The Story of Samo-Chapter Two, Part Three
The three friends stared at the door for some time after the chancellor left. Kia and Kiara both watched in shock, but Samo simply held his hands in his pockets with a faint smile on his lips and a dark look in his eyes. He stepped toward the door and turned to his friends. His smiled widened, stretching as far as it could, but without showing any teeth.
Kia broke the silence when he said, “Um, what?”
“Oh, my goodness,” Kiara whispered. She brought her hand to her mouth and said, “That’s impossible.”
Turning to his sister, Kia said, “Why? He’s old enough.”
“Kia, the Inventor died eighty years ago. There’s no way Chancellor Naram could have known him.”
Kia laughed and said, “He didn’t say he knew him. He said he met him once.”
“That would still make him at least eighty.”
“He’s pretty old.”
She huffed in annoyance and stood. Walking to the bookshelf, she said, “He’s not that old. Besides, the Inventor was in the front of the war at the time. That was in the southern coasts of Parsha. Chancellor Naram is from the northern coasts. There’s no way he could have traveled thousands of miles to the other side of the continent at such a young age.”
As she began scanning the book titles, he retorted, “And how, exactly do you know where he’s from?”
“Well, excuse me if I read.” She chose a thin folio and began leafing through the pages. “There is a biography about the man.”
“You read biographies of your teachers?”
She looked up at him and said, “I’m trying to figure something out here. You don’t have to be here if you just want to be a pest. What-” She laughed derisively. “Do you think you need to be a chaperone?”
Kia stepped toward her with an extended forefinger, but stopped and looked at Samo. He was still standing where he had been at the start of their argument. He hadn’t moved, or even lost a fraction of an inch from the width of his smile. Kia looked back at Kiara and stepped toward Samo. He bent his head as he looked into his eyes, then at the spot on the floor where Samo was staring. There was nothing special about it. He looked up at Kiara and shrugged. As he was just about to poke Samo in the cheek, Samo looked at him and said, “I’m going.”
Kia shouted in shock and fell back onto his rear. Splayed on the floor, he said, “Don’t do that!”
Samo grinned at him and turned to the door. As he started out, Kiara said, “Wait! Where are you going?”
“I’ll be back!” Samo called out, as he walked out the door and closed it behind himself.
Tales of the Inventor's War 