Lumen and the street boy had reached her house. It was very warm and inviting, the windows were glowing a light auburn and a golden yellow. Lumen’s family had a nice crisp fire going, as the chimney was slowly letting loose puffs of smoke. She walked up the stone stairs to the hard wooden door and hesitated to go inside.
Something felt wrong to her—like she had forgotten to do something. There was something terribly wrong, but she couldn’t put her finger on it—
“What’s your name?” the boy asked curiously. She looked back at him. “Just wondering, since you are bringing me into your house…”
“It’s Lumen,” she said. Now it seemed obvious to her why she thought something was wrong. She never told him her name; she didn’t even know his for that matter. “What’s your name?”
“My name’s Dulcis. It means ‘sweet’ in Latin.”
“Ah, well, there’s something we have in common. My name means ‘light’ in Latin.”
“Huh…”
