Vince

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Chapter 24

 

The rain hadn’t stopped. After a few days of being trapped indoors Vince was getting a little bored of the same old same old. Stein worked on his projects, Ludz lazed around in his little corner, and Vince filled his time with teaching himself how to sketch humans. He sat across from Stein as he focused diligently on fixing Maj with a small screwdriver.

 

Vince traced the outline of Stein's big goggles magnifying his dark brown eyes inside. He wished he had colors. He hadn’t painted much before but the thought of playing with the colors and trying to make the mixtures he had seen before on canvas brought him a little joy. Maybe when he got back he’d order some. If he got back… 

 

He tried to draw Stein’s gloves next. hands were always the most difficult, but copying them was a little easier than trying to come up with the shapes on his own. It didn’t help that Stein kept moving them. If only he’d stop just for a moment or two. He turned a gear and Maj’s wing flapped slightly. Vince tried to capture the care Stein put into building Maj. The bird seemed so small in his oversized gloves, so delicate. Yet he tinkered with gentleness and precision. 

 

Stein put his screwdriver down. Maybe he’d stop for a second. Nope, instead he reached over the table for another gear. His eyes met Vince’s intense observation for a moment. He went back to work. “So what’cha got goin’ there?” Stein asked without looking away from Maj, not stopping his work.

 

“Oh. Um, just some sketches,” Vince said, awkwardly. He didn’t think he’d get caught because Stein was always so focused.

 

Stein looked up at him with a glint of curiosity. He instantly dropped what he was doing and reached for Vince’s book. He took it with ease from a surprised Vince.

 

“Hey!” Vince said.

 

Stein flipped through the drawings of caricatures of each of the island’s residents. Handi glared, Ludz smirked, Conni looked like a monkey, and Vince blushed uncontrollably at his own work. 

 

Stein got a good laugh out of them. “These are pretty good,” he said. Which just made Vince’s self consciousness boil over. 

He wasn’t used to showing his work to anyone. He used to love drawing as a child but after his fathers rejection he just kept his little hobby to himself. Even the compliment made him want to go crawl in a hole because he just wasn’t used to the attention. “Can you give it back? I’m in the middle of-” Vince tried to speak as he flipped to another page.

 

“Why does Fiu look like a saint?” Stein asked. With that comment Vince could feel the warmth of his blush rising to his ears.

 

“Because he isn’t nosy like everyone else,” Vince said, the snark somewhat protected his self-esteem.

 

Stein laughed at him and in a teasing tone said, “Right…”

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Ludz groaned, and sat up lifting one of his notebooks from his face. He glared at the two of them, with a truly annoyed look Vince had never seen from him. “Can you two shut up? You’re giving me a headache again,” Ludz said.

 

“Sorry. I didn’t think we were being too loud,” Vince said. Ludz had been a little moody since their conversation about Chiyo. Vince didn’t mean to bring up something so sensitive for them all but at least now he sort of understood everyone’s reluctance to talk about the spouts or leaving.

 

“Why don’t you go bother someone else. I can’t handle the noise from the rain and you two,” he said as he rolled over in bed.

Stein silently went back to work. “Sorry,” Vince said. Somehow now the numerous apologies came out easily as Vince came to terms with that fact he had a lot to apologize for.

 

“Shut up,” Ludz said again, sounding even more annoyed. Vince could tell he’d pushed Ludz too hard this past week. Ludz really did try to help and explain things more than the others did in his own way, but even he had limits. Even though he wasn’t completely unwilling to talk about Chiyo like Handi was, Vince could tell the memories were still painful for him. 

 

Maybe it would be better for him to give Ludz some space for now. “Uhh… Maybe I will go,” he said as he got up with his sketchbook in hand.

 

“Say hi to Fiuji for me,” Stein couldn’t help but tease on his way out. 

 

And Ludz yelled one more, “Shut up!”

 

Vince shoved the notebook under his shirt to protect it from the harsh downpour of the storm. He kept his head down so water didn’t get into his eyes. As he ran over to another one of the shacks he collided with Handi who wore a green hood that the water bounced off of.

 

“Going out?” Vince asked, trying to be a little more civil with her than before. She nodded without a word and walked past him. Maybe he deserved that. He’d been pretty antagonistic with Handi, despite not knowing her reasons for wanting to stop him. Even he had to admit she had a pretty good one.

 

He continued to the shack Fiu shared with Conni and Will. He didn’t expect complete chaos inside. Conni ran in front of him with a small doll in her hand. 

 

Tama chased after her reaching for the doll. “Give it,” Tama yelled. Conni used her height to keep it out of her reach but it was useless against Ayn's domineering stature. 

 

“Stop running,” Ayn commanded, taking the doll from Conni easily, while Yeshua wrapped his entire body around her leg tightly. He laughed wildly as he enjoyed the ride. He bounced with her every step.

 

“Now neither of you get it!” Ayn shouted in frustration, but the two girls didn’t care. They had already run off to find a new toy. She shoved the doll up on a shelf that was hung by two metal chains nailed to the grey walls.

 

“Ayn, I did something wrong,” Will said. He stood in the center of the room over a boiling pot and small plate-like device that Vince had never seen before. At this point he just guessed it was another of Stein’s inventions. It was hot to the point of cooking something, but the power source was out of sight. A cord led off to the same place all the lighting wires did.  

 

Ayn walked over to Will and took the spoon from him. She scooped up a spoonful of a white watery mixture. “For the love of Gahoren!” She yelled, barely restraining from directing her rage towards the rowdy children. 

 

In the corner of the room, Fiu sat up in bed. He layed in the center bed of three. The walls around him were lined with bookshelves in the makeshift room. The shelves were filled with a variety of content. Fiu’s obsidian eyes looked glossed over in exhaustion like a stone with too much polish.

 

Ayn head whipped to look at him. “Don’t you dare get out of bed. You’re already making my life difficult enough!” She roared, making him drop back in bed.

 

Vince finally stepped out of the doorway. “Umm… Maybe I can help,” he said with the certainty of a man who had no idea what he was committing himself to.

 

Ayn noticed him for the first time and her face instantly softened with relief and soon enough Vince was sitting by Fiu’s side with a bowl of what he assumed was supposed to be porridge. Fiu gladly accepted the bowl while Ayn paced with Yeshua still tightly gripped to her leg.

 

“Why do you have to be so freaking weak?” Ayn said, directed towards… honestly either Vince or Fiu at this point. Vince hadn’t shown his strongest sides while he’d been with them. “I swear he gets sick every time the temperature drops even a little. And then I’m pushed into babysitting duty while Handi and Ludz have all the fun. She just drops these little terrors on me and runs off into shipwreck forest. I want to go too,” she whined.

 

She tried to wiggle her leg free from Yeshua. “Let go of me already!” She yelled at him. He released her and Ayn tumbled forward into a pile of loose fabric on the ground. It looked familiar, maybe from the children's spontaneous performances. Vince was a little happy he wasn’t the one falling this time. 

 

She glared at Will who had started taking the gluey porridge to Conni’s long jet black hair since they were left unattended for all of a minute. He tried to carefully sculpt her hair up in bunny ears, while Tama gladly held the cooled pot for him. Ayn pinched the bridge of her sharp nose in frustration. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

 

She ushered them into a line in front of Fiu’s bed and commanded them to sit and stay. Ayn stomped off to deal with the mess. 

 

They’re big expectant eyes looked up at Vince like he was their new god. Even Yeshua wandered over to join them. “Tell us a story,” Tama said as if that were obvious. Even Fiu’s sympathetic gaze was fixated on him. Vince fidgeted with his pocket watch in his pants. He’d need to figure out a way to entertain all of them or else chaos would become them again.