by Obert Skye
As the train stopped, Winter jumped from the railroad car and carefully defrosted Leven from the train. She warmed him up to his old self. Of course he was still under Clover’s spell, and she thought it might be best to tell him what was happening someplace less public and noisy than right next to the tracks.
Winter dragged him down into a ravine and into a grove of tall, leafy trees for a very pertinent powwow. At that point Clover woke Leven up.
Leven stretched and coughed and looked surprised to see Winter sitting in front of him.
“What are you doing here?” he shivered, his brown eyes clearing just a bit. “I was talking to Clover, in a cornfield at night.”
“Good to see you, too,” she smiled.
“We’re on our way to Germany,” Clover spoke up, materializing in front of Leven.
“Clover,” Leven said happily, the prosycophant visions he had been shown while bitten still fresh on his mind. Clover moved closer to Leven and allowed him to scratch him behind his ears. “We’re going to Germany?” Leven questioned, his face showing how odd the idea sounded.
“That’s where the gateway is,” Winter added. “We got this far by train.”
“Really?” Leven asked, a bit of excitement in his voice now. “I’ve always wanted to ride in a train. I don’t even remember it. Was I sleeping?”
“Well, actually . . .” Clover started to explain.
“What he means,” Winter interrupted, “is that it’s a pity you slept through the whole thing.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Clover protested. “I was—”
Geth cut him off this time. He leaned out of Winter’s pocket and said, “We really do need to get going.”
Leven’s expression changed. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said mournfully. “I don’t know exactly how you talked me into getting here, but I’m not going any farther. I already told Clover I couldn’t.”
“Sorry, Leven, but you have to,” Geth said strongly.
Winter thought that Leven would react harshly to the order Geth had given. Instead, Leven spoke earnestly.
“I can’t, Geth,” he replied. “I wish I were the person you think I am, but I’m not.”
“Yes, you are,” Geth said strongly.
“I can’t put any of you in further danger,” Leven sighed, brushing back his bangs. “If you knew my life you would know there is nothing remarkable about me. I can influence nothing.”
“I know your life,” Geth replied. “I have seen you every day since you were young. I have waited patiently for the time to come when you would be strong enough to enter Foo.”
“You’ve watched me every day?” Leven questioned. “Like Clover? Where were you, in my pocket, bed . . .” he looked at Geth, “holding my sandwich together?” He tried to smile.
“No, I was the tree that stood by your home,” Geth said.
Leven was shocked. “The tree? You lived in that tree?”
“I was that tree,” Geth explained. “Your home wasn’t set down there by accident. I was waiting for you.”
“I don’t believe it,” Leven said quickly, thinking about how much he had loved that tree. “How did you . . . I mean . . .”
“As soon as you left home, I provoked Terry into chopping me down. He took me to the lumber yard. I was taken from there and cut up into a toothpick.”
Leven just stared at the tiny sliver of wood.
“I know Sabine’s influence on you is strong,” Geth said, climbing out of Winter’s pocket and leaning against a pebble by Leven. “He wants to get here so badly, and you are the only one who can prevent him from gaining access to reality.” Geth shifted on his pebble. “Leven, you need to know some things about yourself.”
“This ought to be good,” Clover smiled, sitting down on the ground next to Leven and putting a small hand on Leven’s knee.
“Your grandfather was a man by the name of Hector Thumps,” Geth began. “He made candles in a small shop in upstate Ohio. He was a quiet, kind man who enjoyed what he did, and he fell in love with a girl by the name of Katie.”
Clover snickered.
“One evening after a nice meal,” Geth continued, “your grandfather took his Katie on a walk though the neighborhood. His plan was to ask her to marry him and make him the happiest man alive.
“Hector and Katie stopped on the corner of Elm and Twelfth to watch the sky and marvel at what an amazing world this was. There he reached into his pocket to extract a ring and ask Katie for her hand. Unfortunately, the temperature was exactly sixty-three degrees, and the sky was filled with some pretty impressive shooting stars. They were also standing over the imperfectly joined intersection of sidewalk connecting Elm and Twelfth. The situation was just right, and before your grandfather could pop the question, he disappeared from in front of Katie’s eyes and was swept into Foo.
“He wasn’t exactly happy. Since its creation, many souls had protested the fact that they were brought to Foo. They haven’t wanted to accept their missions. Your grandfather was no exception. He simply wanted to return to the life that had been stolen from him. His talent, his home, and his love were gone. He petitioned the powers that be for some sort of escape, but they knew no possible escape existed. Were there a known exit where beings could leave, then Foo would eventually cease to exist. Almost everyone would run back to what they were snatched from, leaving Foo empty and unable to create dreams. With no Foo, those on earth could no longer dream. With no dreams there is no hope, and mankind cannot survive without hope. Ultimately everyone would perish.”
“I can’t dream without Foo?”
“It’s impossible,” Geth said kindly. “When you sleep or when you focus on what you dream to be, Foo picks that up and makes the imaginable possible. Your dream is caught by a resident of Foo, and he is responsible for bringing it to life. It is a remarkable place, but not all inhabitants want to accept being there. Your grandfather traversed the entire realm, determined to find a way out. No way existed.”
“That’s all true,” Clover said, as if his reassurance would comfort Leven, “I’ve heard this story millions of times.”
“So if my grandfather was stuck there,” Leven asked. “How did I end up here?”
Geth held up his single arm as if motioning Leven to be patient. “After almost a year of searching and hoping, your grandfather finally discovered a way to get out of Foo.”
“How?” Winter asked.
“He gave up,” Geth stated plainly. “It wasn’t a new idea, others in the past and since have tried, but your Grandfather Hector was the only one to ever succeed at it. Somehow he got his brain to believe he wasn’t there. He refused to believe that Foo existed. He just lay on his back and closed his eyes. He wouldn’t sit in a chair, because that would be admitting that chair existed. He wouldn’t eat food or visit with others because in his mind they did not exist. He did not believe, and something in his brain’s chemistry allowed him to fully convince himself. It took some time, weeks,” Geth explained, “but eventually, after everyone had forgotten about him, his body drifted back into reality.
“Your grandfather awoke in the same spot in Ohio he had been taken from. It was almost fifteen months later, but he was thrilled. He ran to his small home only to discover it had been sold at auction some months before and now belonged to a big Italian family. He hurried to his candle-making business to find a closed sign and an empty building. He ran to Katie’s house and there discovered she had married two months previously and was already expecting her first child.
“Your grandfather was devastated. He had been gone for just over a year, but in that time everything had changed. He had nothing left in reality. He knew then that he had cheated fate by leaving Foo. He had escaped his destiny and messed up the plan. He felt he had nothing in reality and began to long for the very place he had just abandoned.”
“He wanted back in Foo?” Leven asked, in amazement.
“He was an interesting person,” Geth answered. “His mind worke
d differently than most. Suddenly for him Foo seemed to be the only answer he could see. He knew the impossible was obtainable in Foo. And since he felt it was impossible for him to ever be happy without Katie, he believed he could only be well again with the help of Foo. Of course, he had no way back, and as I have mentioned before, getting to Foo is not easy. And it is almost always accidental.”
“So what did he do?” Winter asked.
“He would stand on street corners that didn’t match up for hours and hours, hoping the temperature would line up and the stars would cooperate. It never happened.”
Geth stopped talking to scratch a small itch on his backside.
“And?” Leven asked, wanting to know more.
Geth looked at Leven and smiled. “You look so much like him,” he said, “your dark eyes and the streak in your hair.”
Leven touched his hair, looking confused.
“He was a brilliant man, Leven, but his confusion and desire drove him mad. He did nothing but whisper and think about Foo. It became his obsession. He wanted to return to the very magic he had once abhorred. He studied the things that made a trip to Foo possible. He built mismatched roads and learned all he could about shooting stars and how they occurred. He delved into weather and temperature and tried to determine if it is possible for a temperature to remain constant.”
“Amazing,” Leven whispered.
“Sad, actually,” Geth added. “In his madness he discovered that certain bodies of water had the potential to maintain exact temperatures at different depths. In chasing and detailing shooting stars he formulated a theory that it wasn’t so much the stars that cause the reaction, it was the way the earth responded to them—as if the earth were in awe and humming happily. That hum, he theorized, might be possible to recreate in other ways. This was his most important discovery. He just had to make the earth as happy as it was whenever a shooting star went off.
“Then came his masterpiece. He built a large box out of stone and cement. At the base of the box he placed the dug-up portion of misaligned sidewalks from Elm and Twelfth street, the same piece he had stepped on all those years before. He extracted the pieces and inserted them at the bottom of his gateway.
“He then positioned that box deep in a certain body of water at just the right depth to achieve a correct temperature. Once it was set up, he simply swam into it and stood on the mismatched ground.”
“Did it work?” Clover asked, so caught up in the story he forgot he already knew the ending.
Geth nodded.
“How do you trick the earth into being happy?” Winter asked skeptically.
“You’ll see soon enough,” Geth replied.
“So he made it back in?” Leven asked in wonderment.
“Unfortunately,” Geth answered. “When your grandfather returned to Foo, our world went crazy. No one had believed that Hector had gotten out of Foo, but now they knew that not only had he gotten away, he had gotten back. Foo had been a place where the option of leaving didn’t exist. Daily, two or three people accidentally stumbled into Foo, and they were always told there was no way out. Now, thanks to your grandfather, everyone knew it was possible to get out and to get back in. Accepting fate had been their only option. There had never been much envy and hate in Foo, until your grandfather’s gateway.”
Leven didn’t look proud.
“It is impossible to kill another in Foo,” Geth informed them, “but suddenly there were those who wanted to do just that to your grandfather. They wanted his secret. They wanted to know where the gateway was. He insisted it had been destroyed on his return into Foo, but no one believed him, not even Amelia, whom he met and married when he returned to Foo. Even after he married her he told her nothing. Antsel . . .” Geth stopped to look at Clover.
Clover smiled and blushed at the mention of his former burn.
Geth continued. “. . . Antsel, the lead token of the Council of Wonder, came forward to point out to all that even if a gateway did exist, their role was to dwell in Foo and make the dreams of mankind possible. They had a divine purpose. Sabine, on the other hand, felt the divine purpose was a myth. He believed that mankind could dream just fine without them in Foo. ‘Why should we be trapped here fulfilling people’s dreams when they don’t even realize we exist?’ he would say over and over, convincing many in Foo that any notion of a divine purpose was outdated and foolish.
“When your Grandfather Hector died everyone figured the great mystery of the location of the gateway had died with him, but they were wrong. Antsel had been given the secret by Hector before your grandfather had passed away. Hector had whispered the secret to Antsel because he wanted him to take his child and send him back to reality where he would not be persecuted and could live a life without knowing about Foo.
“The child that Antsel returned was your father.”
“How did he get him back to earth?” Leven asked.
“That is the wonder of the gateway your grandfather built. It remains open in Foo as long as the occurrences are right. If people knew where the entrance on each side was, they could travel back and forth from Foo to reality quite often and fairly easy.”
“Some grandfather,” Clover complimented Leven.
“So we’re heading to the gateway he invented?” Leven asked.
“The very same,” Geth nodded. “Sabine won’t stop until he has found it. He has armies of followers searching for its whereabouts. He wants into reality so that he can rule both. He doesn’t care if the dreams of man cease, nor does he believe that if Foo falls he will no longer have any power.”
“Why not just destroy the gateway?” Winter asked. “That way no one could ever come back.” Her green eyes were dark and serious.
“Antsel tried,” Geth said. “The gateway is protected. It is a law and fact of Foo that that which is truly created can only be taken apart by someone with the same blood.”
“Me?” Leven asked.
“We’re all hoping so,” Geth answered. “You are the only blood relative of Hector Thumps left.”
“And you’re here because . . . ?” Leven questioned Geth.
“I was captured and put into the seed of a fantrum tree. Sabine thought it would destroy me, but I was rescued by Antsel. Antsel in his wisdom slipped into reality and placed me here, knowing that fate would someday see to it that your path and mine would cross, and you would be able to return me to my rightful position and destroy the gateway behind us.”
“Wait a second,” Winter said. “So we’ll have no way back here once we enter Foo?”
“I hope not,” Geth said solemnly. “We must keep Sabine where he is. Foo was not meant to have an exit.”
Leven looked at Winter. Winter looked at Leven. They both looked at Clover.
“Listen,” Clover said. “Don’t worry about not being able to come back, I’ve lived both places, and trust me, you won’t be getting the short end of the stick if you end up in Foo. I mean, candy alone . . .”
“How can Sabine not know his plan would be the death of everyone?” Leven wisely asked.
“Because he is a fool consumed by ambition,” Geth answered. “His mind is not his own anymore. You will understand more once we are in Foo,” Geth replied. “For now just know that the plan Sabine is selling is a lie that will bring about the end of all of us.”
Everyone was silent for a few moments. Geth slid off the pebble he had been sitting on and climbed back into Winter’s pocket. He looked toward the sun. “We have to go,” he finally said. “I figure we have no more than five days before it’s too late.”
“Five days?” Leven laughed. “We’re supposed to get to Germany in five days?”
“If we do our part, fate will help us,” Geth said. “So, are you coming, or does Clover need to bite you again?”
Leven looked confused. “Clover bit me?”
“Only because I care,” Clover explained.
“I can’t see a way out of all this,” Leven said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Good,” Geth replied as Winter stood. “Let’s find a way to get to the eastern shore.”
Winter began walking and Geth whispered to her. “We have to keep Leven awake.”
“Why?” she whispered back.
“Sabine’s shadows can only locate him in his dreams. Those of us from Foo don’t dream here, but the shadows know Leven’s dreams now. They’d find him instantly.”
“Keep him awake for five days?”
“At least,” Geth said seriously. “Clover can bite him again if we get desperate.”
“This should be a fun trip,” Winter whispered.
Leven and Clover caught up. The four of them climbed back up the side of the ravine and walked toward the railway station.
It was up to fate now. Of course, it always had been.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Boats Are Too Slow and Planes Are Too Complicated
They were lucky to find a train going farther east, and fast. They climbed aboard a weathered red boxcar and rode through Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts.
The landscape was beautiful, but a blur, especially for Leven and his poor eyesight. The boxcar they were in was dark and cold and it rattled uncomfortably as the train flew across the country. Any conversation they had was jittery and shaky. Geth explained to Leven the necessity of him staying awake and how Sabine’s shadows could easily find them all if Leven ever slumbered. It was Leven they knew. Leven was willing to do his part in all of this, but staying awake for so many days seemed almost too much to ask, if not impossible. Thankfully, the cold, vibrating metal floor of the train car helped him remain conscious a lot easier.
In Massachusetts they got off the train they were on and snuck into the car of another heading into Maine, a boxcar full of mattresses.
“This isn’t fair,” Leven complained.