CHAPTER 1
It was 7: 41am in the morning. TIM HAN had a sour look on his face, drumming the fingers on his right hand impatiently on the kitchen counter while resting his face in his left.
“Mom, really? I’m gonna be late for school you know?”
“Sorry hun. Just gimmie a sec.”
Tim’s mother Susan, had the looks of a runway model, although you wouldn’t know it by the frazzled look she had this morning. She was rummaging through the refrigerator looking for something to throw together for Tim’s lunch. She finally brought out a loaf of bread, peanut butter and honey and sat it next to her son, who, upon seeing this combination now had a look of “are you serious?” in his eyes.
“You know what, here’s 10 bucks. Buy your lunch at school today. I’ll pack you a nice one tomorrow,” promised Susan as she pulled a ten dollar bill from her pocket. The look in Tim’s eyes went from impatient to downright annoyed.
“Aw, come on mom. Seriously?” complained Tim. He grabbed the money from his mom and leapt off of the counter stool. “Now I may be SERIOUSLY late.” exclaimed Tim.
“Yeah, well I SERIOUSLY doubt that. Oh, and tell Judy to tell her mom to make it 7 instead of 6 tonight.”
Tim gave his mom a sarcastic thumbs up as he grabbed his shoulder bag and rushed out of the door.
Tim jumped down the steps and ran down the small pathway from his front door to his bicycle that was waiting, unchained, just on the other side of his house’s brown wooden fence. He threw his shoulder bag into the basket on the front of his bike, jumped on and started pedaling as fast as his chubby little eleven year-old legs could. He was surprisingly agile despite his weight; he was by no means a fat child but was definitely in the pudgy category. He was a careless dresser. Most of the days he wore the same slightly stained blue jeans and white t-shirts with some sort of phrase and/or cartoon character on it although it usually made no difference what design it was because you could never tell, what with that black hooded sweatshirt he always had on. To complete his ensemble he wore his beloved, ragged years-old black and white sneakers. He would change the laces every now and then but only because he had usually worn them to the point of no return.
The wind was especially violent that day. Tim’s glasses nearly flew off his head, which would have been especially bad since his mother had just paid a large amount for them the week before. Luckily, the speed of his pedaling kept them fastened to his face, but that wind still did a number on his short, black hair. He put the hood on his sweatshirt up to help the situation. Tim had wished the few white hairs he had on his head would blow off in the wind. It was extremely embarrassing for a boy that young to start going gray. That, along with his extra padding, did nothing to help his already failing self-esteem. It also gave the school bully, even more ammunition with which to fire on him with.
On the way to school he always passed “The Cliffs”, a high, grassy knoll over looking the sea, no doubt named after the small coastal town he lived in called ‘Clifftop.’ He would always pass it with apprehension. The place held a painful memory for Tim that he most wanted to put past him, but couldn’t. The memory was like a boomerang in his mind; he tried to throw it away, but it would just come relentlessly flying back.
Tim got to school, with time to spare, just in time to see Kiana pull up with her mom. Judy, Kiana’s mother called out to Tim from her small, blue hatchback just as Kiana stepped out of the car. “Good morning, Tim. Looking forward to tonight. I’ll give you a ride back after school ok?” Tim rushed a wave of his hand and a nod of the head while chaining his bicycle to a rack.
Kiana was a beautiful little seven-year old black girl, as beautiful as her mother made all the more adorable by her missing left front tooth. This day she had on nice, clean red overalls and her hair was the usual natural curls, bangs and braids. Tim and Kiana were like siblings as were their mothers; Susan and Judy had been best friends ever since elementary school when Susan’s family made the move to Clifftop from Korea and that friendship had carried on through to motherhood. In fact, they had attended the very same school Tim and Kiana did, Clifftop Elementary School: grades K through 12.
“Kiana, you be good ok? Forgive him already will you. He didn’t mean it,” said Judy to her daughter, who just rolled her eyes and smacked her teeth at the notion. Kiana was mad at Tim for sitting on her ‘Fashion Marie’ doll the night before, causing the arm to be pulled from her socket. That was no problem as the doll had been made of plastic but because of his girth he had also caused the arm to split a bit at the shoulder. He had used super glue to fix the split but had also unintentionally glued the arm permanently to the dolls socket. This had less than pleased Kiana and she was not about to forgive Tim the very next day.
“No, no. You better give your mom a kiss before you leave,” exclaimed Judy to Kiana who was attempting to close the car door without giving her mother a proper goodbye before heading off to school. Kiana kissed her mother on the cheek and ran to meet Tim half way up the steps to school only to give him the silent treatment. She intended to make it known to Tim that she wasn’t talking to him.
“Still not speaking to me?” asked Tim to Kiana who was obviously ignoring him. She actually had another reason to not be talking to him; Tim was dripping with sweat from the intense bike ride he had just taken and was not looking, or smelling, his best
Their classes were in the same direction so they always walked together down the hallway and had always turned left at the same corner. This time when they turned something was blocking the way. Tim ran smack into the back of Arturo, the resident bully, who was standing there talking with some friends. Arturo really made life for Tim unbearable at school. If it wasn’t a flick to the ears, it was a trip of the legs. He would regularly ridicule him and call him names. But it wasn’t only Tim that received such punishment. Arturo and his team of bullies zeroed in on all kids smaller than themselves, but Tim felt different. Arturo’s attacks on him felt especially heinous. And what made it worse was that Kiana was a target of Arturo’s from time to time. Tim could handle attacks of himself but not on Kiana. Luckily, the abuse on Kiana was usually reduced to small pushes here and there: and were usually few and far between.
“Bumping into me now huh, and with no apology.” Arturo snidely remarked. Arturo gripped a piece of Tim’s belly fat, to which Tim let out a loud painful groan as Arturo began to pull at it.
“We better get to class. We wouldn’t wanna be late. See you guys later,” he said to his cronies as he continued to pull Tim toward their classroom.
“STOP THAT!” barked Kiana.
“What? Shut up, you little rat!” answered Arturo as he pushed at Kiana’s head.
“Don’t be pushing me!”
“Get to class Kiana,” pleaded Tim as the school bell rung. Kiana ran toward her class.
“Got your little rat girlfriend to stick up for you huh. Man, you’re weak. Let’s get to class tubby.” Tim managed to swat Arturo’s hand away before they entered the class. Unfortunately, they sat next to each other thanks to Mrs. Sullivan’s seating chart; Tim always thought she secretly had it in for him. Later, when he got his test score results, it had confirmed his suspicions about Mrs. Sullivan. He had hoped for a C minus; he had expected a D, but he was not ready for the big, fat F marked in bright red ink he had received.
“Worse than I thought. Not cool,” Tim whispered to himself, grabbing a handful of his hair wanting to rip it out at the roots in frustration. Just then a hand came rushing out from his peripheral vision and snatched his test from his desk.
“An F? Man, I thought you people were supposed to be smart. This is what you’re supposed to be getting.” Arturo held up his test to Tim, which displayed a nice, red “A” in the top right corner of his paper. He smacked Tim in the back of the head with his own test before tossing it back onto his desk.
“Better luck next time, Tubs.”
Tim wanted with all his might to reach over and smash Arturo’s head into his desk but he knew he didn’t have the courage to do something like that, especially not in class with the teacher and everyone else looking. The smashing of Arturo’s head would have to wait for another day, another place, another kid’s bravery. Instead he took his anger out on his test, crushing it and making it into a ball before stuffing it into his pocket.
After school, Tim and Kiana met where they would always meet to wait for Kiana’s mother to come pick her up: on a bench near the entrance to the school. They would usually sit there and stare out onto the schoolyard and talk about how much they despised their teachers or usually played a game of rock-paper-scissors. But that day, Kiana was in no mood for games; she was still sour at Tim for breaking her favorite toy. Tim wasn’t quite up for anything himself, but he thought he should try to mend things between the two of them anyway.
“Still mad?” Tim asked, playfully nudging at her shoulder with his elbow. He got no answer; what he did get was his arm pushed away and a better look at the back of her head.
“Come on, I said I was sorry. I fixed it didn’t I? The arm is back on, right?”
“The arm won’t move! Is that what you call fixin’ it?” she said, with a heaping of attitude.
“I’ll buy you a new one.”
“With what money?” asked Kiana, who was now facing him. She wanted him to clearly see the rolling of her eyes.
“How ‘bout I buy you a candy bar from the machine? I have enough money for that. Would that make you un-mad at me?”
“No, I would still hate you––but it’s a start.”
Tim rolled his own eyes as he got up and went around the corner toward the vending machine. Kiana saw a big, red ball sitting all by itself out on the yard and went out to bounce it to pass the time. Judy was usually punctual in picking up her daughter but this day she was running a little late. At that moment, Arturo and his two of his friends came out of the bathroom just in time to see Kiana run out to the yard. Arturo slapped one of friends on the shoulder. “There’s tubby’s little pet rat. Time to have a little fun.”
Kiana was bouncing the ball patiently by the fence. You could see the road from the yard and Kiana would know instantly when her mother came to get her. Kiana had the look of impatience in her face; Tim certainly was taking his time with that candy bar.
Kiana continued to bounce the ball when a pair of hands came out of nowhere and snatched the ball away before it could hit the ground again. Kiana turned around to see whose hands these belonged to. She had hoped it was Tim. All she got Arturo’s smug mug instead.
“Who said you could play with my ball?” blasted Arturo.
“That’s not your ball. I didn’t see your name on it!” exclaimed as Kiana, as she jumped for the ball Arturo was holding high into the air.
“It is my ball. Name’s right there.” He pointed to a spot on the ball that was clearly void of any name. Judy continued to jump for it, her face turning redder and redder with each hop.
“Calm down. Here, I’ll let you play with. But you gotta go get it.”
PONG!
Arturo dropkicked that ball as hard as he could far across the yard. Kiana’s eyes followed the ball the whole way down. Arturo stopped her as she tried to go after it.
“Wait a sec, I changed my mind. I don't want you to play with it anymore. You yelled at me this morning. You forgot to say sorry to me,” said Arturo.
“Sorry for what? You were hurting Tim.”
“I wasn’t hurting him. That blubber doesn’t hurt. It probably protects him from pain. Anyway, waitin’ for that sorry.”
“I’m not saying sorry to you.” Kiana made another attempt to go after the ball but Arturo yanked hard at one of the braids in her head and she screamed in pain.
“Where are you going? Say sorry to me. Say it!” Arturo pulled harder and harder at the braid. Kiana hit his arms as hard as she could. She tried to pull away but to no avail. He finally let go after placing his foot behind her causing her to fall backwards with a thud.
Arturo and his friends roared with laughter. “I wish tubby were here to see this,” said Arturo. A moment later, he got his wish.
SMACK
Something had hit him in the head, and then hit the ground. He looked down to find a chocolate bar lying at his feet. When he looked around to see where the candy bar had come from all he could see was a huge mass of anger come hurdling toward him.
WHAM
Tim rammed into Arturo with such a force that it landed both boys on the ground right next to Kiana. A group of kids who stayed around after school started to gather around the fight, shouting with excitement. It wasn’t clear whom they were rooting for but it was a fair assumption that the smaller kids were pulling for a Tim victory. Kiana got up and wanted to help Tim but could only stand there and cry in frustration.
Tim was on top of Arturo, pounding away at his face. He was furious. He could take the abuse but not little Kiana.
Arturo gained the upper hand and turned Tim around on his back and began smashing his head against the pavement. Tim was successful in kicking him off, but Arturo came back on top of him and gave him a sock to his right eye. This would have surely broken his glasses if they hadn’t been thrown off of him as the fight began. They were on the ground next to them, dangerously close to being smashed to bits.
Luckily Tim rolled the two away from them and was now on top of Arturo, still punching furiously at any body part he could.
CRACK
That sound surely meant that Tim had broken Arturo’s nose. He felt a slight surge of triumph. Tim would have definitely kept on pounding away if he weren’t distracted by a familiar voice.
“YOU TWO STOP FIGHTING NEXT TO MY LITTLE GIRL! WHERE’S A TEACHER?”, Judy yelled through the fence.
Kiana’s mother had just arrived to pick up her daughter and was headed toward the school entrance. Mrs. Sullivan finally came out to the yard and was surprised to see the two boys on the ground.
“You two stop fighting this instant. You let go of him Timothy!” yelled Mrs. Sullivan. She ran towards the boys and finally separated the two. Judy soon reached them.
“Why did this happen? Why are their no teachers supervising these kids?” Judy said angrily to Mrs. Sullivan. Kiana ran to her mother, tears streaming down her face. As soon as Judy picked her up she buried her face in her mothers shoulder.
“I…I’m sorry. I was inside grading papers and didn’t hear the commotion,” explained Mrs. Sullivan. “Arturo, get to the nurse’s office and take care of that nose. Both of you, I will deal with tomorrow,” exclaimed Mrs. Sullivan to Tim and Arturo. “First thing in the morning report to the principles office, you hear me?” The two boys nodded their heads. Arturo headed towards the school building with his friends in tow, cupping his nose. Tim stayed with Kiana and her mom.
“Got my little girl all upset! You should always have someone looking after these kids,” said Judy to Mrs. Sullivan, a little more than annoyed. “Unacceptable!”
“Yes, I am sorry for this. We’ll keep a much better eye out next time,” promised Mrs. Sullivan.
The ride back was awkward. Kiana was sitting next to her mother in the passenger seat while Tim sat in the back. He was unable to lay his head back against the cushion; he had a knot on the back of his noggin the size of a lemon. He rolled down the window and let the refreshing sea breeze hit his face as he rested his arm on the car windowsill. The cool air felt good on his bruised eye. With the window down though, the sound of the wind passing by was so loud he could barely hear Judy when she spoke to him.
“Tim, why were you fighting with that boy? I don’t want you doing that in front of Kiana. She doesn’t need to see that.”
Tim did not answer.
“Mama, it’s ok. Don’t bother him,” Kiana interjected. “He was fighting for me.”
“What do you mean? Tim what does she mean, fighting for her? Is that true?” Tim nodded his head, knowing full well she couldn’t see him do so. “TIM, you hear me?” He could sense the anger rising in her voice and thought it best not to let it get to a higher point.
“That idiot was picking on Kiana. He pushed her to the ground.” mumbled Tim.
It was a good thing there usually wasn’t a lot of traffic in Clifftop because the screeching stop Judy came to would have surely caused a 10-car pile up.
“Pushed her to the –– Oh no, we’re going back to that school!”
“Mama, it’s ok. I’m all right. Let’s get back so we can fix Tim’s eye. It might be busted!”
Judy sat there for a second, then turned and looked at her daughter with a smile.
“Kiana, you always make a lotta sense, you know that?”
“Of course I do, I’m Kiana. What do you expect?”
Judy laughed then looked back at Tim. “Tim, thanks.”
Tim gave another silent head nod, this time followed by a grunt that sounded much like ‘No problem’. A loud honk of the horn from a car behind them signaled that they should start moving again.
When they got home Susan was in the kitchen getting food ready, but what she wasn’t ready for was the state her son was in. Susan had the usual mother’s reaction to a son with a black eye, the evidence that he had been in a fight.
“WHAT? Fighting? What did I tell you about that Tim? That’s so unlike…”
“Wait Suz, before you get mad, and I know this isn’t an excuse, but he was sticking up for Kiana,” Judy said, immediately stepping in to support Tim. “Apparently a bully pushed her to the ground so Tim got involved.”
“What? Oh Tim, good for sticking up for her,” said Susan. She knelt down and gave Tim a kiss on the forehead, which he immediately wiped off. “But next time, try to avoid it if you can. I don’t wanna hear things like this. Now let’s get some ice for that eye.”
Tim took the plastic bag full of ice, placed it on his bruised eye and joined Kiana in the living room. He began absently mindedly watching the same program Kiana had on the television: ‘The adventures of Fashion Marie and friends.’ The show, as Tim could gather, was about a group of magical girls led by their leader, Fashion Marie, from the land of Fashionia––or some other equally ridiculous name––as they tried to save the world through clothing fashion. Tim wasn’t familiar with the social normality’s of small grade school girls, but he knew this wasn’t the greatest role model Kiana could have. In any case, Tim watched as if in a deep trance. He was having such a bad day that he began to wish that someone like Fashion Marie (even she would do) would appear and take him away to a faraway land, a land far from bad test grades and horrible bullies.
Cooking got underway. Susan had a small Korean-style dinner planned for everyone; this had been the tradition every Friday night. Susan would tell Tim of their childhood when she would invite Judy over for dinner ever week and her mother would cook the most wonderful Korean dishes. In fact one of Judy’s favorite things to eat as a result was Kimchi––a slightly salty, slightly sour cabbage side dish, reddish in color and commonly sold in jars, that would leave a less than pleasant smell in a refrigerator. The smell kept Judy away from it for years––it has that effect on most people––but over time she finally appreciated the spicy crunch of it and the wonderful way it would accent most dishes.
“Ok, where’s the kimchi? You know I gotta have my kimchi.” Judy gleefully expressed.
“Right here…Oh no,” Susan said as she slapped her forehead. “I forgot to buy some today. Hold on, I’ll be right back” said Susan as she began to remove her apron.
“Oh, no Susan, don’t. Forget about it. It’s not that impor….”
“Don’t be silly, the store’s right down the road.”
“I’ll go and get it,” Tim said, as he entered the kitchen, still holding a plastic bag full of ice to his eye. He had heard the conversation from the living room. “I wanna get some air anyway.” A strange thing for a typical young boy to say, not that Tim was typical by any stretch of the imagination. He also wanted to something else to do, as Kiana was hogging the TV at the moment and he had had his fill of Fashion Marie.
“Are you sure Tims?” asked his mother. Tim wasn’t too found of that nickname, mostly because it lacked any imagination behind it. He gave one of his usual silent head nods.
“Oh, I wanna go too Mama, can I, can I?” Kiana said as she came running into the kitchen. She had a newfound affinity for Tim ever since that afternoon thanks to his chivalrous actions and it had seemed that she forgot all about the doll incident.
“That’s up to him. Is it ok, Tim?” asked Judy. Tim actually wanted to go alone and spend some time alone before dinner. There was no better day than today to just have some time to himself to lick his wounds, both physical and mental. “Um…” But before Tim could object his mother answered for him.
“Of course it’s ok, right Tims?” said Susan. Tim thought about whether to make his sigh audible or not. He thought it best to keep it to himself.
“Yep. Hey Judy, my bike is in your trunk. Can I get it out?”
“Sure” Judy tossed Tim the keys to her car. Tim put down the ice pack and went outside to get his bike with Kiana following close behind. Tim found it a bit strange for Kiana to be so attached to him all of a sudden. He had done many things for her in the past. That time last summer when she lost a flock of balloons in a tree; all but two were popped by the branches and it was he who climbed that tree and got them down for her. Or that one time a couple of months prior, when she wanted to simply stroke a stray cat that, by the looks of it had the temperament of a lion, and scratched like one too. But nonetheless, he caught hold of it and brought it to her, holding back its paws so it wouldn’t ravage her while she pet it. He took the brunt of its swipes. Or all those times he had bought her ice cream sandwiches and candy behind her mother’s back. But this was the first time she showed her gratitude in this way. But this was also the first time he had stuck up for her, fought for her. He guessed it made some kind of sense then.
“Look at her. You know, she really appreciates what he did for her,” expressed Judy to Susan. “I’ve never really thought about it but he’s really been like a big brother to her, especially these past four years.”
“Yeah, he never says it but I know he thinks of her of kind of a little sister. I noticed that he’s been especially protective of her lately,” said Susan proudly. “He’s always pushing her back on the sidewalks and stuff like that.”
“Yeah. Actually Suz,” Judy lacked imagination behind her nicknames as well, a trait that they no doubt picked up from each other. “I don’t say it much but I really appreciate you doing this for us, we both do. You know, the dinners and all.”
“You don’t say it much? You say it to me at least every Friday. And I tell you the same thing every time––Absolutely no problem. You know I like to cook,” said Susan. “Besides, with Tim’s dad gone on business a lot, it’s good to have the company, ya know?”
“I know, but it’s been tough, especially these past couple of years,” said Judy, her eyes beginning to well up with tears. “Ever since Kiana lost her father––and today, Tim doing that, especially stuff like that… I…I just… we really appreciate it, you know.” Susan passed Judy a tissue and gave her a big embrace. “We’re like sisters, no, we ARE sisters. We’ve been through everything together, you think I’m gonna stop being there for you now?”
“No, I know.” Judy dabbed her eyes with the tissue.
“Ok, now let’s get some cooking done.” Susan turned on an eye of the stove while Judy started chopping some onions Susan had set out.
“So, when is Kevin getting back anyway?”
“Well, he said he’d be about….” Just then Tim and Kiana came back in. Tim threw Judy’s keys back onto the counter.
“Thanks. Ok, we’ll be back.”
“And where are you going?” asked Susan to a now, very much confused Tim. He had knew his mother was getting older but was she now to the point of going senile? “Um, to the store, to get the kimchi. Remember?”
“With what money?” she asked. Tim was getting a little tired of people asking about his financial stability.
“Here you go.” Susan grabbed her wallet and took out some money. “I gave you some extra to buy anything else you guys want. But not so much that it would ruin your appetite, got it?”
“Got it. Thanks. Be right back.”
“Oh, and get two jars, okay Tims? ” With a thumbs up, Tim grabs the money and he and Kiana saw their way out the door.
On the way back from the store, they were passing ‘The Cliffs’ when Kiana had a request for Tim. “Tim, I wanna go up there,” said Kiana and Tim stopped his bike.
“Up where?”
“Up there.” And Kiana pointed her finger to the very top of the mound of hills and grass and trees that made up The Cliffs. He stared at the area with sadness. He had no intention of ever going back there if he could help it.
“Um… I don’t know Kiana. We gotta get this stuff back for mom…”
“Come on Tim. I haven’t been here in a long time and I wanna go.”
He really didn’t want to go, but he also didn’t want to tell Kiana the reason he was so against the idea and she was being persistent.
“I wanna go for him,” said Kiana, and Tim knew the “him” she spoke of. The Cliffs had been a favorite place for her father and it had been the place he had spent the final moments of his life.
“Um…” started Tim, but he looked at the sorrowful eyes of Kiana’s and could not, at that moment, refuse. So he said, “Ok, but only for a little while.” He thought he should forget about what was bothering him about this spot at the moment and take the time to ease his mind. For an eleven-year-old boy he had a lot of stress. Being Korean there was this weird, underlying “rule” that he had to be smart but he was consistently not, and the kids at school most definitely let him know it. He was fleetingly called an ‘idiot boy’ more times then he liked. He also wore glasses, another trait of braininess, which didn’t help the situation. He didn’t have a lot of friends; his shyness prevented him from talking to a lot of students in his class. Kiana on the other hand had lots of friends. She was the kind of girl people would take an instant liking to; charming, friendly, always wanting to share something with someone, anyone. At lunch he would usually sit with her and her friends, which was as embarrassing as embarrassing could get; A boy his age hanging around with a girl 4 years his junior? Good thing he didn’t have a reputation to protect. It was either this or eat in a corner of the field alone, staring at cars whiz by while eating his hamburger and potato tots. His chronic loneliness beat out his pride by a mile. All this coupled with the continual threat of Arturo was surely the cause of the premature graying of his hair. A lay out on the grass would do his mind some good.
“I bet I could beat you to the top!” Kiana issued a challenge to Tim and far be it from Tim to turn down a challenge, but he was still hesitant. But Kiana took off running, so Tim followed suit. The two ran to the top of hill as fast as they could, Tim almost spilling the contents of his plastic bag. “No…fair. If I… if I…wasn’t holding this I… I coulda beat you.” Tim plopped down on the grass, nearly out of breath. “Whatever. Not my fault you’re slow.” Kiana stuck her tongue out at Tim and held it for several seconds. Tim returned the gesture. It was a tongue-off.
*SLAP*
“Ow!”
Kiana smacked Tim on the side of his cheek, signifying the end of the face-off. Tim started after Kiana who had long since took off toward the trees but thought it would be better to sit it out. He was used to the smacks by her. She played rough like a boy; all those years spent with Tim had definitely rubbed off on her.
“Oh, well. Looks like I’ll have to eat all this ice cream by myself,” he shouted to Kiana.
“You better not. Tim, I swear….”
“Calm down. Go look for birds. It’ll be here when you get back–––maybe.”
“TIM!”
As Kiana played amongst the trees and looked for random animals around in bushes as she usually did (which wasn’t all too safe, but she would mostly only find humming birds and ladybugs) Tim looked down the hill to the sea, lost in thought. At the bottom of the other side of the hill stood a rather flimsy, wooden railing that was supposed to separate humans from the ocean and accidentally falling to their deaths down on the jagged rocks below with a sign on it that read ‘STAY WAY’; a temporary railing that was supposed to have been replaced by their city four years ago after an incident that haunted Tim ever since it occurred. It was down this very hill that Kiana’s father has rolled down to his death; a death that Tim blamed himself for and he felt ever so guilty when he would ever lay eyes on these hills. Kiana was too young to remember the events, but Tim remembered well. It was a burden on his young mind. But he would have to bury his feelings, if only for the moment, to protect Kiana from the truth.
Tim emptied the contents of the bag: one frozen watermelon bar, one vanilla ice cream sandwich (Kiana’s favorite) and two lemon-lime sodas. He left the jars of kimchee in the bag, no point in taking those out. Tim unwrapped the ice bar, popped open a can of soda and sat back on the soft, slightly damp, beautifully green grass. When he lay down, the blades of grass were so tall they almost hid his entire torso in the color green. He had to be careful how he rested his head in his hand. He still had a lemon-sized knot on the back of it. As he sucked on the watermelon treat he counted the number of big clouds that passed by. One…two…thr–– OOOF! Kiana had stepped on Tim’s stomach (on purpose) on the way back up the hill and plopped herself next to him, almost lying down on her ice cream bar. “No, where is it, where is it… Okay. Safe! That was close.”
The two laid there eating their ice cream, sipping on sodas, staring silently at the sky. The silence only broken by the sound of the sea breeze, the rustling of grass and a couple of ‘stop it’s’ and ‘quit it’s’ in reaction to the playful pokes Kiana was applying to Tim’s soft rib cage. Finally, Tim could rest. If he could get through the rest of the day without incident, all would be well, he thought.
Alas, Tim was known to never have luck on his side.
Suddenly, a flash of purple emblazed the sky before him and Tim immediately sat straight up. The sun had shone in his eyes and caused him to see different colored spots, some of which happened to be purple, he thought. Though he did think it strange that he saw no other color, he thought nothing of it. That is until it became apparent that Kiana had experienced the same thing he did.
“Tim, did you see that?” asked Kiana almost immediately. “It was like, like….purple.”
“You saw that too?” Tim blinked his eyes then rubbed them behind his glasses. The sea, the clouds, a couple of seagulls; nothing seemed out of the ordinary. “Probably nothing.” Tim said as he laid himself back down.
Then, he heard a sound. Tim sat back up. He thought he had heard something that sounded faintly of a scream, the scream of a human being. He stood up and rubbed eyes, a little harder this time (which caused a bit of watermelon bar juice to get in his eyes, not pleasant) and looked toward the sea. Was someone drowning? There was no one there as far as he could see. That clearly wasn’t it. Was it the squawk of a seagull? The ones he had saw a moment earlier were already half way down the coastline. It definitely wasn’t that. Kiana had sat up as well and she noticed something in the sky.
“Tim, what’s that?
“What’s what?”
“That!” She pointed up at the sky. Tim’s eyes followed her finger pointing to an object that was fast flying toward their position. Tim squinted to see exactly what. Whatever it was it was getting closer. It wasn’t a bird, Tim knew that for sure, but what was it? The sun was shining through his glasses acting as kind of a magnifying glass, channeling the sun’s rays directly into Tim’s eyes causing considerable pain, especially to the bruised one.
“Ow, freaking sun.” Tim took of his glasses momentarily to try and get his eyes back in focus. He put them back on as fast as he could. He had to see what that was in the sky. He immediately looked back towards the clouds but before he knew it, whatever it was, had already reached his position.
SLAM
The object had collided with Tim sending them tumbling down the hill back toward the dirt road in a flurry of hair, legs and arms. The two rolled half way down the hill before they came to a stop and were finally separated. The collision had separated Tim’s glasses from his face as well. He groggily sat up and searched for his glasses. He found them right next to him and instantly put them back on. When his eyes got back into focus and his brain back in order, he was startled to find exactly what had hit him standing right in front of him. It was a human, a young girl to be precise. She was standing over him with her arms out stretched toward him, wrists together as if waiting to be handcuffed; her head was hung down in shame. Tim was in shock. Kiana, who had just run down to meet the two seemed a bit surprised a well.
“I fully concede defeat. You may take me away to your vicious lord, but I swear, he may do to me as he wishes but he will not get a word out of me, not one word.” she spoke in a low, quivering voice.
Kiana, tugged on Tim’s jacket sleeve. “She talks like those guys on my animal show.” she whispered to him. He assumed she was referring to those English guys that were the regular host’s on some kiddy animal conservation show she was always watching. They always went on and on about animal habitats and every so often the show would have cartoon bumpers in-between segments about elephants and lemurs and such. Kiana was right though. This mysterious girl was talking in patterns he thought strange for a young girl to speak in, almost adult like. He felt like a teacher was lecturing him.
Tim was still on the ground, still in shock. He hadn’t the faintest idea of what this girl was talking about. He looked her up and down. She was a young girl, about the same age as he. She was wearing the most peculiar combination of clothing he had ever seen on a girl, well, on a girl his age anyway. She was wearing a long, formal, simple pink dress; now covered in grass stains thanks to their little tumble down the hill. She also had on a gray flat cap, the kind old chimney sweeps used to wear in the old British children’s films Tim used to watch from time to time. On her hands were brown, slightly worn out, work gloves that seemed to be made out of leather that were at least two sizes too big for her. To top off her rather odd look were a pair of boots, also of the work variety, also slightly worn but they seemed like they were the correct size for her.
“Well, on with it. I do not wish to prolong this any further,” the girl uttered. Still, there was silence. The girl looked up at her two would-be captors. She looked from one to the other. A look of surprise on was on both of their faces. In Tim’s case, his mouth was somewhat ajar. In a flash, she quickly darted away from them, looking back as she fled. Tim and Kiana’s eyes got wider and their mouth’s opened further. She didn’t simply use her legs and run away like a normal young girl usually would, no; this girl was flying away. She quickly headed toward a near-by cluster of trees and hid behind one of them. Tim and Kiana were still in their place, just staring at the strange girl who was staring back at them as well from behind the tree. They stared at each other for what seemed like a lifetime before the girl finally emerged from behind her hiding place. No sooner had Tim wiped the last bit of dirt and grass off himself than he was face to face with the mysterious young girl who was the cause of his grass stained pants. She had the widest grin on her face, which was about an inch away from Tim’s. In fact it was the brim of her hat pushing against Tim’s forehead that was keeping their noses from actually touching. Tim’s back arched backwards. He wanted to both step away but stay right where he was at the same time. He was a bit embarrassed. He most likely smelled like a mixture of sweat, left over from his afternoon rumble, and grass: not the best of combinations. This girl did not seem to mind though. What was she doing exactly, he wondered? She finally stepped back and looked the two up and down with a combination of glee and inquiry in her eyes. Her eyes darted from Tim to Kiana, from Kiana to Tim, whom she was now focusing her attention on.
“You’re not the part of the lord’s army, are you? What is your name?” she asked.
“Um, Tim.” As soon as the name left his lips he found himself in a loving embrace. Almost immediately, the hairs on the back of his neck sprang up. She gave Tim a hug, the likes of which he hadn’t felt since that time his mother thought she had lost him in the mall a couple of years back and nearly squeezed his head off of his shoulders.
“It is so wonderful to meet you Tim!”
The hug lasted for what seemed like minutes. Usually if someone hugged him, most likely a family member, he would make a face and slowly pull away but for some reason Tim did not mind it this time. This girl had the most wondrous smell. The sweetest smelling rose in the world would feel inadequate in the presence of such a scent. She smelled like some new, yet to be discovered, mysterious flower. He also detected faint touches of the scent of grass, but not the muddy grass stink he was carrying. No, this was the beautiful aroma of a grassy field at the end of a rainy day. She finally let go and this strangely saddened Tim. The girl turned her attention to Kiana.
“And your name is?”
“My name is Kiana. Nice to meet you.” Kiana stuck her hand out to be shaken but the girl would have none of that. She grabbed Kiana around the shoulders, lifted her off of the ground and swung her around. They rubbed cheeks while they both smiled and giggled with happiness. Tim thought she was unusually affectionate for a stranger and usually he couldn’t stand copious amounts of affection, but for reasons he couldn’t explain he didn’t mind it one bit coming from her, yet he was still very wary of this girl. He was usually wary of most people. She finally put Kiana down and they both fell to the ground, laughing. Tim continued to stare at the girl, still a bit confused as to who she really was. The girl noticed this and quickly stood up and dusted herself off.
“Oh, how rude of me. I still haven’t introduced myself. Tim, Kiana, it is great to meet the both of you. My name is Fawna.”
“Nice to meet you too, Fawna. Um, how can you fly exactly?” Tim did not waste time asking the question that was spread across his mind since the moment he saw her.
“Well, that’s a good question.”
“Yeah, I think it is. And what’s the answer?”
“Well, that is an answer I am afraid to say I do not have at the moment but that’s not the important thing. I’ve been doing that for months now,” said Fawna. Tim thought what possibly could be more important than seeing a human fly of her own accord.
“No, what I just found out, and this is important,” she made a motion signaling that she wanted the two to bring their heads closer to hers. As they did this, Tim noticed that Fawna had the greenest eyes he had ever seen on anyone. He was nearly hypnotized by them.
“What I just found out is…I can teleport. Isn’t that amazing?” she confessed with glee.
Tim broke away from hypnotizing beam her eyes cast. “Yes, amazing. Now I have two questions. Why can you fly and why can you teleport?”
She wasn’t listening to a thing Tim was saying as the hill behind them had now caught her attention. She ran full speed to the top of it, as Tim looked on, kind of surprised that she was even able to do anything but fly as a mode of transportation. Kiana soon ran after her.
As Fawna reached the top of the hill she cupped her hands over mouth, eyes wide at the scene she was now experiencing.
“My goodness, Kiana. I cannot believe this view. TIM! TIM! Come up here with us, please!” Tim wondered what all the fuss was about. When he got to them he noticed that Fawna’s eyes were nearly filled with tears.
“Look at this Tim, look at this sea. Have you seen anything as beautiful as this in your life?”
“Yep, everyday.” said Tim sarcastically. “So, you’ve never seen the sea before?”
“Oh, I have. I just always overreact this way when presented with such joys of nature. Come, sit with me.” She dragged Kiana and Tim towards the ground and plopped right next to their previously unattended lemon and lime sodas and the bag of jars of kimchee, that Tim just realized he had to get back to his mother soon. “Please tell me more about this world of yours,” Fawna demanded sweetly.
“Um, you still haven’t answered my questions. Now I have three of them.” Tim held up three fingers and put one down as he counted off. “Why can you fly? Why can you teleport. And where the hell did you come from?”
“You ask a lot of questions. You are a very inquisitive fellow. I like that.” she complimented. “Well, I fly because I apply myself, I can teleport for reasons I do not yet know and I don’t know about this Hell place you mentioned but I come from a land called Bravadia. Perhaps you know of it.” Her statements seemed to have confused Tim more than answer any of his questions.
“Brav…adia? Never heard of it. Is that in Europe?” Another of his questions went unanswered, as something else seemed to have caught Fawna’s attention once again.
“Oh, what is this? A drink of some sort.” She lifted Tim’ s can drink and tried to read the side of it. “What’s this say? ZIPP so…da? What is soda? Do you mind?”
Before Tim could give the OK she took a huge swig of his drink. She made the face most people make when faced with a strong dose of carbonation. She let out a big breath of satisfaction.
“Oh my, now that was exciting and quite refreshing. I would very much like to try that again.” she exclaimed. During her second gulp and second scrunching of her face she noticed another object.
“What’s in the bag?” She quickly grabbed the bag and took out one of its contents. By now Tim was getting a little annoyed at the impatience she displayed in regard to his approval. Tim could do nothing but fold his arms in frustration at this point.
“Kimch, ch…. what’s Kim…. Kim…” She tried to sound it out but couldn’t get it out properly.
“It’s Kimchi. It’s food.”
“Food? You can eat this? I would think it much too interesting to eat. Anything that looks like this absolutely has to taste good.”
“Well, if you like spicy things I guess you would like it,” said Tim with a little pride in his voice. He thought very highly of food from his native land. She examined the jar a little more closely.
“Made in Ko…Korea, did I pronounce that correctly?” Fawna asked as she looked to Tim for confirmation. He nodded his head.
“So this is what you call this place. The land of Korea.” She looked around in amazement.
“Well, that’s where kimchi comes from, Korea, ” explained Tim.
“Oh, so you two come from Korea then. Kiana, sit. You must tell me more of your land of Korea,” said Fawna. She placed the jar of kimchee back in its bag and sat back down signaling for Kiana to do the same.
“Um….” started Kiana. She looked to Tim for support. She didn’t know the first thing about Korea.
“No, this isn’t Korea. Korea is the place my mother was born. I’m Korean and she is black,” Tim said, trying his best to explain.
“So, you’re from Korea and she is from the land of Black?” asked Fawna.
“No, I was talking about her race.”
“Oh, are you in a race Kiana? Please do tell me more. Can I join in? I do love a good race,” Fawna asked very innocently.
Tim was running out of explanations. He didn’t know any other way to put it.
“No, no, her skin color. I mean her skin color is what we call black.” Tim put it bluntly as he could.
“What? I’m afraid, Tim, that seems inaccurate. It is definitely more of a creamy brown.” She turned to Kiana and held her cheeks in her hands. “In fact, it may quite possibly the most wonderful pigment of skin color that I have ever seen. You are absolutely beautiful,” said Fawna as she inspected Kiana’s face.
Kiana’s cheeks turned rosy red as she turned to Tim.
“Tim, did you hear that? She called me beautiful.” Kiana was very excited at the prospect of being referred to with such a term. Tim faintly smiled at Kiana. Fawna was still very much excited and it showed on every inch of her face. She grabbed hold of Tim’s hand, who was still standing, and began pulling on it. Back up went his neck hairs. “Oh, please do sit down and tell me more of this race.”
As Tim made the motion to sit, something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. At the bottom of the hill was someone that was about to ruin the rest of his day. Arturo and two of his cronies were dashing up the hill, the look of fury on his face, as well as red-tinged wrapping around his nose.
“Pork bun! Is that you pork bun?” Pork bun was a name Arturo had took to calling Tim on occasions, a name Tim did not appreciate one bit as told by the look on his face every time he was called it.
“I thought that was you pork bun. Can’t miss that stomach from a mile away,” said Arturo giving Tim a great big push as he reached the top of the hill.
“STOP THAT!” yelled Kiana standing up and in the way of Arturo and Tim. Fawna also stood up and stared at Arturo.
“Who the hell is…”Arturo cut his sentence short as he stared back at Fawna, now caught in the stare of her big, green eyes. She gave a wary look to Arturo; a look that slightly was mistrustful. “Who is this Tim, a friend?” asked Fawna.
“Me? A friend of this?” asked Arturo as he gave a great, big shove to Tim’s right shoulder. “Who is this anyway, pork bun?” he inquired about Fawna, pushing Tim’s left shoulder. “Got another girl to fight for you huh?” ––Another push to the right shoulder.
“What d’ya want?” Tim asked Arturo, hoping that he wasn’t looking to finish their fight. Unluckily for Tim, that was exactly what he wanted. “What do I want? You break my nose and ask me what I want?” Arturo gave a push to both shoulders. “I wanna finish what you started.” This time Tim pushed back which infuriated Arturo, prompting him to knee Tim in the stomach, hard, which caused Tim to topple to the ground in pain. Arturo took the opportunity to continue kicking Tim in the stomach while his friends looked on, laughing. Fawna stood up for Tim.
“Excuse me, I don’t think that is a proper thing to be doing,” Fawna said as she reached out and grabbed Arturo’s arm.
“Don’t touch me. Who do you think you are?” Arturo wrenched his arm away from Fawna’s grip and gave her a great big push. Fawna fell butt first to the ground. Tim looked at Fawna on the ground. She didn’t look hurt as much as she looked mad. Tim could feel anger rising in him as Arturo dealt another swift kick into Tim’s stomach. Kiana stepped in.
“YOU STOP KICKING HIM!” Kiana started punching Arturo as hard as she could, but due to her size and lack of strength that did nothing but annoy him.
“Calm down you little rat!” Arturo said to Kiana as he grabbed her pigtails.
“Ow, you’re hurting me!” cried Kiana.
“Shut up, rat!” Arturo flung Kiana by the pigtails to the ground. She, unlike Fawna, had fell straight on her back and started to cry. Arturo and his friends just stood there laughing at Kiana, laughing so hard that they did not notice that Tim had risen to his feet. Arturo’s head was suddenly in-between Tim’s arm and soft belly. Tim had him in a headlock and would not let go. Arturo punched away at Tim’s stomach but the more he punched the harder Tim squeezed. Kiana, still crying, got up and tried to get between the two boys. What she actually got in-between were the blows Arturo were supposed to be delivering to Tim. When Tim saw that Kiana was the one getting pummeled he let go at once, which gave an opening to Arturo. He did not waste a second. As soon as Tim let go of the grip on his head, Arturo leapt at Tim, knocking Kiana into him. Arturo pushed Tim and Kiana back a couple of steps before Tim’s foot found the plastic bag containing the jars of kimchee. Plastic and damp grass make for the most slippery of surfaces, and caused Tim to fall backwards, taking Arturo and Kiana with him. “Not again,” thought Tim. For a split second he was able to squeeze out a thought as the three of them rolled violently down the backside of the hill, towards the rumbling sea. Luck was on the side of Arturo, as he was able to stop himself from rolling any further by grabbing a hand full of grass and earth. Luck would not be too fond of Tim and Kiana on the other hand, as they kept on rolling and rolling until they smashed through the rickety fence at the bottom of the hill like a large boulder through a wall of tooth picks.
“NO, TIM!” screamed Fawna in horror as she watched her new friends fall out of sight. Not a moment later, Fawna took flight, dashing through the air like a bullet out of a chamber. She smashed past the wall that were Arturo’s sidekicks, knocking them to the ground as they watched all of the commotion in amazement as she zoomed down the slope. She cleared the cliff and sped as fast as she could down the side of the mountain. She could see Tim and Kiana falling backwards, looks of terror etched on their faces. She started to pick up the pace. A strange purple glow was emanating from her chest. She was getting closer. Tim reached out for Fawna as she too outstretched her arms, trying desperately to grab hold of Tim’s hand. Tears flowing upwards from Kiana’s eyes were now splashing across Fawna’s face as the rocks below were getting closer and closer. She could now feel the tips of Tim’s fingers. She must reach them now. A second later and the two would be impaled on the sharp edges of the rocks below. She received a sudden burst of speed as the glow of purple grew to an almost blinding illumination. She was able to grab a hold of both Tim and Kiana just as they were to hit the rocks below, and they all disappeared in a flash of glorious purple just before impact.