The shadow of Yayli loomed over Riyad like a raging wave, seconds away from crashing down on him. The foggy moonlight swirled around her with slithering silence. She stood alive and standing, yet something about her stance made him regret even being born.
“O— oh wow, it’s great to see you, Y— Yayli,” Riyad stammered with strange fluctuations. “Don’t you think it’s a little too late to go farming?”
“Who are you, Jasper?” the shadow spoke.
A sense of realization came within him: they had always been suspicious of him. But for what, he couldn’t put his finger on. It was time for him to reveal the truth.
“I come from a different world. Yesterda—” He began having difficulty distinguishing time. “Some time ago, I uh, went to sleep and I woke up here. That’s all I know…”
The shadow didn’t betray a single movement. The silence was a ticking bomb, which Riyad was afraid of exploding once she would open her mouth.
“Got it,” the voice echoed. “You are, after all, a moron.” She turned away and began stepping down the stairs. “Follow me and bring that thing with you.”
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Riyad’s stomach wasn’t upset, but the same feeling continuously tortured him as he sat down on the back porch with Yayli standing before him. It was as if he was back on the street, walking to his school with a squeezed stomach. The wind would be cool and pleasant on early mornings, but it would feel like a storm to pass through. The nice breeze would fight against his sweaty body, making him feel green and uncomfortable.
Yayli held the pickaxe with both hands this time. “Who sent ya here?”
‘Who sent ya here?’ Riyad’s mind traveled back to the field he woke up on. What were the siblings doing that far from home? Were they looking for someone? Someone who could be a danger to them? Yayli definitely wasn’t farming there. He thought deeper — searching for a connection between his present and past situation and bringing up thoughts that he had scrunched away. What did she do the last time after the strange occurrence with the ship? She asked him who he was and implied that Y.E. had the answers he was seeking.
“Are you going to speak or should I crack your head and find the answers myself?”
The thoughts continued: there must be some connection between his strange appearance and Y.E.
“No, no, no,” his voice coarsed. Time for the gamble. “Y.E! Y.E. sent me here.”
There was a sudden hesitation in her silhouette. “What? Why would he send ya here?”
“Something about a...” he looked down at the helmet he was gripping, “a helmet.” God, I don’t even know where I’m going with this! His experience with her made him wonder if she even knew what the word meant.
“What?”
His thoughts began racing. Carter mentioned something about a present for him the last time, but Yayli wanted to leave. Would that mean that she didn’t like Y.E's presents or she wasn’t fond of taking presents from him?
“To be honest with you, he just sent me here to ge— to steal this from you. He said he needed this back and he didn’t have the heart to ask Carter back for it.” Riyad continued to dig a deeper hole, creating a false narrative. The tension made him fumble for a way out of Yayli’s grip. He wondered if he was even making any sense.
“Stealing from two kids. That ain't very nice, is it? This must be important.”
“I’ll tell you everything, Yayli,” he slowed his words, “but first, you have to tell me everything that you know.”
Okay, okay. I got this.
“And I’m supposed to believe what your sayin'?”
“Look, I barely know anything about you two and even less about Y.E. The only thing I know is that...Carter is a sweet person who loves his sister and wants to impress her and Yayli is a caring girl who fed a starving kid and let him sleep in her house. All I know about Y.E. is that...he wanted me to steal something from you.” Okay, okay! This way I’ll be able to get the information I need and get on her good side. I got this!
"Okay, then how did ya get shot?"
"I— uh, I ran into someone who I thought was you and it didn't end up so well for me."
"Were ya actually starving, though?"
"No, that was an understatement."
“And you accepted his offer just like that?”
“He promised me a gift.”
Yayli swung his head away and Riyad could’ve sworn she also rolled her eyes. She let her arms relax and thumped down next to him. He felt her warmth on his skin. Never had a girl ever sat that close to him before.
“Don’t take his gifts.”
“Why?”
“You’re kina late to our adventure, Jasper. We are nearing the end of this....issue.” She sighed. “Ya know, I used to really like Y.E… He was a sweet guy— always being nice to us and all. He was one of the few people who actually liked us. One day, though, uh, I sensed a— ” she shook her head, in search for the right words, “ a change in him. I mean...he was still the same guy as before, but this one time, I caught him on the field you woke up on...talking to some strange-looking lady. Believe you me, I know every single person in this village and I can guarantee that she ain't from here. And neither is you, Jasper.”
Riyad quickly looked away and awkwardly hovered his hand over his face with the indecision between fixing his hair and scratching his chin.
“Ever since that day, he became quieter,” she continued. “Started keeping his windows locked and some days he wouldn’t even open his shop… acting all strange. Carter loves the guy, so he would knock on his door every, single, day, until Y.E. finally let him in. That day, Carter came home with a ‘gift’ from him. Then, the next day… another and then ‘nother… Recently, Y.E has been becoming more like himself again, though— opens the store, but still keeps the windows closed.
He really trusts Carter— made him swore not to tell anyone about the...things, but the weird thing is, he kind of stopped giving him any more of them and told him to give ‘em back a couple of weeks ago, or apparently, he’ll be in lots of trouble or sumthing.” She shook her head. “Tryina get something back from Carter is like tryina shove an egg back into a chicken. Nah wait,” she took her time rethinking her words, “that doesn’t make any sense. Whatever, I wanted Carti to give ‘em back to him, but of course, even I knew he ain’t gon listen. I really tried to forget about it all, trust me, but...these strange things that have been happening...I feel like they have something to do with the stupid gifts.”
“What kind of strange things…?”
“I don’t know, like this one time, I was going to Mila’s to buy some trout and I was walking by Juno’s Tears, right? That’s the stream you saw, by the way and a boxy-looking thing with wheels just appeared out of nowhere and kinda almost almost ran me over before disappearing.”
“Like a car?”
“A...Ka— Kahr?” she scrunched her nose. “Y.E. told you about it, didn’t he?”
Riyad dared not to answer.
“Some folks thinking the town's cursed and some folks think Vhala is mad, ‘cuz we ain’t praying to him. People been more strict with religion now. Gotta go pray every Wednesday and all. I just know that this is all Y.E.’s fault...even if he’s a nice guy!” Yayli breathed. “ I’m going to figure it all out and I’m going to save my village. I was born here, after all. It made me who I am...gave me everything I could’ve ever asked for.”
Riyad looked up at the sky, the spot where the ship almost came crashing down the last time. The thought of trying to put it all together made him feel as though he was back to square one.
“What kind of gifts he gave Carter?” He turned his attention back to her.
“You’re holding one right now.”
He looked down at the helmet. There can be only one reason why she’s finding these ordinary things so strange. I’m living in the past… A shiver went down his spine, but he didn’t let himself relax. Some things still weren’t adding up, such as the ship and the encounter with Vinh. He focused his mind on diving deeper, but his thoughts began slipping away.
The moon was now overhead and it put Yayli’s eyes in the shadows. Riyad dipped his toes into the theory of being in the past for a second. Now, he was with a girl from a split second of history— a tiny fragment of a moment in the universe that only he and she were aware of. Now, the split-second had stretched to an eternity as he gazed at her. It was a reminiscence of waking up in the middle of the night thinking it was time to wake up only to realize he had five minutes left and so, instead of feeling frustrated, he would make himself more comfortable and sleep through the five minutes as if it were an eternity. A five-minute peace surrounded by despair on either side. Is that what paradise is?
‘Love finds its way in the split second of paradise.’ Is this what aunt Nur meant? He should be thinking of the mystery and putting it all together, but instead, he continued to stare at her. He didn’t just see her as Yayli. He saw her as a girl struggling to keep her village together and protect her family.
“So, whacha gon do?” Yayli turned to him.
“Uh,” he hesitated, “I’m going to help you protect your village.”
“Why?”
“Because I believe you,” he blurted.
A glimpse of a thin smile escaped the shadows on her face before disappearing again.
The lightness in Riyad’s stomach was back again. He could almost feel the blood running through his veins. His mind fumbled for ways to bring the smile back on her face. It was almost scary how much the smile had gotten ahold of him. Instead of trying to save himself from the maze he was stuck in, he found himself purposely lost deeper into it. He had to remind himself to focus and not to let himself fall for her without a proper reason to.
“I don’t fully trust ya, Jasper, but you seem sincere. I knew you were a good kid since the moment I met you. I could see it in your eyes.” Her words turned into breathy whispers. “I appreciate you tryin’ to help me. No one really cares about what I’m trying to do, ya know?”
Riyad questioned whether Yayli even believed half of the lies he had told and wondered if the lies could come back to bite him on the back. Either he pulled off the biggest finesse in his life or he just made Yayli double down on calling him a moron. He would soon find out his faith once it would be his turn to speak about Y.E.
Yayli ran her hand over the helmet and it almost touched Riyad’s. The touch sent a static that traveled down the tip of his finger to his heart, where it electrified.
She didn’t seem to notice his reaction as she continued, “Carti gave this to me after he got it from Y.E. You can keep this, Jasper. I don’t really use it. He said it has some magic in it or sumthing that stops it from getting hot when ya keep it on for too long. Might come in handy when we have to fight whoever’s behind all this.”
Riyad suppressed a dry gulp. “O- of course. Gonna shove a- a knife right through their chest!”
Yayli brought herself to her feet with a fit of giggles and he left the lightness in his stomach all over again. The cool, moonlight on her body and her breezy hair made him wonder if this was all a dream after all.
“Ima be back, Jasper. I wanna show you something else Carter brought back home. I usually don’t like these strange things, but this one…”
Yayli tip-toed into the house, careful to not wake her brother. Riyad’s eyes veered down to his own dumfounded reflection on the helmet. In a single night not only he had managed to sit close to his new crush but also received a present from her. He removed a smudge on the visor with his shirt and hugged it.
But then a thought crossed his mind and it was full of guilt. How could he fall for someone new just like that when just a day ago, he was crushing over someone else? His arms loosened. Even though he was rejected by Bibha, he felt like a heartless person to move on just like that.
He gathered himself and push away the thoughts of Yayli and Bibha. If I was to be in charge of solving this mystery, I would leave it more confusing than before. Anyway, if I am in the past, then...um, if Vinh...
Riyad leaned back on the wooden wall and closed his eyes for a second. The waves of low and chilly breeze continued to ruffle his hair. He lost track of where his thoughts of the mystery ended and the thoughts of Yayli began. He caught himself with a plastered grin and a random tune hummed out of his mouth.
‘I could see it in your eyes.’ ‘You’re a good kid.’
His eyes gently laid on the sea of silvered crops. They danced to his hum under the spotlight of the moon. There were fireflies peaking in and out of the strands. Riyad had never seen fireflies before. He gazed at them with dreamy eyes. The breeze felt cool and pleasant now.
His lips began hesitating from the smile and he quickly sat upright. He realized that the blinking dots of lights weren’t fireflies after all. They blinked pink and green. Blink, blink, blink!
They formed a vague image of a rigid human body. The body went in and out of the waves of crops as it walked closer and closer. The tide of crops retreated and the moonlight shimmered over Riyad’s worst fear— Vinh.
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