{{ warning: heavy spoilers for episode 58 onwards }}
The road to Rockdeep was long, their day of travels was growing old, and there was so much Randy could do in the confines of their cart before he got bored.
Well, Randy was more than bored - he was also restless, and even lonely. Not that his bandmates weren't excellent company, but they were deep in their own heads. Even if he tried to tease them, to get their attention, they would leave him to laugh at them instead of with them.
"This is no fun," he muttered to himself, sinking down into one of the seats. This didn't even earn him a glance. What else did he expect? Raz was supposed to be watching the road, but he had wholeheartedly thrown himself into the task of finding a distraction from his spiraling thoughts of what awaited him in Rockdeep, and Yashee... well. Randy wasn't precisely a great reader, but staring off into space didn't seem like an efficient way for Yashee to commit words to memory. Her mind was clearly elsewhere since her last Ira Glass call with Tabitha.
All things considered, it was Randy’s turn to be the one of the three in better shape and if nothing else worked, perhaps words would.
"Yashee," he said, startling her, "you're holding the book upside down."
"Wait, really?" Yashee stared at her book for a second too long before narrowing her eyes. "No I'm not. That was mean."
"It's not like I can tell." Randy chuckled, but his point still stood, though. "Were you even reading?"
Silence sunk in for a second, and after what seemed like an eternity, Yashee let out a sigh.
"Maybe not."
This caught Raz's attention. He looked up from his book at Yashee, then met Randy's gaze, then looked at her again. Randy huffed. If not watching the road, Raz was supposed to be reading aloud to Randy. He'd been reading to himself instead. There was a joke to be made about the youngest prince of the Udalloli Clan not taking responsibility, but Randy quickly decided that this wasn't the right time.
"Listen, Yashee, we know this is hard..." Raz started, clearly not quite knowing how to go on, or what was going on, so Randy stepped in.
"Want to talk about it?" he asked.
"Well, I'm just really worried, guys."
"That's understandable," Raz assured her.
"Totally understandable," Randy backed him up. "You'll see her again."
"Do you really think I'll see Sandy again?"
"Sandy?"
"My Sandatee?"
"I know who Sandy is, but, I mean... Sandy?"
"Yeah! Who else?"
"We did just say goodbye to Tabitha..." Raz said. "Weren't you just on the Ira Glass with her?"
"Yes, and we talked about the time Sandy—wait, did you think I was worried about Tabitha? She's a strong girl. She can manage." The tinge of pride in Yashee's voice was impossible to miss, but her expression fell almost immediately. "I do miss her, though..."
Raz and Randy exchanged another glance. Great. Now Yashee was sad about two things instead of just the one.
"Well, think about it this way," Randy started hurriedly, his tone a bit too jovial even to his own ears. "In this timeline Sandy hasn't even met you, so... she doesn't miss you, I guess?"
"Randy!" Raz scolded him, his expression immediately morphing into a more pleasant smile, one that didn't quite reach his frantic eyes, when turned to face an appalled Yashee. "Look, Yashee, Sandy has her Sandatee friends. I mean. She's happy. She's gonna be fine."
"I guess..." Yashee sighed, unconvinced. "It's just... it's just weird. guys. It's like there's this whole different reality that no one else has lived. There's a Sandy in this timeline, but she's not my Sandy and she might never be. It's like... like when you wake up from a bad dream, only it was a good one, you know what I mean?"
This time, they did know what she meant. It wasn't about Tabitha, or Sandy. It was bigger than that. They had been thrown back without warning or mercy and they were scrambling to catch up. But ever since Strumlotts brought them together, there was no nightmare that couldn't be transformed into a daydream. They would do it again.
"It's not just you, Yashee," Randy said as gently as he could manage. Which wasn't much, really, but it had to count for something. "It's us, and Tabitha... and Splash is with us too..."
"And Gareth is a friend now!" Raz chimed in.
"No, he's not."
"Okay, Randy, he's not. But as Yashee said, it was a good dream, wasn't it?"
"It was no dream." Randy paused, taking in the expressions of his friends. Both of them seemed to be listening intently, eager to forget their worries. "It's all real. And we're getting through this, whatever it takes."
Whether Yashee would find Sandy again or not, Randy didn't know. But it didn't seem to matter as she looked at both him and Raz, a tentative smile crossing her face.
"Thanks, guys."
By: K
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