FSE

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"Excuse me?"

"Nh?" Emeral was nudged to waking. "Huh?" She said sleepily.

A lady badger smiled. "Are you okay?" She was rather nice-sounding for a teenager, maybe it was the red-framed glasses. They made her look so much older and kinder.

Emeral blinked. Then remembered she was in the library. "Yeah, I am. I guess I just fell asleep." She ran a hand through her hair, straightening it, sebum coating every strand like the insulation of wires.

"I know," the lady badger said, "I thought you were just taking a power nap but decided to come wake you after an hour passed--I hope that was okay."

"Oh, yeah," she said with a nod as she gained more energy, "I didn't know you librarians kept tabs on people here."

"Well..." The girl trailed. "Do your parents know you're here?"

"Yes. Plus," she reached into her bag, "I have my cell-phone, and it's charged. See?"

"Well," the librarian smiled, "You seem to be very responsible, I guess I'll leave alone then. But, if you're going to sleep I don't suggest you do it here."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." Emeral picked up her backpack and moved to another part of the library. Yeah right, she thought to herself, Why do you think I'm here?

It was just a few hands over twenty-four hours ago she'd said goodbye to Ket, leaving him to face whatever storm he would endure. She hadn't found any sleep last night, and when she finally did snooze once daylight came, it was only for half an hour. The bath she took did not have any soothing effect. She needed to get out of the house, be alone. Like him.

"Why the heck do you want to go to the library on your first day off?" Mom had said on the treadmill.

"What's wrong with that Garne?" Her dad then asked, head buried in the newspaper, "Our little girl is just broadening her horizons. Let me finish this article and I'll take you, Emmy."

Ket had never met her father. She was very careful not to mention anything about fathers to him at all, in fact. The only time she had ever been open about it was the day she'd brought home his Eye of Horus. After that, the subject was stamped in big red ink classified, shoved into the back of a dark filing cabient, and then that filing cabinet was sent to an alternate dimension.

She looked at her watch. It was a bit after five. She took out her phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi mom!"

"Well hey there. I was beginning to worry about you. You ready to come home?"

"No, not yet."

"What the heck are you doing over there?"

"Working on stuff. I know school's out but I had such a hard time with math. I found some really good material to study with."

"Well as long as you're having fun, I guess...if you call that fun. Well, listen, it's after five o'clock and you can't stay there all day, so how about I come pick you up in an hour and we get some fast food huh?"

"Yeah, sure," Emeral said passively. She would rather just stay there all night, hiding anywhere the mold hadn't yet infested.

"All right, hun, see you in a bit."

Emeral sighed and put the phone back in her bag, re-tied her loose shoelace and smoothed down her skirt. She still had to do laundry--it was sort of unnerving but she was wearing the same outfit from yesterday.

She'd already researched cystic fibrosis; both on the internet and in books. It wasn't too difficult to figure out how to spell. But it made her feel...overwhelmed. She would have been so sympathetic to Ritzer, maybe even seen him in a new light, if yesterday had not happened.

Now she viewed him in the way that only unbridled youthful hatred could. The disorder was no excuse for Ritzer, and Emeral was quite glad Ket had nailed him in the lungs not once but twice. She imagined he was given a deserved third and perhaps more that she did not get to witness, but now wished that she could have--sort of.

And it was true, she did work on math. She didn't get very far, but now she could find x in some of the more complex equations, but it was still pretty tough. She tried making up her own problems but because she didn't have an answer to check, she couldn't really rely on the one she came up with.

Emeral plucked a random book nearby. She wasn't much of a reader, given her dyslexia, but thanks to Ket she may just become one. It was true, what he had said. It was relaxing, throwing yourself into someone else's world, forgetting about yours. This wasn't the first book she read today; she'd read a few other books. Not all the way through, she just read them until she either needed a change of pace or got bored.

This book was a seafaring one; the book before it a spooky one she didn't get very far in; and the one before that was a fantasy about dragons.

She tried to get through the first few chapters, but already the lingo was killing her. What the heck was a coxswain? And all these Lieutenants and ship-hands; and why was it so important to watch dogs? By the fourth chapter--which started on the same page as the last one ended, which threw her off--her ship had sunk, and she shut the book coldly.

Her phone rang. Was it that time already? Didn't feel like it. She grumbled, didn't want to answer; didn't want to go home. She sluggishly drudged through her backpack, at last finding the phone. It was only 5:38, and it wasn't mom calling.

1 Missed Call

Ark

She stared at the phone, almost dazed and blood-rushed. A dart had hit her, she became woozy, tipsy. Her stomach flopped. Her tongue challenged the sands of the Sahara.

She'd missed him. Her mouth opened. She wasn't expecting it to happen so soon. She promised she would be waiting--was it a mistake? Maybe he called by accident... Should she call back? Just as she was indecisive, it vibrated. Ark...Ark... Her thumb flipped it open.

"Hello," She said softly, "Sorry, I didn't expect you to...call so soon..."

There was no real response. No breathing. It reminded her of the scary book she was reading--wherein people answered the phone and spoke to someone who had died.

"Ket...? Are you okay? ...Ket, answer me..." A creeping feeling trickled down her spine. There was an exhalation; she could almost feel his cold breath come out of the phone onto her cheek. "Ket, do you...need me?"

There was an untranslatable noise; maybe static or movement.

She hooked her fingers around the shoulder strap of her backpack. "I'm close by," she said softly, "If you need me to I can be there, like really quick." She waited a moment, then spoke again. "Please, Ket; just say you do."

"Yes," he finally replied, uncharactaristically calm even for him, "I... need you."

She was already up and running toward the lobby. "Okay, I'll be there in ten minutes or your pizza's free," she hung up the phone with a clack! and shuffled her feet down the stairs to the first floor of the building. As she passed through the door, the badger who had woken her up earlier glanced at her.

She bit her tongue as she stepped into cold air; the sky was dimly yellow from a weak sunset, clouds swirling like froth on a rootbeer float. The air was fiercely cold on her legs and face. She had a light jacket, but she wasn't expecting to be outside at all today.

That probably wasn't the most appropriate thing to say to him, joking like that. But she was nervous; she wasn't expecting it to happen this soon. Had his dad already come and gone? And she just made a reference to pizza?

Almost in a sprint, she flicked her phone open again. She couldn't do to make that kind of stupid mistake again--Ket sounded too unnatural. He needed someone to lean on, someone to confide in; not hokey food puns. Emeral hadn't ever done that before, didn't know what to say or what to do. But she saw it once, and knew just who to ask for help.

"Long-ears to white-stripes, read you loud'n'clear!" Kval's voice was cheerful and carefree as always.

"Hi Kavy," she said through gasps, "I need your help."

"Running from a fire or running into one?"

"Into one, and I really need your advice, but only if you promise to keep it a secret."

"Hm...Secrets mean trouble; either something happened or something's going to happen..."

"There is trouble!" She replied.

"Well...I need to work on my doctor-patient confidentiality anyway. I'll help you, dear Emeral. Whaddya need from me, kiddo?"

"Let's say there's this friend who's just had a really tough thing happen, and you want to help but you don't know how--what do you do?"

Kval paused for a second, but then replied with confidence. "Well, first of all, he'll probably say everything's fine a lot, and not to worry about it, because he's given up on dealing with whatever it is."

Emeral slowed. "Wait...what makes you think it's a boy--?"

"Don't stop, keep running." He listened as her breath began to heave again, "Now listen carefully, and remember three things: Environment, Control, and Neutral. Got it?"

"Yeah but...what do they--?"

His voice came back, but this time it was very serious;

"Hold your stripes, I'll explain. Make sure he's in a calm environment: no bright lights, no distractions, no loud noises, and try to keep out interruptions. Have him sit or lie down comfortably. With me so far?" She affirmed.

"Next is to make sure you let him have control. If he doesn't want to talk, don't make him; and don't smother him either. If you have to, leave the room, kay?" Another affirmation.

"Last thing is, be a good listener. Ask yes-no questions only at first and then after he starts talking you can guide him on, but don't, I repeat do not agree or disagree with anything he says, understand?"

"I understand, no opinions," She replied. "But, like, what if he starts...getting emotional, or starts asking for my opinion; or what if I don't know what to do--?"

"Any what-if's just go with what's in your heart. Think you can do that?"

She hesitated. "Yes," she finally said.

"Don't get so stressed. You're just there to listen and help him let it out if he needs it. You'll do fine."

"Thank you, thank you. And you'll promise to keep this secret?"

"Emmy," he said, feigning shock in his voice, once again care-free, "I have up till now haven'I?" He chuckled. "Now, go get 'em tiger. Or...tigress." His voice sounded distant, like he was moving the phone away, "Aww, y'know whadda' mean." The line closed, and the dial tone sounded.

It was another agonizing few minutes before Emeral finally made it to Ket's street; she rounded the sign to Raspberry Line and, running stiffly with lactic acid, pushed herself to the dark little house, which was even darker on this cold and quietly growing night. Guided only by memory she made her way on wobbling legs, up the grass and to the porchway, at last leaning onto the door.