Glory Be

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Isaiah hid away in the back room for most of the morning. Thoughts of Lelia visiting him and getting stuck introducing her to Sydney haunted his mind. Staying in the storage room was his best bet to avoid that, but Lelia wasn't the only one he was hiding from too. He hadn't wanted to see Sydney too much before lunch. He needed time to think and reword whatever he planned to say.

A large stack of books began to waver out of the corner of Isaiah's eyes. He quickly moved to support the stack before it could tumble. Isaiah gripped his fingers and held his breath. Once the books found a sense of balance once again, he breathed out.

What was he really supposed to say anyways? Was he supposed to explain that he hadn't been able to sleep, that he had spent all of his time praying or crying out of his own pity, that he had asked God to undo the trial upon him, that he had regretted ever asking that, and that he had been set up with a girl, and he should marry. He really, really should marry her.

Isaiah let his head fall against the wall a few times. The repetitive feeling soothing the ravenous thoughts eating at his neurons. Sydney understood though, he had said it himself. Isaiah wondered what he had to say to himself. To explain this situation. Sydney always had answers for any question he could ever ask.

If God hadn't answered, Sydney at least would.

A knock echoed from the door, and it swung open with ease. Sydney stepped into the room and waved.

"Hey," He said with the same awkwardness Isaiah had picked up on earlier. It was overwhelmingly endearing.

"Hi," Isaiah picked himself up and away from the wall, and began to navigate around the piles of books, "I was just, getting some of the inventory straight."

"A bigger project than ya thought, hm?" Sydney asked. His boot tapped a few stray journals on the ground.

"Oh yeah," Isaiah shyly chuckled, "Didn't help that I got distracted halfway through. I started looking through the old cookbooks."

"Find anything good?" Sydney asked, "Cause I'm getting hungry."

"Oh, is it noon already?" Isaiah tensed up. He wasn't even close to being ready.

"Mhm," Sydney answered, sounding hesitant, "Do you still want to go to the hayloft? If you're busy-"

"No, it's fine," Isaiah interjected, "I'm ready, let's go."

"Okay," Sydney smiled, "Let's go."

Isaiah shuffled around the piles of books. Leather covers and silver threaded titles caught his attention before becoming blurs in his peripheral. He exited the room and followed Sydney out the back door as they often did many times before. A certain innocence, no, ignorance was lost now.

The smell of hay entered his senses as the two entered the stables. Sydney looked behind himself towards Isaiah and gave an awkward look.

"So, um, I know you said you wanted to talk about more biology stuff, but could we talk about math too? Just quickly, because I read this journal yesterday and there were some amazing articles," Sydney rambled, "This advancement came out about a year ago, so I'm behind, but Felix Klein, this mathematician, he essentially settled any doubt surrounding Euclid's fifth postulate," Sydney looked over his shoulder as the two approached the ladder, looking a bit frightened, "Wait, sorry, I'm going too fast again. Euclid's fifth postulate, and all of his postulate they're like the bible for geometry. I'll explain in one moment, let's head up first. Is that okay?"