Oliver and Shawn borrowed clothes from Revilo and Shaun, while theirs were washed. So Shawn finally got to wear pants again. Jessica had to wear a robe. They each took advantage of the shower. There was even a proper toilet, though it was smaller than Oliver was used to, and had a pull chain instead of a handle. Still better than a tree. Afterwards, everyone sat at a kitchen table and ate dinner together. It was some sort of meat that tasted similar to steak, alongside mashed potatoes and bread. Once bedtime came around, the three argued over sleeping arrangements. In the end, Shawn and Oliver got the one bed in the spare bedroom, while Jessica slept on the couch.
“This is so weird,” Shawn whispered, shutting the door of the spare room.
Everything about their journey had been weird. “What specifically?”
“Seeing ourselves in third person as a married couple.” Shawn sat on the side of the bed.
Oliver agreed with that statement. But at this point, nothing surprised him. “It makes sense, there being parallel versions of ourselves. Isn’t that part of the theory? There’s infinite universes based on all the different choices we make in life?”
“I suppose. I know I’m bi now or whatever. But me kissing a man? It’s weird to see.”
Oliver took a seat next to Shawn. “It was only a quick peck. It’s not like they were making out.”
“Still. I’d never been able to imagine it. I’ve never allowed myself to imagine it. I mean, I’ve always wondered what it would be like. What is it like?” Shawn’s eyes wandered towards Oliver’s lips as he spoke.
Oliver swallowed. He wanted to say, why don’t you kiss me and find out? Instead, he said, “Probably not much different than kissing a girl.”
Shawn nodded. “Maybe.” He stood up, and started to take off his shirt, then stopped. “You okay with me sleeping in my underwear? I know usually when we share a bed…”
“I don’t care what you do.” Though the thought thrilled Oliver. “I’ll probably do the same. I mean, neither of us have pajamas on us.”
“Exactly.” Shawn tossed his shirt aside, and worked on unbuttoning his pants. “And I’d hate to bother our hosts about it. They’ve done so much for us already.”
Oliver remembered Shawn in the lake that morning, and took off his shirt. “It’s not like it’s anything we haven’t seen before.”
“And it’s more comfortable.” Shawn kicked his pants aside, and crawled into bed.
Oliver turned off the oil lamp on the nightstand. They got under the blankets. Oliver laid on his side, facing Shawn. Shawn might have been facing him too. It was hard to tell in the dark.
“Good night, Ollie.”
“Good-” Oliver was interrupted by the feeling of something wet on his cheek. “The hell?”
“That was nothing like kissing a girl,” Shawn whispered.
“You kissed me?” As much as he had longed to kiss Shawn the past few weeks, it was rather sudden. And wet. Oliver wiped his cheek. “What was that about?”
“Sorry. I was only curious.” Shawn’s voice shook as he turned onto his other side. “Pretend it didn’t happen.”
Like hell he would. Oliver placed his hand over Shawn’s shoulder, then leaned over and kissed his jawline. Shawn rolled onto his back, and wrapped his arms around Oliver, pulling him to his chest. It was too dark to really see Shawn. But Oliver felt Shawn’s soft lips press against his own, and he slowly returned the kiss.
Shawn pulled away almost immediately. “This never happened.”
It had been years since Oliver last kissed someone. Had he become a terrible kisser? He swallowed, and laid on his back. “It was that bad?”
“No,” Shawn whispered. “It was that good.”
The two woke up in each other’s arms to the smell of bacon in the air. Fascinating how the food here wasn't all that different from the food back home. Shawn acted as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened the previous night. Oliver reluctantly did the same.
After breakfast, Revilo and Shaun sent them away because they had to go to work. They let Oliver and Shawn keep their clothes they had borrowed. Oliver offered to find a way to pay them back for their kindness, but they told them not to worry about it. That they were happy to help out their parallel selves.
Oliver, Shawn, Jessica, and the horse left the house in search for the library. Revilo had written down directions for them. Jessica held the paper out, and led the way. Shawn sat on the horse, while Oliver gripped his fingers around the horse’s bridle to guide it along.
The library wasn’t hard to find. It was a large, dome-like building with steps leading up to the front doors. A line of posts stood off to the side. Several horses were tied to them.
Jessica nodded towards the horses. “Go park our horse. I’ll be inside.”
Oliver led their horse to the others. He tied the reigns to one of the vacant posts, glancing at the nearest horse for guidance. Shawn slid off, and dug through the saddlebags.
“What are you looking for?”
“Our packs.” Shawn pulled his out, and slung it around his shoulders. Then, tossed Oliver his. “I’d rather not have our only belongings stolen.”
“Good idea.” Oliver put his pack on. He rubbed the horse’s neck. “Bye horsey. We’ll be back.”
The horse snorted. But judging from Shawn’s expression, the snort could’ve come from him. “Come on.” Shawn wrapped his hand around Oliver’s arm, and pulled him away gently. “We’ve got some research to do.”
They made a move for the library, Shawn’s hand still on Oliver’s arm. A voice made them freeze.
“That’s my horse!” A man scowled, pointing at Jessica’s horse. “I’ve been looking everywhere for her. You stole her!”
“We didn’t steal anything,” Shawn snipped, pulling away from Oliver.
The man approached the horse, who perked its head up. Oliver didn’t know much about horse behavior, but the horse seemed to recognize the man. It even rubbed its face against his hand as he pet it. “Come on, Petunia. Let’s go home.”
“Wait!” Oliver said, as the man untied the reigns from the post. “You can’t just take her like that.”
“Like hell I can’t! You’re lucky I don’t report you to the police.”
A small crowd had stopped to watch the scene. Jessica pushed her way to the front. “What did you do now?” she asked Shawn and Oliver.
“What did we do?” Shawn scowled at her. “You’re the one who stole this man’s horse!”
The man rounded in on Jessica. “You stole her?”
“No,” Jessica said, eyes averted. “I didn’t. I mean, I… found her. Alone.”
“How about you look me in the eye when you speak so I know you’re not lying?”
“Because looking people in the eye hurts my eyes.”
Oliver scratched his head. What was she on about?
The man stared at her, his confusion matching Oliver’s. “You know… I don’t care about your excuses. I just want my Petunia back.”
“Take her then.” Jessica sounded defeated.
“Already am.” The man walked off with the horse. Every who had stopped to watch went back to their business. Thankfully Shawn had the sense to mention taking their packs ahead of time. And Jessica already had her purse. She turned towards Shawn and Oliver.
“Eye contact hurts your eyes, huh?” Oliver asked Jessica. He turned to Shawn, expecting him to join in. Instead, Shawn stared at him like he was the weird one.
Jessica rolled her eyes. “If you must know, I’m autistic. Eye contact hurts.”
Nothing about Jessica ever hinted at her being autistic. Not that Oliver knew a lot about autism, but he wouldn't have guessed. “Seriously?”
Jessica opened her mouth, but Shawn interrupted. “Everyone thinks they’re autistic these days. They get a bit of pain from eye contact. They collect a few things here and there. Being fixated on things. Getting overwhelmed in crowds. Picking at your clothes all the time. That’s not autism that’s just normal.”
Oliver couldn’t relate to any of that. Was he not normal? “I don’t collect things or have fixations or get overwhelmed in crowds or pick at my clothes.”
“And that’s normal too,” Shawn said, fiddling with the button on his shirt. “People are different.”
“Exactly,” Jessica said. “Which is why some people are autistic, and others aren’t. Because everyone is different.”
“Yes. But being different doesn’t mean you have autism. Eye contact hurts me too, and I collect unicorns. Does that mean I’m autistic?”
Jessica chewed her lip. “It’s possible. Do you ever get meltdowns?”
“I will right now if you don’t shut up,” Shawn snapped. He turned his head towards Oliver, eyes widened and eyebrows raised. His expression said, “Can you believe this shit?”
Oliver silently communicated an “I can” by raising his own eyebrows. Shawn furrowed his to ask “are you serious?” Oliver gave him a slight head tilt to say “you could be.” Shawn shook his head with a huff. No way in hell. Oliver grinned.
“Are you two done yet?” Jessica asked. “I’d like to get started on that research now.”
They all walked up to the library’s door. Jessica pulled it open, then frowned at Shawn. “Wait. You collect unicorns?”
Shawn responded by nudging her aside to get inside. Oliver and Jessica followed.
The inside of the library looked similar to enough to the ones back home. Shelves upon shelves were filled with books, and there were tables and chairs to read them at. There were, of course, no computers. Jessica walked up to a winged woman, and asked her about books on Wizard’s Point. She pointed them to the right direction.
They searched through books for any information on the mountain. It wasn’t long before Jessica found a map there.
“If only this place had copy machines,” Shawn whispered.
“Good thing my phone still has battery.” Oliver dug through his pack and pulled it out. After looking around to make sure no one was watching them, he opened the camera app, and took a picture of the map.
Shawn bumped his shoulder against Oliver’s. “Good thinking.”
It was just lucky that Oliver had his phone fully charged when he left for work two days ago, and had barely used it since.
Jessica took a picture with her own phone. “In case you two bail on me again and I have to find my own way home.”
Unfortunately, they hadn’t found anything else helpful. They did find out there were caves in Wizard’s Point, along with the locations of the entrances. But nothing about any secret portals.
“At least we know how to get inside the caves,” Jessica said.
“Except the mountain has multiple caves. We don’t know which one has the portal,” Shawn said. “I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not get lost in a cave.”
“Maybe we should look for books on portals now.” Though Oliver was getting tired of searching through books.
Jessica slapped her hand over her forehead. “We’re idiots!”
“What?” Shawn asked.
“All this time…” Jessica took a breath. “Jasper! He’s always going in and out of the portals every day. We could’ve staked his house and followed him!”
Oliver set his forehead against his folded arms on the table. Shawn swore. He bumped Oliver’s arm with his fist, and Oliver looked up.
“I bet that’s why Jasper told you to ask people about Wizard’s Point,” Shawn said. “So that we’d be too focused on doing that, than to consider the obvious option!”
Groaning, the three neatly stacked the books they took out, then left the library, to head back the way they came.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPrcYeSC3VH
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