Rainboots
A Short Story By Stew Stunes
Chapter 2: Escape With Me
“Whoa! Careful there Elisa.” A man selling hand
woven garments from local flowers warned as she accidentally bumped
into him. She had been drifting along the road not paying attention
to what was around her and had nearly run over a friend of her
fathers. She apologized to the man, and continued on her way all the
while still sulking. She could not figure out why,
but she was transfixed on knowing more about the boy on top of the
mountain. The worst part of it all was that no one would listen to
her stories about the boy and the castle. They all told her that she
was making things up. And no matter the amount of promising and “I’ll
show it to you’s,”
no one would listen.
She felt completely alone in her small village. The
more she brought it up to her family, the more frustrated they became
with her,
and there were no other children in the settlement for her to play
with, so what was she to do. All she could do was try and hold it in
and forget about the boy on top of the mountain.
“I wonder what his name is?” She began wondering
again, forgetting about the task at hand and nearly spilling all of
the things she was carrying from the field to her father’s farm.
Recovering, and even angrier at herself,
she sped along to complete her work.
Feeling defeated and worse than ever after nearly
causing a stampede with the cows, she slowly floated behind her
father as they made their way back home for dinner. She could tell by
her father’s silence that he was unhappy with her. Wanting to
argue, she tried to speak, but was at a loss for words.
They washed their hands and sat down with Elisa’s
mother to eat. The meal almost passed without an argument,
but Elisa was once again not paying attention, and murmured out loud.
“I wonder what food the boy eats if he lives on top of the
mountain?”
This was apparently the final straw for her parents, as
they both turned to her with very serious expressions. Her mother
started first. “Honey, I don’t want you to take this the wrong
way, but your father and I are worried that you may have developed an
imaginary friend or something.”
“People are beginning to talk in town, and they say
you are lying and making everything up to draw attention to
yourself.” Her father concluded sharply.
Elisa was instantly furious. How could her parents doubt
her, she had always been perfectly honest with them. The
anger bubbling over, she shouted.
“They’re jealous!”
Her father held up a single finger, it was enough to
quiet her, for now. “Now hear us out. We love you Elisa, but we
also understand where these people are coming from. They are
accustomed to watching you fly all
around helping everyone. And, unfortunately, this week your help has
been more of a danger.”
“We just want to talk with you and make sure
everything is okay, Elisa.” Her mother added softly.
Although Elisa knew deep down that her parents meant
well, she was too furious to listen.
“No!” She yelled, viciously stomping her foot on the
ground to seal her statement, while simultaneously standing up from
the table knocking over her chair. “I’m not going to sit here and
let people say I’m making up lies and being untruthful. I will go
back up the mountain and I will bring proof of what I saw.”
Without another look back she was out the door and off
into the dimming light. Elisa braced herself as harsh rain pelted her
in the face while she flew upwards towards the storm.
Before she had even passed into the first layer of
cloud, she was over being angry at her parents. However, she was not
over being furious with the people who thought she was lying about
her adventures for attention. Her temper was not the reason she
continued on through the nasty rain. For her own curiosity and
wonder, she was
determined to meet the boy and learn about him and his castle in the
sky. Elisa had to make sure that it was all real.
Her stomach rumbled with nervous worry as she realized
that she had flown up as high as she needed too. The castle should be
right there, but the storm had moved in and had swallowed it with
dark clouds. Trying her best to peer past the dark shadows, she moved
cautiously towards the direction she thought the mountain should be.
Letting out a small yelp, her face came within an inch
of colliding with a brick wall. After letting out a deep breath at
her close call, she let out another cheer of excitement that the
castle was still there and not a figment of her imagination. While
Elisa was drifting between the dark storm clouds, she had begun to
worry that she had made it all up. Her hand traced the outline of the
castle, as she crept up to the tallest turret.
At last she had made it back to the strange castle.
Elisa landed with the faintest of sound on the balcony where she had
first found the boy. Her stomach was filled with butterflies as she
reached out with her lanky arm and knocked on the door.
She waited all of two seconds before impatiently
wrapping her knuckles against the door many more times.
A jiggle of the lock indicated someone had heard her
ruckus. After letting out a huge gulp of air, the door swung open and
instead of the boy she was expecting to see, a short and very elderly
looking lady stepped out.
“What are you doing out in this terrible rain little
girl? No child should be up here in this weather, and I believe you
have classes at this time. I’ll have your teacher write you up for
skipping.” The old lady grumbled and grabbed her by the wrist
pulling her inside the castle.
Elisa wanted to yell and protest, but was quickly
quieted as the lady led her at a remarkable speed down many flights
of stairs. They crossed hallways, and entered more doorways and
passageways than Elisa could count. They switched back, left, right,
so many times that Elisa began to think they must be going in
circles, but they were in fact walking deeper and deeper down into
the mountain. Instead of being dark and scary, like Elisa had
imagined the inside of the castle to be, it was filled with light
from candles and fires in nearly every direction. Bright paint of
many different colors made each room feel bigger and more open than
their dimensions suggested.
Eventually, the lady stopped at an ornate stone carved
door and wrenched it open. With a final tug, the old lady sent Elisa
spilling into the room.
“I found this one outside on top of the north tower,
while it was raining!” The old lady squawked at a tall and stern
looking teacher.
Everyone in the room gasped at the news. The teacher set
the book she was using down on a table, and marched over to Elisa
picking her up off the ground. “You’re in very big trouble. Five
detentions! You know the rules.”
Elisa could only nod solemnly, as she had no idea what
the rules were, but felt that it would be a mistake to tell them that
not only was she was not a student but she wasn’t from this
mountain at all.
After another round of scolding by both the old maid and
the teacher, Elisa was sent to the back of the classroom to sulk. She
put her head down in shame. For some reason she felt like she had
absolutely deserved the scolding she had gotten from them. This made
her think of her parents and she instantly felt worse that she had
not said goodbye or been nicer to them. They had only been trying to
protect her from rumors and village gossip.
With the resolution to complete her mission, she raised
her head to look around the room. All the other kids were looking
towards the teacher as she droned on about stone formulations and
math rock, but Elisa could tell that many eyes were daring to drift
back and stare at her. The teacher may have been oblivious enough to
notice that the girl she had just yelled at was not one of her
students, but all the kids knew that there was someone here that did
not belong. She watched as many of them squirmed in their seats
trying to think of where they might have seen her before. Smiling to
herself, she enjoyed watching them figure out that she was not from
inside the mountain and start to panic a little bit as the
realization hit them.
Her eyes swung around the room as a handful of sneaking
eyes all averted her gaze. She noticed a familiar looking boy sitting
right beside her. It was her turn to jump and have a moment of panic.
Elisa had wanted to find the boy, but had failed to even notice that
she was sitting next to him.
Using slight and cautious movement so to avoid the
notice of the other children, she waved to him. But frowned when she
noticed that his eyes were wildly darting around the room. Unlike
everyone else in the room that was trying to get a better look at
her; this boy was doing everything in his might to act like she was
not there. His head swiveled around pretending to be interested in
something on the far wall, but it kept snapping back for a quick
glance before not-so-sneakily finding another spot to be interested
in.
The rest of the class passed in much the same manner.
She tried to get his attention. He tried to avoid it, and all the
other kids tried to not be the first one to freak out.
Like in any other school a bell rang to signal the end
of the class. There was a rustling of papers as all the kids leapt up
to chatter. The boy tore a piece of paper in half before shoving it
into Elisa’s hands and darting off into the crowd.
She uncrumbled the ball of paper and read, Meet
me on the balcony at midnight. Elisa smiled
and avoided the long stares from everyone as she made her way out of
the classroom. She did her best to remember how she got down this
far, but it had all happened so fast. Figuring that as long as she
kept moving upwards, she must be going the right way, she walked and
walked along many passageways, through doorways that led to
entryways, across many hallways and up what felt like thousands of
stairways.
Somehow and with much guessing and luck, she made it to
a set stairs that spun in a spiral up inside a very tall tower. Elisa
figured this must be the right one and started running through the
air on her way to the door. Just as a new day began, she swung the
door open and stopped short as rain and wind smacked her in the face.
The boy was not there.
“Oh no!” She whined and could feel a familiar
feeling of disappointment seep into her heart. “I guess he really
didn’t like me.”
Out of the corner of her eye she saw something moving.
Looking up, she saw the boy jumping and waving to her desperately
from another balcony on the exact other side of the castle. She had
gone up the wrong tower.
Laughing at her own mistake, she bounded across the
distance and landed like a ballerina on the balcony next to the boy.
As soon as she saw him standing in the rain and the
wind, she forgot all about the questions she had in her head to ask
him. Once again they stood absolutely still, the rain and wind
tugging at them, staring at each other as if trying to make sure that
the other was real or imaginary.
He was the first to speak. “I know you’re not from
here. I saw you flying around yesterday like an angel.”
Elisa laughed a little at the thought of being an angel.
“I’m no angel silly. I was just exploring. Who are you?”
The boy hesitated but she could tell that he was just as
curious about her as she was of him. “My name is Booker and we all
live in this mountain and I kind of thought that no one lived
outside.”
The way Booker had said the word outside indicated that
he was terribly frightened about it. After a slight full-body shiver,
he quickly recovered and continued on. “We’re not really allowed
to be outside or want to go outside. But yesterday I just had to get
away from...well this was the only place I could think of where no
other kid would dare to go. So I ran up here, fully expecting to get
caught somehow and to my surprise I see you flying all around with
more happiness than I think I’ve ever seen in my life. I hate
living in the dark.”
Elisa felt sorry for the boy; she could not image not
getting to go outside let alone not fly. “That sounds so hard and
boring being cooped up under the mountain your whole life. Why don’t
you leave?”
Booker’s knees clapped together as he nervously peered
away from her into the dark clouds and the spraying mist that flew
into their now soaked faces. “They say it isn’t safe to venture
outside or go below the clouds as floods can destroy everything that
matters to a person. It happened to our people long ago, everything
that we cared about was washed away. So our leaders decided the best
way to save us from ever having this happen again was to build an
entire city inside the mountain. Safe and dry, away from any kind of
weather. Eventually we kept growing and soon enough our diggers broke
out from under the earth and here we are standing on top of the world
where nothing can hurt us. But sometimes I think that we need to
leave the darkness, it feels suffocating to me.”
“Shh.” She put a finger on his lips to quiet his out
of control worry. Placing her hand on his holding the balcony
railing, she said to him. “Escape with me. Let me show you the moon
and the stars, let me show you the land below the clouds and above
the ground.”
Despite not entirely sure what he was agreeing to he
shook his head yes. They both smiled wide as Elisa kicked off the
ground, grabbing onto both of Booker’s hands and pulling him up
into the sky with her.
She laughed as Booker’s feet flailed all around trying
with desperate exasperation to
remain on the ground. Internally, she marveled at his bravery for
trusting her so soon after only meeting a few moments ago.
“Hey! What’s your name?” Booker yelled up to her
trying to keep his mind away from the fact that the safe balcony was
getting further and further away.
“My name is Elisa. What would you like to see first my
friend?” She asked.
He looked up at her in awe of the confident girl
casually flying them through a terrible rain storm, “Show me where
you live. I’d love to see that. I’ve been thinking about it since
I saw you flying above me.”
Elisa nodded and sped down the mountain towards her
village. They broke through the clouds; all that could be seen from
her small village was the sparkling fire-light. The village appeared
like faint stars in the sea of space that manage to poke through and
grant a lucky wish to anyone who might care enough to look upwards.
“That’s my house.” She said pointing in the
direction of a small house and farm closest to the mountain on the
edge of the village.
“It’s amazing!” The boy shouted in amazement. “I
can’t believe it; people do live on the outside of the earth.”
They were now flying at the same height, all he had to
do was keep holding her hand and he was free to look in any
direction. “What is that?”
“Oh that?” She answered bemused. “That is a cow.
My family raises them for food. What do you eat?” She asked as she
envisioned all the people in the mountain stuffing their faces with
worms and night crawlers. She grossed out a little at the terrible
image in her head.
“Oh the important things, vitamins and minerals!” He
answered matter-of-factly without explaining how you eat a mineral.
“What else can I show you, Booker?” Elisa asked as
they flew over the rest of the village.
He pointed up. “On our way back, can you show me the
moon and the stars? I’ve only seen the outside during the day.”
“You’re in for a treat; it’s nearly a full moon
tonight!” Elisa hollered with joy before switching directions and
blasting upwards, back through the unbroken wall of rain and clouds.
Wisps of grey matter tugged at them, as they blew past every layer
until they popped out above the clouds.
They were both amazed and awed at the sight before them.
Clouds spread out in all directions as far as the eye could see, but
looking up was the truly awe inspiring thing. The stars shone
brighter than Elisa had ever seen them, the moon illuminated half of
the night sky with its opulent brilliance.
Elisa and Booker lay on their backs to watch the sky as
their bodies drifted with the natural current of the sky. For a long
time, neither of them spoke as in that moment they were both the
happiest they had ever been. Perfectly content to allow the night to
last it’s maximum, they drifted until the sun began to peak over
the edge of the cloud spilling warm light on them. The sun’s rays
mixed with the grey clouds turning their twinkling night into a
beauty of orange hues and soft pink overtones.
“This is what it must feel like to be at sea. Nothing
around for miles and miles, just you and nature.” She whispered
beside Booker.
“What’s a sea?” He asked, having never heard the
word before.
“Something you probably aren’t ready to see yet.
Someday you will be and someday I will take you there and show it to
you. I’ve never even gotten to see it, but I see paintings and hear
stories about it all the time. It must be the most beautiful thing in
the world, but it’s very far away from here.” Elisa told him.
“I can’t imagine anything more beautiful than what
I’ve seen tonight.” He confided as they sank below the clouds to
return home.
They drifted back to the balcony in complete silence.
The clouds re-soaking them from head to toe again. As Booker’s feet
touched back down on the balcony, he looked very sad for a moment. “I
can’t tell anyone about you or how amazing you are or how wonderful
the world is on the outside.”
“And neither can I as they don’t believe that a boy
could live in a castle on top of the mountain.”
Booker rubbed his eye, “But that doesn’t matter
because we both know each other exist and is real. We’ll always
have that.”
“You know this isn’t goodbye.” Elisa grinned.
“It’s not?” Booker questioned, still doubtful.
Placing her own two feet on the ground so that they
were eye to eye, she responded. “It’s a short goodbye, not a
forever goodbye. I promise to come back here every night at midnight,
until I have shown you the whole world. How does that sound?”
Booker’s moment of self doubt was washed away with
complete relief. “Thank you. You’re the only friend I've ever met
and you're already the best friend I could ever imagine.”
She watched as he slid into the building careful to not
slam the door and alert anyone
to the fact
that he was outside.
The night had been perfect as Elisa recalled while
floating in dreamy bliss back towards her village, this time she had
a smile so big and genuine that she was certain her face would get
stuck and that nothing could ever be done to remove it from her
expression.
Thanks for reading! See You Next Sunday for Chapter 3: The Light Comes to You
