by Donna Wagner
“What is “languages”?” Retep asked, confused by the word, itself.
Tim gave a quick laugh. “I guess that answers that question. Um, well language is what we call what people speak- the words we say. We are speaking in English,” Tim paused and pointed at a classroom door as they walked passed. “That’s called a “door” in English. People in other countries sometimes speak different languages than we do, so we have to learn them here in school. I have Spanish right after lunch. So for instance- people that speak Spanish wouldn’t say “door” they would say “puerta”. I don’t take French at all, though. If you have problems, Anna will have to help you.”
Retep didn’t seem reassured by Tim’s answer, but before he could ask anymore more questions the final bell rang. “C’mon, we have history class next!”
They raced into the classroom right at the last second. Tim again introduced his cousin to the teacher. History class was a bit better than geometry. Tim was doing okay in this class. Retep was mesmerized by everything the teacher said. It dawned on Tim, as he watched his cousin’s gaze never leave the teacher’s face, that Retep knew nothing about the Civil War, or anything else in the history of the world Tim had been born in. He’d always taken everything for granted. As the teacher spouted facts that Tim had heard millions of times before, he tried to imagine what it would be like if he knew nothing about this.
Probably a lot like how you felt when I first told you about Snillotia’s history. You didn’t believe me!
Tim jumped at the sound of Anna’s voice in his head and knocked his textbook off his desk. It landed on the floor with a loud thud. All eyes turned toward him, and he could feel his face turning red. “Please be more careful, Mr. Collins,” the history teacher admonished, incorrectly saying Tim’s name, before continuing her lecture.
Thanks for that, Anna.
Well maybe you should learn to keep your thoughts to yourself. I’ve been hearing you off and on all morning. It’s really not helping, with the day I’m having. Just relax. Ollie will forgive you eventually. He’s going through some things right now, himself. Also, it seems like Retep is doing fine. Just let him be himself. If he likes school as much as you think he does, he shouldn’t have a problem.
I don’t know about that! Since you can hear me, I might as well let you know- he has art and French with you this afternoon. He didn’t know what French even is! There’s only one language in Snillotia! He doesn’t understand-
Tim broke off mid-thought. Retep was staring at him. Briefly, he wondered if Retep could hear his conversation with Anna, then realized everyone was staring at him again. His face turned red once more but this time he had no idea why.
“Mr. Collins, can you answer the question or not?”
Tim tried to play it off, cool. “Oh, I’m sorry. You were talking to me? My last name is Tollins with a T. Not Collins.”
The teacher raised her eyebrows and started to turn slightly pink herself. Just tell her the answer is the Gettysburg Address!
“The Gettysburg Address is the answer though, ma’am,” Tim said quickly, hoping he wouldn’t get in any trouble.
“Thank you, Mr. Tollins,” she said, emphasizing the T.
As the teacher resumed her lecture once again, Tim immediately tuned her out. How did you know what question the teacher asked?!
There was no answer. Tim sat through the rest of the class trying to get Anna to respond. As the bell rang and he and Retep walked to chemistry, she finally answered him.
Let’s just say today’s been interesting and I can’t wait for it to be over.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
The rest of the day passed quickly. Retep was delighted with chemistry. Tim barely knew what they were talking about. All through class, he was trying to get Anna to tell him more about what had been going on today. She ignored him. When he and Retep reached English class, he saw Anna already seated in the back of the classroom, which was unusual for her. She was slumped down in the seat and staring at the floor. Taking a chance, Tim sat in the desk next to her and motioned for Retep to sit down wherever he wanted. Retep was amazed by school, so far, and grabbed a seat right in the front of the room so he would be able to hear this teacher as best he could. When Tim was sure Retep was okay, he turned to Anna. “What’s going on?”
She didn’t look at him and their English teacher started talking about their newest assignment. Tim didn’t hear a word of what the teacher said. Anna’s voice filled his head instead.
A new power showed up today. Right as soon as I found Jason this morning. I can hear everyone’s thoughts. All I have to do is think about a person and I hear everything. I guess I should be thankful it’s not constant, that I actually have to do something to hear them, I guess. I was just so happy to see Jason this morning, so I was thinking about him as I was looking for him. I know for him- we just saw each other last night, but for me- well, you know alot’s happened and changed. I only found him because I thought I heard him talking, but it was his thoughts I heard instead. He wasn’t thinking anything horrible or anything, but at first I couldn’t figure out what was going on. You know Jason. He’s the “cool guy”. He doesn’t ever say what he really thinks. This morning when he saw me, I heard “You look so beautiful today!” I was shocked at first, because he’s never said anything like that to me before, but I said thank you and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He looked at me, confused, and asked me what I was thanking him for! At first, I thought he was playing around, but then I could hear him thinking again. He was thinking that I was acting strange- that I was acting like you! He actually thought that. He thought living in a house with you is finally rubbing off on me. I was so surprised, and then I realized what was happening. Then I got mad at him for thinking that, not that acting like you is bad, but he didn’t mean it in a nice way! I left him standing there without another word and went to class. I tried to talk to him after my Government class last period, but now he won’t talk to me!
Tim looked stunned. He knew she’d develop more powers once she let her walls down, but he didn’t think it’d be that fast. Plus, he didn’t know what to say to a crying girl. All through her long thought explanation, Tim could see the tears dripping from her eyes. It’ll be okay. Jason will get over it. If he doesn’t, over something this small, then maybe he isn’t worth it anyway. If it makes you feel better, I think Retep’s got a crush on you.
Tim added the last part to try to make her feel better. However, it had the opposite effect. Don’t say that! Retep can’t have a crush on me!
Tim was confused by her reaction but didn’t show it. Well, as far as the mind reading, it does get easier.
Anna’s eyes widened and she finally turned and faced Tim completely. You can hear others’ thoughts too?
Tim nodded, slightly. Don’t worry. Once I realized what was happening, I made a point to not listen in. I’ve only used it on purpose once- to see if Retep was hiding anything. I learned to control it pretty quick. You do not want to know what some people think about!
Tim shuddered and cracked a smile. Anna gave him half a smile back. “Ahem, will the lovebirds in the back please pay attention to class?” Mrs. MacDonald, their English teacher, called from the front of the room.
Both Anna and Tim turned bright pink and Tim tried to explain but gave up when Anna reminded him silently how it must have looked with them just staring at one another. They were going to have to be careful about communicating that way when they were in the same room and others were around. “As I was saying, now that everyone’s mentally present, we are going to be working on something new starting next week. We’re going to study current popular fiction,” she motioned toward the stack of books on the table by the window, “Ollie, Evan, can you please start handing those books out to everyone?”
The two students got up from their desks and walked over to the table. Ollie reached it first. “Really? We’re going to read this for school?”
Mrs. MacDonald smiled. “I know this will prob
ably be familiar to most of you. I’m hoping that familiarity means our class discussions will be marvelous!”
Ollie approached Tim’s desk and practically flung the book at him. “Lucky you, Tim. An easy A.” he said snidely.
Tim looked up at him in surprise, then at Anna. She shrugged. Then they both looked at their copies. Then they looked at each other, in shock. “Hey! I actually recognize this!” they heard from the front of the room, “Tim’s mom wrote this!”
Tim’s gaze shot from Anna’s to his cousin, who was practically jumping out of his seat. His eyes narrowed. He had never told Retep about his mother’s books. He was about to look inside his cousin’s mind once again, but Anna stopped him. I saw what he’s thinking about. Your grandparents found a copy of it at Adam and Myra’s house and were talking about how happy they were about her chosen pen name. He overheard them. Mrs. McDonald is looking at you, just say yes!
“Yes,” Tim said, as Anna instructed.
“That’s amazing! How is this something I did not know? This will bring so much insight to our discussions!” Mrs. MacDonald exclaimed.
Tim realized she had asked him if it was true that his mother was Sarah Erickson. He nodded, feeling almost numb. He didn’t know if what was happening was good or bad. He decided to worry about it later and listen to what Mrs. MacDonald was going over about the assignment. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ollie whispering to Evan and rolling his eyes. “Now, I realize there are fourteen books in the series, but as they were written for much younger children than you and most of you have read them before, I believe we can get through them all fairly quickly! Now, your homework this weekend will be to read the first book I’ve handed out! Monday morning, our discussion begins, and I want everyone’s participation!”
Right on time, the bell rang, signaling the end of the period. As Tim threw his notebook and his mother’s book into his backpack, he heard Retep talking with the teacher. “No ma’am. I’ve never actually read them. We didn’t have them in Sn- the country I was living in.”
Mrs. MacDonald frowned, knowing the books had been published in multiple countries and six different languages. “And what country is that my dear?”
Tim rushed to the front of the room and grabbed his cousin’s arm. “C’mon, Pete! I’m starving. We have to get to lunch!”
Retep gave Mrs. MacDonald a small wave as Tim pulled him from the room.
✽✽✽
The weekend passed too quickly. It had been spent getting everyone acquainted with the world they were living in. A trip to the mall became an event, as everyone except Tim and Anna needed clothes to wear. By Sunday night, everyone had seemed to settle into their new temporary home. Tim and Anna were in the back yard, testing Anna’s powers to see if anything else had manifested, when Retep came running outside. “I finished the book! I can’t wait to talk about it tomorrow! I feel I will be able to provide a lot to the discussion! I know more about Snillotia than anyone in that class!”
Anna shook her head. “You can’t tell them anything that’s not in the book. The book doesn’t give a name to either world,” Anna told him, having finished the book as well.
Tim had reread it too. He and Anna had already talked about it. They had decided to search his mother’s books for clues again, since the idea had been lost the first time when Anna started acting like Snillotia never existed. Tim had remembered the story vaguely. His mother had actually told him the stories long before she decided to write them down and share them. Now that he had re-read the first book, looking at it from a different angle, he and Anna, both, were slightly worried by some of the things they read in the story, if his mother didn’t make them up. Like in their own experience going through the portal, his mother had written about the inconsistency of time in between the worlds. Anna and Tim however, had only ever experience time moving forward. It his mother’s story, it moved backward as well. They had talked about the theory with their grandparents. They’d come to two conclusions. It was either a good thing because then maybe they could figure out how to go back to before Ronnoc had formed the Rebels and stop him before anything even started, or it was a bad thing, because they could wind up back in Snillotia at the height of the Rebel’s power and worst of all, Aaron would still be alive. Tim secretly thought that if it was possible, maybe he could even find a time in the backwards world when his parents were still alive, and he could save them.
“Tim! Tell him I’m right!”
Lost in thought, Tim hadn’t heard Anna talking to him. “Sorry, what?”
“You agree that we can’t bring up anything related to Snillotia, specifically. I told Retep that since the Rebels have found their way to this world before, technically anyone could be a Rebel. We can’t give away what we suspect about your mom’s books. It’s his fault everyone now knows it’s your mom that wrote them in the first place!”
Retep frowned at Anna. “How was I supposed to know it was a secret? You guys didn’t fill me in on your little theories about the books. I didn’t realize why your mom didn’t write them under her own name. It’s not like I intentionally did anything wrong!”
“Calm down, both of you! Retep, I know you didn’t do it on purpose. Relax about that. There’s nothing we can do about it now. I do agree with Anna, though. We can’t give anything else away. If you want to answer Mrs. MacDonald’s questions- that’s fine, just be very careful about what you say. Anna, leave Retep alone about telling everyone about my mom. He didn’t know, and we can’t take the information back now. We’ll just have to deal with it.”
“It’s all over the internet now that “Sarah Erickson” was a pen name, that the author’s name was really Ellen Tollins, and that she died before finishing the last book. Fans are in an uproar that they’ll never see the last book. What if there’s information in that last story we need?” Anna questioned.
Tim shrugged. He still thought his mother’s journals were the answer, but along with the manuscript of the last book, the journals were back in the castle, if they had even survived Anna’s blast. The books were available in this world and they’d work with what they had available, which is exactly what he said to Anna. “Do you think Goldie could help? She brought the books and the manuscript from this world to us when we were in Snillotia, maybe she can bring the manuscript back again.”
“That’s an idea. I’ll talk to her about it,” Tim responded, planning to ask about his mother’s journals as well, and then he had another thought, “Maybe she knows how the time difference works, as well.”
Anna’s eyes brightened. “That’s right! She must know something more than she’s said so far, since she can do it herself without the need for a portal. Why didn’t we think to ask her before?”
Practicing with Anna’s powers completely forgotten, Anna and Tim both jumped up, ready to see if they could find out some answers. “You’re too late. Goldie is gone.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Anna grasped Tim’s arm in surprise. She completely forgotten Retep had even been outside with them. It seemed whenever she was around Tim lately, it seemed like there was no one in the world but them. Tim slid her hand into his and gave it a squeeze. He didn’t seem upset by Retep’s news. “What do you mean by gone?” he asked his cousin slowly.
“Just what I said. She’s gone. Not here any longer. She went back to Snillotia.”
“But why?” Anna asked, her voice displaying her disappointment.
Retep opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted. “So, what’s going on here?”
Tim groaned. Nosey had returned. Then he realized he was still holding Anna’s hand. No wonder Nosey was looking at them accusingly. Anna let go of his hand, but didn’t move away from him, which surprised him. “Oh, hi, Jason,” she said.
“Am I missing something here? Is there a reason you’re being all cozy with your brother? Is that why you haven’t called me all weekend?”
Jason was mad. Anna sighed. “I’ve told you repeatedly. Tim is not my broth
er. I also recall, Friday you not wanting to speak to me at school, so why would I call you? If you had spoken to me I would have told you this weekend would be busy for me. Tim’s grandparents arrived with his cousin,” she said motioning to Retep, and then continued, “My parents are here, too.”
Jason eyed them suspiciously, as Anna was still standing very close to Tim, although they were no longer touching. To avoid a scene, Tim moved away first. “Jason, this is my cousin, Pete.”
“Yeah, hi, Pete,” Jason said, barely glancing at Retep.
Anna sighed. She was not in the mood to deal with Jason right now. They needed to find out why Goldie had left. “Well, Jason, you didn’t talk to me at school Friday and you didn’t call me all weekend, either. What do you want?”
Jason’s face softened. “Aw, babe, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get mad. I’m just pissed I had to waste the whole weekend reading that stupid kid’s book, for Mrs. MacDonald’s class. My dad said if I fail anything else this year, he’ll take my car away!”
“Apparently, the news hasn’t spread that far,” Tim said, under his breath.
Jason heard him anyway. “What news?” he asked, immediately suspicious again.
Anna shot Tim a look, realizing that Jason had English class first period. Mrs. McDonald hadn’t known about Tim’s mom yet to share the news with his class, as she had every class after theirs Friday afternoon. “Nothing important. Don’t worry about it,” Anna said leading him back towards the house, “Let me introduce you to my parents.”
However, as Anna was speaking, Retep also spoke. “The “stupid kid’s book” as you so eloquently called it, was written by Tim’s mother. His deceased mother. Show some respect!”