The Gemini Age: Book One

[6-2] Old Wounds - Part Two

The streets flowed more frantically than Jade had so far experienced in her short time in the city. Trios of grey heads in business wear manoeuvred along the pavements in compact triangular formations. Out of the side roads on which they lived, children freed from the burden of schoolwork poured forth to cause havoc in the main thoroughfare. Outdoor seating areas engulfed the streets with their bright plastic fencing and broad parasols rendered unnecessary by the grey skies overhead.

Jade clung to Wilfred's sweeping form and carved a way through the crowds, skirting by a jet of putrid water that twisted through the air. She traced back the arc of the water stream to a girl wearing a nervous expression, its mirror image found on the face of a boy crouched in the side street behind her, eyes wet with fear. Beads of mud dripped from his hair.

Though her uncle continued to walk through the sea of foot traffic, Jade stopped. The girl turned to flee, yet she was too slow to evade the brick wall Jade assembled from the buildings around her. "What's the big idea?" she asked, approaching the girl with her arms outstretched, knocking the brimmed hat of a passing earpiece-wearer as she did.

The girl tried to break through the wall, and Jade responded by tightening the bricks of her construction and pulling it closer to them both. Boxed in, the girl sniffed uncontrollably. "I didn't do anything, I promise! I was just messing!" she sobbed, sounding even younger than her few years of age suggested.

"Messing? The tears on that boy's face say otherwise, kid!" Jade used her height to pressure the girl into the new wall, and as soon as the girl found the wall with her hands Jade pointed her finger just below the child's nose. "Who do you think you are to treat anybody with such –"

"That'll do, Jade!" The sudden booming voice snapped Jade's concentration and made her release her wall, rendering it little more than a freestanding stack of bricks in the breeze. Wilfred crossed towards them, the boy from the other side of the street bawling in tow. "I don't know what happened, but I'm sure they can resolve it amongst themselves. Make up and move along, now, young ones."

The boy's red eyes leaked as they stared at Jade from behind Wilfred's leg. On her other side, the girl had begun to cry also, and the chorus of choked sobs and stifled wails pinned her in place. Only as the two children left down the side street together did she find the energy to meet Wilfred's gaze. "I...I didn't mean to...I just wanted to help."

Wilfred took her arm and led her back to the main thoroughfare. "I believe you. Wanting to help is important, yes. However, it's just as important to recognise when your help may not be needed."

Jade tugged her hoodie around her shoulders and looked over the crowd, her eyes eventually landing on the rooftops of the terraced buildings on the nearside of the street. A row of starlings strutted along the slatted roofs and hopped over the trails of skylights and chimneys. Their patchwork of calls unravelled down to street-level, confirming the otherwise silent approach of spring. From high, another starling dropped and landed beside the others, its plumage speckled with wisps of sky-blue energy that sprinkled over the thoroughfare. The other starlings scattered away in one coordinated move, and the lone bird ascended to give chase in a swirl of glistering feathers.

One feather floated by Jade's side, landing in her outstretched hand without a sound and lighting the lines of her palm. Though she walked as she observed it, a heat emanated from the feather and warmed her skin against the breeze. "Look here, Uncle," she called, her eyes still on the ring of light traced over her sleeve.

Wilfred watched a wisp spin to the ground, then studied the feather in his niece's possession. "Remarkable," he muttered, reaching for the feather. His fingers brushed the thin spine, then flew back as he hissed suddenly. "Be careful! Can't you feel that awful chill?"