by Sara Bushway
"What about the twins?" He asked earnestly, redressing himself while Dane gathered the "yes" pile in his arms.
"Jez and Jaq are identical, conjoined twins," Dane started.
"Well, obviously," Honey smirked. "What else?"
Dane explained that they were sort of "trophy" boys. A brief look of confusion was shown on Honey's face, and Dane continued.
"Being what they are, it makes them both very valuable," he said, "or very unlucky. Their mom hid them away from the world in a little cottage on the outskirts of the village until she became ill and passed away. The boys lived alone for a long while, surviving by going out at night and stealing produce from the local farms. One night, they got caught and were brought to the mayor to be dealt with as thieves. The village soon saw what they were and took it as a sign that the world was ending…that one would be the savior while the other would be the bringer of death, destruction, chaos, and mayhem. They had the boys forcibly separated to keep the evil one from corrupting the good one. They were devastated—"
Honey’s eyes were wide. "I’ll bet they were. They had spent their whole lives together."
"Exactly," Dane said. "Anastasia learned that the village was going to make a public event of dealing with the ‘twin’ problem. Jaq would be publicly executed—"
"Why?" Honey asked. "Why did they think Jaq was evil? Neither of them was evil, but what did he do wrong?"
Dane shrugged. "His hair is darker. He carries himself with a little more confidence. Maybe he pissed off the wrong person. Who knows? They just decided it was him and that he needed to die. Our lady came to their rescue and brought them home."
"She bought them too?" Honey asked, fighting the urge to ask if she got a good deal like ‘buy one, get one free.’
Dane winced, "Not exactly." The two walked out of the dressing room, put back the rejected clothing, and went to the counter with the rest, where Dane paid for it all and handed Honey one of the bags. On the way home, he explained that he and Anastasia had come up with a plan. He paid the guards standing near the holding cells to leave him alone with 'the evil one' for a few minutes and broke both of them out, snuck them out of the village hall and through the alleyways to Anastasia's car, where he covered them in a blanket in the backseat and whisked them away from certain death. Ettie had stayed behind to help Gerig prepare a room for their arrival and was surprised to see just how identical they really were when they shed their disguises.
"And the rest is history," Dane said.
Honey nodded and realized he had almost forgotten something.
"What about Ashelynn? Why is it an it and not a person? What does it do for Anastasia?"
Dane looked very uncomfortable with the question.
"That's complicated. Ashelynn is not a person. Ashelynn is property."
"But so are we...Err, I am. You're not."
Dane nodded, "Right. But even as property, you maintain some rights. Ashelynn has no rights at all. It's difficult to explain. We're almost home anyway."
It was true, they were nearing the house, but Honey felt like Dane was avoiding the subject again. Deciding it was best not to push it, Honey let it go and stayed quiet for the rest of the ride.
"We’re home," Dane announced to the rest of the house as he and Honey stepped in and took their shoes off by the door. Anastasia descended the stairs and greeted both of them warmly with hugs.
"So, what time does the fashion show start?" She asked with a playful grin.
Chapter Eight
Over the next few weeks, Dane found a few minutes here and there to start teaching Honey how to sound out words from the dictionary he kept on his shelf. At first, Honey found the whole thing quite frustrating, but Dane explained that he would eventually just know what a word means by looking at it without having to sound it out to himself, and that gave Honey some hope that someday reading wouldn't be such a daunting task. The twins helped a little here and there too, but they couldn't seem to remember how they were taught to read and found it difficult to explain the sounds of letters like why the letters 'i' and 'y' sometimes sounded alike but not always and the 'gh' in tough versus the silent 'gh' in slaughter. Still, they had some fun, and Honey could tell that he was improving every day if only a little. Dane had also provided the salve, as promised. It was sort of a greenish-black ooze that smelled bitter like strong herbal tea, but after a few nights of Honey massaging it into his scars, he swore he could see just the tiniest difference in coloration. They started to look a little more pink than red. It was a small victory but one that made Honey unbelievably happy and hopeful that it would continue working.
He descended the stairs after finishing his chores and made his way to the kitchen where Jaq was lying on the floor, half in the cabinet under the sink, while Ettie shined a flashlight at the pipes and looked bored.
"Hey guys," Honey chimed, "what’re you doing?"
Ettie sighed. "We’re fixing a leak."
"I’m fixing a leak," Jaq corrected, his voice echoing inside the cabinet. "Ettie is pretending to be busy so that he isn’t asked to do anything while Dane is gone. What are you up to, Honey?"
Honey looked around and shrugged. "I’m done with my chores, and I guess I missed Dane before he left to run errands."
Ettie groaned. "He’s gone? He left his books on the counter! He’s going to incur a fine for himself!"
Honey spotted the stack of books on the counter, and a grin spread across his face.
"I’ll take them," he chirped and scooped them into his arms. "I’ll take them back so that he doesn’t get in trouble. I know how to get to the library from here now."
Jaq and Ettie both stared at Honey in disbelief.
"You’re..going out alone?" Jaq asked. "Did Anastasia say you could leave the house alone?"
Honey shrugged again. "Well, no, but I’ll come right back. It won’t take me long."
"Whatever," Ettie muttered as he rolled his eyes and trained his light on the pipe again.
Jaq blinked up at him for a moment before saying, "You really shouldn’t leave without asking."
"Dane leaves," Honey reasoned aloud.
"Yeah," Jaq agreed, "But Dane is Dane. He can do that."
Honey looked at the books in his arm. Perhaps Jaq is right, he thought. Dane needed to be able to leave because he was in charge of so much more. He was also Anastasia’s favorite. Still, it seemed like Dane had so much to worry about that he had forgotten this one task. It wasn’t like Anastasia needed anything from Honey anyway. She rarely called on him to service her and even less to do anything else for her. That was one bonus to having one "client" in a house with four boys. It wasn’t a perfect rotation by any means, but it did mean that each of the boys got a break.
Honey smiled at Jaq. "Thanks, but I’m pretty sure Anastasia won’t miss me. I’ll be right back."
Honey left before the two boys could argue with him further and went up to his room to change into nice "going-out" clothes. He dressed himself in one of his "Dane"-like outfits; black slacks, black shoes, a comfortable T-shirt, and a red button-up shirt, neatly tucked in. Then, noticing it was a little windy out, he zipped a hoody on over it. Moments later, he grabbed the books, sped down the stairs, and left.
*****
Honey's mind wandered as he strolled down the sidewalk toward the library. He contemplated Jaq's words and Ettie's seemingly blasé response to the same topic. It was never said that they weren't allowed to leave. They were simply required to perform certain duties and chores that took up a large portion of the day, but between the four of them, they were finding themselves with more and more free time. They worked well together to keep the house neat and tidy on top of taking care of small repairs and anything else the lady of the house needed doing.
Still, it seemed unfair to Honey that only Dane could come and go as he pleased. What would the others have to do to earn such freedoms? What’s the worst thing that could happen if they could roam around and explore the world a little? Not tha
t Honey was ungrateful for Anastasia’s kindness, but the realization that he had gone from being a sex worker who couldn’t leave Beaumont’s House to a house-bound servant who also provided sexual services in Anastasia’s hit him hard. Suddenly, he felt a little foolish.
At least she saved me from Beaumont, Honey rationalized. There was nothing so terrible as having to live with that man after all of the horrible things he had done to Honey and the girls. Nothing was worth enduring that man's presence any longer than necessary. His mind wandered on about how nice it was to have plenty of food to eat and nice, new clothes. He had new friends who shared their stuff and played games with him. Most importantly was the free time he had to enjoy himself. At the mansion, Honey barely had enough time to wash between clients, let alone have hobbies, if he was to earn enough money to keep for himself. Here, he didn't earn money, but it wasn't important because Anastasia, or rather her husband, provided more than enough money to support the household.
Honey turned the corner and smiled as the library came into view. Even if Anastasia wasn't happy about him leaving the house alone, Dane would surely be grateful to him and aid in his defense. It was important to return the books, after all, and he wouldn't want anything to happen so that Dane wouldn't be allowed to bring books home from the library anymore. That would be terrible. It was one of the few joys in life that Dane had, and Honey was determined to preserve it.
He sped up the stairs and into the foyer, gingerly placing the stack of books on the desk in front of the little librarian-man.
The man smiled, "Oh! Just you alone today, youngin’?"
Honey nodded. "Just me, Mr...Librarian."
"Stibbons," He corrected with a gentle smile.
"--Mr. Stibbons. Dane left to run the errands and forgot them, so I brought them back to you. That’s ok, right?"
"Of course, it is," the man laughed as he looked through the stack. "Are you to pick up more for him today?"
"No," Honey said, shaking his head. He gazed through the doorway into the main room. He could see shelves upon shelves and people meandering about looking through them. "I really should get back," he said aloud, trying to convince himself to leave, "but I wouldn’t mind taking a quick look."
"Go right on ahead," the man said. "I’ll be right here if you need anything."
Honey nodded his thanks and entered the main room. It still amazed him, the wealth of knowledge contained in a single room. Yet, none of it did him any good if he couldn't read it. He approached a shelf that had signage posted on it labeled "Fantasy" with a little green dragon emblem below it. He picked up a small, leather-bound book and flipped through it. He found that he did recognize some words amidst the blocks of text, and the simple, black-and-white illustrations helped a bit. I would like to be able to read this one someday, he thought, turning it back to the beginning and flipping through again.
"That’s a good one," a girl’s voice said from behind him. He jumped slightly and turned to see a young girl, several years his junior, with reddish-brown hair, pale skin, and freckles that peppered her cheeks below jade-green eyes.
"It’s the third one in the series, though," she continued. She sidled over a little and picked up a similar-looking book from the shelf.
"You should start with this one if you want to learn the whole story." She held it out to him.
Honey eyed the proffered book and smiled at her.
"Oh," he said, putting the one in his hand back on the shelf. "Thank you, but—"
"It’s a long series," she interrupted. "Seven books. The last book was actually written by the author’s wife because he passed away before it was finished."
Honey nodded. "That's very sweet of her to finish his life's work," he said, turning the book over in his hands. "I can't wait to see how it all ends."
The girl smiled up at him and extended her hand for a handshake.
"Hi. I’m Chroma," she said cheerfully.
He reached out and shook her hand. "Honey."
She seemed taken aback for a moment before a nervous giggle came over him, and he clarified. "No, no. My name is Honey."
"Oh," she giggled. "Oh, ok. Hi, Honey. That’s kind of a funny name, but I like it."
The two stood and talked by the "Fantasy" section for a long while. Chroma explained the basic story of the first few books of the series Honey had been looking at and then explained the major plot-points of several of the others on the shelf. She seemed to like to talk, but Honey didn’t mind. She had a lot of insightful things to say about books, and it was nice to get to hear those stories.
"I’ll be sure to make a list and read all of those after…" Honey trailed off. She stared at him, awaiting the end of that sentence. He sighed and shrugged, deciding that there were worse things he could be divulging to her, and explained himself.
"You…can’t read?" She asked, seemingly confused by the notion.
"A-A little," Honey clarified, "but I’m still learning. It just wasn’t important in my life..until now."
Chroma nodded in understanding and smiled up at him with purpose.
"Well then, we should be starting in the kids' section. That's where all kids learn to read." She plucked the book from his hand, placed it back on the shelf, grabbed the sleeve of his hoody, and led him to an area where the bookshelves were much shorter, and the books on it were much more colorful. She pointed out the ones she had liked best when she was first learning to read.
"Oh, this one," she said with muted excitement, trying not to bother the others in the library. "This one was my favorite." She took the book from the shelf and turned it over. There were colorful flowers and butterflies all over the cover and large, purple lettering on the front. "This one is good. It talks about shapes, colors, flowers, and butterflies. All things that you’ll need to know as a grown-up."
Honey chuckled. "My, it does contain quite a wealth of knowledge, doesn’t it?"
Chroma nodded and handed the book to him. She opened her mouth to say something, but the chiming of large bells drowned out any noise she might have made. Honey counted the chimes and gasped in a mild panic. He hadn't been paying close attention on his way in, but he was sure that the bells had also been chiming on his way into the library. How could so much time have passed? Had he really listened to Chroma talk about her favorite stories for so long?
"I should go," he said, backing away from Chroma and the shelves. "I have to get home. She’ll worry—"
"Wait," Chroma cried out, grabbing his arm and alerting the others in the seating area of the library. "You have to come back." Her eyes grew wide as she looked deep into the deep blue pools in his. "You’ll come back, right? We’re friends now."
He smiled. "Of course, we are," he said, putting his free hand on her shoulder. "I'll be back. Probably with Dane."
"Dane?"
Honey paused for a moment. "He’s..difficult to describe, but he’s a good person. And he likes to read."
"Oh," Chroma said with some surprise. "I can’t wait to meet him." Honey nodded and gently pulled his sleeve from her grip.
"Bye, now," he whispered and turned to leave. She smiled and waved.
Honey sped through the library and was prepared to run all the way home until a voice stopped him like a wall.
"Woah!" the voice said. His shoes squeaked against the shiny marble floor as he stopped to look around. The little man behind the desk cleared his throat.
"Boy, you’re going to need a library card if you’re taking that home."
Honey looked down at the book in his hand and blushed. "Oh, I’m sorry," he said, walking over and setting the book on the counter. "How much does a library card cost?’
The man chuckled. "Nothing, my boy. Just time." He clipped a piece of paper and a pencil onto a clipboard and held it out to Honey. "Just fill this out for me."
Honey took the clipboard from him and filled out as much of it as he could. His name and the date. He looked up at the librarian and pointed at a word on the page that was print
ed next to a long line.
"What’s this?"
The librarian adjusted the glasses at the end of his nose and peered down at the page. "Address," he said. "That’s the line where you put your address."
Honey's gaze bounced between the librarian and the form.
"I...I can't spell so good," Honey said. "Is that...Would that be a problem?"
It wasn’t a lie, after all. He knew the address of Anastasia’s house by heart, but he had never written it before. It was one of those things that Honey hoped would improve if he ever learned to read, in fact. If you can read, you must be able to spell some of the words you can read, right?
After a long moment, the librarian smiled and took the clipboard and pencil from Honey. "Where do you live, kiddo?"
Honey rattled off the address and the rest of the information he'd left blank on the form. He marveled at the penmanship of the little man. It was so pretty and curly, like some sort of magical script that should only be read by someone who could appreciate what had been written.
Once the form was finished, the librarian excused himself and slipped off of his chair, down onto a step stool, and disappeared into a little door. Honey waited, his heart beating faster and faster as the seconds ticked away. Surely, someone knew he was missing by now, but hopefully, the others would understand. It was only Anastasia he worried about. If she had called on him while he was gone, she would be very upset. Unless Dane lied for me, Honey thought, but I could never ask him to do such a thing. I’ll take my consequences and be happy that there won’t be a beating in my future.
The little man returned to the desk, ascended his step-stool, and scrambled into his chair.
"Here you are," he said, holding out a small, leather rectangle. Honey plucked it from his hand and looked it over. It had Honey’s information on it, as well as the information of the library and a code, which the little man copied into a record book. Then he copied the number on the inside cover of the butterfly book.