Keeper

Chapter 5

"Sylvia! Paris!"

Sylvia nearly tripped rushing down the stairs, Paris almost did the same which would be really, really, really, bad since he was taller than her. Maybe by an inch or two, but still it would be bad especially with Wander in his carrier. The two reached Keina and saw another woman with her. The other woman had short and blonde crinkly hair, white skin, freckles covered her cheeks, well-spaced green eyes, and a scar covered her red lips which ended at her chin. She wore a grey jacket and the rest of her clothes to matched even her tennis shoes matched her jacket.

"Paris, Sylvia, this is Marina Tabar and she will be working with you two today and for now on with the festival today." Keina introduced the new person.

"Festival?" Sylvia looked at all three of them.

"The Family Day Festival! It's the rest of the week from Monday, August 19th to Friday, August 23rd." Keina answered.

"We celebrate our families and there's a lot of dressing up which is stupid," Paris explained a little more.

"Oh. So we just work?" Sylvia asked.

"No, you can go celebrate if you finish early," Keina answered Sylvia's second question.

Before Sylvia could say anything, the sound of trumpets, saxophones, drums, and flutes made Sylvia jump, and Wander started crying. Grasping the back of Sylvia's blue shirt, the baby boy cried as the loud noise continued. Marina walked over and smiled at the boy who stopped once he saw the other's smile.

"See, all better," Marina said and ruffled Wander's hair.
 

Sylvia looked from watching the two to see everyone else had left. "You're really good at making a baby happy."

"I have five younger brothers and a lot of practice of making sure they stay happy." Marina smiled at her.

Sylvia herself had brothers as well, but only three. But with her telling Keina and others who came to the inn that Wander was her little brother, she guessed she could call Wander her fourth brother. Sylvia and Marina followed Keina and Paris and once again Sylvia was faced with the swamp.

"Crap gotta walk through this again," Sylvia grumbled.

"Really? I walked down the abandoned highway." Marina said to the other woman.

"Highway?" Sylvia repeated just that single word. She started following Marina. "There's no highway any..."

Sylvia stopped once she saw what Marina was talking about. There was a highway and it did show signs that nobody had driven on it for years. The bigger cracks on the road were what gave Sylvia the clue.

"Hey!" Sylvia looked away from the highway and onto Marina. "You and your kid coming?"

"Yeah, yeah, hold your horses," Sylvia told her. Sylvia looked back to Wander who was busy sucking his thumb while looking right back at his caregiver.

"We go?" Wander asked.
 

Sylvia let out a sigh. "Yeah bud, we're going."

At least this Family Festival would hopefully keep Sylvia and Wander away from Keina, especially Wander.