The idea staggered me. My pulse started to race. We had lost Veelox before we had the chance to save it!
“Then Saint Dane was right,” I declared. “We’re too late. He has won!”
“Relax,” Aja said sternly. “I told you, I’ve got things under control.”
“Control? I’m seeing a lot of things here. Control isn’t one of them! This city is falling apart. How long until Lifelight itself crashes? That’s what’ll happen, you know. Is that why jumpers are dying? Is that the future of Veelox? Are all the jumpers going to die in the middle of their fantasies because nobody bothers to take care of reality? We’ve got to get them out of there! Maybe we can pull the plug and force them to wake up! It’s the only way they can-“
“Stop!” Aja shouted, and slammed on the brakes. I rocked forward, nearly launching out the front. Aja stared at me with such anger that I thought my brain would melt.
“I am trying to teach you about what’s happening here,” she said sternly. “We can’t just ‘pull the plug’ and tell everybody to go back to their normal lives, though I’m sure you wish it were that easy. Salvation here can be found in only one place: the imagination. If you can’t understand that, you might as well flume out right now.”
I had to calm down. Though common sense told me otherwise, I had to believe Aja knew what she was talking about. The technology on Veelox was totally alien to me. If she said things were under control, I had to give her the benefit of the doubt. At least for a while, anyway.
“I’m sorry,” I said, forcing myself to chill. “I’d like to stay and learn more about Veelox.”
Aja stared at me. I wasn’t sure if she was going to throw me out or take my head off again. Or both. Luckily she did neither. She started to pedal again. We didn’t say another word until we arrived at her home.
Aja lived in a beautiful building on a quiet, tree-lined street. Did I say “quiet”? Hah, everything here was quiet. Her building was three stories high and made of brick. It looked like a millionaire’s home. Completing the picture, the street was lined with huge, leafy trees that gave the neighborhood an inviting, parklike feel.
“Do all the phaders live in places this nice?” I asked as we walked up the marble steps to the entrance.
“They live pretty much anywhere they want” was her reply. “Most of the homes are abandoned. This place belongs to one of the directors. The prime director, actually. Dr. Kree Sever.”
“Nice of him to let you live here,” I said.
“It’s not a him, it’s a her,” Aja corrected me. “And Dr. Sever couldn’t care less. She’s been on a Lifelight jump for over a year.”
A year. Unbelievable.
She opened the heavy door and we entered the mansion. “I’ll be right back,” she said, and ran up the stairs to the second floor.
The mansion was beautiful inside, too. There was a large entryway with thick, ornate carpets. A stairway led up to the second floor with a fancy wooden banister that was polished and gleaming. A hallway led deeper into the house with rooms off to either side. A quick glance showed me that the rooms were big, with high ceilings. It stunned me to think that somebody who lived in such a beautiful place would abandon it to live in a fantasy world. But then again, maybe the mansion Dr. Sever had in her fantasy was twice as nice. Or maybe she had twelve mansions. If it was a fantasy, she could have whatever she wanted.
As I looked around, something felt a little bit off. It was because the place was totally clean. I mean, immaculate eat-off-the-floor clean. The wood was polished, the crystal cases of knickknacks sparkled, and there wasn’t a speck of dust anywhere. Rubic City was a falling-down mess because nobody cared, but this place was spotless. I couldn’t imagine
Aja taking the time to be so neat. Who was taking care of the place? My answer came right away.
“You must be Bobby Pendragon!” came a warm voice from deeper in the house.
I looked to see an older woman hurrying toward me. She was the perfect image of a way-cool grandmother. Her gray hair was long and tied back in a ponytail, much like Aja’s. She wore a deep blue sweater, dark pants, and black boots… no granny-style dresses for this lady. She hurried up to me and held out her hand. I took it, not sure of how hard to shake. But her grip was solid. This lady may have been old, but she still had it going on.
“Oh, this is silly, give me a hug,” she said.
Before I could react, she pulled me in and gave me a strong hug. I figured it would be quick, but she surprised me by squeezing tight and holding on. It was totally awkward. I wasn’t sure if I should hug back or not. We hadn’t even been introduced.
“I was so sorry to hear about Press,” she said. “He was a wonderful man.”
Okay, now I got it. She was being sympathetic about my uncle. I still felt awkward, but a little less so. She then held me at arm’s length and said, “You are exactly as he described you.”
The woman had kind eyes, with a hint of sadness.
“Thanks,” I said. “Uncle Press was a great guy.”
“We’re all going to miss him.” She then smiled and said, “Come. You’re just in time for dinner.”
Dinner. Excellent. I hadn’t eaten since I had breakfast with you guys back on Second Earth. The fantasy pizza in Lifelight didn’t count. The woman held my hand and led me toward the back of the house.
“You didn’t tell me your name,” I said.
The woman laughed warmly. “I am so rude. It’s Evangeline. I’m Aja’s aunt.”
Whoa. That didn’t compute.
“Aunt? I thought Aja didn’t know her family.”
“Well, I’m not her real aunt. Not by blood, anyway. I worked in the group home where Aja was raised. Still do. I love all the children, but there was something special about Aja. When it was time for her to leave, it was like losing a child of my own. So we decided to move in together and, here we are.”
“Your house is beautiful,” I said, figuring it was the kind of thing an older lady would like to hear.
“Thank you, but it’s not really ours,” she said in a whisper, as if it were a secret. “I don’t think Dr. Sever is coming back anytime soon, but I make sure to keep the place tidy just in case. Are you hungry?”
“Starved.”
“Perfect! Then you’re in for a treat.”
I was beginning to like Evangeline. First off, she was nice. She had a pleasant personality. She had a sense of humor. And she seemed to like me, too. In other words, she was nothing like Aja. We entered the big kitchen which had a table set for two. Evangeline busied herself setting a third spot for me. I was getting hungrier by the second.
“What’s for dinner?” Aja said as she entered the room behind me. She had taken off her blue phader jumpsuit and now wore gray sweats and dark, sneakerlike shoes. If I didn’t know any better I’d think she was a normal kid, instead of an obnoxious, brainy. Traveler geek.
“Your favorite,” Evangeline answered. “Tricolor gloid.”
Gloid. I remembered the signs in the shop windows advertising gloid. I hoped it was as good as the pizza from Lifelight.
It wasn’t. Evangeline placed a small cup at each of the place settings. Each was filled with something that looked, well, it looked tricolor. It was a thick liquid, like soup, divided into half-inch-wide stripes of bright green, orangy rust, and royal blue. It looked like finger paint.
Evangeline and Aja both sat down and grabbed spoons.
“Sit, Bobby,” Evangeline said. “Enjoy!”
I reluctantly sat and looked down at my bowl. My appetite was suddenly gone. But Aja and Evangeline dug in like it was the tastiest treat in the territory. And for all I knew, it was. I watched as they dipped their spoons into the goo. It had the consistency of bird doo. Evangeline was delicate. She tasted one color at a time. Aja was less discriminating. She dug up all three at once.
“We don’t often have tricolor gloid,” Evangeline explained. “It’s getting harder to come by.”