The Unbelievable Tale of Lydia Jones

Chapter 2- Wednesday

"Wake up sleepy head," Mackenzie whispered as she shook my shoulder.

"What time is it?" I asked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"It's pretty early yet." 

With a groan, I sat up on the couch and pushed aside the blanket that had been placed over me. Other than the two of us, the Hobbit Hall bookstore was empty; a "closed" sign hung on the glass door. Outside the sky was just starting to lighten.

"Oh my gosh!" I yelped. "Did I fall asleep reading again? Why didn't you wake me up? My mom is going to freak out!"

Mackenzie stared at me blankly. "You don't remember?" she asked.

"Remember what?"

Just then, the storage room door opened and a tall man in a dark blue suit strolled out.

"Ah, she's awake!" he said. "Good timing too, the dice are almost recharged. We'll be able to travel again soon."

"Um, there's a bit of a problem with that," Mackenzie said to the man. "Lydia seems to be suffering from short term memory loss. She doesn't remember what happened last night."

The man frowned, but shrugged it off. "First time teleporting can have some nasty side effects. Inconvenient, but not the end of the world. Well, I mean it is currently the end of this world so to speak, but not because of that."

I jumped up from the couch and rooted through the couch cushions looking for my phone. I needed to let my mom know I was okay. Odds were that she didn't even notice I was missing, but things were getting weird here and it was definitely time to go.

"Yeah, that all sounds great," I said. 'But I think I better go now."

The man in the blue suit opened his mouth to speak, but Mackenzie put her hand over his mouth. "I think you better let me do the talking this time, brother."

That made me pause. In all the time we'd spent together over the last couple years, Mackenzie had never mentioned having a brother. Or anything about her family, come to think of it. I knew she had an apartment above the bookstore, but had never seen anyone come or go from it other than her. 

Mackenzie motioned for me to sit down on the couch, and then sat down beside me. With a sympathetic look, she handed me a warm cup of tea. It was then that I noticed the heavy bags under her eyes. Her light blonde hair was frizzy and unwashed. Apparently I hadn't been the only one who'd had a rough night.

"Is he really your brother?" I asked Mackenzie.

"Half-brother, technically. Just ignore him. What's the last thing you remember?" 

I thought back to the day before. I remembered going to school, and Abigail being a total snob to me, but not much else. 

"I don't know," I said, shaking my head in frustration. "There was the sinkhole, I guess. That was pretty weird. I know I had to take a different way home, but that's all I can remember."

Mackenzie smiled encouragingly. "That's good you remember about the sinkhole, but we'll get to that later. Firstly, you met my brother Finn last night on your way home from school. You got lost, and he ran into you by happenstance, and brought you here." 

As Mackenzie spoke, memories of the previous night buzzed around in my brain like a swarm of angry trapped bees. I groaned and rubbed my forehead. 

"Drink the tea, it'll help." Mackenzie said, waving at the porcelain cup in my other hand. 

The warm liquid soothed my scratchy throat and helped me focus. "How exactly did I get here?" I asked. "I thought I remembered something, but it can't be right..."