Iliona and the resumption of ties Page 2

  “It’s missing indeed,” Muriel said, getting closer to see better. “But I don’t think anyone noticed it in the dim light; I didn’t.” She added, shrugging.

  “I don’t have another one to use right now. I guess it fell while I was washing my face. That fake blood you got stuck too much to the skin, by the way, I had to wash it more than once.” He said turning to the mirror again. “I guess I’m not showing up for dinner.”

  “But you should go. It’s embarrassing enough we practically invited ourselves to stay. If you’re so uncomfortable about your eye, put your sunglasses on, and it all will be fine.”

  “Sunglasses at night during a full blackout?” He said to himself in the mirror, as analyzing the situation. Then, quickly deciding, he just took his red sunglasses from the bag he had brought from the car and put them on.

  *

  “I have sensitive eyes,” Ed answered during the dinner when Marcus asked why he was wearing sunglasses. “Sometimes even candle lights are a bother,” he added. Silvia turned to Marcus with eyes that said: “Better not to comment further.” While Timothy looked now and then to Ed by his side, making this latter one think with himself: “What’s the matter with this kid, anyway?”

  To break the awkward silence that grew while they were eating, sometimes interrupted by the banging window upstairs, Silvia asked toward the new ones:

  “So, you said you were moving to Nagranto because of your work. What do you work with?”

  “Moths,” Ed gave the answer as soon as the question echoed.

  “We’re entomologists. We’re researching about the significant decrease in Nagranto’s purple moth population.” Muriel said with a rehearsed tone, biting a slice of her cheese pizza.

  “I like their chrysalis,” Timothy commented as a matter of conversation. And Ed gave him a “who cares?” look, that the others could not see because of his sunglasses.

  ‘Actually, moths usually make cocoons, while butterflies make chrysalides. See, cocoons are usually made of silk that the moths spin around themselves, while chrysalides are often made of plant leaves and butterflies’ saliva.” Muriel easily said between chewing.

  “I never knew there was a difference between them,” Marcus said as to make conversation.

  “Well, the easiest way to notice it, I guess, is looking to their antennae. Moths have feathery antennae with nothing in its tips, while butterflies have club or hooks on the tips of theirs, and they are not feathery”, It was Ed’s turn to explain.

  But the others said nothing to this, as not wanting to elongate that conversation about moths. When they all finished eating in silence, they all helped cleaning up the table and do the dishes.

  After that, everybody went straight to bed. Everybody but Muriel and Ed who instead of resting in the bunk bed in the guest’s bedroom, wandered through the dark house, since Marcus and Silvia had blown all the candles out before sleeping. Lightning appeared through the windowpanes, and it all was silent but for the thunders and the beating attic window.

  3

  Winda’s store

  If you ever had the opportunity of getting inside one of those little neighborhood stores that sell a bit of everything, whose shadowy corners and dusty shelves are not enough to overshadow the affection its owner has for the place, then you’ll have no problem picturing Winda’s store.

  If you didn’t have that opportunity yet, there’s also no problem, because this store is fascinating to write about in any length.

  Nagranto’s downtown is very fussy, full of commercial buildings along with people and vehicles coming and going all the time. As you move further from it, though, toward the shore, you can notice quieter and more residential streets. Winda’s store is in one of these streets that make the transition between the downtown bustle and the calmer areas. It stays by the side of the only Nagranto’s subway station that has a line that can take you to the outskirts of the city, near the woods.

  The store’s front walls are all made of glass, which work as giant showcases for the passersby coming and going on the paved sidewalk, or using the bike lanes in front of it. Above the circular entry door, also made of glass, there are big letters made of cork and painted in green, which read “WINDA’S.”

  Inside the place, you can smell dust and candy as soon as you get in, for Winda is not much of dust mopping and the candy section is right near the entry. There are several sections organized on tall shelves that form nine corridors, in the extent of which the natural light coming from outside gives way to yellow and blue dim ones hanging from drop shaped lamps on the shelves and on the balcony in the back of the store.

  There are sections whose shelves almost touch the ceiling, in a way you have to climb on the tall ladders decorated with small yellow lamps to reach them, like the one whose name on the neon plaque above it reads “Things to make your pet like you more.” Where you can find books and toys about it.

  There is a section whose neon letters on the board above it read, “Things you can dress,” where you can find from rain coats to tuxedos and ragbags. And another one named “Things you can use as door weights,” where you can find stones of average size from the pavement outside and blue clovers made of thick glass. There is also a “Things you can eat” section, but you’d better avoid buying something from it because Winda has what we could consider a different taste for food, and as almost anybody enjoyed the things in it, the packages of this section remained in there longer than they should. For it has products such as jelly bread with pepper and lemon cookies with peanut sauce.

  On the next morning of the stormy night, Winda herself was outside, cleaning the front glasses that the rain had clouded with mud and other things it brought along the way. Many shops did not even open that day because although the rainy weather was gone, Nagranto was still under a power outage. Thereby, there weren’t many people on the street either.

  Winda was wearing a brown dress with dark boots, and the green in her hair was already starting to fade, letting show some pale white strands of hair. She had just finished with the glasses and was unlocking the door to get inside when a voice behind her said:

  “So, you close the door of your shop, but let the door of your house open?” Tevis arrived by her side.

  “What are you two doing here?” She asked when she turned and saw Zian was with him.

  “Hi, Winda,” Zian said, and then added:

  “Sorry for coming without calling before, but it’s an important thing, and we were not getting to contact you at all. What happened with your phone?”

  “Broke,” she lied. She was just ignoring their calls. She hadn’t seen them for about three years since she quit the job in which they used to be partners. Therefore, after hesitating for a moment, she believed what they had to say should be important indeed.

  “Ok, let’s do like this,” she said after an impatient sigh, “I’ll listen what you have to say, then you go. No agreements, no promises. Just talk and go. Are we cool?” She said opening the door.

  “I’m fine Winda, thanks for asking. It’s good to see you again too”, Tevis said sarcastically, entering the door she had just opened, with Zian following behind him.

  *

  “Have you ever tried one of them?” Tevis asked her while examining a shelf full of cookie bags whose colors were fading away.

  “Yes, and they taste pretty good, but it seems they don’t have much output,” She said, setting at the raw brick counter placed in the back of the store, where they were. Zian was sitting in one of the black bar stools by the counter, and after looking around enough, and not finding what he wanted, Tevis came to take the seat next to him.

  “Don’t you sell coffee in here?” Tevis asked a bit disappointed.

  “No,” Winda said without further explanations.

  Blue emergency lights hanged above the boards of each section, lighting the place. There were also two of them on the counter.

  “I bet this isn’t the only section that doesn’t have muc
h output. I mean, this place seems more like an abandoned library than with a convenience store. I could even give you some tips to make it better looking, but if you don’t sell coffee then there’s nothing I can do for you.” Tevis added in a resolution tone, indicating the surroundings, which by the dim blue emergency lights making big shadows out of the tall shelves, formed a somewhat eerie scenario indeed.

  “Just say what you came to say, please.” She said, growing impatient with his impressions over her store.

  “Very well,” Zian started. “The main rule was broken.” He made a dramatic silence after this, and then added:

  “And not by just one of us, but groups are spreading the word. We have suspicions they are contacting big enterprises here in this city. For now, it’s only in Nagranto, but the Administration fears that soon this will not be the only place involved. It can reach entire countries. Therefore, they declared an emergency state in Iliona City, non-authorized people can’t get in or get out. And they told us to contact all the others living in Nagranto to tell them they have a deadline of one week to return. It’s a temporary situation, though, it’s just to make the organization easier.” He said it, simply as breathing.

  “By organizing things, you mean they’re planning better ways to delete the town?” She asked dryly.

  “I don’t think they would come to this,” Zian replied.

  “I’ve seen they do it for less.” She replied, with bitter memories crossing her mind.

  “Well, Winda is not the only one we have to contact personally. We have to go.” Tevis said toward Zian and then added toward her, “Our job here is done. It was quick just like you asked. Take care.” He said, giving his back to them and heading to the front the door.

  “Unfortunately, he is right,” Zian said, standing up. “We have a kind of a big list of people to visit today. See you in Iliona City?”

  “I’ll see about that. I’ve made friends in here too, maybe I decide to stay and be deleted as well.” She said.

  And Zian looked sadly at her:

  “Haven’t you heard a word of I said?” He said, patiently. “There will be no deletion. The emergency state was a way they found to organize things better, like knowing how many of us live in here, this kind of stuff.”

  “Ok Zian, believe in what you might. Thanks for the warning, anyway.”

  “You’re welcome, bye.” And when he was almost turning to leave he added:

  “Ed and Muriel are also in town, by the way. I met him yesterday before the storm.”

  “Great.” She said it though as if there was nothing great about it.

  Then he headed to the exit, where Tevis was already waiting for him standing on the sidewalk.

  4

  Insomnia

  “I don’t get to sleep, even now we found it.” Muriel said to Ed from the top of her bunk bed, staring at the ceiling of the dark guest’s bedroom.

  “It’s the same with me,” Ed answered her from the bed beneath hers.

  After spending the night wandering through the house, entering its empty rooms and the attic, they had found what they wanted.

  “We didn’t even need to use this,” She added, looking at a pendant she held in one hand. It was a triangle made of glass, with some little white things in its interior, similar to dust or snowflakes, gathered in each of its corners. Even though we could see the inside of it, its glass was a smoked one.

  “Of course we didn’t need it. I haven’t practiced all these years for nothing.” Ed said.

  Their search ended sooner than they had expected, so it was 3 a.m., yet. Muriel stepped down her bed and sat in an armchair in front of the window, from where she could see the beach ahead along with Timothy’s gazebo in the middle of it.

  As the torrential rain had ceased, she opened the flaps of the window, letting in the breeze of the dawn. Despite there were pinkish clouds and lighting above the sea, there was just a foggy mist hovering the water.

  “They seem to be friendly people,” Muriel said, referring to Timothy and his parents while looking ahead.

  “I didn’t like the kid.” Ed protested. “He kept staring at me the whole dinner, very unpleasant.”

  “Tell me something I didn’t notice.” She said. Then added:

  “Now we already finished what we came to do in here; I think we should go. We can let them a note saying we had to leave earlier to settle things in our new home. Which is not entirely a lie, by the way.”

  “Fine by me,” he said. “I don’t think I’m getting to sleep anyway.”

  They took their bags they had brought from the car and headed to the living room, where Ed put a piece of paper on the couch. When they got outside, the street was dark, silent and wet, and all they could hear was the sounds of distant thunders, and the waves fading away on the neighborhood beach. They headed to the house next door ignoring the van stuck in the garden’s fence in front of it. Muriel turned the key in the lock, and a few seconds later the street was empty again.

  *

  In the morning, Timothy was the first one to find the note on the couch as he woke up very early to go to school. After reading it, he peered through the living room windowpane to see the faded blue minivan stuck against the fence. The doors and windows of that house were closed, and Timothy saw no sign of his new neighbors.

  Despite thinking they could have waited ‘till morning, deep down Timothy felt relieved for not having to meet with Ed again so soon. He let the note where he had found it, on the sofa, and headed to the kitchen to improvise some breakfast.

  On his way, though, he noticed the open window flaps in the guest’s bedroom bringing wind gusts into the place. After closing them, there, forgotten on the floor near the armchair, he found the triangular pendant Muriel was holding earlier.

  And with a vague impression he had seen it before, he thought it could belong to one of his new neighbors, and kept it in his pocket while continuing his way toward the kitchen. Thinking he could stop by later, and give it back to them. However, the pendant would remain forgotten inside his pocket ‘till the day his impressions over Ed would not let him sleep.

  *

  The following night wasn’t a stormy one like the latter, but the falling rain was enough to soak a person who was not carrying an umbrella. Winda, however, couldn’t care less, she was wearing a transparent raincoat and checking a round device, the size of an eye, she was bringing inside her purse as if there weren't water drops hitting her face and wetting her boots.

  The lights were back in Nagranto, so it was easier to see the way along its wet and slippery asphalt. If Winda were at downtown, she would have much more company in the street around that time, 23 p.m., but as she was further from it, she had none.

  Her conversation with Zian, by the morning, kept blowing her sleep away, so the only thing she could think about was to go back to Iliona City and check if her parents were alright. But for this, she needed to find a way to go back.

  “It’s here,” Winda whispered to herself, still looking to the device inside her purse and ceasing her steps. Then she lifted her head to see where she had stopped, and she was in front of Timothy’s house.

  *

  One, the rain outside was getting stronger. Two, but Timothy was dry in his bedroom, which was lit only by the penumbra of the light poles in the street, coming in through his windowpanes. Three, with his eyes closed. Four, almost sleeping. Five, changing sides in his bed. Six, trying to sleep. Seven thuds.

  “That’s it.” He said, leaving his bedroom and heading to the spiral staircase leading to the attic. He was sure he had solved that window problem earlier by patching up the latch with a piece of rope, but “clearly I was wrong,” he thought to himself. Now, he would glue the window flaps if he needed to.

  When he got to the attic, though, besides the wide-open window, which flaps were dancing in the wind, Timothy also saw the person who opened them to get inside his house when he turned on the white light in the beige wallpaper, stained with dust and
time, near the stairs.

  Winda was holding the round device she was consulting all the way long ‘till his home in one hand with droplets of water running down her raincoat, while the other, had disappeared at the end of her outstretched arm as if she had been groping the air when something swallowed it. Something invisible to Timothy.

  He froze in front of the stairs he had just climbed, staring at her, noticing her bleached green hair, as short as his. And she was staring back at him, surprised at being caught. But the hitting of the window flaps against each other worked as a reminder to Winda of what she went to do in there. First, she put the rest of her outstretched arm inside the invisible hole, making it disappear right in front of Timothy’s eyes, who was watching that scene with a racing heart. Then she put her whole body as jumping into a lake. And she was gone before he could ask anything.

  He stayed in the same spot, looking at the nothingness in front of him, with the wind hitting his face, full or raindrops in it. He was very confused, wondering if he had seen it right, or if he had just imagined all that. When he finally moved again, he started looking around and groping the air, but he grabbed nothing. However, looking down, he noticed the trail of water wasn’t the only thing Winda had left behind on the wooden attic floor. In a hurry, she also dropped her purse.

  5

  Visit

  The rain had stopped by dawn, and it was a sunny morning with wet surroundings. People who worked at night were leaving their posts while others were getting up to start their activities.

  Timothy had breakfast and took his backpack along with his bike to go to school, as usual. At least, that was what he wanted his parents to think when he passed by them in the kitchen while they were having breakfast.

  However, as soon as he left the house he headed to a place near the only subway station of Nagranto that had a line to the town outskirts. A place whose sign hanging above its door read “Winda’s.”