Akiko and the Great Wall of Trudd

by Mark Crilley

“Don’t worry, guys,” I replied, trying my best to sound casual and unconcerned. “I just scraped myself a little. It’s nothing.” There was a weird little quiver in my voice, though, and suddenly my head felt . . . I don’t know, cloudy or something.

  I looked up and was relieved to see the top of the wall coming into view. I could even hear the flags up there, flapping like crazy in the wind.

  “See, ’Kiko?” Spuckler called down to me. “Just another fifty feet to go. Sixty, tops.”

  “Sixty, tops . . . ,” I repeated, surprised by the faraway sound of my own voice.

  Now I really was feeling dizzy. I looked over and saw Poog at my side. He was hovering just a foot or two from my head with a very concerned look on his face. I had to blink over and over to keep him in focus.

  “Akiko!” I heard Mr. Beeba say from a few feet below me. It sounded as if he were miles away. “A a a r e y o o o u o - k a a a y ?”

  Suddenly everything looked very fuzzy, and I felt as if my whole body were spinning. For some reason I found myself doing the very worst possible thing I could have done at that moment. I turned my head and looked straight down.

  All I could see was a big yellow blur in place of Mr. Beeba, and there, miles below him, a strangely beautiful cloud of green.

  One by one I watched my fingers let go of the wall.

  “ ’K i i i k o h h h,” I heard Spuckler’s voice, but it sounded as if he were calling from the top of a mountain. “N o o o o o o o o o o o o o . . .”

  I felt my body tumbling through space for a second or two before suddenly being yanked very roughly. Then everything went black.

  When I opened my eyes the world was upside down.

  My face felt very warm, and my arms were dangling above my head. Or below my head, rather. You see, Spuckler’s safety measures had succeeded: I was now hanging upside down, with my feet all tangled up in the rope. I was about ten feet below Mr. Beeba and Spuckler, who were both holding on to the wall with one hand and pulling on the rope with the other.

  “C’mon, Beebs!” I heard Spuckler say. “Put some muscle into it!” Together they were drawing me back up the wall, inch by inch.

  “I’m trying, trying!” Mr. Beeba replied with a grunt.

  “Hold on, guys,” I said feebly. “I’ll try to get my legs untangled.”

  I wasn’t feeling so dizzy anymore, but my face was burning hot with all the blood that had rushed to my head.

  “Don’t move, ’Kiko,” Spuckler said urgently. “We’ll getcher feet untangled in a second. First let’s try’n getcha turned the right way around.”

  Spuckler was stretching his arm down to get hold of my leg, but I was still a few inches out of reach. He pulled a little harder on the rope to bring me farther up the wall.

  BBRRRRRRUMMMMM!

  There was a horrible crumbling sound, and all at once the section of the wall Spuckler was holding on to completely gave way. A million bits of rock and sand came pouring down, and Spuckler scrambled desperately not to fall.

  But it was no use.

  With one final clawing motion of his arm, Spuckler completely lost balance and fell helplessly through the air. I watched in disbelief as he rocketed down past me, the coil of rope connecting the two of us going from taut to loose in a split second. Then the rope snapped around my ankles as the full weight of Spuckler’s body yanked down on it. Fortunately my blue jeans were thick enough to protect me from what would have been a really nasty rope burn!

  Now the climbing order was completely reversed: Spuckler was on the bottom, I was in the middle, and Mr. Beeba was on top, holding on to the wall with all his might. For a terrible second or two, poor Mr. Beeba was forced to support the weight of all three of us!

  Mr. Beeba wheezed and groaned but somehow managed to hold on.

  Luckily, Spuckler got his bearings quite quickly, and in a flash he was back on the wall. Mr. Beeba exhaled loudly as he was relieved of Spuckler’s weight.

  “Thanks for holdin’ on there, Beebs,” Spuckler said with a nervous chuckle. “If you’da let go, it woulda been curtains for all of us!”

  “Yes, well.” Mr. Beeba said proudly while he gasped for air, “I’ll let you know when I think of a good way for you to repay me!”

  Spuckler helped me get right-side-up again. And not a moment too soon: my head felt as if it were about to pop! He also found a nearby ledge where we could all lean back and rest a little. Then he called Gax, who crawled toward us on his suction-cup legs like some kind of strange robotic insect.

  “YES, SIR?” Gax asked obediently.

  “How much weight can you support with those li’l suction thingies of yours?”

  “I’M AFRAID YOU’VE BECOME A BIT TOO HEAVY FOR ME IN RECENT YEARS, SIR,” Gax replied, anticipating his master’s plan.

  “Okay, forget about me,” Spuckler continued with a hint of irritation. “What about Beebs?”

  “TO PUT IT DELICATELY, SIR,” Gax answered, sounding slightly embarrassed, “WHAT HE LACKS IN HEIGHT HE MORE THAN COMPENSATES FOR IN WIDTH AND SHEER DENSITY.”

  “I heard that!” Mr. Beeba shouted indignantly.

  “All right, all right,” Spuckler sighed in exasperation. “What about ’Kiko?”

  “OH, SHE’D BE NO PROBLEM AT ALL, SIR,” Gax replied.

  “Now we’re gettin’ somewhere,” Spuckler said with a smile. Then he turned to me with a very serious look in his eyes.

  “Okay, ’Kiko,” he said, putting a hand on my shoulder, “I know ya must be pretty scared right now, an’ if you don’t think you can do this, just say.”

  I swallowed hard, nodded, and waited for him to continue.

  “What I need ya to do is grab hold of Gax an’ let him carry ya up to the top of the wall. I’m gonna have him check around and find the sturdiest part of the wall for climbin’, so as we won’t have any more nasty surprises.” Spuckler paused, looking up at the flags on the top of the wall as they flapped noisily in the wind. The sky was growing purplish as the sun began to set.

  “Once you’re up there,” he continued, “I wantcha to take all this rope and tie it to something good and strong, and then toss the other end of it down here to me an’ Beebs.”

  “Gee, I don’t know,” I said, trying to imagine me and Gax continuing the climb all by ourselves.

  “You can always say no, ’Kiko,” Spuckler said, his expression still very serious. “I’ll come up with a diff’rent plan if needs be. I don’t wantcha tryin’ to do this if ya don’t feel right about it.”

  I sat there on the ledge, looking up at the top of the wall, wondering what to do. I didn’t want to keep climbing, and I didn’t want to just stay there, either. What I really wanted more than anything else at that moment was to be right back at home in my bed, snuggled under the covers, waiting for Mom to bring in a little snack for me the way she always did on days when I was sick. I could almost see in my mind what the objects on the tray would look like: a little pinkish white ceramic cup filled with green tea, and a plateful of sweet cookies from our favorite Japanese grocery store, little white cookies with black sesame seeds and . . .

  “ ’Kiko, didja hear me?” Spuckler asked, waving a hand in front of my eyes. He had a very concerned look on his face.

  “Don’t badger the girl, Spuckler,” Mr. Beeba said. “Clearly she wants no part of this cockamamie scheme of yours, and I must say neither do I.”

  “Okay, okay, said Spuckler. “I’ll come up with something else, just gimme a minute. . . .”

  I felt something right behind my head and turned to look. It was Poog. He was staring intently at me, smiling just a little, and . . . I don’t know, it was as if his eyes were shining on me. There wasn’t any light coming out of them, but that’s how it felt. Slowly my body began to warm up a bit, and the goose pimples on my arms disappeared. My head started to feel much clearer somehow, and the queasiness in my stomach was almost gone. Poog continued staring at me, only now he was smiling even more than before, and it looked as if he was
nodding slightly, over and over.

  “Wait,” I heard myself saying.

  Spuckler and Mr. Beeba both turned their faces toward mine.

  “I’ll do it.” The words came out quickly and clearly.

  “Ya . . . ya will?” Spuckler asked in astonishment.

  “Are you quite sure, Akiko?” Mr. Beeba asked, examining me like a doctor looking at a patient. “You’ve been through an awfully traumatic episode just now, and I must say I have strong reservations about allowing you to—”

  “I’m going to do this,” I said with an air of finality. “I’m the one who got us into this mess. I kept looking down even when Spuckler told me not to, and now it’s time for me to do whatever it takes to get us to the top of this wall.” The more I talked, the more confident I felt. It’s not as if I weren’t scared anymore. I was. But somehow I felt as if I could deal with being scared, at least for the time being.

  “But, Akiko—” Mr. Beeba began.

  “But nothing,” I said, turning my attention to the ropes around my waist. “Let’s hurry up and get ourselves untied.”

  Spuckler grinned and busily set to work undoing all the knots. Mr. Beeba muttered a bit with a look of confusion on his face but then silently joined us in freeing up the rope. Before long I was able to climb onto Gax, balancing myself on top of his body. His legs creaked a little under my weight, and I instinctively held on with all my might. Soon, though, I felt confident that Gax would have no trouble carrying me all the way up the wall.

  “Now, don’t rush yourself, Gax,” Spuckler said cheerfully. “Beebs and I can sit here on this ledge all day if we have to.”

  “A-and, er, Akiko,” Mr. Beeba stammered, sounding like a worried grandmother, “try not to, er . . . that is to say, I do hope you’ll refrain from, eh . . .”

  “Don’t worry, Mr. Beeba,” I replied. “I’ve learned my lesson about looking down.”

  Mr. Beeba smiled apologetically.

  With a rhythmic popping sound, Gax’s suction-cupped legs slowly but surely carried both of us up the wall. I kept my face turned up at all times, not allowing myself to look down even once. I didn’t even want to risk looking sideways. I glanced to my left once, though, and was pleasantly surprised to find Poog there. I guess he’d decided to float up along with us, hovering just a few inches away from me. It was very comforting just knowing he was there.

  Before long the top of the wall was only about forty feet away.

  “All right, Gax,” I said. “We’re almost there.”

  “I’M GOING TO HAVE TO TAKE A BIT OF A DETOUR, MA’AM,” Gax said with a loud squeak. “I DON’T WANT TO RISK WALKING ACROSS ANOTHER UNSTABLE SECTION OF THE WALL.”

  “Sounds like a good idea, Gax,” I said, nodding in agreement. I had a momentary vision of the wall crumbling away beneath us and did my best to put it out of my mind.

  Gax zigzagged this way and that as he tried to find the safest route, and Poog followed along at every turn. The sound of flags flapping in the wind became louder. The top of the wall was only twenty feet away. Then ten, then . . .

  I threw my hands onto a large, sturdy-looking stone above my head and hoisted myself off Gax as soon as I had the chance. A warm wind blew into my face as I scampered over the edge and onto the great wide surface covering the top of the wall. I could hear a distant chirping sound like seagulls coming from the other side of the wall, and part of me wanted to crawl across and see what was over there. But I stopped myself.

  That’s something we should all do together, I thought.

  I took the rope and began looking for something I could tie it to. A pretty big stone jutted out from the top of the wall that I figured would do the trick. Taking hold of one end of the rope, I wrapped it around the stone several times and made a knot. I remembered my dad teaching me how to tie a square knot once when we were tying up Christmas packages to mail to our relatives in Japan. He told me I’d be surprised how important it could be to know how to tie at least one good knot. Boy, was he ever right about that!

  “Let’s see, now,” I said to myself while Gax looked on in fascination, “was it right over left first . . . or left over right first?” I finally decided it was left over right. In the end, though, I think I kind of invented my own knot, because I kept looping the rope around and tying it over and over.

  “Well, Gax, it’s not very pretty,” I said, yanking on the rope as hard as I could, “but I think it’ll hold.”

  Crawling back to the edge of the wall but not daring to look over it, I tossed the remainder of the rope into the air and let it drop to where Spuckler and Mr. Beeba were waiting. Gax peeked over and kept me informed of their progress.

  “SPUCKLER’S GOT HOLD OF IT,” he said with an electronic beep or two. “HE’S COMING UP FIRST.

  “NO, WAIT,” he continued, “MR. BEEBA’S PULLING IT AWAY FROM HIM. MR. BEEBA WANTS TO GO FIRST.”

  There was a long pause.

  “THEY’RE ARGUING,” Gax explained.

  I rolled my eyes.

  “OKAY, HERE THEY COME!” Gax announced at last.

  The rope went taut as Gax continued to describe their progress. I found myself crossing my fingers and repeatedly checking the knot to make sure it wouldn’t come undone. Finally Mr. Beeba’s head popped up over the edge.

  “Well done, Akiko!” he cried as I grabbed hold of his hands and pulled him up to safety. “I don’t know what we’d have done without you!”

  Spuckler hoisted himself onto the top of the wall without assistance.

  “Great work, ’Kiko!” he said, running over to give me a big hug. “I never doubted ya for a minute!” He caught a glimpse of my arm and the spot where I’d cut it.

  “Whoa! What happened here?” he asked, holding my arm up to get a better look.

  “Good heavens!” Mr. Beeba cried. “You’ve been injured!”

  “It’s, uh, just a scratch,” I said. It stung pretty badly, though, I have to admit.

  Spuckler reached into Gax’s insides, dug around for a while, and pulled out a rolled-up piece of cloth and a little spray bottle. He sprayed the cut on my arm with the bottle (which made it sting even more for a minute or two) and then wrapped it up in the cloth nice and snug. Gax and Mr. Beeba watched every step of the procedure with great curiosity. Poog just floated nearby with an approving look on his face. I smiled and kept quiet, surprised to see how gentle and caring Spuckler could be when he put his mind to it.

  “Ya gotta tell us ’bout this stuff, ’Kiko,” he said, sounding just a little like a scolding parent. “Don’t keep it all t’ yourself like that. Ya could end up with an infection, or somethin’ even worse.”

  “I promise next time I will,” I said.

  “My word, Spuckler,” Mr. Beeba said admiringly, “I had no idea you were so adept at treating wounds.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve had my share of scrapes in my time, Beebs,” Spuckler said with a wink.

  When Spuckler had finished with my arm, I thanked him and got to my feet.

  “Come on, guys!” I said. “Let’s go see what’s on the other side of this wall!”

  We all walked slowly across the top of the wall, which was thirty feet or so from one side to the other. The closer we got to the other side, the stronger the wind became. There was a saltiness in the air, and the sound of seabirds grew louder and clearer. The sun had reached the horizon, casting a reddish orange glow on all our faces as we gazed upon the scene before us.

  There, on the other side of the wall, was a dazzling view of the Moonguzzit Sea. The wall had been built parallel to the coastline, leaving just a small peninsula of land on the other side. Gazing down from where we stood, we could see miles and miles of water gently rolling in from the horizon. There was no sign of buildings or other man-made structures of any kind.

  Except one.

  There, at the very end of the peninsula, was a narrow stone bridge. Not just any bridge, though. This must have been the longest bridge ever built! It stretched out over th
e water, perfectly straight, for miles and miles until it disappeared into the horizon. We all just stood there for a minute or two, taking it in.

  “Heavens!” Mr. Beeba said at last. “It’s the Trans-Moonguzzit Bridge! I’d always thought the stories were sheer fabrication. . . .”

  “Man oh man,” Spuckler said. “Looks like we got a lot more walkin’ to do.”

  “We’ll never get down to that bridge before nightfall,” I said. “We’d better spend the night up here and save the bridge for tomorrow.”

  “A fine suggestion,” Mr. Beeba said enthusiastically, leaning back against a large piece of stone and folding his hands behind his head. “I could probably fall asleep right now if I closed my eyes.”

  “It’s starting to get cold,” I said, sitting down cross-legged and rubbing my upper arms briskly with my hands. “We’re gonna freeze if we try to sleep out in the open like this.”

  Just then Spuckler began climbing one of the enormous wooden flagpoles that had been built into the top of the wall.

  “I can’t believe he’s got so much energy,” Mr. Beeba moaned. “I couldn’t even climb a flight of stairs right now!”

  “He’s not climbing that pole just for the fun of it, Mr. Beeba,” I replied. “Look!”

  Sure enough, Spuckler was taking one of the flags off the pole. A minute or two later he slid back down and brought the weather- beaten old flag over to me, draping it around my shoulders like a blanket.

  “Thank you, Spuckler,” I said with a big smile. “This is perfect!”

  I don’t know if Spuckler even heard me, though. He’d already run over to another flagpole and zipped up to the top of it with the speed and precision of a circus monkey. Before long he’d brought back enough flag-blankets for everyone, even Gax, who I figure didn’t even really need one.

  As the sun dipped behind the horizon and the stars began to fill the sky, it was wonderfully peaceful there at the top of the wall. I folded my hands behind my head, the rest of my body cozy and warm beneath the thick cloth of the flag-blanket. Mr. Beeba bid us all good night and apparently dropped off to sleep almost immediately, leaving Spuckler and me to talk quietly as the sky grew darker.