The Taken

[Stormee Fae]

Danny grinned at Miriam excitement. He too was excited, "Yes, I have so many questions!" He stated, "So many things I wanted to know about the world, to learn. I can learn now." When Miriam stated the town and his house may still be there, Danny smiled, "Do you think my family may still own the house? My family's descendents?"


"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves, it's a ghost town now. City hall closed in 1935. It looks like there are still some active farms out there though." Eugene explained.


"Oh... My house may not even be there." Danny sighed.


Sylvie put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.


"Alright, Sylv, here's the plan. Go pack about a week's with of clothes, a cooler of food and drinks, some activities to do on the road, and some medicine. We will go to Wal-Mart on the way out and buy some things for these two before we hit the road." Eugene said.


Sylvie nodded and stated upstairs, "Y'all can come help me of you want."

 

[KateMurdock92]

Miriam looked delighted. "An exploration journey!" She cheered, quickly jumping up and following Sylvie up the stairs. "Um....what do we take?" She asked, suddenly realizing she was not prepared to help her at all.


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[Stormee Fae]

Danny started to go up, but he stopped when Miriam went up. He didn't want to intrude, but he did want to see the house.


"How old are you Danny?" Eugene asked.


"15." Danny said, "almost 16 I reckon... Well actually I guess I'm not 15."


"Why not?" Eugene asked.


"I was born in 1849, in september. So I guess that makes me 165, almost 166." Danny smiled.


Eugene chuckled, "Good point, kid. You can go up too if you want, go see the house."


"Thank you, Sir." Danny nodded and hurried up the stairs after them.


Sylvie walked all the way to the end of the hall and opened the door to her bedroom, "This is my room." Inside the wall paper was different shades of green with ivy designs on it. Her room was littered with celtic art, sculptures, pictures, and a canopy bed with Irish flag on the wall near the head. She had two collages. One looked more finished, but still had a lot of blank space. One was of rusty, aging industrial structures including abandoned mine shafts, whike the other was of old houses with historic age. She went to her cherry wood dresser and started searching.

 

[KateMurdock92]

Miriam stared at the collages. "These are beautiful. Did you create them?" She asked, admiring all the pictures. She was very impressed. "How do you capture people on paper? And things?" She asked. "It was a painting in my time but these don't look like paint on canvas."


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[Stormee Fae]

Danny entered shyly, taking in the room, his eyes lit up, he then focused on what they were looking at. He heard Miriam's question, 'I know this one!' He thought.


"A photographer." He announced as he walked in, "We had them in our time but they wetter nothing like this. They were very blurry and duly colored and weren't readily available."


"Yup, We call them cameras now." Sylvie picked up the camera on her desk, it was high quality with incredible zoom. It had been a gift from her family on the laat christmas they had together, "This camera costed 700 dollars." She said proudly, "Here, let me show you." She lifted it to her face, "Smile." She pointed it at Miriam.

 

[KateMurdock92]

Miriam looked shocked. "That's a fortune! Oh uh.." She was somewhat nervous but managed a small smile just before Sylvie clicked the camera. "How does it work?" She asked, curious.


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[Stormee Fae]

Sylvie laughed and showed Miriam the picture on the screen, "See." She said. Danny leaned over to look at the picture of the awkwardly smiling and exclaimed, "That was so fast, and no flash." Why would someone smile for a picture anyway?


Danny felt excited, "That's another one I can answer!" He immediately felt embarrassed for the outburst, "Apologies, I just... It's nice to know about something in this time."


"Go ahead, it's okay." Sylvie said.


"Well... It takes in light and the light gets basically burned into the film."


Sylvie nodded, "That is how film cameras work. This is a digital camera."

 

[KateMurdock92]

Miriam looked lost. "That's incredible. But how does a digital one work then?" She felt even more confused. "That's a terrible picture. You should burn it." She laughed. "I look really strange." She tilted her head, looking at the picture in a different angle.


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[Stormee Fae]

Sylvie shrugged, "Well... Um... I don't really know how it works I guess, not completely." She walked over the printer and hooked the camera up to a cord, after pressing a few buttons, the printer made whirring noises and slowly the picture came out. Sylvie picked it up and showed it to Miriam.

 

[KateMurdock92]

Miriam winced at the picture, turning it this way and that. "No matter what I do, I still look horrible. I don't like cameras." she put the picture in a trashcan and turned back to the collages. "These look amazing though. You're a great....what was it? Photographer?" she said the word as if it were a foreign language to her.

 

[Stormee Fae]

Sylvie laughed, even hundreds of years ago, people were critical of their appearance in pictures. Putting down the pictures, Sylvie walked bacl over to the collages, hands behind her back, "I am a photographer," she corrected her pronunciation, "because I take photographs with my camera."


"That sounds like a great profession." Danny said.


"Well, I don't actually do it as a profession," Sylvie went to her dresser and dug out her clothes, putting it all in a duffel bag.


"Why not?" Danny asked.


"Well... I gotta not only find people to buy them, but I also have to find people who will hire me to take pictures," she made the motion with her hands, "Besides, I am still in school, but I do plan on going to college for it... And history."


"College? You are going to college?" Danny exclaimed.


"Eventually... Yeah," Sylvie chuckled.

 

[KateMurdock92]

Miriam smiled. "I would hire you to take pictures. Just not mine." She laughed. "What's college?" She asked, confused. She had never even heard the word mentioned around her. "I always wanted to be a healer. An apothecary. Like my mother." She looked down at her fingers.


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[Stormee Fae]

"Those are called doctors now and the science has changed a lot, we can look inside at people homes and tissues without having to even cut them open." Sylvie tried to use simple words.


"It's where you go after your secondary schooling is done, when you're about 18." Danny explained, "It's where you go to educate yourself in whatever field you want... Like medical."

 

[KateMurdock92]

Miriam looked impressed. "Can women go? Are we allowed?" Miriam asked, excited. "That sounds incredible!!!" She exclaimed as she heard what Sylvie said about seeing inside of people.


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[Stormee Fae]

"They weren't normally... I mean they could but it was unlikely and a little bit discouraged, but me mother went." Danny said shrugging, "Women are encouraged to stay home and take care of the domestic duties."


Sylvie laughed, "There ain't no way in hell I am staying home to take care of kids. I am gonna go places." She pointed to the ceiling and looked up dramatically as she did, "No but seriously," she looked at the others, "Women make up the majority of people in universities. Oh and we can vote now, we own our own property, stay single until our 30s, and have professions."


Danny's eyes widened, "Stay single until their 30s? But then how do they have children? And how do they raise their husband's offspring with a profession to fill their time? It all seems unnecessary."


"Um, newflash, Danny. Nobody tells me how to live my life and what to do with it. I have my own mind and I am not a baby making and rearing factory. I do whatever the fuck I want when I want." She crossed her arms.


Danny gasped as Sylvie spoke, "Is such language common?"


"I don't care... Besides, well behaved women rarely make history." She winked.


Danny stood their, confused and overwhelmed.


"Come on, Let's get some medicine." Sylvie said headed to.the bathroom, "I think my dad is worried about y'alls health."

 

[KateMurdock92]

Miriam made a face as she listened to Danny. "That doesn't seem fair..." When Sylvie had said her piece, Miriam threw a fist in the air. "I like it! I'm going to be a doctor! And heal even more people than my mother did! I don't want babies either. Too much responsibility, and pain if you lose them..." she trailed off, following Sylvie into the bathroom. "So what kinds of herbs do you take for your ailments?" She asked the girl, curious.

 

[Stormee Fae]

Danny stood in the room, feeling a little bit confused and socially in shock. He didn't quite know what just happened, but he couldn't help.but think he insulted them somehow. He followed them into the bathroom, "I apologize. I didn't mean to upset anyone."


"It's alright, Danny....you didn't know." Sylvie opened the medicine drawer to expose dozens of little orange and white bottles as well as bottles or nyquill, dayquill, and pepto, "not herbs... Pills. Some pills were dierived from plants though,"

 

[KateMurdock92]

Miriam smiled at Danny. She looked back at Sylvie, confused. "What are pills? How do they work? Where do they come from if you don't use plants?" She asked, frowning. "May I?" she reached for one of the bottles, hoping to open it and see.

 

[Stormee Fae]

"You swallow them... Usually." Sylvie chuckled, "Yeah, you can look at them." She handed her a pill bottle, "This is asprin, made from the bark of I think aspen trees. Don't eat any... Unless you have a head ache." She pulled out a bottle of pink pills, "allergy medicine." She then pointed the bottles of colored liquid, "cold medicine, stomach medicine, sleep aid"


Danny looked at all the medicines and read their names, "These medicines are different than the ones in my time."

 

[KateMurdock92]

Miriam looked at all the bottles. "None of these ingredients sound even remotely familiar..." she trailed off. "Why do you use processed medicines if plants will do the trick? Is it faster?" she shook one of the bottles to hear the pills rattle.

 

[Stormee Fae]

"Faster, stronger, and more reliable." Sylvie answered, "Plants do nothing compared to the effectiveness of these medicines." she said with a chuckle before putting the medicines in the bag. She walked out of the bathroom and headed down a different set of stairs which led into the living room decorated with Victorian furniture and wall paper. A large, flat screen TV sat on the wooden entertainment center along with a PS3, PS2, and Wii. Lacey curtains hung around the windows filtering the sunlight that poured into the room giving the room a clean, comfortable air.


As Danny followed Sylvie into the room, his eyes lit up in surprise to see all the modern day appliances in the living room. There was still a couch and a chair, and end tables, some kind of lanterns, and curtains. These were all items Danny recognized from his living room. He could still see it in his head as he walked down the stairs in the morning for his morning chores before school. Still, what were all these new things? He paused shortly, looking around the living room as Sylvie kept walking through the entrance room and over to the kitchen. She paused when she noticed Danny had stopped. She turned around from her spot in the dining room and looked behind her, curious to see what had held up their walk.

 

[KateMurdock92]

Miriam followed Danny and Sylvie into the room. She immediately went to the lacey curtains, admiring them. She stared at the lamps and all the strange box shaped machines on the entertainment center. She touched one, admiring its design. "What is with these people and machines? It's like they depend on them for everything. What does this even do?" She poked the power button on the PlayStation 3 accidentally and the system came on, making noise over the speaker system. She jumped back with a small scream.


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[Stormee Fae]

Danny watched the lights appear on the television, greens and blues crossing one another and shimmering and sparkling as the symbol for Play Station and Sony appeared. Danny went up to the television and reached for colored ribbons, his hands getting blocked with a soft knocking sound as his fingers hit the screen. He pulled away slowly, still staring, "What is this?" he asked slowly turning his head, his bright green eyes searching for an answer in Sylvie who slowly approached also fixed on the television.


She didn't know how to explain this to either of them, but she did hope it would be something they would both come to enjoy, especially netflix. Sylvie picked up the controller and went to netflix and selected it, putting on an episode of a history show, each episode on a different topic. This one was about the American Revolution. Danny stared, completely unmoving at the screen as he watched the reenacting and the people talking about the war. He read the titles under the speakers' names. Most were historians and professors. He didn't know what to say, what to ask, what to even think. He just watched, took it all in.


Sylvie waited, allowing them to observe it on their own and make up their own minds about what they were seeing.

 

[KateMurdock92]

Miriam also touched the screen but stood back when the history show came on. "Is this happening now? It looks too old." She was confused but enthralled by the television.


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[Stormee Fae]

Sylvie smiled, "This is going to be very helpful and entertaining for you." she approached the television and lifted her right hand, waving it around the television as if presenting a game show prize to contestants, "This is a television. People make television shows and movies that people can watch. This one is about American History. This is the American Revolution." Sylvie stepped aside and let them watch shortly before continuing, "Think of it like a collection of short stories but instead of reading them you watch. Each story is called an episode. There are episodes about all the major events in American History since Christopher Columbus landed on the coast in 1492 and the first settlement of pilgrims in Jamestown. It goes all the way up to the current war." Walking over to the coffee table as she spoke, she picked up the remote and spun it in her hand before pointing it at the television and shutting it off, "We can always watch more in the car if you'd like... but in the meantime, we need food." Sylvie waved them to follow her to the kitchen.