The Royal Flower

Chapter 6 - Gadgets, Science, and More!

Carolina

I had been working for and living with Daniel for a month now. I could not believe that time suddenly sped up after I had been plucked from the forest. My savior – well, rescuer (Daniel only thought of God as the Savior. He said so after I called him “savior” aloud. I remembered rolling my eyes at his lecture.) - taught me how to look at a calendar and how to use a phone. He was probably relieved that I had stopped hounding him after discovering how to connect to the Internet. He was surprised that I could read. He did not say so, but I saw him watching me while I read his books and some things I found through Google. I did not know if I should be pleased or insulted. I would sometimes catch him trying to read what I was searching for. Whenever he did that, I would press the phone closer to my eyes so that he would not see I was reading about Medieval witches.

“You will ruin your eyes that way, Carolina!”

“Yes, father!”

He would look at me seriously whenever I called him that, but he would turn around and let it go. Daniel needed to know what “fun” means. I had been to his world for one month, and I believed I was having more of it than he was in all of his twenty-nine years.

After a whole week of nights lying down next to Daniel, who stiffly accepted my presence as a punishment, I had retreated to the guest room. I would like to say his home was already mine – but that was not true. Not only was I a guest in his house, but I was also a guest in this world. It was not normal. In time, I would have to find a way back to my family. For now, I was happy that at least I was making my rescuer laugh. He had been smiling more than the first few days I had been here. Perhaps he just needed to rest. He could not sleep well while I tossed and turned next to him at night. I had nightmares sometimes. He was patient enough to let me ride out these terrors, even tapping me lightly on my back so I could sleep. I was a warrior witch princess. I traveled to the 21st century to become nothing more than a child.

In the guestroom, I missed Daniel’s scent and the comfort of someone large who could defend me in an attack. I missed pretending I was sleeping and hugging him tightly next to me, telling myself I needed comfort and that I deserved the sense of safety. It took me twenty-one years and six centuries to get that.

But, I was now part of this quiet, small town of Oakspell in the 21st century. I had no enemies, except for the test tubes and specimens I had to work with every weekday. (I loved how I was free to walk around in town on Saturdays and go to church with Daniel on Sundays, even though I rarely listened.) I broke one during one of my first few days, though I prided myself as good with my hands. I was never graceful like a princess should, but I could handle a sword well in a fight.

Because I did not want to disappoint my host, I read Biology texts at night and handled the test tubes more carefully. It was fascinating, though, how it felt more typical for women to study hefty tomes such as the ones Daniel gave me. I told him as much.

“The women of your time are lucky, Daniel. They can read all the books they want.”

“Women still do not get as many chances as men even today, Carolina.”

I scoffed and muttered, “What a shame men are still pigs.”

He chuckled at that. He liked laughing at the things I said, but I did not feel offended. It was better than his initial reaction towards me – a little bit of fear and apprehension. Daniel was not the sort to laugh at jokes, his mother had told me. She was delighted that I made him laugh or at least smile. I felt sorry for Mrs. Arden, who thought that Daniel would soon be offering his hand to me in marriage. She believed that if her son would let a woman live with him in his house, it meant that he was serious.

Oh, he was serious. Most of the nights, he was either praying or studying. I would sometimes tease him by playing my video games next to him. When I saw how grave he looked at one time, I did not do it again.

As I Google more information about the world I was from, I discovered that there was no Mogochislenia anywhere in this world. I lived in a place called the United States, in America. I was working for a laboratory in a small town in the West. I looked at the map that Google showed me. It did not remotely look like the continent I knew. Mogochislenia was only separated from Arrowspear by a small lake. The North American Continent had a peninsula at the tip before you could find South America. On either side, my current continent was flanked by two oceans. Huh! The only ocean I knew was too far away from my land even to be mentioned in a typical conversation.

How was that possible? It was like I passed through not only time but also space – like a flower? What kind of magic did I use on myself? I bit onto my sandwich, a lovely blend of ham and bread, and chewed forcefully. I did not bother to close my mouth as I did.

“Carolina!”

“Yes?”

Daniel was looking through a microscope. I was proud to remember the name of the machine – device, or whatever it was. I knew I could see things I would not normally do with its help. I wanted to complain that it was my lunch break, but I was also curious as to what would make my silent boss call me at all. At work, he was very, um, professional, a terrific word that meant he would never talk to me unless he needed to. So, I laid my sandwich on a napkin on my desk and went to him.

“Look at this.”

I peered and saw some oval, bluish cells. You know, I had been studying well.

“Okay, they are bluish. They are cells?”

Then, he showed me another specimen.

“How about this?”

I looked at the second specimen.

“It looked the same as the first,” I frowned at him, trying to find the trick.

“Exactly. Well, the first one was a few cheek cells I took from myself.”

“So, they are human.”

“Yes, they are. And so is the second one, right?”

“But why are you showing me these?”

“The second one comes from a flower I took from where I found you. I went back there yesterday.”