What Comes After | ✔️

Chapter 24

September 28

I'm trying to cry, but I can't force the tears to come out. We tried making the day the best it could be, and it was one of the best of my life. But I can't help feeling empty. I'm going to miss Charles.

Early in the morning, I snuck out, slipping my bright pink sticky note onto my bed, making sure that Mom and Dad would see it and not panic. Grandma and Grandpa were awake, but they didn't know what I was doing, and even so, they wouldn't be able to stop me. I tip-toed around beds strewn with everyone's sleeping bodies, and grabbed two cans, gently putting them in a backpack. I also made sure to grab the amber bee from the market. After double-checking to make sure that no one else was awake, I slipped on a mask and snuck out of the door.

I had woken up a bit after six, so the skies were still dark. The air, however, was faintly blue, cloaking me in a dark turquoise, as if I was walking underwater, and the stars in the sky were fading away while the giant moon remained strong. I took my time walking to the railroad tracks, listening to the rush of the creek and for a moment, I even thought that I heard the chirping of birds and droning of cicadas. The sky was lightening, and by the time I reached the railroad tracks and saw Charles, it was a pale turquoise and the flecks of starlight had vanished.

"Hey," I said and waved.

He waved back. "I feel like we should have a more iconic greeting since it might be our last in a while."

"I think it might be too late for do-overs," I replied. "How are we going to greet each other again?"

"Wait," he said and disappeared behind the tree line.

"Where are you going?" I called out jokingly, as I walked towards him because I knew that he was going to pull some weird prank on me.

He walked out from behind the trees. "Welcome to the kingdom of Charles. My subject, please state your name, your purpose of visit, and, most importantly, the passphrase for entry."

"You are being super weird," I said, kinda confused by his performance. "And you already know what I'm here for."

"Sir 'You are being super weird,' the passphrase, please," he said. "Or you must kiss the king's foot."

"I'm not doing either," I said.

"You were supposed to play along," he said with a sigh, breaking out of his regal character. "You just made this greeting an iconic fail."

"I feel like you're stalling for something," I said.

"No, I'm not," he said, and I rolled my eyes at him. "Okay, fine, I am. Follow me."

He ran down the rusting rail tracks, and I followed him. After a minute or so over dried weeds and gravel crunching under our boots, we reached a place where the dense tangle of tree branches cleared out, as we stared at the mountains on the east. The sun was peeking out from behind the hills, as roses and lavenders swirled around the shadowed ridges.

"It took me a while to find, but this is the best place around here to see the sunrise," he said. "See the little gap in the mountains where the sun pops out from."

"I thought that you didn't care about stuff like this," I replied. "Remember when you said that you were going to miss the 'most important astronomical event of our lifetime' for SATs."

"Well, I've disowned the old me. He didn't have his priorities straight," he said and sighed. "This is the last time that I'm ever going to see the sunrise here."

"Obviously," I replied. "You'll probably never stand in the same spot again, just a slightly different one next time."

He gave me a sad look that said, "You know what I mean," and then, he turned back to face the sunrise. The tangerines and goldens had blended with the roses, as amber light filtered through the woods around the railways and shadows flickered on the ground around us. It was a majestic dance of light, and when the sun ascended high enough that the colors disappeared and the pale blue returned, I broke my gaze to turn to Charles.