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I STAYED in bed late again, not wanting to face the day. My room felt colder than usual. The floor chilled my feet as I walked over to where I’d left my backpack. I dressed in the jeans and sweatshirt that I’d brought with me to the white tower. I slowly and deliberately laced up my running shoes. I propped the travel glasses on my head, slipped my backpack on my back, and then I paced. I paced back and forth through the suite of rooms until I couldn’t stand it anymore.
When neither Valcas nor his servants came for me, I ventured out into the long hallway where I paced some more. I knew that it was time to leave, that I must say good-bye. I just didn’t know how to do these things or where I was going to go. As I paced I thought of Mom, of Edgar and of Uncle Al. I thought of Enta, Romaso and Shirlyn.
Then I thought of Valcas.
He was the only person I knew who may still be out there looking for me, trying to “bring me back.” Fine, then. Maybe I would let him do that. He told me that he would protect me. He’d apparently told my mother the same thing. I thought back on all of the times he’d scared me, every bit of evidence that justified taking the travel glasses and running away from the palace. He’d searched for me. He’d locked me in a room when I wouldn’t cooperate with his plans. He’d told me that I abandoned security back at the palace—that he would recover me. He’d shown up at Enta’s homestead where he told her and Edgar that I would eventually need to stop moving. He’d found me at Folkestone harbor where he laughed at me as he chased down the Pipette with a larger motorboat.
Would he have really hurt me? Or was he using my own fears against me for my own protection? If that was the case, he wasn’t doing a very good job at it.
Approaching footsteps interrupted my thoughts. Someone else was in the hallway, patrolling it.
“Oh, hello!” I called out as the mustached guard drew nearer.
“Miss Winston,” he bowed.
“May I ask you something?”
“Yes, Miss.”
“How do you always know my name? You knew it the last time you saw me too. Is that something you re-learn every morning as part of Valcas’ orders, or is there some other way?”
“There are many ways, Miss Winston, although security orders prevent me from revealing all of them. I do apologize. I will say, however, that on this particular morning, I was asked to bring you a message.”
“A message for me? From Valcas?”
“No, Miss. The message is from outside of the tower. We are expecting a visitor soon. Someone is very rapidly approaching the tower.” He paused to hand me a small clear box. “You have what you would say is a telephone call.”
My skin crawled with an uncomfortable tingling sensation as I held and opened the box. It felt slippery and cold, like a melting ice cube. I wasn’t sure what to do next. The guard was already hustling down the hallway, getting ready for whoever was quickly approaching. At least I would get to find out who was trying to contact me this time.
I inhaled and then quietly croaked in the direction of the box. “Um, hello?”
A familiar female voice answered. “Calidora, why haven’t you answered any of my messages?”
“Mom?” My jaw dropped. She was the last person I expected to hear on the other end of the line. “You sent the telegram and letter to the Halls’ estate?”
“Yes. I have very few ways of contacting you directly. Just as soon as I figure out where you are, you move again. You don’t answer your phone. I’ve been extremely worried about you.”
“I never brought my phone with me. But, wait. I don’t understand. Why didn’t you just say that the messages were from you? None of them were signed and you said to use the glasses. None of it made any sense. And how did you know to call here?” I was on a roll. I had an arsenal of questions. If I was going to be blamed for not checking in with my mother, then I at least wanted some answers. I saved my best question for last. “Is Valcas still searching for my father?”
A silence followed, long enough that I thought that I may have been disconnected.
“Hello? Mom?”
I heard a sigh from the other end of the phone. “The messages that I sent through Mona could not be encrypted. I didn’t want to leave any traces, to change anything in the past. The first message asked you to use the glasses because I hoped that Valcas could get in touch with you and explain what was going on. He contacted me after you fled from Enta’s homestead.”
“Do you know how terrifying his messages are? Did he tell you that he locked me in a room in his palace and that he tried to run me over with a motorboat? I thought I was running away from a really charming psycho freak.”
Mom cleared her throat. “I can’t say that I agree with how he’s been handling this. Valcas has changed a lot since I first met him, but I know that he would never harm you. I’m sorry, Calla. I really should have told you more about all of this earlier. I wanted to protect you too.”
I felt my blood pressure drop. The hallway was white, the same sickening white that blurred my vision when I felt like I was going to pass out. I closed my eyes and caught onto a silver doorknob to keep from sinking to the ground. Was this what she’d been keeping from me all of these years, leaving me completely clueless?
“Are you a traveler?” I asked.
“No, not exactly. I work for the TSTA as a travel communications facilitator. The Halls are my clients.”
I shook my head in disbelief. What else did she know?
“Is Uncle Al all right? Where is he now?”
“He’s fine. Valcas told us about the incident at the lake after he said he had you safely in his custody. We were able to find him before further damage was done. Calla, listen to me. You need to understand something. You need to stop moving now. If you don’t, you will be in danger of getting lost.”
“But I can’t stay here! I have to get out of here—there’s nothing left to learn. None of it is real. Valcas will be here soon and I have to say good-bye. I have to go. I’m nothing but a ghost to him here and I don’t want to hurt him anymore.”
“Calla, listen to what you are saying. You are losing sight of what is and is not real. I sent Valcas to find and retrieve you once you started using the travel glasses so that you wouldn’t get lost. He was upset that you’d left and made a fool of him, but he agreed to go anyway. We couldn’t just leave you out there all alone. He’s on his way there now.”
“You sent him? But how?”
“In my position I have the ability to monitor individuals’ comings and goings through time and space. The TSTA has control over licensed vehicles and planned destinations, but not for the unlicensed objects such as the travel glasses. I could see you traveling through, Calla, but there was nothing I could do. I don’t have the resources. You just kept getting farther and farther away, and it’s taken a really long time to find where you are now.”
“You sent him.” I let the words sink in. Mom’s actions seemed so...maternal. She’d been keeping an eye on me all along. She said she’d been worried about me. She didn’t want me to be alone.
“You don’t realize how dangerous the game you’re playing is. You cannot jump from world to world and time to time as frequently as you have been traveling. You’re at a high risk for getting lost.”
“But I was mostly just trying to get away from Valcas. What do you mean by ‘lost?’ You mean like literally lost in time and space?”
Mom sighed before answering. She sounded tired. “That would be horrifying enough, but there’s more to it than that. I can give you an example. I understand that you spent some time with Edgar at his nowhere, his workshop in the woods. He is lost and has been for a very long time.”
“Was lost,” I said.
“Excuse me?”
“Edgar was lost. He’s dead now.” I winced. Those words still bothered me.
“That is sad news for those who remember him well enough to miss him.”
Another Hall lost to me. Enta’s words echoed in my head. “Mom, is Valcas lost?”
“No, although he came pretty close more than a couple of times. Do you know what day it is, Calla? Do you even know how long you’ve been gone?”
“I’m not sure.”
I remembered my walk with Valcas along the hiking trail. I’d asked how travelers kept track of the time. He’d said that many get lost. I wondered whether Edgar knew how old he was when he died and how he’d kept track of time at the workshop in the woods. Putting together what I knew of Edgar and what my mother just told me, I realized that he didn’t keep track of anything but his experiments. When faced with outside topics like his family and his past life, he became agitated and confused. He withdrew. He looked, well...lost.
“Oh.” I got it now. He really was lost. How close to being lost was I?
“I have to go soon, Calla. But there is one more matter I need to discuss with you, something that I don’t want to come as a shock to you when Valcas brings you here to TSTA Headquarters. I’ve been warned about two pending charges against you, infractions for the unauthorized creation and use of daily reminders. Do you have any idea why that would be?”