“You’ve changed.”
“What do you mean?” Anna wiped the sweat from her forehead as she plopped onto the grass near the lake shore. She had run the three miles to Mara’s hideout in a little under twenty minutes. “And, it’s good to see you again, too, by the way.”
The ground felt cool under the shade of a willow tree bending gently in the afternoon breeze. She rolled over onto her back and looked up into a brilliant blue sky filled with white billowing clouds. Mara leaned over her with her arms folded. Behind her sat a table made of the same liquid metal she had seen months ago.
“I’ve been tracking everything about you for the past nine weeks. The increase in your muscle mass and reaction time. The significant improvement in your equilibrioception and theta and alpha wave activity,” Mara said.
“My equili-what?”
“Your balance and focus,” Linus clarified.
“Oh.”
“But, I wasn’t prepared for how different you look,” Mara gave a slight smile. “You really surprised me, Anna. I didn’t think you’d make it past the second day.”
“I do feel different. Better,” Anna said. “So, you really think I’m ready to fly?”
“Let’s find out.”
Mara reached for a silver rectangular box on the table and handed it to Anna.
Anna took the box and shook it out of habit, just like Christmas day. It was light as air and cool to the touch. There was a small indent on the top of the box in the shape of a button. Anna placed the tip of her index finger on the indent and the package came to life. The top panel retracted like a coil. Inside was a pair of translucent wrap-around glasses.
“Wow. That was weird,” Anna giggled.
“Go ahead and put them on,” Mara was giddy. “I remember my first pair.”
“It’s not going to shoot lasers into my eyes, is it?” Anna asked.
“Not unless you want it to.”
Anna removed the glasses and set the box on the table. They were weightless and almost invisible. No seams, no hinges. She slid them over her ears and onto the bridge of her nose, but they felt like nothing at all. She ran her finger along the edge and felt no gap between the glasses and her skin. It was an air-tight fit as if the glasses had been molded to the shape of her head.
“Thanks. But, I’m not sure I get it. What are they for?” Anna asked.
“Just tap your right temple twice,” Mara tapped her own temple to demonstrate.
“Like this?” Anna followed suit and tapped her temple twice.
Immediately, her senses were assailed with more visual stimuli than she could process at once. Blue and green streaks of vibrant color. Circles and geometric shapes. Numbers and letters projected on the surface of her glasses.
“Whoa!” Anna stepped back and shook her head. “What am I looking at here?”
“It’s the other half of your iCom,” Mara was laughing. “Now hold on for a second. Quit moving. You’ll make yourself sick.”
“Too late.”
“Tap your left temple once,” Mara said.
Anna tapped her left temple and the amount of visual noise in her field of vision was reduced by half.
“The numbers in the lower right corner of your glasses are your external readings; air composition, temperature, air pressure, gravity. Any number that exceeds a safe threshold will start blinking red. Make sense?” Mara said.
“Yeah, this is cool,” Anna scanned the horizon, wide-eyed and open mouthed. “What are the numbers in the lower left corner?”
“Those are your internal readings. Your heart rate, oxygen levels.”
“Can you change the distance settings from meters to feet?”
“Absolutely not. Temperature maybe, but not distance and weight. Get used to the metric system. You’re going to be using it sooner than you think,” Mara said. “Back to your iCom. You can toggle through the numbers by tapping your left temple. Once you get used to it, you’ll be able to toggle through the readings by just thinking about it.”
“Oh, I get it. Just like the concentration games you’ve been making me play every night,” Anna said. “So that’s what you were preparing me for.”
“Exactly,” Mara said. “Now see the blue circles? You can focus those targets on a distant object if you want to know its size, distance and composition. That’ll come in handy later.”
Anna locked the blue target on Mara, and the display showed a distance of two meters. Anna looked down at her wrist. The diamond shaped iCom, invisible for most of the past nine weeks, was now clearly visible, bright and glowing. Buttons and arrays of controls lined its edges.
“Hey! I can see my iCom,” Anna said excitedly. “Does this mean I can finally control it now?”
“Yes.”
“And, I can call you anytime I want, all hours of the night just like you did to me?”
“No.”
“Which one of these buttons starts up my anti-gravity boots?” Anna asked.
“Hold on. First, I need to talk about the sole reason I’m allowing you to do this,” Mara said. “Your mission.”
“My mission. Oh, I like the sound of that,” Anna giggled.
Mara waved her hand across the table. A semi-transparent topographic map of the valley hung suspended in air. Anna could make out the lake, the forest, the quarry, the roads that crisscrossed the farmland and the town of Smartt itself. Blue lines of light crisscrossed the miniature map like haphazard flight patterns.
“Do you know what this is?” Mara asked.
“A map of the town,” Anna answered.
“Yes. But, notice anything familiar?”
“The blue lines. Wait, those are all the trails you had me run over the past couple of months,” Anna said. “They’re a pattern, aren’t they?”
“More of a map. In the 600 plus kilometers you ran, you’ve covered almost every area of this valley. And, every time you ran I collected data of your surroundings. Fluctuations in energy readings, changes in atmospheric pressure, magnetic waves, anything that might help us locate an anomaly, like a wormhole.”
“So, I was your probe.”
“Yes. Slower, but also less likely to be detected,” Mara smiled.
“Did you find anything?”
“See this light?” Mara tapped on one marble-sized light suspended above the valley. “Based upon the readings you helped me collect, this light represents the most likely location for our wormhole.”
Anna leaned over the map and tapped the light. It shimmered to the touch. “It looks like it’s a good mile above land.”
“1982 meters to be exact.”
“Whew,” Anna whistled. “That’s more than a mile.”
“Yes, it is,” Mara said.
“Wait, you want me to fly up there?” Anna’s eyes opened wide.
“I don’t expect you to walk.”
“I thought I’d just be flying around the treetops,” Anna laughed nervously.
“Your boots can actually carry you to a low earth orbit. So height is not a problem. Cold is, but not height,” Mara said. “And don’t worry. The boots have been calibrated for Earth’s gravity. A safety has been built in to prevent you from decelerating too quickly or hitting the ground.”
“So, what’s the plan then?” Anna asked.
“The plan is to investigate the area tonight and collect as much information as you can,” Mara said.
“That’s it?”
“I’m hoping you find nothing at all. There’s no reason a wormhole should exist on its own, let alone stay open for a long period of time. But, if you do find something, under no circumstances are you to get too close. We have no idea what we’re dealing with.”
“I don’t even know what I’m looking for. Is it big? Is it small? Does it make a noise?”
“You’ll know when you see it,” Mara said, then paused. “I hope.
“So how do I get these things to work again?” Anna looked down at her gravity boots. “What button do I push?”.
Mara walked over and poked the tip of her index finger against Anna’s forehead.
“This one,” Mara laughed.
“Huh?”
“There is no button. You control your boots remotely using your iCom and this,” Mara poked Anna on the forehead again. “Your mind. Trust me. It’s a lot easier than you think.”
“My mind. How?”
“Relax. Take in a deep breath like I taught you,” Mara breathed in deeply herself and exhaled slowly. “Now see the fuzzy faint light in the center of your glasses?”
Anna made out the small diffused dot of light that seemed to float in front of her. “Yeah, I see it.”
“Focus on it.”
“Ok...focusing.” Anna said. The minute she focused on it, the light became more distinct and locked into place. When she took her focus off of it, the light became fuzzy again.
“Now picture lifting that light with your mind, just like the game we played.”
Anna focused in on the light again and pictured it rising from the ground by several degrees. The light instantaneously followed her commands.
“And, that’s it,” Mara said. “You’re flying.”
“What?” Anna looked down at Mara and realized she was floating several feet in the air. “Aghh!”
Anna lost focus of the light and plummeted three feet to the ground, like someone had pulled a trap door from underneath her. She lay in the grass for a moment and looked up at the sky that was now darkening with large thunderclouds. The wind had picked up and blew Mara’s hair across her face as she looked down.
“I thought you said this thing had a safety,” Anna said.
“My mistake. I forgot to set it,” Mara reached out and helped Anna stand back up. “Not bad for your first time. Let’s try it again.”
Anna shook her arms out and took in a deep breath to relax. She focused on the light in front of her again and this time the light snapped into focus immediately. She envisioned it rising a couple of degrees, but now she was ready for the sense of weightlessness and held steady as her feet lifted off the ground. Her heart raced and the world grew silent around her as if all of her attention collapsed in on this one moment. Timeless. She could feel the breeze against her skin, the blood rushing through her body. She never felt more alive. She was flying.
She stopped her ascent at twenty feet and took in this new view of the world. Mara was running just beneath her, trying to keep up and laughing the entire way. Anna could see the other side of the lake clearly now and the thunderclouds rising across the horizon. She found that she could turn easily if she shifted her weight. Wherever she directed her center of gravity, her boots would follow. In seconds, she was spinning gracefully like an ice skater until her eyes filled with tears from laughing.
“Yes, I think you have the hang of it!” Mara shouted from below.
“Come join me!” Anna shouted back.
Mara looked up and nodded yes. She took one step forward and then glided up silently to meet her. Anna reached out and grabbed Mara’s hands and the two began to spin slowly in the air. Anna let go of Mara’s hands and the two spun away from each other, tumbling and rolling in mid-air.
“This is magic,” Anna smiled so hard it almost hurt.
“No, just science,” Mara said. “Okay, so it’s obvious you’re a natural at this. Let’s see what you can really do.”
Mara glided to Anna’s side and lightly tapped her on the shoulder. “Tag! You’re it.”
Anna floated back, surprised. “What?”
“You’re it! Now see if you can catch me,” Mara laughed as she bolted out towards the lake, leaving behind a thin trail of blue light.
Anna took off in pursuit, or tried. She had quickly mastered navigating up and down and side to side, but she wasn’t so sure how to do the pursuit part at all. She focused on the light in front of her, but the fastest she could go was a leisurely pace. Mara stopped about fifty feet away and floated in mid-air.
“Listen. I’m going to take a nap. Let me know when you’re getting closer,” Mara shouted over the wind that had turned to gusts.
Anna tried leaning forward and felt herself gain momentum. The more she leaned, the faster she moved. It was a sensation she felt once before, two summers back when her parents had taken her to Hawaii and she had spent the entire month of June learning to surf. She remembered that feeling between falling and speeding forward as her surfboard rode the crest of the wave. It was a balancing act. A controlled fall that lasted as long as the wave carried her forward. She remembered it felt like flying at the time. Now that she was flying, she realized how right she was.
“Ha! That’s more like it,” Mara shouted back encouragement and took off across the lake.
Anna leaned forward like a ski jumper catching air, instinctively finding the right body position for speed. Within seconds she was gaining momentum and making up ground. 20 meters. 15 meters. The blue target in her glasses calculated the distance as she flew.
Mara looked back, her eyes open wide in surprise. Anna was moving more quickly than she expected. Mara leaned back and slowed her pace just a bit as Anna barreled forward. 12 meters. Ten. Anna wasn’t sure how fast she was going now. The world was a blur but she knew she’d catch Mara before she reached the end of the lake. Anna reached her hands out. She was only a couple of arm’s lengths away when Mara stopped suddenly in front of her. So suddenly, Anna had no time to react. She continued to barrel forward, with just enough time to see Mara give a small wave and a smile as she flew on by.
Anna had no idea how to stop.
“Aghhhhh!”
Anna instinctively threw her hands out in front of her, but it did nothing to slow her trajectory. The trees at the far edge of the lake were rapidly approaching. She had just enough time to elevate the fifteen feet required to clear the tops of the trees. As she passed the first line of branches, Anna locked eyes with an Eastern Bluebird that blinked once at the strange object flying by.
Partly out of instinct and partly because she remembered seeing the same thing in a cartoon years ago and it seemed to work then, Anna leaned back, put her feet forward and dug in her heels. She decelerated so fast, she almost cartwheeled mid-air. Anna adjusted her center of gravity and managed to stay upright until she came to a complete stop. She floated mid-air for a second to catch her breath then looked back across the lake. Mara was several hundred feet away and doubled over in laughter.
“Looks like you figured out how to stop,” Mara’s voice faded in and out in the swirling wind. “Sort of.”
For those who knew Anna, they would have instantly recognized the look on her face. Her eyes narrowed. Her teeth clenched until muscles popped in her jaw. Her lips grew thin. It wasn’t anger but a sense of inevitability. Anna would not give up. She would not lose.
She focused her iCom’s blue target on Mara again, then took off like a shot. 81 meters. 75 meters. Instead of going straight, Anna swooped down just feet above the lake. The wind was swirling in the air above, but down at the water’s surface it served like a cushion pushing her forward. She reached down and dipped her fingertips in the lake to leave a spray of water in her wake. 25 meters.
Mara barely had time to respond. She laughed out loud in surprise and veered back towards her house. Anna could see where she was heading and changed direction to cut Mara off. 10 meters.
Mara glanced behind her and was surprised not to see Anna. She slowed down to make sure her young friend had not gone underwater. Then, a split second before impact, Mara saw a flash of blue coming not from the side or above, but from beneath her. The next second, Mara was tumbling in the air, a pair of surprisingly strong arms wrapped around her legs.
“Ha! Got you. Now you’re it,” Anna laughed. She let go of Mara’s legs and floated to a stop. “Not bad for a first try, huh?”
Mara smiled. “Not bad at all. But, let’s see how you do tonight when you’re out on your own.”