Unmarked

Chapter 7

Lavina and Anghi laughed as they sat on crates behind his parents' shop.

"I can't believe that happened!" Lavina said, looking at him.

"It's true, it did!" They laughed again. "That alley cat really wanted the tuna for some reason."

"And you had to get stitches."

"Yes!" They laughed again.

"These few weeks that have gone by have been really nice, don't you think? I mean starting high school and everything like that."

"Yes it's been quite an adventure."

"Say, how's your Catonin coming along?"

"Rko."

"That was yes."

She laughed and rubbed the back of her head. "I still need to work on that."

"You'll get there, like I said it's a hard language to learn."

"When did you learn it?"

"Oh that's all my parents spoke in until I was like five or something like that. I actually learned your form of English in school."

"Was it hard?"

"I don't recall."

They laughed again.

"Hey," Lavina started. "How about I show you the human world. I mean, you've never been up there right? It'd be a fun adventure."

"Ah that would be great!" They hopped down from the crates. "Give me a sec, let me check with my parents."

"You got it." Lavina rolled back and forth on her feet as she waited for Anghi to come back. She looked around and saw all the different items.

"Alright, we're all good." He said putting his hands on his waist.

"Cool, let's go." Anghi motioned in front of him and Lavina led the way. She led him to the wall and then put her hand on it. "This old wall is the rift between the two worlds. It's the portal to the human realm." Suddenly the wall broke away into a bright blue light Lavina stepped only partially through and then motioned Anghi to follow. Lavina found herself on the other side of the wall in the forest and then turned around and waited for Anghi to surface behind her. Then seconds later he came out the other side, looking at the wall. Lavina laughed at him. "Turn around there and look behind you, Anghi."

"Huh?" He turned around. "What are those?" He said pointing up.

Lavina laughed again, "You're funny, what have you never seen tree's before?" Lavina turned away from him and began to walk. "Come on, follow me." Anghi ran up behind her and looked around with a smile on his face.

"Are those little lights?"

"They are, my father decided to light up a path to the wall so that no surprises jumped out of the forest when we travel back and forth at night."

"Oh, yeah, that's a smart idea." He turned his head. "What's that?" He asked pointing.

Lavina laughed again. "That's where I live."

"I swear I'm not that stupid, I just haven't been up here before." Lavina hit him on his arm and then she ran up to the door with him closely following her.

"Welcome to the humble abode I call home."

"Wow." He said in awe. "It's so nice."

"Why thank you. You'll have to stick around and tell my father yourself. He takes lots of pride in keeping it clean and spiffy."

"Is he not here?"

"I'm not really sure, I think he's working on a special order at his shop. But like I said, I don't really know."

"So what are we doing?"

"I thought I would take you on a walk around the neighborhood. You can see all the houses in the circle here. Follow me." They walked to the front door and then went down the concrete steps. They stopped at the street, looked both ways and crossed to the sidewalk. "Right this way." After a good half hour they finally made their way back to the house. They walked back inside and sat down on the couch.

"Your world is so full of color and wonder. Never have I seen so many inventions. I've only read about your cars and your laptops and stuff like that."

"That's right, you don't have a smartphone do you?"

"Define smartphone."

Lavina laughed, "I don't think anyone truly knows." She took out her phone and gave it to Anghi.

"It's like a little light box."

"More than that." Lavina opened an app.

"You can play games on it?"

"Oh, yes, and so much more. You can talk to people on it and text too!"

"Text?"

"It's like sending a letter, but you get it right away, see watch." She grabbed her phone back from him and texted Oglm a simple hello.

"He can see it?"

"Yes."

"But he has not responded." Just then her phone made a noise. "What was that?!"

"That was a notification noise." She unlocked her phone and then turned it so Anghi could see. "See, he texted me back."

Anghi laughed. "Your father is funny."

"Yeah he can be."

"Is that the time?"

"It is."

"How come it doesn't have hands?"

"Oh, it's an analogue clock."

"Analogue?"

"It's a digital clock, synced to the world clock, most of them are." Anghi still looked at her confused.

"What?"

She laughed, "Here let me show you." She opened up the clock app on her phone and once again handed it to him.

"Oh I see, it counts all of the seconds and milliseconds so that the minutes can turn and that allows hours to pass."

"Mhm, it's just like a regular clock, just with digital numbers."

"Wow, it is late then, isn't it?"

"Oh, yeah, right, you probably need to get back and help your parents, right?"

"Yes, one of the many things." Anghi stood up and then extended his hand to Lavina. They went back into the forest and through the portal finally reaching his parents' shop.

"I had a fun time today Lavina." He blushed. "I can't wait to see you at school tomorrow." He extended his hand to her and Lavina took it, shaking it. Anghi was strange like that. They didn't hug or high five like normal friends would. They shook hands instead, like professional business partners would. She waved goodbye to him as he walked into his parents' shop. Lavina turned and began to walk on the path. She went back to the house and sat down on the couch. Taking the rest of her night just to relax.