Chapter 1
"There! He's pulling out!" Emilie pointed to the parking spot up ahead. Her twin sister and driver of the small silver-blue car floored it to beat the car next to them to the spot.
"Yes!" Marie said, pulling her keys from the ignition.
The two sixteen year olds both attended Cranbrook School in Bloomfield, Michigan. Like most female students did on weekends, the girls decided to go off campus and go shopping for the day. But while most girls went to the mall, Marie and Emilie went bargain hunting.
They walked onto the sidewalk that ran around the Gibraltar Trade Center. Peddlers and purveyors of goods and attic junk alike lined both sides of the sidewalk, along the parking lot and building. At Gibraltar one could find everything from donuts to swords to tank tops to kittens.
They walked down the middle of the sidewalk, looking at everything on both sides of them. It didn't take long for them to spot a table covered in black velvet and laid out with crystal jewelry.
"Ooo…this one looks good with that shirt." Emilie said, holding a necklace with a gold chain and several red crystals dangling from it against Marie's black and silver tank top.
Marie took it from her hand and purchased it, then they continued looking through the jewelry. Out of nowhere Marie started laughing.
"Are you ok?" Emilie asked in a jokingly scared and concerned voice. Marie held up a necklace and Emilie grinned.
"The Dominion Jewel?" Marie asked.
"Don't I wish?" Emilie laughed, taking the necklace and looking closely at it. The chain was silver and set in a silver backing was a many-faceted purple gem.
Emilie paid ten dollars for the necklace and her and Marie continued down the row, wearing their new necklaces.
"Young ladies?" Somebody called. They stopped walking and looked sidelong at each other, they had both heard the foreign man's voice. They turned around a saw a strange thing: directly across from the woman who sold them the jewelry, between a man selling VHS tapes and a man selling belts, an Indian man sat cross-legged on an ornate red and gold carpet.
On his right was what looked like a wicker laundry hamper, about three and half feet in height and uncovered. On his left was a pyramid display of some sort of alcohol. The pyramid was topped with two soy sauce bottles, but the point at the top was another brandy.
The middle-aged man wore a white long-sleeved shirt and billowy white breeches. He wore no shoes and a held a funny-looking instrument that the two band geeks could only identify as a strange Indian take on an oboe, the thing was much bigger and made of wood though.
"Come over here. I want to show you something." He said in a very strong accent, confirming he was indeed from India.
"Should we?" Marie asked under her breath.
"Why not?" Emilie asked, and they casually walked over.
"Good morning." Emilie said warily.
"How is your Uncle Carl?" He asked conversationally, but not even bothering to say good morning back.
"How do you know we have an Uncle Carl?" Marie questioned.
"That was not what I asked of you miss," said the man.
Emilie stepped in front of Marie to stop her from getting them into any trouble. She tended to be the peace keeper of the two of them.
"Sir that is a very private topic. You can't blame us for being wary of somebody who knows your family history, when we don't have a clue who you are."
The man nodded and smiled, "You must be Emilie, and your companion Marie."
Once again Emilie spoke before her sister could. "Once again sir, you are passing the limit of my tolerance. How do you know these things or do you really want me to call the police?"
"I just want to make sure you are the one, the correct girls."
"What is your name?"
"My name is really of no importance, but for your curiosity, I am Aseem."
"So…what's in the basket?" Marie asked stepping out from behind Emilie. Aseem grinned again.
"You do not need to be so hostile." He put the instrument to his lips and blew a string of slurred notes. A hooded cobra rose slowly, swaying precariously.
"Cobras are deaf." Emilie said, trying not to smirk.
"It's just aiming to strike." Marie said. Her and Emilie read a lot. Aseem stopped playing but kept eye-contact with the snake.
"He won't strike me." The man declared. The girls exchanged curious looks, and watched as the snake sank back into its basket.
"Ok, Aseem. You said we're 'the ones'. You wanna be a bit more specific?" Emilie asked.
"What do you wish me to be more specific about?" He asked slyly.
Marie sighed. "Aseem, I can see that you're a kind man, but you're really starting to make me mad. All I want to know is how you know my sister and I and how you know my family. Oh, and what you mean by 'the ones'? Is that too much to ask?"
He nodded, "I see your point. May I see your hands? Before you disagree, this will help explain things."
The two girls looked at each other and nodded. They both stuck out their left hands. Aseem dropped a vial the size of a pill bottle in each of their palms. They looked at each other and laughed, the man was very confused; that was the last reaction he expected.
"Ok, now we have some vials…what do we do with them?" said Emilie once she stopped laughing.
"You use them to come back." He said as if they were asking what the first letter of the alphabet was.
"Where are we coming back from?" asked Marie, she was now genuinely interested, and not angry at the poor man for messing with her at the wrong time of the month.
"Where ever strikes your fancy, but in order to get there you need this."
And as casual as anything he handed them both 32 oz. bottles of Kikkoman Soy Sauce. It was Aseem's turn to laugh at the astounded looks on the twins faces.
"Ok… Aseem…buddy…Tell me how would you handle a woman coming up to you and asking how your Ma is and dishing out some soy sauce? "Asked Emilie. Without being asked to, she sat herself down on the carpet across from Aseem. Soon she was joined by a lost Marie.
"That would never happen so I don't need to worry about it. But, we are straying from the matter at hand. In order to come back from where you are, you will also need these. "And with that he handed the two girls each a backpack. They were leather messenger backpacks that looked well used. The one he handed Emilie was green and the one he handed Marie was dark blue.
Marie opened hers and just about tripped, yes, she almost tripped while sitting down. She slowly pulled out a small laptop; it looked advanced and extremely expensive. She looked at it longingly, then looked up at the man sitting across from her.
"Aseem, you left your laptop in this."
She tried to hand it over to him but he didn't put his hand out. He smiled and looked at Emilie as she opened her bag slowly, not expecting there to be another one in hers. She gasped as she pulled out the same exact one. But on closer inspection she saw that hers had a pair of silver crossed drumsticks on the cover and Marie's had a silver clarinet; a tribute to their band geekyness.
They both looked at him with a dumbstruck look that was screaming a Kodak moment comment, but they didn't expect this man to say that. He chuckled and nodded. "It's ok to be confused; there is nothing wrong with that."
Marie nodded and sighed. "These gifts are great, but we can't accept them. These things must have cost you a fortune. These laptops are around 800 dollars each and the leather bags aren't your normal backpacks you get at Target."
"Not to mention the cell phones." he piped in.
"Um…what cell phones?" Emilie asked in a surprised manner.
He mumbled something under his breath that the two girls interpreted as an Hindu swear word and watched with mild fascination as he continued to mumble to himself and shuffled through a bunch of something behind the pyramid. Finally he pulled out two cell phones and handed them to the girls, Marie's was covered by a blue case and Emilie's a green one. They took them without questioning it. They had realized by that point that any question they may ask would not be answered.
The man across from them looked very happy with himself, he even chuckled a bit. This man was seeming to have a rather Gollum-ish day because out of nowhere his chuckle became a frustrated sigh.
"I keep forgetting these things!" Aseem took both of their bags and began laying in bottles of brandy, one after another. He didn't stop until there was eight unlabeled glass bottles in each bag, then handed them back to their rightful owners as they clinked. The girls didn't take them, but eyed this man like he was mad.
"You don't get it, if we get caught with 16 bottles of brandy, we'll be fined and sent to jail." For the first time Emilie seemed nervous.
"For a long time." Marie put her two cents in.
Aseem ignored both of their comments and said,
"What, no more questions?" They gave an unfeminine snort.
"What, you're going to answer them now?" Marie shook her head at Emilie's response.
"No, I probably won't, but you can ask anyway." They nodded and Marie looked down at her lap like she was thinking, than up at Aseem.
"This is more stuff than anybody has ever given us. Our uncle pays for our tuition, clothes, and food. He's a caring man, but not a very good father." Marie paused for a moment, like she was remembering. "We come here to find jewelry, and you give us a laptop, cell phones, brandy, book bags, and two bottles of soy sauce. Can you please explain why you're doing this?"
"No, I cannot. I understand you two are not ones to accept charity, but I need you to take these."
"OK, fine! We will. But you said we'll be going somewhere…how in the world are we going anywhere with soy sauce and brandy…other than the loony bin." Em was severely confused.
"That is for me to know and you to find out. It is time for us to leave. My card is in your bags, if you need me, I shall find you…or you can text me." He said as an afterthought. "Now leave! Go! Why are you still here!" He ushered them off his rug.
Marie and Emilie grabbed their bags and walked away quickly, not saying thank you.
All the way back to school, they were very distracted. Marie was again driving and Emilie was looking at her new phone. Strangely enough, there was no company name and she couldn't find the battery. Upon closer inspection, Emilie found they had free web access, text messaging, and long distance.
Marie was totally spaced out, listening to Keith Urban and not paying much attention the road when Emilie thrust Aseem's card at her.
Aseem Smith
Grand Waffle Iron Salesman Extraordinaire
1-481-516-2342
Business Hours: 12:00 PM-6:00 PM
"Waffle extraordinaire?" Marie laughed, rifling through her bag in search of her own card. Suddenly Emilie grabbed the wheel and they veered to the right and started up the correct exit ramp. Marie sat up straight, shocked.
"Way to go." Emilie said sarcastically.