The Dark Lord's Demise

by John White

  "Why would he do that?" Lisa wondered.

  "I don't know. To teach us something. Or so we can help her. Or both. He'll show us when the time comes. Meanwhile, how about if we make tonight's dinner a sort of welcoming occasion for her? You know, `welcome to the neighborhood.' Uncle John and Aunt Eleanor can be part of that. It'll be good for them."

  "If they ever get home," Lisa grumbled. "The roast is getting cold." Her face lit up with inspiration. "Hey, I know how to make this a really special occasion! We'll use that fancy old china after all. It'll be okay if we're careful with it. I'll go up and get it!" She ran out into the hall and up the stairs to the attic.

  Kurt sighed and began to stack up the unused everyday plates. "I don't see how entertaining Betty Riggs is going to help Uncle John and Aunt Eleanor with their problems," he said.

  "It might show them they're not the only people who are hurting."

  "Hurting. . . say, did you understand what Betty said about her sprained ankle and the pain not being there?"

  "Who knows? Sounded weird to me. But then athletes in all kinds of sports play when they're injured. They keep going for the sake of victory. And soldiers who are wounded can crawl miles through jungles because they're so intent on their duty to their country."

  "Yeah, but Betty said she'd tried to do it with moving. She meant the `pain' of her family having to move often. What do you think she meant?"

  Fast footsteps thudded down the stairs from the attic. The brothers heard Lisa half-scream their names. "Wes! Kurt! Come here quick! "

  The boys hurried into the hall. Lisa stood halfway up the narrow stairway. Her eyes were almost as big as those plates she had gone to find. But her hands held no plates. She gripped the banister as if she could hardly stand up.

  At that instant the front door banged open. The voice of Betty Riggs called out, "I'm back! Okay if I walk right in?"

  Betty charged down the hallway toward the three Friesen children. As she came, she called out, "My parents said it was fine! I told you they would!"

  "Go in the kitchen, Betty!" Lisa ordered. "Right now! Go in there and-and-put the potatoes into a serving bowl!"

  Betty was startled, but she shrugged and said, "Okay. Where do I find a bowl?"

  "In the cupboard! Up high-no, I mean down low. Just look around and you'll find it. Hurry!"

  Betty Riggs was used to giving orders, not taking them. She folded her arms and asked, "What's the rush?"

  During this conversation Kurt and Wesley looked back and forth between the two girls. Lisa's behavior confused them for only a few seconds. She had just come down from the attic. Only one thing in that attic could cause her, or any of the three of them, to get so excited.

  The old TV sets had come to life again.

  Kurt knew they had to get Betty out of the way fast. Quickly he told her, "Betty! We've got a surprise for you. You can't see it yet."

  Betty's gaze traveled past the three of them and up the stairway. A sly, knowing look came over her face. "Let me guess. It's something you've got upstairs, right?"

  Lisa, still halfway up the stairs, clumped down to the bottom and stood shoulder to shoulder with her brothers. They formed a wall between Betty and the stairway. Betty laughed. "You guys are being so obvious. What's up there? Your bedrooms are up there, right?"

  Wes was completely truthful when he said, "Nope. There are no rooms up there. Just a musty old attic."

  "Why don't you do like Lisa says and go put those potatoes in a bowl?" Kurt urged Betty. "And while you're at it, could you slice the roast and put it on a platter? That would help a lot."

  Betty shook her head. "I'm no good at fixing food. I'll ruin the whole dinner. You wouldn't want that, would you?" The Friesens fought off increasing panic. At that moment, they knew, a message streamed across the screen of one of the old televisions:

  Look all thou wilt at the pictures and see.

  List to whatever they say to thee.

  The pictures you see are but one, not four,

  And each to the others may serve as a door.

  Once mayest thou enter by climbing the frame.

  Once inayest thou enter but never again.

  Once, yet I pray thee to shatter the bond

  And pass through the glass to what lies beyond.

  One of the sets displayed those words over and over. Pictures showed on the screens of the other four sets. They were color pictures, although the televisions were black-and-white sets, too old for color. The pictures appeared so real; they were like tiny theaters with miniature sets and miniature actors. Live actors who seemed to look directly out from the screen and make eye contact with the viewer. In fact, the people on the screens were alive and real. Though they looked like miniature actors, they turned out to be full-sized-once Kurt, Lisa and Wesley went through one of the screens and entered the other world of Anthropos.

  Once mayest thou enter by climbing the frame.

  Once mayest thou enter but never again.

  Gaal and the Changer were calling them to Anthropos! Now! The children had a mission to accomplish there. They did not dare ignore the summons and let the pictures fade to darkness. On the other hand, they couldn't let Betty Riggs know what was going on.

  The problem was that Betty Riggs wanted very much to know what was going on. She demanded loudly, "You guys are up to something. What is it?"

  "Like Kurt said, it's a surprise," Lisa replied quickly. "But it's not quite ready yet. You carne back sooner than we expected. I know. Why don't you leave again and come back in, say, half an hour."

  Lisa knew they would spend longer than half an hour in Anthropos. Sometimes they spent years there. However, that was in Anthropos time. In Canadian time they always returned at exactly the same time they left. If Betty came back in half an hour, they could be in Anthropos as long as necessary, and they'd still be back in plenty of time to catch their breath and prepare to welcome her to the neighborhood. They could even still have dinner together.

  You had to give Betty Riggs credit for her persistence. She did not give up easily. Now she was more curious than ever. "There's a secret up in the attic, isn't there? I knew it! This looked like a house that had a secret! Don't worry. I won't tell anybody. Was there a murder up there? Is there an old skeleton? Or a treasure worth millions? Or a locked trunk that no one knows what's inside? Or a hidden doorway to something mysterious like ... another universe? Another world?"

  "What!" Kurt sputtered. "Who said anything about other worlds?" Wes wanted to elbow him in the side, but Lisa stood between them. He would also have liked to clamp a hand over his brother's mouth.

  Betty leaned against the wall. Calmly she stated, "Oh, I believe in other worlds. Don't you?" She looked at each of them in turn. She expected a response.

  With great caution Wes admitted, "Yeah, you could say we believe in other worlds too." That felt safe. Believing in other worlds was not the same as traveling to other worlds.

  Betty examined her nails in a lazy fashion. "I think any sensible thinking person has to believe there are other worlds besides this one." Again she looked past them, up the stairway. "What's that funny flickering light up there?"

  Lisa grabbed Betty's arm and steered her toward the parlor. An idea half-formed in her head. She had to put it into action even before she fully understood it. She babbled, "You know, Betty, you're really smart. I knew it as soon as I met you. Yes, we do have a secret, but it has nothing to do with this house. It has to do with you and with us welcoming you to the neighborhood."

  Lisa looked over her shoulder at Wes and Kurt. With her free hand she waved them up the stairway while she mouthed "Go on! Go!" To Betty she said, "If you don't want to help with dinner, why don't you go into the parlor and wait for us. Take another look at the things my parents have collected from all over the world."

  "I'll say one thing: I've got interesting new neighbors," Betty muttered.

  "Oh, I don't know. I think we're kind of boring myself, Nothing ever happens arou
nd here." They went into the parlor. The boys' feet thudded up the stairs. A moment later their excited voices came from above the parlor ceiling. Lisa couldn't make out the words. She wished they would whisper so Betty couldn't hear. On the other hand, she was dying to know what they were saying. She thought she heard Kurt say "Fake!" Or had he said "Lake"? What lake could he mean? In Anthropos she knew only two: Lake Bamah, where the city of Bamah stood before it was destroyed, and Lake Nachash, with the Island of Geburah in its center. Or maybe Kurt had said, "W tit!"

  "I've already seen everything in here," Betty complained. "Oh, except for that thing. What's that?"

  "Nothing," snapped Lisa. She was looking back toward the door. If only she could persuade Betty to stay here alone, even for a short time. Then Lisa could run upstairs and go through the TV screen into Anthropos. She needed only a minute. When they came back, Betty would not even know they'd been gone.

  "Sit down!" Lisa commanded. Betty gave a big dramatic sigh and sat in an easy chair. Lisa said, "Now I'll run upstairs and finish the surprise. No, no, don't move! It might even help if you close your eyes!"

  She hurried into the hallway and started up the stairs. Halfway up she tripped and caught herself. Slow down! she told herself. You don't want to go into Anthropos with a sprained ankle. Betty said she had a sprained ankle once. Tell yourself the pain isn't there and it isn't there, is that what she said? Lisa reached the top of the stairs, rushed into the attic and shut the door behind her. She wished it had a lock. Then she turned to take in the weird but familiar scene.

  All five of the old TV sets had come alive. Across one of them scrolled the words she already knew. She barely needed to glance at that screen. Kurt and Wesley stood directly in front of one of the other sets, blocking part of her view. Rapidly she scanned the four screens with pictures. All had color images, three outdoor and one indoor.

  One of the outdoor scenes was little more than a bluish-gray blur. Lisa was disappointed. It didn't look like anything recogniz able. Wait, the blur was moving. It rose and fell in a choppy motion. It was water-the surface of a body of water on an overcast day. There was the horizon where water met sky, an indistinct line slightly above the center of the screen. Haze. A hazy day on some large body of water. What was that vertical line at the right edge of the screen? The mast of a ship? A lighthouse tower? A tower, yes, but not necessarily a lighthouse. With a shock she realized she knew the place well: the stone tower on the Island of Geburah in Lake Nachash. But the tower had fallen down ages ago! What did it mean? Were they being sent to Anthropos at some point in the past?

  Another scene showed thick woods. Lisa didn't bother to try to identify the place; it could be anywhere. A path led into the woods and disappeared into darkness. She was about to turn away and investigate another image when shafts of sunlight broke through the trees and illuminated the path. The path divided into two paths. Lisa tried to decide which she would take if she were there, but there were no arrows or markers to guide her.

  The third TV set displayed a hallway of stone lit by torches set in brackets on the walls. Strange shadows rose and fell. The back of a man in a long cloak appeared from the side of the image, as if he had walked into the picture from behind the camera. The man moved off down the hallway with his back still to the viewer. From his slow gait and slightly stooped posture, Lisa decided he must be aged. The man turned and looked back over his shoulder as though someone had called his name. His face was younger than she expected. Suddenly the "camera" zoomed in on the face. Lisa cried out "It's King Kardia!" but immediately she had doubts. It was someone who looked like Kardia. He had the same dignified and compassionate countenance. But the eyes were sad and the face was thin-too thin!

  Lisa heard Wesley say, "Never mind those. I think this is the one we're supposed to go into." "Let me see!" she demanded and pushed herself between the two boys.

  The image on the last screen appeared to be an aerial view from treetop height. It showed a clearing in a woods. Three people circled around in the clearing. They walked aimlessly but faster and faster. Sometimes they bumped into each other. Suddenly they looked up at the camera and became very agitated. They pointed and talked with excitement, though their words were inaudible. Maybe they've seen a flying saucer, Lisa thought. Then she whispered, "It's us!" Her own terrified face and the terrified faces of her brothers stared up at themselves through the TV screen. "What are they afraid of? I mean what are we afraid of?"

  "I don't think they're afraid of us," Wesley replied. "I mean, I don't think we're afraid of ourselves. I think we're afraid of something else. Us in the picture are afraid of something we can't see in the picture."

  Kurt was exhilarated and apprehensive at the same time. He said, "Reach out and touch the screen, Wes. See if it's still glass. If it's still glass, this isn't the one."

  Wesley put out his hand, jerked it back, then reached for the screen again. Involuntarily his hand made a fist. He forced his hand open, stretched his fingers out and would have touched the glass if it had been a normal TV set. Instead his hand, followed by his arm, passed inside the set. His arm and hand now appeared tiny to match the scale of the picture on the screen. As Wes entered the set up to his shoulder, a clump-clump-clump noise came from the other side of the closed attic door. Betty's muffled voice pierced the attic, an alien presence that didn't belong. "Hey, you guys! What's this thing?"

  Kurt hissed, "Wes! Pull your arm back out!"

  "I can't! It's stuck! It's like suction-like a giant vacuum cleaner!" In his head he heard the words from the list: Number Three: Vacuum rugs. That's what they should be doing! Not this! Not going to Anthropos!

  "Grab hold of me and pull!" Wes ordered. Kurt latched onto him, and Lisa latched onto Kurt, and all three heard the door bang open. Lisa and Kurt tried to drag Wes out of the TV, but the opposite happened. They were dragged in. Like dust on the rugs they hadn't vacuumed, they were sucked inward. There was no vacuum cleaner roar. The only sound was Betty Riggs's voice screaming, "What are you doing! What's going on? Lisa! Wes! Kurt! ... No!"

  Wesley could see nothing except a slow-swirling fog. He guessed he was in the clearing they had seen on the TV screen. His feet were on something solid. It must be the ground-unless he was at treetop height and standing on a tree branch-or maybe in it tree house.

  He thought he was wearing shoes. He wiggled his toes inside them. Before he took a step in any direction, he wanted to know how much room he had to stand on and how high above the ground he was, if he was above the ground. He listened for bird calls or wind. Everything was quiet. No, there was a faint noise. A monotonous hum, he couldn't tell from what direction.

  Lisa's voice spoke from somewhere to his left and scared him half out of his wits. He managed to keep his feet planted wherever they were. The unseen Lisa mused, as though to herself, "It isn't the right color for fog."

  "Lisa! Where are you? I can't see you."

  "Wes! Is that you? I can't see you either."

  "I've never seen such a heavy fog." Wes reached out his left hand. He was startled to touch cloth. Lisa was only inches away. Still he could not see even a vague shadow of her, and her voice had sounded muffled and distant. He said "Lisa! Are you wearing the Mashal Stone?"

  The Mashal Stone was a piece of magic they had encountered during other visits to Anthropos. It made the visible invisible and the invisible visible. Worn on a chain around the neck, it made the wearer invisible; it also gave special vision so the wearer could pierce through any deception and see things as they truly are.

  Lisa replied, "Of course I'm not. Where would I get the Mashal Stone?"

  "Then why can't I see you?"

  "I can't see you either. The fog's too thick. No, it's not exactly fog. It's the wrong color. Too ... blue. Where's Kurt? Is he on the other side of you?"

  Wes called out, "Kurt! Are you there?" He felt around to his right. Nothing. Then Lisa said, "Look! Whatever this stuff is, it's burning off or lifting or something. It's getting lighter!
"

  She and Wes still could not see each other or anything around them, but the foggy substance grew brighter and airier. It glowed with a blue luminescence. They could breathe more easily.

  "Blue light! Blue light is tnie light!" Lisa recited. "Remember? Blue light means Gaal is here!"

  "Or at least Gaal has something to do with whatever this is." Wes longed to see Gaal the Shepherd walk toward them out of this fog, strong and ageless, his wonderful eyes alight with welcome, a woody scent all about him like the scent of freshly sharpened pencils. In another way, Wes was afraid. Not afraid of being hurt, but afraid of... well, it was hard to explain if you hadn't met Gaal faceto-face.

  Still from the distance came that monotonous hum. "Sounds like a motorboat," Wes decided. "Maybe we're on a seacoast. Or at least near some body large of water. That would explain the fog."

  Lisa gave it sigh of exasperation. "When have you ever seen motorboats in Anthropos? They haven't invented motors yet. We always used sailboats or rowboats, remember? Oh yeah, and canoes."

  "You mean they hadn't invented motors yet when we were there. Maybe we're in Anthropos in the future. Remember, we can enter at any point in Anthropos time." Lisa had forgotten that possibility. She was about to call Wes a smart aleck when they heard a mournful voice call: "Helloooo!"

  "It's Gaal!" breathed Wesley. Lisa said, "No, it's Kurt!" And it was. Their younger brother's voice again floated toward them through the bluish mist. "Helloooo! Wes! Lisa! Where are you?"

  "Where are you?" Wes called back.

  "I'm in some kind of fog!" wailed Kurt. Lisa and Wes laughed out loud. They couldn't help themselves, though Kurt sounded very lost and helpless. They both called out "So are weee!" The blue light intensified. Then a human shape, darker in contrast with the fog, appeared somewhere out in front of them. It came closer and grew in size. Its arms moved as though it swam through deep water or perhaps felt its way through a dark passage.