Chapter 9

The kid's pretty eager to get on with the traveling. I understand that since I am also eager to get this job over with. Fortunately, I remember something before it was too late to turn back.

"Where's my backpack?" I ask her.

We both look at where I last put the backpack.

It's obvious that it wasn't touched since I last put it in front of her.

I look back at her, wondering how she forgot something that is in front of her.

Annan face palms with her right hand.

"Sorry old man. Senior moment." she says, embarrassed.

Daesun, Ratri and Connla laugh, while I mentally twitch at this explanation.

It's not because it was a silly explanation, but because I resent the term 'senior moment'. Not all of us old folks are forgetful or schizophrenic, damn it. I am still as mentally healthy as my granddaughters.

I am even ready to prove it. Bring on the quizzes and the questions. I dare you!

"Do we have to wait for a few more minutes?" Javin asks in a puzzled tone.

I guess that might be the 'senior moment' term. Obviously it did not exist in the 19th century.

"No need. I'm going to magic it up on the way there." the kid replies as she made a 'come hither' gesture with her left hand's index finger.

My backpack instantly appears, strapped on her shoulders.

"Nothing else is left Mr. Ward?" she asked me as she holds the right strap of the backpack while wearing it.

"Not a thing" I told her as I shoulder 'Annie.'

"Good. Then let's…would you guys stop it already?" she complains.

Her three friends are still laughing, though the laughter is slowly dying off.

"What's so funny about that comment?" I murmur to myself, feeling a little bit offended on behalf of seniors everywhere.
Ratri shakes her head.

"It's an inside joke among us four." Daesun replies.

"Yes, inside joke." Connla agreed, smiling in an amused manner.

Annan rolled her eyes and then starts walking back to the void. Connla immediately followed behind her.

The rest of us fall in file formation behind them, me behind Connla, Yung Ho behind me, Thuc and Javin bringing up the rear.

When the kid has reached the void, she stopped and turns around.

"Before we go in that place, there are a few things you guys have to know. First, unless you are magical or a dead soul, don't touch the edge that separates the space between worlds and our world. This edge is at least as sharp as a magical weapon."
To demonstrate, she plucks a long blade of grass and did the same thing that Daesun did with 'Morning Calm'. The only difference is the other half of the leaf…disappeared into that starry void.

Gone with no trace whatsoever.

"Questions?"

"Do you mind making that doorway larger, your holiness? As it is, that doorway is uncomfortably narrow." Javin asks.
The…doorway, as Javin called it, is a vertical football shaped hole3 meters high and 1 and a half meter at its widest. But considering that the edges of the doorway are…lethal…

"Make the hole wider, around 2 more meters, kid." I say to her.

"Alright." she says.

She took hold of the edges and…pulls back our world..

The resulting sight is very surreal.

It is as if…our world is a very realistic drawing on a curtain sheet. I could even see the creases of reality when she pulled it apart.
In the end, the hole ends up looking like the drawn back curtains in my bedroom back home, a roughly pentagon shaped opening 3 meters high and 4 meters at the widest.

Looking back at us, Annan said something more.

"Second thing you have to know. Whatever you are seeing the space between the worlds as, stop thinking of it like that, or you will get separated from each other and get lost forever without divine intervention."

"What? What are you talking about? All I'm seeing is a starry void." I say.

"A starry void? I'm seeing a forest trail Herbert." Thuc says to me in confusion.

I look back in the same way.

"Yung Ho?" I asked, turning my head towards him.

"A long hallway inside of a palace." he answers.

"I am seeing a doorway to a mosque." Javin says to us.

"The longest tent I have ever seen." Connla says last.

We look at each other in confusion.

"Kid?" I turn towards Annan.

"The space between worlds shows itself as you imagine it to be. For me, I am seeing a footpath in a meadow just like this one in Ireland."

"We're in Ireland?" I ask.

I thought we were in some kind of fairy world.

"Cill Eo, Ireland, to be exact. If we goddesses didn't put up a spell that renders us invisible and silent to mortal eyes, we would be up to our ears with the Gardai's ERU for illegal ownership of guns. The Cill Eo Post Office is just a kilometer away in that direction." she points behind her.

I shake my head over this revelation.

"To solve this problem, we are going to walk in file with me in the lead, tied together with this around our waists."
She produces a rope made of sinew out of her cloak. She ties the head around her waist, and then gave us the rest of the seemingly endless coil of rope.

In the end, except for Annan, we have the rope tied around our waists five to seven times, with a two meter length of rope between each member of the file.

"Now, let's go people." she cheerfully said and walks into the starry void…that instantly turns into a footpath in the middle of the meadow the moment she stepped past the line.

Next Connla walks into that meadow. He hesitates after taking two steps into the 'space between worlds', looking surprised at something. He then shakes his head and looks at Annan, who shrugged and says to him that what he was feeling is normal.
Then it is my turn to walk into there.

The experience of walking into what the kid called 'the space between worlds' is hard to describe, since there was a conflict between what my senses are telling me. My skin was caterwauling that I am stepping on air, even if I can plainly see that I am stepping on very fresh grass and rich, loamy soil.

My skin is also saying that there is no heat and no wind in this place even if I am seeing light from a clear sky at noon and breathing air, although mysteriously I don't feel cold nor am I suffocating.

Once I had finished entering 'the space between worlds', I turn around and tell the others what to expect. Thanks to that, they didn't get shocked by the sudden sensations their skin is telling them.

After all of us had entered, Annan goes back to the opening and takes hold of the edges like one would hold the curtains. Then she yells out to her friends that she will see them later, and drags the drapes close.

As the edges touched each other, they join together not like the zipper or the curtains that I likened them to earlier, but like two puddles of water on the smooth floor tiles. The fabric of reality went back to normal.

And then we were left there standing in that unreal meadow.

-

We had already been walking for around ten minutes or so through the 'space between the worlds'. While walking, we are also chatting with each other, to help deal with the…uneasiness of walking in this place.

And as for what we were chatting about?

A lot of topics.

"So they laughed because she really IS the oldest person in that meadow?" I ask Connla with a lot of amusement. Behind me, Yung Ho is snickering. 'Annie' is giggling in my mind. I didn't hear a thing from Thuc (behind Yung Ho) or Javin (last in file), but I just know that they are also very amused by Connla's story.

"Yeah. She is one of the 'Old ones', the ones that are there since almost the start of humanity."

Annan, I notice, is steadily walking towards our destination without a backwards glance at Connla. But at the same time she is listening to the story. It's obvious if you see how her head is slightly tilted to the left.

"Exactly how old is the kid?" I ask.

Connla looks at me, and then thinks about it.

To my surprise, Annan answers me.

"I became aware 8 centuries before the first damned farmers had settled on Ireland." she says.

Damned what?

What on earth does she have against farmers? Farmers are honest, decent folk who wouldn't hurt you unless you force them to.
"What is your earliest memory of that time Annan?" Connla asks in a voice filled with curiosity.

She looks back at him, and then at me. Then she looks forward again.

"I distinctly remember the music and the singing. It was...night, on a place now called Mount Sandel. The only light comes from the fires and the stars and the moon. I also remember the smell of pork, fish and hazel nuts being cooked over the fire."

"Pork?" I ask.

"Yes. Pork. What did you think the first people in Ireland ate?" she asks in a slightly curious tone.
"Mammoths and giant bisons."

She scoffs.

"This is the time of the hunter gatherers in Ireland. Pretty much one of the last places to be settled by man in Europe after the Big Ice went north. The mammoths and other giant mammals are long dead by this point in time."

"Which is when?"

The kid stops walking and looks back at me with an amazed, disbelieving look.

Thankfully everyone else is alert due to the uneasiness of the place, so we didn't end up bumping into each other.

"Don't you know it's a bad idea to ask a woman her age?"

"I know that, but you sure did not act like one when we first met."

I pause. And then I continue.

"Act like a woman and I will treat you as one, kid."

She glares at me.

I shrug it off.

She will thank me one of these days for that insight. It's unseemly for someone who claims to be thousands of years old to act too much like a teenager and no change at all.

Annan stopped glaring and goes back to walking.

We follow her.

"What was that occasion you remembered about Annan?" Connla asks, trying to make the conversation continue.
"It was a celebration of that year's summer solstice. And it was also when I was first named."

"First named? So that's your birthday?"

She nods.

"When exactly is your birthday?" I ask.

"I don't have the exact date since I am not an astronomer, but I know it is summer. They were celebrating the summer solstice at the time."

"So what do you do to celebrate your birthday?"

"Well…I just hang around with Connla here, visit his and the Veneti's little piece of the afterlife. But since I met Ratri and Daesun, it's an annual vacation to somewhere along with them."

"So that would be when you got to New Orleans in '98?"

"Yes. Oh, we're here."

I blinked in surprise at the sudden change of topic. I looked beyond the kid, to see a…

A flag of modern Ireland flapping in the nonexistent wind.

"What's with the flag your holiness?" Yung Ho asks from behind me.

"It's a marker that you have already reached your destination and you just need to open a doorway from the 'space between worlds' into the world on the other side."

"Is there an actual distance here in the 'space between worlds'?" Thuc asks.

"If that is the case, then we could have been forced to walk for an eternity or two." Annan replies.

I shiver in horror at what she said, and felt the same emotion from 'Annie'.

"Kid" I say in a tone that is demanding some explanations.

"Don't worry. What's strange about travelling the 'space between worlds' is that distance is of no meaning here. Only time has of any use here, and even then…"

"Even then?"

"You could spend ten seconds walking and then reach your destination at best. At worst, you spend 30 minutes walking until you reach your destination, and we…did it in 17 minutes. Not bad for travel time."

"So travel time is random, but every traveler is safe here?" I ask.

"Yes."

"May I ask a question your highness?" Thuc asks from behind me.

"What is it Thuc?" the kid asked while she is starting to make another doorway through the 'space between worlds' with her right index finger.

"Why are you making it hard for yourself and keep referring to the 'space between worlds' with its full name? You could abbreviate it or make some nickname."

Annan turns around and looks at Thuc with a blank expression.

I did the same thing a moment later.

"I thought it's my job to make crappy jokes Thuc." Yung Ho comments. Then he continued "But you are right."

Yung Ho turns towards the kid.

"Why are you people making things difficult when you could just abbreviate or make another nickname for this place, your holiness?"

I turn back to the kid, who is still looking at us. And then she speaks.

"I thought that the common infantry man wants the military abbreviations gone and replaced with plain words or something."
Thuc laughs. I groan, knowing what she is talking about.

"You are talking about the Americans Annan. That's not the case with the rest of the world."

"Oh…" Annan says in realization.

"It's not?" I ask in wonder.

"Not with the VPA." Thuc grinned.
"Not with the Korean Marines…well…when I was still alive." Yung Ho says in a 'thinking about it carefully' tone.

I envied them at that moment. I really do.

"The reason why we persist with the term 'Space between worlds' is because it sounds perfectly magical and mysterious to the supernatural community." the kid explained.

I think I went a little bit slack jawed.

"You folks keep saying that whole mouthful, just because it sounds magical and mysterious?" I slowly ask, not believing it.

"Yes. Yes we do." she said in a matter of fact tone, and opens the doorway.

Beyond the doorway is…

-

"Where are we kid?" I ask as we stood on the rooftop of a tall building...several tall buildings that are built to surround what seems to be an open space.

I look around me.

I am looking at a city filled with lights from a multitude of neon signs and lighted tarpaulins where Chinese looking symbols are written and pictures and drawings are painted on, so much light that you can somewhat see the clouds floating in the night sky. Surrounding us are other tall buildings, and the streets are so full of people that it's like seeing an ant hive.

The only other place that could compare to this city is New York City.

I suddenly remember that there are two people here who are not from the 20th century.

"Connla? Jav…" I trail off at the sight of these two.

They are open mouthed, slack jawed with no restraint whatsoever, and their faces are…awestruck and scared at what they are seeing.

Only comparison I could make is it's like your first time on an airplane and seeing everything from above, like a bird. You are both afraid and exhilarated.

"Never seen anything like this?" Yung Ho asks them.

"Jhansi was never anything like this. Even Delhi is not like this." Javin says in awe and fear.

"I have only a vague idea of what cities look like now, based from a game. But this…this beats paintings made of lightning." Connla says after Javin.

Paintings made of lightning?

What is…oh. Electricity.

So…pictures from the computer? He did say that he does know how to use a computer.

I then notice something amiss.

Yung Ho…does not look happy. He has the face of someone who had seen something distasteful, and is just dealing with it as a professional.

"You alright, buddy?" I ask Yung Ho.

He looks at me, and at Thuc beside me, and shakes his head.

"You recognize this place Yung Ho?" Annan asks.

Yung Ho nodded and said in a voice full of scorn "Japan."

Japan? We went through that creepy place just to go to Japan?

"Nhat Ban? I mean, Japan? We went through that creepy place, just to get to Japan, you holiness?" Thuc asks in amazement.

…Annie and Regina are right. Friends do think alike…not that Thuc is my best friend…whatever the final F is for in BFF.

Annan walks in front of the group, spreads her arms, and then says "Yung Ho is right. I welcome all of you to Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan."

And she smiles like an excited teenage girl.

-

"Tell me Annan, how do we look like to these people?" I asked while walking.

Currently, Javin is in front of the group, looking for his wife in the faces of everyone we pass by even though he is bewildered by the sights. Thuc is behind him to prevent Javin getting separated from us.

Yung Ho is beside Connla, doing pretty much the same thing while at the same time trying to answer Connla's questions about this object (how do you drive a car?) and that subject (why does a store need that much space?). If you ignore the racial differences, it seems to me like a father talking with his son on the kid's first trip to a city.

It's something that made me smile, remembering my own first time in a city, and I kept pestering dad about this and that object.
"What were you asking just now old man?" the kid asks, distracted by texting to, presumably, the person who we are about to contact.

"I said what do we look like to these Japanese now with your magic? We didn't exactly change clothes here, I noticed. I and Yung Ho are still in BDU's, Thuc is still wearing the VC outfit, and Javin, you and Connla are still dressed in your costumes."

"To most mortal eyes, you are dressed just like those American tourists over there." she points out to a group of kids we are about to pass by.

The kids look like they are at the same apparent age as Annan, dressed in American branded blue jeans (JAG's and Lee's at a glance), shirts that would not look out of place from those worn by the high school kids in Hazard and Buckhorn, hidden under American branded jackets (If those Dickies labels are for real. Those Chinese counterfeiters are getting better) and wearing the standard white sneakers.

Something suddenly occurred to me.

"Wait. Me. JUST like them?" I say in horror, looking back at those kids, and then at the surrounding Japanese in suspicion.

…Oh God.

I'm a senior citizen for crying out loud. Old people don't try to look like teenagers, especially when they could not pull it off.

The kid looks at me with a smile.

"Do you want the lie or the truth?"

I just look at her.

"It's only you old man who is dressed like the typically disliked American stereotype. The rest of us are dressed in sensible AND respectful tourist outfits suited for our age and nationality."

I stare at her in horror. Then she suddenly said another statement.

"We are all dressed in sensible and respectful tourist clothing. Why would I humiliate you? I have no reason to humiliate you now, nor would I have a reason to since you are acting as a bodyguard."

…is she fooling around with me?

"Now Mr. Ward, which is the lie and which is the truth? You guess it."

…she is.

"Annan stop trolling elder Ward and apologize to him." Connla asks from in front of us.

The two of us stopped walking and looked forward, to see Connla standing and looking back at us, with a face that says he disapproves of what the kid is doing. Behind him, the others are also standing and looking back at us.

"Oh come one Connla. I'm not hurting him."

"No" Connla said.

The two look at each other.

"We should get moving people. We are in the middle of the sidewalk." I said.

"Con-"

"No."

The Japanese pedestrians are walking around our group, some of them sending us disapproving expressions for bothering them.

"We're bothering a lot of people right now kids." I said, more insistently now that I am feeling and seeing some stares.

The kid bit her lower lip.

"You have to Annan." Connla softly reprimands her.

The kid sighed and then says "Oh alright." She then turned to me and mutters the quickest yet most polite apology I had ever heard in my life.

"Well, if you stop 'trolling', whatever that word means, with me or my granddaughters then I would do so. Now can we-"

Annan didn't let me finish.

She just grabbed my left arm and drags me forward. That promps everyone in our party to move again.

I look at Connla, who is keeping pace on my right side. Upon seeing me look at him, he made an apologetic shrug and an eye gesture towards his girl.

I nod slightly and then sigh.

I thank God that my kids were never anywhere this…disrespectful to me when they were in their rebellious phase.

-

"Where ARE we going Annan?"Connla asks Annan with a lot of discomfort evident in the tone.

We had already walked a few hundred meters from the building we had come from. And if I remember our route correctly, we walked straight, and then when we reached a crosswalk comparable to Times Square, we went right, and then walked straight, following the sidewalk until we had reached a street that goes left.

And that street leads straight to a gate towards a…palace gate of some sort.

"We are going to Kanda Shrine over there, one of the oldest shrines in Japan."

"So we are going to meet your debtor in that shrine?" I ask.

"Yes."

After that we walked through the gate and enter the grounds of the shrine to stand in the center.

It was a big square plaza, with 4 red colored buildings: on in front, one to my right, one to the left and one to the rear and left. Between the left building and the rear left building is a tall blue building…which I am not sure if it is just an office building built next to the shrine or it is owned by a shrine. There are also 7 big trees in the shrine, along with 2 statues of…I'm not sure if those are supposed to be lions or dogs…if those are dogs then I want one.

These dogs look like they could tear a grizzly bear into shreds.

Oh look…there is another statue to my rear right, with 2 stone posts to its front. The statue…is of a mustachioed guy with a…hat, I think.

Around us are dozens of Japanese wearing…since WHEN do you wear business suits to your place of worship?

Tuxedos, in case of a wedding? Yes. To Church? No!

And…is that a priest waving his wand like object over a few computers? With all those corporate looking types bowing behind those computers…

Oh. Now I understand.

They are asking for blessings.

This must be the real secret behind Japan Inc. Nothing is more powerful than belief in God (or gods and spirits) after all.

"This is a very impressive temple, although not as impressive as Varanasi itself." Javin comments.

"What's in Varanasi?" Yung Ho ask.

"Varanasi is a city of temples." Javin said.

"He's right. Practically every street crossing has a temple. In fact, Varanasi has the highest density of gods and heavenly beings anywhere in the world because of those temples."

"You have been there, your holiness?" Javin asks her.

"Ratri invited me, Daesun and Connla there. Practically introduced us to everyone she knows."

"So this is not the first time you have been to a modern city Connla?" I ask him.

"No it is not. But I did not see anything outside the temples. We traveled through magical…gateways?" Connla turns towards Annan with a questioning look.

"Portals." she says.

"Like that weird elevator we used a while ago kid?" I asked, thinking back to that magical elevator we used to get from Buckhorn lake to Cill Eo.

"Yes. Now…where is that guy?" she mutters to herself.

"The creditor, your holiness?" Javin asks.

"Yeah" she started looking around the Kanda Shrine grounds.

"What does he look like Annan?" Connla asked her, starting to look around as well.

"Big ears, slightly limp and a black colored hat that kinda looks like a clown hat." she says.

All of us start to look around.

Hmm…exclude anyone of the female gender…

…not that guy with hair dyed blonde…

…not that corporate looking guy either…

…eyeglass wearing college kid…

…a Latino tourist couple…

Aside from the people from the computer blessing ceremony, and the other worshippers and tourists I just noted, there is nobody else in the temple but us.

"Hmph. Nowhere here. Ok, let's call him." the kid says.

"Why didn't you do so earlier?" I ask.

"It's his business hours. He has to attend to his worshippers first before guests, you know? Speaking of business…where are the other two guys here? If there is a blessing or occasion, one of them has to be here and yet…"

Again she looks around, this time with worry in her features.

"The gods that are supposed to be here are not here?" Thuc asks.

"Yes. Better call him now. Gather around me people."

Annan looked around as we stepped closer to her, looking as if she is trying to see if anyone is looking at us.

Apparently satisfied, she raised her right hand and snaps her fingers…and nothing hap-

I notice the priest jerk and look at us in surprise.

The corporate personnel looked at us…and then looked around, as if they…they couldn't see us...it's the same trick Ratri used back in Versailles.

But this time, someone can see us while everyone else cannot.

All of us are holding our breaths, waiting for the priest's next action. Suddenly Annan stepped forward and waves to the priest. Upon seeing her, the priest stopped looking suspicious of us, smiled at us and nods like he met someone he knew…wait a minute.
"Does that priest-"

"Shinshoku. Shinto priests are called Shinshoku." the kid interrupts me.

"Alright. Does that Shinshoku know you? And how come he can see us?"

"Well yes. He has seen me before when I asked Leech man here for a favor-"

"Leech man? If you are talking about who I think you are talking about, your holiness, then that's cruel to him" Yung Ho interrupts the kid. And then he muttered "Even though he is a Japanese."

"Naw. That's what he told me to call him as a nick name. We're actually close enough acquaintances to joke around with each other. Ebisu here calls me Miss D-cup."

"D-cup? What are you talking about, you have A-cup breasts." I respond without thinking.

…I shouldn't have said that. Everyone is looking at me with raised eyebrows.

"You would know how to tell bra sizes if you have a daughter who just keeps growing every year."

"How big is your daughter?" the kid asks, some…jealousy evident in her voice.

"Like my wife, she's ended up a C-cup." I reply in embarrassment. And then to ward of the embarrassment, I ask her "What about you? What is that D-cup thing about?"

The kid looked at Connla and frowns.

"An embarrassing joke that has been going around for years already no thanks to this guy."

Joke?

Connla looks like he realized something.

"Are you referring to Da Chich Anann?"

Annan glowers at him.

"I already apologized for that a long time ago Annan-"

"And I am still being made fun of by some for that."

"And you let this Leech man call you in reference to that?" Connla asked with some anger, incredulity and some…jealousy, which Annan did not notice.

"…that's why he told me to call him Leech man. He's a fun loving, lucky, muscular, child friendly guy and one of the greatest fishermen of all time." she says in a matter of fact tone.

"And I suppose you like to marry him one of these days huh?" Connla says in anger.

And then he realizes what he said and pales up.

The kid blinked and just looks at him.

And the rest of us pray for him from the bottom of our hearts.