Chapter 1- "Look Up" (Excerpt 2)
The next excerpt from Chapter 1 of my Book of Truth series
pssst, start here:
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(con’t from Excerpt 1:)
I close my eyes as the sun becomes too bright on my face. As tiny swimming orbs of light blossom behind my eyelids, I run through everything I know so far in my head.
First. We’re moving to Ground.
Second. Almost no people live on Ground. It’s 3032. We just celebrated the centennial of the first AIR Segment that lifted from the surface like three years ago. AIR History curriculum teaches that 2218 was the last time any humans lived residentially on the surface of Earth. Of course, there’s a few Ag-communities run by Apollo’s food corporation that operate as a back-up food supply, and a few other Ground-based operations that keep AIR running, but that’s it. My mom grew up on Ground because her parents were botanists on one of the Ag-communes. It was rare for kids to be born in those compounds, and the few kids who were born were usually sent back to the Ring with grandparents or other relatives.
Third. My brother and I have been enrolled in the fabled Olympus Academy. Apparently, her secret connection to Luke Apollo was enough to get the two of us scholarships to his top secret Groundling university. This is even harder to wrap my head around than the moving part.
The kids who grow up in Segment 3 like me and Chalyb are poor. No one goes hungry anywhere on AIR, but nowdays, the earliest built segments are reserved for the working class. None of us expected to leave the Atmospheric Interface Residence (AIR) so it was insulting to watch the coverage of each year’s new class of Olympus Academy students - offspring of AIR execs, Segment rulers, and other celebrities and nobles- prepare for their yearly descent to Ground.
They televise it of course, like they do everything to do with Luke Apollo. And we have to watch their shining glorious ugly ass faces waving before they strap on their masks, don their safety packs and slide down the shoot.
This brings me to number four on this list of crazy ass things that are suddenly true about my life: My mom knows Luke Apollo.
The only reason we’re not scheduled to enter Olympus Academy through the designated drop shoot with the other students is invited us to ride in his personal TUBEcraft with him instead.
Mom says she called in a favor with Apollo to have us enrolled in the school so we could be on Ground with her. She’s taking her specialized botany research to the surface and didn’t want to leave us behind. But all of that still doesn’t explain how she got such a favor in the first place. The whole thing is making my head hurt. Which brings me to number five:
There’s something my mom isn’t telling us. Something big.
She’s never been particularly forthcoming, which I always assumed was a side effect of her not having much time to talk. She regularly worked two shifts at the greenhouse, making sure we were able to complete our courses or, on a few notable occasions, physically attend the local sector school. She made sure we all had dinner together every day, but aside from that meal it was uncommon to see her around the pad. But 4 days notice to move our entire little family to Ground? Extreme, even for her.
The sun’s rays are practically blinding me at this point, even with my eyes closed, and the edges of this wig tickling my shoulders and neck are enough to make me ready to scream. A familiar jagged heat blossoms in my chest, it feels like angry copper wires simmering together. Oh no, not right now.
In through my nose, out through my mouth…
My mom stiffens next to me. She knows what’s about to happen.
“Noaa…ok?” her whisper is barely a breath.
I try to shake my head but it’s really more of a twitch. I’m too aware of the camera. Of Luke Apollo, a man whose net worth is higher than that of every other human in the Ring combined sitting so close to me the edge of his shoes are touching the tips of my boots. The light is way too bright. I can’t breathe. My whole body is about to start convulsing if I don’t gain control.
I wipe my sweaty palm on my pant and cover my eyes, trying to damp at least one of these incredible sensations. For at least three seconds, I think I’ve managed to stave off the fit. And then a creature I’ve never seen in real life before hovers right in front of me. A bird. The largest bird I’ve ever seen, all black. Black beak. Black eye. Black feet. And stares straight into my soul which….my eyes weren’t even open?
All at once my body shuts down, my muscles seizing up, abdomen, chest, throat in turn…I’ve learned to do this silently, almost imperceptibly at this point. There’s nothing I can do but ride it out. Sometimes, if I breathe right, it’s even pleasurable… and it’ll be over soon…..I open my eyes.
The bird is there. Raven, the name comes to my tongue. It blinks. The sun bursts from behind a cloud and all of a sudden I am floating or falling or something, I am somewhere else, I am standing on a cloudy bank where tiny blue flowers pop their heads above the wispy mantle of an earth I’ve seen only in my dreams.
The light is truly blinding and yet this new creature before me is brighter than even the sun… I am vaguely aware that somewhere else my body is slowing down, my heart rate slowing down, but Right Now, Right Here, I am trying to spare my retinas by bowing my head.
Noaa- a voice like razors laced with honey speaks from in my head and around my whole being.
Noaa, lighten up this is the path. This has always been the path.
I say nothing because my tongue is locked behind my chattering teeth.
Noaa-Look up
I shit you not a giant whale floats behind this creature which is all wings and eyes at odd angles and brilliance like the clearest diamond to ever exit the bowels of the earth.
I nod. Petals of honeysuckle flavor bloom in my saliva which is suddenly much too present in my mouth. I wipe away the drool that threatens to topple out of my lips, which have finally settled. This is the part I hate the most. It’s like I just ate a far too delicate, decadent pastry only I didn’t. Why give me the pleasure of this without the actual food?
My spiritual reckoning as my mother calls them- massive eye roll- is ending. I am returning to my body. I managed not to drool inside SunChariot, in front of at least four cameras broadcasting this Descent to the entire Ring…
Good job, Noaa I tell myself. I’ve been having these…fits, as one doctor called them, since before I could walk. Years of practice and breathing exercises and physical therapy and hysterical therapy and…you name it. My brother got to play basketball all over the Lower Segment because we moved a lot. Each new home so my mom could just test out a new plant cluster, or ask a different doctor friend for a favor in treating me….ugh, I can feel my heart speeding up again. I don’t even need the Skyndeep sensor that beeps imperceptibly behind my left ear.
In through my nose. Out through my mouth.
Look up.
I’m here. I’m safe. I’m in the Descent of a lifetime. I will not spiral.
I’m here… I’m….I’m
I need to try something else…I hear my twin brother snoring. I feel the warmth of our closest star on my face. I see…a tree. We’re closing in on the canopy of Luke Apollo’s private Tube Hangar. A single red bird flies up just past my face.
A flare of light from somewhere above my eyebrows, middle of my head…I’m…I’m gonna black out.
