Through Time and Impossible

Chapter 2

The next day went in a blur to her, she slept more than half of the way as her family traveled to England and by the time she knew it, she had somehow gotten into a four-poster bed with gray-brown stone walls around it. Waking up from her deep sleep, she stretched and sat upright and looked around at the room with a wood floor and a large blue rug covering most of it. She got out of bed and walked to one of the few bookcases and pulled out a book. Sophia recognized this room to well; this was her room when ever she stayed at her Gran's castle. Memories flooded back to Sophia as she went to get her phone on the night stand to check the time. Panic flooded her as she realized that she had slept until 2 in the afternoon on Sunday.

She got out of her room and walked down the relatively empty hall filled with a couple of old Anglo-Saxon paintings and a Roman marble bust of an old man with a funny long beard. She gave a small smile as she took slow steady steps down the hall, it had been too long since she's walked these halls.

When she got to the giant staircase she frowned as she looked down it. She had walked down these stairs many times over when she was younger, back then she always felt like a princess but now that feeling was gone just like her grandmother. Her grandmother was the one that would fill her imagination with princesses and princes. But without her there, the thought about those stories just brought tears to Sophia's eyes. When she got to the bottom on the wooden staircase she stopped as her feet touched the cold wood floor. She didn't remember where her parents told her they would be.

Abraham saw the young girl walk down the stairs. He hadn't seen her in years, he almost didn't recognize her. He gave a small smile as he remembered the last time he saw her, she had to have been 5 maybe 6. She was playing outside in a field of flowers, she insisted on putting flowers in his hair until her gran came back. "Sophia, good, you're awake. We've been waiting for you." Abraham said as he came up to her.

She raised her eyebrow in confusion as she looked at his outfit. He looked about 30 and was dressed in a white button-down shirt with black pants that stopped right below his knees and then replaced with socks. She wanted to know why he was dressed so differently. She also wanted to know who he was and how he knew her name, after all, she had never seen this man in her life. "Yeah, do you know where my family is?" she said just going with it.

"In the parlor, down the hall first door in the left. Oh and I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself. My name is Abraham." He wished he could tell her that they already knew each other, but he knew that her grandmother would have not wanted that. She would have wanted him to remain quiet until the time was right.

"Well pleased to meet you, Abraham, do you work here?"

He shrugged, going alone with her guess. "You can say that." He said and smiled at her as he walked up the stairs.

Sophia thought that was funny that he said it like that but she really didn't care to linger on the conversation. She just wanted to find her family. She walked down the hall filled with more paintings hung up on red painted plastered walls and on the first door on her left she found that the door was open with her mum and dad sitting in chairs, talking. They looked up at her when they heard a floorboard creek as she entered the room. "Sophia, we were going to wake you but you looked so peaceful. How did you know we were here?" Lucy said kindly to her daughter.

"It's ok. This man named Abraham said you were here."

Marco ran that name over in his head to see if he had met him yet but the name did not sound familiar. "Hum, never heard of him, but this place is big I haven't met everyone that worked here for Gran." Marco said

Sophia frowned as she remembered not running into any maids. If she remembered right, there used to be many maids to help clean this place. "Where is everyone then?" Sophia asked

"I gave them the day off, well most of them." Lucy said and got up from her seat. As much as she wanted to talk to her daughter right now, she really just wanted to talk to Marco alone. She wanted Sophia to go off with her other siblings, maybe then they could have some peace and quiet to talk to each other about serious matters. "Alessandro, Bryce, and Eloise are playing outside if you want to join them. And dinner will be in a couple hours, I'll call you in when it's close."

She nodded at her mum and walked out into the cloudy day looking at the yard around her. She had never seen grass this green and brilliant before, it looked like a dream. The front yard was gorgeous with nicely shaped bushes and a large verity of flowers lining the walkway and bushes. She just couldn't help but go to the garden and take a closer look.

This castle was gorgeous but to her, but it just didn't seem right without Gran here. She remembered when she was here last she was 12. She spent the whole summer here as gran taught her how to cook the English way, play games and explore the castle. She used to fill Sophia's mind with the craziest stories about princesses and evil men. Gran made Sophia believe in the wonder of childhood and without her here, the rest of her childhood seemed too dismal.

Even though her Grandmother lived far away Sophia knew that she still loved them with all her heart. Sophia already missed her dearly. With a frown, she looked down at the ground again to stop herself from tearing up. She kicked at the dirt with force, reveling, a gold ring buried in the dirt. It glittered in the light even though it wasn't sunny. Something in the back of her mind told her not to get it but it was just so pretty. Without thinking about it father, she reached down and picked up the ring.

After she brushed off the dirt she was amazed at how beautiful it looked. It had three small rubies with a couple of diamonds around the stones. Sophia looked around quickly, trying to see if someone around here dropped it because it didn't look cheap. To her, the ring looked almost new, so it must have been dropped recently. She frowned when she saw no one around. She also knew that no one had walked by this castle because it was on a hill and no house was closer than about a mile off. She wondered what she should do with the find but then shrugged when nothing came to her mind and stuffed the ring in her pocket for safe keeping.

Alessandro saw his sister from a distance. He was excited to finally see her up, maybe now he would have someone worth playing cricket with. She after all was the best player in the family. "Hey Sophia! You're up!" Alessandro said and ran up to her.

Sophia turned to face him with a smile, happy to see that she wasn't alone anymore. "Oh, hey, are you having fun?" Sophia asked him looking at the mud smeared on his tan cheeks.

"YES! You have to see the bush maze in the backyard and can you play cricket with me?" He said, talking so fast he was barely able to get all the words out.

She smiled at him as she nodded. "Well, I guess I should see it shouldn't I?"

"Yes! Please!" he said and took off running to the back.

Sophia followed him, running, when she made it to the back of the yard, she saw that the backyard was even larger than the front and just as beautiful. There were more gardens of plants and roses all over the place. Sophia knew that her gran liked gardening, but this was amazing. She looked around and saw her brother running to a gravel path that led from the back door to the middle of the lawn, there, was a maze of bushes that stood about 6 feet tall. It looked like something from Disney land. It was all so beautiful that Sophia couldn't believe that this was her Gran's backyard.

Alessandro saw Bryce run off but into the maze, but Sophia stood in place. He knew that she would never find Bryce without his help and if she stayed here in place any longer, she was just wasting time. "Come on Sophia!" Alessandro said pulling on Sophia's hand, leading her to the maze.

She looked at her little brother tugging her hand forward. She forgot she was following them. "Ok." She said as she ran over to the mouth of the maze. "So do you want to race? The first one out wins?" She asked, trying to come up with a game to entertain her siblings. She knew that her parents wanted some time to themselves and she wanted to give that to them.

"You're on!" Alessandro cheered as he took off through the maze.

"HEY!" Sophia shouted at him as she ran into the maze after him. Once she got into the maze fully, she realized that this maze was huge with lots of twists and turns. Before she knew it, she was completely lost with no idea where to go. She stopped at another dead end and sighed. That was the fourth dead end in the last 10 minutes and by now she just wanted to get out of here. "Where to go now?" she mumbled to herself.

As soon as she said that she heard a voice whisper softly behind her say, "go left then right then left again."

Sophia gave a small jump and quickly looked around herself so see no one. She must be going crazy. "Who's there!?" Sophia asked. But quickly, she realized that the voice must have been in her mind and decided to take the advice. Before she knew it, she was out of the maze standing in front of a huge oak tree. She looked up at it. She knew this tree. Somehow she knew this was important but she couldn't remember why. A breeze whipped through its leaves, causing it to creek. She felt a draw to this tree, she wanted to be....

"I win," Alessandro said behind her.

Sophia spun around to face him. "How did you get out so fast?"

For being the oldest, sometimes he believed that Sophia wasn't the smartest out of the kids. He had no idea what she was talking about, the maze was simple, almost a straight shot to get out of it. He was out in 2 minutes flat. "It's not hard Sophia. The maze isn't that big." He giggled at her.

"Yeah, I guess..." Sophia trailed off and looked back at the maze that she just came out of. It didn't look that big now that she was looking back at it. So how did she get incredibly lost in it?

Alessandro looked at the tree in front of them and thought of all the cool tree houses that could be made in it. He was really loving it here in England so far. "Great tree hu?"

Sophia looked back at it and felt a pull towards it. "Yeah, it's beautiful."

As soon as she said that she heard their mum's voice from the window calling, "Sophia, Alessandro! Dinner!"

"Last one there is the rotten egg." Sophia said to her brother and started running to the castle before her brother had time to react.

Once they made it inside, they washed up and saw that the other two siblings were already sitting at the table ready for food. Everyone sat around the table quickly because all were staving.

The food was good and the conversations were good. Sophia thought that her family all did more talking than eating. Bryce talked about how he walked around the castle and found some crest on the side of the giant building. Alessandro and Sophia talked about the maze and the yard and Eloise just babbled on how she loved it here and didn't want to leave.

After dinner Sophia walked around the house, wandering up and down the halls of the huge castle. When she got to the ballroom, she stopped and opened her mouth in awe. It had a high ceiling which made the room look even larger and polished wood floors that were so polished she could see her face smiling in them. She closed her eyes and did a little waltz with an imaginary man. She imagined herself dancing with a long flowing gown and all eyes on her with a man, with Matt, her true love. Just then she heard a whisper which made her stop. She dropped her arms as if she wasn't dancing and looked around the room to see that no one was in the room with her.

"There you are," Lucy said walking into the room a second later.

"Did you just see that?" Sophia said hoping that she didn't just see her dance with no one.

"See what?" she said in a confused tone. She didn't see anything, after all, she just walked into the room.

"Nothing," Sophia said and blushed quickly looking at her reflection in the floor to hide her rosy cheeks.

Lucy looked around at the room. There had been so many happy memories that had happened here. Those moments seem so long ago to her now. After all, she hadn't had a ball in over 20 years. "You like this room or what?" she said and smiled at her daughter.

"I love it. I could live here just in this room."

"You're my girl. You know this used to be my favorite room in the house. We would have balls twice a year, after family tradition. Those where my two favorite times of the year." Lucy said and looked around as if she was looking at other people in the room. In reality, she was just thinking about the people she used to see here at these parties. Lucy's mum would throw these huge Gala's and Lucy was always excited to dress up for the night. The only downside to those nights was that her mum was always busy with other guests and not with her. "This house has so many good memories."

Sophia tried hard to imagine what Lucy was thinking about. She pictured the room lit up, the smell of food coming from the kitchen, people laughing, talking, lively. She looked at her mum who had a huge smile on her face. She looked so happy here, not only in this room but here in England. "I'm sure...Mum?"

"Yes, dear?"

"If you loved being here so much why did you leave?"

She frowned at the memory. She didn't want to leave, she loved it here. But the more time she lived here with Marco, the more she felt like she was being watched, like the house was haunted and that she didn't belong. "Well first of all, I left because of the weather. If you haven't noticed already, it's kind of crappy. And well I know this sounds weird but, this place, the more I lived here with your father, the more I didn't feel welcome. It's hard to explain but I told Gran about it and she understood. That was when Marco got a job in the states so we moved there." She paused and looked around at the room again. "It's weird but sometimes I think this place has a mind of its own. I'm going to miss it when we go back."

"I know what you mean by that, the house, it's filled with so much history it's like...."

"You can almost see the people that lived here a hundred years ago." Lucy said and smiled finishing Sophia comment. Lucy always got that feeling, it was nice to know that Sophia could feel it as well, heaven knows Marco couldn't see it.

Sophia smiled at her mother. One of the reasons she loved her mother so much was because Sophia felt like her mum really understood her. "Exactly."

It was then when Lucy remembered what her mother would tell her growing up, "Well you just have to remember one thing Sophia, history always repeats itself. Sometimes it does come back to life and you can see it with your own eyes." As soon as Lucy said that the floor creaked and both of them looked around to see who it was. "It's just an old castle, it's nothing. Come on, it's late, you should be getting to bed anyhow."

"Yeah, alright." Sophia said as she walked out of the room, upstairs to her room. This place is amazing and she just wished she would have seen it in its prime. She wished as well that she could stay here but there was something that told her to run, get out of here as fast as she could. She also knew that she didn't belong here. She belonged in the states with all of her friends.

By the time she was in bed, it was about 1 in the morning. Sophia knew that she needed to sleep but she couldn't close her eyes. She was dreading tomorrow, the funeral. Just then her phone started ringing. "Hello?" she said answering her phone.

"Sophia, you didn't call me, I was getting worried." Matt said on the other line.

Sophia smiled; it was nice to hear his voice again. "Sorry, I forgot."

"It's ok, so tell me about your day."

"Ok, well it all starts off at 2 today. The time change is killing me!" after she told Matt everything that happened it was almost 2AM. Sophia looked at the time and frowned. "Oh gosh, my mum is going to freak! I need to let you go Matt; I'll talk to you later. Ok?"

"Oh yeah, sorry for holding you up, it must be like 1 over there."

"Actually it's 2. But I had a great time talking to you and I can't wait to get back to you."

"I can't wait to see you again."

"Bye Matt."

"Bye Sophia." And with that, he hung up. Sophia climbed into bed finally feeling tired from everything that happened and fell asleep into a dreamless sleep.