s cheeks, that was her nose, her jaw- the only problem
was…

“
That’s not me!” she gasped.
Her fingers began to tremble and she let the newspaper fall back in
her lap. “That’s not… how?”

Her eyes were still locked to the front
of the paper but she wasn’t seeing any of it. She didn’t know what
to think. Was someone trying to ruin her life? There were plenty of
journalists that could work wonders with Photoshop. But she hadn’t
done anything to deserve this!

“
I need to call Michael.”
She finally concluded. Lotus reached for her pocket then remembered
she was in a bathrobe. When she made to leap from her seat, Kasper
caught her by the arm.

“
Wait, Lotus listen to
me.”

The heiress locked eyes.

“
Remember what you told me
about the letter?” Kasper began. His face was so close; she could
smell his aftershave. “Mirage said you have a sister.” he said
softly. A slight smile crept over his lips, “and I’m thinking,
she’s in Oahu.”

Lotus had been putting her memories on
hold for years now. If anything was faster than the speed of light,
it was how quickly Lotus remembered her baby sister at that
instant. Everything from the first time baby Haileigh was brought
to the Tarrillian City mansion to the last moment before the fire.
Late summer campouts, reading books, playing dress up- she even
remembered taking baths with her younger sister. She recalled every
single memory in her mind like a movie she just finished
watching.

Her baby sister was all grown up now.
As Lotus stared at the image with a new set of eyes, she couldn’t
help but notice the sinking in her gut. Lotus had thought that
being reunited with a lost sibling would have been joyous, but as
she gazed at the image, she felt like a protective older sister.
What was her baby doing alone on a beach kissing a man? From her
memories of Haileigh, the youngest Stelter had always been the good
girl. Seeing her in the arms of a man was completely unheard of-
let alone being thrown on top of one.

“
Do you don’t think
Lambert’s alive too?” Lotus asked softly.

At the mentioning of Lambert’s name,
Kasper glanced up startled. “Mirage would have left it in the
letter wouldn’t she?”

Lotus shrugged as she rolled up the
newspaper. “No, but seeing this… it gives me hope. Help me find
her, Kasper.”

The manager opened his mouth and as
they held eyes, she waited for him to speak. “Lotus, you know I
want to help you. But I can’t…” he stood up all the way and glanced
at the clock over the kitchen. “I have a plane to catch. But Lotus,
know that I know how important this means to you and I want to help
you out so bad.”

Lotus stood up as if she hadn’t even
heard him. “Do you think mom and dad know about
Haileigh?”

Kasper blinked, “What?”

“
Do you think Mirage left
them a note too?”

Kasper shrugged and massaged his neck.
“I can ask your father. I’ll be seeing him soon.”

“
Don’t.” Said Lotus quickly,
“Don’t tell him because… I want to be the first one he hears it
from.” Lotus wasn’t even sure why she said that. She didn’t even
know if it was a promise she could keep. She hadn’t even found her
sister yet, and just because the person on the cover looked an
awful lot like Lotus, that didn’t mean she was Haileigh. What if
her sister wasn’t even in Hawaii?

“
Alright, Lotus.” Kasper
replied after a moment of staring. “I promise.” He took a step
forward and wrapped his arms around the star’s shoulders. His lips
pecked the top of her head before hurrying away back up to the
glass door. “I love you Lotus.” He called over his shoulder. “I’ll
see you in a couple weeks. But call me if anything happens.” Then
he was gone.

Once the transparent door shut, Lotus
spun around and hurried to the corner of the massive living room.
There a set of metal stairs made a complete 360 before spitting
Lotus out on the second floor. In no time at all she was shutting
the door to her large bedroom. To her it was nothing special, just
another large room with a large window and a large bed with folded
purple sheets.

Since the world thought Lotus had just
ended a possible engagement, it didn’t take a genius to know that
the world was going to be looking for her. She had to dress up or
else the paparazzi would swarm. In two shakes of a lamb’s tail,
Lotus was adoring her costume in the massive bathroom mirror. She
looked like the typical granny in a sundress. The kind that was too
insecure about her body to wear anything above her mid-calf, and
the knitted sweater looked like something homemade. To finish off
her look, Lotus even tucked her sunshine colored hair inside of a
dark greying wig attached to a knitted flower hat and wore big
sunglasses identical to something Willy Wonka would
wear.