Answering Ascension

by Amy Proebstel

  The people around the table fervently agreed. They were about to be involved in changing the future of their world.

  Chapter Thirteen

  SOFIA KEPT HER mouth from dropping as she walked up the driveway with the twins. The house was even grander than she had imagined it would be. The front had two-story columns, and the house was symmetrical, even down to the two three-car garages on either side of the house. She could only imagine how the inside would look compared to the perfect landscaping on the outside.

  The girls chatted away as they approached the front entrance. They did not seem to notice Sofia’s reaction to the property. Her own house would almost fit in the circular driveway. She could not imagine living in a house as large as this one. The girls had seemed so down-to-earth she would never believe they were so rich.

  Jena opened the front door and led the way up the stairs to their rooms. Sofia walked behind Jena, and Juila brought up the rear. She almost missed a step since she was looking out over the foyer with its polished marble floors and grand chandelier. Finally, she could not contain her amazement and stated, “This place is absolutely beautiful!”

  Juila merely smiled. She had, once again, gone against her own edict to keep her mind to herself. She had been reading Sofia’s mind since they had first entered the gated driveway. It had been fascinating to see the house through someone else’s eyes. Now she had a new appreciation for the luxury she had simply taken for granted. Living on Acaim had accustomed her to being surrounded by beauty.

  They walked into Jena’s room since she was in the lead. Sofia looked around the spacious room and said, “This bedroom is fabulous. You are so lucky. You don’t even have to share. And, oh, you have your own bathroom. Sweet!” She walked into the bathroom and strolled around the entire area. She ran her fingers along the cool, smooth granite sink top and turned to stare into the shower. It had more body spray nozzles on one wall than she had showerheads in her entire house.

  She returned to the bedroom and shook her head; if only she could live the life of these girls for just one day.

  “What do you think,” Jena asked even though she had already read all of Sofia’s thoughts for herself.

  “I just love everything. The colors and designs are perfect. Is your room just the same, Juila?”

  “It’s similar, but mine is pink. The bathroom is identical,” Juila answered. “Do you want to see it?”

  “Sure!”

  They trooped to the next room over, and Sofia was not sure which one she preferred. They both had their own touches which made them equally nice. “I love them both!” she declared finally.

  The three girls laughed, and Jena said, “We should go downstairs and eat leftover pizza. Our parents should be home, too, if you want to meet them. Well, I guess you’ve technically already met our mom, but you can meet our dad if he’s done with his project in the study.”

  Sofia could hardly believe she was actually going to meet Riccan. Her father was going to be so jealous. He would probably make her recount every detail of her meeting until she was thoroughly sick of his questions. She answered simply, “That would be great!”

  They thudded down the stairs and raced toward the kitchen. The twins were absolutely starving. They were not used to the commotion they had been subjected to at the school, so their minds had been on high alert all day.

  They pulled the pizza box from the refrigerator and then realized they would not be able to use their powers to heat it up. They had not yet learned how to use the microwave. They looked at one another, at a loss over what they were supposed to do. It would seem very strange, indeed, to tell their new friend they did not know how to use a microwave.

  Unbeknownst to them, their mother had been monitoring their birth crystals. She could tell they were suddenly distressed and she came out of the study with Riccan right behind her. “Hello, girls. Hello, Sofia. It’s nice to see you here. Do you all want some pizza? Here.” She held out her hand and took the box from Juila. “Why don’t you sit down at the island and I’ll get this ready for you.”

  Juila and Jena were not sure how their mother had known they needed assistance right when they did, but they were vastly relieved to be rescued from a potentially embarrassing situation. Seeing her father standing nearby she took it upon herself to introduce their friend. “Dad, this is our new friend, Sofia. Sofia, this is our father, Riccan Stel.”

  Riccan held out his hand and took Sofia’s small hand and shook it as he said, “I’m pleased to meet you. I also want to thank you for taking such good care of my girls both before and during their first day.”

  “It’s no problem. That is part of my volunteer service. I enjoy getting to meet with new students,” she demurred. She kept watching Amanda. Now that she knew of her seven-year ordeal in the coma, she was interested to see if she displayed any differences. She certainly looked only a few years older than her daughters. It was definitely strange.

  Amanda listened to the conversation behind her as she got out several plates and placed two large pieces of pizza on each one. She put the first plate in the microwave and hit the pizza button. When the microwave beeped, she put the plate in front of Sofia first and then repeated the process for her girls’ plates. She hoped the girls were paying attention so they would know how to use the microwave on their own.

  “I have good news,” Amanda announced as she set the last plate down in front of Juila. “My parents are going to come over for dinner tonight. Sofia, you’re invited, too, if you want to stay for dinner.” Amanda thought it would be rude not to invite her, but she secretly hoped she would decide to go home.

  “Thank you for the offer, Mrs. Stel, but I have to get going home soon. I was just going to walk the girls to their gate, but then they invited me in. I was terribly curious to see the house, so I decided to come over.” Sofia finally stopped herself from rambling. She had not meant to say so much, and now she was slightly embarrassed. To hide her confusion, she picked up the pizza and took her first bite.

  “Well, we’ll have to plan for another time then.” Amanda smiled at their guest. She was thrilled it had worked out as she had planned. It would be hard to explain that the girls had never met their grandparents who only lived one town over from their house. She turned to Riccan and said, “Do you want to finish our research in the office?”

  “What research?” Riccan asked.

  Amanda walked around the island and winked at her husband.

  “Oh,” he amended lamely, “That research! Sure. Let’s go.”

  Amanda stifled a chuckle as she reached her husband and grabbed hold of his arm and almost towed him back to the study. Once they were in the room, she said, “Really, Riccan! Sometimes you can be pretty dense.”

  “What did I do? I just wanted to visit with the girls. What’s wrong with that?” he asked sincerely.

  “When the girls have a friend over, the last thing they would want to do is hang out with their father. You’ve got a lot to learn about teenage girls,” she teased.

  “I guess so,” he agreed. He sat down in his desk chair and asked, “So what would you like to research since we’re now stuck in here until Sofia leaves apparently.”

  “Have you done any searches on the word ‘samara’?” Amanda asked.

  “No,” he admitted. He opened his laptop computer and typed in the term. They did not have any luck except one obscure entry which said the old term for samara was key. Riccan thought that was an odd coincidence. Could the samaras be a key of some sort?

  “That was a bust,” Amanda said as she stretched her back out from leaning over the desk while she scanned the screen. “What have you found out about the gypsy families? Anything?”

  “Not much. The Scamp family line seemed to die out around 1920. I haven’t been able to trace anything beyond that time period.”

  “Huh,” Amanda said as she tried to think of some other angle in which to look. “Has your dad found anything out on his end?”

  “I haven�
��t asked him lately. I went over there today,” he began.

  “You did? When? I thought you said you were testing your newest software,” Amanda accused.

  “I was, and then I went over to see them,” he replied defensively.

  “What were they up to?”

  “I don’t know. I went inside, and there wasn’t a person there. I began to get very worried something bad had happened until I ran into Melba in the kitchen. Apparently,” Riccan began and decided to sit back in his chair and cross his arms to continue the story and continued, “my parents got a request to meet with Jehoban before breakfast. They left right away and had not been back. Melba took the liberty of letting the entire staff have the day off since my parents were going to be gone.”

  “Did Melba know why Jehoban wanted to talk to them?” Amanda asked, full of curiosity.

  “She didn’t, but she was sure interested in sitting me down in the kitchen to ask all kinds of questions about you!” Riccan smiled at Amanda’s grimace.

  She was remembering the batch of soup she had forgotten to put into a bowl while Melba was watching. The whole experience with creating had been humiliating. She did not like it when she was not good at something, and then to have an audience witness your failure was even worse.

  “I hope you kept your answers short,” Amanda commented.

  “I did. Hey, maybe we should have Melba make dinner for your folks tonight?” He suddenly brightened at the idea.

  “Would she want to come here to prepare it, do you think?” Amanda was not so sure it was a very good idea if that were the case. She really did not want an audience for her parents to meet the children.

  “It could be. She’s always been asking to come see my house on Earth,” he mused.

  Amanda watched her husband’s expression as he considered the possibilities for dinner.

  “I could always call a restaurant to cater for us,” he proposed.

  “I think that’s the best idea I’ve heard yet,” Amanda smiled at Riccan’s final suggestion.

  Riccan leaned forward and tapped a few keystrokes on the computer and got a list of places which could cater at the last minute. Together, they picked an Italian themed dinner menu, and Riccan placed the order.

  Amanda could hardly believe the cost of the food; however, Riccan did not even seem phased by the price. She was certainly going to have to get used to having a lot of money. Riccan never even seemed to consider money to be an issue, and his house and lifestyle showed it was not a problem.

  A few minutes later, Juila popped her head around the doorframe and announced, “We’re going to walk Sofia down to the end of the driveway. We’ll be back in a minute.” She smiled and immediately disappeared.

  Amanda grinned at Riccan to see if he thought the new friendship of the girls’ was cute. She saw his return grin and knew he was thinking the same thing. She stood up and asked, “Do you want to go sit in the living room. My guess is the girls are going to want to share their ideas about school when they return. It’ll be much more comfortable out there than in here.”

  “You’re so brilliant!” he stated as he shut his computer and stood up. He grabbed her hand, and they walked out of the office together. Riccan could almost feel the energy pulsing from Amanda’s hand. Either she was excited to hear about her children’s day, or she was nervous for the dinner party with her parents tonight. He hoped everything would go as she planned, but he secretly wished her parents could know the whole truth and ease his wife’s mind.

  They settled in their favorite spot on the living room couch. Amanda rested her back against her husband’s side, and they waited for the girls to return. The front door opened and the twins laughed their way through the foyer and into the living room.

  “How was your first day?” Amanda asked.

  “It was great!” Juila replied. “Some of my classes are going to be interesting. We don’t have anything like Biology class in Tuala. The American Government will also give me a good idea of how the political system is structured, at least here in America.”

  “How about your classes, Jena?” Amanda shifted her gaze to ask her other daughter.

  “I have most of the same classes as Juila, and a couple with Sofia, which is really nice. I think I’m going to enjoy the English class the most,” she answered and then considered the other classes before adding, “I think the Spanish class will be the most challenging. You know we only have English in Tuala, so I’ve never even considered learning another language.”

  “Of course,” Juila added, “Whatever Jena learns I will also learn through her and vice versa. I wish we could have had all separate classes so we could have twice the amount of classes from which to gain knowledge.” The sisters looked at one another, and both nodded in agreement.

  Riccan smiled at their overachieving attitude. He appreciated their desire to learn everything, but they were going to have to pace themselves or find out people here on Earth did not appreciate being shown up in school.

  Juila remembered what her mother had announced earlier and asked, “So what’s this about your parents coming over for dinner tonight?” She had been under the impression that they would probably never get to meet their maternal grandparents because of the discrepancy of their own ages to their mother’s. How do you explain such a thing to people from Earth who know nothing about an alternate universe right under their noses?

  Amanda smiled and said, “I told my mom that you both were Riccan’s children. I hated not being able to tell her that you’re mine as well, but this is going to have to be the start. I want you to know them. If they happen to see you two resemble me, then we can go from there. I hope you two aren’t upset with my small deception.”

  Together they shook their heads, and Jena said, “I hope we can eventually tell them the truth. It would be so much more fun to have family who lives nearby to go and visit regularly.”

  “I’d like that, too,” Amanda agreed. “Your father has ordered Italian food for dinner. It should be here around 5:45 pm and your grandparents are supposed to be here around six. They’ve never been here before.”

  “Oh, this is so exciting. What should I wear?” Juila suddenly became nervous. She hoped her grandmother was the same as she remembered from her own mother’s dreams when she was growing up. They had often talked about the dream where they had lived with their grandparents when they were two. Since they had only ever lived in Tuala, it seemed such a grand fantasy. Now it could possibly become a reality, and it was nerve-wracking.

  “They’re not that big on formalities. What you have on right now will be fine,” Amanda tried to assure them.

  “No, I want to wear something special. Maybe that pretty dress we picked out.” Juila turned to Jena to see if she agreed. “Why don’t we go upstairs and get it figured out together?”

  Jena smiled at her sister’s sudden desire to be fashionable. Naturally, she agreed, and the two of them practically skipped across the living room, foyer, and up the stairs.

  Amanda got tired just watching all of their energy. She still had not recovered her full endurance since waking up from the coma, and she was glad to be resting on the couch with her husband. She wished her entire life could look like this exact moment. Relaxing together in perfect harmony seemed a pleasant fantasy. She sighed deeply and asked, “What do we need to do to get ready for the dinner tonight?”

  “Nothing, really. Once the food arrives, then we can get out the serving trays. Until then, all we need to do is set the table for six,” Riccan declared.

  Chapter Fourteen

  RICCAN REPROGRAMMED THE front gate to automatically open when a car pulled in front of it. He did not want to have to stand around waiting for the caterer to call in on the intercom nor did he want to make Amanda’s parents feel even more uncomfortable by making them wait out front. He had asked Amanda if she had given specific instructions on where his driveway was located. Some people had a hard time finding the place for the first few times they came over
.

  Amanda smiled at Riccan’s growing nervousness. She had always seen him so calm and collected. Somehow watching Riccan pace through the living room caused her to be able to relax as they waited for the time to pass by slowly.

  They both jumped when the front doorbell rang. Riccan reached the door in record time and escorted the caterers into the kitchen. They took over from there and created plates of food which would be presentable for the table. Riccan left them to it, grateful they wanted to get it taken care of. He returned to his pacing in the living room.

  The caterers left after only about ten minutes of preparation time. They had moved the meal into the dining room. All was in readiness except for the guests of honor.

  Riccan looked at the clock on the microwave again and groaned because only two minutes had passed. He wished they had made the dinner plans for earlier now. Another thought struck him, and he suddenly asked, “Who will we say is the mother of the girls? I don’t want to lie to your parents, and I’m sure you don’t want to, either.”

  Amanda opened her mouth to reply when she was interrupted by the doorbell.

  Riccan turned and looked at her with alarm.

  “I guess we’ll have to play it by ear,” Amanda suggested as she got up from the couch and rushed to the front door. Riccan had not made a move to do so, and she did not want to leave them standing outside for too long.

  She opened the tall front door and smiled broadly at her parents. They looked slightly in awe of the house, and she tried to make them feel more comfortable by asking, “Did you find the place okay?”

  “Yes,” Chris answered as he leaned forward to kiss his daughter on the cheek, “Your directions were perfect. We were expecting something a little smaller, though.”

  “Sorry to burst your expectations.” Amanda giggled. “Please, come in!”

  Amanda grabbed her mother’s hand and led her inside. She hurriedly hugged her and asked, “Can I take your coat and purse?”