“Aren’t you cute!” Seth heard and turned, shocked, to see a girl walking up to him, running almost. Her dark brown ponytail was flipping back and forth behind her, and her darker brown eyes fixed on him.
“Me?” he said, and then cringed. What a stupid opening!
“Yes, you,” she said, still grinning at him. “Do you live in this neighborhood?”
“Umm, no. I live, umm, a few blocks that way. I’m coming here to see Mr Madison,” Seth said, pointing.
“Oh, good! Our new neighbor. I’ve been wanting to meet them. Take me with you?” she asked, and looped her arm into his!
“Umm, sure, I guess,” he said, his heart pounding. Who was this girl? He had never, ever… outside of dreams and daydreams and locker room chats… had a girl come on to him like this!
He walked nervously up to the office door and opened it. “We, umm, we wait out here,” he said. “He’ll see us on his monitors and buzz us in when he is ready. Do you, umm, want something to drink? A Coke?” he asked, reaching in and getting one. He needed something to hold!
“Well, let’s see,” the girls said. “You know, could you get me one of those raspberry green teas?”
“Umm, sure,” Seth said and after a few seconds frantic search, pulled one out.
When he turned around she was already on the couch looking expectentaly, so he went over and sat down next to her. Handing her her tea and gratefully opening his Coke. Then his eyes went to the counter and, “Oh, hey, they have donuts too. I mean he has donuts too. Donuts and Kolaches. Like pigs and things. Would you like one?”
He was halfway to the counter by the time she said, “I’ve never had a ‘pig’, I think I’d like to try one. That’s like, a hot dog in a donut?”
“Well, yeah, sort of. It’s more like a hot dog baked into its bun,” Seth said, putting two pigs, two sausage dogs, one cherry and one strawberry Kolache on a plate. Then he added a chocolate donut and walked over and put them on the coffee table. “Oh, my, I couldn’t eat all that!” she said.
“I thought we’d share,” Seth said, glad above measure that Mr Madison seemed to be busy. He took a sausage dog and took a bite, and then had another gulp of Coke. “So, you just moved in?”
“Yes!” she said, having taken a bite of a pig. “Right across the street. And I’m so eager to get to know people in the area. And I saw you, and you looked so cute I thought I would introduce myself. But… but what do you do hear?” she asked. “Is he a doctor? Funny a doctor giving you snacks like this! Must be a popular doctor. Maybe I’ll use him.”
“Umm, no, not a doctor. He puts together videos. Gaming videos.”
“Oh! And you help him?”
“Umm, sort of. I’m more, in the videos.”
“You’re an actor?! I’ve met an actor!?”
“Umm, sort of but not really I mean… I play video games for him. The new kind, with the suit and all. Seven Realms.”
“And how does that make a video?”
“Here, let me show you,” Seth said, pulling out his phone.
“Bring her in, Seth, and I will show her in here.”
“Oh, sure, Mr Madison. Come on, umm…” Seth panicked as he realised he didn’t know her name!
“Jullia,” the girl said. “Jullia Brown. Where do we go?”
“In here!” Seth said, leaping up and going to the door.
“Oh, my!” Jullia said, when she made it into the room.”
“Isn’t it awesome?” Seth asked.
“It is that. And you are Mr Madison?” she asked, going across and shaking his hand. “I’m Jullia Brown, from across the street. We just moved in.”
“Ah, Miss Brown. We were hoping to meet you. Let me show you a little of my work, and then I will introduce you to my wife and children.”
“You have children!” she said. “Oh, that’s wonderful! I love to babysit!”
“That would be very convienient,” Oscar said.
Seth sat and watched Jullia as she watched the video. He couldn’t believe it! A girl who thought he was cute, and was willing to say so, and thought he might have been a movie star. And she seemed impressed with the videos. And Mr Madison was showing videos of him! He wasn’t a great archer yet, so the videos mostly showed him just shooting, only showing the arrows landing when they hit.”
And she was so cute! He loved the way she kept her hair, and she didn’t wear makeup or anything. She had on a baggy sweatshirt, which came down practically covering what looked like pink shorts. And sneakers! Very practical.
“Well, Seth, stay here for a minute and I will introduce Jullia to my family.”
“So, you’re part of our protection?” Oscar asked, after the door had closed.
“Yup,” Jullia said, pulling up her sweatshirt to show a gun strapped to her stomach. “I’ll be the liason, come over all the time, so here at your house. And I’m going to come on hot and heavy to our boy Seth, try to get close enough to be with him a lot, and the others. But not so close that he feels my gun,” she added, grinning.
“You’re not really sixteen or whatever?”
“Nope, blessed withe natural youth.”
“Ok, well, let me introduce you to my wife and children.”
He led her down a hallway, past a bathroom and bedrooms, and into a great room and then, off that, a large library. Four children, three girls and a boy, looked up at their entrance, as did his wife.
“Homeschool?” Jullia asked.
“Yes. We are a very religious family, and despise the government schools. Kiddos, this is Miss Julia. You are to always do whatever she tells you, right away.”
“You will find them very obedient,” Oscar said. “Honey, this is Jullia Brown… from across the street,” and his wife’s expression changed. “They just moved in, and she’ll be over a lot, babysitting and all.”
He turned back to Jullia, “Please watch your language around my family.”
“Sir! I’m a proffessional,” Jullia said. “And I know French, maybe we can do some of that, too. But I’ll need to know when my boy Seth is leaving.”
“No problem,” Oscar said, pointing up near the ceiling, where there were a series of monitors. You will be able to see us from there, and there are a series of beeps for people moving through doors. And I will give you a double ding when I am about to let him go, and you can get to the waiting room through the secret door.”
“There’s a secret door?” Jullia asked.
“I’ll show you!” the oldest girl said, and raced down the hallway they way they had come. Jullia followed, a bit bemused, as the girl led her into a bedroom. “This is our girls room,” she said. “And the secret door is right there,” she added, pointing to a wall. “You just push the nose on the camel.”
“The nose on the…?” Jullia said, looking at a picture of a camel carrying a mother and child through the dessert. “That’s baby Jesus and Mrs Mary,” the girl said. “If you push the nose of the camel, then the door will open. But we aren’t ever to do so except in ‘mergencies, when Mommy or Daddy or you tell us to.”
Jullia did not see any door but, above the door, she saw three more video screens, one showing Seth and Mr Madison sittiing and talking in the control room, one showing an empty waiting room, and one showing the outside walk, which was empty, so she carefully pushed the camels nose and, sure enough, a door appeared in the wall, quietly opening.
She stepped through. Amazing work this. She saw her tea and picked it up and went back in. She pushed the camels nose again… and the girl giggled. “You have to push the tail to close it.”
She grinned and pushed the tail, and the door closed as quietly as it had opened. “Well, that was fun. Let’s go back to Mommy.”
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Von