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After being chased out of the stationmaster's (or stationmistress's) office, and checking that Angel was safe back at the hotel, I rejoined Yama for the ride back to Durem. Along the way we argued about if it would be safe for him to return to Durem. I think I managed to convince him to stay in the country for a while, in the mountains that are his home. At least, after we had returned the horses to the riding stable, he kissed my hand and said "I bid thee farewell for the moment, milady." As I walked through the city gate, I turned back to look at him. There he stood, watching me, but not following. With a smile and a sigh, I headed home to pack.
It was only as I unscrewed the case of my computer that I began to feel the effects of staying up the whole night. Pushing my tiredness back, I carefully removed the G-Corp hard drive and put it back in the box Cindy had given it to me in. I could only hope she wouldn't look too hard and would content herself with looking for a good scoop. Then, after carefully replacing my own hard drive in the computer, closing the case back up, and covering the whole thing with a sheet so it wouldn't get dusty while I was gone, I got to packing. It seemed to take hours, even though I was only packing the bare minimum of things I would need. A few changes of clothes, my pajamas, this diary, the box with the hard drive, and at the last moment, I threw in the locket we'd forund on top of the tower. As I zipped up the backpack, Lady Luck strolled in and seated herself on top of it, with a look that clearly said, "Good, we're on the road again!" That was another problem...how to take her? I had carried her in my arms and on my shoulders when I walked from Aekea to Barton and from there to Durem, but she was younger then. How would she act now on a long trip to the Isle De Gambino? And I had several stops to make along the way... There was no other way to bring her though, and there was no way I was leaving her, so I scooped her up and she took her normal place, balanced on my shoulder. So I put on my pack, made sure the gas was turned off, locked the door, and headed out.
Before we left Durem, there was someone I had to see: Edmund. I wasn't sure if he had been the person on top of the tower, but I wanted to talk to him anyway. As I entered the shop, he cleared his throat and said "Good day" in a very frosty voice.
"Good day," I replied in just as icy a tone. "Were you on the clock tower last night?"
"I might ask the same of you, if I didn't know the answer," he said. "I saw you, running all over town with that disreputeable pirate, trespassing at the tower, causing all sorts of trouble at the train station..."
"So you were on the tower?" I asked.
"That's really none of your business, is it?" he asked me back.
I was geting angry now. "What I would like to know," I snapped "is how you disapeared like that! And why in the world did you throw that rock through my window? I think that is my business!" I remembered that I'd forgotten to cover the broken window and would probably find trash blown inside when I got back. There was no way I was going back to do that now though.
"There are many places to hide on the tower," he said with a smirk, "and a lot of people throw rocks through windows..."
"Bloody rocks?" I asked sarcasticly. He seemed to pale slightly.
"I told you, I don't know what you're talking about! Now, unless you're going to buy something, get out!"
I left, but as I got to the door an idea hit me. Turning around, I called back to him, "Maybe less people would think you're the Sniper if you showed us what you've got under your coat. Seems like a lot of us think it's a gun!"
Then, ignoring Edmund's shout of "Just you get back here, young lady!" I skiped out the door, into the sunshine.
My good mood could only take me so far, and by the time I had gotten to Barton I was exausted. I could almost see why people took the train...
Angel was waiting for me in the hotel lobby, and I left my pack and a very grudging Lady Luck with her (she couldn't belive how tame Lady Luck was) while I went to the Gaia 9 station to give Cindy the hard drive back. When I got there, she was in the process of turning her office upside down.
"The photo's gone!" she said, and I saw that she was crying. "You know, the photo of me and Celeste... I remember showing it to you, and I must have put it back in my wallet, but it's not there and I can't find it anywhere! I looked all over the house for it too!" She sat down and buried her face in her hands.
I felt a pang of guilt. I had taken it... "Cheer up, it's only a photo," I said in a mock-cheerful voice.
This only seemed to upset her more. "It's the only one I have of her!" she wailed. "All the rest were lost...ages ago, and so were the negatives..."
I looked at her pretty face, wet with tears, and I knew what I had to do, even though it would be very likely to give me away. "Is it this one?" I asked, taking the photo from my pocket. She looked up, then snatched it away with a gasp. "I must have put it there by accident, I didn't even see it untill I got home..." I said quickly, knowing it sounded so unconvincing as to be absurd.
It clearly did. The joy that had replaced the grief on Cindy's face was quickly chased away by rage. "You stole it!" she hissed, leaping to her feet. "You little beast, you can't do anything right, if you could know what it means to me..."
Something seemed to snap inside of me. "I do know what it means!" I yelled, dropping the box with the hard drive on her desk and backing towards the door.
"No you don't, how could you, you beast!" she screamed, grabbing my wrist.
"Yes I do!" I yelled even louder, then lowered my voice with an effort. "If you want to know how, look for me in that database. The password's my name: DAWNACELESTEGAMBINO."
"Dawna Celeste Gambino?" Cindy let go of my wrist.
I nodded, reaching for the door handle. "No spaces, all one word. Look in the database, you might understand then."
I ran all the way back to the hotel. I had just given away my secret, and I knew that after Cindy read my file she would think of me as more then a beast, she'd think of me as a monster. The monster that I was. But at least she would belive me... However, I didn't want to be nearby when she found out. I was in luck.
"Come on, we'll miss the bus!" Angel yelled as soon as I got into the lobby. Within moments I was loaded down with my pack, Lady Luck, and one of Angel's very heavy suitcases, while she handled the other one and the cat carrier containing Little A. A bus was parked outside the train station and we jumped on it. As I sank into my plush seat and savoured the air conditioning, I marveled at how much I had done since this time yesterday. And as the bus started to move and we headed toward the north gate, I felt a wonderful sense of freedom...
I woke up with a start. The bus was filled with evening light and Angel was shaking me and saying "We're at the Port, come on, we have to catch the boat!" Feeling rather put upon, I helped her haul her bags off the bus. We were at the Port of Gambino! And just offshore was an oversized sailing ship with a red-carpeted ramp connecting it to the shore, which Angel was steering me towards.
"We're going on this?" I asked.
"Of course!" she replied as we headed up the ramp. "It's all a bunch of show for tourists, but it's fun..." Her eyes twinkled as she dumped a large handfull of gold into the hands of an clerk at a desk at the top of the ramp and said primly "First class dinner cruise, please!"
As the clerk waved two porters (dressed as pirates) over to take our bags, I started to feel uneasy. "I don't want you paying for me all the time," I said, but Angel stopped me.
"It's simple: I have money and you don't. Therefore, I pay and you don't." And at that, the porters led us up a flight of stairs and onto a large terrace at the back of the ship, comfortably furnished with rugs, tables, chairs, couchs, and pillows. As the sun set and we got under way, girls dressed as dancing girls brought us huge many-branched candelabras, filled with lit candles. Then came the drinks. Then came the food. We were the only people on the terrace, and it was very enjoyable to eat (although I didn't like the food much, too much meat and too rich, but Lady Luck liked it) and talk. I was just starting to doze off, when Angel shook me again. "Look," she said, pointing out. "The lights of the Isle!" We were nearly there.
When we got to the Isle, the porters carried our bags off the ship, and after Angel gave them an extra tip, carried them to the Hotel De Gambino for us. We went upstairs in the service elevator to what Angel called the staff floor, opened the door to what she called her little place...
I couldn't help but gasp. Her living room was the size of my whole flat in Durem. And the opulence... Thick purple carpets, a painting on the ceiling, a flatscreen tv covering one whole wall...
Every other room in her place is just like the living room too! My bedroom has a huge bed, about the size of my bedroom in Durem, with silk sheets and a velvet bedcover. And another huge flatscreen! The bathroom is all made of marble, even the toilet, and it has carpet! And most amazing is that a maid comes and cleans evey day. All Angel says is that she's very valuble to the hotel. Oh yes, I forgot to write that her show animals have their own flat, with their own bedrooms! Little A sleeps in her own bedroom in this one though, and Angel even offered Lady Luck a bedroom, but she refuses to sleep away from me. She and Little A are pretty good friends, but I think they're both afraid of each other.
So, life has been good here, swimming, partying, going to the theater, watching Angel's shows... But I feel that somehow this kind of life is too shallow, that I should still be working on finding out about myself and my family... Well, I don't have time for that now. I have to get some sleep so I can make me and Angel my famous towering paper headdresses for a party tomorrow.