Ageless

Chapter 2: Ko'sa

Questions.

I had so many that needed answers.

"Tell me more about the King, Ko'sa. Who is he? How long has he been the king? How long has he been with the queen? What did the queen look like? How old was she?"

As luck would have it, Ko'sa appeared to have gotten bored of talking about the royals- she was already running away from me, up the beach towards town. "Later!" she replied, her voice a sing-song of playful mischief. "We have to get moving first. If we hurry we can make it to Sky Rock before nightfall. It's worth the rush for the sunset, I promise!"

"Kids" I muttered, and chased after the girl tearing across the beach like an Olympic sprinter, still lost in a sea of my own questions.

The note about the king had to be one of Malcolm's practical jokes, right?

My husband was charismatic, I'd give him that, but even in his loftiest fantasy, nobody in their right mind would bow down to a slacker so lazy that he couldn't even be bothered to wash the dishes.

Regardless of his social status, age, or even preferred dimension, if he had been with another woman, he was a dead man.

No, I thought, he would never cheat on me. This whole thing has to be an elaborate joke on his part.Either way, I needed to talk to him as soon as possible.

The walk to town was anything but routine.

I swore loudly as my barefoot came down on yet another seashell for what felt like the hundredth time that day. The village was much further away than it looked and took twice as long as I expected, especially without shoes. Silently, I fumed at my husband for sweeping me off my feet and into the great unknown without giving me so much as a warning to put on a pair of sandals or change out of my pajamas.

The longer we walked, the less convinced I became in my 'practical joke' theory. Now I was in pain, covered in a mix of sweat and sand, and most importantly, annoyed.

This is his fault, I decided. Given this all isn't a hallucination, what the hell was he thinking, dragging me into a new world unprepared? Obviously, he had considered the possibility that we could get separated. Why else would he have slipped me the note?

For a second, I reversed our roles and mentally went through all the things I would have done differently had it been my responsibility to introduce him to my imaginary kingdom. I had organized our last trip to the Europe with my family, and had forwarded him the itinerary a month in advance. There had been checklists, planning talks on conference lines, detailed research on recommendations from Trip Advisor, and double and triple checks that we hadn't left his medication back in the bathroom before we left, a habit that tended to manifest itself before going anywhere for an extended period.

I wouldn't have thrown us both into a mess without thinking things through, like he always did. Then I took a second to re-assess the definition of his 'mess', and how much of my own disbelief needed to be suspended in order to arrive at my anger, and felt quite silly.

Ko'sa wasn't wearing shoes either, but her feet looked tough and calloused- she moved through the beach like a cat, dancing past blistering patches of hot sand and sharp rocks that I seemed unable to avoid no matter what route I picked. Every couple of minutes she would realize I was losing ground and turn to beckon me to hurry up. "Come on Ms. Jill. Not much further now."

Her nimble ease was irritating; I was a sweaty mess by the time we stepped out of the sand and into the cool relief of the hardened clay path leading into town. Ko'sa waited patiently a few yards down the road, clearly amused by my labored efforts.