TRAVELLER (Book 1 in the Brass Pendant Trilogy) (17 page)

“We have one clock turn,” Morgan said smugly, when he reached me, and I shook my head slightly as I watched my guard reach the top of the stairs and……disappear completely. I frowned. I’d been left standing, completely unprotected, at the school gate.

“What did you tell him?” I asked Morgan, and I was still frowning after my disappearing guard.

“I told him we had detention, which is very normal for students in this time segment, and I said we’d draw unwanted attention to ourselves if we didn’t attend,” said Morgan cheerfully, and he was already beckoning me back into school. As we walked up the stone steps into the school building, I glanced behind me one last time, but my guard had obviously believed Morgan without question and was definitely nowhere to be seen. I shook my head again and Morgan glanced at me and grinned cheerfully as I followed him through the quiet halls.

The hallways were almost empty. Nobody took their time when it was time to go home. We passed a few students only and they ran past us as they hurried to leave the school premises. We also passed an open classroom where a handful of students sat despondently in the chairs. Some of these students had school books open in front of them, others stared vacantly into space, and one boy had his feet on the back of the chair in front of him as he leant backwards and yawned. A teacher sat at the front of the room and he tapped his finger against the screen of his phone as, he also, stifled a yawn. It wasn’t hard to guess we would have had to join these students if we’d actually had detention. Instead, I followed Morgan right through the school building and down a set of stairs, and when we reached the bottom of these stairs, we headed out a set of double glass doors where we followed a teacher out into a crowded, staff car park at the back of the school. The teacher paid no attention to us at all as he rested his plastic folders and a leather computer case on the roof of his car. The sound of his car door closing reached us as we walked briskly out the driveway, and the teacher drove past us just as we turned out of the car park onto an unfamiliar street.

The street behind our school was busy and traffic flowed steadily along it in both directions. Just ahead of us, a set of stairs in the pavement led down to another underground train station and students wearing the same uniform as ours headed down these stairs in small groups. Stores and small office buildings lined both sides of the street and we passed a medical centre, a florist, and a small fruit and vegetable market, before Morgan slowed suddenly and stopped beside the edge of the street.

“Is that……that’s your tutor isn’t it?” he said.

Morgan was frowning at some tables which were set beneath umbrellas on the other side of the street.

It was a café with outdoor seating and, under one of the open umbrellas, Mirren sat at a table with a local man. He was tall and lanky, with dark curly hair, and he wore work boots with his Synthetic Era jeans. Mirren looked different. She wore synthetic era jeans herself, and there was a pair of Synthetic Era sun glasses perched on top of her head to hold her long, light coloured hair back. The man wore a dark green cap and the name of the city zoo was printed on the back of his dark green jacket. Mirren was leaning towards him across the table and they were talking and laughing together. Two tall, paper cups were on the table between them too and, as we watched, the man took Mirren’s hands in his across the tabletop.

“So, now I know why she leaves you alone in the house at night,” said Morgan, and I glanced at him. He grinned and shrugged. “You’re not the only one who looks out the window,” he said, and I gritted my teeth. Did he have to keep bringing that up?

“I was trying to work out if you were going to be easy to work with,” I muttered, and he looked at me sideways.

“I can tell when you’re lying too, you know,” Morgan said dryly. I ignored him and looked across the road at my tutor.

“I’ve never seen Mirren smile like that. Come to think of it; I’ve never seen her smile at all. She actually looks happy,” I said, as I watched my tutor lean toward the young man who held her hands across the table.

There was a gap in the flow of traffic on the street and, with our view of my tutor unobstructed, it was at this moment exactly that Mirren sensed us watching her and looked across the road herself. Her smile faded abruptly when she saw us and a number of emotions crossed her face. I saw fear, followed by defiance, and this was quickly followed by a narrowing of her eyes as she searched the street for my guards and found them to be absent. Beside me, Morgan grinned, and he put two fingers to his brow as he signalled to Mirren in the manner of questers when they greet one another in passing. Mirren pressed her lips together and glared at Morgan.

The young man at the table with Mirren was looking across the street now too and we could see that he was asking my tutor what was upsetting her. The way he looked at her with obvious concern indicated their close relationship, as did the familiarity with which he moved his hand to her arm. She shook her head and, even though we couldn’t hear them, we could tell by his body language that he wasn’t quite convinced by her assurances to him that nothing was wrong.

“You know what this means don’t you?” Morgan asked me, and he folded his arms. “This means you can do whatever you want, and you certainly don’t have to worry about being late for your tutoring sessions anymore,” he said cheerfully. I glanced at him and frowned.

“I don’t want to be sent home,” I said worriedly. If Mirren reported me for wandering around in this time segment unprotected, I’d definitely lose my pendant for a few days, and I’d probably have to face the wrath of my mother as well.

“You won’t be sent home,” said Morgan confidently. “Your tutor knows we’re breaking rules, but she’s breaking them too. It’s the perfect situation,” he assured me, as we walked away from Mirren and her boyfriend. I glanced back at them, and Mirren was smiling again. Maybe, Morgan was right and I didn’t have to worry after all.

I followed Morgan further along the street and he headed towards a distinctive sign above a building just ahead of us. I’d seen this same sign on the sides of buses, and on bus shelters and billboards, and I’d seen it on litter that lay in the gutters along the street. Morgan told me it was the most popular fast food restaurant in both this time segment and the next and, when we reached the sign, we followed a group of students from another school through glass, double doors into a crowded, air conditioned room that smelt slightly of rancid oil.

There were more school students inside the noisy restaurant and some wore the same uniform as our own. Morgan pointed above us to glossy, back lit pictures of unfamiliar food as we waited in line to be served by students who were even younger than ourselves.

“Don’t expect your food to look like that,” he said cheerfully, and I frowned slightly as I glanced up at the brightly coloured pictures.

It didn’t surprise me at all when Morgan produced Synthetic Era cash from his blazer pocket and it didn’t surprise me either when he knew exactly what to order. He spoke to the young girl behind the counter in his perfectly accented, Synthetic Era language and I watched the girl throw three paper wrapped bundles haphazardly onto a plastic, paper lined tray. She pressed buttons on strange machines, and she was unsmiling as she scooped what looked like thin, golden sticks into a cardboard pocket before she presented us with a loaded tray.

Morgan found a table for us to sit at, and I sat on the edge of the plastic chairs because they were bolted to the floor and couldn’t be moved closer to the table. As soon as we sat down, Morgan passed me a paper wrapped parcel of food and a plastic coated, paper cup with a straw protruding from the top of it. He then took two wrapped parcels and another plastic cup for himself before he tipped the thin, golden sticks across the paper lined tray. He sat back in his chair then and he folded his arms as he waited expectantly for me to try the fast food of the Synthetic Era for the very first time.

“You have to unwrap it to eat it,” he said dryly, when I looked doubtfully at the package in front of me. I made a face at him. I wasn’t stupid. I carefully unfolded the plastic coated paper to reveal the slightly shiny looking food inside, and I glanced at a girl at a table not far from us before I picked up the burger gingerly between my fingers. I’d been taught to copy the locals and I glanced at the local girl again before I took a small bite. Morgan watched me closely and I chewed a little self-consciously as he waited for my response.

“Oh…this is
so
good,” I said, forgetting his scrutiny, as I tasted the strange looking food. I sounded like the locals now too and Morgan grinned.

“I told you,” he said smugly, as he unwrapped one of his own burgers.

“It’s like………I don’t know what it’s like, but it’s sweet, and salty, and oily, all at the same time and I hardly have to chew it at all,” I said, and Morgan watched me as I ate with true appreciation.

“What’s it made from?” I asked him, and he smiled wryly.

“It’s better not to know that,” he said firmly, and I nodded. Who cared how it was made. I took a sip of the bubbly drink. Its taste was reminiscent of a medicinal drink I’d been given when I’d been ill as a child, but this was more diluted and much sweeter.

“You’re right, though; it doesn’t look like the pictures,” I said, as I glanced up at the glossy, thick looking burgers displayed above the counter. Morgan grinned again.

We ate slowly and, as we ate, we watched the people around us come and go. When we were almost done, a small child beside us deliberately threw her drink all over the floor and I glanced at Morgan when her mother told her that it was alright, and that she could have another one if she stopped screaming.

“If you throw
yours
on the floor you won’t be as lucky,” said Morgan quietly, and I smiled at his serious expression before I took another sip of my bubbly drink.

At home in the Aldiris Community, children could play and scream and run wild out on the street to their hearts content. But, in their homes, their classes, and especially at meal times, they were expected to conduct themselves with restraint and good manners. Any Aldirite child who misbehaved at the meal table would be sent to bed hungry and, in Aldiris, there was no such thing as morning, or afternoon, tea. Children played and ran about all day outside so, when the sun set, they were always hungry and this genuine hunger tended to add plenty of restraint to their meal time behaviour.

We walked back to school slowly and most of the cars were gone from the staff car park now. We passed two of the school cleaning staff as we retraced our path through the halls and they barely glanced at us as they pulled large, plastic bins along behind them. Morgan had timed our return perfectly and we walked briskly out of the school gate behind the handful of students who’d spent their afternoon in detention. We crossed the street and I couldn’t look at Morgan as my guard fell silently into step behind us. When we climbed the concrete stairs, my other guards waited patiently in the public courtyard too and I did glance at Morgan then as I swallowed uncomfortably, and frowned.

“I’m so………..”

“Thirsty?” guessed Morgan, and I nodded as I swallowed uncomfortably again. I had never been so thirsty. Morgan grinned and produced a plastic bottle of water from his blazer pocket. “Fast food makes you thirsty,” he said, and he shrugged as he handed me the bottle.

“Where did you get this?” I asked him suspiciously, but Morgan ignored me and asked me if I was thirsty or not. I was so thirsty I didn’t think I could stand to wait until I was back at my house so I took the bottle from him gratefully and we shared it as we walked slowly along the road.

“Next time we have fast food, remind me not to eat so much of it,” I said, before I drank the last of the water.

“Next time, we should have pizza, but we’ll need two bottles of water after that,” Morgan said, and I looked at him.

“What’s pizza?” I asked him. I assumed it would be another version of his fast food and I was right.

“Well, you take the burger you just had, and you take the top half of the soft bread off. Then, you grind the filling and sprinkle it back on the bottom half of the bread, along with extra salt, and more oil. Now, imagine that six times as large, and cut into segments…….and that’s pizza,” he explained. I smiled and I didn’t ask Morgan if he liked pizza. I could tell he did, just by the expression on his face when he described it.

“And pizza is so popular in this time segment; if you want it, you can get it delivered in person to your front door,” he added, and I looked at him carefully but, to my surprise, he was telling the truth.

We’d walked home very slowly and I knew I was late for my tutoring session by the time I reached my gate. Morgan walked through my gate with me and we were still talking when we reached my front door. I glanced up at my house guiltily.

“I hope Mirren doesn’t send me home,” I said, and Morgan rolled his eyes.

“Mirren won’t send you home. I told you we can do whatever we want now. You’re lucky. If Zurina was your tutor it might be a different story,” he said, and I grinned.

“We’d
both
be back in Aldiris already if my Zurina was my tutor,” I said.

“Those of you who are given detention must go straight to detention. Fast food is strictly forbidden and I suggest you make sure you are punctual for your sessions because I don’t tolerate tardiness,” said Morgan, in an exact imitation of Zurina’s stern, commanding tone.