An Odd Family
When Thomas first went outside to go to Gabrielle's house he saw marvels right and left. First he saw a contraption which Gabrielle called a "car". Those must have been the carriages without horses Meggie always talked about. As I was walking on this "sidewalk" thing Thomas heard a noise, it sounded like a continuous booming noise coming from all around him. He looked at Gabrielle and she told him that there was a military base nearby that did air force practices once in a while. Thomas never saw the machines that made that particular noise, but when Gabrielle said it was an "Air Force", Thomas assumed that they were those flying machines that Meggie, Mo, and Resa always talked about.
Finally Thomas got to the house, it wasn't as huge as Elinor's house but still it was bigger than any regular house he had ever seen in Ombra. The second Thomas went inside the house he saw a cat. Thomas had seen cats in his days… but never one that was so FAT. As the cat sluggishly made his way across the room, a girl about the same age as Gabrielle rushed down to greet them. Her skin was a dark and she had black hair and brown eyes. As she opened her mouth to say something, Thomas noticed something.
"You have squares on your teeth!" he cried in shock. The girl looked at him as if he were crazy, that it was normal to have squares on your teeth. "Yes" Gabrielle pointed out, "They are called braces. I just got mine off." Thomas' face turned red. So it was normal to have squares on your teeth as well as to have glass over your eyes. He knew Gabrielle must have been suspicious of him by now. Maybe she knew. Nah.
"This is my best friend Carmen Henderson. Carmen, this is Thomas. I found him at the abandoned house" told Gabrielle. Carmen took out her hand for a handshake. At least that was the same in both worlds. In a second a woman rushed into the hallway where they were standing. This must have been Gabrielle's mother, Mrs. Gonzalez. "Gabrielle, can you introduce me to your friend." asked Mrs. Gonzalez. "This is Thomas; he was at the abandoned mansion down the street. He needed a place to stay."
"Gabrielle, can we speak in the kitchen." Mrs. Gonzalez asked. Gabrielle and Mrs. Gonzalez disappeared behind the corner. He was left alone with the girl that had…braces. "Have I seen you before?" Carmen asked Thomas. "Nope" Thomas was absolutely sure about that. "Ya wanna watch some television while Mrs. Gonzalez and Gabrielle talk." Carmen asked. "Uh… sure I'll watch some telemisision." Thomas answered. "You mean television, right" Carmen asked. "Of course," Thomas answered.
Television happens to be this device that everybody seems to have where pictures move! Mo had talked about that often when he talked of the other world. Thomas and Carmen watched a television show called Spongebob Squarepants. Seriously it was the oddest sensation, watching television. As you got into it the rest of the world kind of melts away until someone interrupts you. It is like books in a sense, in the way that the rest of the world seems not to be there.
As he was lost in the mystical underwater adventures of Spongebob and Patrick, Gabrielle came into the room and interrupted his trance. "My mom says you can stay for a while, if you answer this question very truthfully." Gabrielle said. "What is this question?" Thomas asked. "Where do you live and where are your parents? I don't mean to be pushy or anything but my mom and I are worried that you are a runaway or something, if so need to contact your parents so we can handle the situation." Gabrielle said. Carmen gave Gabrielle a look, "Wow," she said sarcastically, "that will make Thomas feel real comfortable around you knowing that you suspect him of being a runaway." "I'm sorry, but…" Thomas did not hear much more, he decided to slip back into the mesmerizing world of television while Gabrielle and Carmen bickered like they were sisters about him.
Soon dinner came and Thomas had a delicious meal of arroz con pollo. In this language called Spanish, that meant rice and chicken, you learn something new every day. In Thomas's case, every hour he learns something new about his strange world. As it was time to go to bed, Gabrielle made him take a "shower" and gave him some clothes that were too big for him to go to bed. Apparently, Gabrielle has an older brother in college and they had some of his old clothes that Thomas could borrow.
This "shower" was a very interesting contraption. As you turned the knob towards the H the water gets hotter and as you turned the knob to the C the water magically turned colder until it shut off. Pretty sweet stuff.
As Thomas lay in the middle of the floor on an inflatable mattress near Gabrielle's bed. His tunic and shorts were hanging on the chair next to him. He soon drifted off to sleep in his inflatable mattress, but something woke him up.
Near his tunic he heard a quiet ping of glass hitting the floor. There was a shadow of a small man holding something bigger and rectangle in his tiny hands. As he came to his senses he figured out who it was. It was Jasper carrying a piece of paper.