Charlie
I stare at the computer and memorize everything I can about the holo image in front of me. It’s essential that I find the right part and get this thing finished. I scrub my hands through my hair and groan. I can do this. I’m smart, I can do this, I just need to keep looking, keep trying. I keep repeating these things to myself, trying to remind myself that I am capable, that I can achieve this goal. Whether or not it works, we’ll see.
I whirl around and start digging through drawers and cabinets but come up with nothing. The few ideas I’ve come up with are still too big for the small space I have left in the comm. I can’t take this to Ethan without an earpiece. I can’t give him a half-finished device. I have to figure this out.
I’ve been working on this for 6 months now, ever since the day I arrived on Ithorsirah, joining my bio ‘rents, but separating myself from my best friend and everything I’ve ever known. Finishing this device has been my top priority. Well, mostly my top priority. I admit I get distracted with school, and my girlfriend, and the business I’m planning to open. I’ve spent a lot of time working with my parents on their business to get a handle on what things will be like.
Okay, so maybe this hasn’t always been my top priority, but I’ve still been trying! I’ve been shut up in this damn lab all day trying to figure this out with no luck. I’m starting to buckle under my own pressure. I promised Ethan I’d get this done as quickly as I could. I had hoped I’d have it done within a month or two, but six!? I’ve taken way too long.
I growl out in frustration as I sweep some schematics off my desk and glare up at the holo screen. I can’t make the earpiece for this device, not if I can’t find something small enough to work anyway. I still have to make a little storage hole for it too, and that’s going to be hard with such small pieces.
I’ve reprogrammed the dark mode and the earpiece information on this thing several times to prepare it, but without the actual parts, it doesn’t want to work right. I have to get this figured out. I need to.
I stand there, my hands fisted in my hair as I stare at the holo image of all the components of my device. My eyes flit around the screen, trying to find a better solution than the one I’ve been struggling to complete all day. I drop my hands, sigh, and lean over onto the table. I rest my palms on the edge of the table, fingers curling around it to grip it in frustration as I hang my head in defeat. I’m never going to get to talk to my best friend again.
There’s a knock at the door, followed by a throat clearing. My head snaps up, and I whirl around to find Virrokk standing in the doorway. His slug-like lower body takes up the entire doorway.
“Sorry to disturb you, Charlie, but you have a visitor. Miss Areyvah is here to see you.” He slowly opens the other door to reveal Arey standing on the other side, a basket in her arms.
My whole body relaxes at the sight of her. She smiles shyly at me before she and Virrokk nod to each other. He slithers away as she slowly crosses the room to me. She sets the basket on the table and gives me a sympathetic smile.
“You’ve been in here all day, haven’t you? Your hair is a mess, you have bags under your eyes, and I saw the tension in your shoulders. You need to eat, Charlie. And rest.” She reaches up and runs her hand through my hair, smoothing it before she cups my cheek and kisses me.
I slide my arms around her waist and pull her to me. She smells like cupcakes and sunshine, and when she’s around, my spirit soars. Just her presence makes everything better. She giggles as she falls against me, her arms squeezing around my shoulders.
“That’s just what I needed to make me feel better. You didn’t have to come up here to check on me, Arey.” I give her one more kiss before letting her go. She steps back and crosses her arms, cocking her hip to the side.
“Oh really? You haven’t answered a single message all day, and I’ve sent a few. When I called, you didn’t answer. I knew you’d have holed yourself up like you do when you get caught up in a project. I also know that when you do that, you forget to eat. So, I brought you food. Now, sit down and eat.”
She taps the toe of her shoe on the ground as she waits for me to move. I stare at her and take in the way she’s looking at me, the way she's standing. I love the way she’s mothering me, bringing me food, and telling me what’s best for me. She’s so good to me, and it’s moments like this that I’m glad she came up to me in the park that day.
I let a grin slide across my face as I look at her. When her expression starts to change from stern to confused, I slide up to her and kiss her cheek. “You know me so well. Thank you for bringing food. And I’m sorry. I should have checked my messages.”
She gives a hmph and drops her arms. “Yes, you should have. Now, sit down.”
She whirls around and opens the basket. I chuckle as I sit and watch her pull out glasses, multiple containers of food, and a big bottle of my favorite drink, sweet tea! She pours it into the glasses and dishes up our food. She made some of her favorite dishes that her mom used to make. Her favorite comfort foods.
She sits down beside me and grins. “I hope you like it. I figured if you were holing up and stressed out, you’d want some good comfort food. So, I made my favorites. Mild noodle soup with cheesy bread, the way you like it, sweet tea, and Momma’s special chocolate cake for dessert.”
I grab my glass and hold it out to her. “To you, for being the best girlfriend ever and cooking for me, even though I’m a jerk who doesn’t answer your messages!”
She laughs as she taps her glass against mine, smiling at me as she takes a sip. She gently sets her glass down and picks up her fork to eat, twirling it in her noodles. She glances at me before blowing on her food. “So, what’s got you locked in here this time?” She grins and takes a bite.
I sigh, my fork falling into my soup as I stare into it. I stare at it like it’s a magic 8 ball that’s going to pop up that little triangle and tell me ‘the odds are good!’ Psh, at this point, I’m thinking the odds are forever against me.
“I’m trying to finish the comm for Ethan. I promised him I would have it done as soon as possible. When I said that, I thought it would be only a month or two. It’s been 6 months, and I’m still not done. He must be miserable. He probably thinks I’ve forgotten all about him.”
I twirl my fork slowly in my noodles as I sulk. I feel like a terrible friend. I know, you’re thinking, but you have that portal! You can just go visit him and tell him about it. Yeah, I could, but if I go to Earth, I risk getting caught by the police and exposing all the lies about our disappearances. Not to mention, I’d be going to tell my best friend that I’m a failure. I won’t do that.
I shove a bite of noodles into my mouth as Arey’s hand starts to rub my back in slow circles. “I don’t think Ethan would be mad at you. You said he was smart, and if he’s even half as smart as you, then he’ll understand that it’s not easy to build your own comms from scratch. I’d bet you that whenever you finally do get this to him, he’ll just be glad to finally see you, to hear from you. He’ll just be happy you’re okay.”
I chew as I think about her words. Maybe she’s right. Ethan was the only true and loyal friend I had. He’s the only one I ever told any of my secrets to. True friends don’t get mad over petty things. They support you in all things and hope for the best for you. Ethan will just be so relieved that I’ve finally gotten it figured out, he won’t care how much time has passed. Still, I’d like for it to be done sooner rather than later. And I know he’d agree.
I smile at Arey and slurp a noodle into my mouth. She giggles at my expression and hands me a napkin as I try to talk with my mouth full. “You’re right. I just need to relax and get it done to the best of my ability.”
I swallow and kiss her cheek before going back to eating. She tells me all about her day and the things she did with her dad. She tells me some of the messages she sent me to get my attention, and I double over laughing.
“You seriously sent me a message telling me that it was raining cheese?”
“Mmhmm. And another that said War of the Worlds was real and was happening here, right now.”
I crumple over laughing as she giggles into her napkin. I convinced her to watch that movie with me a month ago, and even though it creeped her out, it also made her laugh. She couldn’t understand why any aliens would want humans for their blood like that. She found the whole idea completely insane, and it became a weird little inside joke for us.
Since she’s an alien and I live on her planet, learning about all kinds of other aliens, she knows that no aliens are interested in blood. Especially not human blood. Even if some aliens decided to go and take over a planet, killing the inhabitants, they wouldn’t go spraying the natives' blood all over the planet to make a gore-y mosaic. It’d be much more likely that they’d be eaten or dumped elsewhere.
Aliens might be strange to us, but they aren’t much different from us. Not in terms of morals and such, anyway. For most, life is precious and they don’t want to kill us, not unless it’s necessary. Since we’re not threatening their lives, they have no reason to kill us at all.
“Man, I can’t believe I didn’t check any of my messages. That would definitely have caught my attention!” We both fall over laughing again as Dad comes sauntering into the lab. I see him and wave as I try to catch my breath.
“You two seem to be having fun. Nice to see you, Areyvah.” Dad nods to her and grins as he walks across the room to his work table.
“It’s nice to see you too, Kalvin. I just brought Charlie something to eat. It seems he’s picked up your habit of locking himself in the lab without sustenance for hours on end.” She raises an eyebrow at him but grins.
Dad laughs, his head thrown back. I shake my head and chuckle as I get up and start picking up the remnants of my meal. Arey stands and helps me get everything into the basket as Dad apologizes.
“I didn’t know you could pass down a trait like that in your genes. But it seems Charlie’s found himself a good companion to help take care of him.”
He grins as his eyes flick between Arey and me before he looks down at his mess of a work table. I look at Arey as her cheeks darken and she gives me a shy smile. I beam at her and shake my head no before turning back to my table. Arey stays beside me, watching as I pull up my holo image of the comm again, and shuffle around parts and papers on the table.
“What is it that you’re still trying to figure out, Charlie?” Arey mumbles as she shifts beside me, unsure of what to do to help.
Arey doesn’t spend much time in the lab with me, but on days like this, when she brings me food or tries to pull me out of here, she sticks around for a bit and keeps me company. Sometimes she holds things for me or helps me stay more organized. Most of the time, she just watches and talks to me.
“I’m still trying to find the right components to set up the earpiece. I need to find something small enough to fit here,” I point at the holo diagram in front of us. “Or here. I haven’t been able to find one. Those spots are different sizes, so I can’t make the hole for the piece until I have it. I’ve looked through everything I have, but I can’t just make it out of thin air.”
I shuffle around some more, trying to organize my stuff and my thoughts. I hear some drawers and cabinets open behind me where Dad’s working.
“I might have just what you need, Son. Wait…yes! Here it is!” Dad walks over to me quickly, something held between his thumb and forefinger. He holds it up to my eyes and smiles triumphantly. “This should work. I have a few extra if you need more.”
He sets it in my open palm, and I twist it around to look at it. I start nodding to myself as I turn toward my workspace and grab the comm. It’s too small for the first space. Didn’t think that would be a problem, everything I tried was too big! It slides perfectly into the second slot with just enough room for me to make a holder for it.
Dad disappears again as I start to rummage around for the parts I’ll need when he taps my elbow. I turn around to find him holding just the bits I need to make this work. I grin and take the parts from him. He hunches over the table with me, handing me the tools I need to get it all fitted.
“You guys work together as if you’ve been doing it your whole lives. It’s beautiful to watch.”
Arey comments as she grins. I glance at her and smile, loving the comment. I wish I’d been working like this with Dad my whole life, but I spent most of my life without him. Despite all that time apart, we melded back into a family as if nothing ever happened.
I pause, holding up my hands to stop everything. Dad and I slowly stand up straight and stare at our work. It’s finally done. I rush to the cabinet, grab its companion, and ask Dad to grab another set of parts. He meets me back at the table, and we do our strange tech dance again, making sure that both comms are finished.
When they’re done, I hand one to Dad and tell him to turn it on. Once they’re on, we test the connection and all the functions. I call him, and when he answers, my little holo image pops up in the air above the device. I grin as Arey’s hands squeeze my shoulders, her body pressed against my back in excitement.
“Okay, the real test. Dad, take out the earpiece and test it.” He does as I ask, slipping the little button into his ear and listening for me. It works as it should, and I laugh with joy.
“All right, now switch it to dark mode.” The device goes dark, my image disappearing as the screens darken until they’re barely visible. Everything still works smoothly, though.
I take a deep breath. “Final piece of the puzzle. Close it.” He snaps the watch shut, and I speak into my comm. “Testing, one, two, three.”
He grins ear to ear and jumps into the air, hollering in joy. “You did it, Charlie! You’ve actually done it!”
I let out a huff of air in surprise as I start to grin. Arey squeals behind me and throws her arms around my neck, her head buried between my shoulder blades. I laugh as Dad hops over to me and holds out his hand for a high five. I slap his hand hard and holler out my own joy as I jump up and down with him.
Mom comes rushing into the room, Virrokk hot on her heels. “What’s going on! I heard yelling!”
Dad rushes over to her, picking her up and spinning her as I turn and grab Arey’s cheeks in my hands and kiss her firmly. She squeezes me to her as we both laugh. Dad laughs and shouts, “Charlie did it, Marg! He finished his comm, and it’s perfect!”
Mom laughs and runs over to hug me. When she lets go, she starts gushing over the device, checking its features. Virrokk grins and mumbles about bringing celebratory snacks and drinks for us. Dad throws on some music and colored lighting as he dances, pulling Arey to him as they spin around the room, laughing.
I laugh as I watch my family celebrate my small success. It’s funny, but now I realize that I was stressing over nothing. I wanted to do this all on my own, and I did. Getting help from others doesn’t mean I didn’t do it. Having their support and help makes the celebration that much more fun, anyway. I can’t wait to get this to Ethan. We have a lot of catching up to do.
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