Healing Starlight:

By Erwin Stevens -- © 2007 Witt’s End Inc.

The Dedication(s):

To: Gail Baudino, (and the Elves of Malvern): Thanks for the Inspiration to get me writing again, and your book’s help and healing, “Alanae ea yolisi, Elthia!”

This is also for Mimi “Mouse” Stewart, who needs a little bit of help and healing too.

Rain:

 It fell steadily upon the city and suburbs of , a promise of the coming spring, but a cold, grudging one to be sure. The men, who were repairing the roof of the Art Forum building on De Anza College’s sprawling campus, gave up shortly before noon, and the business vendors in the main quad nearby had admitted defeat only a little while later, packing up their wares with numb fingers into their vehicles, trudging wearily into the Student Center soaked and shivering on this Dark December day.

Mimi “Mouse” Stewart made her way along the path in the middle of S-Quad of De Anza College. Wind now, the almost sleet stung her cheeks and she paused to wipe her face on her sleeve and pull up the hood of her parka a little tighter. Mimi had managed to arrive on De Anza’s campus, and somehow, with the rain and the cold and the lack of people in the quads, she found herself cold, disoriented and thoroughly lost.  Sitting in her wheelchair under an overhang to the many classrooms, she peered up through the drops, searching for landmarks. Robert, her fiancé had mentioned there had been construction and changed to the campus since her departure a few months ago, but somehow surely something seemed familiar to the disabled woman today.

Finally Mimi made out the familiar round roof of the Minolta Planetarium that poked up through the sea of buildings, and at last her eyes fell upon the familiar path leading to the main campus in the center of the college.  Rolling forward through a sea of water and debris, flowing down the narrow path, she took longer, bolder strides, pushing her wheelchair forward with much more confidence and crossed a small path of the quad under the familiar pine tree nearest to the library. She managed to smile as she approached the edge of the main quad, broad and familiar and did not see the piece of pavement that protruded from the ground, uprooted from the tree’s root, and sent her sprawling.

The disabled woman sat stunned for a moment when she hit the cold wet pavement, and for the first time since she had been dropped off on campus actually was not glad the quads were empty. People intended to be on hand when accidents seemed to happen and to help as needed, but with no people she knew there would be no help. She caught her breath, grimacing at the cold mud that now covered her, and tried to struggle to her feet to reseat herself into her wheelchair.

A sharp pain in her leg lanced through her body and sent her back into the mud again.

“Oh damn.” She managed to sit up.  Even through the wet, she saw the blood spot on the knee of her pants leg, and felt the burn of the road-rash caused by the fall brush against the material of the fabric. Swelling of her leg was already perceptible through the leg of her trousers.   “Damn. Damn. DAMN…”

Rising for Mimi seemed to be out of the question, in order to put herself back into her wheelchair. Crawling was, at best doubtful. It seemed she would have to sit here until security made their rounds. However, knowing security, they all probably sat in the warm office, sipping coffee and forewent the entire affair all together.

The rain pattered down and Mimi managed to laugh at herself.

“Mimi Stewart, the oldest student on campus.” She managed to mutter under her breath, “Dead from the cold and wet.”

As Mimi sat in the muck, she was unaware of a strange energy seemed to form around her, tingling questionably on her skin, and warming her chilled bones. Slowly but surely, the energy moved slowly up and out to surround her, invisibly dancing from her scalp to her toes, dulling her pain and giving her strength.  Her head turned, however, when she heard an unfamiliar lull of a musical note echoed through the rain and bounced about the quad against the many buildings. The sound at first had startled her, but on the contrary had also puzzled her. According to what Mimi’s knew, it was not unusual to hear music on campus, but to her knowledge in the last twenty-six years on campus that the type of music she heard was not taught at this organization of learning. Indeed, these notes were something new and in her many years service at De Anza College had never heard this on the campus. Harp notes.

They rang out clear and cold, brought to her by the wind, echoing through the buildings on the quad. Mimi could not believe her ears, listening in amazement to these strange notes of a beautiful harp melody and around her, the strange invisible energy seemed to grow as the harp music echoed through the deserted quad. It seemed to swirl, with each passing minute around her, and the energy seemed to warmed her limbs and tingle on her skin with more intensity as it healed. Mimi at first had not noticed her feeling of refreshment, or her fatigue fading away. She had too busy listening in amazement to the harp music that echoed across the quad and had not seen the cloaked figure that stood over her, dressed in a simple garb of silver and blue, with a hooded gray cloak that obscured her face. Mouse looked up in alarm when she sensed her standing over her and her eyes focusing upon the cloaked figure in the falling rain.

“Be at peace.” The hooded woman said, “I mean you no harm.”

“You scared me.” Mouse murmured. 

“Do you require assistance?” A kind voice asked and Mimi’s face showed question and acknowledgement as she stared in recognition at cloaked face. A beautiful woman was there, the hint of long hair, streaked with silver under the cloak. She wore a golden clasp, to hold her hair to one side and a girdle covered in amethysts and emeralds.

“I… Yes, I do. Please.” Mouse managed to stammer, stunned by the woman who stood there before her.

“Let us get you back where you belong.” The cloaked figure declared solemnly, and a hand appeared from the cloak. Mimi took it, as it lifted to her feet and gently reseated her in her wheelchair.  The chair seemed to be dry and warm despite it was raining heavily now.

“Thank…” Mimi stammered, and glancing up realized the woman was gone and the quad was once again empty. Suddenly her astonishment was replaced with fear as without warning that the energy became visible around her, appearing in a thunderclap and appearing out of thin air.

Startled Mimi reared back as it swirled, completely enveloping her and instinctively she had lifted her arms without thinking to push herself backward away from it in her wheelchair.

“Wait a minute,” She exclaimed, as another refreshed burst of energy made her tingle from head to toe. Mimi just held her astonished stare down at her hands as the energy pulsate in an array of several colors and in the few minutes had grown even larger around her. A couple minutes later, a two-dimensional door appeared before her, opening in the exact center of the vortex and it revealed a dark tunnel in front of her. The woman peered at the long dark tunnel, and into the darkness, seeing nothing except a patch of blue on the other end.

“What the hell is that?” Mimi asked herself, “Who the hell was that?” Curiously, she examined the dark vortex.  People had come to the windows now from the surrounding buildings and had heard the thunderclap, seeing the strange bluish glow of the energy that had appeared before her.  Abruptly a jolt made the disabled woman yelp, as something had grabbed at her chair and her hands flashed to the brakes. Too late as she was pulled forward toward the black opening and when darkness surrounded her and she found herself tumbling end over end through it.

 When Mimi disappeared into the vortex, the energy flashed once and faded away in the same thunderclap, leaving only silence, and an empty walkway in the quad.

People had ran over to the spot where Mimi had been a few moments ago to try to assist her and had hesitated because of the energy force that surrounded her. They stared at the imprint where her chair stood just a moment ago and a murmur of helplessness rippled through the students and security present.

Mimi in the next instant now sat spinning in the darkness and watching streaks of light flashing brightly around her. Nausea, disorientation and vertigo washed over her senses. 

“Ohhh Shiiiit!” She coughed, spinning faster through the flashing streaks of light around a dark vortex, making her feel giddy, and nauseous. Time and space seemed to pull at her body as she moved faster through the bright flashes and through the light streaks. Mimi tried to move her head, turning to peer out into the darkness and into the multi-colored tunnel that swirled around her but she found it difficult because the g-forces held her firmly in place in her chair.  

 Her trip ended quickly as it had began, with another flash and letting out a gasp of surprise she was blinded by the sunlight in a sparsely clouded blue sky.  A warm breeze hit her in the face as she peered down to the unrecognizable landscape below and the one she now flew high above. The landscape below was mostly thick forests, mountains, many rivers, meadows, and small villages below and in the distance she saw the massive walls of several castles near larger cities, in three places across a green landscape with forest between them. Her eyes widened as these images appeared before her.

“What the hell is going on? Am I dreaming?” Mimi exclaimed, “Where the hell am I?”

She gripped her chair’s arm tightly, letting out a bloodcurdling scream as her chair abruptly dove from the clouds and as the ground rapidly seemed to rise up to meet her. Mimi felt a warm wind strike her face as she plummeted downward at full speed toward the ground and her first reaction was seeing herself splattered upon the landscape below.

Instinctively, she raised her arms to brace herself before striking the ground. However, before her chair, with her in it, even got close to the ground, it seemed to swoop up a bit, hovering for a moment, and then it landed in a large clearing in the middle of the forest. Breathing heavily, Mimi had held her hands up and arms waiting for an impact that would never come. It was several minutes she held up her arms and remained that way until peeking out to focus upon the woods around her.

 Her eyes widened in silent surprise as she saw strange surroundings around her and the clearing, the thick wood, and sounds of nature that echoed around her.  The forest seemed to completely encircle her, and a fresh forest breeze, heavy with the smells of nature, assaulted her senses. Sounds of the forest echoed around her and Mimi suddenly realized something that was very different to being on the college campus. Here in the forest, she was completely alone.  Her nervous gaze turned several times back and forth to either side to the forest and the surrounding trees when echoes and the crackle of the undergrowth around her. The disabled woman sat breathing in what she could not believe the cleanest air she had ever seen. Looking up she peered at the bluest sky she had ever seen and the familiar yellowish haze of smog, known in her time, non-existent here.

“Oh my god, wherever here is….” Mimi murmured in silent amazement, “It is certainly not on De Anza Campus.” She sat there, unable to fathom where she was or where a very unusual and beautiful place like this could exist. 

“I must be dreaming.”  The disabled woman pinched herself hard, wincing as she felt the pain.

“Okay, maybe I am not dreaming.” She had expected the forest to vanish but it did not.

“Oh hell, this must be fatigue or drugged hallucinations then.” Mimi pushed her wheelchair forward through the leaves, and inched forward and into the middle of the clearing.  She slowly turned her chair three hundred and sixty degrees. Only forest, the sounds of the warm breeze rustling through the canopy above her head and the sounds of animals living in the underbrush and the singing of birds was around her. .

“Ok… There is a logical reason for this.” Mimi murmured under her breath, sitting with her eyes closed and gripping the arm of her chair in panic.

“There is a logical reason for this… I am just fucking flipping out.”

A crack of a twig made her open her eyes. Turning her head, the sound had been close, alerting her that something was nearby. Mimi’s piercing blue eyes fell upon an elk that appeared from the bushes nearby. The animal met her curious gaze, pausing to graze and ignoring her completely. The magnificent animal even walked right up, standing beside her chair and she, in absolute astonishment watched the huge animal carefully, expecting it to charge or bolt when it turned its massive head to stare right at her.

The animal, however, never moved. It just watched her, walking slowly toward her, as if it were to guard her and so close that the disabled woman smelled the strong musky smell from the elk as it stood there. Slowly and cautiously Mimi lifted an arm and her hand moved slowly toward the animal. It did not move, or flinch as her hand touched its course coat, neither did it move when she felt the strong massive heartbeat of the animal nor felt the warmth of its body through the shaggy coat.

“It’s real!” She gasped, stroking the coarse coat, “Oh my god.”

Before she could figure anything else out, however, her thoughts were interrupted by a flash of green and gray that had caught her eye nearby. A moment later, two young people, a man and woman appeared from the undergrowth.  When Mimi beheld the two, her head had turned and she moved her body to get a better look at them.

 A handsome man and beautiful woman walked together into the clearing, across from where she sat. The young Elf maiden named Mirya had appeared first then her mate named Terrill.  Mimi’s breath had been whisked away at the extreme beauty of the young woman, and how handsome he was as well. Mimi found herself gawking at the beautiful maiden, staring at her fair features, the long red-gold hair cascading down to her shoulders, a trim, petite figure and the greenest eyes she had ever seen before.

Shaking her head, her eyes moved to Terrill. The young Elven man, to Mimi, has the same fair features as she does, and the same very well defined build, but the only difference from Terrill and Mirya is he has black hair instead of red and gray eyes instead of green.

Quickly, Mimi glanced at the elk, expecting it to bolt when it saw them, but when it did not move, her glance moved from the elk to the couple and back. The massive animal did not do anything and insanely seemed to nod its head to the pair. Other animals surrounded them, as Mimi watched closely, she could see the animals were not clustering around them because they had food, and indeed, Mimi did not see any. They were just there, and treating the elves as conquering heroes or family who was returning home. 

Upon seeing this, Mimi’s gaze switched back and forth to the young couple. She wondered if they had something to do with the travel through the strange phenomena experienced not more than fifteen minutes ago.

“I wonder who they are. They are quite an attractive couple.” Thought Mouse and cocked her head watching still intently their interaction with the animals.

Mirya and Terrill’s heads turned when they saw the elk and their gaze quickly met the disabled woman’s questioning expression. Surprised, both of the Elves glanced between them and the trio regarded each other for several minutes until Mouse saw Mirya lean over to whisper something to her traveling companion.  The motion had made Mouse gasp, suddenly realizing that she was visible to them and this was no dream. Terrill leaned back and Mouse saw him whisper his response back to the red and gold haired woman beside him.

“Excuse me.” Mimi asked, “Can you tell me where I am? Which way the exit is to this dream?”

Mirya and Terrill glanced at each other as they stood there, slowly approaching her and with an air of caution about them. The young maiden had her hand on what appeared to Mimi, a sword pommel at her side, and beside her Terrill whispered something to her again.  However, before Mouse could utter a sound, the elf maiden pointed at her and the clearing faded around her. Quickly, in a flash of mere seconds she found herself spinning uncontrollably in the same darkness as before.

Meanwhile, in different part of the forest, a fair distance from where Mimi had appeared in the clearing, Rijiin L’Thiejiev made his way along the forest path with his kinswoman Natil. Together they had taken a trip, traveling together into the that a fair distance away from Saint Brigid and the perils of the Inquisition that raged across Adria. Rijiin had led her to a place he had found while exploring as he lived in the twelfth century, his new home after finding renewal change and healing when he had become literally a part of history.

The Elf, at this moment held his beloved Harper’s hand as he walked backward toward an overhang to a spectacular view overlooking the valley and forest floor below. A place that Rijiin had told her about after finding it, and today being the day they had both come here together. Indeed it was Rijiin’s place of solitude, his reflection and often in the last few weeks the elf had traveled to this place alone to finish healing and let the Elven magic change him. He shot a look to the young Harper, his traveling partner.

“Rijiin, where are we going?” complained the Harper, walking carefully, gazing at the starlight that burned clear and coldly in the darkness as Rijiin held a hand over her eyes.

“We are almost there Natil.” He said, and had been repeating that for the last three minutes, leading her toward the overhang, to show her the beauty of the spectacular view that lay out before them both.

“This is getting a bit annoying Rijiin.” She said and he smiled as he carefully led her to the edge of his secluded place at the beginning of the .

When they both teetered near the edge, the elf removed his hand from her eyes and pointed to the spectacular view. Below, a sea of green spread out across the floor from where they stood, and far below, Saint Brigid spread out among the sea of green. Also from this high place, they were able to see quite a distance across Adria, the cities to the north, a great castle and in one direction the sparkling sea. The sky began to turn a golden color as the sun began to set, mixed in with reds, mauve and dark purples

The Harper’s face showed surprise, and her mouth was open, speechless at the sight she now beheld. She embraced Rijiin.

“A! ed’ lye arwen, sina umia vanima Rijiini.” Natil told him, “Amin nio somti mesoat ve’ sina yamen naa sinome.”

“Um’ lle ve’ ta, Amael?” replied Rijiin, translating quickly that she had said that she never something like this place had existed and it was very beautiful.

He had asked her if she liked it.

“Amin , amin sai saiea.” replied the Harper, telling him she did very much.

“Amin naa saesae.” He replied, telling her he was pleased. Rijiin paused, thinking of the words in Elvish to tell her.

“Tenna amin hirie ta amael, amin uum’ sint ta nea sinome.” He told her, “Amin nowe lle neis don’ ta vee amin um.”   He had told her this would be always her place, a beautiful place for a beautiful young maiden.

“…And for my beloved.” He murmured quietly, making her turn her head, a look of surprise on her face.

“It is wonderful Rijiin.” She said, blushing as she picked up the meaning of his statement, “With my thanks and for that, although I am very flattered but I…”  She faltered, and found she could not find the words to express her feelings.

Rijiin had known he would fall for her, in the same manner he had done so before in another time, another lifetime and dance. He had met her far into the future, five hundred years as a human, when she had seen him on the campus of his school and had asked him for directions.  They had seemed to hit it off and both seemed to be falling for each other, meeting frequently and their relationship no secret to anyone who saw them together.

A few months later she had left, drawn by an insensible urge to travel to the East and had promised to write him. Rijiin had never forgotten her when she had departed and a few months later had been transported to the past, five hundred years.

 He held her, gazing into her eyes, and his hand met the young Harper’s blushing face, touching her cheek. They had become fairly close in the last few months and their close friendship no secret to the other elves.

“We’d better stop Rijiin.” She said, and he nodded.

“Iye… amin mela lle, Natili, sii, nae ten’oio… Lle ra' ikotane vanima nandaro.”

The young Elf Maiden was indeed beautiful, and he made every effort to tell her so. Natil gasped, feeling the burn in her cheeks and peered into his gray eyes.

Suddenly, her eyes became wide with fear when she saw something surprising and unexpected that appeared in his eyes. A flicker of starlight and the ghostly images of their meeting in the future had been there, one that had happened in another lifetime, another dance, and time. The images had startled her.

“By our Lady!” gasped the Harper, surprised by the images. 

The Harper glanced at Rijiin as she blushed slightly, “Diola lle, Rijiini.”

“Lle Creoso.” He said, smiling and nodding to her. She could see the laughter in his eyes, as they twinkled brightly with the familiar starlight.

Natil peered into his eyes, smiling as he held her and both turning to watch the glorious sunset on the horizon. 

However, as Rijiin watched the sunset, holding the beautiful young Elf Maiden in his arms, the sight made him think of another place like this one. A place somewhere far away from here, one that will not be discovered for the next two hundred years or longer and even possibly five hundred years where a meeting would take place in a large city.  She saw the absent look on his face, an almost sad expression. 

            “Rijiin are you all right.” asked the Harper who had glanced at him several times, as they sat there, seeing the expression on his face. She knew he was thinking to the future, where no doubt, she knew was thinking of many things that were no longer a part of his life.

            “Just thinking, about a place I knew once like this one with a spectacular view and gorgeous sunsets.” He said, “Memories, nothing more. Be at peace Natil.”

            “You should let them go.” Natil said, and he managed a shrug.

            “Human ways are not ours, and I have.” He replied, “I am here, you are here and I can never go back. Amin uuma merna a’ entul eller. Eller na ai’nat’ eller ten' amin sii”

            Natil had gasped hearing the last part of his statement.

            “A! I’- yeste elen.” He murmured, “Ta I’ alaseeien elen.

            Natil grinned and she looked up at it. He silently made a wish. The maiden heard his wish. He sensed her knowing and did not return her gaze.

Looking away he returned his gaze to the stars and he sat beside the Harper in silence for a long time. He sat unblinking beside her on the quilt, letting the starlight flow over him and he found a star, letting it pull him toward it. Quickly he passed through the cornea and a moment later he found himself on a grassy meadow in front of the Lady. She embraced Rijiin warmly and he stared into her eyes before stepping back bowing formally to her.  

“My Lady.” He said, “I seek your council and your wisdom.”

“Speak then.” She replied. “I am here.”

“I am in love with the Harper, and do not know how to tell her.” He began.

“I sense fear, you fear another loss, be at peace she is changing slowly, as the Harper is engrossed with her music. She cares for you very much, and like you is finding difficulty opening up to tell you.”

“Ah I see.” He said, “My fear is she will leave as she did in the future. I don’t want to lose her again. I care deeply for her, and I saw what life was without her.”

“You will like the others not be separated from me.” The lady told him, “Be at peace. Be patience, time flows like the wind, and is ever changing. Your time will come and a heart will mend and open like a flower.”

Rijiin understood the meaning of her statement, and he managed a nod. 

They stood on the plain for many minutes chatting together.  After a moment he managed a bow, after an embrace by the Goddess.

“Thank you my Lady.” He replied, “I think I understand.”

“Go in peace Rijiin.”

Many hours later, at sunrise, Rijiin returned from his trance, blinking his eyes to turn his head and stared at the long red hair of Natil who now sat beside him. He rose slowly, and he walked to the quilt, packing their stuff quickly for their return to the forest floor of Malvern and return to Saint Brigid and the encampment.

            Together, Natil and Rijiin walked down the path into the forest from the mountains, and quickly found the paths known to Elves. They waked quickly on those paths, and several times she had glanced at Rijiin. The elf maiden saw Rijiin was deep in thought, having said very little to her during their trip down to the forest floor.

            He was thinking and remembering their first meeting, stepping into the half lit cavern where the others all were gathered. Mirya had motioned to him to enter the cave and he stood in the low firelight. They all knew him by name, and he sensed their acceptance, nodding to Rijiin, welcoming him among them. He scanned the cavern and hiss eyes fell upon the familiar long red hair of the Harper, and he let out a gasp, making the young maiden whom had brought him here turn. All eyes of the other elves fell upon the newcomer silently as he shook his head in disbelief.

            “It cannot be!” He thought, staring at the familiar round face, the lean figure, the long red hair and blue eyes.

            “It is!” He thought “Natil!”

            The maiden looked up from her harping when she heard her name and the others watched as he rushed toward her and she stood up. He took the Harper’s hands staring longingly into her eyes and he kissed her full on the lips as he embraced her.  

            Terrill, Mirya, Varden and , even Cara had been surprised by the meeting and had not moved when he charged the Harper. They had smiled when he had embraced her, smiling openly when he planted the passionate kiss on her lips.

            Natil on the other hand had gasped when he had embraced her, and felt his kiss upon her lips. It was sweet, filled with promise and she sensed longing. She had felt the sense of loneliness, and doom over the person who now had kissed her, and it seemed to wash away as he held her in his arms. Natil had heard her thoughts and she had gasped openly.

            “MY God Natil, I missed you, I never knew what I had until you were gone.” He said and the thoughts had startled her.  He did not care who he was and he wept openly, glad to see the young Harper again.

            “Steady.” She murmured, consoling him as he wept. “Be at peace. It is well, I am here.”

            “I have missed you.” He said, looking up, tears spent and peering into her blue eyes.

“Have we met before Messier?”

            “We met a while ago, and you might not remember me.” He said, and she nodded slowly.

            “It must have been a lifetime ago.”

            “It has.” He said, “Very much so beloved.”

             Natil’s mouth had dropped open when he had said the word beloved. She felt very confused by the man here, staring at him in wonder.

            “I think you have made a mistake,” She said, “If we have met, I do not remember you, what is your name messier?”

            “Rijiin. Rijiin L’Thejiev, at your service.”  Replied he young man and she shook her head.  He suddenly realized something was different about her, and he sensed that she did not recognize or remember him. Rijiin then remembered where he was and realized that she would have no memory of their meeting and relationship because it had not happened or possible even would happen now that he moved through time. He backed off immediately.

            “Alas perhaps I made a mistake, once I knew a Natil and perhaps you are not her.” He said and bowed, “My apologies.”

            “May the hand of the Goddess be upon you, Rijiin,” She told him.  

            “May her hand be upon you too mistress.” He murmured. “Alanae ea yolisi Elthia.”

            Rijiin had backed off and he turned his attention to Mirya who had joined him and Terrill that shook his hand warmly.  He returned Talla’s embrace before accepting a cup of wine from her and he knew he had come home.

            The Elf’s reminisces faded and his eyes focused once more upon the beautiful Harper, who knew he had been watching her, and did not comment nor protest as they entered the forest far below the mountains. During their trip down, he had not said anything until they had entered the forest not far from the encampment.

             Natil had felt strangely by the young elf, mostly because he was trying to show her compassion and love. She did not love him, but found herself intrigued by his presence here in this time. The first thing had been the startling thoughts she had heard when he embraced her the first time she had lay eyes upon him, and the superb, passionate kiss.  Natil did not know what to make of it, and it made her uneasy. The Harper glanced at her traveling companion. 

            “Where and how does Rijiin fit in to everything going on right now, starting with his unexplained appearance and change into an Elf.” She asked herself, “Is he a plant by the Inquisition, or truly one from a different time and place.”  Looking back she navigated the path and as Rijiin walked beside her she decided to open up with a bit of chitchat.

            “Diol lle a’mael, lye n’eirn nae seasu.” She said finally, and Rijiin walking beside her, had only grunted quietly and nodded in response. Natil had told him that they had to do this again sometime. Rijiin glanced in her direction, seeing the hurt on her face and he managed a forced smile, and a polite nod.

            “Sea samin, A’mael.” He replied, taking up her hand to kiss it gently, “We shall do it again soon, I promise.”

            Smiling Natil nodded, “I would like that. Ta vanima.”

            “Aye Natili, ta.” He said, glancing to the surroundings.

            Rijiin smiled when he made out the familiar landmarks and from that knew they were almost home. Natil had taken his hand, and when she stopped it made him drop back a step, making him turn. The Harper’s face colored as she abruptly stopped, looking down at her hand in his and she tugged on his hand, pulling his arm, she led him back to her and she put her arms around him.

“Thank you for a wonderful time.” She whispered lustily, and she drew close, putting her lips to his in a sweet passionate kiss. Natil and Rijiin held the kiss for a long minute, the kiss sweet, filled with promise and on his face, his expression showed one of surprise. After they broke, they met each other’s gaze, staring into each other’s eyes for a long time.

“Sai- saesu.” He murmured, “Very nice.”

“I know how you feel about me, and wish a little more time.” She said, “I heard your wish up there, and I am very flattered and honored, but I am alas not ready for a relationship. Perhaps we can be friends for a time before we go further. Perhaps one day we shall, we have all the time in the world.”

“I understand.” He replied lamely, and he forced himself not to react.

Rijiin became aware of someone watching, and without even thinking about it, his awareness swirled outward through the trees. Rijiin sensed Varden was near, and he, at this moment, was watching them curiously. He could see the elf walking toward them and they need not turn their heads but they both did as he appeared from the brush. 

Varden had been a short distance off, having returned from Saint Brigid and had sensed they were near. He had not known what they were doing, and had headed toward them. The young elf had stopped when he saw the young Harper embrace Rijiin, and kiss him. He had smiled at the sight.

Rijiin’s head turned and he managed a grin when he saw Natil’s kinsman, raising his hand. The elf walked toward them both.

“Varden, my old friend!” He said, “Alanae ea yolisi Elthia!”

“Aye, Manea.” Varden replied, “Welcome home you two… I hope I did not interrupt.”

Natil and Rijiin had glanced at each other to blush slightly, realizing that Varden had seen them together, and had seen them kiss.  They stepped back from each other, embarrassed when they realized they were still in each other’s arms. Both were blushing deeply, both of them trying to fight laughing. They gave up and their laughter echoed through the woods.

 “No, you did not interrupt Varden.” Rijiin replied calmly.

“So did you enjoy your trip mistress Harper?” He asked, and Natil met her kinsman’s gray eyes, nodding slowly.

“Aye, I did.” She said, “It was a wonderful diversion, with my thanks to Rijiin.”

“Lle creoso, Natili.” Rijiin chimed in, “Tanya naa amin quel edhel wen.”

A startled look appeared on Varden’s face when he heard Rijiin speaking Elvish, and very well like he had speaking it for years.  

Natil embraced Rijiin before walking past both of them and they watched her go. The maiden walked toward the encampment, smiling sweetly at Rijiin before she disappeared behind the blanket that hung in the doorway.  The young Elf found he was very much in love with this Harper and he wished more than ever she would see it and would accept him as a lover. The elf had been unaware that she had seen their meeting in the future, but had seen her disbelief by those images.

Varden stood beside him as Natil disappeared into the cave, and found glancing between Rijiin and the young Harper, an amused smile on his face.

“She is very talented.” Varden said, “I know how you feel about her, and what happened in that future time line but she is very different here. I do not know how time will flow either, with you being here and not in the future, if time will stay and you may or may not meet her in the future again, as it was erased when you changed history. Time is fluid, but unpredictable at best. Only it will tell.”

“I know Varden.” He said, “I took her on this trip with me as a friend and a companion, not to find any romance. Perhaps one day she shall find someone, it is hard to tell. I wish it will be me she finds, but if not, I am still happy for her.”

“She is in her own world, her music is her life, and we think the world of Natil. She is one of a kind.” He said, “Her world and path lies in the world of her harp. The Harper is very complex and rarely lets anyone in.”

“I understand my friend.” Rijiin said, “I only did it because I thought she would enjoy being out with someone. I was hoping to be better acquainted with her.”

Varden smiled, but his attention had turned to the sky. He scanned it quickly, sensing the brewing storm above them. Billowing dark clouds rolled in over them.

“Come we are expected indoors.” He said, motioning and walked toward the encampment. Rijiin followed quickly, heading to the cave. Varden pushed the flap of woven wool aside and disappeared inside.

However, as Rijiin stepped toward the cave and he entered the entryway, that a wash of fear and panic overcame him, making him swoon slightly. His eyebrows flew up in alarm at the feeling he felt, a surge of pain, panic and fear that seemed to fill his very soul. Staggering, he barely managed to grab the edge of the entry as he steadied himself.

It had hit him out of nowhere, and the sense was quite strong. The Elf stood there a moment, the feeling of unbridled, almost insane panic washing over him He stood with his eyes closed finding his stars and they seemed to calm the overwhelming sense. After a moment, he felt it subside, straightening up, when out the corner of his eye he saw Natil appear in the entrance, and he smiled at her.

“Now that was strange.” He thought, as he saw her concerned face. 

“Rijiin?”

“Tulien…” Rijiin replied, “Natili.” 

The elf entered the cave, his eyes adjusting quickly to the dim light of the entry, and taking a few more steps entered the main chamber where the elves were gathered.

Immediately Rijiin found himself embraced by Cara who took his hands to lead him to an open place beside the Harper. Rijiin had managed a chuckle as he sat beside the young woman, and felt a flush of embarrassment rise above his collar. Glancing at Natil, even in the dim light he saw her blushing too. Talla walked up, a cup in hand and she handed him it. Rijiin took the wine, sipping the red liquid from the goblet.

“A! Quel, Diola lle, Tallai.” He told the young woman, “Alanea ea yolisi, Elthia.”

She smiled at his use of Elvish and they all sat beside the fire, talking quietly each other. Periodically they would glance to Natil and in his direction as he made conversation with the young Harper.

A little later he moved to the corner of the cave and sat alone out of the main chamber. Here, Rijiin closed his eyes for a moment and this time he found him self, hurtling through what seemed to be time and space. He now stood outside the mall entrance, staring at a familiar face that had come to this place and a young man walking alone toward the doors of Eastridge Mall.

The elf stared at a young human, his ghost image of what he had been when and before he had become an elf. He realized he was seeing himself, and at eleven in the morning, that he arrived for the gathering at at Eastridge Mall. It was his day when he had found the portal, his destiny and the day he would literally meet his death and his rebirth.  

He had watched all the events unfold before him, like a book opening. The elf watched his human self and form sit alone, treated badly by the others. Rijiin saw him get up and he followed him out the door, turning to watch the others as they had seen him leave. He stepped toward the trio who stood together.

Joseph, Chelle, Mike and Monte had stood together and had turned when they saw the familiar form of his human self step through the door.

“Where is he going?” Monte asked, and everyone turned, seeing Rijiin’s human self leave, unhindered and unabashed as he walked out the door.

“I don’t know. He’ll probably be back.” Joseph commented,

“Oh let him go.” Chelle replied, “I never liked him anyway.”

“He did have all his stuff with him.” Mike observed, “I don’t think so.”

“Well we’ll ask him when we see him on-line later.” Joe added and at this point Rijiin noted the conversation seemed to die about him.  A feeling of death had washed over the group and the Elf felt it too. It was as if this was the last time they would see their companion from the BBS and to some their friend again. Turning he walked to the door and in a flash he was back with his human self in the mall.

He walked with his human self, ghosting and shadowing what had happened, remembering every event that had happened. He walked with him to the shops entry. The shop called the Dungeon that had offered the games. The elf could not interfere.

They walked together in the games, and had played together, and the third time he had sensed the magic here, and had put out his hand.

“Hold up.” Rijiin started, but his human form stepped through the portal instead of the gateway of the game.

Moments later, he stood with him in the forest and saw the fight in the village. The same fight that he saw the sword run through him and real blood spill onto the floor. 

Rijiin grimaced, putting his hand at his stomach, wincing at the images and remembering the pain and the blood. He followed the young man into the forest and he saw him drop into the same clearing.

A while later the Elf turned his head when he saw Mirya and Terrill. They walked over to him and Rijiin smiled as the young maiden began to heal. He knew the rest, ending up in Saint Brigid in the village priest’s home and his coma as he changed into what he was. A bright flash exploded around the Elf.

The Elf’s reminisces faded when a hand touched his shoulder, and once again, the notes of Natil’s harp returned to his conscious senses, flowing through him.

Rijiin was once again back in the twelfth century living here as an Elf. In the period of two years he had been here he had fully changed to an immortal, neither elf or human but safe and living after a harrowing adventure. Back in his old time he had long since been presumed dead by everyone he knew, and now a mere fading memory. 

The Elf had seen many things in the now few years that had elapsed, a lot of the land as he had traveled with his new friends and having helped and healed.  He once again had come back to the present from his memories, and of a place he had not thought of in what he knew had been a while now. Rijiin had been had been sitting with his eyes closed, staring at the starlight twinkling in the darkness as he had been thinking of the past for several minutes. Opening his eyes, he met the questioning looks of Talla and Cara standing in front of him.

“Talla… Cara…” He said, looking up at both of the beautiful maidens who stood before him.

“Is there something wrong? You have been brooding over here alone for the last two hours.” Cara said, “Come.” She took his hands, helping him stand.

“Come by the fire and be with the others.” The young woman told him, “Come and be welcome, kinsman Elf.”

He winced, but followed Cara to the fire, being led by the hand toward Natil, the beautiful young Harper who sat in the corner on a bench.

“There is no problem, Cara.” He replied, feeling her tug at his arms, “Just thinking.”

Cara led him toward the Harper and as they sat him down beside her she looked up. He felt a flush around his collar as he glanced at Natil, who smiled warmly and returned the embrace by Cara,

“See you are welcome here.” She said with slight head nod, turning to take the cup of wine brought by Talla, and handing it to him.

“Rijiin, what do you see there that is so interesting than being with your friends and kinfolk.” Cara asked, “Varden said you are no longer held by that time. Lle behar a’ uchman ta aut- Rijiini.”  She had told him that he needed to let it go.

 “Manka lle merna, Carai.” He said, “Gorga il’… Amin il’ ustuien untul a’ tanya yamen’ iire eller na irma entul eller. Amin na rinien cabbirener tuulo’ I’ oyun amin demade.”

He had agreed with the young maiden, and told her to fear not that he was not even considering returning to the future. Rijiin flashed a grin at her dubious expression, but his smile faded suddenly and had been replaced by an alarmed expression. The Elf turned his head and scanned the chamber when he felt and sensed something he had not in a long time.

“By our Lady!”  He gasped, feeling a strong presence, a feeling of someone who he had not felt or seen in a while, and this feeling had overwhelmed his senses. What he felt had been his best friend and the Elf turned his head in what seemed to be slow motion.

Cara had seen the alarmed expression and had glanced at Talla, , and Varden in alarm.  The expression had been one of question and fear overwhelming his senses and it had brought him halfway to his feet. They moved to his side in a flash and Cara put her hand on his shoulder. 

“Mouse?” The Elf breathed, astonished by the feeling.

Rijiin felt his friend, Mimi Stewart, who he had known in the twentieth century and this sensation was her calling out to him. Rijiin seemed to know when she was in trouble or needed him, a talent he had and had on one or two occasions used openly.

Today happened to be one day that he sensed her but he was troubled by the feeling, as she was still in the twentieth century, and was not in the twelfth century. He did not understand what he was feeling and how he could sense her here in the past.

“What is it Rijiin?” asked the blond-haired witch and he shook his head.

 “Strange, I feel a presence of a friend I knew in the future, a presence I have not felt in a long time…” He muttered, and yet, as quick as it had come, the feeling quickly faded.

“What kind of feeling?” Cara asked in partial understanding and glanced repeatedly to Varden who shrugged.  

“Rijiin, you look as you have seen a ghost…” Cara said, standing with , Terrill, Mirya and even Talla who clustered around him in concern. Rijiin had paled a lot in the dim light, mostly from the surprise of such a powerful sense of his friend. He had not expected that his senses had been changed like that.

“Perhaps I have… I felt a presence of someone who is from the other time I was in.” He said, allowing the starlight to sooth and steady the heavily breathing. The images had been like fire in his brain.

“Strange, it has passed, I am well, be at peace.” He staggered toward the fire and Varden took his arm.

“Are you sure Rijiin you are well?” He asked, “What were these images?”

“They were images of someone of the past Varden.” Rijiin said, “Like I could see someone I knew in from her point of view. I sensed disorientation and confusion. But it has gone now.”

 “That was weird.” He thought, “I hope I do not have to go through that again.”  Rijiin turned his focus inward and he stared at the starlight that twinkled at him in the darkness, feeling their powers flow over him, calming him.

 “That was Mimi.” Rijiin asked himself, “What the hell. Why I am feeling her in this place? She should not be here, why all of a sudden can I sense her again? Something must be wrong or she is thinking about me.”

It had been a strange sense that he had, knowing when his friend needed him, or when she was thinking of him. The talent had shaken Mimi and her friends many times when he had appeared on campus, and there had indeed been such a thought by her. Today, however, it was her turn to shake him up, overwhelming him by her presence in a place that she clearly had no logical place to be.

“Perhaps it’s just because I miss her a bit.” Rijiin thought, but shook his head. He sensed confusion and panic. Something was wrong and the Elf despite everything else, knew it to be true.

“My thanks.” He said, smiling at Talla who had filled his wine goblet. He slowly sipped the red liquid from it and the Elf stared inwardly in at the starlight, and the images he could see. They were unclear and garbled, making him even more confused.

“It is not possible. I should not have felt her here. I wonder what’s going on.” thought the Elf and shook his head, turning it when Terrill and Mirya stepped into the cave. They greeted their kinsman and Rijiin quietly and stood near Varden, telling him of a strange occurrence in the woods where a stranger sitting in a strange chair with cart’s wheels attached. He perked up.

“A wheelchair?” Rijiin asked, overhearing the conversation. Everyone stopped and turned, regarding the elf. They were astonished by his revelation. A few of them had gasped aloud.

 “In my old home in the twentieth century… That is how injured ones get around or disabled ones. Where, W-where… did you see someone here like that?”

“Aye, Rijiini. It was strange. It appeared to be a vision but it vanished before we could get close to it.” Mirya replied.

“It was in the clearing, not far from where we found you.” He stood up quickly, realizing what he must do and better yet, what had just happened.

“My friend is in trouble… I must travel back.” Rijiin said.

The Elf had made a judgment call and decided to act. Mimi appearing in this place had been no accident and he suspected there was trouble. He knew he must act quickly and knew it was impetuous, and reckless, Rijiin, however, knew if he did not act, terrible consequences could befall her and knew it was imperative he must risk the power of the Elves to jump time and perhaps possibly, die in the process.

 “Where are you going Rijiin, what are you planning to do.?” Mirya and Terrill asked together.

 “I must return to the future.” He said and they stared at him.

“You can’t. You said so yourself.” Terrill said, “You said the time did not hold you.

“There is something wrong. I felt my friend’s presence here, who is someone who lives in the way that you describe and is from the future. I must go to her.” There was a brief silence in the chamber.

“I do it for the sake of help and healing.” Rijiin said, “Perhaps if not that, love.”

Mirya’s eyebrows arched, hearing him utter something about love in anything other than contempt. He had said it without hate, or anger. He had spoken quietly and calmly.  

“You always said Terrilli, human ways are not ours, but in this case I am going to make it mine. I have to protect someone and help her if I am able. After all she was my friend.”

“How do expect to accomplish this?” Terrill challenged.

“I think it is wise to try and cast a spell.” Rijiin replied, “We have that power, and I feel it is a great necessity.”

Varden put up his hand. “What you seek is dangerous Rijiin.” He said, “I ask that you do not.”

 Rijiin shrugged, “It’s a risk I will have to take Varden. If I do not, my friends may be hurt or die. I cannot let that happen, and be able to live with that, renewal or not. I will always remember I let it happen.” He snapped.

 “Don’t you care? So who is with me?”

“Of course we do and can help.” Varden said, and he put his hand on his shoulder, “Although, perhaps, Terrill should accompany you on your mission.”

Natil looked up. “I shall go with him.” She said quietly, her voice barely able to pitch among the murmur of the others in the cave.

Varden, Mirya and Terrill had turned when Natil had spoken, a smile appearing on Mirya’s face and Cara after they had glanced at each other.  All eyes had focused upon the Harper.  

They had been alarmed to hear Natil volunteered for something very dangerous, and one that would risk their very existence through time and space. 

Rijiin nodded his head, “Diola lle Natili…” He said, “Ta yassen amin saesa.”

 She smiled and bowed her head slightly.  Leaning over she kissed him. 

“Na- ie’ seere, Rijiini, Lle naa a’maelamin.” She murmured and he flashed a grin. The Harper nodded.

            “Diola lle, Natili…” Rijiin told her, “I feel much better knowing that.”

            “I still must strongly advise against it.” Terrill declared solemnly, “It puts you at great risk and especially one of my kinfolk. I cannot allow this nor interfere with human ways and destiny.”

“I agree.” Varden added and Rijiin regarded both of them before he shook his head.

            Rijiin regarded the Elf, his friend and teacher in these last few years.

 “My friends, I must do this, and go to her. If you had friends like I know, or one of your people, you would do the same for them.” Rijiin shot back, with amazing calm.

The fair-featured Elf looked up at him, his gray eyes analyzing the statement he made. 

“If I do not, and something happens to her Terrill, then I have failed in my purpose of the magic that changed me, and the prime purpose of my new existence as an Elf.” He continued, “Helping and healing, you always said that is a purpose of the Elves, and I know this is my purpose too, I would willingly give my existence up if I could help this person.”

            “Yes helping and healing is our purpose.” Varden murmured, “However, you do not need to give up yourself willingly, lost to the uncertainty of the use of magic and risk one of your kinfolk on such an errand.”

He turned to Natil, who like the other Elves had heard him, and were silent.  He regarded her for a moment before turning to Terrill sat with Mirya on the other side of the fire.

“Terrill, I am here to help, provide comfort and aid as needed. The human race may be evil, twisted, perverted, self-centered, blood thirsty, greedy and power hungry, but there are few as this person Mirya described who are good. Let me try, damn it. She needs help and I will not deny her that help.”

Rijiin returned to his place next to the Harper and put his hand on her knee, gripping it gently. She looked down at it then met his expression with a nod.

“Natili, are you sure you want to come.” Rijiin said, “It could be dangerous. I will not risk you if it is dangerous.” He paused and glanced at the others. “Of your own free will, I ask you. Are you sure?”

“You cannot do it alone, beloved.” The Harper said, nodding her head, “…and I want to, you need healers and of course I thought you could use the company.”

“Thank you Natil.” He said stolidly, leaning over close to her, and grinned at her. “We will leave at first light. Be at peace. I will not let anything happen to you, that I promise, and fear not Elves are known for being ingenious, I won’t let anything happen to myself either.” He walked toward the entrance of the cave.

 “Rijiin.” Mirya said, and the elf paused. “Where are you going?’

The newly transformed Elf paused, “I must prepare…” He said, “There is something I must do.”

   His kinswoman watched him go, and glanced at Natil before standing up to follow. Varden touched her arm and shook his head. The young healer saw the expression on his face and understood what he planned, glancing at the entrance. Outside Rijiin moved far out into the woods, walking a fair distance from the encampment.  

 Mimi, at the same moment in time, after she had disappeared from the clearing, had spun through the darkness, bouncing against the vortex of color, hearing nothing but the echo of her breathing as she headed to her unknown destination.  The middle-aged woman closed her eyes, the g-forces pushing her in her chair, holding her in place as she traveled through time.

As Mouse waited for the tunnel and this wild hallucination to end and as she sat with her eyes closed, she still saw the faces of the strange people dressed in green and gray from which she did not recognize from anywhere she had been.  Even on the campus of De Anza.  Something seemed strange and familiar about these strangers.

“Damn it.” Mimi grumbled, “Who the hell were those people? This is going to drive me crazy, and why didn’t they come up and talk to me? Why were they dressed like that? Where was I really?”

 The images had been so vivid and she thought it was nothing more than a hallucination, because she had been overworking herself lately.  Mimi, deep in thought did not realize she had arrived at her destination until the sound of crickets chirping around her made her slowly opening her eyes and glance to her surroundings.  

Quickly her eyes adjusted to the dim moonlight, allowing her vision to focus upon the grassy meadow around her and they widened at the surroundings. She could see far off into the distance, a village in plain view on the on the edge of this huge meadow and above under a clear sky with twinkling stars. Mimi’s head turned slowly, her eyes focusing upon a lone woman, robed in blue and silver that stood here, and gasping Mouse recognized her as the same woman who had helped her as she had sat in the cold rain covered in mud on the campus.

Mouse stared at the woman’s beautiful, fair middle-aged features, her solemn gray eyes, long dark hair streaked with silver and to the blue and silver robe she wore around her.  The woman turned when she sensed Mimi, smiling quietly as she nodded her head to her.

“Child, you are not ready to come to me.” She said, approaching Mimi in her wheelchair. “I shall send you a messenger, when you are ready and together you shall return, with full knowledge.”

“Who are you?” Mimi asked, “Where am I?”  

“Be at peace, he shall find you. Return to your friends lest they grieve for your absence.” 

Mimi’s head cocked to the side, hearing the strange accent in her voice and stared curiously at her beauty, her calm and her strangeness.

 “I don’t understand.” Mimi replied, as the woman lift up her hand and placed it on her shoulder.

“Beloved, Mimi.” The woman said, “Be at peace, all questions will be answered then.”

Here she raised her arm, making Mouse wince and immediately thinking back to the red and gold haired woman named Mirya, who had made the same motion that had set her reeling into the black vortex and appear on this plain.

 Abruptly the plain disappeared, but this time she was not spinning through the vortex. When she opened her eyes again, sitting in her chair, the rain splattered her face as she sat in the middle of S-Quad and she cast a surprised glance to her surroundings. She had returned home.

 A familiar scratchy voice, called out her name. Mimi shook her head and turned to see Robert approaching her on the run.  She had literally appeared from thin-air, in a small flash and almost right before him.

“Mimi?” Robert gasped, “Where the hell did you come from?”

“Apparently I have come out of the there into the now, Robert.” Mimi replied, and shook her head.   

The disabled woman turned over her hand and she gasped. In her hand the disabled woman peered at a pendant made of gold and silver in her hand attached to a chain, shaped like a crescent moon and interlocked, rayed star. The same pendant, Mimi realized, had been the same one that the strange woman on the plain had been wearing around her neck and the two in the forest.

“But it was just a dream!” She declared, and glanced at Robert who lumbered toward her.

She stared at the pendant again, gripping it as she tried to make sense of the entire event she had been through. The strange pendant in her hand, a magnificent piece of jewelry, seemed to shimmer brightly and almost incandescent as if it were made of the very same thing she had seen in the woman’s eyes on the meadow and in the forest.

Mimi was shaken visibly to Robert who had assessed her situation, and took up his place at the wheelchair, pushing her toward the . Mouse had been very shaken by the pendant, and had quickly put it away in her belt pouch. There was no way she could explain everything that happened, not until she could get the whirlwind of memories, all the images in her head to make logical sense.

 “Where have you been, I’ve been worried.” Robert said, rambling on about how long they were looking for her. Mimi hardly heard him as she found herself looking inward, at the images of the strange event that had happened in the last few minutes.

Mimi only nodded at his long-winded speech.  

“I’m alright Robert!” Mimi snapped sharply, suddenly annoyed by his rambling and he grimaced.

“It’s alright Mousie; we were, after all, worried.” He whispered.

Realizing her error, she put her hand on his. “Thanks Robert.” She told him, “I’m sorry for snapping at you. It has just been a very strange morning.”

He grunted and taking his place behind her chair, silently pushed her to the , to the familiar table in the Fireside Lounge where they always sat. He bought her coffee and both greeted the others when they arrived. Mimi found herself looking at the fireplace, the gas flame flickering and in it she seemed to see infinity of images and faces. Here she drank coffee in silence, as her friends laughed and carried on around her at the table beside her. Mimi’s memory the whole time was of course, her journey.

“What did the woman mean?” She thought and stared off past one of her friends to the outside, and the campus where the steady rain fell.

Robert looked up when he saw Mimi deep in thought, glancing at Becky first, before nudging the disabled woman gently. Mouse looked up and shook off her reminisces, meeting Robert’s watchful eye.

“What’s wrong Mousie?” He asked, “You seem to be off in outer space.”

 Becky and the others seated at the table turned to look at her. “Yeah come to mention it.” She said, with an amused tone, “You do seem to be very distant today. What’s going on Mimi?”

 Mimi in turn, shook her head. “Nothing is going on.” She replied, “Just thinking.”

They glanced briefly at each other for a second and then back over at her. They had dubious expressions on their faces.  Inside her belt pouch, the necklace seemed to glow.  

For the rest of the whole day her journey had bothered her, with many questions that whirled through her brain like a tornado. Even during the night after she returned home and the entire adventure made it hard to sleep in her own bed and remember that strange place she had never seen before, and the people she had seen dressed in the strange clothes. 

Looking down she opened the belt pouch and examined the strange piece of jewelry. It twinkled, almost seemed to be glowing in the fluorescent light and she knew that somewhere in this piece of jewelry would be her answers.

Mouse did not know what would happen tomorrow, an event that would make this even more complicated and where her life would literally change.

She fell asleep in her chair and soundly slept for eight hours in her apartment that night and in those eight hours dreamed of starlight and the meadow as if she could go to the Lady she had met there. 

When Mouse awoke the next morning she awoke refreshed, and she slowly opened her eyes, casting a quick glance to her apartment and the surroundings from which she lived. She quickly got on the ball, whizzing with a strange renewed strength today through her apartment, getting ready for classes on campus. Mouse wondered if there would be any more strange happenings like she had yesterday and not exactly sure what to make of all this. What really happened, little did Mimi know, that she had been helped and healed by Elven Magic, giving her strength, healing, and if only some relief from her pain.

However, little did Mimi know, in a place called Eastridge Shopping Center and in the shop called ‘The Dungeon’ that a seething mass of energy appeared in deserted hallway near the Holodeck type games offered here. It is in this shop that two booted feet appeared from within it, and two people appearing from literally thin air as they traversed time and space. As they both stepped into the deserted hallway, they have arrived in the shop, the very place and across from the very games he had been playing as a human.  

Rijiin managed to turn, gripping Natil’s arm as he steadied her and realized that they both now stand in the very hallway where it had begun not many years ago. The elf closed his eyes, not expected to see this place again and not sensing the magic that had brought him here before.

 “Ile naa sinome… We’re here…” Rijiin whispered to her quietly. Natil looked up at him, meeting his solemn gray eyes and expression, partially obscured by the hood of his cloak. The Harper smiled quietly at his use of Elvish that in the period he had been with them had made an effort to pick up. Her head turned to the strange surroundings and the Harper exhaled sharply. Slowly they both stood and Rijiin confidently met the startled expression on her face.

“Lye raa?" She murmured, “Manke, Rijiini…?”  She answered in Elvish and shook her head. “Where are we Rijiin?”

He managed a grin at the young Elf maiden.

“The future beloved, the twentieth century and at the very location I found the portal, bringing me to your time.”  He explained, turning to scan the dim hallway, peering into the large room where the games are located and briefly watch the few people who had been sitting at the tables there. No one seemed to notice the portal had opened up, or the arrival of the elves into the hallway.

 The elf turned his attention to the hallway, his gray eyes finding the double doors of the hallway leading to the locker rooms and turned again the other way.  Glancing up he noted the security camera, which he knew without a doubt it had recorded the whole event.

“Peace beloved, we were not discovered.” He said, “Come, it is this way to get out of this place.”

Rijiin walked toward the Harper, embracing her before he took up her hand and led her to the double doors. As they approached them, Natil stiffened, and he felt her grip tighten on his hand.  The elf turned his head as the doors abruptly opened, and two young humans appeared from the doors. Both were dressed in the familiar costumes found in the games and they were a young man and woman. The two of them laughed when they saw each other as they inspected the costumes they wore.

The couple turned their heads when they sensed the Elves.

“Wow look at that!” The young man said, pointing at Rijiin and Natil.

“Those are costumes.” He said, and the young woman nodded, her face showing interest in the realism and authenticity of the costumes worn by the Elven couple.

“The entrance is this way Kate.” He told her, as he took up her hand and led her toward the main staging room. As they approached the Elves, both smiled at Rijiin and Natil.

“Nice costumes.” They told the Elves as they passed and Rijiin nodded.

“Our thanks.” replied the Elven Harper, bowing slightly. Flashing a grin, he turned to the Harper.

“Fear not, humans cannot sense things as we can, or very few of them can sense anything different around them.” She continued, “We will be all right and long gone before they even figure it out.”

Behind them, the couple laughed and continued to walk on to the main staging area through the far doors. Before they entered the staging area, the young human woman, turned back, gazing upon the Elves who stood whispering in low tones and saw

Rijiin take up the Harper’s hand and lead her toward the exit doors. Something seemed out of place to the young woman, and as Natil had pointed out she had sensed it. The human woman did not know exactly what to make of it.

“These are the doors that must go through and go through the rooms they connect to exit this place beloved.” He murmured opening the door.

“Go through and I will meet you on the other end.” Rijiin instructed and Natil did so, passing through the doors and walking into the locker area. As she walked toward the other end, she glanced at the other young women who were changing here, and even showering.  The elf maiden walked on without comment, finding the exit easily and when she appeared on the other side, into the hall leading into the partitioned maze, Rijiin embraced her taking up her hand.

“, A’mael.” He told her as he held her hand, effortlessly leading her through the maze of partitions preceding the entry to the game area.

Natil’s blue eyes examined everything as they passed through the partition hallway and a surprise at every turn for the Harper who had never seen anything like this place before, and never knew the future would be like this. As Rijiin navigated the maze, they passed the many sections used as play areas, meeting areas and gaming areas. The young Harper glanced at the young people she saw there, laughing and carrying on. Both Elves were not noticed by anyone as they passed them and headed to the main section of the store.

A few moments later they reached the entrance and together the Elves walked with silent steps through the gateway. They passed many other people who had come to play here. The Harper studied their reactions, and their reactions had been the same as before, or that of uncontrolled laughter, comments or just plain astonishment.

“You lived in a very strange place Rijiin.” She told him and he grinned.

“No beloved, not so strange.” He said, “This is normally how life goes on for the human race, and it has progressed a long way in five hundred years.  It is almost the same in many ways Natil, but in others it has changed a lot for the better with many improvements.”

“A miracle,” Natil said, “That humans managed to get this far.”

“Aye, true enough and they will continue on.” Rijiin said, “They seem to manage, just like the Elves once did. Despite everything they are.”

 There were only admiring glances to the Elves as they walked out into the main section of the store, passing the many shoppers who were here playing or browsing. Rijiin led his kinswoman to the doorway, and both soon stood out in the open inside main area of the Mall. 

A few people had noticed them, with a low ripple, or comments as Rijiin paused, to get his bearings.  An older woman sat nearby and she smiled upon seeing the two Elves.

“Such a nice looking couple,” She muttered, and the Harper, hearing the comment managed to flash a smile and nod to the older woman.

Turning away, her eyes scanned the large, cavernous interior of the Mall as they stood together in the dim light. The hallway went from one end, to the other, a high ceiling that housed the many shops in the Mall and large spotlights brilliantly lit the interior.  She stared at the white wall across the way, at the place where a long time ago a store called Woolworth once was located with the restaurant. Her blue eyes panned to the other stores, and to the people who shopped here. A wave of discomfort passed through her as they entered the open area of the Mall and together they walked among the human race, in a world that Rijiin had warned her was a world of men and Elves no longer existed.

“Be at peace Natil.” Rijiin coached, “This place cannot harm you.” He said, sensing her discomfort. He slid his arm around her waist, making her smile and the young Harper seemed to feel at ease when Rijiin was holding her.

“You need not worry about shaking your hair out here.” Rijiin added, “They have no bigotry in this century to things such as Elves or do they remember the past. Soon we will finish our task and be home again in Malvern underneath the trees.” He continued, as Natil shot him a look of alarm. The Harper had been surprised to hear him wanting to return so quickly in to Malvern.

“Has he truly given up this century for ours?” She asked himself, examining Rijiin calmly, “Why does he choose our century over his own, it can’t be just his transformation that did it.”

Rijiin took in the surroundings and got his bearings, smiling when he saw the exit. He motioned toward her, walking beside her as they headed to the door leading outside.

            “You know Natil, I never really liked this place and now detest even more.” Rijiin commented, “I could always tolerate it for a short time but was always glad to leave it.”

“I do not see why, it is a fine and unusual place.” Natil declared, her voice showing awe in it, “What is this place called? Is there a name for it?”

He glanced to the surroundings.

“Oh this is what they called a mall.” Rijiin replied, as they continue walking, “A place where people can shop, like a market square.”

“A! ea sai’ tereva aula.” She murmured in Elvish, telling him it was a fine invention as she took in the surroundings.

“Lle cael-il elea ai’nat’ am, Natili. Feith, ner lirille yenya lye.” He replied and she curiously raised her eyebrows in question. 

Together they continued down the hallway toward the end and the bright light of daylight and the outside world in the world of men. The elves approached the end of this sprawling empty corridor, leading to the outside world and Natil saw the end and the glass doors separating the inside from the outside world.

Rijiin stepped toward the doors, opening them and together they stepped into the bright light, a cold wind whipping at their cloaks as they stepped out into the cold rainy, winter’s day

The Harper was astonished, gasping when she found they were in a city that was much larger, to Natil, than Hypperex, their Capital city in Adria. He led her, with noiseless steps on the wet pavement, on a walkway outside the building, made of a strange hard substance the Harper had never seen before. 

“By our Lady, Rijiin.” She gasped, staring at the surroundings of many buildings, many houses and realized she was in a city.

“You did not mention we were in a city.”

“Aye, it is common for these in the world now. It is one of six in this area alone.” He told her.

“What is the name of this city?” She asked.

“It is like Hypperex, something like it Natil. It is a larger city than our capital city. Over three million people or more live here. It is called .”  Natil heard the traffic and saw the few cars parked in the parking lot.”

“What strange carts.” Natil commented, staring at the cars that were already parked here. Rijiin grinned.

“This is a much more complex place than your century Natil.” He replied, “They are called automobiles. They came about many centuries after yours.”

“Ah. I see.” She murmured, taking in the sight, sounds and the surroundings. One astonishment after the other had come, and at every turn for the young Harper from the past. 

The young Elf man had led her to the far end of the Eastridge parking lot and she took in the surroundings, at the many buildings and even the larger mountains that reminded her of the .  When they reached an island in the center of the roadway, Natil watched the cars that whizzed past.

  He had led her to the bus stop, where by habit he had planned to use the system to get to their destination. However, as he stood there, he quickly caught himself, frowning slightly in annoyance. Natil watched cars go by as they stood on the platform, deserted of the people and only the sound of traffic across from them less than twenty feet away whizzing past.

“This is a strange world you live in Rijiin.” She said, “Quite a large place indeed and it seems to have quite a bustle to it.”  She said, pointing in amazement at the roads, “Why are they in such a rush?”

“Even I cannot answer that.” He said, “It was not easy to live in this place Natili, much harder in many ways than your century, and yet in other ways easier.”

 “We have only a few florins.” He thought, “This currency won’t go over well if we try to use it and is probably worth more… But we are elves…” He paused, closing his eyes as he summoned strength, seeing the starlight in the darkness; glad it was still there to see despite their move through time.

“We have the power of starlight.” He declared as he opened his eyes and put out his hand.

“Lema ed’templa.” The elf commanded and a portal shimmered as it appeared in a thunderclap.  The stop luckily had remained deserted when his voice commanded the starlight and he had felt the magic shift, opening another portal as he had before.

Cars continued to whiz on by on the expressway where they stood and Natil when she had heard his command and it had made her turn, making her gasp aloud.

“ lye arwin!” She breathed, “Rijiini…! Mani, naa lle’ umien a’mael?”
She asked. Natil had surprise in her tone and was surprised to see him opening a portal.  The young Elven Maiden asked what he was doing.

Rijiin was walking to the portal. “Ta na an lema a’mael. Lye asc’e manka lye saes, ri i’ templa selya olvann. ” He told her, “Besides we should not change history.”

He continued, after frowning when he could not find words in Elvish, “We should also keep a low profile.”

The Elf motioned to her when he realized that people had seen their portal and had had been spotted. Cars had screeched and slowed when they saw the energy disk and there was a crunch, a breaking of glass. Many others, despite the accident they caused, had seen the energy as well and just got a glimpse of the Elves as they stepped into it. However, by the time anyone could do anything, their portal disappeared behind Rijiin and Natil. 

The portal had opened simultaneously on the other end, and it had bridged a distance of perhaps thirty miles. It had appeared under a nearby overhang in a set of buildings located in the S-Quad on ’s large campus and the same place Mimi had been when she had been temporarily displaced through time.

When they appeared again, they appeared again in the rain, the portal disappearing behind them in a flash. Natil had managed to shake the disorientation off quickly and she turned to glance at Rijiin who had slumped to one knee, the power drained him and his strength again from such a powerful spell.

“A’mael.” She murmured, “Beloved.”

Slowly he raised his arm, signaling he was all right to her, before pushing himself up and slowly standing upright.

“Amina ilya forya Natili,” He said, telling her he was all right. “Amin na-elle necujen. Naa lle ilya forya?”

He had asked if she was alright. She found herself flattered by the concern. Rijiin had been more interested that she was well and not himself.

“Manke naa lye sii’ Rijiin,” She asked, her head turning to scan the deserted green meadow and to the tree covered quad in the middle of the buildings.  She asked him where they were now.

 “We have made it to our destination, a place called De Anza College Campus.” Rijiin stated absently, “A place I partially called home in this time, the twentieth century and this is where my friend is. I did not want to bring attention to ourselves, neither change history with the Free Town Money of Saint Brigid by using a transportation system here.”

“It is alright beloved.” Natil said, “I understand now, and is appreciated. You got us here. It was a fine feat and job well done.” 

She turned, embracing him, but her eyes darted about the surroundings, inspecting the interesting Spanish texture designs of the buildings. The young Harper stared at the meadow of S-Quad, at the many trees and grassy areas.

 “That was an amazing feat for someone who is not used to using the powers and abilities of my people.” Natil said, “You are learning and giving yourself a little more each time and it is that giving that will make you fully understand what it is we do as Elves.”

“I learn quickly.” He said, “Moderate strength and relaxation. Fighting only drains you more. I still, however have a lot to learn. So what say you of this place?” 

Natil was still examining the surroundings in curiosity and the flash of a grin appeared on her face.

“This area reminds me a lot of home, Rijiin.” Natil replied. He chuckled quietly, and then stopped, slowly panning a gaze to the surroundings, and after a moment, even he nodded in agreement. The Elf had never really thought of looking at the campus like that, but neither had he been living in the forest of the twelfth century.

“Now that you mention it, it does remind me a lot of Saint Brigid.” He mused, and his eyes studied her face. “I sense your unease Natil. I miss the safety of the village and the trees too. Be at peace nothing can harm you here.”

 Sharply Natil met his smiling face as he studied the surroundings. Her face showed surprise at every turn she had been around Rijiin and realized he had shown the first signs of adjusting to his new existence. Quietly and slowly, the young Harper agreed with a slight nod.  A look of admiration and respect appeared on her face.

“It is a very large place, and with unexpected wonderful things at every turn.” She replied, as he turned, slipping his hands around her waist. He smiled in the semi-dark overhang, holding her. Natil did not move, neither did she struggle nor did he try to force a kiss or do anything, he just held her in his arms. Beneath her cloak, she held her harp.

“I am glad you are here Natil.” Rijiin told her, “At least you are a better traveling companion than Terrill would have been.” 

The Harper laughed quietly, remembering the argument they had and how Terrill had wanted to come to this time. He had planned to continue the training, and mostly to keep an eye on the transforming elf. Rijiin had pointed out however their mission was help and healing, that it would take healers to help his friend if she needed it. Natil could heal, with the use of her harp, and had done so often.  They stood there and just stared into each other’s eyes. 

His hand touched her cheek gently, caressing her smooth skin, and managed a thin smile as he stared into her starlit blue eyes.

“I need to tell you something.” He began, “I may falter this a bit, Please let me finish before you respond.”

“I am in love with you, young Harper.” He told her, “I am certain of it, and every day I fall deeper for you so much. There is a day I cannot go without thinking of you, and enjoy your company and council. I have loved you since I met you, even more in a different lifetime we were together.”

She gasped, and he saw her reaction.

“Yes, mistress, once upon a time, in this century, we met once, in a different lifetime and existence. We shared a relationship that was something close to incredible. When I lost you, my life had empty and hollow. I have lived a time without you, and been away too long, and saw how my life was without you.”

The Harper perked up when she heard the tone, and although he did not utter the word ‘again’, she heard it and it seemed to hover in the air for a long time.

The young Harper’s expression showed a loving gaze.  She understood now why he had embraced her when they had met again for the first time. He had memories of their meeting, and she had seen those events vividly as if she were there in his eyes on the first day he had come to the encampment. Her mouth was open but she remained silent, staring at the Elf differently now, astonished she had sensed good in this Elf, and she was able to love. She had been falling for him for a long time, and now she understood. Natil felt the explosion of starlight inside and those memories flooding her very soul from the future across time and space.

In his head he heard her words. “I shall be yours.”

            Rijiin still held her, and she wept openly.  Leaning up she kissed him, and was about to reply but the tender scene was suddenly interrupted. They turned their heads, when they heard footsteps coming toward them.

“Someone is coming.” Natil murmured, glancing once to the direction of the footsteps.

However, before Natil could turn her head, he embraced the young Harper closely against him as their lips touched. 

The elf had heard the footsteps and had quickly made a split decision, how to hide their presence here. He had decided to take a gamble.

“Perhaps it would fool the people who had discovered us here, make them think they were interrupting a tender moment of two lovers, be fooled and depart with no questions.” Rijiin thought, as their lips touched seconds later.  

Natil at first had been surprised, grunting in disbelief when he had kissed her, but quickly letting the feeling of shock subside felt the white-hot anger and embarrassment take over. She had struggled at first, trying to break his grasp, but quickly relaxed, putting her arms around him. His kiss had been surprisingly gentle, feeling the wave of desire and unbridled passion from his kiss. It was sweet, filled with promise.

The Elves both heard the chuckle from the students who had ran across them a moment later, and a muttered “Tsk, tsk.”

Natil and Rijiin, from the corner of their eye saw the students walk away from them into the rain.  He realized, his gamble had worked, and it had fooled them. The students, embarrassed, had walked off chuckling.

The elf maiden understood now. He, when the students were out of range, released her and he stepped back, breaking the passionate kiss with a popping nose.  The young Harper saw his apologetic expression in the light and a bit of a crimson flush of embarrassment rise up over the collar of his tunic.

“I am so sorry.” Rijiin murmured, “It was a ploy to disguise and mask our presence here on campus.”

A strange feeling washed over the young Harper, something she had never felt before. The feeling had been a strange tingle buzzing through her body and a feeling of desire. Natil carefully set her harp near the door and the young Harper turned back, shaking her head before lunging forward to embrace him into the same kiss. 

Holding each other tightly, their hands moved along each other as they changed positions, kissing hungrily and passionately.  As Natil kissed him, she smiled, seeing the images of their meeting from the other time line and she had full memories. She understood the passion and Rijiin felt her hands caressing his back and he likewise did the same as they kissed. He let his hand fall and it squeeze her buttocks. Natil smiled, feeling his warmth, his desire, and in her mind, heard his thoughts making her smile inwardly.

“I am in love with you, always have and will be for as long as the time of the elves lasts. Wherever we go and what happens that we are together, an unswerving love that knows no boundaries of time or space.”

“As will I to you my beloved.” She replied, “Forever.”

Natil, exhaled sharply, when felt Rijiin’s embrace give and she saw him fade out, falling to the ground. She sensed his fatigue from the spell he cast earlier caught up him. It overwhelmed him making the elf lose consciousness.

When Rijiin opened his eyes, he awoke in the darkened classroom that Natil had pulled him into after he fell unconscious to the ground. She had seen him fade out and with a flash had reached out to grab him and pull him into the room. The Young Harper knelt over him, her face showing alarm and concern.

“Rijiin…” She said, “Rijiin… Please… RIJIIN!”  Her voice was strained and she sighed in relief when he had opened his eyes.  As Rijiin’s vision faded in, blurry at first, it cleared slowly as it focused in on the concerned and the very alarmed, beautiful features of Natil.

“Beloved….” She said, staring into his eyes, her voice strained and yet fighting to remain calm.  His head turned to the classroom after focusing on the face of the Harper’s tear filled eyes.

“Are you alright?” Natil asked with a strong hint of relief in her voice.

Rijiin gulped tried to sit up and he found no strength to do so.

            “Amin ta ikotane a’mael,” He said, apologizing, “I guess I should not have cast that portal after all or I have not mastered it quite right.” 

“Alas beloved, be at peace, you did fine, time will allow you to master it and I am relieved you are alright.” Natil said, “You lost consciousness outside, and I brought you in here to keep anyone from sounding the alarm. You are disoriented, just lay there and let your strength return.”

Rijiin looked up at her face and saw the tunic that seemed to shimmer in the dim light and her loving expression as she bent over to kiss him fully on the lips for a moment. The elf’s eyes widened at the kiss and when she peered into her eyes saw her smile.

She felt tears welling up… He embraced her, and kissed her gently as they had outside. The last thing Rijiin had remembered before darkness filled in around him,

 “I love you too, young Lord.” She said, “My beloved…”

Rijiin reached up and put his hand to her face, lovingly gazing at each other for a long time. He smiled and nodded.

The Harper glanced at the door, seeing people pass by through the windows and at a couple of people who stood outside the door.

“It looks like we have company… I think we’d better be going.” Natil suggested, “Can you stand?”

He turned his head, and saw the students who were outside. The young elf nodded, feeling Natil’s hands helping him to a helping him to a sitting position and slowly gathering himself, Rijiin stood up.

They pulled up the hoods of their cloaks, and the Harper held her harp in her arms. The young elf opened the door, stepping out, followed by the Harper, startling the students gathered here. The few students who had gathered for the class in this room turned their heads. Each one had not been expecting anyone to be in there.

“Excuse us.” Rijiin murmured, as they passed the students and step into the rain from the overhang.

Both Elves heard the steady falling rain pelt the hoods of their cloaks as they checked the quad. Quickly he found the landmarks he sought for and his gray eyes saw the familiar round building of the Minolta Planetarium. His eyes followed the walkway, a main thoroughfare, back to meadow, to the other side to the large building he recognized as the Library.

 The Elf saw the Main quad in the distance, and the familiar granite fountain there, as well as the flagpole standing in the quad. He looked up and in the rain the American flag fluttered there in the wind. The elf took Natil’s hand and led her from the gathered students into the rain, walking together toward the Main Quad hand-in-hand.

“Sina men, a’mael,” He said, “Amin arwen, sinome na’ I’ men a’ manke lye ant aut-.”  He said motioning to the Harper. She smiled at the young Elf beside her, hearing him use Elvish more now, and hearing the hint of the inflection that it carried. 

Rijiin bowed as she passed him through the doors and together, walking arm in arm, their footsteps noiseless on the wet blacktop, they followed the walkway that paralleled the library on campus. He led her to the Main Quad and pointed out the several sights and buildings to the beautiful Harper, telling her what he knew history of the campus. Natil took in the experiences and the sights as she walked beside Rijiin, holding him close. Her gaze stared at the plush green quad of S-Quad when they reached the bulletin board that marked the edge of either campus quad.

“There she is.” He announced merrily, “The Main quad, and the , better described as the House of Klaus by the students. Klaus is the man who runs that whole building.” 

Rijiin pointed at the building. Natil saw the large two-story building in front of her, glancing at the many tables and chairs in the outside eating area, and the makeshift stage. Large trees towered overhead.  

“It is quite a place.” The Harper replied, staring at the building, the tabled area and the Main Quad. He shot a look at the Harper.

“Yeah well wait until you meet him.” Rijiin murmured, “And don’t get on his bad side.” The elf chucked quietly, remembering that being told to him by Robert and Mimi, a lifetime ago.

The Harper smiled, glancing at the fountain as they passed by it and headed toward the . The gurgling of the water and the splashing of the water into the pool below soothed her senses.

Again, it reminded her of Saint Brigid and several other towns in the centuries past she had visited; the same types of fountains and springs that fed them in their common squares. They turned to parallel a fence down the walkway leading down a hill, and there the was. Before they reached the hill, Rijiin turned again and walked five more feet to double glass doors leading into the building.

“Beyond this place down there,” Rijiin explained, “Is another Quad, called L Quad. The large building on the left is the ATC building, an advanced learning center.”

“Tul-e Natili, Ta sina men.” He said, and she nodded, following him to the large doors nearest to them. She stared at the strange doors, made of glass and metal, her head examining on each side the windows seeing the people inside.

“It is the use of fine control here, I know Natil.” He said, “Na ai’ seere, eldalie naa sinta naa auluva.”

She need not translate now, his Elvish getting better as the months had passed, as if he were speaking it for years. He had told her to be at peace, that Elves were known to be ingenious. Natil smiled at his statement.

As he opened the glass doors, Rijiin stepped aside, letting the Harper enter the building first and then followed her in. Behind him, the doors closed and they were next to them, inside the hell of the . The sounds of loud voices and chatter echoed the room, and here where the many students come in between their classes, before, or after. Some of them, Rijiin knew, were just arriving on campus at this hour. Natil stepped back into Rijiin’s arms.

 “Tulunka, Natili.” Rijiin whispered in Elvish, “Ta ve’ sina, illya ‘i coiasira.” He fell silent when she turned to him, hearing the words in her language. He told her to be steady and encouraged her, assuring her, this commotion in this room was always like this. Rijiin sensed fear from her and even he was unnerved by the commotion here. 

The Harper nodded slightly, feeling his hands on her shoulders and her fear diminishing. They both managed a small laugh, as they stepped away from the doors. His hand found hers, holding it gently, and Natil turned her head, quietly smiling at him as he led the way into a main walkway between the tables. Their attention turned back to the room, which had not noticed their entry, and quickly Rijiin scanned the room for Mimi.  Quickly, he also examined the familiar architecture of the campus center.

 To the Elf, it had not changed in the few years he had been away. It still was the same architecture, color and arrangement in this large room, and with overhead skylights that let the outside daylight spill into the room. The same large chandeliers made of rod iron still hung from the ceiling on either end of the room and on the wood tiled floor the two planters that had been placed here still sit in their same positions. The familiar Spanish texture was everywhere, hence to honor the history of . 

“It has not changed.” Remarked the Elf, “And alas Mimi is not here, she must be in the other lounge across the foyer.” 

A ripple of quiet laughter echoed through the room and whispered comments circulated about the room as students and staff noticed the strangers now.  More and more people had begun to notice the Elves and finally, a hush abruptly fell over the room.

“Tul- sina men, A’mael.” He said, “Lle –cael aut- a’ tel’ n’at sambe, imya tanya annon.” 

The elf explained they had to go through the chamber to the other room and Rijiin took up Natil’s hand, walking hand in hand together, navigating the walkway between the tables toward the doorway leading to the large foyer and vending area located between the lounges.

The Harper’s eyes, several times moved back and forth to the many faces of the people who sat here, the only sound now being that of the swishing of their cloaks. The young Harper felt uncomfortable by the silence of the room and all eyes focusing upon them. Their thoughts also unnerved her, in addition to their reactions toward them.

Rijiin casually reached down and unfastened the blade at his side, leaving it loose, ready to be drawn at a moments notice when he sensed her discomfort. As they approached the doorway leading into the foyer beyond, Natil glanced at Rijiin when he moved his hand and unfastened the blade. She raised her eyebrows.

The Elf had merely indicated he was ready by unfastening the pommel of his sword, the blade able to take a life if he needed to do so. Although their mission was to give life, help and heal today, not kill and bring death. It was widely known in their century that Elves did not kill unless they had to.

He led her toward the exit, stepping through the large doorway, that led to a foyer beyond and as they exited, a murmur of question and misunderstanding rippled through the room behind them.  No one intervened or interfered with their task. When they entered this room, the same effect had happened here as it had in the Main Dining Room.

The foyer area, unlike the Main Dining Room is much smaller, designed and the smaller room that housed the stairs designed in a ‘T’ shape leading down the bottom floor of this building. It also allowed entry to the Fireside, Main Dining Room, and the Café Entry. Through the opening of the stairwell, Rijiin could see the unmanned desk below and the doors of the ICC room.

Again, the Elves were met by silence or murmurs of misunderstanding as they entered the room. People who had been seated or standing had turned when they saw the Elves, their hoods still drawn up over their fair features. The couple had merely not drawn them back after they had entered the . Others students in the room had all stopped, moving to peer out of the cafeteria door at them and even those who had been at the cashier had stopped, gaping openly at the pair dressed in the strange garb.

            “Rijiini, tir- iilea, astael.” Natil warned him, whispering quickly in Elvish, “Amin fir neuma sinome.”

             His head snapped toward Natil when he heard her tone, and the urgency in it. The Harper had warned him to watch her stars and he panned a slow examination to the surroundings.

“Aye, Amin, fir-ta vithel.” He murmured back, nodding to meet each of the pair of eyes focused upon them.  

Rijiin, had not at first had sensed anything out of the ordinary when she had spoken, but finally felt the discomfort by everyone in the room. The elf closed his eyes briefly, finding his stars, orientating himself, and letting the power sooth his senses quickly to the surroundings. Across the foyer, through the far doors, when he opened his eyes, his sharp vision caught the unmistakable form of Mimi in her wheelchair next to a table in the Fireside Lounge. Several people clustered around her, many he knew well and others not.

             “Eller re naa, a'mael.” He whispered to Natil, pointing at Mimi and his traveling companion looked upon the middle-aged woman, seated as usual in the wheelchair when Rijiin had pointed her out.

Natil was surprised at what she saw and had not been expecting the familiar form of Mimi’s wheelchair, described by Mirya and Terrill.

“A!” Natil replied, “Ikotane tanya naa mani nornhama na.”  Rijiin nodded at her revelation, her disbelief of what a wheelchair had been, described by Mirya and Natil.

He did not look at her as he replied, “Iye Natilli, ta he nornhama.” He started and he frowned, and he shook his head, when he could not find the words in Elvish to describe Mimi.

“She has to use it, because of a disability called Cerebral Palsy.” Natil heard his tone and glanced at him. “I know, she looks fine, but there are many times that looks can be deceiving.”

Natil only narrowed her eyes, examining the starlight and the patterns that made up one Mimi Stewart, and saw the truth of the matter.

The Harper turned her head, and she saw him shake his head. She knew he had seen the starlight patterns, and knew what he planned. Mimi was almost naked before him, as the Elf could see right through her into her very soul and knowing they would have to carefully guard how much they could do for her.

“It will be a long difficult task ahead.” He said, “We must wait and see beloved. It will be in how she sits and in her face. What I planned to do though is find out what she needs, and perhaps I thought we could help and heal anyway.”

The Harper gasped loudly.

“Perhaps give these humans a little hope and a will to be better.” He added.

The Elf Harper was startled to hear Rijiin mutter those very words, actually saying them without contempt or hate in his voice. He had seen how the human race had been to the Elves, persecuting them for centuries, and the blind greed.

Rijiin had witnessed many atrocities in the twelfth century and plenty burnings in the north by the Inquisition. Most of them, he sensed had been good people, falsely accused as they were killed for no reason on heresy or another’s false accusation.

The Elf had seen a lot of that same thing in the future of the twentieth century, the atrocities of people being rude, mean to each other and some in pain and distress by others. Rijiin wondered how he could have been called himself human once, even with all the atrocities in this world.

Natil however saw the young Elf was showing some compassion for the human races despite they were everything he despised.

“Ile naa ikotane, n’ataya, a’mael…” He held her hand, nodding.

“Iye Natili.” He replied, “I have, a lot in this last few years, thanks to you all.”

Natil met his expression with a perplexed look.

“Mirya was right Natil, it would take time but I have found acceptance. You have all shown me there is more to just being an elf. After these last years or so, I have seen how much more I can be, and make that difference I wanted to make.” He paused, “Sure, the Elves took my humanity, yes, but just as well, you showed me that I can love something more than myself. I want to give it all back to these humans, despite the evil of this place I once came from and perhaps we can make these humans better, or worse. It depends on how they use what we give them.”

“Beloved, you speak wisely and true.” The Harper replied, embracing Rijiin before walking with him, hand in hand, toward the steps leading down to the landing in the foyer. The elves were watched carefully by everyone present and she sensed his longing to be back in the trees, from which they would be together. She knew he had given up the future and his century to be with her and preferred to be in a world and place where there were Elves in the world rather than a place of men.

“Peace Mistress, the faster we can get this done, we can get home.” The Elf said as his arm moved around the young Harper beside him. They walked up the other steps leading up and toward the entrance of a place called the Fireside Lounge.

When Natil and Rijiin entered the Lounge, everyone had looked up at the doorway. Her friends, old and new sat at the familiar table that Rijiin knew well, and they showed the most surprise by the entrance of the two strangers, the room falling into a stunned silence.  

Mimi turned her head, as she sat in her chair, meeting the strange garb of the Elves and the hooded faces. Behind her, many others who had been walking by had followed them to the door of the Fireside. Rijiin’s first action had been to step up to the table and to stand beside her chair. Reaching up, he drew back the gray hood of his cloak.

Mouse gulped hard and her face carried a surprised, astonished expression when she saw his fair features, long brown hair, streaked and sprinkled with gray, a fair and handsome face with solemn gray eyes. Mouse saw their laughter, and a twinkle of what she though was starlight there. If Mimi had known the elves, she would have been right.  Low murmurs had surrounded the table; a couple of low snickers and choked laughter echoed the room. Rijiin’s silence and solemn gray eyes moved from person to person, meeting each of their faces as he heard their thoughts.  The Elf heard their jokes quietly at their expense, and he let them pass.   The young Elven man’s eyes fell upon Becky, the young woman he had met not long before his journey into past.

Becky McGough, a friend of his, had surprise on her round oval face and her eyebrows had risen up in alarm like the others. She had not changed in the five years he had been away, an average young woman, a heavyset build and the deep brown eyes. He sensed something different about her and he let his awareness fall over her, discovering that she was no longer single, having been married. The elf had spied the wedding band on her left hand.

The young woman had gasped openly, at what she saw, the strange garb, the pendant, and their fair, youthful features. Becky recognized almost immediately, having learned many things from her new husband in the ways of Wicca. However, even with her knowledge of Wicca, she was unsure exactly whom or what she was seeing.  The elves garb, Becky knew had not been around perhaps in five centuries; neither cloaks, pendants, green and gray garb, nor swords.

 As for Mouse, she too intently looked upon the Elf’s face, but it was not his fair features and ghostly familiar face that startled her, it had been the garb. Mimi remembered the hallucination she thought she was having a day or so ago, when she found herself spinning in the vortex. Her journey ended up with her ending up in a clear sky as if she were a bird, flying high above a great forest, and landing in a forest clearing where she saw, two people like this young man and woman who now stood before her. Around the neck of Rijiin the pendant of a crescent moon, and interlocked, rayed star hung there.  Mouse was aghast, staring at the familiar pendant that seemed to twinkle in the light.

“Holy shit.” Mimi thought, “It wasn’t a dream.”  Her eyes fell upon the pendant and quickly unzipped her belt pouch, withdrawing the pendant she had put in it. Her eyes moved back and forth to Rijiin’s pendant swinging freely about his neck, back to the one in her hand. The pendant began to glow brightly, with an almost incandescence and Mimi gripped the pendant tightly.

She remembered the strange woman’s statement about a messenger being sent to her and wondered if this stranger was the person she spoke. No one had known about what Mouse had experienced a day or so ago; and she had told absolutely no one about it.

“Blessings upon you this day Mistress Stewart, the hand of the lady be upon you.” He said to her, his voice calm, full of the inflection as he spoke, and touching his forehead, bowing wide and low. 

Everyone present, including Mouse, had smiled at the motion. Becky had smiled at the use of the ancient witch’s greeting. ‘Merry Met.’

The elf knelt beside Mimi’s chair as people gathered nearby and stopping to examine the pair curiously, dressed in their strange garb.  Natil turned, sensing their approach without even needing to look.

“Rijiini.” She said softly in Elvish and he turned his head, meeting the surprised look of the security officers on hand. Mouse had heard the name and looked up at him.

“Rijiin? What kind of name is that? D-do I know you?” Mimi croaked, “Have we met before?”

“Indeed we have Ms. Stewart, we met once a long time ago, but you might not remember me.” He replied, making her smile at his accented voice.

“Rijiin L’Thiejiev at your service… This is my traveling partner, kinswoman and my beloved mate, Natil.”  He glanced at Natil, nodding slightly and she reached up drawing back the gray hood of her cloak.  There were several low murmurs, as everyone realized it was a beautiful young woman standing beside Rijiin and each one were whisked away by her beauty.

“What strange accents, you are not from here are you…” Becky commented.

“It is so.” Rijiin replied, after a moment of contemplating the answer and saw the slight nod by the Harper, “We are not from here. Natil and I have traveled from far away. We are here to help Ms. Stewart, and repay an old debt.”

“But…” She stammered, surprised by his answer, startled that she had been thinking something else and he had answered it, already having read her thoughts.  

Becky had been startled by his answer, and was trying to figure out how it was possible that she was seeing this here, and how Elves could exist in the twentieth century. They had only been legends, legends of the past. Rijiin understood her question. He realized where he was, and that Elves had long since perished from this world, unaware of the changes of a few to the East, of another lifetime and dance.

“Rijiin, what old debt?” Mouse questioned, “I don’t know you.” She turned her head, frowning and he met her frown, his eyes twinkling brightly.

            “Aye an old debt, I am here to repay it with healing, comfort, and aid.” He replied, “Something my people are known for, be at peace, no harm will fall upon you Mouse as I sensed your need and traveled to you. Among my people you are well known, for your courage, kindness, and your friendship.”

Mouse sat quietly in her chair, and met the smiling face of Rijiin who knelt beside her. The disabled woman was trying to place the face of the young Harper to the one she saw in the woods that day when she was grabbed through the energy portal. The same one she had seen in the forest when she had the strange hallucination a few days ago, or what Mouse had thought was a hallucination. 

It was not the Harper’s familiarity now putting Mimi into such an uproar of confusion. The disabled woman had passed most of it to overwork and stress, but seeing the pendant alerted her that the whole deal had not been a dream.

“No, that is not she.” Mimi thought, “Close, but even then, oh my god, she is so lovely.”

The young woman heard Mimi’s thoughts and turned. Rijiin looked on as he too heard the compliment. Natil nodded her head at Mouse.

“Thank you.” She murmured, her voice thick with the inflection just now slipping occasionally in and out of Rijiin’s voice.

 Becky, sitting beside Robert had gasped openly when she heard the accent, and the costume suddenly familiar to her.  She suddenly realized she was looking at an Elf, something that had been faded from the world about the year thirteen hundred, about five hundred years ago.

“Those are only stories and legends!” Becky thought, “How can this be?”

“What is it Becky?” Robert asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure.” She replied, “I have seen this garb and that pendant before.”

“You have seen it before? Where…” Robert demanded but Becky at first had said nothing.

“I am not sure but I think something from the past has come to us.” The young woman replied with an unsure tone. “It is quite old but I cannot be certain.”  

“What do you mean old?” Robert asked, “You’re not making sense.”

“Their garb and the symbol around their neck is something that is over five centuries old.” She declared, “I don’t know or can explain at the moment. I really don’t understand why I am seeing it here and how it is possible to be in this century.”

“Excuse me, Rijiin, are you…?” She started to ask and her voice seemed to fail again.

Rijiin nodded. “It is true mistress.” The Elf whispered, only loud enough for the table to hear him, as he quietly sighed. “We are Elves and we are here to help.”

At first, Robert and the others had smiles on their faces. Low sarcastic murmurs rounded their table and many more jokes made at the two’s expense. Mimi saw the look of recognition and frustration on Becky’s face. Mimi frowned slightly.

“This is not possible! I told my friend once, what he described, that you are wearing was long since gone, the five centuries and teachings could never meet.” Becky exclaimed, “These are all signs of the old ways. Who are you Rijiin?”

Rijiin met her statement with a silent nod.

“It is so.” He told her, “I remember when you told me that. I am a mere traveler Becky.”  He had let a broad hint fall of the identity he once had been and she did not seem to pick it up.  

The young woman gasped when she heard her name, suddenly aware that she had not introduced herself, and yet he knew who she was.

 "Christ I hope this is not your idiot new husband’s friends pulling this bullshit, and dressed up in that old garb of the dark ages.” Robert murmured to Becky who glowered in annoyance at him. “He’d do it like the dunderhead that he is…”

“Robert, that was not nice, and to your information, if anyone is a dunderhead it is you...” Becky snarled, “I don’t think he would be able to do something like this. I have a news flash. I think we are looking at the genuine article.”

 Becky however, did glance at Rijiin for confirmation. She felt Rijiin touch her mind and in her head, she heard his voice, as if the wings of a dove carried his voice across the short expanse.

“I am not he, mistress, nor have I been paid to impersonate such a thing. I am as I am.” His voice stated evenly, echoing in her head alone. An aura shimmered around the Elf.

Becky’s face showed a smile, but suddenly faded as it began to grow around him. The glow of energy became bright, incandescent as it moved to his hands and surrounded him.

            “I am here for a reason.” Rijiin said, turning to Mimi who sat in her chair, eyes tightly closed as his hands touched her shoulders. She groaned several times as his hand touched her, knowing the points in her shoulder, his hands feeling them burning. He let the starlight flow through him and let the power of healing begin. 

Mouse, still seated in her wheelchair turned her head when she felt his hands and suddenly had been reminded of someone else she knew. Mimi was reminded of a long dead friend, who was very good with his touch and always had been able to release the pain in her shoulders. The disabled woman shook her head at the memory.

“Impossible. He was reported murdered.” Mouse thought and the Elf hearing her thought turned his head, focusing upon the disabled woman. Natil had heard her too, showing surprise, but also a saddened expression. Rijiin met the Harper’s expression, grimacing but managed a shrug.

“Ta ilya forya, a’mael.” He murmured, “Re’e  forya, Natili. Mimitti yassen’e sinta quenaya noldoe.  He nanquet i' amin manquetta farnuva.”

 Natil picked up his meaning and his reaction as one she had not expected by him to take. She had gasped when she realized he was fine with Mimi’s statement.

“Lle lakwenien? Sut… Sut ahalman lle taritu tanya men?” She asked, “Re aipatue lle naa ba.” Rijiin shrug in response at her question.

The Elf pondered the question she had asked him. She had asked him how he could think that way when something like that had been spoken by his friends.

 When Mimi had said he was dead, it had shocked the maiden, but on the other hand, she sensed it was the truth and completely accurate devise of what his fate had really been in this time. The Harper thought there would be sparks by Rijiin when he heard the answer to his unspoken question. The elf had merely shrugged it off.

“Seere a’mael.” Rijiin replied, carefully thinking of the answer, “Amin… Amin caela utue seere manke lle tul-a’... Mani amin cael harya a’mani wanya naa ere' amin .”

Natil gasped aloud when she heard his answer and slowly nodded. It was not the answer she expected and Natil would have expected him to say. It surprised her and something inside her made her shudder. An expression of respect, admiration and deeper respect love of her mate appeared on her face.

Beside the Elves, Mimi’s friends and Mouse herself, listen to the strange language they spoke between them.  There were murmurs among the gathered people here, when they heard the strange language between the Elves, how free flowing it is and to Becky the words very eloquent, and beautiful.

“What language is that? Is that Elvish? What did you just tell her Rijiin?” Becky asked, “That was amazing.”

Rijiin did not answer her question, his hands still upon Mimi’s shoulders and the incandescent glow becoming brighter. Becky watched him intently, knowing what he was doing, but in the next instant like everyone at the table and in the room, were absolutely floored literally, at what he did next. A bright white flash had appeared and the Elf who stood behind her began to glow as he let the energy cascade through him.

 “My power is limited Natili, perhaps if you play something on your harp, we can help her together.” Rijiin suggested, “As there is a lot more to do.”

 The Elf-Maiden considered his request silently for a moment, and agreed. She sat down, her hands withdrawing the harp she carried, from under her cloak. The first reaction of the group gathered here were questioning glances when they saw the harp but soon they understood that the Harper was going to play something on it.

 Robert’s hand moved to interfere with the young Harper and Becky slapped his hand away.

“No Robert.” Becky said sharply, and turning raised his hand up to strike her. Rijiin in a flash grabbed is hand as it moved toward her, holding it there effortlessly. He tried to use brute strength to pull away, but the Elf’s arm did not move. The Elf knocked his hand away and lifted him without any warning with one hand out of his chair by his shirt and a couple of feet off the ground. 

There was rippled amazement by the stranger’s strength and Becky tried to hide a smile when she saw Robert’s face. At first his had showed anger, then fear, fear in what he saw in Rijiin’s eyes, he had seen the incandescence of starlight there, and he saw death there.

“Let this be a warning and a lesson. If you lift a hand to these people again, you will deal with me and will not win.” Rijiin said, just loud enough for him to hear. “Let’s put it another way, if you do not behave I will cut you from your groin to your neck. Do you understand?”  Rijiin pulled back his cloak and there at his belt was a dagger’s sheath as well as the sword at his side.  “Dina Ungai, ri’ wany.”

            “I don’t believe you.” Robert threatened, “I will have security on you like that.”

            “And they will have a corpse, and we will have pigs in this place.” Rijiin replied, letting the starlight flash several times, as his inflection became strong in his voice.  “You deal with Elven swords and Magic if you proceed.”

Robert saw the flash of starlight, and saw what exactly Rijiin was. The elf let his awareness flow into him, showing him a glimpse at what he could face and sensed his terror. Effortlessly he sat him down and turned attention back to Mouse.

The elf glanced at Natil and she quietly nodded to Rijiin.

“Lle Desiel?”

“Amin’ e Desiel, Rijiini.”

The room’s attention all focused on Natil when her finger rippled off notes, quickly tuning the instrument and inspected the cherry wood frame. Around the room, there were quiet murmurs before hush fell over the room and the first time in a long time, Mimi knew, this room and the foyer had ever becoming quiet.

The Harper’s small hands moved across the bronze strings. A ripple of notes flowed through the air as Natil’s hands danced across the strings and started play an ancient melody, one that she had written at the beginning of her existence and the world.

Starting with single notes, the melody seemed to flow outward and little by little, her hands danced across the harp’s strings into a melody that Mimi recognized from what she heard the other day in the quad.  Rijiin smiled in response, hearing the music, and nodded his approval to the young Harper. Turning his attention to the disabled woman, his friend, he closed his eyes and placing his hands on her shoulders that he let the healing energy again flow over her.

Natil played the melody that seemed to expand with each passing minute and flowed freely in the air, the healing energy forming around them in the room. He focused his energy, tying in with the starlight flickering in the darkness when he closed his eye, a flash and a glow appeared around the table.

“Ele asta a mirurore.

Cira a ciraie,

Elthiai calasiuove,

Marithae dia.”

Natil sang the words quietly in Elvish as her hands danced across the strings of the small cherry wood and bronze strung harp. She played, and Rijiin’s starlight energy remained focused into Mimi, as did the healing notes of Natil’s harp. Starlight touched the disabled woman, and the small group around her. Mouse of course felt the warmth in her limbs and everyone saw the strange light that now surrounded them as it swirled around the table.

No one in the room interfered, no one moved, just standing nearby listening to the beauty of the Harper’s harp notes. People started to gather at the doors, and watch the strange event that happened here, a strange energy enveloping the group sitting together at the table. Everyone in the room witnessing something they could not understand or only know than a miracle.

The Harper glanced at Rijiin as her hands danced across the harp strings, a look of astonishment appeared on her face. She could not believe what she was seeing, her mouth dropping open and she gasped when she realized what he was doing. She saw that Rijiin was manipulating the patterns of Mimi’s very being, changing the lattice of her very existence. Rijiin had little knowledge of what his new power could do since he had been transformed into an Elf, or even knew how to use it. The elf, however, expertly wielded it, as if it was second nature and expertly like someone like Mirya who had the power to heal as a human, and as an Elf. 

Natil grinned as more appeared at the doors and windows of the Fireside Lounge. More people had gathered, watching the beautiful Harper play on her harp, playing a melody written at the beginning of the world upon the small harp upon her lap. They continued to watch as Rijiin helped and healed. The notes rippled strong, clear and cold throughout the room and Becky like many others looked on in silence. The young woman sensed the magic here and her watchful gaze moved to the strange Harper, whose fingers danced over the bronze strings of her cherry wood harp. 

Her eyes caught her new husband John who had appeared at the door of the Internet lounge and he stood looking on as the strange Harper played, and Rijiin healed.

“Such great power.” Becky thought.

A half hour Natil played her harp, helping Rijiin healing the one known as Mimi Stewart and Rijiin, formerly a human of her time, letting his new powers of healing flow over his friend. The Elf was unaware that his power spilled out onto the group and his healing power great as it touched each one of them. Robert looked on, in a mad jealousy, and despite people shushing him continued to make rude comments.

 “Healing, comfort and aid.” Rijiin thought, managing a smile, “That’s what it’s all about, and I can help them.”

The Elf suddenly felt differently, understanding his purpose and the Elves that he now called them kin. He now found himself a part of their existence and the one scrap of soul left he had as a human faded away fully, leaving him now fully Elven. Rijiin glanced at the Harper who sat across from him. He had taken and found love too, the purest and truest and pure love. Natil looked up as she sensed his thoughts and she managed a smile and a nod. Her hands danced on the strings of her harp as the melody climaxed and she finished. Around them, tears formed on the faces of everyone in the room as the incandescent energy became blinding to everyone and their deed had been finished.

Natil let her hands abruptly drop from the harp strings, and the room fell abruptly quiet. She hugged the harp, and watched as the swirling energy faded away to vanished completely into thin air.  The only sound in the room is that of murmured astonishment by the humans who had seen them help and heal today.

Scattered applause rippled the group and thundered in the room. Natil smiled when she heard it, nodding slightly to the group and appreciation of her music. Her next reaction had been to turn, glancing at Rijiin and gasping quietly.

The elf lay sprawled on the table, having succeeded in his task to help and heal his friend. He had unthinkably changing the patterns making up the woman known as Mimi Stewart and she feared the worst that he may have given himself too much and given his life for Mimi’s.

The Harper’s eyes narrowed and she gulped hard when she stared at a now different Mimi Stewart. A healed woman, changed by the patterns to her very soul, manipulated as if he were an expert, wielding a power he did not understand and managing to make the very changes.

The Harper frowned, putting her hand upon her beloved and nudged him. Fear washed over her when he did not move when she touched him and in concern put her hand on his broad shoulder.  No one noticed at first what had happened.

“Rijiin.” Natil whispered, and with no response.

“Oh by our Lady.” She murmured, “RIJIIN!” Tears formed in her eyes as she nudged him hard.

“What’s the matter with him?” A question asked and everyone turned to Rijiin who was slumped forward.

“Rijiin?” the Elven Harper said in askance, “A’mael... Beloved…?”

After a moment, he finally opened his eyes, and slowly sat up to weakly meet the Harper’s alarmed, also very concerned expression.  She let out a sigh of relief as she embraced him.

“Aye Natili.” replied the Elf. She heard the change in his voice, thick with the very strong inflection in his voice like her kinfolk. “I’m alright.” Natil’s eyebrows arched slightly when she heard the strong inflection in his voice. Her head snapped back to Mimi and then back to Rijiin.

“Oh Lady.” She murmured, “What has he done? Did he do what I just think he did?” Her face softened. “I think he has found what it means to be an Elf, giving himself much more than he had, and able to accomplish so much with compassion for someone other than himself.”

Mimi still lay face down into the table, half stunned, her body tingling as she sat in her wheelchair and with her eyes tightly closed.  No one at first had noticed Mimi and the changes she had undergone and the massive healing by the Elves.

Rijiin had manipulated the patterns, the very essence of her soul, her lifeline, and had made changes that would change her very existence from what it was now as a human and into becoming Elven. He had changed her into an immortal Elf like himself, and Natil, with the powers of immortality, help and healing of her own.

“Mouse.” He said. The images that Mimi had been seeing faded as he shook her. Strong in his voice, the disabled woman heard the inflection in his voice, filled with starlight. She saw his eyes twinkle strongly in the fluorescent light when he helped her back to a sitting position.

“Are you all right Mimi?” Rijiin asked, and smiled when he saw her grimace. 

“I am not sure.” Mimi replied, her mind a whirl of thought.

A few minutes ago, she had stood on the grassy plain and before the before the Lady, and another face that had also appeared with her. The other form had been of a youthful young girl, with a narrow, beautiful oval face, fair features, long dark hair, and blue eyes.  Mouse smiled at the young girl, when her eyes focused upon her and then frowned. The young girl had reached out toward her, and when she took Mimi’s hands, that an electrical shock rippled through her body. Mouse screamed, her voice, however seemed far away from her making it impossible to hear herself. Only pain and confusion washed over her, and she felt a hand on her forehead.

“Peace.” A voice said, and the pain subsided abruptly. Mimi’s head turned, looking again, gasped when she saw the old form of what made up her being seem to roll away from her and disappear in a flash of light. The young girl was nowhere to be found and it was done. She had changed, and she now bore the new form, in a deep healing and transformation of Elven Magic.

The disabled woman had been surrounded in purest, starlight energy and appeared on the meadow of a darkened forest night. She had seen a face, felt the warmth of healing in her body and discovered the starlight in the darkness, staring at as if she were looking into the night sky. Mimi stood before the woman in blue and silver who embraced her.  

“Mimitti.” she said, greeting Mimi in a quiet voice. The images faded when she had heard his voice.   

 “What happened to me?” Mouse said, stopping in mid sentence when she finally heard the strange voice. It was not her voice.

 “What did he do to me? I feel so strange.”  Mimi thought, glancing down at her hands, examining them, flexing them, staring at the long tapered fingers, larger hands, able to wield a sword in the twelfth century, and up to the toned muscular arms.  She stared at the strange hands, suddenly pushing herself back and noted why things were so different. It was not her body. 

Mimi yelped in surprise and Rijiin flashed a grin at the young woman who sat before them all.

“What the hell!” Mimi grunted, staring at her torso, her narrow figure, and muscular legs. She was certainly surprised by what had happened. She had changed drastically at first and the power inside her still flowed as it continued to change her more. All attention now focused upon her, some slowly rising to their feet. They were alarmed by what they saw now, staring at the stranger who sat among them.

“Mimi?” He said again, the inflection strong in his voice. Mouse heard the inflection and turned her head. She narrowed her eyes as she stared at the fair, Elven features, and the pendant that twinkled in the light as it hung from the chain.

“W-what have you done to me?” Mimi sputtered her head giddy as serious disorientation washed over her. She pulled back and looked down realizing that he took her hands. He sensed panic in her voice.

“W-what you have you done?” She demanded and he met her clear, bright and piercing blue eyes. “W-why have you done this to me?”

“Peace, I healed you Mouse.” He told her, “Let us say Mistress Stewart that you are well known here and now among my people.” Rijiin continued, the accent making his voice thick, “I am here to repay a debt to you. I did it because you are my friend and owe you something that will only partially repay your kindness and friendship.”

A surprised face appeared on the now young woman’s face. The Elf glanced to the group. “It also goes for all of her friends too.”  

“But I don’t know you Rijiin.” Mimi replied, and yet fell silent, looking again at the face that seemed so familiar to her, but so alien. The table had full fixed attention upon their friend. 

“Yes you do Mousie.” The elf corrected, letting his existence flow over her and Mouse knew the truth of the whole matter, of who he was.

  Rijiin stared at the now extremely young woman who sat among them and her face changed by his healing. At this moment, only a few minor traces of her original facial features were visible.

            Becky could not believe her eyes. The face of Mimi she had known for a few years had gone, and now a young woman wearing the clothes Mouse had been wearing this morning now sat in the wheelchair. 

            “Who are you?” Robert snarled, “What the hell are you?”

            “They’re Elves!” Becky said, and she touched Mouse’s shoulder. Robert shook his head, with a sarcastic expression and a look of anger in his eyes. He whirled on Rijiin.

“What the hell is going on?” Robert shouted, “Who the hell are you people? And don’t give us that shit about being elves and help and healing.”

 Becky frowned at Robert’s outburst but she started to understand what Rijiin had done.

He had transformed Mimi, to save her the pain she had been feeling for many years, and help her as he could only do. He had given her unknowingly a new life as a new form, which in many cases was impossible.

“But that is impossible!” Becky said, and rubbing her eyes that she peered at Mouse and then back to Rijiin who stood beside her. Her head turned to the young Harper, wondering about her, and where she had come from, and how Rijiin got involved with her.

“Rijiin please… Tell me… Please explain to me… I don’t understand all of this…” Mouse began and Rijiin met her confusion with a slight nod. Taking her hands, the Elf stood up and with a small tug, Rijiin pulled Mimi’s hands.

“Stand and be recognized Mistress Stewart.” Rijiin commanded, glancing at the table. “Walk with me and I shall tell you why.”

Mimi looked up dubious at him, not sure what he wanted her to do, and shook her head. “I can’t walk, Rijiin… You know that…if you are who I think you are.” Mimi shook her head and met his saddened expression. 

“Beloved.” replied the Elf, “One would not know until they try.”

He pulled at Mimi and she put her feet on the floor. The young looking woman rose up, with some deliberation, but managed to stand up smoothly and effortlessly.

Rijiin held her hands as she wavered for a moment, the pain in her body gone, and well as her Cerebral Palsy. Doubt was on her face as she looked down.  The muscular legs obeyed her.

“Walk with me, my lady.” The Elf repeated.

 “But…” Mouse started to say, and her voice caught as she looked down at her legs in surprise as they obeyed her command. She was walking. A hush fell over the room as people who stood there saw Mouse get up. People she knew on staff saw something incredible and amazing happening.

“Let go of me.” Robert complained and she shook her head slightly, “He’s going to hurt her, she can’t walk she’ll fall.”

“I know she cannot walk, but I think it’s going to be alright…” Becky told him, “Wait and see.”

 “I don’t WANT TO WAIT.” Robert yelled and tried to lunge toward Mimi and Rijiin. He struggled and suddenly found that the small arm of Natil held him in place.

“You seem to know what is going on Becky. Come on what is all this? Stop keeping stuff from me.” He whined.

“Be at peace Messier.” Natil told him, “I assure you no harm will be to your beloved Mimi.”

He muttered a horrible curse under his breath, turning his head, a jealous rage falling upon Mouse and Rijiin.

The elf flashed a grin at the action at the table, and turned his attention back to his best friend. Rijiin walked backward as he pulled Mouse in front of him. Murmurs and conversation filled the room. Mimi tentatively took a few more smooth steps and she looked down in amazement.

“Oh my god I’m walking,” Mouse exclaimed, feeling her legs move normally with each command.

Rijiin let her hands go and they fell smoothly to her side. She looked hard at the Elf walking in front of her and the woman felt her hands brush the side of her legs without any difficulty. When Mimi turned her head, she found herself walking away from the group and the wheelchair where she spent the better part of four decades. 

            “OH MY GOD.” Mouse gasped, stumbling slightly and like lighting Rijiin was there to catch her.  Behind Rijiin and Mimi, at the table, more conversation and surprised reactions moved through the room like wildfire.

“Mimi?” Chris and Omar exclaimed, on their feet.

“She is well.” Natil said, “Peace. As we said, no harm will befall her.”

“Is this a trick?” Dave asked, “How did you both do that? Are we hallucinating?”

“It is no trick.” Natil murmured softly, “I assure you it is absolutely real. We healed her of her affliction.”  He turned his head when he heard the Harper speak.  A dubious look appeared on his face.

“We are elves, we are here to help and heal, as it was in the beginning, and centuries ago, as it is here now.” The Harper murmured.

Everyone’s attention at the table had been focused upon the Harper with complete surprise and they fell silent when she had spoken. Her voice was calm, and barely audible, filled with the accent. Their heads had turned to Mimi and Rijiin. Dave and Robert watched Mimi, their friend and acquaintance for a long time, walking on her own power.

 “I can’t believe it! This is all bullshit.” Robert exclaimed, glancing at Becky who wept not in sadness, but in joy.

“No one has that power to do that… unless it is god himself.” Robert half shouted, and yet his voice stopped when he heard the Harper’s murmur.

“And Elves of centuries past.” Murmured the young Harper, and the others glanced at her. No one moved in the room, likewise did they lunge or riot toward Natil. They just watched the unfolding of a miracle. 

Mimi was standing and her eyes caught the unclear reflection of her face in the glass of a picture frame on the wall. The first time she would see herself in a reflection and since Dave’s exclamation. Mouse staggered back when she saw the face in the reflection.

“What the fuck?” gasped the now young woman, the face of hers no longer her own in the reflection she commonly saw in the mirror. Her hands had flashed up to touch her face and stare incredulously at the image she saw there.  An astonished reflection of a young woman was there and Mouse peered down at her now trim, petite figure in surprise and had taken a hand full of her now long, deep, dark brown hair to stare at it, when she had noticed the weight on her head.

“I…” Stammered Mouse and she whirled on Rijiin. Her hands had been still touching her face in wonder. “I want you to undo this…” Mimi demanded suddenly, and Rijiin met her frightened expression and felt her anger.

 “Peace Mouse.” Rijiin said, “You have been changed from what you were. Call it a little bit of magic if you like. I thought to give you a gift if I helped and healed you. I gave you another chance and a new form. All things are possible and not everything is believed without seeing.”

Mimi shook her head. “This cannot be!” she exclaimed, “It is impossible! I told you that I wanted to be as I am… I was happy with myself.” Her voice faltered and she became silent, hearing her voice again. It made her feel so strange.

“WHY?” Mimi whispered, “Why did you do this for me?”

“I did it because I am your friend and I care.” replied the Elf, “I can love and care enough for my friends.” His gaze met hers and they stood looking into each other’s eyes for a long time. She nodded carefully, suddenly understanding and looking down at her hand where she still held the strangely shaped pendant there. Tears formed in her eyes.

“I cannot accept this.”

Rijiin motioned to her. “Walk with me mistress.” He said again and as the Elf and Mimi walked alone, far out of range of the table they talked in low tones. Everyone who had been listening to the Harper had dispersed, but there were a few who had hung around who wanted to be sure of what they saw and what this truly was all about. They sat at the tables around the one with her friends.

Her friends watched them talk with each other in low tones. No one at the table ever heard the conversation, or what the Elf and Mimi had ever talked about… No one ever need know and it had been one conversation, Mimi would never forget. She hugged the Elf after a moment and grinned, as he fastened the pendant around her neck. Together they returned to the table and Mimi, healed, sat lounging in her wheelchair now next to Rebecca.

“Here is Mimi, I return her to you.” He said, “Human ways are not ours and we must be going. We have to return to our home.”

“By the Goddess, You are beautiful Mimi.” Becky stammered, “You look so different!” Mouse blushed and momentary looked down to the floor.

“Thank you.” Mimi stuttered, embarrassed. Slowly lifting up her hand, she was touching her face in wonder. The image had not been very clear, and she was curious what she would see when she looked into the mirror for a closer inspection. 

“Rijiin, what do I look like?” Mimi asked, “Will I look like what I saw in the reflection of the picture?” The Elf turned, grinning slightly and nodded.

“Mistress Stewart.” He said solemnly, “You are not ill-formed by any means, and quite beautiful. Yes you will look exactly as you have seen, perhaps even more so. The magic is still in flux and there will be a lot more changes.”

 Mimi’s hand touched her cheek in curiosity and she stood up again, staring at a nearby picture frame where she saw somewhat of a reflection there. Her face showed in the glass, and it was not really clear to her what she looked like. Mouse had no idea that the magic still was in flux and still was working as it changing her with every minute that ticked away. Her entire soul had been filled with the magic of the power of the Elves.

            “I…” Mouse stammered and fell silent.

“Mimi.” Rijiin said, “Our magic is very powerful and unpredictable. You are still in flux and not fully changed. You may find changes and abilities that are beyond your comprehension as well as skills that you did not possess before.”

“What sort of abilities?” Mimi asked, now even more curious and retook her seat. She intently met Rijiin’s gaze.

“Our power is unpredictable, it will choose different paths and it is hard to say. Only time will tell what you gain.” He explained, “Arae ea oombra. It means the Day of Completion and for you that day is today.”

“Because of my healing?” asked the middle-aged woman and Rijiin nodded.

“It includes your transformation to come too Mimi.” He told her and Mimi cocked her head, understanding his answer that things take time to finish and complete. The Elf stood up and he motioned to Natil who had joined him at his side. Natil embraced Rijiin, holding him closely.

“It is time beloved.” Rijiin said, “Our task is complete, we can return home and to the safety of the trees.”  Natil met his smile with a look of surprise and slowly nodded, as he whispered to her.

“Amin uume ta sinome, il’ oio amin nae edan.” Rijiin whispered to Natil in Elvish, “Ta nauva tyav’ quel entul-a’e na-ien nu taure.”

“We must go now.” Rijiin announced, Mimi, Omar, Becky, Dave, Robert and even Chris turned, “Perhaps we shall meet again.”

“You are leaving.” Becky asked, “Please you still have not told us who you are…. We have a lot of questions for you…” Questions echoed around the table. A grin of knowing appeared on Mimi’s youthful face. 

“Our task is completed here, and we must return to our proper place.” He said, then paused, scanning the room, and shook his head quietly. He felt uncomfortable here, he did not belong here and now as an Elf he longed for the safety of trees.

The Harper when she had heard his whispered words had raised her eyebrows in surprise, and disbelief by his words. What he had whispered had been his dislike of a place he had called home and lived. The young Harper nodded slowly, her face betraying no disbelief now, realizing that Rijiin was no longer human and fully Elven.

“Rijiin, what am I seeing?” Mouse asked, her eyes closed, and in the darkness she had seen the starlight.  At first she had gasped when she saw it, uncomprehending to its meaning. Its power seemed to calm her and refresh her.

“MMM?” Rijiin said, “Mimitti?”

“I am seeing starlight.” She murmured, and he nodded.

“It is the healing energies that bind the Elves, and their power.” He said, “They are the lady, who is us, who made the elves. It is hard to explain.”

She waited. “Come to this place.” Rijiin said, handing out the cards, “Here you shall find your answers and I shall be waiting always when you want to come to us.” 

He handed out the cards to the shop in Eastridge where he had found the portal, the one that he had used to go to the past, finding himself in a different time and space. It had been the place where he had found his purpose, his resolve and now his ending.

            “What is this?” Mouse asked and she read the card, but when she looked up Rijiin and Natil were gone. The Elves disappeared in the blink of an eye. No one in the room moved, confusion washed over everyone present who had been here, that fifteen minutes had elapsed and everyone wondered why their watches were all slow.  No one remembered the elves visit and what had happened, it was business as usual.

Only the group at the table was aware of anything different, the super model Mimi sat with them, lounging in her wheel chair.  They all talked in low tones about what had transpired here, and still could not get over how much their friend had changed.  

Becky, Omar, Dave, and even Chris had felt strangely different, healthy, charged up and had a strange feeling inside after all they had seen today. They had all witnessed a miracle, of an ancient religion that had long since passed, the only ones to really remember anything about these events.  Everyone had found healing and had been deep in thought when three more of the regulars of the table arrived. Deep down inside, everyone wondered where they would be going from here.

 “Hi-ho all!” A voice said, and they looked up to see Steve, Cathy and Patrick walk up to the table. It was quickly followed, with the arrival of a new comer to DeAnza named Jennifer Buckner.

When Patrick, Steve, Cathy, and Jen arrived at the table, they greeted the table warmly. Cathy had recognized the wheelchair of Mimi, but when she came around along side, she stared at a different face, someone who she barely recognized. Mouse’s best friend frowned at her strangely. They noted the new face that had come to sit with them, astonished to realize that it was their friend.

“Mimi?” Cathy asked and turning the beautiful young maiden nodded in response.

“It is I, Cathy.” Mouse told them.

“Holy cow, what happened to you?” asked her best friend, “I go on vacation, and don’t see you for a while and you change your hairstyle, to become a model.” The table laughed loudly and Mimi blushed deeply.

“Thanks Cathy.” Laughed Mimi, “I just had a makeover, changed my hair and clothes. It’s hard to explain, but what do you think.”

“I love it!” Replied her friend, and even Patrick and Steve agreed with the fantastic changes.  The clothes had disguised the changes of her body, and her trim form.

“Mimi you are a real knock out… Whatever they did, they did a great job.”  Steve complimented. Mouse on the other hand had smiled slightly, remembering Rijiin’s words.

“You have even lost weight.” Cathy chortled, “You look great kiddo.”

 “Do you really like it?” Mimi asked.

“Like it?” Steve replied, “You look fabulous, it’s amazing what this change did. It’ll be a while for me to get used to it.”

Becky nodded, “For all of us.” She murmured and the table nodded silently. Cathy, as always did not quite catch the differences she saw in her best friend and of the group here.

 “Did I miss something?” She whispered to Omar.  

“Not much.” He replied, and he shrugged.

 Omar flashed a grin at Becky and the others who looked on in amusement. Cathy always had not been very bright.

Mimi excused herself, and pretended to wheel herself out so not to alarm the four.  When she reached the other room, Mouse stood up out of the chair, and put the backpack easily on her shoulder.  She pushed the wheelchair and walked behind it, heading for the elevator.

A few minutes later she stood in the large open foyer on the bottom floor of the , staring at the familiar doorway to the café. Her blue eyes moved through the room, and turning her gaze fell upon the Senator’s office she could clearly see in the distance, the people who occupied the room. Her senses had become more acute and improved, aware of sights and sounds around her.

She pushed the chair aside and paused, grunting at the weight of the backpack. Mouse had never really knew how much it weighed, but even without a lot of her books, still on the table in the Fireside, that to her it still seemed to weigh a lot. Mouse never really knew how much it weighed because it had always been hanging from the back of her wheelchair.

“Jesus.” She muttered, “What the hell is in this?” Putting it down she opened it and stared at a bundle of clothing that was put inside the larger pocket. Leather boots were in there as well. They were neatly folded, flat and rather bulky she found a note, written upon parchment was laying on them.

“What on earth?” Mouse gasped, unaware that Rijiin had put this bundle here by more magic and she pulled the note to read it. It was in a strange calligraphy writing that to her, looked like Latin, but it was much different.

“It is beautiful language.” She murmured, realizing suddenly that she seemed to have no problem understanding the strange language as she read the note.  

            “Melda Mimitti, sinome qua tanya aa’ na- ner a’ lle maurea en llea winya car. sen mande na e’ estel ar’ amin feith lle raktea. Mela illume, Rijiini.”

“Dear Mouse, here is something that may be more suited to your needs of your new form. Wear them well and in trust and I await your arrival. Love always, Rijiin.” 

Mouse gasped seeing the signature. 

“Oh my god.” She exclaimed quietly, as she pulled the bundle to examine the strange leather attire. It was a soft leather, colored green and gray, with the soft boots and belt to match.

“The same attire that Rijiin and Natil wore!” Mouse exclaimed, pushing it back in and zipped of her satchel. She understood why when she glanced down at herself, to the clothes she wore, and realized they barely seemed to fit her now with the changes happening to her body.

“Oh…” She grunted, with some realization and suddenly had been glad for Rijiin’s thinking ahead. Quickly Mouse pushed her wheelchair to the health office and when she arrived, entered the office to greet the startled student.  The young woman had not been expecting so lovely to enter the office.

  “Can I help you?” She asked and Mouse only flashed a smile at her.

“I just want to give the Health Office a donation.” Mimi replied, matter-of-factly. “…My old wheelchair.”

“Oh…” The student replied, “I don’t think we can use it. Let me check.”

Behind Mouse, the nurse and receptionist just arrived to the office, coming from the administration building. Both of the staff members, her colleagues, did not recognize the face at all at first. Their startled double take fell upon the familiar wheelchair and the person they had not expecting to be standing before her. Neither had they recognized the voice, despite the accent inflection that slipped in and out of it.

“Mimi?” the nurse asked.

“Yea, uh…” Mouse replied as she smiled at the dubious looks between the people she had known for a while. 

“Here, I don’t want anything for it, perhaps you can use it for someone more suited than I.” She told then, and about faced, walking with silent steps toward the door.

            All of sudden, in an uncomfortable silence, everyone present had sensed something was amiss. “HEY wait a second, how can you… WAIT! What about your…”

            They bolted toward her, but Mouse, right now, really had not wanted to answer their questions. The staff members, her colleagues, she knew would never believe her and even Mouse herself was hardly able to answer the many questions she had of her own. She had decided to exit quickly instead.

“You have my address.” Mimi told them politely, heading to the door. “Please send me the receipt or put in the Ham Radio Box. I have to run an errand.”

“But Mimi, wait a second… What’s going on, what about your chair?” The nurse and receptionist asked, but Mimi had already disappeared through the door and was walking down the hallway toward the elevator.

They both had bolted to give chase, but when they got to the hallway, the student staff member they known well was nowhere in sight.  There was great discussion in the Heath Office when the nurse, assistant and helpers returned to the office.

Mouse had walked quickly down the hallway from the Health Office toward the elevator, standing on her own two feet, carrying the backpack on her shoulder. It felt strange for the long time student of De Anza to be walking and neither did it feel right to her. She found herself looking strangely at her surroundings she only knew from the wheelchair. Textures, senses and colors seemed different to her, a little deeper in color. Her hearing was superb and keen, as were her smell. She smelled the coffee from the café as she had exited into the hallway.  Things seemed much smaller to her, and more accessible.

“There are a lot of things I am going to have to get used to.” Mouse thought, glancing at the surroundings and the darker areas highlighted in lavenders and purples.

Blinking, she rubbed her eyes.  She had never noticed the surroundings when she rolled down this hallway in her chair, never paying a lot of attention how really dim this hallway was. Mimi realized she had gained many new abilities since Rijiin had healed her, and discovered quickly her new ability to see in the dark.

            “Boy a lot of things I have to get used to.” Mouse murmured, refraining from wanting to run, jump, spin and dance to test her body fully of its abilities.  She glanced down at herself, feeling strangely and meeting the smiling faces of the admiring glances of the people who stared at her.

            “First thing,” Mouse said, glancing down at her clothes, pulling down her shirt that seemed to be riding up. “I’d better change.”

            The young woman found herself at the elevator, by routine habit pushing the button and waiting for the cab to arrive. It was a second or two when she shook her head after pushing the button and turning away from it, chuckling quietly.  

            “Oh Jesus Christ.” Mouse murmured in chiding sarcasm, “You can walk now. Just walk up.” She headed to the door and up the short steps.

            Fifteen minutes later, Mimi Stewart, a now young beautiful maiden found herself in the familiar P.E Quad, in the locker room.  As she entered the locker area, the young woman’s eyes adjusted quickly to the low light and navigating quickly to the center aisle she put down her backpack.  Opening her satchel, she withdrew the bundle from it and quickly slipping off her shoes, socks, pants and her shirt, soon standing nude in the aisle. 

            The young woman examined herself, staring at every curve, stunned by the strange body she now had and the changes Rijiin had manipulated with the patterns and healing using Elven Magic.  Standing, the Elf Maiden walked toward the shower area, and when she rounded the corner her eyes found the mirror.  Its reflection betrayed its secret, and she now stared at the reflection of a beautiful young woman there.

            “What on Earth!” Mouse gasped, as she examined the tall slender figure of a very beautiful woman in the mirror and at the trim figure, the narrow oval face, beautiful fair features and piercing blue eyes filled with Starlight.

            “Rijiin!” She gasped, as she turned, inspected her body, with a critical eye in the mirror and smiled when she saw the ample breasts, astonished by the long gracious brown hair that spilled over her back in curled waves, startled that there was absolutely no silver in it.

“I’m young again!” Mouse stammered, “Oh my god.”

She stared at the alien face, well-proportioned figure, and the goddess like appearance. Mouse could not believe the beautiful and young face she was seeing because of her friend. 

“Damn you Rijiin.” She muttered, wiping her eyes as she wept, “God damn you. You made me look like a model.” 

Grimacing, Mouse turned from the mirror and stepped on to the tiled floor of the shower area, turning on the water to let the warm water splash over her. Her body seemed to respond and she instantly felt energized by the long hot shower. After she was done, Mouse padded back to her place in the locker room, picking up the familiar clothes she had worn today, briefly examining them before she shook her head slightly, to push them aside. The young woman pulled the bundle of neatly folded clothes from her bag and the boots. She stared at the garb that had been worn by Rijiin and Natil. It was a simple green and gray, a tunic and pants. The young woman, still nude, sat on the bench, running her fingers quickly through her long hair.

“It’s going to be hard to get used to having hair like this.” Mouse murmured as she had the hair in her hands. She immediately noted that it seemed finer in quality than she remembered and it seemed to dry quickly after shaking it. Mouse ran her fingers through it several times, and then with quick flip, threw her head back, flipping the long hair that seemed to fall into place evenly.

Quickly, she slipped on the undergarments that Rijiin had included with the garb, pulling on the leather pants first, and the tunic after. She quickly found the fastenings, pulling them, and quickly tied them up, startled by her knowledge of what she was doing and why.  Mouse then slipped on the belt around her waist, slipped her now narrow feet into the leather boots and noticed the pants seemed to blouse at the knee as she slipped on the boot. Slowly, rising, she inspected the garb.

The first thing that she had noticed had been this garb seemed to flatter her curves and body. Again she leaned forward, letting her hair fall forward and standing up to throw it back, letting it fall evenly into place.  Looking down at herself, she gasped.

“My god.” Mouse gasped, blushing as she quickly checked herself over. “I look so different. I look like Natil and Rijiijn!”

 Gathering up her belongings, placing them in her backpack, she put it on her shoulder. Slowly Mimi stood up, walking uneasily back toward the main hallway near the showers and as she rounded the corner, staring again at the full-length mirror at a now very unfamiliar reflection of her strange new self.   A youthful appearance was there, clad in the green and gray garb, making her look so different.

“Hey… Not bad…” Mouse stammered, turning slowly in the mirror.

She stared at the youthful face, the blue eyes, the trim figure and the long hair that draped down to about her midway down her back.  Looking up entrance, the Elven woman heard the voices of other people arriving for classes. She turned her attention back to the mirror, inspecting the garb one last time, flashing a smile before walking toward the entrance and toward the students who had entered the dim locker room.

A trio of three students had been walking together, and looked up startled at the beautiful woman in the strange garb. Without a word, Mouse passed them, nodding a silent greeting to them, and felt their gazes burning into her as she walked away from them. Exiting through the door she stepped outside into the crisp air, walking toward the railing of the walkway that surrounded the PE area and the swimming pools, turning to follow the walkway that lead by the offices of a few instructors here. 

The young woman had no idea how the guys on campus were going to react to her, and knew that she would soon find out. She walked down the walkway, nearest to the diving tower and passed the offices that she saw other students who had been gathered about here.  They did not seem to notice her until she was right up on them and the young woman noted the reason why. Her footsteps were silent on the pavement.

“Woaaah, hey baby.” A shout said, and it was followed by a wolf whistle as she passed. The Elf Maiden turned her head, realizing she had been noticed.

“Hubba, Hubba!” Another voice said, and Mimi glanced at the speaker, blushing deep crimson and smiling quietly at him. She walked quickly on, and endured the wolf whistles, comments and cat-calls clear back to the Main Quad.

When Mouse finally made it back to the Main Quad she stood alone outside the , staring at the sunken garden and the fountain, letting the water splashing sooth her senses. She closed her eyes, staring at the starlight and it twinkled clear and cold, in the blackness.  Her thoughts were of today, the events over the last couple of days and how these days had gone.  Her hand found the pendant that hung around her neck and flashed as touched it.  She stood staring at the starlight and did not need to open her eyes, sensing Becky heading toward her from the Fireside Lounge. Mouse fingered the pendant around her neck, hanging from the chain.

The Elven woman let her existence flow, as she stared at the starlight in the darkness and she found a star that twinkled brightly, allowing it to pull her toward it. As she flew like a bird, she entered through the star, the very center of the star and the burning fires. A few moments later, Mouse ended up standing on a large grassy plain, standing before the Lady and she dropped before one knee before her.  She stood before Elthia herself, the Creatrix of the Elves. A middle-aged, very beautiful Lady robed in a simple blue and silver robe. A waist guard made of gold and lined with emeralds. Her long dark hair clasped by a golden clasp on one side and her gentle gray eyes that seemed to twinkle with starlight.

“Mimitti.” The Lady said, greeting her with an embrace.

“I have come to thank you My Lady.” Mimi said, “For a new chance, a new life, existence, and for sending Rijiin to me.”

“You are welcome my child.” The Lady said, “It is well, I am glad you have accepted your change, and the starlight, as you are indeed more beautiful than Rijiin has said.”

Mouse blushed at the compliment.

“Alas too Mimietti, I did not send Rijiin to you, he came to you of his own free will, risking himself through the winds of time.”

“He did.” Mimi asked, “He did not have to.”

“He cares a lot about his friends, and did not care about circumstances.” She said, “He risked his very existence to help you. He remembered your kindness and friendship and wants nothing more than the best for you to repay you with the same kindness.”

“What do you mean?” She asked, gasping by the statement. She felt herself pale slightly.

 “Alas the person you know existed once, but no longer. Rijiin has chosen his path and has given up a century to be where he belongs, and like you has found an impasse of his existence of being Elven or Human. The elf has chosen, finding an ending to his dilemma and he now starts a new beginning.  You have a choice to make as he did soon enough, and I know you will choose wisely.”

Mimi and the Goddess stood on the plain together for many minutes and she learned of what happened to Rijiin, the events that led up to his change. She realized the risk that he had taken by his coming to the twentieth century and the enormous sacrifice he had made.

The information had stunned Mimi.

“Oh Rijiin.” Mouse murmured and she glanced at the Lady.

“So where do we go here my Lady.” Mimi asked, “What is in store for me and my new existence.”

I know you do not understand what is still happening to you, but be assured that you will find happiness as you are. The healing and your change will be the better. You shall be feel an inescapable urge to be drawn to the east.” She replied, “There you shall seek others like yourself.”

“You mean elves.” Mimi gasped, seeing her nod.

“I thought they faded.”

“They did, but the blood has been dormant and has reawakened.” The Lady said, “Seek a high place in the east, there you shall find your answers what it is to be Elven.”

Mimi and the Lady stood there, and finally Mimi bowed to her, after being embraced by her.

She saw the meadow fade around her and beside her she did not need to look as she felt her friend standing beside her, as did she let the water from the fountain sooth her senses.

“Mimi? Are you all right?” Becky asked her, gasping when Mouse turned. The young woman, her friend, swallowed hard in surprise how different she looked. The garb made her look like Rijiin and Natil.

“My god you look so different. Y-you’re absolutely gorgeous and you look like Rijiin and Natil!” Becky stammered, and opening her eyes, peered at Becky.

“I know… and my thanks.” Mimi replied, “I think there is a lot more that is going to happen here than we both know. I don’t know how my parents are going to take this and neither anyone who knows me on campus.”

“Are you okay with it?” Becky asked, “When you did not return I came looking and to check on you.” Mouse was flattered by the concern.

 “Well for all things considered.” Replied Mimi, “I am so damn confused… How bout you… What have you told Patrick, Steve and Cathy?”

Mouse saw Becky grin. “Uhm, so far we said almost nothing.” Becky replied as she met Mimi’s amused expression and both managed a laugh.

“Robert is pissed off though and does not understand it, wanting me to explain it.” Becky continued, “He accuses me of holding stuff back from him.”

“That’s not true, but that’s Robert.” Mimi replied, “So how long did you know it was our friend? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was not sure. I think from the beginning when Rijiin and Natil arrived. I only suspected something was amiss when I saw him.” Becky said, “I knew when he called Robert, ‘Unga…’ though.  He’s the only one who calls him that.” Both of them laughed softly and sobered.

            “I don’t understand why he would not talk to us and where he has been.” Mimi said, “He has apparently had to make a choice and has found a path that has taken him far away from us.”

“Yes, and who was that Harper?” Becky asked.

“She must be someone he met where he ended up.” Mouse said, “My guess we will learn of what happened when we go to him.”

“I think so.” Becky said, “She was extremely beautiful, just like you are.”

Mouse smiled, feeling a flush across her cheeks.

“Well you should tell me about being beautiful, I got wolf whistles and cat calls all the way back from the PE Quad.” Becky managed a laugh, and sobered. Mouse met the grin she was trying to hide and they both laughed.

            “It’s true…” Rebecca told her, “More than you know. And if I were you, I would not go back to the table dressed like that.”  Becky added.

“No, my books are in there.” replied Mouse, “We should go get them and I want you to please walk me to class? We have something to discuss.”

“What’s on your mind Mimi?” asked her friend.

“I just wanted to know if you wanted to go shopping tonight. It seems I am going to need a new wardrobe.”  Mouse offered.

“OOOH I’d love to… make you so damn sexy you will have to beat men off with a stick.” Becky said, with a giggle. Mouse laughed, and shook her head ruefully. However, before she had a chance to continue, the young maiden frowned and turned, to face the . She had sensed Robert even before he had hit the Lounge, and neither the door to exit the building.

“We have an unga alert.” Mouse said matter-a-factly and Becky laughed aloud. Her laughter stopped when her head turned and she saw Robert appear from the doorway.

“My god that was amazing, how did you know?”

 Both of the women fell silent when he approached.

“Becky. I need to talk to you inside.”  He told her, and turning he nodded to Mouse.

“Hi…” Robert said, “Can you excuse us please?”

“We’ll be in, in a second.” Becky told him.

 “Come on, talk to me, you keep keeping stuff from me. That is not right.” Robert said. Becky shook her head.

“Not right now Robert.” She shot back, “I want to finish this conversation with Mouse. It is somewhat personal.”

            Robert turned his gaze upon the beautiful young woman who stood here. 

            “That’s not Mimi.” Robert said, “Quit lying to me.”

            “That IS Mouse and just go back inside, We will be right there in a minute.” She said, ignoring his whistle and pointing to the .

            “Robert, PLEASE!” Mimi grumbled, “It is important and there is a lot going on that not even I understand right now. When I know what’s happening, you will know.”

Quietly he shook his head, swearing quietly under his breath and grumbled, muttering curses under his breath as he lumbered off. Becky’s eyes narrowed, watching him depart and something was telling her about him that Mimi saw too.

Both the young woman saw that something had changed him, and they both realized that Rijiin had done also something for him. The elf’s healing power had healed him, and had improved Robert, making him seem a little better than he was. They immediately wondered about him, if like them, the elf had changed him any from what he was.

Rijiin in truth had tried to heal Robert, but his body had rejected the power of starlight and the Elf discovering the rejection had stopped it, refraining from further attempts to heal. They wondered if it would be an abuse of power if Rijiin would have healed him like that and looking forward in the starlight and the patterns saw the chaos caused by such a change. 

“Have you been seeing starlight when you close your eyes?” Mimi asked, and Becky turning her head, showing surprise.

“How did you know that?”

“I see it too.”

“I saw a lot more.” Becky added, “A woman robed in…”

“Blue and silver,” Mimi finished and beside her that Becky gasped. “She is a beautiful woman with long dark hair and eyes.” 

“Yes, who is she?”

“That is the Creatrix of Rijiin and Natil’s people, the Elves.” Mimi replied.

“Oh my god, is that that the Creatrix? The goddess?” asked Becky, astonished by the vision, “I never thought she would look like that!”

“It is she is waiting for us to come to her.” Mimi said, “We can go to her anytime we like.

“How,” Becky asked. Her voice filled with emotion, “How do I go to her.”

“Find a star in the darkness, and let its power bathe you and let it draw you.” Mimi said, “Come we’ll do it together.” Mouse took Becky’s hand, nodding and both closing their eyes they stared at the stars.

“Let one call you and pull you.” Mimi told her and they did, letting both be pulled called by a star, being drawn through the white cornea of the star. They appeared on the meadow.

Becky ran toward the Creatrix, and she ran with open arms, embracing her openly, weeping as she held her tight.

            “My Lady.” Becky whispered, “I am and cannot believe it’s you. I am glad to see you.”

            “Welcome Becky.” The Lady said, “Be at peace, you are here.”

            The young woman and the Creatrix talked, and yet Mouse held back, as she stood gazing up at the stars.  Mimi stared at the infinite reaches of the patterns, the lines of galaxies and planets.  She saw infinity and the realms of the farthest reaches of space.

            Mimi walked toward Becky, and bowed to the Lady.

            “Thank you Lady.” Mimi said, “Blessings upon you.”

            “…and on to you Mimietti.” She replied and the plain faded.

Becky and Mouse appeared together, hand in hand and Becky had tears in her eyes.

            “She is more beautiful than I ever realized.”

            “I don’t know who she is, but, she is the Elves, someone who they go to council and often. They should be so privileged.”

            “I know.”

“Well here is another calling card that now really demands it.” Mimi commented, as she handed Becky the note, and the young woman examined it.

“What kind of language is that?” Becky asked, but strangely, she too had the ability and no trouble to understand it. 

“I don’t know… Elvish?” Mimi replied and Becky shrugged.

“Whatever it is, it looks very elegant.” Becky observed, as she examined the note carefully.

“I don’t know, but I wonder.” Mimi said, holding out white card from the back pocket of her backpack and examined it. Becky followed suit and looked at her card, as did Mimi. Times were changing for them and this card was their key.

“We should go on Friday, Mouse.” Becky suggested, “ASAP. We really need to find out what’s going on and I have a suspicion this will show us what happened here today.”

“That’s for sure.” Grumbled Mouse, grunting and her attention turned back to the fountain, as did Becky.  There were many questions and there was no way to understand them all. They needed to just go there.  A few minutes later, they returned to the Fireside Lounge to pack up her books.

When Mimi stepped into the Fireside everyone looked up, Cathy, Vi and Steve as well as the others who were seated here. They said nothing as they walked up and she put the backpack on the table. There was surprised silence by the ones who had not seen the change and the miracle that had happened here today. It had been a couple of hours since Mouse had left the room and Dave had looked up in genuine surprise at the garb, as did Chris, and even Omar, recognizing who it was that now wore the strange garb.

“Wow.” Dave murmured to Omar who had nodded in silent reply, feeling the same revelation.

“Hey those are Mimi’s.” Cathy warned, and looked up to see the stranger’s face that was gathering the books up.  She was walking and her eyes narrowed for a moment to gasp aloud.

“Mouse?” Cathy asked, and the young woman who stood there nodded, smiling slightly.

“What the hell is going on here?” Cathy asked as Steve was nodding, also thinking the same thing.

“Nothing is going on. I have to get to class.” Mimi replied, and motioned to Becky. Together they walked away from the table but not quickly enough as Patrick reached out to goose Mimi, making her jump.

“EEK!” Mouse managed to yelp and turned on him, her hand raised and was going to slap him for being fresh, but hesitated, looking at her hand, lowering it slowly. She was blushing fiercely but had refrained from slapping Patrick.

Something in the stars told her that her small hand could have taken his head off. Mouse did not want to hurt him, blacking away she closed her eyes, letting the starlight flow through her, and it seemed to calm her. When she opened her eyes again, Mimi was not breathing hard at all.  She noticed fear and his body language as he sat cringing in his seat.

“Sorry Pat. What did I tell you? Stop that!” Mouse exclaimed, scolding and flirting with him. The young woman chuckled, her voice smooth, like water, noticing the slight inflection in it. She hugged him before stepping back, planting a kiss on his cheek. 

Beside her, Cathy was trying to get her attention and had tugged her arm several times. When Mouse turned, her friend reared up and exploded on her.

“You have some explaining to do Mimi. You’re not telling us everything.” Cathy said, “What’s going on? How and why are you walking why are you not in your wheelchair? What happened here, what is going on? This is not making sense.”

“It’s not needed.” Mouse replied simply, and turned.

“That’s no answer Mimi.” Cathy told her and Mouse only shrugged.

 “But... HEY…” Cathy exclaimed as her friend walked away.

“Mimi…” Steve grunted and yet hesitated as she left the table, walking through the door.

“Why didn’t you tell them?” Becky asked, and Mimi turned her head.

“How can I?” Mouse replied, “How can I explain to them how and what Rijiin did and that an Elf healed me. They’d think I was nuts and get people stirred up to lock me away.”

            “MMM, Good point.” Becky replied.

“Can you walk with me to class?” Mouse asked, “I just want to make sure of a few things. About Friday, I want to go to this place in Eastridge, and find out what this is all about, and what really happened here. What time you want to leave… Ten?”

Becky nodded and walking with Mouse, they headed toward the Art’s Quad. As they approached, they were shooting back and forth for times to go.  

“How bout six?” Becky asked and Mimi managed a nod.

“Good. I will meet you here.” Mimi told her, approaching her class.

            “I’ll see tonight at six then, on Friday.” Replied Becky, as Mimi nodded and entered the classroom leaving Becky alone in the quad.

            Turning the young woman walked toward the main quad and the sunken garden nearby, reflecting back to what she had seen earlier this morning. An event that she had hardly understood what exactly had happened other than it had seriously impacted her friend by the use of something that had not been on Earth for the last five hundred years.

            “But it did happen.” Becky said, pulling out the card, examining it, reading it several times, “And this card is the key.”

            The young woman named Becky Stack held the business card that Rijiin had given them, and like Mimi sensed a great change in which their time now here in the future seemed to be uncertain for them all. They had no idea of the journey that lies ahead, in which the trio, Becky, her husband and Mimi would be drawn somewhere to the East. A journey that would no doubt would be a very long one.

            However, at the same moment as the young woman stood on campus of the future, five hundred years ago, that Rijiin and Natil appeared from the swirling energy, opened by Rijiin that would take them home in the twelfth century. 

            The elves were glad to be home when they stepped into the familiar clearing in the , the same clearing their adventures had begun not long ago and Rijjin met the surprised looks of Terrill and Mirya. He raised his arms in greeting.

            “Ah home.” He murmured to Natil and she heard him, giggling quietly.

            Mirya smiled when she saw the Harper, running toward her and embracing her once and turning to greet Rijiin with the same embrace.

 “By our lady you are both safe.” Mirya said “And welcome home you two.”  

“Aye welcome home.” Terrill murmured, “I trust your mission was successful.”

Rijiin considered, looking into the stars and at the futures that he had before him that lay out like a river flowing in its bed.

“To repay a long outstanding debt, and to help and heal an old friend.” Rijiin replied, “Aye it was worth it, and our mission was successful.”

“It feels good to be home.” Rijiin replied, “Right Natil?”

“Aye.”  She replied, “Very much so.”

Mirya’s head turned, noting the strong inflection in his voice now and even Terrill had picked it up too.  They both had exchanged a look, knowing who and what they were seeing now. Rijiin was an Elf and starlight flowed freely through him. He had helped and healed. He had a home, purpose, and even some renewal.  

Terrill had been surprised when he saw his kinsman, seeing the very noticeable differences of a person who had once been human. It had been exactly as he had seen in Mirya before, who like Rijiin had walked the same path and had become and Elven. The Elf had taken his place with them in the world and given himself to their purpose here. Both Mirya and Terrill could not say they were wrong.

“Come, the others await you both and your return.” Terrill said and together the four walked down the path, hidden and known only to the Elves.

Before Rijiin left the clearing, however, he turned, briefly examining it for a moment and closed his eyes, letting the stars comfort him. A moment later, he turned his head meeting Natil’s questioning, loving gaze. He nodding his head as he joined her and embraced the young Harper, longing in his eyes, and leaning down to kiss her on the lips.

Surprised, Natil had gasped when he kissed her and just as they had on the campus. When they broke, Natil blushed even more furiously as before, but found she smiled more too in these last few weeks.  

“Amin sandae mela lle, Natili.” Rijiin said, “Tenn’oio… Enyala sina vesta a’mael. Amin selya va’ ranya hae, N’uma erma manke lye na lye tenn’oio na- alye.” 

“Lle cael- ahya a’re…” She replied, “Sut um- lle tyav?”

“Amin ie’ seere, amin tyav quateya, ar va on- ta de ten’ ai’nat e’ i’ palurin, na sinome yassen lle.”  He replied, making her gasp, smiling when he saw her reaction.

“Amin gorga mani amin selya vela sii’, i’ winya yestien amin anta.” Natil understood and embraced him.

“Lle cael mellone a’ astya lle fallan- ar evinyatae lle sint.” She replied, in a soothing voice and yet both turned their heads at Terrill who had paused with Mirya at the forest’s edge.

“Lle sinta, a’mael.” He said, holding her and they heard a clearing of the throat.

“Are you two coming?” Terrill asked, hiding a smile with his hand. He motioned to Rijiin in silence, as if to test him, and have him back to the encampment.

“Shall we go?” He asked, offering her an arm and she laughed quietly, taking it. They exited the clearing into the forest, quickly catching up with Mirya and Terrill.

Less than a half hour later, they walked into the clearing of the encampment of the Elves and entered the cave together. Varden, , Cara, Talla were there, as were many others. They greeted Rijiin and Natil. The couple talked very little about the journey, after being warmly embraced by the young woman named Charity.

“Did you…?” She asked him suddenly and Rijiin grimaced, but managed an affirmative nod.

 “That and worse.” He replied, sitting next to the fire and watched its flames. He knew he had something to look forward to now, and expected no doubt for his friends whom he healed by Elven Magic to come to him soon enough.

“If they want to come they can and are always welcome here.” Rijiin murmured, “I wonder if they will…?”

“Rijiin… Beloved… Are you alright?” Natil asked, and he met her questioning look.

“Aye Natili.” He replied, “Seere a’mael, amin cael- utue amin telaien, amin yesta. Amin utue amin yana’”

Natil smiled, and he put his hand on her knee. Rijiin knew he had finished his inward transition of changing into an Elf.

It was here that he would remain, this time always his proper place and with the bound love of a certain young Harper. However, he also looked forward to what was to come for him. Rijiin was seated next to Natil and he looked down at the pendant around his neck that reflected the light before putting his arm about her waist. He held her warmly as he accepted a cup of wine and met Talla’s amused smile. Natil managed a short laugh.

Based on Gail Baundino’s Series Strands of Starlight, Maze of Moonlight, Shrouds of Shadow, Strands of Sunlight, Spires of Spirit. This story is a fan fiction that takes place in 40 years between first and second book. It is dedicated to her and the Elves, because something in the story was able to touch me, and allow me a bit of healing too. It uses and features, three dialects of real Elvish tomes, based on Tolken, Gray Company and Quenya Elvish.

There will be two sequels to this story that will be between books 2 and 3 and one after book 4 in her series. This is a series that is a FICTIONON, Fan Based story and It may or may not be accurate to the storyline. Amin hiraetha (I apologize to Ms. Baudino and the Elves, in advance)

Below are some phrases that were not translated in story. 

(The Elvish phrase) = (English Translation.)

Diola lle, Rijiini = Thank you Rijiin

Lle Creoso = You're Welcome

Amin uuma merna a’ entul eller. Eller na ai’nat’ eller ten' amin sii'  = I will not want to return there. There is not anything there for me now.

Eller na ai’nat’ eller ten' amin sii' = There is not anything there for me now.

A! I’- yeste elen. = Ah! the first star.

Ta I’ alaseeien elen. = It/It is a radiant star.

Seasamin, A’mael = My pleasure Beloved.

Ta vanima = It/It is Beautiful.

Aye Natili, ta. = Yes Natili, it/it is.

Sai- saesaminien = Very pleasable

Alanae ea yolisi Elthia! By our Lady Elthia!

Aye, Manea = Yes, To you also.

Lle creoso Natili. = You/You are welcome, Natil

Tanya naa amin quel edhel wen = That is my good elf maiden.

Tulien… = Coming

Natili = Natil

A! Quel, Diola lle, Tallai. = Ah! Good, Thank you Talla.

Ta yassen amin saesamin = It/It is my pleasure. 

na- ie’ seere, Rijiini, Lle naa a’maelamin = Be at Peace Rijiin, You are my beloved.

Lye raa? = You are?

Manke, Rijiini…? = Where Rijiin?

, A'mael = Come, Beloved.

Lle cael-il elea ai’nat’ am, Natili = You

Lema ed’templa = Portal (Spell)

lye arwin! = By our Lady!

Rijiini…! Mani, naa lle’ umien a’mael? = Rijiin! What are you doing beloved?

Ta na an lema a’mael. Lye asc’e manka lye saes, ri i’ templa selya olvann. =

It/It is a long journey beloved. Your haste if you please, or the portal will vanish.

A’mael. = Beloved

Manke naa lye sii’ Rijiin,  = Where are we now, Rijiin?

ta ikotane a’mael, =  It is so Beloved.

Amin arwen, sinome na’ I’ men a’ manke lye ant aut-. = My lady, here is the path to where we need to go. 

Tul-e Natili, Ta sina men = Come Natil, It/It is this way.

Tulunka, Natili = Steady Natil.

Ta ve’ sina, ilya ‘i coiasira. = It/It is like the time.

Rijiini, tir- iilea, astael. = Rijiin, watch your stars.

Amin fir neuma sinome = I/My/Mine sense a trap here.

Aye, Amin, fir-ta vithel.  = Yes, I/My/Mine sense it also

Eller re naa, a'mael. = There she is, Beloved.

A! = Ah!

Ikotane tanya naa mani nornhamae na. = So that is what wheelchairs be.

Iye Natilli, ta he nornhama = Yes Natil, It/It is her wheelchair.

Ile naa ikotane, n’ataya, a’mael… we/us/ours are so different, beloved.

Iye = Yes

Ta ilya forya, a’mael. = It/It is all right, beloved.

Re’e  forya, Natili. Mimitti yassen’e sinta quenaya noldoe = She's Right Natil, Mimi without knowledge speaks wisely.

He nanquet i' amin manquetta farnuva.  = Her answer to my question will Suffice.

Seere a’mael. = Peace beloved.

Amin… Amin caela utue seere manke lle tul-a’... = I had to find peace, to come to.

Mani amin cael harya a’mani wanya naa ere'amin . = What I/My have left to come from departed and only I remain.

Dina Ungai, ri’ wany. Be silent Unga, or depart.

Lle Desiel? = You ready?

Amin’ e Desiel = I am ready.

Amin sandae mela lle, Natili = I truely love you Natil

Ilyamenea… Enyala sina vesta a’mael. = Always. Remember I this promise beloved.

Amin selya va’ ranya hae.= I will never stray far.

N’uma erma manke lye na lye tenn’oio na- alye’.”  = . No matter where we go we will always be together

lle cael- ahya a’re. = You have changed today…

Sut um- lle tyav = How do you feel

Amin ie’ seere,  = I feel at peace,

Amin tyav quateya, ar va on-de ten'ai'nat e'i'palurin na sinome yassen lle = I am energized, and will not give it up for anything in the world to be here with you.

Amin gorga mani amin selya vela sii', i' yestien amin anta. = I fear what I will see now, the new beginning I face.

Lle cael mellone a’ astya lle fallan- ar ten llea evinyatae lle sint. =

You have friends to help you heal and for your renewal you know

Lle sinta a’mael = I know beloved.

“Aye Natili.” = Yes Natil

Lle cael-il elea ai’nat’ am, Natili. Feith, ner lirille yenya lye. = You have not beheld anything yet, Natili. Wait, more lies before us.

Seere a’mael, amin cael- utue amin telaien, amin yesta. Amin utue amin yana’” =

Peace beloved. I have found my ending, my beginning. I have found my sanctary.

Iye… amin mela lle, Natili, sii, nae ten’oio… Lle ra' ikotane vanima nandaro. = Aye, I love you, Natil, now and always... You are beautiful Harper.

Best Regards,

Rijiin L’Thiejiev, Elf of Malvern

Erwin Stevens, Author.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

THIS is just a clipping from one of the New York papers; a little kidding piece that they had in about me two years ago. It says:

Hoosier Cleans Up in Wall Street. Employees of the brokerage firm of H. L. Krause & Co. are authority for the statement that a wealthy Indiana speculator made one of the biggest killings of the year in the Street yesterday afternoon. No very definite information was obtainable, as the Westerner's name was known to only one of the firm's employees, Francis Griffin, and he was unable to recall it last night.

You'd think I was a millionaire and that I'd made a sucker out of Morgan or something, but it's only a kid, see? If they'd of printed the true story they wouldn't of had no room left for that day's selections at Pimlico, and God knows that would of been fatal.

But if you want to hear about it, I'll tell you.

Well, the War wound up in the fall of 1918. The only member of my family that was killed in it was my wife's stepfather. He died of grief when it ended with him two hundred thousand dollars ahead. I immediately had a black bandage sewed round my left funny bone, but when they read us the will I felt all right again and tore it off. Our share was seventy-five thousand dollars. This was after we had paid for the inheritance tax and the amusement stamps on a horseless funeral.

My young sister-in-law, Katie, dragged down another seventy-five thousand dollars and the rest went to the old bird that had been foreman in Papa's factory. This old geezer had been starving to death for twenty years on the wages my stepfather-in-law give him, and the rest of us didn't make no holler when his name was read off for a small chunk, especially as he didn't have no teeth to enjoy it with.

I could of had this old foreman's share, maybe, if I'd of took advantage of the offer "Father" made me just before his daughter and I was married. I was over in Niles, Michigan, where they lived, and he insisted on me seeing his factory, which meant smelling it too. At that time I was knocking out about eighteen hundred dollars per annum selling cigars out of South Bend, and the old man said he would start me in with him at only about a fifty per cent cut, but we would also have the privilege of living with him and my wife's kid sister.

"They's a lot to be learnt about this business," he says, "but if you would put your mind on it you might work up to manager. Who knows?"

"My nose knows," I said, and that ended it.

The old man had lost some jack and went into debt a good many years ago, and for a long wile before the war begin about all as he was able to do was support himself and the two gals and pay off a part of what he owed. When the war broke loose and leather went up to hell and gone I and my wife thought he would get prosperous, but before this country went in his business went on about the same as usual.

"I don't know how they do it," he would say. "Other leather men is getting rich on contracts with the Allies, but I can't land a one."

I guess he was trying to sell razor strops to Russia.

Even after we got into it and he begin to clean up, with the factory running day and night, all as we knew was that he had contracts with the U. S. Government, but he never confided in us what special stuff he was turning out. For all as we knew, it may of been medals for the ground navy.

Anyway, he must of been hitting a fast clip when the armistice come and ended the war for everybody but Congress! It's a cinch he wasn't amongst those arrested for celebrating too loud on the night of November 11. On the contrary they tell me that when the big news hit Niles the old bird had a stroke that he didn't never recover from, and though my wife and Katie hung round the bedside day after day in the hopes he would tell how much he was going to leave he was keeping his fiscal secrets for Oliver Lodge or somebody, and it wasn't till we seen the will that we knew we wouldn't have to work no more, which is pretty fair consolation even for the loss of a stepfather-in-law that ran a perfume mill.

"Just think," said my wife, "after all his financial troubles, Papa died a rich man!"

"Yes," I said to myself, "and a patriot. His only regret was that he just had one year to sell leather to his country."

If the old codger had of only been half as fast a salesman as his two daughters this clipping would of been right when it called me a wealthy Hoosier. It wasn't two weeks after we seen the will when the gals had disposed of the odor factory and the old home in Niles, Michigan. Katie, it seemed, had to come over to South Bend and live with us. That was agreeable to me, as I figured that if two could live on eighteen hundred dollars a year three could struggle along some way on the income off one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Only for me, though, Ella and Sister Kate would of shot the whole wad into a checking account so as the bank could enjoy it wile it lasted. I argued and fought and finally persuaded them to keep five thousand apiece for pin money and stick the rest into bonds.

The next thing they done was run over to Chi and buy all the party dresses that was vacant. Then they come back to South Bend and wished somebody would give a party. But between you and I the people we'd always ran round with was birds that was ready for bed as soon as they got home from the first show, and even though it had been printed in the News-Times that we had fell heir to a lot of jack we didn't have to hire no extra clerical help to tend to invitations received from the demi-Monday.

Finally Ella said we would start something ourselves. So she got a lot of invitations printed and sent them to all our friends that could read and hired a cater and a three-piece orchestra and everything, and made me buy a dress suit.

Well, the big night arrived and everybody come that had somebody to leave their baby with. The hosts wore evening clothes and the rest of the merrymakers prepared for the occasion with a shine or a clean collar. At first the cat had everybody's tongue, but when we sat down to eat some of the men folks begun to get comical. For instance, they would say to my wife or Katie, "Ain't you afraid you'll catch cold?" And they'd say to me, "I didn't know you was a waiter at the Oliver." Before the fish course everybody was in a fair way to get the giggles.

After supper the musicians come and hid behind a geranium and played a jazz. The entire party set out the first dance. The second was a solo between Katie and I, and I had the third with my wife. Then Kate and the Mrs. had one together, wile I tried holds with a lady named Mrs. Eckhart, who seemed to think that somebody had ast her to stand for a time exposure. The men folks had all drifted over behind the plant to watch the drummer, but after the stalemate between Mrs. Eckhart and I, I grabbed her husband and took him out in the kitchen and showed him a bottle of bourbon that I'd been saving for myself, in the hopes it would loosen him up. I told him it was my last bottle, but he must of thought I said it was the last bottle in the world. Anyway, when he got through they was international prohibition.

We went back in the ballroom and sure enough he ast Katie to dance. But he hadn't no sooner than win one fall when his wife challenged him to take her home and that started the epidemic that emptied the house of everybody but the orchestra and us. The orchestra had been hired to stay till midnight, which was still two hours and a half distance, so I invited both of the gals to dance with me at once, but it seems like they was surfeited with that sport and wanted to cry a little. Well, the musicians had ran out of blues, so I chased them home.

"Some party!" I said, and the two girls give me a dirty look like it was my fault or something. So we all went to bed and the ladies beat me to it on account of being so near ready.

Well, they wasn't no return engagements even hinted at and the only other times all winter when the gals had a chance to dress up was when some secondhand company would come to town with a show and I'd have to buy a box. We couldn't ask nobody to go with us on account of not having no friends that you could depend on to not come in their stocking feet.

Finally it was summer and the Mrs. said she wanted to get out of town.

"We've got to be fair to Kate," she said.

"We don't know no young unmarried people in South Bend and it's no fun for a girl to run round with her sister and brother-in-law. Maybe if we'd go to some resort somewheres we might get acquainted with people that could show her a good time."

So I hired us rooms in a hotel down to Wawasee Lake and we stayed there from the last of June till the middle of September. During that time I caught a couple of bass and Kate caught a couple of carp from Fort Wayne. She was getting pretty friendly with one of them when along come a wife that he hadn't thought was worth mentioning. The other bird was making a fight against the gambling fever, but one night it got the best of him and he dropped forty-five cents in the nickel machine and had to go home and make a new start.

About a week before we was due to leave I made the remark that it would seem good to be back in South Bend and get some home cooking.

"Listen!" says my wife. "I been wanting for a long wile to have a serious talk with you and now's as good a time as any. Here are I and Sis and you with an income of over eight thousand dollars a year and having pretty near as good a time as a bird with habitual boils. What's more, we can't never have a good time in South Bend, but have got to move somewhere where we are unknown."

"South Bend is certainly all of that," I said.

"No, it isn't," said the Mrs. "We're acquainted there with the kind of people that makes it impossible for us to get acquainted with the other kind. Kate could live there twenty years and never meet a decent man. She's a mighty attractive girl, and if she had a chance they's nobody she couldn't marry. But she won't never have a chance in South Bend. And they's no use of you saying 'Let her move,' because I'm going to keep her under my eye till she's married and settled down. So in other words, I want us to pack up and leave South Bend for good and all and move somewhere where we'll get something for our money."

"For instance, where?" I ast her.

"They's only one place," she said; "New York City."

"I've heard of it," said I, "but I never heard that people who couldn't enjoy themselves on eight thousand a year in South Bend could go to New York and tear it wide open."

"I'm not planning to make no big splurge," she says. "I just want to be where they's Life and fun; where we can meet real live people. And as for not living there on eight thousand, think of the families that's already living there on half of that and less!"

"And think of the Life and fun they're having!" I says.

"But when you talk about eight thousand a year," said the Mrs., "why do we have to hold ourselves to that? We can sell some of those bonds and spend a little of our principal. It will just be taking money out of one investment and putting it in another."

"What other?" I ast her.

"Kate," said the wife. "You let me take her to New York and manage her and I'll get her a husband that'll think our eight thousand a year fell out of his vest."

"Do you mean," I said, "that you'd let a sister of yours marry for money?"

"Well," she says, "I know a sister of hers that wouldn't mind if she had."

So I argued and tried to compromise on somewhere in America, but it was New York or nothing with her. You see, she hadn't never been here, and all as she knew about it she'd read in books and magazines, and for some reason another when authors starts in on that subject it ain't very long till they've got a weeping jag. Besides, what chance did I have when she kept reminding me that it was her stepfather, not mine, that had croaked and made us all rich?

When I had give up she called Kate in and told her, and Kate squealed and kissed us both, though God knows I didn't deserve no remuneration or ask for none. 

Ella had things all planned out. We was to sell our furniture and take a furnished apartment here, but we would stay in some hotel till we found a furnished apartment that was within reason.

"Our stay in some hotel will be life-long," I said.

The furniture, when we come to sell it, wasn't worth nothing, and that's what we got. We didn't have nothing to ship, as Ella found room for our books in my collar box. I got two lowers and an upper in spite of the Government, and with two taxi drivers and the baggageman thronging the station platform we pulled out of South Bend and set forth to see Life.

The first four miles of the journey was marked by considerable sniveling on the part of the heiresses.

"If it's so painful to leave the Bend let's go back," I said.

"It isn't leaving the Bend," said the Mrs., "but it makes a person sad to leave any place."

"Then we're going to have a muggy trip," said I. "This train stops pretty near everywhere to either discharge passengers or employees."

They were still sobbing when we left Mishawaka and I had to pull some of my comical stuff to get their minds off. My wife's mighty easy to look at when she hasn't got those watery blues, but I never did see a gal that knocked you for a goal when her nose was in full bloom.

Katie had brought a flock of magazines and started in on one of them at Elkhart, but it's pretty tough trying to read with the Northern Indiana mountains to look out at, to say nothing about the birds of prey that kept prowling up and down the aisle in search of a little encouragement or a game of rhum.

I noticed a couple of them that would of give a lady an answer if she'd approached them in a nice way, but I've done some traveling myself and I know what kind of men it is that allows themselves to be drawed into a flirtation on trains. Most of them has made the mistake of getting married some time, but they don't tell you that. They tell you that you and a gal they use to be stuck on is as much alike as a pair of corsets, and if you ever come to Toledo to give them a ring, and they hand you a telephone number that's even harder to get than the ones there are; and they ask you your name and address and write it down, and the next time they're up at the Elks they show it to a couple of the brothers and tell what they'd of done if they'd only been going all the way through.

"Say, I hate to talk about myself! But say!"

Well, I didn't see no sense in letting Katie waste her time on those kind of guys, so every time one of them looked our way I give him the fish eye and the non-stop signal. But this was my first long trip since the Government started to play train, and I didn't know the new rules in regards to getting fed; otherwise I wouldn't of never cleaned up in Wall Street.

In the old days we use to wait till the boy come through and announced that dinner was now being served in the dining car forward; then we'd saunter into the washroom and wash our hands if necessary, and ramble into the diner and set right down and enjoy as big a meal as we could afford. But the Government wants to be economical, so they've cut down the number of trains, to say nothing about the victuals; and they's two or three times as many people traveling, because they can't throw their money away fast enough at home. So the result is that the wise guys keeps an eye on their watch and when it's about twenty minutes to dinner time they race to the diner and park against the door and get quick action; and after they've eat the first time they go out and stand in the vestibule and wait till it's their turn again, as one Federal meal don't do nothing to your appetite only whet it, you might say.

Well, anyway, I was playing the old rules and by the time I and the two gals started for the diner we run up against the outskirts of a crowd pretty near as big as the ones that waits outside restaurant windows to watch a pancake turn turtle. About eight o'clock we got to where we could see the wealthy dining car conductor in the distance, but it was only about once every quarter of an hour that he raised a hand, and then he seemed to of had all but one of his fingers shot off.

I have often heard it said that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but every time I ever seen men and women keep waiting for their eats it was always the frail sex that give the first yelp, and personally I've often wondered what would of happened in the trenches Over There if ladies had of been occupying them when the rations failed to show up. I guess the bombs bursting round would of sounded like Sweet and Low sang by a quextette of deef mutes.

Anyway, my two charges was like wild animals, and when the con finally held up two fingers I didn't have no more chance or desire to stop them than as if they was the Center College Football Club right after opening prayer.

The pair of them was ushered to a table for four where they already was a couple of guys making the best of it, and it wasn't more than ten minutes later when one of these birds dipped his bill in the finger bowl and staggered out, but by the time I took his place the other gent and my two gals was talking like barbers.

The guy was Francis Griffin that's in the clipping. But when Ella introduced us all as she said was, "This is my husband," without mentioning his name, which she didn't know at that time, or mine, which had probably slipped her memory.

Griffin looked at me like I was a side dish that he hadn't ordered. Well, I don't mind snubs except when I get them, so I ast him if he wasn't from Sioux City--you could tell he was from New York by his blue collar.

"From Sioux City!" he says. "I should hope not!"

"I beg your pardon," I said. "You look just like a photographer I used to know out there."

"I'm a New Yorker," he said, "and I can't get home too soon."

"Not on this train, you can't," I said.

"I missed the Century," he says.

"Well," I says with a polite smile, "the Century's loss is our gain."

"You wife's been telling me," he says, "that you're moving to the Big Town. Have you ever been there?"

"Only for a few hours," I says.

"Well," he said, "when you've been there a few weeks you'll wonder why you ever lived anywhere else. When I'm away from old Broadway I always feel like I'm only camping out."

Both the gals smiled their appreciation, so I says: "That certainly expresses it. You'd ought to remember that line and give it to Georgie Cohan."

"Old Georgie!" he says. "I'd give him anything I got and welcome. But listen! Your wife mentioned something about a good hotel to stop at wile you're looking for a home. Take my advice and pick out one that's near the center of things; you'll more than make up the difference in taxi bills. I lived up in the Hundreds one winter and it averaged me ten dollars a day in cab fares."

"You must of had a pleasant home life," I says.

"Me!" he said. "I'm an old bachelor."

"Old!" says Kate, and her and the Mrs. both giggled.

"But seriously," he says, "if I was you I would go right to the Baldwin, where you can get a room for twelve dollars a day for the three of you; and you're walking distance from the theaters or shops or cafés or anywheres you want to go."

"That sounds grand!" said Ella.

"As far as I'm concerned," I said, "I'd just as lief be overseas from any of the places you've mentioned. What I'm looking for is a home with a couple of beds and a cook-stove in the kitchen, and maybe a bath."

"But we want to see New York first," said Katie, "and we can do that better without no household cares."

"That's the idear!" says Griffin. "Eat, drink and be merry; to-morrow we may die."

"I guess we won't drink ourselves to death," I said, "not if the Big Town's like where we been living."

"Oh, say!" says our new friend. "Do you think little old New York is going to stand for prohibition? Why, listen! I can take you to thirty places to-morrow night where you can get all you want in any one of them."

"Let's pass up the other twenty-nine," I says.

"But that isn't the idear," he said. "What makes we New Yorkers sore is to think they should try and wish a law like that on Us. Isn't this supposed to be a government of the people, for the people and by the people?"

"People!" I said. "Who and the hell voted for prohibition if it wasn't the people?"

"The people of where?" he says. "A lot of small-time hicks that couldn't buy a drink if they wanted it."

"Including the hicks," I says, "that's in the New York State legislature."

"But not the people of New York City," he said. "And you can't tell me it's fair to spring a thing like this without warning on men that's got their fortunes tied up in liquor that they can't never get rid of now, only at a sacrifice."

"You're right," I said. "They ought to give them some warning. Instead of that they was never even a hint of what was coming off till Maine went dry seventy years ago."

"Maine?" he said. "What the hell is Maine?"

"I don't know," I said. "Only they was a ship or a boat or something named after it once, and the Spaniards sunk it and we sued them for libel or something."

"You're a smart Aleck," he said. "But speaking about war, where was you?"

"In the shipyards at South Bend painting a duck boat," I says. "And where was you?"

"I'd of been in there in a few more weeks," he says. "They wasn't no slackers in the Big Town."

"No," said I, "and America will never forget New York for coming in on our side."

By this time the gals was both giving me dirty looks, and we'd eat all we could get, so we paid our checks and went back in our car and I felt kind of apologetic, so I dug down in the old grip and got out a bottle of bourbon that a South Bend pal of mine, George Hull, had give me the day before; and Griffin and I went in the washroom with it and before the evening was over we was pretty near ready to forget national boundaries and kiss.

The old bourb' helped me save money the next morning, as I didn't care for no breakfast. Ella and Kate went in with Griffin and you could of knocked me over with a coupling pin when the Mrs. come back and reported that he'd insisted on paying the check. "He told us all about himself," she said. "His name is Francis Griffin and he's in Wall Street. Last year he cleared twenty thousand dollars in commissions and everything."

"He's a piker," I says. "Most of them never even think under six figures."

"There you go!" said the Mrs. "You never believe nothing. Why shouldn't he be telling the truth? Didn't he buy our breakfast?"

"I been buying your breakfast for five years," I said, "but that don't prove that I'm knocking out twenty thousand per annum in Wall Street."

Francis and Katie was setting together four or five seats ahead of us.

"You ought to of seen the way he looked at her in the diner," said the Mrs. "He looked like he wanted to eat her up."

"Everybody gets desperate in a diner these days," I said. "Did you and Kate go fifty-fifty with him? Did you tell him how much money we got?"

"I should say not!" says Ella. "But I guess we did say that you wasn't doing nothing just now and that we was going to New York to see Life, after being cooped up in a small town all these years. And Sis told him you'd made us put pretty near everything in bonds, so all we can spend is eight thousand a year. He said that wouldn't go very far in the Big Town."

"I doubt if it ever gets as far as the Big Town," I said. "It won't if he makes up his mind to take it away from us."

"Oh, shut up!" said the Mrs. "He's all right and I'm for him, and I hope Sis is too. They'd make a stunning couple. I wished I knew what they're talking about."

"Well," I said, "they're both so reserved that I suppose they're telling each other how they're affected by cucumbers."

When they come back and joined us Ella said: "We was just remarking how well you two young things seemed to be getting along. We was wondering what you found to say to one another all this time."

"Well," said Francis, "just now I think we were discussing you. Your sister said you'd been married five years and I pretty near felt like calling her a fibber. I told her you looked like you was just out of high school."

"I've heard about you New Yorkers before," said the Mrs. "You're always trying to flatter somebody."

"Not me," said Francis. "I never say nothing without meaning it."

"But sometimes," says I, "you'd ought to go on and explain the meaning."

Along about Schenectady my appetite begin to come back. I'd made it a point this time to find out when the diner was going to open, and then when it did our party fell in with the door.

"The wife tells me you're on the stock exchange," I says to Francis when we'd give our order.

"Just in a small way," he said. "But they been pretty good to me down there. I knocked out twenty thousand last year."

"That's what he told us this morning," said Ella.

"Well," said I, "they's no reason for a man to forget that kind of money between Rochester and Albany, even if this is a slow train."

"Twenty thousand isn't a whole lot in the Big Town," said Francis, "but still and all, I manage to get along and enjoy myself a little on the side."

"I suppose it's enough to keep one person," I said.

"Well," says Francis, "they say two can live as cheap as one."

Then him and Kate and Ella all giggled, and the waiter brought in a part of what he thought we'd ordered and we eat what we could and ast for the check. Francis said he wanted it and I was going to give in to him after a long hard struggle, but the gals reminded him that he'd paid for breakfast, so he said all right, but we'd all have to take dinner with him some night.

I and Francis set a wile in the washroom and smoked, and then he went to entertain the gals, but I figured the wife would go right to sleep like she always does when they's any scenery to look out at, so I stuck where I was and listened to what a couple of toothpick salesmen from Omsk would of done with the League of Nations if Wilson had of had sense enough to leave it to them.

Pulling into the Grand Central Station, Francis apologized for not being able to steer us over to the Baldwin and see us settled, but said he had to rush right downtown and report on his Chicago trip before the office closed. To see him when he parted with the gals you'd of thought he was going clear to Siberia to compete in the Olympic Games, or whatever it is we're in over there.

Well, I took the heiresses to the Baldwin and got a regular Big Town welcome. Ella and Kate set against a pillar wile I tried different tricks to make an oil-haired clerk look at me. New York hotel clerks always seem to of just dropped something and can't take their eyes off the floor. Finally I started to pick up the register and the guy give me the fish eye and ast what he could do for me.

"Well," I said, "when I come to a hotel I don't usually want to buy a straw hat."

He ast me if I had a reservation and I told him no.

"Can't do nothing for you then," he says. "Not till to-morrow morning anyway."

So I went back to the ladies.

"We'll have to go somewhere else," I said. "This joint's a joint. They won't give us nothing till to-morrow."

"But we can't go nowhere else," said the Mrs. "What would Mr. Griffin think, after recommending us to come here?"

"Well," I said, "if you think I'm going to park myself in a four-post chair all night just because we got a tip on a hotel from Wall Street you're Queen of the Cuckoos."

"Are you sure they haven't anything at all?" she says.

"Go ask them yourself!" I told her.

Well, she did, and in about ten minutes she come back and said everything was fixed. 

"They'll give us a single room with bath and a double room with bath for fifteen dollars a day," she said.

"'Give us' is good!" said I.

"I told him we'd wired for reservations and it wasn't our fault if the wire didn't get here," she said. "He was awfully nice."

Our rooms was right close to each other on the twenty-first floor. On the way up we decided by two votes to one that we'd dress for dinner. I was still monkeying with my tie when Katie come in for Ella to look her over. She had on the riskiest dress she'd bought in Chi.

"It's a pretty dress," she said, "but I'm afraid maybe it's too daring for just a hotel dining room."

Say we hadn't no sooner than set down in the hotel dining room when two other gals come in that made my team look like they was dressed for a sleigh ride with Doc Cook.

"I guess you don't feel so daring now," I said. "Compared to that baby in black you're wearing Jess Willard's ulster."

"Do you know what that black gown cost?" said Ella. "Not a cent under seven hundred dollars."

"That would make the material twenty-one hundred dollars a yard," I says.

"I'd like to know where she got it," said Katie.

"Maybe she cut up an old stocking," said I.

"I wished now," said the Mrs., "that we'd waited till we got here before we bought our clothes."

"You can bet one thing," says Katie. "Before we're ast out anywhere on a real party we'll have something to wear that isn't a year old." 

"First thing to-morrow morning," says the Mrs., "we'll go over on Fifth Avenue and see what we can see."

"They'll only be two on that excursion," I says.

"Oh, we don't want you along," said Ella. "But I do wished you'd go to some first-class men's store and get some ties and shirts and things that don't look like an embalmer."

Well, after a wile one of the waiters got it in his head that maybe we hadn't came in to take a bath, so he fetched over a couple of programs.

"Never mind them," I says. "What's ready? We're in a hurry."

"The Long Island Duckling's very nice," he said. "And how about some nice au gratin potatoes and some nice lettuce and tomato salad with Thousand Island dressing, and maybe some nice French pastry?"

"Everything seems to be nice here," I said. "But wait a minute. How about something to drink?"

He give me a mysterious smile.

"Well," he said, "they're watching us pretty close here, but we serve something we call a cup. It comes from the bar and we're not supposed to know what the bartender puts in it."

"We'll try and find out," I said. "And rush this order through, as we're starved."

So he frisked out and was back again in less than an hour with another guy to help carry the stuff, though Lord knows he could of parked the three ducklings on one eyelid and the whole meal on the back of his hand. As for the cup, when you tasted it they wasn't no big mystery about what the bartender had put in it--a bottle of seltzer and a prune and a cherry and an orange peel, and maybe his finger. The check come to eighteen dollars and Ella made me tip him the rest of a twenty.

Before dinner the gals had been all for staying up a wile and looking the crowd over, but when we was through they both owned up that they hadn't slept much on the train and was ready for bed.

Ella and Kate was up early in the morning. They had their breakfast without me and went over to stun Fifth Avenue. About ten o'clock Francis phoned to say he'd call round for us that evening and take us to dinner. The gals didn't get back till late in the afternoon, but from one o'clock on I was too busy signing for packages to get lonesome. Ella finally staggered in with some more and I told her about our invitation.

"Yes, I know," she said.

"How do you know?" I ast her.

"He told us," she said. "We had to call him up to get a check cashed."

"You got plenty nerve!" I said. "How does he know your checks is good?"

"Well, he likes us," she said. "You'll like us too when you see us in some of the gowns we bought."

"Some!" I said.

"Why, yes," said the Mrs. "You don't think a girl can go round in New York with one evening dress!"

"How much money did you spend to-day?" I ast her.

"Well," she said, "things are terribly high--that is, nice things. And then, of course, there's suits and hats and things besides the gowns. But remember, it's our money. And as I told you, it's an investment. When young Mister Wall Street sees Kate to-night it'll be all off."

"I didn't call on you for no speech," I says. "I ast you how much you spent."

"Not quite sixteen hundred dollars."

I was still out on my feet when the phone rung. Ella answered it and then told me it was all right about the tickets.

"What tickets?" I said.

"Why, you see," she says, "after young Griffin fixing us up with that check and inviting us to dinner and everything we thought it would be nice to take him to a show to-night. Kate wanted to see Ups and Downs, but the girl said she couldn't get us seats for it. So I ast that nice clerk that took care of us yesterday and he's fixed it."

"All right," I said, "but when young Griffin starts a party, why and the hell not let him finish it?"

"I suppose he would of took us somewhere after dinner," says the Mrs., "but I couldn't be sure. And between you and I, I'm positive that if he and Kate is throwed together a whole evening, and her looking like she'll look to-night, we'll get mighty quick returns on our investment."

Well, to make a short story out of it, the gals finally got what they called dressed, and I wished Niles, Michigan, or South Bend could of seen them. If boxers wore bathing skirts I'd of thought I was in the ring with a couple of bantams.

"Listen!" I said. "What did them two girdles cost?"

"Mine was three hundred and Kate's three hundred and fifty," said the Mrs.

"Well," I says, "don't you know that you could of went to any cut-rate drugstore and wrapped yourself up just as warm in thirty-two cents' worth of adhesive tape? Listen!" I said. "What's the use of me paying a burglar for tickets to a show like Ups and Downs when I could set round here and look at you for nothing?"

Then Griffin rung up to say that he was waiting and we went downstairs. Francis took us in the same dining room we'd been in the night before, but this time the waiters all fought each other to get to us first.

I don't know what we eat, as Francis had something on the hip that kind of dazed me for a wile, but afterwards I know we got a taxi and went to the theater. The tickets was there in my name and only cost me thirteen dollars and twenty cents.

Maybe you seen this show wile it was here. Some show! I didn't read the program to see who wrote it, but I guess the words was by Noah and the music took the highest awards at the St. Louis Fair. They had a good system on the gags. They didn't spring none but what you'd heard all your life and knew what was coming, so instead of just laughing at the point you laughed all the way through it.

I said to Ella, I said, "I bet the birds that run this don't want prohibition. If people paid $3.30 apiece and come in here sober they'd come back the next night with a machine gun."

"I think it's dandy," she says, "and you'll notice every seat is full. But listen! Will you do something for me? When this is over suggest that we go up to the Castle Roof for a wile." 

"What for?" I said. "I'm sleepy."

"Just this once," she says. "You know what I told you about quick returns!"

Well, I give in and made the suggestion, and I never seen people so easy coaxed. I managed to get a ringside table for twenty-two bucks. Then I ast the boy how about getting a drink and he ast me if I knew any of the head waiters.

"I do," says Francis. "Tell Hector it's for Frank Griffin's party."

So we ordered four Scotch highballs and some chicken à la King, and then the dinge orchestra tore loose some jazz and I was expecting a dance with Ella, but before she could ask me Francis had ast her, and I had one with Kate.

"Your Wall Street friend's a fox," I says, "asking an old married lady to dance so's to stand in with the family."

"Old married lady!" said Kate. "Sis don't look a day over sixteen to-night."

"How are you and Francis coming?" I ast her.

"I don't know," she says. "He acts kind of shy. He hasn't hardly said a word to me all evening."

Well, they was another jazz and I danced it with Ella; then her and Francis had another one and I danced again with Kate. By this time our food and refreshments was served and the show was getting ready to start.

I could write a book on what I don't remember about that show. The first sip of their idear of a Scotch highball put me down for the count of eight and I was practic'lly unconscious till the waiter woke me up with a check for forty bucks.

Francis seen us home and said he would call up again soon, and when Ella and I was alone I made the remark that I didn't think he'd ever strain his larnix talking to Kate.

"He acts gun-shy when he's round her," I says. "You seem to be the one that draws him out."

"It's a good sign," she says. "A man's always embarrassed when he's with a girl he's stuck on. I'll bet you anything you want to bet that within a week something'll happen."

Well, she win. She'd of win if she'd of said three days instead of a week. It was a Wednesday night when we had that party, and on the Friday Francis called up and said he had tickets for the Palace. I'd been laid up mean wile with the Scotch influenza, so I told the gals to cut me out. I was still awake yet when Ella come in a little after midnight.

"Well," I asked, "are we going to have a brother-in-law?"

"Mighty soon," she says. 

So I ast her what had come off.

"Nothing-to-night," she says, "except this: He wrote me a note. He wants me to go with him to-morrow afternoon and look at a little furnished apartment. And he ast me if I could come without Sis, as he wants to pull a surprise on her. So I wondered if you couldn't think of some way to fix it so's I can sneak off for a couple of hours."

"Sure!" I said. "Just tell her you didn't sleep all night and you're wore out and want to take a nap."

So she pulled this gag at lunch Saturday and Katie said she was tired too. She went up to her room and Ella snuck out to keep her date with Francis. In less than an hour she romped into our room again and throwed herself on the bed.

"Well," I says, "it must of been a little apartment if it didn't only take you this long to see it."

"Oh, shut up!" she said. "I didn't see no apartment. And don't say a word to me or I'll scream."

Well, I finally got her calmed down and she give me the details. It seems that she'd met Francis, and he'd got a taxi and they'd got in the taxi and they hadn't no sooner than got in the taxi when Francis give her a kiss.

"Quick returns," I says.

"I'll kill you if you say another word!" she says.

So I managed to keep still.

Well, I didn't know Francis' home address, and Wall Street don't run Sundays, so I spent the Sabbath training on a quart of rye that a bell hop picked up at a bargain sale somewhere for fifteen dollars. Mean wile Katie had been let in on the secret and staid in our room all day, moaning like a prune-fed calf.

"I'm afraid to leave her alone," says Ella. "I'm afraid she'll jump out the window."

"You're easily worried," I said. "What I'm afraid of is that she won't."

Monday morning finally come, as it generally always does, and I told the gals I was going to some first-class men's store and buy myself some ties and shirts that didn't look like a South Bend embalmer.

So the only store I knew about was H. L. Krause & Co. in Wall Street, but it turned out to be an office. I ast for Mr. Griffin and they ast me my name and I made one up, Sam Hall or something, and out he come.

If I told you the rest of it you'd think I was bragging. But I did bust a few records. Charley Brickley and Walter Eckersall both kicked five goals from field in one football game, and they was a bird named Robertson or something out at Purdue that kicked seven. Then they was one of the old-time ball players, Bobby Lowe or Ed Delehanty, that hit four or five home runs in one afternoon. And out to Toledo that time Dempsey made big Jess set down seven times in one round.

Well, listen! In a little less than three minutes I floored this bird nine times and I kicked him for eight goals from the field and I hit him over the fence for ten home runs. Don't talk records to me!

So that's what they meant in the clipping about a Hoosier cleaning up in Wall Street. But it's only a kid, see?

II

Ritchey

WELL, I was just getting used to the Baldwin and making a few friends round there when Ella suddenly happened to remember that it was Griffin who had recommended it. So one day, wile Kate was down to the chiropodist's, Ella says it was time for us to move and she had made up her mind to find an apartment somewheres.

"We could get along with six rooms," she said. "All as I ask is for it to be a new building and on some good street, some street where the real people lives."

"You mean Fifth Avenue," said I.

"Oh, no," she says. "That's way over our head. But we'd ought to be able to find something, say, on Riverside Drive."

"A six room apartment," I says, "in a new building on Riverside Drive? What was you expecting to pay?"

"Well," she said, "you remember that time I and Kate visited the Kitchells in Chi? They had a dandy apartment on Sheridan Road, six rooms and brand new. It cost them seventy-five dollars a month. And Sheridan Road is Chicago's Riverside Drive."

"Oh, no," I says. "Chicago's Riverside Drive is Canal Street. But listen: Didn't the Kitchells have their own furniture?"

"Sure they did," said Ella.

"And are you intending to furnish us all over complete?" I asked her.

"Of course not," she says. "I expect to get a furnished apartment. But that don't only make about twenty-five dollars a month difference."

"Listen," I said: "It was six years ago that you visited the Kitchells; beside which, that was Chi and this is the Big Town. If you find a six room furnished apartment for a hundred dollars in New York City to-day, we'll be on Pell Street in Chinatown, and maybe Katie can marry into a laundry or a joss house."

"Well," said the wife, "even if we have to go to $150 a month for a place on the Drive, remember half of it's my money and half of it's Kate's, and none of it's yours."

"You're certainly letter perfect in that speech," I says.

"And further and more," said Ella, "you remember what I told you the other day. Wile one reason we moved to New York was to see Life, the main idear was to give Kate a chance to meet real men. So every nickel we spend making ourself look good is just an investment."

"I'd rather feel good than look good," I says, "and I hate to see us spending so much money on a place to live that they won't be nothing left to live on. For three or four hundred a month you might get a joint on the Drive with a bed and two chairs, but I can't drink furniture."

"This trip wasn't planned as no spree for you," says Ella. "On the other hand, I believe Sis would stand a whole lot better show of landing the right kind of a man if the rumor was to get out that her brother-in-law stayed sober once in a wile."

"Well," I said, "I don't think my liberal attitude on the drink question affected the results of our deal in Wall Street. That investment would of turned out just as good whether I was a teetotaler or a lush."

"Listen," she says: "The next time you mention ancient history like that, I'll make a little investment in a lawyer. But what's the use of arguing? I and Kate has made up our mind to do things our own way with our own money, and to-day we're going up on the Drive with a real estate man. We won't pay no more than we can afford. All as we want is a place that's good enough and big enough for Sis to entertain her gentleman callers in it, and she certainly can't do that in this hotel."

"Well," I says, "all her gentleman callers that's been around here in the last month, she could entertain them in one bunch in a telephone booth."

"The reason she's been let alone so far," says the Mrs., "is because I won't allow her to meet the kind of men that stays at hotels. You never know who they are."

"Why not?" I said. "They've all got to register their name when they come in, which is more than you can say for people that lives in $100 apartments on Riverside Drive."

Well, my arguments went so good that for the next three days the two gals was on a home-seekers' excursion and I had to spend my time learning the eastern intercollegiate kelly pool rules up to Doyle's. I win about seventy-five dollars.

When the ladies come home the first two nights they was all wore out and singing the landlord blues, but on the third afternoon they busted in all smiles.

"We've found one," says Ella. "Six rooms; too."

"Where at?" I asked her.

"Just where we wanted it," she says. "On the Drive. And it fronts right on the Hudson."

"No!" I said. "I thought they built them all facing the other way."

"It almost seems," said Katie, "like you could reach out and touch New Jersey."

"It's what you might call a near beer apartment," I says.

"And it's almost across the street from Grant's Tomb," says Ella.

"How many rooms has he got?" I says.

"We was pretty lucky," said Ella. "The people that had it was forced to go south for the man's health. He's a kind of a cripple. And they decided to sublet it furnished. So we got a bargain."

"Come on," I says. "What price?"

"Well," she says, "they don't talk prices by the month in New York. They give you the price by the year. So it sounds a lot more than it really is. We got it for $4,000."

"Sweet patootie!" I said. "That's only half your income."

"Well, what of it?" says Ella. "It won't only be for about a year and it's in the nicest kind of a neighborhood and we can't meet nothing only the best kind of people. You know what I told you." 

And she give me a sly wink.

Well, it seems like they had signed up a year's lease and paid a month's rent in advance, so what was they left for me to say? All I done was make the remark that I didn't see how we was going to come even close to a trial balance.

"Why not?" said Katie. "With our rent paid we can get along easy on $4,000 a year if we economize."

"Yes," I said. "You'll economize just like the rest of the Riverside Drivers, with a couple of servants and a car and four or five new evening dresses a month. By the end of six months the bank'll be figuring our account in marks."

"What do you mean 'our' account?" says Ella.

"But speaking about a car," said Katie, "do you suppose we could get a good one cheap?"

"Certainly," I said. "They're giving away the good ones for four double coupons."

"But I mean an inexpensive one," says Kate.

"You can't live on the River and ride in a flivver," I said. "Besides, the buses limp right by the door."

"Oh, I love the buses!" said Ella.

"Wait. till you see the place," says Katie to me. "You'll go simply wild! They's a colored boy in uniform to open the door and they's two elevators."

"How high do we go?" I said.

"We're on the sixth floor," says Katie.

"I should think we could get that far in one elevator," I says.

"What was it the real estate man told us?" said Ella. "Oh, yes, he said the sixth floor was the floor everybody tried to get on."

"It's a wonder he didn't knock it," I said.

Well, we was to have immediate possession, so the next morning we checked out of this joint and swooped up on the Drive. The colored boy, who I nicknamed George, helped us up with the wardrobe. Ella had the key and inside of fifteen minutes she'd found it. 

We hadn't no sooner than made our entree into our new home when I knew what ailed the previous tenant. He'd crippled himself stumbling over the furniture. The living room was big enough to stage the high hurdles, and that's what was in it, only they'd planted them every two feet apart. If a stew with the blind staggers had of walked in there in the dark, the folks on the floor below would of thought he'd knocked the head pin for a goal.

"Come across the room," said Ella, "and look at the view."

"I guess I can get there in four downs," I said, "but you better have a substitute warming up."

"Well," she says, when I'd finally fell acrost the last white chalk mark, "what do you think of it?"

"It's a damn pretty view," I says, "but I've often seen the same view from the top of a bus for a thin dime."

Well, they showed me over the whole joint and it did look O.K., but not $4,000 worth. The best thing in the place was a half full bottle of rye in the kitchen that the cripple hadn't gone south with. I did.

We got there at eleven o'clock in the morning, but at three p.m. the gals was still hanging up their Follies costumes, so I beat it out and over to Broadway and got myself a plate of pea soup. When I come back, Ella and Katie was laying down exhausted. Finally I told Ella that I was going to move back to the hotel unless they served meals in this dump, so her and Kate got up and went marketing. Well, when you move from Indiana to the Big Town, of course you can't be expected to do your own cooking, so what we had that night was from the delicatessen, and for the next four days we lived on dill pickles with dill pickles.

"Listen," I finally says: "The only reason I consented to leave the hotel was in the hopes I could get a real home cook meal once in a wile and if I don't get a real home cook meal once in a while, I leave this dive."

"Have a little bit of patience," says Ella. "I advertised in the paper for a cook the day before we come here, the day we rented this apartment. And I offered eight dollars a week."

"How many replies did you get?" I asked her. 

"Well," she said, "I haven't got none so far, but it's probably too soon to expect any."

"What did you advertise in, the world almanac?" I says.

"No, sir," she says. "I advertised in the two biggest New York papers, the ones the real estate man recommended."

"Listen," I said: "Where do you think you're at, in Niles, Michigan? If you get a cook here for eight dollars a week, it'll be a one-armed leper that hasn't yet reached her teens."

"What would you do, then?" she asked me.

"I'd write to an employment agency," I says, "and I'd tell them we'll pay good wages."

So she done that and in three days the phone rung and the agency said they had one prospect on hand and did we want her to come out and see us. So Ella said we did and out come a colleen for an interview. She asked how much we was willing to pay.

"Well," said Ella, "I'd go as high as twelve dollars. Or I'd make it fifteen if you done the washing."

Kathleen Mavourneen turned her native color.

"Well," I said, "how much do you want?"

"I'll work for ninety dollars a month," she said, only I can't get the brogue. "That's for the cookin' only. No washin'. And I would have to have a room with a bath and all day Thursdays and Sunday evenin's off."

"Nothing doing," said Ella, and the colleen started for the door.

"Wait a minute," I says. "Listen: Is that what you gals is getting in New York?"

"We're a spalpeen if we ain't," says the colleen bawn.

Well, I was desperate, so I called the wife to one side and says: "For heaven's sakes, take her on a month's trial. I'll pay the most of it with a little piece of money I picked up last week down to Doyle's. I'd rather do that than get dill pickled for a goal."

"Could you come right away?" Ella asked her.

"Not for a couple days," says Kathleen. 

"It's off, then," I said. "You cook our supper to-night or go back to Greece."

"Well," she says, "I guess I could make it if I hurried."

So she went away and come back with her suitcase, and she cooked our supper that night. And Oh darlint!

Well, Beautiful Katie still had the automobile bug and it wasn't none of my business to steer her off of it and pretty near every day she would go down to the "row" and look them over. But every night she'd come home whistling a dirge.

"I guess I've seen them all," she'd say, "but they're too expensive or else they look like they wasn't."

But one time we was all coming home in a taxi from a show and come up Broadway and all of a sudden she yelled for the driver to stop.

"That's a new one in that window," she says, "and one I never see before."

Well, the dive was closed at the time and we couldn't get in, but she insisted on going down there the first thing in the morning and I and Ella must go along. The car was a brand new model Bam Eight.

"How much?" I asked him.

"Four thousand," he says.

"When could I get one?" says Katie.

"I don't know," said the salesman.

"What do you mean?" I asked him. "Haven't they made none of them?"

"I don't know," says the salesman. "This is the only one we got."

"Has anybody ever rode in one?" I says.

"I don't know," said the guy.

So I asked him what made it worth four thousand.

"Well," he says, "what made this lady want one?"

"I don't know," I said.

"Could I have this one that's on the floor?" says Katie.

"I don't know," said the salesman.

"Well, when do you think I could get one?" says Katie.

"We can't promise no deliveries," says the salesman. 

Well, that kind of fretted me, so I asked him if they wasn't a salesman we could talk to.

"You're talking to one," he said.

"Yes, I know," said I. "But I used to be a kind of a salesman myself, and when I was trying to sell things, I didn't try and not sell them."

"Yes," he says, "but you wasn't selling automobiles in New York in 1920. Listen," he says: "I'll be frank with you. We got the New York agency for this car and was glad to get it because it sells for four thousand and anything that sells that high, why the people will eat up, even if it's a pearl-handle ketchup bottle. If we ever do happen to get a consignment of these cars, they'll sell like oil stock. The last word we got from the factory was that they'd send us three cars next September. So that means we'll get two cars a year from next October and if we can spare either of them, you can have one."

So then he begin to yawn and I said, "Come on, girls," and we got a taxi and beat it home. And I wouldn't of said nothing about it, only if Katie had of been able to buy her Bam, what come off might of never came off.

It wasn't only two nights later when Ella come in from shopping all excited. "Well," she said, "talk about experiences! I just had a ride home and it wasn't in a street car and it wasn't in a taxi and it wasn't on the subway and it wasn't on a bus."

"Let's play charades," said I.

"Tell us, Sis," says Katie.

"Well," said the wife, "I was down on Fifth Avenue, waiting for a bus, and all of a sudden a big limousine drew up to the curb with a livery chauffeur, and a man got out of the back seat and took off his hat and asked if he couldn't see me home. And of course I didn't pay no attention to him."

"Of course not," I said.

"But," says Ella, "he says, 'Don't take no offense. I think we're next door neighbors. Don't you live acrost the hall on the sixth floor of the Lucius?' So of course I had to tell him I did." 

"Of course," I said.

"And then he said," says Ella, "'Is that your sister living with you?' 'Yes,' I said, 'she lives with my husband and I.' 'Well,' he says, 'if you'll get in and let me take you home, I'll tell you what a beautiful girl I think she is.' So I seen then that he was all right, so I got in and come home with him. And honestly, Sis, he's just wild about you!"

"What is he like?" says Katie.

"He's stunning," says the wife. "Tall and wears dandy clothes and got a cute mustache that turns up."

"How old?" says Kate, and the Mrs. kind of stalled.

"Well," she said, "he's the kind of a man that you can't tell how old they are, but he's not old. I'd say he was, well, maybe he's not even that old."

"What's his name?" asked Kate.

"Trumbull," said the Mrs. "He said he was keeping bachelor quarters, but I don't know if he's really a bachelor or a widower. Anyway, he's a dandy fella and must have lots of money. Just imagine living alone in one of these apartments!"

"Imagine living in one of them whether you're a bachelor or a Mormon," I says.

"Who said he lived alone?" asked Katie.

"He did," says the Mrs. "He told me that him and his servants had the whole apartment to themselves. And that's what makes it so nice, because he's asked the three of us over there to dinner to-morrow night."

"What makes it so nice?" I asked her.

"Because it does," said Ella, and you can't ever beat an argument like that.

So the next night the two girls donned their undress uniforms and made me put on the oysters and horse radish and we went acrost the hall to meet our hero. The door was opened by a rug peddler and he showed us into a twin brother to our own living room, only you could get around it without being Houdini.

"Mr. Trumbull will be right out," said Omar. 

The ladies was shaking like an aspirin leaf, but in a few minutes, in come mine host. However old Ella had thought he wasn't, she was wrong. He'd seen baseball when the second bounce was out. If he'd of started his career as a barber in Washington, he'd of tried to wish a face massage on Zachary Taylor. The only thing young about him was his teeth and his clothes. His dinner suit made me feel like I was walking along the station platform at Toledo, looking for hot boxes.

"Ah, here you are!" he says. "It's mighty nice of you to be neighborly. And so this is the young sister. Well," he says to me, "you had your choice, and as far as I can see, it was heads you win and tails you win. You're lucky."

So when he'd spread all the salve, he rung the bell and in come Allah with cocktails. I don't know what was in them, but when Ella and Katie had had two apiece, they both begin to trill.

Finally we was called in to dinner and every other course was hootch. After the solid and liquid diet, he turned on the steam piano and we all danced. I had one with Beautiful Katie and the rest of them was with my wife, or, as I have nicknamed them, quarrels. Well, the steam run out of three of us at the same time, the piano inclusive, and Ella sat down in a chair that was made for Eddie Foy's family and said how comfortable it was.

"Yes," says Methuselah, "that's my favorite chair. And I bet you wouldn't believe me if I told you how much it cost."

"Oh, I'd like to know," says Ella.

"Two hundred dollars," says mine host.

"Do you still feel comfortable?" I asked her.

"Speaking about furniture," said the old bird, "I've got a few bits that I'm proud of. Would you like to take a look at them?"

So the gals said they would and we had to go through the entire apartment, looking at bits. The best bits I seen was tastefully wrapped up in kegs and cases. It seemed like every time he opened a drawer, a cork popped up. He was a hundred per cent proofer than the governor of New Jersey. But he was giving us a lecture on the furniture itself, not the polish.

"I picked up this dining room suit for eighteen hundred," he says.

"Do you mean the one you've got on?" I asked him, and the gals give me a dirty look.

"And this rug," he says, stomping on an old rag carpet. "How much do you suppose that cost?"

It was my first guess, so I said fifty dollars.

"That's a laugh," he said. "I paid two thousand for that rug."

"The guy that sold it had the laugh," I says.

Finally he steered us into his bedroom.

"Do you see that bed?" he says. "That's Marie Antoinette's bed. Just a cool thousand."

"What time does she usually get in?" I asked him.

"Here's my hobby," he said, opening up a closet, "dressing gowns and bathrobes."

Well, they was at least a dozen of them hanging on hangers. They was all colors of the rainbow including the Scandinavian. He dragged one down that was redder than Ella's and Katie's cheeks.

"This is my favorite bathrobe," he said. "It's Rose D. Barry."

So I asked him if he had all his household goods and garments named after some dame.

"This bathrobe cost me an even two hundred," he says.

"I always take baths bare," I said. "It's a whole lot cheaper."

"Let's go back in the living room," says Katie.

"Come on," said Ella, tugging me by the sleeve.

"Wait a minute," I says to her. "I don't know how much he paid for his toothbrush."

Well, when we got back in the living room, the two gals acted kind of drowsy and snuggled up together on the davenport and I and the old bird was left to ourself.

"Here's another thing I didn't show you," he says, and pulls a pair of African golf balls out of a drawer in his desk. "These dice is real ivory and they cost me twelve and a half berries."

"You mean up to now," I said.

"All right," he said. "We'll make it a twenty-five dollar limit."

Well, I didn't have no business in a game with him, but you know how a guy gets sometimes. So he took them first and rolled a four.

"Listen," I says: "Do you know how many times Willard set down in the first round?"

And sure enough he sevened.

"Now solid ivory dice," I said, "how many days in the week?"

So out come a natural. And as sure as I'm setting here, I made four straight passes with the whole roll riding each time and with all that wad parked on the two thousand dollar rug, I shot a five and a three. "Ivory," I said, "we was invited here to-night, so don't make me pay for the entertainment. Show me eighter from Decatur."

And the lady from Decatur showed.

Just then they was a stir on the davenport, and Ella woke up long enough to make the remark that we ought to go home. It was the first time she ever said it in the right place.

"Oh," I says, "I've got to give Mr. Trumbull a chance to get even."

But I wasn't in earnest.

"Don't bother about that," said Old Noah. "You can accommodate me some other time."

"You're certainly a sport," I says.

"And thanks for a wonderful time," said Ella. "I hope we'll see you again soon."

"Soon is to-morrow night," said mine host. "I'm going to take you all up the river to a place I know."

"Well," I says to Katie, when we was acrost the hall and the door shut, "how do you like him?"

"Oh, shut up!" says Katie.

So the next night he come over and rung our bell and said Ritchey was waiting with the car and would we come down when we was ready. Well, the gals had only had all day to prepare for the trip, so in another half hour they had their wraps on and we went downstairs. They wasn't nothing in front but a Rools-Royce with a livery chauffeur that looked like he'd been put there by a rubber stamp.

"What a stunning driver!" said Katie when we'd parked ourself in the back seat.

"Ritchey?" says mine host. "He is a nice looking boy, but better than that, he's a boy I can trust."

Well, anyway, the boy he could trust took us out to a joint called the Indian Inn where you wouldn't of never knew they was an eighteenth amendment only that the proprietor was asking twenty berries a quart for stuff that used to cost four. But that didn't seem to bother Methuselah and he ordered two of them. Not only that but he got us a table so close to the orchestra that the cornet player thought we was his mute.

"Now, what'll we eat?" he says.

So I looked at the program and the first item I seen was "Guinea Hen, $4.50."

"That's what Katie'll want," I says to myself, and sure enough that's what she got.

Well, we eat and then we danced and we danced and we danced, and finally along about eleven I and Ella was out on the floor pretending like we was enjoying ourself, and we happened to look over to the table and there was Katie and Trumbull setting one out and to look at either you could tell that something was wrong.

"Dance the next one with her," says Ella, "and find out what's the matter."

So I danced the next one with Katie and asked her.

"He squeezed my hand," she says. "I don't like him."

"Well," said I, "if you'd of ordered guinea hen on me I wouldn't of stopped at your hand. I'd of went at your throat."

"I've got a headache," she says. "Take me out to the car."

So they was nothing to it but I had to take her out to the car and come back and tell Ella and Trumbull that she wasn't feeling any too good and wanted to go home.

"She don't like me," says the old guy. "That's the whole trouble."

"Give her time," says Ella. "Remember she's just a kid."

"Yes, but what a kid!" he says.

So then he paid the check without no competition and we went out and dumb in the big limmie. Katie was pretending like she was asleep and neither Ella or Trumbull acted like they wanted to talk, so the conversation on the way home was mostly one-sided, with me in the title role. Katie went in the apartment without even thanking mine host for the guinea hen, but he kept Ella and I outside long enough to say that Ritchey and the car was at our service any time we wanted them.

So Ella told her that the next noon at breakfast. "And you'd ought to be ashamed of yourself," says Ella, "for treating a man like that like that." 

"He's too fresh," says Katie.

"Well," said Ella, "if he was a little younger, you wouldn't mind him being fresh."

"No," said Katie, "if he was fresh, I wouldn't care if he was fresh. But what's the number of the garage?"

And she didn't lose no time taking advantage of the old bird. That same afternoon it seemed she had to go shopping and the bus wasn't good enough no more. She was out in Trumbull's limmie from two o'clock till pretty near seven. The old guy himself come to our place long about five and wanted to know if we knew where she was at. "I haven't no idear," said Ella. "I expected her home long ago. Did you want to use the car?"

"What's the difference," I said, "if he wanted to use the car or not? He's only the owner."

"Well," says Trumbull, "when I make an offer I mean it, and that little girl is welcome to use my machine whenever she feels like it."

So Ella asked him to stay to dinner and he said he would if we'd allow him to bring in some of his hootch, and of course I kicked on that proposition, but he insisted. And when Katie finally did get home, we was all feeling good and so was she and you'd never of thought they'd been any bad feelings the night before.

Trumbull asked her what she'd been buying.

"Nothing," she says. "I was looking at dresses, but they want too much money."

"You don't need no dresses," he says.

"No, of course not," said Katie. "But lots of girls is wearing them."

"Where did you go?" said Ella.

"I forget," says Katie. "What do you say if we play cards?"

So we played rummy till we was all blear-eyed and the old guy left, saying we'd all go somewhere next day. After he'd gone Ella begin to talk serious.

"Sis," she says, "here's the chance of a lifetime. Mr. Trumbull's head over heels in love with you and all as you have to do is encourage him a little. Can't you try and like him?"

"They's nobody I have more respect for," said Katie, "unless it's George Washington."

And then she give a funny laugh and run off to bed.

"I can't understand Sis no more," said Ella, when we was alone.

"Why not?" I asked her.

"Why, look at this opportunity staring her in the face," says the Mrs.

"Listen," I said: "The first time I stared you in the face, was you thinking about opportunity?"

Well, to make a short story out of it, I was the only one up in the house the next morning when Kathleen said we had a caller. It was the old boy.

"I'm sorry to be so early," he says, "but I just got a telegram and it means I got to run down to Washington for a few days. And I wanted to tell you that wile I'm gone Ritchey and the car is at your service."

So I thanked him and he said good-by and give his regards to the Mrs. and especially Katie, so when they got up I told them about it and I never seen a piece of bad news received so calm as Katie took it.

"But now he's gone," I said at the breakfast table, "why not the three of us run out to Bridgeport and call on the Wilmots?"

They're cousins of mine.

"Oh, fine!" said Ella.

"Wait a minute," says Katie. "I made a kind of an engagement with a dressmaker for to-day."

Well, as I say, to make a short story out of it, it seems like she'd made engagements with the dressmaker every day, but they wasn't no dresses ever come home.

In about a week Trumbull come back from Washington and the first thing he done was look us up and we had him in to dinner and I don't remember how the conversation started, but all of a sudden we was on the subject of his driver, Ritchey.

"A great boy," says Trumbull, "and a boy you can trust. If I didn't like him for nothing else, I'd like him for how he treats his family."

"What family?" says Kate.

"Why," says Trumbull, "his own family: his wife and two kids."

"My heavens!" says Katie, and kind of fell in a swoon.

So it seems like we didn't want to live there no more and we moved back to the Baldwin, having sublet the place on the Drive for three thousand a year.

So from then on, we was paying a thousand per annum for an apartment we didn't live in two weeks. But as I told the gals, we was getting pretty near as much for our money as the people that rented New York apartments and lived in them, too.

III

Lady Perkins

ALONG the first week in May they was a couple hot days, and Katie can't stand the heat. Or the cold, or the medium. Anyway, when it's hot she always says: "I'm simply stifling." And when it's cold: "I'm simply frozen." And when it ain't neither one: "I wished the weather would do one thing another." I don't s'pose she knows what she's saying when she says any one of them things, but she's one of these here gals that can't bear to see a conversation die out and thinks it's her place to come through with a wise crack whenever they's a vacuum.

So during this hot spell we was having dinner with a bird named Gene Buck that knowed New York like a book, only he hadn't never read a book, and Katie made the remark that she was simply stifling.

"If you think this is hot," says our friend, "just wait till the summer comes. The Old Town certainly steams up in the Old Summer Time."

So Kate asked him how people could stand it.

"They don't," he says. "All the ones that's got a piece of change ducks out somewhere where they can get the air."

"Where do they go?" Katie asked him.

"Well," he says, "the most of my pals goes to Newport or Maine or up in the Adirondacks. But of course them places is out of most people's reach. If I was you folks I'd go over on Long Island somewhere and either take a cottage or live in one of them good hotels."

"Where, for instance?" says my Mrs.

"Well," he said, "some people takes cottages, but the rents is something fierce, and besides, the desirable ones is probably all eat up by this time. But they's plenty good hotels where you get good service and swell meals and meet good people; they won't take in no riffraff. And they give you a pretty fair rate if they know you're going to make a stay."

So Ella asked him if they was any special one he could recommend.

"Let's think a minute," he says.

"Let's not strain ourself," I said.

"Don't get cute!" said the Mrs. "We want to get some real information and Mr. Buck can give it to us."

"How much would you be willing to pay?" said Buck.

It was Ella's turn to make a wise crack.

"Not no more than we have to," she says.

"I and my sister has got about eight thousand dollars per annum between us," said Katie, "though a thousand of it has got to go this year to a man that cheated us up on Riverside Drive.

"It was about a lease. But Papa left us pretty well off; over a hundred and fifty thousand dollars."

"Don't be so secret with Mr. Buck," I says. "We've knew him pretty near a week now. Tell him about them four-dollar stockings you bought over on Fifth Avenue and the first time you put them on they got as many runs as George Sisler."

"Well," said Buck, "I don't think you'd have no trouble getting comfortable rooms in a good hotel on seven thousand dollars. If I was you I'd try the Hotel Decker. It's owned by a man named Decker."

"Why don't they call it the Griffith?" I says.

"It's located at Tracy Estates," says Buck. "That's one of the garden spots of Long Island. It's a great big place, right up to the minute, and they give you everything the best. And they's three good golf courses within a mile of the hotel."

The gals told him they didn't play no golf.

"You don't know what you've missed," he says.

"Well," I said, "I played a game once myself and missed a whole lot."

"Do they have dances?" asked Kate.

"Plenty of them," says Buck, "and the guests is the nicest people you'd want to meet. Besides all that, the meals is included in the rates, and they certainly set a nasty table."

"I think it sounds grand," said the Mrs. "How do you get there?"

"Go over to the Pennsylvania Station," says Buck, "and take the Long Island Railroad to Jamaica. Then you change to the Haverton branch. It don't only take a half hour altogether."

"Let's go over to-morrow morning and see can we get rooms," said Katie.

So Ella asked how that suited me.

"Go just as early as you want to," I says. "I got a date to run down to the Aquarium and see the rest of the fish."

"You won't make no mistake stopping at the Decker," says Buck.

So the gals thanked him and I paid the check so as he would have more to spend when he joined his pals up to Newport.

Well, when Ella and Kate come back the next afternoon, I could see without them telling me that it was all settled. They was both grinning like they always do when they've pulled something nutty.

"It's a good thing we met Mr. Buck," said the Mrs., "or we mightn't never of heard of this place. It's simply wonderful. A double room with a bath for you and I and a room with a bath for Katie. The meals is throwed in, and we can have it all summer."

"How much?" I asked her.

"Two hundred a week," she said. "But you must remember that's for all three of us and we get our meals free."

"And I s'pose they also furnish knobs for the bedroom doors," says I.

"We was awful lucky," said the wife. "These was the last two rooms they had, and they wouldn't of had those only the lady that had engaged them canceled her reservation."

"I wished I'd met her when I was single," I says.

"So do I," says Ella.

"But listen," I said. "Do you know what two hundred a week amounts to? It amounts to over ten thousand a year, and our income is seven thousand." 

"Yes," says Katie, "but we aren't only going to be there twenty weeks, and that's only four thousand."

"Yes," I said, "and that leaves us three thousand for the other thirty-two weeks, to pay for board and room and clothes and show tickets and a permanent wave every other day."

"You forget," said Kate, "that we still got our principal, which we can spend some of it and not miss it."

"And you also forget," said the Mrs., "that the money belongs to Sis and I, not you."

"I've got a sweet chance of forgetting that," I said. "It's hammered into me three times a day. I hear about it pretty near as often as I hear that one of you's lost their new silk bag."

"Well, anyway," says Ella, "it's all fixed up and we move out there early to-morrow morning, so you'll have to do your packing to-night."

I'm not liable to celebrate the anniversary of the next day's trip. Besides the trunks, the gals had a suitcase and a grip apiece and I had a suitcase. So that give me five pieces of baggage to wrestle, because of course the gals had to carry their parasol in one hand and their wrist watch in the other. A redcap helped load us on over to the station, but oh you change at Jamaica! And when we got to Tracy Estates we seen that the hotel wasn't only a couple of blocks away, so the ladies said we might as well walk and save taxi fare.

I don't know how I covered them two blocks, but I do know that when I reeled into the Decker my hands and arms was paralyzed and Ella had to do the registering.

Was you ever out there? Well, I s'pose it's what you might call a family hotel, and a good many of the guests belongs to the cay-nine family. A few of the couples that can't afford dogs has got children, and you're always tripping over one or the other. They's a dining room for the grown-ups and another for the kids, wile the dogs and their nurses eats in the grillroom à la carte. One part of the joint is bachelor quarters. It's located right next to the dogs' dormitories, and they's a good deal of rivalry between the dogs and the souses to see who can make the most noise nights. They's also a ballroom and a couple card rooms and a kind of a summer parlor where the folks sets round in the evening and listen to a three-piece orchestra that don't know they's been any music wrote since Poets and Peasants. The men get up about eight o'clock and go down to New York to Business. They don't never go to work. About nine the women begins limping downstairs and either goes to call on their dogs or take them for a walk in the front yard. This is a great big yard with a whole lot of benches strewed round it, but you can't set on them in the daytime because the women or the nurses uses them for a place to read to the dogs or kids, and in the evenings you would have to share them with the waitresses, which you have already had enough of them during the day.

When the women has prepared themselves for the long day's grind with a four-course breakfast, they set round on the front porch and discuss the big questions of the hour, like for instance the last trunk murder or whether an Airedale is more loving than a Golden Bantam. Once in a wile one of them cracks that it looks like they was bound to be a panic pretty soon and a big drop in prices, and so forth. This shows they're broad-minded and are giving a good deal of thought to up-to-date topics. Every so often one of them'll say: "The present situation can't keep up." The hell it can't!

By one o'clock their appetites is whetted so keen from brain exercise that they make a bum out of a plate of soup and an order of Long Island duckling, which they figure is caught fresh every day, and they wind up with salad and apple pie à la mode and a stein of coffee. Then they totter up to their rooms to sleep it off before Dear gets home from Business.

Saturday nights everybody puts on their evening clothes like something was going to happen. But it don't. Sunday mornings the husbands and bachelors gets up earlier than usual to go to their real business, which is golf. The womenfolks are in full possession of the hotel till Sunday night supper and wives and husbands don't see one another all day long, but it don't seem as long as if they did. Most of them's approaching their golden-wedding jubilee and haven't nothing more to say to each other that you could call a novelty. The husband may make the remark, Sunday night, that he would of broke one hundred and twenty in the afternoon round if the caddy hadn't of handed him a spoon when he asked for a nut pick, and the wife'll probably reply that she's got to go in Town some day soon and see a chiropodist. The rest of the Sabbath evening is spent in bridge or listening to the latest song hit from The Bohemian Girl.

The hotel's got all the modern conveniences like artificial light and a stopper in the bathtubs. They even got a barber and a valet, but you can't get a shave wile he's pressing your clothes, so it's pretty near impossible for a man to look their best at the same time.

Well, the second day we was there I bought me a deck of cards and got so good at solitary that pretty soon I could play fifty games between breakfast and lunch and a hundred from then till suppertime. During the first week Ella and Kate got on friendly terms with over a half dozen people--the head waiter, our waitress, some of the clerks and the manager and the two telephone gals. It wasn't from lack of trying that they didn't meet even more people. Every day one or the other of them would try and swap a little small talk with one of the other squatters, but it generally always wound up as a short monologue.

Ella said to me one day, she says: "I don't know if we can stick it out here or not. Every hotel I was ever at before, it was easy enough to make a lot of friends, but you could stick a bottle of cream alongside one of these people and it'd stay sweet a week. Unless they looked at it. I'm sick of talking to you and Sis and the hired help, and Kate's so lonesome that she cries herself to sleep nights."

Well, if I'd of only had sense enough to insist on staying we'd of probably packed up and took the next train to Town. But instead of that I said: "What's to prevent us from going back to New York?"

"Don't be silly!" says the Mrs. "We come out here to spend the summer and here is where we're going to spend the summer."

"All right," I says, "and by September I'll be all set to write a book on one-handed card games." 

"You'd think," says Ella, "that some of these women was titled royalties the way they snap at you when you try and be friends with them. But they's only one in the bunch that's got any handle to her name; that's Lady Perkins."

I asked her which one was that.

"You know," says Ella. "I pointed her out to you in the dining room. She's a nice-looking woman, about thirty-five, that sets near our table and walks with a cane."

"If she eats like some of the rest of them," I says, "she's lucky they don't have to w'eel her."

"She's English," says Ella. "They just come over and her husband's in Texas on some business and left her here. She's the one that's got that dog."

"That dog!" I said. "You might just as well tell me she's the one that don't play the mouth organ. They've all got a dog."

"She's got two," said the wife. "But the one I meant is that big German police dog that I'm scared to death of him. Haven't you saw her out walking with him and the little chow?"

"Yes," I said, "if that's what it is. I always wondered what the boys in the Army was talking about when they said they eat chow."

"They probably meant chowchow," says the Mrs. "They wouldn't of had these kind of chows, because in the first place, who would eat a dog, and besides these kind costs too much."

"Well," I says, "I'm not interested in the price of chows, but if you want to get acquainted with Lady Perkins, why I can probably fix it for you."

"Yes, you'll fix it!" said Ella. "I'm beginning to think that if we'd of put you in storage for the summer the folks round here wouldn't shy away from us like we was leopards that had broke out of a pesthouse. I wished you would try and dress up once in a wile and not always look like you was just going to do the chores. Then maybe I and Sis might get somewheres."

Well, of course when I told her I could probably fix it up with Lady Perkins, I didn't mean nothing. But it wasn't only the next morning when I started making good. I was up and dressed and downstairs about half past eight, and as the gals wasn't ready for their breakfast yet I went out on the porch and set down. They wasn't nobody else there, but pretty soon I seen Lady Perkins come up the path with her two whelps. When she got to the porch steps their nurse popped out of the servants' quarters and took them round to the grillroom for their breakfast. I s'pose the big one ordered sauerkraut and kalter Aufschnitt, wile the chow had tea and eggs fo yung. Anyway, the Perkins dame come up on the porch and flopped into the chair next to mine.

In a few minutes Ed Wurz, the manager of the hotel, showed, with a bag of golf instruments and a trick suit. He spotted me and asked me if I didn't want to go along with him and play.

"No," I said. "I only played once in my life."

"That don't make no difference," he says. "I'm a bum myself. I just play shinny, you might say."

"Well," I says, "I can't anyway, on account of my dogs. They been giving me a lot of trouble."

Of course I was referring to my feet, but he hadn't no sooner than went on his way when Lady Perkins swung round on me and says: "I didn't know you had dogs. Where do you keep them?"

At first I was going to tell her "In my shoes," but I thought I might as well enjoy myself, so I said: "They're in the dog hospital over to Haverton."

"What ails them?" she asked me.

Well, I didn't know nothing about cay-nine diseases outside of hydrophobia, which don't come till August, so I had to make one up.

"They got blanny," I told her.

"Blanny!" she says. "I never heard of it before."

"No," I said. "It hasn't only been discovered in this country just this year. It got carried up here from Peru some way another."

"Oh, it's contagious, then!" says Lady Perkins.

"Worse than measles or lockjaw," says I. "You take a dog that's been in the same house with a dog that's got blanny, and it's a miracle if they don't all get it."

She asked me if I'd had my dogs in the hotel.

"Only one day," I says, "the first day we come, about a week ago. As soon as I seen what was the matter with them, I took them over to Haverton in a sanitary truck."

"Was they mingling with the other dogs here?" she says.

"Just that one day," I said.

"Heavens!" said Lady Perkins. "And what's the symptoms?"

"Well," I said, "first you'll notice that they keep their tongue stuck out a lot and they're hungry a good deal of the time, and finally they show up with a rash."

"Then what happens?" she says.

"Well," said I, "unless they get the best of treatment, they kind of dismember."

Then she asked me how long it took for the symptoms to show after a dog had been exposed. I told her any time between a week and four months.

"My dogs has been awful hungry lately," she says, "and they most always keeps their tongue stuck out. But they haven't no rash."

"You're all right, then," I says. "If you give them treatments before the rash shows up, they's no danger."

"What's the treatment?" she asked me.

"You rub the back of their neck with some kind of dope," I told her. "I forget what it is, but if you say the word, I can get you a bottle of it when I go over to the hospital this afternoon."

"I'd be ever so much obliged," she says, "and I hope you'll find your dear ones a whole lot better."

"Dear ones is right," I said. "They cost a pile of jack, and the bird I bought them off of told me I should ought to get them insured, but I didn't. So if anything happens to them now, I'm just that much out."

Next she asked me what kind of dogs they was.

"Well," I said, "you might maybe never of heard of them, as they don't breed them nowheres only way down in Dakota. They call them yaphounds--I don't know why; maybe on account of the noise they make. But they're certainly a grand-looking dog and they bring a big price."

She set there a wile longer and then got up and went inside, probably to the nursery to look for signs of rash.

Of course I didn't tell the Mrs. and Kate nothing about this incidence. They wouldn't of believed it if I had of, and besides, it would be a knock-out if things broke right and Lady Perkins come up and spoke to me wile they was present, which is just what happened.

During the afternoon I strolled over to the drugstore and got me an empty pint bottle. I took it up in the room and filled it with water and shaving soap. Then I laid low till evening, so as Perk would think I had went to Haverton.

I and Ella and Kate breezed in the dining room kind of late and we hadn't no more than ordered when I seen the Lady get up and start out. She had to pass right past us, and when I looked at her and smiled she stopped.

"Well," she said, "how's your dogs?"

I got up from the table.

"A whole lot better, thank you," says I, and then I done the honors. "Lady Perkins," I said, "meet the wife and sister-in-law."

The two gals staggered from their chairs, both popeyed. Lady Perkins bowed to them and told them to set down. If she hadn't the floor would of bounced up and hit them in the chin.

"I got a bottle for you," I said. "I left it upstairs and I'll fetch it down after supper."

"I'll be in the red card room," says Perk, and away she went.

I wished you could of see the two gals. They couldn't talk for a minute, for the first time in their life. They just set there with their mouth open like a baby blackbird. Then they both broke out with a rash of questions that come so fast I couldn't understand none of them, but the general idear was, What the hell! 

"They's no mystery about it," I said. "Lady Perkins was setting out on the porch this morning and you two was late getting down to breakfast, so I took a walk, and when I come back she noticed that I kind of limped and asked me what ailed my feet. I told her they always swoll up in warm weather and she said she was troubled the same way and did I know any medicine that shrank them. So I told her I had a preparation and would bring her a bottle of it."

"But," says Kate, "I can't understand a woman like she speaking to a man she don't know."

"She's been eying me all week," I said. "I guess she didn't have the nerve to break the ice up to this morning; then she got desperate."

"She must of," said Ella.

"I wished," said Kate, "that when you introduce me to people you'd give them my name."

"I'm sorry," I said, "but I couldn't recall it for a minute, though your face is familiar."

"But listen," says the wife. "What ails your dogs is a corn. You haven't got no swelled feet and you haven't got no medicine for them."

"Well," I says, "what I give her won't hurt her. It's just a bottle of soap and water that I mixed up, and pretty near everybody uses that once in a wile without no bad after effects."

Now, the whole three of us had been eating pretty good ever since we'd came to the Decker. After living à la carte at Big Town prices for six months, the American plan was sweet patootie. But this night the gals not only skrimped themselves but they was in such a hurry for me to get through that my molars didn't hardly have time to identify what all was scampering past them. Ella finally got so nervous that I had to take off the feed bag without dipping my bill into the stewed rhubarb.

"Lady Perkins will get tired waiting for you," she says. "And besides, she won't want us horning in there and interrupting them after their game's started."

"Us!" said I. "How many do you think it's going to take to carry this bottle?" 

"You don't mean to say we can't go with you!" said Kate.

"You certainly can't," I says. "I and the nobility won't have our little romance knocked for a gool by a couple of country gals that can't get on speaking terms with nobody but the chambermaid."

"But they'll be other people there," says Kate. "She can't play cards alone."

"Who told you she was going to play cards?" I says. "She picked the red card room because we ain't liable to be interrupted there. As for playing cards alone, what else have I done all week? But when I get there she won't have to play solitary. It'll be two-handed hearts; where if you was to crowd in, it couldn't be nothing but rummy."

Well, they finally dragged me from the table, and the gals took a seat in the lobby wile I went upstairs after the medicine. But I hadn't no sooner than got a hold of the bottle when Ella come in the room.

"Listen," she says. "They's a catch in this somewhere. You needn't to try and tell me that a woman like Lady Perkins is trying to start a flirtation with a yahoo. Let's hear what really come off."

"I already told you," I said. "The woman's nuts over me and you should ought to be the last one to find fault with her judgment."

Ella didn't speak for a wile. Then she says: "Well, if you're going to forget your marriage vows and flirt with an old hag like she, I guess two can play at that little game. They's several men round this hotel that I like their looks and all as they need is a little encouragement."

"More than a little, I guess," says I, "or else they'd of already been satisfied with what you and Kate has give them. They can't neither one of you pretend that you been fighting on the defense all week, and the reason you haven't copped nobody is because this place is a hotel, not a home for the blind."

I wrapped a piece of newspaper round the bottle and started for the door. But all of a sudden I heard snuffles and stopped.

"Look here," I said. "I been kidding you. They's no need for you to get sore and turn on the tear ducks. I'll tell you how this thing happened if you think you can see a joke." 

So I give her the truth, and afterwards I says: "They'll be plenty of time for you and Kate to get acquainted with the dame, but I don't want you tagging in there with me to-night. She'd think we was too cordial. To-morrow morning, if you can manage to get up, we'll all three of us go out on the porch and lay for her when she brings the whelps back from their hike. She's sure to stop and inquire about my kennel. And don't forget, wile she's talking, that we got a couple of yaphounds that's suffering from blanny, and if she asks any questions let me do the answering, as I can think a lot quicker. You better tell Kate the secret, too, before she messes everything up, according to custom."

Then I and the Mrs. come downstairs and her and Katie went out to listen to the music wile I beat it to the red card room. I give Perkie the bottle of rash poison and she thanked me and said she would have the dogs' governess slap some of it onto them in the morning. She was playing bridge w'ist with another gal and two dudes. To look at their faces they wasn't playing for just pins. I had sense enough to not talk, but I stood there watching them a few minutes. Between hands Perk introduced me to the rest of the party. She had to ask my name first. The other skirt at the table was a Mrs. Snell and one of the dudes was a Doctor Platt. I didn't get the name of Lady Perkins' partner.

"Mr. Finch," says Perk, "is also a dog fancier. But his dogs is sick with a disease called blanny and he's got them over to the dog hospital at Haverton."

"What kind of dogs?" asked Platt.

"I never heard of the breed before," says Perk. "They're yaphounds."

"They raise them in South Dakota," I says.

Platt gives me a funny look and said: "I been in South Dakota several times and I never heard of a yaphound neither; or I never heard of a disease named blanny."

"I s'pose not," says I. "You ain't the only old-fashioned doctor that left themself go to seed when they got out of school. I bet you won't admit they's such a thing as appendicitis."

Well, this got a laugh from Lady Perkins and the other dude, but it didn't go very big with Doc or Mrs. Snell. Wile Doc was trying to figure out a come-back I said I must go and look after my womenfolks. So I told the party I was glad to of met them and walked out.

I found Ella and Katie in the summer parlor, and they wasn't alone. A nice-looking young fella named Codd was setting alongside of them, and after we was introduced Ella leaned over and w'ispered to me that he was Bob Codd, the famous aviator. It come out that he had invented some new kind of an aeroplane and had came to demonstrate it to the Williams Company. The company--Palmer Williams and his brother, you know--they've got their flying field a couple miles from the hotel. Well, a guy with nerve enough to go up in one of them things certainly ain't going to hesitate about speaking to a strange gal when he likes their looks. So this Codd baby had give himself an introduction to my Mrs. and Kate, and I guess they hadn't sprained an ankle running away from him.

Of course Ella wanted to know how I'd came out with Lady Perkins. I told her that we hadn't had much chance to talk because she was in a bridge game with three other people, but I'd met them and they'd all seemed to fall for me strong. Ella wanted to know who they was and I told her their names, all but the one I didn't get. She squealed when I mentioned Mrs. Snell.

"Did you hear that, Sis?" she says to Kate. "Tom's met Mrs. Snell. That's the woman, you know, that wears them funny clothes and has the two dogs."

"You're describing every woman in the hotel," I said.

"But this is the Mrs. Snell," said the wife. "Her husband's the sugar man and she's the daughter of George Henkel, the banker. They say she's a wonderful bridge player and don't never play only for great big stakes. I'm wild to meet her."

"Yes," I said, "if they's one person you should ought to meet, it's a wonderful bridge player that plays for great big stakes, especially when our expenses is making a bum out of our income and you don't know a grand slam from no dice." 

"I don't expect to gamble with her," says Ella. "But she's just the kind of people we want to know."

Well, the four of us set there and talked about this and that, and Codd said he hadn't had time to get his machine put together yet, but when he had her fixed and tested her a few times he would take me up for a ride.

"You got the wrong number," I says. "I don't feel flighty."

"Oh, I'd just love it!" said Kate.

"Well," says Codd, "you ain't barred. But I don't want to have no passengers along till I'm sure she's working O.K."

When I and Ella was upstairs she said that Codd had told them he expected to sell his invention to the Williamses for a cold million. And he had took a big fancy to Kate.

"Well," I said, "they say that the reckless aviators makes the best ones, so if him and Kate gets married he'll be better than ever. He won't give a damn after that."

"You're always saying something nasty about Sis," said the Mrs.; "but I know you just talk to hear yourself talk. If I thought you meant it I'd walk out on you."

"I'd hate to lose you," I says, "but if you took her along I wouldn't write it down as a total loss."

The following morning I and the two gals was down on the porch bright and early and in a few minutes, sure enough, along came Lady Perkins, bringing the menagerie back from the parade. She turned them over to the nurse and joined us. She said that Martha, the nurse, had used the rash poison and it had made a kind of a lather on the dogs' necks and she didn't know whether to wash it off or not, but it had dried up in the sun. She asked me how many times a day the dope should ought to be put on, and I told her before every meal and at bedtime.

"But," I says, "it's best to not take the dogs right out in the sun where the lather'll dry. The blanny germ can't live in that kind of lather, so the longer it stays moist, why, so much the better."

Then she asked me was I going to Haverton to see my pets that day and I said yes, and she said she hoped I'd find them much improved. Then Ella cut in and said she understood that Lady Perkins was very fond of bridge.

"Yes, I am," says Perk. "Do you people play?"

"No, we don't," says Ella, "but we'd like to learn."

"It takes a long wile to learn to play good," said Perk. "But I do wished they was another real player in the hotel so as we wouldn't have to take Doctor Platt in. He knows the game, but he don't know enough to keep still. I don't mind people talking wile the cards is being dealt, but once the hands is picked up they ought to be absolute silence. Last night I lost about three hundred and seventy dollars just because he talked at the wrong time."

"Three hundred and seventy dollars!" said Kate. "My, you must play for big stakes!"

"Yes, we do," says Lady Perkins; "and when a person is playing for sums like that it ain't no time to trifle, especially when you're playing against an expert like Mrs. Snell."

"The game must be awfully exciting," said Ella. "I wished we could watch it sometimes."

"I guess it wouldn't hurt nothing," says Perkie; "not if you kept still. Maybe you'd bring me luck."

"Was you going to play to-night?" asked Kate.

"No," says the Lady. "They's going to be a little dance here to-night and Mr. Snell's dance mad, so he insists on borrowing his wife for the occasion. Doctor Platt likes to dance too."

"We're all wild about it," says Kate. "Is this an invitation affair?"

"Oh, no," says Perk. "It's for the guests of the hotel."

Then she said good-by to us and went in the dining room. The rest of our conversation all day was about the dance and what should we wear, and how nice and democratic Lady Perkins was, and to hear her talk you wouldn't never know she had a title. I s'pose the gals thought she ought to stop every three or four steps and declare herself.

I made the announcement about noon that I wasn't going to partake in the grand ball. My corn was the alibi. But they wasn't no way to escape from dressing up and escorting the two gals into the grand ballroom and then setting there with them.

The dance was a knock-out. Outside of Ella and Kate and the aviator and myself, they was three couple. The Snells was there and so was Doctor Platt. He had a gal with him that looked like she might be his mother with his kid sister's clothes on. Then they was a pair of young shimmy shakers that ought to of been give their bottle and tucked in the hay at six p.m. A corn wouldn't of bothered them the way they danced; their feet wasn't involved in the transaction.

I and the Mrs. and Kate was the only ones there in evening clothes. The others had attended these functions before and knew that they wouldn't be enough suckers on hand to make any difference whether you wore a monkey suit or rompers. Besides, it wasn't Saturday night.

The music was furnished by the three-piece orchestra that usually done their murder in the summer parlor.

Ella was expecting me to introduce her and Kate to the Snell gal, but her and her husband was so keen for dancing that they called it off in the middle of the second innings and beat it upstairs. Then Ella said she wouldn't mind meeting Platt, but when he come past us and I spoke to him he give me a look like you would expect from a flounder that's been wronged.

So poor Codd danced one with Kate and one with Ella, and so on, and so on, till finally it got pretty late, a quarter to ten, and our party was the only merry-makers left in the joint. The orchestra looked over at us to see if we could stand some more punishment. The Mrs. told me to go and ask them to play a couple more dances before they quit. They done what I asked them, but maybe I got my orders mixed up.

The next morning I asked Wurz, the manager, how often the hotel give them dances.

"Oh," he says, "once or twice a month."

I told him I didn't see how they could afford it.

Kate went out after supper this next evening to take an automobile ride with Codd. So when I and Ella had set in the summer parlor a little wile, she proposed that we should go in and watch the bridge game. Well, I wasn't keen for it, but when you tell wife you don't want to do something she always says, "Why not?" and even if you've got a reason she'll make a monkey out of it. So we rapped at the door of the red card room and Lady Perkins said, "Come in," and in we went.

The two dudes and Mrs. Snell was playing with her again, but Perk was the only one that spoke.

"Set down," she said, "and let's see if you can bring me some luck."

So we drawed up a couple of chairs and set a little ways behind her. Her and the anonymous dude was partners against Doc and Mrs. Snell, and they didn't change all evening. I haven't played only a few games of bridge, but I know a little about it, and I never see such hands as Perkie held. It was a misdeal when she didn't have the ace, king and four or five others of one suit and a few picture cards and aces on the side. When she couldn't get the bid herself she doubled the other pair and made a sucker out of them. I don't know what they was playing a point, but when they broke up Lady Perkins and her dude was something like seven hundred berries to the good.

I and Ella went to bed wile they was settling up, but we seen her on the porch in the morning. She smiled at us and says: "You two are certainly grand mascots! I hope you can come in and set behind me again to-night. I ain't even yet, but one more run of luck like last night's and I'll be a winner. Then," she says, "I s'pose I'll have to give my mascots some kind of a treat."

Ella was tickled to death and couldn't hardly wait to slip Sis the good news. Kate had been out late and overslept herself and we was half through breakfast when she showed up. The Mrs. told her about the big game and how it looked like we was in strong with the nobility, and Kate said she had some good news of her own; that Codd had as good as told her he was stuck on her.

"And he's going to sell his invention for a million," says Ella. "So I guess we wasn't as crazy coming out to this place as some people thought we was." "

Wait till the machine's made good," I said.

"It has already," says Kate. "He was up in it yesterday and everything worked perfect and he says the Williamses was wild over it. And what do you think's going to come off to-morrow morning? He's going to take me up with him."

"Oh, no, Sis!" said Ella. "S'pose something should happen!"

"No hope," says I.

"But even if something should happen," said Katie, "what would I care as long as it happened to Bob and I together!"

I told the waitress to bring me another order of fried mush.

"To-night," said Kate, "Bob's going in Town to a theater party with some boys he went to college with. So I can help you bring Lady Perkins good luck."

Something told me to crab this proposition and I tried, but it was passed over my veto. So the best I could do was to remind Sis, just before we went in the gambling den, to keep her mouth shut while the play was going on.

Perk give us a smile of welcome and her partner smiled too.

For an hour the game went along about even. Kate acted like she was bored, and she didn't have nothing to say after she'd told them, wile somebody was dealing, that she was going to have an aeroplane ride in the morning. Finally our side began to lose, and lose by big scores. They was one time when they was about sixteen hundred points to the bad. Lady Perkins didn't seem to be enjoying herself and when Ella addressed a couple of remarks to her the cat had her tongue.

But the luck switched round again and Lady Perk had all but caught up when the blow-off come.

It was the rubber game, with the score nothing and nothing. The Doc dealt the cards. I was setting where I could see his hand and Perk's both. Platt had the king, jack and ten and five other hearts. Lady Perkins held the ace and queen of hearts, the other three aces and everything else in the deck. 

The Doc bid two hearts. The other dude and Mrs. Snell passed.

"Two without," says Lady Perkins.

"Three hearts," says Platt.

The other two passed again and Perk says: "Three without."

Katie had come strolling up and was pretty near behind Perk's chair.

"Well," says Platt, "it looks like--"

But we didn't find out what it looked like, as just then Katie says: "Heavens! Four aces! Don't you wished you was playing penny ante?"

It didn't take Lady Perkins no time at all to forget her title. 

"You fool!" she screams, w'eeling round on Kate. "Get out of here, and get out of here quick, and don't never come near me again! I hope your aeroplane falls a million feet. You little fool!"

I don't know how the hand come out. We wasn't there to see it played.

Lady Perkins got part of her hope. The aeroplane fell all right, but only a couple of miles instead of a million feet. They say that they was a defect or something in poor Codd's engine. Anyway, he done an involuntary nose dive. Him and his invention was spilled all over Long Island. But Katie had been awake all night with the hysterics and Ella hadn't managed to get her to sleep till nine a.m. So when Codd had called for her Ella'd told him that Sis would go some other day. Can you beat it?

Wile I and Ella was getting ready for supper I made the remark that I s'posed we'd live in a vale of tears for the next few days.

"No," said Ella. "Sis is taking it pretty calm. She's sensible. She says if that could of happened, why the invention couldn't of been no good after all. And the Williamses probably wouldn't of give him a plugged dime for it."

Lady Perkins didn't only speak to me once afterwards. I seen her setting on the porch one day, reading a book. I went up to her and said: "Hello." They wasn't no answer, so I thought I'd appeal to her sympathies.

"Maybe you're still interested in my dogs," I said. "They was too far gone and the veter'nary had to order them shot."

"That's good," said Perk, and went on reading.

IV

Only One

ABOUT a week after this, the Mrs. made the remark that the Decker wasn't big enough to hold both she and Perkins.

"She treats us like garbage," says the Mrs., "and if I stay here much longer I'll forget myself and do her nose in a braid."

But Perk left first and saved us the trouble. Her husband was down in Texas looking after some oil gag and he wired her a telegram one day to come and join him as it looked like he would have to stay there all summer. If I'd of been him I'd of figured that Texas was a sweet enough summer resort without adding your wife to it.

We was out on the porch when her ladyship and two dogs shoved off.

"Three of a kind," said the Mrs.

And she stuck her tongue out at Perk and felt like that made it all even. A woman won't stop at nothing to revenge insults. I've saw them stagger home in a new pair of 3 double A shoes because some fresh clerk told them the 7 Ds they tried on was too small. So anyway we decided to stay on at the Decker and the two gals prettied themselves up every night for dinner in the hopes that somebody besides the head waiter would look at them twice, but we attracted about as much attention as a dirty finger nail in the third grade.

That is, up till Herbert Daley come on the scene.

Him and Katie spotted each other at the same time. It was the night he come to the Decker. We was pretty near through dinner when the head waiter showed him to a table a little ways from us. The majority of the guests out there belongs to the silly sex and a new man is always a riot, even with the married ones. But Daley would of knocked them dead anywheres. He looked like he was born and raised in Shubert's chorus and the minute he danced in all the womenfolks forgot the feed bag and feasted their eyes on him. As for Daley, after he'd glanced at the bill of fare, he let his peepers roll over towards our table and then they quit rolling. A cold stare from Kate might have scared him off, but if they was ever a gal with "Welcome" embroidered on her pan, she's it.

It was all I could do to tear Ella and Sis from the dining room, though they was usually in a hurry to romp out to the summer parlor and enjoy a few snubs. I'd just as soon of set one place as another, only for the waitress, who couldn't quit till we did and she generally always had a date with the big ski jumper the hotel hires to destroy trunks.

Well, we went out and listened a wile to the orchestra, which had brought a lot of new jazz from the Prince of Pilsen, and we waited for the new dude to show up, but he didn't, and finally I went in to the desk to buy a couple of cigars and there he was, talking to Wurz, the manager. Wurz introduced us and after we'd shook hands Daley excused himself and said he was going upstairs to write a letter. Then Wurz told me he was Daley the horseman.

"He just came up from the South," says Wurz. "He's going to be with us till the meetings is over at Jamaica and Belmont. He's got a whale of a stable and he expects to clean up round New York with Only One, which he claims can beat any horse in the world outside of Man o' War. They's some other good ones in the bunch, too, and he says he'll tell me when he's going to bet on them. I don't only bet once in a long wile and then never more than $25 at a crack, but I'll take this baby's tips as often as he comes through with them. I guess a man won't make no mistake following a bird that bets five and ten thousand at a clip, though of course it don't mean much to him if he win or lose. He's dirty with it."

I asked Wurz if Daley was married and he said no.

"And listen," he says: "It looks like your little sister-in-law had hit him for a couple of bases. He described where she was setting in the dining room and asked who she was." 

"Yes," I said, "I noticed he was admiring somebody at our table, but I thought maybe it was me."

"He didn't mention you," says Wurz, "only to make sure you wasn't Miss Kate's husband."

"If he was smart he'd know that without asking," I said. "If she was my wife I'd be wearing weeds."

I went back to the gals and told them I'd met the guy. They was all steamed up.

"Who is he?" says Kate.

"His name is Herbert Daley," I told her. "He's got a stable over to Jamaica."

"A stable!" says Ella, dropping her jaw. "A man couldn't dress like he and run a livery."

So I had to explain that he didn't run no livery, but owned a string of race horses.

"How thrilling!" says Katie. "I love races! I went to the Grand Circuit once, the time I was in Columbus."

"These is different," I says. "These is thurlbreds."

"So was they thurlbreds!" she says. "You always think a thing can't be no good if you wasn't there."

I let her win that one.

"We must find out when the race is and go," said the Mrs.

"They's six of them every day," I said, "but it costs about five smackers apiece to get in, to say nothing about what you lose betting."

"Betting!" says Katie. "I just love to bet and I never lose. Don't you remember the bet I made with Sammy Pass on the baseball that time? I took him for a five-pound box of candy. I just felt that Cincinnati was going to win."

"So did the White Sox," I says. "But if you bet with the boys over to Jamaica, the only candy they'll take you for is an all-day sucker."

"What did Mr. Daley have to say?" asked Ella.

"He had to say he was pleased to meet me," I told her. "He proved it by chasing upstairs to write a letter." 

"Probably to his wife," said Kate.

"No," I said. "Wurz tells me he ain't got no wife. But he's got plenty of jack, so Wurz says."

"Well, Sis," says the Mrs., "that's no objection to him, is it?"

"Don't be silly!" said Katie. "He wouldn't look at me."

"I guess not!" I says. "He was so busy doing it in the dining room, that half his soup never got past his chin. And listen: I don't like to get you excited, but Wurz told me he asked who you was."

"O Sis!" said the Mrs. "It looks like a Romance."

"Wurz didn't say nothing about a Romance," said I. "He may be interested like the rubes who stare with their mouth open at Ringling's 'Strange People.'"

"Oh, you can't tease Sis like that," said Ella. "She's as pretty as a picture to-night and nobody could blame a man from admiring her."

"Especially when we don't know nothing about him," I says. "He may be a snow-eater or his upstairs rooms is unfurnished or something."

"Well," says Ella, "if he shows up again to-night, don't you forget to introduce us."

"Better not be in no hurry," I said.

"Why not?" said Ella. "If him and Sis likes each other's looks, why, the sooner they get acquainted, it won't hurt nothing."

"I don't know," I says. "I've noticed that most of the birds you chose for a brother-in-law only stayed in the family as long as they was strangers."

"Nobody said nothing about Mr. Daley as a brother-in-law," says Ella.

"Oh!" I said. "Then I suppose you want Katie to meet him so as she can land a hostler's job."

Well, in about a half hour, the gals got their wish and Daley showed up. I didn't have to pull no strategy to land him. He headed right to where we was setting like him and I was old pals. I made the introductions and he drawed up a chair and parked. The rest of the guests stared at us goggle-eyed.

"Some hotel!" says Daley.

"We like it," says the Mrs. "They's so many nice people lives here." 

"We know by hearsay," I said, but she stepped on my foot.

"It's handy for me," said Daley. "I have a few horses over to the Jamaica race track and it's a whole lot easier to come here than go in Town every night."

"Do you attend the races every day?" says Katie.

"Sure," he says. "It's my business. And they's very few afternoons when one of my nags ain't entered."

"My! You must have a lot of them!" said Kate.

"Not many," says Daley. "About a hundred. And I only shipped thirty."

"Imagine!" said Kate.

"The army's got that many," I said.

"The army ain't got none like mine," says Daley. "I guess they wished they had of had. I'd of been glad to of helped them out, too, if they'd asked me."

"That's why I didn't enlist," I said. "Pershing never even suggested it."

"Oh, I done my bit all right," says Daley. "Two hundred thousand in Liberty Bonds is all."

"Just like throwing it away!" I says.

"Two hundred thousand!" says Ella. "And you've still got money left?"

She said this in a joking way, but she kept the receiver to her ear.

"I ain't broke yet," says Daley, "and I don't expect to be."

"You don't half know this hotel," I says.

"The Decker does charge good prices," said Daley, "but still and all, a person is willing to pay big for the opportunity of meeting young ladies like the present company."

"O Mr. Daley!" said Kate. "I'm afraid you're a flatterer."

"I bet he makes them pretty speeches to every woman he meets," says Ella.

"I haven't met none before who I felt like making them," says Daley.

Wile they was still talking along these lines, the orchestra begin to drool a Perfect Day, so I ducked out on the porch for air. The gals worked fast wile I was gone and when I come back it was arranged that Daley was to take us to the track next afternoon in his small car. 

His small car was a toy that only had enough room for the people that finds fault with Wilson. I suppose he had to leave his big car in New York on account of the Fifty-ninth Street bridge being so frail.Before we started I asked our host if they was a chance to get anything to drink over to the track and he says no, but pretty near everybody brought something along on the hip, so I said for them to wait a minute wile I went up to the room and filled a flask. When we was all in the car, the Mrs. wanted to know if it wasn't risky, me taking the hootch along.

"It's against the prohibition law," she says.

"So am I," I said.

"They's no danger," says Daley. "They ain't began to force prohibition yet. I only wished they had. It would save me a little worry about my boy."

"Your boy!" said Katie, dropping her jaw a foot.

"Well, I call him my boy," says Daley. "I mean little Sid Mercer, that rides for me. He's the duke of them all when he lays off the liquor. He's gave me his word that he won't touch nothing as long as he's under contract to me, and he's kept straight so far, but I can't help from worr'ing about him. He ought to be good, though, when I pay him $20,000 for first call, and leave him make all he can on the side. But he ain't got much stren'th of character, you might say, and if something upsets him, he's liable to bust things wide open.

"I remember once he was stuck on a gal down in Louisville and he was supposed to ride Great Scott for Bradley in the Derby. He was the only one that could handle Scott right, and with him up Scott would of win as far as from here to Dallas. But him and the gal had a brawl the day before the race and that night the kid got stiff. When it come time for the race he couldn't of kept a seat on a saw horse. Bradley had to hustle round and dig up another boy and Carney was the only one left that could ride at all and him and Great Scott was strangers. So Bradley lose the race and canned Mercer."

"Whisky's a terrible thing," says Ella. A woman'll sometimes pretend for a long wile like she's stupid and all of a sudden pull a wise crack that proves she's a thinker.

"Well," says Daley, "when Bradley give him the air, I took him, and he's been all right. I guess maybe I know how to handle men."

"Men only?" says Katie, smiling.

"Men and horses," said Daley. "I ain't never tried to handle the fair sex and I don't know if I could or not. But I've just met one that I think could handle me." And he give her a look that you could pour on a waffle.

Daley had a table saved for him in the clubhouse and we eat our lunch. The gals had clubhouse sandwiches, probably figuring they was caught fresh there. They was just one of Daley's horses entered that day and he told us he wasn't going to bet on it, as it hadn't never showed nothing and this was just a try-out. He said, though, that they was other horses on the card that looked good and maybe he would play them after he'd been round and talked to the boys.

"Yes," says Kate, "but the men you'll talk to knows all about the different horses and they'll tell you what horses to bet on and how can I win?"

"Why," says Daley, "if I decide to make a little bet on So-and-So I'll tell you about it and you can bet on the same horse."

"But if I'm betting with you," says Kate, "how can we bet on the same horse?"

"You're betting with me, but you ain't betting against me," said Daley. "This ain't a bet like you was betting with your sister on a football game or something. We place our bets with the bookmakers, that makes their living taking bets. Whatever horses we want to bet on, they take the bet."

"They must be crazy!" says Katie. "Your friends tell you what horse is going to win and you bet on them and the bookbinders is stung."

"My friends makes mistakes," says Daley, "and besides, I ain't the only guy out here that bets. Pretty near everybody at the track bets and the most of them don't know a race horse from a corn plaster. A bookmaker that don't finish ahead on the season's a cuckoo. Now," he says, "if you'll excuse me for a few minutes, I'll go down to the paddock and see what's new."

So wile he was gone we had a chance to look round and they was plenty to see. It was a Saturday and a big crowd out. Lots of them was gals that you'd have to have a pick to break through to their regular face. Since they had their last divorce, about the only excitement they could enjoy was playing a long shot. Which reminds me that they's an old saying that nobody loves a fat man, but you go out to a race track or down to Atlantic City or any place where the former wifes hangs out and if you'll notice the birds with them, the gents that broke up their home, you'll find out that the most of them is guys with chins that runs into five and six figures and once round their waist is a sleeper jump.

Besides the Janes and the fat rascals with them, you seen a flock of ham actors that looked like they'd spent the night in a Chinese snowstorm, and maybe a half a dozen losers' end boxers that'd used the bridge of their nose to block with and always got up in the morning just after the clock had struck ten, thinking they'd been counted out.

Pretty near everybody wore a pair of field glasses on a strap and when the race was going on they'd look through them and tell the world that the horse they'd bet on was three len'ths in front and just as good as in, but I never heard of a bookie paying off on that dope, and personally when someone would insist on lending me a pair to look through I couldn't tell if the things out there racing was horses or gnats.

Daley was back with us in a few minutes and says to Kate: "I guess you'll have to bet on yourself in the first race."

So she asked him what did he mean and he said: "I had a tip on a filly named Sweet and Pretty."

"O Mr. Daley!" says Kate.

"They don't expect her to win," says Daley, "but she's six, two and even, and I'm going to play her place and show."

Then he explained what that was and he said he was going to bet a thousand each way and finally the gals decided to go in for $10 apiece to show. It tickled them to death to find out that they didn't have to put up nothing. We found seats down in front wile Daley went to place the bets. Pretty soon the horses come out and Kate and Ella both screamed when they seen how cute the jockeys was dressed. Sweet and Pretty was No. 10 and had a combination of colors that would knock your eye out. Daley come back and explained that every owner had their own colors and of course the gals wanted to know what his was and he told them Navy blue and orange sleeves with black whoops on them and a blue cap.

"How beautiful!" says Ella. "I can't hardly wait to see them!"

"You must have wonderful taste in colors!" says Kate.

"Not only in colors," he says.

"O Mr. Daley!" she says again.

Well, the race was ran and No. 10 was a Sweet and Pretty last.

"Now," I says, "you O Mr. Daley."

The gals had yelped themself hoarse and didn't have nothing to say, but I could tell from their face that it would take something more than a few pretty speeches to make up for that twenty men.

"Never mind that!" said Daley. "She got a rotten ride. We'll get that back on the next one."

His hunch in the next one was Sena Day and he was betting a thousand on her to place at 4 to 1. He made the gals go in for $20 apiece, though they didn't do it with no pep. I went along with him to place the bets and he introduced me to a bookie so as I could bet a few smackers of my own when I felt like it. You know they's a law against betting unless it's a little bet between friends and in order to be a bookie's friend he's got to know your name. A quick friendship sprung up between I and a guy named Joe Meyer, and he not only give me his card but a whole deck of them. You see the law also says that when you make one of these bets with your pals he can't give you no writing to show for it, but he's generally always a man that makes a lot of friends and it seems like they all want to make friendly bets with him, and he can't remember where all his buddies lives, so he makes them write their names and address on the cards and how much the friendly wager is for and who on, and so forth, and the next day he mails them the bad news and they mail him back a check for same. Once in a wile, of course, you get the bad news and forget to mail him the check and he feels blue over it as they's nothing as sad as breaking up an old friendship.

I laid off Sena Day and she win. Daley smiled at the gals.

"There!" he says. "I'm sorry we didn't play her on the nose, but I was advised to play safe."

"Fine advice!" said Kate. "It's cost Sis and I $60 so far."

"What do you mean?" says Daley.

"We lose $20 on the first race," she says, "and you tell us we'll get it back on the next one and we bet the horse'll come second and it don't."

So we had to explain that if a horse win, why it placed, too, and her and Ella had grabbed $160 on that race and was $140 ahead. He was $2,000 winners himself.

"We'll have a drink on Sena," he says. "I don't believe they was six people out here that bet a nickel on her."

So Katie told him he was wonderful and him and the gals had a sarsaparilla or something and I poured my own. He'd been touting Cleopatra in the third race, but her and everybody else was scratched out of it except Captain Alcock and On Watch. On Watch was 9 to 10 and Alcock even money and Daley wouldn't let us bet.

"On Watch is best," he says, "but he's giving away twenty pounds and you can't tell. Anyway, it ain't worth it at that price."

"Only two horses in the race?" asked Ella.

"That's all," he says.

"Well, then, listen," she says, all excited: "Why not bet on one of them for place?"

Daley laughed and said it was a grand idear only he didn't think the bookbinders would stand for it.

"But maybe they don't know," she says.

"I guess they do," said Daley. "It's almost impossible to keep a secret like that round a race track."

"Besides," I said, "the bookworms owes you and Kate $70 apiece and if you put something like that over on them and they find it out, they'll probably get even by making you a check on the West Bank of the Hudson River."

So we decided to play fair and lay off the race entirely. On Watch come through and the gals felt pretty bad about it till we showed them that they'd of only grabbed off nine smackers apiece if they'd of plunged on him for $20 straight.

Along toward time for the next race, Daley steered us down by the paddock and we seen some of the nags close up. Daley and the gals raved over this one and that one, and wasn't this one a beauty, and so forth. Personally they was all just a horse to me and I never seen one yet that wasn't homelier than the City Hall. If they left it up to me to name the world's champion eyesore, I'd award the elegant barb' wire wash rag to a horse rode by a woman in a derby hat. People goes to the Horse Show to see the Count de Fault; they don't know a case of withers from an off hind hock. And if the Sport of Kings was patronized by just birds that admires equine charms, you could park the Derby Day crowd in a phone booth.

A filly named Tamarisk was the favorite in the fourth race and Daley played her for eight hundred smackers at 4 to 5. The gals trailed along with $8 apiece and she win from here to Worcester. The fifth was the one that Daley had an entry in--a dog named Fly-by-Night. It was different in the daytime. Mercer had the mount and done the best he could, which was finish before supper. Nobody bet, so nobody was hurt.

"He's just a green colt," Daley told us. "I wanted to see how he'd behave."

"Well," I said, "I thought he behaved like a born caboose."

Daley liked the Waterbury entry in the last and him and the gals played it and win. All told, Daley was $4,000 ahead on the day and Ella and Kate had picked up $160 between them. They wanted to kiss everybody on the way out. Daley sent us to the car to wait for him. He wanted to see Mercer a minute. After a wile he come out and brought Mercer along and introduced him. He's a good-looking kid only for a couple of blotches on his pan and got an under lip and chin that kind of lags behind. He was about Kate's height, and take away his Adams apple and you could mail him to Duluth for six cents. Him and Kate got personal right away and she told him how different he looked now than in his riding make-up. He said he had a new outfit that he'd of wore if he'd knew she was looking on. So I said I hoped he didn't expect to ride Fly-by-Night round the track and keep a suit new, and he laughed, and Daley didn't seem to enjoy the conversation and said we'd have to be going, but when we started off, Kate and Mercer give each other a smile with a future in it. She's one of these gals that can't help from looking open house, even if the guy takes after a pelican.

Daley moved to our table that night and after that we eat breakfast and supper with him pretty near every day. After breakfast the gals would go down to New York to spend what they had win the day before, and I'll admit that Daley give us many a winner. I begin betting a little of my own jack, but I stuck the proceeds in the old sock. I ain't superstitious about living off a woman's money as long as you're legally married, but at the clip the two gals was going, it looked like their old man's war profits was on the way to join their maker, and the more jack I laid by, the less sooner I would have to go to work. 

We'd meet every afternoon at the track and after the races Daley'd bring us back to the hotel. After supper we'd set round and chin or play rummy or once in a wile we'd go in Town to a show or visit one of the road houses near the Decker. The mail service on Long Island's kind of rotten and they's a bunch of road houses that hasn't heard of prohibition.

During the time we'd lived in Town Katie had got acquainted with three or four birds that liked her well enough to take her places where they wasn't no cover charge, but since we'd moved to the Decker we hadn't heard from none of them. That is, till a few days after we'd met Daley, when she told us that one of the New York boys, a guy named Goldberg, had called up and wanted her to come in and see a show with him. He's a golf champion or something. Well, Daley offered to drive her in, but she said no, she'd rather go on the train and Goldberg was going to meet her. So she went, and Daley tried to play cards with Ella and I, but he was too restless and finally snuck up to his room. 

They wasn't no question about his feelings toward Kate. He was always trying to fix it to be alone with her, but I guess it was the first time in her life when she didn't have to do most of the leading and she kept him at arm's len'th. Her and Ella had many a battle. Ella told her that the first thing she knowed he'd get discouraged and walk out on her; that she'd ought to quit monking and give him to understand that she was ready to yes him when he spoke up. But Katie said she guessed she could run her own love affairs as she'd had a few more of them than Ella.

So Ella says: "Maybe you have, but which one of us has got the husband?"

"You, thank the Lord!" says Katie.

"Thank him twice," I said.

Kate didn't come home from her New York party till two o'clock and she overslept herself till it was too late to go down again and shop. So we all drove over to the track with Daley and most of the way over he acted like a child. Katie kept talking about what a good show she seen and had a grand time, and so forth, and he pretended he wasn't listening. Finally she cut it out and give him the old oil and by the time we got to the clubhouse he'd tossed in the sponge.

That was the last day at Jamaica and a couple of his horses was in. We was all down on them and they both copped, though Mercer had to give one of them a dude ride to pull us through. Daley got maudlin about what a grand rider the kid was and a grand little fella besides, and he had half a notion to bring him along with us back to the hotel and show him a good time. But Kate said what was the use of an extra man, as it would kind of spoil things and she was satisfied with just Daley. So of course that tickled him and everybody was feeling good and after supper him and Kate snuck out alone for the first time. Ella made me set up till they come back, so as she could get the news. Well, Daley had asked her all right, but she told him she wanted a little wile to think.

"Think!" says Ella. "What does she want to think for?"

"The novelty, I suppose," said I.

Only One was in the big stake race the next day, when we shifted over to Belmont. They was five or six others in with him, all of them pretty good, and the price on him was 3 to 1. He hadn't started yet since Daley'd brought him here, but they'd been nursing him along and Mercer and the trainer said he was right.

I suppose of course you've been out to Belmont. At that time they run the wrong way of the track, like you deal cards. Daley's table was in a corner of the clubhouse porch and when you looked up the track, the horses was coming right at you. Even the boys with the trick glasses didn't dast pretend they could tell who's ahead.

The Belmont national hymn is Whispering. The joint's so big and scattered round that a German could sing without disturbing the party at the next table. But they seems to be a rule that when they's anything to be said, you got to murmur it with the lips stuck to the opponent's earlobe. They shush you if you ask out loud for a toothpick. Everywheres you'll see two or three guys with their heads together in a whispering scene. One of them has generally always just been down to the horses' dining room and had lunch with Man o' War or somebody and they told him to play Sea Mint in the next race as Cleopatra had walked the stall all night with her foal. A little ways off they'll be another pair of shushers and one of them's had a phone call from Cleopatra's old dam to put a bet on Cleo as Captain Alcock had got a hold of some wild oats and they couldn't make him do nothing but shimmy.

If they's ten horses in a race you can walk from one end of the clubhouse to the other and get a whisper on all ten of them. I remember the second time Man o' War run there. They was only one horse that wanted to watch him from the track and the War horse was 1 to 100. So just before the race, if you want to call it that, I seen a wise cracker that I'd got acquainted with, that had always been out last night with Madden or Waterbury, so just kidding I walked up to him and asked him who he liked. So he motioned me to come over against the wall where they wasn't nobody near us and whispered, "Man o' War's unbeatable." You see if that remark had of been overheard and the news allowed to spread round, it might of forced the price to, say, 1 to a lump of coal, and spoiled the killing.

Well, wile the Jamaica meeting was on, the gals had spent some of their spare time figuring out how much they'd of been ahead if Daley had of let them bet more than ten to twenty smackers a race. So this day at Belmont, they said that if he liked Only One so much, he should ought to leave them raise the ante just once and play fifty apiece.

But he says: "No, not this time. I'm pretty sure he'll win, but he's in against a sweet field and he ain't raced for a month. I'll bet forty on the nose for the two of you, and if he looks good you can gamble some real money the next time he runs."

So Ella and Kate had to be satisfied with $20 apiece. Daley himself bet $2,000 and I piked along with $200 that I didn't tell the gals nothing about. We all got 3 to 1. A horse named Streak of Lightning was favorite at 6 to 5. It was a battle. Only One caught the Streak in the last step and win by a flea's jaw. Everybody was in hysterics and the gals got all messed up clawing each other.

"Nobody but Mercer could of did it!" says Daley, as soon as he could talk.

"He's some jockey!" yelled Kate. "O you Sid!"

Pretty soon, the time was give out and Only One had broke the track record for the distance, whatever it was.

"He's a race horse!" said Daley. "But it's too bad he had to extend himself. We won't get no price the next time out."

Well, altogether the race meant $14,000 to Daley, and he said we'd all go to Town that night and celebrate. But when we got back to the Decker, they was a telegram for him and he had to pack up and beat it for Kentucky.

Daley being away didn't stop us from going to the track. He'd left orders with Ernest, his driver, to take us wherever we wanted to go and the gals had it so bad now that they couldn't hardly wait till afternoon. They kept on trimming the books, too. Kate got a phone call every morning that she said was from this Goldberg and he was giving her tips. Her and Ella played them and I wished I had. I would of if I'd knew who they was from. They was from Mercer, Daley's boy. That's who they was from.

I and Ella didn't wise up till about the third night after Daley'd went. That night, Kate took the train to Town right after supper, saying she had a date with Goldberg. It was a swell night and along about eight, I and Ella decided we might as well have a ride. So we got a hold of Ernest and it wound up by us going to New York too. We seen a picture and batted round till midnight and then Ella says why not go down to the Pennsylvania Station and pick Kate up when she come to take the train, and bring her home. So we done it. But when Katie showed up for the train, it was Mercer that was with her, not Goldberg.

Well, Mercer was pretty near out to the car with us when he happened to think that Daley's driver mustn't see him. So he said good night and left us. But he didn't do it quick enough. Daley's driver had saw him and I seen that he'd saw him and I knowed that he wasn't liable to be stuck on another of Daley's employs that was getting ten times as much money as him and all the cheers, and never had to dirty himself up changing a tire. And I bet it was all Ernest could do was wait till Daley come back so as he could explode the boom.

Kate and Ella didn't know Ernest was hep and I didn't tell them for fear of spoiling the show, so the women done their brawling on the way home in a regular race track whisper. The Mrs. told Kate she was a hick to be monking round with a jockey when Daley was ready and willing to give her a modern home with a platinum stopper in the washbowl. Kate told Ella that she wasn't going to marry nobody for their money, and besides, Mercer was making more than enough to support a wife, and how that boy can dance!

"But listen," she says: "I ain't married to neither one of them yet and don't know if I want to be."

"Well," says Ella, "you won't have no chance to marry Daley if he finds out about you and Mercer."

"He won't find out unless you tell him," said Kate. 

"Well, I'll tell him," says Ella, "unless you cut this monkey business out."

"I'll cut it out when I get good and ready," says Kate. "You can tell Daley anything you please."

She knew they wasn't no chance of Ella making good.

"Daley'll be back in a couple of days," says the Mrs. "When he comes he'll want his answer and what are you going to say?"

"Yes or no, according to which way I make up my mind," said Kate. "I don't know yet which one I like best."

"That's ridic'lous!" Ella says. "When a girl says she can't make up her mind, it shows they's nothing to make up. Did you ever see me when I couldn't make up my mind?"

"No," said Katie, "but you never had even one whole man to choose between."

The last half of the ride neither of them were talking. That's a world's record in itself. They kind of made up the next morning after I'd told Ella that the surest way to knock Daley's chances for a gool was to paste Mercer.

"Just lay off of it," I told her. "The best man'll win in fair competition, which it won't be if you keep plugging for Daley."

We had two more pretty fair days at the track on Kate's tips that Mercer give her. We also went on a party with him down Town, but we used the train, not Daley's car.

Daley showed up on a Wednesday morning and had Ernest take him right over to the track. I suppose it was on this trip that Ernest squealed. Daley didn't act no different when we joined him on the clubhouse porch, but that night him and Kate took a ride alone and come back engaged.

They'd been pointing Only One for the Merrick Handicap, the fourth race on Saturday. It was worth about $7,000 to the winner. The distance was seven furlongs and Only One had top weight, 126 pounds. But Thursday he done a trial over the distance in 1.22, carrying 130 pounds, so it looked like a set-up. 

Thursday morning I and Ella happened to be in Katie's room when the telephone rung. It was Mercer on the other end. He asked her something and she says: "I told you why in my note."

So he said something else and she says: "Not with no jailbird."

And she hung up.

Well, Ella wanted to know what all the pleasantries was about, but Kate told her to mind her own business.

"You got your wish and I'm engaged to Daley," she says, "and that's all you need to know."

For a gal that was going to marry a dude that was supposed to have all the money in the world, she didn't act just right, but she wouldn't been Kate if she had of, so I didn't think much about it.

Friday morning I got a wire from one of the South Bend boys, Goat Anderson, sent from Buffalo, saying he'd be in New York that night and would I meet him at the Belmont at seven o'clock. So I went in Town from the track and waited round till pretty near nine, but he didn't show up. I started to walk across to the Pennsylvania Station and on the way I dropped in at a place where they was still taking a chance. I had one up at the bar and was throwing it into me when a guy in the back part yelled "Hey! Come here!" It was Mercer yelling and it was me he wanted.

He was setting at a table all alone with a highball. It didn't take no Craig Kennedy to figure out that it wasn't his first one.

"Set down before I bat you down!" he says.

"Listen," I says: "I wished you was champion of the world. You'd hold onto the title just long enough for me to reach over and sock you where most guys has a chin."

"Set down!" he says. "It's your wife I'm going to beat up, not you."

"You ain't going to beat up nobody's wife or nobody's husband," I says, "and if you don't cut out that line of gab you'll soon be asking the nurse how you got there."

"Set down and come clean with me," he says. "Was your wife the one that told Daley about your sister-in-law and I?"

"If she did, what of it?" I says. 

"I'm asking you, did she?" he says.

"No, she didn't," I said. "If somebody told him his driver told him. He seen you the other night."

"Ernest!" he says. "Frank and Ernest! I'll Ernest him right in the jaw!"

"You're a fine matchmaker!" I says. "He could knock you for a row of flat tires. Why don't you try and get mad at Dempsey?"

"Set down and have a drink," says Mercer.

"I didn't mean that about your wife. You and her has treated me all right. And your sister-in-law, too, even if she did give me the air. And called me a jailbird. But that's all right. It's Daley I'm after and it's Daley I'm going to get."

"Sweet chance!" I says. "What could you do to him?"

"Wait and see!" said Mercer, and smiled kind of silly.

"Listen," I says. "Have you forgot that you're supposed to ride Only One to-morrow?"

"Supposed to ride is right," he says, and smiled again.

"Ain't you going to ride him?" I said.

"You bet I am!" he says.

"Well, then," I said, "you better call it a day and go home."

"I'm over twenty-one," he says, "and I'm going to set here and enjoy myself. But remember, I ain't keeping you up."

Well, they wasn't nothing I could do only set there and wait for him to get stiff and then see him to his hotel. We had a drink and we had another and a couple more. Finally he opened up. I wished you could of heard him. It took him two hours to tell his story, and everything he said, he said it over and over and repeated it four and five times. And part of the time he talked so thick that I couldn't hardly get him.

"Listen," he says. "Can you keep a secret? Listen," he says. "I'm going to take a chance with you on account of your sister-in-law. I loved that little gal. She's give me the air, but that don't make no difference; I loved that little gal and I don't want her to lose no money. So I'm going to tell you a secret and if you don't keep your clam shut I'll roll you for a natural. In the first place," he says, "how do you and Daley stack up?" 

"That ain't no secret," I said. "I think he's all right. He's been a good friend of mine."

"Oh," says Mercer, "so he's been a good friend of yours, has he? All right, then. I'm going to tell you a secret. Do you remember the day I met you and the gals in the car? Well, a couple of days later, Daley was feeling pretty good about something and he asked me how I liked his gal? So I told him she looked good. So he says, 'I'm going to marry that gal,' he says. He says, 'She likes me and her sister and brother-in-law is encouraging it along,' he says. 'They know I've got a little money and they're making a play for me. They're a couple of rats and I'm the cheese. They're going to make a meal off of me. They think they are,' he says. 'But the brother-in-law's a smart Aleck that thinks he's a wise cracker. He'd be a clown in a circus, only that's work. And his wife's fishing for a sucker with her sister for bait. Well, the gal's a pip and I'm going to marry her,' he says, 'but as soon as we're married, it's good-by, family-in-law! Me and them is going to be perfect strangers. They think they'll have free board and lodging at my house,' he says, 'but they won't get no meal unless they come to the back door for it, and when they feel sleepy they can make up a lower for themself on my cement porch.' That's the kind of a friend of yours this baby is," says Mercer.

I didn't say nothing and he went on.

"He's your friend as long as he can use you," he says. "He's been my friend since I signed to ride for him, that is, up till he found out I was stealing his gal. Then he shot my chances for a bull's-eye by telling her about a little trouble I had, five or six years ago. I and a girl went to a party down in Louisville and I seen another guy wink at her and I asked him what he meant by it and he said he had St. Vitus' dance. So I pulled the iron and knocked off a couple of his toes, to cure him. I was in eleven months and that's what Daley told Kate about. And of course he made her promise to not tell, but she wrote me a good-by note and spilled it. That's the kind of a pal he is.

"After I got out I worked for Bradley, and when Bradley turned me loose, he give me a $10,000 contract." 

"He told us twenty," I said.

"Sure he did," says Mercer. "He always talks double. When he gets up after a tough night, both his heads aches. And if he ever has a baby he'll invite you over to see the twins. But anyway, what he pays me ain't enough and after to-morrow I'm through riding. What's ten or fifteen thousand a year when you can't drink nothing and you starve to death for the fear you'll pick up an ounce! Listen," he says. "I got a brother down in Oklahoma that's in the oil lease game. He cleaned up $25,000 last year and he wants me to go in with him. And with what I've saved up and what I'm going to win to-morrow, I should worry if we don't make nothing in the next two years."

"How are you going to win to-morrow?" I said. "The price'll be a joke."

"The price on who?" says Mercer.

"Only One," I said.

He give a silly laugh and didn't say nothing for a minute. Then he asked if Daley done the betting for I and the two gals. I told him he had did it at first, but now I was doing it.

"Well," he says, "you do it to-morrow, see? That little lady called me a jailbird, but I don't want her to lose her money."

So I asked him what he meant and he asked me for the tenth or eleventh time if I could keep a secret. He made me hold up my hand and swear I wouldn't crack what he was going to tell me.

"Now," he says, "what's the name of the horse I'm riding to-morrow?"

"Only One," I said.

"That ain't all of it," said Mercer. "His name to-morrow is Only One Left. See? Only One Left."

"Do you mean he's going to get left at the post?" I says.

"You're a Ouija board!" says Mercer. "Your name is Ouija and the horse's name is Only One Left. And listen," he says. "Everything but three horses is going to be scratched out of this race and we'll open at about 1 to 3 and back up to 1 to 5. And Daley's going to bet his right eye. But they's a horse in the race named Sap and that's the horse my two%p090%%thousand smackers is going down on. And you're a sap, too, if you don't string along with me:"

"Suppose you can't hold Only One?"

"Get the name right," said Mercer. "Only One Left. And don't worry about me not handling him. He thinks I'm Billy Sunday and everything I say he believes. Do you remember the other day when I beat Streak of Lightning? Well, the way I done that was whispering in One's ear, coming down the stretch. I says to him, 'One,' I says, 'this Lightning hoss has been spilling it round that your father's grandmother was a zebra. Make a bum out of him!' That's what I whispered to him and he got sore and went past Lightning like he was standing still. And to-morrow, just before we're supposed to go, I'll say to him, 'One, we're back at Jamaica. You're facing the wrong way.' And when Sap and the other dog starts, we'll be headed towards Rhode Island and in no hurry to get there."

"Mercer," I said, "I don't suppose they's any use talking to you, but after all, you're under contract to give Daley the best you've got and it don't look to me just like you was treating him square."

"Listen!" he says. "Him and square don't rhyme. And besides, I won't be under contract to nobody by this time to-morrow. So you save your sermon for your own parish."

I don't know if you'll think I done right or not. Or I don't care. But what was the sense of me tipping off a guy that had said them sweet things about I and Ella? And even if I don't want a sister-in-law of mine running round with a guy that's got a jail record, still Daley squealing on him was rotten dope. And besides, I don't never like to break a promise, especially to a guy that shoots a man's toes off just for having St. Vitus' dance.

Well, anyway, the third race was over and the Merrick Handicap was next, and just like Mercer had said, they all quit but our horse and Sap and a ten-ton truck named Honor Bright. He was 20 to 1 and Sap was 6. Only One was 1 to 3 and Daley hopped on him with fifteen thousand men. Before post time the price was 1 to 5 and 1 to 6.

Daley was off his nut all afternoon and didn't object when I said I'd place the gals' money and save him the trouble. Kate and Ella had figured out what they had win up to date. It was about $1,200 and Daley told them to bet it all.

"You'll only make $400 between you," he says, "but it's a cinch."

"And four hundred's pretty good interest on $1,200," says Kate. "About ten per cent, ain't it?"

I left them and went downstairs. I wrote out a card for a hundred smackers on Sap. Then my feet caught cold and I didn't turn it in. I walked down towards the paddock and got there just as the boys was getting ready to parade. I seen Mercer and you wouldn't of never knew he'd fell off the wagon.

Daley was down there, too, and I heard him say: "Well, Sid, how about you?"

"Never better," says Mercer. "If I don't win this one I'll quit riding."

Then he seen me and smiled.

I chased back to the clubhouse, making up my mind on the way. I decided to not bet a nickel for the gals on anything. If Mercer was crossing me, I'd give Ella and Kate their $400 like they had win it, and say nothing. Personally, I was going to turn in the card I'd wrote on Sap. That was my idear when I got to Joe Meyer. But all of a sudden I had the hunch that Mercer was going through; they wasn't a chance in the world for him to weaken. I left Meyer's stand and went to a bookie named Haynes, who I'd bet with before.

Sap had went up to 8 to 1, and instead of a hundred smackers I bet a thousand.

He finished ahead by three len'ths, probably the most surprised horse in history. Honor Bright got the place, but only by a hair. Only One, after being detained for some reason another, come faster at the end than any horse ever run before. And Mercer give him an unmerciful walloping, pretending to himself, probably, that the hoss was its master.

We come back to our table. The gals sunk down in their chairs. Ella was blubbering and Kate was as white as a ghost. Daley finally joined us, looking like he'd had a stroke. He asked for a drink and I give him my flask.

"I can't understand it!" he says. "I don't know what happened!"

"You don't!" hollered Kate. "I'll tell you what happened. You stole our money! Twelve hundred dollars! You cheat!"

"Oh, shut your fool mouth!" says Daley.

And another Romance was knocked for a row of sour apple trees.

Kate brought the mail in the dining room Monday morning. They was a letter for her and one for me. She read hers and they was a couple of tears in her eyes.

"Mercer's quit riding," she says. "This is a farewell note. He's going to Oklahoma."

Ella picked up my envelope.

"Who's this from?" she says.

"Give it here," I said, and took it away from her. "It's just the statement from Haynes, the bookie."

"Well, open it up," she said.

"What for?" said I. "You know how much you lose, don't you?"

"He might of made a mistake, mightn't he?" she says.

So I opened up the envelope and there was the check for $8,000.

"Gosh!" I said. "It looks like it was me that made the mistake!" And I laid the check down where her and Kate could see it. They screamed and I caught Ella just as she was falling off the chair.

"What does this mean?" says Kate.

"Well," I said, "I guess I was kind of rattled Saturday, and when I come to make my bet I got balled up and wrote down Sap. And I must of went crazy and played him for a thousand men."

"But where's our statement, mine and Sis'?" says Ella.

"That's my mistake again," I said. "I wrote out your ticket, but I must of forgot to turn it in."

They jumped up and come at me, and before I could duck I was kissed from both sides at once.

"O Sis!" yelps the Mrs. "Just think! We didn't lose our twelve hundred! We didn't lose nothing at all. We win eight thousand dollars!"

"Try and get it!" I says.

V

Katie Wins a Home

OH YES, we been back here quite a wile. And we're liable to be here quite a wile. This town's good enough for me and it suits the Mrs. too, though they didn't neither one of us appreciate it till we'd give New York a try. If I was running the South Bend Boosters' club, I'd make everybody spend a year on the Gay White Way. They'd be so tickled when they got to South Bend that you'd never hear them razz the old burg again. Just yesterday we had a letter from Katie, asking us would we come and pay her a visit. She's a regular New Yorker now. Well, I didn't have to put up no fight with my Mrs. Before I could open my pan she says, "I'll write and tell her we can't come; that you're looking for a job and don't want to go nowhere just now."

Well, they's some truth in that. I don't want to go nowheres and I'll take a job if it's the right kind. We could get along on the interest from Ella's money, but I'm tired of laying round. I didn't do a tap of work all the time I was east and I'm out of the habit, but the days certainly do drag when a man ain't got nothing to do and if I can find something where I don't have to travel, I'll try it out.

But the Mrs. has still got most of what the old man left her and all and all, I'm glad we made the trip. I more than broke even by winning pretty close to $10,000 on the ponies down there. And we got Katie off our hands, which was one of the objects of us going in the first place--that and because the two gals wanted to see Life. So I don't grudge the time we spent, and we had some funny experiences when you look back at them. Anybody does that goes on a tour like that with a cuckoo like Katie. You hear a lot of songs and gags about mother-in-laws. But I could write a book of them about sister-in-laws that's twenty years old and pretty and full of peace and good will towards Men.

Well, after the blow-off with Daley, Long Island got too slow, besides costing us more than we could afford. So the gals suggested moving back in Town, to a hotel called the Graham on Sixty-seventh Street that somebody had told them was reasonable.

They called it a family hotel, but as far as I could see, Ella and I was the only ones there that had ever forced two dollars on the clergy. Outside of the transients, they was two song writers and a couple of gals that had their hair pruned and wrote for the papers, and the rest of the lodgers was boys that had got penned into a sixteen-foot ring with Benny Leonard by mistake. They looked like they'd spent many an evening hanging onto the ropes during the rush hour.

When we'd staid there two days, Ella and Katie was ready to pack up again.

"This is just a joint," said Ella. "The gals may be all right, but they're never in, only to sleep. And the men's impossible; a bunch of low prize-fighters."

I was for sticking, on account of the place being cheap, so I said:

"Second prize ain't so low. And you're overlooking the two handsome tune thiefs. Besides, what's the difference who else lives here as long as the rooms is clean and they got a good restaurant? What did our dude cellmates out on Long Island get us? Just trouble!"

But I'd of lose the argument as usual only for Kate oversleeping herself. It was our third morning at the Graham and her and Ella had it planned to go and look for a better place. But Katie didn't get up till pretty near noon and Ella went without her. So it broke so's Sis had just came downstairs and turned in her key when the two bellhops reeled in the front door bulging with baggage and escorting Mr. Jimmy Ralston. Yes, Jimmy Ralston the comedian. Or comic, as he calls it.

Well, he ain't F. X. Bushman, as you know. But no one that seen him could make the mistake of thinking he wasn't somebody. And he looked good enough to Kate so as she waited till the clerk had him fixed up, and then ast who he was. The clerk told her and she told us when the Mrs. come back from her hunt. Ella begin to name a few joints where we might move, but it seemed like Sis had changed her mind.

"Oh," she says, "let's stay here a wile longer, a week anyway."

"What's came over you!" ast Ella. "You just said last night that you was bored to death here."

"Maybe we won't be so bored now," said Kate, smiling. "The Graham's looking up. We're entertaining a celebrity--Jimmy Ralston of the Follies.

Well, they hadn't none of us ever seen him on the stage, but of course we'd heard of him. He'd only just started with the Follies, but he'd made a name for himself at the Winter Garden, where he broke in two or three years ago. And Kate said that a chorus gal she'd met--Jane Abbott--had told her about Ralston and what a scream he was on a party.

"He's terribly funny when he gets just the right number of drinks," says Kate.

"Well, let's stay then," says Ella. "It'll be exciting to know a real actor."

"I would like to know him," says Katie, "not just because he's on the stage, but I think it'd be fun to set and listen to him talk. He must say the screamingest things! If we had him round we wouldn't have to play cards or nothing for entertainment. Only they say it makes people fat to laugh."

"If I was you, I'd want to get fat," I said. "Looking like an E string hasn't started no landslide your way."

"Is he attractive?" ast the Mrs.

"Well," said Kate, "he isn't handsome, but he's striking looking. You wouldn't never think he was a comedian. But then, ain't it generally always true that the driest people have sad faces?"

"That's a joke!" I said. "Did you ever see Bryan when he didn't look like somebody was tickling his feet?"

"We'll have to think up some scheme to get introduced to him," says Ella.

"It'll be tough," I says. "I don't suppose they's anybody in the world harder to meet than a member of the Follies, unless it's an Elk in a Pullman washroom."

"But listen," says Kate: "We don't want to meet him till we've saw the show. It'd be awfully embarrassing to have him ask us how we liked the Follies and we'd have to say we hadn't been to it."

"Yes," said the Mrs., "but still if we tell him we haven't been to it, he may give us free passes."

"Easy!" I said. "And it'd take a big load off his mind. They say it worries the Follies people half sick wondering what to do with all their free passes."

"Suppose we go to-night!" says Kate. "We can drop in a hotel somewhere and get seats. The longer we don't go, the longer we won't meet him."

"And the longer we don't meet him," I says, "the longer till he gives you the air."

"I'm not thinking of Mr. Ralston as a possible suitor," says Katie, swelling up. "But I do want to get acquainted with a man that don't bore a person to death."

"Well," I says, "if this baby's anything like the rest of your gentlemen friends, he won't hardly be round long enough for that."

I didn't make no kick about going to the show. We hadn't spent no money since we'd moved back to Town and I was as tired as the gals of setting up in the room, playing rummy. They said we'd have to dress, and I kicked just from habit, but I'd got past minding that end of it. They was one advantage in dolling up every time you went anywhere. It meant an hour when they was no chance to do something even sillier.

We couldn't stop to put on the nose bag at the Graham because the women was scared we'd be too late to get tickets. Besides, when you're dressed for dinner, you at least want the waiter to be the same. So we took a taxi down to the Spencer, bought Follies seats in the ninth row, and went in to eat. It's been in all the papers that the price of food has came down, but the hotel man can't read. They fined us eleven smackers for a two-course banquet that if the Woman's Guild, here, would dast soak you four bits a plate for it, somebody'd write a nasty letter to the News-Times.

We got in the theater a half hour before the show begin. I put in the time finding out what the men will wear, and the gals looked up what scenes Ralston'd be in. He was only on once in each act. They don't waste much time on a comedian in the Follies. It don't take long to spring the two gags they can think up for him in a year, and besides, he just interferes with the big gal numbers, where Bunny Granville or somebody dreams of the different flappers he danced with at the prom, and the souvenirs they give him; and one by one the different gals writhes in, dressed like the stage director thinks they dress at the female colleges--a Wesley gal in pink tights, a Vassar dame in hula-hula, and a Smith gal with a sombrero and a sailor suit. He does a couple of steps with them and they each hand him a flower or a vegetable to remember them by. The song winds up:

But my most exclusive token
Is a little hangnail broken
Off the gal from Gussie's School for Manicures.

And his real sweet patootie comes on made up as a scissors.

You've saw Ralston? He's a good comedian; no getting away from that. The way he fixes up his face, you laugh just to look at him. I yelled when I first seen him. He was supposed to be an office boy and he got back late from lunch and the boss ast him what made him late and he said he stopped to buy the extra. So the boss ast him what extra and he says the extra about the New York society couple getting married. So the boss said, "Why, they wouldn't print an extra about that. They's a New York society couple married most every day." So Ralston said, "Yes, but this couple is both doing it for the first time."

I don't remember what other gags he had, and they're old anyway by now. But he was a hit, especially with Ella and Kate. They screamed so loud I thought we'd get the air. If he didn't say a word, he'd be funny with that fool make-up and that voice.

I guess if it wasn't for me the gals would of insisted on going back to the stage door after the show and waiting for him to come out. I've saw Katie bad a lot of times, but never as cuckoo as this. It wasn't no case of love at first or second sight. You couldn't be stuck on this guy from seeing him. But she'd always been kind of stage-struck and was crazy over the idear of getting acquainted with a celebrity, maybe going round to places with him, and having people see her with Jimmy Ralston, the comedian. And then, of course, most anybody wants to meet a person that can make you laugh.

I managed to persuade them that the best dope would be to go back to the Graham and wait for him to come home; maybe we could fix it up with the night clerk to introduce us. I told them that irregardless of what you read in books, they's some members of the theatrical profession that occasionally visits the place where they sleep. So we went to the hotel and set in the lobby for an hour and a half, me trying to keep awake wile the gals played Ralston's part of the show over again a couple thousand times. They's nothing goes so big with me as listening to people repeat gags out of a show that I just seen.

The clerk had been tipped off and when Ralston finally come in and went to get his key, I strolled up to the desk like I was after mine. The clerk introduced us.

"I want you to meet my wife and sister-in-law," I said.

"Some other time," says Ralston. "They's a matinee to-morrow and I got to run off to bed."

So off he went and I got bawled out for Ziegfeld having matinees. But I squared myself two days afterwards when we went in the restaurant for lunch. He was just having breakfast and the three of us stopped by his table. I don't think he remembered ever seeing me before, but anyway he got up and shook hands with the women. Well, you couldn't never accuse Ella of having a faint heart, and she says: 

"Can't we set down with you, Mr. Ralston? We want to tell you how much we enjoyed the Follies."

So he says, sure, set down, but I guess we would of anyway.

"We thought it was a dandy show," says Katie.

"It ain't a bad troupe," says Ralston.

"If you'll pardon me getting personal," said Ella, "we thought you was the best thing in it."

He looked like he'd strain a point and forgive her.

"We all just yelled!" says Katie. "I was afraid they'd put us out, you made us laugh so hard."

"Well," says Ralston, "I guess if they begin putting people out for that, I'd have to leave the troupe."

"It wouldn't be much of a show without you," says Ella.

"Well, all that keeps me in it is friendship for Ziggy," says Ralston. "I said to him last night, I says, 'Ziggy, I'm going to quit the troupe. I'm tired and I want to rest a wile.' So he says, 'Jim, don't quit or I'll have to close the troupe. I'll give you fifteen hundred a week to stay.' I'm getting a thousand now. But I says to him, I said, 'Ziggy, it ain't a question of money. What I want is a troupe of my own, where I get a chance to do serious work. I'm sick of making a monkey of myself in front of a bunch of saps from Nyack that don't appreciate no art but what's wrapped up in a stocking.' So he's promised that if I'll stick it out this year, he'll star me next season in a serious piece."

"Is he giving you the five hundred raise?" I ast him.

"I wouldn't take it," said Ralston. "I don't need money."

"At that, a person can live pretty cheap at this hotel," I says.

"I didn't move here because it was cheap," he said. "I moved here to get away from the pests--women that wants my autograph or my picture. And all they could say was how much they enjoyed my work and how did I think up all them gags, and so forth. No real artist likes to talk about himself, especially to people that don't understand. So that's the reason why I left the Ritz, so's I'd be left alone, not to save money. And I don't save no money, neither. I've got the best suite in the house--bedroom, bath, and study."

"What do you study?" ast Kate.

"The parts I want to play," he says; "Hamlet and Macbeth and Richard."

"But you're a comedian," says Kate.

"It's just a stepping stone," said Ralston.

He'd finished his breakfast and got up.

"I must go to my study and work," he says. "We'll meet again."

"Yes, indeed," says Ella. "Do you always come right back here nights after the show?"

"When I can get away from the pests," he says.

"Well," says Ella, "suppose you come up to our rooms to-night and we'll have a bite to eat. And I think the husband can give you a little liquid refreshments if you ever indulge."

"Very little," he says. "What is your room number?"

So the Mrs. told him and he said he'd see us after the show that night, and walked out.

"Well," said Ella, "how do you like him?"

"I think he's wonderful!" says Katie. "I didn't have no idear he was so deep, wanting to play Hamlet."

"Pretty near all comedians has got that bug," I says.

"Maybe he's different when you know him better," said Ella.

"I don't want him to be different," says Kate.

"But he was so serious," said the Mrs. "He didn't say nothing funny."

"Sure he did," I says. "Didn't he say artists hate to talk about themselfs?"

Pretty soon the waiter come in with our lunch. He ast us if the other gentleman was coming back.

"No," said Ella. "He's through."

"He forgot his check," says the dish smasher.

"Oh, never mind!" says Ella. "We'll take care of that." 

"Well," I says, "I guess the bird was telling the truth when he said he didn't need no money."

I and the gals spent the evening at a picture show and stopped at a delicatessen on the way home to stock up for the banquet. I had a quart and a pint of yearling rye, and a couple of bottles of McAllister that they'd fined me fifteen smackers apiece for and I wanted to save them, so I told Kate that I hoped her friend would get comical enough on the rye.

"He said he drunk very little," she reminded me.

"Remember, don't make him talk about himself," said the Mrs. "What we want is to have him feel at home, like he was with old friends, and then maybe he'll warm up. I hope we don't wake the whole hotel, laughing."

Well, Ralston showed up about midnight. He'd remembered his date and apologized for not getting there before.

"I like to walk home from the theater," he says. "I get some of my funniest idears wile I walk."

I come to the conclusion later that he spent practically his whole life riding.

Ella's and my room wasn't no gymnasium for size and after the third drink, Ralston tried to get to the dresser to look at himself in the glass, and knocked a $30 vase for a corpse. This didn't go very big with the Mrs., but she forced a smile and would of accepted his apology if he'd made any. All he done was mumble something about cramped quarters. They was even more cramped when we set the table for the big feed, and it was my tough luck to have our guest park himself in the chair nearest the clothes closet, where my two bottles of Scotch had been put to bed. The fourth snifter finished the pint of rye and I said I'd get the other quart, but before I could stop her, Ella says:

"Let Mr. Ralston get it. It's right there by him."

So the next thing you know, James has found the good stuff and he comes out with both bottles of it. 

"McAllister!" he says. "That's my favorite. If I'd knew you had that, I wouldn't of drank up all your rye."

"You haven't drank it all up," I says. "They's another bottle of it in there."

"It can stay there as long as we got this," he says, and helped himself to the corkscrew.

Well, amongst the knickknacks the gals had picked up at the delicatessen was a roast chicken and a bottle of olives, and at the time I thought Ralston was swallowing bones, stones, and all. It wasn't till the next day that we found all these keepsakes on the floor, along with a couple dozen assorted cigarette butts.

Katie's chorus gal friend had told her how funny the guy was when he'd had just the right number of shots, but I'd counted eight and begin to get discouraged before he started talking.

"My mother could certainly cook a chicken," he says.

"Is your mother living?" Kate ast him.

"No," he says. "She was killed in a railroad wreck. I'll never forget when I had to go and identify her. You wouldn't believe a person could get that mangled! No," he says, "my family's all gone. I never seen my father. He was in the pesthouse with smallpox when I was born and he died there. And my only sister died of jaundice. I can still--"

But Kate was scared we'd wake up the hotel, laughing, so she says: "Do you ever give imitations?"

"You mustn't make Mr. Ralston talk about himself," says Ella.

"Imitations of who?" said Ralston.

"Oh, other actors," said Katie.

"No," he says. "I leave it to the other actors to give imitations of me."

"I never seen none of them do it," says Kate.

"They all do it, but they don't advertise it," he says. "Every comic in New York is using my stuff."

"Oh!" said Ella. "You mean they steal your idears."

"Can't you go after them for it?" ast Katie.

"You could charge them with petit larceny," I said. 

"I wouldn't be mean," said Ralston. "But they ain't a comic on the stage to-day that I didn't give him every laugh he's got."

"You ain't only been on the stage three or four years," I says. "How did Hitchcock and Ed Wynn and them fellas get by before they seen you?"

"They wasn't getting by," he says. "I'm the baby that put them on their feet. Take Hitchy. Hitchy come to me last spring and says, 'Jim, I've ran out of stuff. Have you got any notions I could use?' So I says, 'Hitchy, you're welcome to anything I got.' So I give him a couple of idears and they're the only laughs in his troupe. And you take Wynn. He opened up with a troupe that looked like a flop and one day I seen him on Broadway, wearing a long pan, and I says, 'What's the matter, Eddie?' And he brightened up and says, 'Hello, there, Jim! You're just the boy I want to see.' So I says, 'Well, Eddie, I'm only too glad to do anything I can.' So he says, 'I got a flop on my hands unlest I can get a couple of idears, and you're the baby that can give them to me.' So I said, 'All right, Eddie,' And I give him a couple of notions to work on and they made his show. And look at Stone! And Errol! And Jolson and Tinney! Every one of them come to me at one time another, hollering for help. 'Jim, give me a couple of notions!' 'Jim, give me a couple of gags!' And not a one of them went away empty-handed."

"Did they pay you?" ast Ella.

Ralston smiled.

"I wouldn't take no actor's money," he says. "They're all brothers to me. They can have anything I got, and I can have anything they got, only they haven't got nothing."

Well, I can't tell you all he said, as I was asleep part of the time. But I do remember that he was the one that had give Bert Williams the notion of playing coon parts, and learnt Sarah Bernhardt to talk French.

Along about four o'clock, whey they was less than a pint left in the second McAllister bottle, he defied all the theater managers in New York.

"I ain't going to monkey with them much longer!" he says. "I'll let you folks in on something that'll cause a sensation on Broadway. I'm going to quit the Follies!"

We was all speechless.

"That's the big secret!" he says. "I'm coming out as a star under my own management and in a troupe wrote and produced by myself!"

"When?" ast Kate.

"Just as soon as I decide who I'm going to let in as part owner," said Ralston. "I've worked for other guys long enough! Why should I be satisfied with $800 a week when Ziegfeld's getting rich off me!"

"When did he cut you $200?" I says. "You was getting $1,000 last time I seen you."

He didn't pay no attention.

"And why should I let some manager produce my play," he says, "and pay me maybe $1,200 a week when I ought to be making six or seven thousand!"

"Are you working on your play now?" Kate ast him.

"It's done," he says. "I'm just trying to make up my mind who's the right party to let in on it. Whoever it is, I'll make him rich."

"I've got some money to invest," says Katie. "Suppose you tell us about the play."

"I'll give you the notion, if you'll keep it to yourself," says Ralston. "It's a serious play with a novelty idear that'll be a sensation. Suppose I go down to my suite and get the script and read it to you."

"Oh, if you would!" says Kate.

"It'll knock you dead!" he says.

And just the thought of it was fatal to the author. He got up from his chair, done a nose dive acrost the table and laid there with his head in the chili sauce.

I called up the clerk and had him send up the night bellhop with our guest's key. I and the boy acted as pall bearers and got him to his "suite," where we performed the last sad rites. Before I come away I noticed that the "suite" was a ringer for Ella's and mine--a dinky little room with a bath. The "study" was prettily furnished with coat hangers. 

When I got back to my room Katie'd ducked and the Mrs. was asleep, so I didn't get a chance to talk to them till we was in the restaurant at noon. Then I ast Kate if she'd figured out just what number drink it was that had started him being comical.

"Now listen," she says: "I don't think that Abbott girl ever met him in her life. Anyway, she had him all wrong. We expected he'd do stunts, like she said, but he ain't that kind that shows off or acts smart. He's too much of a man for that. He's a bigger man than I thought."

"I and the bellhop remarked that same thing," I says.

"And you needn't make fun of him for getting faint," says Katie. "I called him up a wile ago to find out how he was and he apologized and said they must of been something in that second bottle of Scotch."

So I says:

"You tell him they was, but they ain't." 

Well, it couldn't of been the Scotch or no other brew that ruined me. Or if it was, it worked mighty slow. I didn't even look at a drink for three days after the party in our room. But the third day I felt rotten, and that night I come down with a fever. Ella got scared and called a doctor and he said it was flu, and if I didn't watch my step it'd be something worse. He advised taking me to a hospital and I didn't have pep enough to say no.

So they took me and I was pretty sick for a couple of weeks--too sick for the Mrs. to give me the news. And it's a wonder I didn't have a relapse when she finally did.

"You'll probably yelp when you hear this," she says. "I ain't crazy about it myself, but it didn't do me no good to argue at first and it's too late for argument now. Well, to begin with, Sis is in love with Ralston."

"What of it!" I said. "She's going through the city directory and she's just got to the R's."

"No, it's the real thing this time," said the Mrs. "Wait till you hear the rest of it. She's going on the stage!"

"I've got nothing against that," I says. "She's pretty enough to get by in the Follies chorus, and if she can earn money that way, I'm for it."

"She ain't going into no chorus," said Ella. "Ralston's quit the Follies and she's going in his show."

"The one he wrote?" I ast.

"Yes," said the Mrs.

"And who's going to put it on?" I ast her.

"That's it," she says. "They're going to put it on themself, Ralston and Sis. With Sis's money. She sold her bonds, fifty thousand dollars' worth."

"But listen," I says. "Fifty thousand dollars! What's the name of the play, Ringling Circus?"

"It won't cost all that," said Ella. "They figure it'll take less than ten thousand to get started. But she insisted on having the whole thing in a checking account, where she can get at it. If the show's a big success in New York they're going to have a company in Chicago and another on the road. And Ralston says her half of the profits in New York ought to run round $5,000 a week. But anyway, she's sure of $200 a week salary for acting in it."

"Where did she get the idear she can act?" I says.

"She's always had it," said the Mrs., "and I think she made him promise to put her in the show before she agreed to back it. Though she says it's a wonderful investment! She won't be the leading woman, of course. But they's only two woman's parts and she's got one of them."

"Well," I said, "if she's going to play a sap and just acts normal, she'll be a sensation."

"I don't know what she'll be," says Ella. "All I know is that she's mad over Ralston and believes everything he says. And even if you hadn't of been sick we couldn't of stopped her."

So I ast what the play was like, but Ella couldn't tell me.

Ralston had read it out loud to she and Kate, but she couldn't judge from just hearing it that way. But Kate was tickled to death with it. And they'd already been rehearsing a week, but Sis hadn't let Ella see the rehearsals. She said it made her nervous.

"Ralston thinks the main trouble will be finding a theater," said the Mrs. "He says they's a shortage of them and the men that owns them won't want to let him have one on account of jealousy."

"Has the Follies flopped?" I ast her.

"No," she says. "but they've left town."

"They always do, this time of year," I said.

"That's what I thought," says the Mrs., "but Ralston says they'd intended to stay here all the year round, but when the news come out that he'd left, they didn't dast. He's certainly got faith in himself. He must have, to give up a $600 a week salary. That's what he says he was really getting."

"You say Katie's in love," I says. "How about him?"

"I don't know and she don't know," says Ella. "He calls her dearie and everything and holds her hands, but when they're alone together, he won't talk nothing but business. Still, as I say, he calls her dearie." 

"Actors calls every gal that," I says. "It's because they can't remember names."

Well, to make a short story out of it, they had another couple weeks' rehearsals that we wasn't allowed to see, and they finally got a theater--the Olney. They had to guarantee a $10,000 business to get it. They didn't go to Atlantic City or nowheres for a tryout. They opened cold. And Ralston didn't tell nobody what kind of a show it was.

Of course he done what they generally always do on a first night. He sent out free passes to everybody that's got a dress suit, and they's enough of them in New York to pretty near fill up a theater. These invited guests is supposed to be for the performance wile it's going on. After it's through, they can go out and ride it all over the island.

Well, the rules wasn't exactly lived up to at "Bridget Sees a Ghost." On account of Ralston writing the play and starring in it, the gang thought it would be comical and they come prepared to laugh. It was comical all right, and they laughed. They didn't only laugh; they yelled. But they yelled in the wrong place.

The programme said it was "a Daring Drama in Three Acts." The three acts was what made it daring. It took nerve to even have one. In the first place, this was two years after the armistice and the play was about the war, and I don't know which the public was most interested in by this time--the war or Judge Parker.

Act 1 was in July, 1917. Ralston played the part of Francis Shaw, a captain in the American army. He's been married a year, and when the curtain goes up, his wife's in their New York home, waiting for him to come in from camp on his weekly leave. She sets reading the war news in the evening paper, and she reads it out loud, like people always do when they're alone, waiting for somebody. Pretty soon in comes Bridget, the Irish maid--our own dear Katie. And I wished you could of heard her brogue. And seen her gestures. What she reminded me most like was a gal in a home talent minstrels giving an imitation of Lew Fields playing the part of the block system on the New York Central. Her first line was, "Ain't der Captain home yed?" But I won't try and give you her dialect. 

"No," says Mrs. Shaw. "He's late." So Katie says better late than never, and the wife says, yes, but she's got a feeling that some day it'll be never; something tells her that if he ever goes to France, he won't come back. So Bridget says, "You been reading the war news again and it always makes you sad." "I hate wars!" says Mrs. Shaw, and that line got one of the biggest laughs.

After this they was a couple of minutes when neither of them could think of nothing to add, and then the phone rung and Bridget answered it. It was Capt. Shaw, saying he'd be there pretty soon; so Bridget goes right back to the kitchen to finish getting dinner, but she ain't no sooner than left the stage when Capt. Shaw struts in. He must of called up from the public booth on his front porch.

The audience had a tough time recognizing him without his comic make-up, but when they did they give him a good hand. Mrs. Shaw got up to greet him, but he brushed by her and come down to the footlights to bow. Then he turned and went back to his Mrs., saying "Maizie!" like this was the last place he expected to run acrost her. They kissed and then he ast her "Where is Bobbie, our dear little one?"--for fear she wouldn't know whose little one he meant. So she rung the bell and back come Bridget, and he says "Well, Bridget!" and Bridget says, "Well, it's the master!" This line was another riot. "Bring the little one, Bridget," says Mrs. Shaw, and the audience hollered again.

Wile Bridget was after the little one, the Captain celebrated the reunion by walking round the room, looking at the pictures. Bridget brings the baby in and the Captain uncovers its face and says, "Well, Bobbie!" Then he turns to his wife and says. "Let's see, Maizie. How old is he?" "Two weeks," says Maizie. "Two weeks!" says Captain Shaw, surprised. "Well," he says. "I hope by the time he's old enough to fight for the Stars and Stripes, they won't be no such a thing as war." So Mrs. Shaw says, "And I hope his father won't be called on to make the supreme sacrifice for him and we others that must stay home and wait. I sometimes think that in wartime, it's the women and children that suffers most. Take him back to his cozy cradle, Bridget. We mothers must be careful of our little ones. Who knows when the kiddies will be our only comfort!" So Bridget beat it out with the little one and I bet he hated to leave all the gaiety.

"Well," says Shaw to his wife, "and what's the little woman been doing?"

"Just reading," she says, "reading the news of this horrible war. I don't never pick up the paper but what I think that some day I'll see your name amongst the dead."

"Well," says the Captain bravely, "they's no danger wile I stay on U. S. soil. But only for you and the little one, I would welcome the call to go Over There and take my place in the battle line. The call will come soon, I believe, for they say France needs men." This rumor pretty near caused a riot in the audience and Ralston turned and give us all a dirty look.

Then Bridget come in again and said dinner was ready, and Shaw says, "It'll seem funny to set down wile I eat." Which was the first time I ever knew that army captains took their meals off the mantelpiece.

Wile the Shaws was out eating, their maid stayed in the living room, where she'd be out of their way. It seems that Ralston had wrote a swell speech for her to make in this spot, about what a tough thing war is, to come along and separate a happy young couple like the Shaws that hadn't only been married a year. But the speech started "This is terrible!" and when Bridget got that much of it out, some egg in the gallery hollered "You said a mouthful, kid!" and stopped the show.

The house finally quieted down, but Katie was dumb for the first time in her life. She couldn't say the line that was the cue for the phone to ring, and she had to go over and answer a silent call. It was for the Captain, and him and his wife both come back on the stage.

"Maizie," he says, after he'd hung up, "it's came! That was my general! We sail for France in half an hour!"

"O husband!" says Maizie. "This is the end!"

"Nonsense!" says Shaw with a brave smile. "This war means death for only a small per cent of our men."

"And almost no captains," yells the guy in the gallery.

Shaw gets ready to go, but she tells him to wait till she puts on her wraps; she'll go down to the dock and see him off.

"No, darling," he says. "Our orders is secret. I can't give you the name of our ship or where we're sailing from."

So he goes and she flops on the couch w'ining because he wouldn't tell her whether his ship left from Times Square or Grand Central.

They rung the curtain down here to make you think six days has passed. When it goes up again, Maizie's setting on the couch, holding the little one. Pretty soon Bridget comes in with the evening paper.

"They's a big headline, mum," she says. "A troopship has been torpedoed."

Well, when she handed her the paper, I could see the big headline. It said, "Phillies Hit Grimes Hard." But Maizie may of had a bet on Brooklyn. Anyway, she begin trembling and finally fell over stiff. So Bridget picked up the paper and read it out loud:

"Amongst the men lost was Capt. F. Shaw of New York."

Down went the curtain again and the first act was over, and some jokesmith in the audience yelled "Author! Author!"

"He's sunk!" said the egg in the gallery.

Well, Maizie was the only one in the whole theater that thought Shaw was dead. The rest of us just wished it. Still you couldn't blame her much for getting a wrong idear, as it was Nov. 11, 1918--over a year later--when the second act begins, and she hadn't heard from him in all that time. It wasn't never brought out why. Maybe he'd forgot her name or maybe it was Burleson's fault, like everything else.

The scene was the same old living room and Maizie was setting on the same old couch, but she was all dressed up like Elsie Ferguson. It comes out that she's expecting a gentleman friend, a Mr. Thornton, to dinner. She asks Bridget if she thinks it would be wrong of her to accept the guy the next time he proposed. He's ast her every evening for the last six months and she can't stall him much longer. So Bridget says it's all right if she loves him, but Maizie don't know if she loves him or not, but he looks so much like her late relic that she can't hardly tell the difference and besides, she has got to either marry or go to work, or her and the little one will starve. They's a knock at the door and Thornton comes in. Him and the absent Captain looks as much alike as two brothers, yours and mine. Bridget ducks and Thornton proposes. Maizie says, "Before I answer, I must tell you a secret. Captain Shaw didn't leave me all alone. I have a little one, a boy." "Oh, I love kiddies," says Thornton. "Can I see him?" So she says it's seven o'clock and the little one's supposed to of been put to bed, but she has Bridget go get him.

The little one's entrance was the sensation of this act. In act 1 he was just three or four towels, but now Bridget can't even carry him acrost the stage, and when she put him on his feet, he comes up pretty near to her shoulder. And when Thorton ast him would he like to have a new papa, he says, "Yes, because my other papa's never coming back."

Well, they say a woman can't keep a secret, but if Thornton had been nosing round for six months and didn't know till now that they was a spanker like Bobbie in the family circle, I wouldn't hardly call Maizie the town gossip.

After the baby'd went back to read himself to sleep and Mrs. Shaw had yessed her new admirer, Bridget dashed in yelling that the armistice was signed and held up the evening paper for Maizie and Thornton to see. The great news was announced in code. It said: "Phillies Hit Grimes Hard." And it seemed kind of silly to not come right out and say "Armistice Signed!" Because as I recall, even we saps out here in South Bend had knew it since three o'clock that morning.

The last act was in the same place, on Christmas Eve, 1918.

Maizie and her second husband had just finished doing up presents for the little one. We couldn't see the presents, but I suppose they was giving him a cocktail shaker and a shaving set. Though when he come on the stage you could see he hadn't aged much since Act 2. He hadn't even begin to get bald.

Thornton and the Mrs. went off somewheres and left the kid alone, but all of a sudden the front door opened and in come old Cap Shaw, on crutches. He seen the kid and called to him. "Who are you?" says the little one. "I'm Santa Claus," says the Cap, "and I've broughten you a papa for Christmas." "I don't want no papa," says Bobbie. "I've just got a new one." Then Bridget popped in and seen "the master" and hollered, "A ghost!" So he got her calmed down and she tells him what's came off. "It was in the paper that Capt. F. Shaw of New York was lost," she says. "It must of been another Capt. F. Shaw!" he says.

"It's an odd name," hollered the guy in the gallery.

The Captain thinks it all over and decides it's his move. He makes Bridget promise to never tell that she seen him and he says good-by to she and the kid and goes out into the night.

Maizie comes in, saying she heard a noise and what was it? Was somebody here? "Just the boy with the evening paper," says Bridget. And the cat's got Bobbie's tongue. And Maizie don't even ask for the paper. She probably figured to herself it was the old story; that Grimes was still getting his bumps.

Well, I wished you could of read what the papers wrote up about the show. One of them said that Bridget seen a ghost at the Olney theater last night and if anybody else wanted to see it, they better go quick because it wouldn't be walking after this week. Not even on crutches. The mildest thing they said about Ralston was that he was even funnier than when he was in the Follies and tried to be. And they said the part of Bridget was played by a young actress that they hoped would make a name for herself, because Ralston had probably called her all he could think of.

We waited at the stage door that night and when Kate come out, she was crying. Ralston had canned her from the show.

"That's nothing to cry about," I says. "You're lucky! It's just like as if a conductor had put you off a train a couple of minutes before a big smash-up."

The programme had been to all go somewheres for supper and celebrate the play's success. But all Katie wanted now was to get in a taxi and go home and hide.

On the way, I ast her how much she was in so far.

"Just ten thousand," she says. 

"Ten thousand!" I said. "Why, they was only one piece of scenery and that looked like they'd bought it secondhand from the choir boys' minstrels. They couldn't of spent one thousand, let alone ten."

"We had to pay the theater a week's rent in advance," she says. "And Jimmy give five thousand to a man for the idear."

"The idear for what?" I ast.

"The idear for the play," she said.

"That stops me!" I says. "This baby furnishes idears for all the good actors in the world, but when he wants one for himself, he goes out and pays $5,000 for it. And if he got a bargain, you're Mrs. Fiske."

"Who sold him the idear?" ast Ella.

"He wouldn't tell me," says Kate.

"Ponzi," I said.

Ralston called Kate up the next noon and made a date with her at the theater. He said that he was sorry he'd been rough. Before she went I ast her to give me a check for the forty thousand she had left so's I could buy back some of her bonds.

"I haven't got only $25,000," she says. "I advanced Jimmy fifteen thousand for his own account, so's he wouldn't have to bother me every time they was bills to meet."

So I said: "Listen: I'll go see him with you and if he don't come clean with that money, I'll knock him deader'n his play."

"Thank you!" she says. "I'll tend to my own affairs alone."

She come back late in the afternoon, all smiles.

"Everything's all right," she said. "I give him his choice of letting me be in the play or giving me my money."

"And which did he choose?" I ast her.

"Neither one," she says. "We're going to get married."

"Bridget" went into the ashcan Saturday night and the wedding come off Monday. Monday night they left for Boston, where the Follies was playing. Kate told us they'd took Ralston back at the same salary he was getting before.

"How much is that?" I ast her. 

"Four hundred a week," she says.

Well, two or three days after they'd left, I got up my nerve and says to the Mrs.:

"Do you remember what we moved to the Big Town for? We done it to see Life and get Katie a husband. Well, we got her a kind of a husband and I'll tell the world we seen Life. How about moseying back to South Bend?"

"But we haven't no home there now."

"Nor we ain't had none since we left there," I says. "I'm going down and see what's the first day we can get a couple of lowers."

"Get uppers if it's quicker," says the Mrs.

So here we are, really enjoying ourselfs for the first time in pretty near two years. And Katie's in New York, enjoying herself, too, I suppose. She ought to be, married to a comedian. It must be such fun to just set and listen to him talk.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Starship Design Classes:

By Nathaniel A. Miller

Based upon Designs of Galactic Empire Game for Major soft Galacticomm Software.

Customized Ships that were added to game, and others original… Also are featured in the Chronicles Short Story!

Class Name: Short Range Shuttle

Mission Profile: Short Range Passenger Transport / Interplanetary Travel

Shield Class Maximum:  2

Phaser Class Maximum: 1

Torpedo Capabilities: No

Missile Capabilities: No

Decoy Capabilities: No

Jammer Capabilities: No

Zipper Capabilities: No

Mine Capabilities: No

Cloaking Capabilities: No

Planetary Attack: No

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 10k

Max Warp:  01

Max Passengers: 5000

Class Name: Long Range Shuttle

Mission Profile: Long Range Passenger Transport / Interplanetary Travel and InterStar System Travel

Shield Class Maximum: 2

Phaser Class Maximum: 2

Torpedo Capabilities: No

Missile Capabilities: No

Decoy Capabilities: No

Jammer Capabilities: No

Zipper Capabilities: No

Mine Capabilities: No

Cloaking Capabilities: No

Planetary Attack: No

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 20k

Max Warp: 03

Max Passengers: 10000

Class Name: Light Freighter

Mission Profile: Light/Medium Range Freight Transport/Supply Runs

Shield Class Maximum: 2

Phaser Class Maximum: 3

Torpedo Capabilities: Yes

Missile Capabilities: No

Decoy Capabilities: Yes

Jammer Capabilities: Yes

Zipper Capabilities: Yes

Mine Capabilities: Yes

Cloaking Capabilities: No

Planetary Attack: Yes

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 30k

Max Warp: 05

Class Name: Heavy Freighter

Mission Profile: Long Range Planet Colonization/Supply Runs/Invasion Staging

Shield Class Maximum: 5

Phaser Class Maximum: 5

Torpedo Capabilities: Yes

Missile Capabilities: No

Decoy Capabilities: Yes

Jammer Capabilities: Yes

Zipper Capabilities: Yes

Mine Capabilities: Yes

Cloaking Capabilities: No

Planetary Attack: Yes

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 60k

Max Warp: 08

Class Name: Tanker

Mission Profile: Supply Runs/Fuel Transport and Ore Transport

Shield Class Maximum: 5

Phaser Class Maximum: 5

Torpedo Capabilities: Yes

Missile Capabilities: No

Decoy Capabilities: Yes

Jammer Capabilities: Yes

Zipper Capabilities: Yes

Mine Capabilities: Yes

Cloaking Capabilities: No

Planetary Attack: Yes

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 90k

Max Warp: 06

Class Name: Troop Carrier

Mission Profile: Planetary Attack/ Invasion with Fighter Support

Shield Class Maximum: 8

Phaser Class Maximum: 8

Torpedo Capabilities: Yes

Missile Capabilities: Yes

Decoy Capabilities: Yes

Jammer Capabilities: Yes

Zipper Capabilities: Yes

Mine Capabilities: Yes

Cloaking Capabilities: No

Planetary Attack: Yes

Fighter Capability: Yes (1000 LRV Fighters)

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 90k

Max Warp: 09

Class Name: Destroyer Tender (AD)

Mission Profile: Tender Ship for Damage Repairs and Resupply (specific Destroyer Class)

Shield Class Maximum: 6

Phaser Class Maximum: 6

Torpedo Capabilities: Yes

Missile Capabilities: No

Decoy Capabilities: Yes

Jammer Capabilities: Yes

Zipper Capabilities: Yes

Mine Capabilities: Yes

Cloaking Capabilities: No

Planetary Attack: No

Fighter Capability: No

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 90k

Max Warp: 12

Class Name: Tender Ship

Mission Profile: For Damage Repair and Resupply

Shield Class Maximum: 6

Phaser Class Maximum: 7

Torpedo Capabilities: Yes

Missile Capabilities: No

Decoy Capabilities: Yes

Jammer Capabilities: Yes

Zipper Capabilities: Yes

Mine Capabilities: Yes

Cloaking Capabilities: No

Planetary Attack:  No

Fighter Capability: No

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 90k

Max Warp: 12

Class Name: Light Salvage Ship

Mission Profile: Planetary Salvage/Ship Salvage

Shield Class Maximum: 7

Phaser Class Maximum: 7

Torpedo Capabilities: Yes

Missile Capabilities: No

Decoy Capabilities: Yes

Jammer Capabilities: Yes

Zipper Capabilities: Yes

Mine Capabilities: Yes

Cloaking Capabilities: No

Planetary Attack: No

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 90k

Max Warp: 08

Class Name: Heavy Salvage Ship

Mission Profile:Planetary/Ship Salvage

Shield Class Maximum: 7

Phaser Class Maximum: 8

Torpedo Capabilities: Yes

Missile Capabilities: Yes

Decoy Capabilities: Yes

Jammer Capabilities: Yes

Zipper Capabilities: Yes

Mine Capabilities: Yes

Cloaking Capabilities: No

Planetary Attack: Yes

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 120k

Max Warp: 10

Class Name: Research Vessel

Mission Profile: Scouting/Scientific Scouting

Shield Class Maximum: 10

Phaser Class Maximum: None

Torpedo Capabilities: None

Missile Capabilities: None

Decoy Capabilities: Yes

Jammer Capabilities: Yes

Zipper Capabilities: Yes

Mine Capabilities: No

Cloaking Capabilities: No

Planetary Attack: No

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 30k

Max Warp: 15

Class Name: Command Ship, Transport

Mission Profile: Command Vessel

Shield Class Maximum: 12

Phaser Class Maximum: 12

Torpedo Capabilities: Yes

Missile Capabilities: Yes

Decoy Capabilities: Yes

Jammer Capabilities: Yes

Zipper Capabilities: Yes

Mine Capabilities: Yes

Cloaking Capabilities: Yes

Planetary Attack: Yes

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 10K

Max Warp: 20

Class Name: Navigational Aid Craft

Mission Profile: Navigational Scouting/Star Mapping

Shield Class Maximum: 10

Phaser Class Maximum: 11

Torpedo Capabilities: Yes

Missile Capabilities: No

Decoy Capabilities: Yes

Jammer Capabilities: No

Zipper Capabilities: Yes

Mine Capabilities: No

Cloaking Capabilities: Yes

Planetary Attack: No

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 2k

Max Warp: 15

Class Name: Medical Frigate

Mission Profile: Evacuation/Medical Casulaties

Shield Class Maximum: 12

Phaser Class Maximum: 13

Torpedo Capabilities: No

Missile Capabilities: No

Decoy Capabilities: Yes

Jammer Capabilities: Yes

Zipper Capabilities: Yes

Mine Capabilities: No

Cloaking Capabilities: No

Planetary Attack: No

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 60k

Max Warp: 30

Class Name: Repair Barge

Mission Profile: Damage Repair

Shield Class Maximum: 13

Phaser Class Maximum: 13

Torpedo Capabilities: Yes

Missile Capabilities: Yes

Decoy Capabilities: Yes

Jammer Capabilities: Yes

Zipper Capabilities: Yes

Mine Capabilities: Yes

Cloaking Capabilities: No

Planetary Attack: Yes

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 60k

Max Warp: 25

Class Name: Freight Barge

Mission Profile:Bulk Transport/ Planetary Invasion Supply

Shield Class Maximum: 6

Phaser Class Maximum: 3

Torpedo Capabilities: No

Missile Capabilities: No

Decoy Capabilities: Yes

Jammer Capabilities: Yes

Zipper Capabilities: Yes

Mine Capabilities: Yes

Cloaking Capabilities: No

Planetary Attack: Yes

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 200k

Max Warp: 15

Warship Classes ---------------------------------

Class Name:  Interceptor

Mission Profile: Short Range Scouting & Light Attack

Shield Class Maximum: 10

Phaser Class Maximum: 10

Torpedo Capabilities: Yes

Missile Capabilities: No

Decoy Capabilities: Yes

Jammer Capabilities: Yes

Zipper Capabilities: Yes

Mine Capabilities: Yes

Cloaking Capabilities: No

Planetary Attack: No

Max Cargo Capability (In Tons): 1K