Recovering Our Own

Chapter Seven: At The Restaurant

Raidah stood completely still for what seemed to Kallan like the longest time. Her only sign of movement was the shaking of the house key in her hand. Eventually, she turned the key and walked straight past Kallan and into the grand entrance of the home, still not saying a word about the gray circle on the doorframe. Kallan, on the other hand, lingered outside on the Welcome mat for a moment longer to inspect the symbol. At second glance, she could tell that this image was newer than the familiar ones carved onto the door, for this one appeared to have been drawn or painted on.

It was a simple shape, a basic gray circle, not filled with any color or anything. But to Kallan, to Raidah, and all the Primum back home on Totus Islands, it held a very important meaning.

"Kallan? You coming?" Raidah said at last, calling out from the inside of the house.

"Yeah, one sec!" she shouted back, stepping through the threshold of the mansion. She removed her sneakers and set them on the shoe rack in the foyer as Raidah poked her head around the corner from the top of a grand staircase.

"Come on! Bring your bags up here, I'll show you your room!" She seemed suddenly cheerful and perky. A little too cheerful, Kallan observed. Almost as it she's trying to pretend she never saw that... is she?

Pushing her musings to the side for the time being, Kallan grabbed her bags and proceeded up the stairs and down the hall. Raidah pushed open the third to last door on the left side of the hallway.

"All yours!" she said with a grand sweep of her hand. "I'm sleeping right next door on your right, if you ever need anything."

Kallan's sock feet made no sound as she padded softly onto the plush cream colored carpet of the bedroom. The floors they had on the Islands had always been hardwood, so Kallan spent roughly twenty seconds engaging in the amusing activity of making footprints in the carpet. This is one of those things we've all done at some point in our lives, whether we'd like to admit it or not.

"Kallan? What do you think of the room?"

Startled, Kallan jumped at first and the rushed into her room. She had to pause and take it all in. A queen sized bed with a teal and white striped comforter and matching colored pillows was pushed against the side wall. A lovely comfortable looking window seat covered in comfy cushions was the perfect place to sit with a breathtaking view of the mountains, and there was a fully stocked bookshelf stretching up to the ceiling.

Hopefully I'll get some down time during this mission, because sitting there and reading one of those books sounds amazing, she thought.

Out loud, she simply shouted: "I love it!"

"Glad to hear you say that!" Raidah called out back to her. She move toward where Kallan stood in her room, having finished unpacking. "Hope you like the homey touches I added."

Homey touches? With another look at the room, Kallan picked up on a few things she hadn't noticed the first time. Like the poster of her favorite Primum singer, Ashtra X. And it was signed! Kallan reached up to run her fingers over the celebrity's scrawled letters.

"Oh, yes, I thought you'd like that," Raidah continued. "She was happy to sign once I told her it was for you, and she mentioned that she was she would love for you to come to one of her concerts, so much that she told me you were welcome anytime backstage."

"Really?!" Kallan squealed. Then, something occurred to her. Dropping her hand to her side, she asked, "Who put all this stuff up here? You haven't left the Islands in fifteen years."