“Cher! Cher! Cher! Come quickly!”
Cherry could hear Thunder yelling from all the way down in the street. Drying her hands on her apron, she slipped her feet into her slippers and stepped out of the apartment. Wind was running up the stairs, Whip not far behind.
“What is it?” she asked Wind as he came panting up to her.
“Something’s wrong with Shorn. He’s flapping around on the floor with his eyes up in his head,” he said in between gasps of air.
“It’s really scary, Cherry mama,” Whip said, grasping on to her skirts.
“How did it happen?” she asked as she hurried down the stairs. There were days when she loved the privacy of being on the top floor. Today was not one of them.
“Don’t know. He just started shaking, all of a sudden. He was in the middle of saying something too. Then he just stopped. Then he fell down,” Wind said, running a few steps ahead of her. She paused in the middle of the landing, winded.
“Cher!” she could hear Thunder shouting. “It’s getting worse!”
Somewhere above her, she could hear doors and windows opening as residents looked out to find out what the commotion was about.
“Keep that boy quiet,” someone yelled. “I’m trying to sleep here.”
“Sleep? At mid afternoon?” Cherry grumbled as she continued down the stairs. “Whip, go tell Thunder I’m on the way. Tell him to shut up while he’s at it. He doesn’t have to wake the whole building just to get me.”
The little boy nodded and ran off ahead of them.
By the time Cherry reached the boys, Shorn lay still on the ground. Biting her lip, she hurried over and knelt beside him. He was flat on his back, his head thrown back and his arms splayed. If it weren’t for his chest that heaved up and down unnaturally hard, she would have thought he had already died. Thunder was still shaking him by the shoulder.
“Get up, Shorn. Get up,” he was saying over and over again.
Cherry caught Thunder’s hand, pushing it away from Shorn. “Let him be,” she said. “Come help me get him into a sitting position. Tell me what happened, clearly.”
Thunder nodded. “We were fooling around. Kicking a ball around. Then by accident, I kicked the ball and it flew and hit his face. He stood for a moment, scolding me for being an idiot. I told him it wasn’t my fault. Was just an accident. I didn’t mean to do it. And then suddenly his face turns white and his eyes roll up. I ask him what’s the matter, but he shakes his head and starts holding his head and moaning. Then his whole body starts to shake and his mouth is wide open. Then he falls and I tried to catch him, but I didn’t quite ‘cos he’s so big, see and he lands with this huge thump. I sent Wind and Whip up for you, and he’s still shaking all over and - well. Now he’s stopped.”
Cherry cradled Shorn’s head in her lap. His eyes were closed and his limbs were limp on the ground.
“Shorn, can you hear me?” she asked. There was no response. A small crowd of residents had started to gather around them and Cherry looked up with some annoyance.
“What’s wrong with the ‘fler?” someone asked.
“He’s fine. He just needs some air,” Cherry said firmly, trying to wave away the on-lookers.
“Don’t look fine to me. Look how pale he is,” another added.
“Ain’t pale cos he’s sick,” a third voice chimed in. “He looks like them dandies from the hill. He’s pale for not nuff sun.”
Some of them chuckled at that.
“What’s one of them doing here then?” the first voice argued.
Cherry looked around to find the person speaking. It turned out to be one of the sharp, nosy ladies who often sat at their doors and watched the world pass by. She knew that if she didn’t head off the conversation, they would start speculating about who he was and how he got here and why he was staying at her house and all sorts of strange and false assumptions would be made.
Clapping her hands together, she said, “Look, thank you all for your concern. Right now, I need two strong young men to help me carry this poor fellow up to his place so that we can call a doctor.”
The old lady gave her a sharp look, but shrugged. “Ain’t no doctors gonna come.”
Cherry ignored her. The crowd slowly dispersed as soon as two candidates were chosen to help her carry Shorn up the stairs. They laid him on the recliner in the living room, wished her luck and then left. Cherry heaved a sigh of relief and turned back to Shorn after instructing Whip to close the door and Wind to run out to call the nearest doctor.
His colour had improved somewhat, a slight pinkness starting to spread over his white cheeks. She pushed back his eyelids, as she had once seen a doctor do, but didn’t know what to look for, so she let them close again. There was nothing much else she could do so she sat by him and watched him breathe.
~
She wasn’t sure why Gust wanted to see her. She hadn’t done anything wrong. At least she didn’t think so. She knocked at the old housekeeper’s door.
“Come in.”
She had pushed the door open and stepped into the room, looking around at the neat, sparse furnishings. She had expected that the old man would have more things than that.
“You wanted to see me, sir?” she had asked.
“Yes. Cherry, isn’t it?”
“Yes sir.”
He ushered her into a cushy chair, offered her a cup of tea, and then sat down opposite her. She fiddled with the hem of her blouse nervously.
“How long have you been in service with us?” he asked as he put down his cup.
“Oh. About three years, sir,” she said.
“And how do you like it?”
“I enjoy it very much, sir.”
He seemed to think for a moment. “What do you think of our noble boys?”
She almost rolled her eyes, but stopped herself. “I don’t think much of them.”
“Meaning you don’t think of them at all, or you that you don’t think very highly of them?” Gust asked with a twinkle in his eye.
Cherry’s eyes widened. “Oh no sir. I didn’t mean it that way. I was -”
He waved his hand, silencing her. “The reason I’m asking is this - I know you’ve got a very steady head on you and you don’t mind speaking your mind when you think things are out of hand.”
Cherry blushed. “Sorry, sir.”
“It’s not a bad thing. It’s something all these spoilt teenagers need but they’re not getting. This is a fine place - they’re full of fine people, but the problem is, most of them don’t live in the real world. They live in a world where everything is handed to them on a silver plate. We are often the ones holding the silver plate, and we see, how no one else in this place sees, how nasty and ridiculous they can be in their behaviour. The things they get up to would not be tolerated by any parent anywhere in this world.” He paused to pour out more tea. “But they don’t have parents. Not here. They don’t have people who will correct them.”
“What’s that got to do with us, sir?” she asked when he seemed to wait for her to say something.
“Technically, nothing. And yet, they rely on us so much, that how we react to them could help guide their behaviour.”
“You’re saying we need to correct them?”
He chuckled at the aghast look on her face. “Not all. Some won’t listen - they’re too far gone. Others - like Song - are still malleable. They’re still nice to people. But they’re starting to become influenced for the worse. What we need to do is to correct that imbalance and try to make them turn the other way.”
“How?”
“Continue to do what you’re doing. Don’t be afraid.”
“What I’m doing?” she asked, confused.
“Yes. You’ve been giving Song a dose of reality every night just by engaging him in normal conversation and giving him your opinions. I’ve been trying to tell him for ever so long that his nose is getting too stuck up in the air, but you were the who got through to him by asking him, I believe, the question - ‘and who made you king of everything?’”
Cherry could feel her whole face turning hot. “I didn’t mean to. I was just so annoyed because he complained about dinner and insisted that the cook go and make something that he liked instead of eating what she’d cooked for everyone in the Palace, including the King. I wanted to die, after I’d left the room.”
“We need people like you, Cherry. I’m assigning you to Song’s quarters permanently.”
“But sir -”
“Don’t worry about your job. I’ll do the best I can to make sure that he never gets to fire you, as long as you continue to shake some sense into that pretty little head of his.”
“Yes sir,” she said, still having no clue about what Gust expected her to do.
He leaned over to her and patted her hands kindly. “Don’t worry, Cherry, all I’m asking for you to do is be yourself. Pretend he’s one of your little brothers.”
She’d really rolled her eyes that time. “My little brothers are better behaved than him.”
“Exactly. That’s why you’re the best person for this job.”
~
Shorn’s eyes fluttered slightly.
She called his name.
His eyelids fluttered again, and a soft moan escaped his lips.
“Can you hear me?”
He moved a little, but she wasn’t sure if it was in response to her question or if it was still peripheral movement. So she sat, gripping his hand instead, waiting for him to wake up.
“My head hurts,” he whispered, squinting up at her. “It hurts so bad.”
“How hard did Thunder hit you?”
“Not Thunder. Same as. Same as in testing.” He struggled to get the words out, feeling as if hammers in his head had somehow broken his language processor and dislocated his tongue.
She brought him a cup of water. He guzzled it as if he hadn’t drank water for years. Then he slumped back into the chair and closed his eyes.
“Don’t you feel any better?” she asked.
“No,” he said.
They sat in mutual silence, Cherry wondering what to do, Shorn in his pain, until Thunder appeared with the doctor, a young woman Cherry had known for years. They greeted each other cordially and then she took Cherry’s place by Shorn’s side.
“I’ve not seen this one before,” she said as she picked up a limp hand to check his pulse. “Another stray from off the streets? He’s older though.”
Shorn tried to scowl at her, but gave up because it was too painful.
Cherry suppressed a laugh as she said, “Yes, we just found him wandering yesterday, Doc.”
“Where you find these people, I’ll never know, Cher.” She asked them to describe what happened and as Shorn, Thunder and Wind told their stories, Doc sat there, nodding. When they were done, she looked at Shorn and asked him directly:
“Has this ever happened to you before?”
He hesitated, not sure how much he wanted to reveal. Cautiously he said “The first time was two days ago. I had at terrible headache and I think I lost consciousness as well, but I don’t know if the two were related.”
“Hm. There doesn’t seem to be anything physically wrong with you that I can see. It’s something in your head - but I don’t have the expertise to know what. I would just say you need to keep out of the sun. You’re really pale. Where do you come from?”
“I… I don’t know,” he said.
Doc sighed. “Don’t you remember anything about your past life at all?”
He shook his head and instantly regretted it. “When will the pain go away?”
“I don’t know. I’ll prescribe you some painkillers and hope that it works. You just be careful and don’t wander too far.”
As she packed up her bag of tools, she turned to Cherry. “You used to work in the Palace, didn’t you? They say that Prince Bass is missing. They think that he was attacked while he waited for Prince Song to come out from the Testing Grounds. There’s no evidence, of course, no signs of any trouble or scuffle, but they’re sending people out to search the city.”
“Hm. That’s funny. Wouldn’t Prince Bass have been surrounded by his guards?”
The doctor shook her head. “It seems he dismissed all his retainers as he wanted to spend time alone meditating. They’ve started searching from the new quarters. I think they’ll be here by night fall. Thought you might want to know. With all your strays and such.”
“Most of them aren’t here anymore,” Cherry said. “He’s the last.”
The doctor looked at her quizzically. “But all these kids? Don’t tell me they’re all yours.”
Cherry looked around blankly and then laughed. “Oh, you mean these strays. They’re mainly kids off the streets. They come here when they need food or shelter, or if their parents are drunk and angry at home. I’ll send them packing home for now. Only Thunder’s my brother and Wind’s an orphan we couldn’t place. But that’s all legal. We have the paperwork.”
“You do a good work, Cherry. I’m glad you left the Palace. Your talents and passions were wasted there, amongst those brats.”
“Come, I’ll walk you out,” she said, ignoring Shorn’s grimace.