Letters from Anfrage

part 1, chapter 7

The stocky man shuffled into the room and quickly shut the door behind him. He had his back towards me as he ran his hand through his hair and hung up his jacket.

      The jacket.

      I’d seen that jacket before.

      On the man that talked to me on the boat, right before the lightening struck.

      The man didn’t notice me until after he set the lantern and bag he was carrying down on the ground. Then he noticed my mud-caked shoes. He looked up. I was very confused and I started to back up. In the process I managed to knock over all the tea and fall back over the side of the chair. I kind of did a backwards summersault.

      “ Oh!” the man said after he noticed I was lying upside down on the floor. “ I didn’t mean to startle you.”

      “ Uhmfm…thetskay. Neworiez.” I managed to mumble. It’s very hard to talk when your face is stuck under your knee. I finally got myself up off the ground. I stood up and dusted off my pants and tucked in my shirt a little. I cleared my throat and looked at the figure at the door. “ That’s okay, no worries. Um, may I ask your name?”

      “ Oh, sorry. Ones manners get extremely rusty when you haven’t met anyone new in a very long while. My name is Arthur. Arthur Oz.”

      “ ARTHUR!” Alfred heard the crash when I fell and poked out from behind the bedroom door. “ I didn’t know you where back yet. I thought you where still in Murkwurd.”

      “ Oh, no, no.” Arthur said while stepping inside and shutting the door behind him. He knelt down and picked up the bag. “ I was going to go but then I saw a ship coming from the west so I had to go turn on the simulator,” I became very puzzled here, ‘simulator’? What in the world… “ Then I recognized one of the men on the ship as one of your students from Oxford so I had to go help him because I would’ve felt incredibly guilty if I let him die. So, I had to go out on the bridge to help him. And by the time I got back, all the good stores in Murkwurd were all closed so I came back here.” He shook the bag upside down, revealing that nothing was in there. Then he smiled at the end just like Alfred does.

      “ That’s a shame. I was hoping you would get those hard candies that are so good.” Alfred said as he stepped out into the living room/kitchen. “ Ah, no matter. We were just about to have some tea but I see that it is all over the floor…so I guess we’ll have to settle with water.”

      “ And who is this?” Arthur asked, motioning at me.

      “ Oh, I am sorry. This is Jack McDowney, one of my former students, the one that was on the ship.” He motioned towards me. “ Jack, this is my brother, Arthur Oz.”

      “ Oh, yes. I know who you are, silly me. I didn’t recognize you at first because you’re rather dirty, son.” He sniffed and crinkled his face up in disgust. “And you stink.”

      “Oh…uh,” I looked down at myself and performed the well-known gesture when one has to check oneself for any unwanted aromas. My quest left me dazed. “ Yes, forgive me. Alfred may I -”

      “ Yes of course, follow me.” Alfred took off down towards the bathroom and I froze for a second then hurried after him.

      “ Nice to meet you too Jack.” I heard Arthur say from behind me. All I could say back was an undecipherable mumble. Everything was moving quickly and I had no idea what to think about it. I followed Alfred around a corner and into the bathroom. It was very clean and neat, just like the restrooms at the Pied a Terre in London.

      “ Oh, I’ll go grab you some clean clothes. Back in a jiff.” Alfred sped out of the room leaving me in the porcelain museum.

uuuu

      Arthur continued to watch Jack as he followed Alfred out of the room. Once he was out of sight, Arthur’s smile faded and a more serious expression took over his face. He bent down to pick up the lanterns he left on the ground, but hesitated a moment. Jack looked really familiar…too familiar. Arthur stood back up and glanced around the room before reaching for his inside coat pocket. His hand emerged holding a very thin leather bound notebook. He sifted through the old pages until he came across a drawing with a short paragraph in elegant script underneath it. He didn’t pay attention to the paragraph but instead, his gaze was on the drawing: a young boy, about eleven or twelve, with dark brown hair and bluish-green eyes. A small line of text was written next to the drawing, but the only part that stood out to Arthur, was the name Johnethan McDowney.