Page 105 of Sky Song
“I’ve never taken a woman out for a walk.” His smile was wistful. For someone whose face didn’t show emotion, Lyle sure had a way of expressing what he felt when it suited him.
“Lyle, we can’t walk outside now. It’s daytime,” she explained patiently, knowing he’d bulldoze over her rationale anyway. “Mr. Sulys might be at work, but Mr. Sulys isn’t the only nosy neighbor around. We will have the whole of Shadush citizenry on our case if someone sees you. With me.”
Naturally, he refused to be perturbed. “No one will see me with you. You take your usual way, and I’ll meet you at the Serenity Forest.”
As Cricket stood in front of the park’s entrance, inhaling the rich aroma of warm pine straw and damp earth, she felt strangely at peace. The birds were singing, the leaves were rustling, and the warmth of bright Kle was penetrating her clothes in the most pleasant way.
And apparently, she wasn’t the only one enjoying the perfect weather. Today, the park was busy, with hikers moving past her in and out of the park. A small but noisy group of children chaperoned by two hassled teachers swept haphazardly by.
“It was a dumb idea,” she muttered, moving aside from the path.
“Are you speaking to the trees?” Lyle asked from behind.
She jumped.
“Come on,” he grasped her by the elbow and smoothly moved along, away from the busy entrance and into the cooling, rustling shade of the park. No one seemed to be paying them any attention. No one. How did he do it, move through the populated areas without so much as casting a shadow, without anyone’s eye snagging on his bulky form unless he wanted to be noticed?
“How?” she couldn't help but ask.
He got what she meant. “It’s not that people don’t notice me. The trick is to make them not pay enough attention to question my presence here. It’s a skill.”
“How did you learn it?”
He laughed quietly. “By growing up in a place where being invisible can be life-preserving. You either learn it or you don’t get to grow up. Simple as that, my hearts.”
“That’s so terrible.”
“It’s a useful skill.” He twined their hands together as they veered off the main trail and took an overgrown path that branched out into the park’s denser region. It got darker there, under the dense canopies. Yet, when the wind blew and moved the branches, the naughty sunlight winked at them from above, briefly highlighting spots on the ground, on the tree bark, on their faces, before disappearing to pop up again in the most unexpected direction.
Cricket tightened her hold on Lyle’s hand, feeling his three strong fingers - and the absence of the other three.
“Will you ever tell me the truth about why you are missing fingers?”
“I told you the truth.”
“The bizarre story about cutting them off because there were too many? Try again.”
He shook his head in good humor. “So the story goes like this. A group of us, led by my father, infiltrated a Nera space station.”
“Infiltrated?”
“Yes, infiltrated.”
“Why?”
“Why? To repossess their brand new, upgraded fighter. Someone had probably died to provide my father with the intel, but I took no part in the recon missions, so I don’t know how he knew.”
“Lyle…”
“You asked, so listen up.” He pulled her deeper into the dense wooded area of the park. “We were dropped off at theedge of the base, got to the fighter with minimal casualties, climbed into the cockpit - only to find out that the fighter was programmed for Nera biometrics. The intel never said anything about that, and it was a bad situation. The worst. We couldn't even start it. By then, the Nera were on to us. The alarms, the shooting, and everything going downhill fast. Our only chance was to go up into space at once. And the Nera have three fingers.”
A sour bile rose in Cricket’s throat. “Oh, God. You weren’t joking.”
“I don’t alway joke, my hearts.” He grinned. “It’ll leave it up to you to figure out when I don’t.”
“You truly cut them off. For your father?”
He was silent. “I can’t say I thought about my father at that moment. There was no time to get reflective about life - seconds counted. None of the dumbasses figured to do it, so I sliced my fingers off with a utility knife to trick the controls and activate them. There was so much blood that it nearly fouled up my plan, but in the end, it worked.” He untangled their hands and brought his mangled one up as if examining it. “Sometimes I wonder if my life should have ended then.”
