Elie was sleeping, but her dreams were full of unpleasant memories. She always woke up in the end of each episode, so after the last one she decided to wake up totally. She should have to get up anyway, because hands were banging on the caravan door. She would have waken up anyway. Elie got up from the mattress and ran to the door. She was still tired and half-asleep.
"Hello!" She was greeted by two boys.
Elie was blinking a bit. Two boys? They were identical. Were there really two of them, or it was just one child, and her eyes were making tricks with her? But no. She didn't even drink Valerie's puppy molecule, so she was sober. There were definitely two boys, who were standing at the door. They were about Conrad's age. They could be classmates judging by their look.
"Do you have children?" One of them asked her, so Elie she became 100% convinced, that twins were standing at the door.
"Sorry for disturbing you!" A woman hurried to them. "We are your neighbors from the left side. We have just arrived, and the twins wandered to find friends for playing football. I suppose you don't have children, so sorry for the inconvenience." She said, after she surveyed Electra thoroughly.
"I don't have children, but I am traveling with children." Eli smiled to the small family.
"How old are they?" Another lady joined the conversation. Their another neighbor from the right side. She was an Indian woman, who was wearing traditional, vivid-colored sari.
"They are twelve years old. They are also twins." She smiled to the people, who gathered at her door.
"Boys or girls?" One of the boys asked suspiciously.
"One boy and one girl."
Elie couldn't decide if it was a good thing to be traveling with a boy and a girl, because the battle noise broke out on the information. The Indian lady called her own little girl, the boys cheered loudly about finding a new teammate, and their mother tried in vain to silence them. The noise only intensified when an Indian little girl approached them and started arguing with her mother about having to come out.
"I am thirteen, and I won't play with little kids!" She protested.
"But that lady's girl is twelve! Not much younger than you!" Her mother snapped onto her daughter.
"Could he play football?" One of the boys asked Elie, who was quietly standing in the middle of the hurricane of neighbors.
"I don't really know, but you could ask him by yourself!" She pointed to the distance, where K.O., Conrad, and TWO girls were walking toward them. The number of kids started to increase. She found to herself that Valerie was making friends quickly. As the girls caught sight of her in the middle of the crowd, the began running to her.
"Elie, Elie, Elie!" Valerie were crying her name, while running with her new friend. "Do you have a skipping rope? She is Miya!" She introduced the other girl."She will teach me how to jump with the rope!"
"Sorry, but I don't have a skipping rope." Elie shook her head.
Valerie and Miya kept a frustrated face.
"Come on, let's go to the playground to see if anyone has a skipping rope!" Miya said, and held Valerie's hand.
"I have one." The Indian girl joined to the conversation. " If you are interested..."
"May we borrow your rope?" Valerie asked, but the girl shook her head, and ignored her mother's indignant facial expression, which didn't tell anything good for her daughter.
"If I can play with you, we all can use the jump rope." She offered.
The other girls nodded, so all of them turned on their heels, and began running to the playground.
"It was fast." The old man noted as they had arrived, and the three little girls ran past him.
Elie couldn't say a word.
"Valerie haven't even told me, where she was going!" Elie said in surprise.
"They are probably at the playing ground." The indian mother patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, our Het is a good girl, so she will take care of yours too. They get home for dinner."
"Valerie brought her device with her, so we could call her to come home in time." K.O. nodded in approval.
"Could you play football?" The twin boys asked Conrad. He nodded, and one of the boys called out a yellow ball from his device. "Then come with us to play!" He said and he tossed the yellow ball to Conrad, who almost dropped the slimy thing. It resembled to a ball, but the color and a texture was not similar at all.
" It has a strange color. " He said, the he noticed the holes on the ball. "And it is bit pitted."
"That's what we use for playing. That's a Bucky Ball. " The other twin boy smirked.
"Bucky Ball? Is it a special ball?"
"Bucky Ball is a special structure of Carbon atoms. " Elie told to the boy.
"It's absurd. Impossible!" Conrad said outraged. "It is yellow, not black! Look!"
Elie put the button of her hand device onto the ball, and showed the screen to Conrad. Little, three-handed atoms were smiling on the screen.
"Okay, they are atoms. But where are their fourth hands?"
"At the usual place." Elie said, as she take the button off the ball. "It is hard to separate one hand, to prove it, because the structure is very unique. But the hands are covering the inside and the outside of the ball as well. That makes it slimy."
"Do you want to play with us?" The twins asked Conrad, and he nodded. The boys vanished faster, than the girls before.
"Well, there will be no more problems with the kids until dinner." K.O. mentioned, as he was watching the boys' vanishing figures.
"Did they have a problem?" Elie asked, and the man nodded. "What did they do?"
"I go to take a shower before talking." K.O. didn't want to talk about the kids' quarrel yet.
***
"So Conrad wants to take part in the festival, but Valerie would like to built earrings instead." Elie summarized the events, after the old man had informed her.
"Yes. Valerie didn't accepted the voting, because you were missing."
"Unfortunately for her, I am voting for the festival." Elie smiled. "I think it would be entertaining for everyone."
So K.O. and Elie started to make a budget for the festival. They were still making the finishing touches on the budget, when the twins arrived home, freshly showered. The twins sat down at the table.
"Elie..." Valerie started, but from the budget she realized, that Elie had already chosen. She chose the participation on the festival, and didn't want to listen to her reasons of getting earrings. This made Valerie a little sad. Very said, to say the truth.
"I think it will be a great fun, if we all work on the fireworks!" She told to the girl.
It wasn't the answer the Valerie was hoping for. She didn't find the decision fair. If she can't get earrings, why could Conrad attend the festival? Elie realized Valerie's disappointment, at the very moment, as the girl's face hardened.
"Believe us, it will be a great fun!" K.O. also tried to convince Valerie.
"I don't care. Do as you want." She shrugged. "Just sign these documents!" She pushed her device to Elie.
Elie picked up Valerie's device and red the documents. There were three of them. One is the permission to mine graphite, one is the permission to use the temple's equipment to make fullerenes, and the third one is the registration for the earring making workshop. All of them was filled in the right places. It was a good work from a child at Valerie's age. Elie sighed.
"Valerie..."
"You just have to push your thumb to the permission's line." She said irritated.
"Valerie, we all voted for the festival. It was democratic, and you lost. So please be kind, and support us. That's the democratic way after a voting."
"Why?"
"Because if you don't take your share of the work, you can't take part in the Firework Festival." Conrad threatened his sister.
But Valerie remained calm.
"Who cares?" She shrugged.
"Don't you want to see the fireworks?" K.O. and Elie asked her in unison, surprised.
"I will see anyway." She nodded. "Miya, Het, Beatriz and Marcella all invited me to their place."
"Okay, I have already known Miya and Het, but who are Beatriz and Marcella?" K.O. asked.
"Girls. I met them in the playground. They both very good at jump rope."
Silence. Both of the adults were immersed in their thoughts. They knew that Valerie was good at making friends, but the number of her friends increased rapidly. So the pressure of her friends on her to make earrings was also increased.
"They also agree with me to choose the earrings. Everyone already has it, only I don't. So I gladly skip your fireworks, to make earrings. No offense, no anger for my part. So sign, please."
Elie sighed again. It seemed like she had to make constantly difficult decisions lately.
"Sorry, Valerie." She said, and pushed the old device back to the girl. "I promise, that you will enjoy making fireworks. It is very funny and every child loves to make them."
The girl didn't say a word, just stared at the young woman. Valerie left her device on the table, went to the seats, and lied down. She pulled the blanket over her head. Not out of defiance. She just didn't want her to look weak in the eyes of the others because of her tears. It hurt that she had been defeated and it hurt that the others didn't understand how important the earrings were to her. Although the girls, her new friends told her that if her guardians didn't let her getting the earrings, they would help her achieve it. She didn't want to ask them for help. Maybe she should anyway. Somewhere, among these thoughts, Valerie was overwhelmed by the dream.
"Valerie!" Elie called her, but didn't get an answer. "She is probably sleeping."
"Yes, she breathes very evenly and slowly." K.O. sighed.
Elie stepped to the seats and pulled the blanket from the girl's head.
"She is sleeping." She reported her state, but not the wetness on her face. "Okay, it is time to sleep! Conrad! Go to bed!"
"Then we're going to get ready for the fireworks tomorrow, not the earrings, will we?" The boy asked.
"Yes, we will." K.O. said, and he also sent the boy to bed.
The two adults were sitting in silence at the table.
"Do you think we have convinced Valerie?" The man asked.
"No. Not at all."
"That's what I'm afraid of. And that she's going to do something stupid."
"Do you really think, that we couldn't do both? The earrings and the festival?"
"I don't know." K.O. shook his head. "We probably have enough time, but I would have never thought that earrings are so important to the little girl. Her earlobes aren't punched out either! Still, what does she want to do with those earrings?"
"She is a girl. Jewelries, clothes and later the make up is very important to girls. We like to look pretty and cool." Elie told to him.
"Girls!" K.O. sighed."Are you tired?"
"A bit."
"Could you help me to make a budget and a plan about doing everything?"
"Of course." Elie nodded, smiling.
The two of them were counting and making plans until midnight.
***
Valerie was the first one to wake up in the morning, with a bitter taste in her mouth. She looked down at the sleeping company and felt like crying. she hoped at least one of them would understand and go with her to mine graphite. But in vain. She had to be content with the company of the girls from the playground. She needed them anyway, since the closest graphite mine was a deep, underground mine. Valerie wasn't brave enough to enter the dark maze alone.
"Good morning!" Elie greeted her in low voice, not to wake up the boys.
"Good morning!" Valerie replied.
"Let's chat a bit!" Elie asked her in a fairly neutral voice, but Valerie's nerves were so hyped up, that she felt she had been insulted. "Outside."
"No." She replied, and jumped out of the bed. Since she had been sleeping closer to the front of the car, Valerie could jump out of the car throw the front door.
Her legs were covered with black residue at that very moment, but the girl didn't care about such a tiny thing. She would be covered in black residue from head to toe soon. Valerie jumped to the stairs, where her sandals and socks were placed the previous day, and wanted to run away, as fast as she could. But she couldn't Eli grabbed her by the collar.
"Where are you planning to go?" She asked the girl in a sharp voice.
"I am going to mine graphite!" Valerie answered, angry. "Let me go!"
"No! I want to talk to you!"
"But I don't!"
Elie frowned. It was as if she had had this conversation once. Not so long ago. Only then was she on the other side. She was the one who didn't want what the majority did. She was the one who longed for understanding and didn't get it.
"Come in, and talk about the day. After you could go, if you want." She said in low voice, and pulled up Valerie on the stairs. "And shake the dust off your feet well!"
It wasn't their most peaceful morning, but the most quiet one. Valerie was sitting on the staircase, in front of the others. She didn't speak at all, and the adults couldn't begin the conversation.
"We've already agreed that we're going to make rockets for the fireworks festival!" Conrad was indignant at the morning conversation. "You promised!"
"If I can't get earrings, you can't get fireworks either! This is just fair!"
"It is not fair!" The boy replied.
"Why do you always get everything?" Valerie asked, and the adults suddenly understood everything.
"Why would I get everything? You got a girly device! I'm left with the old!"
"With the lot of expensive buttons, we bought together!" Valerie riposted. "Moreover we built together the battery for the device! And the Lithium Salt Pan you used almost all the credits for your crystal! We had to be content with little things!"
It was true, so Conrad couldn't answer anything.
"So it would be appropriate for me to get a crystal now."
"But we all want to take part of the firework festival!" The boy cried, but he knew, the his sister had been right.
"I will not hinder you in it. You are the ones, who are stopping me from making earrings!"
"Do you still remember the original goal?" K.O. asked.
He was fed up with the quarrel of the twins. The kids were staring at him, and they both felt uncomfortable. K.O. was true. They wanted to buy a tent, not earrings or fireworks.
"I think all of your plans are feasible." Elie told them.
"Really?" The twins asked in unison.
"Really. K.O. and me made a new budget last night, to adjust the numbers to your plans. It seems if we all work together, we will have it all the time."
The twins erupted in cheers. They were really happy.
"But Valerie and I have to go to the station immediately." Elie said, after she took a quick look to the time. She grabbed the girl's hand, and ran out of the caravan. They waved to the boys.
"They stepped off pretty quickly!" Conrad told to K.O.
"They have to reach the morning train." The man informed the boy. "And we have to mine coal for the rockets, so we eat something at first, and then we will heading to the mine again! We'll meet with the girls at lunchtime."
***
There weren't anyone at the small station, when Eli and Valerie arrived. They both gasped for air as they suffocated in the great hurry. But the great hurry was necessary because they did not even recover when the train arrived.
"Dear passengers, please enter the assembly through the cleaning gate!" The railway guide asked them.
The girls went through the gate, and they really enjoyed the cleaning.
"Whoaa! It's very enjoyable!" Elie sighed, satisfied. "Are you all right?" She asked the girl.
"My limbs are hurt. I feel stiff everywhere."
"The work in the mine, and the jumping after the work could really exhaust and strain your weak muscles."
"I wish I hadn't hung out so much during my physical education classes!"
"You will be strengthened quickly!" Elie comforted the little girl. She wanted to tell the woman so much, but suddenly there came no words into her mind, just so much love in her hearth.
"Elie..." Valerie started hesitantly.
"Hm?"
"Thank you." She said quietly.
"Your welcome."
"Elie?" Valerie asked again, and became silent again.
"Tell me!"
"Why didn't you first want me to have earrings?" The girl asked hesitantly.
"Because I was afraid you would have trouble with it."
"What kind of trouble?"
"Diamonds are expensive jewelries in the other world. They are not too expensive here, because every thief is aware, that the children's earrings are from artificial diamond. The real problem starts when you will bring them home, and go outside of your house."
"Can someone steal it from me?"
"Yes." Elie said. She saw no point in lying to the little girl. There was things, already stolen from her anyway, in the Kingdom of Hydrogen. She need to be aware that there are not only nice, law-abiding people in the world.
"Can't I wear the earrings then?"
"In the real world, … well… you really do better if you don't wear them."
"Damn." Valerie said, and hugged Elie. "I really like those earrings, even if they don't exist now."
"All right, all right, don't cry. You can use it on the Island, and just buy a replica at home in the Kingdom of Silicon. It will look the same and no one will envy you."
"Kingdom of Silicon?"
"Yes, but let's finish our other plans first!"
The girl happily nodded.