a memory to _____ about

“Every day is another day dedicated to convincing you that nothing can be better, that the world we live in is all that we’re gonna get,” Zane said, crossing the room as he overlooked the crowd. “You see this?”

He gestured to a few captured thugs, tied up and grumbling about deserving more pay for this. Given Zane just beat the living daylights out of them, he’d concur that they probably deserved a bit more cash. “These company heads think they can scare you into thinking you’ll never get anywhere. That your numbers mean nothing, but clearly they do, if they’re putting this much effort into stopping us.

“So, are we gonna sit around and let it happen?”

Zane gestured to the crowd—a decent audience of fifty people or so, though the commotion lured in more and more curious folk over the course of an hour. They cheered, a rancorous finale to an otherwise productive meeting.

But just then—

Another man leapt out of the crowd and swung. Shay bashed the man’s head before he even got close to Zane, prompting a roar of laughter.

Zane bowed. “Thank you, thank you. We’ll be here all week.”

People filtered out, chattering amongst one another as Effie looked on with pride. She wagged her finger at the hired thugs. “Okay, now you know not to do that again, ‘cause then we’ll just beat you up, and it’ll be real painful. All right? Let’s just try and get along, because that works out way better for everyone!”

The men grumbled—once the last stragglers departed, they kicked the thugs out and locked the warehouse doors.

“I’d say that went well,” Zane said, the evening sky plunging the world into orange hues. Even the ocean was transformed by the light, pinpricks of purple shimmering in the horizon. “Who knows how many people’ll we’ll get by the next meeting. Speaking of, when’s that again?”

“I mentioned it! Tomorrow!” Effie threw her hands in the air. “We gotta use this momentum and get as many people possible on board before it’s too late.”

“Too late?”

“You know,” Shay said, stroking his beard, “Retaliation. Shining Beacon’s the biggest shipping company around. Probably won’t take long for them to identify everyone joining these meetings so they can fire all of ‘em. But if you get enough people on your side, it’s more trouble than it’s worth to let them all go. That’s when you can hit the bargaining table.”

Lucian nodded. “That makes sense. I believe there’s about a few hundred employed at this port. So if we manage to raise our numbers to half the work force, they’ll have no choice but to negotiate.”

“Easy.” Zane clapped. “So, what’s for dinner?”

One heavy celebration later, and the group went back to work recruiting, passing by bars and leaving fliers for workers to pick up. Less people refused them, and they found their work done before long.

They could’ve trudged back to their lodgings and called it there. But Effie stopped them, leading them down a different path. “Guys, have any of you ever seen the ocean at night?”

“We’re allowed to to that?” Shay said. “Thought I heard something about closing the beaches past sunset.”

“Eh, no one really like, cares as long as you’re not making a mess. People futz around there all the time! C’mon, just follow me!”

“I mean, if it’s against the law, I’d rather not cause trouble for—”

Everyone ignored Lucian’s complaints and followed an enthusiastic Effie to the beach. A few couples lingered, some knights watched in the distance, but otherwise it seemed safe for a nice late night stroll.

Zane took his shoes off without thinking. “Huh, good idea,” Shay said, taking his own off.

“Your feet stink, though,” Zane said, “so keep ‘em on.”

“Hey, screw you.”

The nostalgic pull of salty air killed Zane’s desire to keep the joke going. The sand curled around his toes and guided him forward, until he stepped in wet sand as water lapped at his heels. He waited there, as if the ocean would rise and pull him down at last, and in the depths he’d find an answer.

Any answer.

Zane blinked, rubbing his eyes.

“It’s nice out here,” Shay said, patting Zane’s back. “You feeling all right? You’re swaying. Keep it together, ‘k?”

One of the sparks from Shay’s bag crawled out and nested on Zane’s shoulder. Its cold, rock-like shell jolted him back to reality, and Zane smiled. “Uh—thanks. Yeesh. Dunno what’s going on with me, lately. It’s like… there’s something there, and I can’t reach it—it’s just there.”

“So? What’s there?”

“I don’t know.”

“What d’you mean you don’t know?”

“C’mon, man, it’s complicated.”

“Maybe you’re the one making it complicated.”

Zane almost argued back, but Shay’s words made him pause. Zane had a memory which wouldn’t leave him alone. It wasn’t his memory, but it made its home in his mind and refused to let go.

It wasn’t his.

But say, for a second, that it became such. That he accepted it.

Then maybe it’d stop bugging. Then maybe it would finally settle in.

Zane took a deep breath. Effie stood next to him, smiling.

“Sorry,” she said, moonlight filtering through the curves of her curls. “You told me a little while ago that the ocean breeze made you nostalgic, right? So I thought if we went here, you’d find what you were looking for.”

“What I was looking for…”

He closed his eyes.

That fragment—that day by the beach, for the first time, he let himself be a part of it. That image, so far away, closed in on him, until he stood within the frame.

Until he felt the sand beneath his feet once more.

Until he took in a deep breath, a salty tinge on his tongue.

Until he walked back, into that meadow, and reached beneath the soil, freeing the flower, tasting its nectar.

Until—

It fit.

There was no big change. There was no single moment where everything came together. Even if Zane grasped the shape of these images, he failed to find much else buried beneath the soil other than the sensation of it stuffed under his fingernails.

But even this moment meant something. Even it lifted a weight off his shoulders.

Zane opened his eyes. “Thanks, Effie. Guys—I have something I gotta talk about tomorrow.”

—————————————

A girl with a pen tucked under her ear took a wad of cash and some papers from an oddly-dressed woman. They gazed upon a group of four hanging around the beach off hours.

Before any of them noticed, the pair vanished.