Stellar -- Planet Earth, Part Two (Chapter 12)
If you are reading Stellar for the first time, here are the previous chapters:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11
Jasmine and Saito walked down the street in silence, both of them taking a moment to observe their surroundings. Jasmine tried to place just where, exactly, she was, landmarks starting to become more than just eerily familiar. Saito seemed to follow her judgment, turning when she turned, not once questioning the direction she was moving in.
“There aren’t many people here, are there?” Saito asked, frowning a bit to himself. He had his hands in his pockets and a closed-off expression on his face.
“Not really -- it’s not that big of a city,” Jasmine said, offering a bit of an explanation. Even so, she thought to herself, there seemed to be far less people on the streets than normal. As she made her way down a smaller street, her breath caught in her throat.
She was only a few miles from her home. Would the house even exist on this plane? Would Ashley? Her stomach twisted at the thought. Still, her feet kept moving in that direction, curiosity getting the better of her.
“You sure you don’t know this city?” Saito asked, snapping her out of her thoughts. He turned to her, his slight frown deepening. “You seem like you know where you’re going.”
“I --” Jasmine faltered, frowning a bit herself as she stopped in her tracks. “It looks a lot like the city I was living in, before I died.” The admission was quiet, as though she couldn’t quite believe it, herself. Except as they neared a particular corner with the diner she and her ex-husband used to frequent, she knew she had spoken the truth.
Saito seemed to notice the diner, as well, and pulled out his wallet. He let out a quiet snort. “Just as I thought,” he murmured to himself. He glanced between her and the diner, seeming to notice how her attention focused on the building a few feet in front of them. “Hungry? We can stop in and get something to eat -- it’s not like we don’t have plenty of time.”
Jasmine glanced at her watch. 166:43 blinked back at her. Her stomach grumbled, reminding her she hadn’t eaten anything on the train ride here. She hadn’t eaten anything on Venus, either, now that she thought about it. Not like she had the money to, anyway. She had no physical cash on her, not even when she died -- she had deposited the several hundred she had received for her wedding band as soon as it was in her hands.
“Let’s just keep moving,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t think we should be wasting our money on food when we’re dead and don’t need to eat.”
“You can still feel hungry, though, can’t you?” Saito asked, raising an eyebrow. He slipped his wallet back in his pocket and began heading towards the diner, anyway. “Look, maybe there’s someone in there we can help -- the sooner we find someone to help, the better, right?”
She frowned to herself. He had a point. Still, as her heels clicked against the concrete, her stomach flipped once more. What if her ex was there? What if someone she knew was there? Would they recognize her? Would they even see her? Obviously the world they walked on was a perfect replica of the one she had lived in, but -- had it been that way for anyone else, so far?
She then remembered Saito’s comment from earlier, how Peter had seemingly known the city they had stumbled into on Venus. Had he seen someone he knew when he had been alive on Earth? Was that why he didn’t make it back to the train? And what happened to people who didn’t make it back? Did they just go straight to Judgment, or did they just automatically get sent to Hell?
Shaking her head, Jasmine cleared her mind of these thoughts briefly as she followed Saito inside. He politely informed the hostess that there were two of them in their party. She watched as he stood up straight, his height now suddenly more apparent than it had ever been on the train. He was a good looking man, now that she thought about it. At least, he was when he wasn’t giving everyone attitude.
The two of them walked in silence behind the hostess and sat down at their small table designed for two. Jasmine tried to keep her eyes in front of her, but she found herself glancing around the place for a moment, anyway, looking for signs of anyone she recognized. The place was sparsely filled, people in booths here and there and many of them engaged in their own little worlds.
“Doesn’t look like there’s anyone we can really help, does it?” Saito asked, sounding vaguely disappointed. He sighed, leaning back in his seat some as his fingers played with the button on his suit jacket.
“Maybe we can pay for someone’s meal?” Jasmine asked, raising an eyebrow. “I mean, no one said that the good deeds we did had to be big gestures of kindness.”
“This is a good point, but...” Saito pursed his lips together for a moment, his hand wrapping around the glass of water the waitress had placed in front of him. The two of them politely gave their drink orders -- coffee for Saito, iced tea for Jasmine -- before he turned back and resumed their conversation. “The two rings I got? I got without knowing I was even doing something considered to be a good deed. They just...showed up on my fingers.”
Jasmine blinked before glancing at her own rings. “I guess you’ve got a point -- we can’t knowingly do a good deed.” Which made things that much harder, she realized, “Guess that’s why they call it a challenge. You have to be on your best behavior at all times.”
“Yep,” Saito said with a sigh. He ran his fingers through his hair, brushing his fringe out of his eyes. He glanced around the diner again before picking up his menu. “What do you want to eat? I’ll pay for it, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
Jasmine frowned. “I can pay for myself, Saito,” she said, reaching into her own pockets. “I have my card.”
“Cards don’t work for us,” Saito stated simply. “Already tried mine, back on Venus.”
“Then how do you expect to --”
“I have cash.”
Jasmine nodded, slowly removing her hands from her pockets and folding them on top of the table. She felt uneasy, accepting Saito’s offer to pay for her. Except it wasn’t like she had much of a choice in the matter, either. When the waitress returned, they both gave their orders and handed the waitress their menus. Once the waitress was clear of their table, Saito leaned forward. “You’ve been here before, haven’t you?” he asked, his voice a conspiratorial whisper.
Jasmine raised an eyebrow. “What gave you that idea?”
“You didn’t even look at the menu -- you just ordered something off the top of your head,” Saito said, still leaning forward. “And it wasn’t something simple like pancakes and eggs, either -- you ordered something that diners don’t even have where I’m from.”
“Like what?” Jasmine asked, raising an eyebrow. She brought her own glass of water to her lips as Saito gave her a weary look in response.
“The scrapple. Which -- what the hell is that, by the way? I’ve never even heard of it before,” he said, folding his arms on top of the table. He scratched the back of his neck before wrapping his hand around his glass yet again.
“It’s exactly what it sounds like,” Jasmine answered with a slight shrug of her shoulders. She glanced around the mostly empty diner once again, seeing if anyone appeared to be in need. She knew Saito was right, that they couldn’t necessarily seek out someone to help, but -- maybe helping one person intentionally could lead to them helping another without realizing it.
Her eyes widened as she noticed a man walking towards her booth. Without a word, Jasmine turned her head back around and focused her attention on Saito. He still had a confused expression on his face, and an apparent question forming on his lips before he pressed them tightly closed. “Can we help you?” he snapped.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, you can,” a deep voice said to Jasmine’s right. She didn’t need to glance behind her in order to know who was speaking. She’d recognize that voice anywhere, and her whole body tensed as the man continued to speak. “I’d like to know what you’re doing with my wife.”
Saito choked on his drink, managing to keep himself from spraying Jasmine with water. Jasmine blinked, nearly giving herself whiplash as she turned towards her “husband.” “How dare you?” she snapped, trying to keep her voice low in the already quiet diner. “I haven’t heard from you in weeks, and --”
Michael furrowed his brow, his forehead wrinkling as he regarded Jasmine oddly. “We saw each other not even two hours ago, Jasmine, what are you going on about?” he asked, anger filtering through his tone. “May I sit?” He gestured to the booth beside Jasmine, and it was all she could do but to scoot over in response.
“No, you left me,” Jasmine hissed back at him once everything seemed to come back to her all at once. She saw Saito blink in surprise as he sat back in his own seat, his mouth clamped tightly shut as the scene continued to unfold in front of him. “You left me and your daughter to fend for ourselves and --”
Michael’s expression continued to grow more and more confused with each word passing her lips. How the hell was this even possible? Didn’t Michael know she was dead? Was he also dead? And why was he acting like he hadn’t just up and left her and Ashley without so much as a word one day? Didn’t he remember doing that?
Jasmine shook her head and looked away from Michael for a moment, running her fingers over her tightly pulled back hair. She glanced at Saito, giving him a pleading look. “My name’s Saito,” he said, as if reading her mind. “I’m a friend of Jasmine’s, nothing more. I promise I wasn’t trying to make a move on your wife. She’s not exactly my type, anyway.”
Michael raised an eyebrow at that, the anger receding somewhat from his features. He turned to Jasmine. “You never told me about a guy named Saito,” he said, an accusatory edge to his voice. “How close are the two of you?”
“Not very,” Jasmine answered, clearing her throat. She picked up her glass of water. “He’s -- a potential business partner for the store,” she continued, trying to think quickly on her feet. “He wants to help me keep the store open, and is willing to look over my plans in order to help me potentially expand the business and draw in a larger customer base.”
“So the two of you just...came to this specific diner in order to discuss business?” Michael asked incredulously. “Wouldn’t you rather meet somewhere a little more -- professional?
“You know me, Michael,” Jasmine said, offering her husband the most sincere smile she could muster as the anger and resentment threatened to break free from her. “I always preferred a more personal touch.”
Michael nodded, pursing his lips together for a moment. He then reached out for Jasmine’s glass of water and sipped from it himself. “So this was all just a misunderstanding, then,” he muttered, his shoulders relaxing somewhat as he glanced at Jasmine. “Right?”
“Right,” Jasmine said with a nod. She frowned a bit to herself as Michael took another sip of her water. Something about the way he held the glass, the way he brought it to his lips -- it seemed all wrong. Everything seemed all wrong, now that she thought about it.
She just couldn’t place why.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11
Jasmine and Saito walked down the street in silence, both of them taking a moment to observe their surroundings. Jasmine tried to place just where, exactly, she was, landmarks starting to become more than just eerily familiar. Saito seemed to follow her judgment, turning when she turned, not once questioning the direction she was moving in.
“There aren’t many people here, are there?” Saito asked, frowning a bit to himself. He had his hands in his pockets and a closed-off expression on his face.
“Not really -- it’s not that big of a city,” Jasmine said, offering a bit of an explanation. Even so, she thought to herself, there seemed to be far less people on the streets than normal. As she made her way down a smaller street, her breath caught in her throat.
She was only a few miles from her home. Would the house even exist on this plane? Would Ashley? Her stomach twisted at the thought. Still, her feet kept moving in that direction, curiosity getting the better of her.
“You sure you don’t know this city?” Saito asked, snapping her out of her thoughts. He turned to her, his slight frown deepening. “You seem like you know where you’re going.”
“I --” Jasmine faltered, frowning a bit herself as she stopped in her tracks. “It looks a lot like the city I was living in, before I died.” The admission was quiet, as though she couldn’t quite believe it, herself. Except as they neared a particular corner with the diner she and her ex-husband used to frequent, she knew she had spoken the truth.
Saito seemed to notice the diner, as well, and pulled out his wallet. He let out a quiet snort. “Just as I thought,” he murmured to himself. He glanced between her and the diner, seeming to notice how her attention focused on the building a few feet in front of them. “Hungry? We can stop in and get something to eat -- it’s not like we don’t have plenty of time.”
Jasmine glanced at her watch. 166:43 blinked back at her. Her stomach grumbled, reminding her she hadn’t eaten anything on the train ride here. She hadn’t eaten anything on Venus, either, now that she thought about it. Not like she had the money to, anyway. She had no physical cash on her, not even when she died -- she had deposited the several hundred she had received for her wedding band as soon as it was in her hands.
“Let’s just keep moving,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t think we should be wasting our money on food when we’re dead and don’t need to eat.”
“You can still feel hungry, though, can’t you?” Saito asked, raising an eyebrow. He slipped his wallet back in his pocket and began heading towards the diner, anyway. “Look, maybe there’s someone in there we can help -- the sooner we find someone to help, the better, right?”
She frowned to herself. He had a point. Still, as her heels clicked against the concrete, her stomach flipped once more. What if her ex was there? What if someone she knew was there? Would they recognize her? Would they even see her? Obviously the world they walked on was a perfect replica of the one she had lived in, but -- had it been that way for anyone else, so far?
She then remembered Saito’s comment from earlier, how Peter had seemingly known the city they had stumbled into on Venus. Had he seen someone he knew when he had been alive on Earth? Was that why he didn’t make it back to the train? And what happened to people who didn’t make it back? Did they just go straight to Judgment, or did they just automatically get sent to Hell?
Shaking her head, Jasmine cleared her mind of these thoughts briefly as she followed Saito inside. He politely informed the hostess that there were two of them in their party. She watched as he stood up straight, his height now suddenly more apparent than it had ever been on the train. He was a good looking man, now that she thought about it. At least, he was when he wasn’t giving everyone attitude.
The two of them walked in silence behind the hostess and sat down at their small table designed for two. Jasmine tried to keep her eyes in front of her, but she found herself glancing around the place for a moment, anyway, looking for signs of anyone she recognized. The place was sparsely filled, people in booths here and there and many of them engaged in their own little worlds.
“Doesn’t look like there’s anyone we can really help, does it?” Saito asked, sounding vaguely disappointed. He sighed, leaning back in his seat some as his fingers played with the button on his suit jacket.
“Maybe we can pay for someone’s meal?” Jasmine asked, raising an eyebrow. “I mean, no one said that the good deeds we did had to be big gestures of kindness.”
“This is a good point, but...” Saito pursed his lips together for a moment, his hand wrapping around the glass of water the waitress had placed in front of him. The two of them politely gave their drink orders -- coffee for Saito, iced tea for Jasmine -- before he turned back and resumed their conversation. “The two rings I got? I got without knowing I was even doing something considered to be a good deed. They just...showed up on my fingers.”
Jasmine blinked before glancing at her own rings. “I guess you’ve got a point -- we can’t knowingly do a good deed.” Which made things that much harder, she realized, “Guess that’s why they call it a challenge. You have to be on your best behavior at all times.”
“Yep,” Saito said with a sigh. He ran his fingers through his hair, brushing his fringe out of his eyes. He glanced around the diner again before picking up his menu. “What do you want to eat? I’ll pay for it, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
Jasmine frowned. “I can pay for myself, Saito,” she said, reaching into her own pockets. “I have my card.”
“Cards don’t work for us,” Saito stated simply. “Already tried mine, back on Venus.”
“Then how do you expect to --”
“I have cash.”
Jasmine nodded, slowly removing her hands from her pockets and folding them on top of the table. She felt uneasy, accepting Saito’s offer to pay for her. Except it wasn’t like she had much of a choice in the matter, either. When the waitress returned, they both gave their orders and handed the waitress their menus. Once the waitress was clear of their table, Saito leaned forward. “You’ve been here before, haven’t you?” he asked, his voice a conspiratorial whisper.
Jasmine raised an eyebrow. “What gave you that idea?”
“You didn’t even look at the menu -- you just ordered something off the top of your head,” Saito said, still leaning forward. “And it wasn’t something simple like pancakes and eggs, either -- you ordered something that diners don’t even have where I’m from.”
“Like what?” Jasmine asked, raising an eyebrow. She brought her own glass of water to her lips as Saito gave her a weary look in response.
“The scrapple. Which -- what the hell is that, by the way? I’ve never even heard of it before,” he said, folding his arms on top of the table. He scratched the back of his neck before wrapping his hand around his glass yet again.
“It’s exactly what it sounds like,” Jasmine answered with a slight shrug of her shoulders. She glanced around the mostly empty diner once again, seeing if anyone appeared to be in need. She knew Saito was right, that they couldn’t necessarily seek out someone to help, but -- maybe helping one person intentionally could lead to them helping another without realizing it.
Her eyes widened as she noticed a man walking towards her booth. Without a word, Jasmine turned her head back around and focused her attention on Saito. He still had a confused expression on his face, and an apparent question forming on his lips before he pressed them tightly closed. “Can we help you?” he snapped.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, you can,” a deep voice said to Jasmine’s right. She didn’t need to glance behind her in order to know who was speaking. She’d recognize that voice anywhere, and her whole body tensed as the man continued to speak. “I’d like to know what you’re doing with my wife.”
Saito choked on his drink, managing to keep himself from spraying Jasmine with water. Jasmine blinked, nearly giving herself whiplash as she turned towards her “husband.” “How dare you?” she snapped, trying to keep her voice low in the already quiet diner. “I haven’t heard from you in weeks, and --”
Michael furrowed his brow, his forehead wrinkling as he regarded Jasmine oddly. “We saw each other not even two hours ago, Jasmine, what are you going on about?” he asked, anger filtering through his tone. “May I sit?” He gestured to the booth beside Jasmine, and it was all she could do but to scoot over in response.
“No, you left me,” Jasmine hissed back at him once everything seemed to come back to her all at once. She saw Saito blink in surprise as he sat back in his own seat, his mouth clamped tightly shut as the scene continued to unfold in front of him. “You left me and your daughter to fend for ourselves and --”
Michael’s expression continued to grow more and more confused with each word passing her lips. How the hell was this even possible? Didn’t Michael know she was dead? Was he also dead? And why was he acting like he hadn’t just up and left her and Ashley without so much as a word one day? Didn’t he remember doing that?
Jasmine shook her head and looked away from Michael for a moment, running her fingers over her tightly pulled back hair. She glanced at Saito, giving him a pleading look. “My name’s Saito,” he said, as if reading her mind. “I’m a friend of Jasmine’s, nothing more. I promise I wasn’t trying to make a move on your wife. She’s not exactly my type, anyway.”
Michael raised an eyebrow at that, the anger receding somewhat from his features. He turned to Jasmine. “You never told me about a guy named Saito,” he said, an accusatory edge to his voice. “How close are the two of you?”
“Not very,” Jasmine answered, clearing her throat. She picked up her glass of water. “He’s -- a potential business partner for the store,” she continued, trying to think quickly on her feet. “He wants to help me keep the store open, and is willing to look over my plans in order to help me potentially expand the business and draw in a larger customer base.”
“So the two of you just...came to this specific diner in order to discuss business?” Michael asked incredulously. “Wouldn’t you rather meet somewhere a little more -- professional?
“You know me, Michael,” Jasmine said, offering her husband the most sincere smile she could muster as the anger and resentment threatened to break free from her. “I always preferred a more personal touch.”
Michael nodded, pursing his lips together for a moment. He then reached out for Jasmine’s glass of water and sipped from it himself. “So this was all just a misunderstanding, then,” he muttered, his shoulders relaxing somewhat as he glanced at Jasmine. “Right?”
“Right,” Jasmine said with a nod. She frowned a bit to herself as Michael took another sip of her water. Something about the way he held the glass, the way he brought it to his lips -- it seemed all wrong. Everything seemed all wrong, now that she thought about it.
She just couldn’t place why.