It was the next day, and once again Alex sat by the stream, near the Bridge to Sandorra. Today was much hotter, so she sat on the lowest step with her feet in the shallow water. She knew she would remember to stand up slowly and not bump her head again. That tended to lead to long, weird trips.
Yesterday had been hectic, after her return. Her aunt and uncle had not yet returned from grocery shopping when Alex came back. She was able to run up to her room and change into something cleaner and dryer before their return. She also hid her beloved copy of The Prince and the Pauper, which she knew she'd have some trouble explaining, with its personalized autograph not only by Mark Twain, but also his three children.
She also changed from shorts to jeans, and wore a long- sleeved blouse, but even with that, Aunt Micki with her well- honed motherly instincts spotted her bruises and scratches and immediately switched to nurse mode. Alex quickly made up a story of slipping and falling against one of the rock walls in the stream, but Aunt Micki was much more interested in healing than hearing. They had a wonderful time doing patient-and-nurse. Aunt Micki even made some of her famous matzoh ball chicken soup medicine.
Today was much more relaxing than yesterday. In fact, her entire life rolled together was more relaxing than yesterday. Her journey was beginning to take on a feeling of impossibility in her mind, and if she didn't have the book, she'd have written it off as a strange dream.
As soon as she could, she had checked out her uncle's library, and sure enough there were more Mark Twain books than she remembered. She saw The Connecticut Yankee and resolved to read it as quickly as possible. Even more exciting was Papa, a published copy of Susy's biography of her father! Alex would have to wait a little while before reading that one, until she had put more emotional distance behind her.
Sitting there, listening to the quiet hum of the bees and the gurgling of the stream, she was feeling sleepy with the pure peacefulness of this magic spot. She felt something nudging her foot, but it was only a bottle that had drifted down from upstream. She picked it up to throw away later, but noticed the top was sealed with wax, and there was paper rolled inside. She broke the wax seal, shook out the paper, and unrolled it. It said:
Dearest Alex,
It was wonderful to see you return yesterday, happy and healthy, from your mission. Everyone is thrilled with what you did, and with your time travel abilities. You were completely successful, and you proved that we can repair damage done to history, if we need to.
Igor and Joseph were so impressed by what you did that they've made you a Time Warden! In Sandorra, this is our highest honor. Congratulations.
I was sorry that you had to leave so quickly, because we hardly got to know each other. I know that we can be great friends if we ever have some time to spend together. Right now, however, our worlds are in one of those positions where travel by living things can't be done. You must be a bottle or something like that to get across.
I hope that you can visit here again someday, and that we can renew our friendship. Please remember me, because I'll always remember you.
Love,
Deanna
With a tear in her eye, Alex stood up and bumped her head on the bottom of the Sitting Tree.