Fliers Read online

  ~~~~~~~

  Sydona ran out of the house with a spring in every step and a smile on her face. “Come on mom! Let’s go!” she yelled. She took in a big whiff of the autumn leaves littering the yard and exhaled dramatically. The sun was just coming up, but Sydona didn’t care. This was the day she looked forward to since she could talk. Her mother walked towards her while putting her dirty blonde hair up in a bun.

  “Okay, sweetie. Now stand over there and watch me first,” her mother said.

  “I already know what to do, mooom!” Sydona whined as she bounced up and down on her feet, looking like she was about to explode. She then noticed a neighborhood kid curiously watching them from his backyard. Sydona waved at him, although she had never met him before.

  Her father then joined them, sitting at the patio table with a cup of coffee. “Now Syd, listen to your mother. She’ll tell you how to start.”

  Evelyn began to run across the giant unfenced backyard, kicked her feet, and soon, she was high in the sky. Watching her fly back toward the house and then away again made Sydona’s heart swell. After twisting and rolling and doing tricks in the air, Evelyn finally straightened back up and floated back down to earth like a feather.

  “Me next!” Sydona ran up to her before she barely had two feet on the ground.

  “Okay, come on. I’ll hold onto you,” her mother giggled.

  She grabbed Sydona’s hand tightly, and they sprinted off together. Her mom kicked off the ground along with Sydona, and Sydona shut her eyes quickly. When she opened them and looked down at her dad, he looked no bigger than her pinkie finger. Looking down at the neighborhood around them, she saw the kid next door. He pointed in awe at her. She waved back to him again and couldn’t contain her laughter. It was nothing she had ever imagined feeling. As light as a feather, she felt she could literally do anything. She had no bounds.

  “I’m going to let you go. Are you ready?” her mother asked.

  Sydona nodded her head, and Evelyn let go gently but kept her arm outstretched in case she needed to grab her daughter again. But Sydona was on her own and flying perfectly. She tried doing the same tricks as her mother but wasn’t very good yet. Her new fairy friend, Raoul, soon joined the fun and flew in circles around her.

  “Hey buddy! Look at me! I’m just like you now!” she laughed. They ventured over treetops, houses, buildings, and flew down the street. Sydona waved at anyone she saw, and all they could do was stare and watch her fly away. Some people waved back and some smiled, but most were awestruck. A car came rolling down the street, and Sydona got a bit too close, making the car veer off and hit a fire hydrant. Her mother made her come straight home after that, but Raoul and Sydona couldn’t stop laughing about it. The look on the driver's face was priceless.

  She wasn’t allowed to fly for a while after that, but the experience was worth every second, and she knew she would not soon forget it.

  ~~~~~~~

  Opening her eyes to the vast scene in front of her, her face wrinkled from a smile she couldn’t subdue. She let her hair down from the ponytail and let it play in the wind. The sun did not seem so cruel now but rather warmed the goosebumps that appeared on her arms and legs. She glanced at Raoul who did rolls and used his hands to do a ‘wave’ motion. She laughed and felt like an innocent kid again, flying for the first time.

  Raoul perked up, flew way in front of her, and yelled back, “There’s a sign up ahead! Mayfield is ten miles away!”

  Chapter Three

  It wasn’t long until they began to see houses coming into view right outside the small town. Edging closer and closer to the ground, Sydona took an upright position and landed on her two feet. Adjusting her bags more securely on her person, she reached into her tote bag and put her sunglasses back on. Mayfield was a quaint town with the main road looking about the majority of the city with little stores lined up alongside it, all touching each other. There were a few people walking around, but for the most part, it was pretty quiet. It had been a while since Sydona had visited a new town, so she was a bit on edge, although the news of what was going on didn’t help. She tiptoed along until she found a lovely little diner that looked fairly empty. Raoul crawled in her green tote to stay out of sight.

  A bell rang as she entered. It was littered with red tables and blue booth seats, reminding her of the restaurants she and her parents used to visit. Windows stretched along the entire wall and were painted with flowers and butterflies. She noticed a few people scattered throughout the restaurant, including three men smoking cigarettes at the bar and a young girl in the corner with her nose in a book.

  A lady came right up to her with a menu in her hands. “Just you today, darlin’?” she asked in a sweet, high-pitched voice.

  “Yep,” Sydona said and adjusted her glasses with hands shaking a bit.

  The waitress led her to a table near a window and sat her in a seat that was way too large for one person. Sydona ordered a glass of water, and the waitress left the table. Sydona carefully placed her bags to the inner side of the seat and leaned the tote bag so that Raoul wouldn’t be suffocated. She made herself comfy on the bouncy blue cushions and caught her breath after the long trip. As she read over the menu, she glanced up occasionally at the other people around. They were all really invested in conversation, and she became less nervous as she realized that no one really cared she was there. She especially liked watching a baby, rejecting all the food his parents gave him and then laughing about it. The young girl alone in the corner reminded her a lot of herself, as she was nose deep in a thick book with her knees up in a booth on the far side of the restaurant. She reminded Sydona of the times where she would sit by herself in diners with a book at that age, usually in the the corner.

  A small wall-mounted television resided on the end of the counter and was barely audible. She glanced over at it as she listened to the reporter on the news mention fliers.

  ‘...the NFA are reporting that many folks are having questions on how to identify these humans. They don’t imagine that you would see them flying around your hometown, so here’s some helpful tips to help you spot one. Fliers have lavender colored eyes that most of them like to cover up, usually with sunglasses. Look for humans that wear them indoors or in darker public areas. Please be aware that your and their contribution will be greatly rewarded...”

  Her ears tuned out the rest of the story as she veered her eyes down to the small bar. Three gentlemen were also watching it, and one of them stretched his neck over his shoulder and stared intently at her. The man nudged his friend, and then, all three men had their attention on her. Sydona’s hands began to shake again, and she redirected her attention back to the menu. Her heart sank and eyes turned auburn underneath the dark frames. A man walked up to her table wearing a baseball cap, cowboy boots, and tattered clothes. He scratched his scruffy beard and put his dirty hands down next to her. “You s’posed to be someone famous or somethin’?” he asked.

  Sydona instantly looked out the window to the right of her and pretended to look at her menu. Her heart slowly began to beat faster as she chose to ignore him.

  He leaned in closer to her and flicked his hat up. “You hear me? Why else you be wearin’ sunglasses in here?”

  Her fists start to wrinkle the edges of the menu, and her eyes grew emerald green as she stayed silent.

  “What? Are you deaf or somethin’?” the man yelled, making everyone in the restaurant turn their heads toward her. His friends at the bar were all laughing to each other as their buddy did his best to make a fool of her. Sydona stayed strong, facing the window and ignoring him the best she could. After a long agonizing three minutes of this stranger berating her, he finally removed his hands from the table, and she held the menu normally again. She kept her back turned from the rowdy group as he went back to them but not without hearing some whispers. Eventually turning back around in the booth, Sydona made an effort to watch them out of the corner of her eye. They were all staring at her now and laughing
, making the families around them uncomfortable.

  After a while, the diner fell silent, and she heard the swing of the door from behind her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the men at the counter stick his foot out just as the waitress passed by with an oversized tray. It happened so fast that Sydona had zero time to react.

  With a gasp from the waitress, the tray slammed into Sydona and knocked the sunglasses right off her face. The dishes crashed to the floor in a brilliant display of coffee, egg yolk, and gravy swirl splattered all over the tiled floor. As she watched them fly off, she glanced up for a quick second to see the man smiling with his yellow and black teeth and looking directly into her eyes. Instantly, Sydona looked away, slammed her eyelids shut, and reached her hand out to grab the sunglasses, unaware of where they landed. But it was too late. Sydona could only stare at the ground under the booth where she saw a hand reaching toward a pair of sunglasses. The thought of looking back up at the man who grabbed them made her eyes turn green, but she dare not look at him for another second. Timidly extending her arm back out to grab the glasses, Sydona continued to focus on the ground.

  The man holding the glasses spoke up, “I knew it. Yer a Flier, ain’t ya?” He looked her up and down as if he was trying to memorize her face.

  Sydona’s eyes grew even brighter, and her hand became a tight fist ready for anything he might throw at her.

  He leaned in closer to her. “Where ya headed, baby girl?”

  When Sydona stared him down without response, he continued. “I know yer not from around here. Small town, Mayfield.”

  “May I please have my glasses back?” Sydona grumbled.

  The man laughed and twirled her glasses around, teasing her like a small child. After a few taunting moments, to her surprise, he dropped the glasses down on the table right in front of her. Without hesitation, she immediately grabbed them and placed them back on her face. The waitress began cleaning up the mess she made while Sydona grabbed her bags, stepped over her, and bolted out of the diner.

  “See ya around, baby doll!” She heard him one last time as the swinging door closed.

  Fiercely walking away from the diner, she made her way a couple businesses down and hid in the first alley she came to. She was as paranoid as a fly in a web, noticing every little thing that moved from the wind. But after several minutes of no one walking by on the street, she sat down and let Raoul out.

  “What was that all about?” Raoul asked as he climbed out of the tote bag.

  “Wish I knew.” Sydona leaned her head back to hit the brick wall behind her.

  “Did I hear him say he knew you were a flier?” Raoul asked as he landed on Sydona’s curled up knees.

  “Yeah.. it’s like it was set up. He knocked my glasses off only to hand them back to me? I don’t understand it,” Sydona said as she pushed her hair back between her fingers.

  Raoul shook his head, wondering the same thing. “This place isn’t safe.”

  “We need a car. There’s no way in hell we can fly anymore. It’s too risky,” Sydona stated confidently but honestly felt very unsure. They could steal a car like she did when she was in her twenties, but that didn’t end up very well. The friends she had were people living under bridges and half-houses. To say the very least, she was easily influenced, and stealing cars was just the tip of the iceberg. She had to admit, she was better off living with chickens and fairies.

  “I agree, but where are we going to find one?” Raoul asked, fluttering off Sydona’s knee as she stood back up. She didn’t answer as she wandered back behind the buildings and began forming a plan in her head. She couldn’t risk being seen by that unpredictable man. Walking down the dirty street and thinking of a plan, she faintly heard a noise from behind her. Not footsteps but more like a muttering. Sydona kept her guard up as she tried to keep her normal walking pace and avoided looking over her shoulder too obviously. From the corner of her eye she noticed a bright pink color, and this made her curious. Raoul was flying in front of her, so Sydona made a sound and head gesture to guide the fairy back into her bag.

  Running would only make her more suspicious, especially after what just happened. Avoiding any kind of trouble in this town seemed impossible. She secured a hand on the dagger at her hip and cautiously turned her head to see the person following her. A young teenager with light brown skin and jet black hair froze in her tracks and stopped mumbling. The pink color Sydona saw was the girl’s jacket, and it suddenly looked familiar; she was from the diner.

  “Why are you following me?” Sydona approached the timid girl.

  “Oh. Uh...” She stood straight up in shock, unable to form words.

  The response the girl gave her was surprising. If the girl was following her, why did she suddenly stop?

  “Well?” Sydona asked again.

  “Ug, sorry. I... was going over what I was going to say to you. You messed me up.” The girl blushed and gripped her yellow backpack.

  Sydona kept her shield up. If she was sent by the NFA, she sure was terrible at her job. But then again, why would they have someone so young in that line of work?

  “So say it,” Sydona pressed.

  “Well, I was gonna, but you’re interrupting me,” the girl said with a bit more confidence.

  Sydona smirked slightly. “Go ahead then.”

  The girl gave Sydona a glare and then took a deep breath. “I saw you in the diner. Rather--I saw your eyes.”

  Sydona’s heart jumped, and her grip tightened on her knife.

  “I wanted to meet you. I’ve never met anyone else like me,” the girl said.

  Even standing twenty feet apart from each other, Sydona could tell the girls eyes were not that of a flier. This only perplexed her further.

  “Is this a joke?” Sydona widened her stance into a fighting position.

  “No!” The girl waved her hands side to side. “Look!”

  The girl carefully inserted a finger into one of her eyes as if she was taking something out of it. Her hands blocked Sydona’s view of what exactly she was doing, and Sydona backed up slightly in confusion. Soon, the girl looked over at Sydona with two different colored eyes. One was the brown color she saw originally, and the other one was purple. Sydona squinted her eyes in order to make sense of what she was seeing. Stepping closer to see it better, she was now only five feet in front of her with her mouth agape.

  “How’d you do that?”

  The girl smiled. “It’s a colored contact lens.”

  “Really?” Sydona inspected the palm of her hand, and there sat a brown reflective concave circle. It hid the purple underneath. It was ingenious and a much better way to hide from humans than wearing sunglasses all the time. Sydona fought with herself on how to acquire a pair, thinking it would be the best way to get into the camp. Even though she didn’t have a plan yet, this was a start.

  “I--” Sydona started but was startled by a metal door swinging open and a man with an apron carrying large trash bags. The man seemed to be intent on getting them disposed of quickly, but both girls were looking at him. He turned his attention to Sydona as he threw the bags in a large green container.

  “I have to go,” Sydona said.

  She grabbed her sunglasses to make sure they were secure before marching hastily down the alley, leaving the young girl dumbfounded.

  “Wait!” the girl yelled after her.

  Sydona slowed down after she felt a comfortable enough distance from the onlooker.

  “What?” Sydona quickly turned around, making the girl almost fall into her.

  “Oh... uh... Where are you going? I would like to sit down and talk with you more if that’s okay?” The girl smiled a pretty smile.

  “I can’t. I need to be somewhere.” Sydona kept walking, but the girl stayed close beside her.

  “I understand. I was just hoping that maybe I could pick your brain a little bit? I mean, you’re the first flier I’ve ever come across before and--”

  “Shh!” Sydona gra
bbed her mouth. “Are you trying to get us caught?” She looked around in a panic. Nothing but tall brick buildings surrounded them and maybe some mice and pigeons.

  The wide-eyed girl shook her head nervously. Sydona glared deep into the girl's eyes, seeing nothing but innocence mixed with ignorance. Feeling sympathy, she removed her hand, and the girl stayed quiet for a minute.

  “Are you in trouble?” she whispered.

  Sydona laughed. “I guess you could say that. But then that would mean you’re in trouble, too.”

  “What did you do?”

  “It’s not what I did. It’s what we are.” Sydona stepped away from her and continued walking.

  The girl lagged behind, trying to process her vagueness. “That’s why that man did that, wasn’t it? He wanted to see what you were.”

  Sydona pointed her index finger up.

  The girl ran and caught up to her again. “I think I can help you.”

  Sydona paused and released a brief grin.

  “Come on. I have more at my house.” The girl motioned her head.

  Sydona hesitated. This girl was the first flier she has met in several years, and the contacts could help her blend in. She was young and a little naive, but Sydona couldn’t help but listen to her gut. Eventually, she gave in and followed her out of the alleyway and onto the street.

  “I’m Gia, by the way. Giovonna, actually. But almost no one calls me that.” She grinned back at Sydona and walked with a skip in her step.

  “Sydona,” she answered back.

  “I like that! Hey, is it okay if I pick your brain a little bit on the way?”

  “I’d rather not. I don’t want people to overhear us.” Sydona clenched her bag as they walk by people on the sidewalk.

  “Why don’t you want people to overhear?”

  “Again. Not the place for this conversation.”

  Giovonna quickly got the message and calmed herself.

  Sydona took the long walk to observe the town. They had left the small downtown area and were now in neighborhoods lined with what Sydona thought of as cookie cutter homes. They were all made from the same sheet. Even as a child, she never lived in neighborhoods like that. She never understood how people found their houses every day.