by T K Foster
....Still they cheered.
“What the....?” was the barely menacing sound that scratched from the figure’s mouth.
“Hello Barry,” Cetra called out.
“Cetra?” Barry returned her call, “Now I never thought I’d meet up with you here.”
“Barry,” Barret said now.
“Barret?”
A few clicks of silence later and....
“So I’m sitting inside, right,” Barry started, “eating my lunch, and I hear this racket out on the patio....”
“Patio....?” Barret questioned with a grin.
“Yeah, patio...!” he said and trailed off for a moment. “Hey! Who are these guys? What are you all doing here?”
Introductions were short, though pleasant all the same.
“Listen Cetra,” Barry whispered, “I get into enough trouble when it’s just you hanging around, my father thinks I’m losing it. Get it? Losing it? Well, I don’t need more of your sort giving me grief.”
Cetra grabbed his arm and reassured him, “Do not worry, they do not know how to find your place like I do.”
Barry looked at her and winked, “Strangely, I’m not convinced,” he said.
There was a light streaming in from the open door, and it was not daylight. It was actually far brighter, crisp-like, clean and white.
“I must say,” Barret said, “I was a little disappointed in this place up until now, but that door certainly doesn’t appear to be leading outside anymore.”
“Correct,” Barry affirmed, “It’s all part of the trickery.”
“Trickery?” Barret said, “For what purpose?”
“Now there’s a good question,” Barry said and paused to think for a moment.
In the background Billy’s forest blew up a light breeze which rattled the leaves on the trees ever so slightly; Cetra’s waves crashed on the sand and lollypop music floated up from the fun park; Gabby’s family persisted with doing whatever they could to get her attention; and Rod’s desert was silent.
Barret’s stone wall remained a stone wall of no interest.
“So what is inside?” Gabby spoke up.
“Well, little lady,” Barry said with a smile, “maybe we should all go in and have a look, and then we can discuss your future.”
“Ok,” she shrugged.
Rod, on the other hand, who had for the while been silent atop Cetra’s shoulder, asked, “What do you mean by discussing our future, old boy?”
Barry continued to smile and said, “Well, now that you are all here, you don’t really think I can let you leave do you?”
“Don’t make it sound so sinister, Barry,” Barret said.
“I was only joking,” he laughed, “But if it were Brock who’d found you here.... Watch out I’d say.”
There was a short lull in the conversation, and then....
Barry led them into the adjoining room.
Now, Billy and Cetra were already acquainted with the layout, and although Barret had been there many, many days before, it appeared to have gone through a number of changes; so to reiterate mainly for the benefit of Rod and Gabby....
It was a bright room, glary ceiling and all that jazz, circular in shape with a cobblestone floor and fourteen identical stone pillars. At the opposite end was a stair bordered by an archway similar to the one they had just entered by.
“This is pretty,” Gabby said.
“My word,” Rod added, “this is spectacular.”
In the middle of the cobble floor was a table and a single chair. On that table was a plate with a jam sandwich and beside it a glass of milk.
“Some meal you got there,” Barret quipped.
“It’s sustaining,” Barry grunted back. “Now who was last in?”
Each looked at the other and then Billy raised his hand like a naughty school boy.
“You didn’t close the door,” Barry said pointing at the archway behind them all.
“Again, Billy?” Barret chastised.
Poor Billy wasn’t certain if he had this time or not, either way, when he moped back to do so, he realised that there was no longer a dark passageway as there had been previously when he’d first encountered the room a number of days before. The ornate wooden door was now immediately hinged to the archway between the two pillars at the opposite end to the stairs.
“I see you no longer have a hallway here,” Billy said matter-of-factly.
“Correct,” Barry affirmed, “Brock thought it was pointless, so we took it out.”
A simple enough reason, Billy guessed and shrugged his shoulders in response.
“But, how do you know that?” Barry continued, eyeing Billy curiously.
“Well....”
And so began the story. A phenomenal tale of events, in part exaggerated, intermittently humorous, and everybody got their turn to tell it. War games, pellet guns, cold mist, hard cobblestone floors, rude rabbits, red headed girls with two left feet, bleeding lips, fourteen pillars, blinding ceilings, dried lizards, Humps, pig-headed kids, talking donkeys....
“What is a donkey?” Cetra asked.
....Talking burros, angry burros, curiously named desert mice, hungry burro eating desert monsters, zigzag mountain paths, kamikaze black birds, disappearing black birds, stupid dumb sage bushes and pig-headed kids, Burtle stew....
“Hmmm.... Burtle stew is yummy,” Gabby contributed.
....Humps again, perverted Humps, drunken Humps, hungry trees, hypnotic blue flowers....
Oh and the rest.
“Billy, what is a lion?” Cetra asked.
“Um.... that must have happened while you were sleeping....” Billy faltered and glanced sideways at Barret who grinned in response.
So that was their story.
“Hmmm....” Barry hummed while rubbing his chin.
There was a pip come from within the satchel hanging at his side. He put his hand in, fiddled around for a moment, and then pulled it free again. It did not pip after that.
“So you want to use our Elevator to get back home?” Barry ventured smugly.
“Elevator?” was Barret’s response as he now looked sideways at Billy who was looking sideways back and snickering.
“Yes.... Elevator!” Barry said again, but his tone was now unsure.
“Don’t you mean transporter?” Billy jumped in.
“No, Elevator it is.”
“But an elevator elevates things,” Barret said, “Doesn’t this thing just transport you from one place to another?”
“Yes....” Barry hesitated, “But who’s to say that each plain isn’t one above the other?”
“Aha,” Rod contributed, impressed with the man’s quick thinking. “A valid point my young adventurers.”
“And,” Barry continued, “don’t peeve me off or I won’t help you.”
“Aha,” Rod cried again in response to everyone else’s silence, “yet another valid point made.”
Indeed.... and after a few more moments....
“So, these plains you speak of,” Billy began his question, “how many are there?”
Barry’s reluctance to answer meant that he was either unsure or that he was sworn to secrecy, eventually he said, “Don’t you worry about that, it’s not important. What I will do for you though is take you along to see Brock, because.... well....” He hesitated and quietly reflected upon his immediate future. “I’m going to get in so much trouble over this....”
CHAPTER FORTY