The Adventures of the Futuristic Islander Twins, Shannon Yang [good book club books .txt] 📗

However, Vasilissa entered her mind.
“Where are you going, Elizabeth? You are supposed to fall into a hole of tar. And you need glasses. You are crashing into the most important buildings in St. Chrissy! Shoo!”
Elizabeth woke up. In front of her was the palace. Nearby was St. Chrissy Hall. For the first time, Elizabeth saw it up front and close up. The walls were smooth and black. She was so struck she didn’t do anything. She crashed into the mayor just as the door opened. He lay on the ground, shaking his head and saying “Clumsy girl.” The secretary, who was tall, said, “I’m Laikilanu. Are you here to see anyone?”
“No. My name is Casselinda. I’m super bored, and I fell asleep. Sorry. I hope I didn’t cause any difficulties.”
“It’s okay, Casselinda. Nice to meet you. Your vehicle-”
“What? The black stuff? What’s that? Gosh!”
“Pieces of limestone and tar.”
Elizabeth and Laikilanu scraped off the things from the vehicle. However, while they were doing it, the vehicle tipped over, and the invisible potion and the cough syrup spilled. Elizabeth dropped her tar, but Laikilanu held onto the limestone bits. Elizabeth was embarrassed and wanted to leave. She got into the vehicle, trying to go up, but a piece of tar was stuck and it could only go down. She screamed when she got to the tar mixture.
Elizabeth heard, “Hello Casselinda, it’s Vasilissa. Or should I say, hello Elizabeth, it’s Laikilanu.” The woman laughed. “Are you ready? Let’s go. You’re in the magical city of Taginystinople. Ironically, you have been flying above it the whole time.”
They were both covered in the tar mix. They had to have their fingers together at the ends, with the tar, or everything magical would disappear since the atoms were off and not precise.
“When dealing with magical things, you must have a code name,” the woman informed Elizabeth. “For example, my code name is Vasilissa. My real name is actually Laikilanu. At the moment I slip the ring over your finger, say a code name.”
To Elizabeth, the time when the ring was getting closer and closer to her finger was in slow motion. The name Melisande was flashing in her head. She didn’t know why; she hadn’t really heard it, seen it, or liked it. With no other choice, “Melisande” flew out of her mouth.
The ring was on. To get the tar off, a fairy gave her an instant cleaning that Elizabeth didn’t even feel.
“You can go home now. Feel free to come back anytime. Always keep the ring on, Melisande.” Elizabeth went into the teleporter to her room with her vehicle and some of the new tar mixture.
Elizabeth was home as if everything was normal.
Ed

Ed was outraged. His sister Elizabeth had betrayed him by telling one of the emperor’s guards, “He is lost, but I am not,” and then giving herself a false identity so she could go on trick-or-treating.
Ed vowed to get revenge. As a different guard who didn’t know about Elizabeth talked to his mother, who said Elizabeth was also missing after she sent the twins off to go trick-or-treating, Ed stomped into the bedroom. He felt lonely without Elizabeth on the other side of the screen reading, writing, chatting on the computer, or bouncing on her magnetic floating bed.
He went into Elizabeth’s room, as if trying to better remember a kidnapped person. He looked at the bed, her desk with her secret compartment, and her-
Wait! Where was her flying red vehicle? She must have visited and left at some point the day before. Ed called his mom so he could know some details.
“Mom! Mom! I have an important question.”
“What?” His mom was still speaking with the guard, so she was sort of pissed to be interrupted.
“Was Elizabeth here?”
“Of course not.” The answer seemed obvious as soon as it was uttered, but it seemed like a possible idea that Elizabeth came in, got the vehicle, and went trick-or-treating again.
It was harder to get revenge on foot. After he stuffed the contents of the refrigerator, including some lemonade, into his backpack, he walked in the tropical forests and the hills, until he was on the other side of town. He was so tired from carrying everything and walking so much he wanted to get rid of some of the stuff in the backpack. But he couldn’t give up any food, because he didn’t know how long the trip would be.
He set up a lemonade stand in front of a random person’s house. People thought it was his house, and they bought all his cups of lemonade at ten dollars a pitcher, which was unreasonable to Ed. They must have thought he was a rich kid who expected high prices.
After the selling of the lemonade, Ed actually did become rich. He started living a luxurious life in a five-star hotel and forgot all about his original purpose to find Elizabeth. He had a rich but secluded life in a suite until his eighth birthday, when he decided to celebrate being older by taking an exploratory walk around the neighborhood. There was a year-round fair-like area where people could set up booths and maybe advertise their businesses.
It was mesmerizing. Some booths had wheels of fortune with prizes. Some sold things, and others provided services. Though there was one booth that was different. There was a man just sitting, surrounded by posters, relics, books, and random things. Ed was just about to ask if it was an antiques shop, but then he saw a small sign with the words carved on a silver plaque. You could barely make it out among all the things. It said, “Job as an apprentice scholar with Dr. Daniel Davis. Learn all you need to learn and spend lots of time on the beach. No need for parental permission (if minor).” The job sounded super, so Ed told the guy he was interested.
“Okay. What is your name?” Daniel asked.
Ed answered, “Ed.”
“How old are you?”
“I’m eight.”
“Perfect. You’re in for it.”
Dr. Davis called his assistants, Anthony, Celine, and Mia, kids like him, to see if someone could be at the booth. Then Dr. Davis led Ed to the beach by a portal. He purposely made it slow so they could talk about their lives. Dr. Davis talked about how he was a very respected PhD and was sort of famous, too, but then he let himself fade away. He was very interested in changing the world, so he let only a few selected people learn and study at his establishment on the beach. Ed talked about his life, but only the time before Elizabeth was missing.
Ed had never gotten such a fun, engaging, and good education. He studied everything from European history and organic chemistry, and he also got to practice what he loved most: soccer. There, for seven years, he lived in a lodge that had a structure of a tent and the function of a school.
“Happy fifteenth birthday, Ed!” That morning Dr. Davis and his assistants stormed into his room with food and gifts. He also declaimed, “You have been here for seven years,” and presented him with a badge.
“I must speak with all you guys,” he said. “I will be retiring to my private abode in Florida soon, which explains the need to train another person as an apprentice, for I will put Ed in charge after my departure, and the rest of you are trained only for assistance. The new apprentice is a fifteen-year-old girl named Elizabeth. She will be coming today. I’ll video chat with her, and we can get this party started!”
Ed, Anthony, Celine, and Mia started eating ice cream. It was quiet as Dr. Davis went outside and started the call with Elizabeth, the new girl. They could hear him telling her, “Hmm... you look familiar...” but then they heard only Mia cutting the cake, Celine opening the window, and Anthony walking toward the door.
Ed was at the beach studying relationships on a 3-D graph between the tides, the appearance of birds, and the amount of Internet bandwidth used on Taginystin when some unusual bird swooped over. He looked up to realize that it was not a bird, but a girl in a flying red vehicle. She had wavy golden hair and eyes that matched the sea, and she looked familiar to Ed.
The girl jumped out and asked Ed, “Where am I? I’m looking for... a place.”
“Well, I can’t tell you because the name of this place is secret. You’ll have to say yourself.”
“But where I’m going is a secret, too!”
“It must be the same place then. The amazing scholar place that belongs to Dr. Daniel Davis?”
“Yes, I’m Elizabeth. I’m the new apprentice here. You look familiar...”
“No, no. You probably read about me in the newspaper saying I disappeared, since I had to do so to come study here. My name is Ed,” he explained.
At the same time both Ed and Elizabeth shouted with smiles on their faces, “I know you!!!”
The twins stood next to each other for a long time facing the beach, watching the birds and the spectacular, peaceful sunset.

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Publication Date: 08-08-2012

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