It was early in the morning and Lina was clumsily doing the cleaning she forgot last night. She picked up the junk on her bedroom floor, got all her laundry together and piled it in the laundry room, and started to dust before she yet out a huge yawn. The sun wasn't up yet, so before she got too into her chores she decided to head to the bathroom and shock herself awake with ice cold water.
"Towel. Water. Head. Hair. Dry." Lina yawned and reached for the dryer. She then stared at the dryer. "No no, I have to wash first. Maybe it was a mistake getting up this early." She sat down on the bathtub and rested her head on her knees, when she heard her cat calling. "Fantastic, what does he want?" She stood up wobbling and trudged after the sound, "I'm making a new law Spark, no feedings before sunrise."
Spark was a rather playful cat, and he was busy batting things off the table that was in front of the couch where Dominic slept. Lina rolled her eyes at it, but he got her attention when he grabbed Dominic's glasses and ran off with them.
"Oh...dear..SPARK!" Lina ran after her cat. The cat jumped up on the television, then the computer, then through her legs and into the kitchen. Lina growled and tried to catch him, but the cat was as slippery as prison soap. "Damnit..you MORON CAT! Don't go breaking things that don't belong to me!!" She chased him into the kitchen, where he got up on the counter and then on the coffee maker, and performed the most unspeakable horror that ever existed.
Drop. Crack. Shatter.
"Ehheh!! YOU STUPID CAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT!" Out of anger she chased him around the house again, but when Spark took refuge in a small corner of her bedroom closet, there was no getting him out of there and the chase ended. Defeated, Lina slipped back to the kitchen and picked up the fragments of Dominic's glasses. Tears formed in her eyes. "WhatamIgonnadoIfhedidn'tsuemebeforeheissogoingtosuemenowandIstillneedacollegeeducatioooooonnnnnandamanicure." She sat down on the kitchen floor and tried some of those deep cleansing breaths people see on infomercials.
"Okay. I just have to practice what I am going to say, " Lina lectured herself, "Dominic. About your glasses, they magically flew to the kitchen and...okay that is great Lina think of something that could actually happen. Okay. Dominic, I was cleaning and, well, Spark..he..."
"Knocked over my glasses?"
Lina stared straight ahead of her. "If I don't look, will you not be there standing behind me."
"Afraid not, "the grumpy one replied.
Lina slowly turned her head, keeping her eyes tightly shut. She gave him the glasses with the shattered frame. She opened her eyes.
"Nope, still not happy."
Lina punches the wall in frustration. "I don't get it. Those stupid things can survive it when they are flung ten feet in a car accident, but they get in the hands of my cat and everything falls apart."
Dominic stuffed the broken glasses in his pocket and headed to the fridge. He grabbed a soda from the shelf, leaned against the wall, and stared at Lina, sipping his drink.
"I can fix this. Okay, all we need to do is take you to the optometrist and get you some new glasses. I'm supposed to wear glasses myself, but I think my vision is getting better so I just kinda stopped wearing them."
"Is that why you ran me over with that thing?"
Lina looked down, "It was dark!"
Those same specs have served me well for years. I better be able to get the same type. Maybe if I had a certain ability I couldve stopped this thing from happening in the first place. He set his drink down and grabbed a chair and sat in it. " You have anything to eat?"
"Yeah, but we are leaving now."
"Huh?" Dominic said with one eye still half closed. I need sleep. Maybe I will wake up back HOME if Im lucky.
"We are going to get you new glasses. I'm pretty sure I have enough money in the bank to take care of it. " She grabbed her jacket, slipped on some sneakers, and moved Dominic around like a half-asleep doll as she helped him get his jacket on. "I'll drive."
They walked out to the car and Lina opened his door for him. He stared at the thing in curiousity, he had only seen the things from the outside, but never from the inside. The other day they had the pleasure of walking to the festival, and even from the hospital, so this would be a new experience for him.
"Are you getting in?" Lina swung around to the driver's seat, "Buckle up for safety hunneh!"
"Right." Dominic looked at the belt and tilted his head.
"Oh, I always get confused in new cars too. " Lina reached over him and took out an old cup from the cupholder and buckled him in now that it was visible where it went. She went back over to her side, buckled in, and took off.
This is different. He looked out the window at the city lights they passed. They had a certain beauty to them, the flickering of lights from the buildings mixing in with that of the cars, swirling around. The city was a living organism, all cities were, but this one had such life to it that Dominic couldn't help but be amazed.
"Can you gawk anymore, tourist?" Lina snickered seeing Dominic's reaction.
"I am..from a much smaller area."
"I get it. You are a small town boy. Never been to the big city before, have you? Well in that case, tonight I'm going to take you for a real night out on the town! I personally don't drink, but if thats your thing I know of some good bars."
"Sounds good."
"It is still a little ways to my optometrist, so I'm going to get on the highway. Most of the things I need are here in town, but this guy is real good and cheaper than anything I can find here." Lina turned on the radio in her car, and like most people under the age of thirty, blasted it loud enough so everyone around could hear it.
Help. Me. Dominic clutched onto his seat tightly. His ears throbbed from the music, and he couldn't even estimate how fast they were going. "Isn't this a little fast? I don't mind waiting, really."
"C'mon small town, you want to get there sometime this century, don't you?" Lina pressed down on the gas pedal more, hitting 95 mph. "I have a tendancy to speed some, but I slow for cops if that is what you are worried about."
"Wh-Whatever happened to a good fast horse.." he muttered as they hit 100mph, "No one has to get anywhere this quickly!"
"Oh this is my favorite song!" Lina cranked up the volume even more, and Dominic clamped his hands over his ears, and when he looked out the side window, saw an image flickering in the window. It was his brother Jacob, holding that same book, grinning at him.
"JACOB!!" Dominic called, and Lina tapped his shoulder. He looked at her and she turned down the volume.
"Were you trying to talk to me?"
"Now that I've got your attention, can you please turn the music down?"
Lina nodded and set it back down to a somewhat normal point. "Why didn't you say so in the first place?"
Dominic didn't hear that question because he was too busy staring at the window. The image was gone, and his heart was beating a mile a minute. My brother has the book! Why?!? I can't fight him now! Maybe I should try again, see if I can predict anything... He shut his eyes but all was blank. Looks like Im at the msercy of completely random visions. I'm getting nowhere fast. If Im going to achieve anything in the next hundred years I'll have to ask Lina for help.
Lina was singing along to her favorite song. She sounded pretty good, as she held her one hand on the steering wheel and tilted her seat back. "All my love, is what I'm going to give you every day, every day I love you, I'll be there..."
She stared at a magazine tapping her foot. Lina looked up at the clock, and then back down at the magazine. "When is he going to be done in there? I mean, I got here early enough he better not be in a waiting room." She tilted her head back and stared at a crack in the ceiling, and tried to find pictures in the grooves in the molding on the ceiling. After finding a whacked out looking elephant and a monkey, she got bored. "I have to keep myself occupied somehow. I could try another one of those magazines, but they look about as interesting as the elephant and the monkey."
Due to a lack of sleep that morning, Lina dozed off and began to drool on the magazine:
She dreamt that she was standing in a field, enjoying a beautiful spring day. The scent of the flowers were awesome to her, and they tickled her senses like nothing she had experienced before. Feeling lighter than air, she ran into the endless field. Nothing was in her way, not a stray branch, not a cold wind. In mid run, she came to a clumsy stop as she saw something twisting around in the breeze. It came closer, and she ran towards it and tried to catch it. Soon enough, it fell straight into her hands. It was...a scarf. Dominic's scarf.
Dominic walked out, hands in pockets.He walked over and shook the sleeping girl. Lina choked on her spit and sat up, then stumbled to her feet looking around wildly. "Eh..whoah..I mustve fallen asleep. So how did it go?"
Dominic handed her a yellow slip, "I am supposed to go to the store and hand this to them. Then they will make the right glasses for me. And a pair "
"You got contacts? Cool." Lina opened the door for him and they headed downstairs to the store. "I was meaning to get around to snagging myself a pair. I find them much more attractive then bulky old glasses."
My glasses were not bulky. Its a look. "I'll probably end up just sticking with my glasses. I only hope they can make them just like my old ones."
"I doubt that will be a problem," she told him as they entered the eyeglass store. Shelves upon shelves of different designs, every possible combination and tint, sat on display in front of them. Dominic was slightly in awe, but shook it off and began to look around.
"Since you are not used to this system I'll fill you in. What you do is you find the style you want and give it to the guy at the counter. We come back a week later and they have your glasses ready in the style you want. Since you are getting contacts, you will have to decide what color you want those in as well?"
"Let me make sure I get this straight. Contacts are like..mini glasses..that you put straight on your eye?" Dominic asked just loud enough so only Lina could hear.
"Just choose the style you want and go up to the counter. Once you are there you can ask the girl there how to apply contacts. Its really easy, or so my friends tell me."
Dominic didn't spend too much time searching around, at the very bottom on the right wall of the room he found a pair of glasses that were identical to his old ones. These had a slight silver tint to them, but it was the closest he would ever get in this store. He shuffled up to the counter and gave it over to the woman, who processed his order and gave him a slip.
"Excuse me, but can you tell me how to apply contacts?" he asked, with an approving wink from Lina.
The woman nodded. "New to contacts. Just follow these simple steps." She pulled out an instruction sheet from a drawer, and then set up a mirror. "I need to put mine in anyway, so I'll show you straight off."
Dominic watched closely as she held open her eyelids and put the tiny object over her eye. Once the woman finished, she noticed Dominic's less-than-thrilled expression and patted his shoulder.
"It looks painful, doesn't it? My youngest daughter used to tell me the same thing. If you take care of your contacts and your eyes, it will be as simple as putting on a pair of glasses."
Sure. Whatever. "Okay. I will be back here soon, thanks for your help. " He turned back to Lina and they both walked out of the building to the car. I've been avoiding this situation long enough. I have to tell Lina what is going on. I have no idea how to navigate my way around this world, and Im completely cut off communication wise from my own.
"Lina?"
"Yes, Dominic."
"I'm looking for a very important book. It's called, " he dug down in his pocket and got the page he tore out earlier, "Basic Information on Gateways and Passageways. It might not be written in a language you understand, but its essential that I find it."
'' Sure, we will swing by the national library then."
Library. Well duh, I could've thought of that. "Thanks, I really appreciate it."
"So what do you need the book for? A project of some sort, easy reading, something like that?" Lina asked as she opened the door for Dominic then got in herself.
He started to answer, but then heard a very loud noise come from Lina.
"Oops.." She blushed, "Im starved already, I'm a big breakfast person you know. We will grab some food and then go to the library. I think I know some people who work there too. You never really know who you might see around here." Her eyes rested on Dominic's scarf, but then she started up the car and headed out to a nearby restaurant.
Yes indeed. Who will we see... Dominic rested his head against the seat, Hopefully not that traitor Jacob.