SL Huang - Up and Coming - Stories by the 2016 Campbell-Eligible Authors

He came back with a paper in his hand. "It’s a note from Sonjec. I’m having trouble reading the handwriting." He gave it to me.

I read: Ruk, Sorry about the mess at the bar. It’s not your fault. I probably won’t be playing the frequlet in public ever again, so I appreciate you asking me to come. Again, sorry for the trouble. Don’t know what happened. Thanks for being such a nice fan. Sonjec/CaROUSal

"She’s bright blue, isn’t she?" Ruk asked.

"I don’t like to admit it, but yeah. Bluebright-deep: the extreme intensity of creative genius." Those were certainly words I’d never said out loud before.

"She will be depressed if she really thinks she can’t play her music anymore," he said.

"Very. She’s also, um…redcherry-choppy: impulsive."

"My neighbor told me that she followed Sonjec outside and joined a group your sister was talking to. There was a…I don’t know…a heated discussion."

"About what?"

"That night. Sonjec seemed sorry, but clueless. They were, you know, kind of in awe of her, but also trying to figure out if she was a jerk or not. It wasn’t a fight, just talking. A small crowd gathered. People my friend knows. Most hadn’t even been at the bar. And then four others came up. They were P’twuan, but not from the area."

"Troublemakers?"

"No. Friendly. They told her there was a great bar where she could play music near Ku’wuat*u Beach."

"She went with them?"

"I’m guessing."

"She wasn’t forced?"

"Doesn’t sound like it."

"How like Sonjec to have us all worrying about her well-being while she’s out partying at the beach." I sighed. "Then again, what better to lure her with than the opportunity to play music? I’m still worried. Do you know this bar?"

"No. That’s the problem. It’s all small rooming houses along there. A place for families. I don’t remember any bar scene."

We went on Ruk’s scooter.

I tried repeatedly to reach Sonjec.

It was night by the time we arrived. Two of the moons of Pas were shining over a vast expanse of deep-purple water. The sand shone pearlescent in the light. The crescent beach was bordered at both ends by maroon rock outcroppings whose edges curved downward, echoing the shape of waves about to break.

"It’s breathtaking," I said over the low hum of the

scooter.

"Let’s ask about her at the rentals."

We moved through the little tourist settlement rapidly. None of the room-keepers had seen an Earthen woman. They told us the closest bar was another hour down the road.

I felt panic creeping in.

Ruk found a handlight and we walked the length of the beach, finding no one. After searching the rocks at one end, Ruk said, "Should we try to find the bar?"

My heart sped up with each passing moment. Every instinct screamed, "This is where she is!" But I couldn’t find her. "I don’t know. I don’t—Let me calm down…because—"

"What? You think she’s here?"

Then I remembered. "Oh gods, I can simply tell you." I almost hugged him, hesitated, and then did it anyway. "I’m getting greenblack…um, greenblack-…hollow? What would that mean to you?"

"Not good. That’s for sure. I don’t know the word. Darkness. Depth, but not good depth."

"Depression," I said. "No cherry red. No bright blue."

Sonjec didn’t want to be abandoned, alone. I knew that for certain. She wanted me to come for her. Frustrated tears filled my eyes. She might have already walked into the waves. Sonjec could do that. That it would ruin Mother and me might not ever occur to her.

Ruk put an arm around my shoulders. "Let’s go to the other end. We didn’t search the rocks as carefully down there."

As we walked, I screamed her name and kept my eyes on the water, but saw only shimmering light on choppy waves. The dark green feeling wasn’t out there. That’s what was confusing me. Where was she?

Ruk tugged on my sleeve and said, "Look!" He pointed up and out toward the cliff that reached out over the sea.

I couldn’t see anything but purple sky and dark rocks. I shook my head, tears spilling out of my eyes. "What?"

"On the end of that sharp jut. She’s there." He brought me over in front of him, one hand on my shoulder, the other pointing.

"You’re sure? You see her?" I brushed tears away.

"Yes. It has to be her. What do you want to do?"

"I want to kill her. SONJEC!" I screamed so hard it made me cough.

We reached the rocks and he shone the light as we searched for footholds. As we came onto a small plateau, the wind blew toward us.

I gasped and we turned to face each other. "Music!"

He took my hand. "This way."

We took mincing steps on a less steep route toward the water, but then had to climb again and could hear nothing but the waves. The rocks were wet and it took all my concentration not to slip.

"Do you swim?" I asked him after we both had negotiated a steep crack between boulders and were sitting atop them, resting. We could hear the music once again, which let me know that Sonjec was alive. I was able to catch my breath.

"A little".

"What if you slipped?"

"What if you slipped?"

"I’m a good swimmer!"

He looked down. "We’d hit rock here anyway. Let’s just not fall."

"Deal." I stood and screamed, "Sonjec!"

"Why can’t she hear us?"

I stopped yelling then, realizing why. She was playing the frequlet . Her implants activated, she wouldn’t hear anything outside her music.

But the instrument had heard us.

As we topped the highest ledge, my voice arose within the composition—changed, re-patterned—but undeniably my harsh voice, screaming her name.

She, sitting near the edge, heard it too.

Sonjec stood, turned toward us and then rocked backward on one foot as if she wanted me to witness her fall.

I held my breath for a heartbeat and then rushed toward the cliff to get my ass-blast sister out of harm’s way.

She was all cut up.

I wanted to get a room, but she refused to move from the beach. Ruk begged a couple of blankets from a roomkeeper. We wrapped her in them and Ruk built a fire. It wasn’t that cold, but she was wet and her arms and legs were covered in wounds. Some were scrapes from climbing the rocks. Others were precise, self-inflicted cuts.

"How’d you get here?" I asked.

"Rowdies," she said. "Four boys who thought they’d picked up some fun."

"Did they hurt you?"

"No! I don’t know what they expected, but I pulled out my knife and told them to fuck off."

"So you weren’t a political hostage?" Ruk asked.

"Hardly. That would have at least been interesting. This was the same old tiresome shit that we women put up with almost any place in the universe."

"They didn’t hurt you, so you hurt yourself?" I said, nodding at her arms and legs. There was a long silence. Finally, I spoke again. "Do you know what’s happening in the capital?"

She nodded, looking into the fire. "I’ve been following the news feeds. But, Car, I don’t understand what I did."

"Ruk?"

He gently explained why the P’twuans had gotten so riled up. Sonjec asked lots of questions, getting less depressive and more energized the more she found out.

"It’s fascinating. I mean, it backfired this time, but the idea that I can communicate on another level using my music is pretty awe-inspiring. I had no idea that was possible."

"Nor did we," Ruk said.

"But, I’ve fucked up everything for Mother."

"If you fucked up everything for Mother, then you have to fix everything for her."

She snorted and kicked sand into the fire causing a small shower of pearly sparks.

"I’ve been thinking about how you can do that," I said."Thinking always was your thing."