Pompeii 79 AD
My head pounds like a rock band has taken up residence in my skull. My hands tally the extent of my injuries, finding bruising and my dress missing. My underwear is damp under the blanket covering me.
"I think she's awake," a girl's voice pierces my throbbing skull, drowning out the rain drumming on the roof.
I force my eyes open to find myself lying on a bed in a shadowy room. Two people lean over me, but the only one I see is Will. I don't know where I am in time, but it doesn't matter. Will is here beside me.
He is taller and broader in the shoulders than last time we met. His cave boy dreadlocks have been replaced by a short neat trim, but his face is the same, if not slightly older. The pain and noise fade away until all I can hear is my pounding heart.
"Are you alright?" Will asks. Butterflies flutter in my stomach as though something amazing may happen if I can hold onto this moment.
"Of course she is not alright, Villius. She hit her head," the girl says. My world spins.
"Do you not have somewhere else to be, Elisia?" Will says.
"No," she replies.
"Will," I say. The room begins to fade away. I reach out to grab his hand so I don't slip away for good.
Time passes. When I wake again, Will is beside me, still holding my hand. Eventually my nausea passes and I hear voices by the door.
"We don't know where she's come from," says a man.
"She must belong to someone," a woman replies.
"Can we keep her?" Elisia asks. "She can have Aelia's bed."
I focus on Will's face in the dim room. His head is cocked to one side listening to the conversation outside.
"Will they let me stay? I don't have anywhere else to go," I whisper. Will squeezes my hand.
When I next open my eyes, Elisia is sitting on the edge of the bed swinging her feet. Her face is familiar. I blink several times before I can convince myself she is Lee whose life I saved in Africa. She was not around the last time I met Will.
"You should put her in the shrine with the other Gods." Elisia points to my statue when she notices I'm awake.
I sit up slowly and swing my legs to the floor, careful to avoid kicking the girl studying me. The room spins for a few moments before settling in place. Daylight spills through the doorway, illuminating the shadowy paintings on the walls. Either they depict the feats of Hercules, or I hit my head harder than I thought.
"Sure," I tell Elisia.
She bounds to her feet and tosses me the tunic lying across the end of the bed, before hovering at the door impatiently. I pull the cloth over my head and tie it at my shoulders like hers. When I stand, it reaches the floor. Elisia's dress ends at her knees.
Outside the room, I blink in the brightness of the ceilingless courtyard dominating the centre of the house. The day is already warm, although by the angle of light hitting the tiled floor, it's still morning. Elisia tugs on my arm and I follow her through to the front of the house where the timber doors are propped open, letting the breeze blow through.
Inside the entrance, an assortment of Gods perch on the ledge surrounding a dish in which to burn offerings. I add my statue to the collection. My stomach rumbles reminding me I haven't eaten for some time.
"You must be hungry. Villius says I'm always hungry," Elisia says. She skips back through the atrium towards the back of the house.
"Where is your brother?" I follow behind her.
"He's at the bakery with Father and Aelia's husband." She turns and smiles at me. "He didn't want to leave today in case you woke." I come to a standstill as Elisia skips on unaware of my blushing face. I hurry after her trying to keep the silly grin from my face.
Elisia comes to a halt in a peaceful indoor garden of herbs, flowers and espaliered fruit trees surrounded by pillars, and sits down on the stone bench. The back wall is painted with a stunning display of wild animals. The whole house is decorated in bright art, emphasising their fascination with the gods and myths. I study it all trying to place myself in a time or place.
A servant arrives with our midday meal which we eat where we are. When we have finished, Elisia introduces me to the family living in the house. As well as Will, or Villius as he is known here, Elisia and their parents, there is an extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins, slaves and ex-slaves. The latter of the group live in the rooms upstairs.
Come Saturn's day, we walk to the market in the forum as a family. Will, making the most of his time off work, ruffles his sister's hair and teases her about what she might purchase from the vendors. Elisia and Mother pause to admire some fabric, while Will inspects the wares of the grain suppliers. My chest tightens to see him acting like an adult. I don't want him to leave me behind while I'm not here.
The girls at the market smile and exchange banter with Will. I hang back from the world. Will sees me standing alone in the busy market, he walks over and takes my hand.
"Why so shy? I thought we were friends." He grins at me and suddenly even the sun shines brighter. I walk with him, my hand in his and my heart beats faster. I wish I knew how to stay in this world forever.
A girl begs in the marketplace, invisible to most people. I see a reflection of myself in her eyes. I can't help her. I don't even know how to help myself when I am alone. Will pauses when he notices her. A smile spreads across his face as he releases my hand and walks towards her.
"Good morning to you, Livia," Will greets her. He offers her one of the figs we purchased this morning. She takes it from him and smiles as though he is an angel come to Earth solely for her.
"The gods bless you, Master Villius," she replies. Will loiters for a few minutes to exchange pleasantries with the girl before we move on.
"Is she your girlfriend?" I ask when we are out of earshot. I glance back at the girl eating her fruit.
"No, why would you think that?"
"You were very friendly with her," I say. Will stops walking and turns to look at me. I drag my eyes away from the girl that captured his attention.
"Livia has nothing. Sometimes a smile is all that is needed to change a person's day and it cost me nothing to give."
"I don't think I have any to spare," I say.
"The more happiness you put out into the world, the more will find its way back to you. If I can make one person's day better because of my actions, it's been a good day for everyone," Will says.
We collect the last of our shopping and Will sends the house slaves to take the items home. He takes me the long way back so I can see some of his favourite places in the town.
Visible cracks run through several building walls, some with signs of repair. Will tells me of a great ground tremor that occurred a year or two before he was born. It did much damage to their town and some buildings have still not been fully restored.
"Why are you sad, Lucy?" Will pauses to ask me. I'm frowning. The dilapidated buildings seep a depression that affects me more than I realised. They stand as a warning, reminding me nothing lasts forever. I'm only visiting.
"Sometimes I forget how to smile," I say.
Will steps towards me until I'm staring into his deep brown eyes. The butterflies return to my stomach. His expression is serious as he reaches up to my face. He places his thumbs on either side of my mouth and lifts, then he leans in to whisper in my ear.
"It's quite simple. First you lift the corners of your mouth and then imagine a tiny spider wearing a water droplet as a hat."
I laugh as his breath tickles my ear. He pulls away, but takes hold of my hand as we continue walking. My smile remains as I glance over at him. There is still a concern about the damaged buildings. I run through everything I know about earthquakes and keep an eye out for open spaces that would be safe if another big one occurred. I'm satisfied I can protect Will and his family. I see no other dangers that might threaten my friend.
Elisia insists Will take the both of us to see a play at the amphitheatre. It's often used for the gladiator and wild animal fighting, but Mother says Elisia is too young to watch such bloody sports. I'm glad we are not going to see that. Watching someone fight a lion would only remind me of the day I lost Wu.
I sit between Will and Elisia on the stone benches with a view of the performers, as well as the elite members of this town sitting below us. My thigh brushes Will's as he leans into me to explain what is happening on the stage. Elisia grabs my arm in excitement.
I take a deep breath and close my eyes for a moment to hold the image in my mind so I can draw it in the future. For the moment I'm completely in the present as I am swept up in the performance and Will's attentiveness.
He takes my hand as we walk back to the house. I hold Elisia's with my other, they are warm in mine. When Will leans in to ask me what I thought of the performance, his breath tickles my ear in a way that makes my stomach do back flips.
I crawl into the bed I share with Elisia and lie awake committing the evening to memory. When I finally fall asleep, it is with the image of Will's eyes and story repeating in my mind.
I wake abruptly in the early hours of the morning to the bed shaking. Elisia whimpers in the darkness beside me. I reach out to touch the wall and feel the movement beneath my fingers. Something topples from a shelf and smashes into the ground.
I throw the blanket off and grab Elisia. We run into the atrium where other members of the family join us. My eyes search frantically for Will and find him standing not far from us. I hug Elisia who grasps me like she's never going to let go. I want to leave the house, but that would mean passing under shaking ceilings. I stare up into the starry sky above us and whisper to myself that we are safe here. Nothing can fall on us.
The tremor stops as suddenly as it began. Will grins and hugs us when he sees my terrified face and his sister still clinging to me. The adults laugh off the situation and tell stories of the massive quake that did so much damage only seventeen years earlier. This one is nothing to worry about.
My heart rate refuses to slow and I'm sure my time in Will's world is drawing to an end. The adults examine the damage from smashed pottery and glass as well as a large crack in one wall. One of the slaves is tasked with commissioning a decorator to repair the damage in the morning.
The family go back to their rooms. I crawl cautiously into bed, but I can't sleep. I toss and turn several times before getting up again. I sit on the stone bench by the well under the night sky and study the house surrounding me. Elisia creeps out to join me. She lies down, placing her head in my lap. I stoke her hair until she drifts off to sleep. I eventually nod off where I sit.
By morning, my neck and behind ache from dozing on the bench. The crack in the wall taunts me and the faulty water flow through the pipes to the house adds to the discomfort of the day.
Will suggests we take a trip to see the countryside to take my mind off last night's dramas. As nothing can fall on you in an earthquake in the open, I agree to the outing.
A slave packs us a lunch of bread, cheese and fruits while Will hitches two mules to the family's cart and takes the driver's seat. I sit in the cart and listen to the sounds of the wheels rolling over the black cobblestone road as we head out the Vesuvius Gate. My shoulders relax as we roll further from the town.
Will's family has land out this way looked after by tenants, producing a mixture of grains, winemaking grapes, and fruit trees including olives for oil. The chickens and pigs provide fertiliser and meat.
Much of the town's food supplies come from these farms creeping up the sides of the mountain, taking advantage of the rich soil. Vesuvius is only five miles from the town and we leave the mules to graze at the base while we hike on foot.
We follow human and animal tracks leading to the summit. When we stop for lunch, Will tells me how Spartacus and his rebel slaves camped on this mountain nearly one and a half centuries ago. I glance nervously over my shoulder, but no gladiators appear.
My legs ache by the time we reach the peak of the mountain. I stop to catch my breath and look out over the countryside to our little town below. Several roads lead from it to other exotic locations. To the south of the town lies the ocean. I turn around and look at the top of the mountain Vesuvius.
If anyone was ever to ask me what a panic attack feels like, I would describe this moment to them. The mountain has no peak. What I'd seen as I climbed was the ridge around a crater at the top of Vesuvius.
My knees give way as I drop to all fours and peer over the edge. I'm light headed. The floor of the crater is stony grey. Nothing grows here. Steam rises in pockets from the cracked floor. I stare in disbelief. An active volcano is the cause of the earthquakes.
***
Hi Everyone. Thanks for reading my story. This is a published book so I can't post the whole thing here. If you'd like to find out what happens to Lucy and Will, check out the whole book here: https://www.amazon.com/If-I-Wake-Nikki-Moyes-ebook/dp/B01LZ87NNQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1476150113&sr=8-1&keywords=if+i+wake+by+nikki+moyes