Heart of the Veldt

by Nona Mae King

  2: First Days

  Alice worried her lower lip as she peeked at the clock built into the side of the small brick Academy. Overgrowth nearly suffocated the poor thing, but she could still read the black hour and minute hands. Fifteen minutes. She changed her focus back to the Veldt.

  “Hey, Alice.”

  Screeching, Alice's body whipped around.

  Eric lurched back a step, eyes wide. “What?”

  “Geez,” she hissed. “Don't do that!”

  “Do what? I said 'hi'.”

  She shook her head, turning back to face the Veldt. “Oh never mind. Shouldn't you be heading to class? It'll be starting soon.”

  “Shouldn't you? You're always twenty minutes early.” He stood beside her and attempted to follow her gaze onto the Veldt's brown-green wastes. “What's with you? You've been staring out there for, like, ten minutes already. What're you looking for?”

  Alice scowled at him. “Now you're spying on me?”

  He raised his hands. “Cool off, Alice. I didn't mean anything by it.”

  The frown shifted and she rubbed at her forehead. “Sorry, Eric. Nerves.”

  “For what? You'd think there was a test or something.”

  You have no idea. She took in a calming breath. I guess he's not coming. Oh well. She turned and grabbed hold of Eric's arm. “Come on. Let's get to class.”

  Eric smiled. “Good idea.” He shot a glance over his shoulder toward the Veldt as they headed toward the school-house. “So, what were you looking for again?”

  “Nothing. Don't worry about it.”

  “The way you're acting. . . . What did you do?”

  “I told you not to worry about it.”

  Eric halted. So did Alice. He crossed his arms--they weren't as tone and muscular as Gau's, she noted--and didn't look away from her gaze. “You might as well tell me.”

  “Tell you what?” Today was not the day for him to be over-eager in his attentions. Why couldn't this have happened when I would have sold my every possession for him to notice me?

  “The joke. Who's the victim? What should I expect?”

  Alice blinked up at him. “A joke? Are you serious? You think I'm plotting a joke?” What in the world made him believe she ever had time for that?

  “Why else would you be jumpier than a--”

  “Gau!” Alice took a startled step backward.

  Eric's face twisted moments before he shot a glance over his shoulder. He gave a strangled shout and turned, tripping over his own feet to fall onto his backside.

  Dressed in a worn charcoal suit and tie, Gau looked like a prom-date. His golden-green hair was thoroughly cleaned and combed, his face washed, and his hands and nails spotless. He also wore scuffed black shoes. Tugging at the dark gray jacket, he smiled at Alice. “See? No skin. Look good.”

  Alice hid a smile. He looked better than his outfit, in all honesty. The suit had definitely seen better years, as it sported wrinkles and streaks of dirt where he hadn’t given it enough of a rinse. But even though the cuffs of his pale shirt and the hem on his dark trousers looked a bit tattered, Alice could tell it had been a real nice suit once. It's probably just the only one he has.

  “Me ready. We go school and learn.” Gau's golden eyes sparkled like the sun glinting off a fresh-water brook.

  “We?” Eric struggled to his feet and brushed the dirt from his trousers. “What's it talking about, Alice?”

  The feral-like smiling gaze shifted from Alice to Eric. “Me learn with them. With you. Alice and me trade knowledge. Veldt for school. Good trade.”

  Eric jabbed a thumb toward Gau as he shifted his incredulous green gaze to Alice. “It thinks it's going to school with us?”

  Alice frowned. “Don't be a jerk-wad, Eric. He's just as old as you and me, and he has as much right to be in school as we do.”

  Eric's mouth dropped open, and Alice noted he continued to ignore Gau's presence. “What? It's too stup--”

  She punched him in the arm with as much force as she could muster.

  He yelped. “What’d you do that for?”

  Alice stuck a finger in his face so fast he leaned back from her. “If you say 'it' or 'stupid' one more time, Eric. . . .”

  “Look, I know your paper is really important, but this? Come on, be serious!”

  "I am being serious, you idiot. Education is something I am completely serious about, or had you forgotten?" He frowned down at her, hands fisted at his sides. "If you can give me a single reason why he shouldn't attend school with the rest of us, I will take it under advisement."

  Eric's jaw muscle twitched, and he pointedly ignored Gau's inquisitive scrutiny of the two. "There's a reason the teachers don't let it come to class."

  Alice scoffed. “A reason which escapes you and me both, so I don't think it's worth anything. So, since you still haven't given me a good reason why Gau shouldn't be enrolled in class. . . .” She faced Gau with a sweet smile and took hold of his hand to lead him toward the brick building. “I'll introduce you to everyone.”

  “Wait.” Gau freed his hand from her grasp and turned toward Eric. “Me Gau. What you called?”

  Eric took in and held a deep breath before he risked an answer, and he intercepted Alice's warning glare before even doing that. “Eric.”

  “Eric.” Gau performed the same intensive study of Eric's features that he'd done to Alice the day before. Then he smiled. “We be good friend. We do lots. Fish. Hunt. Me teach you Veldt. You teach me town. Good trade.” Alice shot Eric a meaningful stare. Gau focused his innocent smile on her. “We be friend. You see. We go class now.”

  “Yes.” Alice gave a firm tug on his arm to once more lead him toward the building. “Don't mind Eric, Gau. He takes a little getting used to.”

  Gau's smile remained firm. “Eric much like Rhinox. Grumpy when first meet, then become more happy. Take time.”

  Alice laughed. “You can say that again.”

  “Why? You no hear?”

  “No. It's a figure of speech. It means that what you said is so true it's worth saying again, figuratively speaking, so not really . . . you're right. That doesn't make sense.”

  Gau's features twisted in concentration before relaxing into his usual smile. “Understand.”

  The two paused on the top step of the front porch to the Academy. Alice took in a deep breath and turned toward Gau, absently straightening his poorly knotted tie as he stared down at her with a quirky smile. “All right. Now. It's going to be rough in there, more than likely, so just be patient and take what they say with a grain of salt.”

  Gau's smile vanished. “Salt? Me not know bring. Me bad?”

  Alice caught his gaze. “What? Oh.” She reluctantly smiled. “No. It's another figure of speech. It means to--well, you know that a grain of salt is small. Right?” Gau nodded. “Right, so, that is all the attention you should give what they say.”

  “What if what them say be good for me learn?”

  Alice opened her mouth for a reply, and then shook her head. “I've no idea. I guess you take it as it comes.”

  Gau's smile returned full-force. He nodded. “That Gau life.”

  She gave the lapels of his suit another straightening tug as she sent him a quick peek. “You ready?”

  Gau vigorously nodded.

  Her lips twitched upward as she turned to open the door. “Here we go,” she breathed.

  The door creaked open, sounding a slow and deep whine that invited every person's head to turn toward them in a wave of motion. Alice cleared her throat and kept her focus on the floor, hurrying toward her normal wooden desk at the head of the classroom. Every seat around her had an occupant, and she didn't know where the empty desks were stored. Why did she not think of this hiccup before?

  Gau followed after her, though at a less harried gait, smiling and nodding to each wide-eyed and slack-jawed person as he introduced himself “Me Gau. What you called?” Then he would take in their descriptions with the same photographic gaze of
earlier before moving to the next person. Pretty/plain, air-head/smart, tall/short, none of that mattered to Gau, because each person received the same amount of attention.

  The wave of heads followed Gau's progress as if they belonged to one being until, finally, they focused on him as he stood beside Alice's position in the classroom, the first row. Then his attention shifted to her, those full seats surrounding her--and he crouched beside her desk with arms folded across his knees. His eyes focused on the teacher's empty desk, the smile never leaving his face.

  Alice watched his expression with a slowly growing smile. Talk about expectation and excitement! He's so ready for this that he's liable to terrify the wits out of our teacher. Alice shook her head, focusing on the notebook on her desk. She plucked at a tattered corner, her smile fading. She hated to think he hadn’t come to school all these years because of something a bad teacher said. Everyone deserved a chance to learn, especially when they wanted to learn.

  She frowned, her twitch of finger causing a tear of her notebook corner. I knew I didn’t like that teacher, always looking down his nose at us and thinking we’re stupid. She scoffed, sending Gau an encouraging smile when he shot her a quizzical glance.

  Then the door on the front right of the classroom opened. Alice straightened as the teacher entered, peeking at Gau as his detail-catching gaze zoomed in. In his late 40s, Mr. Schultz sported a rounding belly that was getting harder to fit into his dark brown pants. He also had a quick mind under his mop of peppered black hair, and a quicker wit behind his hazel-green eyes and leathery face. His white shirt showed numerous stains, but everyone knew he didn't have the money to buy new ones. They didn't really care, either. The kids liked him and his stories of life before Kefka. He made learning fun. I wonder what Gau will think of him. After all, he's lived what Mr. Schultz only talks about.

  “Good morning, people.”

  When there wasn't the expected chorus of voices in return, Mr. Schultz didn't take the time to set his scuffed brown briefcase onto the desk. Instead, he lifted his gaze to immediately notice the dozens of pairs of eyes focused on one specific point in the room. Mr. Schultz stood on tiptoes to peer over the desk. His jaw dropped.

  Gau straightened his torso within his crouch, his mouth widening in his usual welcoming grin. “Morning, teacher. Me Gau. What you called?”

  Mr. Schultz did more stuttering than speaking, so Alice leaned over toward Gau. “Mr. Schultz,” she whispered.

  Gau's eyes zeroed on hers with a speed that startled her back into her seat. “Mr. Shulz?”

  Alice glanced around the room as she cleared her throat. “Almost. Schultz. There's a 't' before the 'z'.”

  Gau nodded brusquely before once again focusing on the teacher. “Hello, Mr. Shultz. Me called Gau.”

  Mr. Schultz composed himself in lieu of a fidgeting hand to his faded tie and a quick swipe of his full head of hair. “Good morning, Gau, but the proper way of introducing oneself would be 'my name is Gau.' We'll be working on pronouns today with the younger set, in fact.” He gestured toward the younger members of the class. “Perhaps you should take your seat over there?”

  Gau moved his sharp gaze to the variety of bright faces, standing in the same moment. “Okay.”

  A flutter of chatter broke out as the pairs of eyes turned in amongst friends and study-partners. When Gau moved to the group of middle graders, a large portion of the chatter faded as the eyes once again focused on the walking legend. He grinned as he sat in the absolute center of the kids. They continued to stare.

  “Now.” Mr. Schultz set his briefcase onto the table to begin pulling out reams of paper, tattered textbooks, and readers. None of the faces focused on him, so he cleared his throat and tapped on the desk with a corner of one of the books. A gasp echoed around the room, immediately followed by the creaks and groans of desks as the kids turned to face the teacher. “It seems we have a new student--” The door opened and Eric trudged in. “Nice of you to decide to join us. Take your seat.”

  Eric grumbled something unintelligible as he made his way to sit in the desk behind Carol, who happened to sit beside Alice, who happened to sit in front of two of 'the girls' from the pub, who all happened to stare at Gau. Eric slumped into the chair and crossed his arms.

  Mr. Schultz turned to the chipped chalkboard. “All right, class. Let's get started.”

  Gau's eyes twinkled.