Thinking Of You

Jake

"You want me to do what??” I asked Rosemary with my eyebrows raised.

“Help me communicate my Mom's best friend from another planet, Jake. And lower your voice down, please. They might get suspicious.”

She had dragged me outside of their house when Mum, Dirk, and I visited them.

I never knew she could be so strong as she gripped the collar of my shirt a while ago, and had dragged me here outside. She always just read a book or drew whenever I saw her.

Interesting.

“And how, may I ask, am I supposed to do that, milady?”

“I don't know. Figure something out. You like to do something new, right?”

Do I ever! “Well, yes. ...Wait, did you say the person we're supposed to communicate is from... another planet?!” My eyes widened.

She smirked at me and we both knew she had caught my interest.

“I'm in. But, I still don't know how I'm supposed to do that.” I frowned.

“Do you see your Dad using his laptop sometimes?”

“Huh? Well, a few years ago, yeah. Why?”

“I think he somehow has communication to the beings far away from Earth.”

“You think so?”

She smiled amusingly. “Maybe. I saw my Dad's laptop once and there were these pesterlogs of some sort.”

“I see. Well, I'll give it a try, I guess.”

“Thanks, Jake.”

***

“Hey, Dad?” I asked him when the three of us got home, and I went to the garage to see him cleaning his motorcycle.

“Yeah, buddy?”

“What do you know about Kanaya Maryam?”

He stopped what he was doing and turned his head to me. “'Kanaya Maryam'?” he repeated, “Where'd you heard the name?”

I shrugged. “From Rosemary.”

He looked back at this motorcycle and sighed. “I guess my sister finally told them, huh?” he dropped the sponge he was using to clean in pail and wiped his hands on the back of his shirt, then turned to me and sat on the ground.

“Do you remember that story your Mom told you and your brother? About us playing a game and all?”

I seated beside him. “Yep. She said it was how you guys met.”

He smiled. “Yeah, it was. But, you see, your Mom and I weren't the only ones playing it. Your Aunt Rose for one, she also met someone she liked during the game. But then, when we did win, the four of us had to leave your Aunt Rose's girlfriend because of some things.”

“Miss Rose liked a girl?” How come Rosemary didn't tell me that?

“Well, yeah. A troll girl to be exact. She was head over heels for Rose.” he chuckled.

Interesting.

“Can she fly?”

He grinned. “I dunno. Why don't you ask her sometime. Er... probably not.” then grimaced.

“Do you think she can visit us, Dad?” Rosemary would get a kick-out of that.

“Maybe. If she were somehow alive again.”

I frowned. “You mean she died?”

“I guess, yeah. Karkat told John, and then he told me.”

“Who's Karkat?” How come they didn't tell us everything about the game?

“My other bro. He's a troll, too. And lives on the same planet Kanaya Maryam did.”

“Do you think he can somehow bring Miss Kanaya back to life?”

He titled his head. “How did you know she could be brought back to life?”

“I didn't.”

“Oh.” Dad scratched his head. “Well, I think Karkat's working on it. The guy's been pretty busy lately. Said he was going to to look for his old troll friends, revive his own species, yada yada. I haven't gotten the chance to talk to him for a while.” his eyebrows pulled together.

“Maybe you could talk to him now?”

He looked at me then grinned again. “Hey, yeah. What a great idea!” he messed up my hair and went inside the house quickly.

If being an adult meant that you forget even the littlest things, I don't want any of it.

I stood alone and had glanced at his motorcycle, then sighed. Might as well finished what he started.

'What a fine ride,' I thought to myself as I reached for the hose to wash my Dad's vehicle.