Running on Sunday

Cleaning Dishes

Luna sits up in bed. She kisses Irchin on his forehead and stands at the side of the bed stretching. She rubs her eyes walking toward the bathroom to wash up. She dresses in her room and makes breakfast in her kitchen. She peeks outside the screen door at Sajal securing the perimeter then texts Cally:

Hey Cally. Meet me in the kitchen for breakfast.

It doesn't take long for Luna to hear footsteps following a loud Ping! Cally salutes Luna with a nod and heavy eyes as though ready to fall asleep in any available moment. Luna asks, "I'm making eggs and turkey sausage. Do you want some?" Cally shakes her head responding in a clearing-groggy voice,

"I'll take a banana smoothie with two percent milk, cinnamon, mint leaves, kale, and peanut butter." Luna groans in jest,

"Fine, I'll go to my pantry for you." Cally chuckles as Luna continues, "You're the only picky one." Cally wakes a bit more responding,

"I try food to know what I like to eat later too, not just for the moment. Solid foods in the morning don't sit well with my stomach especially if I don't brush my teeth." Luna throws an it's-kind-of-funny-listening-to-you-respond-so-to-my-jest glance at Cally while blending the ingredients,

"Right. That's fine. You know I'm here to help. Here." Cally sips slow and slightly tips the cup toward Luna,

"Thank you, this is really good." Luna nods,

"You're welcome, thank you. I'm going to the Illusory Sensor. I want you to come with me. We're going to release Gelsh. We do not need to concern ourselves with him any longer." Cally finishes her drink,

"Luna, do you think we're in the wrong for... Kilta and...?" Luna shakes her head clenching her fists tight,

"No. If left to hand to hand combat, I trust you all guaranteeing their lives. It's the field of the stakes, that's the reason for their deaths. Buying them might have been a slim possibility. When someone sets the end of life as a bartering tool-- reason and value are variables, sadly, sometimes at whims." Cally follows Luna toward the Illusory Sensor after helping her clean dishes in yawning silence,

"Why didn't Daria? Does she already have a detail?" Luna pauses in her tracks for a moment then continues,

"Cally, I'm going to free Gelsh. I want you to track his car out of Palin then resume your day with a lax patrol about Palin." Cally pats a rhythm on the interior wall of the Illusory Sensor Control Room,

"Okay." Luna presses the intercom button,

"Gelsh, I'm going to let you go to your car so you may leave Palin and never return." Gelsh stirs from his side to sit cross legged with his forehead toward the ground. He doesn't sound available: he sounds disconnected as though waking to a reality vaguely familiar unable to grasp himself within that which he feels he has to remember-- that which should have been of his memory, more present than seeming,

"Okay Luna." Luna sucks in a breath from her mouth, purses her lips pressing a yellow button providing Gelsh with an exit, watches him stand like a human relearning to balance, and closes her eyes as he walks out. Cally rests a gentle hand on Luna's left shoulder and walks out of the Illusory Sensor to track Gelsh. Luna sits for a few minutes with her eyes shut. She checks her vibrating phone to read a text from Cally:

He's driving toward Lien.

Luna responds:

Okay.

She stands slow looking around her then picks up her phone to text:

Irchin, eat some breakfast. Let's stretch our legs to your place.

She looks at her vibrating phone to read a message from Irchin:

Okay.