Chapter 3

Months turned to years. Chloe celebrated her ninth birthday, then her tenth. Soon her eleventh birthday passed. All the while she continued to live as one of the Naptyas. She shared in their responsibilities and joys, and they shared the wisdom that the years had taught them. To her the Naptyas provided the order and stability she needed. She continued her education, and on her days off, in such a large open space there was always much adventure to be had.

But adventure means little if there is nobody to share it with. And Chloe often found herself alone. While she found acquaintances at school, none of them lived nearby. What few classmates she had in her tiny rural school she talked to, but when there were no classes only Ana and Armin were there to keep her company. They did their best, but could only do so much. The feeling grew even worse when one of them left for a business trip. Sometimes Chloe would go with them, but this was not always the case. Whenever this happened the house felt especially empty, as now there was only one of the Naptyas there.

It was on one such day that Chloe found herself outside reading. It was a lazy day in spring, and Armin had been gone on a business trip far away for a month, so Ana was the only other one at the house with her. Chloe had not seen any of her friends from school for days.. While her free time was initially welcome relief from school, she soon grew bored with little to do. She sat outside with her book while Ana hung laundry outside. She realized she had read the same paragraph several times and tried to read it one more time when her eyes wandered to the horizon. There a cloud of dust rose, just barely concealing itself, then growing more noticeable.

Chloe stood up and ran toward it. A car! It could only be one thing. Sure enough, as it stopped near the house Armin stepped out of the passenger side, a huge smile beaming on his face. Chloe and Ana crowded around him, embracing him each in turn.

Armin was full of energy, more than ever. “Anahita my darling, we did it! They said yes! We stuck a deal!” He embraced his wife again fondly and kissed her. Ana held his hands. “Armin that’s wonderful! I knew you could do it!” Her smile faded. “So what now?”

Armin stepped back and wiped the sweat off his brow. “Now we wait. The representative from Mingazneft’ should be here any week now to inspect the place. I’m expecting a call from company headquarters soon, so we should know.”

Chloe drew close to Armin’s side, hoping to hear more. Ana caught notice of this and said to her husband “It seems I’m not the only one who missed you.”

Armin laughed. “Ah yes, I almost forgot!” He turned to Chloe. “And how have you been? I hope you haven’t given Anahita too much trouble.” “I’ve been fine.” Chloe said. “It’s just that it gets so boring when you’re not here. You’ve been gone so long. It just wasn’t the same. Where have you been anyway?” Armin tousled her hair. “All in good time, Chloe. All in good time. Now help me with these bags. I have something for both of you”

~

During dinner that evening, Armin found himself occupied with conversation, so much that he almost couldn’t eat. Naturally, Ana talked mostly about business while Chloe bombarded him with questions about travel. Surely for him to have been gone for so long he must have seen something interesting. “Ah, indeed.” he said. “I’ve spent the past few weeks outside of Artabania.” Chloe’s eyes widened in amazement and jealousy. “Really? Where!?”

Armin rested his head on his palm and stroked his chin thoughtfully. “I went to a country called Karagia. It’s very far away from here, up north. Very different culture from our own. Very cold.” He then turned the subject to business. “There’s going to be a lot of changes here. Nothing’s going to be the same. Our company is establishing a partnership with the Karagian Ministry of Gas and Oil. They’ll be bringing all new equipment, engineers, and expertise, and in turn we’ll be able to open up whole new sectors of drilling throughout the whole region!” A whole new energy permeated Armin as he spoke. Chloe could see he was obviously very excited about these events. “Just think, we’ll have whole new markets available. Not just here, but in Karagia, and all over the world.” He leaned back and clapped his hands triumphantly. “Haha! Antassim won’t have anything on us!”

“Are we going to be rich?” Chloe asked. Armin smiled and said “Chloe, we’re going to have more money than we will know what to do with!”

Ana grinned. “Well, it means things won’t be quite as tight. Our lives should be a bit more predictable now.”

“Ha!” Armin scoffed. “You don’t know that, woman! Why we’ll be able to see the world together!” Ana only shook her head at this.

Armin paused, raising a finger. “Speaking of which…” He got up from the table and made his way to the master bedroom. He came back with a stack of various books, papers, and packages in his arms. They were souvenirs from his travels. He gave Ana a new fur coat and for Chloe a set of intricately painted nesting dolls. “Oh, and I have something else for you.” he said, setting a stack of magazines in front of her. “Found these at a newsstand. I knew you’d be curious so I got a few of their national news publications.”

Chloe looked at the cover, only to see strange lettering all over that she couldn’t read. Armin nodded his head, as if he already knew. “Yeah, sorry. I realize you probably can’t read that.” He chuckled to himself a bit. “Ha, I’ll be honest. Neither can I. I just thought you might like to see what I saw.” He watched as Chloe flipped through the cover and was slightly amused at her attempts to comprehend what was on the page.

She spent a good few hours sitting in the dark at the table long after Ana and Armin had both gone to bed. Eventually she decided she needed to go to bed too, but carried the magazines with her. She couldn’t take her eyes off of them. Inside were pictures of vast brick buildings with tall turrets sprouting from them. Each of them was decorated with a vast array of colors she never thought possible for a building. Cars and people filled the bustling streets, and in some pictures fireworks dazzled night skies and people in strange costumes like those of the nesting dolls danced. The shah himself could not have built such a vast fantasy palace with all his money. In other photos, workers milled about in deep underground mines, contrasting with important men in business suits giving speeches. Still others depicted massive panoramic shots of forests. Chloe had never seen so many trees, and of such a tall, dark type. Armin was right. This faraway land looked much colder. Indeed, he had visited a strange place. As she lay down for the night, she couldn’t help but wish that she too could go there.

~

Almost overnight everything changed. Within the next few weeks convoys of trucks brought people and supplies. Steel girders sprung up out of the ground and after a few months became full-fledged buildings. Chloe thought they looked cheap and ugly, and she didn’t like the newfound intrusions into what she considered to be her own territory.

In addition, Armin spent more time at work, frequently coming home in the middle of the night. He rarely talked to anybody, as he was too tired, but Chloe could tell by the ever present glimmer in his eye and slow yet triumphant stride that he was still as excited and optimistic as ever. Even with all that was going on, it still made Chloe happy to see him happy.

Then came the people. At first it was a slow trickle of new workers. They were not the same workers native to the region, but spoke a different language and tended to cluster together. Armin explained that these were the Karagian engineers coming to help with the new expansion project. Chloe could not understand most of them, but sometimes when she was with Armin she noticed he would speak in Artabanian with someone who was apparently their liaison. Occasionally the liaison, an ageing man who seemed like something out of one of the magazines, would invite the Naptyas to an expensive dinner in town, which Chloe naturally had to attend. She found these to be extremely dull, as they would simply talk about business, and she saw the liaison and his company as very strange people. One moment they would talk among speak in an exaggeratedly pleasant tone, then someone would say something and they would bicker amongst themselves in their own harsh tongue. Mostly she just concentrated on her food. All these dinners started to blur together. Still, it meant the family would now grow prosperous, so she understood that this was something she would just to endure for a little while.