The time was twenty minutes past eight. I had an hour and forty minutes to vomit all the questions ravaging my brain.
Peter and Laura were staring at me calmly, their hands clasped on each other as if rehearsed. They were waiting.
My brain kept throwing up questions, and I was confused on which one to ask first. I took a deep breath, finally deciding to start with less stressful questions, and take it up from there.
“Where is the dog?” That was my first question, and at first they didn’t understand it; they hadn’t seen the question coming. They had thought I would be asking questions about the community and the queen’s interest in me.
It took a few seconds for them to recover from that unexpectancy before answering my question about the dog that I hadn’t seen since I had woken up the final time from coma. Not that I was complaining-I was actually relieved-but I was also curious.
“The dog doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to a neighbor. Avarna had just let Diana keep the dog for a while because she was traveling then to a human town for a few days. She is back now, and so is her dog.” Laura answered smartly then kept shut, waiting for my next question.
“Do I get to work here? Is there something like part time jobs, you know, for students, to aid their financial base?”
“Yes, of course. There are openings in many shops. I will show you all of them tomorrow. You can pick whichever is convenient for you, or you can choose not to work. It’s your choice.” Peter answered, a short smile on his face. “I would never have pegged you as someone keen on money. So you really want to work?”
I nodded. I needed to work. It would help get my mind focused, and get my pockets full to an extent; in case I needed the money for my revenge plan. I didn’t know how much they paid per hour, but it would be better than nothing at all.
Now let’s get into more proper questions.
“So everything in this community is mainly powered and done with magic right?”
They both nodded, their hands still clasped.
“That’s interesting. I have never seen you with phones, is it something here?” I asked, hoping for a positive reply. I needed a phone myself.
“Yes of course.” Laura answered, chuckling. She found it hilarious that I would ask that. “Of course we know what phones are, Maya. We are not living in the stone age. We are just people more efficient with magic. Though phones are not really necessary, we do use them. Peter and I have phones. Do you want one?” She asked, and I nodded without hesitation.
The act triggered a chuckle from Peter. He shook his head thereafter. “Well, that is to be expected. The reason why we don’t use it often is because we are quite older. But I think you will see more of that when you resume school with your peers. They use that device more than they read their spell books. I will get you one from the store tomorrow.” He promised, and I smiled my appreciation, happy that he hadn’t asked me to work for it, to buy the phone from my paycheck.
It was something that my foster father, Gordon could do, and would actually do if an occasion had risen like this. My mother had been the one to get me the phone that I had been using back at the pack. Gordon couldn’t care less if I died. I was sure he didn’t even notice or miss my absence. The reverse would be the case rather.
“‘Thanks Peter. I appreciate it. So the community, Zophar…”
They perked up and glanced at each other when I mentioned the name of their community. Quite understandable since they never told me about it.
“The queen had mentioned it before disappearing into the wall . What is the history?” I settled deeper into the single sit sofa that was overly comfortable for reading.
“Well, there are a lot of stories, a lot of legends and folklores about our history, but the most popular and most likely to be true is a story that tells of our ancestor that had been instructed by the goddess of magic to leave her father’s land to the place where she will show her. The woman, Zophar, obeyed without hesitation. She had taken her fiance, who out of love had followed her despite not understanding her story, risking being at odds with his own family for he was the only son of his parents. He followed her to this place, where our community is currently located. So, they named the place after her. The goddess blessed them with children, and the children grew and multiplied as they interacted with other people of the land, but they never forgot their place. So, that’s how I think we came to be.” Laura answered, a line marring her smooth forehead. She told the story as if she doubted I would believe her.
I didn’t. I had heard crazier folklores. “Is that why it appears that the women in the community seem to be in charge?” I chose the word incharge over ruler so as not to upset the balance between Peter and Laura. ‘Rule’ seemed more rude or blunt.
There was a significant pause, during which Laura’s clasped hands got tighter. I wondered if the question made her uncomfortable, but made no plans to retrieve it or apologize for it because I really wanted to know, especially seeing as Peter remained unruffled like iron. He was the one that answered the question too.
“To an extent, I think so, but I believe it is because the goddess blesses them with more powers. This is probably because they were the ones that she had spoken to, and they had listened. I actually have the opinion that she had spoken to the men first, but they had refused, not finding it logical enough to obey. So, she had tried the same for the women folk, and their obedience had triggered the goddess favor toward the gender.”