The Sun Dwellers

We manage to hold him up, however, one arm draped over each of our shoulders. His feet are like rubber, stumbling and flopping like a baby’s legs during their first attempt at walking. We’ve got him up, so the next concern is finding Adele and Tawni. Did I imagine her voice mocking me when I fell? Perhaps I hit my head too.

“Over here,” Adele hisses, an invisible voice from the shadows behind the speaker.

Roc and I glance at each other, shrug, and then assist Trevor to the side of the stage. With each step, his legs seem to recover, requiring less and less of our help to walk. By the time we reach the shadows, he’s practically walking on his own, a good sign.

We step into the dark, blinking away the drastic change in lighting. It’s incredible how dark it is once you’re out of the watchful gaze of the artificial sun. After spending so much time in the gloomy Lower Realms, I’ve almost forgotten how different the world I grew up in is. We expect things to be bright because that’s the way it is.

“Is he okay?” Adele’s voice says right next to my ear. I half-jump out of my skin, cursing under my breath.

“Holy—” I spout. “You scared the stuffing out of me.”

“You’ve got stuffing?” Roc asks smartly.

“Sorry,” Adele says. “Can’t you see us?”

“Not yet. We’re flying blind at the moment.”

“I can see them,” Trevor mumbles.

“Yeah, well my night vision isn’t as fine-tuned as yours,” I retort, sounding u

“That sucks,” Trevor says, laughing.

A hand touches my shoulder. “I’m right here,” Adele says. “Tawni’s here, too. Is he okay?” she asks again.

“I think he might have a concussion,” I explain, as Trevor continues to giggle beside me. “He took a pretty hard knock to the head. We need to find a place to rest and get fixed up. We also need to find a place to switch clothes.”

“What?” Trevor screeches beside me. “I’m wearing the hottest new trend to come out of subchapter one in fifty years! I’m not switching clothes!”

Ugh. He’s getting worse. “Why do we need different clothes?” Tawni asks.

“Although we’re able to blend in here, in a less crowded place we will stick out,” I explain. “That line about our clothes being trendy in another subchapter will only work on drunkards and morons.”

“So most of the sun dweller population,” Roc chimes in.

“You lied to me!” Trevor wails. “I thought this outfit was in.”

Ignoring both stupid comments, I say, “The sooner we look like everyone else, the better.”

“You’re halfway there with that lovely hat already,” Adele says.

“Yeah, thanks for that,” I say, finally seeing Adele’s outline in the dark. “Roc, any thoughts on where we can hide out for a while?”

“Everything will be closed today, so if we’re willing to smash a window or pick a lock…”

“We’re willing,” I say.

“I’m good at smashing stuff,” Trevor says.

“Okay, then we should hit the first clothing store we come to. I think there’s a Paradise Sun around here somewhere. Or maybe we can find an In Crowd. Both of those stores will have everything we need to disguise ourselves appropriately.”

* * *

We end up at In Crowd, which is only two blocks down and one across. Although we pass several late festival attendees, they’re so focused on getting to the concert that they barely even notice us.

As Roc predicted, a red “Closed” sign hangs on the door of the multi-level store. After a quick glance down either end of the deserted street, we lean Trevor up against the wall. He hasn’t spoken in a while, for which I’m grateful, but he is humming to himself, his eyes closing for periods ranging between five and ten seconds, much longer than a normal blink, even a particularly slow one. So much for him being the one to break the glass.

“There’s no alarm system,” Roc notes. “We don’t have much crime up here. Other than the occasional drunken brawl, that is.”

“But breaking the glass might draw attention,” I point out. “Plus anyone passing by will definitely notice a shattered window.”

“I can pick the lock,” Tawni says.

“What? Really? That’s awesome,” Roc says, gazing admiringly at her.

“How’d you learn that?” Adele asks.

“When I ran away, before I was caught, I learned all kinds of interesting things, not all of them legal,” she says.

“Go for it,” I say, stepping aside.

“Anyone got a thin knife?” she says.

“I think I’ve got something that might work,” Roc mumbles, rummaging through his pack. “Here!” he exclaims, handing Tawni a tiny paring knife.

“What do you use that for?” I ask.

“If you have to know, cutting my toenails,” he says.

“Gross.”

Tawni’s already got the knife jammed in the lock, twisting and turning it at various angles, trying to get the mechanism to line up in the right way. A minute passes with us just watching her and Trevor mumbling something that sounds like a poem under his breath.

Another minute passes and then, “Got it!” she cries, as the lock clicks and the door pushes open. We’re in.

Tawni and Adele go in first, while Roc and I help Trevor. “I don’t want to go to school today, Mommy,” he murmurs, his head lolling lazily to the side.

“Don’t worry, little Trev-Trev, we’re going to put you right to sleep,” Roc coos, making me crack up.

When we get inside, the girls are already roaming the aisles, relying on the dimmer security lights to check out the merchandise. Their eyes are wide and their mouths slightly open. “What do you do in here?” Adele asks when we approach.

“Uh, shop,” Roc says.

“Shop?” Tawni says.

“Yeah, you know, like pick out clothes and try them on. If they fit well, you buy them at the register.”

“Register?” Adele says.

“Um, don’t worry about it,” Roc says. “We won’t be doing it that way anyway.”

“We should move upstairs,” I say. “Anyone passing by the front window will be able to see us.”

The escalator is turned off, so Adele and Tawni run up the steps, while Roc and I haul Trevor, who now appears to be sleeping, his breaths slow and deep, after them, one step at a time. When we get to the top, I say, “Let’s dump him somewhere to sleep it off.”

“Good plan,” Roc agrees, smirking.

We find a cozy corner, and while I hold Trevor up, Roc piles up long, brightly colored dresses to use as a bed. We lie him down, rolling up one of the coats—a turquoise one—for a pillow.

“Now what?” Roc says.

“Now we shop.”

We find the girls standing in front of a rack of shoes, just staring. “What are these?” Adele says, picking up a pair of red, ultra-high heels.

“Shoes,” I say.

“No way!” Adele says. “How could anyone walk in these?” She sits down on a nearby bench and starts taking off her boots.

“They can and they do,” Roc says. “Most of the girls here wear them. It seems the heels get higher every year. Being tall is in.”

“But they’re not really tall,” Tawni says.

I chuckle. “True, but that’s not what matters. It’s all about image. Most of what you’ll find in the Sun Realm is artificial—just like the sun.”

“But why do people care?” Adele says, standing up unsteadily, now wearing the red heels. “A shoe’s a shoe,” she adds, trying a cautious step forward.

“Not to these people. They want their clothes to make them stand out,” I explain.

“But they don’t,” Tawni says. “They still all look the same, just different than moon and star dwellers. If they really want to stand out, they should visit the Lower Realms wearing those.” She points to Adele’s heels.

Adele, clutching a rack of shirts as she moves forward another step, says, “I can’t even walk in these, much less run or kick.”

I laugh again. “Sun dweller women don’t do much ru