“What’s up?” Halo tossed her pad on her workstation and plopped down on the floor pillows beside Zadie and the triplets.
“We’re waiting…” Amber started.
“To hear about your day,” Opal finished the sentence.
“Not cool,” she answered.
“What happened?” Zadie pulled her pillow closer into the group.
She told them about Romeo’s bad manners, Wren’s broken wing, the blind cat, Cotton, and Oscar the fish.
“And then, Dr. Leaf got really upset because one of his plants got pulled up and ruined. He called Koze. That’s why Jet and I were dismissed early.”
“Jet?” Zadie sucked in her breath. “What’s he doing there?”
“He’s in Dr. Leaf’s class, too.” She was shocked at Zadie’s startled look.
“What’s wrong with Jet?”
“He’s deaf, and he can’t talk,” Zadie replied using her grown-up voice.
“Yes, he can,” she snapped back at Zadie. “He taps messages on a wrist link. It’s a pad he and Koze made, and I think he can talk to Koze without tapping anything at all.” She caught her mistake the minute she saw Zadie cringe and slapped herself on the cheek before trying to explain her way out of the situation. “Sorry, I don’t know why I keep messing up here.”
“Jet is Zadie’s twin brother,” Star told her.
“What’s wrong with having a brother? I think it’s neat.”
“Jet’s really smart. He knows how to fix things: cars, music machines, word holders, anything mechanical,” Zadie defended her brother.
“Yeah, Dr. Leaf has him fixing the porch. There’s a lot of stuff that needs fixing there.” She knew she had said the wrong thing again when tears gathered in Zadie’s eyes. “Jet takes good notes and he can draw. You should see the sketches he did of the plants. He drew and identified every plant until Dr. Leaf found one of his best plants uprooted and destroyed.”
“I’m glad he finally got a study assignment,” Zadie murmured.
“Finally got an assignment? What do you mean? I thought fixing things was his talent,” Halo blurted.
“He’s in charge of the garage and the vehicles, but he’s never been assigned a real study. We’ll be thirteen this Birth Day, and he still doesn’t have a gift to give the angels.” Zadie picked at her fingernails, avoiding eye contact with Halo.
“Bummer. You mean he can’t fly up? I really don’t understand all this talent business.”
“Of course he can fly up. He’ll present a group gift, probably with some of the people in the engineering group. Then he’ll be sent to one of the angel realms.” Zadie’s voice quivered as she bit her lip. “And I might never see him again.” She brushed away a tear.
They sat in silence for a few awkward moments until Opal stood up and suggested, “Let’s go to dinner, shall we?”
“Okay, let’s,” Amber replied. “We’ll go ahead and save you a seat.” She turned and put a finger to her lips, shushing them all and mouthing, “No more questions.”
~ ~ ~
The triplets chattered on about nothing, Zadie arrived late to the table, and Halo pushed her food around with her fork, sorry for the mess she’d made of the conversation about Jet. How was she supposed to know about being assigned to a group and flying-up on Birth Day? She certainly didn’t want to hurt Zadie’s feelings by talking about her brother.
“Are you excited about the Star Festival?” Amber asked.
“Are you talking to me?”
Everybody looked in her direction.
“I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.”
“You don’t know about the Star Festival?” Star gasped.
“And flying-up?” Opal questioned.
“Oh, that. Koze told me everybody flies up when they turn thirteen, which of course is on Birth Day here, but not where I live, ah…lived,” she corrected herself. “I had my twelfth birthday this week, and now I’ll be a teenager in less than four months. Unbelievable.” She shook her head and rolled her eyes at them.
“The Star Festival is the biggest celebration ever. First, there’s a big parade followed by a concert and star works. The next day is Field Day, and all the students participate in team games. The last three nights before December 25th, that’s Birth Day, all the students present their gifts to the angels.” Zadie ignored the birthday comment and began reeling off facts about the Star Festival like she was giving a book report.
“The groups go first: choir and music recitals, arts and crafts displays, science exhibits, stuff like that. The individual gifts are last,” Star explained.
“I’ve written a song to play on my water drum. Amber made a tiara, Opal’s gift is a necklace, and Star made matching earrings. They call them their crown jewels.” Zadie talked with her hands, using the table for a drum and putting on imaginary jewelry. She didn’t say a word about Jet.
“And, on the last day...” Amber started
“The angels award feathers from their realms,” Star added.
“And, we fly up with them.” Opal’s face flushed in excitement.
“Fly up where?”
“The groups fly up to their chosen realms. Those with individual gifts have a chance to fly with the Guardian angels, which means they get to visit other realms throughout the galaxies at one time or another. I hope I’m chosen to fly with the musical Guardians.” Zadie hugged herself.
“We want to be chosen by the Guardians of the elements,” Amber said.
“We want to see gold mines.” Star fluttered her eyes.
“And go to archeological digs throughout the realms,” Opal sighed.
A girl behind them whispered, “Why is she worrying about flying-up, anyway? She’s with Dr. Leaf and you know what that means. Almost thirteen and no talent.”
She squirmed in her seat, pretending not to hear their comments and giggles. They had talent and dreams. She wanted the chance to be a teenager, wear a bra, go to the prom, have her own phone and computer, get a driver’s license, and go to college someday. They didn’t understand.
~ ~ ~
Jet zigzagged on his two-wheeler past the forks, moving as fast as he could and trying to avoid being seen. He used all of his favorite shortcuts to get to the edge of the Shadow Forest. The Gold Sun sat dangerously low over the Rogue Sea, outlining the edges of gray clouds as they drifted across a darkening sky. If he hurried he might be able to get to his cave, examine the bush, and be back in the compound by suns down.
He’d seen spotted berry bushes before. One grew in the cave he called his own. He shook off the creepy feeling he got whenever he thought about the chambers and river beyond the cave walls where beautiful iridescent seashells and starfish wash up on the black sand. He didn’t want to think about these places beyond the cave opening or the scary underground river. It ran through the second chamber, flooding its muddy banks daily with the changing tide. He’d seen the slithering fanged creatures that swam in the muddy river. The spotted berry bushes grew in a chamber lit by a crack in the rock ceiling, on the opposite side of the water. He had one spotted berry bush in his cave, a souvenir reminding him not to go there again.
He hid behind the rocks, checked to make sure he was alone then walked to the base of a high rock cliff and descended underground. A Star Point glowed atop a tall white post less than six feet from the cave entrance.
Six months before, Jet had stumbled over a root near the base of the cliffs. The ground gave way, hurling him down into a dark rock-walled room about three feet below the opening. With setting of both suns more than an hour away, he was able to see well enough to stack rocks and branches high enough to climb out. He marked the spot and he’d returned the next day to explore one of the two tunnels leading away from the rock-walled room.
Exploring the cliffs or shores of the Rogue Sea was forbidden. He could lose up to half of the pinfeathers in his account for breaking the rules. He knew the penalty but did it anyway.
He’d discovered the underground stream and exotic shells in the first tunnel. He carried buckets of shells and starfish back to the cave and used the largest and most beautiful shell to make a head for Zadie’s water drum. He’d created the drum for her because it was beautiful, not realizing it would produce the eerie, soothing music she wrote and loved.
The second chamber led to a narrow strip of land surrounded on three sides by water. A jungle of lush ferns, tall spiny trees, thick flowering plants, and thorny berry bushes blanketed every inch of the peninsula. He’d returned there several times to explore. One day, a long ugly, slimy thing slithered on the ground near the water. It coiled, flashed its sharp fangs, and lunged toward him. He ran away and vowed never to go back to the second chamber again.
Jet liked to imagine what music and speech would sound like. Koze had helped him design the stylus embedded in his fingernail shortly after he arrived at White Feathers. He first used it to draw objects. Later, with Koze’s help, he’d learned to spell. Koze encouraged and helped him create a voice box to interpret the words he wrote and the symbols he drew. He could only imagine what people sounded like when they spoke, or the sounds of an orchestra, a choir, or the ocean waves crashing against the beach. He made sketches of the machinery at the garage, the ABC’s, air cars, boats, and even the bubble-topped shops in the village. Occasionally he sketched people he knew. Zadie, Koze, and the triples were his favorite subjects. Then he discovered paint and colors. Sometimes he could hardly wait to leave the garage so he could go to that place and paint. His paintings were a secret. Now he had another secret, the shells.
He didn’t need to hear or speak in order to paint. He could never share his secret of making the special iridescent colors without revealing where he found the materials. His paintings were good, but the colors gave his scenes of the forest, ocean, and sunsets an eerie glow. He didn’t mind fixing motors and doing handyman jobs as long as he could continue to paint.
The green berries with white spots on the peninsula appeared to be the same as the ones in Dr. Leaf’s healing garden. Jet intended to go back one more time and confirm they were the same. If the plant was indeed a spotted berry, how would he tell Dr. Leaf about them without being punished?
He stopped and listened when he thought someone or something moved on the cliffs above him. He waited and, when he didn’t see it move again, he uncovered the hole and lowered himself down the rope ladder and into his cave.
~ ~ ~
Annie stood on the cliffs above the Rogue Sea, watching Jet slip into the ground. She hugged herself and danced with joy, long blond hair whirling a windmill. It had taken forever to slip away from her silly group of admiring friends to enjoy this moment.
“Victory will be mine.” She’d raced up the path to the cliffs above the gray fury of the Rogue Sea. Coming here to watch the waves beat against an army of black boulders had given her an unexpected gift, and Jet would be the answer for acquiring it.
Zadie would have to give her the music. She should have given it to her anyway. The music would sound better as a song than as a composition played on a stupid drum. She imagined watching Zadie get all teary-eyed when she learned about Jet breaking the rules. She’d probably say, “I need to think about it.”
Silly thing, there was nothing for her to think about. She would give up the music or she, Annie, the diva of White Feathers, would tell Head Angel Vesta about Jet’s secret trips.
So what if Zadie didn’t get wings? She could still write music or present her gift with the orchestra group, unless she got all weepy and stopped playing music altogether. Some of the others who helped her, even though they didn’t want to, stopped studying altogether. It wasn’t her fault. They didn’t know what to do with their talent. She did. Zadie and the others could find another group, one that didn’t require talent. They were a bunch of losers anyway.
And talking about losers, the three sisters, what a trip they were! Opal, Star, and Amber certainly weren’t beauty-contest material with that kinky straw-colored hair, pudgy baby-fat faces, and the ridiculous ruffled dresses they wore. Yuck! Why did the teachers think they were so great anyway? It took all three of them to answer a simple question. They probably shared a brain. One started a sentence, the next one added a few words, and the third one ended it. Dumb, dumb, triple dumb.
She only endured their stupidity because their seashell jewelry was awesome. Now, because of the glowing starfish they’d given to the new girl, she knew where the shiny shells came from. She’d demand they use the shells to decorate her Birth Day gown or she would report Jet’s secret cave to Angel Vesta.
Silly girls! Of course she would tell Angel Vesta about Jet giving them the shells. If the shells were such a big secret, why did they give one to that skinny, no-talent new girl? She even admitted to eating live things. What if she was a cannibal or something even worse? Well, she probably wasn’t a cannibal. They ate human beings, according to some history books she’d read. Nobody knew where the girl came from anyway. She even claimed to have seen Asia. What a loser.
Well, they can make another starfish necklace, a prettier one with shells to match my gown. I’ll be the most beautiful angel assistant ever to graduate from White Feathers.
Her plans were perfect, now. Zadie would protect Jet and so would Opal, Star, and Amber. He was too easy, simple-minded, really, slipping down to his cave and thinking no one knew. Well, she knew, and she would definitely tell Head Angel Vesta—after she won the contest of course. It’s a shame about Jet, his sparkly green eyes and all that long black hair and dimples. Too bad he’s deaf as a tree and mute, too.
She lifted her arms high above her head and danced in the wind. She was as strong and fierce as the black rocks guarding the shore.