Chapter Twenty: Kai
It was so easy to walk into the most exclusive restaurant in the city. Kai kept watching the satin flow and shimmer of Caryn’s blue dress as she glided in front of him following the maitre d’ to the table that was, “Ze best table, with ze best view, in ze best restaurant.” Although, the maitre d’ said it in an earth accent that sounded as expensive as the marble statues and solid gold pillars lining the walls.
When Kai wasn’t looking at the decorations or watching out for the tables and chairs they passed, he was gazing at Caryn’s blonde hair. In this light each curl shone and sparkled and with her hair piled on top of her head her neck looked long, slender, delicate. He couldn’t believe how much older she had looked when the elevator doors opened. She had stood there smiling at him like a princess with an alluring secret making him want to follow wherever she was going. Again he felt lucky, like fate was finally going his way. He pushed aside the fact that if the T-Man had not wanted a ruby and Kai had not gone looking for one he would not have met Caryn and she would’ve found some other guy to be her companion.
His cheeks rose to smile when she glanced back at him. The bruise on his face still felt tender, but a woman with a soft, round pad in her hand had dabbed some make-up on it to help it blend with his skin. In the mirror he could hardly tell it was there.
“Here you are, mademoiselle,” the maitre d’ said and he pulled out a red velvet seat for Caryn to sit on. Then he moved to help Kai, but Kai had already sat down and was scooting his chair closer to the table. They had been shown to a solitary table up a winding flight of red carpet stairs. Every five steps there were landings and places for people and waiters to step off of the staircase. Caryn and Kai had traveled up to where these steps ended completely. The higher they climbed the more glass there was in place of the ornate walls. For this table they were entirely surrounded by glass, tinted so the bright suns would not cause a glare. It was the highest point of the tower and from his seat Kai could see the whole city of Highton.
“Zis is our special menu we only give to important guests like yourself. You may, of course, pick anything you want and our chefs will be happy to make it for you,” the maitre d’ said. He handed them menus and retreated back down the stairs with a small bow.
Kai stared at his menu and couldn’t understand a word printed on it. None of the dishes made sense, even when he did find a word or two he recognized they were surrounded by others that made knowing what the actual dish was impossible. Worst of all, because of how fancy this restaurant was there were no pictures to help give him clues. Kai glanced over at Caryn, saw her frowning at her own menu and felt a little better.
“This menu is pretty complicated,” Kai said.
Caryn set her menu down and laughed. “I guess that is what we get for going to ze best restaurant.”
Kai let out a burst of laughter at her imitation of the maitre d’ and Caryn instantly blushed, but her small smile and the tilt of her head made her look pleased as well.
“It does have a lovely view,” she said, gazing out at the city around them.
“Yes, it does,” Kai said. He watched the color fade some from her face and when she returned her attention to the table his eyes darted back to his menu.
“I can ask the waiter to explain the menu,” Caryn said.
“That’s all right,” Kai said, setting his menu down again. “I’ll just ask for the biggest steak they have with all the fixings.”
True to form, when the waiter arrived and took their drink order Kai ordered a large steak and, after listening to the waiter read the menu, Caryn ordered a spiced chicken over rice. Within ten minutes the food was brought and Kai was surprised to see how big his steak was. The steak covered a platter and two other round plates with various sides accompanied it.
“Do you think you will be able to eat all of that?” Caryn asked, as the servers disappeared down the stairs.
“I’m going to try,” he said and he grabbed the nearest knife and fork from among the rows of other utensils and began cutting bite sized pieces out of the massive steak. Seeing all this food and knowing he could eat it all, made Kai feel lightheaded. He would take a bite of the steak and then take several bites from the other plates. This one vegetable surrounded by strips of bacon quickly became his favorite side, even over the seasoned mashed potatoes. Kai didn’t know what the vegetable was and he was afraid if he found out it would ruin the taste.
Kai finished more than half of the steak and one of the side plates when he looked over at Caryn. Her food looked like she had poked it once or twice with her fork and when she brought this perfect, tiny square of chicken up to her mouth, Kai wondered where she had learned to eat like that. Mealtime had always been a race to him, even at the orphanage. Eat while you have the chance, before someone comes to take away your food. Although Kai knew no one was going to take his food away, he couldn’t make himself eat slower and he finished his last piece of steak before Caryn was halfway done with her chicken. Only one side remained when Kai pushed the other plate away, a pile of yellow-green mush with pink flowers decorating it that he left untouched.
Kai leaned back in his chair, his stomach stretched nearly beyond what it could bear and said, “This is probably the best meal I have ever had.”
Caryn smiled, more with her eyes than her mouth which was still chewing. Then she swallowed, took a sip of water and said, “It is probably one of the best meals I’ve had too.”
“So what are you doing after this week,” Kai asked.
Caryn choked on her next bite and coughed.
“Are you okay?” Kai asked, more concerned by her coughing and suddenly pale face. He leaned closer wondering if he would need to carry her to a hospital. “Do you feel sick?”
Caryn took another sip of water and several slow breaths. “I’m fine,” she said.
Kai realized he was squeezing the tablecloth and released his fingers before he leaned back in his seat.
“Do you want to stop by Doc’s and have him look at you?”
Caryn smiled. “No really, I am fine. I haven’t been here long enough for the exposure to make me sick.”
“Maybe we should stay away from the lake then.”
“We will not. I like beating you too much.” Caryn tilted her chin out.
Kai laughed.
Throughout the rest of their dinner Kai kept imagining what would happen if he took Caryn to Space City or perhaps to Deltan. Once the ruby thing with the T-Man was done Kai would be free to do whatever he wanted and if he wanted it to remain that way he would have to leave Highton or the T-Man would find another reason to make Kai stay. With her connections, getting off this planet would be easy. But who was he kidding, she was going away in a week and she would be providing him with the means he needed to go away as well. In all likelihood he might never cross her path again. Kai shook his head to clear that thought away and followed Caryn back through the restaurant. It doesn’t matter. He would figure something out.
“Look at the suns!” Caryn said the moment they exited the building. Both suns were nearing the horizon and Kai had to squint to see how close they were to setting. “I always wanted to see the suns set. Do you think we should go back up the tower and ask if we can watch?”
Kai thought about it for a second and was about to agree when another location came to his mind.
“I have a better idea,” Kai said. He took her hand and pulled her away from the Titanium Star. “Come with me. I know the best place to watch the suns set.”
“We’re going to miss it,” Caryn said.
“No, we won’t.” Kai turned down first one street and then another. Each street brought along with them more and more memories from his past until he was walking in front of the earliest memory from his life. The orphanage looked gray and the long evening shadows gave it a sinister look, but Kai did not pause to remember his past. He moved on to the next building, a cathedral complete with stained glass windows and a bell tower. The doors we
re always unlocked and Kai led Caryn up the ladder into the bell tower. They reemerged into the light just as the bottom edge of the far sun began to dip beyond the corner of the planet.
“I used to come here and watch the suns set every chance I had, mainly to get away from the noise in the orphanage,” Kai said and he sat down on the wooden floorboards facing the suns.
“It’s beautiful,” Caryn said as she positioned her dress to sit next to him.
Looking up at the wooden rafters with the small circle of stained glass, now flooded with light, and gazing out at the sparkling, orange and yellow city, Kai could see how this would be considered beautiful. They sat together in silence watching the colors change from yellow, to orange, to red and finally to dark blue. Caryn sighed.
“I can see why you would want to come here,” she said. “It is peaceful.”
“This was the one place I always felt I could go,” Kai said. “Father Merrick, the man who ran the orphanage, was often too busy to listen to our problems and if I had been in a fight with the older boys or was upset about my mom I would come here to cool off, escape and think.”
“What happened with your mom?”
Kai shifted so he could lean against one of the support beams. “I don’t know.” His voice was quiet in the evening air. “Sometimes I think I have memories of her, of another place, but when I try to picture it or remember faces, the memories fade. My mom left me in a taxi for the next person to find. Father Merrick always told me I was around three or four, but there is no way to know for sure and there has been no way to find out if the woman who dropped me off was even my mother.”
Kai’s thoughts drifted to the information the T-Man said he had. Could he really find his family after all of these years? What if they moved off the planet, how would he find them then? Then a horrible thought occurred to him, what if the T-Man was lying about knowing anything and was playing him to get that ruby? He dug his fingernails into the palm of his hand. What if his mother was dead or never wanted him in the first place? Perhaps that was why she tossed him into a taxi and walked away without a look back.
“How long were you at the orphanage?” Caryn asked.
“Some businessmen came and closed it when I was in fourth grade. They were going to move all the kids to this institution that would send their kids to factories, mines, or anyone with money, so I left and I’ve lived on the streets ever since.”
They were both quiet for a time. Kai was too wrapped up in his own thoughts to think of something that would change the mood. It seemed as if he had been at the mercy of others his whole life. Did they care if he slept in the cold or if he killed himself trying to steal a trinket? He was a pawn, a stupid pawn who only wanted to find someone to call his home. In that moment Kai hated everyone, but especially himself for being unable to do anything about it.
Caryn’s voice cut through his contemplations. “Do...” she hesitated. “Do you think mankind should be saved?”
“What?” Kai asked, his head jerked up to look at her, but in the dark he could not see the expression on her face.
“It’s different than I thought it would be. I grew up hearing the benefits of Betan society, but they never mentioned orphanages and people going hungry on the streets. Do you think someone should save the world?” Her voice wavered a bit. “I mean, would you save them?”
“You mean like if there was no vaccine for this disease that’s spreading and everyone would catch it and die unless I saved them?”
“Yes, exactly.”
Kai could tell she was looking out at the city lights and he thought about what would happen if everyone on the planet died, but all he could really imagine was a world without corruption, a world without fear and a world without pain. He thought of the T-Man and his gang being saved and a sour taste filled his mouth.
“No,” Kai said. “I wouldn’t save this world. I’d let everyone die and it would be the best thing that happened in the whole history of Beta Earth.”
Caryn did not say anything in reply and they both sat in silence once more. Hoping to clear his mind, more from the depression that had crept through his skin, Kai took a deep breath. As he let it out, his lungs retracted as if they had some misplaced liquid inside. His lungs burned and bubbled. For a moment Kai wanted to cough, but then the moment passed and his next breath felt normal, so he forgot about it.