Episode 14 of The Price of Friendship. Philip ‘Norvaljoe’ Carroll has been a podcaster without a home, and adds content where ever people will let him. Now, an editor at The Flagship of flyingislandpress.com, he is looking for positive, uplifting and well written Fantasy and Science Fiction between 2000 and 7000 words to add to the next issue.
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“The Price of Friendship” Episode 14
“Ok, then, Amanda,” Chad said slowly, almost chewing on the words as he searched for something appropriate to say. “Well, what do we do now?”As he finished the question, and before he could close his mouth, his stomach grumbled. The noise sounded somewhere been a frog and a duck being run over by a motorcycle and, with his mouth hanging open, almost as loud. ”I’d say, first we need to find something to eat,” Amanda said her eyes wide in apparent shock. Her beautiful dark eyes twinkled as she turned toward the kitchen. Chad followed, shaking his head.They sat in the dim kitchen and ate meat and cheese on crusty sour dough bread. It tasted a bit stale, but he was hungry enough that after a few bites, it no longer mattered, and Chad chewed off large bites of the sandwich.”So, where’s the rest of your family?” Chad asked the girl.”Oh, they’re at home,” she said casually.Chad sat up on the edge of his chair and looked around the room as if he could have missed seeing others about.”Oh,” Amanda said and laughed, “they’re not here. We live in another dimension. Uncle Dennis got a message to us you would be coming through, possibly this way, and that it would be good if someone could meet up with you, and maybe help you along You know my uncle Dennis. He’s Amy’s dad.”Chad dropped his piece of bread. “Amy’s dad is here?”He looked around the room and tried to think of what he should do next. “Can we go talk to him? Maybe he can tell me what I need to do next. How did he get here? I mean, I never saw he get past me.”"Slow down, Chad.” Amanda rolled her eyes. “I never said he was here,” she said and pointed at the ground.”I’m sorry, Chad,” she said. She reached out and placed her hand on his. The light shock and tingle brought his attention back to Amanda. The world faded around him and all he could see was her face. He looked into her dark, sympathetic eyes, her mouth was slightly open and could just see the tips of her two front teeth between her glistening red lips. He wondered if this is what love was like.”I forgot you’re not from the dimensions, so I should explain more when I speak.” Chad felt a moment of disappointment as she leaned back into her chair and took her hand from his. “Amy’s father is within the dimensions. He had to come in by another route and is on the other side of what you might call a wall of the opposition. It would be too dangerous. He was able to get the message to me without alerting our enemies and that is why I searched you out.”"So if you had to come find me, then, this isn’t your house?” Chad asked and felt as confused as ever.”No Chad,” Amanda smiled from one side of her mouth. “I have no idea who’s house this is. I knew which transitional dimension you had used from the prime dimension and found the gate just before it closed. That way I could track you here.”Amanda stood and gathered the plates and flatware they had used and took them to the sink. As she washed the items, she continued, “everyone, well, almost everyone has cleared out of this dimension, and several more between here and the battle lines. Most people only left a day or two ago. We’re gathering to a safe place and working on our battle strategies.”She placed the dishes neatly in a cupboard and closed the door. When she looked back at Chad, lines of worry creased her brow. “If I could find you, then anyone else who thought you came through could find you too. We need to get on our way and take the fastest route possible. I’ll need your help, and I’ll need some tools. I hope these people have something I can use. You go back the living room and try to get comfortable. You need to be as relaxed as possible.”"Great,” Chad said, “now I’ll be worried I can’t relax.”He grabbed his backpack off a dining room chair and wandered back to the cozy room at the front of the house. He flopped onto a puffy cushioned couch, stretched his legs out and closed his eyes. He could hear Amanda sliding open and closed drawers in the rooms down the short hallway.”Have you ever played one of these,” he heard Amanda ask, and realized he must have fallen asleep. She held out a short silver object and had to think about it as his groggy thoughts fell back into their normal places.”A harmonica?” he asked.”Yes,” she said. She closed her eyes and sighed. Her dimples deepened as she wrinkled her brow.”Sorry,” Chad said. “You told me to relax, and I’m afraid I did. But no, I never have played a harmonica. Do you want me to try and play a song?”She threw him the small musical instrument. “No, I just want you to play a note. But it has to be perfect. That’s why you need to be relaxed, not nervous. The note needs to be pure and unwavering. Look at the holes. There are numbers above them. Find hole number three and blow that one.”Chad gave it a try.”OK,” she said. “But you have to hit just one hole. Do this with your mouth. Like you’re trying to blow out a single birthday candle.” She puckered her lips until she made a small round hole and blew.Chad’ went cold and an electric shock run up his back as he stared into Amanda’s perfect face. Her glistening red lips, long eyelashes on half closed eyes, her beautiful unblemished skin, framed by her luxurious auburn hair, and blew at him. His own eyes drooped closed as he puckered his lips leaned and forward to kiss Amanda. What would those glistening lips taste like? Would it be cherry, strawberry or maybe fruit punch?”Chad,” he heard a distant voice. “Hello, Chad. Wake up.”Chad opened his eyes abruptly to find Amanda leaning away from him in her seat, a coy smile on her alluring lips. Embarrassed realization colored his face nearly as bright red as Amanda’s lips. “Um, uh, I uh,” Chad stammered.Amanda cut him off with a wink. “Don’t worry about it, Chad,” she said, “just try blowing the harmonica again.”"Ok, right,” he said, raised the harmonica to his lips while focusing on the third hole and blew lightly to find the correct note. Once found he gave it a solid blow as he tried to form a small circular opening with his mouth.”Great, Chad. Your getting it,” she said. “Now relax and just breath. That will keep the note steady.”As he did, Amanda added in a progression of notes. Chad was reminded of the cat, Shadow, in the transitional dimension, when she had adjusted his sight by producing a combination of tones. As Amanda sang, for an instant, the entire wall behind her flashed gossamer-mother-of-pearl, and was gone.”What the heck?” Chad asked as he dropped the harmonica into his lap.”Chad, I told you you have to relax and focus. We’re trying to open a portal out of this one. I don’t think we’re safe here.” She sounded annoyed. “We need to get to the place where everyone is gathering. It’s safe there and I’d like to skip of few of the more dangerous places in between or at least have a say about which of the lands we pass through.”"Oh,” Chad said, feeling sufficiently stupid. “I didn’t know what you were doing and when the portal flashed right here in the room, I was a bit surprised. Let’s try again.”He put the harmonica back to his mouth and blew a soft and steady note. He kept his eyes on the wall as Amanda sat on the end of the sofa, her back straight, eyes closed in concentration and sang the confusing melody again. Intermittent vague flashes of the swirling opalescence flickered before the two teens, though none lasted longer than a few seconds. Eventually, Amanda threw herself back onto the thick soft cushions of the couch and sighed as she looked up at the ceiling.Amanda had a beautiful neck, contrasted against her auburn hair spread across the cushion. Chad felt his arms and legs go weak and understood the temptation a vampire would have to sink his fangs into such a luscious neck.”Um, Amanda?” Chad’s throat felt like sand paper. He coughed lightly and asked. “So, what do we do now?”"If Amy was here, we could sing together,” she said as she sat back up and finger combed her hair. “The two of us combined, could compensate for your inconsistent tone. Really, with Amy here, we could pick a spot anywhere in the dimensions and open a portal right on top of it. She’s that good.”"With Amy here, we wouldn’t need to go anywhere but back out to the real world,” Chad said and noticed the first hint of irritation to cross the beautiful girl’s face since she appeared in the doorway earlier that evening. “I mean, that’s what I’m doing here, right? Going to bring her back?”Amanda maintained her glare.”Ok,” he said to fill the suddenly heavy silence, “now if I had a recorder, I could play a steady note. We had to play those all the time in sixth grade and I got pretty good.”Chad was shocked to see the happy open expression return to Amanda’s face as if night had turned to day in an instant.”That’s funny,” she said, “the first portal was opened almost one thousand years ago by two teenaged girls, cousins, of the aristocracy. They sang as a peasant boy played his flute. Those three were the first to enter the dimensions. The parallels are incredible, aren’t they?”It was Chad’s turn to glare. “A peasant boy? You see a parallel there?”Amanda wasn’t phased. “Sure. You’re not a peasant. We don’t have those anymore. But, Amy and I are both from one of the oldest, highly respected families that have ever lived in the dimensions, and you’re not.”"I am too. I just didn’t know it,” Chad defended, “I’m a Lorantelle.”Amanda said nothing at first. She only looked at him her head tipped forward, like she was looking over eye glasses that had slid down on her nose. She frowned.”Ok, who have you been talking to?” she asked, and shook her head like she was trying to clear cobwebs. “How do you know about Lorantelle?”"My English teacher did a genetic scan on me, right after she figured out who Derrick was. She said I had like, a ninety nine percent match to Lorantelle,” Chad said. “I don’t know what everyone is getting all worked up about. Mrs. Walker said it was a good name.”"Maybe it was,” Amanda said. She looked sad, an air of defeat about her as she rose from the couch.”Grab your back pack and come on, we have a ways to go,” she said and went for the door. They turned up the dark sidewalk. Street lamps cast evenly space circle of light onto the walk and street as far down as they could see. Amanda stopped abruptly and turned to Chad.”This all changed for me when you told me your name,” she said, deep lines of concern furrowed her brow. “I don’t know how you play into this. I don’t know if your an ally or an enemy to my cousin. I don’t know if you really know. But right now I need to get you into our headquarters and let the higher-ups figure it out.”"Ok,” Chad said, on the defensive, “I know who I am and what I’m about. I’m Amy’s friend. Sure, I’m the one that sent her into this mess, but I’m here to get her back out.”"We’ll leave it at that, for now,” Amanda resigned. “Right now we need to get out of here. There’s only one other person left in this dimension that might be able to help us. I don’t entirely trust him, but he is our only choice at this point. We’ll go to his place to see if he can get us a portal through to headquarters.”
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