Kyla
took a deep breath and moved up just behind Rhachel and reached up for the hair
pin. As soon as her hand came within an inch of the pin, however, Rhachel bent
over to pick up a garment she had dropped on the floor. When she stood back up,
Rhachel bumped Kyla’s outstretched arm. Kyla took that moment to snatch the
gold hairpin out of Rhachel’s hair. As Rhachel
turned to face Kyla her blonde locks tumbled down around her shoulders. The first thing she saw was a young girl with
a black pony-tail running towards the shop’s exit.
“My hair!” yelled Rhachel. “My hairpin! Stop! Thief!”
Kyla’s heart was in her mouth. She moved as quickly as her
little feet would carry her. She ran past several other customers and out the
front door of the shop.
Her plan was working perfectly. She thought she was home
free. She saw Zammie outside the store and she ran towards him to give him the
hairpin when a large man with a sword hanging from his hip stepped in front of Kyla
and picked her up.
“Give me that hairpin, you little thief!” roared Isaak.
“Zammie!” Kyla tossed the hairpin to her cousin. Zammie
caught the hairpin and Isaak dropped Kyla. Kyla fell to the ground with a thud.
Zammie took off running into the busy streets.
“Get that boy!” Isaak barked at his deputy.
Both Isaak and the deputy took off after Zammie. Isaak
knocked over two fishermen in the street as he shoved his way through traffic.
Rhachel had also run out of the store. Kisandra was a
couple steps behind her. As soon as Kisandra stepped out of the store she felt
a hand grab her wrist. She turned her head to see Argo standing next to her.
“Let’s go!” he said.
Kisandra couldn’t speak. She just nodded and felt herself
pulled by Argo in the direction opposite from where Zammie had led Isaak. Kyla
was picking herself up off the ground and dusting her tunic when Rhachel saw
her and walked over to her.
“You’re a thief!” said the visibly angry Rhachel. She
brushed the golden hair out of her face with her fingers.
Kyla looked at her calmly and said, “I’m sorry. But your
father really shouldn’t be forcing people to work for him without their
permission.”
“Excuse me?” said a confused Rhachel.
“Nevermind. I have
to go.” Kyla turned around and began running after Zammie and the two guards.
Zammie had run past several fruit and vegetable stands when
he saw a small animal pen filled with goats and chickens off to the side of the
main street. The store owner was busy helping a couple of customers so Zammie
was able to run around behind the pen and hide behind the fences and the goats
without being noticed. He kept a close eye on the street and before long he
spotted the two big guards running by. The deputy ran by first and a couple
beats later Zammie saw the big red-headed leader. Zammie became nervous when the big soldier
stopped to catch his breath. Then he became scared when the big soldier turned
and appeared to be looking straight at Zammie.
Suddenly
the big soldier began walking towards the animal pen. Zammie’s heart began
racing even faster. He looked around to see if he wasn’t fully concealed when
he noticed that the sun was reflecting brightly off the gold hairpin he was
holding.
A
bright flash had caught Isaak’s eye as his was running through the market
square. He stopped because he could see a golden glimmer through the crowd coming
from behind a goat pen on the other side of the street. He began to cross the
street towards the glimmer when he saw it move. Now he thought he could make
out the shape of kid kneeling behind the roaming animals.
Isaak
pushed his way through the small crowd of people and ran behind the pen to
where he had seen the glimmer. He was ready to capture that disrespectful
thief. When Isaak arrived behind the pen, however, all he saw was the golden
hairpin sitting in the dirt. Zammie was nowhere to be found.
Kyla
was running through the streets and scanning the scene for any sign of Zammie
when he appeared out of nowhere next to her.
“Come
on, Kyla, we gotta get back to the boat!”
He
grabbed his cousin by the wrist and both kids began running back through the
bustling streets. Their quick movements attracted the hawk-like vision of
Isaak. He spotted the two raven-haired children running through the crowd
bringing a grin to his brawny face.
“I’ve
got you now,” he said to himself.
“Should
we go look for them?” asked Argo.
He
was standing in the shallow water offshore holding onto the boat. Kisandra was
sitting inside the boat with a worried look on her face.
“Give
them more time,” said Vinnie. “We knew it might take a moment for them to get
away if they ran back into town.”
The
waited a couple more minutes before Argo said, “Something’s wrong. I’m going to
go—“
“Look!”
Vinnie interrupted him. He was pointing to the town’s edge roughly fifty yards
from the boat. They could see Zammie and Kyla running at full speed past the
marble columns of a small temple that was close to the docks.
Then
they saw the massive Isaak barreling after them.
“It’s
Isaak!” said Kisandra.
“Hurry!”
yelled Argo.
The
two cousins were hustling as fast as they could across a small open field of
grass that led towards the beach.
“Let’s
get the boat out in the water,” said Vinnie. “We can’t let that man reach us.”
Argo
and Vinnie began pushing the boat deeper into the gulf. Zammie and Kyla ran across the beach and into
the water. They splashed wildly as they tried to catch up with the boat.
“Hurry!
He’s right behind you!” yelled Argo.
“We’re
trying!” returned Zammie.
Kyla
reached the boat first and climbed in. Isaak reached the water and quickly made
up space on the children. He swam up and
grabbed Zammie just as Zammie had one leg over the edge of the boat.
“Agh!
Let go of me!” yelled Zammie. Isaak had a vice-like grip on Zammie’s ankle.
“Come
here, you thief!” yelled Isaak.
THUMP!
Zammie
felt the tight grip on his ankle slacken. He took advantage of the new freedom
to climb fully into the boat. He looked up and saw Vinnie holding one of the
boat oars like an axe. He looked back
and saw Isaak holding his head and staggering in the shallow surf.
“Ha! You did it!” Zammie said to Vinnie.
“I’ve done nothing yet,” said Vinnie. “We still need to get
away from here.”
“Keep paddling!” said Argo.
Vinnie
began paddling again and Zammie grabbed a free oar and began paddling as
well. Soon they were far from shore and
on their way towards Troezen where Argo’s mother would be waiting for them.
Once they were safely out of Isaak and Kaiaphas’ reach,
Argo took a moment to commend Kyla. “That was an amazing plan, Kyla. It worked
perfectly.”
“Thanks, Argo,” said Kyla.
“Both of your plans worked, Kyla,” said Zammie. “When did
you get so smart?”
“Very funny, Zammie, but thanks anyway,” said Kyla with a
smile.
“I can’t believe we got away,” said Kisandra. “You guys are
amazing!”
Argo turned to the two cousins. “I don’t know how I could
ever fully thank you for all the help you’ve given us. And that goes for you
too, Vinnie.”
Vinnie flashed a bright smile. “It was nothing,” he said.
“Besides, if I had let anything happen to these two their mother would have
killed me.”
Zammie snapped a look at Vinnie. “Our mother? What d’you
mean?”
“You know our mother?” asked Kyla.
Vinnie wore a nervous smile as if he knew he had something
wrong. “What? Oh, uh…that’s just an expression we use where I’m from. Not to be
taken literally.” He quickly went back to paddling.
“How far are we from Troezen?” asked Argo.
“We have quite a ways to travel,” said Vinnie. “We’ll have
to sail all the way around the northeastern edge of the Peloponnesus to the
city of Corinth
and from there we’ll need to walk several miles to reach your family.”
“How long do you think it will take?” asked Argo.
“Oh, a few days at least,” answered Vinnie.
“I
will help you paddle,” said Argo. He grabbed another oar and began to paddle in
support of Vinnie.
Vinnie
looked up to see the sails of his small boat being stretched tight by the wind.
“We’ve got a strong wind supporting us now. We don’t need everyone paddling. We
should take shifts. Zammie, you and Kyla should rest now while they row. And in
a couple hours we can switch. That way there will always be someone rowing.”
“Okay,” said Zammie.
Kisandra picked up another oar and began to row with her
brother. Zammie and Kyla sat in the back of the boat and tried to enjoy the
scenery. It was a beautiful day. The sun was warm and bright and the water was
as blue as sapphires. The ebb and flow of the waves and the rhythmic noise of
the paddles dipping in and out of the water soon began to give Zammie and Kyla
heavy eyelids. Just before he fell asleep Zammie again noticed the little Arjuna
statue underneath the bench at the front of the boat. It was on the floor of
the boat next to where Vinnie was sitting and it appeared to be looking back at
him with glowing eyes.
“Look, Kyla, that little Arjuna is staring at us.” Zammie
looked over at his cousin but she was already asleep.
A moment later Zammie was asleep as well.
He was engulfed in darkness but he could hear a familiar
voice saying his name.
“…Zammie…”
At
first it sounded like it was a hundred miles away, but it was getting closer by
the second.
“…Zammie,” said the woman’s voice.
Zammie thought the voice was familiar but couldn’t quite
place it. His mind felt sluggish and his thinking was slow.
“…Zammie,” the voice said again.
So familiar…
So familiar…MOM!
Zammie snapped into consciousness and sat up in his own
bed. His mother was sitting at the foot of his bed smiling at him.
“Mom!” Zammie sat up and gave his mother a big hug.
“Yes, it’s me,” said his mother. “You’ve been asleep for a
long time. Dinner’s ready. Are you hungry?”
Zammie looked around his room. It looked the same. How long
had he been gone? It had to have been several days. But he had the same clothes
on he had when they first tried to use the Arjuna. He looked over to his desk
and saw the silver statue still standing there.
“How long was I asleep?” he asked his mother.
“I don’t know. A couple hours at least.”
Zammie couldn’t believe it. “A couple hours? Where’s Kyla?”
“She’s at the table eating already. She took a nap too, but
she woke up a few minutes ago.”
Zammie took another moment to shake out the cobwebs before
going to the kitchen.
He walked in to see his dad, Kyla, and Kyla’s parents all
gathered around the kitchen table. A banquet of fried tilapia, lumpia rolls,
rice, and fresh vegetables sat on the table. Kyla had just about cleaned all
the meat off of a full tilapia fish leaving nothing but the bones.
“Look who finally woke up,” said Zammie’s father.
“Hello,
Zammie. How are you?” asked Kyla’s parents.
“Hello, Uncle. Hello, Auntie. I’m fine.”
“Come eat then,” said his father, “before Kyla eats up everything.”
Zammie sat down and had a wonderful meal with his family.
After supper he led Kyla into the living room away from their parents who were
in the kitchen cleaning the dishes and talking to each other in Tagalog.
“Was all that real or just a dream?” asked Zammie.
Kyla had a surprised look on her face. “Do you mean Greece?”
“Of course I mean Greece.”
“You had the same dream?”
“I don’t think it was a dream, Kyla.”
“But no time passed. We just woke up and here we are like
nothing happened.”
Zammie shook his head. “Something happened. It was that
statue that Mister G gave me.”
“I think it’s magic,” said Kyla.
“We need to talk to him about it.”
“Yes, we do.”
“I still think that was him,” said Zammie.
“You mean Vinnie?”
“Yes. That was a crazy trip,” Zammie said with a big grin
on his face. “The boats, and the Oracle, and being chased through town by a
giant red-headed man.”
“I
wonder if Argo and his sister made it home.”
“Yeah. How would we ever know?”
“Maybe Mister G would know,” said Kyla.
“I still have the statue. Maybe we can go again?”
“I don’t know, Zammie, what if we get stuck somewhere
forever?”
“I don’t think we can. Because in our time it’s like we’re
just taking a nap.”
“Yeah, but…I don’t know,” said Kyla. “Will we always go to Greece?
I would want to go somewhere else.”
“Yeah, me too.”
They sat on the couch in silence for a moment before Zammie
said, “You did good out there, Kyla. Your plans really saved the day.”
“Thank you.”
“What kind of seeds were those we planted anyway?”
“They were just plum pits,” said Kyla laughing. “I wonder
if they ever grew into anything.”
“That’s
funny,” said Zammie. “I’m sorry I gave you such a hard time earlier.”
“You
see, girls can have good ideas too.”
“Yeah. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised though, right? I
mean you are my cousin.”
Kyla rolled her eyes. “Oh, Zammie, give me a break, you
already used that line.” She got up and began walking back to the kitchen.
“Well it’s true,” Zammie said as he followed her out of the
living room. On his way back into the kitchen, Zammie put his hands in his
pocket and pulled out a small wooden figurine from inside. It was the gift of
the soldier given by Argo.
So
maybe it wasn’t a dream after all?
“Kyla,” he said. “Guess what!”
Their
first experience with the Arjuna statue was confusing for the two cousins. They
had many questions to ask Ramesh the next time they saw him. They both enjoyed
their experience in ancient Greece,
but for tonight they were grateful to be back in their own homes with their own
parents and sleeping in their own rooms. That night they both dreamt of campfires
on the beach and slaying mythological monsters. And they both fully appreciated
having soft pillows beneath them and warm blankets over top of them once again.
KILLING FOR COUNTRY
TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1
THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE
A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3
WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING
