Kismet’s Tale

 

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      Alden Fals looked at the bread basket in his hand. He avoided the pedestrian traffic of the street. His foot on the cobblestone. Alden stopped to witness the grand spectacle that the magtech had invented to this world.

This magtech has been a staple of the world ever since it was developed years ago by Holmian tech.

What’s that got to do with me? Alden Fals thought. He crossed a cobblestone street, walked past a few stores, and made his way through a narrow street where bakeries were opened. He stopped for a while to watch a Vulcan cross the street. The ten meter giant scanned the area, before letting a car pass by.

Alden continued walking. He went to take a stop in a computer shop where they were selling those desktop computers.  Wonder if Melia will buy a new computer for the office?

Alden shook his head. He continued walking until he saw the red brick building with a copper roof. He shouldered the door to open, and walked in where a horde of children were waiting.

“You're slow, Alden,” said the woman with waist-long blonde hair. Her piercing blue eyes watching him and a smile on her lips.

“Sorry, I had to choose the best bakery in town,” Alden distributed the bread to the orphans. “Aye, you hungry brats sure are hungry all the time.”

“They are kids, don’t try to scold them too much.”

“I am not scolding them,” said Alden. “I am telling them that they should line up, and be good boys and girls, no?”

Melia looked at the kids, then placed her hand on her hips. She adjusted her woolen coat, and tightened the belt wrapped around her waist.

“Are you going somewhere?”

“Not really,” Melia said. “I just thought of dressing well, no?”

“It does look good on you.”

“Thank you, Alden. Also, we should let Nana watch the kids. We have quite the work today.”

Melia went to the office.

Alden carried the bread basket to the kitchen where Nana was. Nana was an older woman in her mid-40’s. Ever since the last war, she had been staying in an orphanage here in Lano after.

“Oh, would you kindly get rid of the calendar?”

Nana said to him. Alden inspected the calendar that had the year ‘1979’ on it. He ripped the calendar off the wall, and replaced it with an ‘1980’ calendar.

It was the new year. It’s been a month ever since I got into this place, Alden thought. Good thing that Melia and Nana were generous enough to make someone who had nothing work here.

“Anything else, Nana?”

“Tell Melia that I need the TV cable of the orphanage fixed, no?”

“Is the television not working?”

“I think the cables are all tangled up.”

“I’ll check it, Nana.”

“Be careful.”

Alden left the breadbasket on the kitchen table, and left on the backdoor of the orphanage. He inspected the handholds, and started running up the wall, inserted his strong fingers on the edges, and pulled himself up the roof of the orphanage. He traced the cables on the copper roof, and found the cable tangled up, making the TV reception blurry.

Should have this inspected, but do we even have the funds? Alden thought as he adjusted the cable, and untangled the coaxial table. After untangling the coaxial table, he vaulted off the edge of the roof, and entered from the front entrance where he checked the main living room where most of the kids play.

He went straight for the TV, checked the connector on the back, and adjusted it. The reception became clear, the noise line gone. The kids gathering in the living room immediately got attracted by the television, and sat in their places.

Alden stood in front of the screen with a raised hand. “Sister Melia, and I will be working in the office. So try not to bother, Nana okay?”

“Okay!” the kids said together.

Alden left the kids alone, and went to the office place next to the orphanage where they do most of the paperwork. The orphanage was funded by the town hall where they get most of their funding, and subsidies.

“Heard the TV from here,” Melia said, waiting for the printer to finish printing. “I hope the kids behave.”

“I think they will, can you encode those?”

“Sure,” Alden moved to the desk just on the side of the office. He turned on his personal computer, waiting for it to boot up. He took a look at the paper, running his eyes on the document.

“It seemed like the town is progressing well.”

“Aren’t they? We wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t for the extra income that we get for sorting these documents out. It's meager work, but someone has to do it.”

It was either encoding through a typewriter or using the personal computer given by the municipal hall to help their paperwork.

“Hmm, how do they expect to fix up the wharf?”

“It was a place where the boats coming from the southern seas docked to deliver the crabs here in Lano so it has been long discussed on why they should fix it.”

“That wharf’s ill-repair. Hey, what’s this?” He noticed a paperback manual with a picture of a computer on it.

“It’s the manual that they gave. There’s some sort of programming-thingy in the computer, so if you want to try then go ahead. I heard they’re paying cash for anyone who could program.”

Alden stared at the paperback before placing it back on the side of his wooden desk. “I’ll try to think about this later.”

“Okay,” she started typing on her word processor. The software in the computer was simple enough to allow them to encode the name of the employee number, employee, department, job, years, salary, and their bonus.

“You’d think that they’d be easy to do this.”

“Well, you got to start typing in, Alden. Or else we won’t be done with this.”

“Got it,” Alden spread his fingers on the keyboard, typing across the letters, while making use of the arrow keys to navigate the spreadsheet they prepared.

 

***

 

Alden typed the last of the document by eight in the evening. The office’s light, and ceiling fan had started to rotate, producing mild winds around the office. It smelled like paper and ink. Alden  looked at Melia's desk and thought Melia had been rather obsessive about printing stuff.

She has a way of enjoying the little things. It made her rather childish, which Alden had gotten used to ever since she had helped him be employed here. Alden had been a drifter, a truly clueless nobody, who had somewhat found his way to this town.

He had quite a wound on his head when he drifted here in Lano Town. Other than the documents that said that his name was Alden Fals, he remembered nothing other than waking up, and trying to jump off a ship before it completely sinks and pull him in below the surface.

He was found south of Lano Town, alongside a few survivors. Among the many that survived, he was the one who didn’t have proper documentation so Alden had been confined, and was investigated. It was only when meeting Melia that he got a chance to get proper papers, and get a citizenship. His original documents were with him, and from what Alden had learned. It seemed like he was probably migrating from another country, but somehow got himself into this mess.

So he had to borrow money from the municipal hall, send his documents to the main city, process his papers, pay the fees, and then register his current address to Lano Town, living in the orphanage in the very back of Angy Street of the town’s block six.

Alden owned Melia a lot. He didn’t mind living in this town. He had a decent pay, a comfortable room, and decent co-workers. If there was something he had to complain about, then it would be the kids. They could be the cutest for a moment, to the most annoying little devils.

“We should go back inside,” said Melia, stretching her arms. She went to the door, locked it, and placed the folders in this lock-up cabinet. Alden followed behind, turning the ceiling fan and light off. Upon entering the main building, they saw the kids playing around on the staircase. But one glare from Melia made the kids lose their courage, obediently moving to the living room where they sat quietly.

“We’re home,” the main door of the orphanage was opened. Entered were the bigger kids who were going to the central school in the town which was two minutes away.

“This late?” Melia demanded an explanation.

One of the big kids in the orphanage, Paul, hastily explained that they were helping out with the school’s decorations since there were visitors from the capital that were going to evaluate the school. Whether they would pass the safety regulations, these visitors would observe them, and see if they meet the standards.

Lina, the other kid who was going to central school with Paul, entered. She carried a document folder, and bid Melia and Alden goodbye, taking her school items back to her room. Paul followed after. Melia looked at the staircase where the two went.

“They were so cute back then,” Melia said.

“Well, they have to grow up, I think.”

The two went to Nana who they saw sewing something in the kitchen. She needed help so Melia took her woolen coat, revealing her white sleeveless top that showed her collarbones, and bare shoulders. Alden took the flour sack,  poured it into the container Nana was using.

He then started to prepare the ingredients. Pork, beetroot, onion, flour, water, salt, cold, and trout. Alden placed the ingredients, and waited for Nana to start.

Nana made pork and beetroot stir fry by making the pork stir fried with beetroot and onion crunchy. After making the pork and beetroot stir fry, Nana made wontons out of cod and trout by stuffing the cases with cod and trout.

After an hour in the kitchen, the food was ready. Paul and Lina set the tables, and told the kids to stay in their place while Melia and Alden carried the food to the dining table. They served the wontons first before distributing the pork and beetroot stir fry.

“Okay, little ones, let us be silent and thank our Mother Jove for this blessing,” Nana started. “Our Mother Jove, who resides in Heaven, thank you for thy blessing, and may you kindly watch your children in tears and joy, so be it.”

With the end of the prayer, the kids dug in. Alden watched the kids eat before turning his eyes on Melia who was drinking a cup of tea. She offered one to Alden which he gracefully took. Meanwhile, Nana went back to the kitchen to prepare their meal.

“The kids are growing.”

“That they are.”

“I’ve been here for four years now. Lina and Paul were so tiny back then. Look at them now, they are starting to become good siblings!”

Melia crossed her arms. The affection on her eyes was present. The kids were lovely to her eyes. Alden had started to like them even though they can be annoying. After all, in a way, they were the same. He could understand the feeling of being alone in the world.

The kids were doing their best to live on.

Alden wouldn’t have adjusted in this new home of his if it wasn’t for the kids. He couldn’t allow himself to lose to a bunch of kids in terms of heart and courage. He did his best and decided to throw out whatever fear he had. That’s why he could live in this orphanage without worry.

“Hello? Are the caretakers of this orphanage up?”

Alden heard a voice. It was late at night so he nodded to Melia and went to the door first while Melia watched from the side, ready to put a hole on someone’s face if they were thugs trying to threaten the orphanage.

Thankfully, he recognized the two  gentlemen who were holding on to their bowler hats.

“Pardon for the visit, but this is important,” Officer Karlan said. “See, does the orphanage have a room left?”

“Can I call Melia?”

“Of course, I’ll wait here.”

Alden hollered at Melia. Melia went to the entrance, wearing her woolen coat again. “Mr. Karlan, what are you here for late this evening?”

“See, Ms. Melia, we found a stray walking around, and we would like to make him stay here for a while.”

“A stray?”

Alden and Melia looked behind the gentlemen.

“Yes, this is Thomas, we found him walking the grassland. It was dangerous so we thought of placing him here before we process him for his papers.”

There stood a tall and pale young man with hair that resembled an old man. He was wide-shouldered and was shredded from head to toe. His eyes were silvery, and there was dullness in his eyes.

It was a magiborne.

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