6
JUAN FRANCISCO BLANCO
new and unusual creatures we find out here in nowhere. She
likes to help me with detailed drawings I need to make for my
work. She helps me by looking for something different using our
microscope. Now I am really worried. Where would this man
take our children off to?” Tomás said anxiously.
“They must be very frightened. It certainly sounds like an
effect from the old stone when Bardala touched it, it made
magical things happen. I never knew it was possible for
someone’s eyes to turn from brown to blue like that.” Tital
pondered.
“As a scientist, I would say it was not possible, but I witnessed
it with my own eyes,” Tomás said. “I’m deeply troubled over
this.”
At that point, Teresa returned with some close-up photos,
and said to Tital, “Here are some recent pictures of our children.
They were taken only last week. They look so happy. It was
Bardala’s birthday, the twenty-second of February.” She paused
with a tear in her eye, and then went on to say, “The boy in this
photo is Jonathan and he is eleven. Viviana is standing next to
him and she is eight. I miss them already, and we need to find
them, but where do we look and how? The cell phones won’t
work out this far, because it is too far from anywhere civilized.
We will have to....”
Tital interrupted, “I will go and find them. I have my dog,
Brilloso, and my horse Centella, ready to go right now. The man
is on foot, and he is ahead of me by how many hours do you
think?”
“I would say no more than six hours,” Tomás said, “But you
are only a boy, and he is an adult, and stronger than you are.”