Lumen and the Thistle

by EJ Wozniak

  Lumen and Alec listened to them walk out of the back of the library. They heard him gagging outside from the smell. Blake must not have wanted the rest of the school to see him.

  “Thanks dude. How’d you know I was here?”

  “Sofia found me. She told me you were in trouble. I jumped here as quick as I could.”

  “That was awesome what you did with the water. Oh man, Blake is so mad. That was great.”

  They both laughed.

  “So, you talked to Sofia then? How’d it go?” Alec asked.

  “No, Blake got me before I had the chance to talk to her.”

  Lumen shrugged.

  “Bummer. Well you’ll have to talk to her tomorrow I guess.”

  “I guess so. Or after school . . .”

  “No rush man, you’ll see her again.”

  There was a rush though, Lumen thought. He was going to stress himself out if he had to wait until tomorrow.

  “Yeah, right. I got to get to my next class. Thanks for your help. I’ll see you tonight.”

  They both walked out and headed to their next classes. The lunch bell had just rung.

  Lumen thought about when he would see Sofia again. He knew that she always walked to the stoplight after school. She must cross the street to get home. Lumen decided he would try and catch her there.

  He felt confident this time would work out but also couldn’t believe she helped him out. She must care at least a little about him; enough to find Alec to help him out. He couldn't stop smiling and was as ready as ever to talk to her. He just needed to get through these last two classes.

  Fifth period came and went at a turtle’s pace, and sixth period, history, was no different.. He walked into class, and Ms. Preston took attendance. She told the class what they were doing today.

  “We will be splitting into groups today. You will work together to answer the questions on this sheet. We are working from chapter six, so I hope you all did the assigned reading.”

  Ms. Preston split the class into groups the same way she always did. The groups were almost always the same. Lumen was always put into a group with one of Blake’s friends, Cody, a quiet kid that was also picked on, and Terri. But today there was a new girl in their group, Francine. The three moved their single desks toward Lumen, and all looked at him as Ms. Preston dropped the assignment in front of him. Lumen looked at the clock. He was sweating a little bit.

  “Hey, skitzo, pay attention, we need you to answer these questions.” Cody never did the reading.

  Terri did the reading but hardly had any input in these group assignments. Lumen didn’t know about Francine.

  Lumen didn’t fully hear his classmate; he just took the assignment and started to fill it out blindly and handed it back to his group after a few minutes. Cody and Francine grabbed it and whispered to each other.

  “What the, you see what crazy wrote?”

  Francine took the paper and read over the answers.

  “Oh my gosh, I thought you guys said he was really smart?”

  The three of them glanced at one another and back at Lumen.

  “Yeah, he normally gets all the questions right. Even I can tell some of these are wrong. He must really be losing it,” Cody said.

  Ms. Preston spoke up.

  “Two minutes folks. We will be going over the answers afterwards.”

  Cody and Francine frantically scribbled and scratched out some of the answers and put in what they thought was correct.

  Lumen didn’t hear any of this. He kept looking up at the clock. Every time he looked at the clock, it felt as if only seconds had passed.

  The teacher collected all of the groups’ assignments and had everyone move their desks back.

  Ms. Preston went over the questions while looking at each group’s answers.

  “Let’s see here, interesting . . . Cody, your group wrote all the correct answers initially, it looks like, but scratched them out. Looks like you should have listened to whoever wrote these first.”

  Ms. Preston glanced at Lumen.

  Lumen heard Ms. Preston and looked at Cody and Francine. Lumen rarely got things wrong in his classes. He was angry for a moment as he thought he should have insisted on keeping his answers, but it passed when he looked back at the clock and noticed there were only 3 minutes left.

  Cody and Francine looked at each other, embarrassed and red in the face.

  Ms. Preston was almost finished going over the last question when the bell rang. Lumen already had his bag packed up and was the first out the door. He knew where Sofia would walk by and didn’t want to miss her.

  He quickly walked out of the school to the streetlight.

  He waited. He looked back at the school to make sure she wasn’t coming towards him as he needed to mentally prepare to speak to her first. He took notice of the dull gray color of the office building with the bland blue letters that spelled “Bromide High School”. He thought that they could really update the colors or maybe repaint. Maybe people would enjoy coming to school more.

  At that moment, he saw Sofia walk out of the school. She walked right where Lumen thought she would, to the streetlight.

  Lumen got really nervous and started to sweat again. He thought it might be weird if he was just standing there, staring at her. He wasn’t sure what to do. She was getting closer. Lumen leaned up against the light pole and put one foot up.

  He whispered, “What the heck am I doing?”

  Sofia walked up next to Lumen and stopped. Lumen pushed himself off of the pole. He froze; he couldn’t think of anything to say. All he had to do was say something, but his mouth wouldn’t move.

  “Hi Lumen,” Sofia said. “You don’t normally come this way. I thought you lived toward Inventa Way?”

  Lumen took a moment to answer as he couldn’t believe she spoke to him first.

  “Uhhh, ye . . . yeah. I do.”

  “Oh, what are you doing here then?”

  Lumen thought of lie quickly.

  “Oh I’m just waiting for Alec; he’s taking forever. Class ended like 10 minutes ago.”

  Lumen awkwardly laughed loudly and immediately turned red when he realized how loudly he laughed.

  Sofia smiled. “Class ended 3 minutes ago Lumen. I was just going to ask how you got out here so fast. I’m usually one of the first at the crosswalk.”

  Lumen just laughed and turned even redder. He thought his cheeks might burn right off of his face.

  They were both quiet, just waiting for the crosswalk to allow them to walk across.

  They both opened their mouths to speak at the same time, and both interrupted one another to let the other speak. The crosswalk turned to allow them to walk.

  Sofia looked at Lumen and then turned to walk across.

  This is it, Lumen thought. How could he let it slip?

  No, he thought, he had the ask her. He turned to go after her and she had already turned back toward him.

  “Hey, look, would you want to hang out sometime?” Sofia said to Lumen.

  “Yes, definitely, for sure . . . This might be weird, but would you wanna to come for dinner at my house?”

  Sofia smiled. Lumen stared right into her big green eyes. He couldn’t believe how green they were.

  “Yes. That sounds nice. What day?”

  Lumen had to think for a few seconds about what day his mom had off.

  “How about, uh . . . Wednesday?”

  “Okay. Meet here on Wednesday after school again? We can walk back to your house.”

  “Great...Sounds great, yeah.” Lumen said. He wiped the sweat off his forehead.

  Sofia smiled again and waved goodbye to Lumen.

  Lumen turned to head back in the direction of his house. He pinched himself several times on the way home. He wasn’t dreaming.

  * * *

  Lumen walked into his house feeling like a million bucks. He walked into the kitchen, though he felt he was walking on clouds. He saw money on the counter, with a note that read “Lov
e you, take your medicine!” and knew what that meant. He turned back and went to his room. Wrigley was laying on his bed. Lumen fell onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Wrigley jumped on top of him to say hello and licked Lumen’s face a few times. Once Wrigley calmed down they both just laid there for a few moments.

  “What a day . . .”

  Lumen decided that this was probably the best day of his life. He was going to hang with Sofia in a couple of days. He never thought this would happen to him.

  “I guess being the crazy kid isn’t the worst. You think she’s into me? Maybe she’s just being nice because I’m the crazy kid. What do you think?”

  Wrigley just turned his head, trying to understand him.

  “Oh, no answer until you go to the bathroom? Fair enough.”

  Lumen took Wrigley outside for a walk to go to the bathroom.

  They went back inside and Lumen threw Wrigley’s toy around for him to fetch a few times. He got bored of it and decided to watch some TV. He had some homework but figured he could finish it in almost no time later.

  A few reruns of his favorite cartoon passed and he decided he was hungry.

  “Time for some La Derniere Piece. I’ll be back in a little, Wrig. Don’t do anything crazy.”

  Lumen grabbed a jacket and headed across Inventa Way. It was getting colder now. He realized he should have layered up some more. His mother would be upset if she saw him out with just one jacket.

  He walked across the road and into his favorite diner. He waved to Shari when he walked in and sat at an open booth.

  Lumen even said hello to the busboy, Henri. Henri seemed caught off guard and didn’t say anything back as he walked by.

  Shari walked up to the table and placed a water with lemon down.

  “Well you look awfully chipper today, Lu! What can I do ya for?”

  “The usual. And I will have the shake with my meal today.”

  “You got it, hun.” Shari winked at Lumen and walked off to the kitchen.

  Lumen thought about how much he liked Shari. She was always nice to him. He really appreciated that.

  Shari came back a few minutes later with Lumen’s chicken pot pie and a chocolate shake. Lumen switched between the two, a few bites of the pie and a big gulp of shake until both were gone. He made sure to finish both at the same time; one last bite and one last gulp. He put the money down on the table, waved goodbye to Shari, and headed back toward his house. It was even colder now. Lumen did wish he brought another jacket, but his house was so close it wasn’t that big of a deal. He breathed out heavily a few times to see his breath. He remembered a couple years ago when he saw Blake and his friends standing outside in the cold in middle school. They all put their index and middle fingers to their mouths as if they were smoking. Lumen always thought that was stupid.

  The thought quickly left him, and he got back to thinking about how great of day he’d had. The girl of his dreams would be here on Wednesday.

  He walked up his cracked driveway and back into his house. Wrigley was right where he left him, only now sleeping.

  Lumen tried to be quiet to not wake him and headed to his room. He took off his jacket and figured he should start to get ready for bed. He untied his shoes and started to take off his shirt. The shirt got stuck above his head and he couldn’t really see when there was a sudden flash of white light. Lumen struggled even more with his shirt and fell down, wrestling with the shirt in a panic. He finally ripped it off in a fright and stood up with his fists raised.

  “Dang man, you should really hit the weights. And maybe work on that tan. You’re almost transparent.”

  “Shut up, Alec. You scared me half to death. Can you stop showing up unexpectedly all the time now? I would like to think I have some privacy.”

  Alec was chuckling about Lumen falling down earlier.

  “Sorry dude, can you please find some sunlight before you blind me?”

  “Ha-ha, you’re so funny. At least I don’t look like I just ran a marathon when walking down the street.”

  “Touché. To be fair, however, that is only here. I am as dry as ever in Bonumalus.” Alec wiped his forehead and flicked the sweat at Lumen as he spoke.

  Lumen almost forgot about that place. His day had been so stressful he barely had any time to think about what had transpired over the weekend. He needed to start getting ready for classes, or training, or whatever it was that started next week. Lumen still wasn’t sure what he had gotten into.

  “Right, Bonumalus . . .”

  “That is right. Did you forget about us already? This life is so great down here that you already forgot?”

  Lumen shook his head.

  “No, it’s just been . . . it’s been a long day.” Lumen smirked as he said this.

  “I saw that little smile. Looks like you finally talked to Sofia. I told you she was into you, man.”

  “Yeah, I guess so . . . wait a minute. How do you know? Do you guys spy on me all day?” Lumen’s voice raised as he said this.

  “Well no. But we check in on you. I just happened to take a peek when school ended. Smooth moves out there, man.”

  Lumen turned red instantly.

  “You can’t be spying on me all the time. I don’t like that at all. How am I supposed to get any privacy? What if I am going to the bathroom? Or in the shower? Are you guys watching then?”

  Alec took a few seconds to respond to Lumen.

  “Well no, that’d be weird. I just do what the boss man says. We keep an eye to make sure you’re okay. You’re one of us. We’re just looking out for you.”

  Lumen thought about all the times Alec showed up out of nowhere to protect him from Blake and others.

  “Okay, how about a warning next time? At least let me get tidy and decent before you come barging in.”

  Alec thought about it for a moment.

  “Deal. Okay, now that we have that all figured out, we should head out. We have just a couple of things to pick up.”

  “Now? I was about to shower though. I had a few things I wanted to do for my mom, and I need to take Wrigley . . .”

  Before Lumen could finish Alec grabbed his hand and pulled him through a window of lights.

  They were suddenly standing in a very cold and snowy area filled with hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people. There were small wooden huts and cabins all around covered in fresh powdery snow. The town smelled like Lumen’s town smelled after the first rain of the season. People of all sizes and colors walked in every direction—most of the people seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere. Lumen saw people talking and bargaining for things Lumen had never heard of.

  “Oi! Don’t toush tha mate! Theyrya fiften smoots eash! Tha ursa meat is twantey smoots! Pay up or scram!”

  About ten feet from Luman in a small wooden hut, a larger bald man and what appeared to be a young boy were having some sort of argument. Lumen could hardly understand the bald man. It looked like he lost most of his teeth. He didn’t know what ursa was, but he assumed it was some kind of meat, as all around the hut was hanging meat. The hut was covered in snow and had icicles hanging from the roof all around it.

  The bald man looked at Lumen.

  “Oi, boy! Yu wan some ursa? twantey smoots norm’, but I’ll give i’ to ya fo eighteen!” The man smiled and Lumen saw he only had 3 teeth.

  Lumen wasn’t sure what to say.

  “No thank you, mister. We will be on our way,” Alec said to the man.

  The man waved his hand at Alec as if he was telling him to go away.

  “What did he say?”

  “Don’t worry about. He is always yelling at people to buy the meat he caught. So aggressive. He should really try a different sales tactic.”

  Alec shook his head.

  “Well, anyway, welcome to Entropolis! This is where a good amount of the Eauges live. This is the market. It’s pretty hectic around here, but once you get out of here it mellows out. Don’t worry.”

  “That is awesome, Alec.
You know what would be even better though—if I had at least a shirt on in this frozen metropolis.”

  “Entropolis.”

  Alec looked at Lumen and laughed.

  “Sorry dude, stay here.”

  Alec flashed opened a window and jumped through, leaving Lumen alone to observe this new world. He stood hunched over with his arms crossed trying to stay warm. He could see his breath. He noticed how most people here dressed in ragged clothing that looked like pieces of gray and brown cloth sewn together with a single large thread. Both men and women wore big boots made from some sort of animal hide. There were little huts and cabins all over the place decorated with different signs and flags—one of the flags was present on most of the buildings. It had four stripes, two gray and two blue, alternating. In the top left corner was the same symbol, a blue circle with three wavy lines in the middle.

  An enormous, snow-covered mountain loomed behind the city, mostly covered in clouds.

  “Why would so many people want to live here?” Lumen said under his breath. A man bumped into him from behind and Lumen almost fell over.

  Lumen noticed that others here used the windows of light to travel as well. After watching a few people arrive and leave, he realized he had been standing there for a few minutes now.

  “Where are you Alec . . . ?”

  A window opened up next to Lumen. Wrigley came jumping through, and Alec followed.

  “When I said Wrigley needed to be taken out, I didn’t mean to bring him to this foreign world with no leash.”

  “I thought he would have fun. Plus, I grabbed a leash just in case. Took a few minutes to find it, sorry.”

  Alec threw a shirt and jacket at Lumen, and Lumen quickly put on the shirt and zipped the jacket all the way up with the hood on so just his face was showing.

  “Why are we here? I feel like we don’t fit in. Almost everyone is wearing those weird clothes and boots.”

  “Oh don’t worry; nobody will judge you for what you’re wearing. They know some of us come from the other side. Fashion isn’t a big deal here, as you can see. There is just one store that sells clothes; same boring stuff for everyone. Random pieces of cloth sewn together and some boots made from ursa hide. It’s all really warm, which is what’s most important here.”