OXRO: ACTIVATION

Chapter 23

          The voice that repeatedly shouted Asia's name didn't frighten her. Quite the opposite reaction was evoked. The booming baritone bore chills of exhilaration to her mocha skin. Even though, she couldn't view the body associated with the voice her mind became overloaded with memories.

       Images of better times, happier times filled with parties, school dances, and late-night dancing during study breaks. Asia knew that person that shouted for her relentlessly. No, the joy that caused her feet to move toward the voice was not just familiarity. It was love. She loved this person and not the 'I want to make passionate love with you and bear your child kind of love'. The love she felt was enduring and comforting, like a night light during a stormy night.

        Keller grabbed Asia's arm. She quickly looked back at him.

       "Where are you going?" He asked with genuine concern.

       "My friend." Asia pointed towards the thicket. Keller's hold on her forearm didn't slack and neither did the concern on his face. "It's Denver." She told as if he knew the lad.

     "Let him come to us." Keller released her arm and stood at her side.

     Seconds ticked away as the river slowly rippled, branches sharply snapped, and the glint of Keller's blade shimmering on Asia's face. It all vanquished the joy that surged her body replacing it with an all too familiar sensation, fright. Asia was sure the person nearing the edge of the thicker was Denver but her heart still raced. Her mouth grew dry while her hands turned moist. She bounced on her heels like the rattling cranium of a bobblehead. Her body wanted to flee as her mind yelled 'Survive! Survive! Survive!' It was her heart that kept her eyes glued to the rustling thicket.

        As soon as the being's feet stroke the sand, Asia took off running. Keller's strong hand couldn't stop her, which she bumped by as she sped off. Sand kicked up into Shaka's muzzle as he followed close behind his owner. Keller trotted behind with his blade still clutched in his hand. Asia didn't mind them. All her attention was on him. Her heart was right and she yelled his name as he hollered hers a minute ago.

     "Denver!!" Asia collided with the boy that was surfing down the sandy mound. Her arms flew around his waist sending them crashing to the ground.

     "Ah!" Denver groaned from the added weight of Asia's body on his torso.

      Asia pulled her head off his chest reading the pain-drenched on his face, "Where are you hurt?" She sat up looking at his body.

      Denver stopped grinding his teeth. "My shoulder." He gestured to the side of the wounded limb. "I think I broke it."

      "It's probably dislocated," Keller uttered breaking up their reunion. Asia glanced back at him as he put his knife back in the pocket of his cargo pants. "You're gonna have to set it or lose the arm."

      "Lose the arm?" Denver screeched. He pushed himself up to a sitting position. "Who the hell is this guy, Asia?" He glared at Keller for a moment then shifted his eyes to Asia waiting for an answer.

      "This is Keller." Asia gestured to him. She tried to smile the nervousness away but that wasn't working. Not to eliminate the way Keller and Denver peered at each other. "He's cool people." She told Denver catching sight of his balled fist. "Shaka likes him."

      Denver huffed at the animal standing beside him as Keller stood by his feet. "I'm not putting my trust in the paws of a dog."

      "He's not a dog." Keller and Asia corrected at the same time.

       "He's not a dog," Asia repeated rolling her eyes at Denver that was critiquing her. She felt his eyes skim over her with a mind that worked to fill in the missing pieces of time since they were together.

      "We need to set that." Keller slipped out of his backpack. "Hold him down." He instructed kneeling next to Denver's lame arm.

       Asia watched the backpack like it harbored the secrets of life. She wanted to know what was in all the pockets? What made it protrude and why didn't he want her to touch it?

      "Asia," Keller called pulling her from her urge to inspect the bag. She turned to him. "Hold him down."

      "I don't know...about this?" Denver's pain-filled voice wavered. He dug his heels in the sand scooting away from the random guy he just met.

      Keller rested on his haunches; "You'll lose it if we don't." He gestured at the arm hanging lifeless at Denver's side.

      Denver looked down at his arm with the face of someone that had been studying Chinese arithmetic for hours. "I don't know." He heaved shifting his gaze across the river.

       "What don't you know?" Asia asked shifting on her knees. She took his hand in hers. "Do you not trust him?" She asked softly. Denver kept his sienna eyes trained forward while Keller's blue ones were locked on her.

      Silence habited them for a few seconds until Denver uttered, "If you trust him, I trust him?" He looked at her with red tinted eyes. "Do you...trust him?"

      Wide, pleading eyes and a flat speechless mouth; it was a face Asia had seen many times. It was the same look she got while they waited for the ambulance after she walked into the knife. Or the time he sat outside the principal's office after giving Craig Fenmark a beat down. It was the same face she received after his fight with Oliver. In the dead of night, sitting in the bed of his pick-up he turned to her with that melancholy face asking her the same question, 'Do you trust him?'

      Back then she gave Denver a convoluted answer because she loved the boy in question and the one that asked the question. This was a situation that couldn't be gray but black or white. Life and death hung in the balance and she had to be sure if Keller could be trusted. The mysterious guy with the profound knowledge that she discovered hiding in a tree during the worst day of her life. She looked at Keller hoping to find her answer in the clearness of his sapphire eyes but they were boring down on the sand.

       Asia breathed deeply before uttering, "I...."

Does Asia trust Keller? 

Will Denver and Keller be friendly?