by Paul Kater
once been a corner of the house that was set up for some comfortable doing nothing. She walked through the room, touching the chairs that stood by a large round table. "Not rotten at all," she said, surprised about that as the door had been in such a bad state.
William also went around the room and found another ring in a wall. Because of the light and the absence of dust, he could see where the revolving disc was. "Looks like there is another room here," he pointed out to the witch. "Want to go and have a look?"
"One of us should stay here, in case Kerna comes back," said Hilda. "The poor girl will have a fit when we're both gone. You go and have a look, William."
William nodded, made one of the lights float down to him and pulled the ring. In a few seconds he was gone.
"I want that at home," Hilda told one of the chairs. She looked at the table again. It intrigued her. Not so much the table itself, but the things that were on it. Clearly the people who had lived here had packed up quickly and left in a hurry, she thought. On the table were lots of things. And some of them looked like children's toys.
Curious, Hilda picked up something. It was a yellow disc with black spots on each side. Touching the spots did not do anything. She threw the thing up and it fell down in her hands again. "Poor kids," she said, "how can they have had fun with this thing?" The next thing she picked up was a small block of wood, with two small pieces of metal through it, like axles. One of them had a small wooden wheel attached to it. It was probably meant to be a cart of sorts, but only one wheel would not get it far, Hilda pondered as she put it down again.
"Now what's that..." She picked up a small object. It was formed as a drop, and almost transparent. The material was very strange for her. It felt cool but it was not glass. She saw some things inside the object that probably belonged there. She shook it. Nothing. As she tapped it on the table, the far wall rumbled.
Kerna had somehow retrieved both cats and brought them in. The animals escaped from her arms quickly and sped off, running through the room. "What is that?" Kerna asked as she came over to the table.
"I wish I knew," said Hilda. She held up the thing towards the light. "Oh, look at that..." She had discovered a hole on one side of the 'drop', and then found another hole on the other side. With a wicked grin she put one of the holes to her lips and blew.
"Phwshhhhh", whispered the drop.
"Now that is disappointing," Hilda muttered. For a moment she watched Kerna play with some of the things on the table. It looked as if she knew what some of them were for.
Kerna, noticing that Hilda observed her, held up a cube from the same material as the drop. "Here," she said, pointing at a hole, "stick your finger in there." Hilda failed to see the mischievous twinkle in Kerna's eye...
Hilda stuck a finger in the hole - and could not get it out anymore! She waved her hand, but that did not help. "Crappedy crap," she declared, pulling at the cube to no avail.
Kerna had stepped back, partly because she did not want to get smacked over the head with the cube, partly because she needed space to laugh as she saw how the witch tried to free herself from the simple children's toy.
All of a sudden William came out of the adjacent room, alarmed by the screaming of his witch and the laughing he'd heard. "What is that?" he demanded to know as he saw Hilda's frantic attempts to get something off her hand.
Kerna needed all her will-power to stop laughing. She caught Hilda's hand. "Wait, wait, you only make it worse!" As William approached also, Kerna showed Hilda two more holes on the side where the finger was stuck. "Put two more fingers in there," she suggested.
"No way," said Hilda, "I want the one out, not more in there!"
"That is the only way to get it off," Kerna said. "I am honest, honoured Hilda. Look, here are also three holes. I stick my fingers in there. If you fill two holes, the cube will open and we are both free. It is a toy, children have a lot of fun with it."
Hilda frowned, but stuck two more fingers in the holes Kerna had pointed out. Immediately the cube's sides sprung open, releasing all fingers.
Kerna explained that the original game was that someone put a finger in the cube, and by asking difficult questions the victim had to find someone to also put a finger in the cube. "Each wrong answer means a finger in the cube," she said with a grin. "Sometimes there are six people with a finger in the cube before it opens!"
Hilda's eyes shone brightly as she clicked the cube shut again. "I like that! Anyone against it if I take it with me?" Nobody argued, so the cube disappeared into one of Hilda's pockets. "And what did you find, great wizard?"
William reported that the next room was something of a landing or hallway, leading to three more rooms, probably bedrooms or so. "They're in a dreadful state, torn apart as if someone was looking for something."
Kerna nodded. "When the old people left, some of the others, of us I should say, came to these houses and looked for things they could use." Her face showed that she was ashamed of that, even though she was not old enough to have even been alive when that happened.
"Things like that happen, Kerna," said William. "Anyone care to see the other rooms?"
Hilda was curious enough, so the three went on the carousel and were taken to the landing. The first room they had a look in was nothing short of a disaster area. Nothing in it was even remotely recognisable. There were piles of stuff everywhere. Hilda kicked in one and they had to leave the room quickly, as dust flew everywhere.
"That second one is only marginally better," William pointed. "That one back there is least damaged."
Hilda decided she would skip the second room and headed for the one in the far corner.
22. A thing
The revolving plate was smaller than the other ones they had been on, so they had to enter the third room one by one. Kerna wondered if it was safe to leave Grim and Obsi in the other room, but Hilda and William assured her that nothing bad would happen.
"If something happens, that can't be bad," were the wizard's words. "The previous owners won't mind."
The Lycadean woman frowned as she considered the words. They made sense, and yet...
"Ohhh, look at that," Hilda dragged Kerna from her thoughts. The witch was kneeling next to what once could have been a bed. Or a chair and a table. Or a closet. "I found a... a... thing!" As she got to her feet again, she held something in her hand. Indeed, she had found a thing.
William stared at it. "What's that?"
"A thing, I told you."
"It is old," Kerna added. "We don't have these things anymore."
"See," the witch grinned, "she calls it a thing too, so I'm right. It's a thing, and an old one."
"It's a book."
Hilda looked at the rectangle in her hand. "This is not a book. This is a slab of something. And dirty too." She blew over it, releasing a dust cloud.
William first settled the dust-affair and then asked Kerna: "How is that a book?"
The woman touched a side of the old thing, frowned, touched again. "Maybe the other side," she mumbled, mostly to herself, as she slipped a finger down the other side of the thing. Faintly the thing lit up. "Ah, yes!"
Hilda pushed the old book-thing in Kerna's hands. "That is creepy," she elaborated.
Kerna stared at the symbols that appeared on the screen of what appeared to be the local version of an electronic reading tablet. "Maybe upside down," she mumbled. Kerna was good at mumbling, Hilda decided. Kerna turned the tablet around and her face lit up. That was because the tablet's surface became brighter. "Maybe not." More mumbling as she turned the tablet back the other way.
"Hmm. I have a toy, Kerna has a toy, so you're next, William," the witch grinned.
"Yes," Kerna nodded, "this is definitely the way to hold it."
"And what does it say?" William asked.
"I don't know. I can't read the old language."
"Well, we'll take it with us," Hilda decided, "maybe we'll find someone who can."
They searched the room for a while longer, but no
thing interesting came up, so they left, taking the cats and the floating light with them. Once back in what had to be the living room, they looked around again there. William tried a couch but that collapsed as soon as he sat on it, much to the entertainment of Hilda and Kerna. These two had some fun examining some of the things they found on the table.
"So what goodies do you have there?" the wizard asked after restoring the remains of his dignity.
"Oh, look," his witch exclaimed, "all kinds of stuff, and it all looks so shiny! I just don't know what it is, and Kerna is lost with most of it also."
William looked at the transparent thing in Hilda's hand, the one she had handled before. "That looks like a whistle."
"I know, but when I blow on it, it just makes a very obnoxious sound," Hilda pouted. She proved it by blowing the thing. "Phwshhhhh."
William grinned. "I am sure there are places where you can get arrested for that."
Hilda screamed with laughter and blew the thing again, while Kerna covered her ears. She still was not used to Hilda's witch-laugh.
"Perhaps," said William, "it would help if you blow the other end."
"I beg your pardon? Since when do you know something about what end to blow?" the witch asked, surprise all over her person.
"I've been a kid," William brought up his defence, "I've had whistles."
"Oh. That." Hilda looked a bit sheepish for a millisecond. Then she turned the thing around. Phweeeeep. The witch now was impressed. "This is..." phweeeep!
William laughed. Little did
