When Em Matte stepped into The Eye, she connected the waking world with the mortal ones. Her death led to Union Day, a day in which all the galaxy was suddenly, and sometimes tragically united. Now everyone must struggle to survive and rebuild in a...
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It was hard to imagine a place more crowded that Miss Johnson's house, but it seemed that Mel had found it. The area near the bridge was as packed as it had been every day she'd passed it on the bus, but this time it was just her and Pyanyap. They'd walked down there during morning break. Mel gripped Pyanyap's hand as they looked up at the gleaming brickwork. There was no good reason, but the bridge terrified her.
Miss Johnson had told her that the bridge had appeared the same night Mel had arrived at her house, but in the first days police and soldiers had blocked it off. They were now screening everyone coming through, turning some back, quarantining others. No human was allowed to go on the bridge, although they would occasionally let people from other races leave if they signed a contract saying they would not return.
Pyanyap had been the one who wanted to go. She'd asked in her broken English the night before, explaining that she wanted to go look for her family. At that moment, though, she looked almost as terrified as Mel. "I think no," she said, pulling Mel back. "I... I whuz... No word." She held out her hand to show that it was trembling.
"Afraid?" Mel suggested, clutching her hands in front of her and pretending to be terrified.
"Aw-fred! Yes!" Pyanyap said. "I go home you."
Mel was grateful to leave the place. As they walked, they played the same game they had been for the last month. Pyanyap would find something and point to it. Mel would say the word in English and Pyanyap would repeat it in zbayi. As they passed by the park, a boy was flying a kite and she clapped her hands together, pointing up at it.
"Kite," Mel said with a smile.
"Kite!" Pyanyap repeated. "Slambyamb. My mother, she make kite. Give me."
"I wish I remembered my mother," Mel said more to herself than to Pyanyap. It bothered her that she couldn't remember someone who should have been so important to her. What was worse, though, was that she didn't remember the child she'd carried. Every time she'd change her clothes, she'd look at the scar across her belly and wonder where her daughter or son was. She spoke English, so she wasn't like Pyanyap, from some far distant planet. Plus, Pyanyap remembered her family.
When they got back into their room at the home, their new roommate, Anette, was laying on her bed tossing a ball up into the air and catching it. When they walked in, she glanced at them, her overly large, dark eyes narrowing slightly.
"Mbad plis le ska be kti!" Pyanyap said brightly.
Mel's brow knit like it did whenever her friend spoke zbayi but for some reason, Anette understood her. "Yeah," the dark-eyed girl said with a yawn. "I got no interest whatsoever in going back over that stupid bridge."
"Gye mbad boksud ya Mel nyu ska."
"Hey, no talking about me behind my back!" Mel said.
Anette snorted, "Relax, she just wants me to convince you to go with her." Looking at Pyanyap, she added, "No can do. Humans can't leave, remember?"
