Free Down a Lost Road by J. Leigh Bralick Page A

basically big squares, even the
sleeves that fastened close around the wrists with wide leather
bracers. The pants fit curiously too, but I managed to tie in the
too-large waist with the braided belt.
    With the bandages on my injured fingers I
just barely got the bracers and belt tightened. I couldn’t manage
all the other ties and knots, so I ignored the lacing on the pant
legs and left them wide and long. I gazed wistfully at my well-worn
sneakers, then sighed and tugged on the flimsy sandals.
    I glanced down at myself and almost laughed,
wondering what I would look like to anyone who knew me on Earth.
The thought jarred me like an electric shock. I dropped my old
clothes in the sand and sat down beside them shaken. The words kept
turning over and over in my mind – on Earth . I tried to tell
myself to get a grip, that this wasn’t the first time I’d thought
about it, that I’d been able to get back home before and I would be
able to again. It didn’t matter. I pulled up my knees and bowed
over them.
    Yatol’s voice outside cut into my thoughts
and I jumped up, brushing the unbidden tears from my eyes. I
managed to redo my hair in a messy ponytail and tossed my clothes
into the chest.
    “ Yeah, I’m ready,” I
called.
    Yatol appeared in the mouth of the cave and
took one look at me. I thought I saw him wince, then as quickly as
he had come he turned and left, running a hand through his hair. As
he turned away the strangest expression flashed across his face. It
hit me like a blow to the stomach, or that cold cringing feeling
you get when you see someone aggravate a wound. I ran to catch up
with him.
    “ Yatol? What’s the
matter?”
    “ Nothing.”
    He paused long enough for me to join him.
His eyes shone with some deep grief, maybe even a twinge of regret
that made me strangely uneasy. I wondered if I’d done something
wrong. If somehow I reminded him of someone else.
    I swallowed and let my gaze follow his,
across the barren sand toward the distant horizon. A pale light
filtered across the land, the gentle advent of dawn. And I thought
of home, where dawn was always full of birdsong and glistening
treetops. Here there was only empty desert and empty silence,
mimicking the void I felt inside.
    “ Yatol, what is this place
called?”
    “ Arah Byen.” He gestured to
the lightening horizon, where a dim orb lingered just above the
land’s rim. “All that is the ara .” He pointed to the sphere
itself. “And that is Olte.”
    I thought there was something peculiar about
the sun, but couldn’t quite place it. As I gazed absently at it I
said, “So, ara is the dawn? And this is, what, the
Dawn-Land?”
    “ In a manner of speaking.
Of course, it’s only really true in this region, but no one thinks
of that anymore. We’ve called it that since the
beginning.”
    Even in the balmy warmth, I shivered, then
pointed to two pale objects hovering by the opposite horizon.
    “ Are those
moons?”
    “ Yes. Maka and
Hyot.”
    “ We have only one. It’s
much bigger than those.” I shuddered again. “I used to think I
wanted to walk on the moon. It seemed so far away, so impossible.
And now, I’m walking here…somewhere in the universe I don’t even
know where. I can’t even tell which way the Earth is from
here.”
    Yatol didn’t offer any explanation, only
smiled and started to walk. Suddenly something struck me as funny.
I put my hands to my head and stared up at the strange heavens, and
laughed for all the confusion in my heart. And then I dropped to my
knees on the dusty ground and just cried, sobs racking my whole
body while a sick pang tore at my heart. I heard Yatol’s quiet
footsteps coming toward me, then felt his hands light on my
shoulders.
    As if I wasn’t confused enough, my stomach
flip-flopped. I covered my face with my hands but couldn’t stop the
tears. And suddenly I found his arms around me, strong and
comforting. I couldn’t keep crying, not with him holding me. The
sobs faded to a