September 4, 1859

September 4, 1859

Dear Safiya,

That’s good to know about Agnes.  I think I’ll start packing my bags soon, but the MacJohns have been treating me okay for the past few days.  I think they must pity me.  The twins have been on their best behavior, and I don’t have to do a thing except relax and write to you.

I suppose I’d better tell you what happened behind the waterfall, but I really don’t want to think about it at the moment.  Oh well.  I’ll think about it.

When I saw the doorway, I stopped.  It was so strange that I didn’t want to go forward.  But Jaime made me, and I’m not really the type of person to bite and kick the boy I like, so I let him lead me through it into the room.

I was even more surprised by what I saw.  It was almost exactly the way you had described the Mainlander’s office before, even down to the map with the strange dots on it, except this map was of the entire world, not just Europe.

There were people in there when we got there.  There were eleven seats, ten of which were filled.  The only one that was empty was the one to the left of the head chair.  At the head of the table was Mr. Shuster, and to the right was Mrs. Shuster.  The other eight people I didn’t recognize, but their faces were hard and grave and so unhappy that I couldn’t help but pity them for a minute.

“You’re late, James,” Mr. Shuster scolded.

“I’m sorry, Father.  I had problems getting the girl to come with me,” Jaime replied.  I was shocked.  That he would be so rude as to call me ‘the girl’ in front of me was absolutely appalling, but now that I think about it, it sort of makes sense.  He had betrayed me in every way possible by taking me there, to the Mainlander’s new office, that I would have felt sick to my stomach if he had called me by my name.

“Don’t do it again.  Just put her in the corner somewhere,” Mr. Shuster ordered, looking at the papers in front of him.  When we walked by him, I saw that they were Grandma’s immigration papers.  I was confused at why he would have them.

“You just stay here for a few minutes,” Jaime ordered.

“What’s going on?” I asked fearfully.  I didn’t like the way my voice quivered, or the look that must have been in my eyes.  Jaime didn’t appear to notice.  He just ignored me and went to sit in the seat next to his father.

They started talking in German, so I can’t say that I understood them.  A lot of them kept looking at me, and it made me fidget, so I just stared at the ground and ignored them the best I could, but it was sort of hard, so I kept looking up to see if they were going to switch to English.  It didn’t seem like they were.

At one point in time, Mr. Shuster stood up and went to the map to put a few pins in it.  They were marking locations for something, what I didn’t know then.  After a while I fell asleep, as I wasn’t getting any information from the conversation they were having.  All I know is that for the entire time, Jaime never looked at me.

I have to go now.  Cindy is calling for me.  She cooked dinner.  I’m surprised that she’s actually an amazing cook.  I’ll write again soon.

Yours truly, Lucy

Author's Note

Didn't expect that, did you? =) Please tell me how I'm doing, and don't afraid to be nasty in your reviews, because the nastier the better, in my opinion.