Shadowing Alice [Soon To Be Rewritten]

Ch. 17

When I got to the perfume shop, I found twin blond girls roughly my age in it—her daughters, probably.  One was at the counter, writing in something, while the other was organizing some bottles on the shelf. 

            Only the one organizing looked up at me.  She smiled.  "Welcome to The Aroma Home.  Can I help you with something?" she asked politely.

            "Do you know the Kensington's?" I asked.

            "You mean Martha Kensington?"

            "Yes."

            Her smile never faltered.  "What about her?"

            "Can you tell me where she lives?  One of her friends had me pick up a few bottles yesterday, and she's gift-wrapped them and left them at my house, but she never told me where Martha lived so that I could deliver them to her anonymously."

            Awesome, Danny commented.

            "Kara," said the nice blond twin, "can you look up the address?"

            "I'm busy, Sara," the other twin replied tonelessly.  "You go look it up."

            Sara smiled sweetly at me.  "I'll be right back.  Feel free to look around."  She disappeared through a door behind the counter.

            "Hey, you," asked Kara.  "What's today's date?"

            "Uh, the nineteenth," I replied, trying to avoid her dead blue eyes.

            "Thanks.  August… Nineteenth…," she muttered.  She then said the most randomest year.

            What the heck did she just say?! Danny demanded.

            "Uh, what did you say?" I asked.

            She looked up, a bored expression on her face.  "What did I say?  I said today's date.  Why?"

            "Uh… no reason."  I turned and looked busy by the bottles while Danny started freaking out in my head.

            That can't be the right year.  It's too far ahead! Danny exclaimed. 

            I guess there is a time difference here after all.  The spirit realm's ahead of us by… how many years?

            Almost twenty-something years! 

            Danny, you're freaking out about this a lot.  Calm down….  We've got bigger things to worry about.

            "I found it," Sara announced cheerily, bounding into the room.  She handed me a slip of paper.  "2308 Baker Road."

            "Thanks….  How do I get there?

            "Oh, you can go all the way up William's Street, then make a left onto Everdeen Way.  Keep going past the high school till you reach Baker; it's the last street before you get to the walls.  Make a left and you've found the house.  It's pretty close to the castle too."

            Great, Danny said tonelessly.

            "Thank you," I said as I ran out of the store.  I ran to William's Street, and then I started speed-walking.