Inyanga's Star and Other Constellations

I. Where Did Cielo's Apartment Go? - 1391 S.E.

Name Meanings

Cielo: Sky or heaven in Spanish

Samura:  Deer, or confused, in Sanskrit

Cielo's Star – Episode 1 

On even the foggiest weekend mornings, these days Cielo's neighborhood drew crowds of weekenders who took over the stretches of narrow sidewalk, and the sprawl of green park spaces, and every patio seat.

The weekend wanderers would meander mindlessly, capturing magic prints of the graffiti and the drumkit on the corner of Frons and 14th, and the lightchromo canvases of the street artists. So they didn't have to pay for them to keep them forever.

Planting a large, cushiony bum down on the edge of the sidewalk next to aer esposa Samura, Cielo moaned, "We need to get out of here," for the millionth time.

Speaking through bites of an arepa that dripped oily green sauce, Samura delivered a joking proclamation as if Cielo hadn't said that a million times already.

"What? Excuse me? You lived here your whole life! You, leave the Shade? You can't leave the Shade. Leave it to them!? You. can't. let. them. have. it." She punched the words with half-laughs and rocked on her slim hips, as if she'd never get comfortable with her bony butt on the concrete.

As if they hadn't had this conversation a million times.

Sitting on the edge of the sidewalk, watching the line for a patio brunch grow long, Cielo pulled out the brand new Stellar aeh bought when, after three hundred years working as a diligent underling, Constellation offered aer a promotion and salary bump.

Raised to account manager for the partnership with Amicus Capital, the first thing aeh bought was aer very own Stellar . . . and after that little splurge, it was time to drop almost all aer new earnings to get the heck out of the Shade.

Samura and Cielo didn't even live together, though they were married — they wanted to get a bigger place, anywhere but in the Shade.

Maybe they'd come back one day.

The Stellar could do anything. A lot of people asked what was the point of the consumer tablet for a licensed magician; you could watch the news through a link portal, why would you want to watch it on a device you had to hold in your hands? You could print pictures, why would you want to take the extra time to call them up on a tablet? Yet the Stellar had many features. Cielo could call up family pictures, send written messages, save videos to watch and rewatch, not to mention view aer account ledgers, make transactions: manage the bills and the rent and make cash transfers. It stored the pictures from Samura and Cielo's wedding, vacation plans past and future, story idea notes, little poems written on the omnibus, all of aer favorite books and a few good movies, and at any time it could connect aer to aer madre, aer manager, or aer therapist, as needed.

The little slice of magic held in aer hands became an extension of aer mind — aer memories, aer records, data aeh needed for health and administrative purposes — and it held aer heart too.

Now aeh called up the ad directory to search for a new apartment.

Browsing through the classifieds on the Stellar, Cielo could see that the only way out the Shade would be to shell out.

Rent prices had climbed here, yet they reached higher everywhere else in the city, too. Once they got in, no one could get back out. If you were stuck renting, it'd cost even more to live anywhere else. Don't even ask about the real estate market for buying.