The Girl Who Fell Out of the Sky
Page 14
“Yes! Your friend.”
AnnA threw her arms around Piper and hugged her. Piper hugged AnnA back.
“Asanti,” AnnA said.
“Asanti,” Piper echoed.
“There is much to tell you,” AnnA said, remembering her purpose and breaking free from the hug. “We must speak.”
CHAPTER
27
AnnA was wearing a delicate cloth that was wound about her and fastened in place around her waist. She was just as Piper remembered: a fragile, shy creature who wanted nothing more than to slide away and melt into the shadows. Piper settled her upon the porch steps, and Jimmy Joe fetched a glass of water for her.
AnnA wondered at the glass and at the way the barn was built and the way the land was flat and how there wasn’t a place where they could fall into the valley as it was on Mother Mountain. The only thing that was not strange to AnnA was Fido.
“I have blossomed.” AnnA was shy but happy to share the good news with Piper.
“Myrtle told me that you can jump,” Piper said. “What does that mean?”
“I jump.” AnnA moved her hand from one point to the next.
“You mean like a frog? Or a rabbit?”
The references confused AnnA. There were no frogs or rabbits in Xanthia.
“Do you jump up? Like high?” Piper started to demonstrate by jumping up and down.
Jimmy Joe jumped up and down too. “Do you jump like this?”
AnnA shook her head. “No. No, it is not that. I jump.” Once again she moved her hand from here to there.
“I don’t understand,” said Piper. “Can you show me?”
Haltingly, AnnA got up off the bench and took several steps away. Claiming a part of empty ground, AnnA stretched out her arms. “I will jump now.”
Jimmy Joe, Piper, and Rory Ray waited and watched. AnnA closed her eyes and, in the blink of an eye, disappeared.
Rory Ray started. “Where’d she go?”
Jimmy Joe waved his arm through the space where AnnA had just stood. “What happened? How’d she do that?”
Piper remained still, processing what she had just witnessed. “She jumped,” she said, slowly understanding.
“Where?”
“What does that mean?”
“She jumped,” Piper repeated. “She’s teleporting. Jumping from place to place.” Piper moved her hand from one spot to the next in the same way AnnA had just done.
“But where’d she go?”
“And when’s she coming back?”
Suddenly, AnnA appeared again. She “jumped” on top of a barrel, almost tumbling off. Piper helped her down.
“AnnA, that’s unbelievable! What a great talent.” Piper gave AnnA’s hand a gentle squeeze of congratulations. “I’ve never met anyone who was a jumper before! I didn’t even know what it was.”
“I have much to learn. It is very new,” AnnA admitted.
“I’m real glad you came to show me.”
The true purpose of AnnA’s trip returned to her. “That is not why I am here. Piper, your friends are in trouble. Conrad asked Elder Equilla for help, but she says it is not up to the Chosen Ones to save Outsiders. Elder Equilla says it is time for your friends to stay on Mother Mountain and be with their own kind. But your friends did not wish to stay, so Elder Equilla insisted.”
“Insisted?” No matter what Elder Equilla said, Conrad and the others would have wanted to return home; their mission was too vital. “How did she insist?”
AnnA spoke carefully. “Elder Equilla has embraced them.”
The difference in words and the language between the Chosen Ones and Outsiders was a frustration to Piper, at that moment more than ever. “What does that mean, AnnA? How does she embrace them?”
“She holds them tight.” AnnA wrapped her arms out in front of her like she was hugging something. “She will not let them leave.”
Piper slowly allowed the air to leak out of her lungs as AnnA’s meaning became clear. “You mean that they’re prisoners? Elder Equilla is holding Conrad prisoner?”
AnnA tilted her head to the side. “What is ‘prisoner’?”
“It’s like a jail. It’s … They’re trapped. Against their will,” Piper explained.
“Yes! This is so. Conrad wants to come home, but Elder Equilla will not let him. She keeps them all.”
“So Conrad sent you to get me? Because he wants me to free him?” Despite the enormity of such a task, not to mention the impossibility of attempting it, Piper’s heart leapt at the idea. Her friends wanted and needed her.
AnnA shook her head. “No.”
Piper deflated. “He didn’t?”
“Conrad told me not to come. He said it would be too dangerous for you. But I did not listen. I jumped.” AnnA was clearly pleased with the fact that she was able to have accomplished such a feat. “I jumped because I think your friends need you.”
Tears came to Piper’s eyes. “Yes, they do. They need me.”
“You can fly to Xanthia and free them.”
“Fly?” Piper stopped, her heart sinking. “Didn’t Conrad tell you?”
AnnA prepared a space to jump. “You must hurry.”
“Hold it, AnnA. Wait.” Piper reached out to AnnA. “Conrad didn’t tell you?” It was clear from AnnA’s face that Conrad had not. “AnnA, I can’t fly.”
AnnA’s smile slid off. “I have seen you fly. Is this Outsider fun?”
Piper could feel her face grow warm, the embarrassment of her flightless state still an open wound. “I can’t fly.”
“She’s not fooling you,” Jimmy Joe butted in. “Her feet might as well be glued to the ground.”
“You got that right,” Rory Ray agreed.
AnnA let go of Piper’s hand, trouble tugging at the corner of her mouth. “But if you cannot fly, then you are an Outsider.”
Piper’s face was now bright red. “I wouldn’t say that. It’s like you said: we have to rescue the others.” Piper looked to everyone around her. “We could do it. If we all worked together—like a team.”
“A team?” Rory Ray raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“Outsiders are not allowed on Mother Mountain,” AnnA said unequivocally.
Piper grabbed AnnA’s arm. “But if my friends aren’t released, a terrible thing will happen.”
AnnA faltered. “But … how would you be able to do such a thing?”
“We’ll work together. All of us.”
AnnA looked from Piper to Rory Ray to Jimmy Joe. They were not much to look at.
“Please!” Piper begged. “Will you help us?”
AnnA shook her head.
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28
Jumping to reach Piper had completely exhausted AnnA’s extremely limited supply of courage. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help; it wasn’t that she didn’t see the need for it; it was that she felt overwhelmed at the very thought of it. And there was much that needed to be thought of.
First of all they had to find a way to get to Xanthia, which was at the top of a mountain a good distance away. Once there, they would have to find the others while at the same time not being noticed. This was also a difficult task, since the Chosen Ones numbered less than five hundred and knew each other intimately.
Finally, but most difficult of all, was freeing Piper’s friends and escaping Xanthia.
All this AnnA knew. The fact that Piper was unable to fly was the unexpected wild card that had blindsided her and derailed her confidence entirely.
Absolutely none of these things worried Piper. In fact it appeared to AnnA that Piper was strangely energized and boundlessly optimistic.
“Saving people in dire situations is what I do, AnnA.” Piper was on her feet, unable to sit or stand still. “I know all about it. I’ve rescued orphans off buses about to fall into ravines. I’ve rescued folks off airplanes. I can do this with my eyes closed!”
“And you have done this since you could not fly?”
“Well, no.”
Piper waved away the question as though it were no matter at all. “You know what we need? Before every big mission we always have a team meeting. That’s what we need to do! Team meeting.”
Piper led AnnA into the barn, and once inside, she, like Rory Ray and Jimmy Joe had, stopped in her tracks. Unlike Jimmy Joe and Rory Ray, she had no context or understanding of anything that her eyes fell upon. The strange flashing lights, the hum of the machines, the clicking from Conrad’s latest science experiment bubbling away in the loft overhead were equal parts confusing and frightening.
At the meeting table Piper sat AnnA to her right. Jimmy Joe and Rory Ray took the chairs on the other side.
“So,” Piper said, realizing that none of them had ever participated in a team meeting and that she had never actually led one. “So, my friends are trapped. Right, AnnA?”
“This is so.”
“And the logical thing to do is to bring them home.” Piper looked to the others for confirmation on this point. “Do you agree?”
Rory Ray didn’t necessarily want more kids like Piper living next door to him, and Jimmy Joe had never much liked them, either. “Agreement” might be too strong a word to describe their feelings on the subject. AnnA really didn’t think it was a great idea to try such a thing and certainly didn’t think it likely that they could accomplish it.
“Conrad did say to me that he did not want your help,” AnnA pointed out.
“Yes, but Elder Equilla has imprisoned him, so now it’s up to us.” Piper was painfully aware that this was like no other team meeting she had ever participated in. Rapid-fire discussion, ideas flying back and forth, disagreements, compromises, pertinent data, selfless acts of courage, cunning plans—those were the team meetings Piper was used to.
“Listen to me,” she said, making a fist and pounding it on the table in what she hoped would rouse those present but came off as feeble and hurt her hand besides. “I’m saying that we’re their last hope. They’re depending on us. The safety of the world is at stake, and this world is worth fighting for. Who is with me?”
AnnA looked down at her lap. Rory Ray sniffed loudly, and Jimmy Joe took to picking a piece of carrot out of the back of his teeth.
“I’ll take your silence as acceptance.” Piper sat back down. “Now let’s start planning! Ideas?”
Awkward silence.
“Anyone?” Piper leaned forward. “There’s no wrong answer.”
“I could blow something up,” Rory Ray offered, showing his first bit of interest.
AnnA gasped. “Blow up?”
“That’s a wrong answer, Rory Ray. We’re not blowing anything up.” Piper put her hand on AnnA’s arm. “I won’t let them blow anything up.”
“Outsiders do not belong on Mother Mountain,” AnnA said, suddenly at her wits’ end. “They cannot come. It is forbidden. They are savages.”
Rory Ray bristled. “I’m not the one going around in a bedsheet.”
“Yeah,” Jimmy Joe said. “We’ll go if we want to go. You can’t tell us what to do.”
AnnA’s face was tangled in fear and anger. “Outsiders have no thoughts. They kill and do not care. They are without a soul.”
“It’s okay, AnnA.” Piper tried to soothe her. “Calm down.”
AnnA had heard the stories. She knew all about Outsiders. She was not going to be calm. “Ugly. Dangerous. Bloodthirsty.”
Rory Ray’s hackles got higher with each word. “We’ll go up there and kick some Chosen One butt,” Rory Ray growled. “You can’t take our people and get away with it. I’m in. I say we burn the place down.”
“No burning, Rory Ray. That is not a good idea.” Piper placed her hands up as though she could shield the two sides from each other. “AnnA, we just need to free Conrad and the others. As soon as we do that, we’ll leave.”
AnnA glowered. “I will not bring such danger to my people.”
“Please, AnnA. Look at me.” With difficulty AnnA brought her eyes back to Piper. “You have my word that we’ll do no harm. You know it’s not right what Elder Equilla is doing. You know that they should be allowed to leave. All I’m asking is that you help us get them back. Please.”
AnnA sighed. “I have your word?”
“You have my word.”
Rory Ray sat back and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring. As the room returned to silence, it occurred to Piper that preventing her team from fighting with each other might be just as difficult as actually saving her friends.
“You know what? Maybe we’re the sort of team that doesn’t need team meetings,” Piper decided. “Or plans. We’ll be the sort of team that ‘wings it’ and flies by the seat of our pants.” She got to her feet and clapped her hands together to create a sense of energy and excitement. “So let’s go to Xanthia.”
“How?” AnnA challenged. “If you cannot fly, you cannot get there.”
“Ah! So, so, we’ll…” Piper flung her arms out and said the first thing that came into her head. “We’ll jump!”
AnnA’s face drained of all color.
CHAPTER
29
“I know what you’re thinking,” Piper said quickly, “but it’s going to be alright. The first time I flew holding someone, I thought I’d drop ’em for sure. We’ll give it a test run, and you can get comfortable with it. Trust me, you’ll be an old hand at it in no time. It’s like riding a bike.”
“What is ‘bike’?”
Of course AnnA didn’t know what a bike was. Piper waved it away. “Forget I said that. It’s as easy as pie. You’ll see.”
A short while later, AnnA stood in the farmyard with Fido in her arms. Fido was thrilled by the attention and alternately licked and wiggled about to encourage more petting. On the ground, Piper had placed two rocks, twenty feet apart. She had AnnA stand at one rock.
“So you just focus on where you want to go and then you jump there. Is that how it works?” Piper said.
AnnA was trembling, her eyes wide. She nodded her head.
“Good.” Piper clapped her hands together. “So do it the same way as always, but this time when you do it, you’ll take Fido with you. You don’t have to jump far, just over to that rock. See?”
AnnA did see.
Piper stood back where Rory Ray and Jimmy Joe were waiting. Together they watched AnnA.
“You think she’s gonna be able to do it?” Jimmy Joe spoke quietly.
“What if she jumps and turns that thing she’s holding inside out so all its guts spill out?” Rory Ray’s face was equal parts disgust and anticipation. As revolting as it would be to see Fido’s insides, there was a certain thrill to it. “There’d be blood dripping all over the place. Like an explosion of it!” Rory Ray made a fist and had his fingers spring outward to demonstrate exactly what he meant by explosion.
“Geez Louise, would you keep stuff like that to yourself?” Piper snorted, elbowing Rory Ray in the ribs. “And that’s not going to happen. Now shush.”
AnnA’s chest pumped up and down. She looked to Piper like she might be hyperventilating.
“You’re fine, AnnA. Nothing bad will happen. Just go on and close your eyes.”
AnnA closed her eyes, got control of her breathing, and … disappeared with Fido.
“She jumped!” Jimmy Joe, in his excitement, stated the obvious.
Now all eyes were on the second rock, waiting. “You can do it, AnnA,” Piper said under her breath. “Just do it.”
The seconds stretched into an uncomfortable length of time. Piper nervously bit her lip, her toe tapping in the dirt.
“It shouldn’t take her this long.” Jimmy Joe gnawed on his thumbnail. “Fido probably already exploded.”
“For sure,” Rory Ray agreed.
Piper walked over to the second rock, as though being closer
would help the situation. “C’mon, AnnA. C’mon. You can do it. Jump back.”
SNAP. AnnA was suddenly directly in front of Piper, only inches away. Piper screamed in surprise. AnnA screamed because Piper screamed. Jimmy Joe, who couldn’t see AnnA, screamed because he assumed there was blood. Rory Ray dashed forward into the fray because it was a marine-like thing to do.
When she had recovered from her initial start, Piper looked at AnnA and instantly noticed that she was without Fido.
“What happened? Where’s Fido?” Piper touched AnnA’s stomach where she had held Fido, as though somehow he was still there but invisible.
“Did he explode?” Rory Ray wanted to know. “Is there blood?”
“I—I jumped.”
“Yes, we saw. But Fido…”
AnnA looked confused. “You said to jump with Fido. I jumped with Fido.”
“But where is Fido now?”
“Fido is on Mother Mountain,” AnnA said slowly.
Piper sagged with relief. “Oh! You jumped home with Fido and then came back here. Oh, I understand. And when you got to Mother Mountain, Fido was … he was in one piece?”
“He was in the same piece as he was in before I jumped. Is this not a good thing?” There was no end to how confusing Outsiders were to AnnA.
“Yes, yes of course. You did everything great. But don’t you see, AnnA? You can jump with people. It was easy! Right?” Piper clutched AnnA’s hands excitedly.
A sunrise of a smile crested AnnA’s face. “Yes,” she said, “it was easy.”
“This means you can take us to Xanthia with you,” Piper continued. “We can all jump there.”
Rory Ray pumped his fist in the air, giving off a hearty “oorah!”
AnnA recoiled, frightened by this vocal onslaught.
“Stop it, Rory Ray.” Piper put her arm over AnnA protectively. “If you’re going to come with us, you can’t act like that. A Chosen One would never do that.”
Rory Ray pulled down his fist.
“Okay,” Piper said. “Now for the next part of the plan.”
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