Free Sacred Trust by Roxanne Barbour Page B

sarcastic,” I said.
    â€œWell, hang in there; it’ll only get better. Let’s have some dinner.”
    It’s not that easy peasy, I wanted to say. However, I didn’t really think he understood teenagers. I probably shouldn’t be so harsh; I really didn’t understand my own moods, right now, either.
    I hid in my room for the rest of the evening, ostensibly to study.
    Tata commed me numerous times but I didn’t answer. My mood had hit bottom, and I didn’t want to talk to anyone.

Chapter 9
    The next morning, during the first ten minutes of our walk to school, Tata and I didn’t speak. I didn’t know why, but I wasn’t about to start any conversation. Still annoyed about his lack of participation at the Art Museum yesterday, I refused to be the first to speak.
    Finally, Tata said, “Tell yesterday.”
    I glared at him, but gave in. “Ruen and I went to the Art Museum and studied some artist-scientists. Then we saw an albino and followed him as best we could. Eventually we lost track of the Basilian, and went home.”
    â€œAlbino?” Tata had a thoughtful look on his face. Then he said, “No answer calls.”
    â€œYeah, well, I was in a bad mood last night, and didn’t want to talk to anyone.” And I thought it had possibly carried over to this morning. “By the way, Officer Kikess called Dad and told him we were no longer suspects in the theft of rocks from the Space Museum. Apparently, he noticed, on the camera footage, someone in the vicinity of the rocks and also loitering around our bags.”
    â€œMother said. Not need problem.”
    Tata was right about that. Problems seemed to be popping up every day.
    â€œWhat did you do yesterday?” When you abandoned me! But I didn’t utter the words out loud.
    â€œSchool,” said Tata.
    Of course, he went to school, but I needed to ask, “Any problems with BSU students?”
    â€œNo. Professors knew. Kept watch.”
    So security had let the rest of the BSU staff know about our little incident. Pleased with their attentiveness, I decided to give them some slack, and not be so critical.
    â€œTata, you should have joined Ruen and me yesterday. Then you would have seen the albino we’ve been talking about.”
    â€œPerhaps.”
    Perhaps what? Perhaps he still doesn’t believe us? Stubborn Arandi.
    We said goodbye and walked to our classes. My morning passed at a turtle’s pace. After Tata and I met for lunch, our conversation started by discussing classes. We had two mutual blocks, so we focused on the others.
    My curiosity made me ask about Tata’s class on Basilian cultural heritage. I knew he had taken this course to understand their common beginnings and how it had affected their separate developments. It again reminded me of the sociological concept of twins raised separately.
    â€œWhat have you discovered that’s different about Arandi and Basilians?” I asked.
    â€œArandi many country wars, Basilians none.”
    I didn’t even know the Arandi had countries. I wished we could have stayed longer on Arandis, so I could have learned more. Since that hadn’t happened, perhaps Tata or his mother had an Arandi history text or two I could borrow.
    â€œWhy do you think the differences occurred?”
    â€œReligious people run Basili.”
    Really! “This doesn’t happen on Arandis, does it? Who runs your world?”
    â€œWorld government.”
    So Arandis had a world government, and religion ran Basili. The Arandi thought they were superior? I hated to disillusion Tata, but both worlds had hidden their origins. They were equally guilty, in my opinion. Perhaps I would bring that up another day.
    â€œRuen?” asked Tata.
    â€œI don’t know. I’ve been expecting to see her bounce over to our table, any time. I didn’t have any classes with her this morning, so I haven’t seen her at all