The Intuitives(105)
“Oh yeah?” Rush said. “Thanks, buddy, that’s—”
As he spoke, he looked down at the page, and suddenly his words fell away. It was a drawing of the Intuitives, all six of them: Rush, in the middle of the page, standing in the back row as though they had been posing for a group photograph, wearing a suit of anime armor worthy of any MMORPG on the market; Grid, on his left, with a huge golden bear towering over her head; Tick-Tock, on his right, a classic smirk on her face, as what looked like a stylized array of electrons whirled around her; Daniel and Kaitlyn, each on one knee in front of the others, he with a rainbow aura of light cascading around him, and she with a spray of tiny bubbles that traced glimmering tracks on her skin before flying up into the air; and Sketch, sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of Rush, looking exactly like himself, smiling broadly.
Ammu was there, too, standing to Grid’s left and slightly behind her, with the seal of Alexander the Great glowing bravely over his heart. And Christina stood on the other side, slightly behind Tick-Tock, wearing her signature business suit, paired incongruously with a pair of tall, golden boots and a matching superhero’s cape. Finally, rounding out the portrait, Sketch had included the gryphon cub, sitting on the floor to Sketch’s left, puffing its chest out proudly and wearing its battle armor, which perfectly matched Rush’s own.
Rush’s eyes pored over every inch of the image, taking them all in—the best friends he had ever had, captured forever as they were today, right now, in this perfect summer—and he had to clear his throat before he could finish his sentence.
“That’s really special, Sketch,” he said finally. “Thanks. I mean it. Thank you.”
Sketch grinned up at him, clearly pleased that he liked it.
“Take care of this for me, Ammu, OK?” Rush asked. “While we’re down on the gaming floor?”
“Always,” Ammu replied, his smile conveying a deeper meaning behind his pledge, and he took the pad carefully as Rush handed it to him for safe-keeping.
Turning to go, Rush looked around to make sure he had everything he needed. Sketch was with him, he had his backpack, and Miller looked ready to go…
“Hey!” Rush called out. “Where are you? We’re going to be late!”
At the sound of his call, the head of the gryphon cub appeared over the back of the couch, flopping over the edge to stare at him upside-down, the cub having spent the entire morning sleeping on the sofa next to Sketch.
“Let’s go, you lazy cat-bird. But you’re flying this time. I’m tired of taking the blame when people trip over your invisible butt.”
With a mild chirp of protest, the gryphon flew up into the air and hovered obediently above and just behind Rush’s head.
“Do you think you could teach me to see him someday?” Miller asked, looking up into the empty air that Rush appeared to be petting affectionately.
“Sure!” Sketch promised, and with that, the three humans and the invisible gryphon headed out of the suite together.
“That is why we are here, Staff Sergeant Miller,” Ammu said quietly, after they had shut the door behind them. “That is why we are here.”