PART TWO

- RECONNECTING -

Flame

***

I waited in front of the lifts, Yashie-less, starting the well worn trip back home to sleep. I felt like I was never truly awake, never alive, hovering zombie-like through the weeks while Alex slept on. How long? A voice whispered in my heart. How long?

The doors of the lift opened, and my breath froze in my throat. Opposite me, inside the doors, staring at me in equal shock, was Blackheath.

Blackheath.

Here.

How was that possible?

He was a prohibited person in this country. He couldn't just walk down the street. If anyone recognized him , he was dead. Or as good as.

The doors began to slide shut and we both acted automatically, Blackheath holding his arm against the slow heave of the doors, and me to slip inside the compartment. His arm dropped and let the doors rumble shut. I stared at my reflection in the metallic doors, motionless. I had the feeling of being in a coffin. Enclosed with Death.

"Ground floor?" Blackheath said quietly, and I nodded mechanically. He pressed the button and the lift heaved into motion.

"You're back?" I whispered, fear straining my voice.

"I've just come for Dorsey. I'm leaving as soon as I've found her," he murmured, his voice strangely intense. Was he afraid too?

"She's not here," I whispered back, still staring straight ahead.

"I heard Alex was here-"

"No," I said, turning to him, shutting my eyes briefly at the mention of the forbidden name, "she's not here at all. She's at home."

"I have to talk to her."

I shook my head, frustrated.

"No, not home here. Home with George."

Realization dawned on his face in parallel with desperation.

"I have to see her."

***

Leaving the rest of the house in darkness, I pulled the radio forward out of its dust free square and powered it up. Blackheath played the answering machine, listening in silence to Dorsey's message.

"I just heard about Alex. I guess you're at the hospital... I'll meet you there."

He traced his fingers over the numbers as they were her face.

"Its old," I murmured, "I just haven't deleted it yet." Finally I found the right channel, and heard Henry's voice. "Henry, can you get me Dorsey please?" I interrupted.

"Hey there! Long time no, uh-"

"Henry…"

"Ah, ok…. Just hang on a moment. She's coming. Are, are you ok?"

"I just want to talk to Dorsey, ok?"

"Sure, okay. Here she is."

"How's Alex?" Dorsey's voice rang from the speakers, direct as always, like she was in the next room, and I saw Blackheath lean imperceptibly forward, reaching for her.

"Yeah, um, the same. Look, Dorsey, I have, an, an old friend of yours here visiting."

"Oh really? Who?"

I paused, grasping for words to get my meaning across without endangering him.

"He's a bit shy. Uh, he didn't even speak to you the first time you met…"

Dorsey was silent for so long I was about to repeat myself.

"Oh my god," she breathed, and I realized it was shock that kept her quiet.

"He, uh, he'd like to see you."

"He's with you now?"

"Yes."

"Is Bhask with you?"

"No, he's at the hospital." Was she really going to be a stickler for the human-only rule for the radio network now?

"Dorse, it's been a really, really long day-"

"Is he alone?" She was close to tears.

"What? Um, yeah. Yeah, he is…?"

Blackheath leaned back with his eyes closed, his face anguished.

"Dorsey?" I asked as the silence stretched.

"Can you ask him why?" She was definitely crying now.

Blackheath was shaking his head over and over, his face still intensely pained.

"Uh, I think you could probably talk about it when you see him?"

Blackheath leaned forward tiredly and wrote a quick note.

"If… if you want to see him?" I added, reading his scrawl.

"Yes," she replied eventually, "Yes I do. But I can't come. We're snowed in."

"He… he uh could get a snowmobile."

"It's too dangerous. I mean, the fords aren't frozen-"

"The fords have been frozen for weeks, Dorsey!" a voice came from the background, and I recognized Jake.

Dorsey was silent. I knew what she was trying to say. Blackheath was risking cold storage going there. Everyone would recognize him. If anyone saw him, he was dead. But the snowmobile helmet would hide him from the scouts…

"I know you might worry about him, as, as he's never been before, but if you told the scouts that he was coming, I can tell him the way… maybe you could meet him halfway? At the ridge?"

"I don't know."

I bit my lip, watching Blackheath hang painfully on her silence. Finally she spoke.

"Alright. Alright, I'll meet him."

We agreed on the details of time and date, and I turned off our signal.

"I can't call the snowmobile shop til the morning," I said.

Blackheath nodded, and I suddenly noticed how weary he was. How long had he been on the run?

I got some fresh sheets and started pulling the old ones off Dorsey's bed. He took them out of my hands and sat on the bed.

"What's wrong with Alex?" he said softly.

I slid slowly down the doorframe, wrapping my arms rigid tight to contain the pain.

"He's in a coma."

"For how long?"

"A few months now."

I took a deep breath.

"We don't even know if he's still there. Ayasha's just, just waiting for him to wake up. She won't leave him."

Blackheath sat silently for a while, then lay down on the bed. I left him and buried myself in my own.

***

The next morning I picked up the snowmobile and towed it back to the house. I handed Blackheath the car keys. I was beyond wondering if I should help him. Dorsey needed him, and I needed the head space. But he hadn't left. He was still standing there.

"Thank you for all you've done," he said quietly. You're weird, I thought, too tired to work out where he was coming from now, "I know it can't have been easy for you… I just want you to know, I won't, I won't hurt you."

I know, I thought, but it was another thing entirely to be confident enough to say it to his face.

"Why not?" I said instead, making a last ditch effort to understand him better.

"Because you're her sister," he said eventually, and even I could see that wasn't the whole truth. But I knew if he admitted to thinking a soul was human, he was on a slippery slope. I left it at that. But he went on.

"It's just that, Dorsey… isn't going to be real pleased with me. She'll think you're endangering yourself but… I won't hurt you."

I was puzzled.

"Dorsey knows that."

He shook his head.

"Dorsey doesn't trust me."