LMS VII: we who knew the sun

Adelaide
“Relaxing, don’t you think?”
Adelaide took a long drag off of her cigarette. It was mornings like this, she thought, that were the worst. Just the ice and the waves and the ship, each moving steadily across the water.
“Hm,” she hummed a low note in the back of her throat and tilted her head towards her companion. “Maybe not relaxing,” she said. “But yes. Lethal icebergs aside, I could see why it might be rather nice.”
Adelaide found it nauseating. The noise, the motion – all of it. She knew it would have been worse if the ship weren’t so big. Small mercies, she supposed. Maybe she should’ve been grateful, it was hard to muster the feeling.
“We could head inside?”
Adelaide shook her head and gestured to her cigarette. She still needed a minute.
“Right,” her companion said. He let out a quiet laugh, not unkindly. “No smoking indoors. Forgot about that.” He leaned against the railing next to her.
Riley was a good man, Adelaide thought, relaxing her shoulders. Or a kind one at the very least. For better or for worse she found it easier to breathe when he was around.
She let out a quiet breath and offered out her cigarette, saying nothing. Riley didn’t smoke. Today must have been an exception. He huddled closer and Adelaide held it to his lips, all the while the wind howled.
It was a strange kind of noise. The ocean itself was loud but distant. She might’ve thought it was muffled. The wind certainly wasn’t – it shrieked around them, threshing their clothes and any loose strands of hair.
The light flickered. Adelaide cupped a hand around it and Riley breathed in, deeper this time. He started to cough almost immediately. She didn’t say anything. It didn’t seem to deter him. Adelaide knew it was only a matter of time, and so she held her hand there until he coughed again and turned to spit over the rail of the ship.
Adelaide let her hand drop and looked back at the ocean, giving Riley a moment to compose himself. Right, she remembered now. Riley was asthmatic. “Do you need me to-”
Riley shook his head. Dragged in another breath, deep to the point of breathlessness. From the look on his face, it wasn’t particularly satisfying.
Adelaide leaned back against the railing.
“I’m sorry,” Riley said. The worst of the coughing had subsided. His eyes were wet and bloodshot from it. “But that tastes horrible.”
Adelaide looked at him a moment, eyes crinkling at the corners. It wasn’t her favorite either, but the alternatives were a pain to source. “I can’t say that I’m a fan of it myself,” she admitted. “You might be right.”
“I’m right?” Riley’s eyes lit up. “That must be a first. Never thought I’d see the day.”
Adelaide shook her head, amused. She dropped her cigarette to the ground and snuffed it out with the toe of an OSHA-recommended boot. “I won’t hold it against you,” she said. “I’ll see you around, Riley.”
“Yeah,” he said after a moment. “I’ll see you around. Take care, Ada.”
Adelaide gave a tight smile and turned to leave. “You as well.”
Riley let out a small sigh. Adelaide gave no indication that she’d heard it. She had a meeting that she needed to get to. It wouldn’t be good to be late.
The walk back to her office was quiet, almost peaceful. Adelaide kept a low profile, skirting around the outskirts of the more populated areas of the ship.
She’d rather avoid conversation right now. It was not difficult. Adelaide had grown accustomed to walking quietly. People tended to give her a wide berth these days, regardless.
She liked to think that this was normal – that the rest of the ship was treating her the same as they always had. She would have to leave it to her imagination. Thinking about it left her with a headache and a pit in her stomach, a sense of dread settled over her like a shroud.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Adelaide opened the door to her office and closed it behind. Inside, it was quiet and clean. This, at least, had not changed.

Evangeline
They drove on.
Night bled into day, sunset into sunrise. At some point Evangeline gave up on pretending to sleep.
There wasn't any point to it now. No one seemed to be watching. Her aunt's eyes were on the road. Her cousins were all asleep and had been for quite some time, each of them snoring quietly beside her or up over in the front seat.
A quiet had settled over the car. Finally, Evangeline thought with no shortage of relief. She’d thought the noise would never end.
The world passed by slowly. Evangeline looked out at it from her seat in the car, leaning her head against the window.
It was all such a strange sight -- the clouds hanging low over the city, smokestacks billowing up like a rift in the sky. Everything was so tall and big.
It was enthralling. She didn’t like it.
Her aunt liked to keep telling her that she would get used to it. Evangeline doubted that. She had only been there a short time but it was already all so strange, not to mention lonely.
Evangeline was so very lonely. As much as she tried not to let it show, she missed her mother. Not to mention Bishop and NAME.
This aunt was from her father’s side. Evangeline hadn’t met him before, much less his sister, but at least her father had the excuse of being dead. And even then -- Evangeline still had pieces of him -- pictures, letters, the occasional video her mother had thought to save.
Evangeline hadn’t even known she’d had any aunts. She got the sense that might have been what her father had wanted. Her mother hadn’t mentioned it. Maybe she hadn’t known?
Evangeline shook the thought from her head. She wasn’t sure. She just knew her father’s family was complicated. That they hadn’t reached out when she was born.
She had a lot of questions. It was easier to just keep it all to herself.

Adelaide
Adelaide shuttered her webcam, powered off her computer, and let out a quiet groan. Then she checked her watch. Ugh. Her meeting with NAME-1 and NAME-2 hadn’t even lasted a full five minutes.
She swore under her breath. This meeting had thrown a wrench into her plans for the day. She’d rearranged just about her entire schedule to accommodate it and it hadn’t been anywhere near worth the amount of trouble.
“Should have been an email,” Adelaide muttered to herself. She leaned back in her office chair and pinched the bridge of her nose.
The lights in this room were too bright. She could already feel a pressure beginning to build behind her eyes. It almost made her miss her old office space. Almost. What she wouldn’t give for lights that dimmed…
Wishful thinking, she knew. Adelaide’s new office space was objectively an improvement. However bright the lights were and however ugly the paint, the complete lack of mold had definitely tipped the scales in its favor.
It still didn’t change the fact that her head hurt. Adelaide closed her eyes and started to count backwards from twenty-five. She would give herself a moment to reset.
Twenty-four…
Twenty-three…
Adelaide kept counting. She’d just reached the number six when a knock sounded on the office door, clipped but insistent.
Adelaide allowed herself a single displeased sigh before she opened her eyes. It would be unrealistic to hope that the person would just go away on their own. Even if the idea of getting up to greet someone –anyone-- made her want to sleep for a thousand years.
Yesterday had been short and exceptionally stressful. Tonight wasn’t proving to be any better. The time just dragged on and on and somehow Adelaide doubted that it was going to get any better.
Another knock.
Adelaide got up from her seat. Breathe in, breathe out. She straightened her back and squared her shoulders, planted her feet firmly on the ground – then strode forward and opened the door without a word, intent on staring down whoever it was that had decided their time was more important than hers.
It was a surprise to see Riley standing there. Adelaide tried not to let it show.
“Dr. Carver,” she said, with a careful professionalism. “What is this about?”
“Do you have a minute?”
If she hadn’t known any better, Adelaide would have missed the note of panic in his voice. It left a sour taste in her mouth. Riley wasn’t easily shaken. What was going on?
The office was in a bit of a blind spot –-she didn’t know who else might be lurking around the corner-- and now more than ever they needed to be careful about keeping up appearances. There was simply too much riding on it.
“I do,” she lied and stepped aside.
Riley just about tripped over himself on the way in.
Adelaide steadied him with a look. She locked the door behind him and gestured to one of the open chairs, then turned to switch on the office’s noise machine. A quick glance to her confirmed that –yes-- it was still powered off.
She looked back at Riley, more insistent this time. He sat down and took a shallow breath, opening and closing his mouth like a fish gasping for air as he tried to find his words.
The silence stretched on. Adelaide knew better than to try and interrupt it. She said nothing and waited.
“Saoirse’s alive,” Riley finally said. “My sister. The one who—” his words were jumbled enough to be all but indecipherable. Riley stopped himself. He took a moment to rake a hand through his hair and ground himself. “The one I thought was dead.”
“I remember you telling me about her,” Adelaide said. “It was the gang that controlled your hometown, yes? The one your aunt was in.”
“Yeah. She and our cousin were—” he cut himself off again, shaking his head with a sigh. “It, uh. They wouldn’t even give us her body. ‘Said they’d take care of it, since they were ‘already family’,” Riley scoffed. “And I mean, I thought it was weird. But it’s not like we could really ask for it –her-- back, and I never would’ve thought…” Riley’s shoulders were shaking. He put his head in his hands. “Christ, Ada. She’s been out there this whole time.”
Adelaide sat in the chair next to his. “You’re certain, then,” it was not a question, but Riley nodded anyways. Adelaide took what she could get. “Do you have an idea of where she is?”
“Kind of. Just a few leads.”
“Alright,” Adelaide said. “We can work with that, then.”
Riley dropped his head on her shoulder and Adelaide moved to cup the back of his head without much thought, tugging gently at the hairs on the nape of his neck. “Does the rest of your family know?”
“No,” Riley said. “At least I don’t think so. Gods, I hope they don’t. Dad’s probably the only one who would’ve cared anyway.”
Adelaide dropped her head to rest against his. Riley didn’t often talk about his sisters, but she knew he had cut off the other living ones for a good reason.
He’d been close with Saoirse. Her death --her murder, Adelaide corrected herself-- had caused more than its fair share of grief and guilt.
Adelaide took a deep breath. “We’ll look for her,” she said, after a moment. She didn’t let herself say anything further. Adelaide know her own priorities. Anything else might’ve just as well have been an empty promise.
“D’you think we’ll find them?” Riley spoke like he didn’t expect an answer. “Both of them, I mean.” A pause. “Gods, they’d get into so much trouble together…”
Adelaide couldn’t help but crack a smile. Going off what Riley had told her about Saoirse, she had been thinking the same thing. At this point the stubbornness had to have been genetic. (Though she certainly wasn’t blind enough to think Evangeline couldn’t have gotten that from her, too.)

IDK one of the character's name yet so it's just the placeholder word 'NAME' for now.

plot, what plot?

so relatable LOL

we who knew the sun is such an epic title! i like the writing so far-- very atmospheric set-up, then some drama~~ keep writing!!

p.s. let me know if you don't want this comment cluttering up the thread, and i can delete it and put it on your wall or something instead!

Evangeline’s cousins were starting to get on her nerves. They were loud and annoying. The younger one was always sticky (for some reason) and the older one, Lily, just kept trying to touch her hair.
“Stop it,” Evangeline said. She swatted her cousin’s hand away, only for her to reach back out again. “I mean it, Lily, don’t touch me!”
Lily was almost Evangeline’s age and was too old to be bothering her like this. Not that anyone else in the car seemed to even care. “I’m not touching you,” she said. “Just your hair.”
Which totally isn’t attached to my scalp…
Evangeline scowled and swatted Lily’s hand away again, then looked helplessly at her aunt. So far, she hadn’t said anything.
Evangeline didn’t know why she was surprised. They wouldn’t have had this problem if it was her mother or Bishop that was driving. Neither of them would have put up with--
She felt a sharp tug at her hair. Evangeline yelped and pulled her braid out of Lily’s grasp. When she reached in again, Evangeline snatched her wrist and dug her nails into her skin.
“Ow!” Lily started to whine. She squirmed and tried to wrestle her arm free. “Mom,” she said. “Make her stop, she’s-”
“Cut it out back there, both of you,” Aunt AUNTNAME said, cutting her off. She looked back at them in the rear view mirror.
Evangeline, still glaring at her cousin, didn’t meet her eyes.
Lily started to argue. “But-”
“Don’t make me turn this car around.”
Evangeline knew an empty threat when she heard one, but she dropped her cousin’s wrist anyway. She didn’t stop glaring at Lily, who looked back at her as if Evangeline had started this whole thing herself.
“Jerk,” Lily said. She slumped back in her seat and rubbed the (no longer) inflamed skin of her wrist.
Evangeline rolled her eyes. Yeah, she thought. No. She wasn’t going to justify that with a response.
She leaned back against the window (and away from her cousin). The sun was up and it was bright enough out that Evangeline could see outside again.
Was it boring? Of course it was. But she might as well pretend to be interested in it. It beat the alternative. Her cousins didn’t make for good company.
She watched the scenery roll by. Other cars. The occasional truck. Tall concrete walls with trees just barely poking up over the other side.
At some point the GPS re-routed them and they peeled off the main road. Evangeline perked up a bit. They were driving through a city, now, and it was much more interesting to look at. The buildings were tall, even from a distance, and they only got bigger the closer that the car got.
“Pretty, isn’t it?” Aunt AUNTNAME asked.
“It’s all so tall,” Evangeline said. She looked away from the window for a moment and saw that her cousins were asleep once again. “I thought it’d be louder.”
“It usually is.”
“Huh.” Evangeline didn’t know what to think of that. The way her aunt had said it left a pit in Evangeline’s stomach. That couldn’t have been a good thing.
She didn’t say anything after that.
Aunt AUNTNAME drove them out of the city and back onto the main road, and Evangeline’s eyes began to droop. The scenery here was almost lulling in its sameness. She didn’t realize that she had fallen asleep –-not until Lily shook her awake, mumbling blearily about “the last bathroom stop for the rest of the state.”
Evangeline rubbed at her eyes and clambered out of the car. She didn’t need to go but her legs were stiff, so she took the chance to walk for a bit.

The grass outside of the rest stop was long and dry. Whatever state they were in must have been in a drought. Evangeline could see sprinklers, but it didn’t look like they had been used in a while. There was a crust of something over each of them.
Yuck. Evangeline wrinkled her nose and looked away. The trees around here weren’t looking so good either. Their leaves were already starting to turn. It was pretty, sure --but it was also still summer, and way too early.
Evangeline stood at the edge of the grass. It was too tall and scratchy to really walk through, so she stuck to the paved sidewalk.
Her aunt and cousins were inside the actual rest stop –-either using the restroom or looking around the overpriced gift and travel shop, she didn’t care which.
It was the first time Evangeline had really been left alone in days. She was just glad for the break. Her father’s family was unfamiliar, loud, and largely unpleasant. Being around them was exhausting.
There was a sound off in the distance. Someone was walking their dog. Its leash trailed into the tall grass, where the animal must have been. Evangeline watched for a moment. The dog did not appear. The grass rustled around where it must have been, again and again and again.
Boring, Evangeline thought. She’d wanted to see a dog. Oh well. She looked away and started walking down the sidewalk, following the signs labeled ‘vending machines’.
The path was still slippery and wet from the rainstorm earlier in the morning.
Evangeline stepped around the worst of it. She didn’t want to be getting her shoes wet, even if they weren’t her shoes, technically.
She’d been borrowing a pair of crocs from Lily ever since her Aunt had decided Evangeline’s converse were taking too long to lace-up before and after each rest stop. But still. The feeling of wet plastic and socks was gross, and Lily would only get more annoying if she thought Evangeline had screwed up her shoes.
She stopped walking. The vending machines were decently stocked. They had a range of snacks, drinks, and wires (no, no, these were cords) for charging different phones and devices.
There wasn’t really anything she needed. Not that Evangeline could’ve bought any of it if she did. No-one had left any change in the machines at the last few rest stops, and it’d be a waste to ask her aunt, so she didn’t have any money.
Evangeline went through the process of checking the vending machines here. The first two were both empty but there were a few dimes in the one with the drinks.
Not much, but she’d take what she could get. Evangeline pocketed them and left, walking back down the way she came.
Her aunt and cousins would be getting back to the car soon. Evangeline waited for them by the car. She tried the door. Locked. Whatever. She’d been expecting that. Her aunt was a lot of things but she wasn’t stupid.

Hey there! Just dropping by to say you're doing a fantastic job keeping up with LMS Your writing here is very atmospheric. I like how your characters' perspectives are filled with detail and show their personalities in what they observe. In this most recent one I could very much feel Evangeline's chagrin being a kid dragged on this long trip with extended family. Best of luck!

Evangeline
Usually, at least. Aunt AUNTNAME certainly had her moments -- they all did. Maybe Evangeline wouldn’t have held it against her if they didn’t happen so damn often.
She stood by the car and waited. The rest stop was busy and there was at least one other child in cookie-monster pajamas within sight, so Evangeline didn’t stand out like she might have in other places when left on her own.
Not that she was alone for long. Evangeline could see her cousins trudging down the path to the car. Lily and Carter moved reluctantly, as if they didn’t want to get back on the road. Evangeline couldn’t blame either of them for that. She wasn’t to keen on it either.
Their mother, Evangeline’s aunt, followed a few paces behind. She had her cell phone in one hand and a tri-fold map in the other. (Where had her aunt even gotten that? It must’ve been in the rest stop, ‘cause she hadn’t had it earlier.)
Evangeline heard the click of the car unlocking. She grabbed the door handle, opened it up, and climbed inside. Her seat was still covered in the blanket from before. It kept the worst of the heat off the seat belt, but she wasn’t going to sit on it. Evangeline pushed it off to the side to use as a pillow for later, then sat down and buckled her seat belt. Her cousins followed soon after. Lily took the passenger’s seat, Carter the back seat.
Thank God, Evangeline thought. She hadn’t been looking forward to sharing air with Lily again and while neither of them had said a word, Evangeline figured the feeling was mutual. She didn’t like Carter that much either --he was weird in a way she didn’t get. But at least he knew how to keep his hands to himself.
Aunt AUNTNAME got in the car and closed the door, then reached back and passed something to Evangeline.
It was the map.
Evangeline looked at it for a second, a bit confused. The paper was thick and brightly colored, eye-catching in a way not unlike the billboards along their route. “Um,” she started to say. “Sorry, but what is this for?”
“It’s a map,” her aunt said. As if that hadn’t been obvious. “Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to help navigate. I just thought you might like to have it. It has the town names and some attractions on it -- just some things to keep an eye out for.” She turned back to face the front and buckled her seat belt. “We’re coming up on the World’s Biggest Paper-Clip, y’know.”
Huh. She hadn’t been expecting that. Evangeline mumbled out a quiet “Thank you,” and unfolded the map, looking it over carefully. They were somewhere in South Caroline. Yeah, okay. She did feel a little better knowing that.
“There’s a town named Dillon?”
“Yep!” Her aunt smiled and turned the car on. The vents blasted a stream of warm air for a moment as the A/C started to circulate. “It’s a lot further north. “We’re in Hardeeville now, but we’ll be stopping about half-way through in Santee to stretch our legs.”
Evangeline nodded, still looking at the map. Santee was, apparently, about half-way across the state. Not close, but not far enough away that she felt the need to worry about it -- at least not yet.
It all looked so small on paper.
“You kids ready?”
Lily grumbled out a response Evangeline couldn’t have made out if she’d cared enough to try. Carter said nothing. He had the right idea and was pretending to sleep.
“Yeah,” Evangeline said, after a beat. “I think we’re ready.”
“Awesome. Keep an eye out –- the twine should be coming up somewhere on the right.”
Adelaide
It was all starting to come together.
Adelaide had connected the dots. She’d spent the past few weeks dotting her ‘i’s’ and crossing every ‘t’. Saoirse, as it’d turned out, had been a missing piece in the puzzle. Finding information on her hadn’t been easy, but--
It’d been worth it.
Christ, it had been worth it.
They had a location now. A time and a place, an honest to god meeting. Setting that up hadn’t been easy, but Riley had more than made it up to her, bringing her coffee each morning as he always has.
There was a faint knock on the door.
Adelaide closed her laptop and got up out of bed. It was a rare day off for her. Emails and the morning’s crossword could wait. She opened the door to let Riley in and was quick to take the coffee he offered out to her.
She took a sip and sighed. An americano with two shots and a pump of white mocha. Extra hot – just how she liked it. “Thank you,” she said.
“Good to see you too,” Riley teased. “Got your refill here, for when you need it.” He held up a second smaller coffee cup with two more shots of espresso inside. “Want it in the fridge?”
Adelaide gave a slight nod. “Please.” The thought of cold espresso wasn’t as appalling as it normally might be. The baristas on base here actually knew what they were doing.
She went to sit down on her couch. Riley joined her not long after. Adelaide set her drink on the coffee table and turned so she was facing him, her legs draped unceremoniously over his lap.
Riley let his head fall back against the couch. He sighed. “I know we have some things to talk about,” he started to say. “And I’m not trying to get out of that. But could it wait a few hours? I-- It’s been so long, Ada. I missed you.”
Adelaide closed her eyes and relaxed further, listening to the sound of Riley’s breathing. It was a comfort even now. Especially now. “We have all day,” she said. “I think it can wait.” She let out a quiet breath and said, “I’ve missed you too.”