Isolation

by Kevin Hardman

  I popped up in the sitting area and flopped down on a nearby couch. Pulling out my phone, I prepared to call Myshtal, my titular fiancée. However, I spent a moment debating whether to tell her about the Caelesian guard.

  As a princess and favorite of Queen Dornoccia, ruler of the Caelesian Empire, Myshtal was probably used to having some sort of protective detail around. It would probably come as no surprise to her to know that she was being monitored in some way. In fact, it was possible that she already knew about it.

  On the flip side, assuming that she didn’t know about it, would she be upset if she found out later that I knew and hadn’t told her? Our betrothal was essentially a business deal, but – that aside – Myshtal and I were pretty close. We’d gone through an ordeal together on Caeles that had created a rather tight bond between us.

  Ultimately, I decided to simply play it by ear and then called Myshtal. It was definitely late (or early, depending on your point of view), but I had no doubt she would be expecting my call. (I hadn’t been exaggerating when I told the Caelesian guard that we talked every day.) She answered on the first ring.

  “Hey!” she gushed. “How was the party?”

  “Which one?” I quipped, then gave her a brief overview of the evening.

  “Sounds like a lot of fun,” she stated when I finished.

  “And the opera?” I asked.

  “It was fantastic!” she exclaimed, and I could practically see her beaming through the phone. “The costumes, the scenery… It was amazing.”

  “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

  “I did.”

  “Well, please tell Monique I said ‘Thanks’ for taking you.”

  “Will do,” she assured me.

  Monique was my cousin, the sister of Avis. For the first couple of parties on the West Coast, Myshtal had gone with me. She had seemed to be having fun, but it was Monique who reminded me that – as a princess – Myshtal had probably gone to more parties with the rich-and-famous than she could count. She’d insisted that Myshtal needed exposure to more of Earth’s culture than she could get on TV and social media, and could probably benefit from some female bonding.

  Long story short, Monique convinced me to let Myshtal come spend some time with her. I was all for it – especially since, with my immediate family gone, it was just me and Myshtal living in a huge mansion. (Also, as I had explained to the Caelesian guard, I think Myshtal and I both recognized that it wasn’t good for her to simply follow in my wake everywhere I went.)

  All of this was flitting through my mind when I suddenly realized that Myshtal was still talking to me.

  “So what do you think?” she asked.

  “Huh?” I murmured, unsure what we were talking about.

  “Monique said she wants me to stay a few more days,” she stated. “Are you okay with that?”

  “Sure,” I said. “Stay as long as you want.”

  “Hmmm,” she droned. “You agreed to that pretty quickly. Are you trying to get rid of me?”

  I laughed. “Of course not. I enjoy having you around, but I do know it’s important that you meet other people and have experiences that don’t include me.”

  “All right – as long as you know you’re not getting rid of me that easily,” she teased. “And speaking of new experiences, we got mugged today.”

  “What?!” I exclaimed.

  “Well, not exactly mugged,” she clarified. “Some guy tried to snatch Monique’s purse while we were having lunch at an outdoor café.”

  “What happened?”

  “After he grabbed her purse and started running, Monique threw her fork at him. It hit him in the calf and he went sprawling, screaming and grabbing his leg. While he was pulling it out and trying to get back on his feet, she just walked over and picked her purse up from where he’d dropped it.”

  “Wow,” I intoned. “That had to be scary.”

  “Yeah, but that’s not even the best part,” she said. “After Monique got her purse back, the mugger pulled out a knife. But before he could do anything, the blade just melted. He dropped to his knees, screaming and holding his hand, while Monique just casually walked back and asked me if I wanted dessert.”

  “Ha-ha!” I laughed. “That sounds just like Monique.”

  “Yeah, and it was super exciting. I can’t remember the last time my heart pounded so fast.”

  Her comment triggered something in my brain, causing me to become immediately somber. I suddenly had an inkling as to why the Caelesian guard had decided to make her presence known (as well as remind me of my obligation to keep Myshtal safe). Had I been thinking, I would have let the guard know that my cousin Monique – although she relished being a housewife – was a formidable super in her own right with remarkable powers (as the would-be-mugger had found out) and fully capable of protecting Myshtal, if necessary.

  That said, I decided against telling her about my rooftop rendezvous at the diner. She seemed to be having such a good time that – even if she was already aware of the guard’s presence – I didn’t want to be any kind of Debbie Downer.

  We talked for a little longer, but bearing in mind how late it was, the conversation didn’t last long. After agreeing to speak again the following day, we said goodnight and both hung up. I then went to the bed and stretched out on it for a moment before returning my bodily systems to normal. Exhaustion hit me like a sledgehammer, and I was asleep within seconds.

  Chapter 6

  I was awakened by my phone ringing. I grabbed it off the nightstand and glanced at the time.

  Six a.m., I thought. Early. I then noted who the caller was and bolted awake.

  It was Electra. My girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend.

  I answered with a perfunctory, “Hello.”

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Electra asked without preamble.

  “Huh?” I muttered, not sure what she was talking about.

  “This picture of you and Vestibule in the Lifestyle section of the paper.”

  “I’m sorry,” I mumbled, wiping my face with my hand. “What picture are you talking about?”

  “You and Vestibule in matching outfits at some party last night.”

  “I guess I haven’t seen it yet. It’s still early out here.”

  “Out here?” she repeated. “You’re still on the West Coast?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  There was silence for a moment, then Electra said, “I guess you must have had a really good time if you were too tired to teleport home.”

  I let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m actually out here visiting relatives. In case you forgot, my mother and grandparents are off in space somewhere, so I’m making an effort to get to know the few family members I have left on the planet.”

  “And where does Vestibule fit into all that?”

  “She’s just a friend, as you already know.”

  “So why are the gossip pages referring to you as her new beau?”

  “Because they’re trying to sell newspapers,” I blurted out matter-of-factly. “But I don’t understand why you’re getting wound up about this. I didn’t say anything when Dynamo escorted you to that debutante ball.”

  “That’s different, and you know it. Dynamo and I are just friends.”

  “Well, you said that you and I are still friends, even though we broke up. Why couldn’t I take you?”

  “You know why,” she said flatly. “If we start hanging out and doing things like a couple, then we’ll fall back into the old habit of being a couple, and I can’t have that. I need you to fix this thing with Myshtal first.”

  “But in the meantime, it’s fine for you to date other guys.”

  “I’m not dating other guys!” she insisted. “But I occasionally have social events where I’m expected to have an escort.”

  “So it’s okay for a male friend to be your date for a ball or a dance, but I can’t do the same for a female friend of mine?”

  “Ha!” Electra practically barked. “Are you honestly telli
ng me that Vestibule has trouble getting dates?”

  “Maybe, like you, she’s only looking to hang out with someone platonically.”

  Electra didn’t immediately respond. Of course, she wasn’t close enough for me to get a read on her empathically, but I got the impression that I’d struck a nerve.

  “Look,” she finally said, “I get that you have female friends, and maybe you’ll go to dinner with them or a movie or something else like that, and it’ll all be purely platonic – just like it is on my end. But not her, okay?”

  Shaking my head in anger and frustration, I tersely stated, “I gotta go,” and hung up.

  I tossed my phone back onto the nightstand and lay back on the bed, trying to go back to sleep. It was a waste of time; the conversation with Electra had gotten me too worked up.

  Truth be told, I didn’t think she was out of line for breaking up with me. It was obviously a complicated situation, and she had handled it well. Moreover, I understood that ending our relationship was intended to motivate me to end my engagement with Myshtal.

  At the same time, however, I didn’t think she was being quite fair. You don’t get to play the jealous girlfriend card if you aren’t actually the girlfriend, and she had freely passed on the role. More to the point, she knew I wanted her back. That admittedly gave her some degree of power in the relationship, but didn’t give her the right to make unreasonable demands (such as telling me who I could hang out with).

  After about ten minutes of brooding on the situation, I threw in the towel on getting any more sleep and decided to start my day. Decision made, I quickly showered and went through my usual morning routine before quickly getting dressed.

  It was still early, but I thought that if I hurried I could catch the sun coming up. People always talk about how beautiful sunsets are, but sunrises are just as spectacular in my book, and the roof of the penthouse provided an amazing view.

  Once I was ready, I phased, becoming insubstantial, and then flew up through the ceiling and onto the roof. I then became substantial again.

  The top of the penthouse had been constructed as an elaborate rooftop deck, with an outdoor kitchen, a lounge area, and a pergola, among other things. It was obviously designed for entertaining, and I could easily imagine the place full of people, casually drinking wine and enjoying themselves.

  Looking around now, I was surprised to find that I wasn’t alone; my cousin Avis was nearby. A beautiful young woman with dark, wavy hair, she was currently dressed in a pair of black yoga pants with a matching top that left her midriff bare. She was sitting at a dining table, eating a box of assorted donuts.

  “Morning,” I muttered, wandering over.

  “Morning, cuz,” she replied as I sat down across from her. Gesturing towards the box, she said, “Have some. They’re the best donuts in the city.”

  “Thanks,” I said, then took her up on her offer, selecting a chocolate-covered donut. “Wow – they’re still warm.”

  She nodded. “Even cold they’re awesome, but they’re best if you can get them fresh out of the oven. But they make the day’s supply in the morning, so you have to get there early if you want them hot.”

  Rather than reply, I took a bite out of my donut. It was very good – so good in fact that I found myself making a yummy noise, which made my cousin laugh. I was tempted to say something, but held my tongue as I noticed the sky beginning to lighten.

  We both became silent then, watching in awe as the sun came up, spreading color and light across the sky. It was a wondrous display of the beauty and majesty of nature, and in truth, it was almost spellbinding. Sadly, it only lasted a few minutes, and when the spell was finally broken I heard Avis sigh.

  “No matter how many times I witness it,” she stated, “I never get tired of seeing that.”

  I nodded. Like me, Avis had come to the roof to view the sunrise. Seeing her now, it was hard to reconcile the person in front of me with Avis’s renown for being a party girl (which was only slightly less than her reputation for being a super).

  “Anyway,” she continued. “How was your night?”

  “Pretty good,” I said, then gave her a quick summary of the highlights, including the run-in with the Biolithic Colossus.

  “Glad you had fun,” she remarked when I was done. “Sorry about Bee-Cee, though. He’s not really a bad guy – just immature in a lot of ways.”

  “So says the woman who trashed a Vegas suite last month.”

  “Okay, that was not me,” she shot back defensively. “That was some people I didn’t even know – friends of some friends of some friends – whom I graciously allowed into what was actually a private party. But this isn’t about me, so let’s not go off-topic.”

  “Fine,” I said with a snicker. “Staying on topic, I was surprised the chaperones didn’t jump in once the Colossus started making a scene.”

  “Those kids are all future teammates. They have to learn to deal with each other, including all aspects of their relationships, and dealing with a jerk at a party is a lot easier than having to do it in the field.”

  “So, you just let them rumble if they need to?”

  She shook her head. “It rarely comes to that, and if it looked serious, someone would have stepped in.”

  “Okay,” I droned, letting her answer percolate for a moment. “Switching gears for a second, were all the parties and premieres you’ve gotten me invites for just part of some recruiting effort?”

  If my bluntness took her by surprise, Avis didn’t show it.

  Waffling a hand from side to side, she said, “Not per se. First and foremost, I wanted you to have fun and not spend a bunch of time moping around because you missed your mom and grandparents. Second, I wanted you to know that you’re welcome here and will always have a place with me, no matter what. That goes for my sisters, too, because none of us want to lose you again.”

  I simply nodded at this. Her last statement referenced the fact that until very recently, I hadn’t even known I had any cousins. They had intentionally stayed out of my life, wrongly thinking it was what my mom wanted, and we had only managed to reconnect a couple of months earlier.

  “Finally,” Avis continued, “if it turned out that you liked the city, the people, and everything else, I wanted you to see that the A-List is a good group. That way, if you ever decided to weigh your options, we would be top-of-mind.”

  “Hmmm,” I droned. “So basically, from a recruiting standpoint, this wasn’t the full-court press.”

  “Hardly,” she said with a slight laugh. “Believe me, once word got out that Kid Sensation was my cousin, there were those who wanted to pull out all the stops to lure you onto the team. If you thought the movie premiere and other stuff you attended were extravagant, you should see the stuff I turned down.”

  I laughed and then stated, “I’ll take your word for it.”

  “Come on,” she said with a grin. “Let’s go see what Henrietta is making for breakfast.”

  “You want me to do the honors?” I asked.

  Avis seemed to consider for a moment, then said, “Sure. Go ahead.”

  Having gotten her okay, I teleported us to the interior of the penthouse, making us pop up in the living room. Almost immediately, we heard voices coming from the kitchen and headed there. Upon entering, we saw Smokey sitting on a stool at an island counter, chatting with Avis’s cook, Henrietta.

  Dressed in a black chef coat and sporting a toque blanche, Henrietta spied us the second we entered her domain. She was a young woman, maybe thirty years old, with features that would probably be described as handsome rather than pretty, and a smile that could light up a room.

  “Good morning, Jim,” Henrietta said while whisking something around in a bowl. “Miss Avis.”

  I returned the greeting and got her thousand-watt-smile in return, which almost made me feel giddy.

  “I told you before, Henrietta, it’s just ‘Avis,’” my cousin admonished as she tossed the box of donuts onto the counte
r. “You make me feel like an old lady.”

  “Yes, Miss Avis,” Henrietta replied, causing my cousin to shake her head in dismay, while Smokey and I snickered.

  “And feel free to take that silly hat off,” Avis added. “You make me feel like I’m on a cooking show.”

  “Yes, Miss Avis,” Henrietta said, although I noticed she made no effort to remove her toque blanche, which again, Smokey and I found hilarious.

  “So,” Avis droned a few moments later, “I see you met Smokescreen.”

  Henrietta nodded. “Yes, he was kind enough to come introduce himself.”

  “Well,” Smokey commented, “I didn’t want her to suddenly see a stranger in here and go into panic mode.”

  “I wasn’t concerned,” Henrietta assured him. “Any man who makes his way into this place uninvited is going to have a very bad day.”

  As she finished speaking, she exchanged a knowing glance with Avis. I got the impression there was a story there, which I’d have to tease out of my cousin later.

  “Anyway,” Henrietta continued, “breakfast is omelets, and I’m taking orders.”

  At that juncture, I noticed for the first time that there were numerous bowls on the counter near the cooktop where she was standing. From what I could see, each contained different items: grated cheese, chopped peppers, diced tomatoes, and so on.

  “I’ll go first,” Avis said. “Just cheese in mine, please. I’m going to have enough to do at the gym just working off the donuts I had earlier.”

  She interlocked her fingers and lifted her arms above her head as she spoke, stretching and bending slightly from side to side. Noticing Smokey looking at her with what seemed like more than casual interest, I telekinetically gave him a thump behind the ear. Wincing, he turned to me with a perplexed look.

  Opening up a telepathic channel, I said,

  he insisted.