The Journey to Ancient Greece - Chapter 12

. . . continued from Chapter 11

(or start at the beginning)

Around 480 B.C., Patras was primarily a farming community. It did have a small port of trade, however, that was slowly growing in stature with ships arriving from various parts of Italy and the Ionian Sea bringing in goods for sale. Later it would grow to become an even busier port city, but at this time it was fairly smooth sailing for Vinnie and his three-person crew as they found an empty stretch of beach not far from the main harbor outside of town.

After pulling their boat up onto the sand they walked into town to begin their search for the home of Kaiaphas. It didn’t take long for them to find a local townie who pointed them in the right direction towards the farm.  Kaiaphas was, after all, one of the largest land holders in the area. The first real difficulty that Vinnie and the three children were met with was determining how exactly they would go about searching the farm for Kisandra.

          “We can’t just walk in there,” said Argo.

          The four of them had returned to the beach and were gathered around a small campfire they had built near the boat. It was early afternoon, and Vinnie had already caught an eel and had bought some bread and olive oil for the lunch he was preparing for the children.

          “They won’t recognize you, will they?” asked Zammie.

          “No, but this is a powerful man with lots of guards,” said Argo. “A group of four people can’t just roam around looking at the workers without someone noticing.”

          “What do you think we should do?” asked Zammie.

          “I don’t know. What do you think, Vinnie?”

          Vinnie had the black eel skewered on a stick and was holding it over the fire.

          “Your sister is probably either weaving or acting as a maid for one of the ladies of the house. If she’s weaving then they could have her in a building separate from the house. Or she could even be milking goats or something outside which would be even better,” said Vinnie.

          “What if she’s working inside the house?” asked Argo.

          “That would make it very difficult for us,” answered Vinnie.

          “I have an idea,” said Kyla.

          “What if we sneak onto the farm after dark?” asked Zammie.

          “After dark? How will we be able to see her? How would we know where to look?” asked Argo.

          “I said I have an idea,” repeated Kyla.

          “We could pretend to be slaves ourselves,” said Zammie.

          “Too dangerous,” said Argo. “The overseers probably know all the slaves by sight anyway.”

          “Why don’t we listen to what Kyla has to say,” said Vinnie.

          “Kyla?” asked Zammie.

          “Thank you, Vinnie,” Kyla said. “I have an idea that will allow all of us to walk freely around the farm right now during the middle of the day.”

          “Really?” asked Argo. His expression brightened.

          “How?” asked Zammie.

          “It will take some good acting, but I’m sure it will work,” said Kyla.

To be continued in Chapter 13 . . .

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4

KILLING FOR COUNTRY  

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TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1

THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 

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TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2

A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

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TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3

WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 

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