Page 90 of Torin and the Princess

I said, “We’ll just see Torin on his way, and you’ll go for a climb, and while you’re there I’ll um… think of something for dinner.”

He said, “I’m in the mood for Mexican, would that be doable?”

“Sure… and by the time I sex you up tonight, you’re going to feel a lot better. Will you please just be cool?”

“Of course, I just needed a break, this helped, I’m cool and I’m going to hold you to the promise of sex, Babe. Thinking about that is the only thing getting me through this meal.”

I rolled my eyes. “Very funny, we need to get back in there, whoknowswhat they’re talking about.”

32

LEXI

2004 - THE BASEMENT

We returned to the kitchen table where Jen had apparently just told Torin she was a teacher and his brow was down saying, “Tis twenty bairns, all the same age?”

She nodded. “Eight years old. I teach them reading, writing, and arithmetic.”

We sat down. I asked, “The story she’s telling you about her job, does it makeanysense?”

“Aye, she works in the nursery, but nae, there are a great many bairns… twill give me much tae consider. How many people live here in yer village?”

Cooper said, “About six thousand I think, it’s a small town.”

Torin nodded. His eyes went far away as if he were thinking about what that number represented.

I couldn’t imagine how he could possibly understand it. How many people even lived in Scotland in his time? He had never been to a modern football stadium, sat in traffic on a highway, or even been to a mall. Maybe there were crowds in the bigger towns, but how many would you see at once?

Cooper took another sip of a fresh cup of coffee. “But all this conversation is skirting the real issue, you’re trying to get home and you can’t, so far you can’t, and you say that you keep boomeranging back here.”

Torin said, “Boom-raging?”

“It’s a stick that you throw out, it makes a big arc in the sky and comes back. A boomerang flies back. It’s a good word.”

“Aye, tis. I daena want tae keep boom-raging, not knowin’ where I will turn up is terrible. I am at its mercy and I daena understand it. It keeps graspin’ me as soon as I get there. I never hae time tae collect m’self and learn where I am.”

Cooper said, “Except this last time, you claimed that you were in the past for a few days.”

Jen said, “Maybe the vessel doesn’t work in the rain?”

I said, “It causes rain, there is a storm when it gets here, so that can’t possibly be it — the storms are terrifying, it’s like a hurricane and a tornado, centered over my yard.”

Cooper said, “Have you considered that it might not work if it’s underground? You said you were in the cellar of the tavern.”

Torin said, “Aye, I was, that is verra insightful.”

Cooper said, “Have you ever had it activate in a cellar or inside?”

Torin considered. “Nae, it has always been outside under the sky when it animates.”

Cooper said, “There... you have a new theory to test.”

Torin said, “When I get tae the next place, I will bury it. Perhaps twill allow me tae hae some respite while I learn where I am. Twould be good tae stop bein’ pulled without wantin’ tae be.”

I said, “If that’s your plan you need a shovel, no more digging with rocks. I can give you one. But don’t forget where you bury the vessel.”

“I am nae worried, I hae a good memory for places. I will mark it well.”

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