Keeper

Chapter 6

WELCOME TO UL-IX!

POPULATION: 266. (Please somebody move here, it's boring.)

Sylvia snickered at what was faintly written in the sign. She continued walking and looked back as she did to see something else written into the sign. And this time, she could tell that the same person or another person tried to make sure whatever they wrote was in the sign forever.

(Please, PLEASE, somebody new move here, it's been boring since 2003 or something!)

I wonder if that person regrets doing this. Especially if they were 16 or something. Sylvia thought as she followed Marina. She started imagining a 26-year-old man or woman coming back and cringing at what they did. Probably even harder if their own teenaged son or daughter found out what his or her parent had done. Sylvia knew she probably would if Wander found that out if Sylvia lived here as a child and she had done that.

"Bad person! They ruin sign, Sylvia!" Wander shouted, he even tugged on Sylvia's hair.

It wasn't that hard of a pull, Sylvia wiggled the back of her hair that Wander had grabbed and wiggled it free. "Yeah, bud, they shouldn't have done that, but that was 10 years ago. We can't do anything about it now."

Wander still glared angrily, still upset about what happened to the poor sign. "Still, they a bad person! Bad, bad, bad, bad!"

Sylvia honestly enjoyed the child's rant, Marina started walking backward just to enjoy the what was going on herself. Soon, they reached the deeper parts of the town and found the others at the entrance of the Family Festival. Sylvia stopped and Marina noticed.

"What's wrong?" She asked.
 

"I'm not going anywhere near Keina, no way in fucking hell." Sylvia glared at Keina.

"Then we wait until she and Paris go in," Marina said.

34 minutes passed and soon Keina and Paris entered. Sylvia sighed in relief and she and Marina ran towards the entrance. THREE DOLLARS PER PERSON. Three, six, nine, nine dollars. Sylvia counted. Sylvia took out nine dollars and handed it to the man who was dressed in a black tuxedo.

"Good afternoon ladies and young man." He greeted, he even took Marina's hand and kissed it.

"What a gentleman!" Marina cooed to Sylvia.

"Bleh!" Sylvia gagged while Wander waved at the tuxedo dressed man.

"What's wrong Sylvia?" Marina asked.

"I'm not into that lovey-dovey kind of stuff, sorry Marina," Sylvia replied.

"But you have a kid." Marina retorted.

"He's my baby brother, not my son." Sylvia started to walk farther away from Marina.
 

Marina just stood there after Sylvia had said that. "I'm going to go find my mom and brothers, see ya, Sylvia."

"Bye, Marina."

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"Higher Sylvia! Higher! Higher! Higher! Higher!"

That was what Sylvia heard as she pushed the boy in the baby swing at the Ul-lx park. Giggling left the one-year-old infant and it got even louder when Sylvia gave him a bigger push than the other pushes. This time, Wander let out a screamed in joy at how high he was going.

"Fun!" Wander told the pink and blue-haired woman.

After a while, Sylvia took Wander out of the baby swing, and she moved him and herself to the slides. Wander was in her lap and she went down the slide. Wander. The baby laughed which made Sylvia laugh a little.

"You're silly!" Sylvia giggled.

"You silly!" Wander repeated.

"No, you're silly!" Sylvia repeated what she had said.
 

The sound of somebody clearing their throat made Sylvia look away to see Keina standing a little farther away from the two. Shit. Sylvia cursed in her mind. Sylvia picked Wander up from her lap and put him back in the baby carrier and walked up the hill. She kept a well enough space between herself and Keina.

"Go find Paris and Marina," Keina told her, it didn't really sound like an order.

Seriously? This is what Sylvia wanted to say, but she didn't feel like hearing or being yelled at by Keina. Sylvia walked out of the park and quickly found Paris with a woman with white shaggy hair that was double braided. The only reason Sylvia even knew it was double braided was that a girl that she went to high school with that she was acquainted with was obsessed with having her hair double braided.

"Paris! Time to go!" Sylvia called.

Paris walked past her with a scowling expression on his face. Sylvia walked towards the entrance of the festival where all the games and events were. That was the most logical place to find Marina. Sylvia passed many people until she reached the games. Marina was excited to play the games, she wanted to win the biggest teddy bear that the ring toss game had as a prize. Sylvia asked around and ended up being informed that the ring toss game was never the west exit of the festival.

Sylvia walked in the direction that she was given and found the ring toss game next to where Peach Pudding, Cashew Cobbler, and Praline Kiwi Pastry was being sold. And when she found the ring toss game, she found Marina. Getting closer and pushing past other people, Sylvia also found the tuxedo dressed man from earlier. And once she found the two, she realized something, on Marina's finger was a ring, an engagement ring.