Chapter 16: the first secrets revealed.

Chapter 16: The first secrets revealed.

Some of the younger girls, not used to wait for the patient pace, the Lady and her advisors used, came to her, and sat around her on the floor, or stood against her chair, like they would do, when they were waiting for a story, their Grandma should tell.

Each had a quick question: “Lady, what do we first?”
Or: “is it hard in the other world? Do we have to be extra careful?”

I nudged Cindy and said: “That just looks like one of the pictures in my picture-book of Mother Goose, your Granny!”

Cindy nodded and told softly: “The one who made those pictures, was our guest for a time.
That is, why so many of our landscape does look so familiar to you, and to each new friend, who comes here the first time. But let’s listen to the others.”

One of the mothers wanted to ask something else first: “Lady, I did not see my little boy for 3 days now.
His granny is great, but will we stay away long?”

Some giggling from the other mothers told me, she made a mistake, like I had done before, and to confirm that thought, I first looked at the Lady, who smiled, and than to Cindy.
So I also giggled. Thus the lady pointed to me, asking: ”Why do you laugh, Lea?”

I told: “I do think, that woman is making the same mistake I did, is it not? Only by coming from my world, I do not know the secret about it…” I ended with the hands open, like in a question. “Am I right?”

The mother slammed her hands to her mouth: “how could I forget. Of course!”
That did not make the riddle for me easier, but while the Lady nodded consent, Cindy whispered: “In the cave with the grandmothers and kids, time goes slower.
So for them, only a lovely day out has passed, when our mothers come to fetch their babies.
The larger kids do learn this way about time difference, like between our, and your world, while they did sleep at home, in between the 2 or 3 rides, they made to help.
This is one of the ways we have been told about how things work different in your world.
In our world are the same time-secrets. May be you later find out more.
But now: hush, the Lady goes on.”

It was not the Lady, but the group Elders, who divided the tasks.
This way, all the woman where busy, when the Lady asked Cindy and me to do something special.
“Do you think, you two are able to go back in town and find out what the man are doing?
You two have more escape possibilities, while here in Otherland, most woman only have one or two gates. More are not given to Otherlanders, a safety-measure from olden times.
I do know, in Homeland there are more, and other possibilities, while I did live there for a time.”

She gave Cindy a wink, before she went on: “I, as a curly-red-hair from a long line of women with that kind of hair, was after the prediction not save, too.
I first lived a time with my twin-sister in Homeland, before I myself found an friend in Ireland. There, it is not hard to find a friend, while fairies and dwarfs still roam around.
I had a wonderful time there.”

My mouth fell open, I did feel like an uneducated child, before I finally guessed: “Then You and Cindy are family? I should have known!”

Both laughed a bit conspiracy, for them it was normal, but I did feel a bit naïve, not seeing this before: not only the same hair, but also the same boldly action, even the same way of looking at possibilities.

“You now do know, the most others just guess, so no word!
Do you think you two manage to go to my home, and bring the secret box?
You do know where it is hided, do you Cindy?”

Cindy said: “Yes, and to tell you the truth, I was counting on something like that. Grandma did tell me well: every night, there also was a story about what was expected from one of us.
So when I did ask Lea, to draw our travel-book, there also is a drawing of the room behind the Great Chair, where no man ever has been.”

While I tried to deal in my thoughts with all those extra surprises, the two redheads had some special fun, that only people, who are so closely related could have.

After that, we both took our booklets out, this moment it was safe enough. All the others were busy and we were standing in a separate corner.

The Lady said: “Ah, I do see, that one. Amany was right, when she told the time was now, because she did dream of you.
That was, why we were there when you came through the gate under the docks.
She will be a valuable helper when you are older, Cindy.

Until now, you did choose well, my child.
Now, go and take the secret box.
Try not to been seen, but it also would be nice to know, how the men do react, now the women are away.
Do you remember the plan of the secret path-ways in and round the house, and where you can hear, what the man tell?”

Cindy did shake yes with her head, looked if I had the right picture in front too, and there we went: mirror-hopping again.
The room behind the Big Chair was dark, but Cindy knew where the candle and the match-sticks were.

I looked around, but this room looked so very innocent.
Nothing special to see, just some planks with books, a table with some candles, and a chair, a curtain that did hide the entrance to a bed-room, with a for me old fashioned four-poster-bed: with pillars and red curtains, held together with a cord.
Cindy and me conferred first.

She started: “What do we do first, the box, which might be heavy, or are we first finding out what the men do?”

I answered: “We do have all the possibilities, why do we not use them?
Your great-aunt wanted both things evenly much: the box and the information.
I do not like to walk around with a heavy box, and mirror-hop unexpectedly with full hands.
We did not try that before. So how about this action?
You fetch the box, we do bring it to safety to the Lady, mirror-hop back.
Than we go investigate about the men. This way we do all, ánd we try something new, while bringing the box.”

Cindy looked thoughtful, nodded and said: “That is likely the best way to act.
Only… we do not have a drawing of the Lady or the place the others are going to.”

My answer was: “Do you think a reasonable likeness with the words ‘the Lady’ under the drawing, will be enough to find her, where ever she is?
There are still a few empty pages in our book, and in the small pocket of my pants,” and I pointed to it, “is a pencil to draw. Easy as what.”

That I did in both books.
The lady did not look like she was drawn by a famous painter, but for who knew her, it had enough likeness.

Cindy reminded me: “Remember, it works over here when YOU do believe!”

She climbed on the bed and sat down with her knees on the pillows. Then she pulled away the red curtain against the wall behind the bed.
When you looked well, there was a hidden door in the planks, behind which the box was.
A key lay there too, which she put on a chain around her neck.
There after she closed all again, laid the bed as if nobody had been on it, and we mirror-hopped back to the Lady.

Lady did look surprised, but did see the cleverness of our action.
So not much time was spilled: the box, the chain, and the key were handed over, and there we went, to the Great Chair room again.

There I tried to find a way to the hidden path-ways, the Lady mentioned.
Cindy smiled and let me search. I never would find them, she thought.
What she did forget: I am the biggest fairy-tale reader, and listener in the world, so I remembered a tale where an innocent candle was the clue.

There I went, pointed to it and asked: “This one?”
“How do you know?” was her amazed answer.
“From the tale of the Puss in boots, he used the ‘pull the candle to you’ trick too. In the Castle of the Marquis de Carabas,” I said, a bit proud I did remember this.

We pulled the candle, the whole wall with planks, books and so on turned.
The pathway was dark, and like in all fairy-tales, there were torches, but the small pockets in my special trousers had more surprises: a very small flash-light on led-light, so it used very little of the power battery, and could be regulated in strength of light.

And for me more important: it did not smell, so we should not sneeze.
Now we could blow out, and leave the candle for those, that later use this pathways too. They certainly would need it.

We careful closed the door by pulling a handle before going on.
Cindy lead the way.
Through the first whole in the wall, we only observed an empty eating room, full of dirty pots and dishes, but no men.

The second whole in the wall did not tell much more, only a snoring man lay with his head down on the table, between the rubble.
He could not tell much either.

The third one was more promising: an eating house.
Lots of men were around the table, and the poor few girls, that were left behind, walked their feet of, to feed those man, screaming for more beer and things to eat.

Cindy whispered: “We have to talk to the Lady about this, a few days of this will have cured the girls of going adventuring with the man again, I do hope.”

We listened carefully, and discovered, most of the men had plans to escape to my world, where they planned to go to an island in the Caribean, like most of their grandfathers had done.
Then we went further.

On other places we heard the same story, and at the end there were three places named the most: the isle, an old temple in the jungle of Brazil and the city of Las Vegas, about which Amany had told before.
We knew enough and mirror-hopped back to the Lady, who now was in the new base on the other end of the mountain.

This looked like a proper base to work from now.
There were more tents, some cooking fires and much activity was going on.
We landed just besides the tent of the Lady.
Cindy pointed: “Do you see that? There is a square, made from the ribbon of the Ladies dress, and we just landed in there!”

The answer came quick by the Lady: “Amany told, you would land there, so we kept it free. Come in and tell, there is food ready.”

That’s why it came to be, that we were sitting in the Ladies tent, eating a nice meal and told, while doing that, all we found out.

“There is one thing I did forget to tell Cindy, but may be it is important enough to go back for,” I said.

“I did see laying around some of those ‘men’s gateways’, I suppose it were.
At the moment I saw, I did not think much of it.
But should it help to keep the men where they are?

I do not like to steal something, for I do know it is wrong, but when we go at night, can we fetch them, and thus keep them where they are?

But besides, I also would like to take some of the girls we left behind, and take them back too.
They run the soles of their shoes and still could not work hard enough for those men. Do you think, they learned enough now?”

“Let’s sleep about it, that is sometimes the wisest way. One more night will drum in the lesson even more,” the Lady said.

And after us was showed a sleeping place, no time went before we fell asleep.
But half-way the night, Amany did shake us awake, so we went to fetch as much ‘men’s-gateway’s’ we could grab, feeling as sneaky as the men must feel, while doing so.

Only because it was for such a good course, we could go on with it. And it was not such a hard job, while most men had it laying ready to go out the next day, when they had slept of their partying of the last night.

The girls, we did bring with us, were totally relieved.
They learned now, there was something very good in ‘the old fashioned domestic way of living’.

They were brought to a special tent to find clean clothes, and all the things the other women had with them too.

© Nan van Daalen All rights reserved.