When my family left, no one understood why I chose to stay behind. They thought I was afraid, mostly. Of the sea or the war or the way my soft heart would surely be crushed by the weight of all those injustices. They were wrong.
Then again, sometimes I didn’t remember why I stayed behind. Especially sad lonely nights like the one I ran into Charlie. I felt like a ghost as I wandered the streets, hoping to get lost. I never did, of course. I knew them as well as I knew papa’s scars or the lines around mother’s eyes. The city was so empty without my parents, without Fable and Foras and most of all Avesta. I missed them so much, my bones hurt.
Without thinking I flowed from one back alley to another. Small, lithe, quiet as a mouse and twice as sneaky. When I turned a corner to see that young, familiar face, I think I even squeaked. “Oh! Hello Charlie. Hello Indy.” I smiled, because Charlie always made me smile. She was bright, and bold, and lively, and so many other things I wasn’t. But it also made me a little sad to see her. I was in that sour kind of mood where everything was a painful reminder of how bad I was feeling. Charlie was no exception. Charlie would never stay behind if her entire family sailed away to fight the evils of the world.
But I was not Charlie. I was not Avesta.
I was landlocked and river-souled and I had roots, didn’t anyone understand?
I might have been swept away entirely by my own sorrow and self-pity if it wasn’t for the look on Charlie’s face. It wasn't anything good or bad, as far as I could tell on first glance. She simply looked... different. “Are you all right?” I stepped forward, turned so we were side by side, and lightly bumped my shoulder to hers. Before Charlie could answer, in case she didn’t want to, I gave her the choice of pretending the question had never been asked. A change of subject. An escape, if she so desired. Even lost as I was in sorrow, I was considerate. “Where are you headed? I’ll walk with you.”
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