“You can wait down here,” Samuel told Piñole, Arle, and Ceciliate as they entered his house’s basement. “I still can’t believe I completely forgot to recharge my laptop battery. It’ll be about an hour for it to charge before we can leave. My parents shouldn’t be back until late tonight, but just in case they return way early, you can hide out here.” He pointed out places it sit down, and various things to do to pass the time, including a bookshelf with all kinds of books to read, then he headed back up the stairs. “I’ll prepare something for us to eat before we go.”
“Peanut butter sandwiches?” Arle asked.
“Sure thing,” Samuel said, closing the door behind him.
Rather than idling her time doing nothing, Piñole headed to the bookshelf. Books on history, geography, animals, and the like filled on shelf. Plays and fiction stories filled a couple more. Another held information on science, chemistry, physics, and technology. Piñole looked over the titles of the chemistry books, but the corner of her eye caught something one shelf higher. A title in a language other than English on the spine of a book wedged in between fantasy stories held Aureumi letters. “Diary of an Exile?” she whispered to herself. Piñole looked back at her sister and Ceciliate, the two sitting on a sofa, talking. Looking back at the bookshelf, Piñole picked out the diary. She took it over to a desk, and seated herself with the others to her left. She opened the diary book about an eighth of the way in, her eyes moving quickly from side to side as she read over the words.
“I told her my name is Willden Seamróg. She struggled through my thick accent, and took my name to be ‘William Seamair’.”
Piñole almost stood right up, wanting to exclaim something. She forced herself not to, her eyes peering back at the two on the sofa, then returning to the words in the book. “It’s true,” she told herself in her mind. “It has to be. It’s a book in the Seamair house, written in Aureumi, telling about the exiled Willden of the Seamróg family, and how he came to be known as Seamair here on the green planet.” Her eyes moved to look at the basement door at the top of the stairs to her right. “If the jewels were stolen and replaced with fakes, and not drained of their power, then the exile of the Seamróg was unjust. The Seamróg and Alsike families should have ruled Aureum together, but because of those actions, they were torn apart. If I used my power to pardon them, the Seamróg family could return to power. I know my family wouldn’t allow this, but if done through marriage, it would be the combination of today’s powerful family with yesteryear’s powerful family. Don’t get too excited, Piñole. Samuel Seamair has every reason to be careful around you for past actions. You’ll have to be on your best behavior. Okay, I’ll do it! I’ll simply go along with whatever the others want to do. When the time is right, I’ll return here, I’ll ask Samuel to let me stop by and read books in his underground room. I don’t dare risk trying to take the book with me when either Arle or the slave can see it. No, not ‘the slave’. I have to abide by Samuel’s words. We are equals here on the green planet.”
She flipped ahead a number of pages.
“If only Hayden could see me now! I am now the father of an Earth child, the most wonderful child ever born. Victoria and I will raise him in the ways of my family back home. By the time he’s the same age as I was when I arrived on Earth, he’ll be as self-sufficient as I was. He’ll have his grandparents on my side teaching him the ways of my home, and his grandparents on Victoria’s side instilling the lessons and values of the typical American family.”
“Who is Hayden?” Piñole asked in her mind. “That name is undeniably Aureum. I must read more of this book later.” She looked to her left. “They have no interest in me,” she thought, “and what I’m doing here. I can’t become so enraptured in reading this book that I let one of them sneak up on me and see the writing. I’d better put it away, then check that thick book of plays or something, so I have a viable excuse to return and read.”
By the time Samuel returned, Piñole had made the switch, and had struggled through the first few pages of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”.
“That’s some good reading,” Samuel said, noticing the thick book. He looked at the title at the top of one of the pages. “That’s one of his most well known plays, too.” He set a plate with a peanut butter sandwich–cut into four squares–, a few slices of apple, and a few slices of banana, on the table. He placed a napkin beside it. “Be sure to set the book aside before you start eating. We wouldn’t want to get peanut butter all over the pages.”
The only reaction Piñole could give was to blurt out how she knows not to get food on a book, but she caught herself well in advance. Starting now, she’d be completely in nice-mode. She took the red ribbon attached to the spine of the book and placed it between the open pages. She closed the book, setting it aside. “Of course. Thank you for the meal, Samuel.”
“No problem,” Samuel said, taking two plates to Arle and Ceciliate. After handing the plates over, Samuel asked, “Do you have peanut butter sandwiches back home?”
“Actually, I heard about them when I was really little. You and Sarah were in a dream and saved me. Actually, I couldn’t find my way home easily after that. I had wondered into the green lands, even though I wasn’t supposed to. I finally found my way home when I ran into another dream. There, I saw Sarah–as Clover, of course–giving a boy a peanut butter sandwich. I’ve wanted to try one ever since.”
“In that case, let’s stop talking and start eating,” Samuel said, holding his own plate of lunch in front of him.
After the three had finished their meals, they headed upstairs. Samuel washed the dishes, then the group headed outside, Samuel locking the front door. “By the way,” he said as he took the key from the doorknob. “You can borrow that book later, if you want, Piñole.”
“Thank you very much,” Piñole replied, but in her mind anger filled her thoughts. How could he offer to let her borrow the book just like that? If she borrows the book, she wouldn’t have a chance to read the diary.
“Feel free to borrow any books that interest you,” he added.
The anger ceased all at once. “Any book?” Piñole asked. “You are very kind.”
“It’s no big deal. I just need to make sure anything you borrow is returned before you leave. Some of those books have been in my family for at least four generations, five if you count me. It might not sound like much, as it barely goes back more than a hundred years, especially considering some people in Europe have things going back over 500 years just sitting around in closets, but it means a lot to my family.”
The three headed down the street to a bus stop. “Oh yeah, I don’t think I ever saw cars back when I visited your world. How do people get around there? Does everyone walk?”
“Mostly, people walk,” Piñole told him. “Royal families may travel by palanquin, but that’s not very common.”
“Well, ladies, you’re about to be introduced to a little thing we call the mass transit system. You’ll notice the cars parked along the street we’ve been passing by, and the ones driving past.”
“I’ve seen them in dreams,” Arle says. “When I was in the green lands, I saw dreams with them.”
“I have also seen them in dreams,” Piñole added.
“What about you, Cecilia?” Samuel asked.
“I’ve never seen them before. To be honest, the only reason I wasn’t frightened to see one approach us is because no one else gave any reaction. Seeing the calmness on the three of you, I realized there was no danger, and the thing went by us without stopping or anything.”
“We’re going to be going inside a long, tall vehicle called a bus. Just remember: these are machines made by people. They’re not animals or monsters. Entering one is no different from entering a fancy palanquin.”
“It sounds too far above my class,” Ceciliate said. “I realize you said I’m an equal here, but still…”
“Are you kidding?” Samuel said back. “The bus is the transportation system of choice for the lower class. My family may be well enough off to have our own car, but a lot of people don’t or won’t own a car for various reasons, and they all take the bus. I guess where you’re from, the bus would be like a palanquin for the slave and attendant classes, but anyone with a dollar can ride. Oh, speaking of which, I’ve bought four day passes for the bus, so we can ride by showing these.” He handed a bus pass to each of the girls. “Piñole and Arle, it’ll be up to the two of you to fund your own way on the bus in the future if you want to go anywhere, but today’s on me.”
A short wait later, the bus arrived. Samuel showed how to use the day pass, and the others followed his lead. They took seat on the booth at the back of the bus, with Arle looking out one window, Piñole next to her, then Sameul, and Ceciliate looking out the window on the other side of the bus. The ride took them through residential and commercial areas for half an hour before they reached their stop.
“Hey Arle, see that cord up there?” Samuel said.
Arle looked up. “That one?” she asked.
“Yeah, that’s the one. Reach up and give it a tug.”
Uncertain why, Arle decided to just go ahead and try it. She took hold of the cord and pulled, sounding off a buzzer, causing her to quickly let go of the cord, stopping the sound. “What was that? What did I just do?”
Samuel pointed toward the front of the bus. “You made the sign up there turn on. See? It says ‘Stop Requested’. That lets everyone else on the bus know we’ll be stopping at the next bus stop. The buzzer let the driver know to stop.”
“It’s all so fascinating,” Ceciliate said, looking around the bus from her seat beside Samuel. “The area we’ve traveled is already larger then the entire size of the town of Aureum. I could get to like it here. I kind of feel bad that we’ll be heading back home tonight.”
“Maybe you can visit again sometime,” Samuel told her. “I think it’d be difficult to stretch another visitor staying at Sarah’s house right now, though. Give it another four years, and you could always stay with me, and two years after that, you could stay with Sarah on any visits. We should have our own apartments by then.”
The bus stopped. Samuel lead the girls to the side door where they exited off the bus.
“Does everyone leave home at that age?” Arle asked as the bus drove away.
“Not everyone, but it’s tradition to leave around that age, or a few years earlier. In my family, the tradition is to keep the home in the family, so I’d be moving out to learn to further be self-sufficient, but I’d move back in to the old house when it comes time to start a family. Actually, Sarah’s family is like that, too. The Cloverfields have been neighbors with the Seamairs for some time now. Sarah’s the first female born to either family as far back as anyone can remember, so her parents worry that she might live elsewhere, leaving no one to inherit the house. I’m sure things’ll work out in the end, though.”
“That’s a lot like back home,” Ceciliate said. “The family’s name and home stays on the husband’s side.”
Pinole knew it to be more than “a lot like back home”. It was exactly like back home. The Seamrog family had kept the tradition going, and the Cloverfield family followed the same tradition. Why? Why was this? Where did Sarah and her family fit into all this? Pinole had to know how it all connected, and she knew that diary must tell all.
“Come on, let’s go,” Samuel said, gesturing toward the edge of downtown.
“I know this area,” Arle said, looking at their surroundings. “This is where we met before.”
“This is downtown. Whenever someone tells others they’ll be ‘in town’, it’s understood to be this part of the city. It’s a shopping and business district like no other around these parts. It it’s available to buy, it’s probably here in town somewhere. And if you’re looking to pawn off an item for money, there are plenty of places to do that.
“We shouldn’t be carrying around a lot of money, so I took the liberty of opening a second bank account and got a couple of debit cards tied only to that account. It’ll allow the two of you to access your money. Since your money is going to be pooled together, it’ll be up to you as sisters and as joint account owners to discuss any planned purchases with one another. All the money you get from selling items will be put onto this card, and it can be taken off of this card using special machines. Just watch what I do with it, and if you have any questions, I’ll answer them when we’re outside of a shop, okay? And if anyone asks why Cecilia is selling items and I’m taking the payments on the debit card, we’ll say we’re cousins, and it’s a family account, okay? I don’t expect anyone to question anything, but that’ll be our story.”
The group shopped around a bit, going to different pawn shops and finding out what each shop would pay for each item. After going around a second time to sell off the items Cecilia carried with her, Samuel determined the sisters had enough money to pay for room and board at Sarah’s house for six months. “There’s no way you can get them to host you for half a year, of course. I’m sure you’ll want to buy some outfits so you fit in a little better.”
“What’s wrong with what we have on?” Pinole asked, a bit cross at the remark. She realized her attitude and wanted to correct what she’d said, but Samuel already started to reply.
“I do notice how you’ve three all worn fairly plain and simple outfits, but you and Arle still have fancy outfits which makes you look like young royalty.”
“Aren’t we young royalty?” Again, Pinole realized too late the tone of her voice.
“That depends on your reason for being here and how much you want to stand out,” Samuel told them. “I mean, you could even go around telling people who you are and where you’re from if you wanted to try to get the whole royal treatment, but the only escort you’d be getting would be to the crazy house. No ones gonna’ believe you’re royalty, so you’d best fit in with everyone else.”
