The Word Guardians: and the Twisting Tales

by Lawrence Yarham

  “Dad why are you so worried about the invitation?” she asked.

  He was a little taken aback by the direct question and was quiet for a moment. He finished chewing a mouthful.

  “Don’t get me wrong, Yas. I’m pleased for you. But just be careful. I see it so many times when I’m representing clients. The unprepared become the victims. Just know that there are more people watching.”

  “What do you mean?” Yas asked. She wanted to get to the bottom of this, so decided to mention the elephant in the room. “Who’s watching? From the realms?” She took a quick glance at her mom. Her mom gave her an ‘I hope you know what you’re doing young lady’ look.

  Her dad seemed to ignore the reference though. “You think you’re being clever,” he replied flatly, pushing food around his plate, “but you’re creating trouble. Just like…” He stopped before uttering the name.

  “Trouble?” Yas replied, irritation brimming further. She glanced at her mom. “Just like who?” Then the penny dropped. “You mean Akoni?” She stared at him resolutely. He looked down at his plate, refusing to make eye contact for a moment.

  “I thought you’d be proud!” she said, anger rising. “That something I’ve done has been recognised. In a good way!”

  “Yas,” pleaded her mom. The emotion was pulsing through Yas though.

  “Of course I am,” defended her Dad. It was too late though.

  “Well, it didn’t sound like it,” Yas continued ranting. “It’s not about me, is it? You’re worried it will dredge up the realms, Grandpa and Akoni again, and affect your promotion!” She sat there staring, adrenaline running through her.

  “Is that what you think?” he asked, meeting her eyes. Hurt showed on his face.

  “I don’t know, Dad! You tell me!” She looked down at her plate, frustrated. She wanted to say several things, but she knew none of them would help. She felt like she wasn’t being heard and didn’t know what to say to make him listen. Realistically, the ‘trouble’ had landed in her lap and mostly because her parents had never talked about any of it with her. She knew mentioning that would not go down well with her mom. She didn’t want to offend her any more than she might have already done.

  “I’m going up to my room!” she said finally, under her breath. She needed to not be at this table right now. She grabbed her plate and went upstairs to the spare room, slumped down on the sofa and put the television on so she couldn’t hear them downstairs. They probably weren’t talking about her but she wanted to be alone. She seethed silently. Why was her dad accusing her of trouble making? Why had she never seen it before?

  She spent some time emotionally spinning around in the story line, while finishing her dinner. It was unfair. How dare he accuse her, after never having said anything about Grandpa and Akoni before? But then her mom had warned her that now was not a good time to talk to him about this and she’d ignored it. She’d probably also not helped with her sassing him. Tears formed in her eyes and they slid down her cheeks. Of all the arguments she had previously witnessed in this house, she found it hard to believe that she was now at the centre of the ill feeling. It was something she’d hoped to never do. Maybe her dad was right. Maybe she was the troublemaker.

  Her phone buzzed. It was a text message from Sam.

  “How’d it go with your mom?” it read.

  “Not well,” she texted back quickly.

  “Oh?” came the reply, just as fast. Yas stared at it for a moment. She didn’t know where to start.

  “Sorry, not a good time,” she texted back. She wanted to be left alone to sulk some more.

  Her phone started ringing though. Clearly, he’d ignored her and wasn’t going to relent. She knew that about him. She turned the TV volume up a little to make it harder to be overheard and answered his call.

  “Yas,” he said. “You okay?”

  “Not really,” she replied, honestly, keeping her voice down. More tears threatened to form. “I argued with my dad.”

  “About Akoni?” he asked.

  “No. An invitation arrived in the post today,” she started, her voice breaking a little. She was surprised at how much this had affected her. She swallowed and tried to control her emotions.

  “To the Police Commissioner’s dinner?” Sam asked.

  “Yeah, how did you…”

  “I got one too. I wanted to tell you but wasn’t sure if, you know, it was only me for some reason?”

  “What did your dad and Janine say?”

  “They were really pleased for me, but wary too. They don’t know who initiated it.”

  “Yeah,” reflected Yas. Maybe her dad was getting at the same thing too. If so, he had a crappy way of communicating it. It was something that had bothered her from the moment she’d opened the letter too, but she’d been too distracted with needing to tell her mom about Akoni to realise. She figured it had to relate to what she and Sam had done in the realms. How did someone know about it and why had they chosen to recognise it publicly?

  “My dad had a real go at me about keeping my head down and not causing trouble,” she added.

  “Really?” replied Sam, surprised.

  “I know,” agreed Yas. “He’s been acting really strange lately. My mom said so too.”

  “What do you mean, strange?” he edged.

  “He’s irritable all the time and hard to get along with.”

  “Do you know why?” asked Sam.

  “No,” she replied, honestly. “My mom thinks it’s something to do with his work. Says he was overlooked for a promotion when Grandpa and Akoni went missing and that he’s worried about the same thing happening now if news stories regurgitate the past.”

  “Maybe he’s just being protective of you,” Sam suggested, thinking of a more positive reason.

  “Maybe,” Yas agreed, but there was something else, she knew it. She just couldn’t put her finger on what it was yet. Yes, she’d said some spiteful things downstairs, but there was the air of irritability around her dad and then that buzzing sound too. That wasn’t nothing.

  “So, did you get to talk with them about Akoni?” Sam asked.

  “No, not yet,” she sighed.

  “Oh,” replied Sam, sensing her frustration. “Do you need any company?”

  There was a knock on the door.

  “Yas?” her mom called. “Everything okay?”

  “Hang on, Sam,” she said quietly, then cradling the phone to her chest, she replied. “Just a minute, Mom. I’m talking with Sam.”

  “Let’s talk, hun,” said her mom.

  Yas put the phone back to her ear. “I need to go, Sam. Mom wants to talk.”

  “Okay,” he said. “Let me know how it goes. If you need me, call.”

  “Sure,” she said. “And thanks.”

  “For what?”

  “Being you,” she smiled at the phone. She felt a lot better just for having been able to speak with him.

  “Any time!” he replied.

  Yas finished the call.

  “Okay, you can come in,” she said. She knew her mom had been waiting patiently on the other side of the door.

  The door opened and her mom joined Yas on the sofa.

  “I’m not making excuses for your father,” her mom started, turning towards Yas. “But you need to watch what you say. What you said affected him.”

  “Yeah, well,” replied Yas defiantly. “What he said affected me too!”

  “I know,” Yas’s mom touched her on her arm. “I don’t know what’s going on with him, but we just need to be careful, okay? God knows I’ve bitten my tongue over so many things lately.”

  “But why, Mom,” Yas argued. “Aren’t you tired of keeping back what really happened in the realms just because he has a problem with it?”

  Her mom paused and nodded. “Yes. But sometimes it’s easier to keep the peace. Knowing who to trust and which battles to fight. Yas, that’s also part of being a Guardian. And being in a relationship.”

  “What do you mean
?” Yas asked.

  Her mom paused for a moment. She heard the click of the front door.

  “He’s gone out again,” she sighed.

  Yas sensed the desperation in her mom. Her feelings softened. She wanted to understand.

  “I’m just saying I’m not sure what’s going on with him,” her mom continued. “I’ve tried to get through to him on a few occasions, but he seems so preoccupied.”

  “With work?”

  “Yes,” her mom looked sad. “I don’t feel like I’ve spoken to the real him for a while now.”

  “Oh,” said Yas, uncomfortable with where this was going. It sounded like her mom was going to talk about her parents’ relationship. “But you and Dad,” she said, “You’re okay, right?”

  “Honestly,” her mom paused, looking to the blinds at the window. “I don’t know.”

  That shocked Yas. With the stresses and strains on the family because of Grandpa and Akoni she was used to tension of some form being present in the house, but she’d never really thought it might affect her parent’s marriage, or their home.

  “What I’m asking is that you trust me on this. We have to take small steps where your dad is concerned.”

  Yas nodded. She wasn’t sure how she felt about Dad at the moment. She wasn’t angry anymore, but she didn’t understand him either.

  “Where do you think his concern is coming from?” Yas asked. “Is it his promotion? Is he worried about my safety? Or is it something else?”

  “I think all of those,” her mom replied. She sensed Yas’s desire to understand it. “We’ll figure it out, okay?”

  Yas nodded. Her mom reached forwards for a hug, which Yas gratefully accepted. It helped soften the remaining frustration. Then she remembered what she had wanted to say when she arrived home earlier.

  “Mom, listen. There’s something else I need to tell you,” she started. “While Dad is out.”

  “What is it?” her mom asked.

  She paused. She didn’t know where to start, so she just said it.

  “Akoni’s not dead.”

  Her mom pulled back and became very still. She looked Yas straight in the eye. “What?”

  “I talked with him today. In the Forest Realm.”

  “How? You’re sure it was him?”

  “Yes Mom.”

  Her mom stared into space for a moment. Yas imagined that the same set of questions were running through her mom’s mind that she herself had been thinking.

  “I just…” was all she managed to say.

  “I know, Mom. I was the same,” Yas said, touching her mom on the arm. “I don’t know for sure where he’s been and why he’s only made contact now. He said he’d been confronted by McVale and Penn and split apart, dispersed across the realms like Penn. He said he’s only been able to make contact now.”

  “But the car accident?”

  “He said that McVale staged it all.”

  Her mom was quiet again.

  “It’s got to be a trick, somehow,” she said at last, shaking her head. “Maybe someone’s posing as him… to… to…”

  “I don’t think so, Mom.” She paused to let that sink in. “It was him. What he said to me seems to make sense. He’s been reforming himself and has only been able to appear here and there for a moment. Sam and I spotted someone, we think it was him, in Alexandria, and then after the battle. I didn’t know for sure before today, so I didn’t say anything.”

  Her mom looked pale. She looked past Yas to the blinds again.

  “I’m sorry,” Yas said finally. “I know it must be a shock.”

  “You’re sure it’s him?” her mom asked again, looking into Yas’s eyes. Yas saw fear and hurt there.

  “I’m sure, Mom.”

  Her mom nodded blankly.

  Yas turned off the television.

  “Mom?” Yas asked, after a few more moments of silence. “I take it we should keep this between ourselves for now?”

  Her mom seemed to snap out of her thoughts. “Yes. I think that’s for the best.”

  Yas nodded.

  “Where is he now?” her mom asked.

  “I don’t know exactly,” replied Yas. “He went into another realm. He said he would be somewhere safe, for now.”

  “It’s just like him to appear and then disappear,” her mom said quietly. “That part of him hasn’t changed, then.”

  “He wasn’t sure it would be a good idea to meet yet,” added Yas.

  “He’s right about that,” her mom said under her breath. “Are you going to meet him again?”

  “Probably,” Yas replied. “But I don’t know when or where.”

  Something that Akoni said popped into her mind. “That reminds me,” she added. “He said he’d contact me using grandpa’s bookmark.”

  She stood up and headed out of the room, then at the top of the stairs, she paused. There was no sound or light coming from the front room, and she wondered about heading down to see if her dad’s folder was still there.

  “Bookmark?” asked her mom, following her.

  “Yeah,” replied Yas, changing her mind. She went into her room and found the shoe box that had memoirs of her grandparents. She sat down on the edge of her bed and opened it to show her mom the bookmark. It was a white postcard, with a design of two flowers in black ink, intertwined. Then at the bottom were the words, ‘ex libris Brantley’.

  “I found this when Sam and I were trying to find a way to open a doorway to the mansion to rescue his dad and McVale. I didn’t ever remember picking it up or being given it, but Akoni told me that he had put it here. He said we should be able to communicate with it.”

  Yas’s mom looked at it fearfully.

  “I don’t want him coming to the house… just yet,” she said resolutely. “Your father’s not ready for that. I don’t know what he’d do.”

  Wheeler looked out of the train window. He was glad the train was still in the station. It showed no sign of building up steam to move off and that gave him time to think.

  “Look, Raelinn,” he started. “Just hear me out, okay? Before you decide what to do next.”

  Raelinn nodded, eyeing him suspiciously.

  “In other realms, there are actors who play out the storyline, right?” he started, looking into her eyes. “For the most part, we’re able to move through the realms as observers, skipping between different storylines.”

  “Yes,” she agreed.

  “But here,” he said. “It’s different. It’s like we’re both actors and observers, and we can be drawn into the storyline if we don’t concentrate.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We’ve been round and round this loop for so long,” Wheeler explained, “that I know what you’re going to do in any of about twenty different scenarios. I know which way you’re going to feint in a fight. I know that you’ll either leap off the train over the river, or that if we go onto the roof, the train will plummet into a gorge where the track is unfinished. It’s like the storylines are all around us, and they’ll suck us in as actors to play out the associated outcome if we don’t focus on the here and now.”

  “So how does that help us?” Raelinn asked. “You brought me here! You’re going to pay for that!”

  Wheeler held up his hand. “No. That’s just my point. Whenever you say that, it starts off a new fight, then we head out of the station. Once we’re in the storyline, it’s harder to extract ourselves from being the actors. We have to concentrate.”

  “How do I know you’re not just saying that to trick me? I don’t trust you!”

  “That’s another favourite trick of the Void, it seems. You just have to focus. Figure out if it’s a storyline of the Void tempting you or whether it’s really something that you want to do.”

  “So, you’re saying we have to prevent ourselves from being drawn in?”

  “Yes,” replied Wheeler, relieved that Raelinn seemed to be getting it at last.

  “But that doesn’t change where we are? You did
this and I still hate you!”

  “I know,” replied Wheeler, holding his hands up. “But seriously, we can help each other find a way out.”

  “It’s the Void!” Raelinn exclaimed, throwing her hands up. “There is no way out! That’s the point! No-one ever comes back from this place!”

  “I don’t believe that,” replied Wheeler. “I have a feeling that’s what we’re meant to think.”

  “Oh seriously? You’re full of crap!”

  “It’s like the old saying,” Wheeler continued. “If you believe you’re defeated, then you are?”

  “I’m not defeated,” retorted Raelinn. “If anyone’s going to get out of here, it’s going to be me!”

  “Look! Listen!” re-iterated Wheeler. “We need to be aware of our own storylines. We both want to get out of here. You so you can do whatever you need to do for Orfeo and Index. I want to find my son and see if I still have a marriage!”

  The train started to huff and gather steam. They both looked at each other, warily.

  “We should get off this train,” said Wheeler. “Every time we stay on it, we end up back at the station again.”

  “What? How long have we been here?”

  “Quite some time, I think,” he replied. “Going round in loops.”

  Raelinn continued to look through the window, off in thought.

  “Orfeo will come and find me,” she said resolutely. “Then you’ll be in trouble!”

  Wheeler laughed. “Don’t be so sure! I can tell you from experience that Orfeo doesn’t give a damn about anyone else.”

  “At the battle,” Raelinn mused. “I didn’t see Orfeo. Where is he?”

  “I have a feeling that the battle has finished, and everyone’s moved on, living their normal lives.”

  Raelinn didn’t like his comment, but he could see that it had got through her steely defences. She considered it for a moment.

  The train started to move.

  “So, what now?” Raelinn asked. “You said if we leave the station, we’d end up replaying the story?”

  Wheeler nodded. “Yes,” he said, standing up and heading to the end of the carriage and the nearest door. “Come on.”

  Raelinn hesitated for a second, then followed.

  He turned the handle, but nothing happened.