//------------------------------// // Chapter 4, Swept Away // Story: The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 12 -- Sweep of Time // by shysage //------------------------------// I guess I am getting pretty good at realizing when something is bothering Shysage. He has been through so much... "Shysage, what is it..." I asked gently. He sighed first, then said slowly "I... It's sad that we won't be doing your amazing stories for a little while. I so enjoyed..." As Shysage's words trailed off, I hugged him, then gently reminded him "Well, we do have some other projects we need to do now too, and that software program... and since you work full time..." I didn't really need to say any more. Writing the Chronicles was, is amazing, but takes a lot of what little 'extra' time we have. We both hoped we could get back to it soon. Well, he smiled at me, and that was an accomplishment. "I love you so much Summer, I hope you know that." We hugged again. But it wasn't long before he was slowly looking around our room. I could guess what would come next. We live in an 80" cube, literally, in the living room of a very small house, and not just us. Most of this 80" was our bed. Definitely not optimum, and I knew this really bugs Shysage. I anticipated what he might say, and just said softly, from part of a story we recently wrote "I can still find you" then I smiled at him. I think we really need each other. And the, well, 'austerity' of our lives, this part of the Chronicles is not made up. We hugged a little while, then Shysage smiled at me again (another accomplishment), and said quietly "I wish we could move to Equestria, if only for a short time. Just us, in the middle of nowhere, together and alone and close..." We would both enjoy that, I'm sure. We are true friends to the people around us here; it's just that there are so many people... Even when we sleep, there are lots of people nearby. We are sort of downtown... It is seldom quiet... The wide-open expanse of Equestria would be heaven for us. Writing about it is easy enough, but... Well, we would love to live in a setting like that. We just can't. I guess we can barely afford this. But it is home. And we are together. I typed this last sentence in, and Shysage worked at not crying. Still, I could tell Shysage was drifting off into his thoughts again. He was vaguely frowning but I could feel it so I knew. He knew I knew, and didn't wait for me to ask. Yes, we are both Fluttershys. That part of the Chronicles is real too. Shysage sighed again. "Somepony else will probably find a way to make tons of money off your amazing Chronicles... We don't know anything about that, I'm just a worker bee... We couldn't even afford to do anything if we had to..." I knew the answer to this too. We were sitting on our bed, so it was easy to hug him again. We both knew he needed that; he was near tears. Maybe I needed it too. We hug a lot. Still, I gently reminded him... "Shysage, why did we start the Chronicles in the first place?" Shysage hugged me back, then said quietly, slowly "Summer, you are right. We started these stories for true friend, and he pretty much gave us most of them. I certainly couldn't come up with that stuff... It is all so amazing to me, and we still cry when we read them through. I guess the rest is up to him though" We talked to true friend together, right then. That part of the Chronicles is real too. True friend has a name, but... It was quiet for a few minutes. "At least that bully is gone..." Shysage volunteered that, then he sighed. We had written a lot of the Chronicles while a huge bully, living in the same house, kept his boot over my Shysage's throat as often as he could. The fact that we could write anything during that time was, is amazing. We most often dealt with that by leaving, spending a few hours (writing) at a local burger joint, when we could anyway. But yes, he was finally gone. We both hugged tightly and sighed again at the same time. That had been a difficult few years... I think we both fought back tears. We were in the living room, and weren't alone... in our 80" cube, but not alone... We are trying to get used to it. I looked at the alarm clock. "Shysage, we should get to sleep..." "Ugh, I hate getting up so early..." he said slowly. Neither of us like getting up early; 6 a.m. give or take. And with daylight savings time... "Shysage, at least we can run together." I smiled, but I knew he knew... We got up early so we could maybe have a bunch of daylight left, to run together, write, enjoy a walk at the beach, or whatever else we needed to do (chores more often than not). But this didn't make getting up any easier. We were still dressed, and Shysage carefully guided me down onto our pillow. He kneeled on the floor next to me as I lay there. His head was close; he looked deep into my eyes, and I returned his amazing gaze. We both said together, to each other, and at the same time... "I still have you..." We were at work one day. I go to work with Shysage every day, and enjoy every minute. I just sit next to him; I really don't do anything... Well Shysage said that sounded so wrong. He said just having me near him like that is huge. I think I value that as much as he does. That is how I spend most of my days, at work with him. We wrote recently about him being underfoot, I think was the word I used. And yes, that is never a problem. We are always together. It is just that, we just so desperately need each other... But here at work... It just seems that such an arrangement is rather rare here. I don't know... Shysage is, well, he does a lot of stuff, most things I just don't understand. Well, I understand that he is over-worked and under-paid. We are getting used to that too. It was early in the day though, and he was sitting at his work compy, working on an instruction manual, "the bane of writing", he calls it. I was sitting on the desk next to him, as close as I could get without getting in the way. Still, I could just tell... Shysage started to have a LOT of problems focusing on what he was doing, proofing that instruction manual. As many Chronicles as we have done together... He faded from work, and I just knew... Deep in thought, he was just sitting there... He was writing... Well, he was thinking through storyline stuff... probably really just listening, as he was being told... I think he almost started crying a few times too, and said more than once "Oh, my goodness..." So I guess it was amazing. He told me briefly though, and I did start crying. It was... And we both knew... This was a gift... another one... Shysage is not about himself, and we both know that these stories... Well, we are entrusted with them, anyway. I don't think I can explain any more than that. We write them, get them typed in, a chapter at a time, and lately only one chapter every two weeks. Each new chapter still absolutely amazes us, and ends up so intricately weaving with previous and future chapters, often in ways we only see as we write them... And we often fight tears while writing. And when we get a big stretch of storyline like this... It was quiet for a while, well over half an hour, as Shysage thought, listened, correlated... Then Shysage said quietly "We... can't... We just can't..." I sighed... I guessed we couldn't, wouldn't stop. I didn't mind that, it's just such a tough audience, but that's where these stories really belong... It seems like one chapter a week was all we could manage, if that... And we posted a chapter at a time; we simply don't have the time to write the whole thing, then go back, and carefully interconnect each chapter... And we have always felt, maybe, some ponies might need just a little more hope to keep going... And we hoped every chapter we did just might... But we both wondered if readers were... Well, you can't grade a story based on just one chapter, I don't know... Still, I guess we will keep going. It might be slow, but... For the handful that read, we hope these stories really are a gift from heaven... They are to us, anyway. True friend, thank you...