Chapter 3

            I wake up to the sound of the harpsichord. The name Johnson’s appear in my mind that makes any trace of sleepiness disappear. I wear a chainmail over my padded jacket and left the hood hanging. A tabard is worn over the chainmail with a sign of a black dragon. The black dragon is Elopura’s symbol of courage and perseverance. Even Elopurian national flag in my time has a black dragon on it. I slid my sword at my waist and sling my leather bag with a black cloak covering it. The mirror on the wall reflected my appearance.

            The sound of harpsichord is happy and lively. I smile and follow the music. Lia is playing the harpsichord in the playing room. I lean against the door frame while listening to her playing.

            I remember the first time I travel back in time; I was a scared ten-year-old boy crying for my father. It didn’t take long for Dominic Johnson to find me. He was hunting for food to feed his family as they were at the verge of hunger at that time. He brought me to his home and treated me as a part of their family. He adopted me and my name in this century is Anthony Johnson. After I became a knight, I still visit or even help them if I could despite their objections.

            They are more of a family to me than Jared and his family.

            The Johnson’s are poor peasants. The men work in farms where as the women stays at home and look after the children. The first time I lived them, I had to work at the farm with the men. It was a very difficult job. Farming was the job I had done for two years to earn my living before I found Princess Lia in the woods.

            The music stops my train of thoughts. From the corner of my eyes, I see Lia looking at me. I smile at her. “Good morning,” I greet her.

            “Good morning. Do you play any musical instruments, Anthony?” Lia asks, closing the harpsichord.

            Should I tell her that I play the guitar? Wait, does guitar even exist in this century? I should make some research!

            “No, I don’t. You play as beautiful as your looks,” I comment truthfully.

            She blushes at my statement. I grin at her.

            “Let’s go have some breakfast, shall we?” I hold my hand out to her as an invitation. She waltzes to my side and put her small hand into my large ones. Together, we walk to the dining area only to see King Eli there. His eyes travel to our interlocking hands and give me a Cheshire grin. I shake my head at him. Lia has amusement in her eyes.

            “Good morning, father!” She lets go of my hand to kiss his beardy cheeks.

            “Good morning to you two. I can see that you two are as happy as anyone can be,” the king says.

            I blush at his words. He chuckles at our reaction.

            “I can assure you, your majesty, that there is nothing going on between us,” I simply reply, looking at Lia to agree with me. She has sadness in her eyes as she nods slowly in agreement. The king glances at the both of us, sensing the tension.

            “Have a seat. I already asked the cook to prepare us breakfast,” the king says.

            Lia takes a seat on her father’s right side. Instead of taking my seat, I walk to the opposite end of the table and grab an apple from the fruit bowl.

            “Actually, your majesty, I am about to visit the Johnson’s.”

            King Eli nods in understanding. “They are still your family. I understand. Go ahead.”

            I give him a grateful smile and bow respectfully. I also wave farewell at Lia. She still looks upset but attempts to smile. I make my way to the stables as I munch on the apple, where Levi greets me and gives me a saddled Rider.

            I guide Rider to the East side of Tigris. There are two parts of Elopura, the East and the West. They are separated by the No River where everyone uses the river for their daily use. Everyone in this century seriously needs a bath. I heard that the peasants had at least two bathes in their life; the day they were born and death. Many died of hygienic issues.

            Lia once asked me why I smelled so good out of her curiosity. I didn’t answer even if I know the answer. Colognes didn’t exist yet.

            The East side of Tigris is where the poor peasants live where as the West side are the middle class live. The high class and nobles, on the other hand, live near the castle which is also at the West side of Tigris. The East side has lots of land to plant crops. There are only two wooden bridges connecting the West and the East.

            I cross the bridge to the East side of Tigris. The people at this side of Tigris wear dirty clothes. It is sad to see the beggars or dying people at the path I’m using. I’m used to the scene but my heart breaks to see all these people suffering. At least in my time, the abandoned has a home given by the government.

            Dominic is the first one to see me. He drops the bag of potatoes in surprise at the sight of me. He hugs me as soon as I dismount Rider.

            Dominic is the head of the family. He is 40 years old. He is taller than me and he has a beard, like everyone in this century does. It is very rare to see a man without a beard at this time, without including myself. Muscles bulged out of his dirty clothes. He has eyes that can raise goosebumps whenever he glares. The Johnson family plants all kinds of plants to not only feed themselves, but to also pay taxes. Life as a low class in this century is extremely unfair if you compare it to my time. Once a family member marries a nobleman, the whole family will automatically become wealthy.

            Dominic pats my back in a family way. “How are you doing, son? Found a young lassie yet?”

             I chuckle. Teenagers in 1468 are already having a family. I swear I could be the only one who refuses to marry, other than Lia.

            “Not planning to do so, father.”

            I never really mind if I call Dominic my father. He really acts like a father to me, unlike my biological father.

            “Well hurry up already! Grab one and make little Anthonys. Your mother has been pestering to convince you to tie the knot these days. Let me tell ya, I had to work all day in the farm just to avoid the woman whom I call my wife!” Dominic complains about his 39-year-old wife, Lila.

            I shake my head in amusement.

            “Anthony!” a girly voice says.

            “May!”

            She runs to me from their little cruck house. As soon as she is within my reach, I carry her and spin around in circles as she giggles.

            I put May down and turn to see Dominic tying the stallion to a tree. I nod in thanks at him.

            May Johnson is Dominic’s and Lila’s eighth child. She turned 12 a few months ago. Among my Johnson siblings, May is my favorite.

            “Is Ken, Sue, Bree, Duke or Tanner here?” I ask her.

            “Sue and Bree are here with the little devils. Ken and Duke are at the farm, working. Tanner is hunting in the forest. Daddy says that we might not earn enough to feed ourselves since Lord Reteilli has increased the taxes yesterday,” May explains.

            I swear sometimes she is sounds older than her age. Let me introduce you to my adoptive siblings. The oldest is Ken. He is 24 years old and has four children. The second is Sue. She is 21 years old and has three children. Bree and Duke are twins. They are seventeen, which is the same age as me. In this century, I’m thought to be 23. Bree has a child but Duke has two. Tanner is 15. He got married a few days ago. Frank and Fred are 5-year-old twins. May is the closest to me though. She is still too young to get married. Lila and Dominic were thinking to arrange a marriage with a blacksmith’s son, Arthur. May hates Arthur so much that May was on her knees begging her parents to not make her marry. I support her decision unlike the rest of the family who favor in marrying May to Arthur. Let me tell you, I absolutely have no fond for that boy. He loves to show off to the low class children.

            I walk into the small house with my hands holding May’s.

            “So how is Princess Lia?” she asks.

            “She is as healthy as a horse. How is Arthur?” I ask teasingly.

            Her little face twists into a menacing scowl. “He is such a pest! He has been following me all week, trying to talk to me. Every time I let him, he keeps boasting about how rich his family is. If I hadn’t been holding two pails of water, I would have left a mark on the rich rosy cheek of his!” She sighs in frustration.

            I cough to cover a laugh threatening to come out. “If you want, I can beat him into a pulp,” I offer with an evil grin.

            She gives me a mischievous smile. “Thank you, older brother, but I prefer letting him live in perfect condition for the sake of his future wife, which is certainly not me.”

            “That’s my girl!” I say proudly.

            “I don’t want to get married at all! I want to be just like you!” May looks up at me in admiration. I laugh.

            “Sure you do,” I tell her. I doubt it. Every girl dreams to get married sooner or later.

            When I enter the so called kitchen, I’m attacked by hugs from the little children. Lila rise from her seat. She looks so imbalance with a growing baby in her.

            “Uncle Anthony,” all the children say at the same time. Every time they say my name together, it scares the living daylight out of me. There are more than ten children hugging me at this very moment. I am their favorite uncle after all.

            “Hello, children. What’s . . .” I break off the sentence and mentally smack myself. I can’t use the phrase ‘What’s up?’ in this century.

            “Uncle Anthony, tell us another story!” Linda, Ken’s 8-year-old daughter requests. The rest of the children agree with Linda.

The children here don’t go to school. I told them stories and taught them to write and read simple words. Lia was even nice enough to give second hand storybooks to the children. The writings in this century were illegible to me at first. Luckily, Lia was nice enough to teach me, except that she was very impatient when she attempted to teach me to write in cursive. Now I can write cursive, thanks to her. Even teachers in my time were surprised.

I clap my hands together. “Children, go outside and wait for me. I need to talk to your mothers for a moment.”

They practically run out of the house. Sue, Bree, Lila and I are left alone in the house. Bree and Sue laughs at the children. Lila, who is still standing, gives me a motherly hug.

“I haven’t seen you since forever!” she yells into my ears.

I cringe at the loudness. She quickly let go and blush.

“I’m sorry, Anthony. I just really miss you.” She gives me another hug. It is so awkward for me to hug her because of her huge stomach in between us.

She lets me go to let me breathe. I chuckle as my brain quickly counts the days I missed.

“You only saw me two days ago, mother,” I tell her matter-of-factly.

“But it felt like forever!” she complains.

She sits back down to continue working on dinner. Sue and Bree are also pregnant. They both give me a hug. Getting hugged by two pregnant ladies is so much weirder than getting hugged by one. Sue and Bree seem to realize this and laugh. 

I glare at the both of them. “You two are taking advantage of my discomfort, sisters of mine.”

“It’s just a hug, big brother,” Bree answers easily. Sue nods in agreement. I sigh in defeat. This is like a little sibling bonding even if we don’t spend much time as we did before.

“Thank you for entertaining the children, Anthony,” Sue tells me. Her brown eyes are filled with exhaustion.

I smile softly at her. “It’s the least I can do.”

I try to imagine in their shoes; children running up and down, babies crying 24/7, making meals for the whole family and many more. I would have loose my mind by then.

“Here.” I walk up to Lila and hand her a few gold coins. Since I’m a knight, I earn more than needed. These people obviously need it more than me.

Sue, Bree and Lila’s eyes widen at me.

“We can’t accept this, Anthony!” Bree says. I close Lila’s fist with the coins in it.

“Just accept it, mother. I’ll feel better if you do. We are family after all,” I say, locking my eyes into Lila’s teary ones. Again, she hugs me.

She whispers into me ears, “Thank you so much, Anthony.”

The three ladies hug me. I take back about getting hugged by two pregnant ladies. Three pregnant ladies hugging me is like getting hugged by an elephant.

Dominic enters the kitchen with the bag of potatoes with him. I know that the ladies will tell Dominic about the gold coins so I briskly walk outside to see the children sitting on the ground, forming a circle.

“Children, I’m going to tell you about the future Elopura,” I tell them. They start to cheer for a while before silencing themselves to let me start. I make up stories but once in a while, include little facts from my time. The children are captivated into the story. A few even added their own silly ideas into my story. All of us are laughing until my vision turns black and white. I have three minutes before I travel back to my time.

“Nicholas,” I call out. Nicholas, Sue’s eldest child and the most responsible one among the children, walks to me.

“Yes, Uncle Anthony?” he asks.

I hand him my sword. “I trust you to keep this and look after your siblings and cousins until I return. It won’t take long.”

His little eyes widen in surprise as his grip on my sword tighten like he is going to protect my sword with his life. I pat his shoulder before walking to the woods.

I quickly check to see my small leather bag is still with me.

It didn’t take long for blindness to come to me.

Then, I’m back in the school lavatory in the year 2013.