Handy Hiding Place (NaNoWriMo 2014)

Chapter 28

       One day, they discovered that the portal they had made while not standing close enough together could be kept active if another portal was created in the realm. The book referred to these as realm exits.

Jude and Zaiden helped the kids find a place to put the realm exit. They put it by a tree just outside the biggest neighborhood. Later, the kids would put the other realm exit in a patch of trees not far from the beach.

"Another store opened today," Jude announced.

"What kind of store?" Quinn asked.

"The candy store!"

"Nice!" Quinn exclaimed. "Why would you open a candy store in a town with barely any kids though?"

"I like candy," Zaiden grinned. "I'm just a tall five-year-old though."

"People have been bringing their kids here," Jude added. "We're going to put in a request for a road to be built that connects the city to this town."

"Oh, cool," Amelia remarked. "When do you think they'll see it?"

"The city looks at the requests with the most signatures first," Jude explained. "They recently added a section that looks at requests with the least signatures too. Each person can only submit a request once every two weeks. If Zaiden and I both submit a request, it will take at around two weeks for them to be read."

"We could submit requests too," Amelia offered.

"Not if you don't got an ID," Zaiden spoke up. "You got one?"

"No. That's right, the person at the arts and crafts place told us that we should get identification cards. He said that they're for deals though I think. What else do you use them for?"

"Identification cards are used for a lot of things. There's a lot of effort that goes into preventing crime related to that," Jude revealed.

"You gotta take it when you go shopping because if you never been in a store and they see you a new customer, you might get a sweet deal," Zaiden told them.

"Whenever you sign up for anything, you have to scan your card."

"You gotta use it to buy an alcohol," Zaiden added.

"Just one alcohol, Zaiden?"

"Er, I mean, you know what I mean," Zaiden laughed. “Yeah they do a scan when you get a drink so they know how much you had already.”

“You should really get some identification cards. You can get them as soon as you’re fifteen in most cases,” Jude told them. “We can take you to get them if you’d like.”

“Should we get identified?” Quinn asked their friends. That was what they ended up doing. They all piled into the jeep and rode to the city to get their cards. “How long will it take?” Quinn asked. “We can’t be gone too long.”