The Sea, the Sky and their Opperator

Chapter 10: One Year Later

Caspian sat in his bedroom starting out at the lower sun. He felt tired, more tired than normal, but even that was becoming normal. He knew Ally was waiting to talk to him. He could feel her presence as a gentle push on him, somewhere behind his head. It had been a bit over a year since she'd come to see him. He'd really enjoyed it at first. It was like having a secret friend whenever he wanted. He could call her, and pretty quickly she would come and chat to him. He wasn't exactly lonely, but since he'd officially become crazy, he'd pulled away from his friends a bit. He hadn't realised it at first until Yindi had told him he was far away, and he wanted Caspian to come back. After that, Caspian had thought about being far away, and decided it was probably a good idea. He didn't think crazy was catching, Dad said it wasn't catching, but something about the feeling was catching. All his friends had become moody and more angry. He felt that had to do with him, at least a little. They hadn't gotten better, yet, but maybe it took a little while. Yindi had asked him a few more times to come back, at first kindly, gently, but the last one, today, Yindi had yelled at him in his aboriginal language, and told Caspian he better come back else he'll talk to his elder and make him come back. That had spread fear and panic in Caspian in an instant. If he was having a mild effect on people just by being near them, then being in his head would definitely make Yindi crazy. Caspian, for the first time in his life, had yelled at Yindi.

I'm never coming back, Yindi. I can't. And you can't come and get me. I don't want you to. Just deal with it!

The words echoed in Caspian's head, building, softening, breaking his heart and making him hard. He didn't know what to do, and he didn't know who to talk to. HIs dad and Ally didn't get being crazy like him. They thought it was ok. It wasn't ok for anyone else.

He felt the press of Ally against him again. She wanted to talk. He kept her back for now. The song from the whale was really sad today. It felt full of concern. Maybe the whales were hungry, or the Japanese were fishing them.

Or maybe they were worried about him? No. He'd never met a whale, so why would they worry about him? They couldn't know about him, in the middle of desert Australia.

The song soothed, the worry so close to the look from his Dad at dinner. He should feel more guilty about being glad his Dad was worried about him.

Maybe I'm glad he's worried about me, because I'm worried about me. I should tell Dad about Ally and the Seas. But...if he could just believe for a couple of months more that I wasn't crazy...I could be normal at home.

What if Dad was catching my crazy? Fuck!

'Dad?' Caspian called out, pushing himself out of bed with a roll up from his chest to legs.

'Dad, have you been feeling ok recently?'

Sorry Ally, I have to talk to my Dad.

He felt Ally move away. She did something when she left. The place she came into his conscious closed behind her so the Seas couldn't come through anymore. It even worked at night. He'd had nearly six months of Sea-less sleep.

'What's up, sea? Want a cup of tea?' Eddie's voice wafted from the kitchen. Caspian hurried towards it.

Ally sighed in her body, frowning.

'What's wrong, Ally?' John said from his usual place beside her. A cup of black coffee on the side table still had vapours of heat coming off it, so he must've only just sat down.

'He was busy again. I could only get a little bit from him. He still thinks he's crazy. I don't know what to do, John. Am...am I making Caspian actually crazy?'

John sighed and lay a warm hand on Ally's cool hand. She always felt cold when she came back into her body. Today especially, his warmth was appreciated.