Hero’s curiosity was getting the better of him. Ever since the arrival of the new family three weeks or so ago of three brothers and daughter, Mayzie, his parents had been acting odd. They left most mornings to go and observe the human while leaving the borrowing to Atlas, Cali, and even Tiron. Meanwhile, Hero, much to his dismay, was usually on Winnie watch. His younger sister, Winnie, wasn’t old enough to be left on her own, but old enough to get into everything.

With everyone maintaining the house and keeping tabs on the weird acting human and new family, Hero’s personal duties were being put on the back burner. He hadn’t had a chance to go out and see Sam, Eliza, Maggie, or any of the others he had befriended. The most he was able to do recently was go and clean cobwebs from the corridors for other Borrowers.

There was a simple nobility in doing this for other Borrowers, but it didn’t stop Hero from missing his friends - especially his human friends.

What seemed unfair was that Hero was the one who wanted to find out more about the three newcomers, but it was Tiron who was getting to spend the most time with the one brother, Dorian.

Evidently, Tiron invited Dorian to their little music practice and, after a couple of meetings, Dorian opened up a little. He didn’t say much but, needless to say, Dorian didn’t feel like he was in danger around Ashlynn, the human. Hero suspected that Tiron was allowed to meet with Dorian because the new Borrower had a deep appreciation for the Borrower rules while Rey, his brother, was the one who they heard had a fascination for humans.

Maybe they thought they could get information about the family through Dorian, but it still didn’t seem fair.

It was one day when he was finally allowed out when he was on his way to clean cobwebs from some of the human cabinets from nearby apartments when he saw Rey, the new Borrower, once again.

Rey had on his borrowing bag and was making his way down the stairs toward the main elevator shaft. Was now his chance? No time like the present.

“Rey!” he called as he waved as big as he could to get the teenage Borrower’s attention. Rey’s attention snapped over immediately to see Hero waving frantically. Rey smiled and, looking around for a moment, walked over to Hero.

“Hey, how’s it going?” asked Rey, resting his hand on the pin at his side and the other hand slipping under the strap of his borrowing bag. He also had on a backpack which looked a little bulky, but Hero couldn’t tell what was inside of it.

“It’s going,” muttered Hero. “Everyone else gets to go borrowing and I’m stuck at home playing babysitter with my sister, Winnie. I love her to pieces, but it’s not the same as going out. What… um… what are you doing?”

“Taking a minute to stretch my legs and look for anyone who might be willing to trade a bundle of thumb tacks for some pen springs. I just talked to the bucket list brigade or whatever they’re trying out now for a group name and they didn’t have anything. Evidently, people aren’t using a lot of pens right now and, if they have pens, they’re super hard to unscrew,” replied Rey.

Hero could help but chuckle at the name. “The bucket list brigade? Did you come up with that?”

“Yeah, it seems like the ultimate list of things you could ever want except for my thing. Anyway, where are you headed off to?” asked Rey.

“Oh, I was going to go out and clear up some of the cobwebs. They make it tricky to borrow and it’s something nice for the…” Hero stopped himself mid-sentence, almost finishing with the word “humans” instead of “Borrowers.” It was only a slight hesitation, but Hero managed to correct himself and save his statement. “Others. It’s nice for the others.”

“That’s pretty neat of you,” said Rey. “Do you need a hand? I’ve got a couple minutes. Maybe we can borrow some discarded pens while we’re there.” Hero could not have been more thrilled.

With a smile he couldn’t slap off his face and a bounce to his step, he said, “Absolutely! Come on! I don’t have long.”

Rey followed Hero along the elevator shaft, up the stairs to the next floor, and ducked down one of the unused passages. Well, unused to other Borrowers. This was one of the chambers Hero used in order to get up to Watney’s apartment. He pulled out a bit of popsicle stick that his father cut into walking sticks, emergency torches, and spears.

Hero liked using the wooden stick the best. He learned using the end to collect the webbing, it could be used as a torch and it caught fire faster. He began waving the stick back and forth, twirling the webs around the tip of the stick until it looked like a match.

“Oh, that’s clever,” grinned Rey as he attached the battery to his hip lamp, creating a soft and almost haunting glow in the fathers where they were. “Want me to use one? Or just use my pin.”

“Um… sure, use one. Waist not want not as mom would say. Here you go,” said Hero, fishing into his own pack and pulling out another stick. They started walking along the boards, making sweeping motions while twirling the thin webs onto the end of the stick.

After a couple of minutes, Rey was the first to break the silence.

“It’s nice, getting to see other Borrowers again. It’s been a while since we had anyone live so close by. Now, all of a sudden, there are so many of us,” said Rey as he spun the stick in a particularly thick part of web.

“Yeah?” asked Hero, wondering where Rey might be going with the conversation. He remembered that his parents seemed wary of Rey and his brothers because they thought they were seen, but did that really mean anything?

Hero felt slightly nervous, almost like he was supposed to be under cover and asking questions like humans do in those television shows. Was this how Tiron felt when talking to Dorian? If that was the case, Hero didn’t like how it felt already. It felt dishonest. Well, more dishonest than he was used to being by keeping his interactions with his human friends a secret.

“Yeah,” sighed Rey. “I don’t know. It’s almost weird being back with so many of us, if that even makes any sense.”

“Oh? How so?” Hero asked.

“Well,” sighed Rey. “Back at my first home when I was really young, it was my mom, dad, and my brothers. We migrated after my mom… got sick, and then it was just Soren, Dorian, and dad. Then… well… after a while it was just us three Borrowers and…”

Rey seemingly hesitated for a moment. Hero was trying to figure out what he could be hesitating about when the slightly older teenage Borrower continued to speak.

“Then we had four other family groups move in. Soren married one, and she was really nice, and Dorian made friends with the others. Things happened and, well, now we have Mayzie and not Lucy while the other families moved away until it was just us again,” Rey said. “Now, we’re here and there are dozens of families. It’s just… different.”

“Sounds like quite the adventure,” Hero replied, pausing for a moment from collecting cobwebs to look at Rey. “Do you like being around so many people?”

“People?” asked Rey. “You mean Borrowers, right? Or are you talking about all of the humans?”

Hero felt slightly disheartened. The fact that Rey made a distinction between humans and Borrowers could mean he didn’t feel as comfortable with humans as Hero thought.

“Um… yeah. That’s what I mean,” said Hero. Rey, in response, shrugged after a tense pause.

“I mean, I like having a lot of people around. They’re a lot of fun to talk to. I just wish they… well… never mind,” said Rey as he finished clearing some of the cobwebs he was working on. Hero felt his pulse quicken. What? What was he going to say?

“Wish what?” he asked, trying to hide his excitement. Rey sighed and shrugged while keeping his back to Hero.

“I wish people weren’t so hateful to the humans. They have a lot of great ideas for inventions and stuff. You know, they have things that actually help them fly? Not just glide. Fly,” said Rey. Hero’s eyes widened.

“What? You mean that’s real?” he asked excitedly.

“Yeah,” replied Rey, turning slightly to see Hero’s excitement. Taking it as a good sign, he felt himself getting excited. “Yeah, it’s all real. There’s so much they have that we can learn from.”

“And you’re not afraid? Of the humans I mean?” asked Hero, instantly regretting his eagerness to ask the question because Rey seemed to quiet, reeling his excitement back in.

“I mean… aren’t you?” Rey asked as he turned his back to Hero. There was something off in Rey’s voice that Hero picked up on. It was subtle, like the older teen was hiding something, but Hero thought it was better not to press his luck just yet. One thing was for sure though, Rey wasn’t being completely honest with him.

“Right, yeah. Of course,” said Hero. They were quiet for several seconds before Rey glanced back toward the entryway.

“Thanks… um… for letting me tag along. I probably should get back,” said Rey as he reached up and scratched the back of his neck. Disheartened, Hero started to follow behind Rey as they walked along the passage until a thought occurred to him.

Watney!

Watney, being an artist, surely had enough pens for Rey to select from. Perhaps Hero would get a chance to see how Rey interacted in the world with humans.

“Hey, Rey, wait. You said you needed springs, right? I think I know of a place we can go to. Are you up for a quick borrowing mission?” asked Hero. Rey glanced over at Hero quizzically and, seemingly winning some silent debate in his head, nodded.

“Sure, just as long as it’s quick. I need to get back and help cook dinner,” said Rey.

“Sweet,” grinned Hero as he spun around on his heel and headed back down the way they came. The darkened passageways illuminated by Rey’s hip lamp made Hero feel like he was in some kind of haunted film. They crept down through the walls until they reached the same floor joist Hero used before when he first entered the apartment.

Hero almost forgot to listen to the apartment, willing to charge right into his human friend’s apartment, but caught himself just as he lifted part of the floor. No sounds in the apartment. Rey was almost disappointed, but maybe it was for the best that Rey didn’t meet Watney just yet – even though he was sure they would get along well.

They slipped into Watney’s apartment and crept over until they made it to Watney’s trash bin which was made of a metallic mesh. Just as Hero suspected, there were some discarded ball point pens in the trash The mesh made it easy to climb up the edge, flip over the edge, and get to the bottom of the bin with the crumpled pieces of paper.

Rey, almost shaking with excitement, found a couple of cracked pens he was easily able to open and extract the springs from. He was also able to pry some of the plastic fragments from the pen for weapons and the curved bits for miscellaneous construction projects. He climbed back out of the mesh trash bin in a jiffy and he and Hero were on their way back out of the apartment a few short minutes later.

The moment they were back under the furniture piece, they heard the jingle of keys, making both of the Borrower boys pause. Now was the chance to see what Rey would do! Hero crouched low and watched as Rey cautiously backed up and crouched as well.

To Hero’s displeasure, he watched as Rey carefully maneuvered backward toward the baseboard and carefully opened the floor joist so they could slip inside. Hero paused, looking back to Watney as he entered the apartment and set down his bag. He wanted to say something to him but, given Rey’s silence and uneasiness, he decided he would have to come back later.

They slipped back quietly beneath the floorboards and made their way back along the corridor. The whole way, Rey was talking about how excited he was to get started on some projects. Meanwhile, Hero couldn’t help but think about Rey’s reaction.

Rey didn’t seem afraid, but he did back away toward the floor joist to leave first. Maybe he just had experience going out into the human world and knew how to handle himself? Whatever the reason, Hero couldn’t pinpoint it.

Hero would have to go and figure it out later. In the meantime, the two teens parted ways once they made it back to the elevator shaft.

Where did Rey said he lived? Maybe Hero could ask to come visit his home and see firsthand what his parents were worried about.