A brief and sharp hissing sound followed as I dragged the zipper of the tent open. The brisk night air drifted in as I stepped towards my sleeping bag.

Evelyn’s head popped up from the pillow. Her hair rose up on end from the static in our smell tent, “Where did you disappear to all day?”

I slipped off my shoes and sat on my sleeping bag with crossed legs. “I saw the-uh alien again. We talked for while.” Though mostly we sat in silence, both stuck in waves of pondering about the land in which we hailed. The memories of it replaying in the shaking leaves and fluttering flowers.

“Oh yeah? What are they like?” She rose further, zipping open her sleeping back so she could face me even with weary and tired eyes.

“Her name is Gi’it’al. We talked about…we talked about home. Back home, I mean.” The sweet smell of flowers invaded my mind as I reminisced about the meadow and sitting with Gi’it’al.

“She’s from the same…place as me. She’s separated from her sister.”

“Because of the war?” I nod slowly like I don’t quite want to confirm her statement. The war was not something I spoke of, especially not with Evelyn and my parents.

I refuse to let those feelings bloom within me before her. I refuse it so dearly and strongly. So I pick the petals of my emotions till they’ve turned into soft fragments that I let fall and drift away.

I swallow the shaking in my hands and mind, “I don’t want to lose you guys.”

“Why would you lose us? We’re family, me and you.” I don’t look over to her, instead I peer at the shadows twisting around the tent like they’re putting on a play. The tree branches bow, the shrubs curtsey as the fake curtains open wide.

From after I see the outline of a crow who watches it all like a observer from heaven above.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged and twisted my shoelaces together in . “I-I just don’t want you to see me as only an alien.” I don’t want to lose you once you see me for what I really am; the anomaly, the outlier, the deviance.

She stared at me with furrowed brows. The light was low in the tent, more sparse than usual with only sprinkles of yellow light illuminating her defined features, “To be honest Rory. I think you’re the only one who sees you as only an alien. You’re my brother.”

My hands stopped twisting the string. I shook my head slowly but didn’t respond immediately. I wasn’t even sure how to respond, every word that I could’ve said became swallowed up or invaded my lungs and didn’t allow me to express anything.

You’re the only one who see’s you as only an alien.

You’re the only one who see’s you as only an alien.

You’re the only one who see’s you as only an alien.

Evelyn exhaled and turned away from me as I stayed quiet and never found the words to answer her. Settling herself back into her sleeping bag. But I stayed upright in my miniscule sitting position, frozen like statue or a sculpture of days past.

I wonder what she sees in me. I wonder what details of me I have overlooked that her eyes have noticed and taken note of.

Perhaps I should look at myself how she sees me. Just Rory. Just me.

Her breaths were quiet and shallow, easily decipherable from the winds that shook the trees outside. I let myself dip onto my pillow and have the warmth of my sleeping bag spoon me to sleep.

Soon morning rose once again and swept sunlight and warm air into the tent. I cleaned up and helped everyone back our stuff into the bed of the truck.

“Ok! Let’s rock and roll!” My dad tapped the side of the idling vehicle twice. It had just hit 11 AM and he was already in a frenzy to get home. Piling into the truck, we left the now empty campgrounds behind and began to return home. We weaved through empty roads and large plots.

Listening to the soft shifting of the music, I stayed quiet and watched the green forest turn back into mellow golden fields.

✧✧

The science class was empty except for a lone Elias Alvara when I walked in. He was hunched over a pile of papers, scribbling as he answered questions. I could see his messy writing like usual, over the past few weeks that he’d been sitting next to me, I’d noticed how his writing was almost unintelligible. Almost completely unreadable, at least to me.

A few strands of his black hair hung over his forehead. He seemed to be enraptured by it, scratching down the answers easily. It didn’t surprise me, though Elias didn’t talk much in class, he was extremely good at science. I’d seen his test marks for myself.

My feet plant under me, I try to root them as I look at Elias. I hear the classroom door close behind me with a click. And I wonder if he notices. “I’m back.”

“You’re back,” He said as he raised his head from the paper. His head was slightly tilted, just like the thin and crooked grin that always seemed to appear on his face, “How was roughing it? Did you survive?”

Elias had shed his leather jacket, which now hung from the back of the grey plastic chair. His black t-shirt was bare except for a small stitched past of the Alvara Corporation logo.

Gesturing to myself, I responded, “Just by the skin of my teeth. But it was good. Really good. But, I’m happy to be home.”

Gi’it’al crossed my mind again briefly. I wondered if she had thought of me at all in the days since I returned. Perhaps it was a futile thought, but I hoped she had found more flowers to pick and to collect.

“Fancy cardigan you got there.” He commented.

The beige and blue fabric was soft to the touch. It had been stitched together in squares of the alternating colours. “Thanks, my grandma made it.”