Inside the house, everything looked different. The furniture looked like it was from maybe forty years ago, and there was no trace of day-to-day life. No newspapers lying around, or plates from breakfast, or any of the little things that let you know a house has people living in it. Just an eerie silence.
Charlie was looking around at the house with a mixture of fear and awe on his face. “What strange place is this?” he asked, as they passed through the living room, the den, the kitchen. His gaze lingered for a particularly long time at the gas stove. “There seem to be objects of power here. Are you a great wizard?”
“No,” Jenny said, feeling strangely pleased in spite of herself. “Where I come from this is just ordinary stuff. Everybody’s house looks kind of like this. Except we’re supposed to have an electric stove, not a gas stove.”
“Amazing,” Charlie said, and smiled at Jenny shyly in a way that she found rather sweet. She noticed that Josh was starting to look distinctly annoyed, which for some reason she also found rather sweet.
“I believe,” said Mr. Symarian, oblivious to all of this, “that this is the house the way your grandmother would have known it. Also, what you might refer to as ‘the fruits of modern technology’ simply have no parallel in the other world. To one who has never seen them, such objects would indeed appear to be a form of wizardry. It is said that to the tribal peoples of southern…”
“Hey Doc, not to interrupt yer lecture or anything,” Sid said, interrupting, “but what’re we supposed to do now?”
“Unless you guys are too busy talking,” Josh said, “now we go upstairs.”