"Depends on whether William can see us right away. If he does, then twenty minutes at most. He needs to collect your biometrics and input them into your phone and into the system."
"Then I'll come by around—" Tula paused. "Actually, I don't know where you live. Or how to find anything in this village."
"I'll take you," Wonder said. "And after Esag shows you how to work the phone, you will also know how to find your way around the village and where everyone lives. It's all in there."
Tula's eyes widened. "That's incredible."
Wonder nodded. "I love modern technology."
"Yeah," Tula said more hesitantly. "Me too." She pushed to her feet and gave Esag a parting smile. "I'll see you in about an hour. Okay?"
"Perfect."
After they left, Esag sat at the table, staring at his coffee cup without seeing it.
Tula was coming to his house to see his workshop, and she wanted him to show her how to use the phone.
Then it hit him.
Tula was coming to his house, and the place was a mess.
He had a lot of cleaning up to do before he could invite a lady inside.
When he got back home, he assessed the place as someone who was seeing it for the first time would, and he cringed. Dishes were piled in the sink, crumbs covered the kitchen counter, and there was something sticky on the floor. There were empty beer bottles and dirty plates on the coffee table in the living room.
None of that was his doing.
After returning from Safe Harbor, he'd found the house in an even worse state, and he'd ordered his roommates to clean up. They had, but it had taken only one evening for them to create almost as much mess as there had been before, and he'd been too preoccupied to notice it when he'd left the house this morning.
Esag rolled up his sleeves and attacked the kitchen first. He washed the dishes, scrubbed the counters, and mopped the floor twice because he had only redistributed the dirt.
The living room came next. He gathered the beer bottles and empty plates, fluffed the couch cushions, and even dusted surfaces that hadn't been dusted in weeks.
Then he moved to his bedroom.
His bed was made, and the room was mess-free, but there was a lot of dust to be wiped from every surface because of the workshop that lived in his closet.
The floor of the bedroom and the workshop needed vacuuming, the shelves needed dusting, and the figurines needed better organization for the best display.
Especially the figurines of Tula.
Esag looked at the small collection he'd built up over the preceding weeks. There were at least a dozen Tula figures, each one capturing a different aspect of her. Tula smiling with a sarcastic tilt of her lips. Tula pensive, looking worried and hopeful at the same time. Tula with her hand on her belly, an angelic smile on her face, as her thoughts focused on the child growing inside her.
He'd carved them because something in him had needed to. Because when he'd tried to carve Wonder's face, Tula's had emerged instead. Because the Fates, or destiny, or whatever force governed such things had decided these two sisters would both mark his life, each in her own way.
Would Tula like the figurines or think they were creepy?
Too late to worry about that now. She was coming, and he needed to finish cleaning.
After opening all the windows in the bedroom to let fresh air in, he brushed the wood shavings from the workshop into a bin and then vacuumed the floor. He was about to start rearranging the figurines on the shelves when the doorbell rang.
Esag rushed to the bathroom to wash his hands and checked his reflection in the bathroom mirror. His hair was disheveled and sported wood shavings, and his shirt was dusty, but there was no time to brush his hair and change his shirt.
The doorbell rang again, and he rushed over to open the door.
Tula stood on his doorstep, looking beautiful and holding a small bag that must contain her new phone.
She tilted her head, studying him. "Why are you sweaty?"
