Tina Chan - imperfect

“You really, really screwed up,” Troop affirmed.

Chelsa’s face crumpled. She looked at Kristi, awaiting her verdict.

Kristi found her voice and said, “You hurt me, Chelsa, you’re one of the few people I trusted.”

“I know you probably don’t trust me anymore,” Chelsa said. “But will you at least not hate me?”

Kristi sighed. “I don’t know what to do or feel. I believed you were my friend—I wanted you as my friend. But your actions tonight proved otherwise. Yet, if you hadn’t changed your mind and decided to fork me over to Zala, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”

“Does that mean you’ve forgiven me?”

“I suppose. I do have a question though: was the government somehow involved with our lack of bandit encounters on South Lane?”

“Yes. As the Revealers have suspected, the government is working with several bandit groups. The bandits were instructed to leave us alone. It is also why the government didn’t try very hard to capture Kristi and Jaiden; they wanted to wait until Finn, Troop and Kristi were together before swooping in.”

Troop gave Kristi a look that read, “Isn’t that what I said before?”

“I haven’t known you for a long time,” Finn said. “But if Kristi thinks you’ve definitely had a change of heart, then you’re cool by me. But take notice, I’ll be watching your moves closely, so you better not screw up again.” Finn said the words as if simply stating a fact.

Troop didn’t offer his thoughts.

The rest of them waited for Jaiden to speak. He looked squarely into Chelsa’s eyes and said, “It’s over. Whatever we had going on between us is over.”

Then he stood up and strode out of the room.

This living room sure witnessed a lot of dramatic exits today, thought Kristi. First Finn’s mom and now Jaiden.

“Well,” she said, “just when I thought things couldn’t get worse they did.”

“You think?” Troop said sarcastically.

Jaiden didn’t join them for brunch that morning. The grownups seemed to have noticed some of the tension in the air, but to Kristi’s relief, they didn’t ask about it.

“Where’s Dr. Hanson?” she asked Finn’s dad.

Finn’s mom had left for her office shortly after making sure the teens had enough to eat. Kristi was glad she had departed—her interactions with Finn still seemed strained at best.

“He left already. He had some business to attend to and headed out when you were still asleep. He did leave this for you though.”

Finn’s dad handed her a sealed envelope. Troop put down his dirty dishes in the sink and peered over Kristi’s shoulder.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Hold on. Have some patience.”

She carefully slid her finger underneath the flap and pulled out a single piece of paper. In neatly printed letters were the words:

If I recall correctly, your parents believe Stevey holds valuable information in which you may be interested. Stevey’s house: 41° 39’ 58.1008” Burn after reading. Do not share this information. A driver will take you to a twenty-mile radius within Stevey’s house. The driver should arrive a bit after noon, so you will have time to gather your belongings. Your droid-horses will be transported to a stable run by a Revealer member. Good luck.

“As usual, he’s one step ahead of us,” Kristi said to herself, but loud enough for Troop to hear.

She entered the longitude and latitude into her electro-slate, then tossed the paper into the incinerator.

Clang!

Finn accidently dropped one of his crutches.

Troop retrieved it for him and said, “I’ve been meaning to ask but keep on forgetting: how did you hurt your leg?”

“Hiking accident.”

“That stinks. How much longer until you’re off crutches?”

“Um, never.”

“Never?” Kristi asked.

“I paralyzed my left leg four years ago.”

“Couldn’t the doctors do anything? If they can bring back the dead, surely they can mend a paralyzed leg.”

Finn shrugged. “I hurt my spinal cord pretty bad. The spinal cord, which is part of the nervous system, was too messed up to be fixed. As a result, I lost all sense in my leg.”

“I’m not trying to impose on your personal preferences, but have you considered getting a prosthetic?”

“My parents and I did look into it, but we couldn’t find a surgeon willing to perform surgery on me to remove the paralyzed leg; none of the surgeons we approached wanted to help an Accident. To quote the last surgeon we visited, ‘This is natural selection doing its job of making sure only the fittest survive.’”

Troop snorted. “That’s BS.”

Kristi couldn’t have agreed more. “Couldn’t Dr. Hanson remove your paralyzed leg for you?”

“He’s not a surgeon,” Finn explained. “He isn’t trained to perform operations.”

“Someone better wake Jaiden up,” Chelsa said. She had been so quiet this morning Kristi had forgotten she was still in the room. “He doesn’t know we’re leaving in a few hours.”

“Want me to do it?” Kristi offered.

“Yes, please,” Chelsa said gratefully.

Kristi left the kitchen and headed up to the guest bedroom. Jaiden was already awake and seemed to be deep in thought, sitting cross-legged on the bed.

She gently coughed, as not to startle him when she spoke, “Are you alright? We’re going to be heading out soon.”

“I don’t think I’ll be coming,” he said.

“What do you mean? Surely you’re not so furious about Chelsa you’re planning on staying behind.” Kristi couldn’t imagine solving the two cases without Jaiden. He was her brother, her friend.

“I’ve already spoken with Finn’s parents,” Jaiden continued on like he hadn’t heard Kristi. “They’ve agreed to let me stay with them until I get a steady job and am ready to live on my own. They’re also nice enough to get me a new ID and paperwork—that’s the upside of being in contact with the Revealers.”

“Jaiden, you’re not serious! How can—”

“—it’ll be great. I’m getting the chance to have a fresh start. No one knows me in Oppidum and Finn’s parents have agreed to pose as my aunt and uncle.” Jaiden paused in his talking and looked at Kristi. “What do you think?”

She took a gulp and replied, “If this is really what you want to do, I guess I’m more than happy that an opportunity like this has presented itself to you. But at the same time, I’ll really miss you traveling with the group.”

“I want to stay here.”

Kristi dipped her head. “I respect your choice, but all the same, your company will be sorely missed. Are you still angry at Chelsa?” She asked before she could help herself.

Storm clouds rolled onto his face. “Not so much angry as hurt. I can’t believe she’s been playing us along the whole time.”

“Chelsa’s changed her loyalties.”

“That’s what you think.”

Kristi decided to keep her mouth shut to prevent herself from infuriating this touchy topic.

“Love is like an onion,” Jaiden said.

Kristi wasn’t sure how to reply to this random statement, so she said the first thing that popped into her mind, “I don’t see the connection.”

“A person, like an onion, is made up of multiple layers. When you love a person, you get to take away all their layers and truly see what they’re like on the inside. You may cry as you peel away each layer and discover not all of them are sweet.”

“I think the driver Dr. Hanson promised us is here,” Finn said, looking out the living room window.

He had barely finished his sentence when the sound of a car’s horn was heard.