Head In The Stars

It was getting to evening when I knocked on the door of Millie's room. After a few moments it opened.

"Hey there," said Yuetling.

I held up the bag. "Hi. I've just got this for Millie. It's clothes mostly."

She took the bag. "Wow, you're like her mum."

"Is that a good thing?"

"It is in my book," she said with a smile. She nodded behind her. "Millie's having a nap."

"Ah, I'll come back later…"

"Lachlan…?"

Millie's little face appeared around the door. She was rubbing her eyes, but she looked better than this morning. I don't think she slept much last night.

"Hungry yet?" I asked.

The sleepy look disappeared from her face. "Yes, sir!" I was ravenous myself.

"Haha! Mind if I join you two?" asked Yuetling.

"Not at all," I said.

"Good," said Millie. She took the woman's hand. "Yuetling is my friend too now."

"Aw, I'm glad to hear you say that. You're my friend too."

Friendship affirmed, the three of us headed to the canteen and I had to take back my previous assumption about the capacity of the place. Turned out it could fit far more than I thought.

In addition to the two original tables someone had dragged in two more and there were a few officers standing to the side holding takeaway boxes of food as they wolfed them down.

"What's with all the people?" I asked Yuetling. "Is dinner always like this?"

"No, but yes if there's been a big operation," she replied. She was looking at the menu on the wall.

"Has there been one?" I asked. For some reason the idea there could have been one filled me with worry. Aron had been on duty this afternoon. Would he have been…?

"I wouldn't know," said Yuetling, pulling a face. "I'm in traffic control."

"Ohh, traffic control is important too."

She laughed and clapped me on the back. "You're a nice person," she said. "I can see why Aron likes you."

Eh? But before I could react to that last comment Millie yanked my hand and pointed.

"Aron!"

I followed her finger and saw that Aron was indeed heading our way. He'd just come into the canteen with a few other people. They weren't in their usual uniforms but were wearing serious looking dark shirts and serious looking dark cargo pants. The shirt was skin-tight.

Aron looked up then smiled as he saw us in the crowd. I felt myself blush a little. No, surely Yuetling didn't mean it in that way.

Aron said a few words to his friends then cut through the throng of people. "Hey."

"How was your shift?" asked Yuetling.

"Good!" was Aron's reply. "We caught some bad guys."

"Bad guys!" Millie exclaimed.

A few of the people (officers?) near us had taken note of Millie and chuckled at her response. I wasn't sure how many of them knew about why she, or I for that matter, were there but either way it didn't seem to bother them.

"I'll tell you about it all over dinner," said Aron to an excited Millie.

"Deal." Her eyes gleamed.

I turned away. "I'll grab us a table," I said, eager to be away. "You guys go ahead and get your food first."

"I'll help you," said Aron.

"No, it's-"

Aron waved for Yuetling to take Millie then took me by the shoulders and steered me through the crowd. There was a vacant corner near the end of one of the long tables and we sat down opposite each other.

"Settling in okay?" Aron asked.

"Yes," I replied. "Everyone's been nice." Though I'd mostly spent the day hiding in my van, not that I was going to tell him that.

"Good, good. So, what's the plan with Millie?"

I sat on my hands and looked at the table. It was clean but there were dark marks from years of use. "I guess… keep her safe and happy and wait for her to be sent back to Solar Term."

"Solar Term? The orphanage?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it's where Officer Claire said she thinks she's from. Have you heard of the place?"

Aron folded his arms. "Yeah, never been, but I have heard of it. Apparently, it's a pretty nice place. They look after the kids well and have plenty of interactions with the local schools."

"I see… Seems like a wholesome place."

"Makes you wonder why Millie would run off," said Aron.

My thoughts exactly.

But neither of us got a chance to further the subject.

"We're back!" announced Millie.

"You've picked a good spot," said Yuetling. Both she and Millie sat, Yuetling next to Aron and Millie with me.

"What did you pick?" I asked Millie.

She proudly showed me the fruits of her labour.

"Oh! They have sweet-and-sour pork today! I'm getting that," decided Aron.

"You should get a move on then," said Yuetling.

Aron quickly got up and I followed him to line up. The kitchen was efficient, but there were just too many hungry mouths and rumbling bellies.

As we shuffled forward, I felt my pocket vibrate so I pulled out my phone and saw that… my mother was calling me?

I quickly picked up the phone.

"Mum? You okay?"

"Hello to you too," replied my mother across the line.

Aron turned back.

"Hi mum," I amended. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she said. "I just wanted to see how you're going, see if you're okay."

"Oh, okay…"

There was a pause.

"I'm fine," I finally said.

"That's good to hear," said my mother. "Are you… busy? It sounds quite noisy? Am I bothering you?"

"No, not busy, just lining up to get food. I'm eating out with Aron and some friends," I half explained.

"Aron…?"

"Karl's little brother. You remember Karl? He was that classmate of mine in high school who…"

"Oh! Yes, I remember Karl. I remember you ran a marathon together and he puked right before the finishing line."

Not the story I was going to use to jog her memory but a memorable story nonetheless.

I smiled. "Yeah, him, no, well, his little brother Aron."

"Does he work at the company too?" she asked.

I blanched and turned away so that I didn't have to look at Aron.

"Yeah, but he doesn't work in the sales department," I lied.

"That's wonderful. I'm glad you know someone there," she said.

I couldn't be sure, but I thought I heard a strange tone to her voice.

"Yeah…"

We talked a little longer, mostly about her plants, then said our goodbyes. Just the usual empty words.

"Who was that?" asked Aron when I was done.

"My mum."

"How is she?"

"She's…" I started. I'd been about to say 'fine' but I suddenly found it difficult to lie to Aron's face. "I don't know. I haven't seen her in a while."

"Oh, I see."

I braced for the obvious follow up question, but it never came. It was odd. He normally seemed to like needling me for information but this time he seemed unusually reticent.

Eventually we made it to the front of the queue and got out hands on some food, sweet-and-sour pork for Aron and friend rice for me.

I followed Aron back to our table and as soon as we sat Millie fixed Aron with a stern expression.

"Bad guys," she said with conviction.

Aron nodded sternly. "Bad guys," he echoed, then went on to tell us all about Operation Starfruit and the complicated plan to take down a gang of bicycle thieves.

--

All the beds in the dorm were full that night. That afternoon's operation had involved a lot of people, some had even been awake for over twenty-four hours, who now needed sleep.

Which was fine, of course it was fine, but it also meant that I now had to share a bed with Aron for the night.

When had I last shared a bed with someone? Well, there was Millie, but I didn't really count her. Sleeping with her was like sleeping with a hyperactive puppy who likes kicking you in the face.

So, before Millie it would have been… A cold stillness fell over me. It would have been five years ago, when I'd still been with her. My girlfriend. My ex-girlfriend.

I sighed. Between unwanted thoughts of my ex and the nervousness from Aron being right behind me, I didn't think I'd be sleeping that night.

I felt the mattress shift.

"Can't sleep?"

His voice was quiet, really quiet.

For some reason I shook my head. I heard something that sounded like a quiet chuckle.

Then an arm encircled me and pulled me close. I stiffened.

We had separate blankets but I could still feel the warmth of his body. "Relax," he whispered by my ear. He put a hand over my eyes.

It was strange. The room was dark so having my eyes opened or closed shouldn't have made a difference, yet Aron's hand over my eyes made me immediately calm. The tension released from my body and I, without meaning to, relaxed into his embrace and into sleep…

…

The day was hot, mid-thirties and humid. We'd originally planned to go swimming but Karl had forgotten his swimming trunks so we headed back to his place.

His family lived far out by the standards of us teenagers, it took over twenty minutes to get the train into the middle of the city, but it was a nice area with space enough for public swimming pools and basketball courts.

Karl told us not to take off our shoes when we went in but we did anyway. We weren't old enough to have completely thrown off the scoldings of our parents.

Karl and the others went into the kitchen while I wandered into the living room. It was large, much larger than my place's and expensive, though I didn't know that at the time.

A door clicked and swung open and I looked down the hall to see a face peering out of the gloom. The boy was a head shorter than me, dressed in full black. It made his already pale skin look even more pallid. He eyed me with large, troubled eyes.

I smiled at him.

"Hi, I'm Lachlan. You're Siu Fung right? I'm a friend of your brother's."