Ok, I know its reviewing Sunday but the deadline for the contest this is for (Aqua's Awesome Contest) is tomorrow and I've already procrastinated enough on this thing
So, this was based off a dream I had, I never actually learned the man's name but I figured I would give him one in this.
Hope you enjoy!! All comments welcome!
- Irish
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So this was Brazil? I smiled, it was so bright and open here with the sun shining and the native people here walking around shouting back and forth in their exciting language.
We walked down the cobblestone road silently; all of us were under the spell of this tropical place. The wind blew, making my red-gold hair flow out behind me. Was there anything wrong with this place?
As we turned the corner and came into a small market square, I realized I had spoken too soon.
The market square was hidden from the rest of the city on one side by tall business buildings, and was open to a large pier on a glistening clear ocean on the other. Small white carts dotted the cobblestone courtyard, bright colored merchandise hung on the carts swayed in the wind, and a large metal stand stood in the middle of the courtyard boasting a sign that read “Smoothies”. Next to the stand were two large brooding figures.
The figures seemed as though they were as tall as the stand and wore solider uniforms in a dark green color and the helmets on their head resembled the same hue. It wasn’t as much the threatening size of the soldiers that frightened me, but it was the giant guns that they held at their sides.
“Yes, they are quite foreboding aren’t they?” A voice from behind me said. Startled, I spun around to see a man in white garments and an even whiter turban on his head. He looked at me with his raven colored eyebrows raised.
I looked at him. “What?”
He tilted his head toward the figures. “The soldiers over there, they frighten you.”
I nodded slightly. “Yeah, a little.”
“Why are they here?” I heard a familiar voice say. Turning, I saw it was Jake and everyone else was either watching me and the man’s conversation or the soldiers intently. I blinked; I’d forgotten they were here.
The man sniffed. “They are here to make sure the laws of this place are followed.”
I frowned. “It’s like the Nazi occupation or something,”
The man nodded. “It seems a lot like that, very many of the laws seemed aimed at my ethnicity.”
It took me a moment, but realization kicked in and I smiled. “You’re Jewish?”
The man’s brown eyes sparkled as he smiled. “Yes I am, are you of the faith?”
I shook my head, “I’m not but many people close to me are. So why are those soldiers standing near a smoothie place?”
The man sighed. “Its one of their laws,”
Jake snorted. “What law has to do with a smoothie stand? Is fruit suddenly illegal?” The man looked at him and frowned.
“Yes.”
Jake’s face fell. “Oh,”
Emma frowned and walked over to us. “Why would they have a law against fruit? It’s a smoothie place! Smoothies are made out of fruit!”
The man laughed. “Yes it seems pretty ridiculous, but the law is you are not allowed to give smoothie places bowls of fruit, only bowls of nuts.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Why would a smoothie place need nuts? And why is it illegal to give them fruit…that they use?”
His face suddenly turned grim and he looked over to the soldiers. “Follow me; we should not discuss this here.”
The three of us nodded and motioned to the others to follow. The man turned from the stand and headed toward a small alleyway between two of the business buildings, up, and around until we came out of the narrow passage to a small lightly wooded park.
As we made our way toward the park, we began to see more and more pure white garments appearing between the trees and moving to cluster into a group. We all turned and frowned at each other, something was going on, but what it was, none of us knew.
As we entered the park the man walked over to the group and began speaking to them in what we expected to be Hebrew. A young woman, her hair a shining chestnut color, seemed to be doing most of the talking. She sounded distressed, and yet excited. I narrowed my eyes and desperately tried to find some word I would understand from my two fleeting journeys into this religion. I found none.
After a few endless moments the man returned to us, the woman in tow. The rest of the white clad people moved back slowly to disappear between the trees.
I watched them for a while before turning toward the man with an eyebrow raised, not knowing what to expect but expecting something, as I guessed the rest of us were.
“We hate to do this,” he said sighing, “but we need your help.”
I felt my heart sink. Needing help from total strangers you don't even know the names of was never a good thing. Then again, following a random stranger into a park where no one could see you was never a really good idea either. I frowned; this was just all around not a good idea.
Sooner or later I realized that everyone was staring at me, and my revelation was lost.
“What sort of help are we talking?” I asked slowly.
Around me, I felt the bodies of my companions lean in with interest. The man looked from me and them and smiled grimly.
“I’m sorry to say that it’s the dangerous kind,” he replied.
Inwardly, I groaned. That was the most popular and the least likable sort of help unless you were a daredevil in search of entertainment.
“What’s the job?” I asked.
The man rubbed his tanned forehead and looked at the woman. “This is my wife, Rachel. She has had a vision my good friends, the vision told her that unless we give that smoothie stand a bowl made up of kiwi, strawberry, one slice of dragon fruit, and twelve blueberries the world is going to end.”
I knew it was rude, but I couldn’t help gaping at the man. First of all, it was against the law to give a smoothie stand a bowl of fruit which was ridiculous in the first place, but to have a vision that you had to give them a bowl or else it causes the apocalypse?! I shook my head; this was something of a dream.
“I-“I started, but the man held up a hand.
“It seems ridiculous, I know. But my wife’s visions have never led us astray before, and this is our most important yet! And sadly, we cannot do it ourselves. Somehow, the government of this place found out about this vision and put in place that idiotic law. They spite us at every turn and my faith in God normally helps me realize that if God believes in us, He will do us right, but this too much!”
Shaking my head, I tried to find something logical to hang onto to, but sadly, nothing was.
“What do you want us to do?” I heard Jake say behind me.
Rachel looked at him and blinked, like she was surprised that he’d speak. “We will show you what you have to do, if you agree to do this for us.”
I nodded. “We’ll do it.”
I felt a hand grab my shoulder and jerk me backwards. Emma glared at me.
“What are you doing?” She hissed.
“Helping them,” I hissed back, “they obviously need it and it’s either that or the end of the world, Emma! Pick one.”
She frowned. “I’m not risking my life for a stupid bowl of fruit!”
“Then I will.” I heard a deep voice say. I turned to see Cameron and frowned. That was the last thing I’d expected from solitary, blunt, and often times crude, Cameron.
I walked back over to the man and Rachel. “Exactly how many people will need to do this mission?”
He opened his mouth to answer, but Rachel answered faster. “Three.”
I raised an eyebrow but said nothing. So three was the magic number, and we only had two willing to do this. I turned to my little group. “Anyone else feeling as stupid as me and Cam?”
Endless moments seemed to pass and my heart grew heavy. Plans to disguise Rachel or one of the other members of what seemed to be their own little clan of nomadic Jews began to run through my mind when a familiar voice rang out. “I am.”
Jake stood in front of our group with his chin raised. I realized that I had been holding my breath and, with my face turning a frightening purple, decided to take a breath.
“Ok,” I said turning back Rachel and her husband, “there are three of us. Now what do we do?”
***
I shook my head. “What am I doing?”
Cameron turned around and glared at me. “Saving the world, for the thousandth time.”
Jake walked up to us, a glassy blue bowl in his hands. “You guys ready?”
I looked down angrily at my own pink glossy bowl, wishing once more that Rachel had seen the bowls of nuts pink instead of the fruit. “As I’ll ever be,” I mumbled.
Jake nodded and started down the dark alleyway, Cameron behind him. I waited ten seconds, took a deep breath, and then started after them.
It seemed to take a hundred years to get to the other end of the alleyway and into the square. The sun beamed overhead and glinted on the guns of the soldiers, still standing in front of the smoothie stand and making them seem even more frightening and dangerous.
Jake and Cameron were about ten feet away, halfway across the courtyard, their faces unreadable. I struggled to keep my face as impassive as theirs, and to keep my bowl from falling out of my shaking hands.
Silently, Jake stalked up to the smoothie stand and held out the bowl to the shining silver counter. For the first time, I saw the soldiers move, and focus their scrutinizing eyes on the short blonde boy with the blue bowl.
Jake kept his gaze on the counter as he set his bowl filled with nuts on the shining surface. “I offer to you, stand, the gift of nuts for your smoothies.” He touched the bowl gently and walked away from the stand calmly, making his way toward the road leading away from the square. His job was done.
Cameron’s, however, was just starting. He strode up to the counter and, as Jake had done, ignored the looks of the soldiers and set his bowl on the counter. I watched the soldiers, who were watching the tall, dark haired boy do as the smaller boy had done; set down a bowl and walk away.
My heart jerked as Cameron turned the corner and disappeared from the square. It was all up to me now.
I walked up to the stand, and slowly let my head droop, my red-gold hair falling over my bowl and hiding its contents. Looking through the curtain of my hair, I saw one of the soldiers raise an eyebrow at the change in this little parade going on. Two boys, with blue bowls, one tall and dark, one short and light; now a girl about average height with dark red hair with gold and blond strands and highlights with a pink bowl, that she was hiding, with said hair. No, that’s not suspicious.
I stopped in front of the stand, my head still down, and making sure that my hair stayed over the bowl, I set it on the cool silver. Taking a deep breath I opened my mouth and with a loud voice said. “I offer to you, stand, the-“I felt my voice falter and I took another breath getting ready for the chase.”
“I offer to you, stand, the gift of fruit to save the world!” I threw my head up, my hair flying off the bowl and exposing the fruit. Without waiting to see what the soldier’s reaction was, I took off in the same direction Jake and Cameron went in.
I sprinted out of the square and took off down the street, my heart pounding. Behind me, I heard the clicks of boots on cobblestones, and the harsh labored breathing of my chasers. I pushed myself harder, praying that my knees wouldn’t give out on me.
“Stop,” I heard a deep voice yell, “or we’ll shoot!”
Stop, that didn’t seem like a bright idea, and neither did them shooting at me, but I couldn’t stop now; I’d come too far and I was too close to being finished.
An alleyway appeared next to me, and I took off down it. It seemed to go on forever before I finally reached a turn and saw the green foliage of the park.
I burst out of the alleyway and gasped as I saw Jake and Cameron, still making their way to our meeting point.
“Jake, Cam!” I screamed. “Run, they’re right behind me!”
They looked at me for a moment and then took of running in front of me, reaching the trees just before I did.
We weaved through the trees; each of us taking a different direction than the current one when we thought we heard a different footfall.
I jumped over a fallen tree and saw the signal. “Guys,” I yelled, pointing, “the lamppost!”
Jake and Cameron looked to where I pointed and started toward it. Minutes later, we burst out of the forest, passed the lamppost, and across the street. I got to the corner and gripped onto a tree, swinging around and taking off even faster, knowing that we were so extremely close.
Casting a glance behind me, I saw Cameron right behind me and Jake coming around the corner. For a second I thought that the soldiers were gone and that we were safe, but those hopes were shattered when suddenly gun fire rang out. I gasped and pushed even harder, knowing I was going to hate myself for this later.
Finally, I saw it. The last corner before we were at the meeting place.
“You see it?” I heard Cameron yell behind me.
“Yeah, it’s only a few more feet!” I called.
Another shot rang out and my legs buckled under me. I fell to the ground and lay there for half a second before I felt Cameron helping me up.
“We gotta keep moving!” He yelled over the rapid gunfire.
He hauled me to my feet and pushed me forward; clumsily, I made my way forward and ran the last few feet around the corner.
Our entire group was there waiting there for us as well as the little clan of Jews. I ran to the nearest person and fell to my knees, Jake and Cameron doing the same. My lungs and muscles burned from the exertion but I found I had warmth in me, warmth from helping them when no one else would.
“Did you do it?” I heard a voice say.
I looked up to see Emma, standing with Rachel. I nodded still gasping for breath. “We did it, but they’re right behind us, and they’re shooting.”
Emma’s face was grim, but she nodded. Rachel beamed.
“Thank you so much,” she said dropping to her knees and wrapping her arms around me, “you have saved us all from a terrible doom!”
I nodded, unable to find words to say, or very much breath to say it. Now, all we had to do was wait for the soldiers. The three of us didn’t know what they had planned to do with the soldiers but the man told us they were going to do something that would keep us out of jail, not to mention alive.
I pulled myself over to a wall and sat against it, my job was done; hopefully. The gun fire sounded closer, and my heart leapt at every shot, but I still felt oddly at peace.
My eyelids suddenly became heavy, and I fought against the urge to sink into sleep. Rachel must have seen my struggle, for she came over and put a hand on my shoulder. “Go to sleep. You have done more than enough for today. The rest of us shall take care of the soldiers.”
I nodded and lay my head back, letting the grip of sleep take me. Before I went under I saw Rachel motion over the man. “Matthew,” she said before speaking rapidly in Hebrew.
Matthew…so that was his name.
