Page 33 of Crystal Iris #1

Twenty-Seven

“It is the mystery that illuminates knowledge.” – René Magritte

B etween wanting to see Mona, my duties with Broc, and needing time alone to think things through, I almost jump out of bed when the clock hits five.

Hoyt is still sleeping. We talked for a while last night, until we both needed to rest. It was nice, sleeping in the same bed—even with the mountain of pillows between us.

I borrow a shirt from his closet and make my way to the stables, coffee in hand. I find Johanna by the fence.

“Hi,” I say, stopping next to her.

“Morning person?” she asks.

“I help with the horses in the morning.”

“How long have you and my brother been…?”

“Not long. We met last year, in Boston.”

“Boston?”

“Yeah, I teach there. I’m here just for the summer.”

Mona neighs loudly.

“I can’t believe he bought her. She must have cost a fortune,” Johanna says.

“It’s my fault.”

She turns to look at me .

“She was a gift,” I explain.

“He bought you a horse?”

“He did.”

“He bought you a white purebred horse?”

“I know, I thought it was crazy too.”

She really looks at me, like she’s seeing me for the first time. Our conversation is interrupted by Broc.

“Ready, Iris?”

I take another sip from my travel mug. “Ready.”

Broc and I are on hooves duty today. We check for wounds, stones wedged in the frog, and excessive growth or wear. Johanna moves along with us, inspecting each horse thoroughly.

“Why are you helping with the horses? You obviously don’t know what you’re doing. No offense,” she says.

“I… wanted to be useful, while staying here.”

“Useful? Aren’t you my brother’s girlfriend?”

“Girlfriend?” Hoyt asks, hearing us. He’s wearing a leather hat. I’ve never seen him in anything but baseball caps. It suits him.

“I didn’t…” I look at him.

“Isn’t she?” Johanna asks Hoyt.

He walks toward me and asks, “Are you?”

I keep working. I don’t know what we are. “It’s complicated,” I tell his sister.

“You got her a love sigil?” Johanna looks at Hoyt.

He nods.

“A what?” I ask, but he’s already moving away to check on Mona.

“In our family, the tradition is… when you find the one, your supposed soulmate, you buy them a horse. My family calls them a love sigil,” Johanna explains. “It’s ridiculous, but the Locklears have been doing it… well, forever. My dad used to tell us stories about it.”

I take in her words.

“I didn’t know what it… meant,” I tell her .

“I think we’ve established that you’re his girlfriend,” she says, following her brother outside.

Hoyt is in the ring, trying to rein in Mona without much luck.

“That horse won’t be ridden—mark my words. She’s too wild. She’s seen too much. Even if she ever trusts someone, it’s going to take years,” Johanna says from my left.

I look at Mona, my own horse, shining beautifully in the sun, so wild and brave. Then my gaze shifts to Hoyt. A love sigil? That’s way more than I expected when I decided to come here for the summer.

I meet Akira inside when I finish with the hooves. She’s hunched over her computer in the kitchen.

“Hi,” I say, sitting across from her.

“Hey.” She closes her laptop.

“I’m sorry, I’ve barely spoken to you since you got here.”

“That’s okay. Your hands are full.”

“Are you okay? I couldn’t help but sense the tension last night between you and Broc.”

“Yeah, it’s… I don’t know. He doesn’t get it. We’re from different worlds, this would never work. He just… doesn’t get it.”

“It’s not impossible.”

“It is, Iris, and you know it. I work at Harvard. I’m an astrophysicist. He’s a cowboy.”

“Horse trainer.”

“We are not you and Hoyt. We don’t have to… we don’t have a reason to do this.”

“What do you mean?”

She points at the prism.

“You think we’re together… because of the prisms?”

“Well, it obviously brought you together.”

“Yeah, but… ”

She shakes her head. “My family… they would never… accept it.”

“They want to see you happy, Akira.”

“That’s not enough, with them. And I am happy, with the way things are. This has been fun, but I think it’s time I go home.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, is that okay?”

“Of course. I’ll be going home soon enough, too.”

“Last night… Are you guys together together?”

“I think so.”

“I’m happy for you.”

I smile at her. “I’m going to get cleaned up.”

I find Akira and Johanna laughing on the couch when I come back downstairs—like they’re best friends. What in the world? They’re sipping wine and snacking on a cheese tray.

“So he didn’t tell you whose clothes those were?” I hear Johanna ask.

“Nope. You should’ve seen Sawyer’s face,” Akira replies.

I hear the name Sawyer, and I can’t help but watch Johanna’s reaction. I haven’t seen him around. Broc had left me a message: Sawyer needs to postpone the lessons.

“Have you guys seen Sawyer?” Johanna asks us. I’ve taken a seat beside them.

“He was supposed to help me today, with riding lessons. I think he canceled because you showed up,” I tell her.

“Things are…” she starts to explain.

“Complicated?” I ask, smiling.

She just smiles back.

“We’re used to it,” Akira says, taking another sip of her wine.

We move on to other topics. I decide to pour myself a glass and join them. We cover basic subjects, and Johanna goes on to tell us about her family. We’re probably on our second bottle when Hoyt walks in.

“Are you guys… drunk? It’s barely past noon.”

“Like that ever stopped you,” Johanna says.

“She’s a bad influence,” he jokes, sitting down in the chair across from me.

“You don’t have to be shy around me,” she says, mentioning our lack of… intimacy.

“They can’t touch each other,” Akira says, snacking on a cracker.

“Akira!” I yell at her.

“What?!” She keeps eating.

“What the heck is that supposed to mean?” Johanna asks, looking back and forth between us.

Hoyt and I don’t say anything.

“It’s not like it’s a secret,” Akira adds. “Their prisms, or something.”

“You guys can’t… touch?”

We shake our heads.

“How the hell do you date someone without… touching?”

I look at her and take another sip. “Complicated, remember?”

She’s still trying to figure us out when Akira stands up. “Who’s taking me to the airport?”

“You’re leaving today?” I ask her.

“Tonight.”

“It’s not really a question, is it?” Hoyt says, laughing at us.

I’m left alone with Johanna while Hoyt drives Akira to the airport. We put a chick flick on TV, glancing at it occasionally. We’ve stopped drinking, but we’re both still feeling a little inebriated.

“Akira mentioned you teach in Boston,” Johanna says from the couch .

“I thought I mentioned it.”

“You didn’t mention Harvard.”

I shrug.

“And you’re an equestrian vet, right?” I ask Hoyt’s sister; they really look alike, even have similar mannerisms.

“Was.”

“Was?”

“I’ve been working as a waitress for the past three years. Been moving around a lot.

“How did you… find your mom?”

“It hasn’t been easy. People seemed… I don’t know.

They pretended they didn’t know her. Our dad told us very little about her; all I had was a last name—my last name.

But I drove around, took odd jobs, asked every person I met, until an old man told me a story.

I wasn’t even far from here when I found him—just a little above Malta.

He said he knew my mother and knew of my father.

I pushed him until he told me how they met.

My father owned some land near the reservations. My mom lived there.”

“The tribal chairman told us she was from there,” I say.

“Tribal chairman?”

“We went to see the families there… Long story, continue.”

“My mother lived there with her family. There was trouble at some point, and her family was killed. She was left alone. I think she was only nineteen. My dad heard about the conflict and went to check it out. There was talk about things getting bad, and I think he wanted to avoid them crossing his lands. He found her fighting for her life. He brought her here, and I think they got together then.”

“You guys don’t have any other family around?”

“Dad’s family members are either dead or hate us because of him. Or they just want the money. I guess there could be more of my mom’s family around, but… who knows? I only recently found out what her maiden name is. We grew up here; our family was our… employees. ”

“We have more in common than I realized.” I tell her. “How do you know she’s in Alaska?”

“I met someone who tracked her name. There can’t be too many Awena Kalapuya’s around the same age.”

“She kept her maiden name?”

“Looks like it. When I couldn’t find any proof of death, I started searching for her like she was still alive. I’m still getting used to the possibility.”

I go on to tell her about my own family.

“And you haven’t looked for your father?” she asks.

“No, I don’t really care why he left. Not anymore.”

She nods. “What do you and Hoyt plan to do?” she asks, crossing her legs.

“What do you mean?”

“You live in Boston. Are you moving here?”

“Oh.”

“You had to have thought about it,” she presses.

“Not really. Everything’s been… crazy. I don’t really know where things stand with us.”

“Because you can’t… touch each other?”

I blush. “We found a… loophole.”

She eyes me with a smirk. “Then what’s the problem?”

“I’m… not ready to think that far. We’ve been taking things kind of slow.”

“Right. Love sigils aside.”

I laugh.

“You should go see Sawyer. His truck’s been parked out front for almost twenty minutes.”

She looks behind us and walks out.

Hoyt finds me in his bed, watching TV. I need a distraction. Johanna’s words are messing with my head .

“How are you feeling?” he asks, sitting down beside me.

“Fine now. Not drunk anymore.”

“Good,” he says with a smile.

“Thanks for taking Akira. It should’ve been me.”

“I don’t trust you driving, not even sober.”

I look at him. I want to explain that I’ve lived in the city my whole life—who needs a car in the city? Especially when your ex-fiancée moved around with a private chauffeur. Instead, I ask, “When were you going to tell me about the love sigil?”

“Eventually.”