Genesis by Courtney Leigh

Author:Courtney Leigh [Leigh, Courtney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-07-26T04:00:00+00:00

31

Soon after my retreat, I heard someone emerge from the tunnel and glanced over to see Rafe stepping around the corner. He looked casually my way and started toward me with a slow gate, dragging his feet along as if it was a chore.

“I expected my bike to be gone when I got up here,” he said, leaning against a wall a few feet in front of me.

“Thought about it,” I confessed.

“How are your stitches holding up? You were tossing around a lot in your sleep.”

I glared daggers at Rafe, but he returned my stare with a brief flash of amusement.

“What do you want?” I asked him.

“My mother has a way of being very straight forward,” he explained.

“I like straight forward. It saves time. I already know that coming here was a mistake and it didn’t take me a week to figure it out.”

“Yeah, it saves time, but it also forces you to try and understand something with a vague picture of the truth. You ever see an old painting and think about how simple and unappealing it is? Then you find out how the artist did it. What he used and what he was thinking at the time. Suddenly the painting looks a lot more meaningful.”

“This isn’t a painting. This is my life and it just looks uglier now that I know more about it.”

“It only looks uglier because you don’t know everything yet,” Rafe said. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”

I watched Rafe turn and begin strolling down the road and for a while I figured I would let him go without me. I didn’t much feel like being in anyone’s company--least of all his--but once he was about to turn a corner, he called out to me.

“I’m not waiting,” he said, just loud enough for me to hear.

I bit my lip and with a grunt I jumped off the hood of the car and began walking briskly down the street. When I got to the corner, the road down which Rafe had turned was shaded by taller buildings and some bushy trees that lined the walls and alleys. I saw Rafe up ahead, still walking without any signs of slowing, and continued in his wake.

The street was quiet, shielding the wind behind stone walls. I could hear every tiny sound under my feet, from gravel to moss, as I walked. It echoed off of buildings and cars the entire way, creating a symphony of sounds. As the breeze rustled the leaves of the tall trees above me, I began to forget that the world outside was a wasteland of sand and danger. For a few seconds, I even forgot that I was in pain, my muscles still repairing themselves after days of abuse upon more days of abuse.

Ahead, the road dropped off into a crumbled hillside where the city looked like it had been smashed by a mudslide. A small crater took buildings and ground with it into a vast clearing twenty feet below.

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