Raven's Flight

Chapter 1: Part 2 - Ava

I step into my bedroom, letting the strap of my backpack slide down my arm. My bedroom, the perfect picturesque example of a lifelike photograph. Nothing about it has changed; the walls are still light blue; the books I left behind, still on the shelves; photographs from five years ago and prior still in their spots on my dresser and walls. My bedspread looks untouched even though I know my mom washed my sheets yesterday so they would be fresh for when I snuggled into them tonight. Did they come in here while I was gone? Did they look at the pictures and try to imagine I was still here? Or did they shut the door and tried to forget it existed, that it wasn't a place trapped in time from five years ago. This room hasn't changed but my siblings have. They've continued to grow and develop. Their lives have remained in a constant state of movement.

Sinking onto the edge of my bed, I pick up from my nightstand the magazine I was reading the night before I left for the university. I rub my thumb over the date before flipping through the pages of the popular robotics magazine.

"Ava," my dad calls, and I hear footsteps padding down the hall toward my room. "Your uncle's outside."

I wipe away the few tears that collected in my eyes and set the magazine back in its place—its stand—this room seems to have become a museum after all, and head outside where my uncle is parked in his truck. I climb in the passenger seat, and he takes off.

"How was it?" He keeps his eyes on the road.

"I felt like a ghost looking in on a scene I used to know so well."

"You're back now and that's going to change. Things will get normal again, you'll see."

My uncle lives in the mountains, not far from my house. I know in the past people used to think of islands as tropical with great big bright flowers and plants glistening with water droplets, but that was before Grenalla became an island. Yes, it's beautiful, just not tropical.

"I'm back because of you," I say.

"Much to your mother's chagrin that it was all my doing."

I shrug, feeling uncomfortable because I know it's true. He offered me a job, and so I'm back. My family being here was a deciding factor, but still, I was going to go where I would have a job. "This job has been what I've always wanted."

"I know." He ruffles up my hair, and frizzy strings of dirty blonde fall in my eyes.

Uncle Marcus parks in his driveway, and I take in the sight of his house—the three red round sections that create a sort of Venn Diagram. It's been so long.

He takes me to his workshop where one whole section of the house has been dedicated to it. Drones on tables fill the room in different states of condition. Some have only begun to be worked on. Others are almost complete.

"These are the ones from Grenalla Industries." He directs my attention to the center table. On it are four black drones, two with six sets of propellers, the other two with four. "The last version of these drones are currently being used on the island to predict dangerous weather patterns. These though are going to the environmental outpost off our coast. What do you think? They're a beauty, right?"

I crouch down before the table, getting on eyelevel with the drones, admiring their design and gadgets. "They are." This is actually happening. I am at the job I've always wanted—that I've imagined. The reason I spent five years at university. All those years of work have finally paid off.

"GI is going to be sending more these, but specifically for the island. They can detect rises in sea level, scan for body heat, and can even help to provide temporary fixes to leaks."

I rise. "When do we get to test them out?"

He grins. "Tomorrow, but I think right now, your family is dying to spend time with you, and I don't want to interrupt my sister's mother and daughter time." He winks. "You know how scary she can be."