At the center of the kitchen there was a wooden table, with the legs that ended with lion's paws.
Behind the table there was a wood burning stove built into the wall.
At the left and right side of the stove there were two display cases, with various kitchen wares, plates, cutlery, pot, pans and other things.
Lastly, in the right side of the door there was a modern rock washbasin, connected with the water pipes.
"Wow…this kitchen it's really beautiful, and I see that you have all the modern facilities. Hem…I don't want to be rude, but I can understand that you are a well-off person, seeing this house and knowing that you have another house. I know, thanks to the information gathered by my brainbots, that not all the people could have a house like yours, even less two!" Eiyuu explained at warden Baker.
"Thanks a lot, Eiyuu, and yes, you're right…I'm a well-off person. Maybe you are asking yourself why I have the same surname as the street, right? Well, I could say that I'm a descendant of William Baker, the one who built this street, and with the earned money he constructed those two houses, to host his large family."
"Through the years my family built other houses, here and in other streets, and I inherited this house, because it was the one where my parents lived, and the one near this, because it was a possession of my father, but for years had remained uninhabited because my parents had not had a chance to sell it."
"I continue to think that it was a lucky thing meeting you, both for the fact that you saved my life, and for the fact that, finally, that house will have tenants. Now I think it's better eating, I'm hungry, and you?" warden Baker finished saying at the two aliens.
Meen-yawn and Eiyuu nodded, and the small genius sat himself onto one of the chairs placed near the table, while the ichthyoid remained standing up, because he knew that he would broke some chair, if he sat onto one of them.
The warden took some eggs from one of the cupboard, some bacon from the icebox, and Eiyuu, seeing that, thought that the first creation to share with the Londoners was the fridge.
Then he took a frying pan, and some lard, to cook the eggs and bacon.
While those things were frying and a good smell drifted in the room, he cut three slices of rustic bread, placing them in three plates.
"Oh…Minion, you eat what we eat? I forgot to ask you, and seeing that you are a fish, maybe you eat…mh…things for fish?" Gordon asked at the ichthyoid.
The alien fish made an astonished face both for how the warden called him, and for what he asked him.
"Warden, my name is Meen-yawn, but if you cannot spell it, it's not a problem. In any cases, yes, I eat what you eat; I saw some videos and pictures made by the brainbots of what terrestrial fishes eat, and no thanks, worms and algae aren't really my genre," he finished to tell laughing, while the warden placed the plates with the bread, eggs and bacon in front of the two aliens, and sat himself in front of Eiyuu.
"I'm curious to see those…videos? They are those moving pictures that you told me, Eiyuu, right? You two are a continuous source of wonders for me," Gordon finished, and then they began to eat the breakfast.
The warden marveled again, seeing Meen-yawn eating inserting the various foods from an almost invisible hatch on top of the dome.
Eiyuu uttered moans of appreciation, and when he finished he said, "It was all delicious! You know what? I thought about the first invention that I could share with you Londoners: it's the fridge, seeing the icebox. But first I have to see what type of energy I could use, because I know that the electricity is not yet used in the way that we use it, in this age. Perhaps with steam...but I have to see," he said to himself.
Gordon reclined his head, perplexed by the things that the young alien was saying.
"Fridge? I'm curious…what is it? I'm aware that you have a superior technology compared by the one in this era, right? I know about the electricity, by reading some articles about it, but I never thought that it could be used to power up inventions like this…fridge," he said, thinking that he would ask a lot of question at the little genius, that night, when they would go at the spaceship.
Eiyuu nodded, and began to explain: "The fridge is an icebox powered up by electricity, which conserve foods at various temperatures. On our planets the electricity was generated using the sun, wind and water's energy. Especially the sun one: it was the cleanest, and our scientist had discovered the means to create some energy accumulators – pods where we stored the exceeded energy – to use in case of cloudy sky."
"I know that here you still use gas or oil illumination, but with electricity it's possible supply powers to some light-bulbs to illuminates houses, streets and other places. I think I would use the steam power as energy's source, but I would see if I can implement the electricity in the entire city, and even in England, to better the life of all people," he finished, with sparkly eyes, thinking about at the invention that he would create.
Then Gordon cleaned the table, and washed the three plates in the washbasin, while the two aliens watched him curiously.
"Hem…if I may ask, it's because of your work why you are a bachelor, warden? I know that usually mansions like that are made by women. And I noticed that, despite you are well-off, you don't have a maid," the small blue alien said at the prison's curator.
Gordon snickered, shook his head, and answered, "You are really curious, Eiyuu, but I know that it's a characteristics of a genial mind. In any case, yes, you hit the spot. Before beginning to do the work as prison's warden, I was engaged with a very beautiful and sweet girl, or so it seemed."
"Usually I wouldn't tell this story at a ten-years-old kid, but I know that you are more mature compared at your age. I and Emily we loved each other very much, and she even sew that bedspread that is in the room where you slept."
"After five years that we were together, I asked her if she wanted to marry me, and she said yes. I was at the peak of my happiness, but then things came tumbling down, when I told her that I was going to work as a guard in the prison."
"Basically I discovered that at the beginning she liked me for what I was, then she discovered my wealth, and she became really possessive, and she wanted to marry me only for my money. She came from a country's family, but when we were together, I taught her how to behave in society, and she was inebriated by the power that comes with it."
"When I asked her to marry me, she was convinced that I would have done a work in line with my family: banker or lawyer, but I was – and I am – a more practical man, and I had some ties with the prison's warden."
"I asked him if I could enter as a piece of his personnel, maybe as a guard, and he accepted, saying that, actually, he needed men of my kind, that the major parts of the other guards were rascals and lazy."
"I had the idea to tell the glad tidings at Emily after our engagement, thinking that she would be happy. Oh…how I were wrong. I still recall it, despite several years passed from that time: I had a confident smile, and she had, instead, a horrified expression on his face."
"She declared that she couldn't believe it, and if it was a joke, it was really bad. When I said to her that it was the truth, she did an angry expression, she removed the engagement ring from her gloved hand and she threw it on the floor, then exit crying and screaming from this very house."
"That ring was a historic jewel of my family, belonged o my mother, and before at my grandmother, and so on. It was the official engagement ring of my family. I was crying, and I took that ring, to bring it where it was previously stored."
"In short words, I went to her to talk, to make her think over, but she had already took her decision: she no longer wanted to be with me. Even worse, she said to me that she would start to hang around with one of my bachelor friends, which I presented her some years ago."
""She declared that this man was more suited to her expectations, and he told her that he would be very happy to be with her, if she was not already involved with me. So she started to go out with my friend, and after a couple of years they got engaged while I was resigned to remain single."
"The year they got engaged, I was passed from guard to prison's warden, because the previous director had decided to retire because he was old and that job was very stressful and dangerous, as you saw."
"I was invited to the engagement party and I almost wanted to reject the invitation, but I knew it would be rude. So I went, and found that Emily was not happy even with Edward, because it turned out that he was only interested in her in an economical way."
"You must know that Emily was the daughter of the people who lived in the countryside, just outside London, and the company of Edward wanted to buy the land of Emily's parents, but they wouldn't give up. A few months before Emily and Edward were engaged, her parents had died, leaving land and house as an inheritance to her."
"Edward makes her sign the contract of engagement, as usual, but she did not read it. Only that in that contract was written that all the fiancée's possessions became automatically possessions of the fiancé, so Edward conquered the land without spending a penny."
"She loved him, but he did it all for money. One year after they were married, and Edward had already begun to build warehouses and a factory in the area. Now Emily is still married to him, but I heard that they betray each other, which is very regrettable. But it is also something that happens very often people of high society, and it is very sad."
"I have felt doubly betrayed, by Emily and also Edward, because I had no idea that he was a type so devious. I stopped seeing them, and now I can say to be happy in some way."
"As for the maid, today is her day off. Fortunately, she's a woman from the countryside, and she's not afraid by anything. She should return tomorrow early in the morning, and I think I'll tell her about you, if you don't mind. She's a chatterbox, but she also knows to keep a secret," Gordon ended, winking to the two aliens who were watching him, captivated by his story.
Eiyuu was the first to recover, and he said, "Blimey! I'm sorry for you, this Emily seemed the right person for you. And for what regards the maid, it's alright, you can tell her. As long as she maintain the secret, even if I want to make me being known by Londoners, especially being feared by criminals. Actually, I hope that that gang would spread the rumor about a blue-skinned kid with a terrible weapon," the little genius affirmed, with a mischievous smile on his lips.
Gordon laughed at that statement, and he thought that the boy would have been an excellent detective, because he knew that some of them had some methods that they weren't exactly legal, and often they found themselves having contacts with the underworld.
"Well, I'm sure that you shall not pass unnoticed, no offence, obviously. Even if you would try to disguise yourself, it would be really difficult to hide some of your characteristics. Now you would remain here in the house, because I shall go to work shortly. Today I'll begin at one PM o'clock, but luckily I would finish for seven PM o'clock."
"I'll come here and prepare the supper. For now feel free to go around the house, to observe it, I trust you. Come, I have to show you something," the warden said to them, going toward the stairs in the hall.
They went up from the stairs, at the second floor, and then they climbed other stairs, to reach the attic.
Arrived there, the warden opened a small door, and invited the two guests to follow him.
They entered in another attic, which was still fine, but really dusty.
"There, now we are into your future house. My parents constructed this passage with the hope that I was going to live with Emily in the other house, and being anyway in contact with my mother and father," Gordon told Eiyuu, looking sadly at the loft.
"You came here recently, right, warden?" the small alien asked at the mustached man.
Warden Baker raised his eyebrows, and answered, "Yes, how can you know? I came here because I suddenly wanted to check the place."
The future detective pointed at the loft's dusty floor, and said, "I noticed those footprints on the floor, and I deduced that they were recent. Seeing your shoes, especially their shape, I knew that it was you who left those traces, and furthermore…" he said, sniffing the air, "…I smell your cologne, which surely is deposited onto the dust."
The mustached man opened widely his eyes, surprised by the deductive capacities of that boy.
"It's incredible! I was actually wearing those shoes when I entered here, and I used my eau de cologne. Satisfy my curiosity, I came here a week ago, and I don't smell anything, how id that you feel it?" he asked, trying to understand how he discovered that.
Eiyuu smiled and answered in this manner: "Thank you for the compliment. For the shoes and footprints, I possess an innate sense of measure, and with a glance I can see the correspondences between two things. And for the eau de toilette, my race has a sense of smell MUCH more developed than the terrestrials, and so I'm capable of sense smells that humans couldn't."
"My sense of smell could be compared, more or less, to the one of cats or dogs. And all thanks to this more developed brain, and with may neuronal connections compared to a human one. I still don't understand why my species had evolved in this way, but I have yet to study some information stored in the ship's computer," the young alien finished to explain at the prison's director.
Gordon watched him stupefied, and when regained his voice, he said, "I guessed that you had a more developed brain than ours, but even having senses like an animal! Ah…I don't compare you to an animal, mind you: you are an incredible person, and I think that doing the detective for you would be really easy. Both for your developed sensed and for your technology that you had at hand."
"You talked about evolution…and this reminded me about Charles Darwin, and his book "On the Origins of the Species", and I think that it's a book that you would like to read. I'm one of the few lucky people who posses that book, later I would give it to you, so you can read it this afternoon, if you want. And I'm curious to hear your opinion on the matter, since you are a man of science, right Eiyuu?" the warden asked at the young alien, smiling.
The small genius beamed, as soon as heard about that book and writer. He knew about them, because he had received information through the brainbots, but he hadn't been able to read the book, since it was printed in few copies, and in any case he didn't wanted to make it steal by a cyborg in order to read it.
"I know the book, and I know who is Darwin, since I received the information through the probes – the brainbots – but I never read the opera, and so I would be happy to watch it, thanks a lot," Eiyuu affirmed, with a smile stamped on his lips.
Gordon nodded, and they descended all, going into the library.
The kid gaped at that view: it was a rectangular room, with three carpets finely crafted, with motives of flowers and leaves, which reminded him his gun.
In the center there was a small table octagonal shaped, made in wood, and with a marble top, with the legs cross-shaped on the floor, and the "columns" that rose from half "cross", stopping under the tabletop.
On every sides there was small drawers, with brass handlers and lockable with a key.
Over the table there was an oil's lamp, which served to lighten up the room when the dark came.
All around the room there were glass cabinets full of books, and in some of them there were piece of pottery, finely decorated.
Near a glass cabinet there was a wooden sofa, intricately decorated, and upholstered with a fabric with red roses onto it.
Near the door there was a pendulum clock, useful to see the hour.
The clock was simple, yet beautiful: rectangular in form, with a base like a trapezium upside-down, high, and on the upper part the same shape, only thin.
Under the top it had an waved decoration that reproduced a branch of some plant, like ivy or vine, with the leaves alternate on the branch.
The quadrant had Roman numerals and the hands that ended with a circle before the pointy end.
The pendulum was like this: at the end it had a circular "plate", which was attached to the bar by a decoration lyre-shaped.
The rod was flat and wide, and with five protruding "lines".
On the glass of the small door there was the phrase "Standard Time".
The boy was still lost watching that architectural beauty, and observing how many books the warden had.
He came out of his trance, when Gordon gave him Darwin's book.
"Oh…sorry…I was enchanted seeing this beautiful room. Thanks, I would read it, and I would let you know what I think about it. Ah…I must tell you that I'm a "fast reader", so I wanted to ask you if I can allow myself to read other books this afternoon," Eiyuu said, smiling at the prison's curator.
Warden Baker nodded and smiled, not marveling by the fact that the young alien wanted to read other books.
"Of course, sonny! Here there is the key to open the glass cabinets, and here the ladder to reach the higher shelves. Some of these books are really old, so I ask you o be careful, please," Gordon explained, placing the key onto the octagonal small table, and pointing at the wheeled ladder leaned against the library.
Eiyuu nodded, understanding perfectly, and thinking about scanning or copying those books on the computer some of these books, or taking notes and then writing down them on paper and into the PC.
"Perhaps you have some sheet of paper where I can write some notes? Or a notebook?" the small genius asked.
The mustached man nodded, and took out a small notepad with white pages from a section of the library.
Eiyuu noticed that he had several of those notes in the glass cabinet, and he asked to himself why.
"How come you have so many notebooks, warden Baker?" the curious kid asked at the man.
"It's because I like to take notes when I read a book, and I don't want to ruin it writing annotations onto it," Gordon simply answered, smiling.
The blue alien nodded, understanding perfectly. He too would had done so.
It was almost noon, so the young genius placed the book on the sofa and they returned in the kitchen, where the warden prepared a quick dinner, roasted ham and another slice of bread, since they hadn't so much appetite.
They ate slowly, and then the director spoke like this: "In a moment I shall go to work. Like I said before, feel free to roam in the house, and even in the other house, I assure you that it's structurally safe, from what I saw. I give you permission to look into the wardrobes and trunks in the loft, there are some of my old completes, and other clothes that may fit you, once adapted."
"There are some furniture that need some cleaning, in your house, but I think that they are still usable, in any case, see for yourself. I will finish around seven PM o'clock, so I will be here around seven and a half, at the max one quarter to eight."
The two guests nodded, and they thanked him again. The warden put on his velvet maroon jacket, and exited from the house, locking the door.
Eiyuu and Meen-yawn decided firstly to explore that house, and their own future residence.