Closed Ocean’s 2

[Doroteya Melnik]

Doroteya sat cross-legged on the wall near the shop, hugging herself. She didn’t like to be alone outside. It was silly, really - the folk in New Zealand mostly left her alone - but it was going to take more than a month to break her habit of suspicion. She glanced both ways down the road. Andi would come, she kept telling herself, yet each time she failed to spot her, she grew increasingly nervous. Minutes passed with the weight of hours, and then suddenly there she was - an Andi-shaped figure coming down the road. Doroteya tilted her head. What on earth had she brought with her?

 

[Andi Hart]

Andi could not wait to see her new friend again, and was beyond excited to show her what she had seen a couple of weeks ago. The kids at the orphanage didn't believe her, but she was so over them now. She had an actual friend, someone she wanted to share something with. It took a bit of time to be able to find two bikes, but Andi wasn't about to walk all the way there again, nor was she going to make Doroteya. It was difficult as well to ride a bike and hold another one alongside her, but she finally made it to the place that she was pretty sure was Doroteya's. And it was! She came to a stop next to her friend, slightly puffing. "Are you ready for this?"

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

Doroteya’s eyes widened. She had ridden a bicycle before - straight into a lamppost. “Hi," she said, although Andi hadn't greeted her. Really, she was buying time. "Bicycle? Why? Are we going...?" If she recalled correctly, Andi had said she wanted to show her something, not take her somewhere. And there had definitely been no mention of bikes.

 

[Andi Hart]

"Hi!" Andi greeted back. "Yes! We're going to where I'm showing you something - trust me, it's so worth it. We have to bike there though, it's really far away and we'll be really tired if we have to walk back! Come on!" Andi exclaimed excitedly, holding out the bike for Doroteya to grab. She didn't trust the men to get her a taxi again - well maybe the nice one. But she was hoping that they wouldn't be seen this time, so they could find the floating tree and pay proper attention to it.

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

Doroteya took the bike by the handles. She had once heard that the faster you cycled, the harder it was to fall off. It was time to test the theory. Swinging her leg over the seat, she said, "First one at end of road is not an a**!" And then she was off. She wobbled precariously for a dozen yards, twice nearly falling off the curb and into the gutter, but speed did indeed seem to be the answer. Counter-intuitively, the faster she went, the easier it was to control the bike, and suddenly she was pedalling down the road with all her might, ringing her bell at oncoming pedestrians who seemed to realise from the expression on Doroteya's face that she couldn't have stopped if she'd wanted to.

 

[Andi Hart]

Andi laughed loudly - she had no idea what Doroteya had said but she assumed it was rude. She started pedaling as fast as she could, laughing again as Doroteya wobbled and nearly fell. "You don't even know where we're going!" Andi laughed, racing around next to her friend.
It took them awhile. Andi had forgotten just how far she had actually traveled, but at least this time she had a bike and a friend. She was so excited to see the tree again, to figure out just what the heck was actually going on. Finally, they approached the stupidly huge house. Andi got off her bike, and hid it behind a bush, crouching down and encouraging Doro to do the same.

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

Doroteya wasn't unfit, but cycling exercised muscles she had never used in her life. When she stopped and climbed off her bike, her knees nearly buckled underneath her. She wheeled it next to Andi's and crouched down. What were they hiding from? They were in the middle of nowhere! The last house they'd passed was at least half a mile away! But Doroteya couldn't catch her breath for long enough nor think clearly enough to question her friend. Instead, she turned and peered through a gap in the shrubbery.

Holy crap. Down the gravel driveway - a long way down the gravel driveway - was one of the biggest houses Doroteya had ever seen. It seemed to go on and on, all pillars and windows and sparkling white stone. The garden, too, was vast and sprawling, and had a strangely manufactured look about it, as if every leaf and twig had been arranged with purpose. Weeds wouldn't have dared to grow in those perfect flowerbeds. Doroteya suddenly had a bad feeling about the way they were snooping around. She turned to Andi. "No! I will not steal - I am dead, you are dead, bad idea!"

 

[Andi Hart]

Andi turned to see Doroteya's reaction of the house. She wasn't sure if Doro had ever seen a house this big, because Andi certainly hadn't. When Doroteya turned to her, Andi let out a laugh. "No, we're not going to steal. I said I wanted to show you something, and I do! We just have to find it. I came here a couple of weeks ago and, well I'm not sure if you'd believe me if I told you! Come on, let's go." Andi said, finding a gap to push through in the hedges, moving forward and staying low to the ground, keeping an eye out for any sign of floating trees.

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

There had to be a dozen people in that house, at least. If any of them saw Doroteya and Andi sneaking about in the bushes, they were bound to raise alarm. Rich people were always the most protective of their belongings. But Andi was already climbing through the hedge, and Doroteya wasn't about to be thought a coward. Besides, she was curious: what could her friend possibly want to show her so desperately that she'd made her cycle a hundred miles and then climb through a hedge?

After freeing her shirt from a bramble, Doroteya was in. There would be security cameras around the mansion, no doubt about it, but there didn't seem to be any near the front gate. Still, she kept low, darting from one hiding spot to the next and coming to lean against the base of a stone statue. "Wait," she said, grabbing Andi's shirt to keep her from going any further. "There is someone. Down, hide."

 

[Andi Hart]

Feeling a tug of her shirt, Andi slowed, and listened to her friend. She ducked down behind the statue with Doroteya, hoping they weren't spotted. And if they were spotted, well, she hoped it was by someone slow, or nice. "It's okay. I got inside before being caught last time." Andi said quietly to her friend. "And that was only because they had a weird screaming alarm. But we're not going inside." Andi said, peeking around the corner to ensure no one was there. "Come on." Andi moved quickly towards the direction the tree was headed last time, she wasn't sure if there were more floating trees to be moved, but figured following the route it had been going made more sense than going to where it started. As she was running, she peeked up at the sky to make sure that there wasn't any wires that the tree could have been moving on, but she didn't see any. With new determination, she moved faster, sure she would find the tree again.

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

"Wait," Doroteya said, hurrying after Andi. "Pardon? You say you got caught? I hear this? But why do we go back? Andi, go slow, I have stomach hurt. Why do you show me here? We are dead if they will see us. I don't like it."

 

[Andi Hart]

Hearing Doroteya's comments, Andi slowed, looking around for a safe spot for them to stop and chat. Surely behind the bushes were safe enough. Grabbing Doroteya's hand, Andi moved them behind the bushes, and sat down, pausing for a second to catch her breath. She kept Doro's hand in hers. "I promise we're not going to be dead." Andi started, wondering where her friend's mind was going. It was never a thought that crossed Andi's mind. "I met the people that live here they're - decent." She paused again for a minute, not knowing how to explain to Doroteya what she saw. "I promise I'm not crazy. But...when I was leaving I saw someone walking, and there - there was a tree. And it was floating. The tree was following the man, and floating behind him and - I just knew that no one would believe me, so I wanted to show you because I know I'm not crazy! I just need to figure out what it was! Not knowing is driving me crazy."

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

The grass was cold in the shade of the bush. Doroteya kept her fingers curled around Andi's, partly to make herself feel better, and partly so that she could haul Andi up in a moment's notice if somebody came running around the bend. There were distant sounds of birds in the trees and leaves shaking in the wind, but no voices, no footsteps. Nothing to worry about.

Doroteya withdrew her listening to the range of the bush, her eyes focused intently on Andi's. She believed her. She didn't know why she believed her, because her story was extraordinary, but the telling of it stirred something in Doroteya that hadn't been stirred for a long time. What sort of kid didn't want to believe in the impossible, at least a little bit? She squeezed Andi's hand. "You are crazy, but I think I am too, ha! We can see good from here. If we will wait, maybe we will see the tree? Yes?"

 

[Andi Hart]

Andi squeezed Doro's hand in return. "Yes. We can wait here! It's a good spot." Although Andi was desperate to go and actively search for the tree, she could tell Doroteya was uncomfortable with the situation. She was glad she hadn't told her friend what they were doing to begin with, now she was sure that Doro wouldn't have come with. But Doroteya did just say she was crazy too, and she had just followed her blindly way out to the wop wops and into a strangers garden, so perhaps she would have. A few moments passed which got Andi thinking. "You know what's weird? When I met the owners, they were holding what... I thought were sticks. They called them wands. Obviously I laughed at them but now that I think about it..." Andi turned to Doroteya, looking to see her reaction.

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

Though the mansion had to be bustling with people, the grounds were completely empty. Doroteya wondered about this. A garden of this size should have needed constant tending in order to stay this well maintained. So where was the gardener? Where were the gardening tools? She reached out and touched a leaf on the perfectly shaped bush behind her, wondering whether it might be made of plastic, but it was as real as the evenly cut grass and the pristine white statues and the weed-defying soil. She felt as if she were on a movie set.

Maybe she was. Of course. Everything made perfect sense. She wasn't sure what a 'wand' was, but she let Andi finish before she shared her theory. "I think, we are in TV," she said. "We are watched, and crazy thing happens, and people laugh - it is a joke - you know?"

 

[Andi Hart]

Andi listened to Doroteya's explanation. She sat and thought about it for a moment. "That could make sense." She mused, though it would be exciting to be on TV, Andi felt herself not as enthralled by that thought than the thought of using a wand to make a tree float. With a huff, Andi stood up. "Alright! We get it, you got us! You can come out now! It's all a big prank!"

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

Doroteya nodded. If what Andi had told her about the tree was true - and she didn't think her friend would make up something so laughable - then this was the most likely explanation. She stood up and looked around for the cameras. "We are not stupid!" she contributed. Then, less loudly, "I am not - Andi, little, actually."

 

[Andi Hart]

Andi grinned when Doroteya stood up with her. She laughed at Doroteya's last comment, giving her a friendly whack on the arm. "Rude!" Andi said. But no cameras or producers or actors came jumping out, no money came falling from the sky, and they weren't awarded brand new cars. "Hello?!!!" Andi called, looking around, before making up her mind and storming towards the mansion.

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

Doroteya ducked away from the smack, laughing. She quite liked the idea of being on TV, although she was also rather disappointed; if this was a set-up, that also meant floating trees weren't real, and just for a moment she had begun to entertain it as a serious possibility. Still, something nagged at her...

"Wait!" she said, sprinting after Andi. "What if it's not a trick? I don't like this - Andi, something feels wrong. Andiiii." They were nearly at the front doors by the time Doroteya realised she'd been speaking Russian. Oh, what the hell - she couldn't leave Andi now. Whatever happened, they had been in it together from the moment she stopped the clerk in the clothes store. This was why she didn't do nice things.

 

[Andi Hart]

Andi heard Doro yell after her, but the rest of the words didn't sound like English - and in Doroteya's case they probably weren't. But it didn't stop Andi until she got to the front door. She turned and grinned at Doro. "I wouldn't lead you to danger. I promise." Andi grinned. And she meant it. She felt like Doroteya was her first proper friend, and she was glad to have met her. With that, she turned and knocked on the door, knowing that it was more polite than barging in, and she didn't want to scare Teya with the screaming alarm.

 

[Keevan White]

Keevan was standing by the kitchen window when he saw the girls striding toward the mansion. He put his glass down but didn't relax his grip on it. He had known this would happen - he had been too kind to Sarah, too forgiving - but he had hoped, for both of their sakes, she would heed his warning to stay away. Instead, she had brought a friend back with her. Well, that was it. Enough with the games. Enough with being pleasant. They were only silly little children, but Keevan would not have anyone of any age trespassing in his garden, scaring his family, and stealing from him. This ended now.

He was ready when the knock came. He yanked the door open, red-faced with rage. "What part of get off my property and don't come back have you failed to understand?" he bellowed. "Are you being deliberately obtuse? Get out of here, go away, both of you. Now!!"

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

Doroteya put her hands in her pockets, then took them out again, then crossed her arms, then uncrossed them, and was about to put her hands back in her pockets when the door opened and there appeared a tall and furious man. He launched immediately into an aggressive speech that was made all the more frightening by the fact Doroteya understood less than half of what he was saying. But the message was clear enough. Doroteya backed up, pulling on Andi's arm. This was no TV show. They needed to leave, right now.

 

[Andi Hart]

Of course it had to be this guy to answer. It couldn't have been the other actor, the one that had been nice and given her a drink. His voice was terrifying, and Andi had half a mind to listen to Teya's arm pulling, and, to her dismay, she did take a step backwards, but once he had finished yelling, Andi straightened herself up. Just because he was taller and older, he thought he could scream at them? She didn't even know what the word obtuse meant! "No." Andi said back, stubbornly. She turned her head quickly and squeezed Teya's hand again. "We're not leaving until we get some answers, Mr. -Mr Man. We know you are an actor and we want to win our money or car for this - show. Or we want to know why you have floating trees."

 

[Keevan White]

All this stress was going to be the death of Keevan. No? It wasn't a request! He opened his mouth to say as much, but Sarah interrupted him again, and this time he fell silent. What on earth was she going on about? Actor? Money? Show? Was this a muggle reference he was too magical to understand? It occurred to him, once again, that the children on his doorstep had to be witches; they would never have found the house if they weren't. So what were they playing at? Surely they couldn't both be muggle-born. That was too many coincidences. "I don't know what you're talking about," Keevan said carefully, "But whatever you think you know, you're mistaken, and I am kindly asking you to leave."

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

Doroteya was starting to wonder if Andi was really worth getting her butt whooped for. She glanced at the gates over her shoulder. If she ran now, she could save herself... but Andi would never forgive her, and she did want to know about the floating tree. Doroteya slid her hand back into Andi's and stayed put.