Sleepwalker

Chapter Nine: The Odd Girl

“Jenny?” Armadillo cracked his neck as he stepped into the parlor. “Did you make tea already? How long have you been up?” Sitting next to me, he tilted my book down. “Did you bake bread already too? You took care of everything, huh?”

Before closing the novel, I marked my page. “I made coffee too.” I checked my pocket watch, ten past seven. “I’ve only been awake since a quarter before five. Help yourself to bread and coffee or tea, whichever you prefer.” I watched him stand.

In the kitchen, he poured a mug of coffee and grabbed the end chunk of the bread. “This is delicious. What else have you already done today?” He sipped at the hot mug.

Thoughtfully, I placed my head in my hand. “I awoke, washed my clothing, bathed while my dresses dried, walked to see if I could find any berries for the bread, returned, prepared coffee, then tea, baked the bread, without berries unfortunately, and finally, I read about fifty pages in this book that Professor Lester gave me.”

“You are a very strange girl, Genevieve. No one in my house is ever up before sunrise. We are not productive until at least halfway through the seventh hour.”

“My father awakes at dawn every morning. Since I’ve been traveling, I’ve found it’s best to walk as far as possible before the sun is too high and hot.” I grinned at him.

Beneath his spectacles, he rubbed his eyes. “Ugh, you are odd.”

A small boy with only his britches on shuffled out. His eyes were the same soft almond shape as Armadillo’s, but the boy’s irises were lighter. His light blonde hair stuck up in all directions. “Dill, what smells? Did Momma already start baking? Too early.”

Armadillo scooped the boy in his arms. “I do not believe there was a proper introduction last night. Forrest, this is my traveling companion, Jenny. Jenny, this is my younger brother, Forrest.” He returned my smile from earlier. Dimples shone through.

Suddenly, I noticed that Dill was only in his britches as well. Hiding a pink blush, I waved at Forrest. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Do you want a glass of milk? I noticed you had some in the larder…” My voice trailed off when his look became confused.

Groggily, he stared with a blank expression. “Dill, your girlfriend is weird.”

My face burned. The ruddy color in my cheeks was impossible to disguise now; Armadillo’s face became as crimson as mine. “I am not Dill’s girlfriend.”

“Forrest, buddy, I met her only yesterday. She is nothing more than a traveling companion.” Armadillo assured him, resting him on the sofa next to me. Dill’s lean toned muscles obstructed my view of all else. “Looking at something?” He said amused.

I opened my book back up to divert my gaze. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled. Nervously, I sipped at my tea and returned to reading. The book was a short adventure filled with small mysteries and shrouded with a romance. It wasn’t anything difficult or thought provoking like I’d expected from the professor. It only reminded me that I missed her.

The rest of Dill’s exhausted family scuttled out of bed to ogle at me curiously,

His mother was bulbous. Her frizzy grey hair erratically fuzzed off her head. Her dark eyes were filled with a mixture of suspicion and admiration as she stared at me.

“So, Jenny, where are you from?” Dill’s father asked. His face was shaven clean of the white hair on top of his head. He stood a bit shorter than Armadillo with the same build and darker complexion.

I replied, “I live a bit south of the village, Yondrin.”

He assumed, “Ah, so your parents brought you up in a setting like this one!”