9

  CODY

  We landed back at the edge of the lake, or at least that world’s version of the lake. It had to be the only landmark that our two worlds had in common, the only thing our two worlds had in common period. I looked up and saw Christian was already heading behind a rock, he shifted it over and took out a brown tunic, black pants, simple shoes and oddly enough a sword strapped to a belt.

  “What’s that?” I asked as he started to change.

  “I told you, I’ve been spending some time here, was tired of looking so out of place, so I used some coins I got to get a change of clothes” Christian said as he put his tunic on and strapped on his belt, adjusting the short sword hanging from it.

  “Why do you have a sword, you didn’t say anything about this place being dangerous,” I asked.

  “Relax,” Christian held his hands up, “It’s just for show, we live in Nebraska. It’s like conceal carry,” he said adjusting his belt, “Everyone has a sword, so people don’t mess with each other, and we’ll probably have to get you some clothes too while we’re here, you look way out of place, come on, there’s a shop in the next town,” he said. I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly it was that made Christian seem so different here. He was always shifty and looked uncomfortable back in the real world, our world I mean. But just being here for a few moments seemed to have snapped this kind of confidence switch on in him.

  “What do you mean, we’re just supposed to be here for an hour, I thought we would just chill out here,” I said, taking a look at my stopwatch, about three minutes have passed, “You heard Susie, she’s giving us an hour before she’s done,” I put the watch back in my pocket.

  “Don’t worry,” Christian turned to the west, pointed to a hill, “It’s only a ten-minute walk, about,” he said, he looked so much more comfortable in his turn of the fourteenth century ware, “They love me over there, the people are great, so nice and love newcomers. I guess it’s kind of a boring town so they love whenever someone new shows up, come one,” he waved his hand and before I could say anything he was already making his way towards the small slopping hill. I shrugged and just decided to follow him, checking the stopwatch whenever I could to make sure we didn’t overstay the rules of the experiment.

  “Come on, just a bit further,” he said as we made our way over the hill. The look on his face, man, it really was priceless. He looked so at home here, with his leather pants and his sword swinging at his hip. I guess it was just another one of those red flags that we should have picked up on in the early days of our adventures Somewhere Else.

  Over the hill I saw the village that Christian had been hyping up. It looked like something out of a video game, a high end, and well-made video game, but still a video game. A couple houses, a few people carrying goods back and forth across the cobblestone streets and dirt paths throughout the small sample of the great civilization that this world held.

  “Come on, we can hit the fruit stand,” he said, “You got to try the food here, it’s unreal, I mean, I know you’ve had an apple before, but you have not had an apple like this, there’s no comparison,” he said, “It’s on me,” he patted a small satchel hanging from his belt.

  “Wait, you have more coins? Didn’t you say those are worth like two thousand bucks a piece?” I asked as I followed him down the hill and onto the path leading to the central road of the village.

  “Yeah, I kept a few here, just to be safe. I told you, I was here for about a week, I got some work done,” he smiled, “Made more money than my dad makes in a month, and in reality it was really just a weekend back home,” he patted my shoulder, “Trust me, one hit of what this world can offer and you’ll be hooked, next time we come here I’ll help you guys get some clothes too. I think Susie is going to love some of the dresses we could find for her,” he was so excited about this world, about being in it, living in it, once again I say, we probably should have picked up on the warning signs.

  “Christian, my boy,” a fat man holding a cleaver and chopping the head off a fish buried his knife in the cutting board and dried his hands before coming up to us.

  “And whose this,” he asked, “Another stranger from that far off Nebraska kingdom?” he looked me over, “Welcome to our humble little town, I can tell your from Nebraska by the way you dress, I’m sure the girls at the sewing circle can get you some more regionally appropriate threads,” he turned to Christian, “You know, my oldest was asking about you, asking about that handsome stranger, word around town is that your actually Nebraska’s crown prince, off to have an adventure away from your duties, many a girl looking to scoop you up, you best be on your guard when around our humble town’s fair maidens,”

  “Tell Rosland that I’m no prince, just a silly rumor, I’m just a traveler from a far-off land, and also tell her that any prince who tastes her apple pie would be a fool not to marry her right then and there,” He laughed as he took the fishmonger’s hand in a hearty shake.

  This was unreal, he was like a completely different person. He carried himself with his back straight and his shoulders high. He had a confidence he was always lacking in our world and his period appropriate dress certainly fit him better than the loose t-shirts and baggy jeans he usually dragged himself around school in. My biggest question, at that time, was who was Rosland? Did he talk to a girl here? Was a girl here actually interested in him? Were multiple girls here interested in him? This had to have been insane for him to grasp, and frankly, I was amazed he had grasped it so quickly. I’ve never seen someone take to something like a fish to water this fast. He really did feel at home here, he really felt like he could be a better person here. I just marveled in awe as he made his way through town. Shaking hands and waving to almost everyone. In twelve years of public school, I was probably the first friend he ever made, and here he was a social butterfly and beloved member of the community after less than a week.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Cody, over here,” he said, leaning against a small hut with a shop sign with a sewing needle and a ball of yarn on it. He waved me over and brought me inside.

  “Madame Harvey?” he asked walking in, a plump and rosy cheeked woman came to him, “Oi, young man you look so dashing in your wear, I must say, though your old wear was quite unique,” she turned to me, “Ah, you must be another traveler from Nebraska,” she smiled, and without provocation grabbed at my shirt sleeve, “Oh this material, what is it again, it’s like cotton but firmer, you called it polyster or poester, what was it again?” she asked.

  “Polyester?” I said, not thinking. I wasn’t even sure if that was what my shirt was made of.

  “Polyester, such a unique fabric,” she continued to tug at my t-shirt, “And that symbol, quite unique,” she said looking over my Nebraska Cornhuskers logo, she turned to Christian, “The people of Nebraska have such unique crests, are you a knight sir?” she asked, turning back to me.

  “No, I’m… it’s complicated,” I laughed nervously. Between the two of us I was the one who felt awkward and out of place for a change.

  “Just another traveler,” Christian said, patting my back, “I wanted to request your services again, my friend, and some others who will be joining me are in need of some of your fine local wares,” he reached into his satchel and pulled out two coins, “If you could get his measurements for me, we’ll be coming back in a few days and they would like to have some wear,” he turned to me, “You and Brad are about the same size right? I can get you guys some clothes so you can fit in better,” he said as the plump woman took a measuring thread to my shoulders, my arms, and my legs.

  “Yeah about, I mean we fit the same uniform size,” I said.

  “What about Susie, do you know her size?” I asked.

  “No, I mean I would guess small, but I don’t know, and don’t ask her that when we get back. Women are really offended by that,” I said.

  “I’m sure we can find something for your lady friend, what colors does she fancy?” the plump woman asked as she took a quill and took down my measurements.

  “Umm, I know she likes red, I guess,” Susie, even though she had red hair, she always looked great in a red top.

  “We don’t need something formal, just good traveling clothes,” Christian said, then turned to me, “There’s a lot of this world out there to explore, trust me, these clothes are so comfortable, you’ll never want to wear jeans again,” he said. He really did have this light in his eyes over there. He was excitable, ready for anything, and most notably, confident in himself.

  You’ll have to excuse me for a second. Whenever I reflect on moments like these, I can’t help but remember how much I really did want things to work out for Christian. Even after he did what he did, even after he did that thing that Susie is going to damn near crucify him for in this book, I really thought that there was a chance that things could work out for him.

  When the plump woman was done measuring me, I took another look at the stopwatch, thirty minutes had already passed.

  “Christian, we’re burning time, we should probably head back,” I said.

  “One more thing,” he said. I could tell he didn’t want to leave this world, not after an hour, not after a day, maybe not even for a year. “You got to see the blacksmith,” he said, heading out, resting his hand on his sword hilt, “Made this for me,” he smiled. His excitement was like some kid’s first visit to the Renaissance Fair. Talk of blacksmiths and seamstresses, fishmongers and village girls, it was a lot to take in. A village this small made Christian this excited, I could understand that the prospect of an entire world to explore was enough to make his heart race.

  “Hail Henrymen,” Christian said as a muscled, big armed and bearded man wiped some sweat from his brow and put down his hammer.

  “Yer blade see any work yet?” he asked.

  “No, not yet,” Christian laughed, “This is my friend, hails from my land, I was wondering if you could get him a sword as well,” Christian turned to me, “Do you want a one handed sword or a two-hander, I got the gold for it, or we could get you a mace or maybe an axe, Henrymen does great work, he’s got a reputation as one of the best smiths for at least four towns over,” he said.

  “Wait, I don’t know if I need a weapon,” I turned to Christian, “You said this place was safe,” I reminded him.

  “It is safe, but you know, anywhere can be dangerous, even in Nebraska, I told you, it’s like concealed carry. You never know when you could run into a bear or some bandits, trust me, if bandits see you armed, they won’t want to mess with you,” he said.

  “Have you run into bandits?” I asked.

  “No. Let me try to explain this, your dad has a gun, right?”

  “Yeah, he has a gun, It’s Nebraska, everyone's house has a gun somewhere in it,” I said.

  “Have you ever been robbed?” he asked.

  “No, we’ve never been robbed,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  “But if you were robbed, you could stay safe. I’m not saying danger is going to happen, but I still don’t know how vast this world is, and most people recommend if you’re going to be traveling it’s good to be armed, now what kind of weapon do you want?” he asked.

  I shrugged my shoulders, I figured ‘when in Rome’ or more accurately, ‘When in some fantasy videogame world’ “I guess I’ll take an axe,” I said, my reasoning was that while I’ve never used a sword before, I’ve at least used an axe before.

  Christian pulled a few more coins out of his pocket. He said that each of those was probably worth about two grand, and here he was throwing around that kind of money like it was nothing over here, actually over here it really was nothing, two thousand in our world was as simple to get or give as a five dollar bill it seemed, “Your finest axe, don’t skimp, and I’ll be bringing you some more business, I’ll have some more fellow travelers coming with me later, and I know you do the best work,” he smiled.

  I looked at the stopwatch, forty-five minutes, I sneaked it back into my pocket to avoid any questions about a digital watch’s anachronistic nature, “Hey Christian, we’re running short on time, we still got to walk back to the lake,” I told him, tapping his shoulder.

  “Right,” he said, sighing at the thought of leaving what I could tell he thought of as a perfect world. “We’ll be back in a few days,” he said, flipping another coin to the blacksmith, “Remember, finest work,” he said.

  “Of course, of course, Brave Lord of Nebraska, you’ll be safe with my wares,” he said, turning to me and giving me a nod.

  I led Christian back to the lake, time was winding down and the hour was almost up, “All right, we jump in at the hour, we got about a minute left,” I said.

  “Yeah,” Christian said as he changed back into his regular clothes, he lifted the rock and rested his tunic, pants, and sword under it, “So what do you think, isn’t this place amazing?” he asked.

  “It’s, it’s something else, okay? I mean, it seems really nice, the people are nice, but are you really sure that we should be here?” I asked, trying to find the words to convey the concern I had about four strangers interfering in this peaceful world.

  “We’re just travelers,” Christian said, “Just travelers,” he said again, taking a deep breath and staring off into the Horizon, “I can’t wait to show the others, they’re going to love it, don’t you think?” he asked.

  “I mean, I’m sure they’ll think it’s pretty nice,” I said, “Come one, five seconds, you ready?” I asked as I stood at the edge of the lake. Christian came up next to me.

  “Yeah, I’m ready,” he said before we each took a deep breath, the lake didn’t make us wet but there’s something about jumping into a lake that reflexively makes you want to take a deep breath and hold it before you do.