Keelia packed up her things, starting with her new backpack. She put her essentials and books into it, and then she brought out one of the Cobells’ large duffle bags. On the side was embroidered the name Cobell. In it she placed her violin case, her colorful Irish flutes, her normal flute, and her box of chimes. They barely fit into the large duffle-bag, but she wouldn’t leave one of them behind. She wished that she could bring the beautiful piano that belonged to her family, but Mabel would need it for her newly-started lessons. Even if Mabel didn’t need it, Keelia never would have been able to pick it up and move it, even with her dad’s help.

                Weeks went by. Nothing happened. Nobody came. The duffle-bag and her backpack lay neatly in a corner in her room. She had picked-up her room and was completely ready to leave. Well, in her heart she wasn’t. Keelia was entirely ready to unpack her bags and forget about the whole ordeal. She slowly went downstairs. Her mother was sitting at their dining room table, staring out of the large window across from her. “Nobody is here yet; I’m beginning to think that person was lying after all! But what if he wasn’t? That means he or she could be here any second,” she started. At that moment there was a sharp whistle sound in the pasture below them. Mrs. Cobell started from where she was, but Keelia ran to the door and opened it. The same sound as before, she thought. The same colors as before, too, she added as she saw deep blue notes drift away. She quickly shut the door again and peered out the window near the top. She saw a tall man coming around the bend, and beside him was a boy about her age. Her mom glanced at her, Keelia nodded, and Mrs. Cobell went upstairs to fetch Samuel, Mabel, and her father. She shut the door before they would notice her. Before the tall man put his hand on the bell, Keelia opened it. She shot the man a glare strong enough to pierce even a dragon’s heart, and he stared at her. Keelia wasn’t in the greatest mood ever, and all she wanted to do was go to sleep in her bed.

                “Hello… Mabel-is it? We’re here for your sister, Keelia.” Keelia sighed, why on earth do they think that I’m Mabel? She grew angry and her glare grew more intense.

                “I’m not Mabel. I’m Keelia,” she responded tartly. The man looked over at her and frowned. He whispered to the ice blue eyed boy.

                “Are you sure this is her?” he questioned, and the boy laughed and nodded.

                “Anything wrong with me? What’s wrong with you?! You were the one who put dark colors into the sky,” she said, “and not to mention, you kind of appeared out of nowhere, soo…”

                “No, it’s just that… I was expecting somebody..er..happier, is all,” the man said, walking in uninvited.

                “You think I’m even going to like you? You’re taking me away. You thought wrong,” she stated. Mrs. Cobell, Mabel, and Samuel trotted down the stairs.

                “Now, Keelia, be nice. As you know, you’ll be traveling with these people, you’d better get to know them a bit,” Samuel admonished. Keelia sat down at the table.

                “Alvis, would you go upstairs and get to know Keelia a bit please, while I talk to Mrs. Cobell. Alvis?” he asked when the boy called Alvis didn’t respond. Keelia and Alvis made their way upstairs. The boy had caramel-colored hair, same as her, and Keelia tried to find out what the difference was between him and her. How could they even be from different ‘worlds’?

                Alvis didn’t talk at first, but he asked a few questions after a few long minutes of silence. “Well, you obviously already know I’m Alvis and you’re Keelia Adene, so, what else is there to ask?” He asked. Keelia dug her inside her thoughts and memories to anything that confused her.

                “I have one, was it you in the woods who made the sharp whistling sound? What is that sound anyway? It hurt my ears,” she asked. He grinned, clearly happy that Keelia asked a question that he could actually answer.

                “That’s called Breaking, or, as you say, going faster than the speed of sound,” he explained, “when we blow a certain type of whistle, it sucks us away super-fast to wherever we wish, navigating us away and all that we may hit or disturb, and all that other people feel is a gust of wind. If you’re not quite sure where you wish to be, it’ll take you away into the void. Then you have to wait until another person senses you’re stuck, which is usually pretty quick, to pull you out again.” He kept right on grinning, clearly hoping that she would ask other questions.

                “Where are you going to take me?” Keelia said.

                “Crecklington, of course, didn’t you read the letter? It’s where all the sustainers live. The Guardians, King and Queen Vesperus (the best royals we’ve had in years), the counselors, the Lords and Ladies, the Musicians, Dryads,” He began. Well, she thought, the letter didn’t say anything about Crecklington. 

                “Wait, Dryads? As in Greek mythology, kind of Dryads?” she interrupted. He nodded, and her eyes widened. Why couldn’t there be another girl her age coming to pick her up?

                “Hey! You do have a face that moves! For a minute there, I thought your face had turned into ice!” he laughed. She didn’t laugh, but stared at him like he was crazy. Dryads, Kings, Guardians (whatever those were). Why did I ever think that this was smart? These people are out of their minds.

                Finally, Alvis’s dad called them down after about an hour of boring talk, which led to many quarrels, and then back again. “Well, Keelia, I guess this is goodbye,” said Samuel. For the first time, she willingly let the tears stream down her pale cheeks. She hugged all her family tightly and ran out of the door, the tears still flooding out of her pale blue eyes. After a few moments Alvis and the man came out. The older man put his smooth hand onto her shoulder.

                “I never told you my name, I told your family in case they wanted to communicate with me. My name is Dedrick Howell, and this, as you already know, is my son, Alvis,” Dedrick said. Keelia sniffled quietly, but Alvis heard, and gave her a reassuring smile.

                “Dad we should probably go, the colors are leaving the sky, and soon we won’t be able to Break,” he said.

                “Right,” Dedrick responded, “Keelia I would like you to hold onto our hands and make your mind think the word ‘Crecklington’ a bunch of times when I tell you to. Alright? Good.” She focused on the sunset and the word Crecklington, but the moment her hands touched Alvis’s, a strange sound echoed inside her. Music, life, home- Adene. Her concentration broke when she heard the word Adene. The whistle blew sharply, and she was whisked away.

                Clearly, she wasn’t in Crecklington…

                Floating chairs?

                Blue mist?

                No people?

                Floating furniture? NO people? “Where am I? Alvis? Dedrick?” she asked out loud, but nobody answered. Keelia looked around her, reaching out toward one of the floating chairs that was drifting by. The instant she touched it, it turned to ice. She freaked out. Nothing like that had ever happened before, her hands had just turned something into ice. That wasn’t normal. Nothing was normal, in fact, she couldn’t remember a time when something was normal.  “Alvis? Dedrick?” She tried calling them again. There was a muffled shout somewhere close by. A blurry figure came closer and closer. Then the figure was right in front of her. She gave a very quiet squeak and took a step back.

                “Fainto! Kupra! At vitildun!!! Piak hav el?” the boy asked. Keelia’s mind blanked, and her mind translated the words automatically, much to her surprise. .

                “What did you say?” Keelia asked anyway, wanting to see if she could actually understand him.

                “Oh, you speak English and not Nivaran? My bad, sorry,” the boy said quickly in a small accent. “Sorry, I said, ‘Hi! Wow! It’s alright!!! Who are you?’” He imitated it in the same manner.  His thin face had a studied hers with a questioning look about it. “It’s been a while since I’ve had to help send somebody out of the void, not since…” his face wrinkled as he thought of the last time.  Keelia stared right into his dark green eyes.

                “I’m Keelia. I know where I was supposed to go, but my concentration was broken. How do I get out?” she said nicely, not cutting her gaze at the boy. He looks extremely nice, but who knows, maybe he’ll turn out to be my arch-enemy or something, and he also speaks another language than I do… I can’t wait to meet another girl! She pondered.

                “Hi Keelia, I’m Everie Wackson,” he held out his hand for her to shake. She didn’t take it.

                “Last time I touched somebody from your world I heard things, but it’s nice to meet you, Everie.” she responded, but he shrugged like it was no big deal. Well, it’s a big deal to me, she thought.

                “Usually, you hear what your sustaining talents will be the first time you touch somebody from Crecklington, Nivara. It won’t happen again, I promise. Don’t worry.” He grabbed her wrist and without warning leaped up into the air and blew into the annoyingly sharp sounding whistle.  A few moments later, Keelia was staggering to keep her balance on a cobblestone street. So, this was Crecklington. Very colorful, she pointed out to herself. Every house had something different about it. Some had different-colored round windows of every size with hobbit-like doors, others had simple colored bricks. They were all different colors too: greens, blues, purples, browns, aquas, reds, oranges and yellows, and a few were entirely glass! She stared in wonder around her. Her eyes were blinded by all the intense bright pops of color. There were some things that she simply couldn’t describe. Everything was wonderful! She heard Everie laugh behind her. “You look like you haven’t seen something like this before! I mean, you live here, right?” he asked. 

                “This is my first time here. I used to live on a farm in Tennessee, not in Crecklington.” And for the first time in many years, she smiled. It was a small smile, but somewhere inside her heart, she knew that she was home.

                She turned around to see where Everie was, but he was nowhere in sight. He must have asked that question assuming that I’d agree. Still, a bit rude. She passed by small little shoe shops, a couple bookstores, and a large library trying to find Alvis and Dedrick. Her most favorite place of all was the music shop, and she directly went in. She had forgotten about trying to find Alvis and Dedrick, and her excitement kept growing as she pushed through the swarming crowds outside the music shop. There weren’t many people inside the small shop, only a man with strawberry-colored hair sticking out in every which way. She went over to the pianos and ran her fingers along the snow-white keys. The piano looked far different from the piano at her house. It had intricate carvings all over it, swirls, and flowers, music notes and little animals that were running and jumping. She couldn’t resist playing one of the notes. Her finger played the note and her world transformed like it always did. Her mind raced to different things, her family, home, rolling hills and mountains, stars, and planets. She didn’t play a very long song, but it felt like ages before her hands left the keys, and she opened her eyes. The man was staring at her, his eyes twinkling with happiness. She stood up abruptly, nearly knocking that bench down, but thankfully caught it and stood up. She stepped away. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t think I shouldn’t have played, I’m sorry!” she repeated, and suddenly she felt free in expressing her emotions to this tall man. He stopped her with his thin hands and led her over to the counter near the back of the store.

                “You, young lady, have nothing to be sorry about. It warms my heart to hear somebody play with such passion. I don’t think that I’ve ever heard that song. What is it called?” he asked.  She realized for the first time that she didn’t know.

                “I don’t know… I’ve just always known it, I guess. I’m Keelia Adene Cobell. What’s your name, sir?” she asked, looking slightly up to meet the man’s kind face.

                “My name is Thisgy, funny name I know,” the man said when Keelia couldn’t help a small grin. “It is a great pleasure to meet you! I’m surprised I haven’t seen you here before, little Keelia! Do you know much more music? The Music language? The Alphabet? You did know that you can speak a different language, I hope? In your mind and out loud?” He asked, rummaging through papers on his desk.

                “No… I didn’t. I hope I didn’t mess any of your instruments up! But I need to go and find a couple people. Thanks again,” Keelia said, but Mr. Thisgy insisted that she stay a bit longer. So Keelia and Mr. Thisgy went around the little musical shop. He would ask her to play a certain instrument, and she would do the best she could, even for the ones that she had never seen before. He examined her bow holds and finger positioning and gave helpful suggestions every now and then.  For what seemed like hours they talked about music, musical theory, flutes, pianos, how music had changed over the time and how it is still changing. It was the best few hours that Keelia had had in months. As she prepared to go, Thisgy caught her arm.

                “Wait! Take this. It has my address and my information on it. Come back soon, Miss Keelia, it has been a wonderful time with you.  She walked out of the delightful little shop. I bet that’s where I’ll be spending most of my time! I love it there.

                Keelia walked out onto the moonlit road. She had been inside the store longer than she thought. The cobblestone streets that had once been crowded and so busy earlier were now silent and calm. Nobody bustled about, it was just Keelia. The lights in the houses were glowing a faint gold, so she peered through a few of the windows. Families were sitting down laughing and eating dinner. She wished that she had a family right now. She thought of Samuel. Oh Samuel, she thought longingly. How she missed Samuel and his big laugh and twinkling eyes, and his bear-like hugs. She also missed Mabel and her sisterly giggles, and the weird conversations that she and Mabel would have until midnight on some sleepless night.  She tore her eyes away from the window and walked down the street. She had no idea where she was going. She came upon a smaller house with only three people sitting at the table. An older woman and man (the parents, she assumed), and another more youthful man who had to at least be sixteen or seventeen. She didn’t know where Alvis or Dedrick were, but clearly, they were in the other part of town. Maybe this family would take her in for the night, they looked nice. Why not give it a go? It’s too late to go around knocking on a bunch of people’s houses, though. But it’s also too late to go and find Dedrick Howell! she thought.  Keelia walked up to the light brown door and knocked softly. The younger man stood up and opened the door. He walked away for a moment and a few moments after, a woman came over to the door.

                “Hello… Can I help you?” the woman asked. She had a kind gaze, but she was clearly confused. She gathered up her courage and began timidly.

                “My name is Keelia. Dedrick Howell, I’m not sure if you know him or not, but he and his son Alvis brought me here to Crecklington earlier today. I can’t find them; I was hoping that you’d be kind enough to allow me to spend the night. If you can’t, that’s totally fine, though.”

                “Dedrick? How is he? We haven’t spoken for a few months, have we, Helbry?” The man came to the door. She told him what she knew. The woman looked at Keelia.  “If Dedrick brought you here, then of course you can stay. Come in,” she said. The Mickinsons, as Keelia soon learned their last name was, had one older son, Cligan, and another son, Brinely, who was Keelia’s age. Cligan was interesting. Apparently, he hadn’t said a word in five years! That’s a whole lot of silence! Keelia told herself, shuddering slightly. The Mickinson’s youngest daughter, Fern, had died five years previously when a fire broke out at her school. Cligan and Brinely both loved their little sister very much and had both taken different types of sorrow. Brinely was off at school that month, which didn’t help Cligan’s recluse problems. The Mickinsons asked if she wouldn’t mind sleeping on the couch, because they had just cleaned Brinely’s room in preparation for his homecoming in a few weeks.  Eliza and the rest of the Mickinsons had a busy few weeks ahead, so they wouldn’t have time to clean it again.