Two blurry heads came into Riyad's vision. Their faces were obscured by the sunlight. He could recognize his brother no matter how blurry he looked. Neither of them was Irfan.
He instantly jerked into sitting.
The curious figures peered at him with their hands on their knees. Riyad couldn't recognize either of them. He assumed that they were probably siblings, who were both about his age. The boy had a round freckled face with red hair coming down to his eyebrows. The sister looked like a female version of the boy, even up to the hazel eyes, except for her hair, which dangled down up to her chest as she narrowed her eyes onto him.
"Do ya know him, Carter?"
"Nuh-uh, Yayli!"
"A spy?"
"A terrorist?"
"He looks stupefied."
"Like a retard?"
"More like an idiot."
As Riyad watched the two siblings talk about him as if he was a monkey in a zoo, he slowly came to a realization that he had been kidnapped. That has to be the only explanation.
He put his arms up into the air. "What do you guys want from me?"
The boy stomped his foot on the ground. "Like ya even got anything!"
Yayli stood up to cover her giggles.
Riyad thought of standing up, but then he quickly dismissed the idea—they could see that as a sign of aggression. If he wanted to get out of here, he needed to play along with their game. How did they even manage to kidnap me?
"Carter!" yelled the girl named Yayli. "What should we do with him?"
"Slit his throat and then throw him in a pit?"
"Or feed him to the cows?" the girl scratched her chin.
Riyad shivered. He decided that he could no longer just ride the wave and see where it would take him. He needed to butt in and fool them into thinking that he was not to be messed with. The same Riyad who was rejected by Bibha was now going to save himself from death? The same Riyad who would stumble on his own words during his Chemistry presentations? He suppressed a gulp, but he couldn't stop his left leg from shaking uncontrollably. It was always that left leg. It was not one of those cute shakings, either. It was a violent type of jitter that almost knocked him off his heels, back onto the grass.
"W- where am I?" Great job, Riyad. If that was supposed to save me from my inevitable death, then I'm screwed!
"Earth?" Yayli shrugged. Only now, he had noticed that she had a pickaxe in her grip as she slung it over her shoulder. It was probably resting on her leg before.
"What?" asked Riyad.
"What?" Carter mimicked.
"Huh?" Yayli turned to her brother. "I think he lost his goddamn mind!"
"His brain stewed?"
"Nuh, I think it's fried."
"Like salmon?"
"Like—"
"STOP!" yelled out Riyad—louder than he meant to. Who would send two sixteen-year-olds to kidnap him? Who would even want to kidnap Riyad? He couldn't recall Bibha having a boyfriend. Could her brother had possibly sent these two to kidnap him and kill him off somewhere far from home? Regardless, he realized that getting answers out of these two would not be easy. His shaking was only getting worse. He needed to start off basic.
"What time is it?" Jesus Christ, Riyad.
The boy looked up at the Sun. "I dunno. Looks like one?"
"Uh," Riyad scratched his head. "One in the afternoon?"
Had he really been sleeping for that long? It didn't make any sense to him, but at the same time, it did. It seemed like he was really far from home. He highly doubted that an endless field like this could be anywhere near his city. But then again, he couldn't have been asleep for that long. Maybe they drugged him? But then again, how was he able to wake up back into his home the first time? Maybe I've been asleep for more than one day?
"What's today?"
Yayli cocked her head. "Monday?"
Riyad had to force himself to not roll his eyes. "Like the date."
"June twelve!"
"What?" Riyad frowned. It all made sense to him. When he had gone to sleep, it was June ninth and he was sure of it. He had circled the date on his calendar more than once and glared at it every night before going to sleep. It was going to be his big day. That could mean only one thing: he was drugged for multiple days before he was brought here. A part of him felt relieved that things were falling into pieces and making sense, but the other part of him was shaking like his left leg.
Carter rolled his eyes. "It's a joke, you doofus. It's June thirteen!"
These kids are messing with me! Riyad wanted to stand up and punch both of their freckled faces, but he decided to play along, out of sheer annoyance.
"Alright, June thirteen. Who else is here with you guys?" There must be more of them. No way they could've pulled all this by themselves.
"Uh," Carter looked over his shoulder, "um, let's see...a horse, a couple of cows, eight chickens—"
Yayli butted in. "Don't even think about asking us for any chicken eggs!"
"What?"
"I'm telling you, Carter. His brain's fried. What do ya think happened to him?"
Carter crossed his arms as he got lost in thoughts. "So basically...his name's Jasper, right? And Jasper here ran away from home a couple of days ago, right? because his mum wouldn't let him play with the chickens. He—"
"He ran as far as he could, the poor Jasper." Yayli shook her head in sympathy. "He journeyed through snowstorms and hurricanes, in hope to find a chicken coop, but this morning—"
"He ended up here in Veneer. Oh, poor Jesper! When he jumped over this stream," Carter took a deep breath and looked away in the distance, "he slipped and hit his head on one of these rocks and now he thinks he is a man from the two thousands!"
"Two thousands!" Yayli raised his eyebrows in shock.
Alright, these two idiots probably were not involved in the kidnapping. Riyad began wondering if his kidnappers' goal was only to dump him far from home. That made more sense. It was not as if he had committed a heinous crime by asking Bibha out that they needed to murder him. Who would've thought that the sweet Bibha was a part of some gang!
That left him with the two redheads, who seemed to not have a clue about what was going on. They seemed to be as confused as Riyad himself.
He finally stood up. The two siblings jumped back.
"Hey! His legs are alive!" Carter yelled out.
"Guys—" Riyad couldn't finish his sentence. Only now he noticed just how dehydrated and exhausted he was. "Uh, can I have some water or something?"
"Sure, I have been holding my piss for a while now," said Carter, with a smirk.
"Wait, Carter," said Yayli. "I think Jasper here is tired. I mean, look at his saggy eye bags and his noodle arms. No need to be disrespectful to him! After all, he had traveled a long way from home. Let's get him some water!"
Carter narrowed his eyes on him. "Alright, Yayli. Lead the way. I'll be right behind him to make sure he doesn't try nothing stupid."
"Keep an eye on the chickens, too." The girl readjusted the pickaxe on her shoulder and began walking alongside the stream.
Riyad was too tired for all the insults to sink in. He was not new to being insulted, either, plus after what had happened with Bibha, no insult could do anything to him anymore. He felt like a sack of meat. He was glad that they were able to make at least some sort of progression.
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After about what felt like an hour, Riyad was about to ask if they were at their destination yet before he caught sight of some white cows. The hike had drained him even more than he had expected. He lost count of how many times he thought of giving away to his thirst and dunk his head into the stream.
"Welcome to Veneer, Jasper!" announced Yayli. "The most advanced village in the Americas! We got cows—"
"We got sheeps," Carter joined in.
"We got swords."
"We got the most beautiful village square in the Americas!"
What the hell are these two idiots talking about? Even a single thought seemed to tire Riyad out. Instead, he focused on what was ahead of him. There seemed to be a fence widely encircling a single horse. Right by it, there were rows of houses spread apart. A couple of them had fenced horses as well. Everything seemed to be facing the stream that kept getting wide and wider the further he looked.
Yayli stopped right in front of the house by the fenced horse he had noticed earlier. The house was in bad condition; the ridged roof was chipped everywhere and the dark woods of the walls were weathered.
Where the hell am I!
He almost bumped into Yayli, who screamed and reached for something on the ground.
"That was a close one, Carter!" She clutched a chicken close to her chest.
Riyad rolled his eyes. "Aww, man. I was so close to molesting the chicken."
He was surprised by Carter laughing behind his back.
"I think we might've confused Jester with Jasper, huh?"
Riyad felt slightly relieved to see that the siblings were not completely loose in the head. He dragged his feet into the house with Yayli walking ahead, still holding onto the chicken. The interior was simple enough. The dining room he walked into was tiny with a kitchen right next to it. There was a set of stairs by a thick wooden table on the other side. He assumed that it probably led to their bedrooms. Where's the bathroom?
Carter closed the door behind him and dragged a chair back from the table for Riyad to sit. He did not hesitate. He threw himself onto the chair and thumped his head onto the table.
"Quick, Yayli!" Carter yelled out. "Jasper is about to die!"
Within seconds a glass slammed down next to his head. Riyad jerked his head up and devoured the water.
"Disgusting!" Yayli clutched her chicken. "He must be from Woods. Look at how he is chugging it down! It's true that they don't have much fresh water there."
Riyad held the glass up until the last drop of water splashed onto his tongue. The water tasted real. He had never been more confused in his life before. Nothing made sense to him even though things were slowly coming together. He decided that he just needed to be patient. If he were to spend some more time with them, everything could slowly make sense.
Yayli finally let her chicken go and sat down with her brother on the other side of the table.
"Why don't you stay here with us, Jasper?" she asked. "You can only chase cattles for so long until everything gets boring. It's just me and Carter here...stuck in this place. If you stay with us, you can help us with the crops and the animals, and then on the weekends, we can play all sorts of fun games."
"There isn't anyone here around your age?"
"Naw, just me and my brother."
"Where are you guys' parents, by the way?"
"Uh—"
Carter butted in. "They are out working on the fields. They should be back home by evening. You can sleep in the barn, so they won't see you."
Riyad sighed. "I'm sorry, guys. I am so confused right now and I have no idea what is going on. I just want to go back home, to be honest with you."
The siblings didn't seem to take his words lightly. They both looked down on the table in defeat. Riyad had to catch himself from spilling his situation. The last thing he wanted them to think was that he was a lunatic.
"Do you know how I can reach Fullerton?"
"What's that?" Yayli looked up.
"The city where I'm from."
"What's a city?"
"What?"
Carter reached for the candle on the table and lit it up with a match. Riyad stared at the flickering fire and tried to make sense of it all. They didn't know what a city was. How could that be possible? Now that I think about it, I don't think there's any place like this that exists in California. Even villagers know about cities. This place seems...so medieval...Was he somewhere up north? Riyad couldn't recall people from the north living like this.
"Do you guys not have electricity?"
Yayli frowned. "What's elek-tri...?"
"Do you know what a lightbulb is?"
"Lite-bo..?"
"What about laptops?"
"What the heck are ya going on about, Jasper?" she spat. "Did you piss in his water, Carter?"
Riyad laid back on the chair. Wait a minute...didn't the siblings joke about me coming from the two thousands earlier? He came to a realization that he could have probably traveled back in time, which, at this point, seemed to make much more sense than Bibha sending someone to kidnap him and dump him in a different country, but that couldn't explain the clothes the siblings were wearing. Much like Riyad's modern white shirt and green pants, the siblings were wearing identical brown shirts and black shorts. He wondered if it was all a dream after all, but then he stared at the empty glass of water. It tasted like real water.
Clearly, he couldn't get any more proper answer out of these two. If he asked them a question, they would reply with two more. He needed to get out and find someone who can make sense of it all. Riyad stood up and noticed another door leading out to the back of the house. He dragged himself to it and pushed it open.
"Jasper's on the loose!" yelled Carter.
Yayli and Carter ran to catch up to him, but Riyad didn't run. He stopped on the back porch and looked out at the field of fresh crops. The urgency of the siblings made him think that he was about to find the secret of life when he had opened the door, but all he saw were rows of crops and no people working.
Then, it happened.
A small shadow fell on the crops and it gradually became larger and larger until the three of them looked up at the sky. Riyad had never been in simultaneous awe and fear like this before.
A life-size ship was tumbling down from the sky with sluggish speed. It was only a couple of stories above them as the dock slowly faced them. It was about to crash into the house. Three huge black funnels glared at him from the black and white ship.
Riyad grabbed a handful of his hair and tugged it. There was a searing headache that pulsated for a second before becoming numb. He turned to the siblings around him. Both of them seemed to be equally shocked. Carter's jaw dropped and Yayli's chest heaved up and down in an effort to breathe.
"What is that, Carter!"
"Looks like a ship of some sort?!"
This cannot be real, thought Riyad as the shadow completely engulfed them.
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