Lunar Rising

The days leading up to official school are boring. I help my pa in the shop as usual and examine my blaster in the evenings when business is slow, adding small tweaks to enhance it. I don’t want for my dad to see my uneasiness about Raven. He hasn’t come to visit the shop for days, and we used to meet almost daily… I wonder if our invention was found out, if Raven’s safe. Thoughts like these keep me up at night in the small apartment above the shop. My bed is only a hammock surrounded by my gadgets and tools. I swing the hammock, pushing off the side of the wall with my foot, and think about Raven and Riaddne. He didn’t even respond to my text.

Since school is starting soon, a real school that needed Teacup transportation to get there, Pa got me some school supplies; as usual, it’s just a tablet, some papers, and an electric pen.

He notices my fatigue one evening as a person leaves the shop after dropping off a busted simulation set.

“What’s wrong, Neil?” he asks, fastening a piece of titanium onto a wrecked heap of machinery.

“Nothing. It’s just school, that’s all.” I lean back in the chair, nibbling on a leftover piece of bread from lunch.

“If you say so.” Pa’s very logical and sees everything in a very literal way, so he tends to believe what he hears. “If you’re not busy back there, do you mind holding this down while I attach the counter-part?”

“Okay.” I get up and go to him. As we work, he asks, “Before school, I want to do something. Just us, since I haven’t had much time to meet anybody else in this city.”

“Where are we going?” I honestly wasn’t too interested, because it was just a reminder that if Raven were here, we could go together. Maybe he’s mad at me for leaving the invention with him. Or maybe he had really been captured. Either way, I remind myself, it shouldn’t concern me anymore.

“Just to the city park. There’s a makeshift concert there by some band I’ve never heard of, but admission is free. We might as well go.”

“Oh.” I admit, I was expected a little more than what he presented, but I’ve had this kind of situation many times. I learned to just go with what he says.

Then he asks the question I’ve been dreading. “You want to invite Raven too? You two are pretty good friends, aren’t you?”

“I don’t think he--”

“Hi, Neil! I thought you would’ve closed the shop up by now. Isn’t it late? Oh, good evening, sir.” Raven strolls into the shop. “Hey Neil, have you heard about the concert on Saturday? It’ll be fun. I invited Alicia too. We can go together.”

I’m so surprised to see him that my mouth falls open a little.

“Hey!” I say back as casually as I can manage, trying to regain my composure and hide my hesitation. “Yeah, my pa and I were gonna go too. I was wondering if you’d want to come.”

“Great! Ok, meet you there!” Then Raven winks at me and taps his watch. “I need to get going. Just stopped by to ask and say hi.”

Raven leaves, and the door closes with the light tinkling of bells. Pa smiles and goes back to his gadget, but I check my watch while he’s not looking. Raven and I had a way of understanding each other quite well. When Raven had tapped his watch, I knew what he meant. He was signaling me to check my texts.

I read what he’d texted. It says he just sent this text to me seconds ago.

Remember who Alicia is? She was in a few of your safety classes, I believe. Something big is happening. Let’s talk at the concert.