Sunny

"'Utilitarianism.' Can anyone tell me what that means?" Mrs. Regina's voice is distant, background music to the hazy dream he has slipped into. "Sunny? Sunny?"

The sound of his name forces his eyes open and startles Sunny awake. He feels the assignment they were working on stuck to his sleep-warm cheek and peels it off. Around him, the other students snicker and chortle.

"What was the question, Regina?" Sunny asked, still managing a smirk at his teacher despite the drowsiness clinging to him.

"It's Mrs. Regina, Sunny, for the thousandth time. As I asked before, what is the definition of utilitarianism?"

His smirk falls away as confusion flits across Sunny's face.

He wracked his brain, knowing from the expectant silence swelling around him that he should know the answer.

'Utilitarianism...utilitarianism...was that in the reading last night?... oh well!'

Sunny's shoulders rise and fall in a nonchalant shrug and guesses, "Doing what's right for most people."

"Not exactly, Sunny. Right, in so far that it promotes happiness, but that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principle of conduct."

"Except they forget about everybody else," Sunny mumbles to himself before proceeding to put his head back down on his desk.

"What was that, Sunny?" Mrs. Regina demands. Sunny forgot how sharp her ears were from years of teaching.

Sunny jerks his head back up and yelps, "I didn't say anything!"

As he begins to lie his cheek back against the cool wood of his desk, Mrs. Regina throws a thin, pink eraser at him. It hits him dead in the center of his forehead before bouncing harmlessly to the floor. Sunny's head whips up to stare at her, startled.

"Don't you dare put your head back down." Mrs. Regina warns. She points at him with an authoritative finger.

Behind him, a student yells," He needs some milk!"

The bell shrills above them, signaling an end to the school day. As all the kids around him began packing up and filing out of the classroom, Sunny whips his head around and narrows his light brown eyes to identify the student who made the "milk" comment, but all his classmates were already forming an indistinct crowd as they bunched up at the door in their hurry to leave. "Don't forget, your 12-page papers on righteous deeds through villainous acts will be due on Monday!" Mrs. Regina shouts over the student's excited chatter about their weekend plans and the scraping of chairs being pushed away from desks.

With haste, Sunny places a small device in each ear. An electric blue spiral form from the devices, encompassing both his ears, before solidifying to create the speakers for his headphones. A pale electronic band connects the speakers over the top of Sunny's slick dreads. As Sunny walks out of the classroom, Mrs. Regina grabs his arm.

"You know, you could be one of our brightest students if you actually tried once in a while," she told him seriously. She stared at his face, unbothered by the crush of people moving around them as they disrupted the stream of traffic.

Sunny tilts his head at her, fidgeting with his headphones until they sit better on his head, and shrugs his shoulders. He doesn't meet her eyes, instead looking down at his white sneakers. "How's your mother doing?" She asks. Her tone softened to concern, but the question still drives a spike of pain through him.

Sadness washes over Sunny like a wave, the noise around him dimming as it threatened to swell and drown him. His fists curl until he feels his nails bite into his palm. His want to leave is amplified, the thrashing emotion in his chest demanding fight or flight and favoring escape. "She's okay." He says bluntly.

Mrs. Regina's hand is cool through his clothes when she lays it on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. "Look, I know this is tough for you. I know how low the survival rates are." Sunny scoffs, shrugs her hand off his shoulder in disgust and looks past Mrs. Regina at the thinning sea of students streaming down the hallway. Rather than acknowledge her words further, his eyes go to his wristband, and he flicks through his music to choose a song. Her words dig into him like knives, and he tries to let the melodies force them from his mind.

Mrs. Regina sees that Sunny is no longer paying attention to her. The sigh she heaves makes him finally look at her, the sound uncharacteristic of his normally serious teacher.

"Just...know that if you want to talk, I'm here. I know you'll graduate soon, but please keep in touch. Once you cross that stage, you'll be going on a journey that will lead you to how to become the man you want to be... To the man that you know your mother will be proud of." Sunny frowns but nods at her. He turns on his heel and increases the volume on his headphones.

"Doves soar far above, never earthbound like you, stuck up on the ground, you wanna be like them."

The melody and beats of the song he had chosen resonated through his body as he makes his way through the emptying halls and out of the school. What Mrs. Regina said rings in his ears still, louder than any music.

As he bounces to the bottom step of the school building, he hits a button on the side of his wristband, and a glowing board appears, hovering a few inches off the ground.

He jumps onto it with easy familiarity, his shoes changing to the same blue hue as the board. The board reacts to his body just as intuitively as his body reacts to the board, a learned familiarity. He glides away on it, sailing like he's riding a curling wave in the ocean. His headset vibrates twice, and his wristband flashes red with an incoming message.

Today marks 250 years since a mysterious disease, Impetuous, plagued planet Earth. But scientists working on a cure think they are onto a breakthrough. Scientists believe that this breakthrough will further not only healthcare but also advance our understanding of the plague itself. The words glare up at him from his wristband in the bland font of the news feature. Reading this made Sunny slip off his board and roll onto the ground. His ankle smarted with pain from the fall.

A green health notification pops up on his wristband, alerting him that his ankle is slightly sprained and that his blood pressure was elevated. Sunny ignores it and chooses to skim the article quickly. He pulls it up so that it is displayed on the 3D holographic screen that emerges to hover over his wristband. He feels his eyes go wide with amazement and his chest

swells with hope. Neither are feelings he has felt for an awfully long time. The rest of the trip home passes in a blur as the news buzzes in his brain, buoyant with the possibilities it brings... Arriving at his house, he opens the door and walks over the threshold. Immediately he felt a presence. The hair on the back of his neck rose. He looks around the dark living room and doesn't spot anyone. He turns to head for the stairs and finds his father at the base of the stairs, with his arms crossed. Sunny jumps slightly. His father's bald head gleams beneath the single lightbulb illuminating the stairs behind him.

His father was tall and brawny with dark skin. He wore dark-rimmed glasses over his hazel eyes, which were intensely glaring at Sunny with disdain. "H-hey, dad." Sunny stuttered nervously.

His father's eyes narrowed at him. He leaned forward slightly, just enough that Sunny tried to take a step back from his father. The tension in the air around them thickens, and adrenaline floods Sunny. His skin felt pulled tight, muscles bunched for a fight even as he was uncomfortably aware of the sweat beading on his skin and the far-off noises filtering into them from the world outside. Sunny knew this wouldn't end well; it never did with his father. "What did I tell you, Samuel? Call me Mr. Jian."

"B-but we aren't in class!" Sunny objected.

"True, but I'm about to take you to school, boy!" Mr. Jian suddenly summersaults toward Sunny. How is this guy my father? He can't help but think, even as he moves out of the way and falls into a true fighting stance.

His dad throws a spinning back kick at him, but before getting hit, Sunny backflips off the stairs onto his feet and throws a strong left jab across his father's face, knocking his glasses off his face.

His dad slips but doesn't back down, throwing three hard punches that Sunny barely dodged.

"I heard you fell asleep in Mrs. Regina's class today." Mr. Jian said as he threw a hard kick.

Sunny sees this move and lifts his leg to counter the kick.

As Sunny brought his leg down and put weight on his injured ankle, his father grinned. Worry whipped at him like an icy wind.

"You look like you're dragging your feet today. Let's see if you've been practicing your capoeira." His dad suddenly threw a fury of flipping kicks.

Sunny is able to hold off the attack but is forced to land on his bad ankle, which he feels buckle beneath the force of the move.

In a flash, Sunny is on his back facing the ceiling; the breath knocked from him. The giggle builds in his throat the longer he lays there until it finally spills free as all he can think is great, this is my life. He looks up at his father in a ridiculous victory pose which only makes him laugh harder. His father joins in with his own booming laughter after a moment, the sound echoing up the stairs and back down to them.

Once they had mostly collected themselves from their outburst of laughter, Mr. Jian reached his hand out to help Sunny up.

"What did mom ever see in you?" Sunny hadn't made a conscious decision to ask the question he asked himself every day, but it had come out unbidden. Now that it had been said, though, it was out there, and he looked at his father for the answer.

"Picking him up saying like the old hymns, I found sunshine on a cloudy day," his father sang, blithely ignoring the puzzled look it put on his son's face.

That did not answer my question at all, Sunny thought. He looks over at a picture of his mother they had hanging on the wall, his favorite of her. His mother's face floods his mind, and his heart aches.

"You mind if we go see her today?" He inquires.

His father's merry singing stops, and sorrow bleeds into his expression, wiping away the laughter like a wet rag across a dusty surface.

"I don't know; she's not in the best health right now, y'know."

Sunny's expression darkens, and he turns without responding to go to his room. His father follows him, knowing he's upset and tries to reason with him.

" Alright, "his dad finally agrees when Sunny refuses to acknowledge anything else he said," but

don't get too close or touch her. We don't know what disease she developed or how to cure it."

Sunny turns back to him, a grin stretching across his face. His father has the distinct feeling his

son had played him.

"Let's go."

The ride to the hospital has been quiet for a time when Sunny manages to muster up the courage to ask his father how he and his mother had met.

His father looks at him for a long time before sighing and begins recounting the tale for him.

"She was an archaeologist learning about Carus. She mostly focused on an old hymn, which

she played for hours at a time. I was searching for something when I heard the most beautiful

sound coming from a cave, so I went down and found her dancing by herself. I was gonna be

quick and leave without letting anyone know I was there but seeing her dancing made me stare

and forget everything else. Until we locked eyes, and then I don't think you could have dragged me away from her. A year later, we were married."

"You can't dance," Sunny laughs.

Mr. Jian looks at his son, gleefully thinking about how he hasn't seen him so happy and engaged in a while.

"Who can't dance? You may not know this about your old man, but this isn't my first time around the block, silly," he teased back.

Sunny cracks up, laughing hard enough he is wheezing for breath.

He rasps "What is wrong with you?" when he had the air to, which served to make them both laugh again.

Being in the hospital wipes away the Sunny who had been in the car, and his demeanor returns to his nonchalant self.

Walking while singing, "I'm not happy, I'm not feeling glad, no sunshine in my bag, feel useless but not for long, the future is coming on."

A little kid looks at Sunny, puzzled, and asks what he is playing.

Not noticing the kid or hearing his question, Sunny yells, "Finally, someone help me get out of my cage."

It is loud enough to be jarring, making the little kid cry. Sunny's father slaps Sunny on the back of his head and leans over to tell him to take his headphones off, scolding him as Sunny knows better. Sunny grumbles but complies as he follows his father to his mother's room.

Once inside, his father only spends a few moments at her bedside before turning away and excusing himself weakly, telling Sunny he would be back, that he needed to find a bathroom. Sunny doesn't say anything about the excuse, knowing his father didn't want to show Sunny his pain over his mother's condition.

In the hospital bed, his mother's face was flushed with blood. Despite this, her skin was cool and her face unmoving in an unconsciousness deeper than sleep ever is. Regardless, she was still beautiful. The nurses had warned that she would likely be asleep and that she didn't stay awake for long even when she did wake.

Sunny pulls up a chair next to his mother's side. Her hand is laid out toward him, a golden bracelet still coiled around her thin wrist. Sunny stares at her face, trying to memorize its familiar shapes before his vision blurs with tears. Burrowing his head into his face into the crisp linens on her bed, he sobs, reaching out to carefully grasp his mother's hand. Even after months in the hospital, the scent of her flowery perfume lingers, and it soothes Sunny into falling into a dreamless sleep.

A loud ringing permeates his dreamless sleep. Sunny tries to ignore it, comfortable and clinging to sleep, but the sound finally annoyed him enough to make him open his eyes. There was a wolfman standing in front of him, his mouth forming words that Sunny could not hear. All he could feel was the heat from the creature's breath against his face and neck.

Sunny realizes his headphone are back on and brings his hands up to slide them off so he can hear.

"Wu, are you going to lay there all cycle, or are you going to finish the mission?"

The mission. Sunny thought to himself.

"How close are we to the cockpit?"

"Not far, but it's well guarded. I sent Sibuna and Gerok ahead to deal with them. By our ancestors, we will put an end to this war."

"I don't know if we can beat them," Wu replies.

The wolf smirks at him. "Tooth and tetbas say they have a way to make sure we can try again if

we fail here." He giggles before telling him, "I have to stay behind to make sure you finish the

mission or I'll come back and kill you myself."

Wu struggles to get up.

"At least I won't have to smell your hot ass breath if we die."

The wolf glares at him and considers eating him whole. Wu makes his way to the hallway without saying anything else to him. The further he does down the hallway, the high-pitched noise comes back louder than before, he looks up and sees his father but slimmer and cast in gold, but through the sound, Sunny could hear someone calling out to him.

"Sunny, Sunny!"

A bright light flares around him, nearly bright enough to blind, but he swore he saw his mother smiling at him from the center of the glow. The smile that blooms on his face is joyous, and his heart lifts with elation.

Until he felt his shirt jerked back in a strong grip, snapping him awake. He blinks up at his father in disorientation as the man yells and shakes him. "What did you do?" His father demands.

Sunny's surroundings came back to him all at once, and he becomes aware of the long, unwavering tone playing without a break instead of the regular blipping of his mother's heart monitor. He looks at his mother and sees that she is pale and lifeless. Her hand in his is unmoving, locked in place like steel and cold against his warm skin.

It felt as though the gravity increased on him as what was happening catches up to him. He collapses back into his chair and tries to breathe around the terror choking him. Time stands still around him, like a bug preserved in amber.

One of the nurses tries to tell him something, but he cannot hear her past the ringing in his ears. His father guides him to his feet with a tight grip around his bicep, practically dragging Sunny from the room. Sunny fought back without any thought, desperate to remain with his mother. His father draws to a halt outside the hospital, and Sunny realizes that in the frenzy, he had given his father a black eye and busted his lip. He has never been able to harm his father in a fight before, and the thought makes Sunny giggle, hysterical. He tries to push aside his mother's bloodless face, to let it sweep away like sand in the wind with it clings to him until his laughter becomes heaving sobs.

His father pulls him closer into a tight hug. Sunny feels his father's tears land on the top of his head and can feel his hitching breaths and know that the older man is crying as well. Eventually, his father pushes him back, making him take a step back. His glare from before is back, intense. He handed Sunny a red card. Once in Sunny's hand, a 3D layout popped up showing him a bank account.

"Here is all your money for college; there's a lot we saved up over the years," he told Sunny. "Take the money and leave."

All Sunny can do is stare at his father in shock while his father looks furiously at his forehead. He watches as his father pulls his phone out and

swipes at its screen a few times before Sunny's phone chimes in his hand. A car symbol

showed on his screen when he glanced at it.

--

Speechless, all Sunny can do is look at his father with disbelief. He then swiped his phone, and Sunny's phone had a car symbol pop up. He looked at the card in his hand and then back to his father, his mind spinning.

Sunny tries to step back to his father, but the man pushes him away and refuses to look at him. If I knew where J.C. was, I would just go live with him, if only he weren't halfway around the world. Sunny turns to leave, but his eye caught on his reflection in the sleek glass windows that made up the hospital's front. Something golden had caught the sunlight and flashed when he turned away. He moves closer now, examining the glimmer on his forehead. It was a crown. Confused, Sunny tries to pull it off, and one good yank makes his stomach turn over as nausea grips him. His vomit hit the sidewalk with a wet nose, splattering at his feet.

'You probably shouldn't do that,' he heard, but he doesn't see anyone when he looks around. He walks to the car and climbs in. It starts for him, and he pulls away from their parking spot, unsure where he is going but needs to get away.

Mr. Jian watches as Sunny leaves before clicking to call for a ride on his wristwatch. Suddenly, he saw an athletic man approaching him

"Mr. Jian, I found you, sir. It's an honor to meet one of the originals. It seems like your little

schemes panned out for you."

Mr. Jian takes off his glasses.

"Selucreh," he greets tersely. "It seems it was just a matter of time."

"So, are you going to tell me where that surge of power went, or do I have to torture you for that info?"

Selucreh looks around lazily, taking in their surroundings with sharp eyes. Mr. Jian unbuttons the

top button of his shirt.

"Good luck trying."

The ground beneath them begins to shake. Each step toward Selucreh reverberates like an earthquake.

"Do me a favor and die quickly like those filthy animals," Selucreh taunts and turns to show

Mr. Jian the larger-than-average lion pelt he was wearing.

In an instant, Mr. Jian is furious.

Sunny is turning a corner when he sees a bright light flash in the rearview mirror.

That came from the same direction as the hospital, Sunny thinks.

"So, what's the plan?"

Sunny startles and looks to see a large plush monkey reclining in the passenger seat.

Great, so of all days I could go crazy, it's today, Sunny thinks. He and the monkey both stare at each other in surprise. Behind them, a car blares its horn and swerves around them.

"Can we go to the coast? I like watching the waves ripple; they are magnificent." That's not a bad idea, Sunny thinks with a grin. "What should I call you, monkey?"

"My name is Wu," the monkey says. He taps on the console of the car to activate the voice commands before he tells it, "play Adventure." Music swells through the speakers in response.

"Doves soar far above, never earthbound like you, stuck up on the ground, you wanna be like them."

At his side Wu begins to chitter and shriek in excitement, bringing his fists down on the dashboard before he throws his great head back and yells "Freedom!"

Realizing the meaning of the lyrics, Sunny cries and speeds into his next adventure.