CHAPTER 3: HOMEWARD

A few days had passed since Mechi had woken up in the hospital. They were pretty uneventful, when compared to the strange happenings that bombarded the thoughts rattling around inside their heads. The day after he had woken up, Mechi and Yarin had come to the agreement that it would be best to cut short the time in the hospital. For Mechi it was because he didn’t like the idea of laying around, not being able to do anything but watch T.V. and eat mushy cafeteria food. For Yarin, on the other hand, it was because of her overwhelming feeling that something bad would happen if they stayed there. The feeling was brought about mostly by the threat from Carter Haines.

For the doctors, it was a different story. Dr. Samuals seemed a little too happy that the twins had, for the most part, agreed with him. And Dr. Terence seemed irritated at the fact that they had almost completely ignored her advice.

Now, the twins were almost home. “Home is where you will always find safety.” their mother had told them. “It’s the best place to find and re-find yourself.” was their dads’ favorite saying. No matter what, home was where they needed to be right now. The twins hardly ever agreed, but on this, they did.

The twins had been traveling down the road, lined with trees on one side, and a river on the other. Across the river, Mechi watched an enormous flock of starlings flying around from one spot to another. They did it so often and with such precision that it made him wonder if they had a communal mind. He smiled at the thought of five-hundred birds all thinking the same thing at the same time. He imagined that, if he could hear their thoughts, it would be extremely noisy, all those voices talking at the same time.

He was snapped out of his day-dream, when his sister broke the long silence that filled the majority of their trip.

“What do you think we should do for dinner tonight?” Yarin asked. “There hasn’t been any food in the house since I moved into the apartment near the hospital.”

Mechi had to think about it. Normally he would have gone with his idea of a hamburger and fries, but there was only one burger place in their hometown that he knew of, and it would be closed by the time they entered the town. “How about pizza, is ‘Jonny’s Pizzeria’ still around?” he asked. He knew that Yarin was always ready to have pizza.

“Yep, and it’s even better than before...” she said with an excited twinkle in her eye, “... they deliver!” She grabbed her phone and started flipping through the contacts app, finally stopping on one and pressing the call button.

It always made Mechi nervous when she did that. She wasn’t that good of a driver to begin with, let alone when she was messing with her phone. He wanted to yell out something like ‘Look out for that train!!’ while she was searching for the number, but refrained himself. The idea of pizza put her in such a good mood, and he didn’t want to ruin it.

Yarin put the phone on speaker, then the line picked up on the other end and a voice said, “Jonny’s Pizzeria, you pick it, we brick it.”

Another voice from the background yelled, “Chris, stop trying to come up with a catchy phase and just answer the phone like you were told.”

“Sorry dad,” Chris said, and in an exaggeratedly bored voice he added, “Jonny’s Pizzeria, may I take your order?”

Yarin laughed, “I think I like the first one Chris.”

“Is that… Yarin? Yarin Vascellum?” Chris asked excitedly.

Chris had had a major crush on Yarin for as long as he could remember. When his family had moved to Coral Reef, the Vascellums were the first people that had befriended them.

Suddenly the sound on the other end of the line sounded like someone had dropped the phone in a deep fryer. Next, the unmistakable sound of pots and pans crashing to the floor, rang out like a gong. Then there was a sound like someone losing traction on a wet floor, hitting a wall, falling down, and struggling to get back up. Finally, the sound settled down and Jonny picked it up.

“Sorry about that,” he said, “I think Chris just had a heart attack or something. He’s not breathing at the moment, but I’m sure he’ll be okay. How’re you doin’ Yarin?”

Jonny Petroni, the owner of “Jonny’s Pizzeria”, was always joking around like that. Yarin was trying so hard not to laugh, that it took a few seconds before she was able to catch her breath and answer.

“I’ve been doing alright, but I’m doing even better now, Mr. Petroni. How’ve you and Mrs. Petroni been doing?”

“We’ve been,” he said, then hesitating added, “doing just fine.”

Another voice in the background sounded across the line. “What happened in here? Where’s Chris? Who’re you talking to Jonny?” So many questions in a row, Yarin knew who it was. It had to be Margaret Petroni, Jonny’s wife.

She was a portly type woman, and not very tall, but she had such a vicious temper that you definitely wouldn’t want to cross her. At times she could be the nicest, most kind hearted person to know, and at others she could make you run for the hills. How Jonny, and their son Chris handled her, no one knew.

“To answer your questions Margret,” Jonny replied, “A: Chris happened, B: He’s over here on the floor. I think he’s breathing again, so that’s a good thing, and C: Yarin Vascellum.”

“Really? It’s really Yarin? Let me talk to her!” she screeched, and stepping over the unconscious, prostrate form of her son, she snatched the phone away from her husband. “Yarin, is that you, darlin’?” she asked excitedly, “I thought you said that you wouldn’t be coming back until…” There was a moment of silence before she continued. “Did Mechi wake up? Are you two finally coming home?”

Yarin rolled her eyes over in Mechi’s direction, who had been listening to the whole conversation from the passenger seat and said, “Yes Mrs. Petroni, he’s awake and we’re coming home. We should be getting back to town in about an hour. We were actually calling to order dinner if it’s not too late for delivery to the house.”

“Not at all Yarin, we’ll have Chris bring it over after his father wakes him… oh… wait…” The sudden sound of rushing water, and a hideous scream, surprised the twins. They exchanged questioning glances, even as Margaret’s voice rang over the phone again. “Damn-it Jonny, that was the ice water we were keeping the sardines in, look there’s a couple of them on Chris’ face. What are we going to do if someone orders sardines?”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

The question was immediately answered by a bellow from Jonny. “You’re literally the only person in this town that like those things, why do you think I never put them on the menu?”

“That may be true, but I like them fresh,” she said, “and Chris likes them too.”

The twins listened to the faint sound of Chris moaning while regaining consciousness, screaming again, and once more trying to get traction on a wet floor. Seconds later they heard him yell, “I hate those things, get them away from me!”

“Well,” Margaret said, “so much for him taking after his mama. Anyway Yarin, I’m sorry for all the ruckus, what is it that you’d like on your pizza? And don’t even think about payin’, consider everything you order as a ‘Welcome Home’ present to you and your brother.”

“Thank you Mrs. Petroni.” Then she placed their order. Yarin and Margaret talked for a little while longer, with the speaker turned off, and then yaryn hung up. “We’re almost home,” she said to Mechi. He had already started noticing certain landmarks that he had been looking out for. Passing the town border sign, he read it outloud, “Coral Reef, Population 2,110.” Only a few more minutes and they’d finally be home.

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The house didn’t look much different than they remembered. It had been overgrown with weeds in the lawn, even though Mr. Simmons, who lived down the street, had volunteered to take care of it; there was only so much that an old widower could do.

The twins pulled into the driveway which was weather-beaten and and cracked. Yarin pushed a button on a small box mounted to her dashboard and the garage door slowly opened. The garage was in pretty good shape. Having been built with Cedar wood, like the rest of the house, it evaded damage from the elements. She pulled in, put the car in park, and turned off the engine.

They sat there in silence for a few moments, allowing the feeling of security to wash over them. Doing this had become somewhat of a tradition whenever they had returned home from long family trips. Looking around the garage through the car windows, Mechis’ eyes started to tear up as he saw all the items that held memories of their past life, when their parents were still alive.

“Don’t start crying, you big baby.” Yarin said, placing her hand on the door handle and pulling. “I’m sure there will be plenty of time for that when you’re by yourself.”

Mechi glanced over at her while she was talking and noticed her eyes had teared up as well. He gave her an understanding smile, and then reached down and opened his door.

The fragrance that filled the air as the doors open, made the twins choke a little. Dust, there was so much dust. There was quite a lot of work to do around the house to get it back in shape, but that could wait, they were too tired to do anything about it now. Besides, their dinner would be arriving soon.

Yarin looked through her set of keys, unlocked the door that led from the garage to the interior of the house, and walked in closely followed by her brother. They both stood there in amazement as their eyes scanned the house. It was immaculate. Not so much as a dust-bunny was to be seen. The smell of fresh paint and multi-purpose cleaner filled the air. Someone had known that they were coming home. But for them to do all this work, the person or persons would have had to know of the twin’s return, even before Mechi had woken up.

“Wow,” they both said in unison.

“I wonder who did this?” Yarin said. “When I left here to move into the apartment, this place was cover with sheets.”

“I don’t know, maybe the Reverend set this up. If he’s still around anyway. I remember, he always had a way of knowing things were going to happen before they did.”

“True, it’s probably all that praying he does. I don’t know if he’s still around though. I haven’t talked to him since I moved away.”

The doorbell rang and the twins raced each other to the door. Yarin, always more athletic than Mechi, reached it first and threw it open. It was Chris, with their pizza, breadsticks, and other fixings they had ordered.

“Wow, that looked like quite the race, I saw it through the window.” he said after staring at the twins for an uncomfortable amount of time. “I don’t remember ever seeing Mechi run that fast.” he laughed.

“I know, right?” Yarin said, unloading the food from Chris’ arms, “He’s in pretty good shape for not getting exercise for three years.” She placed the food on the entryway table and threw her arms around Chris’s neck.

Chris thought, as he’s knees started to buckle, “Wow, she missed me that much?”

“Yeah,” Mechi added with words instead of actions, “thanks for the food.” He laughed. “I’m not going to give you a hug for it though.”

“The food?” Chris thought.

“He’s kidding Chris”, Yaryn put in, letting go of his neck, “It’s really good to see you again.”

Mechi nodded in agreement, “That’s true, It’s nice to finally see a familiar face.”

Chris smiled sheepishly, it was a nice feeling to be appreciated. He said, “Thanks, it’s good to see you guys too. I better head back to the Pizzeria though, they’re probably getting ready to close it down. They decided to train me how to close up and do the books.”

The three said their goodbyes and Chris headed back to his car. The twins took their food into the kitchen and dug into it as if they had never had anything to eat before in their lives. The abundance of food diminished as if by magic, and soon, only crumbs remained. The two sat there in silence and contentment as they relaxed after their meal.

“That was great.” Yarin said, breaking the silence.”

“Yep,” Mechi agreed, “I always loved Jonny’s food.

They talked a while longer about the miracle that the house was in such good shape, and then took a tour of the house, regaining memories as they went around. They stopped in front of their parents room, and stared at the door for a few minutes, imagining their parents coming out and welcoming them home.

Sadly, Yarin said, “I guess we should probably turn in. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. We have to go into town and check on the Coffee shop along with some other erends.”

“Yeah,” Mechi agreed, “that would probably be best.”

They turned and walked away, with a hasty “G’night”, to their rooms.

Exhausted as he felt, it took Mechi a while to fall asleep. All the events of the last few days, combined with the fact that he was home again, made it hard to stop his thoughts. He tried counting sheep, but even that didn’t help. He kept remembering something his father had told him years ago about counting sheep… “You can always tell how tired you are by counting sheep.” he had said, “When they start tripping over the fence, you’re beyond exhausted.” But his sheep were beyond even that, they were tripping over the fence, and falling over a cliff. Unfortunately, that thought just made him laugh, not fall asleep.

It took nearly two hours for his brain to stop long enough to start gaining unconsciousness. Shortly after, he heard a faint voice calling his name. At first it seemed far away, but as it continued calling, it grew louder and louder, until it sounded like it was right behind him. Imagining himself standing in a dark room, he turned around and saw that the voice was coming from one of the faces he saw in his mind back when he first woke up from the coma.

“Mechi.” the voice said again.

The man standing before him was a strikingly handsome man, dressed in what seemed to Mechi as armor made of leather, inlaid with with designs of solid gold. He held a long spear in his right hand, and a wooden shield in his left. Mechi thought he looked like an old gladiator from Ancient Rome.

“Mechi Vascellum.” the man said, one last time.

“Who are you, what do you want?” Mechi asked, looking him over as to burn his visage into his memory.

“My name is “Silvanus Longspear. ‘Demigod, and Hero’ to the human’s of a much earlier age.” he said. His speech was that of an Anglo-Saxon, the English language had originated from this particular tongue. Mechi had learned about it in high school english. That meant that this man was from a later time than Ancient Rome. “I have something for you.” Silvanus said.

“And what would that be?” Mechi asked, with a little worry in his voice.

As Silvanus looked at Mechi, his eyes were suddenly filled with pure light, then he spoke with a voice that boomed and echoed, almost knocking Mechi off his feet…

“MY STRENGTH!”