“Counselor Alie! I’m so sorry! I didn’t know it was you in this corner! I thought you were Alvis Howell. I guess I heard your Colors, (are you a Musicton?) when I was reaching out to Alvis, and I guess I thought that you were him. I-” Keelia sputtered like a waterfall.            

                “You mean to tell me that you, a little girl, heard one of the strongest colors in the world?” Keelia was about to ask what strongest Colors meant when it came to Colors, but he must have guessed it before her. “Yes, Colors are the thoughts in your head, cloned in Musicton so that I can hear what your screaming thoughts are saying. But I highly doubt that you can hear mine,” he said in a sharp harsh tone, “Name.” Keelia, feeling strongly overconfident, stood up straight and looked directly in his cold stare.       

                “My name is Keelia Adene Cobell. I heard your Colors. Try me,” she immediately regretted saying it. Alie winced slightly once she said Keelia. But he regained his posture, with a pained, questioning look about him.                       

                “Tell me what I’m thinking in my shadows then-” Before she could dive into his mind, Emerson strode over.                

                “Jian Alie! You tell me what is happening over here immediately.” Emerson said it loudly and the hall turned very silent as the people turned to look at the spectacle.               

                “Keelia!!!” she heard Alvis say. Alvis shoved his way in front of Keelia, his hands behind him, ‘shielding’ her.                

                “Jian!” Emerson warned. Emerson was getting quite angry at the disruption.

                “I was eating my supper when this- this girl came running into me, telling me she thought I was Alvis Howell. Claimed that she could hear my Colors,” Counselor Alie growled, glaring at Alvis and Keelia. Emerson’s eyes widened with surprise when he mentioned her reading Alie’s Colors. He looked at Keelia.

                “If this is true, I want you to tell me what this Counselor is thinking in this Colors,” he said gently, “It is no criminal offense to accidentally run into a counselor,” he added. She nodded and Alvis whipped around and shook her by the shoulder.

                What are you thinking? You could get expelled if you lie to a counselor!  She pushed past him, thinking, I’m not lying! I heard him; he was sending some weird message to someone! Let me pass! I can handle this! She shoved herself to the position that was near to Counselor Alie. She closed her eyes, digging into the front barrier to his colored thoughts. He had five barriers she had to get by before she hit the jackpot. Colors flooded into her mind. They were like shards of ice, causing her head to throb, she found what she was looking for and began to withdraw when something caught her eye. It was a glowing fiery-colored memory. Without warning, she was sucked into it. Everything grew hot. The house was small, in the middle of the woods, and it was in flames. There was a woman beside Alie in the memory, her hair was blond, her eyes were the same blue as Jian’’s. The woman and Alie were crying, and Alie was cradling the woman in his arms. Saying words that she couldn’t understand, a few muffled words here and there, that was it. Why (sobs) children(sobs) All we had left- gone.

                Keelia couldn’t do it anymore. She pulled herself out of the memory. She came back into the real world sweating and crying, she wasn’t sure why she was crying. She wasn’t so sure why it had touched her heart, but it did. She looked up, panting, to see Alie clutching his head. He too was sweating. “Get away from me!” he croaked. Emerson helped Alie back to his feet because he had been on his knees. A woman shrieked and ran up to Alie. It was the woman from the memories. Alie’s wife, Keelia assumed. Alvis’s father rushed to Keelia’s side. She buried herself into Dedrick’s arms and didn’t let go.     

                “What happened in there?” Emerson questioned.

                “Well, first I had to get through five Color Barriers. Then I found the Color I was looking for. I started to make my way back out, but I was sucked into something, I’m not quite sure what it was. There was a lot of fire, and Alie was cradling somebody, and they were crying in front of the burning house. But I only heard a couple of muffled words.” Keelia answered. Emerson hurried away from her, and Alvis gently pinned her to the wall, leading her to a corner.

                “Culs wer el agael???” he inquired. He asked the question in an interesting language. Then she realized that he was speaking in Musicton, or the language of Crecklington. She translated in her head, “What were you thinking”.

                “A counselor ordered me to do something. Do you think that I’m just going to say NO to a counselor?” she countered.

                “Yes, I do. How did you get into the Color?” Alvis switched into normal English to Keelia’s relief.

                “I don’t know! I just got pulled into it! Don’t ask me how, it just happened. Believe it or not, that’s the truth,” she shouted, a few heads swiveled around to where they were standing.

                “SHH! You’re causing too much attention! What I meant was, did you hear anything about yourself there?” Alvis asked.

                “No, I already told you! I didn’t hear anything about myself, just muffled sobs and words!” she answered.

                “What words?” he urged.

                “Um, there was, ‘why?… children… everything we had…gone’,” She answered.  Alvis backed away shaking his head violently. “What?” She asked him.

                “It’s probably nothing, I just have a question for my dad, that’s all. Come on, everybody’s leaving, we need to find my family,” he responded. The two walked slowly over toward the direction of Alvis’s father. His smile told her that he was stressed and tired, but she smiled back anyway. The relief in his eyes also told her that he was happy that she was OK.