Dad and Liam wrapped the body up in bed sheets, and, as I looked through the cupboards to see if there was any possible food, trying to ignore what they were doing, they carried it through the kitchen and outside. I stood motionless when I heard the voices of Bryan and Bella ask them what was going on.

I did not want to hear the answer, for I wanted to get the idea of how mad this world was out of my mind, so I skidded to the wide-open door and slammed it shut. I had finished looking through all the cupboards, with all the contents on the kitchen table, so I walked toward the pieces of bread, oats, and the variety of vegetables and gazed down at them. I wasn't hungry, but I wanted to eat the food I had found. And the only reason I could think of as to why, had to do with the fact that I didn't want anyone to get sick or poisoned. I'd rather it be me.

Bryan then came in through the door and stared at me, his mouth gaping open. Bella ran in past Bryan and stopped in front of me, looking down at the food.

"Can we eat it?" She asked.

"I wouldn't trust it," Bryan found his voice and walked up to us. "We should probably get some more water from the well and wash the vegetables." He picked up the bread and smelled it, breaking it in half.

"Kyara," Bella took a bowl from the counter behind me and headed back toward the door. "Do you want to help me get some water?"

I nodded and followed her outside to the well. Liam and Dad were nowhere in sight, but somehow, I knew they were somewhere burying the body of the man.

"You okay?" Bella asked me as she and I started to pull the bucket up. For some reason, it seemed heavier this time, and I could only guess that it was because I felt weak. The bucket was filled with as much water as there was last time.

I shrugged to her question as she poured the water into the bowl. She looked up at me with questioning eyes. She probably didn't notice me shrug, so I said "yeah" softly, knowing it was a lie.

Bella pursed her lips and placed the bucket back on the pulley, letting it fall slowly back into the void.

We walked back to the house silently, all the while, Bella held the bowl. She was strong, that was for sure, but I was slightly confused on how she was muscular. She hadn't shown much physical strength before, or maybe I just hadn't noticed it.

Entering the house again was something I did not want to do, but this was our new home now, so I knew I would have to get used to it.

Bryan wasn't in the kitchen. Bella called out for him, and I could hear him from upstairs saying, "There's enough beds in here for all of us."

I cleared my throat, wanting to say something about the bed that had held the man a few moments prior, but the words would not escape my mouth. Instead I stared at Bella, my mouth slightly ajar, in hope that she would say something. It wasn't until Bryan came down the ladder that she did.

"How many beds?"

"Seven. Not counting the one in the far-left room. I'm not sure any of us will want to sleep in there," Bryan said awkwardly.

"How are eight of us supposed to fit in seven beds?" I had finally found my voice.

"Two of them are double sized. So, one of us will be sleeping like royalty," Bryan smiled as if he had just said something funny. It may have been funny in different circumstances, but surely not now.

"We probably need to clean the sheets, though," I said.

"When Liam and Dad get back, we will."

"What about soap?" Bella asked.

The door opened, and Mom, Amy, and Luke entered.

"Oh my gosh!" Luke said. "It smells worse in here than it did in the barn."

Amy plugged her nose, "And we were cleaning up poop in the barn."

"Where is Liam?" Mom asked me, placing a bucket of milk on the side of the kitchen's door, taking no notice of the kids' complaining. "And your father?"

"They had to, uh," I stopped, unsure what to say. Amy and Luke could not know the truth.

"They went to look in the field for crops," Bryan said, "Which you should go help Kyara with."

I squinted my eyes at Bryan.

"You said," Bryan began, looking only at me, "that when Mom came in, you would bring her to go help Dad and Liam."

I knew for a fact that I had never said that, so I wondered why Bryan would say that. Then I realized that he either wanted me to tell Mom what Liam and Dad were really doing, or he didn't want to have to explain it himself, possibly because he didn't know what had really happened. So, it could actually be both.

I nodded, "Yeah, I did say that. Let's go, Mom." I took her hand and pulled her outside.

Amy and Luke asked to come with, but Bryan was quick to give them a reason not to go. "I need your help." But the help he needed, I was unsure of, for the door closed behind me before I heard Bryan finish.

Mom and I headed toward the fields, and it was silent for a few seconds until Mom spoke.

"So where are they, really?"

"There, uh, was a dead man in one of the rooms," I said, quicker than I thought I had ever spoken in my entire life. But Mom seemed to understand.

"So, they're burying him?" She asked.

"I'm not sure," I said, and then my question was answered when I heard Liam call my name.

I looked up from the ground that I had been staring at while speaking to Mom, turned around, and saw Liam running toward us from where the town was; Dad was following a few steps behind Liam.

I stopped in my tracks and waited for him to reach me. Mom kept walking but stopped suddenly when she realized what I had a few seconds prior, that both Liam and Dad had panicked looks on their faces.

I wanted to ask what they had seen, but words failed me, once again.

Once they reached us, Dad breathing more heavily than Liam, explained what happened.

"We took the man to the church, for we knew we should bury him on holy ground—that's what they do in this time."

"And there was a priest at the church," Dad continued, "who told us about the man's family."

"All five of his children and his wife had passed away in the past few months, and the priest had said he was waiting to find the father of the farm dead," Liam went on.

"The priest had said that he had come to talk with the man, or farmer, a few days ago, and that he had just started to get the plague. The priest prayed with him and they parted ways. The priest knew that the farmer had very little time left, and that he was worried for the farm."

"When the priest found out that we would start to take care of the farm, he thanked us and said that he'd take the body to bury him with the help of his two nephews."

"So, you left the body with the priest?" Mom asked. "And they will bury him with his family?"

"Yes," Liam said.

"You didn't touch the body, did you?" Mom asked, nervously.

"No," Dad began. "Of course not. But the priest did say that he had seen in the town, that some people may not catch the plague, and that some may be immune to it."

Mom and I nodded.

"Do you think we could be immune?" I asked.

"I'm hoping so," Dad said.

Liam smiled slightly at me and said, "We should probably wash our hands, though."

I nodded, and Liam and Dad started toward the well. Mom said she would start to look through the fields to find crops. I stayed put until Mom told me to come help her.

As we neared fields I noticed that all the crops stood up tall, looking as though they were waiting to be picked.

Liam and Dad came back a few minutes later to help. Barley and wheat were the main crops we found as we searched through the fields. We stuck together as we ranged across the area. Liam taught me what the good stuff was, and what not to pick. I filled as much barley and wheat into the skirt of my dress as I could. Liam had taken his shirt off and tied the two ends of the shirt sleeves into a knot making a sort of bag. Then we went back to the house.

Bella, Amy, and Luke had taken off all of the sheets from the beds and placed them in a pile next to the door. Bryan had started to boil some water in the fireplace by the kitchen. As we placed the wheat and barley on the counter, Dad came in with Mom emptying their bundles, and he said he could take over Bryan's job. Bryan never had been a great cook, so I was glad Dad had taken up the responsibility.

Bryan had also placed three baskets out for us to use, and then we all, except Dad, went out to the fields to retrieve more of the crops. Liam and I stuck together, as we split into three groups to range across the fields, one bucket for each group.

Liam and I were silent for the first few minutes, as we picked at the bean stocks. Then finally he asked the inevitable—which I knew I'd have to answer sooner or later.

"Are you okay?"

It took a few seconds for me to look at him, away from the basket I had just placed another bean sprout in.

"Not really," I said, and then everything that had been on my mind spilled out in an informal fashion. "We're in a terrible place, where I'm certain at least one of us will get the plague. And if not the plague, then we'll die from something else probably! Why can't we just get home? Why do we keep having to live like this? I'd rather be in school, learning about stuff I know for a fact I won't need to know. No one prepared us for this. No one could have prepared us for this.

"We're stuck, not just in this time, but I'm sure there'll be other times too. We've already gone through three different eras and I just don't think I can take it anymore. Yeah, sure I met you, but if we're meant to be, why couldn't I have met you in real life? Rather than in this some sort of fairytale—or more like a nightmare—"

"You think that my love for you isn't real?" He interrupted, dropping the basket full of bean sprouts. "You think that this isn't real life?" He wasn't mad—I knew that for sure—but he was disappointed.

Tears formed my eyes. I didn't know what to say. It had just slipped from my mouth, and I didn't mean for it to. It was just so difficult, living like this. I wished that it was all a dream, and that I had met Liam some other way.

"Because it's not," he said and took my hand. "It is real. And do you want to know why it is real?" He paused, but not long enough for me to retort. "Because, number one, I haven't met you before. And dreams only show people who we have met in our life. It's impossible for us to create a person in a dream, especially someone so miraculous."

I opened my mouth to speak, but he kept going, a little louder this time as he clenched my hand tighter.

"Number two. Dreams don't last this long, and they certainly can't be as crazy as this. Yes, dreams usually are crazy, but they don't ever stay in chronological order for such a long period of time. And number three," he took a deep breath. "It is impossible to feel so many emotions at once in a dream. And it is impossible for me to fall so in love with someone in a dream. You may wish that this were all a dream. But I don't. It all happened for a reason, and that reason, we may not know for sure, but I have to hope it has something to do with you and me."

I wanted to smile, but for some reason I couldn't lift my lips up into the right position. Instead, I let the tear in my right eye fall. I had read once that if a tear from the right eye fell first, it meant the person was happy. Liam had obviously known that fact, too, for he smiled.

I dropped the last few bean pods into the basket, which I then pulled into my arms.

"We should take this back to my dad. It's almost full," I said.

Liam nodded, took the basket from me, and together we walked back to the house. Mom, Amy, and Luke had just dropped off some vegetables, and were about to go back out for more, when we came in.

"That's enough beans for an army!" Luke said to Liam.

I smiled down at him and ruffled his hair. As he pushed my hand away and walked outside, I noticed something I hadn't noticed for a while. He was smiling—a true smile. He was actually happy, and I couldn't help but think that that happiness may soon fade. I didn't want it to. I mean, the whole family was together, and it seemed like things were going well. And for a six-year-old, I could tell how oblivious he was. He didn't know about the man who had died. He didn't understand about this era as well as we all did. And he certainly didn't understand that one of us could possibly die, at any given moment. I surely hoped, however, that he would stay happy, and that he would never have to see or deal with the pain as heavily as I was dealing with it.

Liam had dumped the beans on the counter, and as he walked up to me, he took my hand and said, "Time to find oats."

We walked outside, and I asked Liam, "Isn't that what Bryan and Bella are picking?"

"No," he said. "They're picking more wheat and barley."

I nodded as we walked back to the fields. Bryan and Bella exited as we entered, and I noticed that their basket was filled to the top.

"I wonder if this getting picked will be all for nothing, or if someone knows how to make bread?" Bryan said as he walked past us.

I laughed awkwardly, "Isn't it easy, though? You just grind the wheat and water into a dough and then cook it, right?"

"But we don't have a bread oven. We have a fireplace. Plus, we need yeast. I wonder . . ." Bryan trailed off.

"What?" I said, waiting for Bryan to continue.

"There has to be a bakery somewhere. And I'm sure the baker gets his ingredients from us, or the farmer, that is. . ."

"The town is dead, Bryan. We're going to have to make do with what we have." I said.

He shrugged and then walked off with Bella toward the house.

~ ~ ~

"So, Mom. When are you going to tell us how you ended up on the Titanic?" I asked her, smiling.

All the girls were working on making the barn a good place to sleep, while the boys were cleaning the bedding outside. Pottage had been eaten and we were all happy and full.

It was dark out, but the moon was bright enough to where the boys could see what they were doing. There were only two lanterns, and the boys insisted we had both of them, making me very thankful. It also didn't smell too bad, thanks to Amy and Luke for clearing out the cow poop.

"I don't think your father will like the story very much." She scrunched her eyebrows as she carried another stack of hay to the far side of the barn. I followed her. Bella and Amy were helping make the hay beds as Mom and I distributed the hay across the barn.

"I wouldn't say that. Nothing can beat what Dad did! Remember, we found him in the Roman times." And with that I told Dad's story briefly, all the while distributing hay to Bella and Amy, who listened attentively.

When I had finished telling the story, there were enough hay beds for the eight of us and they all looked fairly comfortable.

Mom finally looked at me, for she had barely gazed up at me while I told the story, and I noticed a tear glinting in her left eye, but she said nothing. Was she upset with Dad? But he didn't know what he was doing. Now I wanted to know what mom had done, to make Dad not like it.

"Tell me this." She finally said. "Is murder or having an affair worse?"