Chapter Three

  “What does it say?”

  “I don’t know, let me look through it. Seems that this is the same stuff that a guy used back… or well forward in the sixties.”

  Whilst thinking about the people who were gone, Rylea and the old man talked to one another as if there was nothing more to talk about. The old man had studied codes for a few weeks back in his time and he remembered hearing the television constantly talk about that man who wrote in those messages after his crimes.

  “Can you solve it?”

  “It’s not that simple, go grab that book off the shelf. The one with the green cover.”

  She grabbed it and tossed it to the elderly man who caught it with such grace that in a second, he almost immediately opened the book to the page he was looking for. He had saved every page into his mind palace but had decided not to use it because that would take too long.

  “So, you’re going to solve it?”

  “Well, I never failed to solve one before.”

  Grabbing a few pieces of paper and a pen, he took after the code. For the most part of ten minutes, he worked tirelessly on the cipher. Rylea walked in a circle as she thought of the other kids. She weighed the thought of letting them go as there would be plenty of food to go around and they would have more time to be alive before the Europeans arrived.

  “Are you done yet?”

  “Yes actually.”

  He sat up from his chair and passed the letter to her. There was some ten seconds between her reading it aloud and the test being successful.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “All have been punished as they will be retrieved in a short time. If you read this then have it be known, you’ll be rewarded.”

  Suddenly, the light in the ceiling fan turned on and became green. It had been replaced in the middle of the night by someone who put them here.

  “You are better at this than expected. We’ll make sure to place a harder puzzle next time.”

  Rylea, the poor girl, jumped into the air when the ceiling fan began to speak. She wasn’t very jumpy but as of arriving in the past her reflexes were on a hair trigger that would act as fast as a cat.

  “We’re being watched. From where we’re currently at, we’re probably being watched right now. Most likely a mixture of the Caddo tribe, bless their curious hearts, and whomever is behind placing us in the past.”

  “I can’t deal with this. Is there anywhere you have that I can sleep?”

  “Sure, there’s a guest bedroom in the back of the hallway, just head straight.”

  When she went to the guest bedroom, she found that there was a bathroom connected to it. The bedroom was large as it had a work desk and a queen-sized bed that was draped in green sheets and a television on a mantle. Did I enter the wrong room by accident? I know that I had gone straight ahead like he instructed. Maybe he had just been mistaken because how is this not the master bedroom? Is his house larger from the outside?

  “Mister, is there some kind of mistake because the guest bedroom seems to be a lot larger than expected.”

  “That’s right. You were in the right place because I like the smaller room. Less distractions.”

  When the old man began to think about the kids that he was with, he randomly had a thought. Wasn’t there a boy with us?

  “You look stressed.”

  He turned to Rylea, a redheaded girl that was with him ever since he returned from the woods. She had the name Rylea, but didn’t that boy do too? There was also the fact of the missing boy and how he couldn’t trust the fact that the world was changing around him and it was probably a test by whatever creature set up this meeting of fate and man.

  "I have an idea. But you're going to have to trust me."