hey were called by an incredible-looking man, and the twins could only stare for a minute. The man was dressed like a cowboy, and the harmony of the design was broken by a pair of retro goggles for motor-bikers. The man was old, judging by his long, white hair, and long white beard. He didn't looked like Santa Claus, because his hair and beard were disheveled. But he had white hair.
"Grandpa?" Valerie uncertainly asked him. "Are you our grandpa?"
The old man was dumbfounded. He was angry at the intruders for the illegal harvest, but he could not be angry with children. He was wondering what two kids were looking for in the middle of nowhere, so he decided to talk to them for a bit more.
"I don't think so… My grandchildren are older than you, and they never wanted to come here." He answered finally.
"Oh." Valerie sighed. "Could you tell us, where our grandfather is?"
"I don't know who your grandfather is." The man informed them.
"Noble. His name is Bernhard Noble."
"No. I don't know him." He shook his head. "Did you lose him somewhere here?"
The twins cut into each other's words to explain the failure of chemistry, the telegram, the train and how they set off on the road.
"Hmmmm… I don't understand. Did your grandpa send you identification cards?" The man asked after their explanation had ended.
"Yes. He send one to me, and one for my sister."
"Could you show me?"
"We don't have them."
"Why?" The old man was surprised. "You should wear them around you necks." He showed them his identification card.
"We took them off, and hid them in our suitcases, but our suitcases are also lost. We tried to find them in the sand, but didn't manage." Conrad replied, and took a quick look at the man's angry face, so he explained. "The strap was very childish and embarrassing."
"Yeah. Well, it explains everything."
"Why?" Valerie asked curiously. She really wanted to know what was the mistake.
"The identification card is like a passport. The train drops you to the place which is written on the card. Since you didn't have a card, the train dropped you at the first stop."
"And what's happened with our suitcases?"
"They are now thoroughly watched by your surprised grandfather!" The man laughed. "The train put them out at the right stop, where your grandpa was waiting for you!"
The twins became silent. It was their fault, not their grandpa's. It was all their fault after all. They were at the edge of crying, so the man stopped laughing.
"I suppose he is worrying, and searching for you." He tried to console the kids in despair.
"Do you really think?" Valerie asked in teary voice. "I thought he had totally forgot about us."
"Seriously, your grandfather is the most worried one in the world that the train lost you. He is really nervous about you. I surely know. I am also a grandfather, and if my grandchildren would have lost in this Island, I would also worry, and wouldn't have a single minute in peace, until I find them!"
Valerie suddenly stepped to the man, and hugged him. The old man patted her head.
"You said, it was an island. Are we really on an island?" Conrad asked after he also stopped weeping.
"So you don't know where you are now? Your grandpa didn't say a word about this world?"
The kids shook their heads.
"We have never met him before."
"So, in this case: you are welcome in the Land of the Little Ones!"
"Land?"
"Little Ones?"
"It is the land, where these kind of little ones live." The man said, and scratched the top of the little white sphere, who was still resting in Valerie's arms. The little one was happily gurgling to him. "It is the birthplace of them, where we are now."
"Are there any other places in this Island?" Valerie asked curiously.
"Oh, yes! There are a lot of interesting places in this Island. No one could be bored here!"
"A lot of places?" Valerie asked the man suspiciously. "How big is this Island?"
"Big. Very big. I only explored a small part of it, but it is more like a continent! Why are you crying again?!"
"Because we are looost!" Valerie answered.
"I don't know how to find our grandfather!" Conrad cried.
The kids were crying for a very long time, and meanwhile they were speaking at the same time, so the man didn't understand a word from their speech.
"Hey, don't worry!" He finally said, after the kids calmed down somewhat. "So let's see your problems. Solve them one after the other and you will surely find your grandpa! Take one step at a time. Maybe I could help you a bit."
"Are they some kind of mushrooms?" Conrad pointed at the white sphere in his sister's arms.
"No. They are called atoms, but I'd better call them little ones. Why would you thought that they are edible?"
"I have just hoped, they are edible." The boy answered, and his stomach growled a big.
"Are you hungry?" The man smiled. Both the kids nodded. "Although these little ones are not edible, but they can produce something, that is edible!"
"Produce?!"
Conrad's appetite had immediately vanished for the thought of these spheres producing food. Like they would have poo, and that what he should have to eat. Valerie also glared at the old man with slanted eyes, and hugged the sphere more closely.
"Don't worry, it won't harm your little friend! It will definitely like the way they could feed you!" The old man told to Valerie, and stepped in to a motorhome, which was standing on the narrow road, and the twins had not noticed before.
The motorhome was very unique, so to say. Neither of the twins would have set foot such a vehicle their parents always warned them about such thing to avoid. It looked like an old, rusty caravan, with a flower-patterned chef's hat on the top. Almost all the windows were covered, so it looked too suspicious. Furthermore a familiar scream was also uttered, and the old man returned to them with a handkerchief, a strange device, and another white sphere in his hands. The two spheres cheerfully fidgeted, and chirped when they had seen each other.
"Hold yours tight!" He warned Valerie.
"It is fidgeting really hard!" The girl said amused.
"They soon will be more cheerful, so hold the sphere part tight!"
The old man spread out his handkerchief and then held his own sphere close to Valerie's. The two little ones were jumping up and down, and in the end they released the clenched thumbs of Valerie, and the old man. The two spheres held each other hands and from their hands they emitted a handful of candy and four chocolate bars to the handkerchief. Valerie was fighting with the two connected spheres, so the old man grabbed them strongly.
"It is okay." He nodded, and counted the harvest. "It is altogether 4 chocolate bars, and 36 pieces of candy. One sphere was yours, one sphere was mine, so split them even. It is two bars and 18 candies for you and me." He smiled. The twins swallowed hard, by simply seeing the food.
"Are they really edible?" Conrad asked with a chocolate bar in one hand and candies in the other.
"Of course!" The old man laughed, and bit into one of the bars. "It is delicious! Try them, or are you not hungry?"
The twins were very-very hungry, and the sweets looked really delicious, so they gave a try.
"It is really good!" They said is unison, and they devoured all the sweets.
Valerie and Conrad had cheered up, as their stomach was full.
"Thank you very much!" They said to the old man.
"Now we could continue our way, and find our grandpa!" Valerie smiled to the old man.
"Continue?" The old man raised his eyebrow. "How do you plan to continue your way?"
"On foot." Conrad answered. It was the only, obvious way for them.
"We are very far from any town."
"But we don't have any other way." Valerie said, and she sucked on her nose so she wouldn't start crying again.
"What would you eat until you reach one?"
"We just have to find these cute little ones, and we could eat. Now we know how to make food with them." Valerie said with confidence.
"Unfortunately it is not allowed." The old man shook his head.
"What..."
"These lands are all somebody's issued fields." He pointed to the land. "The little ones are the crop, and they are the harvester's properties. Since you don't have harvesting license, none of them is yours. I don't think the other harvesters would be as generous as me, to let you get one of their crops. Stealing someone else's crop is obviously forbidden anyway."
"Stealing..." Valerie's eyes were filling with teardrops. "Our parents left us, and our idiot grandpa is nowhere, we will die from hunger!"
So she started to cry loudly again. Almost as loud as the little ones before. Conrad followed his sister's example, but he was just weeping silently.
"Okay, okay." The old man tried to console them. "There is a solution for your problems."
"What kind of solution?" Conrad asked sniffing. Valerie was not in the state of speaking.
"Come and work for me."
Silence. The kids were staring on the old man.
"The work is not too difficult." He continued. "I have to harvest this field, and travel to the next harbor to sell them to the Palace. If you help me, the time of the harvest will be decrease, and you could find some help in the harbor."
"But we are just children, and child labor is forbidden!" Conrad protested. The word of work didn't sound to good for him. Not even to Valerie. The old man shrugged.
"You are free to continue your way just like before. But it will be a long way, and if you steal a sphere, you could end up in prison." He said and went back to his caravan. "Knock on the door, if you accept my offer!"
The twins looked at each other for a long time. They were both thinking about their chances. There weren't too much.
"Working for him is our only chance." Valerie said out loud, and Conrad agreed.
"So, you have already decided!" The old man said, as the twins knocked on his door. The twins nodded. " My name is Valentine Kerry-Orr, but call me K.O.! Pleased to meet you!"
"I am Conrad Bond, and this is my sister, Valerie."
"Pleased to meet you!" The twins said in unison.
"Now, let's go to work!" K.O. said. "It is not a difficult work. I will give you food, and sleeping place, and I will bring you to the next harbor for your work. You have to catch these little ones, and bring them to the car."
"It is a simple task !" Valerie exclaimed in relief.
"It is not too simple, because these little ones could be very fast, after joining. That's why you will use this one!" He gave them ring-nets.
"What's this?" Conrad looked puzzled at the device in his hand.
"It is a net for harvesting. It works as a net for catching butterflies. Like in the old times." The kids still was looking puzzled. "You did catch butterflies, when you were little, didn't you?"
The twins shook their heads, so K.O. brought out the two, already joined tiny ones, and showed them the proper method. They had to hold the net downward with the ring, and the little ones flew into the net.
"Easy, isn't it?" The twins eagerly nodded, and they were hardly waiting for using the nets. "I suppose we should take some rest. It is very quiet now, so they require some time to hatch, but after that we will be very-very busy. My motto is: rest, when you can!"
So K.O. led them into the caravan. Despite its look of outside, the inside was very tidy. A bed was at the back of the car, few shelves, full with books and notes, and a big table with chairs were the only equipment. In the middle of the van there was a staircase.
"Come on!" K.O. called the twins to the front area of the van. He lowered the back of the seats. "Not an exclusive place, but comfortable.
The kids agreed. It was much better, than sleeping on the ground. K.O. gave them pillows, and a thick blanket, and they fell asleep as soon as their heads reached the pillow.
"It is about to start." K.O. said, when a moment later woke the twins up. It was hours later, but the children felt, that they had slept only for a moment. He gave them candies to eat, and govern them to the field with the ring-nets.
"It is very bright outside!" Valerie wondered.
"It is the sign of the birth of these spheres. They eliminate light, as they are born. If it's dark, they are sleeping. But now, they are about to boom! So catch them with the net, and hold them above that box! They will find their pairs, and go to play up to the van. Ah, yes. I almost forgot them."
K.O. gave them a pair of plastic sticks. They were orange-colored.
"Ear-plugs!" The man explained. "These little ones could be very loud!"
In the next moment both Valerie and Conrad put the outrageous colored plastics into their ears, because the newborn spheres started to cry. Terribly loud. Even the earplugs couldn't block the whole noise, just dimmed to a bearable level. K.O. knocked their shoulders, and pointed toward the crying spheres.
The harvesting time had begun. Valerie and Conrad started to hunt them with the net. All of them were catching the spheres, and brought to the box. The little ones really found their pairs quickly, sprinkling chocolate bars and candies all over. K.O. regularly cleared the place with his hand device, to empty the place for the spheres. Sometimes the birth of them is stopped, so K.O. and the twins had time to rest, eat some chocolate, and candies.
"I really like chocolate, and candies, but I would prefer some salty things to eat." Valerie sighed after the many sweets.
"You could eat them, as you like." K.O. winked.
"What does it mean?", asked Valerie, wondering on the mystical words.
"Imagine, what you want to eat, and bite!"
"Curry, curry, curry, be curry!" The little girl said, and bite a bit from the choco bar. A wide smile appeared on her face. "It is curry!"
"Really?" Conrad also became enthusiastic. "Chips, chips, chips!" He took a big bite, and the pair of his sister's smile appeared on his face.
The kids were trying all the kind of food, they had ever tasted, and the chocolate bars and the candies always turned to that kind of taste without mistake. They were immersed in tasting, as long as the bars and the candies were out of stock. They stared at K.O., but he refused to give them more.
"You will explode, if you eat more!" He laughed.
"Why would we explode from food?" The twins hiccuped from fright. "Is it dangerous?"
K.O. shook his head.
"What was that really?"
"Energy."
"Energy?" Conrad asked dumbfounded. "Were we eating batteries?!"
"No, of course not!" The old man erupted in great laughter.
"This is not ridiculous at all!" Valerie shouted, and K.O. stopped laughing.
"I am sorry. Just answer me. Don't you notice some strange things since you are brought here by the train?" The kids shook their heads. "Really?"
"Really." The children answered with confidence.
"Are you thirsty?" K.O. asked them finally.
"No..." The twins answered in unison, wondered. They were hungry all the time, but neither of them felt to be thirsty.
"You don't even have to use the restroom!" The old man winked to them.
These information were real. Neither of them was thirsty, or wanted to use the toilet since they arrived. They were hungry, but eating these strange food was enough for them. They didn' want anything to drink.What had happened to them? They weren't curious anymore, just frightened.
"Why?" Valerie was the braver of them to ask.
"You are now in energy form." K.O. simply stated.
"Energy form?!"
"Why don't we fall through the ground?" Conrad asked suspiciously.
"Because everything around us is made of energy! So it is like everything would be material."
"Even the sand, the sky, the chocolate and the candies, and the little ones?"
"Almost." He corrected the girl. "The little ones are material.
"Why are they the only ones, who are made of material?" Conrad sulked, and Valerie also looked at K.O. curious.
"You didn't lie. You really failed the chemistry exam!" K.O. sighed.
Valerie and Conrad didn't dare to look each other's eyes, not even to old man. Would it be so obvious, that anyone would have recognized by now? They didn't understand anything.
"Sorry for touching a sensitive spot." K.O. broke the silence. "Think a bit. If everything is from energy, and these little spheres are material, and they were born from energy, what would you call them?"
"Spheres."
"Candy bulbs?"
"No." K.O. smiled indulgently. "They are called Hydrogen. You are now in the country of Hydrogen."
"WHAAAT?!"
It took a while for the kids to blow up in surprise, and they didn't really had enough time to wondering, because suddenly a new wave of Hydrogens wanted to be born. They all had to work again for a while. But in the next break they flooded K.O. with their questions about being in energy form.
"I found it very comfortable. You feel the same in you material body, but you only need energy to maintain body functions. Without having to endure inconveniences like washing, brushing your teeth, cleaning, and waiting for the bathroom."
The kids were laughed, and ate some candy. Their teeth also wouldn't go wrong in energy form.
"Convenient, isn't it?" K.O. asked, and the kids nodded.
"But where are our bodies?" Conrad was curious.
"It is converted into energy."
"How will we return to our original form?" Valerie cried.
"It is more easy. Get on the train back to the Paddington station."
The twins brightened up. There is a way back to their world. They just had to go back to the train.
"Where is the train station in this Island?"
"Every country has at least one station. The bigger ones have more."
"So it is easy!" Valerie said with confidence. "We don't have to find grandpa, just have to find a train station and travel back home."
"It won't be so easy at all."
"Why not again?" Conrad asked angrily.
"Do you have tickets for the train?" K.O. seriously asked.