A Common Language

Chapter thirteen

  Resonance

  “Well, well, well. I’ve seen you before. You’re part of that group aren’t you? Oh what’s it called? Something in Latin,” Kalli’s assigned tennis partner swung his racket.

  “Hi, I’m Kalli,” Kalli tried to smile as nicely as she could. She had hoped to make her own impression without Data Venia’s help.

  “Tyler.”

  “You’re American,” Kalli was shocked. He was the first other American she had met since arriving in England.

  “So are you,” He winked. “I’ve seen you around but never got to talk to you. We should probably practice. You good at this?”

  “Yeah, yeah I’m good.”

  “Good. Because I really don’t need a tennis ball in the back of the head, so if you aren’t good you had better take the front spot.”

  Kalli laughed, sad that it was a legitimate concern. She went ahead and took the front spot to ease his mind. She hadn’t played a real match in years.

  “So, how are you and your bo?”

  “Bo?”

  “Boyfriend.”

  “What boyfriend?”

  “The guy you’re always hanging out and walking around with. I’m assuming boyfriend, you two looked pretty chummy. Tall, black hair, creepy blue eyes.”

  “Oh! You mean Percy!”

  “So that’s his name?” Tyler said, his voice detached.

  “Yeah.”

  “Don’t care. Point is you haven’t answered the question. How are you two?”

  “No, no, no we aren’t…we couldn’t…he’s not…actually we aren’t really friends anymore, I don’t think. I don’t really know, it’s complicated.”

  Tyler had an easy laugh. “I had a girl like that once. Could never tell what the devil was going on in her head. On again, off again. That’s how we were.”

  Kalli couldn’t really tell him that that wasn’t how it was at all because she didn’t really know how it was. She didn’t even know if she would ever see him smile again. “Well we gonna gossip all day or are we actually going to play?”

  He seemed to lock in and Kalli couldn’t lie to herself, they made a decent team.

  “Kalli, are you still awake?”

  “Yeah, I can’t sleep. You?”

  “The same, I guess the day was just too exciting.”

  Kalli giggled. “You weren’t sitting alone in most of your classes. I was so bored.”

  “True,” Lupe giggled too. “But I had to talk one on one with my old mentor and crush, talk about awkward.”

  “Really? That’s rough, who was it?”

  Lupe didn’t know if she could tell Kalli. Could she trust her? “It really is not that important.”

  “Yeah it is. Who is it?”

  “Jake,” with that word the room was still, as if both of them were falling through the blackness, realizing who he was.

  Kalli’s voice froze. “Ja…Jake? As in coach Jake? Okay, story time. When did you have a thing with smokin’ hot coach Jake?"

  Lupe laughed and nodded, which wasn’t really necessary because of the dark, but it gave her comfort, “That’s the one. He was a fifth year when I was a first year. Did I not tell you this?”

  “I vaguely remember you talking about it, but you didn’t really go into detail. And you just said he was your mentor.”

  “He was a tad more than that. When he graduated I figured nothing had changed, but I never heard from him. I came back the next year, having accepted it and moved on, to find I am in his class. Today was the first time we talked alone since he left. In a nutshell, I turned him down, he blamed it on Masashi. I told him it was not about anyone but me. And I walked away,” Her voice was eerie, distant and quiet. It was obvious she wasn’t really in the dorm anymore. Her mind was somewhere very different. It sent chills up Kalli’s back.

  “At least he knows how you feel now. Maybe he will understand. Things can only get less awkward from here on."

  “I hope.”

  “He will,” Kalli got up and sat with Lupe on her bed. “It’s going to work out,” she put her hand on Lupe’s shoulder.

  “Thank you Kalli,” the two girls sat on the bed and leaned against the wall. “I wonder how you can do this when it’s obvious you have your own problems,” they both reflected on the whirlwind that had sucked Kalli in during the past three months.

  Kalli sighed. “I don’t know. I guess in a way helping other people with their problems help with mine. I have always been like that. At home, my friends would come to me all the time for advice. When I gave them advice, whatever problem I had worked out as I helped them.”

  Lupe smiled. “I guess that makes sense. I wish I could do that. I was never much good at giving advice. Never had much practice. With as strict as my parents were, I never had many friends. And those I did were snotty and spoiled,” she sighed. “In a way, this school is my childhood. I have chances to run and play with my friends. I like it. I am kind of like the twins in a way. I am stuck at eight years old.”

  “Like the twins? How so?” Kalli was confused. Sure the twins were young souls, childlike even. But how did they get ‘stuck’?

  “They haven’t told you. That surprises me. Well, I’ll tell you. You are bound to find out sometime. The twins have a very hard and sad past. When they were eight years old their parents were killed, shot, right in front of them. They ran away to save themselves. They pretty much lived on their own until they came here. That’s one of the reasons they are so close: They never had anyone else. But I am always amazed how they can figure it out how to be happy after something like that….”

  “That’s so awful. I would have never thought--Is that how Demitri got his scar?”

  Lupe nodded. “It’s from the knife they tried to kill him with. Sasha saved him though.”

  Kalli had nothing to say. The twins always seemed so happy and upbeat all the time. Who would even suspect that these six foot eight inches monstrous teddy bears had been through so much hardship? “What about Dragen? What’s his story?”

  “Dragen? He, well, he is a bit of a mystery. No one knows exactly what his past is. Except Masashi, who has been sworn to secrecy. All I know is he lived with his dad for the first 11 years of his life and his dad did something that resulted in his mother’s death. He ran away and has lived alone with his books and his music ever since.”

  “That explains the quiet. And the fear of weakness. Have you noticed that whenever he walks he routinely does a 360 to see if anyone is around, watching?"

  “Yeah, my curiosity wants to know what he has been though, but my logic says I really don’t want to know. He is such a mystery,” Lupe sighed and shook her head. “So what’s Percy’s story?”

  “What?” Kalli didn’t feel right spilling Percy’s secrets.

  “I told you the background of two members of Data Venia that you didn’t know. It’s my turn to learn.”

  It made sense to Kalli. “Ok, fine.” Kalli told her about Percy’s father and his childhood. How his father seemed to show up from time to time and it was never good when he did.

  “Wow. I would have never thought he would have gone through something like that. He is such a kind soul. It is truly surprising,” Lupe seemed just as amazed with Percy’s story as Kalli was with Sasha, Demitri and Dragen’s stories.

  “Data Venia members are so messed up. From what I can tell every one of us has an amazing story to tell.”

  “Maybe that’s what makes us good musicians--“

  “Maybe.”

  The girls stayed unspeaking for several hours before falling asleep. They were both amazed at how much people could withstand and still lead a happy life.

  “What are your thoughts Sasha?” Sasha didn’t respond to his name. His thoughts were lost in the sky. The moon was close tonight, bright. Yet to Sasha it seemed to have a veil covering its potential. “Brother! Ground to Sasha!” Demitri’s voice poured over his thoughts.

  “Hm? What is it?” He said, all his emotion sti
ll in the sky where his eyes remained fixed.

  “Where are you tonight? You’ve been gazing at that moon for hours,” Demitri said, frustrated but sitting on the windowsill next to his brother.

  “You say that like it’s a problem. I’m just thinking,” Sasha finally faced his brother but his mind was still soaring among the stars.

  “It is a problem. I just went on a 20 minute rant. And you didn’t hear a single word. What were you thinking about for that long anyway?” Demitri was slightly jealous of his twin’s ability to just shut up and sit still. He had never been able to do that himself. He felt his hand tracing the scar under his chin, the only physical difference between himself and his brother that they knew of.

  “Does it hurt?” Sasha asked quietly leaning towards him to inspect.

  “I’m fine. No big deal. Anyway, as I was saying, now that I have your attention, do you believe we should ask Kalli to the formal?” He leaned against the wall behind him on the sill and put his hand on his raised knee. His movement brought him closer to the window. His gaze was drawn to the bright moon. He saw the mystery his brother saw in it. It was easy tonight to lose his physical self and float in his thoughts over the earth.

  “I don’t see why we shouldn’t. I mean if she says no we’ll get other dates and if she says yes it could be fun,” Sasha said shrugging into a mirrored position of his twin.

  “Why didn’t I think about that? It’s so obvious. Although, you have always been the thinker. I was always the actor,” He smiled tightly but it faded as he remembered the day he got his scar. The day their parents were killed. The day the terror had begun.

  They were seven at the time, late evening had fallen. It was a chilly evening but not unusual for the time of year. Demitri remembered mom telling him to get Sasha and hide. That some men from Daddy’s work were going to visit and she didn’t want them in sight. He remembered the tears in her eyes as she hugged him and sent him to hide. When they heard the gun shot they ran under the bed. They heard a man shouting orders to search the house for the children. He could still feel how the hair on his neck rose when the bedroom door opened. It closed several minutes later; he knew they would be back.

  “Sasha, it’s going to be okay, I’ll get us out of this, just get out the front door while I distract them,” he felt Sasha’s head nod as he crawled out from under the bed. He had planned to run out screaming. He opened the door and opened his mouth, but his throat closed at the sight of his mother’s face. It was pale; her mouth red with blood. His seven year old brain couldn’t interpret what could cause this until the saw the man with the hand gun.

  “There’s the kid! Get him! Find the other!” The man shouted and two other masked figures ran at him. One grabbed him. He remembered screaming as loud as he could, he remembered biting until he tasted their blood, and he remembered the blade. The sharp and rusty blade. His mind had always told him it was rust, but as he grew older he realized it could have been blood. Dried blood.

  “Shall I kill the whelp sir?” The first masked figure asked the gun man while holding the thin, sharp blade below his chin, holding him against the wall of his home.

  “Yes. Get him out of the way,” The man pushed the blade slowly until he drew blood in a long thin line. Demitri remembered the pain, knowing he couldn’t scream. The memories were sketchy after that point. He knew Sasha somehow saved him and got both of them far enough away that the men gave up on pursuit. Demitri would never forget the horrified look on his dead mother’s face.

  “So it is decided, we take Kalli to the formal if she says yes?” Sasha knew that look on Demitri’s face. He needed to get his mind off his scar, the story behind it, the memory of that night.

  “Yeah. It’s decided,” His voice cracked slightly, betraying his thoughts.

  “Hey. Look at me, my brother. Some wounds heal, others leave scars, and it is the latter of the two that shape who we are. I know the ghosts that haunt you, they haunt me too. But we can overcome them. We have to overcome them. And I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach that Kalli will play a key role in our healing.”

  “You know brother--I’ve been having that exact same feeling.”

  The twins sat looking at the moon and thought about one person: Kalli.

  Dragen liked to lie in the field on top of the hill at the edge of campus, especially at night. The sky was clear there. The cool grass felt nice on his neck.

  He observed how silent the night was; it made him think of a song, but then again, what didn’t? He enjoyed nights like this: comfortable, good for thinking. And so he thought.

  His mind drifted among the stars. It found itself with Kalli. Dragen was shocked, he had never thought about a person before, not like this. He hoped she was well--perhaps he was developing feelings for her. He had never cared for anyone but his parents, and well--now even those feelings didn’t matter. He had promised himself he wouldn’t care about anyone again. It was too dangerous, but he felt an overwhelming need to protect Kalli, and he wanted her safe and happy. And he will go to any lengths to make that happen.

  “Kalli, after class would you mind taking a walk with me?” Dragen came up behind her as she was grabbing her guitar off the wall. It was the last class of the day, and the only one she had with Dragen. Kalli was excited that it was the end of the week.

  “Sure, is everything alright?” His eyes seemed more guarded then normal (if that’s even possible) so she couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

  He, fittingly with his character, said nothing. But he nodded. Just a quick bob of the head, something that would be missed if you weren't paying attention.

  Kalli needed the weekend that started tonight, Friday night. At home she would have been out with friends. But tonight her plans were to sit in the dorm hoping for Percy to come. She knew how ridiculous her behavior had become and she couldn’t explain why she acted this way. She would sit alone for hours just praying he would show up. She would spend extra time in the hallway to make him pass her, hoping he would stop to chat, to let her apologize. She knew it wasn’t healthy. But she felt as if she couldn’t help herself.

  After class Dragen waited for her in the hallway. She was running late but he didn’t mind. After all, it was Friday. He had to admit to himself, he was nervous at what her reaction would be to his pending request. But it had to be done. He could no longer go without her knowing of his affections.

  “Sorry I’m late,” She ran up slightly out of breath. Dragen thought she was cute in the way she was hurrying to meet him. So small, with a smile that made him soften. He let his guard down slightly around her. He didn't worry as much. He didn't want to multitask around her.

  “It is alright. I did not wait long,” they began walking slowly down the hallway, taking their time with each step. He noticed each step of his was 2 or 3 for her, he shortened his stride accordingly.

  “So,” Kalli started politely after a few moments of silence. “What did you want to talk about on our walk?”

  “How are you?”

  “You wanted to go on a walk...to ask how I am?” He nodded. “Ok...I’m doing fine. Still a little freaked about the whole Drake thing and I’m very worried about this thing with Percy. But other than that I guess I’m alright. You know, I'm healthy, I'm alive, and I'm living my dream. What more can I ask for?” Kalli said. She had decided just to go along with him until he got to the point. “I meant to thank you by the way. For helping get rid of Drake I mean. It was very kind of all of you to come save me.”

  “What are friends for?” He said, perfectly coining the English phrase.

  “What, indeed. So anyway, thanks.”

  “You are welcome,” He shot her a rare smile. “There was another reason I wanted to walk with you besides your health and the general calming effect of a good stroll.”

  “And that would be...?" Kalli encouraged him. She knew it was hard for him to speak his mind. She didn't want to pry.

  “Well--you see--...Kalli!” Before Dragen could blin
k she was gone, he could hear her screaming and the twins laughing, calling behind them. “Sorry Dragen!” He cursed. Why did they always get in the way?

  ***