People Like T

I lay back on the soft blue grass, staring up at the swirling purple-red sky as the blue ball of flames hangs above me as if suspended on a thread.

“Does the sky look different where you come from?”

“Yeah, a lot different. Our sky is blue during the day and black at night and you can see so many stars. Our sun is yellow but you can’t see it all the time.”

“What’s a sun?”

“It's a big, yellow star that my planet revolves around.”

“Wow… that sounds beautiful.”

I laugh. “Yeah, but if you look at it too long your eyes hurt.”

“That’s weird.”

“No weirder than your planet is to me.”

“I guess so.” I roll onto my side to look at them, a humanoid figure with pale blue skin that almost blends into the grass. They turn their head to look at me. Their eyes are too big for their head, colored dark violet with red pupils. A rugged mohawk of neon green hair slices from between their eyes and disappears behind their back, ending at the edge of their tail with a puff of green. Their tail twitches on the ground beside them, sending up small sparks from the Vixalium fire grass. They wear pants made of loose black fabric and a sleeveless shirt colored dark orange with straps that look like they could be leather crisscrossing their chest. “I’ve never seen anyone as strange-looking as you. I mean, what are those bumps on the sides of your head. Are all of your people so… translucent?”

I laugh and tug at my ear. “These are called ears, all humans have them. It's how we hear things. And…” I trail off, looking down at my hands. I wiggle my fingers and for a moment I can see the grass through the skin. “Translucent? No, that's just me.”

They look concerned. “Do people treat you differently because you look different?” I have to think about that for a minute. They told me that all Vixallans are identical copies of one another. I’m not even sure if genders exist in their species and I don’t think we’re close enough for me to ask.

“Well, I’m not translucent on my planet. Just when I visit others.” They smile, revealing tiny, shark-like teeth. I sigh and roll onto my back. Softly, I say, “In my world, everyone looks different from everyone else.” They tilt their head, their tail pausing and their eyes narrowing. “Generally we look the same but our eyes and hair are all different colors.” It's technically true but there’s so much more to it.

They blinked, their eyelids moving horizontally. They blinked again. I just look up at the star, watching a solar flare dance across the surface of it. “It causes a lot of problems in my world. People don’t like people who don’t look and act like they do. Things would be a lot simpler if we all looked the same.” They pause then lay back down.

The silence stretches out between us for a while before they say, “I think you're wrong.”

I sit up and turn to them. “People have died because they look different.” I sigh. “You wouldn’t understand.”

They sit up now, looking at me with those huge eyes. “No, I don’t understand. We all look alike and we get along fine but I think it might be nice to look a little different from everyone else.” They pause then stand up and run down to the lakeshore not far away. Their steps send up blue sparks between the blades and up into the air, quickly fizzling out. I stand up and follow them, dragging my feet to watch the sparks glow. They run over the red semi-sand-semi-rock shore and dive into the water. I stop at the water’s edge, watching the ripples fade. I see their dark figure moving below the surface and for a moment I wondered if a Vixallan had ever been to earth. It would certainly explain the Loch Ness Monster. They climb out of the water and back onto the shore, grinning at me. Their blue skin is slick as it drips off them and their hair color is several shades darker, more like a summer-green leaf.

I laugh and they tilt their head, giving me that same puzzled look. Then they smile. “Carmen, I will never understand the intricacies of your breed.”

“Same to you, T.” Their name isn’t really T but I can’t wrap my brain around the strange vowels in their name so I just call them T. T sits down on the red shore and I sit a few paces away on the grass, sending up sparks. My good mood fizzles out as fast as the sparks. “I wish I was really here,” I say. “I wish that I could feel the grass.”

He looks puzzled again. “I mean, I can feel the pressure of it against my skin but I can’t tell if it's hot or cold or…” I trail off, gazing at the darkly reflective lake. They move to sit next to me.

“It's cold but the sparks are warm.” They smile at me and I smile back. I lean back on my arms and stare up at the star. I wonder if I can see this star from Earth, maybe it's one of thousands, identical to all the rest like how the Vixallans are identical. Right now, it seems impossible to mistake it for another but everything will look different when I wake up.

“Carmen, will you ever come back?”

I sigh, my moment of serenity broken. “No, I’ve never gone to the same place twice.”

They lean in close. “You’re sure that it's not possible?” I stand up, looking at the star’s reflection in the purple waters. It's a mirror, not a single ripple crosses the surface.

“I can’t control it, T. I just go where I go and that’s the end of it. Tomorrow night, I’ll be on another planet, talking with them and learning about their world.” I decided not to tell them about the planets that hadn’t welcomed me like they had. Some of the planet's inhabitants have been cruel to me and I can’t leave until morning. I don't know why I can’t leave, I don’t know why I go anywhere at all. I don’t know why I can understand and speak their languages fluently and yet I’m failing Spanish. All I know is that I wish it would stop, that I could have just one peaceful night where I can just sink into darkness and wake up as if nothing happened.

On nights like this, nights when I meet people like T, I can almost forget how much of a curse this power can be. So much of a curse that I can remember so many nights when I’ve gone to such lengths as drinking can after can of energy drinks in an attempt to stay awake. But I’m only human and I need to sleep at some point. I can’t run from it forever.

T stands up and joins me at the edge of the red sand. They lay a blue arm over my shoulder and pull me against their side. I wonder if they're warm or cold. “Well, if you ever find your way back to Vixalla, come and find me.”

I smile at them but it's a sad one. “I’ll try, T.”

They suddenly turned away from me, looking out past the lake. Their smile wavers. I see it, too. The purple-red sky is changing, fading to a lighter shade of pink.

I smile. “Hey, our sky changes color in the morning, too. We call it a sunrise.”

They give me a soft smile back, their arm sliding from my shoulder. “We call it The Awakening.”

“Yours is cooler.”

They tilt their head. “Cooler? I thought you said you couldn’t feel things like that?”

I laugh. “No, I mean I like The Awakening more. It sounds like a movie title.” I know that they don’t know what a movie is but they don’t question me.

“I don’t know about that. I would like to see a sunrise.”