The Day the Earth Met the Sky

by Pat Ellis

  Born in the forest, dirt in his hands, no mother or father, but river and land

  The creatures surround him, all walks of life, chosen by wolves, he took to the night

  They showed him the way, of blood and the fight, love and the moon, hunger and strife

  He’s the boy who knew everything. Though hardly knew anything…

  The Sarge’s voice was honey and fire, thick with gravel from too many years of smoking, and easily carried over the walls of eternity. This new song was in the old-world style, giving him a traveling minstrel vibe. His sense of humor had been showing itself much more frequently in recent times.

  One day in his youth, man stumbled in, crushing and killing, no notion of sin

  The magic they found, was more treasure than gold, calm winds in the storm, the warmth in the cold They stole him away, to the ocean he sees, language and money, murder and greed

  He’s the boy who knew everything. Though hardly knew anything…

  Aaron knew he was being made fun of, but he loved every second of it, despite himself. After all, it was an honor to be a part of the Sarge’s magic in any form, even if it perpetuated him as the butt of a long-running joke. The Sarge didn’t have a clue he was touching eternity, though. God, how can he not feel it?

  He couldn’t have been trying either, not really. Singing flowed for him easy as talking. There was so much magic in his voice, it pulled Aaron outside of himself, connecting him to that other plane where everything was within his understanding. His mind fell open to the entire universe, easier than breathing, but none of that mattered because he couldn’t focus on anything but the Sarge, not with that fucking voice, all-consuming and satiating, overpowering his senses.

  He grew up too quickly, independent and sure, the sea held him closely, but he wanted much more The men they were strong, but magic won over, they sank to the depths, chastened and sober

  He returned to the land, where chaos did reign, drug off to war, in hell he remains

  He’s the boy who knew everything. Though hardly knew anything

  Everyone laughed and cheered at the end.

  “Hey Sarge! How come you don’t do one for me?” said Private Dalton, or “Big Guns,” their favorite machine gunner.

  “Your life’s not that interesting… Dalton went to school, just outside Fairfield, now he’s gonna die, here in the borderlands. See, it doesn’t even rhyme.”

  “Hey!”

  “Prove me wrong, Dalton!”

  How can he do that and not even know? Why can’t I fucking do that?

  “Fuck Sarge,” Private Rex, the grenadier, passed the Sarge a cigarette, “yer lucky you got that voice, man, cus’ yer lyrics are for shit. This one’s better than usual, but most don’t make no sense, man.”

  “That hurts.” He let Rex light his smoke. “You know, the greatest lyrics are obscure, leaving room for multiple interpretations. It creates an individual experience, alongside the shared one.”

  “Sounds like an excuse to me.”

  “An excuse is just an unpopular reason…” The Sarge began to play again, humming a new melody, the way he always did before adding any words.

  This song was cold. Not in a bad way, not when you hadn’t felt such a thing in years. It was a quiet winter morning, and it felt so fucking good. It seemed like a lifetime since any of them had experienced something other than muggy jungle hell. The Sarge looked up at Aaron, who was at his side, as he almost always was, which thankfully the Sarge didn’t seem to mind too much anymore, and smiled that perfectly crooked smile. God, those fucking eyes! Even the Sarge’s eyes were magic—ethereal fragments of the sky; constantly, yet barely perceivably, changing with the wind.

  “How the fuck do you do that?” Aaron didn’t mean to say it out loud.

  Erik’s eyebrows rose for a moment before he grinned wildly and wiggled his fingers in front of his face saying, “Magic!”

  He doesn’t even know it’s true…

  The Forest

  Resources were thin and living conditions weren’t exactly ideal according to the news, but Van took pride in being a Ground Dweller of Ariadne. His mother always said, “The higher you get, the softer you are. Weak and codependent, all of them up there! They might have more money, but down here we’re strong and free. Remember that, baby, and don’t let anyone tell you different.”

  Ever had come from the Sky though—the highest tier of Ariadne—and Van was finding it hard to keep his cool around the smaller boy. His curiosity was almost unbearable, but he wasn’t sure how to convey this curiosity without insinuating some kind of undeserved awe. Small, frail, and delicate like a bird, Ever should have been overwhelmed by the Ground too, but he seemed mostly indifferent to his surroundings. “Head in the clouds,” like the old saying went, not that Van had ever seen a cloud himself. He’d seen them in pictures and on the TV though, and figured it was similar to when you’re sick and your brain feels like it’s full of cotton. The kid should’ve been scared shitless by the Ground Dwellers, but maybe the Sky People aren’t used to being afraid of anything, being violence and crime were supposedly non-existent up there. That’s what Van figured at least, until Carmine kicked the kid’s ass 3 days in a row and he’d still kept on coming to school after. Not one bit scared. So, Van decided to play bodyguard on the 4th day. Carmine didn’t stand a chance against Van. Nobody did, for that matter. Carmine was bigger than Van, which made it all the more sweet when Van took him to the pavement and snapped his fucking arm. Carmine’d keep his distance from now on, for sure.

  “They call me a fallen angel at the orphanage,” Ever said.

  It was late but neither boy had a bedtime. They sat together on top of a broken-down box truck, beneath the orange and blue lights of Molly’s Circus, eating Van’s mom’s homemade jerky and listening to the cheesy music that came from behind the fence. Ever’s face was still pretty busted up, but Van thought it did him some good, making him look slightly less girly, though his hair was kind of long and his eyes were too big and pretty. Van wondered if all Sky people were like that; a product of the high-life. The freckles were a nice touch. Van really liked freckles for some reason. His own skin was dark and smooth and unblemished, and Ever was basically everything he wasn’t.

  “Are you an angel?” Van asked.

  Ever laughed.

  “So… what happened? I mean, how’d you get down here?”

  Ever tilted his head to the side and eyed Van suspiciously. He probably knew Van just wanted to know what it was like up there, but Van would never ask it outright.

  “I fell.”

  “C’mon, man!”

  Ever laughed again. “I ran away. I have this thing,” he put his hand to his chest and furrowed his brow, “not sure how to explain it. It’s pulling me… something in the dirt. The grass… trees. Real trees, I mean, growing all on their own. I can see it sometimes in my head. I had to get closer.”

  Van scoffed at that. “Thought you’d find that down here? Trees need sunlight, you know. Even I know that.”

  Ever frowned and Van felt sorry. “I didn’t think enough, I guess.”

  “What about your family?” Van handed the kid more jerky. He wasn’t any good at comforting people, not even his own mom.

  “Don’t have any.”

  Van’s eyes widened. “Really?”

  “Nope. What is it?”

  “I thought… I dunno, being you’re from where you’re from.”

  “You think they just send all the orphans to the Ground or something?” He laughed again. “I guess there’s not a lot of us. Not like down here, anyways. But, yeah. I never had any parents. Was adopted by this family though, the Larkin’s, but they weren’t really around much so I don’t feel so bad for bailing.”

  “What’s it—” nope, not that.

  “It’s kind of suffocating down here, you know? Not being able to see the sky… that’s why I like you. I feel less claustrophobic when you’re around,” Ever said.

  Van felt his
face get hot and turned to watch the ticket master, who was smoking behind a large tent at the moment, yelling at someone over the phone. “The fuck does that mean?”

  “Your eyes are like the sky… not just color, though. It’s more than that. It’s just a thing… another thing I can’t explain.”

  Van’s heart was thumping in his throat. “You’re a weird fucking kid, you know that?”

  “So I’ve been told. Pretty weird yourself, you know.”

  “How’s that?” His face felt normal again so he turned back to see the kid, who was smiling at him like the devil, dirt and grass eyes on fire in the shifting light. He wasn’t sure if he liked it or not. Dirt and grass… it’d be nice to see it for real one day. They had gardens in the Sky, he knew that much, but he figured it wasn’t the same as “nature.” Van wanted to see a lot of things…

  “You’re nice to me for no reason, and it’s not like you’re nice to anyone else from what I see. And what you did to that Carmine guy for me… that’s kinda weird, yeah?”

  Van’s heart thumped again. “Carmine’s a jerk, been looking for an excuse to take him down. And, that’s just how we talk ‘round here. Just figured you wouldn’t get it, so I’m easy on you.”

  Ever snorted. “Not how everyone talks, just you. Doesn’t seem like you have many friends for someone so cool.”

  “Eh… I like to be alone.”

  “But, here we are.”

  “And?”

  Ever laid himself back on the truck, arms behind his head, and sighed. “You’re a weirdo, just like me. That’s why you’re here, yeah?”

  Van conceded with a shrug. He lay back on the truck as well, staring up at the receding lights of varying colors, bouncing off glass covered roadways and skylines; it seemed to have no end, but he knew the sky was above it all somewhere. From the Ground, it felt like looking through a timeline. Van would be far, far in the past, of course, and the Sky people were the distant future, almost out of sight—the Sky Tier looked like a glittering spider web to Van, but he had to focus really hard to even see it way up there. He tried to pretend the lights were actually stars, like he often did, but it didn’t work like when he was younger. He wanted to ask Ever if it was at all similar to real stars, but he wouldn’t. “It’s so far… how’d you do it?”

  “Slowly.”

  Van laughed this time. “Fucking weirdo.”

  Van was about to fall asleep when Ever spoke again. “You wanna come with me? I need to leave soon.”

  “Home now? Why?”

  “No, I mean I need to leave,” he sat up and leaned over Van; his face was hidden in shadow mostly, but Van thought he looked desperate, “like, soon. It’s pulling me… but I want you to come too.”

  Van realized he’d been holding his breath as soon as he tried to speak. “W-where? I mean, you may’ve made it all the way down here easy enough, but nobody just goes up, and it’s the only way to go. Nobody’s got that kind of cash ‘round here.”

  “I need to get out of Ariadne!”

  Van sniffed. “You know the only way out of Ariadne is from the upper tiers, right? We’re smack in the middle of the Exclusion Zone, you’d fucking die if you left Ariadne from down here, and you sure as hell wouldn’t find no trees. You didn’t know that? No, of course not… that’s why you came all the way down here. Fuck, why don’t you know that? Why would you not look into that before doing something so crazy? I mean, seriously? We’re fucking trapped down here, and now you are too.” But, they were free at least, right? Free to do…

  Ever sat back on the truck and wrapped his arms around his legs, biting his lower lip.

  Van sat up and put his hand on the kid’s shoulder. “Hey… sorry. I’m sorry, ok? Look, maybe you should just get used to this—”

  “I have to leave! And, I will.” He looked up, eyes narrowing, jaw set, “I can get us out, if you help me find the way. Sorry I don’t know much… I have a hard time focusing… and remembering things… but, I can get us out, yeah? I’m good at that.”

  Leave? But, Van was a Ground Dweller. This was his home, his life, his family… it was ridiculous to even think it was possible. “Look, kid… it just doesn’t work like that.”

  Ever groaned and held a hand out to Van. When Van didn’t move to take it, he rolled his eyes and put his hand on Van’s shoulder, gripping him hard enough to hurt, though Van wouldn’t admit it.

  Van felt it… it! The dirt and grass… rain and air… the sky! Cool, wet, clean, the smells he’d never known but somehow recognized, and somewhere deeper, there was more; something special and magic, something indescribable. He put his hand on top of Ever’s, trying to cling to the impression, but it faded too quickly, leaving a gaping hole in his heart. He wanted to cry, but Ever was watching.

  “You see? It’s calling… come with me, please? I know you want to get out of here, and I might be your only chance… I can do it… I have… I can make things happen.”

  Van couldn’t speak yet. He wouldn’t let Ever see him cry.

  “Trust me, Van. I like you, ok? I like you… I’m leaving one way or another, but I want you to come with me.”

  Van took a deep breath. “Why… why did you come here?”

  Ever looked away and got to his feet. “I follow the feeling. It led me here. Maybe I’m here for you… I get the feeling I need you, yeah? Maybe we need each other.”

  “Fucking weirdo. You don’t even know me.” Van stood, slowly, legs a little shaky, and reached a hand out to Ever. Ever eyed him quizzically before taking it. “But, you got a deal. Get me the fuck out of here, kid, and I’ll be whatever you need.”

  Ever beamed at him.

  That night, Van told his mom. She was reasonably sad and confused but could use one less mouth to feed in their over-full house, so she didn’t fight too much. The next day, she packed him a modest lunch, kissed him on the cheek, and wished him the best of luck. Van only cried a little before meeting up with Ever by the docks.

  The lines were crazy long to get to the elevators, as they always were. Almost all the people going up were merchants too, with limited passes and access to one of three different tiers that did business with the Ground Dwellers. Van’s mom had always complained that they were given the bottom of the barrel goods, essentially the upper tiers’ trash, and charged unreasonably for it, which is why there were so many starving on the Ground. Not like the Ground had much choice or say in the matter. So, they sucked it up and barely scraped by. Van didn’t like to think about all his mom had to do to provide for him and the rest of the family. His mom had made it very clear on multiple occasions that she was the primary bread winner and Uncle Dante ought to pull his weight more, being he had the most kids of all of them and she only had Van, but Uncle Dante would counter with, “Sorry I don’t possess such lucrative ‘skills’ as yourself, dear sister! There’s little market for what I’ve got in my—” and Van’s mom would always cut him off there, either by yelling “Use your goddamn brain and do something else!” or simply throwing things at him. Van’s mom got to leave the Ground for work, at least. Van had never left. His heart was racing again.

  Ever was waiting for him, leaning on a parking meter. His t-shirt was too large, hanging over one boney shoulder, and he seemed even more frail today. He caught sight of Van, smiled and waved, saying, “This way!”

  There were a lot of eyes on them as they made their way across the pier to the “walk-on” lines. Ragged boys their age didn’t belong in such a place. Sometimes kids would try to beg out here, but security would quickly chase them off, so most didn’t bother.

  Van wanted to ask what the plan was, but he’d promised to trust Ever so he kept silent.

  “Ok, here we are.” Ever smiled over his shoulder at Van and held out his hand.

  “What?”

  “Just take it, man.”

  He did say he would trust the kid, so he bit his tongue and took Ever’s hand despite all the eyes on them. Ever’s hand was kind of cold, but not in a bad way. It
gave Van goosebumps. He led Van to the front of the line where they stood awkwardly beside the large gate labeled “G-01.” Van was self-conscious, but nobody looked at them anymore. The adults talked amongst themselves, mostly complaining about rising prices, low pay, no medicine, etc.; money as usual. It seemed like the only thing adults cared about. Finally, the gate slid open with a loud “whoop!” that made Van jump. Before Van had the chance to recover, Ever sped him through the entrance, past the gatekeeper and the first passenger, who were exchanging tickets and paid them no mind.

  Finally, it dawned on Van. “Holy shit! We’re invisible!”

  “Shhhh! Not so loud,” Ever said, but he was laughing. “We’re not invisible. Not exactly. Just… uninteresting? It doesn’t work with people who know you, or if you bump into someone. Or if you’re too loud.”

  “Sorry.”

  “No worries. It’s already pretty loud in here.”

  And, it was. It reminded Van of the market district; loud and bustling and angry. His mom had said the market used to be lively and fun, but it’d turned cutthroat in recent years. Van had never seen it as a nice place.

  They couldn’t avoid bumping into people once they got closer to the pods, but nobody cared enough to look down at them anyway. “Ok,” Ever said, “Which one should we take?”

  Van eyed the large monitor above his head. “Looks like P-4 to 13 will get us as high as Tier 3. We should be able to go higher from there… I think the closest crossover bridge is on Tier 5 but I don’t really know. We can look at a map when we get there.”

  “Well, I’ve got us covered,” Ever said swinging their clasped hands with a conspiratorial smile. “Take me there, Van.”