It wasn’t. Evangeline placed a small cup at each of the place settings. Each was filled with something that looked, well, it looked tricolor. It was a thick liquid, like soup, divided into half-inch-wide stripes of bright green, orangy rust, and royal blue. It looked like finger paint.
Evangeline and Aja both sat down and grabbed spoons.
“Sit, Bobby,” Evangeline said. “Enjoy!”
I reluctantly sat and looked down at my bowl. My appetite was suddenly gone. But Aja and Evangeline dug in like it was the tastiest treat in the territory. And for all I knew, it was. I watched as they dipped their spoons into the goo. It had the consistency of bird doo. Evangeline was delicate. She tasted one color at a time. Aja was less discriminating. She dug up all three at once.
“We don’t often have tricolor gloid,” Evangeline explained. “It’s getting harder to come by.”
I smiled like I was impressed. I wasn’t.
“I don’t mean to be rude,” I said. “But I’ve never had gloid.”
Aja and Evangeline exchanged glances. Oops. It was the wrong thing to say. Aja knew I wasn’t from this territory so she would understand. But if gloid was such a big deal, how would I explain why I’d never had it? It was like admitting I didn’t know who Dr. Zetlin, the inventor of Lifelight, was. My mind searched for excuses, but I didn’t know enough about Veelox to come up with any.
“It’s pretty much all we eat,” Aja said. “It was developed for Lifelight by the vedders to feed the jumpers when they’re in the pyramid for long periods. It gets absorbed through their skin.”
I had wondered how people could survive in Lifelight for so long without eating. I was bracing myself for Evangeline to ask me why I didn’t know about gloid when Aja said to her aunt, “I don’t think they have gloid on Second Earth.”
Whoa. Did Evangeline know about the territories and the Travelers? I mean, she knew Uncle Press, but Uncle Press knew a lot of people from the territories. He never told them about being a Traveler, though. He always made up some story about being from another part of the territory. At least, that’s what I thought.
Evangeline then said to me, “Press once told me about something you had called… ‘Gatorade’? Is that anything like gloid?”
“Uh, not really,” I said dumbly. “Gatorade is a drink for when you’re exercising hard and… I’m sorry. I’m confused. You know about Second Earth?”
I figured I had nothing to lose at this point. After all, she was the one who brought it up.
“Of course, silly,” she answered with a smile. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Okay. I figured I might as well cut right to the chase. “Evangeline, are you a Traveler?” I asked.
Both Aja and Evangeline laughed.
“No, silly,” Evangeline giggled. “Of course not.”
Now I was totally confused. If she wasn’t a Traveler, why did she know about Second Earth?
Evangeline reached to her neck and pulled out a silver necklace. Dangling on the end of the chain was something very familiar. It was a silver ring with a heavy, gray stone at its center.
“I’m not a Traveler,” Evangeline said. “I’m an acolyte. Now please, eat your gloid.”
(CONTINUED)
VEELOX
Acolyte.
There was that name again. Uncle Press had told me they were people from the territories who helped the Travelers. But the only evidence I ever saw of them was when I’d flume into a territory and there would be clothes and stuff to change into. I had never met an acolyte… until now. I was pretty psyched because it felt like another piece of the Traveler puzzle was about to fall into place.
“Eat your gloid, Bobby,” Evangeline said sweetly.
Man, I didn’t even like the name. Gloid. It sounded like a body part, as in: “I’m afraid we have to operate and remove your gloid.” Ick. But I couldn’t be rude, so I picked up my spoon and cautiously took a scoop of the orange stripe. It was gooey, like pudding. I don’t mind pudding, but the bright color was throwing me off. Still, Aja and Evangeline seemed to like it, so how bad could it be? I wanted to hold my nose to kill the taste, but that wouldn’t have been cool. So I took a quick breath and put the spoon in my mouth.
It wasn’t bad. It was sort of bitter, like nuts. I then tried the green color and discovered it was pretty good too, though totally different from the orange. The green was more like berries, sweet at first but with a tart aftertaste. With more confidence I dipped into the blue… and nearly puked. Blue was bad. I had to force myself not to spit it out. It was like a brus-sel sprout had gone south and got mixed in with kitty litter.
At that exact moment I looked up and saw Evangeline put a big spoonful of blue into her mouth. My stomach twisted. But I felt like I had to finish my cup o’gloid, so I used the Aja technique and mixed all three colors together. It was a good move. The orange and green mellowed out the foul blue and I was able to choke it all down.
When I finished, I was surprised to find I wasn’t hungry anymore. It wasn’t because the weird taste had shut off my appetite, either. I really felt satisfied, like I had just polished off a big meal. I had all sorts of energy, too. Whatever the stuff was, it definitely did the job. I still wished it had been a big old pepperoni pizza, but I wasn’t complaining.
“That was… delicious,” I lied. “You make great gloid.”
“Thank you,” Evangeline said with a chuckle. “Not everybody knows how to scoop gloid from a container like I do.” She winked at me. Ah, it was a joke. The gloid probably came ready-made, like ice cream. Oh well, so much for being a brownnoser.
“Gloid is pretty much the only thing we eat anymore,” Aja said. “There’s hardly anybody left to grow real food.”
“It’s a shame,” Evangeline said. She cleared the plates and Aja went to the sink to wash them.
“What can I do to help?” I asked.
“Nothing. We’ll be done in a second,” Evangeline said.
I was looking for an opening to ask Evangeline about the acolyte thing, but wasn’t sure how to bring it up without sounding stupid.
“You have no idea what an acolyte is, do you?” Aja asked with a snotty edge.
Gee, thanks, Aja. Never missed an opportunity to point out something I didn’t know. Just as well, it broke the ice.
“Uncle Press told me about them, but didn’t go into a whole lot of detail,” I answered. “I’d like to know more.”
Evangeline wiped her hands on a towel and sat back down at her place at the table. Aja kept her back to us, washing the dinner dishes.
“Everyone needs a purpose,” Evangeline said while looking me right in the eyes. “What better role could someone play than to support those who have a higher calling?”
“Higher calling?” I said.
“What else would you call it?” Evangeline said quickly. “The Travelers are concerned with the well-being of the territories. You can’t get a much higher calling than that. I, for one, am comforted by the fact that you Travelers are out there. It makes me sleep easier at night.”
Yikes. Evangeline was sleeping easier because I was keeping the territories safe? How wrong was thatl I wondered if she knew about Saint Dane. I’ll bet she wouldn’t be getting so much sleep if she knew the wicked stuff he was up to.
“I have to admit, Evangeline, I’m a little shaky on the whole Traveler thing,” I said. “Uncle Press wanted me to learn as I went along, but I don’t think I’ve learned all that much.”
Evangeline gave me a little smile. She then reached out and held my hand.
“What about Denduron?” she asked. “I heard you saved that territory from a horrible civil war.” Whoa. She knew about Denduron? “It wasn’t just me,” I said quickly.
“And Cloral would have been ravaged by a plague if you and the others hadn’t intervened,” she said.
“The people of Faar saved Cloral,” I corrected her.
