TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY: Stakeouts

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Alden had been left alone, but Stuart had said he’d be back as soon as he could. The cottage was private. It was late in Chicago but probably not too late. There might not be a better time than this over the next couple of days.

Got to call Boe.

He expected nerves to follow that thought, and he got some. But he was surprised to realize he was more excited than trepidatious. Even though he imagined there would be some amount of argument, or anger, from his oldest friend, Alden was calling with great news. He was proud of his choices and thrilled with everything that had happened as a result of them over the past day.

He wanted to share it, and he wanted Boe to get it.

In pursuit of that, he spent a couple of minutes thinking about the scene he would be presenting. He left his auriad visible on his wrist but changed into a T-shirt. His new mini displayer tablet had a pair of glowing Artonan hands floating above it, slowly moving a blue auriad of their own through the patterns of the memory of light spell. That was neat, so he would keep it going. He finished by putting a couple of his most interesting looking sensitivity training ingredients on top of Whan-tel’s Art. Then he sat on the floor with all of it on the low table in front of him and checked what he would look like when Boe accepted the video call.

A good slice of the outdoors was visible behind him. That’s nice.

He was sure if some art’h who wanted privacy walked past, the Systems would make sure that Boe never even saw them.

Alden briefly worried that he’d crossed the line into theater, but he was trying to show Boe what his day had been like in a single glimpse. To get across as much of the truth as he could in case he didn’t get to talk about it all.

The only thing missing was Stuart. He hoped this would go perfectly, that he and Boe would still be talking when Stuart got back, and then they could finally meet.

I’ll aim for it, he decided.

“Call him for me, please.”

Boe answered seconds later from where he sat on a frigid-looking rooftop. He had his back against some kind of pole that looked like it was in danger of rusting through. A battery-powered camping lantern was beside him, and a box of cereal was in his lap.

“Where on Earth are you?” Alden asked.

“Not too far from my place,” Boe said, talking into his cell phone like he usually did whenever he was somewhere he might be seen. “I’ve run into a troubled person, and this is a good spot to think about them in.”

Alden took that to mean Boe could feel the “troubled person’s” emotions from this rooftop.

“You could’ve called me and told me you were on a stakeout. I would have kept you company.”

“I’m not planning on doing anything tonight. Other than thinking.” Boe crunched on some cereal. A dehydrated marshmallow was caught in the folds of his scarf. “I’d ask you where on Earth you are, but…”

His eyes were moving, picking up the details of Alden’s scene.

“As you can see,” said Alden, gesturing behind him, “I’m not anywhere near Earth.”

“Shocking.”

“It’s eighty degrees here.”

“Bastard.” Boe pulled his scarf tighter around his neck.

“Sunny. I have my own little cottage. Stuart and I are going to cook a plant that tastes like steak on a hot rock tonight.”

“Dick.”

“You could come hang out here with me someday, you know. If you wanted. I’m sure Stuart would be able to get permission for that sooner or later. Or maybe I could myself. One day.”

Boe looked at him like he was speaking a foreign language.

All right. Here we go.

“I have great news,” said Alden. “Which…might not sound great to you at first, but it will after you think about it.”

He poked all his magical doodads forward before he realized what his nervous fingers were doing. He made his hands go still, palms down on the table.

“Boe, I’ve made an important choice. I—”

“You told him,” Boe said.

Alden wanted to rush them both away from the edge in his voice. Before it could cut.

“I told him I’m a wizard, and he reacted exactly how I hoped! Even better than I hoped. Look! He’s given me these things to help me learn, and he’s going to help me figure out how to get where I want to go from here. We’ve got a ton to plan out still. We’re going to think it all through and make a million decisions in the coming months. But it’s not a disaster in any of the ways I was afraid it would be. We’re still friends. I’m not hiding this massive secret anymore, and when I told him I want to go with him, and watch his back when he goes on his missions as a knight, he said yes. I said I wanted to walk that road with him, and he said yes.”

Alden took a breath because he had to, but he wasn’t even close to done talking. He needed to somehow get at all the little things that had come together to make this the big thing that it was.

“You what?” Boe’s eyes had widened. He was standing up.

“The knight part? Okay. I explained all of this in the letter Connie has for you, but I’m glad I get to tell you in person instead. It’s a long-ass letter, but I couldn’t use words like wizard in it, so that made it harder. First, you were right about a lot during that conversation we had about Hero Types. About me having issues with guilt and how I saw myself and how I’d been comparing myself to a version of Hannah Elber that probably wasn’t ever real. This is something different. It’s simpler and better. I’m not treating myself like I don’t matter. I’m not playing hero. I genuinely want to go with Stuart when he— ”

“You sent me a freaking letter?”

“As an ultimate backup plan in case everything went wrong. I was ninety-nine percent sure I’d get to talk to you before you ever saw it. I just needed to stay in the right headspace to go through with this. Listen, I—”

Boe was apparently capable of mental texting entire correctly punctuated paragraphs in the angry font at once. While still speaking out loud.

[Boe: Was it a fucking ‘If I never see you again…’ letter? What the fuck, Alden!? If you thought there was even a one percent chance of that being necessary, then….]

“I guess trying to change people who can’t be changed is the story of my whole fucking life!” Boe said.

“Hold on,” Alden said. “I’m still trying to read your text, man. That’s a long text.”

[Boe: ….and you’re throwing yourself right back into the same kind of environment that almost killed you a few months ago like….]

“Listen, damn it. You’re not giving me time to explain how I came to this decision and how much it means— ”

[Boe: ….Sorry I’m not fast enough to keep up with you and Jeremy as you move on with your lives….]

“What’s being fast got to do with anything?”

“I’m so fucking tired of nothing being right! You’re always looking for what’s right. You get to do that. But there is no right for someone like me. The very best I can do is still wrong.”

[Boe: ….I should just catspace myself until Jeremy has fourteen athletic children, and you’ve been scattered across fourteen planets by the Artonans or some spacefaring demon… ]

It was around then that Alden realized there was no edge here meant to cut him. Whatever was going on with Boe right now, whatever had caused this outburst, wasn’t even about him really.

He didn’t understand what it was about, but maybe…some variety of loneliness?

Not keeping up with me and Jeremy is such a weird thing for him to insert into a rant that’s supposedly about how I’m going to be torn apart by spacefaring demons.

“Boe.”

He’d dropped his cereal. Alden wanted to wait for him to calm down, but he was afraid Boe might just end the call instead. And disappear into a space tied to the life of the first stray cat he saw. Which might be hit by a car before Boe could come back.

“BOE!” he shouted.

The bellow was enough to make Boe pause. Alden didn’t know how long the pause would last. If he only had time to say a little bit…

“I’m not trying to leave you behind, asshole.”

Boe hadn’t opened his mouth again yet. That line must have bought Alden another.

“If you’re ever in any kind of trouble, I’d rather be in it with you, so that you’re not there alone. I feel the same way about Stuart. Because you’re my friends. It’s that simple.”

“Simple?” Boe said like he’d never heard the word before.

“Yeah. Except for the part where Stuart’s definitely going to be in trouble and it’s definitely going to be demons. So I’m going to get more powerful and stick with him and tell chaos to fuck off. Until someone or something stops us. I think you could find a way to join in and help…if that was something you wanted.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Boe stared.

“My letter makes this point more eloquently. It’s with Connie. She also has your present…oooooo, a present, better not forget to go get it.” Alden made himself smile. “I don’t know how everything goes from here. But I’m really happy with my decision. Even if some things end up going bad. And I want you to know…”

A funny comment about how Boe had played himself by agreeing to mimic Alden’s heroic endeavors crossed his mind, but he wasn’t sure this was the time for it.

“I want you to know you’re in the middle of your own choosing season right now. Choosing seasons are great. You’ve got time, and I’m something of a pro if you’ve got questions. Not really, but…I’m still here. You can run shit by me. Always. Unless I’m on a chaos infested planet beyond System reach.”

He waited a painfully long time.

“I need to go,” Boe said finally. “I didn’t handle this right. I don’t know what I should have…but not this.”

“Okay. We’re good, though?”

“You look good with all that new stuff around you. I don’t know what I am.”

“A vigilante who’s spilled half his cereal. My friend. An asshole who makes the world a better place.”

Boe looked down at the cereal. “I’ll call you, Alden. In a few days.”

“A few days? You’re not catspacing yourself.”

“I’ll write you a letter if I do…kidding. I won’t. Just…have fun with your alien.”

“Stuart.”

“Stuart the poser.”

“Stu-art’h, son of Jeneth-art’h the Primary who is ranked first among all known beings.”

Boe looked back up, eyes narrowing.

“He likes grapes and rescuing animals that are very similar to frogs.”

“I’m hanging up now. You just…have fun. ”

“I might have to text you tomorrow to make sure you’re not tagging along with someone else’s cat,” said Alden.

Boe was already gone.

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