The World Walkers: Taithmarin’s Earth: Maria: Returning to Earth (part 2)
Part 1
No matter how grateful Maria was to have money she knew that £200 wasn’t going to get her very far at all and £10, although it was better than nothing, really wasn’t going to get her anywhere. She blinked away tears, because she didn’t want to cry. Someone passing might ask her what was wrong and she needed to come up with some sort of logical story before that happened. What would have happened to her to leave her in such a difficult position? A boyfriend, maybe, who’d asked her to leave the flat they’d shared. He didn’t love her any more and it had hurt so much to hear that she had just left. Got on a bus and travelled to somewhere else with the little money she had on her, no bank card, and no clean clothes… she shook her head. If she was in that sort of position she wouldn’t have done something so stupid.
Sighing, Maria headed for the nearest coffee shop. It was a waste of money, but she needed somewhere she could sit and think. There had to be some way to survive on Earth… she didn’t need a coffee shop. She needed an Internet cafe. Even though most people did forget someone who’d travelled to Taithmarin not everyone did, because often they were immune to the magic, and there were others who had returned to Earth, so she needed to find someone who knew about the world she’d just left behind. Once she had hopefully she would have a place to start. Finding an Internet cafe, though, might be harder than she wanted it to be. Fortunately she could always use the library if it came to that, but she’d quite like something to drink at the same time. Maybe vodka. That would help.
Knowing what she needed to do was a step in the right direction, though, so Maria started walking, hoping that she would come across somewhere she could use the Internet soon. The longer she spent wandering the more lost she felt, because the world she had left behind wasn’t the same as the one she’d returned to, although there weren’t so many differences that she didn’t think she could get used to it. With time. Like the time she had spent getting used to Taithmarin, its magic, and the races there. An unwanted tear trickled down her cheek and she scrubbed it away. She’d never wanted to travel to another world, no one she knew had, but she’d found herself a place there.
Finally, after what felt like hours, Maria found what appeared to be a very small Internet cafe. All of the computers appeared to be in use, but she was willing to wait, if they would give her some sort of hot drink, and maybe a snack. It had been a long time since breakfast and she’d travelled from one world to another. She opened the door and stepped into the building, which was very warm. Her eyes met with those of the man behind the desk, just for a moment, before she managed to summon a smile for him, but by then he’d already seen how she really felt.
Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.