Sea of Stars

Chapter Nine: Knit

"I have no idea how you are functioning right now. Scratch that, I don't even know how you're still alive."

"Ha, bold of you to assume I am. Do I not look dead enough to you normally? I guess I'll have to up my game and smear charcoal beneath my eyes before you'll finally be convinced that I'm dead most of the time."

Anna smirked, enjoying the banter. For the next eight hours, it was just the two of them, Anna and Rosemary, working inside the cafe, talking and laughing more than usual. In fact, their positive vibes seemed to elevate the mood of everyone in the cafe. Rosemary'd even shot Toast Sandwich, when he came at 1.07 a.m. again, a small smile. In the wee hours of the morning that day, Waffles and Co. brimmed with orange-golden light and laughter as its occupants harboured good spirits.

***

Spring 2011, 23 March, 0302

Rosemary was still smiling as she ended her shift. She folded up her apron and placed it into the staff locker in a bundle and bade goodbye to Anna, who was cleaning up her station. Anna looked up and gave Rosemary a warm smile. "I wish you many more restful nights. You're plenty charming when you're not half-dead from exhaustion."

Rosemary laughed and waved goodbye. "Thanks, geez."

Feeling beyond energised by her power-catnap the morning before, she changed from her jeans into her FBT shorts and dri-fit shirt which were carefully packed away into her oversized canvas bag.

Her footsteps were lightweight and buoyant. She felt as if she was riding the breeze, and it was all she could do not to prance around the streets with her arms outstretched in bliss. God, I really need to use the cassette more often. She'd only slept for about an hour or so before she'd had to wake up for school, but it had been the most undisturbed, comatose sleep she had had in what seemed like forever. If this was what being rested felt like, Rosemary felt as if the solution to world hunger and climate change was in her hands.

Rosemary made her way directly to the beach from the cafe, not bothering to go home to freshen up. Though she was nearing twenty-four hours awake since her magical sleep, the rejuvenating effects still lingered strong, powering her every step.

Reaching the beach, she put her bag onto the bench and took a sip from her Hydroflask. She did some simple stretches and looked up.

"Ah, there you are," said Rosemary. The tree boy peered down and his eyebrows raised high.

"Wow, someone's in a good mood today."

"Believe it or not, you're the second person to say that to me today."

"Huh." The boy looked thoughtful, before leaning back in his reclined position. "Care to join me? The wind's better up here."

"No thanks," came the instantaneous reply. The boy rolled his eyes.

"You know, it's not like I would actually do something to you, if that's what you're worrying about. I mean, what do you expect me to do? Stab you with a pencil or something?"

"You better not," she said, but she was smiling. The boy's eyebrows raised even higher and he looked pensive. It must have been the wind, or the heady sense of bliss that still tickled at her heart, because she looked up at him and cocked her head to the side. "Why do you look so troubled?" she asked, sizing up his expression from below, which she couldn't exactly see.

"Troubled? No, not me. You know who was troubled? Schumann. He died at age 46. Tragic, isn't it? Here," he offered Rosemary a hand. She took it and hoisted herself up onto the branches. She sat across from him, legs crossed, gazing out at the horizon. She could tell by his tone that he wanted to share more with her and wasn't sure if she wanted to hear it. She didn't know why she was sitting with a boy she didn't know in a tree. Violet would have said something annoying about her and the boy k-i-s-s-i-n-g, but she pushed the thought away lest her cheeks flush with colour.