Castrum Legio Ch2
Arthur was staring off at the clock on the wall. I looked at it and saw there was a discrepancy between what it said and what I swore it should say. I flipped my wrist over and looked at the gear-shaped watch I wore, one of many little bits and bobs I kept on my person to fight the fantasy fetish my parents kept, and it looked like I was correct. My watch showed it was a little after one PM, not the fictitious 3pm the wall clock showed. “Hey Norm, your clock is screwy.” I said.
Norman looked over at me and then the clock in question. “Oh crap, it died again. I’ve had some issues with the wiring on that thing. You mind taking a poke at it, oh queen of zaps?”
I groaned at his nickname; I was good with electrical systems, wiring, and all things that involve power… it only figures I’d end up with a weird nickname or two.
Oh, right, I guess I better fourth wall break this for you. I’m the younger twin, Morgana. Where Arthur is the slim, bookish type, I’m the more athletic one. Where he’s blonde, I’m a brunette. Where he looks, I leap. We’re different as much as we can be, being twins and all, or so I like to make it seem. In all actuality, we’re way more similar than either of us will ever imagine, or ever admit. See the author thought it’d be fun to write a book with us swapping POV every chapter, pretentious jerk.
“I’ll take a look, but if you call me that again I’ll make you rue the day.” I replied, making my irritation readily known.
I moved toward the wall and popped the side of it off. Norman really liked to have the most unique and clever devices, and only a few of us knew that the wall clocks all stemmed from one atomic clock in the center of the building. While it takes a little to figure out which cable runs to which clock, once you know the system you’ll be amazed as to how clever it is. And… there it was, an unplugged wire. And a ribbon? What the?
I followed the ribbon and cable to… a box! It had Arthur and my names on it. Norman, you clever son of a…
I hooked the wire into its place in the array and could almost hear the clock above my head spinning to reset itself. I lifted the box out of the hole and closed things up before I walked over to Arthur and the other two. I shoved the box into Arthur’s gut and told him it’s his turn to open the almost certainly trapped gift. He gave me a look of despair, his sense of danger echoing my own, but didn’t complain.
As Arthur opened the box, a gust of wind and a small water balloon flew from it, landing squarely in his face. For a moment I was shocked, this was not the kind of trap Norm usually had up his sleeve. Still, I knew the box would be rigged for something, and I’m glad I wasn’t on the receiving end. I reached into my leather pack that was never far from my person and pulled out a hand towel, passing it to Arthur I felt a sense of vindication. I’d taken to carrying a towel of some kind since I read a certain sci-fi novel series, you never knew when you’d need one, regardless as to what others said.
I peeked into the now open box and saw a set of CDs. Likely old school games Norm had grabbed on auction or something, but one never knew. I lifted out the first bundle of CDs, conveniently tied with a reddish bow and a tag that read Morgana, and I looked it over. More or less I was right, it was a bundle of sci-fi games from the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Each one had their own instructions for my laptop’s current operating system, really nice since it forcibly updated last week and I lost just about everything. I guess Norm really did hear everything said in his shop, since I never told him directly.
Arthur reached in and pulled out his set of CDs, it looked like a bunch of J-RPGs from around the same time period as the games I’d been given. His laptop had to be replaced after the hard drive failed on it, and there was no way to get back any of his content either. Another thing said in the shop when Norm was nowhere near us… gosh, that’s unsettling.
“I know both of you encountered some unfortunate circumstances, so I thought I’d give you guys a chance to rebuild your collections. I know how anti-fantasy you two are, so I avoided any titles that would be counted in that genre.” Norm said, heading over to the small wardrobe he kept cleaning supplies in behind his desk. He pulled out a telescoping mop and a small bucket and he began to clean up the water around Arthur’s feet. “I also figured you’d not expect a water balloon, changed up my normal bag of tricks with that one.”
Arthur and I thanked him at the same time, as if we had synchronized it… I hated that so much, that whole twin telepathy thing that seemed to happen at the most random of times. I think Arthur hated it too, which is why we normally had some kind of signal about who speaks first if we both wanna say something. We then made eye contact with Kès and looked toward the door, trying to signal that we should duck out. Thankfully he got the message, or at the very least he was on the same page as we were.
“Hey Norm, not to be a jerk and interrupt, but I’m kinda starving. I was gonna treat Arth and Morgana to lunch, so if you’re cool with it, we’re gonna step out.” Kès said, leading toward the door.
Arthur and I waved and we followed Kès out the door. After a moment or two of deliberation, we settled on the local pizza place. Persephone’s Pizza Passion was a small establishment about a block or two from Norm’s arcade, and they had some fantastic breadsticks. It helped that the owners, Persephone’s kids Dmitri and Angelica, knew us on sight. For a mid-sized city, there were a fair few businesses that knew us on sight and would cut us in on awesome deals… like a free order of those amazing breadsticks on your birthday. Why am I craving those breadsticks right now?
As we entered the shop, Dmitri waved at us and smiled from behind the counter. “It’s the twins, and their confidant! Angelica, come out here, they’re here! I told you they’d come in today.”
Dmitri and Angelica spoke perfect English, but they still had that Greek accent their mom and dad had when they came to America. It was always fun to see them, and they treated every guest who came through the door like they were family. A smile and a wave, that’s how they always started the interaction with their customers, and you never left hungry. They were known to even give free food to the less fortunate and would offer the high school students a year’s contract as a first job. I would know, they had promised Arthur and I positions for when we entered our sophomore year.
Angelica came out of the back, her greying hair tied back in a ponytail and her apron covered in flour. “Ta paidiá mou! How are you two today?”
She waddled her way around the counter with her arms out, sweeping all three of us into one of her bear hugs. She might have pre-mature grey hairs, but she was still pretty young, and… was that a bump? Was Angelica… pregnant?
“Angelica, have you been a naughty girl?” I teased, lightly poking her slightly rounded stomach.
She grinned, “Maybe. Agápi mou and I are expecting a gift from above in a few months. I wanted to keep working until the last month, you know how things go. Speaking of gifts, have you gotten some good ones today?”
Arthur and I nodded, letting Angelica guide us to the bar, Kès following quickly behind. As we sat down, she kissed each of us on the head. She then motioned to Dmitri and they busied themselves with getting two sets of breadsticks out to us, and before we could even order Dmitri was calling out our usual order to whoever was manning the ovens. Angelica moved through the doors to the back immediately after, a certain spring in her step.
“You three just barely beat the rush! It’s going to get busy in a few minutes, so we’re glad you showed up early. We’ve got something for you two, consider it your aunt and uncle Galanos celebrating with you.” Dmitri said as he walked over to where we sat, sliding each of us one of his home-made Vissino… it was kind of a sour cherry soft drink, and Dmitri had a secret recipe for making the best.
“You didn’t have to do that. We’re just happy you aren’t too busy right now, talk about a lucky break.” Arthur piped up, smiling as he sipped his drink.
“Nonsense! You’re family, you get treated like family. Angelica would kill me if we didn’t do something for you two. Speaking of which…” Dmitri said. He wandered over to the other end of the bar and dimmed the lights.
Seconds later, Angelica came out with a decadent looking cake. She and Dmitri began singing what I assumed was the Greek equivalent of the birthday song, and set the cake between Arthur and I. If I had to guess, it was likely karidopita… a kind of walnut cake with a syrup topping. It was going to be amazing, regardless.
About an hour later, after everyone had finished eating and we had paid our tab, we left Persephone’s and headed home. It was still only about 3PM, but we figured we had been out and about enough for one day. Plus we could use the rest of the day to knock out the homework we… well I… had been putting off.
Kès had dropped his backpack off in our front room before he had ambushed us from the back of the house, so it’s not like he would be left out. In fact, he might be able to help me with my geometry worksheets, so that’s a bonus to him hanging about.
“Hey, do you guys hear that?” Kès said quietly.
“No, I don’t here… anything… Oh.” I said, realizing what his point was. I didn’t hear mom or dad at all in the house, but I swore I saw the car in the driveway.
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