I Am Aqueous

I Am Aqueous - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

It was morning now, and I had still been watching the roads which Rachael had been running on. The streets were full of cars now, but no one noticed me, despite my visible position; they were too busy driving to their jobs. They followed their rules and knew what to do, after 20 years of school they were prepared. They stopped for the red and went for the green and everything was orderly and proper, just like I felt inside. I was thankful that these rules no longer applied to me and that I need not follow them. Although there was a part inside of me that wanted to break these rules, just like the people on the streets, the only difference was that the rules were for the humans and I was no longer a human, so I didn’t have to follow these rules. But I did feel I wanted to be part of this order they had accepted. I was an immigrant and I’ve found my home, but I haven’t contributed to my new home’s prosperity.
The events last night brought me to the conclusion that I had to get involved and do something. I had the power, so why didn’t I use it? I was the one man that could make a difference. My answers wouldn’t come to me; I had to go to them. I had to travel down the path of an unknown destination, so I could learn what the destination is. The people want to see me and know me. The people don’t hate me, nor love me. I should take the opportunity to open this door to the city, before they lock it. I lost a friend, but I’ll find another and perhaps another, maybe I’ll get a fan. I wasn’t sick in bed and my life didn’t revolve around a few walls. I wasn’t restricted to a wheel chair, a cane, a cast, a sore calf or even an Olympic leg. I had the power to give and to take, so I decided to use the power.
I jumped off the roof and landed with a little splash, but I enthusiastically reformed myself. I ran onto the street and then I saw someone see me. I ran away and hid in a near by home’s dog house. There was no dog in it, but I certainly felt like a chicken in my coop. I lowered my eyebrows and yelled at myself, “You scaredy-cat! You just made a bunch of promises to yourself and look at you!” I clenched my fist, which was actually more of a four way pinch with lots of rage, and I smacked the inside of the house. I got very angry at myself.
When I was about to curse again, like my Dad had done, I experienced something rather strange. I thought I had fallen asleep for a moment. I felt like I had lost consciousness, control or even life for a split moment. It was another phenomenon in my new life so far, along with the freeway teleport and the whole new body, with the exact same questions, how and why? Since the feeling was so brief, I ignored it. Perhaps my brain was remembering the pain of when I started to die. I built up the courage and motivation to hit the wall and get out from the walls.
I stood around the lawn of the house for a while and then I heard a distant police siren. This was my opportunity to stop the bad guys. My acute hearing told me they were a few kilometers to the north. I started to run in the direction, but I stopped when I noticed the drivers of most cars on the road stopped to look at me. I didn’t let the fear of being seen bother me this time. I sucked it up and ran again, wishing I could close my eyes as I did so.
With this burst of motivation to get somewhere quickly and with out everyone seeing me, my instincts reminded me of a skill that I could apply to my benefit. As I was accelerating down an unpopulated sidewalk, I remembered the time I used some sort of sling shot-throwing action to make blobs of my liquid spit up and return to me. The thought came to me that I could use this technique on my whole body to, perhaps, jump great heights.
I continued to accelerate, while I planned out my jump with the help of my instincts. I would run and then I would turn into a rounder-ball like shape. With the force of my speed still there, I would roll along the ground while I followed the process of this jump. I would build tension by crushing myself, to create a pulled back sling shot feeling. Then I would release the tension, at the same time I would throw myself as hard as I could. With that I should be sent flying. I would then have to reform my body as soon as I hit the ground in the same running position as the one I would have jumped from, in order to keep and increase the speed I would have been at, otherwise I would completely stop and I’d have to accelerate over again.
The process seemed a little complicated, but since it was really a step by step process and I had my instincts to guide me, I should have had no problem, even though I only had less than a split second to actually perform the jump, otherwise I would slow down a lot. I had almost reached my maximum speed and I had almost reached a very large intersection, so I would have to perform it now or I would splat into someone’s car. I loosened my liquid so I turned more into a ball, as gravity was pulling me down, I pulled myself down to create tension and as soon as I hit the ground I released the tension and threw myself forward on a perfect angle. I spurted from the ground like a watermelon seed from someone’s mouth and I shot through the air in the shape of a comet. I had a small point as the head and a long, beautiful stream of turquoise liquid trailing behind as a tail. I had a lengthy trip in the air, long enough for me to take a quick glance around the intersection, as I was jumping over. My head started to point downward and I prepared myself to reform myself. The comet’s head, before it hit the ground quickly curved the opposite direction it was heading to create a tail. The head’s neck split in two to create fast moving and very low angled legs and eight even faster opening and closing toes. The body of the comet widened to create a torso and a head. The tail split into four parts that fell into their proper forms as backwards facing arms and collapsed fingers and two tentacles waving around in the intense wind. The facial features formed and Aqueous was sprinting again at an increased speed.
Judging by the shape of the heat behind me, I had leaped the length of two buses. Another intersection approached and I repeated the process with even more haste and grace. By the third I had mastered my almost artistic method of travel; I had named “Cometting.” My fourth jump was higher and on top of a three story building. The fifth was almost instantaneous from the fourth and I used it to leap on top of the six story tower beside the building I was on. The sixth was right after I landed the fifth and I leaped a gargantuan height from on top of that tower and I landed on the road right beside a mini-van moving as fast as me along a six lane stretch of highway. I heard the police siren to my right now, so I decided to turn. I jumped and kicked myself off into a comet off the side of the van. The van shook a little, but it was fine.
I was now on a cloverleaf on ramp and I was able to see the police car faintly in the distance. The police car was getting smaller and smaller, because the cars on the highway were moving a lot faster than I was. I dashed along the side where no cars were, but I couldn’t go any faster. I could even feel my legs wobble and ripple at the tremendous stress I was putting on my ability to keep them solid. If I ran any faster or even continued to run at this speed, I would rupture.
I decided to hitch a ride on one of the cars, so I jumped to one moving by me. I under estimated the speed of the cars and wind resistance, because I missed the car I aimed for and I almost missed the next one behind it. I held onto the back bumper of the car I aimed for with my antennae and I miraculously caught the front bumper of the car behind it with an extended tail. I lifted my arms and legs spread eagle as I saw the pavement pass centimeters in front of me 120km/h! After I realized I was in this mess, I quickly thought of a way to get out of it. I, in a way, scraped liquid from my torso, arms and legs and made it crawl along my antennae onto the car in front of me. I kept scraping and shifting, until after a few moments I had successfully moved all my liquid to the car in front of me.
I stood on top of the trunk and I slowly paced to the front of the car, while trying to hold onto my longer, skinnier appendages from blowing away in the heavy wind. I looked at the next car I should hop to if I were to catch up; it was moving faster than the one I was on. I corrected my first estimations and I cometted one lane over. I missed that car as well. I landed right on the back bumper and I held on for dear life with my feet. I shook and wobbled and I was going to fall, but I shot a few fingers towards the front of the car, in hopes to latch onto something. I grabbed the side mirrors and I pulled myself up onto the trunk of the car.
I thought I had gotten the hang of what I was doing now and so I estimated again to the nearest, fastest moving car. I saw a SUV and I cometted to that one and I had successfully threw myself on top of the roof, but I lost my balance and landed on my tail. I stood up and gazed around for the police car and it was out of sight. It had been moving too fast and I had been moving too slow. I needed to move faster if I were to catch up. I sucked up the non-existent adrenaline inside of me and I picked my next car.
I cometted to a transport truck and ran along the trailer until I cometted to a beetle. As soon as I hit the roof, I jumped to a sports car two lanes over. I never stopped; I just hopped from one car to the next at a blinding speed. I zigzagged my way down the highway and I soon began to do that with amazing haste and grace, too. My form and swiftness, from leaping from car to car, began to resemble something like the icon that bobbed up and down on a karaoke display, or I seemed like one of those highly acrobatic ninjas in Japanese Anime. I bounced around amongst the metal like a randomly thrown rubber ball.
As I jumped from car to car, I noticed that I was very quickly gaining on the police car, which was actually chasing a tan coloured, early 90’s style car. After a few more jumps from the civilian cars, I leapt onto the police cruiser and the siren malfunctioned for a moment when I landed. I took two steps and I cometted extremely hard to land on the trunk of the older car. I turned around to the police, and after I shifted my fingers around a little, I gave the police a legible thumbs up. The police cruiser slowed down and shifted into another lane; either because they were going to let me handle the situation or they were afraid of me and were going to run away.
I turned to the task at hand and I thought of a plan. I went down on all fours and pressed my hands and feet against the side of the car, so I could retain balance as the maniac zigzagged through the cars. I felt on one of my toes to my right, a thin opening in the rear seat window. I thought of an idea, so I took action. I started to squeeze myself through the centimeter crack in the window, starting with my toes and then eventually my leg. It took me about ten seconds, but now I was a blob of liquid spread out along the back seat of the car.
I formed my head to look around a little. The interior of the car was brown and very torn up; so much, that a spring was jabbed inside me. I saw the driver’s eyes in the mirror and they were very small, despite the amount of nervousness in them. He turned his head to look for the police behind him. I saw his early thirties face full of wrinkles, as his thick black eyebrows were raised. I felt a little sorry for him, because of how much fear he must have been experiencing. No person should ever have to be that afraid of anything. Even though he was so scared, he deserved what ever was coming for him if he was so desperately trying to evade the police.
I reformed the rest of my body and I sat on the seat behind him. He looked at me through his mirror and I saw his small eyes pop open to their maximum. I gave him a rather mocking look as I shrugged. Then I dropped the eyebrows and placed my hands and feet right against the back of his seat. I shot my digits around the seat and roped him up around every nook and cranny he exposed. He was completely pinned to his seat with absolutely no hope of even budging. I reached my antennae around the seat around to take control of the steering wheel. I slowly drifted the car to the side of the highway where I had previously been running along. I slipped my tail under the seat to press the brake pedal. I brought the car to a screeching halt, well away from the flow of traffic.
I moved my left antenna over to the door handle to my left, opened it and pushed the door all the way open. I reached over and did the same with his door. I slithered to the left and I pulled the criminal along with me. I never let go, nor did I have to, because I could slide the tentacles through the seat with only breaking the hold of a few tentacles for a brief moment before I reformed them together. I also merged my arms and legs into my left arm and I reformed new legs and right arm, so now I held the criminal, in an extremely roped hold, in one hand. The prisoner started screaming for help, but I created a tentacle to wrap over his mouth.
I stood there for only a few moments until the police car pulled up behind the criminal’s. Two police officers emerged, a skinny one in uniform with a clipboard in hand and a fatter one in a tan trench coat, with pistol in hand pointing at the scene.
The larger one shouted, “Freeze!” He quickly realized that I was holding the culprit securely in my grasp. He then demanded of me, “Don’t try anything funny; I’ll lower my weapon.” He did and paced up towards me. He looked down at my face and I gave him a cheerful, victorious glance back.
He quickly glanced at the state of his suspect and then back at me. From up close I noticed the man had a very round head with a slight double chin. He had a thick, reddish-brown mustache and big eyebrows. His face almost was out of a detective show and he looked like he was one of the good ones. He flashed his badge and told me, “Inspector R. Charles of the DRPD.” He pocketed his badge and he put his arms on his waist. “You must be this Aqueous character, hm?”
I nodded. I recognized his name from before. He was the person questioning the witness about the highway incident a few nights ago. I guess it was fate for him to write some more paperwork with me in it. Then I felt the prisoner struggle, so I constricted him a little more.
The prisoner bubbled loudly through my tentacle. Charles ordered his partner, “Put some cuffs on the man, Jeff.”
Jeff complied and walked over to the criminal, but he never took his eyes off me. I opened and area of my liquid for the officer to put on the hand cuffs and once he did, I released my grip on him. Jeff carried the criminal back to the squad car.
Charles bent down a little to take a good look at me. He stuck out his finger and asked me if I would mind. I shook my head. He curiously, but slowly stuck his finger in my face. He pulled it out and rubbed his fingers together to feel no dampness on him.
He sat up again and put his hands in his pockets. He congratulated me, “You did some fine work here today. You even stopped the car without disrupting traffic and with out even putting a dent into it.” He smiled and joked, “I would normally say to do gooders like you to stay at home and leave the danger to use policemen, but you my strange little friend are quite the kid.” He corrected himself, “Well, you look childish to me.”
Jeff showed up beside Charles and told him, “I got most of the stuff on him down. I checked the trunk, two automatic rifles, no numbers.” Jeff then looked at me in a state of uneasiness.
Charles asked Jeff, “Better flip to a new page. We need to get to know our newest citizen more, before we can let him go.” He turned to me. “Do you mind if we ask a few questions?”
I shook my head. I hopped up on top of the car and sat on the roof, swinging my tail and feet.
Charles asked, “You can obviously understand and interpret English, but you cannot speak it. Am I correct?”
I nodded. Then I noticed Jeff with the clipboard and I pointed to it. The two officers looked at each other.
Charles said to Jeff, “I think he wants the clipboard.”
Jeff protested, “I need the clipboard.”
Charles got angry, “Maybe it can write.”
“It can’t write, Roger.”
“Give me the clipboard and we’ll find out.”
“Um…”
“The clipboard, give me the clipboard.”
Jeff handed the clipboard to Roger Charles. Charles handed the clipboard to me. I pointed to Jeff again, who was holding the pencil.
Charles got annoyed, “The pencil.”
Jeff gave the pencil to Charles, who gave it to me. I clasped my four fingers together on the pencil and in a minute or two; I wrote very poorly, “I can write. I can talk another way but it is very scary and mean but it is lots better.” I handed the clipboard to Charles, who gave it back to Jeff.
He took a while to decipher what I had written, but eventually acknowledged and insisted, “We have no fear. Go ahead. I don’t want to be limited to ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers.” Jeff nodded in agreement.
Though they were so anxious, I couldn’t help but feel awful and evil for what I was about to do to them. I chose Jeff as my victim. I hung my head a little and tried to look innocent. I fiddled with my fingers as I snaked an antenna in the air towards Jeff’s ear. I then quickly shoved it in his ear and my instincts guided me to the only part of the brain that I could operate, the speech. Jeff stopped what he was doing and glanced into nothingness as I stole control of his voice.
Charles was startled by the condition of his partner and whipped out his gun and pointed it at my face. He ordered, “Release him this instant!”
I spoke through Jeff’s mouth, “Don’t shoot me. I’m only borrowing Jeff’s voice.”
Charles yelled at Jeff, “Shut up Jeff.”
I spoke again in a more convincing, but still zombified tone, “I’m Aqueous here. I’ve only tried this once and it didn’t turn out very well. I’ll let Jeff go if you still think I’m a good guy.”
Charles, half believing what Jeff/I said, stepped back a little. He stuttered, “O-Ok.”
I released Jeff and I was afraid that he would run off screaming like Rachael did, but instead he smiled and shouted at me, “Did you just take control of my mind!? That was so cool!”
That was the least expected answer I’d get out of him. Though I was much happier knowing that that method of communication wasn’t painful to the victim. I did, however, want to find a much more civilized way of talking, so I didn’t have to possess someone to act as a translator. Perhaps Rachael could help, if I ever saw her again.
Charles holstered his gun and ordered me, “That was interesting. Since it didn’t kill him, stick it back in there.” He turned to Jeff and yanked the clipboard from him, “Give me that clipboard. Looks like I’ll have to do all the work around here.”
I hesitantly stuck my tentacle in his ear again and latched onto his brain. I spoke through Jeff, “Hi… uh… ask away…”
Charles asked me, “This is basically the question everybody’s been asking and I have to get the answer. Who or what are you? And what do you want?”
I hesitated a little, because I really didn’t know the answers to those questions. So I confessed and Jeff said, “I don’t know.”
Charles got angry, “What do you mean you don’t know?”
“My whole existence, my life, it is all so confusing. It’s like I have amnesia, but I know my past. All I know is what you see. I am a living blob of turquoise goo. And I don’t know what I want either. I want answers, that’s what I want. So I’m being a good guy until I find the answers I want.”
Charles didn’t seem to buy it, but he wrote it down any way and continued on. He then asked, “Can you explain the highway incident?”
I explained, “I was hiding in an alley when I first got here and then I started to get dizzy. Then I seemed to magically appear on the highway. It was in one quick flash like do in the movies, how the camera appears different places.”
“Witnesses say you rose from the ground.”
“I don’t remember that. I just remember lots of cars and noise at the beginning.”
Charles didn’t buy that either. Charles was beginning to make me feel uncomfortable. He didn’t seem to be evil or mean, but he made me feel scared a little.
Charles continued, “So if you don’t remember appearing on the highway, how did you get into the alley from where you disappeared from?”
“I just walked into the city.”
“From where?”
“My house.”
“Where?”
I stopped there. He was really starting to scare me. I didn’t trust him. I didn’t want to tell him where my house was, he may think my family were bad guys and arrest them. I simply answered with, “I don’t know.” I lied, “I don’t remember.”
He demanded, “What direction? How far?”
“I don’t know.”
He muttered under his breath. He wasn’t happy with the information he was getting. He explained to me, “This is all great, but I’m going to request for you to come with me.”
Jeff’s voice rose, “Why? I’m not the bad guy!”
Charles reassured me, “Don’t worry, I just want to ask some more questions at the station. It’s chilly out here.”
Jeff muttered, “I can’t tell.”
Charles explained further, “You did good today and I’m sure everyone at the station would like to meet you personally and not from behind a gun and squad car. I just want to take you back for a while. You’ll still be a good guy, don’t worry. Just come with me.”
Jeff became serious and my eyebrows lowered, “Not with you.”
“What?” He said surprised.
I stopped twiddling my fingers and I placed them heavily against the roof of the car. “I’m sure they’d be happy, but I won’t be with you.”
Charles was furious. “Are you questioning my orders? Come with me in the cruiser!”
I squeezed the roof of the car and gave him an angry stare. “No.”
He exploded and demanded, “Jeff! Cuff him!”
I released Jeff, and as soon as I did, he grabbed his hand cuffs and ran towards me. He slapped the cuffs on me, only for them to fall through my liquid and onto the floor. I did a back flip and kicked Jeff in the face, with the use of a little bit of my cometting technique; I landed flat on the roof. Jeff wobbled backwards; I hadn’t hit him that hard. Charles raced after me to grab my leg, only to have it, literally, slip through his fingers. I cometted off the car and I sprinted down the highway and eventually out of their sight.
Jeff asked Charles, “Roger, should we go after him?”
Charles replied, “No. I have a feeling he’ll come to us when the opportunity is right.”
Jeff commented, “He doesn’t like you very much.”
Charles stalled for a while. Then he walked to his car and ordered Jeff, “Come on. Let’s get this guy to the station.”
Jeff followed.

* * * * * *

I ran for a long time. I was still in the city, but I had no idea where. I was blinded by rage. For the first time, I had an enemy, an enemy besides myself. Inspector Roger Charles was a bad man and I didn’t want anything to do with him. I continued running and running and then a little bit of cometting, but I mainly ran from my problem. Then I stopped. I saw a familiar face in the corner of my eye. I back tracked a few steps and I saw a familiar black wan with the number 7 painted on the side. The familiar face was Diana Pauline talking beside a half burnt down store. She was being filmed on the side walk on the other side of the road.
I decided to try again with acquainting with familiar faces. I cometted to the side walk and I landed behind her. She didn’t hear me; she was too in depth with her story. The camera man, however, saw me and pointed the camera at me. After a while of talking, Miss Pauline noticed that the camera wasn’t pointing towards her and she waved the camera man to shift over, but the camera man only pointed behind her. She turned around to see my head at her chin’s height. She jumped and shrieked, but was only startled. She recovered and changed her story.
She said, “This just in, I am now standing right next to the famous Aqueous Monster. It isn’t appearing to be unfriendly; perhaps it just wants to be on TV. Say something Aqueous.” She pointed the microphone to my face expecting to hear something. I could only hang my head in disappointment. I didn’t want to control her voice on TV; people would definitely think I’m a bad guy if I did that.
She continued in disappointment, “Can’t speak English? How about Chinese?” She then spoke a phrase in Chinese that I didn’t understand. She continued, “I guess he doesn’t want to talk today. I’m sure you have lots to say, I’d do anything to hear it and so would the people watching at home. The people want to hear you. You’re a myth; let’s make you a star!”
I hung my head again and gave into the temptation of being on TV. I only hoped Sam was watching. Before I could do anything though, people began congregating behind me. They all spoke this time and weren’t frozen in fear, but rather anxious and curious. They asked questions to their neighbors and awed and jumped up and down and were actually relieved that their first meeting, was peaceful, so far. A few of the braver people went up to me and put their hands in me. A little child pulled on my tail and another locked hands with me. They were mauling me and exploring every millimeter of my body. I didn’t mind one or two people touching me, but when the fiftieth came, I had enough.
I melted into puddle form and I oozed out of the mob from underneath their feet. I heard a couple shrieks and a lot more jumps making me splash, but I managed to get free. Then I cometted on top of the news van. The crowd coated the van, like something from my last nightmare, but none of them wanted to climb up with me.
Miss Pauline got angry at the mob, “Get off the van and off Aqueous’ tail will you! I’m trying to do a breaking news cast!” The crowd eventually obeyed and let Miss Pauline go on with her interview. She continued, “Well where were we Aqueous?” I sat down on the edge of the van. She remembered, “Oh yes! I was trying to get you to talk for this undying crowd here.”
I hung my head down a little and admitted that I had to use my evil power in order to please my fans. I pointed to my victim, an old man in his late fifties; I pointed him to come to me. He obeyed with honour and privilege. I would have sighed if I could. I gently placed my left antenna in his ear and took control of his speech. The old man spoke for me, “Hello, Miss Pauline. I like the name you’ve given me, Aqueous. Even though it doesn’t hurt, I don’t like it; it’s mean. This is how I talk.”
The crowd, dazed, took a while to digest my little speech, but understood eventually. Miss Pauline, feeling a little threatened at my interesting power, asked hesitantly, “So this is how you talk? Through other people?”
I explained, “Sadly yes… for now.”
The crowd was now convinced that the whole act wasn’t staged, and listened eagerly at Miss Pauline’s and my interview. She asked the common question, “So now, we all want to know, what are you?”
I answered with difficulty, “I really don’t know. I am what you see, a thing made of liquid and the blue eyes.”
She realized, “Seems you really don’t know a lot about yourself, huh?”
I agreed, “Yes. I’ve come here only to find answers. I don’t plan on doing anything else, but being the good guy.”
Diana glanced up and down at me and asked, “So what can you do with that body of yours?”
“Anything I need it to.” I paused. “Even the things I don’t want it to.”
Miss Pauline was too worked up in her story that she didn’t really sense my miserableness. She asked again, “So you like your name the city’s given you, huh?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have any other name that you would prefer?”
“I did.”
“What is it?”
I was about to say, “Ozzy Belway,” but I didn’t. I didn’t want to tell Roger Charles and I feared he was watching. I lied again, “I don’t remember.” I confessed, “My life’s a mystery, especially since the highway accident.”
Miss Pauline nodded in disappointment, “I’d love to chat all day and have a coffee with you, but we’re almost out of film. We should meet again a soon as we can. For now I want to end our last 30 seconds with a favour.”
I stood up and released the old man, who only smiled back. I crossed my arm and tapped my toes around.
She asked, “Do a trick for us! Show us what you’re made of can do!”
I nodded. I held up my hands and spread my legs a little. I then quickly shifted my parts around so I was doing a handstand. I then cometted to the sidewalk behind the van and I ran away. The crowd cheered and a few people chased after me with pencil and paper. I was soon out of sight.

* * * * * *

After fleeing to a dark alley to deal with my mixed emotions, the sun had set. I no longer knew what to think. “Charles is bad man, the news thinks I’m a star, but most importantly, Rachael is afraid of me,” that was what was rushing through my invisible brain at the time. I felt like a failure. I hadn’t gotten anywhere. I was hunted; I was hunted like the last deer in the forest; the hunters not knowing the consequences of killing me. Everyone was after me, if not for a criminal interrogation, but for autographs. The one person, whom I wanted to be hunted by, was gone. I didn’t know what to do, again.
After beating myself up, I came to realize that I should hope for the best. I had gotten nothing sitting in alleys, but I did get something going outside. It didn’t matter if it was for better or for worse, I had gained experience. I remembered the old man again and his advice; I had to go out into the world and get my answers and not to take the path I know the destination of. With that thought in mind and the moon rising, I decided to find the park where Rachael said she’d meet me, before I scared her. Perhaps she would return and maybe she is afraid of her mind being taken over and not me in general.
I stood up and I found a drain pipe to the large store I was behind. I climbed up it with hands and feet and with haste and grace. I reached the top of the roof and I looked around for the park. I was completely lost as to where it was, because I had so blindly rushed around town to evade Charles; I had no idea where to begin looking. From what I could make out, I had to get to the other side of the highway and from there I might have been able to retrace my steps. So in the darkness I cometted from rooftop to rooftop as to remain unseen, I began my search.
The night was calm and it was very cold, judging by what I could see. The streets were especially empty that night, perhaps because of the cold or perhaps because I sent the wrong impression to the citizen earlier that day. The stars were shining and the moon was almost full, but I had little time to gaze around, because that almost full moon, was almost at its peak height.
The highway had man cars on it, as it usually did and I decided now that it was a good time to retrace my steps. I jumped and landed along the side of the highway I had been running on before. I picked up my pace a little and with in a few minutes I reached the onramp from which I had jumped from off the van. I turned left and headed down the road and onto the sidewalk. I ran and cometted my way through a few blocks, until the buildings got a little shorter, so I was able to comet onto one. I continued to leap onto the higher buildings until I had an eight story vantage point.
I stood along the edge and looked for anything suspicious or familiar. After a few quick pans, I saw a square of land with heat absorbed into its surface, rather than being reflected like the city’s metal and concrete. The light of the moon revealed to me that the heat absorbing land was grass and that there were a few metal structures there. After seeing a cold sandbox I knew that that was the park I was at last night. I leapt off the eight story building and splattered on impact. I reformed into a comet and then I dashed to the park, before the moon got any higher.
When I got to the park I met with disappointment, Rachael was nowhere to be found. I looked up into the sky and saw the moon. I was early. I was over zealous, so there was still hope. I decided to wait for her. I sat down on a bench. I leaned my right elbow against the right armrest of the bench and I placed my left arm on my thigh and held up my head. I had my antenna over the back of the bench and I swept them back and forth along the wood. I slipped my tail through the back of the bench and I brought it back up to grasp the top piece of wood, like someone would the roof of a car while riding in it. After playing with the darkening grass in my feet, I loosened my liquid so that the grass gained their original rigidity and so they felt undisturbed. I could’ve waited for years; I was at peace amongst the inventions of nature and man.
Time didn’t seem to exist in my pose, but at some point I heard a noise. My tail revealed that it was a bird behind me, trying to get its early worm. But before I could drift back into a daydream, I was awakened by another sound. I shifted my eyes up towards where my antennae adjoined to my head, so I didn’t need to move out of my position. The noise was someone who had stepped on a dead leaf. The person was Rachael.
Rachael was very uncomfortable and timid about coming here, but she was there and I was too. I stood up and gave her a very happy expression. I walked over to her and soon noticed that she was afraid. I decided to let her know how I felt; to tell her that I was sorry, I hung my head and gave her a shameful eyebrow raise. I also put my hands behind my back.
Though it was unexpected, she smiled at me after I did my cute little pity pose and she calmed me down, “Don’t worry Ozzy, I’m not afraid.” She struggled to explain her feelings, “I was just confused. You startled me that’s all.” She bent down and pet my cheek. “I know you wouldn’t hurt me on purpose.” She stood up again. She paced a little, “Even though it didn’t hurt, I ran away, because I was confused.” She struggled again, “I don’t know why. I stalled coming here tonight, because I had mixed emotions about what was asked of me. Please understand, Ozzy. I’m sorry.”
I would have cried, but I didn’t feel like melting. I walked over to her and gave her a big comforting hug, with all appendages firmly wrapped around her. Hugging Rachael surprisingly reminded me of my mother, especially if she were here right now I would hug her with all my limbs and many created ones and I wouldn’t want to let her go. Rachael was my mother, or at least the mother of Aqueous. Her heat transferred into me and it was extremely heart warming. Then I felt salt and water enter me and I saw that Rachael was crying too. I guessed that I was her son in her life. We over-killed the amount of forgiveness we needed, but we eventually detached.
Rachael stood up and she explained, “I’m sure you want to talk a normal way don’t you? I saw you on the news and I take it you don’t like that method too much?”
I nodded.
Rachael looked at the sky and explained, “I really did show up late. I’ll let you talk through my body so I can hear your ideas.”
I complied hesitantly and I stuck my antenna in her ear and took control of her voice. “I like this as much as you do Rachael. I really don’t have any ideas about how I could talk. Unless you know sign?”
I let Rachael speak, “No. I don’t know sign and even if I did. Teaching it to you may be very difficult.”
I pondered through Rachael, “I don’t know. I never learned anything like this when I was tutored. I’m only 12; I don’t know how anything works.”
“You are very smart you know. You speak like you are in high school.”
“I am only thinking the words, so I don’t really have the problem of putting thoughts to words.”
“Well even besides that, I think you’re quite clever.”
“I really wish. I can’t even think up an idea of how to speak! I don’t even know how humans speak!”
Just then Rachael’s mind started working. Her mind raced and she remembered things. She then suggested, “That’s it! Why don’t you speak like us! It’s so obvious that we missed it!”
I made Rachael sound very confused, “How? It doesn’t make sense.”
Rachael exclaimed, “No it doesn’t. Do you remember when I was frozen in fear and that you made noise popping bubbles inside you?”
“Yeah, but that was just bubbles. They sounded like boiling water.”
“Yes, but you made a sound, like a voice. You were speaking way out of whack.”
“So what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that if you can let the air out, which you bring into your body, and if you push the air out with moving the holes like mouths. You might be able to create a voice for yourself.”
I paused, partially to digest her response, but also to think of how to do what she was suggesting. I replied, “That idea will work. Although, it’ll take tons of practice, I will master it. I won’t stop until my little fake voice is heard.”
“That’s what I want to hear. Now I don’t know how much I can help you, but I’ll certainly be here for you.”
I removed my tentacle from her ear and I took a few steps back. This was my most advanced technique to learn yet. I concentrated and listened. I listened for my instincts to guide me, but they never came. I tried again, but it didn’t come. I sadly realized it wasn’t here for me this time. I was to do this on my own, either because it didn’t know or it was testing me. None the less, I needed to speak with out stealing from others so I applied my skills to put them to the ultimate test, speech.
I took in a large air bubble, the size of my head, and I held it in my chest. I pushed it through my chest, while trying to pinch flaps of my liquid from the top and bottom. The bubble popped with an “Eee” sounding belch.
Rachael laughed and in my head, I laughed too. Rachael suggested, “Don’t take in such large air bubbles.”
I agreed and I took in more air, but this time it was the size of fist. I pushed it through my liquid, through a passage shaped like a mouth making the “Fff” sound. I made a rather rushed and diseased “Fff” sound.
Rachael made another suggestion, “I sounded a little gross. Why not try to make the same mouth shape, but do it with many, smaller bubbles around your body.”
I figured out her idea and I tried it. I sucked up many small air bubbles; around one hundred. I positioned them all around my body and I shaped a “Shh” all over my body. I pushed the air bubbles through their mouths and I much improved noise came out. The noise was still rushed, but it came out soft and artistic and beautifully. I was quite pleased.
Rachael made one final suggestion, “Your sounds are great, but still sound quick and like pops. If you can, why don’t you try making the air bubbles longer? That way you can hear the sound longer.” She immediately thought of an extension to that idea, “Also, if it isn’t too hard, you can shape the bubbles to be longer, fatter or skinnier, so as you push them through, you can get different pitches and volumes.”
From that I easily created a nice long “Jjj” sound, with my own idea of vibrating the mouth to create the lower, vibrating sounds like “Bbb” or “Vvv.” My sounds were beautiful. They could have been called art and framed.
Rachael got excited, “You’ve got it! Now move the mouths as you push the air though and say a word for me!”
I got excited too. I pushed nice long bubbles through me to say, “Hello.” The word came out like a gentle whisper, since I had no voice box to vibrate the air, my voice sounded like a whisper, but I could have it a large range of volumes. I felt I had mastered it already and I said a sentence using a team of bubbles, each saying a different word. I said, “How’s this, Rachael?” I even got the tone of a question in the voice too!
Rachael was ecstatic and she was almost crying in joy. She jumped up and down and rushed over to hold my hands. She shouted, “You can talk! You can talk!”
I repeated, in an energetic tone, “I can talk! I can talk!”
Rachael gave me a hug and told me in a humorous tone, “Although, you do look rather silly with all those bubbles moving and popping inside you.
I looked at my chest as I said, “Let me see.” I noticed the complexity of bubbles entering, forming, shifting and popping and all of these little pores opening and closing and shifting. It was like watching a heavy rain storm hit a bed of water, the sky being my liquid, the bubbles being rain drops and the splashing water, the surface of my body. It was a little awkward, but I knew I would have to live with it.
Rachael sat down on the bench and patted next to her as if she wanted me to sit there. I did. She explained to me, “Now that you can talk, I want to hear your story, all of it! It’ll be great practice.”
I stood up and I prepared myself. I told her my story up until now.
By the time I finished, the sun had risen. If Rachael hadn’t have been so glued to my story, she would have most likely wanted to leave and go to sleep. I finished with, “…And you taught me how to speak.”
Rachael, after shaking off the hardships that she shared with me, told me, “Ozzy, I want to stay and talk, but I need to sleep and go to work. I’ll meet you here again tonight, same time.”
I agreed, “Yes. Now that I can talk, I’m going to explore the world in a whole new light!”
Rachael nodded and the yawned. She rubbed her eye and left. She shouted behind her, “Good-bye!”
I called back.
As soon as she was out of sight, I cometted into the air at least 30 feet, reformed in the air and I shouted my biggest bubbles, “I am Aqueous and I can talk!”
I couldn’t wait until morning to tell everyone, I had to go now. I dashed to the street and I knocked on the door of a house and a woman in a house coat answered. Her eyes popped out of their sockets and she dropped her toothbrush. She started to scream, but I interrupted her with my own, “I can talk! I can tell you all how happy I am!” I turned around and ran the other way. I called to the block, “I am Aqueous!”
As I ran down the streets calling my name and saying “Hello world!” and “I can talk,” a few people started following me. I slowed down to their walking pace and I basically had a parade going. I had marched down the road with at least a hundred people watching or following at a time for almost an hour. Then the traffic really started to pick up and I was courteous and I left the scene so that drivers could pass. I stood on top of a street light and occasionally I hung from it. I felt a little embarrassed at my extreme actions, but I was just so overjoyed. I wave to people from on top of the street light and I spoke with those who spoke back. I could finally be one with the city and make it a better place. I stood there, not afraid and optimistic, until the rush hour died off.