Chapter 2:
The Wind Piper
Hmm, how come I feel all, fuzzy?
I tried to move my arm but my attempt failed. My nerves were tingling and gave me a vague ticklish sensation. I had a sudden impulse to burst out laughing but held it in. What the heck is wrong with me? A small giggle escaped through my nose. I don’t know why I laughed, because I didn’t exactly see the humor in everything being dark.
“Sora?” A soothing voice said.
Mom.
With difficulty I opened my eyes but was suddenly blinded by a bright light. I could barely keep them open without my retinas completely burned to a crisp.
“Mom?” I asked. My voice was so raspy that I barely recognized it as my own. For some reason I thought this was funny and let out a small chuckle. Before I busted up laughing I quickly asked, “Where am I?”
“You’re in the hospital,” she answered. I could hardly see her shady outline.
Oh, that explains why I’m a little loopy.
“That’s funny,” I said, not really listening to what I was saying. “I don’t remember falling asleep in the hospital.” In my mind I made perfect sense but the people who I assumed to be nurses laughed at my remark. The nerve.
“How long is she going to be like this?” My mom asked. I still couldn’t see what was going on so I thought she was taking to me, and I was about ready to point out that she was talking to me in the third person.
Then I heard a man’s voice. “Well there wasn’t any swelling, and of all the ones I’ve seen this was probably so minor that I doesn’t even fall in the category.” Huh? Did something happen that I don’t know about?
“Hey sweetie,” I heard my dad pulling the curtain aside and coming over to sit at my side. “Are you feeling better?”
“Better as opposed to what?” I asked putting my hand over me eyes, straining to see him. My mind was rapidly waking up from its groggy state.
“You passed out in the middle of the dirt lot by the lighthouse,” My mom said taking my hand in hers and brushing my bangs aside with the other. “When we finally came up looking for you, you were out like a light.”
This is news. What did she mean by—dirt lot?
“Don’t you mean the field?” I squinted at my mom. She looked down at me with puzzlement.
“I think you were dreaming,” She said with a small chuckle. “There was no field.” At this I sat up, my eyes completely open and my mind alert. I eyed my mother suspiciously. I’ve seen this happen in movies. Someone finds something extraordinary and then someone else comes along telling them they were imagining things when they really weren’t.
“Are you sure?” I said, her expression told me she wasn’t able to tell if I was being serious or joking.
“I’m sure,” she said patting my knee. “When we found you we saw that you hit your head on the stone hard ground and it gave a minor concussion.”
“That’s why you’re a little out of it,” My dad fished for something in backpack he carried in. “So I brought you this.” My mouth fell open as he handed me my favorite, one-eyed, button nosed, blue, matted, teddy bear that I’ve had since I was a little girl. Also known as Baba (when they gave him to me that was the only thing I could say at the time so the name stuck). Stitches surrounded his ear and left arm because the dog had gotten a hold of him several times.
“Hey!” I jumped, startled by the sudden shout and looked around to see who was yelling. “Can’t a girl get a glass of water around here?” A curtain separated me and another patient. They sound familiar.
I leaned forward to get a better look but only saw the tips of her feet.
“We’re sorry Ms. Tanaka,” A nurse said pouring her water from a filter. “We had to clean your IV and we just, plum forgot.” My biggest fear was standing in the same room as I was: incompetent people working at a hospital.
I shook my head and tried to not think about it. “Kim?” I said trying to crawl to the edge of my bed but my mom held me back.
“Finally,” the curtain was suddenly pulled back as Kim stood there in her little hospital gown with a cup of water in her hand. “It’s about time you were awake.” Now I was so confused I was about to cross the line of no return.
I could feel my face contorted with puzzlement. “What are you doing here?”
“Same as you,” she said, then took a swig of her water. “As the story goes, once they found you they carried you back to the house and rang the door but nobody answered.” She sat down on her bed across from me as she continued. “So your parents went around the gate liked I told them to if anything happened and then they found that I had passed out in the living room. Then they called 911, the ambulance came and picked us up, and here we are.”
I’m not really sure how to describe the facial expression I had on. It was sort of a mix of confusion, irritation, worry and anger. Mainly because even though she told me the story it still didn’t explain anything.
“It’s weird though,” the doctor said. “Because you two weren’t the only ones that this happened to.” Everyone listened intently as he picked up a report on a table. “It says here that there were ten accounts that happened roughly around the same time in the two mile radius of the lighthouse.” You could tell somebody wanted to say something, they just didn’t know what. Well that’s what they got me for.
“What the heck,” I said. “And everyone ‘coincidentally’ got concussions.” I felt my head for a bump. “I don’t feel like I have a concussion. In fact, I feel better than I did before this happened.” Of course that was a total lie, I just said it for extra emphasis. Everyone stared at me. “Who else did this happen to?”
The doctor cleared his throat. “Well, let’s see. There was a fisherman who fell asleep in his boat, a family on the edge of town, then you three.” Three?
Mr. Tanaka.
I don’t know what you would do in this situation but I sure didn’t know what I was going to do. At first I thought this must be Mr. Tanaka’s doing, but he passed out too. Maybe it was a government operation—but that would be silly. Who would waste their time on a bunch insignificant of townspeople? Wait. I just dissed myself.
“There really is no explanation for it,” the doctor said, skimming the report through his glasses. “They found no traces of any chemicals or drugs that could have caused this. It couldn’t have been a plant because then the wind would have carried it into town. There’s no bases, oilrigs, or anything government sponsored where chemicals could be stored. They found nothing.”
“What a comforting feeling,” I said in my most sarcastic voice. What more could I say? It was just one of those things where you’re pretty much forced to nod and say, “Yes, that was weird.” and move on.
“Well, at least it’s over,” the doctor said. “There haven’t been any more reports over the last two days.”
“Two days!” Kim and I shouted at once.
“Is that how long we’ve been out?” Kim asked.
The doctor shrugged. “Pretty much,” he said. “I don’t what to tell you girls.” I groaned and slumped back into my bed. Ami is going to kill me for missing two days of practice. Not to mention all the homework I have to catch up on.
I glanced over at Kim who looked like she was about to faint again.
“Where’s my uncle?” she asked. Her voice was urgent and at the same time shaken.
“In room 145,” the doctor said. “In the intensive care wing.”
“I need to go see him,” Kim said jumping to her feet. Several nurse lined up at the door. Strange, Kim never really struck me as the rash type. Normally I’m the one that does things without thinking.
“I’m afraid we can’t let you do that,” a heavy nurse said. “But we can assure you he’s in good hands.”
“No,” Kim said, looking like she was about to snap. “No you don’t understand, I need to see him.”
As the nurses tried to assure Kim and settle her down, I looked at my parents, wondering if they would ever let me go back to the lighthouse after this incident. The doctor pulled the curtain around Kim’s area as they tried to calm her down. Like a curtain was going to do much. They probably just made her feel more claustrophobic
“Well,” my mom said turning her head towards me. “They want to keep you an extra night, just to make sure you’re alright.”
“But I’m fine,” I was about ready to plead with my mom. “Let me go home. I don’t want to miss anymore of school.” Normally that would be the last thing to come out of my mouth but school wasn’t really what I was concerned about. It was Chei.
Deep breaths, Chei told himself. The pain will be over soon.
He sat on the top of the astronomy dome made of the only glass for miles. The stars were bright and several of the moons were visible. Tomarz’s rings were barley peaking over the horizon of the ocean. The lights from the cities scattered on the rings looked like far away stars.
The sky was a deep purple to the west and a blue blanket decorated with trillions of silver specs lay to the east. The two colors were separated by one of the three rings of clouds that circled the planet. In the sky there were fluctuations in shades scattered across the sky either from rivers of stars clumped together or a galaxy slowly spinning at its leisure. The sun had set hours ago and the moons shown to their full potential. Only the green and orange ones were out tonight, though the blue was slowly rising above the south mountains. Even in this time of peace there was no time to enjoy it.
Chei’s concentration was breaking every time his heart beat. His veins felt like they were being impaled with quills when the blood coursed through them. Every organ in his body ached. Anything his blood streamed through was being torn up from the inside.
He opened one eye and watched the veins in his arm surge, turning a dark gray as the blood traveled from his heart to the rest of his body. He could literally watch his pulse as every vein bulged with agonizing pain. This disease was staring to affect even him as well. At least now he realized what the others were experiencing.
Have you contacted the girl?
Chei’s eyes flew open.
“Yes,” he answered. He inhaled deeply and exhaled. As he exhaled a breeze gently ruffled his clothes.
Very good. The voice said. You have done well my son.
Almost immediately the throbbing vanished. The veins ceased to appear as the steady beat of his heart went on. Chei smiled and closed his eyes again, trying to focus on a particular spot so that he could re-manifest himself.
Think of where you last saw her, He thought to himself. You were able to touch her but only for a few seconds. And then the boundary slipped.
Chei sighed. “At least Luzzu was able to fix it before it got too out of hand.”
Well, as you can imagine I didn’t get to go home that day, but had to stay an extra night at the stinky hospital that smelled like antiseptics. Now mix that smell with meat loaf. I don’t think I have to say any further.
I glanced at the clock on the bottom of the TV mounted on the wall in the corner. 6:55 pm. I started counting on my fingers how many more hours I would have to be here when Kim came walking nosily out of the bathroom, making me lose count.
Apparently she knew what I was doing and said, “Fourteen hours and five minutes till we’re free again.” She fell onto her bed and buried her face into the pillow.
“What, no seconds or milliseconds?” I said snidely. Annoyance hung heavily in my voice.
Kim looked at me with one eye. “Don’t get your panties in a bundle.” She grabbed her pillow from under her and threw it at me. I caught it in mid-air and chucked it at her face. She didn’t even try to duck or catch it. Instead she just sat there and let it fly into her head. It reminded me when I had thrown the rock at her shortly after the field had appeared.
“Somebody’s grumpy,” Kim said leaning back on her arms and facing the ceiling.
I glared at her. I knew very well I wasn’t in the best of moods and I had a few good reasons why. Good reason number one: I had missed three night’s worth of homework and a major test in science, which I’m already failing mind you. Good reason number two: I had missed three days of band practice and our band was going to be playing in the spring festival concert.
“Shut up,” I said turning on my side and faced the wall away from her. I hardly knew this woman and already I was treating her like my sister or something.
Kim chuckled but didn’t say anything. We sat in silence for a long while, the TV made the only sound.
After about thirty minutes or so a nurse walked in holding a clipboard. I rolled my eyes, thinking she was probably going to ask if we had eaten dinner yet. Instead she paced over to Kim who I could hear sitting up.
“Ms. Tanaka,” the nurse began.
“Call me Kim,” Kim said.
“Kim,” the nurse continued. “You’re uncle is now out of the intensive care wing and is currently in room 223. You can go see him now if you’d like.” In one swoop Kim kicked off her sheets, got out of bed, pulled on her robe, and was out the door. The nurse briskly trailed after her, trying to keep up.
That was a stupid move on their part. Like I’m just going to sit here and wonder why Kim wanted to see him so badly?
I waited a few seconds before I followed after them. I wasn’t exactly sure if I had permission to leave my room so I tried to steer clear of any nurses coming down the hall. While I was looking at the signs that said which rooms were where, I spotted a nurse pushing a cart of food coming right towards me. As quickly as I could I slipped into the room I was closest to and pressed myself against the cabinets hidden by curtains. I don’t think the patients in that room were aware of my presence because one of them burped like nobody’s business and the other tried to match it.
Once the nurse had passed I walked around for about five minutes until I finally found the right room. Room 223 was the last room at the end of an almost hidden hallway. As I approached I could hear murmurs that were so faint I had to practically stop breathing to understand them.
“Are you sure you’re ok uncle?”
“Would you stop asking that? You’re starting to get boring.” Mr. Tanaka ladies and gentlemen. I wondered to myself if this event should be significant or not, because I’d never heard the voice of a crazy person before. I leaned forward and tilted my head towards the door.
“Was it as bad as last time?”
“You sure do ask a lot of questions.”
“Uncle.”
“Alright, alright.” I pressed my ear up to the small crack. What did she mean by as bad as last time? “They didn’t say anything unusual about it, other than that it was unusual. Although—” I was mentally preparing myself for the information about to be spoken when suddenly I lost my balance and came tumbling into the room.
“Sora!” Kim shouted standing up. “What are you doing here?” I sat absolutely dumbfounded on the floor as to what just happened. When I realized I was in the presence of a mad man having a private conversation with his niece, reality seemed to hit me head on like a swinging baseball bat.
“So we’ve got ourselves a fink,” Without my consent my eyes looked directly at the speaker. Mr. Tanaka had a grave, sullen, look on his face. His cheekbones cast large, sharp shadows on his face, which made him look even more solemn. I was afraid to look him straight in the eye because it was like looking into steel death traps. There really was no pigment to them, just a dull gray to balance out the pallor. His pale skin was just as bad. Even his hair and beard were an irregular white.
“I-I’m sorry,” I stuttered, which is a frightening fact in itself because I never stutter. I looked at Kim who didn’t really know how to react. She just gawked at me, completely and utterly stunned.
Great. After stalking my community service employer and then betraying her trust by eavesdropping on her conversation and then getting caught, I think it’s safe to say that I’m pretty much screwed at this point. Hopefully I won’t say anything and make it worse. Yeah right.
“So you’re the one that was in my house the other day,” Mr. Tanaka said in a voice so bold I almost flinched when he unexpectedly spoke. “I hadn’t even been able to hear all the nice things Kim would have said about you because I passed out before I got the chance.” I stared at him for a moment or two with a sort of bewilderment. It sounded an awful lot like he was blaming me for this whole thing. “And now I have to pay a medical bill that’s probably bigger than the money you’ll make in your entire freaking life.” Specs of spit came shooting past his lips as he spoke.
“Uncle stop,” Kim said. “You’re always so condescending.” I don’t know if Kim was stepping in for my sake or his, because I know I was about ready to rip him a new one.
“It’s true,” Mr. Tanaka said. He never broke eye contact with my once and neither I him, which I think was bothering him. “Rats like you never go anywhere in life. They wind up flippin’ patties. You’re nothing!”
Did he seriously think I was just going to stand there and take it? If he did he had another thing coming. I’ll admit, for an old guy he has a lot of guts to talk to me like that.
By now I was about to lose it. Nobody calls me garbage and tells me I’ll amount to nothing. Flames were probably raging in my eyes as I glared at Mr. Tanaka with all the anger I could muster. I opened my mouth but Kim cut me off.
“Sora,” she said in the kindest voice I had ever heard her use. “I’ll meet you back in our room in a little bit.”
I didn’t want Mr. Tanaka to think he had won this. Kim seemed almost afraid of what was going to happen if I stayed in the room any longer. Almost forcefully I nodded and back out of the room.
That night I sat in my bed, wide-awake and boiling. Kim finally came back around eight and apologized for her uncle. She could tell I was still upset at what he had said to me and didn’t say anything else.
I felt like springing up and start pounding my pillow until the stuffing broke from the seams. I was so angry that he said I would go nowhere in life. I heard enough of that from my parents because they didn’t support my music. Instead I just sat there, staring at the ceiling, trying my hardest not to think about it.
In town I was practically known for my spitfire comments and stubborn attitude. Apparently Mr. Tanaka hadn’t heard or he just didn’t care. I turned on my side and closed my eyes, even though I didn’t feel the least bit tired.
“Now,” I whispered to myself. “You’re going to lay like this till you go to sleep.” Personally, I think the whole counting sheep is annoying. To me it was more irritating than boring. So my alternative was to hum myself the lullaby my mom use to sing to me as a small child. When my little brother was born and would start making a fuss in the middle of the night, I use to get up and sit outside the nursery while my mother sang the lullaby. I’m not quite sure what it was called, but secretly it has always been my favorite song. For some reason it never got old.
Just as I was inhaling to start off, something caught my attention so I held my breath and listened. At first I thought it was just the wind but after straining my ears for a few more moments, I heard the faint sound of a melody.
