“And thanks to those heroes, America won the war—”
The explanation of the exhibit finally ends with Crystal making up the reason for World War II ending.
The last group to come and visit never planned to listen to any explanations from the start. Amongst the twenty visitors, half of them are sliding down the banister as a game, the other half are being distracted by other exhibits.
And the girls, worried about the rain destroying their hairdos, are looking at the heavy rain outside the door and sighing, while a pair of young, developed lovers are indulging in a long kiss, regardless of everyone watching.
All in front of a young female mummy.
Crystal can’t help but think something mean, ‘I hope you get cursed—”
The only redhead young man who was listening to her seriously pushes his spectacles up with his pointer finger, asking questions.
In those family friendly movies, there’s always a traditional child genius like him.
“But even if Germany used that ‘Box that will cause floods’, America still won’t lose. After all, there’s an entire sea between America and Germany, so there’s as much water as they could need there, right?”
“That’s true, but the European continent where Germany and England might have seriously damaged.”
The moment the words leaver her mouth, the kid looks at Crystal as though he’s looking at pickled cucumbers,
“England is an island country! Aren’t you a college student? Why don’t you know something so basic as that? Geesh, I always thought it sounded like a hoax, but I still made myself hear out the whole thing, and all that time it was just a made-up fantasy story—”
“Y-you said this is a fantasy story…”
“So, this is fake too?”
The child genius points at the exhibit in the glass case. A left arm, so white from the place of amputation all the way to the fingertips that it’s kinda scary, is lying on the middle of a red cloth, and at first glance you might even think it’s part of a plaster statue. But its surface is as smooth as wax, and there are callouses on the palm that wouldn’t be there on a work of art.
“If this is fake…”
But the kid doesn’t finish listening to her before he runs to his companions near the exit.
“You guys, go home once the rain lets up a bit!”
Crystal sighs, taking off her nametag and getting ready to get the keys from the curator.
Another day is over, and today has finally ended.
As usual, the only visitors are groups after groups of elementary school students, and those kids aren’t here out of personal interest either, they’re just here reluctantly because the teachers use visiting a museum as a replacement for detention.
Actually it’s because this is a small museum that’s built in a safe neighborhood and is free to visit, so the local schools use it a lot.
Although she really likes volunteering at the museum, but sometimes she wish she could explain things to adults too.
She looks around the unassuming museum, and decides that next time they’ll put luxurious and shiny golden things on display.
Although doing this might be a bit insulting to the owner, but this place still needs things that can attract the people to come and visit.
“And then?”
The unexpected sound almost causes her to drop the nametag in her hands. She didn’t think that in the museum that seemed empty, there are still visitors.
“How did that story end?”
He points into the glass case.
Water drips off his sleeve, even forming little puddles by his feet.
He pulls aside the wet hair sticking uncomfortably to his forehead with his right hand, revealing light brown eyes.
“…Is the rain outside really that heavy? I’ll get you a towel.”
Her voice is so nervous it’s shaking slightly.
“It’s okay, I just want to hear more of that story.”
“You’re not from this country, are you? Why are you visiting Boston? Sightseeing?”
“No, you could say I’m here on a mission or for work.”
The words from his mouth are polite and accurate, without a single hint of an accent.
Although the two are similar in age, but the air radiating off of him is just different somehow.
Not only his words and actions, even the way he grew up must have been something special.
And deducing from the way he said ‘mission’, maybe he’s a soldier from another country.
“I want to know what happened to those people after the Box sank.”