Andrius opened his mouth then closed it again. He wasn’t sure what to say. Nothing like this had happened to him before. It was confusing.
“Why?” he asked again.
Milda huffed and stomped her foot. “Piles of snow, Andrius! Is ‘why’ the only word you know?”
“Well, no. It isn’t.”
“Okay?”
Milda was acting very strangely. She waited for an answer while Andrius leaned away, keeping a skeptical eye on her.
“Okay,” he said at length. He was not perfectly certain what it was exactly that he had agreed to, but Milda looked satisfied. She smiled, then began walking again, tapping her cane the way she always did.
“So do you have your offering ready?” she asked politely. Andrius fell into step with her. They were almost to First Stone.
“Yes. Do you?”
“Of course I have mine, Andrius. What is yours? A poem or a speech? I know it isn’t a song.”
“It’s a pattern.”
“Again?”
Andrius nodded. “It’s better this year.”
“Andrius, you always do the weirdest things for offering.” She held up a pacifying hand. “I’m not trying to be mean, but they are. Nobody really gets them.”
Andrius knew she was right. He held his offering out in front of his face. He liked it.
“Well I don’t get everybody,” he said under his breath.
“The year you made that pitcher was okay. Not good enough to get picked, of course, but respectable. You carved all of those cool designs into it.”
Andrius felt the weight of the water pitcher in his hand. He was proud of the work he had done to make it. He had only been eight.
“You should do something like that again,” Milda offered.
There was a lull in the conversation as they grew closer to Gimdymo Namai, then began to angle around it to where Brick Road began. Andrius strained his ears, but there was no delivery happening today. The shutters were closed anyway.
“I’m reciting a poem I wrote,” Milda declared.
“You aren’t singing?” Andrius asked, surprised.
Milda laughed. “Not when Berena has a better song. I want to get picked again, so I’m doing poetry this year.”
Andrius hadn’t thought of that. “So you think a poem has a better chance?”
Milda grinned. “Well, think about it. If—”
“Milda! Listen!”
Milda stopped dead in her tracks. They were nearly to the beginning of Brick Road, and the building didn’t hide him anymore: on a modest stump that served as a temporary seat, sat the stranger from beyond the barrier.
His eyes were closed and his head tilted back. He breathed in the cool afternoon air steadily in through his nose, then out through his mouth.
“It’s him,” Andrius whispered.
Milda crouched down instinctively and whispered back.
“Who is he?”
Before Andrius could answer, the man opened his eyes and lazily swiveled his head in their direction.
“What are you two gawking at?”
Andrius’s heart seized in his chest and Milda gasped. He considered running, but Milda had grasped his hand tightly and he wasn’t sure what to think about that. In short order, it was too late.
“What, are you gawkers and deaf? I asked what you two were marveling at in my general direction.”
The strange man wasn’t smiling, but there was a certain reassurance to his bearing. Andrius averted his eyes.
Milda put a hand on her hip and answered defiantly. “We were gawking at you.” She then leaned in and whispered to Andrius, “What does ‘gawking’ mean?”
Andrius shrugged. He didn’t know.
The stranger chuckled, surprising them both.
“I’m only having some fun with you. Come here if you want to talk. I could use some information anyway. You do have some information, don’t you?”
Andrius shrugged again. Milda frowned but did not speak.
“What, can’t you look at me? What are your names?”
“What does ‘look’ mean?” Milda asked Andrius. He didn’t answer her; he spoke directly to the man.
“I’m Andrius. What does ‘look’ mean?”
“My name is Milda,” she interjected.
The stranger tilted his head back and his eyes rolled along with the motion. Andrius was still facing the ground. He only perceived the stranger out of the corner of his eye.
“It means turn your head and face me. Don’t you speak Lithuanian? It was starting to seem like everyone in this place does.”
“Of course we speak Lithuanian,” Milda replied matter-of-factly. She let go of Andrius’s hand and crossed her arms. “What else would we speak?”
“Well,” the stranger returned, “being as we are in Lower Tatras, I thought maybe you spoke Slovakian or Russian maybe. Your town is very strange, but I will say that it was pleasant to wake up hearing my mother tongue. It was weird, though.” The stranger stretched his legs out in front of him, yawned, and wiped his face. “Little boy—Andrius, was it? Why won’t you look at me? It’s rude.”
Slowly Andrius lifted his eyes and rested them on the stranger. His clothes were ripped in a few places, and he had a raggedy beard, but he still looked like he was in the prime of his life. Twenty-eight, maybe. But none of this was what captured Andrius’s attention.
“There, that’s better,” the stranger said, studying Andrius closely. “Thank you.”
“What happened to you?” Milda asked. Andrius was still mesmerized. It was the strangest thing that he looked upon.
“Heat exhaustion, I think. Stupid, I know. I had plenty of supplies, but I got lost and spent an extra two days wandering around. All of the trails are overgrown. No one appreciates nature anymore. Did you know that a couple hundred years ago backpacking was a pretty common pastime? Outdoorsmanship, they called it. Now I couldn’t even pull a partner away from his elon screen long enough to come on a weekend trip.” He shook his head. “Well, it was supposed to be a weekend trip. Longer now, I guess.”
Andrius was still examining and puzzling over this singularity in front of him, and Milda was quiet for several moments before responding.
“What?”
“What do you mean, what?”
Milda huffed and patted Andrius on the back.
“He’s confusing, Andrius. I’m going to lessons. Bye.”
“Goodbye, Milda.” The stranger waved. He watched her go for a moment, and then he looked back at Andrius and frowned. “What’s the matter with you, kid? You look like you’re staring at a zombie or something. An alien, maybe.”
Andrius shook his head and tried to look away from it, but he couldn’t. It was so bizarre, so fascinating.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Eh, don’t worry about it. I’m sure I’ve done my share of rude staring too. Who knew there was a village all the way out here. You guys been here long?”
Andrius set his pitcher on the ground. “What do you mean? We’ve been here since the Fallout and the end of the Hausen War.”
The stranger raised his eyebrows. “Really? Wow. It’s been a while then.” He held out his hand. “The name’s Daniel.”