Chapter 8 Enara

How will I get you out of there? Shane thought as he looked incredulous at the object with utmost intensity.

When he lost that bracelet twenty years ago, he gave up the thought of returning to Lunara. But now that he's seen it, there might just be a chance. But he needs to know how to get it out first.

He didn't know how to go back to his old home which was metaphorically speaking a billion light-years away. And when he found himself inside this strange place of New York City where he arrived twenty years ago the first thing that he kept looking for was that moon charm bracelet that had been secured to his wrist. It never lost itself while he was still at home back in Lunara despite playing all day long. It had a secure fit that prevented it from falling off his wrist.

And now the only thing that reminded him of who he truly was--was securedly locked inside the glass-covered case displayed among the ancients of the world.

He was chewing on his cheek as he looked at it with grim ferocity. He knew that he had just proposed to Katarina and has every intention of marrying her. But with this sudden discovery of finding the lost moon bracelet and seeing a woman that looked like Enara, the past catches up with him fast. He just might as well have a chance of going back to Lunara after all. He was cupping his mouth while he looked at it.

Damned with Fates, he thought grimly.

If he still felt like going back to Lunara, he thought because at this very moment what he was feeling was a sickening mixture of confusion and anger silently boiling up from his insides.

Damn this bracelet. He thought with disgust. He looked at it with morphing expressions on his face. Why must you appear when I no longer think of going back to where I come from?

I can always pretend that I never saw you, you pesky shit of stone! He looked at it with anger.

Then, as if to mock him more, as he changed his gaze from looking at the moon bracelet, his sight shifting to a wall as he turned around the room, he was caught by another object. His eyes widened with disbelief.

There it was hanging on an ancient Indian tribe dress costume locked inside the glass case. An object similar to his bracelet. The moon necklace. Just perfect, he thought.

His teeth made an ugly twitch inside his mouth.

The day just got better as I visit this ugly archaic place of dust and forgetting. What more surprises are in store? Shane thought sarcastically unbelieving his turn of luck.

His mind was running in ugly ripples of blackness and shadows as he looked at it with an ugly point of attention. His visit to the museum just turned into a nightmare. He crossed the floor and studied the object closer.

It couldn't be right. And it couldn't be wrong. He can fully recall that the object he was looking at with an ugly expression on his face was none other than Enara's necklace. He knows that the particular necklace could be just like any other ancient antiques of the old Indian world but the way the string of the moon necklace and its design completely matches the moon bracelet that was set on display from the glass that he left just a while ago with its black stringed straw couldn't break any more truth of the authenticity that the necklace in front of him is actually hers.

Her moonstone charm necklace.

The necklace had a center white opal stone—a smaller spherical stone than the size of a jackstone ball. The black string crosses the small opening at its center side stringing along three smaller crescent-shaped flat white moons facing the sphere stone on each side with two smaller round flat white stones again before the black string extended to form the necklace.

"I didn't know that looking at an ancient necklace could be so loathsome."

A woman's sunny clear voice spoke as Shane looked at the object with hateful eyes. He veered his head to the side to find an attractive woman with short wavy blond hair and was studying the necklace too with cool eyes.

"Does that necklace really make you angry looking at it ferociously? Lighten up, will you? It's just a necklace."

She said as she flicked her attention from it and looked at him assessing him with her cool brown gaze.

"Ah…no," Shane said shaking his head, removing his sight from it, and studied the floor for a second before looking back at her. "A…a thought just entered my mind and unfortunately it was an angry one. I'm sorry you have to see me looking so angry at the necklace. You are…? "

The woman broke into a smile.

"Julienne Rosewood. I'm the curator of this museum. Rose told me that a journalist was waiting for me in the T Rex room but I didn't find him there and went to this room and find you. Shane Anderson, is that correct?"

"Yes. That's right. I am. Glad to meet you, Miss Rosewood."

"Let's drop the formalities, Shane. I'm already filled with more than formal forms of human history and ancient stuff to be called Miss Rosewood in this archaic room. So let's just call each other our names, okay?"

"Sure, no problem, Julienne."

"So, how can I help you?"

Shane threw one last dark look at the necklace before he answered Julienne and started to step away from the tribe dress glass case. Julienne walked beside him and they kept walking while talking.

"I'm here to ask you about the 150-anniversary celebration of the museum." Shane opened the conversation as he quietly opened his bag from his side taking his mobile from the inside.

"Ah, right. Preparations are under way. We'll have the celebration next week. Next Wednesday. You can come to celebrate with us. The party starts at 6 pm. I'll give you an invitation later."

"I would love to come, Julienne. Thanks for inviting me. Who are the big names in attendance?"

"We have Mayor Blasé to cut the ribbon for the 150 years commemoration. Senator Clifford and Senator Jackson will be here. President Biden and VP Harris will grace the attendants. K will sing her latest hit. I'll send you a list of who will join and the menu we have before the 150 celebrations. Give me your email."

She handed him her phone to type it and he gave it back to her.

"Thanks, Julienne."

"Sure, no problem. I'll send it after we talk. You will help us further promote the museum so I'm grateful as well. The 150th anniversary draws the interest of the public but we would be grateful for more visitors to come in the future. We've redesigned this room. Reclassified items and kinds of stuff. More interesting things were added to the collection of the dust and forgotten."

She said looking around the room.

"Do you have anything new to display? To show off?"

He asked while they wandered around the room.

"We have a saber fossil that we added to the collection. It's found on the second floor. And extinct bones of an ancient aquatic animal on the second floor as well next to the mammals' room. They'll be shown the first time during the celebration."

"The kids will love to see it."

Julienne stopped walking upon hearing Shane said it.

"Why? Are the school kids not yet allowed to see it?"

Julienne looked at him with her clear brown eyes and shook her head with a smile.

"Actually, my director and I are into this argument just this morning about it. Coz she wants to show the new fossils display the night of the celebration but I told her the school kids are coming to the place to do their field trips as well."

"Ah. So you two haven't found an agreement about it?"

She shook her head.

"I told her the anniversary is just a one-time thing that will be celebrated and the pour of schools coming to do their field trip has also cropped up this month. So, why don't we just give those kids that show? They'll be the ones who will appreciate them more anyway. There are many schools booked to come here starting Monday."

"Yeah. I can see your point. School children are the ones who will be highly excited to hear this news. And maybe more schools will visit your museum."

They paced into the next room while she showed him the displays on the floor. Once they're done looking around, Julienne looked at him with an excited face.

"So, as the first person who agreed with me on this idea, Shane. Why don't I give you the honor to be the first guest of these holy bones?"

Shane laughed at her comment and followed Julienne to the second-floor room.

"Why are you laughing?" She asked as they walked to the mammals' room.

"Really? Holy bones? Is that how you call them, Julienne?"

He asked amused at her reference of the extinct fossils.

"Oh, that's how I call every new fossil collection that enters into our premise," she said explaining. "Won't you feel that way? They're already so old and extinct. They almost feel holy to our hands."

She raised her arms together in a gesture of worship as she spoke to emphasize it.

"Yeah, I get it." He said and kept chuckling.

They entered the mammals' room and checked every bone of extinct animals. Then they entered a new room that was almost empty except for the new saber bones. The first saber-toothed predator was called gorgonopsians from the late Permian period.

"It's empty except for those bones." He said looking at the fossil that still needs to be arranged.

"Don't worry. We are rearranging this room. Probably after two days it would be done and completed so when you come here on Wednesday, you and the rest of the world will not see this empty room."

She walked him to another room. This time it was the aquatic room. And she showed him the marine fossils. It was a fossil of a giant sea lizard called a giant mosasaur from the end of the Cretaceous period from Morocco. The new species is named Pluridens serpentis. It had slender jaws with hundred sharp fang teeth but small eyes.

Julienne tried to mask a worried expression on her face.

"You've gone silent, Julienne."

She did not look at him and looked at the expanse of the room.

"Just a bit worried," she said in a passive voice. "I hope Rana will find these rooms next Wednesday. There are two entrances here. It should send her the right direction."

Shane looked at the room, too, then turned at her studying her closely.

"Hell. I didn't notice this earlier, Julienne," he said and laughed good-naturedly. "But you were the woman who called her that name. Rana."

"Ah…" realization dawned on Julienne's face and her gaze narrowed down at him. "And you were the creep that Rana was talking about."

"She called me a 'creep', ha?"

"You were calling her Enara. That pissed her off."

"So your friend is she bad with directions?"

"Did you eavesdrop on us there at the Park?" asked Julienne with a raised brow.

Shane quickly denied it.

"No, I just happened to hear it when I was leaving. Is she that bad with directions?"

"Yes. So bad with directions. She's been liked that since eighteen. That's because she has amnesia—"

Julienne stopped herself.

Shane stood beside her hiding his shock.

No way. It couldn't be.