An Odd Kind Of Wonderful

Chapter Twenty-Two

    "She..." Am I allowed to tell him? Am I supposed to know? Does anyone know?

    "What?"

    "I just." I'm seconds away from forgetting how to breathe. I have to remind myself.

    "Nathan, sit down." Joel pushes down on my shoulder and I do as he says, my fingers twitching and tapping a meandering rhythm on my thigh. "I don't know what to do, um. Deep breaths?"

    "Deep breaths." I confirm.

    I try to think of a star, an unequivocally bright one, and then it explodes, but instead of the explosion I focus on one tiny particle being carried by the solar winds. "Deep breaths," I say again, and it's working.

    "Can you tell me what happened?"

    I show Joel my wrist. I figure he won't tell her, and if he does, it'll just be us three who know. "She has these." I explain. "I found them, and she ran away from me."

    Joel bites his lip and furrows his eyebrows. "Maybe she went along the street. I didn't hear anyone take the car and my keys are still in my pocket."

    "What's along the street?"

    "A pool, I think."

    I think of Raisa sitting by the pool in an aura of regret and insecurity. "We have to find her."

    -

     Walking for a little while does me some good and my brain shifts back into a steadier gear.

    "Raisa!" Joel shouts, disrupting some birds in the trees.

    "Joel," I whisper. "Don't shout. She'll only run further. We have to be quiet."

    Joel makes an 'o' noise. "Can I tell you something, Nathan?" he says, a lot softer.

    "Yeah."

    "There's definitely something about Raisa, I mean, because I feel it. She's sort of magnetic, yeah?" I nod. "Raisa and you aren't simple magnets, it's like, you're a negative and she's a positive and you're stuck together.  Does that make any sense?"

    "A little." I allow.

    "Only a little?"

    I smile at him, as if that's all I need to do.
    There is a pool further down the street, and that strikes me as a bit odd to have a public pool near a cemetery, but I suppose it had to go somewhere. We walk in silence, until a small noise not unlike a giggle makes us turn around and stare through the pool's gates. I'm already imagining white hair and a button nose, but I hear, "oh, no," before I see anything. Joel's hand comes flying over my eyes.

    "Joel, what is it?"

    "Shh," he hisses, "Oh, my God."

    "Oh my God what?"

    "Shut up, okay?"

    "Who is it? Is Raisa there?"

    "No. Alice."

    I essentially rip Joel's hand off my face by his wrist. There's a girl sitting on the edge of the pool with her ankles in the water, and another body swims at her feet, murmuring at her to what I assume is to join him. The girl is brunette and has a piercing glinting in her nose, and has tattoos all the way up one arm and along her collarbone. I can't make out what they say, but the largest one seems to be of a hibiscus flower—she's taking off her shirt now?

    "No." Joel turns my back. "No."

    "Who is he?" I ask.

    "I don't know who he is."