to catch a skylark || onc2022

▅▅▅▅▅ 011 | WAKE UP IT'S A BEAUTIFUL MORNING

The sky gleamed blue, the city finally shaking off winter's grip. Bathed in sunlight, the buildings opposite gleamed, dull grey exteriors transforming to sun-bleached golds. The air hummed with bright, vigorous energy, begging Sadie outside.

She had to force her attention away from the window and back to the keyboard. After nearly a week, she was finally typing up her CV and searching for jobs, and this time not even the glorious sunshine was going to distract her.

Their most recent setback had dulled Sadie's interest in pursuing Eseran further. Not even the lark, which visited her that morning and dropped off a couple of pebbles — one smooth, round and gleaming white, the other translucent green, with gold cubic overgrowths — stirred her interest.

So she'd come out the studios on Basil Lane – a ramshackle group of buildings built under the old freight bridge on the east side of the city. Sadie normally came here to make her rings, but the space also had a computer that the owner had graciously allowed her to use.

Suddenly, her phone buzzed against the table. And kept buzzing. Sadie heard five separate messages before she lost count.

"What the hell...?" she muttered, swinging round to check her phone. She counted twelve notifications, all from Baz.

Sadie

Fkn hell been up until 8 this m

On like 2 hrs sleep

Couldn't stop thinking about etta

So anyway

I got a bunch of audiobooks on this casper guy

Dude was actually nuts

BUT

You rly might be onto something w this whole other world shit

He reckons there's like a gate smw in stonebridge

Sadie????

Look at ur phone???

And he was still typing. Sadie shook her head, wondering not for the first time why Baz couldn't send it all in one message like a normal person.

Baz picked up one ring after she called.

"Thank God," he said. There was a hum of something in the background ­— or perhaps it was a rattle — that made it sound like he was on the move. "I thought you'd changed your number. Where are you?"

"I'm at the art studio," Sadie said. "Looking for a job. So whatever you're planning to ask, don't."

"I made a list," Baz said, as if Sadie hadn't spoken. "There's only a few places in Stonebridge which match the descriptions of the Gate Casper talked about. We can probably find it today if we look hard."

"Did you even hear what I said?" Sadie said. "I'm busy today, so don't bother me."

Baz groaned. "When'd you get so boring, Sadie?" After she didn't respond, he added: "Fine, Lewis and I will look together."

"Wait," Sadie said. "Lewis is with you?"

Lewis' voice sounded faintly in the background. "He didn't really give me much of a choice."

"I'm behind on rent and my landlord's throwing a fit," she said. "This can wait."

"The next blue moon's in a few days," Baz said. "If we miss it we'll have to wait like three years for the next one. Just look for jobs in the car. Lewis is prepping for his thesis thing while we drive."

Sadie rolled her eyes. You really couldn't stop Baz once he was onto something.

"She's not in Eseran," Sadie said. "We went through this all yesterday, Baz. Are you gonna wait until after I get kicked out of my place and Lewis flunks his degree before you admit you don't know when to quit?"

Baz laughed. "When to quit? You're out of your mind if you think I'll take advice on you about when to quit when you gave up on Etta the second she disappeared—"

Sadie hung up, and after a second's consideration, switched off her phone. She returned to the CV she was typing, but now she had a faint headache. She skimmed over what she'd written so far, heart sinking. Who was going to look at this and hire her?

BEEP BEEEEEEEP

Sadie glanced out the window. Lewis' silver car was idling on the double yellows outside. Baz waved at her from the passenger-side window, hand on the car horn. A second later, he hopped out of the car and came over to knock on the window.

Scowling, Sadie crossed the room and let him in. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"You've still got the lens," Baz said. "At least let us have it if you're gonna hole yourself in here all day."

It was a fair point. Sadie rummaged around in her pockets, sorting through dying flower stems and miscellaneous pebbles she'd put in there and forgotten to take out.

"You're really gonna look for a shitty job on a day like this?" Baz asked.

Sadie shot him a glare. "You're right, I would enjoy the weather a bit more once I've been kicked out and living on the streets."

Baz shrugged. "Stay with me for a bit. My mum won't mind."

Sadie recalled with fondness Baz's mum, a tiny, sixty-something Mauritian lady, who had seemingly infinite patience for all of life's problems — except Baz. 

"It's not that," Sadie said. "It's just...paying rent, keeping a job — this is basic shit, Baz. I need to be able to do this." She shook her head. "I'm not giving my parents the satisfaction."

"It's just one afternoon. If we get nothing I'll never bother you about it again. Swear on my life."

Sadie's eyes slid past him, to the sky and the vibrant city behind him. It really was a beautiful day outside. She longed to be out there, to find a soft patch of the city where the looping, colourful flowers crept through and mingled with the world, and lie back and be part of it for a while longer.

She bit her lip. "Well..."