Technocracy: AETHER, Part 1

It was Friday, April 15^th. The sky was sunny, and nearly empty of clouds. A cool, gentle breeze blew from the south.

Terry sat with his back against a tree, in his backyard, and stared up into the sky. His hand idly flicked, down near his waist. As it did, the dirt around this hand shifted, moved, rolled and danced, sending up the faintest puffs of dust. He glanced down, seeing the dirt move. “This is still so weird,” he said.

“But it feels good, doesn’t it?” said Marin, sitting next to him. She had a plastic cup of water she was sipping from. Not with a straw—she was shooting the water up into her mouth in a thin jet. It was a bit warm, as she tasted it now, so she narrowed her eyes at the cup of water and a large chunk of it froze into ice.

“Yeah,” said Terry. He turned to her, and the sunlight glinted off his metallic brown hair and eyebrows. “I mean, I’m not complaining. It’s just… weird. It’s a good weird, but it is weird.”

Ardo was playing with flames in his right palm. He rolled his hand around, watching the gentle orange burnings swirl and slosh in the midst of his open fingers. “Yeah,” said Ardo. He was sitting on Terry’s left. “Yeah, I get that. Weird, but a good weird. That’s a good way of putting it.”

Terry looked up. “What did you say, Saera, when you made your connection? You felt like…” Terry snapped his fingers a few times, trying to remember, “you felt like there was some whole other part of you that you didn’t know you had before, but now you had it, and you felt more complete. Right?”

Saera sat above them, perched on a branch of the tree above their heads. She was idly reading a poem on her phone. But she had listened to Terry, and she said, “Hmm. To be honest, I do not fully remember all I said, in that moment. I was a bit overwhelmed with emotion.”

“I can’t blame you,” said Terry. He felt joyous thrills up his spine as he recalled that night, that incredible night. “It was… wow. It’s hard to describe, what it felt like when it happened to me. I definitely don’t fully remember. It was too much. Or, I guess I remember it,” Terry narrowed his eyes, and the earth shuddered a little, “but, I guess, what I most remember is… feelings. Sensations. Not really anything I could put into words.”

“Dude, you put that into words pretty well,” said Ardo. “You described how I felt a whole fuckton better than I could have.”

“Memories as feelings and sensations,” said Marin, arching her blue eyebrows. “Yeah, that’s a pretty accurate description of how it was for me, too.”

“Honestly, Marin,” said Saera from above, “I think you have put things into words better than any of us other three. It was you, after all, who came up with the idea that we are these four elements, rather than simply controlling or commanding them. It was you who understood that these four elements are part of our very being.”

Marin smiled. “Aww, thanks! Yeah, I guess I can see that.” Marin smirked, and tossed her navy blue hair over her shoulder. “After all, I am the best.”

Ardo chuckled next to her. “Of course you’re more arrogant than ever, fatass.”

“Well why shouldn’t I be?” said Marin. She glanced up through the branches of the tree, past Saera, past the top of the tree, up into the mostly-cloudless sky. “I could wave my hand and make it rain. I can freeze ponds and streams by feeling and thinking at them. Why shouldn’t I be arrogant?”

“Careful,” said Saera softly.

“Oh, I know,” said Marin. She smiled. “I’ve gotta not let it go to my head. But I don’t see why I can’t be a little arrogant. And you all can, too! Think of what each of you can do now. What we can all do.” Marin huffed a breath. “Why do we even need to keep going to high school?”

“Because it’s good for us,” said Terry. “Because we need to learn.”

“For what? For what reason?” Marin asked. “So we can grow up, and go to college, and then get jobs? Why? We could just use our power and make a living. All four of us can. Why do we need to live a normal life?”

“Normalcy is not the worst thing in the world,” said Saera. “I should like some peace and quiet, in my everyday life. Indeed, one reason I am glad to have my power over Air is that I can increase the amount of peace and quiet around me.” Saera twitched her fingers, and suddenly the other three noticed the ambient noise die away around them. The chirping of the birds, the blowing of wind, the rustling of the leaves, suddenly were all blotted out.

“Ooo,” said Marin, staring up at her best friend. “Cool. I guess you can do things like that too, right?”

“Sound travels through air, as vibrations,” said Saera. “Don’t you remember 8^th grade physics?”

“Marin’s got a point, though,” said Ardo, snapping his hand closed and putting the fire in it out. “We can do all this incredible stuff now. So what do we do?” His crimson eyebrows lowered, and his ruby red eyes narrowed. “We’ve spent all this time, all these months, getting control of our four elements, one by one. But now we’ve all got it. We finished what we set out to do.” Ardo put his head back against the trunk of the tree. “So now what?”

Silence.

Terry spoke first. “I’m honestly not sure. It feels like Saera and Marin both make good points.” He sighed, and his eyes shifted from copper to bronze. “I mean, I’d love a normal life. I don’t like… drama, you know?” He crossed his arms over his chest. “But Marin’s got a point. Ardo, too. We do have all this power now. We all do. It seems like things can’t be normal from now on, even if some of us want it to be. It feels like weirdness… like an abnormal life… has found us, whether we wanted it to or not.”

Saera sighed, and the breeze blew, and the momentary silence on the air was broken, allowing the sounds of the surrounding world to flood back in. “I suppose you are right. I suppose I cannot run from abnormality, since it has found me. And since, if I am honest with myself, I actually like it. I’d rather have an abnormal life, and have made this wonderful connection to Air, than to have a normal life without it.” She breathed out, again, and the breeze increased, shaking and creaking the branches of the tree. “But, I suppose, then, my question becomes Ardo’s question. Now what?”

“Whatever it is,” said Ardo, “we’re gonna figure it out together. We got into all this together, so let’s stick together no matter what.”

Saera glanced down at him. He smiled up at her, and she smiled down at him, as well.

“Yeah,” said Marin. “Ardo’s right. Let’s stick together. Whatever we need to do… whatever winds up happening… let’s face it all together.”

“Right,” said Terry. “We started on this journey together. Now we’ve finished it. But we’re still together. And I’m glad we are.” He grinned. “Let’s keep it that way.”

A chirping sound came from above. “Oh,” said Saera, pulling out her phone. “My Mama wants me to come back to the house. We are having dinner soon.” Saera put her phone back into the pocket of her shorts. Then the wind swirled around her, and lifted her off of the branch upon which she rested. Floating, hovering, Saera drifted slowly downward, until her feet touched the ground and she stood just in front of the other three. “I suppose we shall call it a day?”

“Yeah,” said Terry, standing up. “Finals are coming up, I need to be knuckling down and studying.”

Marin rolled her eyes. “I guess,” she said, standing up. “Though I’ve got to say, I do still feel tempted to just stop going to school.”

“We’ll figure that out later,” said Terry.

Ardo stood as well. “Whatever we do, we should all do it together.”

“I agree,” said Terry. “We’ve all said it, over and over. It’s true. We should stick together, no matter what.”

Saera, Marin, Ardo, and Terry exchanged glances. They smiled at each other. For the hundredth, the thousandth, the millionth time, a great sense of joy passed between all four of them. Each of them felt so grateful to have the other three as friends, and in the midst of all four of them, together, each of them felt such wonderful joy, like they had never felt with any other friends. “So,” said Saera. “Perhaps we shall get together this weekend?”

“Fine by me,” said Terry. He started to walk back towards his house, and the other three followed.

“Yeah,” said Ardo. “I’m down to hang out.”

“Me too,” said Marin. “I have ballet practice tomorrow, but I’m totally free Sunday. Let’s hang out.” She grinned. “We could all go to the mall!”

Ardo groaned. “I’m not gonna sit around while you try on shoes, fatass.”

“Maybe you could get new shoes, Ardo,” said Marin, waggling her eyebrows at him. “Those tennis shoes of yours are looking pretty ragged.”

“My shoes are fine!” snapped Ardo.

“Whatever you say,” said Marin, tossing her hair over her shoulder as she walked ahead of him.

“Whatever,” said Ardo, chuckling under his breath. Behind him, Saera brought up the rear, smiling gently and tinily as they all made their way back towards Terry’s house, and the street.