by J. S. Bailey
Come to think of it, the park was where he’d first met Aunt Sarah and Blake.
BRIAN remembered that day well. The sun had gleamed a dazzling yellow against a backdrop of cloudless blue, and the temperature was nice enough that Brian didn’t have to dig through the closet to find a jacket. Mommy had gone out to see a doctor to have a “little problem taken care of,” and Craig had been too busy dozing on the couch to notice Brian’s departure.
The park lay two blocks down from their house. Dozens of children were there that day, some with parents, and some without. Brian recognized a few of them like Georgie and Garret, who lived with their grandparents across the street from him. There was Brayden, and Dawn, and another little boy who was either Martin or Marcus.
Today he saw two new faces in the crowd: a nicely dressed woman with red hair in a braid pushing her red-haired son on the swings. Brian sat down on the empty swing next to them and started pumping his legs to get higher and higher when the woman said, “Nice to see you here today, Brian.”
Brian dug his feet into the pea gravel, grinding himself to a halt. He stared up at her, squinting, trying to determine if he was wrong about not knowing her.
“It’s nice to see you, too,” he said, blushing.
The woman smiled at him with such an expression of kindness in her eyes that Brian felt his own grow misty. “You don’t know me, do you?” she asked, her eyes sparkling.
Brian shook his head. The red-haired boy stopped swinging to watch him.
“I’m Aunt Sarah,” she said, “and this is my son, Blake.”
“You’re not my aunt,” Brian said. Just who were these people?
“Sure I am,” she said. “We just haven’t met until now.”
Brian scrunched his brow. Mommy never mentioned anyone named Sarah before. Mommy did have a sister named Monica, but this lady wasn’t her.
“I can understand if you don’t believe me,” the woman said, “and that’s okay.”
That settled it in Brian’s mind. “If you’re my aunt, does that mean Blake is my cousin?”
“That’s right!” Aunt Sarah beamed. “Now how would you like to go to the Crosstown Mall for lunch? I know you must be hungry.”
Brian could scarcely believe his ears. The mall was just three streets over, and he had never been there before, though he had seen it plenty of times and heard Mommy talk about shopping there whenever she had enough money in her account.
He licked his lips at the thought of lunch. “But my mom…”
“Will never know you’ve been there if you don’t tell her,” Aunt Sarah finished. Some of the light left her eyes and she looked away for a moment. “Am I right?”
Brian nodded.
“Then let’s go. You have nothing to fear. We’ll keep you safe.”
Blake hopped off the swing, and Brian followed suit. Aunt Sarah held out a hand for Brian to take. As soon as her hand made contact with his, he could feel himself filling with light that shoved away all of the darkness and scary things that had ever happened to him.
As the three of them walked to the mall, Brian felt lighter inside than an airborne leaf tumbling on the wind. At last someone was paying attention to him in a nice way. At last someone was showing they cared.
That first visit to the mall nearly overloaded Brian’s senses. Since Mommy had never enrolled him in kindergarten (which, according to kids at the playground, was a place where you got to sit at a desk in a room full of other kids while listening to a person called Teacher who told you what to do), he had never seen so many people in one place. Aunt Sarah ordered lunch at a burger place in what she called the Food Court, and after they ate, Brian and Blake played in the ball pit until Brian wore himself out. Then they walked around and looked at shops, and Aunt Sarah drew to a halt outside a store displaying mannequins just Brian’s size.
She looked him up and down, wrinkling her nose at his holey shirt and sweatpants. “How would you like to have a new outfit?”
He started to say he would love it, but what came out was, “But what will Mommy say?”
Aunt Sarah sighed and crouched down to be at his level. “Your mother is a confused and broken woman. I would take you away from there if I could, but unfortunately that is neither my job nor my place. I keep praying, though. You deserve so much better.”
Brian nodded, not fully understanding what she meant.
“It’s okay,” Blake said. “I’ll help you pick out something cool.”
And he did. Brian left the store wearing new gym shoes, jeans so long they had to be rolled at the cuffs, and a bright red shirt.
All of his old clothes had gone in the trash.
After that, Aunt Sarah dropped Brian off at his door, gave him a hug, and said she’d be back another day.
“Where’d you get those clothes?” Mommy asked later that afternoon. Her eyes were red and puffy and a funny bruise was forming at her temple.
“A lady at the park gave them to me. She thought my old clothes had too many holes in them.”
“Nice lady. Next time you should ask her for a million dollars, too.” Mommy started laughing then and soon her laughter changed to sobs, and Brian slunk off to his room to be alone.
Aunt Sarah and Blake were at the park every time Brian went out after that, regardless of what time of day it was. One time he didn’t even come to the park until after supper, and the pair had been there alone, waiting for him to come play.
Brian had been delighted. “You waited for me!” he exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear.
“We’re always waiting for you, silly,” Aunt Sarah said as she started to push Brian’s swing. “We’ll always be here for you. Whenever you need us, there we will be.”
And they were right. Once when Brian ran away from a mean older kid who lived next door, he ran into an alley and hid behind some garbage cans, wishing with all his heart that Aunt Sarah would come save him. No sooner had he wished this Aunt Sarah and Blake appeared at the mouth of the alley calling his name.
Again, the light had come. Again, the darkness had been driven away.
DURING those weeks, things got even scarier between Mommy and Craig. Glasses were thrown. Dishes were broken. Threats were shouted, and tears were shed.
One day when Craig went down to the store, Mommy stood at the sink washing dishes, her expression tight.
Brian glided over to watch her.
“What is it?” she asked without looking at him.
“You’re sad.”
Mommy set a glass upside down in the dish strainer and glanced down at him. “What makes you say that?”
“I just know, Mommy. Craig is a bad man and he makes you sad.”
All because of you! the dark voices whispered.
Mommy’s cheeks flushed and a shadow passed over her eyes. She made no reply and went back to her task.
THE night before Brian went to the mall alone had been the scariest of all. Mommy and Craig came home from a pizza place fighting. A dangerous look appeared in Craig’s eyes as he looked from Mommy to Brian. “I don’t know why you didn’t have it done the first time,” he said. “God knows you wish he’d never been born.”
Brian’s breath caught in his throat.
“Stop it!” Mommy shrieked. “You stop it right now!”
“It’s true,” Craig continued, staring right at Brian, his voice an eerie calm. “She wanted you dead. Told me so herself. She even went to the doctor that kills little worms like you, but your father made her change her mind at the last second. Too bad he was too much of a deadbeat to stick around for long after that.”
Mommy was sobbing and clutching her stomach. “Go ahead, Julia,” Craig sneered. “I dare you to deny it.”
Mommy just continued to cry.
Craig grinned. “See? I told you it was true. You ever wonder why she doesn’t feed you half the time? It’s so you’ll die and give her a little peace of mind.”
Brian ran into his room and wept for what felt like hours. Eventually th
e sounds of the fight subsided and their bedroom door slammed.
Brian found himself praying. Aunt Sarah…Blake…please come be with me. I know you love me. I know you care.
He waited and waited but they didn’t come. At last he drifted into a light slumber and dreamed that Aunt Sarah was sitting at the edge of his bed, wiping the tears from his cheeks and assuring him that everything would be all right. Blake stood guard by the door, looking as stern as a six-year-old could.
“I love you, Aunt Sarah,” Brian murmured, comfort washing over him like the warmth of a summertime breeze.
“And I love you too, child. I love you, too.”
“WHERE are your parents, Brian?”
Brian jumped. His mind had been wandering, and he still hadn’t answered the mall security man’s question.
“At home,” he said. “I’m here with my aunt.”
Aunt Sarah, please get here fast, he prayed.
Harry gave him a dubious look. “Okay. So where is she?”
“I don’t—”
“Brian!” exclaimed a red-haired woman who ran into the food court holding a giant blue shopping bag. “Where on earth have you been?”
“Aunt Sarah!” Brian ran into her arms and gave her a tight squeeze. “I’m so glad you found me!”
The patter of approaching footsteps told him that Blake had just caught up with his mother.
“Thank you so much for keeping an eye on my nephew,” Aunt Sarah was saying to Harry. “He must have wandered off when I had my back turned.”
“No problem, ma’am,” Harry said, dipping his head. “I have a boy of my own so I completely understand. You have a good day now.”
When Harry left them, Aunt Sarah frowned. “You shouldn’t have come here alone. You could have been hurt.”
“But I had to come here!” Brian said as tears filled his eyes anew. “I couldn’t find anything to eat!”
Aunt Sarah nodded. “Let’s go get you something, then.”
THEY left the mall a short time later, Brian’s stomach splitting at the seams. “I should go home now,” he said, though for some reason the thought of seeing his mother and Craig made him feel sick.
Aunt Sarah placed a hand on his shoulder. “Brian, honey, there’s something we need to tell you.”
Brian’s chest felt tight. Something in her tone told him that something bad had happened—something worse than had ever happened before. “What?”
“Brian, you can’t go home. We just found out this morning.”
His mind spun. “You said you can’t take me away!”
“Things have changed. I’m sorry.”
Brian wanted to ask what had happened and realized he needed to see for himself. He broke into a run before Aunt Sarah could try to stop him.
Brakes squealed as he tore across the parking lot in front of moving vehicles. He stopped at the edge, watched for cars, dashed through a gap in traffic, and raced all the way home without looking back to see if Aunt Sarah and Blake were running after him.
He rounded the corner onto his own street and froze at the sight of flashing blue and red lights. Outside his house sat two police cars, an ambulance, and a big black van. His belly began to turn somersaults. Did this mean Craig was going to jail for being so mean to him and Mommy?
He continued slowly toward the house and halted a second time when he realized that Aunt Sarah and Blake were now standing on the sidewalk between him and his house. How had they gotten there so quickly without a car?
“I told you not to come,” Aunt Sarah said. Her blue shopping bag was gone. “It isn’t good for you to be here.”
“Stay back,” Blake pleaded. “Please?”
Brian shoved his way past them. He could go wherever he wanted. He didn’t have to listen.
He halted two doors down from his house. Some men were loading a person-sized cocoon into the back of the black van, and he immediately pictured his mother still and lifeless like the bodies in the shows Craig watched on TV.
Oh, no…
See what you’ve done? the cruel voices hissed. Dead, all because of you!
Darkness closed in, but it vanished in a blast of light when a hand laid itself on Brian’s shoulder. “Don’t be afraid,” he heard Aunt Sarah say behind him.
A messy-haired woman sitting in the back of a police car caught sight of Brian and started to shout through the glass.
It was Mommy.
“The creep can’t ever hurt you again, Brian! I did it for you!” Tears ran down Mommy’s cheeks. “I did it all for you!”
Brian could feel the darkness trying to creep back inside of him, but Aunt Sarah’s light kept it away. Brian had thought he would go to jail for trying to take food that wasn’t his, and now Mommy was going to jail instead.
“Where will I go now?” Brian asked, feeling a little scared even though Aunt Sarah told him not to be.
“I’m not exactly sure, but I do know you’ll be sent to live with a new family who will take care of you and love you as their own.”
That made Brian’s heart skip a beat. Wide-eyed, he stared up at her. “A new family? But what about you? Why can’t I live with you?”
The normally silent Blake was the one to answer that. “Because we’re your guardians, silly. You can’t live with us, but we can live with you.”
Brian squinted at him, not fully understanding. “What do you mean?”
“We mean that even if you can’t see us and can’t hear us, we will still be there whenever you’re in need. We were sent to keep you safe and send the darkness away.”
“And,” Aunt Sarah said, “we were sent to give you hope.”
A woman in a police uniform was walking up the sidewalk toward them. “Brian?” she asked.
He felt himself nod.
The woman held out her hand. “Brian, I need you to come with me, okay? You can trust us. We’re the good guys here.”
Brian turned to ask Aunt Sarah if the police lady was right, but the sidewalk was empty. Aunt Sarah and Blake were gone.
But only to your eyes, he heard Aunt Sarah’s voice say. Remember, Brian. Whenever you need us, there we will be.
And Brian believed it.
A SHORT STORY SEQUEL TO
THE LAND BEYOND THE PORTAL
IT WAS FOUR in the afternoon on a sunny day, and all Rochelle Peltier wanted was a pizza.
If she lived in ordinary circumstances, she could have just hopped in the car and driven down the street to the nearest Colonnade Pizza, which had locations all over her hometown of Ottawa, Ontario, ordered the biggest meat lover’s they had, and spent the rest of the day stuffing her face in pepperoni- and bacon-flavored bliss.
Rochelle did not live in ordinary circumstances. For one, Ottawa was seven hundred miles away from here, if it still existed at all; and secondly, the closest thing to a car she could use in this place was a horse and carriage, and it would take her weeks to get to Ottawa (if it still existed) using such means.
When Laura Owens had first returned through the portal connecting this quiet land to one that existed long ago, she had said she would bring Rochelle a pizza.
That was two years ago. Before Laura could fulfill her promise, those blasted Wangs, Adalbert and Louise, had proposed a measure that would make it illegal for anyone to travel through a portal. “For safety reasons,” they said, which made sense, but Rochelle, Mark Ericson, and the rest of the Owens clan certainly weren’t happy about it. Lady Capella had wept for weeks, and Lord Arcturus, who governed the village of Sparkling Falls when he wasn’t shearing sheep or shoveling out stalls, had paced around in a brooding mood until Rochelle got fed up and told him to get out of the house and do something so she could clean in peace. Being miserable wasn’t going to change the fact that guards were now constantly posted near the two known portals. You just had to hold your head up high and get on with your life, even if things didn’t go according to your plans.
Rochelle stepped away from the window in the Woodland Youth meetin
g house high on a wooded hill on the eastern side of town (she had taken charge over the group of youngsters after Yvonne Harding vacated the position) and started to pace in the manner of Lord Arcturus, her employer. They had spent today’s meeting learning about the use of different herbs in medicine and food preparation, and the samples of basil and oregano she had among all the others had reminded her of the smell of pizza sauce.
Delicious, mouthwatering pizza sauce.
It was almost more than she could handle.
At times Rochelle had experimented with making her own pizza, of course, but it never turned out the way she wanted since nobody in the village knew how to make pepperoni or even Italian sausage.
Rochelle’s stomach let out a low rumble as she went to the meeting house door and swung it open. Ivy Peterson, one of the members of the Woodland Youth, was visible as a blue and white dot with brown hair a quarter of a mile away. By the look of it, she was the only straggler.
Good. Maybe Rochelle wouldn’t encounter anyone who might question her actions.
Rochelle smoothed out the skirt of her gray dress and slipped out into the sunlight. Here she was, twenty-four years old and as ravenous as an adolescent going through a growth spurt. It was all those darn herbs. Why had she decided to use herbs in her lesson today?
She hurried along the dirt path leading downhill through the woods, passing the obstacle course on which the Woodland Youth conducted some of their training, and then the cemetery where Sparkling Falls’ late residents lay in repose. A plan was already forming in her mind: she would go down to the chalkboard posted outside the general store to see who had been assigned guard duty today. Many grumbled that standing around a portal the whole stinking day wasted precious time that could have been spent on more productive activities, and depending on who currently guarded the one she so desperately longed to slip through, she might be able to convince them to leave their post.