The Beach, Saturday Morning

[endsthegame]

Weeks, since they'd come back to Fandom. They'd been here weeks, and Ender hadn't managed to settle. By now, it was like part of him was expecting the move to come, to jump on some ship and go on to the next place. He hadn't felt like that before - waiting, sure, marking time, but not this firm restlessness.

He'd gone down to the beach early in the morning in some attempt to calm his restlessness. Working on the raft had always helped him that way. But now-- now he was staring at the piles of damaged wood and frayed rope, and instead of thinking I should fix this, he was just... looking.

It wouldn't be long until the temperatures dropped so far that using the raft would be impossible. How long would he have, next summer? Just the first month, until graduation? Part of it? The whole thing? The IF kept shifting dates for his colony vessel's departure. He had no idea.

He shoved the wood out of the way. He'd leave it to rot - it would become an ecosystem on its own for a while, and feed several kinds of lifeforms. Some of the rope had plastic in it, though, and so he gathered that up and put it aside, to be taken to the dorms later.

With that done, he sat down on the beach and stared at the water.

That still calmed him. But it didn't take away the feeling of finally being completely uprooted.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

Oh, Ender. The girl skipping over on the beach was so not going to be sensitive to your maudlin state. Or even aware of it.

"Hey," Miley chirped, bouncing over. "Cool -- what is that?"

It was a dead raft, Miley. Have some class.

[[I CAN READ I SWEAR.]]

[endsthegame]

Ender glanced at the pile of logs a few feet away, and then he turned his attention to Miley. "An ex-raft," he said, "Or soon to be, when the worms get done with it."

[[ OF COURSE. ]]

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Eeeeeeew." Miley wrinkled her nose. "You know, you'd think with all the Clean-up-the-Beach initiatives they have, people wouldn't just leave their rafts lying around."

...Oops.

[[OKAY ONLY SOMETIMES.]]

[endsthegame]

Ender's mouth quirked a little bit, more out of rueful distance than amusement or joy. "It wasn't always kept this far out for the elements to savage," he said.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

Oooooh.

Miley facepalmed. Around her splayed hand, she guessed, "It's yours, isn't it?"

Foot in mouth disease struck again!

[endsthegame]

"Yes, it is," Ender said. He wasn't exactly offended, though. "I didn't really get the time to 'clean up the beach' last time, so I'm making up for my offenses."

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

Aaaaagh WHY DID SHE EVER SAY WORDS?

"Sorry," Miley offered, sounding honestly regretful. Then with a grin, she admitted, "In my defense, back home, I used to live, like, right on the beach. There's a personal bond between me and sand."

[endsthegame]

This time, there was some amusement in his expression. "Literally or metaphorically?" he asked. "You'll have to excuse me, but out here, you have to ask."

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Metaphorically." Miley grinned. "And the 'live on the beach' was an exaggeration too. My house was on the beach. I promise I'm not homeless."

[life_inshadow]

The thing was, the whole reason Tara was on the beach on the first autumnal day of the year was that she figured nobody else would be, and she was in one of her moods where she wasn't sure how great she'd be with other people.

Plan spoiled.

Oh well, at least it was Ender.

"Come here often?" she tried, with a light smile. She couldn't quite make sense of what the raft was, so she was squinting at it as if that would help.

[endsthegame]

"I used to," Ender said, looking out over the water. He hadn't really moved to acknowledge her, per se, but he was speaking, which did the trick just as well. "Not so much, in recent months. Hi, Tara."

[life_inshadow]

"Hi," Tara echoed. "Yeah, I guess you ... couldn't come when you weren't, you know. Here."

Der. That felt stupid. See, this was why she shouldn't talk to people today. But, since she'd disturbed him, she felt obligated to do more than okaynicetoseeyoubye.

"So is that your, um ..." she squinted some more at the pile of wood. "Probably it's not an unlit bonfire."

[endsthegame]

He chuckled softly, and then did look up. "No, it used to be my raft," he said, "But I think it's outlived its usefulness, so I thought I'd clean up."

[life_inshadow]

"Yeah, it doesn't look all that seaworthy," Tara had to concur. "Too bad. I bet it was nice when it was in better shape."

[endsthegame]

"I built it about four years ago. Well, three in Fandom's timeline, I guess," Ender said, thoughtfully. "It did its job at the time."

He considered her. "I'm sorry if you were hoping for an empty beach."

[life_inshadow]

Tara shook her head. "No. I mean, I was, but ... if I really truly didn't want to talk to you, there's plenty more to the beach."

This was simply true. She'd said enough to be polite; if she kept hanging around, it was because being social was not as painful as she'd feared it would be.

"Time went crazy for you sometime, huh?" she asked, with a wry quirk to her mouth. "Kennedy's going through that. I think she's a year ahead by now."

[endsthegame]

"Ben and I went to his universe over the summer," Ender replied. "Or at least, we were gone for the summer - for us, twice that time went by, if not more. It's making this a little surreal."

He waved vaguely at the sea and the sun and the definitely-not-late-winter-early-spring-ness.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Okay, so switching his running path to the beach was a bad idea. Sand was not his friend when it came to moving quickly.

But, at least there was a distraction ahead to keep him from breaking an ankle by being a moron. "Hey."

[endsthegame]

Ender blinked. "Tony?" he asked. You'd have to excuse him - this wasn't a locale he was used to seeing the guy in. "Still doing your morning exercises?"

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Still," Tony replied with a grin. "Maybe not on the beach next time, though."

[endsthegame]

"It's not really the best place for a run," Ender agreed, "Though it wouldn't surprise me if Ben came by here twice a week just for the sake of the challenge." He tilted his head. "Sit down?"

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Or collapse in a vaguely dignified heap on the sand by him. "Enjoying the last bit of summer?"

[endsthegame]

"If that's what you want to call it," Ender said, mildly. "I'm just cleaning up the remains of my old raft."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Tony glanced over at the remains of the raft for a moment, mentally putting it together. "Any reason why you built a raft?"

Was it metaphysical? He would bet on that.

[endsthegame]

"I like working with my hands," Ender said, glancing at Tony. "I think you can get that."