The Fifth World

Bo: I am walking down the stairs. The door bell just rang and Mum and Adam are too busy packing to worry about anything else. It is morning. About eleven o'clock I think. Mum and Adam will be flying out in five hours or so.
Jonathan, and I guess everybody else exluding Mum and Adam, think I will be going to Australia too. In the end, it all works out.

I open the door and I see Jonathan, he stands before me, a dozen roses in a beautiful bouquet in his hands, he smiles at me. "Good morning."

"Hi," I say as he hands me the roses, I look down at them, admire them, smell their sweet scent and then wrap my arms around him. I sigh happily as I hold him and as he holds me. It's nice to be wanted back.

"How are you?" he asks me when he lets me go. I make sure I close the front door behind me. I don't want Mum or Adam to hear me speaking with him.

It's cold out and I shiver every few seconds or so. Jonathan doesn't seem to notice. He's wrapped up in a thick jacket and long pants. He has good fashion sense. That's definitely a positive. But it's not like I have fashion sense. I wear what is comfortable and sometimes I wear something that looks nice. Mum used to want to take me out shopping all the time, she said I looked boring and I always wore the same thing.
That was before she got sick.

"I'm good, I'm still packing," I say and look behind me, instinctively, to the closed wooden door, "how are you going?"

He shrugs, "fine, I've been wanting to see you since I woke up this morning. I feel corny and cheesy for saying this... but I can't stop thinking about you."

I automatically smile. Gosh. I wish I was thinking about Jonathan during these last few hours but I haven't been. There's just so much going on. The Fifth World. Australia. Cynric not being here. Everything. It's chaos... but good chaos.

"I've been thinking about you too," I say, it's sort of true, "I had a great time last night."

He grins, "so did I. So, how long are you going away for?"

"It's just a month," I say. I hope my learning and training will take only a month... maybe I'll be able to do it. I hope. But Cynric says that students spend years at the Academy. I'm sure I'd barely get down the basics.

"That's a long time," he says and looks down, "I'll miss you." We've been on one date. It's not like we've been together forever.

"I'll miss you too, Jonathan, but I'll write. Okay?" Surely you can write letters and send them to the Average Human World, right? There must be some way of contacting the Average Human World.

"Can I just ask something?" he says to me.

I nod my head and wait.

"We're exclusive, right?"

I shrug. Don't you want to be exclusive?

"Well, I think we should be. I really like you, Bo. You're not like any other girl. You're true and genuine and I'd hate to think that you'd meet some bloke over in Australia and begin to like him. Because... from what I've heard, Australian's are quite good looking."

I giggle, "Jonathan, do you want to be exclusive? As in... a couple? Together?"

He smiles nervously and nods his head.

"Alright, then," I say, "we're exclusive."

Surprisingly, it was hard saying goodbye to Jonathan. Well, my boyfriend, Jonathan. But it was twice as hard with Mum and Adam. Mum was teary, Adam was excited. She hugged me, over and over, covered my face in kisses. Adam hugged me and played with my hair. Then they both left. I watched their taxi drive down the street and disappear. It was sad and it hurt.
I returned to the house and then it hit me. The house is quiet. The windows are closed. The door is closed. The television is off. The kettle isn't boiling. There aren't artificial sounds coming from Adam's mouth that resemble cars smashing and tooting their horns. There isn't crying or whimpering of my mother's... or the singing of terrible songs.
I am alone for the first time in my life and it frightens me.

I spend the rest of the day packing. The house is quiet. I switch on the television in the downstairs lounge room just so I can hear something other than myself thinking. I return to my bedroom upstairs and I pull my clothing out of my drawers and cupboards and stuff them in the suitcase. My father's suitcase. His initials are engraved on the outside of it.
C.A. it reads. Callahan Abshire. My fingers run over the letters and I close my eyes. My loving father. I have refused to think about him for so long. He's been at the back of my mind... but sometimes I can't help it. The aching of him being absent is still there. It's raw. I find myself shedding tears, just a few of them and then I come across some photographs that had been stored away in a pocket in Dad's suitcase. They are photos of me. Of Mum. Of Adam. Of Dad. All of us are happy. Giant smiles on our faces. Arms around one another. I am hysterical. My knees buckle and I am curled up in a ball on my bedroom floor with a photo of what was once my happy family in my hand. I miss my father. I miss my mother. I miss my brother.
I am alone.

I leave the house, lock everything and I walk into the night. The streets are quiet. Every ten minutes a car drives passed me, slowly. Sometimes I walk by someone going on their nightly walk. I even spotted some male teenagers coming my way, I turned around and walked the other way. There's no point, though. If someone was after me I could disappear without them even realizing what had happened. I'm safe in this world. I can do anything and everything. I could rob banks. I could kill somebody. I could steal anything I want. Do anything I want.
I end up at the supermarket and find myself buying some food for me to eat. I'm not sure what the food is like in the Fifth World. I do know that Cynric has empty cupboards. He doesn't have time for food. I'm sure me investing in some groceries would be good for him. As a favour, I guess. Since he's doing me one.

"Ah, frozen food is always good for traveling." I hear a familiar voice and turn around abruptly. Cynric is standing right beside me, his arm up against the refrigerator door that I'm standing before. I smile.

"Is it a bad idea?"

He shrugs, "I managed to fit in some grocery shopping since the last time I saw you."

"That reminds me - have you cooled off?" I ask, sounding very uninterested as I read the back of the instant spaghetti bolognaise box.

"I'm sorry about that," he apologises and looks down at the floor, "I let my mouth get away from me."

"It's alright," I say, I still am angry at him but I'm thankful that I have company.

"You could have just jumped here, it would have been faster and easier. Although, it would have been hard for me to follow you."

"And how long have you been watching me, Cynric?"

"You were leaving the house when I arrived," he smiles and puts his arm around me as I continue to walk through the grocery store. "The roses in your bedroom smell nice, by the way."

I smile.