Day 8.

I didn’t know what to do. Was I supposed to start being old chums with the guy who had beat the crap out of me the day before?

“Yeah, he’s the friendly sort, isn’t he?” Kon said, crossing his arms again and staring up at the ceiling.

“He is very shy. Benjamin Faires, you should–”

“It’s just Benjamin,” I said, my voice as tight as my muscles.

“What?”

“You don’t have to say it all. Just Benjamin.”

“It isn’t Benjamin Faires?”

“Well, yeah, it is but–”

“Does that mean you are not on of the fairies?”

I raised a brow, Kon laughed. “What?”

“A fairy. Magical people. I remember your friends would call you ‘fairy.’ A long time ago when they came here to visit you.”

A lump grew in my throat. I knew what she was talking about. I couldn’t believe she was being serious, but I knew what she was talking about.

At first, when I was in elementary school, the other boys liked to call me fairy, because they thought it was girly and stupid, and close enough to my last name. But as we grew older, they found another term to associate it with. And throughout Junior High and High School, that was the only name they used.

“Faires!” They would stand at the edge of the clearing as I sat at the doors of the church. They would just stand there and yell. “Hey Fairy! Where’s your boyfriend, you fuckin’ fag?” They loved to tease me about one of the less popular kids at school, who it seemed only I would talk to. “You hiding him inside? This where you go to fuck him? Or did even Crumb dump your ass?”

God I hated them. I hated them so much. Every time I tried to tell myself I didn’t. But God how I hated them.

“Benajmin?” Her voice was so tentative, so mouselike, breaking me from my mind’s wandering. She touched my arm. “Are you okay?”

As I pulled out of my self-focused state, I realized I had let myself withdraw physically again, had let my face show what my mind was thinking. For a shy person, I tended to be very transparent.

“I am very sorry. I did not mean to make you upset.”

I shook my head. I hated that that jerk Kon was here for this. “Don’t worry about it.”

I then found out that this girl had no concept of saving a man’s pride. Without any hint of it, she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly. It was so entirely awkward for me, and Kon even groaned a little and looked away. But I had to admit it, there was something in me that felt soothed, relieved, comforted at her touch. It felt like when my mom held me after I’d fallen, or when my sister hugged me when they had made fun of me. It wasn’t the touch of romantic interest. It was innocent and pure and beautiful.

Finally she let go, but grabbed onto my hand. Lea used to do that when she was little. She used to latch on to my hand and follow me around everywhere. I was ten, but I loved it.

“Well this is bloody cheerful, but he’s gotta go,” Kon said.

“No, he can stay for a while,” Thi smiled, looking at me, them back at him. I tried not to laugh at her.

“Thi, this isn’t up for a vote.” Then he looked at me. “You gotta go.”

“Why?” Thi asked.

He let out of a bark of a sarcastic laugh. “Why? Because, like I already mentioned, if they found out that he’s here, I’ll get my balls chopped of, and you’ll get put to sleep.”

“Don’t be crude, Kon.” The tone in her voice told me she was trying to ignore his last comment.

“Damn it, Thi, don’t push me! I’ve been tolerant with you, I let a hell of a lot slide. But he’s been here too long! I’m already going to have to make some sort of report just to cover for his presence here. There’s no way they couldn’t have noticed something.” The more he talked, the more he seemed to be talking to himself rather than to her.

Thi let go of my hand, she stepped away. “But I don’t want to sleep again...”

“If you would just follow the rules–”

“I didn’t go outside! He came in!”

“That doesn’t matter!”

“You told me–”

“I didn’t think the idiot was be stupid enough to come in! He hadn’t before.”

Apparently I was fully not part of this conversation right now.

I was proven wrong by Kon looking at me. “You need to leave.”

Thi didn’t put up a fight this time. She just turned away and sat back down on the pew she had sat on earlier when I had upset her. I started towards the door, but as I passed Kon, he stopped me with a strong grip on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry about yesterday. You just need to know how dangerous it is for Thi to have you here.”

“For you, too, right?” I said as I pulled away. I kept walking, and just before I stepped out of the doors, I looked back. Kon hadn’t moved, he was just standing there, staring at Thi.

I left there a lot more confused than I had been yesterday.




“You’ve gotta stop this, Thi.”

“I don’t want to talk to you right now.

“Why do you always have to obsess over one human or another? He doesn’t care about you.”

“You don’t know that.”

“He’s just like the last one. Sooner or later, he’ll stop coming. I mean, this one hadn’t been here in ten years!”

“He came back. That is all that matters.

“He’ll move on.”

“Leave me alone, Kon.”

“Trust me. These humans, that’s what they do. They think something is wonderful at one moment, and then they get bored with it, they forget about it. I thought you already learned that.”

“Please leave me alone.”

“I’m just trying to help you.”

“Don’t touch me! Just leave me alone!”

“Sorry... I just... Thi, don’t be like that.”

“I just want to be alone.”

“You never want to be alone.”

“Then I don’t want to be with you!”

“I... alright... I’ll just... Thi, I’m sorry, but–”

“Go away!”

“...Fine. I’ll... see you tomorrow then...”




It was nearly eleven that night when Dad knocked at my open door. I looked up from the book I had been reading, sitting in the corner of my bed, which was nudged against the corner of the wall.

“Got a minute?” He asked. I shrugged, closed my book. He sat on the bed, scooted himself back until his back also rested against the wall.

It was kind of a relief to be talking with a guy. Guys understood that you don’t need to have eye contact to have a conversation. You can sit side by side and stare straight ahead and have a perfectly decent talk.

Women didn’t quite get that.

Dad was also someone who was really easy to talk to. People just liked him on general principles. He was tallish, a trait I hadn’t inherited, and his brownish-auburn hair had been greying since he was fifteen, a trait I had. Every wrinkle on his face, which weren’t profuse, was proof of a face that smiled far too much. There wasn’t a line of worry on it. He was easy going, and could get along with (or at least tolerate) nearly every personality type.

He was a professor at the local community college. Taught English. He looked the part, too. Always wore some sort of khaki’s, sweater vests over wrinkled collared shirts. His rectaingular glasses aided his extraordinarily poor eyesight, when he wore them. As he got older he seemed to wear them less and less, and misplace them more and more.

“Your mom says you’ve been acting weird lately,” he said after a moment.

“Just... you know, trying to get into the swing of things.”