Still Alive

by Jessi Newborn

  Chapter 10 – Sleight of Hand

  Several passengers stared at them as they walked down the aisle of the jet plane holding hands. Rhapsody just grinned, remembering how provincial some parts of the country still were. Capella was a dichotomy of shy awkwardness one second, then beamingly proud the next. Rhapsody had to remind herself that the small blonde was from a state that still had protests against anything more progressive than fire.

  As they sat down, the person in the seat behind them fake-coughed, “Dykes.”

  Rhapsody placed a calming hand on Capella’s left arm as it prepared for murder. “Let me handle this.”

  Capella looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Are you sure you don’t want to let The Traitor handle it?”

  “I’m sure,” Rhapsody said dryly. “Though I suppose you could get away with it, since we could just blame it on your condition.”

  “That’s what I’m saying,” Capella said with an evil grin.

  Rhapsody turned around so that she was kneeling on her seat and facing a large man with heavy jowls and a baseball cap. When he saw her looking at him, he leered back with an arrogant smirk.

  “So, am I to assume you’re only attracted to men?” Rhapsody asked him politely.

  “I ain’t no faggot!” he retorted, his face scrunching up in anger.

  “Now you see how I feel,” Rhapsody said in a commiserating tone. “The thought of being with a man gives me that same constipated expression that you have right now. That’s why I’m with a woman. Any questions?”

  “Go to hell, dyke,” he snarled angrily. “Fornicating bitches like you are the reason this world is going to hell in a hand basket.”

  “At least we’re travelling to hell in style,” Capella spoke up from where she was still sitting. “I hear going there in a train sucks ass.”

  “You got a problem with homosexuals?” one of two large men who looked like they ate rocks for breakfast asked him coldly.

  He opened his mouth to retort and then thought better of it. Instead, he started muttering furiously under his breath and clenching his fists spastically.

  Rhapsody nodded at the two men with a wink and then sat back in her seat. After sharing a look with Capella, the two of them broke into a fit of giggles.

  They slept for most of the eight-hour flight, with their heads resting against each other. She had texted their arrival times to Melody and Harmony before they left. Melody was going to be waiting for them with the car.

  Life at Harmony’s house had become a lot more interesting after Melody’s sixteenth birthday, when she began driving. It meant they had one more person to send on errands while they were taking care of Aria. To Melody’s credit, she had only received three speeding tickets in her first year of driving.

  After docking at the Seattle airport, the man behind them surged to his feet and stormed past them with a one finger salute.

  “I’m sure you served your country with distinction,” Capella called after him sarcastically. “What a tool.”

  “Seattle’s not the best place in the world for a bigot like that to be visiting,” Rhapsody noted with a shake of her head. “He’ll probably end up doing time for hate crimes before he leaves.”

  “Hopefully he has a friendly bollocks-munching cell-mate if he does,” Capella said darkly. “I had to put up with his narrow-minded ilk long enough when I was younger.”

  “Bollocks-munching?” Rhapsody asked with a questioning smile. “Does that mean what I think it means?”

  “Probably,” Capella replied with a grin, her dark mood vanishing. “I had a friend from Britain who spoke a completely separate form of English than Americans. We had to make him stop and explain what words meant every five seconds. It’s amazing how different their slang is from ours.”

  The two of them collected their luggage and then walked through the art-filled airport until they reached the exit.

  “I didn’t realize how plain the airport in Charleston was until I saw all of the cool art here,” Capella said thoughtfully. “I already love this city.”

  Rhapsody was about to reply when a streak of black-haired energy exploded into her, squealing in delight.

  “Hello, Melody,” Rhapsody grunted, trying recover the wind that had just been knocked out of her. “Good to see you too.”

  “Don’t you ever ditch out on us again!” Melody admonished her severely. “I was going crazy with boredom!”

  “This is Capella,” Rhapsody introduced her grinning blonde companion.

  Melody released Rhapsody and immediately tackled Capella. “Welcome to the musicals!”

  “I need air!” Capella gasped, pulling on the death grip Melody had around her neck. Before Melody could release her, Capella’s left hand shot up and took a wad of Melody’s hoodie and jerked her backward.

  “Strong one, aren’t you?” Melody noted with a grin as she caught her balance.

  “Sorry, that was The Traitor,” Capella said apologetically. “It has a mind of its own.”

  “The Traitor?” Melody asked with an inquiring grin. “You call your hand ‘The Traitor’?”

  “She has Alien Hand Syndrome,” Rhapsody explained. “Her left hand takes orders from someone else.”

  “And you just forgot to mention that ridiculously freaking awesome tidbit?” Melody demanded incredulously. “Holy pork chops! That is the coolest thing I’ve ever heard of in my life!”

  “Holy pork chops?” Capella asked with a raised eyebrow. “Are pork chops really revered in Seattle?”

  “No, silly!” Melody giggled. “You don’t think shit is revered when someone says holy shit, do you? I’m vegetarian, so pork chops are as disgusting to me as shit is to other people.”

  “That is some stunningly unassailable logic you have there,” Rhapsody congratulated Melody with a small golf clap.

  “I’m glad you liked it,” Melody made a false curtsy. “I live to serve.”

  “I’m starting to see what the last three years must have been like for you,” Capella said with a broad grin.

  “Welcome to Wonderland,” Rhapsody chuckled, taking her hand and following Melody to their car.

  “Wow, pretty low class car for a billionaire,” Capella noted dispassionately as she looked at the Chevy Volt in front of them.

  “Who’s a billionaire?” Melody asked in confusion.

  “Oops,” Capella murmured with an apologetic look at Rhapsody. “I just assumed they knew.”

  “It never actually came up,” Rhapsody admitted, blushing uncomfortably under Melody’s intense scrutiny. “I didn’t see a point in mentioning it.”

  “Ooooh,” Melody drawled slowly. “You’ve been keeping a secret this whole time, haven’t you? Be a good girl and tell Melody the truth now.”

  “Do you have a smart phone I can borrow?” Capella asked Melody with a barely contained grin.

  “Yeeees…” Melody said slowly. “Is that going to answer my question?”

  “Uh huh,” Capella nodded with a twinkle in her bright blue eyes.

  Melody handed her the phone with a flourish. Rhapsody leaned over her shoulder and watched as she typed Aurora Hall into the Google search field.

  “Here’s Rhapsody’s real name,” Capella told her with a wide grin. “Recognize that face?”

  “Business Weekly?” Melody murmured with a frown. “Forbes, Fortune, The Economist, Bloomberg…what the hell are you doing on all of these magazines?”

  “I was sort of a business tycoon before I met your family,” Rhapsody said awkwardly. “I had retired from business a few months before meeting you at the hospital.”

  “So you’re like what, a Bill Gates?” Melody asked uncertainly.

  “Bill Gates on crack,” Capella murmured, and then grimaced apologetically when Rhapsody sighed dejectedly.

  “I was never a Bill Gates,” Rhapsody said quietly. “I was just a young woman who had no limits on how much she could remember and how many patterns she could arrange in her mind at once. I could f
orecast with greater accuracy than Wall Street’s most expensive supercomputer. But it was all rubbish. There is nothing but loneliness and darkness in the world of big business. I pity anyone who is stuck in that horrible vortex of deceit and insanity. Money is the great hunter of souls.”

  “Well it didn’t get yours,” Capella told her warmly.

  Rhapsody smiled, snapping out of her bout of melancholy. “I sure hope not.”

  “It didn’t,” Melody assured her with a twinkle in her dark eyes. “Soulless people don’t sparkle and you definitely still have that sparkle in your eyes.”

  “Thanks, Melody,” Rhapsody smiled, her eyes stinging.

  “So are you where that fifty million dollar donation came from?” Melody asked curiously.

  “Guilty as charged,” Rhapsody admitted with a sheepish grin. “Your mom’s a proud woman. I didn’t want her to feel like she was mooching off of me if I just told her I had enough money to keep us all comfortable.”