The floor was bustling with work. Phones were ringing. Sounds of typing could be heard. People were moving in different directions.
"Shane, come to my office for a minute. We need to talk," said the plump woman dressed in a formal black coat covering a white top and gray pants when she came over to Shane's station. She wore thin round gold-rimmed glasses with a gold chain hanging loose with its end secured to the glass support tucked in the ears of a golden hair pulled back in a twist knot.
The woman crossed the floor and went inside her office.
Shane finished typing the last sentence of his article and saved it. He rose from his chair and walked to the office. He opened the door and closed it.
The woman was typing in front of her PC. She sat with a very straight posture. Her name is Laura Simmons, the editor-in-chief of Daily Newspost, their newspaper publication.
She stopped when she saw him and looked at him through her glasses.
"I like the last article you wrote about the pandemic. It was thoroughly discussed."
She said with a crisp voice.
"By, the way, you are to cover the 150th-anniversary celebration of American National Museum. Check out what's happening there and write anything related to new acquisitions or recent discoveries found inside."
"Got it, Laura," replied Shane while standing with his hands in his pockets.
"You can start tomorrow. Also, find anything interesting that will perk the readers to visit the museum. See if they have any minor events aside from the big celebration. That's it. You may go."
She said in a succinct voice.
He returned to his station and picked his bag.
"Where are you going, Shane?" Steve sitting beside him asked.
"You're leaving."
"Have to go visit the museum."
"Okay. See you later."
He walked out of the room and headed to the elevator. The red digital button showed 40. He waited for the elevator to come down to their floor. He's on the fifteenth floor.
After ten minutes, the door opened and he joined a jammed pack of people and waited until it hit the ground floor and got out. He checked his watch. It was ten o'clock.
He hailed a taxi. Traffic was mild to moderate. After a good twenty minutes of waiting in the traffic, the driver brought him in front of the building. He paid the driver and got out.
He walked up the stairs of the building and showed his ID to a receptionist with short white curly hair wearing thick lens granny glasses. She's an old woman who appeared to be already in her fifties dressed in a blood-red coat and floral top.
"Hello."
"Hello, good morning. How can I help you, young man?" the old woman said in a bright chirpy voice smiling at Shane.
"Ah, yes, Ma'am. I need to talk to someone who manages the whereabouts here and is preparing for the 150th-anniversary celebration."
"Yes. You can talk to Miss Julienne Rosewood. She's in charge of it. Give me a second, let me call her office."
The old woman said and took the phone.
"Can you wait? She's busy at the moment."
"How long do I have to wait?" He asked looking at the old woman.
"Fifteen minutes at most, Sir."
"Shane. Yes, I don't mind."
"Alright, Shane. I'll tell her." She replied with a smile and extended her left arm in a gesture. "You can sit over there or you can wander around while you wait for Miss Rosewood. And here's your visitor's ID." Putting a visitor's ID on the surface of the receptionist counter.
"Thank you."
He left the receptionist's desk and walked around the room.
It's been a very long time since he stepped back inside the museum. The last time he remembered he came to the place was when he was in high school when their class made a local school trip inside New York City and visited the wonders within.
He wandered around the area. Some people were also doing a visit to the museum he observed. Some people were huddled in groups. Although there were many solos and some who walked in pairs as they checked out the marvels inside.
He saw the famous dinosaur fossil of the T Rex and went over there studying the bones of it. To be quite honest sometimes he found it hard to believe that dinosaurs rid exist in the past. They were very ferocious types of thickly scaled carnivorous and imagining they once roamed the earth was a mind crash reality to him.
Did they exist at all? He left the T Rex area with that skeptic thought in mind and went over to glass-covered decays lovingly preserved inside. Old bones. Ancient shaped woods. Ugly ordinary rocks and stones. He went through them and walked to the next glass-covered case. This time it showed a new set of stones. They were more colorful stones set on display. Some of them were amulets and charms.
Then between a spherical black marble rock and colorful irregular stones stringed along with feathers forming a necklace, he noticed a black stringed bracelet with a marble-sized white opal stone where two smaller crescent-shaped flat white stones were stringed each to its sides.
His eyes dilated.
What was that thing doing over there?
The bracelet in question was the thing that went missing from him since he came to the city twenty years ago falling from the sky. He'd long forgotten about it as it was lost the day he came to New York City.
It was a moonstone bracelet he received from the old wise man of Lunara. It was given to him along with his brother and his childhood friends and his cousin when they were just eight years old.
"You'll have to have to look after these stones. They keep you safe and protect you should any harm comes to your path. Keep them as your amulet, my children."
"What if we lost them or break them?"
"They don't break, silly child. They're stones."
"But if we lost them?"
"You might forget about yourself, reduce your ability, or lost the ability the stone provides you with."
The elder man from the village gave them the stone charms.
Enos and Helios received stone charm bracelets. Enara got a necklace. Ethos and Ethiara were given ring stones.
The kids wore them.
"They're not so special."
Enara said as she observed the white stone holding it and examining it in her hand. She found it beautiful with its smooth surface and the slight glitter that shines with the light. But she was hoping it would sparkle like glass.
"It's pretty, Gramp Methos but it doesn't sparkle like Ethiara's orange ring."
Enara said looking at Ethiara's ring.
"We can switch Enara if you like the ring."
"Ethiara. These stones are your ability charm stones."
"Is that so, Granpa"
Enara looked at the old man and giggled.
"Why are you laughing at 'Gramp Methos, Enara?" asked Enos looking at her laughing face.
She whispered to him.
"I think I can read his thoughts. It's rather complicated but they make me feel funny inside," said Enara.
"You're kidding. No one can read minds." He looked back at her.
"Give me a second. Let me prove it to you." She looked at Old Man Methos and opened her mouth to speak.
"They may not be so special Enara but as you get older you will understand the magic of the stones. Keep it safe around you or one day you may not remember who you are."
"Wow, you talk deep, Enara." Enos looked at her with an awed expression.
Enara just giggled. She looked around the group. Then she whispered to Enos again.
"Brother Ethos is very unhappy receiving a ring similar to Sister Ethiara."
She looked at Ethos again and giggled loudly this time then whispered back to Enos.
"Brother Ethos likes Sister Ethiara."
Enos and Enara snickered loudly that caught the attention of Ethos and sharply looked at the two kids.
"What are you two talking about?"
Enos eyes were full of naught and blurted out.
"Hey, brother, do you have a crush on Sister Ethiara?"
Ethos looked at him boring his eyes on Enos' eyes full of mischief.
"What are you talking about?"
"Enara told me you have a crush on Sister Ethiara."
Ethos saw Ethiara's reaction glared at the younger kids.
"You're talking nonsense. Enara, stop spouting nonsense to Enos."
"But I can read minds now, Brother. And you like her, right?" she asked innocently.
Ethos walked towards Enara and touched her hands clutching the stone. He opened her hand and removed it from her clutch dropping the white stone on her stomach and said, "Stop talking nonsense, babydoll. And don't read minds."
Enara who has let go of the stone in her hands looked at Ethos.
"I don't read your mind anymore."
"That's good. Keep it that way. And stop being silly, Enara."
"Hey, Enara. Can you read my mind, too? "
Suddenly, Helios asked looking at her.
Enara touched the stone again, looked at Ethos who looked at her with a dark face, and shifted her gaze to Helios who was standing beside Ethiara. Then, she laughed again.
"Why are you laughing? I told you to read my mind. Not laugh at me."
"But you don't know how to use the stone."
She saw that he was touching the stone too like her but he was showing a disappointed look on his face.
Then, suddenly, Enos was no longer beside Enara. He was standing a few yards away from them. Then, he disappeared again and went to the sides. Then, shifted to a farther distance. Then, returned beside Enara.
"So cool!" exclaimed Enos with an unmatched expression on his face. He looked at his bracelet like an object of worship. "Gramps Methos. This is so cool. Thank you. I'll treasure this forever."
"I'm glad you like them. Keep them well and treasure them. They will enhance your abilities. And in time, they will also protect you."
The old man said looking at them with twinkling eyes and a wistful smile.