6 Cranbrooke Avenue

Chapter 14

"To Eligathy and Beyond." He said and sat back down beside me.

He handed me the book and I turned to the chapter I had stopped reading at in my school's library.  I then realized that I had abandoned my manners.  I looked up at Devon and said thank you.

"No problem bro." He said.

"Have you read the book?" I asked.

"No."

"Ok.  So it's written by this guy, right, who is or was, don't know if he's dead or not.  Well, is or was pessimistic, it shows a lot in the chapters.  There was this world or land called Eligathy and it could only be accessed through a closet.  Kinda like Narnia.  So the narrator had found the entrance as a kid and grew up jumping from one world to the other world all the time.  It took his mind off stuff going on here, well, on Earth, especially the death of his youngest sibling who died as a baby.  At first it was just him there with a couple of fairies and nymphs, but soon he bucked up on a shapeshifter at the River Hysta, a silver river that flowed through all of Eligathy.  Magical right?"

"Yeah." He said.

He didn't seem too interested, and I could see that he was forcing himself to listen.

"If you don't want to listen anymore you could just say so, you know." I said giving a bit of attitude.

He said that he wasn't bored at all listening to me but I knew he was.  A taxi pulled up along the sidewalk and through the back window, I saw my aunt.  She got out of the vehicle and signalled me to go to her.  I got up, brushed off my clothes, handed the book to Devon and went to her.  She had gone grocery shopping so I had to help her bring in the bags.  Devon decided to be a gentleman and assist with the bags after placing the book down on the lawn.

After placing the last bags on the kitchen counter, my aunt offered Devon a cup of juice.

"No thank you.  It's fine." He said.

I stood there waiting for her to offer me a cup of juice too, but she didn't, so I ask her where my offer was.

"Child, you're no guest.  Guests get offers, not people who live here already." She said.

"So I could just take some then." I said.

"Touch the juice and it will be the last thing you ever touch.  Look how long I wasn't here.  You could have already taken juice."

"The last juice finished last night aunty.  And you were the one who drank it, so the last juice I drank was from the day-" I complained and was interrupted.

"Jordan, don't think I won't shame you in front of your little boyfriend." She said slamming the rest of what I was saying back down my throat.

I looked at Devon who was staring down at his feet with his hands in his pocket acting like he wasn't hearing what was going on.

"He's not my boyfriend aunty." I defended myself.

But that was just how my aunt was.  She called every boy I ever talked to my boyfriend.  I guessed that she was jinxing me each time, causing me to have never had one.  But then again, what would I have been doing with one.  I was fifteen.  I was still a baby.

Devon must have started feeling very uncomfortable, as he excused himself and went outside.  He popped up in the kitchen again handing me the book he had brought over and then he said goodbye once again and left again.

"Good choice.  He seems like a gentleman." My aunt teased.

"He's not my boyfriend." I said and started packing out one of the bags.