Nowhere Blvd.

by Ryan Notch

  After changing into something more practical at an outfit store that seemed to have everyone’s sizes (a good thing since most of the kids were still in their pajamas), Spencer decided to check out a place called The Trick Shop. It had things like spring snakes in a can and garlic flavored bubble gum, and was run by a Perfect Girl with a peaches and cream complexion and wispy blond hair. She wore a sky blue dress that reminded Spencer of Alice in Wonderland. There were a couple magic tricks in the shop and when she saw Spencer looking at one she said he could have it.

  “That’s how it works in Nowhere Blvd,” she said, responding to his questioning look. “You can have anything in any of the shops. Everything is for kids here.”

  She was taller than Spencer and looked to be at least a year older. There was something about her that made it hard for him to talk, but Spencer wasn’t shy and talked anyway.

  “I know a lot about magic,” Spencer said, surprising himself a little.

  “I’m Perfect Girl Julie, what’s your name?”

  “Spencer. Actually I like to be called Spence.”

  She smiled and showed him some of the magic tricks in the shop. She didn’t seem nervous to talk to him at all, which made him feel all the more awkward for being a little nervous to talk to her. He showed her one of the magic tricks he knew with a deck of cards. She smiled again and he smiled back. Her teeth were white and straight but also a little tiny, which seemed to be the only thing that wasn’t perfect about her and somehow made her very likable. He wanted to make her smile some more and tried to think of everything he knew about magic just to keep talking to her some more.

  Spencer thought more than ever that he must be in a dream. He often dreamed about making friends with a girl and going to magical places, something he almost never thought about while awake.

  After a while of her showing him around the shop while other kids darted in and out, he heard Smiling Jack outside calling for everyone. He was content to ignore it, to stay there talking to her. For as a steady stream of punishments could attest to, Spencer Williams was not one who felt a natural need to do what he was told.

  Perfect Girl Julie, however, practically snapped to attention.

  “Come on,” she said grabbing his hand and pulling him outside.

  Despite his more than obvious fun loving attitude, Spencer was beginning to suspect Smiling Jack of having the intentions of a day camp director, constantly keeping them on the move to keep them busy and out of trouble. Once outside he gathered them up (Spencer smiled when he caught Jack’s lips moving silently as he counted heads) and lead them off to the next activity. Spencer saw that the children around him mostly carried new toys and wore the costumes of spacemen and cowboys and the striped uniforms of prisoners. He was a bit surprised to find he was the only one who didn’t have a new toy, having spent all his time in the trick shop. The Perfect children marched along with them without having to be told. Perfect Girl Julie was next to him pointing off to the bungalows in the distance.

  “That’s where I live, there,” she said, pointing at the second one in the line.

  They walked vaguely in the direction of the amusement park, which is what Spencer thought they were heading too. Instead they ended up at a fun little park a short walk from the edge of the forest (which looked dead like Autumn despite the summer like atmosphere). There were objects moving in the park, odd things with sunlight glinting off the metal of them. Even as they got close enough for Spencer to feel like he should recognize them, he couldn’t quite.

  Once he did make them out and was sure of what he saw, he still couldn’t believe it. Robots. Or at least something a lot like them. Brass and leather things that stood as tall as a man even though they moved about on all fours. They had necks that came out at an angle like that of a giraffe, or maybe like a preying mantis. Their heads darted here and there, looking about with huge shining eyes. Their thick tapering appendages had only one joint, high up, which bent out sideways like a spider. Each arm and leg ending in a pincer, sometimes stabbing sharply and sometimes separating into thirds to grab.

  Of all the things he’d seen here, he thought this had to be the most amazing. Robots were even more amazing than a talking teddy bear.

  Maybe robots, thought Spencer. Or maybe a person could fit inside all those leather wrappings and metal casings. A small one, like a circus acrobat. Or a kid…

  The things moved slowly across the park, about six in all. The park itself looked like a good one, complete with baseball diamond and playground. No one rushed to play though, some of the littler children even hid behind the larger ones (Nanny Gurdy was nowhere to be seen, having left perhaps while Spencer was in the trick shop). They seemed apprehensive about approaching the things, a sentiment Spencer mirrored. There was something unnatural about the way they moved, like you didn’t exactly want them near you.

  “These are my Hollow Men,” said Jack in a stage whisper as he pointed them out. “I built them to take care of alllllll my chores, so I could play all day. And that’s just what their doing!”

  Spencer saw that Smiling Jack was right. They were using those pincers to clean up litter from the playground, both lost toys and candy wrappers. Jack seemed to have little patience for his creations though, his expression towards them turning a little sour despite his never faltering smile.

  “Go away now, Hollow Men,” Jack yelled at them, hands cupped to his mouth. “Go away so we can play!”

  The Hollow Men turned their heads as one to him, then began moving off in different directions. Their pincers making a tap tap, tap tap noise when they moved from grass to pavement.

  Once they had moved off, the littler kids were happy to run off towards the playground, which had all the best things to play on. It even had a rocket ship shaped slide, one of Spencer’s favorites from when he had been younger.

  Now though, he was just a bit to old to play on a playground. A few of the other kids in the group obviously were as well. Surely the Perfects were, or at least he had thought that. The Perfects went about playing on the swings and slide and monkey bars with a diligence that was almost business like. Spencer thought to go play with them, but instead started a game of catch with a ball one of the other kids had brought from a store. Most of the older kids played, and some of the Perfects as well (including the tomboy Perfect Girl Jane, right on queue).

  After a while the sun began to fade. Not set, it hadn’t even moved. Just fade in place. Jack announced it was time to go, and Spencer was heartbroken at the prospect of leaving.

  “Goodbye Spence,” Julie said waving to him.

  “Bye,” he said quieter. He felt like he was waking up from a dream of a new friend he would never dream of again.

  Which is why he was doubly elated when Smiling Jack lead them not to the Grand Closet, but to the long log cabin across from his mansion that they had seen on their way to Nanny Gurdy’s,

  “Here’s where you get to sleep,” he said, excited as usual to be giving the good news.

  Spencer checked out the cabin with the other kids. Lots of bunk beds, and a few singles, they even had two bathrooms. No TV, no lights even, but still he was both excited and happy to be staying, like someone who wakes up and gets ready for school only to find out it’s Sunday. Yet at the same time a new concern grew in his mind which he hadn’t thought before.

  If Smiling Jack’s not going to make us go home, he thought. What if we wanted to go home?

  It wasn’t long until he had his answer. One of the youngest of the children, a girl who came up no higher than Spencer’s waist, began to whimper. Nanny Gurdy, who had come to tuck them in, noticed her first and spoke to her in hushed tones. The little girl nodding in reply to what she said.

  “Jack,” said Nanny Gurdy. “I think Misty here doesn’t want to stay. She wants to go home.”

  “Reallly,” Jack asked. His smile never faltering even in his evident surprise and concern. “Of course you can go home if you want Misty. Anyone here can go home any time t
hey want. But if you leave you can never ever return to Nowhere Blvd, and we have so much to show you. Are you sure you want to leave?”

  Misty’s only reply was once again a tearful nod.

  “Ok Misty,” Jack said. “Nanny, take her to the house and get ready to take her home. But Misty won’t you please wait a moment before leaving so I can come say goodbye. You’ll wait at the house a moment for me, won’t you Misty?”

  Misty nodded again, smiling, and her and Nanny went off hand in hand.

  Jack watched them leave then turned to the rest of the children, his eyes and voice grave even if his expression wasn’t.

  “There is one thing, children, that you must remember above all things,” he said as the last rays of light faded behind him. “I didn’t want to tell you this before because I didn’t want to scare you, but it isn’t safe to go out at night in Nowhere Blvd. It’s very very dark and you could get very lost. Worse still, there are the Rejected Things in the forests of Nowhere Blvd. They don’t dare come into town during the day, but at night…Well of course it’s perfectly safe locked up here in the cabin, my magic protects you here. But if you tried to go outside, anything could happen…”

  The idea seemed a little silly to Spencer until he looked around at how dark it had become in the cabin in just the last few minutes. He could barely make out the faces around him. Jack’s grin almost floating in the dark like the Cheshire Cat’s.

  “And then you’d miss out on all the wonderful FUN we’re going to have tomorrow,” he said, lightening up in tone. “Well goodnight children, goodnight!”

  With that he slipped out the door, locking it from the outside (the only door with a lock Spencer had seen in Nowhere Blvd). Spencer wasted no time undressing and getting into bed. He thought for a moment of what Jack had meant by “Rejected.” He couldn’t really guess, but the connotation of a sort of monster was pretty clear. He thought he would be awake for a while thinking about it in this strange place, but instead fell asleep soon after and dreamt dreams he soon forgot.

  * * *

  Spencer’s parents had done a pretty good job of putting a bedroom together for him in the few days he’d been locked up in the hospital. His old bed, his old dresser, even a lot of his old toys. New clothes, which he supposed represented his mom’s best guess at his size. Same old closet, which he wasn’t happy about. But he had some ideas on that. He’d thought back to his second trip between the worlds through Jack’s Grand Closet. However it worked, it needed darkness. He knew it somehow, could just sense it on the trip back. Somehow the darkness was how it worked. And unlike in Nowhere Blvd, here artificial light was plentiful.

  Things with his parents were awkward. He remembered the house, and remembered them. Yet still it felt for all the world like he was with strangers in a strange house. Despite Spencer’s not having said a word, his mom talked non-stop, as if to avoid any unpleasant silences. His father barely spoke at all, clearly at a loss for what to say. Baby Suzie would spin around and play pointlessly for awhile, then demand something of her parents and scream when she didn’t get it. Spencer found himself getting annoyed by her fast.

  In addition he felt crowded, and on edge. Worse yet, he couldn’t stop sneezing. His eyes burning and watering.

  “Allergies,” his mom said. “We’ll have to get you some medicine.”

  Spencer didn’t remember having allergies, but on the other hand he hadn’t been around so much as a flower in at least two years, so he figured he just wasn’t used to the air. For lunch they had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, sitting around awkwardly at the kitchen table. He remembered the snack as being one of his favorites, but now it only tasted strange. When the food in the hospital had tasted strange, he’d assumed it was just because it was hospital food. But he realized now it was him. The sandwich gave him stomach cramps, as if his body didn’t know what to do with it.

  He’d dreamt about this house and fresh air and bright skies and real food for years, and now all of them seemed to be assaulting him in different ways. It all made him on edge, made him angry. He felt he’d been cheated somehow, been given a dream come true only to find out nothing was the way it was supposed to be. He wanted to be somewhere else, but didn’t know where.

  That night Spencer skipped dinner (breakfast and lunch was already more than he was used to eating in a day). He went to bed at nightfall, like you got used to doing living in the woods. In truth he could barely keep his eyes open, the day had exhausted him. He didn’t know how sitting around a house could be more exhausting than hiding from a forest full of monsters, but didn’t question it. Before bed his parents made him brush his teeth, a process which was painful and produced not a small amount of blood from his malnutritioned gums.

  In his room he left the light on, closet door open where the light could reach every corner of it. His parents had left him with a nightlight, which he plugged in under the bed so the light would reach the shadows there as well. After he’d pushed the bed in front of the door, of course. He didn’t plan on allowing himself to be cornered in here. He tried to lay on the bed, but it was too soft and hurt his back. Instead he took a blanket and pillow and slept on the floor, a substantial step up in comfort from what he was used to. He rested with his fingertips touching the cool steel of a knife under his pillow, which he had snuck from a drawer in the kitchen.

  He thought that the light would make it hard for him to sleep. Instead, surrounded by light he slept better than he had in a long time, waking only once per hour to check and make sure the room was still secure.

  * * *

  The second day in Nowhere Blvd, and several after that passed much the same. Rides at the amusement park, swimming and fishing at Jack’s Lake (no one ever caught any fish). Playing in the park and eating at Nanny Gurdy’s and the snack shops. Most days he got to see Perfect Girl Julie. Sometimes he would ask her to tell him more about Nowhere Blvd. Once he asked her what Jack had meant when he said he had “made” the Perfects from ordinary boys and girls. Instead of answering, she just got a faraway look in her eyes and told him it was a secret. He didn’t like secrets, but something told him not to press the point. Most of the time there was a lot more play than talk, the Perfects were great at all kinds of games.

  Every night at least one of the children would decide to go home, Jack always seeing them off. It was a whirlwind of fun and magic and making new friends. It was hands down the best time he’d ever had.

  Spencer knew his parents must miss him, like Wendy’s parents had missed her in Peter Pan. And like in that book he knew he would eventually return to them and everything would be all right. But he meant to be the last to do so, to not leave until all the other children had. Somehow in his mind he thought this would convince Smiling Jack of his loyalty and courage. That this would maybe allow him to be granted a passport back to Nowhere Blvd, not to be sent away forever like the others. Maybe he could even become one of the Perfects. He didn’t know how he could live the rest of his life knowing that there was a magic place he was never allowed to go back to, just the boring old real world.

  Of course, that was assuming it really was magic.

  Once, when Spencer had been in second grade, there had been a magician at his school. All the classes got together in the auditorium to watch the magic tricks, two grade levels at a time. Spencer had loved the show, even more than the other kids. He loved the idea that there was magic in the world, and not just the boring everyday of class and chores. So after he saw it with his grade level, instead of going to lunch with everyone else he snuck back to see it again. He knew that he’d be caught if he tried to blend in with the older kids, who were cruel and best avoided. So instead he snuck around the way he knew to the back of the auditorium. He remembered it from the Christmas pageants they’d been in, singing carols to their parents in the audience. He hated the pageants, but remembered the secret backstage areas. His mom sometimes said he was real good with directions.

  Watching the show from behind was thr
illing despite the fear of getting caught. He looked out from a gap in the curtain not just at the magician, but at the whole audience. He loved that he could see them without them seeing him, same as when he hid behind the couch to listen to adult TV shows after he was supposed to be in bed, only better.

  Except the tricks didn’t work from behind. The various levitations and magic boxes, from behind they weren’t magic at all. You could see the bars, the hidden panels. At first he thought the magician did a different show for the older kids, one without the magic, though he couldn’t understand why he would. But eventually he realized that the audience was just as amazed, they were seeing the same thing from their side. But from behind you could see how it really was, that is was all just pretend.

  Far from being excited to be let in on this secret, Spencer was terribly disappointed. In one day he had both gained and lost all wonder in the world. These events by no means convinced him that there was no such thing as real magic, only forever after that he always looked behind things. Didn’t ever take things at face value.

  Which is why he couldn’t just let it go when Jack said never to go out at night. He figured seeing the nighttime of Nowhere Blvd would be like the back of the theatre. If that’s what kids weren’t supposed to see, then that is where you could see how the tricks were done. He had no intention of proving it was all fake, he’d be happier to prove it wasn’t. It was more like stealing a little magic for himself, to take home with him.

  He planned in advance for that night, stuffing tissue into the hole in the door jamb, so the door wouldn’t close all the way when Smiling Jack left that night. He figured if anyone noticed it he would just play dumb, it wasn’t like they could fingerprint tissue.

  That night it was the twins that decided to go home. Spencer felt a pang of sadness at that, he’d grown close to them and liked to look after them. They were his favorites of the few kids who were left. All that remained were a handful of the younger boys and girls and the oldest boy of the original group.