An Adventure

Chapter III

     Able Rosenthal was intrigued by this new man. According to Soph, he had come from nowhere, remembered nothing in terms of details about his past, but knew basic things. It all spoke of short terms memory loss, but with as strange as the world is, he wouldn't have been all too surprised if it was an induced loss of memory.
     His wife, Alicia Branagan Rosenthal, hadn't yet been informed of the newcomer, as she had been sound asleep when he had come. Able intended to tell her about this Isaac in the morning, before breakfast. In the mean time, he had some sleep to catch up on, and so, laid his head down on the pillow, deep in thought until he eventually fell into sleep.

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     When Isaac woke up, he stayed lain back for a while, soaking in all the events of the previous day.
     He woke up in a strange, fantasy world in which he had never seen. He had some change, in the currency of the land and purchased some new clothes. He found Al, a kind man, and Soph, a kind lady. After a long discussion with Al, he discovered the name of this town, St. Albion, and the name of the large city that seemingly all of the random municipalities were connected to, Derbyshire. Derbyshire was the start of everything, according to the history books, founded by Sir Gilbert Wrin Chuffnell. After the discussion, Al offered him a place to stay for the evening, then Soph did the same, to which neither Al nor Isaac refused. He ended up meeting Able Rosenthal, Soph's father, who agreed to letting Isaac stay the night at his house.
     Suddenly, there was a light rapping on his door, which interrupted his train of thought. A soft female voice that he had not heard before said, "Isaac, breakfast will be ready soon," and the feet that belonged to the voice carried it away, and he was left in silence yet again. Isaac sat up, then readied himself to get off of the bed, and did so. He walked to the door, and as soon as he placed his hand on the knob, he was able to hear the bustle that Soph referred to as her family.
     Isaac turned the knob on the door, pushing it open gently. Bright light filtered into the room from a window that he hadn't noticed the previous evening. The noise of the family got louder, though not obnoxiously so. He walked down the hallway, following both the noise and the path that Soph had lead him on. As he came to the dining area he noticed that the color on the walls had here a lighter shade of red.
     The noise stopped as soon as Isaac walked into the dining area. Seven small children looked up at him, as well as Soph and her parents. The older lady spoke up, saying, "Take a seat. You have to be hungry." Isaac noticed that this was the same voice that accompanied the knock on his door this morning, and from the looks of her, she was Soph's mother. She seemed to by in her mid forties. Her was black with streaks of gray running through it, though that didn't diminish from her beauty. She wore a plaid button-up shirt and overalls, which were stained with grease.
     Suddenly, a steam leak from a pipe sprung somewhere in the house, and Soph's mother got up immediately, as if this kind of a thing happened all the time. In such a world, Isaac assumed this was a quite natural thing, though he didn't expect her mother to be the one to fix it. 

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     Alicia roamed the halls of her house, looking for the leak that had sprung. As she roamed, she thought about the new man, Isaac Rivington. He was intriguing: His story didn't match up with anything that any of the Rosenthals had previously thought possible. (Able had told her what Sophia had told him; she imagined details had been spared, but alas, Able didn't want to worry his wife any much more than she already was.) To Alicia's surprise, the man had been well-mannered. He didn't at all seem like any sort of a harm to her children and he didn't seem like a liar whatsoever.
     He was rather tall. Alicia placed him at six foot, two inches, as it were. He seemed to be about as old as Able, who was forty-four. His hair, though, was still as dark as it would have been had he been twenty years younger. He had a deep tenor voice, although it had rose when he was stressed.
     Alicia found the leak, which was where she expected it to have been. The water heater they had in the house was leaking steam from where the steam line connects to the boiler. "Able, it's the water heater again!" she hollered to her husband. Shortly after she told him, he came in with duct tape.
     "Classy, I know, but it's what we have for now," Able said when she gave him a look that said that he had to be joking. She smiled and replied, "Well, as they say, if it doesn't work, use more." They both chuckled at this, having shared the joke a lot.
     After the leak was fixed, the couple returned to the dining room to find Isaac and their children seeing who was the strongest. "What are you all doing?" Able asked. The children all looked at him with wide eyes.
     "Nothing, Pa!" spoke the youngest looking one, a small boy with a crop of mouse brown hair. He had a bright smile on his face, and Able returned the smile.

     "At any rate," Able said, "us adults - that includes you, Sophia - have some business to attend to. Please go to your rooms, children." After a chorus of disappointed sighs, and some stragglers, the  children all went to their rooms. Able sat down in his chair,  and turned to Isaac. "We have determined to allow you to stay here, as you well know. We have also determined to help you find out what your... uhm... for lack of a better word, backstory is."
     Alicia held up her hand to interrupt her husband. "We trust you. My children trust you, and Soph said that Albert trusts you." She didn't know whether or not if that would alleviate some of the tension in Isaac's mind, but he seemed to relax a little.
     At this moment, Soph held up her hand to interrupt her mother.  "I have a job to get to, guys... May I go?" Everyone turned toward her, and Able smiled yet again. He nodded and she thanked him, and got up to leave. "I'll see you later, mom, and dad!" They all listened to the door close, and silence remained for several awkward moments.
     Isaac decided to speak up. "Thank you. I don't even know very much about you all, and you've acted like I was family." The silence remained as the couple drank their coffee, which made Isaac feel rather awkward.
     "So, Isaac, what do you do?" Able asked.
     "I'm an accountant, sir," Isaac replied. Able looked up from his cup, his interest piqued now.
     "And this means you're very good with numbers, I presume?"
     "Well, I would certainly like to think so." Isaac replied,  wondering if Able was testing him in some way. Certainly being an accountant wasn't something that was frowned upon?
     "We don't have enough accountants, actually," Alicia interjected, is if she knew what was going on in Isaac's mind. He didn't think so, though. "Most people around here only have basic schooling." Isaac did a small double take, having presumed that with the complex machinery around here that there must have been a high level of education. Alicia continued, "Honestly, I myself only went through high school." They sat again in silence. 

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     "Sir, what are we going to do about this?" Sara was nervous. Her teacher, Doctor Rowland Chester was a genius, but even he couldn't see a solution to the problem they faced. "Doctor?"
     Rowland knitted his brow together in deep concentration and held his hand up for Sara to be quiet. Sara immediately closed her mouth, waiting and trusting in the wisdom of her teacher. Finally, his lips parted, but the sound was so soft that it was almost inaudible. 
     "There is nothing we can do."

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Here it finally is! The long-awaited chapter 3 of "An Adventure!" I'm still not super positive where to go, but I'm sure I'll figure it out as I go along. Either way, thanks for all the reads! Over 25 is really something for me, and I appreciate all of it! 

Stay tuned for more coming someday! XD