Page 17 of Uncivilized

“People don’t…that is, I don’t really have people help me with things all that often. If I’m hungry, I have to sort it out. Or not eat. I mean, I guess that’s not fair. If Stone was cooking, he’d ask me if I wanted something, and I’d do the same. We both fed Amias.”

Mace shook his head. “Boy, did he luck out, having others feed him. That man could cook. He didn’t like it, but he could do it.” He laughed. “Lucky bastard, getting a family that didn’t know he should be cooking for them.” Mace shrugged. “We’ve always had to do things for each other, even before we were free in the universe. We had to take care of each other on missions. If we didn’t, and someone got hurt, the company would put that person down. So…yeah, we looked out for each other.”

I hated to think about the way they’d lived, so I focused on my surroundings. We crossed a grassy clearing toward a small hill that looked like it led to a much bigger mountain. My home was surrounded by hills and mountains, with the ocean on the opposite side. Our hills were dead, desolate places but these were loaded with trees and flowers. I took a deep breath. There was a scent in the air I didn’t recognize but loved. A delicate, sweet smell, like deep forests yet somehow more powdery and with the slightest tinge of woodsmoke.

“What is that?” I took another deep whiff. “That scent?”

He smiled at me. “Lavender.”

“I’ve never heard of it.” I heard of oranges but not lavender. So many things I didn’t know, all of it starting to compile a big list.

Mace nodded. “Well, then I suppose I’m in luck because I’ll get to show it to you for the first time in a few minutes.”

Eventually, we stopped in front of a field of purple that stole my breath. It looked almost like I could swim through the violet display, as if the sea of blossoms could lift me like an ocean wave might.

“I…I love this. The color. The purple.” I wasn’t being particularly articulate. Mace set down the basket he held and took my hand in his, tracing his thumb back and forth across my knuckles.

“I think technically it’s the color lavender. The color comes from the plant name, right?”

I swallowed, rolling lavender through my mind. It felt exotic and somehow lovely. “I’ve never heard that word before. Isn’t that strange? It’s a color, you say, and I don’t know it. Then again, there are a lot of things I don’t know.” I couldn’t read, a constant pain to my ego. There had to be some women my age on my planet who could read. Maybe their parents had snuck the lessons in, but mine hadn’t. I found myself wondering about so many things, and somehow, I figured the answers had to be in books, so it seemed unfair to be unable to ever learn what secrets they held.

“There are a lot of things I don’t know, too.” He spoke in a low voice, so I turned to look at him. I expected to find him regarding the lavender, but instead found his attention was solely focused on me. “We only have six weeks, but I could try to teach you to read, if you want. Get some basics in before you have to travel back home alone, at least. Although Amias gave you very descriptive cards to get here, he didn’t give you ones for the journey home, did he?”

I shook my head. Fuck. “I hadn’t even thought about that.”

Mace made a noise I couldn’t decipher as my anxiety rose, making my breath quicken and my head hurt. “Do you think you could do that? Could you make me cards?”

“No. I don’t know the trip to your home well enough to do so, and I’m not sure how Amias did it in the first place. I find it interesting that Amias was able to create them, as he never made the journey that way himself. He left here in his own shuttle, but how he created them is a question for another day. I won’t let you get lost, that I promise you.” He gripped my shoulders then smiled like he heard something. “Ransom won’t, either. Oh, and neither will Gunnar.” He rolled his eyes. “Crew says he won’t, either, so you can relax. One of us will get you home. Although…” His voice tapered off, his gaze going distant again.

“What?” I squeezed his hand, my breathing leveling off. “What were you going to say?”

“I wonder why you have to go back at all. You’re here. Why not stay?” He nodded to the left, so I headed that way by his side. We moved slowly, and I enjoyed the breeze and the smell of wet.

“I can’t stay,” I sighed, closing my eyes to feel the wind kiss my eyelids. “People will get in big trouble if I don’t go back. They might already be, but I can’t make their pain worse by never coming back. If there is music to face, I have to face it.”

Mace scrunched up his nose like what I said smelled bad. “Or, you could say what’s done is done. You’re here for six weeks. By then, they will have faced whatever music themselves already. You returning might only compound their situation, serving as a reminder to Clarke of what they did wrong. He could choose to punish everyone again. You might not be thanked for your return.”

I hadn’t thought about that possibility, but he made a fair point. How would I know which would help them more—staying away or returning? I never faced such a choice before and didn’t know the right answers.

“Mace, I’ve been here less than a day. In six weeks, you might be well rid of me. You could be counting the days until you don’t have to hear my voice or heartbeat again, so don’t suggest my staying. We both know that might not really be an option, or even something you’d want at that point.”

He dropped my hand. “Wait here a second.”

Without a word, Mace left me standing there and ran into the lavender field. He came back with a piece of the plant and handed it to me. “Smells even better up close.”

Had he ignored me or just chosen not to respond? Maybe it was better we didn’t broach the topic of the future, instead focusing on the moment. I brought the lavender to my nose. He was right. I closed my eyes and let the sweet floral fragrance move through me.

Why would Amias have ever left their planet? I stared at the beautiful field glistening with raindrops in awe. With so much beauty and freedom at his fingertips, why ever leave?

“Maybe we can convince you to stay and become a part of our community. Maybe you’ll be tired of all of us by then. People leave. Even close friends take off and go.” I lifted my lids to regard him. “But this place is more than us. That lavender field? It was planted by a group that lives on the outskirts of town, over on the other side. They’re like us. You met some of the regular humans today, but there are more of them, about four dozen more. We need to grow that community. You could…live somewhere else with other people.” He winced. “It doesn’t have to be us, if you’d rather not, is what I’m trying to say.”

I stepped toward him—close enough to be considered outside good manners. I invaded his personal space, but he didn’t seem to care. I wasn’t sure exactly why I wanted to be closer to him, but I did. “You have been nothing but nice to me. Holding me last night? Making me feel welcome to stay with you for six weeks when I showed up out of the blue and invaded your life? I can’t imagine not liking you. Any of you, so maybe let’s shelve this discussion, and see where we are in six weeks.” I swallowed my need to keep going. Sometimes saying less was more. “Although I do think I’ll go back when the time comes. It’s hard for me to imagine living with myself otherwise.”

He rubbed his eyes. “You might be surprised what you can live with, but I hear you. Come on.”

Mace linked our hands together again, and we walked for a while in companionable silence. It wasn’t hard to be quiet with him. Eventually, we reached an orchard, and once again I caught my breath. There were apples everywhere, or at least it looked that way. The spicy scent of cider kissed the air, likely from the overripe apples that had fallen from the heavily laden branches.

“Wow.” I stared open- mouthed at the scene. “There are so many.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com