Cranberry Clairvoyant (Azealia Banks Story)

You and Me

The ship had not come back.

I missed my parents, Milan, Destiny, even Ezekiel. I’d expect them to miss me too; then again, even if they didn’t miss me, it would be protocol to rescue a passenger who found themselves alone on a weird Taiwanese island. I wasn’t exactly alone, but they thought I was.

Maybe that’s it. These days, it seemed like my Grandmother was controlling everything, from sending me the book to my parents’ failure to come back for me. So maybe she made this happen for me to get closer to Darrius. But why? Why let me bond with Darrius instead of bonding with my parents? If anything, it was my father that I needed to get close to. He and I hadn’t spoken warmly to each other for years, if ever.

I didn’t mind being close to Darrius, though. More and more every day, I began to feel something with him. This feeling was different than just enjoying his company; I was actually feeling things about him, about the way he sat and spoke and looked at me. The way he touched me, too. That’s another thing: he’s been touching me way more often. My cheeks, my hips, my hair (which he constantly reminds me to dye brown again, as if there is any dye around). His hands just find themselves grazing along my skin, just for a few sacred moments.

I liked the way things were, but I was beginning to worry.

“Darrius, don’t you ever miss the ship?” I asked him suddenly. There were only two places we ever spent the majority of our time—mornings on Atlantis Centre, and the rest of our time on Brim of Atlantis. Now, though, we sat against a tree in Rear Atlantis and rested. Only because I wanted to—our intention was to come, take some more of the mysteriously delicious sugar cane, and bring in back to Brim with us. But after leaving Mid, I decided to rest in Rear instead of going all the way.

“No,” Darrius told me.

“Why not? Don’t you ever think of Ezekiel?”

“Every day I think of him. He was like a big brother to me. But at the same time, being here is healthy for me. I was always living behind Ezekiel, doing what he did and being a shadow to him. Now that I’m here, I can be my own person. I get to be the leader for once, you know?” He explained.

“I never thought of it that way.” I remarked. Now that he said it, I would rather the ship not come back as soon as I’d been hoping before. This really was healthy for Darrius; by the time we got back with the others, they’d notice a big change in him. He’d probably even be leading Ezekiel instead of vice versa.

“Lie down.” He instructed me. Fortunately, this little circle of Rear we’ve discovered was not crawling with chameleons. I lay down and then Darrius rested his head on mine; I should have known he wanted to read poetry now.

“Answers never come willingly/

They always put up a fight/

But as I leap and skip around this deserted place/

My blood boils and my mind screams ‘fight back’/

Then I look at her, serene and mocking as she is/

All she slurs is ‘don’t be like that’/

The sky is dripping and the water is rippling/

I don’t throw stones, and neither does she/

So who does?

The flightless shriveling insect?

I love him with all my Pagan little heart, but it is not his company I want now/

I have had enough of that, surely/