Hahaha, that's so cool!! Many of you fell out off bed, too. :D I'm not alone with this.
daisyduke80, Thanks for the review!
Um... I forgot?, Thanks :D I will keep it up ;-)
BananaPieThiefX, Yeah, I had some this mornings, when I woke up somewhere else in my bed…. Thanks for the review.
Miss Fenway, Thanks so much, glad you liked it… Ugh… that with between bed and wall sounds like being between the two beds in hotels… this sucks… then you can't move for a day…
Keep reading, all you restless sleeper :)… and also the peaceful sleeper
Utah
Ben's Perspective
This was one of those days I was really looking forward to. I visited the cave already because I was there with my parents when I was a child.
We would arrive there in another hour. Abi slept next to me, her head resting against the window.
I couldn't help but smile when I saw Riley in the front mirror, his head buried in a self-made pillow. When I took a second look, I realized that the pillow was my sweater. I chuckled; sometimes the kid was really adorable.
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"I am Pearl Swan!" a young courier introduced herself with a kind smile on her face. "I'll be showing you around this beautiful cave today and tell you information about it."
We were a group of twenty people in the front of the entrance to the cave.
"So would you please follow me?" the red haired woman asked.
Immediately Abi was in the front by Mrs. Swan to hear everything she would say.
Riley and I were in the middle of the group. He worried me, he didn't talk since we got into the car.
I realized that every color drained from his face, when we entered the cave.
"Would you please so kind to tell me what's wrong?" I whispered so that only Riley was able to hear me, but this was easy. The kid was so near to me that I could feel his breathing.
"What? Nothing's wrong. I'm fine!" But his voice gave him away, it trembled.
"Riley!" I scolded.
"Ben!" he answered imitating my strict voice.
I wasn't able to reply because Pearl spoke again: "Please be careful! Use the flashlights and stay together. I don't want any of you getting lost."
I felt Riley take my left sleeve but I didn't mind. Something really scared the boy.
The further we went into the cave, the tighter would be the grip on my sleeve.
"Okay Ri, I'm worried. Talk to me." I ordered.
"About what?" He asked innocently.
"Riley, you..." I raised my voice.
"Shhhh!" I forgot that some of the group members were actually listening to Pearl. I let the others pass, so that Ri and I were the last of the group.
"Riley, you know exactly about what." I mumbled. The guy was so pigheaded.
"Please Ben, leave it alone!" Riley pleaded with a pathetic voice. Should I push to get a response?
He went on, so we didn't get lost and I had to follow because of this death grip on my sleeve.
"I won't leave it alone! Tell me about what happened the day when we went canoeing and about this. Are you afraid of darkness or narrowness? Were you drowned on a boating trip when you was a kid, or forgotten in an attic? Are you claustrophobic?" I asked
"Ugh, Ben, I... Could you please give it a rest?" He swallowed.
"I won't," My voice became dangerous.
"I don't want to talk about it, please, don't make me!" he begged.
"Sure, fine" I snapped and walked a little faster, his fist still around my sleeve.
"Don't be mad! Not again! Ben, please, I don't want to fight. Not again. I..." Now I got him. This was the opportunity to get the truth. Now he would tell anything to rescue himself from another fight. But it wouldn't be the right way, would it?
'I don't want to talk about it, please, don't make me'
'Don't make me'... hm... 'Am I really this mean to do this to him? He really just begged me not to be mad.' I asked myself and sighed. Why was he suddenly this concerned about keeping the peace with me?
Was I really this mean?
No, I wasn't. I stopped running and Riley slowed down, too. He had an almost frightened look on his face.
"All right. I'll tell you everything, as long as you're not mad at me," he began with a trembling voice and a bitter undertone.
"Wait, Ri! You don't want to tell me, do you?" I asked.
"No, not really." He sounded sad.
"Okay, I don't want to make you. But you will tell me, eventually, one day?" Yeah Ben, there goes your last hope to know what happened.
"I will." I heard the smile.
"Good." I took his trembling hand from my sleeve to lay my now-free arm over his shoulders. In this way we followed the group.
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Riley was obviously pleased to be out of the cave, when we got out.
After I took my arm away from his shoulders, we searched Abi.
We found her in a conversation with a nice looking woman; she was small and had dark blond curls. I wasn't really surprised when I heard them speaking in German.
I gave Abi a one-arm hug and kissed her head. Riley stood a little behind us, watching the German woman.
"Ist das dein Freund und dein bester Freund?" The German woman asked. Abi nodded.
"Hello, my name is Sophia Brückenbauer. You must be..." She held her right hand in my direction.
"Ben." I filled the gap and shook her hand.
"And you are?" Now she stuck her hand out in Riley's direction
"Riley." They shook hands. I covered my mouth with my hand to keep myself from laughing out loud, when Riley blushed.
"Riley, it's a pleasure." Sophia smiled.
"The pleasure is mine." Riley returned the smile.
"So you're on a vacation, too?" I asked.
"No, my home is half an hour away from here. Some of my German relatives are here on holiday and we were visiting the important stuff in Utah."
"I heard her talk in German, translating a few things Pearl was saying. I asked her from where she was from, and so on." Abi explained excited.
Suddenly there a woman walked up, who looked a lot like Sophia, joined by a dark haired man and a little boy.
"This is my sister Claudia, her husband Ralf and their son Tim." She informed us
"Leute, das sind Riley und Ben." she said to her family.
The two parents nodded and we nodded back.
"She has just told them your names." Abi whispered.
"Thanks Abi. Thanks a lot. I wasn't able to realize that without you help. I heard our names, but I didn't see a connection." Riley joked sarcastically and earned a glare from Abi. Me, Ralf and Sophia chuckled. Claudia and Tim didn't seem to understand English.
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Riley's Perspective
"Er ist süß." Sophia laughed and Abi's face lit up and she chuckled, too.
What did Sophia just said? Was it about me? I looked questioningly at Abi.
"I won't translate anything, darling, buy a dictionary." Abi teased with a mean smile.
Ben laughed. 'Thanks my friend' I thought.
"Do you have a stay for the night?" Sophia asked.
"No, we're planning to search for a motel." Ben replied.
"Not necessary, if you want I can offer you a guestroom in my house." Wow, that would be great. I shot Ben a pleading look; he was the one who always made such decisions, because it could be dangerous to stay with strangers at night, they could be ax-wielding murderers, blah blah blah... I knew exactly what going through Ben's head right now.
But finally he nodded and smiled.
"Yeah, Sophia, this would be great."
"Cool," I cheered. Sophia gave me an amazing smile.
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We just had lunch. Sophia's sister cooked an incredible dinner. Now we were sitting in the living room.
Claudia, Ralf and Tim were in bed already.
"Okay, it's late, let's go to bed." Ben yawned, stood up and waited for me to stay up with a kind smile.
"I'll go to bed in another hour. Good night Ben." I returned his smile.
"Okay, don't wait to long. Good night, Riles." he scooped Abi in his arms, who has been fallen asleep over an hour ago. "Good night Sophia." He added from the door.
I watched Ben and Abi leave. The first time in the whole trip Abi and Ben were alone and Abi was sleeping. What a pity for them.
I turned to face Sophia again and I had to chuckle when I saw her wide smile. "What?" I asked.
"I really thought me and my sister are close, but you and your brother are adorable." She went silent when I started to laugh.
"Ben? Ben and I aren't brothers. Okay, kind of, but not by blood."
"Really? I would have bet that you two are brothers. The way you talk to each other... I mean you know each other like brothers. You're getting along, like you've known each other your entire life." She admitted.
"We've known each other for a very long time." I smiled proudly. It was nice to hear something like this.
"How did you got to know each other?" She asked curiously. I hated my whole childhood, but the day I met Ben was one positive thing about it.
"Long or short version?" I asked, though I really didn't like to talking about my past. I never talked about my whole past, only to Ben. He knew every painful detail, which was why I was so disappointed at the Missouri River.
"Is there a happy end?" I looked in her deep green eyes.
"The end is that we are staying in a foreign house with a gorgeous woman and her German family. Now do you think there's a happy ending?" I teased.
"Okay, then the long version of your meeting day." She made a face and made herself comfortable to demonstrate to me that she was ready to listen to my story.
"First you have to know a little bit about Ben. He had been searching his whole life for a treasure, the Templar Treasure. Sixteen years ago, he was thirty-two and searched New York for clues. He and a friend, Ian and his companion Shaw were in an area that wasn't so nice. I know because I used to live in a orphanage there. Now that you have some background, I can begin."
I would tell her only the happenings on this one day... nothing further.
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Brückenbauer! That's an incredible stupid name (It's German for 'Bridge-builder'). When I have written this, it was VERY late!!
Translation for...
"Ist das dein Freund und dein bester Freund" is: "Is this your boyfriend and your best friend?"
and:
"Er ist süß!" is: "he is cute"... so it WAS about Riley :-D