The Menea and Thalia Chronicles by DnA
Why Don't You Write Me? 01
Disclaimer: We do not own Richie, Duncan and Methos, or any other characters borrowed from the Highlander series. We do not own Jim, or Blair or any other characters borrowed from the Sentinel series. We created several original characters for the purpose of these Menea and Thalia Chronicles, the main ones being Menea and Thalia themselves. Should you wish to borrow them, please let us know.
Feedback should be sent to: db77@wanadoo.fr
Why don't you write me,
I'm out in the jungle,
I'm hungry to hear you.
Send me a card,
I am waiting so hard to be near you.
Paul Simon
"Thalia!"
It was the third time in less than one hour that her sister roared rather than called her name. She had been kneeling near a box in what they had chosen to be their office. Reluctantly, she stood up as Menea's footsteps got closer.
"Look what your stupid house did to my favorite tee-shirt!" she said, pointing at the damaged piece of cloth.
Thalia sighed and kneeled back down near the cardboard box. The first "emergency call" had occurred when Menea had found out that the office did not have an internet connection for her computer. Not wishing to frustrate her sister more she sent Menea up to look at what was left in the attic. In that room she would have no expectations about it's state of technology. The second one was caused by a spider in said attic. Trying to be understanding, Thalia instead asked her to clean up the kitchen. She was running out of places to send her sister, in all honesty.
"Menea, would you stop complaining all the time?"
"And what will I do if I don't complain?"
"How did you do it?" Thalia ground out through gritted teeth more out of politeness than interest, pointing at the tee-shirt desperate to change the subject.
"I was checking a cupboard when a huge cockroach crawled out of it. I took a step back –"
Thalia froze.
"Cockroach?"
"Oh yeah," Menea answered with a Machiavellian smile. "Did I forget to mention it before?"
Take that, Menea thought. She knew her sister could deal with spiders but not with cockroaches. As Thalia often said, it was a good thing they did not have the same pet peeves and phobias, otherwise they would be in big trouble. Not to say dead. Imagine what their Chronicles would say: "They lost their heads against such and such due to a cockroach/spider emergency. They were heard saying to their opponents that they had left their house precipitately and had forgotten their swords. Their last words were: "I told you not to choose this apartment, but did you listen to me? of course not..."" Not exactly the way she wanted to be remembered.
Both of them hated the process of moving to start their lives all over again, but they had had no choice. A month ago, they had been quietly enjoying a Sunday morning in San Francisco - it was noon and they were still in bed - when the earthquake started. It had been predicted by the city's scientists. Menea had urged her sister to leave before it was too late, but Thalia had ignored her pleas with a shrug, calling her a superstitious old woman among other things. To Thalia's credit, it was only a small earthquake, nothing in common with the big one that was supposed to destroy the town any minute now. But Menea was adamant about moving out of San Francisco. Feeling that this was a battle she would loose anyhow, Thalia had agreed on moving out. More out of passion for Stephen King's novels than anything else, they had chosen the state of Maine as their new residence.
Because Menea wanted to stay in San Francisco a little longer to say goodbye to her girlfriend, Thalia had gone ahead and had fallen in love with this Victorian mansion near a lake. Her sister had loved it at first but now with the inconveniences of an old house so obvious, she was of course taking it out on Thalia. Oh well, Thalia was used to listening to Menea's complaints by now. In all fairness Thalia had done her fair share of complaining over the centuries and her sister had put up with it as well.
***
Except for the bugs and other minor problems the installation went well. After a couple of months they felt that the house was fit enough to have guests over. The first person to be invited was of course Methos, who they predicted would consider it his duty to poke fun of their love for old ruins and remind them that for the same price they could stay in a problem-free modern building. As they had guessed, Duncan was indeed part of the luggage... After all, why not? They could always use him to divert Methos's attention if his sarcasm became too annoying. Of course, the weekend would have been fine with only those two, but Thalia was reluctant to see the conversation turning only around Immortal questions such as who (Duncan) killed whom (Kronos/Byron), who (many people) slept with whom (even more people), and so on and so forth. The only solution was therefore to include some mortals among them. The first one on the list was easy to find: DJ, Menea's San Francisco lover. Thalia strongly suspected her sister to be in love again, but was resigned not to say or ask anything. Then, they chose to invite their friend Daniel, whom they had not seen for quite a while. Years before, they had been trapped in a dig with him and had been astonished by his intelligence. Coming from people who had known many geniuses over the centuries, this was not a mild compliment.
"Daniel? This is Penny!" Menea said over the phone.
"Penny?"
She could hear the wheels in his mind click: he may be brilliant when it came to archeology, but as far as human beings were concerned it took him a while to get back on earth, especially if you called him while he was working.
"Oh hello... sorry about..."
"You were working, weren't you? Would you prefer me to call back later?"
"Not at all I'm actually..."
He was apparently interrupted by the fall of a massive object, probably a book.
"Whoops! ... Ah... sorry about that. What was I saying again? Oh yeah, I was thinking about calling you anyway."
"Our number changed, we moved away from San Francisco."
"Afraid of the earthquake, weren't you?"
She blushed and changed the subject. Dammit, if even he knew about her fears, where was the world going?
"Anyway... Do you want to come over for the weekend? Unless you have something else planned of course..."
As it turned out, no, he did not have anything else planned, and yes he would gladly come, with Jack, his lover. To which Thalia muttered something about everybody turning gay, and how did you want her to find a decent man when they were all either married or gay? But Menea did not pay too much attention to her soliloquy, Thalia usually went through it every other month... or every time she broke up a relationship. It was either that or getting drunk and ending up singing musicals at the top of her lungs.
On the day they were supposed to pick them up, they received a phone call from Daniel, who explained very quickly that there had been an unexpected situation at work and that he could not join them for the weekend. Maybe some other time? Before he could apologize any more, they heard a voice behind Daniel urging him to hurry up and take a "talc". He hung up, leaving Thalia to look at the phone in a dubious way. "Talc"? What kind of job... Harassed by many images, she shrugged, convinced that Daniel would in fact spend the weekend in bed with Jack. Oh well.
The next phone call was from DJ, saying that she had missed her flight and was taking another one. They changed their plans and agreed that Thalia would go and pick up Methos and Duncan because their flight arrived in the morning, while Menea would meet her friend alone later on. This was all for the best, Thalia thought, that would give them some alone time, and it would give her some time to warn her fellow Immortals against the fact that DJ did not know anything about them so please watch your mouth, thank you.
At the airport, Thalia was surprised to find three Immortals at the arrival of the plane instead of the two expected. The third one was much younger... and she found him extremely attractive, although she could not trust her hormones most of the time. Shrugging, she thought that he was probably gay like any other attractive man in this stupid country. She just hoped it was not a menage à trois, otherwise she would have to seriously talk to Methos about his obvious, unfair and illegal monopoly, and would he mind leaving honest straight men alone instead of sleeping with them (although her friend had a sure taste most of the time, therefore she could not really blame it on him). Since the young Immortal seemed to be in friendly terms with the other two, she relaxed a little and waved at them - an unnecessary precaution since their respective buzzes allowed them to know exactly where the others were, but it seemed to fit in with the surrounding people.
As they got closer, she hugged Methos, and kissed Duncan on the cheek. He introduced their friend as Richie Ryan. The young man blushed a little, apologizing: "I'm sorry to impose myself, they dragged me along," he said, passing his hand in his hair.
Oh God, let him be straight, please.
"Nonsense," Methos said, "Menea said it was okay."
"When did you call her?"
"In the plane. Why? I knew you would say yes. Now come on, let's go."
Duncan and Richie had some trouble hiding their grins, and Methos grabbed her arm, muttering that he would explain later. She led them to the car, and it was only once they were on their way to the house that he explained what had happened.
"We were seated in front of a nymphomaniac who almost jumped at me in the plane."
"You should have seen this! Just for once his persuasive attempts to explain that Duncan was in fact his boyfriend were useless. I think she took it as a challenge."
Methos, who was in the front seat, turned around:
"What do you mean, you think? It isn't speculation, she actually said that she loved sex even more where there was a face up to!"
The rest of the road was spent in equal nonsense, Thalia having decided not to ask Richie too many questions, since he would have to repeat everything for Menea and DJ anyway.
***
"You're the one who picked the house, weren't you?" Methos said to Thalia.
"How did you guess?"
"Your sister would have wanted a more modern building with internet access in every room."
Menea had already left to meet DJ at the airport; hence Thalia was left alone to give the tour of the house. When they were done, she invited them to relax while she prepared something to eat. Duncan volunteered to help, dragging Richie and a most reluctant Methos along.
"Honey, don't you have some harder chore for him to do?" Methos said. "I'm sure he would not mind chopping some wood or..."
"Nonsense, dear, he's a guest in this house, and you know you're the only guest I dare asking some help from... even though you usually manage to let me do it anyway."
"Sounds like Methos all right," Duncan said.
"Oh, by the way, Menea's friend doesn't know anything about Immortals, so please don't... well, just be careful."
"Who do you think we are anyway?" Methos said.
"Oh shut up old man, I know perfectly well you won't say anything, but... you know me..."
"Yes, I know, you are way too stressed for your own good..."
They had only just finished preparing lunch when Menea and DJ arrived. The presentations done, they all settled on the table outside, facing the lake. Once it was over, Thalia proposed a walk in the "wilderness" since the weather was so beautiful.
"Well... I think I'll stay and... clean up everything," Menea said.
"I'll help her," DJ said, "you know what she's capable of in a kitchen."
Thalia nodded, and turned to the three men.
"Just the four of us, then."
"Actually..." Methos said, casting a quick glance at Duncan, who became very interested in a colony of ants..
"Okay, I get it. Richie? Feel like going for a walk?"
He grinned, and followed her.
"When do you think it'll be safe to come back?" he said, once they were out of earshot. "One hour?"
She stopped, they exchanged a knowing glance, and said together:
"All afternoon."
They laughed and headed toward the woods.
***
They did not come back until late afternoon, and then again only because Thalia felt she had to prepare dinner. She knew her sister well enough to know that she would not have thought about it. She went straight to the kitchen, took out the ingredients, rolled up her sleeves and began to cut the vegetables. Tonight, they would fight against the hamburger tyranny using French cuisine! She was determined to impress Duncan, whom Methos had described as a very good cook. Dinner was almost ready when a smiling Menea came into the kitchen.
"Do you need help cooking?"
"Don't you dare getting near the stove," Thalia said, throwing the vegetables in the pot.
"Is there anything missing?" she said, opening the fridge.
"No, we have enough beer for Methos to stay here a decade."
"Why are you saying this with such a bitter voice? When have I ever stayed when my presence wasn't wanted?"
There were a few pointed stares. Methos was about to answer when they heard a car in their driveway. Menea opened the front door to find a post office car parked there. A pimply young man got down and handed her a letter. She examined it. The address read "Mrs. Riordan"' and then their address. No return address.
"What was it?" Thalia said.
"Mail… Does the name Riordan ring a bell?"
"Nope. Would you mind setting the table while I finish this?"
"Should we open it?"
Menea, more interested in the recent arrival than in domestic chores, and chose to ignore her sister. She kept turning the letter around in her hands. Methos and Duncan were arguing in a soft tone, Richie was gathering plates, and DJ was helping him with the cutlery. She settled the matter by saying:
"No way. You'll wait until the post office opens and send it back. Could we discuss this over dinner, I'm starving."
Menea, always willing to do her lover's good will, quickly went to help the setting of the table. Thalia put the letter on top of the fridge. Then, she carried away the dishes she had prepared, set them on the table and enjoyed a pleasant meal with her friends, listening to Frank Sinatra crooning on the back, the letter forgotten.
***
A few days later, Menea drove the three Immortals back to the airport. DJ should have gone too, but she had decided to stay a little longer. Thalia had not made any further inquiries, hoping that this sudden change of plans had something to do with her sister telling her of her immortality, but she refused to ask. The young mortal came down for breakfast, apologizing for getting up so late. Thalia just laughed.
"Hey, don't worry I live with Penny. I know what getting up late is about, and believe me sleeping until 11 is nowhere near her personal record. But you know that already, don't you?"
DJ only smiled in agreement.
"Do you want me to fix you some breakfast? I can make you some hash browns, or pancakes, or…"
"Just cereal will be fine!"
"Nonsense, dear. I did it for our other guests; I'll do it for you. You'll get the right to get bread and water for breakfast when you become a regular part of the household, until then let me pamper you a little. We already had that conversation in San Francisco, remember?"
"Okay then, I'd love some hash browns."
"Vos désirs sont des ordres, Madame…"
DJ smiled. She just loved when the twins mixed languages. That was how she had fallen for Menea in the first place.
"How come Penny's the one driving them? Isn't it a bit early for her?"
"We rock-paper-scissorsed. Adam wasn't too thrilled about having to get up so early, but Duncan was adamant about the fact that he had some things to do today and wouldn't hear of it."
"I bet he'll pay for that!"
"Big time... Madame est servie."
Thalia brought DJ her plate, and sat down at the breakfast boot with her mug of tea. Her guest cast her a quick glance and said:
"Whatever you have to ask, just go for it."
Thalia looked surprised.
"How did you… You know us way too well. You know that? Why did you postpone your return?"
"Penny said she had something important to tell me. My job can wait, can't it?"
Thalia smiled and turned her head toward the window.
"Speaking of whom…. She's back"
When Menea stepped into the kitchen, she complained right away.
"I can't believe you made me do that! Those madmen you find on the road, you'd never believe!"
Menea would have gone on but DJ stood up to kiss her. That shut her up. She smiled and turned to Thalia.
"Do you mind? I have to talk to DJ…"
"Of course not."
Thalia grabbed the teapot and the pile of unopened letters on top of the fridge, and went to the study room.
Thalia heard DJ say before she shut the door. "So, you wanted to talk to me?"
***
The study was her favorite part of the house. She had struggled with her sister, who wanted to install a wide-screen television in it, but she had won the fight and had installed a stereo instead. As a sign of protest, Menea had not installed her computer in that room, although the plug for Internet access was ready. Thalia was therefore free to listen to her music while working on her computer. She sat down on the comfy chair near the bow window, and went through the pile of unopened mail. They were bills, mostly. She cast them away and took the package that was delivered the day before. She settled back and examined it. In a gesture similar to her sister's, she bit down her bottom lip. Who was Mrs. Riordan? Where had she heard that name? Thinking it could be the last owner's name, she went through the official papers that the agency had given her. According to what Mrs. Collins, the real estate agent, had said, the house had been empty for five years. The former occupant – what was the name again? – had disappeared one night. She had had some debts and the bank seized the house. The sale had covered the debts, but the police had been unable to find the woman.
"Bingo," she said when she found what she was looking for.
The name of the previous owner was Mrs. Riordan. Thalia had been around long enough to know when there was something fishy. This letter definitely was. She opened it and found a white card with a single name written on it: Marc Akoi. She balanced the matter in her head for a few moments, and then decided that since she had nothing else to do, she might as well get to the bottom of this affair. The first thing to do was to learn more about this Mrs. Riordan. As she passed near the kitchen, she heard some loud voices. DJ was not taking the news too well. Thalia grabbed her car keys and left the house.
***
At the real estate agency, Mrs. Collins greeted her warmly.
"Miss Lane, what a pleasure to see you again. You still don't care for coffee, do you? Would you care for a cup of tea?"
"I'd love some."
After some small chat about Mrs. Collins's family (her eldest daughter was having some trouble with her high school friends, but her other children where doing fine, in fact her husband was considering taking the family in Hawaii for Christmas, wasn't it a lovely idea?) Thalia asked her some questions about Mrs. Riordan. As she had expected, the agent was more than willing to talk.
"Oh I didn't know her much, she was the quiet type. Whenever I met her she had dark circles under her eyes. You know, like someone who doesn't get enough sleep. We never found out what had happened to her. I say 'we' because in such a small town, when someone disappears there is always gossip about it. You should go and talk to Eva Miller. She always knows everything that's going on in this town. Here's her address. I should warn you that she's a bit of a loony, but…"
Amelia, the secretary, interrupted them at that moment to remind her boss that she had a 2 o'clock appointment. Smiling nervously at Thalia, she turned around and left the office. Mrs. Collins lowered her voice and said:
"Did you know that she got herself pregnant? Not even married… poor thing…"
Thalia interrupted her by said goodbye. Eva Miller might know a lot of gossip, but Collins herself was quite a nosy as well. She would have to be careful around her. Before leaving the office, Thalia turned around and said: "Do you happen to know a Marc Akoi?"
"Akoi?" she said, after a pause. "No, that doesn't ring a bell."
"Thank you for your time, Mrs. Collins."
***
Thalia drove to the old and shabby looking house where Eva Miller lived. The walls had once been blue, but weather had chipped the paint. An old woman was sitting on a rocking chair on the porch, rocking herself. Her eyes were white, her hands deformed by arthritis, her voice throaty. She made regular and long pauses when she spoke.
"I was waiting for you."
A little taken aback by that comment, Thalia stopped for a second at the bottom of the steps.
"Grab a chair, the voices said I had to talk to you."
Thalia did as she was told. She was intrigued: she did not often meet true seers. That would explain Eva Miller's knowledge on gossip.
"It's about the woman who lives with you."
"My sister?"
"No. Before that."
Thalia frowned. What did she mean?
"The one who received the letter. We knew her as Mrs. Riordan, but that wasn't her real name."
She paused.
"She was running away."
"Running away from what?"
"Her past."
"Why?"
"You should ask her."
"Where's she?"
"In your home."
" I live there with my sister. I assure you that there's no one else in this house."
Silence.
"A ghost?"
Silence.
"A corpse? In my house?"
"It isn't your house."
"Still, living with a dead body near at hand is hardly something to…"
"Would it be the strangest thing you ever saw, priestess?"
Thalia stiffened. How much did that woman know about her past?
"Don't worry," Eva Miller said, "I never say everything I know about people living here. There would be too much problems about that. Imagine if Mrs. Collins learned that her husband had knocked her secretary up."
"What else do you know about Mrs. Riordan?"
"This is all for the moment. You need to find answers by yourself. Go now. Your sister needs you."
Feeling another question coming up, Eva Miller raised a crooked hand to silence her visitor.
"No more questions. Go. You'll come back. I'm not going anywhere. I never am…"
"What about Marc Akoi?"
Eva Miller continued to rock her chair, ignoring the intruder.
Thalia was perplexed about the visit to the old woman. It had raised more questions than she had expected. She was not comfortable with the idea of having a corpse living inside her walls. If there was, it would take forever to find it.
***
Menea was in the living room, staring blankly at the lake, when Thalia arrived.
"How did it go?" she said.
Her sister did not answer.
"That bad, huh?"
When Menea finally spoke, she spoke slowly, clearly enunciating.
"She's gone. Said she needed some time to think things over."
They were silent for a while. Heck, there was nothing to say, was there? Thalia decided to leave the corpse hunting for later. Instead, she headed toward the kitchen to prepare a "broken-heart-snack." When she came back with it on a tray Menea gave her sister a painful smile.
"My condition allows for me to eat junk food? Good."
She grabbed a plate and piled food on it.
***
The next day, Thalia woke up early to search the house. Her first task was to knock on every wall to find the ones that sounded thick enough to hide a woman's body. It took her a couple of hours, and it woke Menea up.
"What the hell are you doing? Some of us are trying to sleep here!"
Thalia was forgiven when she prepared a huge breakfast for the two of them, telling her sister about the card and her visit to Eva Miller. Menea finally asked with a careful tone:
"And how do you intend to look for this corpse without taking the house down?"
"Take down some of the wooden panels."
Menea sighed.
"Why don't you ask your Eva Miller for some further documentation instead of tearing our home apart? Like, for example, drawing a map or Marc Akoi's e-mail address? Come on Thalia, she was winding you up, that's all."
Thalia did not reply. Okay, so there was no help to be expected from Menea. Never mind, it was not the first time they disagreed. She left her sister to clean up the kitchen, and went to fetch the toolbox. The panels proved easy enough to remove, but since she wanted to do a neat job in order not to ruin the house, it took a long time. She had been working on it for several days under the silent disapproval of her sister, when DJ showed up on their doorstep with two suitcases. The following morning, the three members of the household were involved in the search. However, it proved useless. They could not find anything.
"I think I should go back to see Eva Miller," Thalia said.
"You do that. Meanwhile, we'll ask some questions around."
***
"We didn't find anything"
Thalia was sitting next to the old woman sipping her tea. Silence reined for a long time before Thalia spoke again, "But then again, you did not tell me to look for a dead body, did you?" Thalia frowned at her own revelation. "Still you said that she lives in my house."
The Immortal sat back to think about it. Another pause.
"What are the voices?" Thalia finally asked.
Eva Miller shrugged and did not answer. She rocked her chair until Thalia took her leave.
***
DJ and Menea had no more luck collecting information than Thalia had. It turned out that Mrs. Riordan did not socialize in any way. According to the owner of the grocery store, she was always polite and all, but not very talkative, y'know?
"Concerning Marc Akoi, no one seems to know him in any way."
Sitting in the living room, the letter lying on the coffee table, the three women remained silent until Menea suggested that they sent a missing person notice on the internet, but Thalia had the feeling that Mrs. Riordan had wanted to keep a low profile for a reason.
Their everyday routine settled back, and soon the Indian summer was over. By Christmas time, the letter was only a distant memory. When Groundhog Day rolled around they had totally forgotten about Mrs. Riordan.
***
"I'm not saying it's a bad idea, love, but do you really want me to meet them?" Menea said.
Thalia was silently witnessing the same lame argument that her sister and DJ had been having for the past few weeks, since the latter had announced her intention to introduce Menea to her parents.
"Don't you think it'll be a bit of a shock to find out that their daughter is sharing the bed of a woman?"
"They know I'm gay."
"I think you're fighting a losing battle," Thalia said over her newspaper.
As much as she hated to admit it, her twin had to agree with it. Damn it, living with them had toughened DJ Menea could not count on DJ to just follow her lead anymore. She smiled without humor as she packed her suitcase. After all, what could be more romantic than a family dinner with her "in-laws" for Valentine's Day, huh? She had tried everything to convince DJ not to go – begging, blackmailing, and was considering locking her up for some time – but in the end she had to accept the fact that she was such a damn coward when it came to meeting her lover's parents. Being a lesbian was not as fun as it had been now that parents and family where so damn tolerant about their children's sexuality! No one said you could not be older than the Bible and still be afraid of spiders and in-laws, right? Right?
On the morning of February 10th, DJ dragged a kicking and screaming Menea to the car, but she still did not give in. DJ was glad for Thalia's silent support though: she doubted she could have fought both sisters. Living with them had showed her that Thalia was indeed considering her as a member of the family (for instance she could not count on her to prepare pantagruelian breakfasts outside cafe-Thalia's regular opening hours) and easily took her side.
Thalia watched them drive off, DJ at the wheel, Menea pouting on the passenger's seat, her arms crossed on her chest. Standing on the porch, Thalia sighed. Alone at last. The first thing she did was to pump up the volume of the living room stereo, where an obedient Steven Page sang that it was "a perfect time of year somewhere far away from here"…. She sang along at the top of her lungs, an exercise that Menea usually boycotted. Freedom, at last! What could she do to convince the lovers to take a long tour of Europe next summer?
***
On the morning of February 14th, Thalia decided that there were enough piles of papers and books in her study to consider cleaning up. She was standing in front of it in an impossible attempt to come up with some Mary Poppins way to make this not as unpleasant as is seemed, when she heard a motorcycle coming up, followed by a buzz. She had not felt any Immortal around in a long time. She grabbed one of the numerous swords hidden in the house, and went to the guest's bedroom to look out of the window. When the rider took off his helmet – what kind of Immortal wears a helmet to ride a motorcycle anyway? – she recognized him as Richie Ryan – oh, right, one who grew up with road traffic safety advertisements. She came down the stairs to greet him.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," he said. "I was around and I thought I would…."
"Don't worry, you're always welcome here," she said as she was hugging him. "Plus it gives me a good excuse to not clean up my office."
"Do you need some help with that?"
She narrowed her eyes in a dark glance, muttered something that sounded like "traitor" and offered him something to drink.
"Why don't you lit a fire while I go and get it?"
She left the room immediately, therefore missed the puzzled expression on her guest's face. Me? Lit fire? You mean without a flamethrower? Oh well… He sighed, and kneeled down near the hearth. He grabbed the first log near at hand, and, trying to remember what Duncan had attempted to teach him so many times, gathered some bits of newspaper and some small wood under the log. He lit a match and set fire to it. He was pleased when the paper took fire, but his smile soon fade off when he realized that it would not last. He frowned and added more paper. How could hectare of forest burn down so easily when one single log resisted?
When Thalia came back with a tray, he had to admit to her that he knew almost nothing about lighting a fire but would she care for him to check her car or anything? She laughed with him, explained kindly that it was no wonder the fire did not take: the log was simply too big. She advised him to take it away and replace it with a couple of smaller logs. He followed her advice and soon a roaring fire lit the room.
"In my defense, I have to say that a radiator is a lot more easier to use," he said.
"Don't worry about it. Now tell me, what's new with you?"
***
While Richie had only expected to pay a quick visit, he stayed more than a week. In the end, they decided that since she had to tidy her study room, he might as well help her do it. It turned out to be a rather easy task since she used a very ancient method of hers, the good ol' trash-bag filling way. It drove her sister crazy: Menea kept everything even a ticket from a subjective-camera movie she had seen, claiming that it would help her pin point the exact moment the 1990s went berserk. Richie was going through a pile of old papers when he found the envelope.
"I see you opened it after all."
Thalia, who was filing some bank papers, looked up. He showed her the letter.
"Oh, that."
"Isn't opening other people's mail a federal offense or something?"
"She was the previous occupant of this house and she disappeared 5 years ago. Not much chance that she's going to show up some day, is there?"
By the time they had thrown away their ninth thrash bag, Thalia decided she had had enough for the day and that she needed to eat something. Richie, who was sitting on the floor near the window agreed. As he stood up, he knocked over the vase that Bob-the-Betta shared with a plant. The water spilled on the floor, but Richie had enough reflexes to catch the blue fish before it fell in a nearby trash bag. Thalia grabbed a nearby bottle of spring water, spilled it in the vase and Bob and the plant went back to their lives. Richie took a pile of paper napkins to use as a sponge, when Thalia put a hand on his forearm.
"Listen," she said.
He did as he was told.
"The water's getting under the floor."
She nodded.
"It means that there's an empty place there."
She dashed out of the room to get some tools.
"Menea's probably going to kill me for this, but what the heck."
Half an hour later, they found three shoeboxes filled with envelopes. They took the boxes out of their hiding place. All the letters had been addressed to Mrs. Riordan. They contained the same white card signed Marc Akoi. Their hunger forgotten, they settled down to go through them. Finally, Richie found a different one: instead of the Marc Akoi name were the letters JMIA. They lost no time wondering what this meant when they saw a magazine lying at the bottom of the shoebox. Thalia grabbed it and read:
"'Beyond the Call: GI Survives Jungle Ordeal'."
She opened it, and it did not take her long to find out what the JMIA letters meant.
"Check this, the GI's name was James Ellison."
***
To be continued….
***
Feedback: db77@wanadoo.fr
Author's notes: thank you to my beta reader Rachelle Ryan and Terri. And thank you Alexa for creating the twins with me.