“I can’t tell,” I replied. “What is all the gold?”
“It’s glory,” she replied.
“Glory?” I asked, not knowing what she meant by it.
“Yes, open your eyes,” she said again.
“My eyes are open,” I scoffed at the absurdity of what she was saying.
“Open your eyes!” I rolled over and opened my eyes, to find Emily prodding me. “Get up!”
I sat up and glanced back at the wall of hieroglyphs, but the girl wasn’t there. I must have been dreaming again.
“Prospexi is gone!” declared Emily.
“What do you mean gone?”
“Gone, as in flew the coup,” said Justin coming in from the bright entrance. “We must have slept in.”
“What about Spero?” I asked.
“Gone too,” he said.
“How are we supposed to find Lockhart?”
“Prospexi said it wasn’t far,” said Emily. “Didn’t she say it was a quarter-day hike from here? Northwest, I think she said.”
I got up and walked over to the crevasse that had been torn through the stone gate. The brightness of the day sliced through the opening, causing me to squint as I peered out. It was just as I had seen it in my dream, though much brighter as the sun was already high in the sky. Looking back at the colourful wall I couldn’t help but wonder.
“Where are you going?” asked Emily.
“I just have to check something out,” I said, quickly making my way to the wall. I looked for the scene I had seen in my dream. The one the girl had been painting. ‘Where had she been sitting?’ I asked myself, trying to find the same place along the wall.
“What are you looking for?” asked Emily coming up beside me.
“I’m not sure,” I replied. Then there it was: two human-like figures surrounded by a crowd of creatures. One of the figures held a book, which I remembered Prospexi had said represented the Maker, and the other figure had a flaming sword on her chest, which Prospexi had said was the Myth. Swirls of gold encircled them and reached all the way up into the arched rafters above me. Below them was written something in the same unrecognizable symbols, but without Prospexi there, I had no idea what it said.
“What is it?” asked Emily.
“Glory,” I muttered.
“English translation please?”
“I don’t know, it’s what the Syreni told me, but it doesn’t make any sense.”
“What Syreni? Is this about the merboy again?”
“No!” I scoffed. “It was a dream I had and I wasn’t sure if it meant anything.”
Who was I kidding - of course it didn’t mean anything. It was nothing more than a dream that didn’t make any sense.
“Never mind,” I said quickly and turned to go, but as I did I nearly tripped on a half-spent candle that had been melted to the floor.
“Come on, let’s share the last bud and head home,” I said, figuring that without Prospexi, there was little chance I’d get any answers to the growing number of questions that filled my head. I felt in my back pocket for the last taste bud and pulled it out.
“I can’t wait for a real breakfast with bacon,” said Justin.
“Or better yet, my dad’s blueberry vanilla pancakes!” I said. “Can you believe we’re going home today?”
“Let’s eat and get going then,” said Emily sounding impatient. “If we’re lucky, we might make it home in time for lunch!”
A renewed hope tickled through us as I held the last remaining bud between my two fingers.
“Cheers to going home!” I said and then bringing it to my mouth I bit off as close to a third as I could approximate and passed it over to Emily. The french fries and rootbeer were filling yet hardly satisfying, as we longed for a home cooked meal and the smells and sounds of home.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Emily asked, standing in the bright sun just outside the gate. “Are we heading home or not?”
“I’m down!” said Justin joining her.
I looked back at the colourful arched walls of stone and thought of all the stories and events they represented. I wondered if our story would ever be painted here. How we woke the fire demons, flew with the faeries, were swallowed up by the desert and nearly drowned in Lily Palus.
Would I ever come back this way? Maybe I’d have the nerve to come back and paint my own story, but I doubted Prospexi would allow it and I wondered if I’d ever see her again. And what about Yeri? Had he been successful in finding his family? I hoped so. I imagined Spero having to face Prospexi’s father and I was glad that it wasn’t us being interrogated.
My thoughts then drifted off to the merboy. His green eyes and crooked smile would forever be etched in my mind. Would I ever see him again? It seemed unlikely. I didn’t even know his name.
It was hard twisting my mind around all the things I had recently seen. Things I could barely believe, and yet I had seen them with my own eyes. It was surreal that I could be in this mythical place and be less than a day’s hike away from home. I had lingering reservations, wondering how close we really were to home, but I shook them off, choosing to trust that Lockhart was exactly where Prospexi had said it would be.
It was time to go home, and turning back towards the bright sun of day, I joined Emily and Justin outside and we were off, hiking northwest towards Lockhart, towards home. Our journey slowed as we passed the mossy rock and open field down into the thickening woodland. It was more difficult to note one’s direction through the forest as the leaves hid the sun, but we seemed to stay on course and soon the forest opened to a grassy slope.
“Hey girls, look!” shouted Justin. “Way down there.” He pointed to a town in the distant valley, where the base of the mountain ended at a small river.
“Is that Lockhart?” I asked.
“It’s got to be!” squealed Emily in excitement. “See! It’s the York River.”
“I can’t believe we’re so close.” I turned and looked back up the mountain. I had never come this way before. “It seems so different, doesn’t it? It’s hard to believe we’re home.”
“I know,” said Emily. “I can barely even remember what it’s supposed to look like.”
Spirits newly raised, we rambled down the remaining slope and crossed the York River over the familiar Lions bridge, which I knew turned into Main Street once in town.
“Looks like they’re doing some construction,” said Justin stepping onto the dirt road. “I guess it’s about time they fixed up those pot holes, hey?” He sounded a little unsure of himself.
The closer we got to town, the more unsettling things became as we couldn’t seem to get a true bearing on which part of town we were coming in to. How could everything have changed in a month?
“New streetlights too,” I noted. “They look sort of old fashioned.”
“Why would they change those?” said Emily. “Oh look! There’s Ms. Pennycook’s home,” she happily blurted out.
“That’s not her house,” I said, though it did seem similar. “Well, maybe, but it looks different.”
“She painted her door,” said Justin. “Remember it used to be red.”
“Oh yeah,” I remembered, but there were other things that weren’t quite right. I noticed two tan coloured horses tied up by the side of the road, tails swishing in opposition to some flies.
“That’s... strange,” said Justin in a fitting summary of what all three of us were thinking.
“Wait a sec, where’s the corner store? It should be right here,” stammered Emily.
“They got rid of the corner store?” Justin looked confused.
I was beginning to feel as though I had fallen into a long dream from which I couldn’t wake. A dream where my mind’s memories had been twisted and warped into something familiar but altogether different. Although this Lockhart resem
bled the town where I grew up, it was clearly not the same place. Some of the terrifying concerns we had when we first woke up in Green began to creep back in to our reality.
“This is wrong,” I said. “Where’s my house? Where’s my street?” I ran down the dirt road that turned to cobblestone. “The whole town is wrong,” I cried.
“What happened to this place?” asked Emily, running to catch up.
“Where are all the cars? Where is everyone?”
“What in heaven’s name do you mean?” came a lady’s voice from a nearby lane.
I spun around to see an elderly woman dressed in Victorian garb.
“Who are you?” was all I could think of to say.
“Who am I?” the lady said, “rather, WHO are YOU?”
“Tali,” I replied. “I’m Tali Jacobson. This IS Lockhart, isn’t it?”
“Of course it’s Lockhart. Has been for as old as the sun began to shine.” The old lady smiled. “You’re not from around here are you?”
“Actually, we are!” I said. “Well, not quite.” I glanced around. “I’m not really sure anymore.”
“You look awfully human,” she said sizing up the three of us. Then cupping her hand to the side of her mouth, she lowered her voice and whispered, “You wouldn’t happen to be the young humans rumoured to have stirred up a ruckus in Lockhart during the last moon, are you? You know, the Queen is still furious about it, don’t you?”
“No, we just arrived,” I assured her.
“Oh yes, of course,” the lady giggled. “It’s just so rare to see any young humans anymore.”
“I’ve got a really bad feeling about this,” I whispered to Justin. Then I noticed a few of the town’s people peeking out from their nearby windows and doors and it wasn’t long before several of them had come out from their homes to investigate our arrival.
One little old lady had the nerve to start touching my hair and clothes. Tucking my hair behind my ear she said, “They aren’t elves!”
“I haven’t seen a female human this young in over ten thousand suns!” exclaimed a taller man in a top hat.
“It has been a long time,” said another.
“PLEASE,” I interrupted pushing back the hands at my face, “Are we in Canada?”
“Can-a-da?” asked the old lady.
“You know, the country just above the United States,” said Justin. The response was a sea of blank faces through the crowd and he added, “On planet Earth?”
“This is Lockhart, the founding township of Evoluii,” the tall man said. “However, and more importantly, it’s probably in your best interest to find a place to hide.”
“Hide?” I questioned.
“But we have to find our parents!” Emily blurted out.
“You really should consider hiding,” said one lady and the crowd nodded in agreeance.
“What for?” I asked.
“You never know when she’ll show up,” said another.
“Who will show up?” asked Justin.
“The Queen,” said one.
“You mean Ludo?” I asked.
A sudden hush fell over them, as though I had said something wrong and several of them scurried back to their homes.
“In this town, you must always think before you speak,” said the grey-haired lady as she turned to leave. “You never know when she’ll show up, but it is usually without announcement.”
“She has ears everywhere,” warned another.
“And I’d rather not be caught conspiring to aid a fugitive,” said another as she quickly took her leave.
“We’re not fugitives!” I called out. “We’re just lost!” But everyone had left, leaving us alone on the cobbled road. None of it made any sense and I was beginning to feel farther away from home than I had ever been.
“Tali, Justin, look!” said Emily. She pointed to a large house set high on a hill overlooking the small town. It was the mansion: Lockhart Academy.
I had no idea if we would find anyone we knew inside, but it was the only thing I truly recognized and I figured it was probably a good place to start looking for answers.
“Come on!” I said. “Let’s try and find someone we know.” We took off running towards the school.
—
The overgrown vines had been trimmed and the lawn meticulously manicured since the last time we had been at the school. Even the old trees had been cut down and replaced with younger ones and the mansion seemed to be less weathered and much more habitable.
“It seems awfully quiet,” said Emily in a slow unsure voice. “What day of the week is it?”
“I have no idea,” said Justin looking down at the broken watch that remained on his wrist. “I’ve still got eleven fifty-four am. July the fifth,” he said pressing the button so he could read the date. It had been stuck on the same day since we left the cellar.
We walked up the cobblestone drive, now cleared of long grass and weeds and looking better than ever. Other than appearing to be much tidier, the home was the one place in town that seemed to have changed the least. The stone was just as I remembered, and the roof was the same oxidized copper. The windows had been cleaned and the large wooden front door had the same graceful, brass doorknob. Emily reached out and took hold of the knocker.
Rap, rap, she knocked it against the door. We waited and she knocked again.
“Screw this,” I said finally. I took hold of the door knob and with a familiar light twist the large heavy door swung open.
“What are you doing?” scolded Emily.
“What does it look like?”
“Don’t you think we should wait?”
“Wait for what?” I asked. “This IS supposed to be a school, isn’t it?” But even I had my doubts that we’d find any students here.
The cool tiles welcomed us to the large quiet foyer. All the dust had been cleaned and everything had been repaired, from the tiles on the floor to the pictures on the ceiling, and many pictures that had been taken down were restored and hanging back on the walls. The sounds outside were silenced as the large door closed behind us. It was too still for school to be in session. Either it was a weekend, or we had just stepped in to someone’s home.
“Hello?” Emily’s voice bellowed, but there was no reply.
We looked in the parlour, which didn’t look anything like a staff room. The tapestry had been restored and cleaned of dust to clearly show the woven illustration. It was exactly as I remembered: the mansion high on the hill overlooking the old town of Lockhart and suddenly, a terrifying realization grabbed hold of me.
“Oh my goodness,” I said. “It totally makes sense.”
“What? What makes sense?” asked Justin.
“I think we somehow went back in time,” I said. “I know it sounds crazy, but think about it. The street lamps and dirt road, the newness of the old buildings.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Emily.
“It’s the town in the tapestry,” I said. “Look! The Lockhart that used to be.”
“How could that happen?” she asked.
“I don’t know, but it makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s why our houses aren’t here. They weren’t built yet!”
“Yeah, so how’d it happen?” scoffed Emily. “It’s not like we climbed into any time machine or anything.”
“I don’t know. I think it had something to do with that book. But haven’t you noticed there are no cars? And did you see those horses?” I reasoned with her. “And what about all the young trees? The big ones didn’t get taken down, they just haven’t grown yet!”
“Woah, that’s deep!” said Justin. “You know, if you’re right and we could somehow master this time travel thing, we could all be rich.”
“And what about other stuff that happened?” asked Emily. “Like Prospexi and all the other faeries, or
Yeri, or the fire demons? They’re not in any history book that I’ve read.”
“True, but who’s to say all that went on in the past made it into the history books?”
“Maybe we entered some sort of worm hole and ended up in an alternate universe or something,” suggested Justin.
“Shhh, what’s that noise?” said Emily.
“What noise?” Justin and I both asked.
“Shhh!” she snapped. “It sounds like music.”
I popped my head back out into the hall to hear what faintly sounded like music, playing somewhere in the house. “Sounds like it’s coming from upstairs.”
“Someone must be home,” whispered Justin.
“We better get out of here before they find us,” said Emily.
“And go where?” I whispered, creeping towards the staircase. “Who do you think it is? Who lived here in the past, or the present in our case? That is if we are in the past, being our present...”
“Shhh,” whispered Emily. “You’re going to get us all into trouble.”
“I don’t think anyone ever did find out who the original owner of this mansion was,” whispered Justin who was following closely behind me.
“You’re right! They couldn’t find any of the records.”
“Except that it was supposed to have been a mad man!” said Emily slowly stepping towards the front door. “Come on guys, let’s go. We really shouldn’t be in someone else’s house.”
“Face it Em, we shouldn’t be here at all,” I said taking my first step slowly and quietly up the stairs.
“Where are you going?” she whispered anxiously.
“Don’t you want to know?” I asked.
“Know what?”
I turned back towards her. “Know whether the person is mad or not?”
“No!” she insisted.
“Just a quick look, and then we’ll go,” I said. The second step creaked when I put my weight on it. I stopped. Not moving, not breathing. Just waiting to hear if anyone was alarmed by the noise. It didn’t seem so because the music kept playing and was loud enough that I recognized it as classical.
“Come on!” I tried to persuade her. “It’s friendly music!”
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