We realized we needed to buy a gift. We stopped at this shopping square that was very near a building that looked not-exactly-entirely-unlike DARPA, but was located out in the middle of nowhere Virginia near this shopping square. The square advertised that it had the perfect gift for anyone, so we figured this would be just the place to go. I dropped Aaron off at the DARPA-like building, he wanted to get something from inside - apparently he'd worked there before and had left a big water bottle he was going to go in and fetch while I bought the birthday present.
So after I dropped Aaron off I parked outside the square and I was going to get in when a man and his young boy got in my car. They were dirty, not filthy but definitely unkempt, and I said, "What's going on here?"
The man looked up and me and said, "Please miss, my son and I just need to rest. Could we nap here, in this car? We promise to not be a bother - only my son will feel more safe if you lock us in. We'll crack the windows. Please?"
Something in the man's dark grey eyes or in his voice made me believe him. Trust him. I said, "Well.. okay. Sure. I'm just going to be in buying a present, and picking up my husband. I'll not be gone long."
The boy was already asleep and his father wrapped his arm around him and half-closed his eyes. "Thank you, miss."
Okay, that might as well happen. So I first ran to the DARPA-like building. Aaron was just coming out of it and I explained the situation to him. He was alarmed when he saw them in the car, but relaxed a little. "What're we going to do with them?" he asked. "We're going to a birthday party."
"SarahScott is the kind of person who would understand. We'll bring them with. His son looks about five or six, they can have a good time together maybe? Maybe get a quick shower?"
Aaron nodded and we explained the plan to the man. His son was still asleep in his arms. When I said, "Now I'll go buy the present," the boy woke up as though he'd never been asleep. "May I come with you?" he asked. And he had just the most beautiful voice I had ever heard - like soft music, a low and well-played clarinet perhaps. I said, "Of course, sure. Come on. Ask your father if it's all right."
Aaron stayed in the car talking to the father. While we were in the store, the boy picked up a book. "This. Here. The angels want James to have this."
"I never told you the boy's name."
"I... I guessed."
I eyed the child warily for a moment and frowned. His hair was strange. It looked dirtier than it had a few minutes ago. Must be the change in light. He was blushing however and I said, "Well, a good guess. That is his name."
The boy relaxed, possibly sensing I believed him. I said, "Hey. Do you like books?"
He light up. "Do I!"
"Let me get you a book. Pick one out."
He picked out a book at least four years older than I would've expected a slight boy of 6 to read, and I nodded approval and felt a familiar tingle in my toes. I really love working with people who have massive untapped potential. I rubbed my eyes when I saw him bouncing with the book. His hair looked cleaner, lighter even. It was verging on a dishwater blonde or ash light brown, and not the dark greyish mess it had been. I was sure it was different. I looked up to see if the lights were brighter but it didn't seem odd. He tugged on my sleeve.
"What're you looking at?" he asked. "Have you read this book?"
I had not. I shook my head and then said, "Nothing. Looking for a clock. I want to know if we're late. Let's check out and go."
The cashier gift-wrapped the book for James and gave the other book to the boy who ran out to the car. His father hugged him and he got buckled in. Aaron and the man were talking earnestly, but friendly. Aaron nodded to me and said, "Let's get going." He seemed a lot more relaxed than he had been, but the father was looking out the windows with a dark expression.
When we got to the party I explained to SarahScott and she was warmly welcoming of the man and his son. There were easily twenty kids inside, there was a place to make ice cream castle sculptures, there was an indoor rainbow sand table and ball pit and dress-up costumes, knights and princesses and turtles and ninjas galore. The boy disappeared into the thong of children like children are wont to do, and I explained about the book present to SarahScott. She laughed and said, "Well James loves books so I'm sure it'll be fine." We talked while she was preparing a giant roast.
The father looked exhausted. I excused myself and said, "Hey. Do you want to take a nap?" to the father. "I'm sure your son is fine..." and I looked around and spotted the boy.
His hair was the palest, finest blonde I'd ever seen.
"W... his hair..." I said, pointing. My mouth hung slightly open.
"I should explain," the father said. "Let me... can I show you?"
I nodded, still watching the boy. The father pressed his thumb to my forehead.
And suddenly, with that, I was in a fifteenth century castle. A beautiful princess, long blonde flowing hair unbound, no shoes on her feet, was dancing with a prince alone. They were laughing, and he was proposing to her. "But will your mother accept me?" she asked. "My kingdom is poor."
"It matters not to me! I love you!"
But the queen came in, and she laughed, low and angrily. "My son won't marry any woman who can't even wear proper shoes," she said, her chin tilted, haughty and cold.
The princess despaired. The prince despaired. They decided to visit a magician who opened a portal to the future for them. "Get shoes. Come back," he advised. "She'll have to accept you then."
The portal took them to a busy shopping hub in Rio. The prince turned in his crown for a pretty penny at a shopkeeper who offered to buy it from them, and he bought the princess a beautiful pair of shoes. Two beautiful pairs. They stopped and spoke with a man who I recognized at once as the homeless fellow I was sitting? with, watching the scene play out in front of me. He was a witch doctor there in Brazil, handsome and laughing and telling their future. "You will not end up where you wanted, but where you must be," he said.
They stayed three days in Rio, and in that time, the prince fell in love with a beautiful exotic woman who barely spoke his language at all. They robbed the princess in her sleep, took her court gown and her new shoes, and took the portal back. It closed behind them.
She ran to the portal and her hair was flaming crimson with anger, falling to black as she realized the portal closed.
Alone, she wandered in a nightdress. The witch doctor took her in and they fell in love.
The scenes faded and I said, "How did you come to be homeless?"
"When my wife died, I lost everything. My heart, my joy, my life. I couldn't eat, go to work, nothing. Our house was taken."
"I'll help you," I promised.
And I knew, as though I could see it, that a new portal had opened and a witch had come to find his son. I knew I had to protect them.
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