Aurora walked into the steakhouse and saw Sarah waiting inside slightly nervous, her fingers fidgeting against the hem of her camp issued t-shirt and shorts.

  The man at the host’s podium looked over at Aurora and then to Sarah, his brow lifting slightly. “So this is your sister, then?” he asked. “You don't look much alike.”

  “She brought me for an early dinner. we please have a table?” Sarah stepped up and asked, her voice steady but carrying a slight edge ency.

  “Well, that should be fihis way, you two,” he replied, grabbing a pair of menus while leading them further in. The pce wasn’t busy at all, Aurora was gd to see. She had been worried there might be a few pedestrians inside, but that didn’t seem to be the case. No unnecessary attention—good. “Your waiter will be with you soon.”

  Aurora looked across the table ohey were seated, leaning in slightly. “You’re very adaptable. Good girl.” She wi Sarah, a pyful smirk curving her lips. “Now we start our private chat. To break the ice, I’ll start by telling you a little bit about myself.”

  She told her about her first superhero experiences and the progress she’d made so far in both San Isidro and Seaside City, watg Sarah’s reas closely. “...And that’s pretty much it. I will say, there was more to go over, but I ’t tell you everythi. I don’t think it’s the best pce or time.” She took a pause, then softened her voice, log eyes with Sarah. “To answer one of the biggest questions I’m sure you have: Yes, I’m here because Leona wants me to talk with you.”

  Tilting her head, she got straight to the point, her tole but firm. “Sarah, are you happy? I knur camps be pretty fun, but this is a very different kind of camp your parents sent you to.”

  “Of course, I’m happy,” she responded quickly, too quickly. Her smile wavered at the edges. “I mean, I miss home. I miss Leona.” She sighed wistfully, her firag the edge of the menu absently. “Camp isn’t just for fun. It’s to help us remember how to properly worship God and remember his teags,” she said a little stiffly, as if reg something she had memorized. “So, um,” she quickly snapped out of it. “A-are you really a friend of hers? Truly?”

  “You could say we’re very close, Sarah, and because we are, I’m close to you too.” Aurora reached across the table and pced a hand on Sarah’s, squeezing it gently, reassuringly.

  “I know this is just a personal opinion, Sarah, but our retionship with God or ay should be a deeply personal thing, and it ’t be forced like that. When someories to tell us we’re doing it wrong, it does more harm than good. And if they say we o do it another way, like not accepting others’ viewpoints or allowing them to worship in their own way, that’s a form of intolerance.”

  Taking a deep breath, Aurora tinued, her voice steady but ced with something darker, something raw. “Frankly, your parents are yal guardians, so they get to choose everything for yht now. They get to make those choices for you, feeling it is best for you. Beliefs and such things are strongly ied from teachers and parents. And it is true that sometimes we make selfish choices for the people we love.” Aurora looked down, her eyes momentarily shadowed, lost in thought. She khis truth all too well.

  Her father had made his choice.

  A chest. A locked, dark space. A cage meant to make her disappear.

  She pushed the memory down, f herself to focus. “Leona knows well how parents make wrong choices. How they choose themselves over their loved ones, without ever knowing it. Her father… she old you this, but he… didn’t make good life choices at all. Leona was hurt because of that. If it wasn’t for her Aunt and cousin, she might never have found happiness in life. She’d have died alone in… in…” Aurora bit her lip hard, her pulse thudding in her ears. “I shudder to think of that.”

  Darkness.

  A stifling stench that had long sinumbed her nose. Her stomach twisting in on itself, gnawing at nothing. Every day stretg thinner and thinner. Losing faith, memory, hope.

  Aurora took a deep gulp, vainly trying to get the lump out of her throat. “Leona had the ce and faith she o see the sun shining again. She believed that things would get better in one way or another, and somehow they did.”

  Aurora was still managing to keep it together, if just barely. She exhaled, steadying herself. “What I’m trying to say to you is … you may be unhappy right now, but that will pass. You’re strong. And your parents… they do care about you, but they don’t know your hurt, your pain. If you hold out arue to yourself, both Leona and I will be there waiting for you to return.” She let a small, knowing smile return to her lips. “Even Quinn thinks stantly about you.”

  Sarah looked at Aurora and sniffled. She had been listening ily. At the end, she nodded. “Even Quinn, huh?” She let out both the air and a torrent of emotions in a long, quiet sigh.

  “Well, that all sounds like… I mean… I appreciate what you’re saying, but… the way you’ve talked to me… you only be one of two things,” Sarah began, her words slow and careful as though she were trying to piece together a puzzle mid-sentence. “Since you said you’re not an angel. You’re either… Leona’s given up on me because you’re in her life now, or you’re at least as close as a sister to her. Not that she ever mentioned one except for Quinn. And I guess I appreciate all this, but...” Sarah shrugged. “No matter what my body tells me, my soul has to be in trol of temptation. And if you’re really Quinn in disguise somehow, I don't think you’re bad for liking girls, assuming you do, but it’s just not what it’s supposed to be for me. And I do like Leona. At least until she’s firansitioning, but after that, I don’t think there’s any future there. We still be close friends, and I want to be… but… without us being able to have a family, I don’t see a future. And maybe you’re okay with that, but I want to be in harmony with the way the world… well… I should, anyway.”

  Sarah sighed again, her shoulders sagging. Her voice lowered. “I uand if you don’t want to feed me after what I just said, but I had to say all that for Leona.”

  While Sarah was being dead serious, Aurora couldn’t help but roll her eyes slightly at the thought that she’d be mistaken for her firecracker of a sister. Still, she nodded. “You’ve got the wrong idea, kinda. No, I’m not Quinn. I could get her on the phone for you if you’d like.” Aurora chuckled, but there was an undercurrent of something unreadable in her voice.

  “Anyway, what makes you think I have THAT kind of a retionship with Leona? I don’t think I ever implied that.” Her ughing became a bit nervous. “I said we were very close, but that doesn’t mean we’re lovers or anything intimate like that.”

  Aurora turned with a forced smile, signaling the waiter to e take their order. A distra was necessary—if nothing else, to let the weight of the versatiole. “Steak sound good to you, Sarah?”

  Sarah nodded quietly. “A couple of sirloins with baked potatoes and sodas, please.” Aurora ordered. When the waiter took the order back to the kit, she turned her attention back to Sarah, peering into her dark eyes.

  There wasn’t anything more she could say for the moment. Everything important had already been spoken.

  “Y’know, I don’t think this was the best pce for the versation we’ve had, but I’ll say this for Leona to hear.” Sarah blushed faintly, rubbing her arms. “I love Leona and Quinn more than anything. Even if my body feels one way about certain people, that doesn’t mean I’m a bad person or that they’re bad if that’s how they feel too. For Leona, it’s totally normal for her… for her to like girls.”

  Sarah crossed her arms and frowned. “Unfortunately, the rules are the rules, and if you break God’s rules, there is only one punishment. It really sucks. The camp is kinda run like that too. Even though you kind of spirited me away,” Sarah went on, “I know I’ll be punished for this. I khe moment I agreed that I would be. I hope you’ll uand if I don’t want to talk much mht now,” she finished, voice quieter now.

  “I hope Leona is doing okay. I got a feeling she was in trouble retly… there was a rumor that someone had tried to sneak in to tip cows the other day, but for some reason, I thought of her. Is she alright?”

  Aurora smiled, crossing her arms below her breasts. “I’m gd you knew what ing along would mean for you. I’d hate to think you didn’t and I’d signed you to punishment just for this. I’m also gd you heard that rumor. It was definitely Leona and Quinn. They desperately wao see you, though what they did was misguided, and they were summarily puhanks to that, Quinn’s car was impounded, and a rge fine was issued. The two had to spend a good portion of the night in the local jail.” She chuckled mirthlessly, the memory of the cold steel bench still fresh in her mind.

  Sarah frowned, shaking her head. “That... she should’ve knower. I hope those two didn’t say anything about me, otherwise they’d have to tell my parents, and that’d just make it harder to see her iure when I get out. It’s hard enough expining our retionship without giving away her secret. My avoiding it art of why I’ve beeo the realig camp.”

  She sighed, rubbing her arms. “There are a lot of other kids who have a simir problem to mine… you’re lucky you caught me outside today… six days a week, we’re inside almost all day, studying, gettiured, and perf lordly bors. My bor today is mostly outdoors, but I’ll probably miss out on any kind of sports or free time for the rest of my stay for my punishment,” she sighed and shrugged. “I’m not angry with you or Leona though… I just wish it wasn’t going to happen…”

  “I’m sorry you have to gh all that… it’s not how a kid should spend her summer. I wonder if your parents knew how tough it would be. Well, you may miss out on wiffle ball today, but you got to experienething no one else there will. You got to see the world from above with a panorama spreading around you. Something you ’t get on an airpne even if you’re the pilht?” Aurora winked. “And how many got to have a steak dinner for the trouble?” She ughed softly.

  “Whatever they do, you get through it. If you do your best to enjoy your meal and tell me that you’ll be strong for yourself and Leona, I’ll tell you something good when we’re back outside.”

  Just then, their food arrived. They quieted as the ptes were set before them. Sarah wasted no time digging into the steak, her mouth watering.

  After making a healthy dent in her meal, she took a deep swig of soda and resumed their versation. “No, I’m grateful that I got the ce to fly and… to meet you,” she admitted, a light blush dusting her cheeks. Then, leaning in, she whispered with a small smile, “Do you know what Leona’s secret is?”

  Aurora returhe smile doubly. “I know it. It’s not an easy secret to have. Why do you ask?”

  “I’m here because I kept that secret. Everyohinks I’m a lesbian because of that secret. If she thinks I’ll fet about her, she’s wro… as bad as this camp is, it’ll free me from my crazy hormones and just let me appreciate her, as God intended, without flitil she’s doh her journey.” Sarah smiled more, though there was an uainty in her eyes. “It’s hard not really knowing if you love someone for who they are or just how they look.”

  “Tell me about it.” Aurora sighed softly, her gaze steady as she looked into Sarah’s eyes. “So, you want to know if you’re really a lesbian, is that right? Would knowing that settle your mind in the least?”

  Answering her owion, Aurora shook her head. “No, no matter how things turn out, you’ll have to make the choi the end, aher way, it will be a challenge. If you find you really do have those feelings, nothing that you, your parents or the camp could say will keep them buried for long.”

  Sarah frowned slightly, pting. “You said you were an alien, so maybe it’s different where you came from, but here oh, it’s supposed to be men and women together,” she replied, cutting into her food again.

  “I know that somehow something in my body is messed up because if I think about it in terms of spirituality, it’s clear there shouldn’t be anything there… but my body still gets weird feelings when it es to beautiful girls… Who we are, our very species, couldn’t tinue if we give in to that kind of temptation. It’s wrong and clearly part of some kind of ploy by the adversary of my God, because of his jealousy and desire to hurt my God. I’d always wondered, but that’s one of the things I’m learning about now… so no matter what temptations may worm their way io body chemistry, yes and mind, I know my spirit is true.”

  Sarah stopped and pced her hand on Aurora’s, her expression shiftiweeermination and a quiet plea for uanding. “You know, you might learn a lot about our rad our culture if you stay long enough. And with your appearance, you’d be an inspiration… maybe if you expin that you’re unfamiliar with our culture, they’d let you join at the camp for a week… it might help you.”

  Aurora smiled sorrowfully. That hurt a bit. Her friend roselytizing to her.

  She merely nodded in reply. “Perhaps. Tell me this though, doesn’t yod say to be fruitful and multiply? That’s a wonderful blessing for a new world with few people in it, and procreation be joyful. But, aren’t those words being more and more of a curse these days? Households that ’t care for children. Negligence, abando of children, tough times for mothers who have to support their child alone, even men in cases where the mother was the first to run. It’s only natural to give birth and want to have children, true, a not everyone has to want that for themselves. It’s our own individual choices that decide. I’m sure God would agree with revents regrets, pain, suffering.”

  Sarah nodded along slowly as Aurora spoke, but when Aurora had finished, Sarah shook her head. “At least here in the Uates lenty of room a we love to hoard nd and decre it property. This false love stems from the same thing - greed.” She sighed angrily. “So many greedy people want to ignore everything but their own self-gratification. I mean, even someone like me, who tries to be nid helpful… well, I’m greedy deep down in my body. I want something that isn’t mihat shouldn’t be… most of humanity is that way… we’re just… greedy,“ her tone became emotional.

  “I don’t bme you if you don’t uand,” she tinued, “it’s hard for any of us mortals to uand the plexity of His pn, but it doesn’t include selfish greed. That’s the work of something else that has wormed its way into our thoughts and culture, to make the uable onpce...” She wiped her eyes, having talked herself into a teary state.

  Aurora tio peck at her meal quietly. There really wasn’t anything else to say to that. A retionship between them robably doomed. She clearly felt regret, but it was Sarah’s own choice, their choices.

  Aurora wondered if every time she took Sarah to a meal things would end up so utterly and dht unfortable. There were some other topics that came to mind after a moment, but most of them would just be hurtful. She chose the least abrasive words in mind to utter, “I’m sorry that you were put in this situation, Sarah. I don’t want you to feel any more unhappy than you already are. We’ll finish our meal a you back soon. I hope you don’t hate Leona for this.”

  Sarah nodded and shook her head. “It hasn’t been unpleasant. I know it’s fusing… really fusing for me… but please tell her I’m looking forward to seeing her and her family when my time here is do should only be another five weeks, I think.”

  Aurora smiled. Friendship, at least, ossible. She was frustrated, but it would be selfish to…

  Out of the er of her vision, she saw the door to the restrooms behind Sarah.

  She was there. Bgel stht there.

  Wearing the same clothes as her, but her wings and hair were pitch bck.

  With a wiggle of her fio be her, Aurora could only gulp.