Chapter 5
Sunbath
Ethan groaned, sitting down onto a tree's stump and picking up a bottle of water, downing the remaining half of it in one go. Even the darkest shades he could find on the isle were incapable of shielding him from the bursting rays of the unrelenting sun. He'd forgotten just how unbearable it can get here, on the isle. The heat wasn't the same everywhere-- the city's heat was... mild, even. After all, there were tall skyscrapers everywhere providing shade and the air itself was far less scorching.
Here, on the isle, however, it was different-- especially considering he was 'stranded' in the middle of the wheat fields exposed naked to God. Well, not entirely naked-- he wore shorts, but that was about it. Even still, sweat poured from every inch of his body relentlessly, just like the sun burned. He had, actually, already gotten some of his tan back, though most of his skin was radish-red still though relatively well-protected by the fairly slimy and thick suncream.
Today was the second month anniversary of his return as well as the first day his father hung him on the field alone. There wasn't really much to do this late in the season since everyone was just waiting for the crops to get ripe enough, but he still had to be on the lookout for 'stray' sheep and other cattle, not to mention a strangely large population of wild rabbits and other pests in the area.
He fixed the hat on top of his head and scurried further down, hiding in the slight shade of the tall wheat strands. All in all, he was in much better shape than when he first got here. He still got red in his cheeks, irrespective of the fact that he was permanently red due to the sun, whenever he thought of the first time he spent a full day out here, in the fields-- he actually passed out, twice. It turned out to be a mild heatstroke, and he was relegated to the 'shady jobs' for a while after until his body got re-accustomed to the weather here.
"Ethan!" a familiar voice brought back life into his gaze as he hastily stood up amidst the golden wheat, looking downward. There, perched near the field's end, sporting her favorite straw hat, Flora was waving at him gingerly. "It's lunchtime!"
He waved back and walked to the stump, picking up the undershirt and the towel, drying the sweat off first before putting it on. He practically ran away from the sun and toward Flora who handed him a bottle of water which he immediately drank.
“Didn’t dad tell you not to take your shirt off?” she chided immediately as they made their way back home. “Something about cancer if I can recall?”
"Nah, you're misremembering," Ethan replied.
“Oh? I am?”
“Yup. It’s strange, though. You’re too young to be having issues with memories. You should look into that.”
“Uhm, sure, sure, as soon as I cork your brain out.”
“I don’t think you know what cork means,” Ethan said with a chuckle. “Aah, it’s too damn hot.”
“We barely broke ninety-five,” Flora scoffed. “The city’s softened you hard.”
“Softened me hard,” Ethan mumbled. “Isn’t that an oxymoron?”
"Come on, this is nothing," she added. "A few years back, we had like a week-long heatwave where temps went up to one-fifteen. I swear to God even the dead died during it."
“What’s mom cooked up today?” he asked.
“Some vegetable stew,” she replied. “And her patented chicken soup.”
“I think I’m finally getting used to the food. Listening to you didn’t even make me gag.”
“Pfft, ha ha ha, I still can’t believe you actually got sick from eating mom’s food, ha ha ha. The poor woman thought she poisoned you, ha ha ha...”
“Oi, stop laughing!” she swiftly evaded his arm, stepping a few feet forward. “That was a very stressful time for me!”
“Oh, I’m sure, I’m sure... damn, you looked paler than a ghost for like a whole week. The city’s really softened you up hard.”
“It really did, huh?” a third voice suddenly joined their duet, causing the both of them to look to the side where they saw Hannah standing near the intersection leading up toward the ‘city’ area.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Hannah!” Flora exclaimed and immediately raced over, hugging her.
“Hey, Flo’,” Hannah chuckled and hugged the young girl back. “What are you doing here?”
“Went to fetch ‘im,” she replied, pointing at Ethan. “You?”
“Graded some tests.”
“Oh? Did you grade mine? Did you?”
“I did.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“And how’d I do?!” Flora asked. “Come on, tell me! Did I do well? Eh? Did I?”
“I can’t tell you,” Hannah chuckled lightly. “You know that.”
“Aww, man,” Flora whined lowly for a moment. “Oh well, whatever. I know I aced that thing anyway. I’mma go ahead, E’! Don’t take too long!”
“...” watching her rather childish wink as she ran off, Ethan couldn’t help but laugh slightly at the sight.
“Nobody ever said Flo’ was subtle, huh?” Hannah added as the two moved slightly to the side, into the shade of one of the nearby buildings.
“Eh, all things considered, she could have turned out worse,” Ethan replied. “How are you?”
“Sweaty. You?”
“Growing accustomed to always feeling like I just stepped out of a shower.”
“It’s been a fairly hot stretch,” she said. “It should cool down soon. So I hear, anyway. How’s the fieldwork?”
“... bone-breaking, spine-bending, muscle-tearing, and all the other means and ways of describing working conditions that we should have done away with in the 18th century.”
“Pfft, ha ha ha, that bad, huh?”
“Nah, it’s getting better,” Ethan smiled. “Pops just recently allowed me to stay on the fields again. I’ve a feeling if I so much as bitch once he’ll take me back into the shade.”
“... you miss the city?” Hannah asked.
“... hmm, not the city, really,” he replied. “More so the city’s conveniences, you know? Everything being within two minutes of each other, being able to order any food at any time of the day and have it delivered to your doorsteps within half an hour, nobody really caring that you can’t stay afloat in the scorching summer’s heat for a whole day...”
“One of those is not like the other, ha ha.”
“It’s strange, though,” Ethan said after she had stopped laughing. “Now that I’m away... I realize just how few memories I actually have of that place. Most are just randomly scattered into fragments, like tiny snapshots of a much wider picture.”
“It’s not the city,” Hannah said. “I’m the same and I’ve never left this place.”
“... yeah, I guess,” he said, yawning all of a sudden. “Damn, sleeping here is brutal.”
“How so?”
“Human body is not, I repeat, is not, meant to sleep without AC in climates like these," Ethan said. "But my pops is all like 'if you're a man this if you're a man that'. The bastard's just too cheap to get one."
“Ha ha ha, you’ll get used to it. Or, you know, you can be like me and just sleep buck naked.”
"Tried it," Ethan said. "It just... I dunno, feels weird? It's like there are a thousand eyes harshly judging me all around."
"Well, if the sun's that much of a bother, some of my friends and I go down to the beach once or twice a month. You can join us if you'd like," she added. "I'm not promising it's gonna fix your apparent hatred of the sun, but..."
“Okay, first off, I don’t hate the sun! I mean, the sun is responsible for all the scantily-clad women that are a treat to the eyes," Ethan said, jokingly doing a glance-over at Hannah. "My point," he added. "And two, count me in. I've been planning on going over there ever since coming back, but I wasn't getting a day off."
"What makes you think you'll get one now? And, by the way, how's this scantily-clad? There's barely any cleavage!"
“It’s a sundress, Hannah,” Ethan said. “A sundress. A sundress.”
“You keep saying that word, but it still doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“I mean, it’s a sundress.”
“...”
“Khm, anyway, of course I’ll get a day off,” he said. “I just need to drop ‘Hannah invited Flo’ and me to go to the beach’. Knowing my mom, she’ll probably slip me a fifty into the pocket like I’m fifteen again.”
“...”
“...”
“You’re totally taking her up on it, eh?”
“It’s a fifty. I may not be fifteen anymore, but fifty is fifty.”
“I think you made a PG-13 addendum to that phrase.” she laughed faintly, causing Ethan’s lips to curl up into a smile.
“You got my number?” he asked.
“Nope,” Hannah said. “Somebody was too much of a chicken to ask during our reunion.”
“... you were?”
“Suuuure.”
“Hey, I’m all for breaking traditional social norms,” he said, taking out his phone. “But women salvaging men’s tender egos ought to stay. Just like the whole game of ‘am I’ and then a question mark.”
“What do you mean?” Hannah asked, typing her number into his phone.
“You know,” he said. “When a girl asks ‘am I fat?’ or ‘am I pretty?’ or ‘am I sufficiently nunned-up for meeting your parents’. And men, without a hint of hesitation, fire the answer that the girl wants to hear. Some traditions really should just be left alone.”
“Am I fat?”
“God no, you look like you never leave the gym.”
“Pfft, ha ha ha,” she suddenly keeled over in laughter as Ethan took the phone back. “Goddamn, ha ha ha, you really had that one on the tip of your tongue.”
“Oh, no, not just that one,” Ethan corrected. “All of them. You ask ‘am I beautiful?’ and I immediately reply ‘You’re the most beautiful woman ever in the world’. You ask ‘does this dress make me look fat’ and I immediately say ‘nothing can make you look fat’. You ask--”
"Okay, okay, okay, I get it. You're pretty content lying to your significant other if it means avoiding a fight. Or getting into her pants."
“Oof.”
"It was there," she said with a sly smile. "I had to take it."
“No, no, I deserve it,” he replied. “That and, well, so much more. But I’m not above throwing down some gauntlets with a girl, though.”
“Oh, you’re not?”
“Nope,” he said. “Of course, that’s a minefield that only experts of my caliber should ever travel through.”
“Ah, there he is, ladies and gentlemen,” she said. “The ever-boastful E’.”
“He is me.” a tender silence fell between the two for a moment before Ethan broke it. “Anyway, I should head home. I’m actually really hungry.”
“Y-yeah, I should head back as well.”
“So, I’ll text you or whatever so call me up when you guys settle for the beach, okay?”
“Yea, sure. Stay safe in the sun, okay?”
"You mean, 'I hope the sun stays safe in the presence of--'... I don't even know where I was going with that."
“Pfft, ha ha ha, where you always go, E’. Where you always go...”