Yonov112003.htm

Trump call...

The image of Dai smiles. "Hello Yo. How are you?"

To the image of Dai, Yosannah's image becomes more real. She blinks once or twice at the sight of him. A nod and a polite, albeit crooked grin, "Dai." She seems to be sitting in a motor car, arm drapped out the driver's side window. The vehicle appears parked.

The image of Dai grins. "Not interrupting you am I? I would hate to think I almost just caused an accident."

To the image of Dai, Yosannah shakes her head slightly to indicate that you are not interrupting. Her lips to not move though her voice projects into your mind, "I wouldn't have answered, if that were the case." Her attention seems distracted for a moment as she winces elsewhere, "I am in the middle of something, however... if you'd like to join me, otherwise, I must go. Up to you."

The image of Dai's face becomes serious and he nods. "Pull me through. I'm more than happy to join you. Oh...uh, I need to tell you something before you do that. I sort of, well, signed you up for Jurt's tournament." He winces and peeks at the card with one eye the other being closed tight in anticipation of being yelled at.

To the image of Dai, Yosannah reaches out a hand. If she cares about the tournament, she doesn't indicate it by the empty expression on her face.

New York - suburbs of Westchester...

Dai appears in the car beside Yosannah. He slips the trump into his pocket and cringes. "You're not going to hurt me are you?"

Yosannah shakes her head to indicate 'No' and lifts her finger up to her lips, "Shh." She nods up and across the street, perhaps six or seven houses away. A porch light flickers on and voices can be heard drifting down the quite suburban street. In the cool of the night, they can be heard quite clearly.

Two women. The younger making her way down the steps. She carries a pot covered in tin-foil in her hands, steam eminating therein. "Thanks mom." she says, seemingly to the woman waving from the porch. She steps to a car parked there on the street, opens the door and slides inside. After a moment, the engine turns over. The older woman, perhaps in her mid sixties, remains on the porch and continues to wave, "Bye honey. Drive safely please."

Yosannah sits quitely and watches the exchange. Slowly, the car pulls away from the curb and begins to drive away. The elderly woman on the porch steps back into the house. After another long moment the porch light goes dark.

Dai hrmms softly and whispers. "Whom are we watching? And why? Just out of curiousity. I'm in no matter what. Just thought that maybe you could explain the situation to me better." He reflexively pulls out his guns and checking to make sure they are loaded and ready to use.

Yosannah slides a hand to Dai's arm as he adjust his equipment, "No. We won't need that." She lifts her chin in the direction of the home, "That's my cousin's home. Antonia." She exhales, pensive as she stares at the residence. It's a perfect little two story home. Smoke billows from the chimney. Warm lights glow from the inside.

Dai ohs and holsters his guns. "Okay. I won't press you on it. Just let me know if you need me for anything or wish to talk about it more." He looks at the house and frowns a little. "Your cousin isn't in any trouble I hope." He rubs his jaw.

She shakes her head, "No. She seems pretty happy, actually." Strangely, this seems only to sadden Yosannah. "Her daughter, the woman driving away... Jesus, she must be at least in her mid thirties, wouldn't you say." The question seems rhetorical. She nods, perhaps to herself, and begins to open her door, "Let's go."

Dai opens his door,gets out of the car and quietly shuts the door. "Which brings up a very interesting question. How old are you Yo? I mean your cousin seems to be quite a bit older than you."

Yosannah closes her own door and then tucks her hands into her jacket pockets. When she talks, a mist of breath forms in the cold of the night, "Twenty-nine." She nods and offers a sidelong glance in his direction, "I haven't seen her in about ten years. She had just gotten married, didn't have a daughter, that's for sure." She looks this way and that down the street. With a nod of her head, she gestures for them to cross.

Dai thinks for a few moments as he walks with Yo. His breath mists in the air as well but he seems not to feel the cold. "So she had the daughter before getting married? By twenty years it would seem. Which makes me very curious about somethings about you Yo."

She shakes her head and trots across the street, "No. The last time I saw her, she didn't have any children. I'm guessing that girl is her daughter by her husband. But that was after my time here." Once she reaches the other side of the street she stops and turns to face him, "Time is much faster in this shadow then it is in the Courts or in Amber. Or in most other shadows for that matter. My cousin hasn't seen me in over forty years, Dai. Nobody in my family has. Most of them are dead from what I can gather. The question is, what do they think happened to me. That's what I'm here to find out."

Dai nods. "And you wanted a friend with you when you came to speak to your cousin. Okay. I'm here for you Yo." He glances at the House and hmms. "This is very important. I'm glad you trust me enough to bring me along."

Yosannah interrupts, "No." She shakes her head, "We're not going to talk to her." She sighs, "I don't know what she thinks happened. I'm don't want to interrupt her existance here. Listen," she withdraws her hand from her pocket and opens a fisted hand for him to see. A dime sized capsule rests there, "This is what I need you for." She holds it out to him, "Take it."

Dai takes the capsule and looks at it. "What is it Yo?" He glances around. "And what is the purpose of our coming here? I could easily shift into a form and get some identification made. Then stop by her place and ask her." He looks at the capsule thinking for a moment.

Yosannah shakes her head, "We're not going to talk to her. I want to look around her place." She nods, "I've been watching her on and off for a number of days. She's alone there. And she doesn't leave." She nods at the capsule, "This is how we're going to do it. Clean and easy. I don't want her to see me and that will make her sleap."

Dai ohs. "When you said take it, I thouhgt you wanted me to actually take the pill." He wipes his brow. "Okay. So I need to get inside and silp it into her drink."

Yosannah smiles, lowers her gaze to the ground and chuckles, "Paranoid. You fit in already." And then, "No, crack the capsule in your fingers. It's just brittle enough that this should be easy. There's just enough of the..." She considers her words, "...the powder in there that if she inhales it, she'll go unconscious."

Dai nods and looks at the house. "Okay. Here goes." He begins walking towards the house. When he reaches the steps he loudly walks up them onto the porch. He approaches the door and rings the door bell.

Yosannah steps off the sidewalk and meanders to a nearby oak. She hovers behind it, out of sight. Listening.

Dai whistles tom himself and looks around nonchalantly as he waits for the door to be answered.

The porch light flickers on and a woman opens the inner door. She peers out a screen door, "Hello?" She winces in an effort to get a better look at Dai. With a raised brow she asks, "Yes, young man."

Dai turns around and smiles at the woman. "Good evening ma'am. I'm a little lost and was wondering if you would be able to help me. I'm trying to find this antique shop that is around here to drop off this ancient japanese sword." He gestures to the sword strapped on his back. "It's a priceless relic that I acquired and am trying to sell." He smiles and slowly takes a deep breath. When his lungs have been filled he crushes the pill in his hand and regards Antonia.

Antonia presses her face into the screen of the door and regards his sword, "Well now... I uh. Antique shop, did you say..." She seems dubious.

Dai approaches the door and is close to the screen. He opens his hand and casually gestures to his sword. While doing this he releases some of the powder so that it goes through the screen door. "Yes, there's an antique store around here that specializes in ancient Japanese weaponry." He smiles as he gestures to the sword giving her a clear view of it before lowering his hand, releasing the rest of powder in the process, stepping back and exhaling. "It is a collectors dream to own it."

The elderly woman blinks and furrows her brow, "You don't... say..." She raises a hand to her forehead, faltering lightly in her balance. She rests a shoulder against the open door and, slowly, her frail body begins to slide down, down, down and to the floor. Within seconds her head drops, slumped over her chest.

Dai quickly opens the door, picks the woman up and disappears into the house. A few minutes later he walks back out the door and calls quietly, "Yo? Come on."

Yosannah steps out onto the sidewalk and into the light of the moon. She jogs over to the house and up onto the porch, intoning softly, "Good work, Dai, thank you." She enters the house and closes the door softly behind her, locking it. She looks alongside the door and flicks the light switch that is located there. Her attention quickly scans the hallway. Stairs leading to the second floor greet them. Off to their left appears to be a living room. In the corner a television emits a soft glow though the sound appears to be mute. A fireplace crackles and the smell of cherry wood spills out into the hall. Finally, her attention settles on the woman.

Dai smiles at the woman on the couch where he set her down. "Nice lady. I feel a little bad about doing that to her. Anyway, I did a quick sweep of the house well I was in here and didn't see anyone else. My advice is to check her bedroom upstairs. If there is any information I imagine it would be stored in a box in the closet or hope chest. But that's only my advice."

She nods at Dai's words though her attention is focused on the woman. She kneels before the couch and places a hand on the lady's arm, "Tony," she purses her lips and swallows, "I'm so sorry." She strokes the woman's arm for a moment before rising. Yosannah reaches for an open book that rests on the nearby endtable. She inverts it and places it Antonia's lap, as if the woman might had been reading it before dozing off. With that, she turns to Dai and nods, "Right. She used to keep scrap books when we were... when she was younger. I'm hoping she kept up with it. Let's head upstairs."

Dai nods sadly at Yo and begins to walk upstairs, his soft boots making no noise at all. Once upstairs he heads into the woman's bed room. As expected, a hope chest rests at the foot of the queen sized bed. He pulls out two small objects from his inside coat pocket. He kneels before the hope chest and begins to work on the lock.

Yosannah is preoccupied with the rest of the bed room. Her attention settles on a picture, framed and resting on a dresser. She collects it and studies it for a long moment. Stepping over to Dai she says, "Look." and holds out the picture. The image therein is of two young women standing alonside a railing. The Niagra Falls loom in the background. Yosannah is there, looking much like she does now, her arm is drapped around the other woman. An attractive young brunette who appears to be the same age. The two woman are smiling, laughter in their eyes.

Dai smiles sadly and nods. "You were very close the two of you? It is a pity that you were seperated for so long." He turns back to the lock and continues to work it with his tools, making clicking noises. "One of these days you will have to tell me what happened to you Yo, what caused you to leave this place."

Yosannah sets the picture back atop the dresser and nods, "That's what we're trying to find out." She begins to systematically look through a bookshelf. Occasionally, she pulls out an album, ruffles through it and places it back on the shelf. "We've only got about thirty minutes or so though. We shouldn't push it beyond that."

Suddenly there is a loud click as Dai picks the lock. He smiles in satisfaction and opens the hope chest, looking around inside. "Any idea of what exactly we're looking for? I mean, what does that book look like?"

Yosannah kneels and opens a cupboard at the base of the bookshelf, "You'll know it when you see it. She used to keep books, scrap books of all the major events for our families." She smiles as she reflects, "Track meets, news paper clippings, marriages, that sort of thing." She ruffles though some papers, searching herself.

Dai begins going through the chest. He pulls out a few books and begins to leaf through them. "Wedding photos." He sets one book aside. "Baby through teenage years of her daughter." He sets it on top of the other. "The high school through college years. Hmm......your cousin's daughter is cute," he observes as he sets yet another book aside. He continues to go through the albums.

Yosannah glances over her shoulder as he speaks. She closes the cupboard and moves to where he is, kneeling beside him, "Let me see there..." She reaches for one of the books and opens it. She traces a finger along the pictures of Antonia, her daughter and, "there's her husband." She smiles, "he was a great guy." She shakes her head and chuckles, "Here's some of his clippings from the police force." And then, "But it'd before this, I think."

Dai nods and looks into the hope chest. "She kept everything didn't she." He reaches down to the bottom and pulls out the albums located there. "Check the ones near the bottom on that side Yo. My guess is that your meticulous cousin has these in chronological order."

Yosannah reaches into the chest and withdraws several more of the books. She scans them quickly, passing by years of memories in seconds until, "Oh my god. Here." Setting a stack aside she begins to slowly review the pages of one book in particular, "My law school graduation listings." She skims the news paper clipping and settles a finger over a line. She nods and turns the page. More pictures of a graduation. Another page. "What the hell..." She furrows her brow.

Dai frowns and sits up looking closely at the book. "What is it?"

Yosannah adjusts the book so that he might get a clearer look at what it is that she is seeing. An article is attached to the page, scotch tape yellowed with age. The headline reads: British Airways flight 1229 crashes over Atlantic. 237 declared dead. She mutters, "That's not possible."

Dai arches an eyebrow. "I take it you were on that plane? If so, how did you survive? Furthermore......where was the first place you remember being after finding your way out into the multiverse?"

She nods as she mutters, "Good questions." She reads, quickly, taking in as much of the information as she can. Turning the page there is another article, "Apparently, I didn't." Her finger points to an obituary and her image. "My god, they think I'm dead."

Dai blinks. "Well it's a good thing you didn't go to the door then. Poor lady would have had a heart attack. Question is, where do we go from here? I mean we now know that they have thought you to be dead for some time. We could try pulling all of the files on the plane crash and such to determine if there was anything strange about the accident. I guess my main question is, what exactly do you wish to find out and how far do you want to go with this? I'm in and willing to help you out with anything Yo, so whatever you need help with, let me know. But we need some leads as to where to go from here in determining what you want to know.

She runs her hand over the obituary, jaw working as she considers. She flips over a few more pages and, noting nothing of interest, closes the book, "I apprecate the sentiment. I think maybe I need a day or two to think this over, you know?" She looks at him, sincere, though there is also uncertainty in her eyes. "In any event, we had better get this mess back in order. We're running short on time."

Dai reaches over and squeezes Yo's hand before turning and beginning to place in chronological order back into the chest. "Take all the time you need to think it over. I'll be around whenever you need help, if that's what you decide to do." He finishes replacing the books and closes the chest. He stands and offers Yo a hand up. "No need to wipe the place down. I doubt she'll think that anybody broke in."

Yosannah takes the offered hand and rises, "Probably not. But it can't hurt to be cautious." She looks about the room, "Mind doing the duty while I go back downstairs. I want to make certain she doesn't remember this little visit."

Dai nods. "Okay. I'll be down in a few minutes." He takes a handkerchef from his coat pocket and begins to wipe down anything they touched while in the room.