Chapter 5

Dinner of three

“Dinner is served,” Marteena said softly with her casual smile. They all sat at the table. They looked at each other involuntarily, it felt a trifle empty without Gerome and Judah.

“Where are the boys?” Rhu asked.

“Oh they won’t be coming home for dinner, they have SOAR practice,” Marteena replied, pouring extra sauce on Rhu’s meat.

Rhu looked a little astonished. “Oh,” he paused with for a while, seeming to be thinking of something. “I thought Romey has gone to Weatherspoon.”

Oh how could I forget? It is the anniversary of the Ryders. He goes back to Weatherspoon to visit his parents’ resting place every year, and stayed for a day before coming home. Jade had this impulse several times to ask Gerome to take her with him to Weatherspoon, but was never brave enough to do so. She figured he might want to be alone.

“That’s right, I have completely forgotten about it,” Marteena said with frown. Her wrinkles between her brows were getting more apparent recently. “That boy takes SOAR too seriously.”

“It’s only few days to go, and it’s once every two years. They really want to work hard for it.” It was a natural tendency that Jade being supportive of her brothers, especially Gerome. His unfortunate loss of parents made her being protective of him.

“Make sure you don’t miss the live broadcast. It starts next Wednesday, at 10 in the morning.” Marteena gave a solemn warning to Rhu, and he was as quiet as a mouse. He always had last minutes important businesses and missed his sons’ SOAR games. Rhu’s schedule turned into frenzied overdrive, periodically, after he got promoted. The duty calls were inevitable, so he missed most of his children’s important moments. For instance, he never showed up for Judah and Gerome’s SOAR games, missed some of their birthdays, or graduations.

“So,” Rhu cleared his throat. “Uhh… what do you plan to do for the next three months until your graduation?” Rhu sounded having a hard time trying to broach a subject to Jade.

“My lecturer, Miss Tara recommended me to her sister. She is a professor in the Intelligence Department. They have a position of Strategic Intelligence Officer. I’m going to see her tomorrow morning and she’s going brief me a little about it. If I’m in, I will have to go through a three-month probation.”

For a moment Rhu did not know how else to continue the conversation. He gave a slight nod, and continued with his food. Jade just couldn’t guess whether her father likes or dislikes the idea.

“That’s very nice of her. Make sure you get Judah to fix that bike of yours,” Marteena reminded Jade.

It startled Jade when she thought of her bike. She had been waiting for Judah to fix her bike for like five days already. “Oh, right. I almost forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me, mom.”

“I wonder what time they will be back. I do hope he comes back earlier to fix your bike. I don’t think he can wake up early tomorrow.”

Jade compressed her lips. “I think it’s safer to take Cider instead.”

Stargazing

The night wasn’t so chilling surprisingly, making it a great time to have a walk in the garden. Jade did not have anything to do for the rest of the evening. It turned out to be a time to idle the time away. Although there were no homework, no assignment, no exam for her… everyone was occupied with things to do of their own. Marteena was reading her novel at her accustomed seat by the window. Rhu was on his Eli (a device) with General Kannes, discussing something about the new drilling machines. Jade overheard as she passed by his study room. Eavesdropping? Not interested in doing so, better move further away before their mundane conversation glued in her mind.

The granite bench was surrounded by the flowers that her mom had planted for the spring, looking unprecedentedly charming. Luckily Green Sand doesn’t snow, or mom won’t be able to do her gardening every day, she told herself and smiled at the tiny yellow flowers that she didn’t even know what they were called. Marteena was getting better at touching-up the garden after profuse reading of the monthly Gardening Club.

The sound of rumbling bikes entered the residential area. It must be the guys, she thought. Jade turned her head and squinted her eyes to peer outside through the gaps of the fence. Judah and Gerome pulled into the driveway, parked their bikes in the garage and walked straight into the house, looking desperate for recharge. They did not notice Jade in the garden, nor would she be bothered to get up from the bench to greet them. She knew they must be tired and dying to sprawl onto their beds.

“Bless you guys,” she whispered softly, hoping very much that all their hard works would be handsomely paid off with the title of champion this year.

Jade tried to lie down on the bench, but realized the seat was too short for her legs. She remembered she used to be able to lie flat, and had her feet rested nicely on the bench. That was probably when she was nine or ten. Eventually, she stopped doing that once she grew taller. She got annoyed when her feet go beyond the bench, and had her in the most awkward and uncomfortable position.

Life is all about adjustments.

So she adjusted her gown, bended both her knees and had her feet resting on the bench instead. Letting her long white frock blithely overspread her legs, intending to allow them (her legs) to be toasty inside. Many things skittered in her head as she looked at the sky. How long exactly hadn’t she been stargazing?

Too long. Half a year? Or perhaps even longer than that. She tried to recall back to the last time she had time to watch the stars.

All those stressful modules were the major obstruction of sparing her sufficient leisure time. Maybe all she needed was a vacation, somewhere warm and balmy, with coconuts and fizzy drinks. Or, conversely. Breezy Green Sand wasn’t too bad either when the gleaming stars in the sky revealed themselves. They always make one’s heart feel peaceful by transforming the dark sky into a breathtaking beautiful scene.

Now there is something you should know about the stars in Velvet - they shine in the sky in multiple colours. They made the night sky looks like a masterpiece of a great artist, embedded with blinking gemstones. Whoever created the starts must be outstandingly brilliant. Jade remembered Gerome once said that, and he was impeccably right about it. Whoever made them, whoever you are, thank you, she said in her heart.

Green Sand is the best place for stargazing in Velvet, especially in the suburbs. Jade was glad that she was able to enjoy one of the many benefits of living in Green Sand. The tranquility and serenity amidst the expanding city somehow shifted her mind to a rather comical occurrence of hers.

Her memory stream counter-flowed, and drifted back to two years ago, that was when she was sixteen. She had two jobs during the summer break to save up just to get a licensed StarGaze Telescope function installed into her Eli (a device), which was a steep eleven hundred Velva (Velva is the unit of money in Velvet) for a student. During day time she worked behind the till, taking orders at a fast food restaurant. At night, she donned in a blue waitress uniform, serving drinks at a bar. Judah thought she was crazy enough to work eleven hours a day just to get a telescope. He offered to pay for it first but she turned down his offer. If you are a student, and you want to get a temporary job, the pay was usually a measly four Velva per hour, in which she understood she would have to work twenty-five days, eleven hours per day, no break in between, to reach that eleven hundred Velva in a month’s time.

Could angels be disguised as human to help poor, needy mortals? Maybe. There was a nice young man who’d tipped her generously at the fast food counter every time he buys a meal, usually takeaways. He was a skinny man with an average height, and his small face accentuated his broad nose. He would say “keep the change” every time he settles the bills, and walked away with immediate haste as if he was trying to elude any conversation with her. The tips were quite good. Well, they weren’t just quite good, they were jaw-dropping hefty twenty Velva each time. Imagine what a twenty Velva tip could do to a desperate, low-income student. It lopped five working hours off the schedule, sweet five hours.

The tips she had saved up helped her to end her job earlier than she had expected. Jade hadn’t seen him again after she stopped working there. She wondered who he was. It was not like he had a crush on her or something, he didn’t hit on her, and that puzzled her even more. She didn’t even have the chance to thank him. Maybe he really was an angel in disguise, drawing her closer to the starry host.