“Why do we have to bring Pikeya?” Carter finally broke the silence as they got closer to the crammed houses.
“Pikeya is one of us now,” said Yayli. “She is the only witness we have of the flying ship thing. She is in just as much danger as we are in right now.”
Riyad couldn’t tell if she was being serious or not. The siblings were as much of a mystery as the whole situation itself.
As they got closer, he realized that many of the houses he saw from the distance were different types of stores. They were all facing a wide path. Some of them had stalls installed outside with more flies than fishes on them. Others had legs and ribs of skinned animals hanging outside. A chill went down his spine. He had never seen anything like this before. Why couldn’t they just cut them nicely into pieces and wrap them up with plastic? Oh, that’s right. I’m dreaming. Riyad groaned. Why would his mind torture him with such foul smell and horrific view was beyond his comprehension. The path was filled with people smacking the meats and lifting fish gills. Some of them were angrily pointing at vegetables in display while spit spewed out of their mouth as they yelled. None of them looked helpful. He couldn’t pity the dead animals or at least what was left of them as he came to a realization that he could meet the same fate as them if he were to poke his nose in the wrong hole.
“Welcome to heaven!” Carter strode ahead.
“If this is what heaven looks like, then I don’t even wanna know about hell.” Riyad scoffed.
“Hell is back home,” said Yayli.
He stared at the back of her head. Home was the only place where he felt safe, especially now more than ever. Outdoors was a hell that he had to prepare for every morning at seven, five days a week, and talking to his peers was a battle that he would lose every time. Bibha was the only thing that would keep him going. If he would catch Bibha looking at him even for a fraction of a second, it would make his day. The snooze would be safe from his fist the next day until things would go back to the same way again. Riyad almost tripped at the thought of her. Now, he was further from home than he ever was. Maybe, it was good that he was far from reality. The current matter at hand almost made him forget about her. Riyad caught up to Yayli.
“Let’s get over with this quick,” he huffed. “I am so tired.”
“I have a feeling that things are about to get worse.”
Riyad turned to her, but she kept walking with her face forward.
God, if waking up in a different era and almost getting flattened by a flying ship is what it takes to get over someone, then I don’t ever wanna be in love. He shivered.
“Howdy Morris!” Carter waved his arm as they slipped into the crowd. “What’s up, Dany! Oh, hello there, Kamal! Get out of the way Carlos before I shank your brain with your nose bone!”
He continued to greet and make comments as they went further into the path. Riyad noticed that many of the adults seemed to ignore his greeting and gave him scornful eyes in return. Carter’s waving arm did not flinch a single time.
The smell of the fish and flesh became overwhelming until Riyad had to hold his breath green. How could people live in a place like this? Fruits and fish seemed to fall on the ground before someone would pick them up and put them back in place. Yuck! His appetite dissipated. The worst of it all had to be when Riyad noticed a person selling ice blocks that were laid on straw mats and collecting dust. If he had somehow traveled to the past, he wondered how they were able to make ice. I guess I am dreaming after all. The thought brought no reassurance.
If I am dreaming, then...Carter and Yayli are not real? Riyad’s already sour mood became even more bitter. Even though they have been nothing but rude to him, he felt some sort of attachment to them. He never had any friends in real life. Never had he ever thought that he would want to be friends with people who want to chop him up and feed him to the cows, either. Did his mind create them to fill the hole of loneliness? For a moment, he caught himself praying that this was not a dream and that somehow he time-traveled to a strange version of the past.
None of the unapproachable looks of the people on the path stopped Ryad from gawking at them. Their clothes made him wonder when was the last time they laundered them. Just like the siblings’, their clothes were dirty and stained. Some of them even had holes in them. Riyad concluded that the holes were definitely not fashion choices. The path was crammed with people of different races: white, black, Asian, Hispanic. This is definitely Cali alright, he smiled. His eyes veered from face to face until they rested on a person ahead of him.
He was leaning on the side of a closed store. What struck Riyad as strange was the black shawl that covered his whole body and it was topped off with a hoodie that put his face in the shadows. The weather was not hot, but it wasn’t cool enough, either for someone to take precautions as such. Riyad continued to glare at him, hoping to catch a glimpse of his face. He didn’t have to wait long.
The person lifted his head and directly leered at him. The shadow slipped back to reveal a person of East Asian descent. Riyad almost stumbled. Is that Y.E.? He wondered, but the siblings continued to walk past him and turned right into another path instead. He looked over his shoulder.
Shadow swallowed his face once more, but Riyad thought his eyes were playing tricks on him as the person’s eyes began glowing purple. It was an eerie and cold sort of purple--an uninviting type. Even if the person looked as if he could hold some answers, he decided that he would rather go to whatever Y.E. was. He gulped and faced forward before he could bump into anyone.
Now, glowing eyes? What’s next? C’mon, hit me with it. The more things began making sense, the further reality seemed to slip away from him.
Many of the houses and stores were closed around their new path with people hanging outside and chattering. None of them seemed to be rustled about any strange occurrences. Carter finally stopped in front of a house and peeked his head inside.
“Y.E.!” Yelled Carter, cheerfully. “You got something for me?!” He didn’t wait for the answer as he slipped inside and held the door out for the rest of the group.
Despite the Y.E. person being all the way to his left, he was the first thing Riyad noticed. To describe him as an ordinary man would be an understatement. The Hispanic man seemed to be swollen with muscles. It was as if even his muscles had muscles. He had muscles in places where Riyad didn’t even know it was possible to have them on. His plain white shirt desperately tried to keep itself together, as it was stretched out in every direction possible. Riyad looked at his hair, which was covering all of his shoulders. His jaw was so chiseled, he could probably use it as a weapon. Despite the hulkiness, out of all the people Riyad noticed on his way, Y.E. seemed to have the most approachable look. His brown eyes were sincere and his soft smile was kind. He sighed in relief seeing that Y.E. was not a robot after all. But he can definitely snap me in half if he wants to.
Y.E. stood behind a counter and he was surrounded by various types of wooden utensils ranging from small spoons to sturdy stools. In fact, the whole tiny store was filled with them. He seemed to have more items than space. Riyad almost smacked his head on a spatula that was hanging from the ceiling as he approached him. He mazed around the hanging utensils and tables full of items he couldn’t recognize and stopped behind Carter. He was surprised to notice that Yayli was hanging by the door with her arms crossed.
“Sooo, what do ya got for me, Y.E.?!” Carter cheered.
Y.E. looked at him and then laid his eyes on Riyad. His eyes seemed to be doing all sorts of calculations in his head before turning back to Carter. His smile dissipated to a set of “not right now with a stranger in my store” eyes.
Carter smiled guilty and scratched the back of his head.
“We don’t got much time at hand, Carter. Hurry up!” said Yayli, sternly.
Y.E. sighed. “You’re still mad at me, Yayli?”
She replied with a tapping foot.
“Alright,” he continued, “so, what brings y’all here?” He looked at Riyad again.
“You’re not gonna believe what we--”
“Not yet, Carter!” Yelled Yayli before reaching over to her brother and taking back her chicken. She elbowed Riyad and nodded at Y.E.
Alright, Riyad. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for. He cleared his voice, but it cracked regardless. “How do I reach Fullerton?”
“Fullerton?” Y.E. echoed.
The siblings jerked their heads to Riyad and shook their heads in disappointment, but he just shrugged. Precautions.
“Yeah, that’s where I’m from.”
“Hmm,” he narrowed his eyes and continued to inspect him.
“Where am I exactly?”
“Why, you are in Veneer, of course,” he stated. “One of oldest villages in the Americas...well, as far as we know. Veneer is about a couple hundred years old, but it hasn’t quite developed as quickly as we had hoped for, but I mean, it is what it is. You can’t find this type of comfortable life anywhere else here.”
Comfortable, huh? “What country is Veneer in?”
“Country, you say?” Y.E. leaned on the counter.
Carter butted in. “What’s a country?”
What’s a country? Everything demagnified around Riyad as he gaped at his surroundings. He did, after all, somehow manage to travel back in time. Everything seemed to make much more sense now: the way the siblings lived their lives, the area he was in at that moment, the lack of electricity...He thought back to the night when he had gone to sleep, which felt like a million years ago now. What did he do exactly that caused him to get here in the first place? He couldn’t recall having anything strange in his pocket or on his bed. All he did that day was go to school and come back home to spend the rest of the day in bed. Yet, something’s not adding up...like the ship. There was still the other possibility of him dreaming.
“What year are we in?”
Y.E. continued to stare at him until finally opening his mouth. “A hundred seventy-two.”
Jesus Christ. Riyad was aware of how years worked, yet hearing such a small number sent shivers down his spine. It almost sounded unrealistic. What was happening during this time in history? Did the Roman Empire exist around this time?”
“Umm,” he spoke, carefully, “have you ever been to Rome?”
Y.E. didn’t reply.
Riyad began surveying his vicinity, in hope to find a missing piece of the puzzle he was stuck in. Nothing felt out of the ordinary. He brought his vision back to the front and examined what was on the counter. His eyes did a double-take on a small object before Y.E. swiped it away and put it in his pocket. The object shimmered under the light for the split second it peeked at him. Was that a cell phone? Riyad was shocked. Nah, probably my eyes playing tricks on me again.
“Let me ask you something, kid,” Y.E. said. “Who are you?”
Is he hiding something from me? Is everyone hiding something for me? Riyad took in a shaky breath as glanced at the siblings around him, both of whom were peering at him.
“I need a minute,” he muttered. “Can you give me a second to collect myself?”
“Shure,” Y.E. shrugged, but the suspicion in his eyes remained.
Without wasting a second, Riyad trudged to the door and stepped outside. He didn’t realize just how confining the store was until the cool breeze grazed over him.
He leaned over the wall of the store and began going over everything he had just learned. I need to take lucid dreaming out of the possibilities. Everything can be explained by saying that this is a dream and nothing will ever make sense. He decided to keep the possibility of him dreaming at the back of his mind—as far as possible from the other possibility. It didn’t seem like they were lying to me. In fact, it actually looked like they were suspicious of me. Who wouldn’t be, if a kid from the future were to drop in out of nowhere and begin asking directions for places that hadn’t even existed yet? So far, so good. Then what is missing?
Riyad felt a sharp pain in his left arm before he instantly wheeled to his side.
The Eastern man was back. This time, however, there was a knife sticking out of the shawl.
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