“He said he just wants to talk to you!”
Tim looked at the man. “I don’t know who you are, and I don’t trust you,” he said, backing into the corner of the room.
The man cleared his throat. “I really only do want to talk. We have some things in common and I’d like to help you.”
Tim narrowed his eyes at the man. It hit him at that moment that he looked like a boy in Tim’s class. He wondered briefly if they were related. They’d played together a few times when they’d been younger. For that reason, he might have been willing to listen to the man, had he not heard what Anna had yelled. He needed to get back to her and have her take him to the only family he had left. He looked at Ollie. “Goodbye,” was all he said and before anyone could stop him, he went through the wall again, back toward Snillotia.
Anna was sitting on a couch, staring at the wall when he came through. “Okay,” he said, leaving out anything about Ollie and the man, “If my grandparents are alive, take me to them. I need to see them with my own eyes to believe you.”
Before she could say anything, he noticed she was wearing different clothes. “Wait, how’d you change so fast?”
She shook her head. “I told you. Time is different. It’s been two days since you left.”
Tim didn’t know what to say to that, as it had barely been ten minutes for him. “Oh,” was all he thought of, then he got back on track, “Take me to my grandparents.”
“Well, it’s not that easy,” Anna started, “When our parents escaped into the backwards world, something happened to the castle. I think it was meant to protect it from the Rebels. No one can come in and no one can go out.”
“So, your telling me we’re supposed to save this place, without ever going outside? And wait! The refrigerator was full of food! How did that get there if no one can go in or out?” Tim questioned.
“Well, there is one woman. I think she was the cook here before the Uprising or something. She’s the only one the castle lets in or out. My first day here, I tried to talk to her, but it was like she couldn’t hear me. Every time she comes, I keep trying to talk to her. The last time she didn’t say anything still, but she left a note for me in the kitchen, next to the bread she brought.”
“What did it say?”
Anna pulled a worried piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to him.
“Child- You are not alone. Those who have come before you are still in this world and have much to teach you. When the powers have been revealed, you will be able to reach them. Don’t be afraid and remember to never leave his side. To find what you seek, things will not appear straight forward. Look for what’s common in every world,” Tim finished reading and looked at Anna.
“This doesn’t make any sense.”
“I thought that at first too, but I’ve read it too many times to count now. It’s all I had because I thought you weren’t coming. But you’re here now, and you helped me figure it out. I know what it means!”
“Well, spit it out!” Tim said immediately.
Anna stood there, gathering her thoughts. “Those who come before us and have a lot to teach us are obviously our grandparents and we’ll need our powers to be able to get to them-”
“Well we don’t know what our powers are do we?” Tim interrupted.
“You do,” Anna said quietly, “You can go through the wall whenever you want. I- I can’t do that. That’s your power, Tim. No one else can do that, but you.”
“Oh,” Tim thought a minute, “Then what can you do that no one else can?”
“I don’t know yet. But hopefully, your power will help us right now, because I think we’ll need it, if I’m figuring out this note right.”
“What else?”
“You can probably take me with you through the walls. That’s why I can’t leave your side. The last part, I think, means, we should figure out something that’s on both sides, which I also have an idea about. We just have to get there, because there will probably be another doorway to Snillotia there. If we come through outside the castle, we can go wherever we want!”
CHAPTER SIX
Anna grabbed Tim’s hand and started pulling him behind her as she ran past all he recognized as the same as his house. They were once again in the hallway with the pictures of his father, but she still didn’t stop. At the end of the hallway was another door. It appeared to be another house, and it was set up a lot like his, but there were small differences here and there. They went up the stairs and into a girl’s room. There was a mattress on the floor in the corner. “Is this-”
“Yes, this is the mirrored room of my own room. I moved the crib out and pulled the mattress in. This is where I’ve been staying.”
She pulled him over to a large window seat on the other side of the room. “Before I came here, I used to sit on the widow seat in my room every day and dream about what Snillotia was like. My parents had told me it wasn’t much different then where we were living, but I couldn’t help but wonder. I would make up stories, based on things I could see from my window, pretending I was looking out at the kingdom.”
Anna pointed out the window. “Do you see that small building up on the hill past the trees?”
Tim nodded. “I could see the same building when I sat in my window. It was in a park that wasn’t too far from my house.
