Here is an excerpt from Draft 6 of the forthcoming Book #5, The Owl from Oblivion, where Ty has just appeared on the reality timeline. This a draft so there may be errors in the copy.
Eight-year-old Ty awakens in his house feeling disoriented,
still wearing the black shirt with the Saeshell fairy-looking emblem on the
front. His bed, its comforters and sheets decorated with moons and falling
stars in a fairytale art style, dwarfs his unusually small body.
The blinds are closed in his upstairs bedroom, the bright morning
light pouring in around them. A three-foot-high built-in bookcase wraps around
the room on two walls, filled with fantasy storybooks and bound sheet music
collections. On top of the bookcase is a computer-like device with a list of
pictures of classical music albums that can be touched and played. A light-colored
wooden study desk sits against the non-bookcase wall with a touch panel
displaying a logo and the words, “Cambridge University Library Research
System”. Ty’s father had assembled the tablet system, software, and dedicated
link to the library system to feed Ty’s insatiable thirst for knowledge while
catering to Ty’s delayed psychomotor development. Two letters are pinned to the
wall behind Ty’s desk. One is a congratulatory letter certifying that Ty is
ready for the AS Level exam (end of eleventh-grade exam). It is signed by
Professor Alex Kettil, Professor Johnathan Wise, and two other Cambridge
University professors. Ty has stuck stickers of different kinds of fairies along
the perimeter of the letter, framing it. The second letter is a request to an
educational administrator for a self-directed study program for Ty. Ty has
covered the administrator’s name on the letter with a Skull and Crossbones
poison sticker.
Ty starts; He sits up in his bed and looks around his room.
He feels disoriented and confused, having just finished talking to Paul7 and
his dad. Ty does not understand how he could be on Sophista one moment and then
abruptly in his bedroom at home in a flash. He screams, “Daddy!”
His father calmly floats into his room on quiet feet as if he
is still a covert operative, and sits on the edge of Ty’s bed, hugging him.
“Did you have a bad dream?” He lays Ty back down on his bed and begins stroking
his hair, gently running his fingers through Ty’s blond curls. He reaches under
Ty’s long hair and gently plays with the rounded points at the top of Ty’s
ears, knowing that to be a key to relaxing Ty. Fredrick deliberately kept Ty’s
hair long so that people would not know of his oddity, disguising Ty’s
fairy-like appearance as much as possible.
Ty begins chattering rapidly. “I don’t know. I don’t know why
I am here. I was on Sophista. Is mummy around?”
“What’s Sophista?” asks Fredrick. “Where did you hear that
word? Is this something that you remembered?”
Ty starts crying and hugs his dad. His father hugs him
tightly, shedding a few tears of his own. “Don’t you remember?” his father
asks. “Dad, uh, found you and took care of some problems you had.” Fredrick had
adopted Ty—a child of mysterious origin.
Ty becomes confused as the memories of this new timeline
streams into his mind.
“Do you remember the hospital you were in for a time with all
the doctors?” asks Fredrick.
“I don’t want to. It was so scary and it hurt a lot. I
remember the big letters ERID on the wall. I was so glad when you decided to
take me home.”
“Who wouldn’t want to be the father of a smart, loving child
like you? I could never be without you.”
“Me neither.” Ty begins to think… “This is all different.
Where did all these memories come from? This is not how it was. I remember
mummy, but I remember this too. Here I don’t have a mummy. It’s so scary. Here,
I don’t know where I came from. I remember Syon from Professor Kettil’s class,
but I didn’t go to his class before. Syon was Stefan’s son from the future. Now
Syon is a gutter kid with a mean mum and dad. Father wants to rescue him. Tyco!
Where is Tyco? I can’t be alone again. He is the only person that truly
understands me—that keeps me safe when I am without Father. Now… Now…” More
memories rush in. “No! He only visits occasionally from the States. He stays
with Stefan. Why? Stefan doesn’t need him. Stefan doesn’t know how to help
Tyco.” He ponders the new reality for a moment. “Do I know how to help Tyco
anymore? He is quite different… I am alone and a freak… No kids are supposed to
be like me.”
