Elizabeth

Elizabeth was woken by the stomping and hitting of her twin brother Ed. “No, Ed! No, no, no! It is too dark to be morning!” she complained, not wanting to wake. However, she realized that she was wide awake, unlike other times when she had accidentally woken up at midnight. “Fine. I’m not sleepy. But I still don’t think it’s morning. Let’s go ask Mommy for a little snack.”
It was so dark that the twins could not find the door or even the lamps. They walked around, trying to find the door, lamps, or computer. They stumbled into a hole in the wall like a doorway. They were a bit surprised because they thought their father had closed the door. They were only seven years old, after all, so they didn’t really worry, and thought whatever.
Elizabeth and Ed walked and walked until suddenly there was a super bright light. They were again surprised since they thought it was midnight, and this wasn’t their house at all! As her eyes adjusted to the blinding light, she made out the unmistakable shapes of St. Chrissy Hall and the emperor’s palace.
“It’s Halloween, right? This must be a joke our parents put on. Let’s trick-or-treat in the palace district,” Ed suggested. Elizabeth agreed, for she was attracted by the riches and candy of the imperial court.
The smiling faces of Elizabeth and Ed stood out among the serious, mysterious guards serving the emperor. “By the order of the emperor!” a loud voice boomed behind them. They turned around to see a large man wearing a coat of armor with a sword on his belt and a badge on his chest. “Children, are you lost?”
“Yes,” said Ed. An impulsive, honest little kid could easily make a mistake. As the expression on the man’s face changed, Elizabeth dug her nails into Ed’s hand so hard that he almost grimaced.
“He is lost, but I am not. My name is... Casselinda, and I’m... eleven years old. I was going trick-or-treating today, and I found him here alone, wandering around the district. Maybe you could help him find his way. I shall be off to get candy.”
Ed darted her a mean, revenging look, not surprising, but before he could say anything the strong man took his hand and walked away with him, inquiring personal details and his address. Of course he did not find out that they were siblings, even twins. The two of them were so different.
Elizabeth was such a tall girl, not like the average second-grader, but the average fifth grader. Her wavy hair in a braid was a long golden rope. Her blue-green eyes shined like an emerald lagoon in the sun. She was brave and daring, and very ahead of the game. While she hurt feelings sometimes, everyone at school knew Elizabeth was a clever, smart, mature girl.
Ed could grow up to be a soccer star. He loved sports, and his P.E. teacher always used him as an example. Ed’s brown hair was often ruffled because of using his head in soccer. Though not wise, he was honest and insightful. However, one could always detect a hint of confusion and impulsiveness in his bright brown eyes.
Elizabeth watched Ed and the man slowly ripple away from her eyes, and in doing so saw a tsunami headed for her. It was a teacher at school with her son, who was Elizabeth’s classmate. She knew she had to hide from them, so she ran and ran, away from the palace district, out of town, and into the tropical forest beyond the hills, occasionally seeing a classmate trick-or-treating in the distance. She sprinted with eyes closed or tears blocking her vision. There was no one as lonely as her on the island of Taginystin.
Night fell, and Elizabeth collapsed on a deserted beach five miles away from St. Chrissy. The sunset view was beautiful, so she didn’t know why it was deserted. She fell asleep under a palm tree. She dreamed about her in St. Chrissy, reading on her magnetic floating bed. Then, she went with friends to the cloud park and rode their flying play vehicles. Then it started raining, and they all played the sprinkler game where they went right under the rain cloud. Later, the friends all went back to St. Chrissy, but Elizabeth rode to the deserted beach, soaking wet.
Elizabeth woke up with her flying vehicle and soaking wet clothes. How had she woken up as if her dream was real and had just happened? She must have had a special gift.
Elizabeth got on the vehicle, roamed through the clouds, and went to St. Chrissy. She just had to avoid the palace district. She just did nothing almost the whole morning. When she speeded beside a house that belonged to a guy who was sort of old and was mowing his lawn using hi-tech suction and razor blade techniques, he accidentally caught a part of Elizabeth’s hair. She shrieked in a brief moment of pain.
“Oh, I’m so, so sorry, young lady. That must have hurt, and now your hair’s weird and uneven. And I slowed you down and you don’t have as much fun. My wife can fix this for you. Hey, come in my house.” He seemed so empathetic, and he probably didn’t get that kids were supposed to be in school.
The man’s wife gave her a cute haircut. Now she had shoulder-length straight hair. Then the couple gave her a nice lunch. It was only then that she realized that she had been starving. She got new clothes, and her parents probably wouldn’t recognize her.
After dinner, she stayed in the house for a night. This time she dreamed about a woman reciting a monologue to her. The woman was tall and had wavy golden hair and blue-green eyes. She reminded her of some character in a book she had read when she was little. Her voice was beautiful and hypnotizing.
“My dear Elizabeth,” she started. “My name is Vasilissa. I was born in 1796 in Greece. My family and I went on an expedition in 1831 on the HMS Beagle

, which had Darwin on it. We escaped from South America on some random canoe and discovered the island of Taginystin. There is something Darwin and the landlubbers do not know, besides the fact that we left? Do I look like a normal person?”
Yes, Elizabeth thought she did, though she did not say it to the Vasilissa woman, since she was hypnotized.
“Well, no. How am I here talking to you? How do I know that you think I look normal? I am magical. I am, you could say, a fairy tale character. All magical characters shared one thing: the ring. I have my ring. Others had theirs. They lived in Europe. However, they were discovered by the Brothers Grimm. They told ridiculous stories about us. Even you have heard them when you were little. They got rich and famous. Then they destroyed every last one of the rings so no one else could get that tale-telling reputation they thought only they deserved. But I was on this island. I still have a ring. I established a special city, Taginystinople. It is the best place on Taginystin. Ever heard of it? No. This is the secret place where I live. As the ringkeeper, I have also created fairy, nymphs, trolls, and other magical creatures. The ring is here, and I have chosen you to inherit it, as prophecized in my 1859 book On the Origin of Magic

.
“You may have been wondering what you and I are. We are simply magical humans. Amazing, right? Now my poem will help you get here:
“To find the place where I reside,
by my rules you must abide.
With no doubt jump in your car,
and fall in a hole chock full of tar.
I won’t give you the ring right now,
‘cause it will be lost and POW!”
The dream was over. Elizabeth woke up. Nothing new had appeared. Now she was homesick, but didn’t know how to find her way home, even with a scooter vehicle. She decided to get the ring situation over with. She wondered if Ed was waiting at Taginystinople. She briskly opened the window and flew out with the vehicle, carrying all her things. She squinted at everything dark that might be tar, until her eyes became so bad that she couldn’t tell.
So to her, everything possibly black was tar. The first time she dove, there was a play about witches with black hats. When Elizabeth flew down, an actress said, “Introducing the modern broom! This will be a breakthrough, but what we are using to assassinate the enemy wizard is this potion. It will make us invisible and untouchable, no brooms needed,” and to Elizabeth she said, “Thank you for the idea. This is a present for you.” She handed a bottle of invisible potion to Elizabeth, who quickly flew away. The audience clapped, thinking it was part of the show.
The next time she thought something was tar was when she got to her best friends’ house, which was black and silver, modern, made of metal, and underground. Alisonille and Sal were home-schooled with hi-tech programs, so they didn’t know about Elizabeth’s disappearance yet. Their parents were tutoring an after-school math class on the heated patio. The smart board was showing a mirror image for their mom to see if students were focused enough. She knew that everyone noticed, and Alisonille and Sal’s dad waved, so she had to go in.
“Hey, Elizabeth,” greeted Alisonille. “Nice haircut.” She was in fifth grade. Elizabeth followed her down the hover platforms. Her black hair bounced like a ball on a string. At least this time Elizabeth could be sure that it wasn’t tar. They saw Sal reclining on a couch.
“I’m sick today,” said Sal weakly. “Mom and Dad are going to check that there is no more of this sticky cough syrup left. I wonder who made it; I don’t want to drink it. It’s sticky, lemony, and way too sour...you know, the list goes on and on and on. Please, Elizabeth, take it, so Mom and Dad will think I drank it all.” Elizabeth went to the kitchen with Alisonille and poured the syrup into a cheap disposable bottle.
“Sal!” There was a call from above. Alisonille tossed the original bottle to Sal just as their parents were scrambling to the hover platforms. It was just in time. Sal faked a smile and told them that he drank all of it, but he wasn’t feeling better. His parents actually believed him. Elizabeth bid them good-bye, went upstairs, outside, and into her vehicle.
Elizabeth was having a long day. She fell asleep as she was floating in the clouds. Suddenly a sharp but smooth voice came. She didn’t find herself crashing into St. Chrissy Hall or the palace. However, Vasilissa entered her mind.
“Where are you going, Elizabeth? You are supposed to fall into a hole of tar. And you need glasses. You are crashing into the most important buildings in St. Chrissy! Shoo!”
Elizabeth woke up. In front of her was the palace. Nearby was St. Chrissy Hall. For the first time, Elizabeth saw it up front and close up. The walls were smooth and black. She was so struck she didn’t do anything. She crashed into the mayor just as the door opened. He lay on the ground, shaking his head and saying “Clumsy girl.” The secretary, who was tall, said, “I’m Laikilanu. Are you here to see anyone?”
“No. My name is Casselinda. I’m super bored, and I fell asleep. Sorry. I hope I didn’t cause any difficulties.”
“It’s okay, Casselinda. Nice to meet you. Your vehicle-”
“What? The black stuff? What’s that? Gosh!”
“Pieces of limestone and tar.”
Elizabeth and Laikilanu scraped off the things from the vehicle. However, while they were doing it, the vehicle tipped over, and the invisible potion and the cough syrup spilled. Elizabeth dropped her tar, but Laikilanu held onto the limestone bits. Elizabeth was embarrassed and wanted to leave. She got into the vehicle, trying to go up, but a piece of tar was stuck and it could only go down. She screamed when she got to the tar mixture.
Elizabeth heard, “Hello Casselinda, it’s Vasilissa. Or should I say, hello Elizabeth, it’s Laikilanu.” The woman laughed. “Are you ready? Let’s go. You’re in the magical city of Taginystinople. Ironically, you have been flying above it the whole time.”
They were both covered in the tar mix. They had to have their fingers together at the ends, with the tar, or everything magical would disappear since the atoms were off and not precise.
“When dealing with magical things, you must have a code name,” the woman informed Elizabeth. “For example, my code name is Vasilissa. My real name is actually Laikilanu. At the moment I slip the ring over your finger, say a code name.”
To Elizabeth, the time when the ring was getting closer and closer to her finger was in slow motion. The name Melisande was flashing in her head. She didn’t know why; she hadn’t really heard it, seen it, or liked it. With no other choice, “Melisande” flew out of her mouth.
The ring was on. To get the tar off, a fairy gave her an instant cleaning that Elizabeth didn’t even feel.
“You can go home now. Feel free to come back anytime. Always keep the ring on, Melisande.” Elizabeth went into the teleporter to her room with her vehicle and some of the new tar mixture.
Elizabeth was home as if everything was normal.

Ed

Ed was outraged. His sister Elizabeth had betrayed him by telling one of the emperor’s guards, “He is lost, but I am not,” and then giving herself a false identity so she could go on trick-or-treating.
Ed vowed to get revenge. As a different guard who didn’t know about Elizabeth talked to his mother, who said Elizabeth was also missing after she sent the twins off to go trick-or-treating, Ed stomped into the bedroom. He felt lonely without Elizabeth on the other side of the screen reading, writing, chatting on the computer, or bouncing on her magnetic floating bed.
He went into Elizabeth’s room, as if trying to better remember a kidnapped person. He looked at the bed, her desk with her secret compartment, and her-
Wait! Where was her flying red vehicle? She must have visited and left at some point the day before. Ed called his mom so he could know some details.
“Mom! Mom! I have an important question.”
“What?” His mom was still speaking with the guard, so she was sort of pissed to be interrupted.
“Was Elizabeth here?”
“Of course not.” The answer seemed obvious as soon as it was uttered, but it seemed like a possible idea that Elizabeth came in, got the vehicle, and went trick-or-treating again.
It was harder to get revenge on foot. After he stuffed the contents of the refrigerator, including some lemonade, into his backpack, he walked in the tropical forests and the hills, until he was on the other side of town. He was so tired from carrying everything and walking so much he wanted to get rid of some of the stuff in the backpack. But he couldn’t give up any food, because he didn’t know how long the trip would be.
He set up a lemonade stand in front of a random person’s house. People thought it was his house, and they bought all his cups of lemonade at ten dollars a pitcher, which was unreasonable to Ed. They must have thought he was a rich kid who expected high prices.
After the selling of the lemonade, Ed actually did become rich. He started living a luxurious life in a five-star hotel and forgot all about his original purpose to find Elizabeth. He had a rich but secluded life in a suite until his eighth birthday, when he decided to celebrate being older by taking an exploratory walk around the neighborhood. There was a year-round fair-like area where people could set up booths and maybe advertise their businesses.
It was mesmerizing. Some booths had wheels of fortune with prizes. Some sold things, and others provided services. Though there was one booth that was different. There was a man just sitting, surrounded by posters, relics, books, and random things. Ed was just about to ask if it was an antiques shop, but then he saw a small sign with the words carved on a silver plaque. You could barely make it out among all the things. It said, “Job as an apprentice scholar with Dr. Daniel Davis. Learn all you need to learn and spend lots of time on the beach. No need for parental permission (if minor).” The job sounded super, so Ed told the guy he was interested.
“Okay. What is your name?” Daniel asked.
Ed answered, “Ed.”
“How old are you?”
“I’m eight.”
“Perfect. You’re in for it.”
Dr. Davis called his assistants, Anthony, Celine, and Mia, kids like him, to see if someone could be at the booth. Then Dr. Davis led Ed to the beach by a portal. He purposely made it slow so they could talk about their lives. Dr. Davis talked about how he was a very respected PhD and was sort of famous, too, but then he let himself fade away. He was very interested in changing the world, so he let only a few selected people learn and study at his establishment on the beach. Ed talked about his life, but only the time before Elizabeth was missing.
Ed had never gotten such a fun, engaging, and good education. He studied everything from European history and organic chemistry, and he also got to practice what he loved most: soccer. There, for seven years, he lived in a lodge that had a structure of a tent and the function of a school.
“Happy fifteenth birthday, Ed!” That morning Dr. Davis and his assistants stormed into his room with food and gifts. He also declaimed, “You have been here for seven years,” and presented him with a badge.
“I must speak with all you guys,” he said. “I will be retiring to my private abode in Florida soon, which explains the need to train another person as an apprentice, for I will put Ed in charge after my departure, and the rest of you are trained only for assistance. The new apprentice is a fifteen-year-old girl named Elizabeth. She will be coming today. I’ll video chat with her, and we can get this party started!”
Ed, Anthony, Celine, and Mia started eating ice cream. It was quiet as Dr. Davis went outside and started the call with Elizabeth, the new girl. They could hear him telling her, “Hmm... you look familiar...” but then they heard only Mia cutting the cake, Celine opening the window, and Anthony walking toward the door.
Ed was at the beach studying relationships on a 3-D graph between the tides, the appearance of birds, and the amount of Internet bandwidth used on Taginystin when some unusual bird swooped over. He looked up to realize that it was not a bird, but a girl in a flying red vehicle. She had wavy golden hair and eyes that matched the sea, and she looked familiar to Ed.
The girl jumped out and asked Ed, “Where am I? I’m looking for... a place.”
“Well, I can’t tell you because the name of this place is secret. You’ll have to say yourself.”
“But where I’m going is a secret, too!”
“It must be the same place then. The amazing scholar place that belongs to Dr. Daniel Davis?”
“Yes, I’m Elizabeth. I’m the new apprentice here. You look familiar...”
“No, no. You probably read about me in the newspaper saying I disappeared, since I had to do so to come study here. My name is Ed,” he explained.
At the same time both Ed and Elizabeth shouted with smiles on their faces, “I know you!!!”
The twins stood next to each other for a long time facing the beach, watching the birds and the spectacular, peaceful sunset.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 09.08.2012

Alle Rechte vorbehalten