(10) Backwards Long Jump

(10) Backwards Long Jump

Riley and Ash started making their way up to stairs together. They were quiet at first, the only sound heard was the door to the basement slamming shut. The stairs themselves were narrow with what seemed like an overly large number of landings and turn backs. Every once in a while, one of the landings had a window that allowed just enough light to barely see.

They were in sight of the second-floor door when Riley stopped.

“You didn’t have to do that back there.”

Ash brushed her off. “Yes, I did. He is a dick.”

Riley laughed, and then looked surprised at herself. Sadness washed over her and she started climbing the stairs again with great effort. Everyone seemed to be a slightly different height which meant that they both had to focus on not tripping.

Ash said, “Sorry about your mom.”

Riley nodded, and then changed the subject. “You sound like you have spent time with Saint.”

Ash gave a small laugh, “I really don’t think it would take much to figure him out. But yes, I needed help with a poem.”

Riley was surprised. “Oh wow. What about?”

Either Ash didn’t hear or pretended he didn’t. “Here we are.”

They arrived at the second-floor landing and Ash opened the door. There was a hallway leading into two bedrooms.

Ash grabbed the curtain rod off the window, slid off the curtain, and used the stick to poke around. He shrugged at Riley’s raised eyebrow. “Better to be safe.”

There was no response from the mundane objects. Of all the things they had been expecting from this whole experience it couldn’t have been nothing. Back out onto the landing and up more stairs up to the next floor.

The air smelled like incense burning.

Riley asked, “Does that smell familiar to you? Like what they burn when someone dies.”

Ash looked back at her with a shrug and a shake of the head. And then without saying anything he turned back to climbing the stairs. Prompting Riley to ask him, “What?”

He stopped again to turn back and look at her. He squinted one eye as if sizing up her potential response.

“So, is this your first time being around a peasant for so long?”

Riley rolled her eyes. “Wow he is such a dick.”

Ash laughed, and Riley continued. “But no, I would have happily worked in the stables if my mom would have let me. I don’t really buy into a lot of that class stuff.”

“Easy to say from your side.” He looked back at her again, “You working in a stable? I don’t know I don’t see it.”

She punched him in the arm, “If you don’t walk at some point we are never getting to the next floor.”

Ash held his arm where she had punched him, “Ow never mind. I see it now.”

He gave her a devilish grin. She gave him another shove, “And my dressage is something you will never see. Walk now.”

With a knowing, “Yes ma’am.” Ash turned around and finished the last stretch to the top. No more stairs going up.

Ash made a big deal. “Oh look, it’s the attic.”

He opened the door grandly as if he were presenting her with the contents as a gift. But it wasn’t an attic. It was another unremarkable floor of a house.

Nothing abnormal here. Still armed with his curtain rod Ash proceeded to poke around. But it was just a hallway leading into two bedrooms. Beds, side table. Armoire. Attached bathrooms. They shared a confused look before heading through a door at the end of the hallway that unfortunately for their leg muscles led to more stairs up.

Riley said quietly, “Ok, but this is weird right.”

Ash paused and looked at her relieved. “Yes. Thank you. How is it so strange but not at the same time?”

Riley fervently agreed. “Exactly!”

They climbed to the next floor, quiet but not awkwardly so. They got to the next floor and there was no point in poking around anymore. It was barely worth opening doors, but they still did. They found another totally plausible set of bedrooms. Different still from the first two. Different patterns on the beds. Different layouts. Different clothes in the closets.

But there were stairs going upstairs so there wasn’t even any point in looking too deeply. They kept going and Riley was starting to show the effort of climbing four flights of stairs.  Nothing had jumped out at them. Nothing had even made any indication that they existed. No sign of Bliss. Nothing was all they had, but it was the most confusing nothing that either of them had ever seen.

     They made it up another floor. Same thing inside. Same, but different. Nothing, but then why did it keep going?

Riley sat down on the bed dejected.

“Ash? What are we even doing here?”

He took off the backpack that he always wore, putting on the floor at the foot of the bed and sat down next to her. “Yeah, I signed up for fighting monsters. This is exactly why I hate magic.”

Riley looked at him, her nose and forehead scrunched. “You hate magic?”

Ash laid back on the bed. “Yeah, well. You would too.”

Riley’s eyebrow shot up, her curiosity peaked. “Why is that? Something to do with the poem?”

Ash looked up at her with a smirk that didn’t try to hide that he knew exactly what he was doing. “You think I’m going to tell you my biggest secret for free?”

“Big secret! Saint knows. I could just ask him later.”

“Yeah, but that’s no fun, is it?”

Riley turned her head to look at him, gauging the situation. She laid back on the bed next to him. “I’m guessing this is a secret for a secret type situation? I’m not sure what secrets I have with how much this village knows about my family. Isn’t that sort of how it works around here?”

Ash ceded that point with a laugh. “I’m sure I know about what you want people to know. I am pretty sure that’s how it works everywhere.”

“Sounds like you have spent time among the upper crust.”

Riley put an extra flourish on the way she said it, in the poshest way possible. She looked at him expectantly.

But Ash looked at the ceiling with a laugh, his eyes far away. “Yeah, I was born into the upper class. Not Magic Keepers or anything that fancy like that, but yeah. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen my family in fifteen, probably almost twenty years.”

Riley was stunned. Eventually she managed to ask, “What happened?”

Ash turned his head to look at her on the bed, “You know you haven’t let me ask any questions yet.”

He said it playfully, but Riley started to cry. Full weeping with snot and tears, unable to catch her breath.

Ash froze for a moment. He reached into his bag and pulled out a handkerchief which he handed to Riley. Then after another moment of internal struggle he put his arm around her. Riley took the handkerchief using it to try and stem the waters flowing from her face. It got worse when Ash put his arm around her but she didn’t pull away.

Ash backpedaled, “I am so sorry. Please I was just trying to make you laugh I didn’t mean anything.”

Riley answered between sobs. “No, it wasn’t you.” More sobs. “You are so kind.” And then, “It’s everything else!”

She leaned into his shoulder, heaving and crying, leaving a dark mark on his black shirt. After a minute her explosive feelings had run their course, and she started to take deeper ragged breaths.

That’s when she froze and held the handkerchief up. “Was this clean?”

Ash looked down at her with one eyebrow raised. “Well, it was.” He took a moment before adding, “Look, clearly your siblings are jerks, but from what I know you and your mom were pretty close. Are you doing ok?”

Riley managed a half smile at the handkerchief. But she shook her head and was back to jagged breaths as she answered.

“I don’t know what you want me to say. My siblings are assholes, and now I am stuck here with them without my best friend. I am annoyed and overwhelmed.”

Ash nodded. “I get that maybe more than you think.” He gave her a little squeeze and rubbed her arm with the hand that was around her. “You talking about wanting to work in the stable earlier. It won’t stop you from being sad, but maybe with time this can be an opportunity to live life the way you wanted to.”

Riley looked up at him disbelieving. “What like abandon my family and title to go work in the stable to spite my dead mom? That’s kind of crazy talk.”

Riley politely extricated herself from Ash’s arm by getting up off the bed with the grace becoming of her upbringing. She gestured towards him on the bed circling his aura.

“You must have some kind of secret for all this mystery and game playing.”

“I do.” Ash sized her up like he had done before on the stairs. It was somehow even more impressive now, done from his place of sitting casually on the bed. “Ok. I will tell you my secret. If.”

Riley managed an impressive eye roll, crossing her arms and looking at Ash with high expectations and a slightly raised nose. She wouldn’t have appreciated the comparison to Carter but it wouldn’t have been wrong.

“Show me your dressage.”

Riley looked positively scandalized.

Ash laughed, and answered before Riley could storm out of the room as she clearly wanted to do.

“I don’t know what you are thinking about. But I would never ask you to turn your life upside down. How about you start by taking a ride in the countryside with a peasant boy.” He corrected himself. “A horse ride.”

Riley’s face turned red and she made a tsk sound as her tongue sucked from the roof of her mouth. She had been outmatched.

“Fine. As soon as we get out of here, I will let you meet my horse. We’ll let Lady decide what kind of person you are.”

Ash nodded, “Horses never lie about those kinds of things.” Clearly, he had horse treats hiding in his backpack too, the confidence that he declared that with.

Still standing with her arms crossed she wasn’t letting Ash have an inch. “So, what is this big secret?”

Ash reached down into his bag on the floor and rifled around inside it. He pulled out a poetry notebook and flipped to a well-worn page.

He held it out to Riley and asked, “Do you know what a time traveler is?”