4. The Static Age #2
“You can say that. My dad must’ve seen sleeping with a Black woman as a novelty, but he clearly didn’t have intentions to stick around for the whole ‘having a kid’ thing,” the words were detached and disaffected, but Dustin had spent enough time pushing his own emotions into the depths to recognize when someone else was doing it.
“The eternal mixed kid struggle,” James chimed in, nodding knowingly, “it’s not exactly the same, but my dad never had any issues marrying a Filipina. My grandparents on the other hand… well, let’s just say they had a lot of opinions about dad bringing home the “wrong kind” of Asian,”
Dustin tensed up a bit at their words. He and Chris weren’t fully Chinese either; their mother was Japanese, but since they were still fully East Asian, it had never really been an issue for either side of the family.
Especially with his mother being so professionally interested in Chinese history and culture.
Sure, they’d been subjected to plenty of off-color comments from their grandparents and Chinese aunties about their relatively darker skin tone, but he’d never really considered what it must be like for someone like Chloe or James.
“I tried to teach you Mandarin when we were dating, but the offer’s still on the table. Sifu Ying’s office hours are always open, baby girl,” Chris said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Dustin immediately kicked him under the table; now was not the time.
“Dude, stay focused,” Dustin snapped, “we need a game plan,”
“Anyone else think we should maybe go back?” James asked, “maybe if we look around the palace a bit more, we’ll find some answers,”
“You’re so lucky you’re gorgeous because your ideas will not get you very far in life,” Bailey immediately interjected.
James looked genuinely wounded, recoiling from her like a kicked puppy.
Bailey closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head before continuing, “listen, what I mean is… I understand why you’d think that’s a good plan, but we have no clue how to get back there, and no idea what or who might be waiting for us even if we did pull it off,”
“She makes a good point,” Dustin admitted, “we can’t just ride around in the speedboat until the fog rolls in again,”
The moment Dustin’s words left his lips, he and Chris’s eyes met. As if they temporarily shared a braincell, they grumbled in unison.
“Fuck, the speedboat!”
“What about the speedboat?” Bailey asked, before it dawned on her too, “oh shit, we don’t know where it is do we? Since none of us know how we got home,”
“Exactly. We need to find it, fast. Or else our twin asses are on the line,” Chris said, pulling Dustin by the wrist as they sprinted out of the building with Chloe, James, and Bailey hot on their heels.
…
Dustin hadn’t been to church in years; his parents figured it was better to let their sons stay home, rather than risk Chris seducing some innocent church girl, or the congregation performing an exorcism on Dustin for his emo fashion.
However, there was one bible verse that came to mind at this particular moment…
“He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow,”- Ecclesiastes 1:18
He found that verse very fitting, because he was much happier before they’d found their parents’ speedboat washed ashore, flipped upside down with a busted motor and flooded engine.
Chris was crouched in front of the thing, draping his body across the barnacle covered bottom like a bereaved widow at her husband’s funeral.
“We are so fucked! No one has ever been as fucked as we are right now!” he howled. Dustin’s instinct was to chastise him for his over-dramatics, but honestly…
They were super fucked.
Not only that, he knew his parents were going to make it his fault somehow. Like always.
“Now we have no way back to the palace, and Dustin’s gonna get his beautiful, juicy ass chewed off,” James groaned. Dustin choked on his own breath, going into a complete coughing fit. Even Bailey and Chloe couldn’t help laughing at that, and they hadn’t found shit funny all day.
“Well… I’m, uh, glad you enjoy my unchewed ass. Take a good look because it will definitely be gone whenever I see the light of day,”
“There’s gotta be a way to fix this,” Chris pulled himself away from the boat carcass and brushed off his shirt, “maybe we can convince a mechanic to help us before dad finds out,”
“I… know a guy,” Chloe said, a hint of shame in her voice for what might’ve been the one and only time, “I trashed my mom’s jeep last year, and he got it patched up in record time.
The sign at his shop says he works on anything with a motor, so if he can’t fix your boat, we sue his ass for false advertising,”
“Oh yeah, I remember that,” Chris said, nodding knowingly. “we only had like, a day and a half to get it fixed before she got back from that Paris fashion thingy, and he totally came through! Gimmie his info and I’ll…”
“Wait, look out there!” Bailey shrieked, pointing out at the open water, “there’s… a guy!”
Dustin turned and surely enough, there was a guy appearing to… float above the water? But it wasn’t just any guy. It was him; the pretty boy in the white robes who appeared in his vision!
He sat there, legs crossed and hovering in midair like a Force Ghost or something; light rays shining through his translucent body. He didn’t say or do anything for a long moment… but then his eyes snapped open and he raised his hands.
And then came the fog…