Amanda smiled and replied, “It’s just down the next block. You’re almost there. Have a great evening.”
Chelesa watched as the pair continued to walk down the sidewalk and turn to go into a house. She could not shake the idea there was something wrong with this situation. The relaxing evening she had promised herself was now full of questions about who the little child could be and if she were somehow related to Jena. Was it just a coincidence she had seen her or was something else happening? She decided to talk to Debbon about it once she got some supplies from the vendors.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Amanda was thankful her daughter seemed to be over her deep depression at almost losing her link with Jena. She would be forever grateful for Rasa being able to re-establish the connection for Juila so she would continue her communion with her sister. She had returned to work the next day slightly embarrassed at having made such a precipitous departure the previous day, but she could not regret having done it since it had made such a difference for her daughter.
Riccan had been very solicitous in asking about her family. Amanda was glad he did not push to get an explanation, yet she felt she should probably tell him something even though nothing came to mind which would make any sense to a stranger, so she let it go. He continued to train Amanda at her desk.
More times than she could count they ended up talking about things other than work during their training sessions. Amanda found they actually had quite a lot in common. They both enjoyed learning about alternative types of power although Riccan was considerably further ahead in his learning than Amanda could imagine. She found herself looking forward to their conversations immensely and eagerly awaited him strolling over to her desk every day.
The weeks went by and although she had less need for his personal assistance in getting her job done she found Riccan still came to her desk just to talk. She wondered what the other office personnel were thinking about this attention, but then decided she did not really care. More than one person had given her the cold shoulder since she began and she really did not have time to worry about their petty concerns. She enjoyed her job which she was really adept at.
Eventually, although grudgingly, she won over all of the staff in the Engineering Department. Her cheerful attitude and her ability to get all of her work done even without the assistance of the people who should have helped her let them know she really was the best person for the position.
Each day she was more and more thankful she had allowed Rasa to program her mind to remember things easier. They had both agreed it would take too long for Amanda to master the skill on her own to be of any benefit for learning her job.
Then one day everything changed: Riccan asked her out to dinner. Amanda had initially thought to refuse, but after consideration, she realized she really did want to go out with him. “I’ll have to bring Juila, of course.”
A smile lit up Riccan’s face as he realized she had agreed to go out with him. He was more than happy to have Juila accompany them; he loved little children. “Great, let’s go after work tonight. Does that work for you?”
“Sure, I don’t see why not. I don’t have any other plans.”
The rest of the workday flew by, and Amanda was curious to discover where they would go for dinner. In all the time she had spent in Tuala, she had never eaten at a restaurant. The question of whether Amanda should go to Riccan’s office was answered when he showed up at her desk just as she was badging her patil off. She grinned at him and said, “I’m ready to go whenever you are!”
“Great! Let’s go pick up Juila and get out of here! I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!”
Amanda looked at Riccan with a strange expression. Normally she would have thought nothing of him using the phrase, but she remembered Alena’s reaction to her saying the exact same thing. She wondered where Riccan would have heard such a thing if not from Earth. When the opportunity arose, she would ask him about it. She smiled up at him, and they walked down the back stairs to the daycare.
Once Juila was in Amanda’s arms she said, “The three of us are going out to dinner. What do you think?”
“Riccan has the same color as you, Mommy,” Juila whispered loudly.
Amanda hastily glanced over toward Riccan to see if he had overheard, while also wondering what her daughter was talking about. Seeing Riccan was busy talking with one of the daycare staff and had missed the comment, she shrugged and turned to leave the building with Riccan. Sometimes her daughter said strange things yet one of these days she hoped they would start making sense.
“Do you want me to carry Juila?”
“No, I’ve got her. It feels good to hold her after being apart all day.”
Riccan just smiled at the two girls and led the way down the street to a restaurant he liked to frequent. The offering of both a great place to sit down to eat or go to the bar to get a drink was a good combination for any mood in which he might find himself. Today was definitely a sit-down dinner night, preferably in a nice quiet corner booth.
He had a definite spring in his step as he understood this was a lot more than just a dinner for himself. He could envision settling down with Amanda, and he hoped she felt the same. As this idea finally formed in his mind, he recognized he would have to talk to his boss at work and let her know of his intentions toward his employee. It would be bad business if he started dating her while she reported to him. He decided he would discuss the matter with Amanda tonight and then sit down with Ela Nena in the morning.
Once they arrived at the restaurant, Riccan held the door open for Amanda and Juila to enter ahead of him. He could tell Amanda appreciated the gesture and he thought it was a good start to their relationship to show how he could take care of them both. Riccan walked around Amanda to the hostess station and requested the quiet booth he preferred.
Without any delay, the girl was getting them set up where he wanted to sit. Juila was given a booster seat so the table top would not be at the level of her mouth. As this was Juila’s first time eating in a sit-down restaurant, Amanda hoped she would be on her best behavior.
The evening was very entertaining with everyone laughing at various things the other had said. Riccan was very solicitous of Juila. Amanda could tell he was not doing it just to impress her; he was genuinely interested in the things Juila thought and spoke. The meal was as excellent as Riccan had promised and Amanda was completely full even though Riccan was pulling out the dessert menu. She was quite certain she could not eat another bite.
Suddenly there was a commotion in the bar which caught just about everyone’s attention. Amanda looked over to see what had happened and then she froze with fear and apprehension. She could hardly believe the cause of the commotion was none other than Petre MacVeen! How could he possibly be here on Durseni when so many people were looking for him? She looked toward Juila with alarm and announced, “Riccan, we’ve got to leave right now!”
The easy and relaxed mood from the entire evening evaporated in an instant and Riccan could see Amanda was scared. He could not be sure what the problem was; however, he knew he could ask her about it only after he got her back home. Without waiting for the waiter to bring their final bill, he took a handful of taj and dropped them on the table. “Let’s go!”
Amanda went to grab Juila yet Riccan was faster. She thought she should try to take her back, but then understood Riccan and she could leave faster if she just followed the two of them. With a final scared glance over her shoulder toward Petre, she raced out the side door and into the night.
She could feel her heart thumping erratically in her chest as the fear raced through her at how close she and Juila had been to being spotted by Petre. If that wretched man discovered anything about Juila, then she was at risk for being abducted as well. Nothing would make her feel safe at this point except the sanctuary of her own home.
“Where do you want to go?” Riccan asked as they walked briskly down the sidewalk back toward their work.
“Home! I jus
t want us to get home.”
He considered giving Juila back to Amanda, but then decided he would continue to set a brisk pace and allow Amanda to work through whatever had scared her. If he still had Juila, then he would have a great excuse to go with her to her house. Even though Amanda’s mood had shifted so suddenly, he hoped the evening was not over, and he definitely wanted to know what had just happened to spook her so badly.
Amanda’s fear drove her to instinctively take the lead as she knew where she was headed. Riccan kept pace with her, and they nearly jogged along the neighborhood streets with only their footsteps and heavy breathing to break the silence. After about ten minutes they reached a quiet, older neighborhood where Riccan found himself at Amanda’s front doorstep wondering if he should call it an evening or try to stay with her until she calmed down. Deciding on the latter, he brought Juila through the doorway of the house when Amanda opened the front door.
Amanda was distracted enough she did not even consider asking him to leave. She was actually grateful to have another adult in the house with their for protection; just the thought of him leaving for the evening was actually making her start to panic. She took Juila from his unresisting arms and announced, “I need to get her changed for bed.”
“Would you like me to go now?”
“No! I mean, please stay.” She hurried from the room feeling her cheeks turn red at her sudden outburst.
Juila spoke for the first time, “Riccan will stay if you ask him to.”
“Juila, sometimes you scare me with your insight. I love you.” She hugged her close and then set her down on the bed to be able to get her pajamas out of the dresser drawer. It was only a few minutes before she had Juila changed and settled into her bed; bedtime was usually a long ritual of stories and glasses of water. She seemed rather acquiescent which for some reason seemed to alarm Amanda as well.
“I love you, Mommy. You can trust Riccan.”
“What are you saying?”
“Goodnight, Mommy. Riccan is waiting for you.”
Amanda gave Juila another hesitant glance but then decided her daughter was intentionally being obscure. Juila was correct about one thing, Riccan was waiting for her, so she decided she had stalled long enough. She turned out the light and shut the door quietly behind her as she returned to the living room.
“Do you want a glass of water or pika juice?” Amanda asked as she approached Riccan.
He was standing directly in front of her patil at the dining room table and swiftly looked up at her question, “Pika juice would be great. Hey, it looks as though you have a message on your patil.”
Amanda was curious if Rasa had thought of some new way to track Jena, yet she did not want to have to explain it to Riccan. While she was intensely interested in checking her patil, she instead used the elemy to get two glasses of pika juice and have them appear at the table in front of them.
“Thanks,” Riccan said as he picked up the glass and took a sip. “The brisk walk made me thirsty. Do you want to talk about what just happened? You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but I’m a safe person to talk with.”
Thinking about Juila’s last statement about trusting Riccan she decided to tell him her tale regarding Petre. “Let’s go sit down and be more comfortable; this is a long story.”
Riccan’s interest was piqued, and he moved over to the couch as requested. He took another drink of the juice before he set it on the coffee table and looked patiently at Amanda for her to start sharing her past.
“A couple of anons ago I had an accident which left me stranded in the ocean. Luckily I was rescued from the water and nursed back to health after my head injury. I had lost my memory, and nothing seemed to make sense. After quite a few weeks my memory did return, and I found myself being held against my will. Eventually, I managed to escape and then I was rescued again by a shipping vessel. When I was brought to shore, I was introduced to Captain Ahn. He gave me a job until I could get back on my feet and agreed to help me find my missing fiancé.”
“I had wondered how you came to know him.” Riccan’s heart stopped beating for a second at Amanda’s mention of a fiancé. At that moment he understood he probably did not have a chance at being with Amanda since she was already taken. But then if she were engaged, where was the boyfriend?
“Well I didn’t get to work for him for very long because we found out the person who was holding me captive on his water craft was then telling everyone I was his wife and he wanted me back. It was a lie, obviously, and Captain Ahn helped me to go into hiding. I went to live with Bryon and Alena Kesh. It was at their home where I found out I was pregnant.” She paused to see how he was reacting to her story so far and could read from his strange expression that the story had a different angle than he had expected.
“Anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up having identical twin girls.”
“What happened to the other girl?” Riccan was alarmed at this newest revelation.
“She was kidnapped. I’ve been looking for her ever since.”
“So what happened at the restaurant?”
“Before I answer your question let me tell you one more thing. My fiancé swore we never had sex and the children could not be his. It was quite a while after his declaration when I had to admit I must have been raped while I was being held captive and incapacitated with my head injury.”
“What? Who did that to you, Amanda? I’ll kill him!” Riccan started to rise from the couch and stopped when Amanda gripped his forearm.
“Please stay seated, Riccan; there’s more.”
Riccan could not imagine how much more there could be and his anger was making him unreasonable. He could see Amanda was wanting to continue the story, so he sat down and tried to control his urge to hurt someone for doing such a cruel thing to Amanda. “I’m sorry, go ahead.”
“We’re not sure, but we think the man who abducted Jena, that’s my other daughter’s name, doesn’t know she has a twin. I’d like to keep it that way as well.”
Riccan was now becoming confused. He said, “So you’re trying to say you don’t want to deal with the man who kidnapped your daughter to save your other daughter from him? How are you going to get Jena back without confronting the man?”
Amanda sighed as she grasped this was rapidly becoming a more complicated explanation. Almost as though she were changing the subject she asked, “What do you think about what people say about the old souls?”
It was about the last thing Riccan expected her to ask. He looked at Amanda with a startled expression and wondered what she could possibly be getting at with this new question. Was she trying to get him to admit something about himself? Deciding he could be just as honest as she was, he answered, “I believe wholeheartedly in them. Why?”
“What makes you believe, Riccan?”
He sighed and made up his mind. “You must promise not to share what I’m about to tell you, okay?”
It was now Amanda’s turn to be surprised by the turn in the conversation. “Okay, I promise.”
“My grandfather is from Earth.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
Riccan looked at her strangely and said, “Some people would definitely think so. Their son, my dad, was chosen by Jehoban to train with Him. My dad is now an Elder. If people knew he was partly an old soul they would probably have him ousted from his office.”
“I’m pretty sure Jehoban would have something to say about it since He’s the one who would have appointed your dad as an Elder. If it didn’t matter to Jehoban, why should the people care?”
“The people have some strange ideas about old souls. There’s a lot of fear where they’re concerned which, strangely enough, is fostered by the other Elders. Anyway, now you know why I believe in the people from Earth. Why did you need to know?”
“Because that’s part of the complication I’m running into in getting Jena back.”
“What’s the complication?”
Amanda sighed and final
ly said, “I’m from Earth.”
Riccan stared at her and then pointedly down at the glass of pika juice. She had to be mistaken; he had seen her use the elemy to get them juice. People from Earth were not able to do those things. “I don’t understand, Amanda.”
She pulled the crystal up from beneath her shirt and watched as Riccan’s eyes took notice of her birth crystal. “Jehoban has accepted me by giving me this crystal. Alena performed the service, and this crystal appeared without her having to ask for it. I’ve learned how to access its power with the elemy. I’ve done it all to do my part in locating Jena. I can’t go to the authorities because of who I am. I can’t go to Jena’s abductor because of Juila.”
“That’s amazing, Amanda. You must be very special to get Jehoban’s attention. Is there anything I can do to help you with Jena?”
“I’ve been working with my cousin, Rasa. She’s one of Jehoban’s students as well. I think the message on my patil is from her, but I couldn’t listen to it when you didn’t know who I was or what I’m trying to do to find my daughter.”
Riccan was now bursting with questions. If she were from Earth, how could she have a cousin here in Tuala? If Rasa were a student of Jehoban, how would she have time to help Amanda? Who was the person responsible for abducting Jena? What had happened at the restaurant this evening? He was going to have everything answered tonight, but first, he declared, “Let’s find out what Rasa has to say. Maybe she’s discovered something.”
“Really? You don’t mind?”
“Mind? I insist! Get up.” He sprang from the couch and offered Amanda assistance with his hand.
She laughed for the first time since getting home and took his hand, once again feeling a tingling sensation at their touch. They walked over to the patil where she touched the waiting message on the screen.
Ascension Discovery Page 77
