by J. C. Allen
“OK! I hate the 200 anyway! Cool!” she called back happily as she strutted off with Jessica to the locker room.
When Alex left school, she pedaled a block before turning down the bike trail she had followed to school that morning, casually pacing herself this time. It had finally stopped raining and the trail was mostly dry as the sun was burning bright, except for a few puddles that had hidden from it all day. She took the time to notice all the flowers blooming, the deep, dark green of the trees, the smell of spring in bloom. It was a beautiful sight and worth it to dawdle along the path. When she turned the corner to cross the bridge over the formerly swollen stream, she was caught by a blinding reflection from the opposite bank, just above the chocolate waters where a chunk of the bank had given way to gravity and erosion. She nearly ran into the bridge railing and was temporarily stunned by the brightness. Luckily, she wasn’t racing this time or she would be nursing some skinned knees and elbows, or worse, she thought. She regained her composure and stared toward the light, shielding her eyes and squinting. She stopped and walked her bike to the other side of the bridge and leaned it against the rail, never taking her gaze from the shiny object. She continued to keep it in sight as she approached just short of the drop-off created by the powerful water, and then carefully lowered herself nearer to it.
It appeared to be a holographic baseball card or something, but was too shiny for that. She slid down the mud a few feet, ending up with her right foot on top of the object. It was solid! She knelt down and clawed away some mud. A shape emerged, roughly six inches square, and after more digging, six inches deep. Only the top was shiny from all the rain and water she guessed — the rest was encrusted with what looked like centuries of clay, hardened over time. She chipped some of it away but decided to finish digging it out first.
Although the object was hard as steel and seemed to be a solid cube, she noticed it was light as a feather when she pulled it out of the mud with a defiant sucking sound.
She then noticed something else, something rattling inside. She carried it to the bike and laid it down while searching through her bag for something to wrap around it. All she had was a lunch bag from a few days ago when she took a sandwich to school instead of eating the school fish (which she insisted always made her sick). She rubbed as much mud off the object as she could on the grass, and squeezed it into the bag, a tight fit, but a fit nevertheless. She wiped her hands on her pants, which were already streaked with mud from sliding down the bank, hoisted her backpack over her shoulder, and continued on to practice.
She arrived at practice a few minutes early, despite her casual pace, and went into the locker room to change. She slipped into her suit, thinking about the strange thing she had just found as she grabbed a washcloth and her jeans and headed for the shower.
All the other girls were in there already, they liked to get wet under the hot showers before jumping into the pool. By the time they got into the water, the wetness would feel the same as the pool water — it was a common swimmer’s trick. Alex wet the wash cloth and tried to clean the mud off her pants without completely soaking them, then went back to the changing area to hang them in front of the heater. She was thinking of getting the box out and scrubbing it when her friend, Jodie, came in and told her it was time for practice to start. As if on cue, she heard the coach’s long whistle call. She put her prize back in her locker and sped outside.
They started with relays: girls in one lane, boys in the next, alternating for each age group. Each would swim one lap of the same stroke, rest, then a lap of the next stroke through all four disciplines of swimming. There were six girls in her age group today and six boys as well, so naturally they were racing.
Usually, with Chelsea there, it was a close race, but today the girls just couldn’t keep up. Jodie was upset with her performance as she climbed out after her turn. Alex tried consoling her because she was the youngest in her age group.
Jodie had just started swimming only a year ago when she was in Alex’s class and made the mistake of asking Alex what sport she should do. She had been in ballet and her mother always placed her in beauty contests — which she hated — and she wanted to rebel by taking up a sport. Delicate and waif-like, everything on Jodie was thin, from her shoulder-length black hair to her eyebrows, nose, mouth, arms, and legs. Alex had taken the tiny urchin under her wing and continued to work with her throughout the year. When she began, the only strength she possessed was in her legs — from the ballet, Alex guessed. Now she had developed a slight trace of upper body muscles and was beginning to rise up from the depths of the team stats. Out of eight girls in their age group, she was still in the bottom half for all strokes, but was moving up steadily.
“Quit being so hard on yourself, Jo, you’re not even near the bottom anymore and you’ve only been swimming a year!”
“Oh yeah? How many points have I contributed to the team this year, hmmm?”
“You had a fourth place finish just a week ago — that’s two points,” Alex pointed out.
“Oh yeah, made a huge difference. That makes about eight points this season, you score fifty every week!” Jodie snapped as she slung the water out of her glossy hair at Alex with a playful grin on her face.
“All the other girls have been swimming at least five years, in case you forgot, and you’re almost in fourth on the team in two strokes already. That’s pretty amazing, if you ask me.”
“Yeah, but I’m last in everything else!”
“Pfft! You’re not last in anything. You’re fifth in breast and fly, and moving up in all of them. Wait until Monday when coach times us again, you’ll see!”
Jodie knew she wasn’t going to win this battle with Alex, and really didn’t want to, she just wanted to vent. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Are we working out after practice today?”
“Of course, how else can we turn your spaghetti arms into water pumps?” Alex giggled as she clasped her fingers around Jodie’s tiny arm.
“You’re next. Think you can pull this one out?”
“Blah! No. We’re down five seconds and I can’t even beat this guy by one second!”
They continued to race through each stroke; the girls almost beat the boys in the backstroke. At the end of practice the coach held a few members over to work on mistakes she had seen. Jodie and Alex continued to train on their own. Alex made her do two laps while holding her feet to work the arms. Jodie was worn out and sprawled out on the wet cement after the torture. The coach gave Alex a wink and a ‘thumbs up’ for her effort in helping Jodie.
“You just lay there and look pretty, beauty queen, I’m gonna do a 200 or 400 IM,” jabbed Alex as she rocked Jodie’s butt back and forth with her foot. “I suggest you at least do a 100 or you’ll be a slacker and your mom may put you back in ballet!”
Jodie rolled over and grumbled something about slavery being abolished years ago. Alex giggled and dove in.
They finished their swim and both lay gasping on the side of the pool, this time on their backs, staring up at the ceiling while their chests heaved trying to get precious air into their lungs.
“Time for the gym now,” Alex announced after the short rest. Jodie griped some more but Alex snatched her arms and pulled her to her feet.
The gym was deserted and the two girls went to work. Alex put her friend through several workouts to strengthen her arms and the other muscles used in each stroke. Jodie was starting to understand as Alex demonstrated what each muscle did.
“OK, now that my entire body hurts are we done? I thought women went to the gym to get mud-baths and massages!”
“Gee, you’re welcome, Miss Unappreciative,” Alex said dryly. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Best idea you’ve had all day!” Jodie remarked gladly.
Chapter 6 — Message in a Bottle
Alex followed Jodie into the shower room where they threw their wet towels in the hamper and grabbed a dry one.
Alex picked up the sandwich bag and tore the box
free.
“What is that?” Jodie asked, mesmerized.
“Something I found at the bridge on the way over here,” she replied as she grabbed the wash cloth, soap, and shampoo.
“It’s really weird,” Jodie commented.
Alex held it up to show her friend, “I thought I’d take it in the shower and get all this crud off of it.”
“Whoa! What in the— let me see it!”
Alex handed the object over and watched her eyes expand in amazement. She weighed it in her hands, “It’s light, like aluminum!”
“More like balsa wood,” Alex said. “I have no idea what it is or where it came from.”
Jodie wasted no time, taking off toward the shower with it, “Well, let’s find out!”
Alex grabbed her stuff and followed.
They entered the shower room and Jodie quickly turned on the closest spigot and held the cube up to the spray, splattering them both with grimy mud. As soon as she got most of the loose stuff off, she held it out for Alex to scrub. Three sides were already clean and they could see symbols in the silvery metal. The other three sides required a little more effort to remove the hardened clay. It soon emerged spotless and Alex held it out to examine.
The surface was completely smooth, like glass, but felt like metal. There were absolutely no dents or scratches anywhere.
“Odd,” Alex observed. “How could it be so perfectly smooth?”
“So shiny too, but when you look at it like this—” Jodie took her arms and raised them to the light, “you can almost see through it.”
Alex took it and turned it over in her hands, seeing the symbols alter before her eyes. The only one that didn’t change was a big spiral on one side. The cube was completely seamless and appeared to be one solid chunk of metal, but the rattle? “What is that?” she wondered aloud.
“It looks like one of those hologram cards, but those have angled surfaces, this is so smooth,” Jodie puzzled.
“I thought that’s what it was when I first saw it.”
Ten minutes of inspection later, Jodie announced, “I know what this is!”
“What?” Alex asked.
“It’s a piece of a space ship that fell off or something — proof that we’re not alone in the universe!”
Alex grabbed the cube from her with a suspicious look and cradled it under her arm, as if protecting it from an evil enemy. “Beam me up, Scotty, there’s definitely no intelligent life down here!” she teased.
Jodie pawed at the artifact playfully and the two girls mock-wrestled over it until it accidently slipped from their hands and clunked on the floor.
“Dork!” Alex exclaimed. “You’re gonna break it,”
Jodie apologized and bent down to pick it up. “Look, Alex! It took a chip out of the concrete but there’s not a scratch on the box. I don’t think I could hurt it with a sledgehammer!” She picked it up and placed it in Alex’s hands, “But you better keep it, just in case.”
They giggled and Alex set it down. “We need to get our showers and get out of here; it’s probably after 6:00 already.”
The two friends quickly washed up and headed back to their lockers.
“What are you going to do with it?” Jodie asked as she finished toweling her hair dry.
“I’m going to take it home and let my dad check it out. He’s into history and stuff, and he knows like a ton of people who dig up treasures and artifacts,” she replied as she pulled on her shirt and walked over to get her jeans, which were nearly dry.
Jodie finished drying her hair and sat on the bench to pull out her brush. Alex threw her clothes at her, “Hurry up, brush your hair on the way home. I want to take this to Dad ASAP!” She slung her backpack over her shoulder and waited impatiently, tapping her foot to emphasize that she was ready and Jodie was holding her up. Jodie got the hint and quickly pulled her clothes on as Alex gathered Jodie’s gear and packed all except her brush, which she tapped in her hand.
“Jeeze, chill, I’m almost done!” Jodie said as she finally yanked her shirt over her head and snatched the bookbag and brush from Alex’s outstretched arms. They secured their lockers and walked briskly to their bikes.
“You should come to my house and see what Dad says about the cube, Jodie!” Alex yelled over her shoulder as they pedaled off. Jodie lived just two blocks away from Alex.
“I’m probably late for dinner already. Call me later or something, will you? I’m like completely on the want-to-know list!”
“I will, unless it’s like a message from outer space or secret alien weapon that blows up the entire solar system. Or maybe the President will ask me to come have dinner with him and the entire intelligence community.”
“Hah! Wouldn’t that be sweet?”
Kaylie had arrived at Rick’s at 4:45. “Hello! Honey, I’m home!” she yelled. All the kids seemed to act like Rick’s home was theirs, and he treated them as if they were part of the family. They even came in when Alex wasn’t home.
“Nobody’s home yet, Kaylie!” came Rick’s voice from the basement.
She headed for the stairs, “That’s OK; I wanted to see you anyway,”
Rick was deep into testing a battle campaign for the game ‘Glory by Conquest.’ Ironically he was commanding his army against the Roman Empire.
“What’s that, Rick?” she asked as she dropped her stuff and wound her arms around his neck from behind, in some sort of hug.
“Well, I’m battling Caesar’s army for some of my land right now—”
“Cool! That’s sort of what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Caesar raided your lands, too?”
“Har har. No! We got an assignment in history today—”
“OK, but can I finish this battle first?”
“Of course! As long as you explain what’s going on. I can’t wait to play this one when you finish it, it looks soooo cool!”
Rick spent the next fifteen minutes fending off four legions of Romans as he explained how he had to build his empire by developing lands, paying workers, or using slaves who might revolt. He had to research technological advances from the Stone Age all the way into the future, and battle or ally with any and all of the other historical powers that ever existed. It was quite an in-depth strategy game stuffed with actual history and just what he and Kaylie both loved.
The idea had actually been hers. Over a year ago when they were playing a game of Warcraft against each other, they decided they would like one with more detail on advancing civilization. He had bought a similar game in hopes of meeting their wishes, but it fell way short in many ways. So he took the idea and kept building on it until it surpassed both of their expectations and anything ever made in the genre. He kept the details of the game completely hidden from her for the entire time he was working on it, but now in the testing phase, he knew it was inevitable that she would catch him playing it.
He was nearly finished when she got too close and he got a good whiff of her aroma and jerked back. “You absolutely stink, Kaylie,” he blurted, nearly destroying a building under construction.
“Gee, thanks. Don’t worry about hurting my feelings,” she joked. She knew he was just being honest — and she knew she reeked of sweat.
“I wouldn’t ever think of doing that,” he smiled. “You smell like a room full of sweaty socks,” he teased further.
“I just ran home from practice — am I supposed to smell like flowers?”
He mused at her choice of words: ‘Home.’ She felt like this was her home. Rick had to smile at that. But if this was her home, he had fatherly duties to do. “You’re supposed to take a shower, unless you roll in a bed of flowers…”
“I was going to shower when I got here. I wanted to run.”
“Well, I have to correct a few bugs in this code I was testing before I forget them all, so go get cleaned up. It shouldn’t take me more than fifteen minutes, and then you can help me get dinner ready and talk about your assignment, OK?”
“OK!�
�� she quickly agreed and trotted off upstairs.
Rick finished his changes, saved them, and wandered up to the kitchen. He laid out some half-frozen chicken, got down some rice, broccoli, cheese, baked beans, and a few other things. Kaylie came down the stairs, flipped on the TV and sat down to brush the tangles out of her hair. She had borrowed a blouse and jeans shorts from Alex’s closet (one of the reasons Alex had so many clothes in her room was that she and her friends often traded outfits, and probably half belonged to her friends).
“Quit playing with your hair and come help me, Kay, and tell me about this assignment,” Rick said as he pulled a casserole dish out and set it on the counter, then started digging in the fridge for more stuff.
Kaylie happily rose to her feet and pitched in, “Well, Anderson was going to make us do a boring thing on the Roman laws, but Christy was saying she wanted to know about the ‘normal’ life of Rome and stuff, not just the royalty and—”
She explained the entire task while Rick stared at her in amazement, thinking she hadn’t taken a breath yet and still hadn’t answered his question. “So, chatterbox, what is it you want from me?” he finally got a chance to ask.
“Oh! Well, we each have to answer one of those questions and mine is ‘what did normal Roman children my age wear?’ So I need to see if you know anything about it or where I can find the answer.”
“That sounds easy enough. I have a few books downstairs — one about Roman dress, one about clothing of different historical eras, one—”
“But do they describe the clothing of ordinary, middle-class kids? Those sound like they’re about the upper-class, like every other book. We need to find out about the working families outside of Rome itself — the ones in the villages, towns, etc.”
“Hmmmm… come to think of it, I’ve not seen much about that, but I did have some that showed different styles and fabrics of different classes because I had to outfit all the characters in my game. I do recall peasants and field workers, at least. Perhaps we can find what you need there and track down other sources for the rest. I’ve got a lot of reference materials for all the research I did for this game!”
