Chapter 9- A Coincidental Meeting with Clairvoyance
So, as you remember, I got a housemate last chapter.
Thankfully he seems to know I'm scared of him and so stays in a guest room or near the living room TV out of consideration.
Or maybe he just thinks that a toddler is boring and other things are more worth his time?
Either way, I'm grateful. It isn't easy recovering from that sort of trauma without letting Dad know. It would've been even harder if the source of my trauma was nearby.
Speaking of Dad, today the 2 of us are going to the supermarket to buy some groceries. I was pretty excited, since this was the first time I'd goneout of the house for anything other than visiting Aunt, Uncle and Terry in Aunt's belly. (I wouldn't have to now anymore, you know, since they're living with us now, and all...).
"That will be &.# dollars. Thank you for shopping here and please come again!
an automated voice came from the kiosk.
...Well that was pretty anticlimactic. Everything here is exactly the same as my previous life. Even the message is the same! It could pretty much be the same world, except with magic and gods and monsters and stuff.
Or maybe they were there before too and I was just oblivious to them? Wow, I was missing out.
While various thoughts were going through my head, I noticed a toddler crying on the side of the road.
"Dad, Dad, what's wrong with that girl?" I drew his attention towards the redhead. He turned and headed towards her, putting me down nearby and leaving the groceries at my feet.
"What's wrong, little girl?" he called out a bit awkwardly, and leaned down so they could see on eye to eye. "Are you lost?" Yeah, it was ok to be awkward. After all, I've never cried because of sadness/panic before, so it was his first time dealing with this stuff.
She raised her head.
I looked at her carefully. Her nose was running and her face was blotchy with tears. She couldn't have been more than 3 or 4 years old. When she saw my dad she blanched.
Understandable. My dad must've seemed pretty tall to her, so she must be scared.
I stepped forward carefully. "Hi, I'm Nyssa. What's your name?" I took her hands in my own, leaving the groceries abandoned.
She saw my gentle smile and quietly answered, "Ra...Rachel." I smiled wider and said, "Nice to meet you, Rachel. This is my dad. Did you get separated from someone?"
She nodded, wiping some of her tears. "Jean... Movie theatew... Crowd, got lost."
...Was there a movie theater around here? I silently beamed the question to Dad with my eyes, and he nodded. "If it's the theater, it should be around 2 blocks down from here. Would you like to come with us, Rachel?"
Rachel hesitated. Good, good. It seems like this Jean person or whoever at least taught her to be wary of strangers. She looked into both Dad and I's eyes carefully and nodded slowly. "Yes, please. Jean said meet at Clock Tower if lost."
"Clock..." I pointed over her head. "That clock?" It was only a hundred meters away, with lots of people bustling around it. Rachel turned her head to look and her face colored when she realized she'd been crying and panicking so close to the meetup point and didn't even know.
Hm. She's unexpectedly mature.
"Let's go!" I started to pull her towards the tall clock, trusting Dad to follow. I sensed him pick up the groceries and walk closely behind us.
Soon she ran towards a middle-aged man that kind of looked like a Sebastian (you know what I mean), while yelling, "Jean!"
"Miss Rachel!" he said worriedly when he saw her hauling me in his direction. He ran this way as well and gently hugged her. "Are you alright?"
Dad and I silently watched.
After checking her over for injuries (oh, her knees were scraped a bit. Sorry, Rachel, I didn't notice), he finally looked towards us. "Thank you for helping Miss Rachel." He lowered his head slightly.
"No, it was just natural to do something. It's not something to thank us for," as Dad said us, he slightly pushed me forward. "If Nyssa here hadn't pointed her out I wouldn't have even noticed her."
Rachel, O oblivious Rachel, rushed forward while Dad and Jean were having a stare-down, took my hand, reconsidered and then hugged me. "Thank you, Nyssa!"
"Sure, Rachel." I hugged her back and was released.
"Nevertheless, Miss Rachel is the only daughter of the Dare company. We must thank you for helping her before she was kidnapped or otherwise hurt." the butler- I mean, Mister Jean, said.
Wait.
Wait wait wait.
Did I hear that right?
Rachel... Red hair... Dare company...
This kid is the future Oracle?! Talk about a coincidence! After 2 years of life I'm meeting important characters left and right!
As I spaced out, Dad glanced worriedly at me and said, "It's not really needed. I'm glad, actually. This is the first time Nyssa has met someone her age."
Jean perked up. "Truly? Then would a play-date be acceptable?" Looking at Rachel's sparkling eyes, he amended. "Or multiple play-dates."
This made me snap out of my daze. A play-date? With the Rachel Elizabeth Dare?! "Yes please!" the words slipped out. I covered my mouth with both hands. I didn't mean to say that, I swear!
"Hearing that, Dad accepted Jean's offer. "If Rachel's parents are okay with that, then please."
As they talked through the details and Jean made some calls, Rachel came over and hugged me again.
As I hugged her back, I thought about the future.
So... ta-da! What do you all think? Did you expect that? Did you? No, right? I've been planning it for a while, actually.
And so I have good new and bad new. Which one do you want to hear first? The bad news? Ok! So, the thing is, I've planned out his story quite a bit and have it's general plot decided. But the planned chapters have run out now, meaning I'll mostly have to think while writing these chapters, meaning the updates on this story will be as slow as the ones on my other stories.
Now the good news! The good news is, I got a wonderful new story idea from JBlaser and I'll be thinking about how to write that too. Plus my final exams started this week, so I'll generally be a bit busier than usual. That's all.
Please REVIEW and let me know what you think about this chapter!