Chapter Text
Jane always liked the longer drives. Early morning above the mist on the mountains, you could just make out the ocean on the horizon. As a girl, she’d often tried to imagine the sheer size of it. How far would she have to go to see the other side? She’d sometimes play pretend, spreading out her arms to make a grand wingspan, or picture herself riding on the back of some beast and gliding seamlessly over the vast gray sea. In this dream she was a great hero, a knight clothed in the cardboard armor her best friend had painstakingly made. A precious thing, now stored safely in a box under her bed, lest the marker and glue stick bonds crumble under the weight of the decade and then some that had passed since its creation.
An unusually heavy summer rain was coming down and Jane flicked on the windshield wipers on the patrol car. It was another quiet morning patrol. As usual, she would return to the station with nothing to report. She sometimes had to remind herself that was a good thing. Sleepy little Kippernia was safe, and she was privileged to be its first female police officer. Hot shot detectives and knights in shining armor were figments of the imagination, meant for television and airport novels and other stories, nothing more.
She pulled into the station, just as the town was beginning to wake up. By the looks of it, Chief Boarmaster was in. Gunther too, judging by the freshly waxed patrol car parked across two spaces.
“Morning all.” She said as she pushed open the door to the station. She tossed her coiled hair over her shoulder as she hung up her coat.
“Ah! Good Morning” Theodore called from his office in the backroom.
“Jane.” Gunther acknowledged, not looking up. The broad shouldered officer was seated at his desk in the center of the room, sorting through piles of old paperwork. His black hair, a little on the longer side, was slicked back with slightly too much gel. Jane sat down across from him at her own desk and began to fill out her report.
Well, really, she only just had to mark her name, the date, and “N/a” in the events section.
Gunther took a long, drawn out slurp of his coffee. “Looks like you’ve been hard at work.”
“You know Gunther-”
“Hm?”
“Parking your car in two spots is in violation of traffic guidelines. As an officer of the law it’s my obligation to-”
“As an officer of the law you should know that appearances are very important. You know, cleanliness, godliness, the like? Frankly that junker of yours is bringing down the prestige of this department and I won’t stand for it.”
Jane scoffed. “Liar. Your car is full of trash. Chief Theodore? Where are the traffic citations?”
Gunther also scoffed. “I believe you meant the tire polish?”
“OI! Which one of ya’ damn rookies took me parking spot? Had to walk up the street in the fuckin’ rain!” A stout man swung open the station door, his face as red as his hair.
“Ah.” Theodore’s voice came calmly from the doorway he was leaning on. “Good morning Ivon. Gunther was just on the way out to move his car.” He gave a pleasant smile. “Isn’t that right, Gunther?”
Gunther quickly snatched his keys from the drawer. “Yes, sir.”
Jane snickered.
“Oh, and Jane, while he’s working on that, you ought to be started on these.” Theodore picked up half of Gunther's pile of paperwork and dropped it in front of Jane.
“But, sir! This is all Gunther’s paperwork. I finished mine yesterday.”
“Teamwork, Jane. You and Gunther are partners; it’s both of your paperwork. Working together on small matters will help you both work together on big cases in the future.”
“Like we’d get anything cool to work on in Kippernia….” Jane grumbled. If Theodore had heard her, he chose to ignore her comment.
The rain continued outside as Jane made her way through the paperwork. Occasionally, the phone would ring, usually a solicitor. Though, recently they’d received a few irate complaints from the local elderly complaining of the change in grocery store hours. She spent the rest of the day plodding around the station, bickering with Gunther, and stretching out at the water cooler. A hard day’s work for Kippernia’s finest.
The journey home was also uneventful, and she arrived at the door of her flat just after five thirty. Another thing to remind herself to be thankful for. She could afford to live in a three bedroom maisonette a ten minute drive from her workplace.
Without hesitation, she walked in, dumping her backpack on the floor and kicking off her shoes.
“Welcome home officer!” A skinny young man saluted her from his sprawled out position on the floor. All around him were various supplies for childrens craft projects, probably brought home to clean. Warm afternoon light spilled over both of them, catching on small flecks of glitter in the man’s dirty blonde colored hair.
Jane smiled at the scene in front of her. “Hey Jester.”
“How was work?” The two roommates said, nearly in unison. There was a pause, and then they both began to laugh.
“Please,” Jester said. “Ladies first.”
Jane took her usual seat in a plush armchair, sprawling out much in the same manner that Jester was. “Oh, you know. The usual. We did get someone trying to report their neighbor for not taking their bins in by ten, but other than that…” She trailed off.
Jester sat up. “And by the usual you do mean the usual suspects?
“Hmm?” Jane replied, her head cocked.
“I believe it was a Mr. N.O. See and, a Miss Minedya Bisnes?”
Jane snorted at the pun. “That’s almost offensively awful but I’ll allow it.”
Jester bowed his head in mock shame. “Merciful lady, I thank ye.”
“Alrighty Then, what about you?” She said, “Any grand crisis?”
“Oh well, you know, the usual. The kids covered me in glitter during arts and crafts.” He gestured to his hair. “Danny fell asleep during the maths lesson. Though! Abigail only cried for ten minutes when her mother dropped her off today, so that’s a small win.”
“A win indeed!” Jane sunk into her chair. “What’s for dinner?”
“No clue. You’ll have to ask Pepper.”
“Right! I forgot it’s Friday.” Friday night was the “Friends Friday Feast”. It had become a recurring tradition for their little gaggle of pals to gather for dinner to ring in the weekend. When they’d been teenagers, it had mostly been hosted at the local pub, but now that Pepper and Rake had their own place, the two delighted in having people over.
Even with everything that had changed, Jane could alway look forward to the Friday evening meal. And, despite the unfortunate circumstances that had brought him back to Kippernia, she was glad she could bring Jester with her. She watched as he sorted the craft supplies into diligently labeled little containers. It was nice to have someone around to help with the housework anyway. When she’d looked at the flat, she was dazzled by the amount of space. When she moved in, she was overwhelmed by it. In the first weeks after Jester had moved in, she’d come home to scrubbed floors and sparkling windows, and realized, perhaps a bit guilty, that she'd never thought to clean her windows. The manic cleaning was both a blessing and a curse in that way.
“Did we promise to bring anything?” She asked, thinking of their nearly empty fridge.
“I don’t think so?”
“Should we bring something?”
“Ehhh- Probably.”
Jane changed out of her uniform into her usual casual attire. She pulled an oversized cardigan over her yellow v-necked shirt. The nights tended to get cold, even in the summer. True to form, Jester was waiting for her at the door, wearing an obnoxiously patterned windbreaker over an equally obnoxiously patterned collared shirt. It clashed, but in a way that was clearly deliberate.
The two nodded at each other silently, before heading to the store to grab some sort of offering for the night. They ended up with cheap beer and an even cheaper pack of biscuits. Jester suggested perhaps putting a little plastic bow on the biscuits to distract from the cheapness. Jane promptly found a multi pack of little plastic bows for only a pound and the two found themselves standing outside Rake and Pepper’s apartment both laughing and admiring their handiwork. The biscuits had been adorned in such a way that no one could hold them without making a terrible plastic on plastic squeaking sound and each beer had been blessed with as many adornments as could fit on the exposed caps and glass. It was horrible and beautiful all at once.
Jane rang the bell, breathless from another fit of laughter.
“I’ve got it!”
There was a click in front of them and the door swung open. A tall, strong man with white blond hair stood in the doorway.
Jester did his best to look displeased. “You don’t live here.”
Smithy took the elaborately decorated beer from Jester’s hands. “Is this a present for me? It looks like Christmas.”
He led them into the flat. It was small and warm, with second hand furniture and photos of friends and family hung up on the walls. A woman was flitting around the kitchen, her long dark braid swinging back and forth as she moved. The smell was spiced and familiar, wafting out from the stovetop where she was working. Near the kitchen entrance was an ever so slightly too big dining room table, which was in the process of being set. Rake was reaching his arms across the expanse of it, doling out the silverware.
“You’re here!” His freckled face scrunched into a wide grin as he saw them approach.
“So we are.” Jane replied, automatically moving to help him. “What’s for dinner?”
“I’m roasting pork, and with it we’ve got green beans and potatoes.” Pepper called out from the kitchen. “Oh, and pie! I’m testing a new pie recipe.”
“Sounds incredible, Pep. Make sure you put the boys to work, okay?” Jane turned to face Smithy and Jester who were already absorbed in bantering on the couch. “These meals are a team effort!”
Smithy scowled, and Jester avoided her increasingly intense stare.
She gently slapped her hands on the top of both their heads. “So, you two are going to do the dishes. Right?”
“Of course, Officer!” Jester gave a salute
Smithy grumbled a bit. “Yeah Jane, we’ll wash the dishes.”
She smiled, giving both of their heads an affectionate ruffle. “Glad to hear it.”
The warm buzz of activity hummed throughout the flat. The smell of cooking, the people she loved chatting about nonsense, the soft grainy sound of the radio, laughing together; it was all the things that Jane loved.
“So, Petal,” Pepper said later, over her perfectly cooked pork roast, “Has work picked up like you wanted it to?”
“Oh well,” Jane stabbed her fork into an errant green bean. “It’s been fine. Not exciting, but Chief Theodore always says we should be thankful that we live in such a safe place.”
Rake nodded vigorously. “That’s right. I’ve heard there’s been trouble with all sorts of things up in West Yorkshire with breaking into cars, and fraud. Though, I’m not sure why someone would break into a car, unless you kept your wallet in there.”
“It’s for the parts.” said Smithy, his mouth full of potato. “You can do lots of stuff with spare car parts. But, that’s not the worst thing, at least people aren't getting killed over it like they used to.”
“Oh, stop with the grim stuff!” Pepper huffed. “This is Kent, not West Yorkshire.”
“Right.” said Jane. The bitterness in her mouth felt unjustified. Everyone was safe. This was good.
Jester cleared his throat, eyeing Jane’s sudden discomfort. “That reminds me, Pepper, did you know that they’re thinking of removing home economics for secondary school? They want to replace it with testing prep.”
“That’s just terrible! How’s a test going to teach you life skills? Can’t you do anything about it?”
“No- I only teach year two. They’re still working on addition and arts and crafts.”
The chatting continued for some time, but Jane wasn’t much a part of it. She kept thinking ahead to her boring six in the morning drive that she’d need to complete the next day.
It felt like floating in a way. She and Jester left at a reasonable hour after he and Smithy did the dishes. They made it home and went about their separate routines before bed. The mint of Jane’s toothpaste felt harsh in her nose. The next morning was the same as always; she was up at five in the morning and in her patrol car by five forty five. The coffee in her travel cup was getting cold. The mountain range flew by her window without ceremony and she stopped at her usual overlook. When the weather was clear, she’d stop at a high point near the cave, sit on the roof of her car, finish her coffee, and imagine what it would be like to be able to fly.
The previous week’s rain had caused the mud to shift considerably, and she had to step carefully over the road so as not to slip. As she did so, the mud squelched under her boots. Debris cluttered the side of the road closest to the mountain. She walked to a nearby rock to scrap the soles, taking a bitter sip of cold coffee. Her eyes caught the color of green, artificial and printed on fabric.
She reached down to pick up the litter. An old sweatshirt, she guessed, with the decal of a cartoon dragon colored a toxic green. The dragon’s eyes were a piercing orange, and Jane paused for a moment at first meeting the dragon’s eyes and then the hollows above them.
Her blood ran hot and cold at once, pounding in her skull. She stared, her mind melting into the intangible and overwhelming sense of everything. She was vaguely aware of her cup dropping in the mud and spilling on her boots, but it was so far away she couldn’t bring herself to care. The air was so overwhelmingly humid against her skin and she bit back the burning oil of coffee and toast climbing up her throat. She wasn’t floating anymore. She had fully left the atmosphere, flying at the edge of space and time, where nothing was real. A place where the only sound was her pounding heart and ragged breath. She wasn’t real. Nothing was real. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.
The skeletal body in the sweater did nothing, having long rotted away.