Jesse
2
Neither Grandpa Joe nor Grandma Elaine said one word about Halle and Jackson’s parents for the entire car ride. The scenery shifted from greenery to alpine, to shrubs, to desert, day to night, and before Halle knew it the morning had come and Grandpa Joe was pulling onto a almost imperceptible driveway in the middle of nowhere.
They rode over a slight ridge and on the other side was an old Victorian house. In front of the house a petite blonde woman was wearing a floppy brimmed hat and watering an impossibly lush garden. She straightened up at the sound of the tires on the gravel and waved.
Grandpa Joe was the first out of the car and walked over to the young woman and gave her a hug, Grandma Elaine followed. Halle and Jackson sat in the car, not sure what to do.
“Do you think she’s Avye?” Halle asked, motioning toward the woman.
Jackson shrugged. “She doesn’t fit the description of ‘old’ family friend.” He turned, opening his door. “But here goes nothing.” Jackson got out of the car and joined Grandma Elaine and Grandpa Joe who were engaged in a lively conversation with the young woman.
Halle slumped her head against the seat and thought about the last time she’d seen her parents.
“Don’t worry Halle. We’ll make it to your competition, I promise,” Halle’s mom said as she tucked Halle’s hair behind her ear.
“Yeah, sweetie,” her dad chimed in, “and I know we’ll see you in the Olympics fencing some day, just like Grandpa Joe.”
“Promise?” Halle asked.
“Promise what dear?” Halle’s mom asked.
“You’ll be there if I make it to the ‘lympics?” Halle’s face brightened.
Her mom took Halle’s head between her hands. “I promise honey.” She kissed her forehead. “We’ll see you there. You be good for your grandparents, okay?”
“Okay mom.”
“Promise?” her dad asked.
Halle smiled. “Promise.”
Her parents climbed into their car and waved as they drove away. Halle hadn’t seen them since.
Halle lifted her head, thinking about her mom’s necklace, then pushed it to the back of her mind as she got out of the car and walked toward her family.
“Ah Hello,” the young blond woman said, smiling. “It’s so nice to see you again, Catalyst.”
Halle raised an eyebrow. “Um, my name’s Halle.”
“Of course it is. I didn’t think you would change that after all these years.”
Halle stared at her. Jackson was staring too.
“Pardon me. Jackson’s already been reintroduced, my name is Avye, and I know everything about your family.”
Halle tilted her head at the pronouncement. “Everything?” Halle asked, trying to hold back a derisive laugh.
“Okay,” Avye said, turning her palms up, “not every little thing, but everything important.”
“Like where our parents are?” Jackson asked.
Avye nodded, not saying anything. Her blue eyes looked troubled.
“Where are they?” Jackson asked.
Avye swallowed.
“Well?” Halle said, leaning forward.
“Let’s go inside and talk about this,” Avye said turning and walking up a dilapidated looking staircase.
“But-” Halle began.
Avye cut across her. “There are more people here for you to meet.”
Avye lead the group into the house, which, though dilapidated and tiny on the outside, was enormous and immaculate on the inside. Halle gaped at the grand staircase in the entry way, and the curved painted ceilings, and everything else in the house. The inside of the house was the antithesis of the outside. They finally stopped in the kitchen, which was awash in the setting desert sun.
Halle looked around the gourmet kitchen and her eyes finally settled on a group of four people sitting at long purple table that was once a door. The table wasn’t what took her breath away, it was two of the people sitting at it.
“You?” Halle asked. “What are you two doing here?”
“Me?” Reese asked, her black hair bobbing around her face, black eyes sparkling. “What took you so long?”
Derek leaned over toward Reese and stage whispered, “I don’t think she ran like we did.”
Halle looked at them, and sure enough, both Reese and Derek were wearing running clothes and camelbaks. They were dusty and looked very wind-blown.
“You ran?” Halle asked, confused.
They smiled.
Halle turned to Jackson who looked just as baffled as she felt. Halle grabbed a seat before she could fall down.
What did this all mean? Her best friend and cross country captain sitting at a table with a woman who said her parents were alive? Being spirited out here on short notice?
“What’s going on?” Halle asked, burying her face in her hands. “What’s happening?”
“First,” Grandma Elaine said, taking the seat next to Halle and rubbing her back, “why don’t we introduce ourselves to everyone else.”
There she was. The grandma Halle knew. Kind, courteous, and above all, calming. Halle could feel the tension drain from her body as Grandma Elaine rubbed her hand in slow circles on Halle’s back.
Avye motioned for everyone to sit, but she remained standing. “This,” she motioned to a unassuming man with eerily green eyes and hair so blond it looked white, “is Soren.”
Soren nodded to them, his face a mask, completely unreadable.
“And this,” Avye motioned to a monumental man whose dark skin, eyes, and hair seemed to absorb all the light around him, making him look like a dark storm cloud, “is Ira.”
Ira beamed at everyone. He no longer looked like a menacing storm cloud but more like the chink of sunlight that bursts through the clouds after an epic storm.
“This, for all you who don’t know him, is Derek.”
Avye motioned to Derek who smiled at everyone and said, “Hi.”
“And I believe you all know Reese,” Avye said looking at Grandma Elaine, Grandpa Joe, Jackson and Halle, all of whom nodded.
“Okay,” Avye rubbed her hands together, “Reese, Derek, Ira, Soren, meet Elaine, Joseph, Jackson, and the Catalyst, Halle Deven.” Everyone’s eyes followed the faces as Avye named each person, then came to rest on Halle.
After what Halle thought was an awkward pause Halle turned to Avye who had taken a seat and said, “So I’m a catalyst?”
“No,” Avye turned to Halle so she could look her full in the face. “You are the Catalyst. You will be responsible for taking back Erill.”
Halle looked at the serious faces around the table and laughed. “Is Erill your stuffed animal?” She laughed and looked around. Jackson looked just as confused as she. “Is this some kind of sick joke? Get us all wound up that our parents could still be alive then play some stupid prank on us?”
“No,” Avye said consolingly. “That’s not-”
“Well,” Grandpa Joe said standing, “somebody better start talking real quick because, because...” Grandma Elaine pulled Grandpa Joe back down.
“Okay,” Avye said, “I see where I’m going wrong. They need to know.” She turned to Reese, Derek, Soren and Ira. “They should know, right?”
They all nodded.
Avye swallowed. “Elaine, Joe... Halle, Jackson,” they turned to look at Avye, Grandpa Joe’s face red and blotchy, Grandma Elaine trying to maintain composure, Halle reaching to play with the pearl necklace that wasn’t there, and Jackson twisting his hair in his hand, “Tess and Eric, your parents, they didn’t die ten years ago, they went to Erill to prepare.”
Grandpa Joe’s head fell and Grandma Elaine gasped.
“What does that mean?” Halle asked, not understanding.
Reese looked across the table and reached for her best friends hand. “It means your parents are still alive. But they’re on Erill, a different planet.”
“What’s so special about this Erill place?” Jackson asked.
Halle was thinking the obvious, there’s life on another planet, but was shocked when Reese said, “Halle is technically the ruler of Erill. The first legitimate heir to the throne in over five hundred years.”
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