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“I planted these trees ten years ago. They’re kind of my pet project. We had to go off-world to get them—long story, but I was out on a job and I came back with these beauties. Crew acted like I took forever, but he was glad in the long run that I’d done it.” His smile was huge. “Come on. You pick tonight’s apples.”
I remember thinking their world to be dusty and desolate when I arrived, having landed in a rundown town, but it turned out that I had to look harder at things. Their world was gorgeous. Alive. Vibrant. The most beautiful place I’d ever seen.
I needed to remember that moving forward. I had to learn to look past the cracks in the walls and the way that the buildings were rundown and see the woods around it, see the hills, and the fruit. And the lavender. I needed to open my gaze to the possibility of what could be rather than just what was evident at first glance. Where I was from, they might keep things well maintained and neat, but no beauty lived there. I knew better than to go solely by my first impressions.
We stepped into the orchard, and I noticed the fruit grew in many different colors and sizes. “Which ones do you want?” he asked.
“How do I pick?” I had never seen such a place. “What are the qualifications?”
He put a hand on the small of my back. Somehow the touch seemed more intimate than when he held my hand. I stilled before I got used to the sensation of the heat and warmth of his touch. It was different when I didn’t have to do anything, I realized, because I actually wanted him to touch me. It was my choice.
“Apples ripen from the outside, by the trunk. Feel it. If it feels firm, then it’s ready for you. Lift it upwards and twist.”
Sounds great, but just one problem. “Unlike you…I can’t reach them. I’m short.” The trees were very, very tall. I didn’t know if that was true of all apple trees, but theirs towered far above my head. I smirked, wondering if the trees were enhanced like the man who had brought them there.
“Easy fix.” He set down the basket and opened the top of it. Then, in a smooth move, he picked me up and maneuvered me until I was on his shoulders. I gasped, grasping at his wrists before I felt secure. “Now you’re tall enough.”
A branch hit me in the face—I was a little bit too tall, in fact. The thought made me giggle. “Sure. Almost too tall.”
“Just make sure you don’t take a branch to the eye and pick your apples. You can drop them into the basket.”
I saw one that looked promising and grabbed for it. The firm flesh of the fruit felt warm in my hand, despite the chill rain, and with a twist, it came free just as he’d said. I dropped it into the basket easily with a little peal of laughter. “How many do we need?”
“As many as you want. I don’t think there is such a thing as too much pie with these guys.” He squeezed my knee. “And you weigh almost nothing, so take as long as you want.”
I grinned and eagerly reached for more fruit. Picking fruit, it turned out, would easily rank among the most fun experiences of my life.
6
LIGHTNING
Mace set me down and grinned at our harvest. “We’re going to be able to make five pies with this much fruit. You’re going to be everyone’s favorite person. I never make more than two.”
“Why did you let me pull so many off, if it’s more than you do usually?” Had I taken too many apples? Depleted the trees?
He shrugged. “Most of the time, I do this in a hurry, so I grab the bare minimum. This was fun, and you enjoyed picking the apples. Seemed like a great way to spend our day together, so I saw no need to rush it. Plus, now I can look forward to teaching you to make the pies.”
Less than a second after saying he’d teach me to make pies, he turned and pushed me faster than I could even fully process. I hit the tree behind me, hard—hard enough that my head spun for a second. Disorientation hit me, with the smell of ozone and burning, and I realized he’d just gotten hit by lightning.
The loudest boom I’d ever heard echoed around us, until I thought I went deaf from the noise, and even though I hadn’t taken the hit myself, I felt the electricity all over. I buzzed everywhere and rolled over to puke, jolts taking over my body. Even as my stomach emptied itself of the sweet roll and the wonderful orange juice, I knew I hadn’t been directly hit by the bolt. Mace. He had been struck by lightning. Maybe he even saved me.
I got to my knees and crawled over to him. Every movement was painful, but I got to him despite my tingling fingertips. His skin was singed black, his eyes closed, and his body smoked yet somehow, he breathed. I touched his chest. How was it possible to survive that?
“Mace,” I said his name. “Mace.” He didn’t answer, and I didn’t expect him to. This was lunacy. I looked up at the sky. The lightning was everywhere, and as I watched, it struck the ground on the other side of the field. Okay. This is bad. “Can you guys hear me?” I was on a planet filled with former Super Soldiers. Surely, someone could hear me. “Mace has been struck by lightning, and I’m not okay.”
He lifted his hand to grab my arm. “It’s okay.” His eyes opened. “I’m injured, but I’ll recover. I’ll always recover. We have to find shelter. Guys, don’t try to get out here. Not yet. The lightning. I’ve never seen it do this before.”
Dread filled me when he struggled to get to his knees. It was bad, really the worst possible scenario, if he was this hurt. That lightning, what could it have done to him? Incinerated him right there? I don’t know enough about this stuff.
“It hit right next to me, not on me, I don’t think.”
In a random thought, I looked over at the apples in the basket. They were actually on fire, so I didn’t know if he was right. I was pretty sure it struck him directly, but it wasn’t the time for arguing. It was for getting out of there. Somehow.
We crawled, me following him in steady progress, across the field until we ended up inside a small cave. I figured he had to have intentionally picked our destination, since I wouldn’t have seen the cave at all if he hadn’t led me to it.
“I know— ” He struggled to speak. Breathing must be hard for him. “— that it looks like I won’t survive this, but I will. We’re made to survive. Stay right here with me. When it’s safe, they’ll come and get you. They want to now, but lightning is striking everywhere. Never happened like this before. Don’t know why.”
Having delivered that information, he hit the ground on his stomach, fully passed out but still breathing. I put my hand on his back to feel the intake of his lungs, not trusting my eyes in my fear. It was desperately important to me for him to live. There had been too much death, too many people gone already. I might have only met him, but I could already tell Mace would be someone important to me. With his pies. His quick smile. His sad, haunted eyes. And, despite all of it, the way it was clear he tried to find the good in life.
