Chapter 14

Jenn was once again startled awake. Someone was opening the cell door. She looked up and saw that it was just breakfast being delivered. It was breakfast, if that’s what you want to call it. Jenn longed to be back home. Even if just to have something edible to eat. Unfortunately there wasn’t anything she could do about it. She was lost, alone in a foreign land and alienated from her friends. She wondered what had happened to them. If they had fallen to a similar fate. She hoped not. She hoped that whatever had happened to them that they were safe and sound.
Jenn ate her breakfast. Quickly. It wasn’t too bad. At least it didn’t make her sick. She had her cellmate, Matt, to keep her company. He had even gotten her a lawyer. Although she wasn’t quite sure what good that would do her. Speaking of Matt, where was he? She didn’t see him on his bunk. Was it possible he had already been released? If so, good for him.
Just then, Matt was led in. “You’re quite the early riser, aren’t you Matt?”
“It’s 9 AM.”
“It is?”
“How would you like to meet some people?”
“Seeing as how I’m going to be here for a while, I don’t see why not.”
“In a few minutes a guard is going to come with some activity forms. Ask for the form for the arboretum.”
“Hmm. That’s not dangerous, is it?”
“Why would it be?”
“No reason.”
“Well, it’s not.”
Jenn waited and in a few moments a guard came in. “Do you need any activity forms?” he asked.
“I’d like the one for the arboretum.”
“Here you are.” He handed her a small stack of papers. “When you’re done filling them out, you can give them to the next guard who comes by.”
Jenn sat down and got busy filling them out. There were a few release forms, a change of area form, and a field trip permission form. “That’s a lot of forms to fill out,” Jenn remarked to Matt.
“That’s Rome for you.”
She finished filling out the forms just as the second guard came back. “I see you’ve requested to visit the arboretum.”
“Yes, sir.” Jenn replied.
He took Matt’s form and looked at it “You also have requested to visit the arboretum.”
“Yes, sir.”
“A guard will be along shortly to escort the two of you to the arboretum.”
When he left, Matt turned to Jenn. “This might actually take a while, so you should be prepared to wait.” They sat there waiting and after what seemed like forever (but was only about 20 minutes), a young redheaded, female guard unlocked their cell. “Hi, Matt,” she said. She smiled sweetly. “I was told to take you to the arboretum.
“Hi, Sarah. It’s nice to see you again.”
“It’s nice to see you too, but you probably shouldn’t be calling me by my first name right now.” She led them down the long corridor. She opened one of the doors to a courtyard filled with many colorful trees and plants. Inside the courtyard were benches and tables. Several inmates were lounging around and talking. Some were playing games, and some were walking around. Jenn sensed that although the mood was not exactly relaxed or casual, it was much freer than in the rest of the prison.
Sarah walked over to a group of guards and sat down with them. Matt called over to one of the other inmates, “Hey Paul, come over here.”
A young 20 something man with short black hair, strolled over. He was wearing a blue shirt that read: There is a Bob. “Yo, what’s up, Matt?”
“This is Jenn, she’s new here and she could use a little schooling.”
Paul and Matt exchanged a look between them. “Sure, no problem. I’d be happy to help out a friend.” He led her over to a table stacked with games. “You play waggle?” he asked her.
“Maybe you could teach me.” “That’s what I like to hear.” He grabbed a box and sat down at a table over in the corner, away from everyone else. He opened the box and motioned for her to sit down. He took out a board that looked like it was for Chinese Checkers. “Start setting out the pieces.”
“I don’t know how.”
“Here, separate them into different colored piles.” He handed Jenn about twenty different pieces shaped like brightly colored broken stones. Roughly half of them were various shades of orange-yellow and half of them were shades of blue-green. She looked at him again. “Blue green in one pile, orange-yellow in the other.”
As she was separating the stones he began to talk. “It’s easier to talk without arousing suspicion if we’re doing something else. So what brings you to (name of the Roman Prison), Jenn? For that matter, what brings you to Rome?”
“I don’t know, it’s a long story that doesn’t make much sense. How do you know I’m not from Rome?”
“Not everyone knows how to play waggle, but most people have at least heard of the Roman national pastime.” Jenn had finished separating her stones. “Count out 15 orange-yellow pieces and 5 blue-green pieces. Then give me the rest.”
“Set your pieces on the white diamond near your end. The goal is for you to get all your pieces home and me to get my pieces home. Then we win.” Paul explained.
“You mean whoever gets their pieces home first wins.”
“No, we both win when all the pieces are home. The orange-yellow ones have to move to the orange or yellow home, and the blue-green ones to the blue or green home.”
“What a weird game,” Jenn remarked.
“Yes, it is,” agreed Paul. “But it is the national game of Rome, so to play it is patriotic.”
Paul took his turn and rolled the dice. Then he moved an orange-yellow piece towards Jenn.
Jenn thought for a moment and then took a move. “I don’t understand what the appeal is to a game that has no competition.”
“Well, for one thing,” Paul began to answer, while taking his turn again, this time rolling a low number and moving a blue-green piece. “There are only a certain number of rolls each player gets. But you have a point.
“This game was designed as a method of propaganda, to teach children how the Roman government is supposed to work.”
Just then a bell rang, and the inmates began exiting the arboretum. “What’s that?” Jenn asked.
“Work time!” a voice echoed over a speaker, answering Jenn’s question.
“Come back tomorrow, and I’ll teach you some more,” Paul said.

Chapter 13

As the trio walked towards Rome they noticed that the houses were getting closer and closer together. There were fewer farms and fewer trees as they continued walking. The houses closer to the city were less colorful than those outside the city. They continued walking on, hopeful that they would be able to find Jenn and leave Rome before the day was over.
“So what are we gonna do when we get there?” Josh asked.
"I have some friends. We’ll find them and go from there,” Stacie said.
Soon they came to a large city. This was apparent from the tall buildings and large “Welcome to Rome” sign they encountered on their way in.
“My friends live in the blue district on the south-east side of town,” Stacie pointed to the left of her. “Jake’s apartment is a short walk this way.”
They came to a tall building that was covered with a mural done entirely in various shades of blue. Stacie walked to the side of the building and started walking up the fire escape. “It’s quicker this way,” she said. Josh and Starr followed her. When they lived in the dorms they had used the fire escape to get in and out of the building, although usually so they didn’t have to talk to the R.A. on duty.
When they got to the third floor, Stacie knocked on the door. “Hey, Julia, will you go tell Jake that Stacie’s here?” An older woman’s voice echoed from inside. “You kids. Why can’t you come in the front door like everybody else?”
“Julia!”“All right. “I’ll go get him.” They heard her knock on the wall. “Jake some of your loser friends are here.”
A few moments later a well dressed young man in a red suit coat, black tee shirt that said ‘there is a Bob’, blue jeans, and a blue-green tie opened the door. “Hello, Stacie,” he said. “I see you’ve brought some friends. Do you know the password?” The latter was directed towards Josh.
“Password?” Josh was taken aback.
“Oh so sorry. I’m afraid I can’t let you in, kind sir.” He ushered the girls in and slammed the door in Josh’s face.
Josh pounded on the door. “Let me in.” He stopped after he heard laughter coming from inside.
“Do you think we should let him in girls?”
“I don’t know, he hasn’t been particularly useful so far.”
“From what I’ve seen, you seem to think he has some pretty interesting uses.”
“Is that so. I knew there was something shaky about him. I’m definitely not letting him in now.”
At that the door swung open, hitting Josh in the face.“Ow!”
“Aw,” Stacie said. “Is my little Joshy-washy hurt?”
“I’m fine, no thanks to you.”
“Well, no harm done, lets go inside. I‘m sure your hungry. I have some soup on the stove.”
They followed him into a sparsely furnished, brightly colored room. It was a large spacious room with separate eating, sleeping and living areas. Jake showed them the kitchen area and they each took a bowl. Then they sat down on a couple of milk crates.” I like what you’ve done with the place,” Stacie remarked.
“So who are your friends. Some riff raffs you picked up off the street?”“This is Starr,” she said.
“And the scab next to you?”
“This is Josh,” she smiled. “Like I told you there from.. somewhere else. They’re looking for their friend Jenn. Like I said she was last seen in Rome.”
“Well, that’s quite an interesting dilemma.”
“Jake, what’s with the mural on the building?” Josh interjected.
“You like it?” Jake asked. “A friend of mine did it.”
“Yeah. But why is it all blue?”
Jake looked at him, dumbfounded. “Of course its blue, I live in the blue district. I am a blue person.”
“Remember what I told you about the credit system in Rome?” Stacie explained.
“Yes.”
“Well, in Rome they color code things so that everyone knows what your level of credit is.”
“Oh.”
“One more thing. Who is this guy?” Josh smirked. “Your boyfriend?”
Jake and Stacie laughed. “Jake is my cousin.”
“But, when did you tell him about us?”
Stacie pulled out a small thin device that looked like a flat cell phone. “I sent Jake a message using this. How did you think I knew he would be home?”
“But, I didn’t hear you use that. Did you, Starr?”
Starr had been strangely silent this whole time. “No I didn’t hear her use it either”
“Text phones don‘t make any noise. How could I afford a voice phone?”
The four of them had a lively discussion which basically boiled down to two points. 1) On Stacie and Jake’s world everyone could afford one,(service was free) because no one had spent much time developing voice technology. 2) This was the fundamental difference between Stacie and Jake’s world and Starr and Josh’s world. Or rather, the desire to do the best for all people was the difference. After this lengthy discussion the four of them finally settled down to business.
“So, do you think we can find Jenn?” Starr asked
“I can call a few friends and see if they know anything. We should probably check the papers for unusual arrests. This would be a lot easier if your friend had bothered to register.”
“Jake” Stacie protested.
The three of them started cleaning up while Jake checked in with his friends. It didn’t take long before everyone was finished.
“Well?” Starr said.“Well, what?” Jake smiled innocently.
“Do you think your friends know anything about Jenn?” Starr finished.
“Oh, that. I think so, but we decided it would be better if we all met here.
“When?” Josh asked, eager to get something done.
“Most of them are working right now, so we’re going to meet for dinner.”
“But that’s several hours from now,” Josh protested.
“Well, don’t worry so much. We can check the papers while we’re waiting, and besides this is Rome. Where ever she is, she’s safe and well fed.” Jake reassured them unconvincingly.
“Jake has a point,” Stacie continued. “Even if we don’t find her today, she’ll be o.k. and we probably couldn’t do anything immediately anyway.

Chapter 12

“Howard Higglebottom is here to see you!” A loud voice shouted with all the finesse a prison guard could muster.
Jenn awoke with a start. Matt wasn’t here. “I don’t know any Howard Higglebottom.”
“His papers say he’s your lawyer. I suggest you get up and go talk to him.” The guard was dressed in an orange chef’s uniform and carrying a large ring of multicolored keys. She motioned for Jenn to follow her down a corridor to an empty room.
There was a man in a multicolored shirt standing on the opposite end of the room. He turned around and faced her as she came in. “Hello, you must be Jenn.”
Great, Jenn thought. I’ve got a kook for a lawyer. He’s staring out an imaginary window. “Yes, I’m Jenn. You must be Henry Higglebottom. Do you think you can help me?”
“I think so. I’ll file a few motions. Considering that this is your first offense, you should be out of here in no time.”
“Matt said a couple of weeks.”
“Well, that’s pretty good, considering the paperwork.
I’d say its pretty short, considering.”
Jenn was floored, literally. She sank down to the ground. “Do you think we maybe could get some chairs in here, or maybe a table?”
“I doubt it, there’s a stockroom full of them down the hall, but its takes weeks to fill out all the paperwork, plus there’s some kind of legislative hold, blah blah blah blah.”
“Well, anyway. What can I do to get this whole thing started?”
“First we can start, by answering a few questions.”
“O.k.”
“Where were you on the night of March 2nd?”
Jenn was a little startled. On March 2nd, she had been busy drunkenly writing on an ex-boyfriend so that he said “Your girlfriend is my girlfriend”. Not exactly her finest hour, but she didn’t think anyone else knew about it either. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“I’m sorry, I was looking at the files from the wrong case. Can you tell me why you haven’t registered?”
“I didn’t know I had to.”
He looked at her quizzically. “You know the insanity defense was thrown out years ago.”
“I’m telling the truth.”
“How is that possible?”
“I’m from out of town.” He looked at her again. “ Way out of time.”
“I guess that isn’t going to help us much. O.K. So how did you get here then?”
“I don’t know. It doesn’t really make sense to me. I don’t see how that’s going to help.”
“It’s not. I’m just curious. O.k. Name?”
“Jenn Srauski”
“Age?”
“20.”
“Documentation?”
“Huh?”
“I said, do you have any documentation?”
“Oh,“ Jenn took out her wallet and tossed it too him. “Will any of these do?”
He rifled through it. “Interesting.” He stopped at a picture of her and her friends. “They have funny skin.”
“Well, they‘re not from around here.”
He continued looking through her wallet. He looked up.
“This is all pretty much useless.”
“Pretty much?”
“Well, completely, but I didn’t want to say that.”
“So, is there anything we can do?”
“Of course. I can get those motions filed and we can get you out of here. I just need to you to sign a few documents first.” He took out a stack of papers about an inch thick.
“I have to sign all that?”
“Uh no, surprisingly, its much easier,“ he tore off one of the sheets of paper and handed it to her:
I the undersigned, do declare that I am not registered as a citizen of Rome. I understand that
I am not entitled to any of the privileges afforded to citizens of Rome, specifically the right to a job, to vote, to participate in government, to hold or campaign for office, or the right to trade or barter goods or services while on Roman soil. I am however entitled to all the privileges of a non-citizen including but not limited to the right to have goods and services traded and bartered on my behalf with my approval and the right to full legal status of an minor child. As a non-citizen I will be treated as a minor child in all matters legal, judicial, and economic. If I attempt to contest these matters a second time, I understand that I will be prosecuted fully under the law.
_____________
After Jenn finished reading the document, she felt a little dizzy from all the legal jargon. “That’s pretty clear,” she said when she recovered.
“That’s the Roman way. Clear and thorough.” He reached in to his briefcase. “I forgot, I do have one more paper you have to sign. This one just says that I answered all the questions you had and answered them satisfactorily.”
Jenn looked at the paper he handed her, and it did in fact, say just that. “If I sign this, I won’t be in trouble
anymore?”
“Yes.”
“And I won’t have to leave Rome?”
“No.”
“And I won’t starve to death or die of exposure.”
“If you like I or any one of my colleagues at C.E.W.L can be your own personal liaison.”
“One last thing? How much is this going to cost me?”“Cost? I don’t understand.”
“Money? Credits? Dinero?”
“We barter and trade here. But you don’t have anything I need and your not allowed to do that anyway. Besides this is my job.”
Jenn signed the papers. “How long should this take?”
“With any luck we’ll be in court next week.”
“Court? I thought you said this was a sure thing.”
“It is. Don’t worry. But we do have to go through the proper channels.” He rang a bell, and a guard came to take her back to her cell. By the time she got back it was late, and she went right to sleep.

Chapter 11

Stacie, Josh, and Starr woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and rested, but hungry. They walked out of their bedroom to discover a table of food set out before them. The table was set with porridge, breads, and fruits. Once again Josh noticed the lack of animal products, but dismissed it.
Their host came out to greet them. “Oh, good” he said. “You’re awake. I was just going to get you so we could eat.”
“Did you make all of this for us?” Starr asked, slightly bewildered.
“Of course. I love having guests. Unfortunately I don’t have very many and they never stay very long.”
They sat down to eat. Starr and Josh discovered that the porridge was quite hearty and good and not at all what they expected. It was creamy, rich, and flavorful. “What is this?” asked Starr.
“Bean porridge,” Stacie said. “This is almost as good as my grandmothers.”
Josh spit out some of what he was eating. ”Yuck! I hate beans!”
“Not anymore,” laughed Starr.
“They continued to eat. They were eager to find out what had happened to Jenn, but they were hungry from all the walking they had done, and didn’t say anything further until they had finished eating.
“Do you know how to find our friend, Jenn?” Josh broke the silence as they cleared the table.
“Of course. I thought you’d never ask,” the wise old man replied. He continued clearing the table and didn’t say anything else.
“Well, how do we find her?” Starr asked, unable to stand this silence any longer.
“That’s an entirely different question. In Rome, if you don’t know the rules, it’s very easy to get in trouble. Since your friend doesn’t know the rules she probably found herself in trouble.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Josh sank down on the floor where he had been standing. Stacie sat down next to him and put her arm around him to comfort him.
“It’s not really as bad as it sounds,” she said. ”I’ve been to Rome before, so I know how to get around. But..”
“But?” Starr and Josh said, anticipating what was coming next.
“But once somebody gets in trouble it can be hard to get them out of it,” she finished.
“Hard how?” Josh asked.
“It can be complicated and it often takes a long time.”
“But its doable?”
“Usually, yes.”
“Do you know how to find Jenn?” Starr asked the wise old man.
“Yes,” he answered and once again didn’t say anything further.
“So, how do we find her?” she asked.
“I would start by looking for any reports of someone who has been arrested for not registering or by checking with C.E.W.L.”
“Do they really exist?” Stacie asked. “I would think they would be pretty much unnecessary.”
“Yes, C.E.W.L. is real, and yes they are needed,” the wise man smiled, knowingly "There is a Bob.
Starr, thought about this for a moment. “Before we go, is there anything else you feel like we need to know?”
“I know many things, but I don’t know anything that is important for your endeavor.”
The three loaded up on provisions and said their goodbyes. “Thank you for keeping an old man company.”
“Thank you for helping us find our friend.”
“I only wish I could help you more,” he said. “Hurry so that you can be sure to get there before it gets dark.”
They walked out his door, and down the road towards Rome. It was a beautiful day. Bright, but not too sunny, with a nice light breeze. It was the perfect day for a long walk. ”Is Rome really all that bad?” Josh asked.
“No,” Stacie said, “It’s just not somewhere I would go for a vacation. I want to stop at a stream about a mile down the road, and when we get there, I’ll tell you all about it.”
The three of them continued walking down the path. It was a narrow path with few trees, unlike the area they had come from. On either side of the path were farms. After about a mile, as Stacie had promised, they came to a stream.
They sat down and rested.
“You said you would tell us about Rome and the group called C.E.W.L.” Starr reminded Stacie.
“Yes, I did,” Stacie said as she sat down. She took a sip of water before continuing. ”Roman society is based upon rank calculated by credits obtained by doing favors for people. In Rome, the most important organization is the Roman Senate, which has all the power. Because the city is so large and so strictly regimented everything moves slowly in Rome. Without documentation you cannot hold credit, and without credit you cannot eat, sleep, or hold down a job.”
“Wow, that sounds really harsh,” Josh said.
“It can be,” Starr replied. “But it apparently works for some people.”
“So, how does C.E.W.L. fit in?”
“The system doesn’t work for some people, or at least not as well as it does for others. Some people are trapped there for years, despite the revolution. C.E.W.L. is a
legendary underground organization trying to change all of that. I don’t know very much about it, I thought it was a myth. C.E.W.L stands for a Community of Elitists Without Registering.”
“Is it dangerous?” Josh asked, thoughtfully.
“No, I have some friends who live there. We can stay with them if we have to, but we shouldn’t be there long.”
As soon as they were refreshed and ready the three of them continued down the road to Rome.

Chapter 10

“Well, Jenn” Matt said. “Would you mind telling me how a beautiful, intelligent girl like you ended up stumbling on Rome and all its complex eccentricities?”
“I kinda would. I don’t think you’d believe me and I’d end up sounding either crazy or stupid.”
“Try me.”
“Let’s just say I have an unprecedented ability for stumbling on things unexpectedly.”
Just then an officer in a yellow uniform walked in. “Matt your lawyer is here to see you.”
“Got to go. I’ll talk to you later.” Matt got up out of the cell and followed the officer, who was presumably taking him to see his lawyer.
Jenn sat there trying to figure out what kind of cruel world she had stumbled on. It didn’t make any sense. The man on the stump didn’t wear orange, yellow, green, or purple. Maybe he was an outcast of some sort, like CEWL. Or maybe he lived somewhere where those rules didn’t apply, or maybe...
Before Jenn had a chance to finish that train of thought, another officer appeared. She noticed he was carrying a lot of official looking papers. “Lunchtime,” he announced.
“What are all those papers?” Jenn asked.
He looked at her quizzically. ”Those are your lunch forms. You have to fill them out before you can eat. There would be more forms, but your not registered, so all we need you to do is sign a few release forms, a form to receive an assigned lunch seat, a meal request form, and diet request form.”
Jenn was little stunned, but she followed the orange officer to a small room with a desk but no chair where she was asked to sit down in the seat at the desk and begin filling out the forms. After a few unsuccessful attempts she squatted and went to work. About 30 minutes later she was finished. The officer came and took them from her. “I’m afraid your late. Your lunch shift already started. Your going to have to fill out this request for change of lunch shift form.” he said as he handed her another form.
Fortunately that form only took a few minutes, and he led her to a mess hall where inmates were being divided into groups and seated at tables. An officer in green walked up to her. “Designation please.”
Jenn was startled, ”What?”
“Designation please.”
“oh, 1017a -1739.”
“Yes, I have your approved papers right here."
She stepped into the cafeteria, and another officer in a purple uniform approached her. “May I see your table assignment please?”
Jenn looked through the forms she had received on her way in and found the form he was looking for.
“Uh, yes C-3. Third table on your right, seat closest to the window.”
Jenn sat down at a table full of people with orange shirts. There were three men and a woman. The woman was in her mid-forties, one of the men was much older and the other two men were Jenn’s age.
Jenn turned to the man on her right, “Nice place, huh?”
An officer walked up to her and sternly reprimanded her. “Inmates are not allowed to engage in conversation during meal shifts.”
Jenn sank slowly in her seat. “How am I supposed to know what to do?” she thought.
The woman across from her smiled as if reading her mind. “Just follow me,” she mouthed. Jenn was relieved. Momentarily the entire table stood up and got in line single file. Jenn made sure she was behind the woman. As they went through the line they were further sorted by dietary plan. Each person was given a generic meal consisting of some sort of protein, drink, and side dish. Once herded through the line they sat in their assigned seats.
They ate quickly and silently. Jenn barely had enough time to chew the bland tasteless food products on her tray. When an officer walked up to her table and annouced, "Dismissed." At this the entire table stood up and walked to a line of wash basins and trash cans. They scraped their plates off and then stacked them in the soapy water.
Once they were finished they returned to their cells. As Jenn walked down the corridor, she felt overwhelmed. What had she done to deserve such treatment? Where had she gone wrong? Jenn sank into her mattress and stared at her pillow trying to figure it out. She didn't have any answers, just questions. Hopefully Matt would be able to help her get out of here and find her friends.

She looked up and saw that Matt was already in the cell. “You said you thought your lawyer could help me?”
“I talked to him this morning about you. He said that he could probably get you out in a couple of weeks if you're lucky.”
“A couple of weeks!” she was taken aback. How long have you been in here?”
“I’ve been here almost two years now, and I’ll be in here until the revolution is over.”
“For not registering?”
“Well, this is my 7th or 8th offense. If I registered I could get out of here in a few months. So, you see, a few weeks isn’t really all that long.”
Jenn thought this over. There had to be some other way. She couldn’t bare the thought of being stuck on this strange planet in a lonely jail cell for such a long time. By the time she got out of here her friends would
be long gone. She might never find them again. She would be all alone on this planet. Far away from the people she knew. All because she wanted a little adventure. It was late and she had missed dinner. There was no sense fretting about it all night. Jenn sank into her pillow, praying that this was all a dream, and when she woke up she would be safe at home.

Chapter 9

Starr looked at the boy she had met the previous night.
“Hello, again,” he said.
“So, you’re Joe’s grandson. But what is your name?”
“Joe, I was named after my grandfather. If you want to meet your friends we have to get out of here.” Joe began to lead Starr back through the forest they had come through. “How did you like your stay with the ‘travelers’?”
“They sure are interesting. But I have no idea who they are.”
“Like I said neither do I and I've been living with them for a while.”
The two of them came to a stream. “I don’t remember this before,” remarked Starr.
“You probably didn’t go this way. It’s a little shorter, but you can’t cross this stream with something on your back. Be careful and step on exactly the same rocks I do.” Joe made sure to step on the rocks with pink backs.
Starr followed him, barely missing a purple rock. When they reached the other side of the stream Joe breathed a sigh of relief. “What’s wrong with the other rocks?”
“They're not rocks- they're snapping turtles and they don’t like being stepped on.”
“You should have told me!”
“Would you have come this way?”
“Uh.. maybe.”
“Yeah.”
Starr gave in and they continued their walk through the forest. The walk back was a little harder that the one there. At a few points Starr and Joe nearly missed falling off a narrow ledge and falling into the ravine below. Soon they came to the spot where Starr had met the “travelers”.
“Well, here we are,” said Joe. “Now where were you supposed to meet your friends?”
“Uh, I don’t know” she stammered.
“How are you supposed to meet them if you don’t know where?” he teased.
“I know where, I just don’t know where. It’s that way” she pointed in the direction of the town. “If you want, I’ll show you.”
“Well actually, I was planning to go to town anyways, so I can go with you and wait for a little while.”
Joe and Starr walked toward the city, back through the same path she had taken before. As before, Starr noticed how brilliantly colored and unusual the trees and plants were.
Soon they reached the gate where Starr and her friends had come in the day before. Stacie and Josh saw Joe and Starr come out of the forest.
“Hello,” Stacie said. “Nice to see you again, Joe. And you must be Josh’s friend.” “Hello, Stacie,” Joe said. “And you must be one of Starr’s friends.”
“I’m Starr,” said Starr. “Nice to meet you Stacie. I guess the two of you already met so I don’t really need to introduce you to someone I just met.”
“Well, I guess I oughta introduce my self” said Josh. I’m Josh. It’s nice to meet you Joe. Starr, Stacie is from around here and she will be coming with us.”
“Joe,” said Stacie. “do you think you’re ready to come with us this time?”
“No, not now. I have some things I have to do” he said. “Maybe when you come back.” With this he headed off to Club Nuevo.
“Well I wonder where Jenn could be?” Starr asked.
“We don’t know. We were thinking of maybe going to look for her when we met up with you” said Stacie.
“What if you met up with her first?” asked Starr.
“Well, then we would have left without you, of course” teased Josh.
“You’re such a nerd” rebutted Starr.
“Do we know where she went?” asked Stacie
“Yeah, she went that way.” Starr pointed to the east to the rugged path through hills and valleys.
The three of them set off. It was slow and tedious and they soon became tired. “Are you sure she went this way?” complained Stacie.
“Yeah. I saw her go this way” said Josh, suddenly not sure.
“Oh look!” said Starr. “There’s one of her bracelets.”
“See, I told you,” Josh smirked. They continued on their way with a renewed sense of purpose. They continued walking and began to get very tired. When they could go no further they came upon an old man sitting on a stump, whittling.
“Have you seen our friend?” Josh called out.
“Well, now doesn’t anyone say hello anymore?” the old man complained. “All anyone does is ask questions and expect answers.
“Hello, I’m Josh.”
“Hello Josh, who are your friends?”
“I’m Starr.”
“And my name is Stacie.’
“Well as to your friend, I don’t know if she came by here. This is a well traveled road. What does she look like?”
“How did you know our friend was a girl?” Starr asked.
“I guess I don’t know,” he chuckled. “But the only person to come by here was tall girl with long hair, who was about your age.”
“That was probably her,” Josh said. “Was her name Jenn?”
“I don’t know. She was in an awful hurry. She wanted to get to the next town.”
“How far is it?” asked Starr.
“Oh, just a few miles that way,” he said, pointing further down the road.
“But Rome is the nearest town in that direction,” protested Stacie. “We can’t stay there overnight.”“You didn’t ask me where you could stay; you just asked me where your friend went.”
“Do you know of a place we could stay?” asked Jenn.
“Why yes,” the old man replied. “There is a little farmhouse up this path.” He got up from his whittling and led Josh, Stacie, and Starr down a short path and to a simple and accommodating farmhouse. After finding them a room to sleep in he left them alone, and they quickly fell fast asleep.

Chapter 8

A tall middle aged man who seemed to resemble both Stacie and Mrs. Lamont walked into the room. He smiled sweetly. “Hello Stacie,” he said. “I see you have brought some friends. Would you be so kind as to introduce us?”
“Of course, but you must know I don’t have much time. Josh and I have to meet some friends shortly.” Stacie said in a curt manner that was out of character.
“Of course, of course,” his smile faded. “Always in a hurry, places to go, people to see. And your friends?”
“This is Amber, and her little boy. I brought her here because her son is sick, and she needed a good doctor.” Dr. Lamont took out his stethoscope and began to look at the little boy.
“And the boy?” prompted Mrs. Lamont.
“Well, I haven’t named him yet,” laughed Amber.
“I meant Josh.”
“Yes, well. Father, this is my friend Josh. I met him a little while ago at Club Nuevo. Josh, this is my
“Father,” thought Josh, “then, Mrs. Lamont must be her mother or grandmother.” He wondered why there seemed to be so much tension in this little family. What had happened and why was Stacie so eager to leave them?“I’ll need to take him into my office,” said Dr. Lamont to Amber and motioned for the two of them to follow him. They left and there was a lull in the conversation.
Mrs. Lamont broke the silence. “Will you be staying for lunch?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Stacie said quickly. “Josh and I are in a hurry. We have to meet some friends.” At that she stood up to leave. Josh and Stacie said goodbye to Mrs. Lamont and left the little house.
When they were outside Josh stopped. “My friends probably won’t be back for a few hours. We could have stayed.”
“I’m not ready yet,” she said. Josh didn’t press the issue any further.” We can wait for your friends over there.” Stacie pointed to a group of trees beside the gate that Josh, Jenn, and Starr had come through.
“That would be perfect,” said Josh. The two of them walked over and sat down. Stacie pulled a couple of apples that she had saved from that morning’s breakfast. “Here, catch.” She tossed one to Josh, who caught it.
While they were eating Josh turned and looked at the gate. It looked just like the one back home. “What is that gate to?” he asked.
“It’s a garden.”
“Have you ever been in there?”
“Sure. Hundreds of times. Wanna see it?” He nodded and as she grabbed his hand to pull him up she fell forward into his lap. They stared at each other and Josh brushed her hair back and kissed her. She smiled and then she got up, this time pulling Josh up with her.
They opened the gate and walked into the garden. Instead of being whisked away into another world, they walked into the most beautiful garden Josh had ever seen. There were flowers and trees of every imaginable shape, size and color.
Stacie led Josh over to a flowering bush with brilliant blue and gold buds. “This was my favorite as a child. I used to sit here for hours and watch it bloom.”
“Watch it bloom?” Josh was started. When he looked again the buds were opening.
“Yes,” said Stacie putting her arm around his waist. “The flowers on this bush bud, grow, bloom, and die in less than an hour. When I was younger I could sit here all afternoon and watch them grow, die, and bloom.” Stacie continued to lead Josh around the garden, pointing out various plants and flowers.
“This one is a spiny root.” She pointed to a plant with a long stem and fibrous leaves. “Its roots don’t grow deep but they have sharp thorns with poison designed to ward off predators.”
“You know a lot about plants.”
“Well, I used to want to raise and study them.”
“And now?”“I don’t know. Let’s just wait for your friends.” Stacie led Josh out of the garden to the trees near the gate. They sat down and waited for Starr and Jenn.
After a while Josh began to get impatient. “I wonder where they could be.”
“I’m sure they’re fine, they’ll be here soon.” reassured Stacie.
They continued to wait. Still they didn’t come and Josh grew impatient again. “Where are they?”
“Well, do you know which way they went? Maybe we could meet them halfway.”
“Starr went that way,” he pointed north to the path through the forest she had taken. “And Jenn went that way.” He pointed east to the path through the mountains.
“Well all we can do is sit here and wait until one of them comes back.” So with that they continued to do so.