As Gigi continues to rehearse the past, the thought occurs to refer back to her mother’s statement. “Mom, you said we are visiting multiple storyboards this time. Which is the first?”
As Cat holds up her hand and begins moving her fingers to suggest numbers, she answers, “We are going to Storyboard…” and as she closes her hand, she says, “Zero. We aren’t going to any of them right now.”
“Does she do this the whole trip?” Mercy asks Jo.
“Been doing it every year now,” Jocelyn replies.
“Oh bother. Well, at least you have someone to suffer with you,” Mercy says as she pats Jo on the shoulder.
About five minutes after Duplica gave this odd announcement, Kammy points to the distance and identifies a small structure as a white house out in the middle of nonexistence. “Is that where we’re stopping?”
“Yup.”
Soon, the crew arrives at the doorstep, and Duplica rings the doorbell. Answering is an extremely beautiful young woman with short blonde hair and a cute pink System Guard uniform. Her light pink lipstick forms a smile while her eyebrows suggest something more sinister. “You’re late.”
“Elena!” The kids shout for joy as they recognize this fellow time-traveler.
“We are not late. Stop playin’,” says Catherine.
“No,” Jo disagrees, “we’re very late, and I tried to tell you this.”
“Eh,” Elena brushes off the incident, “being on time isn’t exactly something you expect in our profession, ha ha. How are you guys doing?” She lets the class into her house while enjoying the lovely small talk from her teenage visitors. Once in the den, Elena tells the group that the others have been notified of their arrival and will soon join them. This promise is quickly fulfilled as Charis, Hyperdrive and Travis pop into the room to start the lesson. Hyperdrive sits on the couch with his arm around his wife Elena while Travis and Charis Scott follow suit. While Kammy and Paul have no problem sitting as average human beings, never even giving the impression they’re a couple, Faye and Elfie can’t help but exchange a funny look that expresses the thought, “Stay strong,” before slightly exaggerating the idea of sitting a safe distance apart from one another. Gigi watches the two clowns having fun with this and quickly plops herself between them to perfect the joke.
Elena begins, “Okay guys, I have to warn you; my story is stinkin’ awesome, so you might want to take notes.” Elena looks for any laughs or objections. “Review Bible verses concerning pride and humility, noted. Ha ha, okay, so my story starts with James Scott’s story. Yep, both my husband and I are from Storyboard XI, with both of us having a crazy reason for how we ended up where we did. You ready?”
Inner Man Theatre 