The Star of Morcyth_ Book Five of the Morcyth Saga - Brian S. Pratt [6]
Taking his friend over to one of the chairs by the table, he sets him down and then takes the seat next to him. “Are you okay?” he asks.
Dave’s face comes up, tear tracks down both cheeks as he asks, “What?”
Then it hits him, Dave was still talking in English and he had asked the question in the common tongue. Having been so immersed in the language of this world for the past month or so, he has to consciously work at getting the correct English pronunciation out. “Are you okay?” he asks again, this time in English.
Dave nods his head, “I am now.”
“What happened?” he asks. “How did you get here?”
“After you went through the door for the interview, I sat there and waited for you,” he explains. “I must have waited there for an hour before I started getting impatient. I got up and went over to the door to listen to what was going on inside but couldn’t hear anything.”
“I knocked on the door and when I didn’t receive any answer I opened it. You could believe my surprise when all that I saw on the other side was an empty office with no other way out.”
“An office?” asks James. “Didn’t you make it to this world when you went through the door?”
Shaking his head, he says, “That came later. I got worried and called your name. I knew you hadn’t come back out through the waiting room so I didn’t know what to think. Then the stories of the missing people came to mind and I hurried down to the lobby where I called 911.”
“The police showed up quickly and cordoned off the entire area. When I told them what happened, they didn’t believe me. They searched the office and didn’t find any trace that anyone had ever been in there. They did find traces of you and me in the waiting room.”
“They took me down to the police station and questioned me extensively. What they were asking me began to make me think they thought I had something to do with your disappearance. After what must’ve been hours, my mom and dad finally were allowed to take me home.”
“Outside the police station, the reporters began their inquisition as my dad took me to the car. My mom said a brief statement about how she was just glad I was okay before getting into the car with us. When we got home, your grandparents were waiting for us in the driveway.”
James sat back at that. He knew they would’ve had a bad reaction about his disappearance and now he’s going to hear about it.
“Your grandfather asked me what happened while your grandmother cried. I sure felt sorry for them and told them all I knew, which really wasn’t very much. My parents invited them in and while I went to bed, they stayed up all night talking. The police stopped by sometime in the night and asked my parents more questions. Sometime before I woke up, your grandparents left for home.”
“I wish I could tell them I’m okay,” James says sadly.
“I know,” replies Dave. “They really care about you. Anyway, I stayed home all day Sunday, didn’t leave my room. I was hoping you would call or the police would find you since they knew where you had last been, but nothing. When the news hit about you and that I was the last one to have seen you, Seth’s dad shows up at our place, demanding that I tell him where his boy is.”
“He grew angry and almost came to blows with my dad. In a fit of rage, he finally left, but not before giving me a look saying ‘this isn’t over’. That’s when my dad turned and saw me there. He gave me a look, a look that cast doubts about whether he believed me or if I hadn’t told everything. What more could I say?”
Ceryn comes over with two cups of ale and sets them in front of the two friends then returns to his seat. Neither he nor Perrilin are able to understand what’s being said.
Taking the offered cup, Dave takes a drink then continues. “Seth’s dad was seen driving slowly past our house