Season 1, Episode 5 - The Boxtops II - "Sutekimeppou"
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One week later. Late November. In fact, almost the latest in November you could get. It was the Thursday before the Friday that marked the last day of school before Thanksgiving break. A whole week off! Something like that easily put a bounce in the steps of both Isaac and Audrey as they ascended down the steps of their apartment complex, on their way to school.
“Got any plans for next week?” Audrey asked as they arrived on a main avenue. Cars passed by slowly; other pedestrians walked down the sidewalk as well, bundled up in coats and jackets and hats and mittens. Isaac and Audrey did the same, breaking out the dark green and olive greatcoats given to them by the school for winter months.
“Well, I think I’m gonna-” Isaac tapered off, filled with amusement as he watched Audrey chase around a leaf slowly falling to the ground. Her hands managed to connect and she displayed it to Isaac proudly.
“Look at that late autumn color,” Isaac exclaimed.
Audrey looked down at the leaf. “Late autumn?”
“That November color,” Isaac told her. “You see, in October, that’s early autumn. And the color of leaves then are a real rich sort of brown and red. Still full of that life from summer, just shaded in autumn."
It was Audrey's turn to look amused. Isaac sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I'm a real poet. But anyway, we're in late autumn now. That life’s all gone away, so the leaves start fading, turning into lighter and lighter shades of browns and reds until they fall and cover the ground.”
Audrey listened intently to his words, then gazed up at the trees that lined the avenue, many of them now without their leaves, leaving them bare but ready to do it all over again next spring. “Wow!” Audrey eyes widened in wonder. “The world’s amazing, isn’t it?”
Isaac grinned. “It’s the best.”
They started up on their walk again. Audrey remembered what they were originally talking about. “So, what were you saying?”
“I don’t have a whole lot of plans,” Isaac said. “My brother couldn’t get leave from the military. New York coming out in support of Nigeria over the Cape Verde islands is tough because we’re backing Iberia. And I heard there's going to be some trouble between the Triple Kingdom and Iceland soon, so things are too tense for him to come home on leave. I mean, he was gonna visit me here anyway, so it's not like I had plans to leave the district like some of the other kids here."
“Aw, I’m sorry you couldn’t see your dear brother,” Audrey said gently. “But look on the bright side! You get to see your dear neighbor that week!”
“You’re not going home?” Isaac asked.
Audrey shook her head. “Me and Esther are gonna do Thanksgiving stuff here, because this is where we are now!” Her grin was full of warmth. "We can make living here feel like a new home, one where we’re really together. Well, we'll still be living in our own places, but we'll be as close as sisters should be! Esther even said she could make a turkey for us! Imagine that, making a whole turkey from nothing! The wonders of modern science are really something else.”
Isaac wanted to correct her, since Esther was certainly not making a turkey from nothing, but seeing the look on Audrey's face, Isaac decided to let sleeping dogs lie.
“Esther’s given me ideas, too,” Isaac said. “I told her I'd read a book from start to finish, and I actually did!"
Up ahead on the avenue, a man raked the leaves on the sidewalk into a big pile, clearing the path for pedestrians. As Isaac and Audrey got closer, they saw that he was actually a student, just a big one, wearing the usual overalls that served as the work uniform for the Vocational school. The student wore safety glasses, probably to keep the dust kicked up out of his eyes, though Isaac couldn’t figure out why he wore a bandana as well. Isaac supposed it was chilly out, though he wasn’t sure how much heat a bandana could give someone.
The bandana-student saw them arriving and seemed to eye the Rddhi patches on their coats for a moment, but then stood off to the side and saluted. Isaac and Audrey did the same, both of them having slowly gotten used to the process. The two continued down the sidewalk, leaving the bandana-student to his work.
“What did you read about?” Audrey asked.
“I’m gonna tell you something completely wild,” Isaac said with enthusiasm. “You see, the thing about history is that everything’s connected. There’s this Roman guy, Cicero. He lived at the end of the Republic and was this writer-politician person. He seems like a classical author to us, right? Makes sense, it's been over two thousand years. But, get this - by the end of the Roman Empire, just four hundred years later, he’s a classical author to those guys. Isn't that crazy? Those people who lived two hundred years ago who made the Japanimations and music we like now, those guys were alive at one part, in their primes. Did they ever think their stories would survive two hundred years and still be read then?" Isaac waved his arms around. "Do you think anything we do will be remembered in two hundred years from now?"
Audrey giggled. "I don't know about you, but the name of Audrey Adzinoki will be known around the world!"
"In your dreams, maybe."
The two came to a stop, looked both ways, then crossed the street.
"It's cool that you're reading about your homeland," Audrey said.
Isaac shrugged. "Well, not to brag, but you could say I'm sort of an expert by now."
Audrey raised her hands. "Viva L'Italia!"
Isaac dropped the smug look and cocked his head. “Huh?”
“Italia. That’s the Italian name for Italy.”
“...what about you? Know any cool Belarus stories?”
Audrey shook her head. “My parents didn’t really talk about the homeland. They said it didn’t feel like home. They wanted to find home.” Audrey’s voice dropped a little by the end, but she quickly regained her usual cheerfulness. “What part of Italy are you from?”
“Marche,” Isaac answered proudly. “That means march, but not in a month sense, but in a borderland sense.”
“What about in a marching sense?”
Isaac and Audrey grinned as Reed joined them somewhere down the avenue, silent as always in her approach.
“Well, again, it’s all connected,” Isaac answered. “March is related to Mars, the Roman God of War. March is the traditional month for armies to go marching. A borderland march is where armies have to march a lot because they’re on the borderlands with enemies.”
In the distance, the lights at an intersection turned green, and several cars went by. “What about you, Reed?” Isaac asked. “Audrey’s family is from Belarus and mine’s from Italy. Where’s your family from?”
Reed shrugged. “They’re from here.”
Isaac and Audrey gazed at her in amazement. “You mean...from before the Unleashing?”
Reed nodded nonchalantly. "My father likes to say we arrived on the Mayflower itself, but I sincerely doubt that."
Isaac kept his thoughts to himself about that. Before this past semester, Reed never spoke about her family or what she was doing before attending the Academy. According to that brief exchange at the Dojo that Reed shut down with a dark look in her eyes, she might have attended Cambridge Middle School, the second part of the Cambridge school system chain. And Reed apparently hadn't spoken with her family in some time and missed her father. That was the extent of Isaac's and Audrey's knowledge.
Was Reed's family the Reed family? The Reed family were aristocrats, living in the upper shelf of New England society; Hibiscus Reed was addicted to Japanese cartoons and swore like a sailor. She just didn't seem like an aristocrat, and come to think of it, the Reed family weren't just aristocrats, they were the aristocrats; Arthur Reed was the first President of New England and the Reeds were integral to New England history since then. Hibiscus Reed didn't believe in North Dakota's existence and once ate donuts out of the trash.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
A little bit after they first met in their first year of school, Isaac asked Reed if she was related to them, but that was the moment Isaac truly understand the phrase 'looks could kill'. He dropped the question when she saw her reaction, and then as time went on, he began to believe Reed grew angry because she was tired of people asking if she was related to the Reeds when she really wasn’t. And since Reed never talked about it, Isaac stopped thinking about it. But now that Reed was opening up to them, just a little bit, Isaac felt himself wondering again.
Reed rubbed her eyes, the bags underneath them darker than usual. She scratched at her ribs.
Audrey noticed too. "You feeling alright?"
Reed gave a small smile. “Just tired.”
They came to a stop at an intersection, waiting for the walking sign to come on or for an opportunity to jaywalk, whichever came first. “I didn’t come here to talk about my family,” Reed told them, her voice low like usual. “But I did come here to talk about history, actually.” She raised a finger. “Prehistoric history.”
“That’s not history,” Isaac informed her.
“What?”
“It’s literally in the name,” Isaac explained. “Prehistoric. It’s pre-history.”
Reed crossed her arms. “I’m appalled by your elitism, Isaac. It’s all history. Some history just comes before other history. Before your Italians and marching. I’m talking, of course, about dinosaurs.”
The walk sign came on, and the three headed across the street.
“Well you’ve been ‘reading’,” Reed said, finger quotes around 'reading' for some reason, “I’ve been learning too, through the much more modern educational system known as television. I'm getting bored with Japanimations, so I was flipping through the channels like you do and I came across one of those educational ones, and they were running this show about dinosaurs.”
They passed by tall brick apartment complexes mixed with smaller delis, sandwich shops, and Asian food marts. “And let me tell you, that whole meteor business might’ve been a serious mistake on the universe’s part,” Reed explained. “I really think the dinosaurs had it all figured out. Just hanging out with your dinosaur friends, hunting at day and sleeping at night. In open fields and what-not. Talk about the life.”
The sway in her step and the enthusiastic waviness in her voice reminded Isaac of the time last month back in the dojo, when Reed used the Dopamine Rusher that Sunday morning. He shook his head at that, since the school warned them of the dangers of drug use. But at the end of the day, it was her life, not his.
Isaac and Audrey looked up at the elevated rail at Kenji Station as they arrived, though Reed wasn’t one to look up at anything, preferring to keep her head level or down. She kept talking. “And then, and this is the absolute best part of all, there’s a dinosaur place in the former United States.”
The three headed up the steps to platform, joining the mass of people on their way to their jobs, most of them being at the Academy, which was Elizabeth Pond’s largest employer. Many people passed by them up the stairs; Isaac wanted to go at that pace as well (what if the train came right this second?!) but Reed was slow and Audrey liked to amble along.
Fortunately, by the time they made it to the top of the stairs and got to the platform, the train was nowhere in sight. As they arrived at the turnstiles, they each put in their nickels letting them through, courtesy of Academy stipends for Rddhi users. They heard grumbling by other people at the station, since the fares for the average citizen of the Pond weren’t subsidized by the Academy anymore, and worse off, the price for them was a dime now!
“In the former United States?” Isaac repeated as they got their usual waiting spot, next to one of the many poles that held up the roof to the platform. The platform itself was a large concrete slab, a chain link fence keeping the people there from falling off to the street below, with a few maps detailing the rail lines of Narragansett in general and Elizabeth Pond in particular scattered around.
“It’d be perfect for the road trip,” Reed continued, swaying as she stood. "Big Plateau Dinosaur State Park, they called it."
When all this war and Academy stuff and the general global situation stabilized, the three planned on a long road trip across the (hopefully at peace, even more hopefully reunited) America.
Audrey peered down the track, trying to see if the train was close yet. "Where's the dinosaur place?"
Reed rubbed her forehead trying to remember. “It’s, uh...” She snapped her fingers. “Colorado. Western Colorado.”
Audrey suddenly jumped in place. “Hey, the train! The train!”
Isaac let out an amused exhale. It was the same train every day, yet Audrey always seemed so excited to see it. The three quickly got in their usual formation, getting close to the edge of the platform so they could be the first ones on to get any remaining seats. If it really came down to it, Isaac wasn’t opposed to standing, and usually stood in favor of the girls, but he always tried for a seat anyway.
The train, colored silver, screeched to a halt as it arrived at the station, NEW ENGLAND TRANSIT AUTHORITY emblazoned on its side, along with the pine tree and eagle. Unfortunately, the terrible trio had slightly miscalculated, and needed to compete with a few other people on the platform to be first at the door. But they were kids and walked fast and Reed threw a couple of elbows along the way, letting them beat out their rivals and get to the door first.
Isaac kept his arm up to block the two antsy girls since the proper thing to do was let the people exiting the train get off first; then he led the way inside. He cursed under his breath as he arrived inside the small cart, where metal poles and somewhat soft, somewhat hard seats awaited him. The usual subway smell hit his nose, but today’s smell was fortunately a little more pleasant than normal; he cursed because there was only one seat left.
Isaac used his frame to block the way so Audrey or Reed could have it. Reed darted for the seat and Audrey let her have it. On a different day she might have put up a fight, but Reed looked like she needed to sit.
Reed sighed in relief as she got the last chair in the car. Isaac and Audrey grabbed hold of a nearby pole. The train let out a whistle, then slowly chugged along once again, headed toward the Academy.
The trio realized a woman was standing there with him. She looked like she worked in an office, the way she was dressed all neat-like, and probably a little on the hefty side. She looked down at Reed.
“I’m sorry, but could I have that seat?” the lady asked, somewhat sweetly, somewhat forcefully.
Reed looked at her blankly. “What?”
“That seat,” the lady repeated. “If you don’t mind, could I please sit there?”
“Have my seat?” Reed questioned. “But this is my seat.”
“Yes, but...” The lady pointed to a sign that said PLEASE BE CONSIDERATE AND GIVE UP YOUR SEAT TO THOSE IN NEED.
Reed read the sign and raised an eyebrow. “You think you’re in need?”
“Yes I am,” the lady said, a little more force in her voice this time.
Reed rubbed her temple. “…how the hell are you in need? If you were elderly or something, I’d probably still say no, but I might feel a little bad about it afterwards. But you’re a middle-aged woman. Your legs work just as good as mine. Well, mine are better, but both of ours are functional.”
The lady didn’t know what to say.
“Are you pregnant or something? You look a little pregnant. I don’t think you’re teaching your kid a good lesson by trying to skate through life like this. Sometimes you got to stand, you know?" Reed said from her seat. "You should teach your kid that.”
The lady looked at Reed in shock. “…I’m not pregnant.”
Reed shrugged. “Then you can stand.”
The lady shook her head and walked off toward another part of the train. Reed sat smugly, triumphantly, her arms crossed. "God, I'm a genius. Fuck her."
“You are one of a kind, Reed,” Isaac supposed, scratching his head.
“It’s simple logic,” Reed explained. “Now, back to more important matters. There are so many things I want to see at dinosaurland. They got all these fossils, like raptors and those long-neck guys. Sick, right?”
Audrey held the pole next to Reed, letting her press her face against the glass to get an alleged better view of the world passing by below them. With their friend off in her own little world for the moment, this left Isaac and Reed alone to discuss dinosaurland.
“What?” Reed questioned. “I’m sensing some hostility toward Big Plateau Dinosaur State Park. If not hostility, then I’m definitely sensing some sort of negative neutrality, which, in my opinion, is even worse than hostility. If you don’t like it, just be straight with me.”
Isaac scratched the back of his neck. “Well...this is all a hypothetical anyway, but I think I enjoy dinosaurs perhaps a smidge less than you do."
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Reed asked harshly, ignoring the sudden glances from nearby passengers. “What in the actual fuck is wrong with you?”
Isaac crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. "Relax. They're just dinosaurs."
Reed remained quiet for a moment. “Just...just dinosaurs? Isaac, they’re not just dinosaurs. They are dinosaurs. Dinosaurs, Isaac! Gigantic king lizards that roamed the earth as their own."
"Well, they’re kind of lame.”
Reed looked at him in disbelief. “How can dinosaurs be lame? They’re dinosaurs, for Christ’s sake. I guarantee that you at one point in your life thought dinosaurs were cool.”
“Yeah...when I was seven.”
Reed grunted. "Some fucking friend you are."
Isaac raised his hands, having heard enough. "Hey, it's not even 7 AM yet. I don't need someone swearing at me before 7 AM. Ever heard of morning bliss? But what's gotten into you? What's the word from my calendar...vindictive. That's how you've been acting. I guess you were right about it being your seat, but it looked like you enjoyed telling that woman off. And now you're yelling at me for no reason. I'm not trying to be an armchair psychologist, but it seemed like you enjoyed tricking Hanai about your dead father and enjoyed spray painting Mackenzie Smells, too. You said you were trying to get better after tricking Dave, but now you're screaming at me about dinosaurs."
Reed eyed him for a moment, and for a brief second of time, Isaac thought she would start crying. But she just rubbed her eyes and leaned forward in her seat.
"You're right. S...sorry. I've just been having trouble concentrating recently. And sleeping. I'm tired."
"Aw, turn that frown upside down," Audrey exclaimed, rejoining the conversation. "You can spend Thanksgiving break catching up on some sleep!" Her eyes widened in realization. "Do you have any plans for the break?"
Reed shook her head. "Looks like you guys are stuck with me."
Audrey cheered. "Ah, it'll be the best break ever, Reed! Esther's making a turkey - completely from nothing! Oh, the wonders of modern science are truly something else..."