Paperwork to the firework

Valerie watched the receding train for a long time. Even after nothing was visible of it. She thought she could still see the lights in the dark. Although she had been angry with her brother lately, it was still a strange feeling to be without him. It's okay until Elie stayed here with her. But still, the two of them came here together, into this strange world, and so far they have done everything together.

"Come on, let's get some sleep! We will need all our strength and energy tomorrow." Elie said, and she embraced the little girl's shoulder comfortably.

"What will we do tomorrow?"

"We are registering for the Fireworks Festival and your earring making workshop." Elie sigh. " And we will making a lot of paperwork. It will be much more boring than making yarn. The office here is the same as in the real world. Slower than a snail."

"I bet Conrad will have much more exciting tasks in those kingdoms!" Valerie envied.

" I don't think so!" Elie laughed. " K.O. planned to take a bath in the hot springs there..."

"Hot springs! "Valerie cried from pain. She also wanted to take a dip in the water.

"I don't think you would like the air there! It is full of smelly little ones."

"Smelly? What do you mean?" Valerie asked carefully, because the smelly word sounded suspiciously.

"Have ever smell a bad egg?"

Valerie was thinking for a while. She had. Once. Her mother opened bad egg, and it really had a terrible smell.

"It smelled like a rotten toilet."

"And that was just one bad egg! There is a little one, who makes that smell. The hot springs contain a lot more from that little ones. Imagine the smell there!"

Valerie shuddered. Maybe it wasn't Conrad who got the better job done after all.

"Why does K.O. to go there at all?"

"No matter how smelly that water is, it is very good for the joints. K.O. want to bathe in it a little. He isn't young after all. He needs it."

"But he will be smelly after the water!" Valerie protested, and imagined her old friend smelling like a toilet.

"They'll shower after it and they won't stink!" Elie comforted her, and they both laughed that it was Conrad again who had to take a shower all the time. The boy didn't like bathing at all.

"Let's really sleep now because we'll get up early tomorrow!" She said, and hid the Tritium lamp.

"Aren't we going back to the mine?" Valerie asked, because suddenly she felt insecure.

She missed her brother, K.O., the usual sleeping place, and her friends at the mine's parking lot. It was frightening to sleep alone on the seats, where usually she was sleeping with her brother. Valerie felt utterly lonely.

"Elie?" She asked, and didn't mind that her wish sounded childish. "May I sleep with you?"

"Come here!" Elie replied, and Valerie quickly climbed under the blanket.

After a moment both of the girls was sleeping soundly.

They were woken up by the alarm of Elie's hand device, and both agreed, that they could have slept more. They had an excellent opportunity to do so when they had to stand at the end of a kilometer long line to register for the Fireworks Festival. Both time and queue progressed slowly. When they reached the reception desk, Elie deeply regretted voting for the festival.

"Do you want to launch only five missiles?" The receptionist asked, and the girls nodded. "Then you have to go to the Matsuda company for the salt mixture." He said, and administrated the query.

"Pardon! Did you say Matsuda company?" Elie asked surprised.

"Yes. We have to manage the available stock of salt mixtures, and the Matsuda company is serving the biggest users. They have only small remaining portions, therefore, we direct small-volume rocket makers to them. They are no more expensive than the others. Do you agree to going to them?"

Elie nodded, and the receptionist pushed the seal to their registration, and gave back to Valerie. They left the hall, and went to the Earring Workshop's registration hall. Fortunately there were just a few person before them.

"Is Matsuda company a bad company?" Valerie asked Elie, while they were waiting.

"No. Not at all." She shook her head.

"Then why were you so surprised, that we are going to buy from them?"

"They are the biggest in the biggest companies. Average people, like us, are not common to go there to buy their goods."

"Oh."

"Don't worry, we could go there, and we will buy those salt mixtures. They have a very big skyscraper! It is very-very elegant, and luxury everywhere! So it is not a common company. You will see!" Elie smiled.

"It's our turn!"

They had to fill a questionnaire about the earrings.

"But we won't even do the full earrings!" Valerie cried in despair.

"This workshop is only for making the gems." The receptionist told to Elie.

Elie red over the documents, and nodded

"Okay, these days are very unfortunate for us!" She sighed. "But after the festival we could travel back to the metallic kingdoms, and make the base of the earrings. So, do you still want to make those gems?"

Valerie nodded. It was similar to K.O.'s principle, that one step at a time. She makes gems at first.

"Do you want to make colored gems?" The receptionist asked the girl. "It is free now."

"Why do I want a colored diamond?" Valerie asked Elie, puzzled.

"The colored diamonds are not more expensive than colorless ones, but they do not look like diamonds. This is useful for you if you want to wear it in the real world as well, because most people think it's just glass. That way they won't steal from you."

"What colors can I choose?"

The receptionist gave them a catalog.

"I think this one suits you!" Elie pointed to a blue diamond.

"I also wanted to choose that!" Valerie smiled. " I want the ice blue ones!" She said and gave back the catalog to the receptionist.

The receptionist girl smiled with relief. She was used to more hysteric girls, and enjoyed the relaxation of dealing with a well-behaved child. She filled the form, and gave back to them. The young woman with the girl signed the papers. She registered, and gave them back. She only took a closer look when the two of them had already left the building. The receptionist thought the little girl was in the company of her sister. She was wrong. The questionnaire included two different surnames, but this was not special either. However, when she saw that the young woman was assigned guardian for the little one, she was saddened and put the two girls in the VIP group, to cheer herself and the two girls up. She did not even realize what disaster would be avoided by this act.

Valerie and Elie were just heading for the Matsuba company's headquarters, on foot. It was not too far, and the inner buildings didn't have free parking area, so Elie didn't want to drive there. She was right, the buidings were high, the walls of them made of glasses, so they were very elegant, Valerie had to agree. She wasn't brave enough to enter the building, Elie had to softly pull into the hall. The receptionist asked for their permission, and Elie handed over the girl's hand device. The receptionist nodded, and told them to go to the 30. floor. He also guided them to the elevators.

Matsuda Mitsuhiro was not a young man anymore. He was an old man, but he still ran the company his father founded, and tried to train his son to inherit the business. There wasn't something of a great opinion about the kids, especially that his own grandchildren had no sense of the fireworks business. They had enough wit to have fun with the company's high-end customers. But he never saw them politely treat smaller customers. Yet his father, the great-garndfather of Mitsuhiro's grandchildren, struggled from a small shop to wholesale service.

Mitsuhiro also lacked the closeness to shoppers, he was accustomed to as a child in his father's store. In vain, times are changing. Maybe he should retire. It was not his time anymore. He had a strange dream that night. He was sitting among children, and those children was smiling and making fireworks. It was a very pleasant dream to him.

So he was surprised, when he noticed a little girl in front of the elevators. She was well-behaved, and waited calmly in the company of a young lady. Both of them were average girls. They wore jeans, T-shirts and sandals. Non-branded pieces. So they were common people, not rich ones. All the elevators were on higher floors, and that girl didn't make a tantrum at all. It was very sympathetic to the man. He didn't know what had gotten into him, though Mitsuhiro stepped to them.

"Can I offer my personal elevator to the ladies?"

The girls were stunned, like they couldn't even decide about the offer.

"It has a glass-wall, and you could see the city from above!" He turned to the little girl. She smiled, like the kids the old man's dream.

"May we?" She asked the woman.

"Are you sure you won't be afraid?" The woman asked the girl.