“The fifth one ended up in France.’

The day was getting darker earlier, as the days and weeks approached the winter solstice. X was going through his pictures of France during his sightseeing trip. He never told anyone his name. Some said that he didn’t know it himself. He was known as X. Just X. “That’s weird,” he thought, “When did I take this picture?” He saw a woman on a chair in midair. “I remember taking a picture of the walls of the cathedral, and these men in the corner, but I do not recall taking a picture of the woman in midair.” “ Surely I would have remembered seeing something as outrageous as this!”

X quickly called the information desk of the cathedral. They informed him that many people have reported the same thing during the past few days. “We checked it out- there definitely is no one there.”

Later that darkening day, as X saw a moving van full of chairs go by outside his Vermont villa’s window, he had this tugging idea in the back of his head telling him that the 6th chair was in that van. “What 6th chair?” he pondered. He quickly brushed away the idea as he returned to his work.
**********************************

George Yolla of San Francisco, CEO of Haldser’s, a sucessful supplying company, was working late one night when he came across a file. George liked his title; if someone just met him, he would insist that they call him by his full name, including the title. Apparantly, the file stated that six chairs had been stolen within the past month. One in Russia, one in Australia, one in Brazil, one in South Africa, one in France, and one in Vermont, all in that order. The thefts were carefully thought out, every day that was divisible by 4, today was the 25th, and it seemed to be on every continent except Antartica so far. George looked at the records. On the 27th there was to be a shipment to Antartica; it would arrive on the 28th. He wondered out loud. “ Why are we sending chairs to Antartica?”
********************************

Hanna had a task. “I can’t get distracted this time,” she kept on telling herself over and over again. Last time she had a quest, she blew it when she saw an ad asking for a ballerina. Hanna’s life-long dream was to be a ballerina and she completely forgot about her quest. “It’s not going to be the same this time. I won’t fail.” She had to visit each of the seven magical chairs to check if the right one was obtained. Hanna was to sit on each chairs and if it floated, she had to stay there for three days. When time was up, she would trace the delta sign on the bottom of the chair and hurry away to the next chair. She was on her way to Vermont.

X looked out the window once again. There was an oddly dressed woman rushing by. “She looks familiar…” X hurried to the door and shouted across the street. “Do I know you?” The woman paused for a second and looked in his direction. She then returned on her route and speeded away. In that short moment, X realized that this woman strangly resmembled the woman in his picture. In his surprise, he didn’t notice that his food was burnt. “Argh!” he grumbled. “ I have to start all over again.”

Hanna, after having that short yet time-wasting distraction, was determined to get back on scheldule. She followed the van and was approaching the drop off area. This time it was in a diner full of people. “Oh great,” she thought, “there’s going to be many reports of a ghost or dissapearing person.” She went back to her quest.

Days later, on Nov. 28th, Hanna was finishing the last part of her quest. She was on the last chair in chilly Antartica and was sending irades-message (light message) to her employers. I’m almost done. My badge is waiting I presume… She waited for a reply. Yes, of course they responded. All was well in Hanna’s world. She proved herself worthy of carrying out quests, and she got a badge.


Note: Later that year, X was put into an asylum since he was spitting out predictions of the future like crazy. They became true so everyone was freaked out by him. The essence of seeing the sights he did, and seeing the Salt Peach Princess (the sister of the Sugar Plum Princess), Hanna, so many times, he was enchanted with the knowledge of the ‘to come’. He lived a happy life in the asylum, and after 30 more good years of life, he died a painless death. His last words were, “ My name is Xavier.”