OTHERBORN: THE CREVASSE

EPISODE THREE, PART FIVE

The bus finally stops. I get out.

There is a single car waiting, but I don't recognize the woman, or people with her in back.

I stare down the road, only to glance back, noting a passenger in the front starts to open their door and stands. And a redhead looks into my eyes.

"Cor—?" Her voice shakes. I don't recognize her, but then I look back at the eyes. They are Angie's.

Her hair's changed. She shuts the door and stands there awhile, as the other woman looks over my way, then drives off from the station and out of the lot.

Angie walks up to me. At first, she looks confused by my face as well, and then, she's three feet away.

I see tears start to well. She says, "They said you were injured, that you couldn't come home, that you injured your head. But you had the best treatment."

She is silent awhile, and I don't know how to say what I want. My heart's louder than traffic right now. I only nod.

And she continues, "This is hard. Katie's going to stay with the kids, while we talk."

"Oh, all right."

"They didn't know if you would remember me now...and that I should talk about the present, at first."

We are both awkward, and I open my mouth, but nothing comes out.

Angie asks, "So, what are you planning to do these days now?" The question seems to worry her.

She looks too serious for me to hold close.

"I will...do have...a detective-ing thing—" I'd engineered this when I'd been on the bus. Seems like something that would bridge our two worlds. "—in a month."

"That's what you've been doing?"

"Not yet. It's my first...away from..." I can't say, training, as she'll ask me about it, so I have to stop.

"Hospital?" She perks up.

I nod. "That will do," I say.

"And...How is that going? Your head...I mean...Are you feeling okay?"

"Yes. Thanks. I thought I would take some time...And try to see...you."

"Oh, Cor...This is hard. I don't know how I feel. Everything feels so...right back where we were...just to see you. And it's been so long. Things are going to have changed..."

"We can go for a walk."

She smiles, weakly, reluctant, but then takes the hand I offer to help her over the curb. But she doesn't let go!

I know we're the same.

We walk and we talk. She tells me how the kids have grown up. She is a little elusive about what work she does. "Assignment" comes back.

I've thought about this word for such a long time. What sort of assignments could Angie have had?

I still have my hopes. Maybe, if lucky, one day, I can tell her about my own and my training and she'd be impressed.

She doesn't volunteer anymore about that, and I choose not to press her. I will carry my hope. "I'd like to see you again."

"I just need to feel everything out, Cor."

"I understand."

"For a time." She looks like a stranger, but still like my Angie. "I would like that as well."

We decide to part here, and meet again after "my gig" as she calls it. "We need to learn who each other are now."

"I agree." And there's more than I have remembered. "Four years is long."

"Six, now, Cor," she corrects me.

"Oh, right. Yes. It is six, isn't it?"
I will tell her in time, at least the sum of it that I am able—and more, IF she's under "special" assignment, like I am. I smile, and I hope this smug little thought will hold me till I get can back on my next leave.

"We can talk."

~~~/

Thanks for sticking with us, and with Cor, as he becomes... well, just Custer...!

This has been a strange character intro to write... And only one episode to go in his short introduction (which in theory is only the start of his journey between now and Earth's Crust Survival...)

I fear so many things about this story...

Like, firstly....
I suspect deaths door survival isn't that funny!

Secondly...
How do you make a bad guy relatable...And have that not be a problem from there...? (No matter which way that goes for a reader it's bound to be wrong! ;))

And thirdly...we can't even give the rest of his journey away yet... or what happened during these missing years. So this intro doesn't do more than just hint at what Custer becomes in the future ...

So everyone reading right now is likely a writer... So got some writerly answers for us?

Which will bring us to question one: does this story so far even hint how Custer's our bad guy strongly enough to this point / or at the point of next week?

And truly, this was supposed to become a humour / romance... But I think we have to reframe it as action adventure / sci-fi instead for this intro alone...

What do you think?