39
Steam Heat
‘Thank you for saving me,’ said Dinu after a moment. ‘You are good friend.’
I snorted. ‘I’m not your friend, Dinu.’
‘Maybe not. But at least you always bring me crisps.’
I stared at him in astonishment and then had to look away. Lollia’s sapphire palla made his Cleopatra eyes look almost as blue and beautiful as hers. It was unnerving.
‘You’re not my friend,’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘You’re a bully. You steal my crisps.’
From the corner of my eye I saw him cock his head. ‘No. You bring them for me because you are nice.’
‘Are you crazy? I bring them for me. I only give them to you because you’ll beat me up if I don’t.’
‘Beat you up? Have I ever beat you up?’
I thought about this. ‘No. But you stand about a foot taller than me and twice my weight, and say, “Give me your crisps.”’
Dinu nodded happily. ‘And you give because you know my mother cannot afford breakfast.’ He patted my back. ‘You are a good friend.’
I glanced at him. ‘You don’t have breakfast?’
‘Never. We cannot afford. School lunch is my only meal.’
‘What?’ I said. ‘No supper either?’
‘Just mamaliga. Romanian cornmeal mush. We eat big pot of it with salt and butter. Sometimes sour cream if we can afford.’
‘It sounds a bit like mushy warm tortilla chips.’ I said. ‘Non-crunchy nachos. I could live with that.’
‘But that is all we have every single night,’ he said. ‘And then nothing till school lunch. I get so hungry by break time.’
My face felt hot, and not just from the steam. ‘So my crisps are your only breakfast?’
‘Yes! You are so kind to give them to me.’
I frowned. ‘So you haven’t been mugging me?’
‘Of course not.’ Dinu slung an arm around my shoulders and squeezed. ‘We are friends.’
The steam made it too hot for a bro-hug so I shrugged him off. Then I rounded on him. ‘If we’re friends, why did you steal my phone?’
He gave a sheepish grin and wiped sweat from his forehead. ‘I was coming to say hello, but then I saw phone and wanted to borrow it.’
‘So you just borrowed it?’
‘Yes. To see what it is like having phone.’
‘And then ran away.’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s not borrowing. That’s stealing.’
He sighed. The steam had made his dripping face very pink. ‘All right. Maybe I did steal. I am sorry. I will give it back.’
‘You’ll give it back?’
‘Yes. When we get home.’
‘If we get home,’ I muttered. ‘And if I don’t suffocate first.’
‘Quickly!’ Lollia ran into the steam-room with Plecta close behind. ‘Some women are coming.’
‘Women are coming!’ I translated to Dinu.
But Lollia had already grabbed his hand and was pulling him after her through a thickly curtained arched doorway. ‘Hurry!’
My first thought was, Why is Lollia holding HIS hand?
Plecta took my hand and tugged.
My next thought was, Why is Plecta holding MY hand?
‘If they find boys in here, they will tear you apart like Pentheus!’ said Plecta, her brown eyes wide with fear.
I wasn’t sure who Pentheus was but I understood ‘tear apart’.
My final thought was, RUN!
40
Diana’s Garden
The room we ran into was cooler and brighter than the steam-room. It had high glazed windows, a shiny tile floor and it echoed with the sound of slaps and grunts. I saw some female slaves working on the bare backs of women lying on high couches.
‘Excellent!’ said Dinu. ‘Massage room.’
Plecta skidded to a halt and whispered something into the ear of an unoccupied massage-slave. The girl’s eyes grew wide and she pointed to another doorway with a curtain.
‘This way, Lollia!’ called out Plecta, and pulled aside the curtain. Lollia and Dinu skidded to a halt, reversed their direction and followed us along a corridor past a twelve-seater toilet.
The toilet had no dividing walls and no doors! Once again I had to use all my self-control not to look at the women sitting there but to keep my eyes fixed on Lollia. Unfortunately I couldn’t shut my nose, so breathed through my mouth as much as possible.
Finally we were out through a squeaky door and into a long and narrow garden, full of dripping green plants. It was raining again, which probably explained why the area was deserted.
I saw a painted statue, stone benches and the windowless back wall of a big square building at the far end of the garden.
‘Along the side of that building!’ said Lollia.
‘No time!’ cried Plecta. ‘Hide in the bushes!’
The slave-girl shoved the three of us between two bushes and dived in after us. We found ourselves in a narrow space between prickly shrubs and a rough brick wall.
I was amazed at Plecta’s boldness and was half expecting Lollia to give her a slap when we heard the squeaky hinge of a door opening followed by women’s voices. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but one of them sounded angry. The angry voice was coming closer.
We froze in position: crouched down and huddled together with our knees to our chins and our bottoms on the slightly damp earth. The brick wall was hard against my back and I could feel Plecta’s bare arm trembling against mine.
The voices passed us by, heading towards the big building.
One of the shrubs was trying to poke me in the eye, but I didn’t dare move. The women might be back any moment.
‘What is happening?’ whispered Dinu.
‘Shhhh!’ I breathed in his ear. ‘Don’t make a noise or we’re in deep trouble.’
Dinu shut up. Just in time, as we all heard the voices of the women growing louder as they came back.
Now I felt a sneeze coming! Gran had taught me that a good way to make yourself sneeze is to look at the sky. But I didn’t want to sneeze. I wanted the opposite. So I shut my eyes, tipped my head down and pinched my nose.
But it was no good. The sneeze was coming, coming …
Ah-brrrrrgh!
The bath-house door slammed at the exact moment of my stifled sneeze, but we all held our breath. We were so quiet that we could hear the sound of rain pattering on the leaves of the bushes and trees around us.
After another five minutes of heart-thudding suspense we reckoned we were safe.
‘Well done, Plecta,’ breathed Lollia. ‘If you hadn’t pushed us in here, they might have caught us.’
Plecta actually blushed. Maybe it was the first time her mistress had praised her.
Cautiously we emerged from the bushes. At the centre of the wet and deserted garden was a painted marble statue of a girl in a short tunic with some dogs at her feet. She held a bow in one hand and was reaching towards the quiver on her back with her other.
‘Diana,’ I said to Dinu. ‘Goddess of the hunt.’
He nodded.
Lollia pointed at the blank windowless wall at the far end of the narrow garden. ‘That must be a temple to Diana,’ she said. ‘These baths are hers too, I think.’
‘Look,’ said Dinu. He held out his hand. It was trembling. ‘I am shaking.’
‘No wonder,’ I said. ‘You were fighting to the death less than an hour ago and then you saw a man stab himself and now you’ve been chased through a bath house full of naked women.’
He looked back at me with his Cleopatra eyes, still wearing Lollia’s palla over his head, and then he started to laugh.
‘I have not had so much fun in my whole life,’ he said.
I stared at him in astonishment. Then I started to laugh too.
‘The girls and I walked on the side of London Bridge,’ I said, when I could catch my breath, ‘singing made-up lyrics to “Greensleeves”!’
This sent me into fresh waves of laughter. I had to hug my sides, I was laughing so hard.
The girls were watching us with open mouths and shining eyes. Then Lollia cupped her hands and whispered something in Plecta’s ear. Plecta nodded yes and both girls giggled.
‘Dinu!’ said Lollia, catching his hand. ‘Come sit with me.’
Dinu was still laughing as she pulled him to one of two stone benches set against a wall between shrubs. I was no longer laughing. Once again, I felt a stab of jealousy.
But when Plecta took my hand, I felt the same tingle I had felt on the bridge. Now I was confused.
‘Alexandros,’ she whispered shyly, ‘will you sit with me?’
I let her lead me to the other bench. She kept hold of my hand as we sat.
‘Thank you for being so kind to me,’ she said. ‘It has been a long time since someone treated me as not a slave.’
‘I can’t believe how cruel she is to you,’ I said.
Plecta lowered her eyes and her voice. ‘I am afraid of her sometimes …’
‘Because she beats you and pinches you?’
‘Yes, but also because she could do worse things to me.’
‘Like what?’
Plecta lowered her voice even more. ‘Lollia’s mother was a witch, and she is one too. She has a secret dog-tooth to prove it.’
‘A what?’
Plecta pointed to her own mouth. ‘An extra tooth here, behind her dog-tooth.’
I stared at her in horror. Lollia had a dog-tooth? Then I remembered the word ‘canine’ meant dog. But having an extra tooth was still creepy.
Plecta brought her lips close to my ear. ‘Lollia’s mother left her a box of magic herbs and spices. She does midnight magic sometimes.’
Plecta’s words made me shiver. Or maybe it was her warm breath in my ear. I turned and looked at her.
With her big chocolate-coloured eyes and gently parted lips, she seemed almost as beautiful as her mistress. And way nicer.
‘Will you tell me about yourself, Plecta?’ I said.
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘I will tell you.’
41
Plecta of Pergamum
‘I grew up in a town called Pergamum,’ said Plecta, ‘far away in Asia. My parents were not rich but they were well off and respected in the city. My father made parchment like his father before him, and his father and all the way back to Attalus. It was a respected business with a shop in the lower agora and a workshop down by the Temple of the Healer. But then the plague came.’
‘The same plague that Lollia told me about?’
‘Yes. It killed everyone in my family except me and my little sister, and a distant cousin named Cleophon. He took all my father’s possessions and sold me and my sister to a slave-dealer.’
‘You were his cousins, and he sold you?’ Of all the things I had seen and heard so far, this was the worst.
Plecta inclined her head to say yes. ‘My first mistress owned a troupe of acrobats whose job was to perform for her every evening. My sister was with me, so it was like being in a big family with aunts and uncles. That is where I learned to dance and walk on a tightrope. But then our mistress died and the troupe was sold to an ex-soldier. He didn’t want the younger members, so he sold me and my sister to a slave-dealer in Massilia. That is when Lollia’s father bought me, so I could nurse her back to health when she had fever. And there is another reason.’
She brought her mouth close to my ear. ‘When I first met Lollia, she had horse-rider’s legs and walked with a limp.’
I was confused. ‘What are horse-rider’s legs?’
‘Like you are riding a horse, with your knees apart. But now she is very graceful, as you saw on the bridge.’
I said, ‘Did you ever see your sister again?’
Plecta lifted her chin to say no. ‘I will never see her again, I think. My family is gone and I am alone.’
‘What will happen to you when Lollia gets married?’ I asked.
Plecta dropped her head so I could not see her face. ‘I will go with her. I am part of her dowry. I pray her husband’s family treats me kindly.’
‘You’re going to live with them?’
‘Yes. His family is rich and Lollia’s father thinks it is a good match. But she does not want to marry him.’
‘What about you?’ I asked. ‘If you could have any life, what would it be?’
Plecta gazed out into the green garden. ‘I loved being part of the troupe,’ she said. ‘It was like a big family. I would like that again. If I joined a troupe of acrobats then maybe I would marry one who had all his teeth and good skin like you. We would buy our freedom and have many babies. I would also like to return to Asia where it is warm and not always muddy and wet.’
I took a deep breath. ‘What would happen to you if Lollia died?’ I asked.
She automatically made the sign against evil and whispered, ‘I do not know.’
We both looked over towards Lollia, and my jaw dropped.
She was kissing Dinu!
42
Salsa Mouse
Later – much later – I found out about TTLS or ‘Tittles’. TTLS stands for ‘Time Travellers’ Love Syndrome’.
It’s similar to when people survive an earthquake or some other near-death experience. As soon as they know they’re not going to die, they often fall into each other’s arms in relief.
But at that moment in the Gardens of Diana, I had no idea how time travel was affecting us.
All I knew was that it was a terrible idea to be getting involved with girls who lived hundreds of years ago and whom we would never see again.
‘Dinu!’ I hissed. ‘You can’t kiss Lollia. We’re not supposed to interact, remember?’ I was speaking in English of course.
‘Is too late for that,’ said Dinu. ‘Anyway, I really like her. I want to bring her back with us.’
‘WHAT?’
He gave a lopsided grin and shrugged. ‘She can be girlfriend.’
‘Dinu, you can’t bring her back.’ I tried to think of a way to put him off. ‘She has terrible teeth and bad breath.’
‘I have plan. I will take her to free NHS dentist. They will fix her teeth and make her beautiful.’
‘She has bandy legs.’
‘I do not care.’
‘Dinu, she’s a witch. She has an extra tooth in her mouth and a box of magic herbs at her house. Plecta told me.’
‘Plecta is jealous because Lollia is very beautiful.’
‘Lollia may be beautiful, but Plecta is brave and good. Anyway, you can’t bring someone back through the time portal. Solomon Daisy said so.’
‘Who is Solomon Daisy?’
‘The bazillionaire whose tech guys invented the time machine.’
The girls were looking at us with frowns. They had heard their names but had no idea what we were saying.
‘How do they know you cannot bring person back?’ said Dinu. ‘Has anyone tried?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘This boy named Martin – I met him before I came here. He was the first one to go through the portal.’
‘Someone went back in time before us?’
‘Yes, but he was too scared to leave the Mithraeum. While he was in there,’ I continued, ‘he made friends with a little mouse and decided to bring it back as an experiment.’
‘What happened to mouse?’ asked Dinu.
‘It exploded into chunky salsa.’
Dinu narrowed his eyes, almost like he didn’t believe me.
Of course he was right not to believe me.
‘Salsa Mouse’ was a total lie.
‘I can tell you are lying, Wimpy,’ said Dinu, ‘because you make eyes wide like baby.’
I only had one argument left and this one was going to hurt. I took a deep breath. ‘Here’s the thing, Dinu,’ I said. ‘You can’t bring her back because she’s going to die soon.’
I have heard people say ‘white as a
sheet’, but he actually went white as a sheet. ‘Lollia will die soon?’ He looked at her in disbelief and she looked back, puzzled.
‘I’m sorry … but yes. It’s her fate to die aged fourteen.’
He put his arm around her shoulders. ‘Then we must bring her back more than ever!’
‘No!’ I cried. ‘That would definitely cause a time crash! If we bring Lollia back to our time to stop her from dying, then the archaeologists never would have found her bones and Solomon Daisy wouldn’t have become obsessed and he would never have sent us back …’
Dinu was just staring at me.
My head was beginning to throb again and I felt sick.
‘What’s wrong?’ asked Lollia, looking from me to Dinu and back to me. ‘What are you two talking about? Why do you have that look on your face?’
‘I feel a bit sick,’ I said to her in Greek. ‘I think I need the latrine.’ It was partly true. I’d assumed because I hadn’t touched a bite of food in nearly four days I wouldn’t need the loo. I was wrong.
‘Go in the bushes where we hid,’ said Plecta, also looking worried. ‘Do you want me to stand guard?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘You wait here. I’ll be right back.’ Then in English to Dinu, ‘I’m just using the bushes as a toilet. Don’t go anywhere.’
I pushed the wet shrubs aside and found the place where we had crouched earlier.
Maybe I shouldn’t have bothered to dig a little hole with a twig.
Maybe I shouldn’t have searched around for the perfect leaves to wipe with.
Maybe I shouldn’t have taken the time to carefully cover it all over again and pat the damp earth down on top.
Because when I emerged from my leafy latrine, Plecta was standing alone by the benches, wringing her hands.
Dinu and Lollia were nowhere to be seen.
43
Blind Love
‘They left me!’ Plecta stood in the rain, her chin trembling. ‘She told me I couldn’t come.’
‘Where?’ I cried. ‘Where did they go?’
The Time Travel Diaries Page 12