Chapter 5
It was harder than it looked to get across the river. There was no boat on that shore and the woods around the lake were full of thick brush and everything was covered with ivy.
Thaddeus made his way very carefully around the edge of the lake on the mud banks. His shoes were already filthy so he didn’t mind too much. It took far longer than he imagined it would. At least an hour passed from the time he first saw the house and the time he got to the other side of the lake where there was a clearing leading up to the house.
Buckets full of water and metal instruments were scattered about on the lawn next to the house. The boat was filled with brown water with dead leaves floating around. It didn’t look like it had been used in a long time.
Thaddeus knocked on the door and there was a loud thud as something hit the floor inside. A voice shouted that he could come in.
The first thing that the boy noticed was that the floor was a mess. Books and papers were lying at odd angles all over the place. There were several large metal tables and those had books and papers all over them as well. A ladder on the right wall led up to a loft space with bookcases. A lamp stood on one of the tables but it kept the loft in semidarkness. There was no furniture like one would expect in a home. All the chairs at the tables were hard and metal.
Thaddeus waited for whoever told him he could come in to appear, but they did not. He waited for a minute but there was no other noise apart from his own footsteps as he tried to navigate the floor of books and paper.
“Hello.” He called out.
“Hello there.” The voice said. It was coming from the loft.
Thaddeus looked but could not see anyone. “My name is Thaddeus and I was told to come here by a Galen Woollard. He said that a scientist might be able to help me get home.”
“I am indeed the scientist. I am surprised that Galen sent you to me. We haven’t seen each other in a long time. I was beginning to think he forgot I existed. Now what did you say about getting home? Have you lost your way?”
Thaddeus wished that the scientist would show himself. He was wary of talking with people he could not see since his talk with the old woman the night before. “I lost my parents in the woods—the woods with the meadow in the park. I found a town and met Galen there.”
“Those woods are rarely entered.” The scientist said. “I do research in that meadow all the time or at least I used to.”
“What do you study?”
“Migratory patterns of fish.”
“Oh,” Thaddeus said, “that sounds interesting.”
“It’s really not, at least not anymore. I’ve grown tired of it.”
“Then why not change to something else?”
“Because I get money to study the migratory patterns of fish.” The scientist said simply.
“I’m sorry.” Thaddeus said, not sure what else to say. “Do you think you can help me get home? I live on Willow Street.”
“Willow Street? Streets don’t have names here; you must have come from very far away.”
“I don’t think so. It wasn’t a long drive from our house to the meadow.”
The scientist was quiet for a long time, and then: “A drive you say? As in a car drive?”
“Yes.” Thaddeus was beginning to wonder if this man was also crazy. “What else to people drive?”
“Well, um, people can drive tractors. Is that right? Do people drive tractors?”
“I suppose.”
“Aha, so you do know of tractors?” The scientist exclaimed.
“Of course I know of tractors. Everyone knows of tractors.”
The scientist gave a small laugh. “If only they did. I’m sorry I’m not being a better guest, please make yourself comfortable. I’ll be right down.”
Thaddeus sat on one of the hard chairs but could find no way to get comfortable. Strange noises came from the loft. A loud thud was quickly followed by another. It sounded as if the scientist was running into things.
“Are you alright?” Thaddeus asked.
“Oh, yes, I’m fine.”
Something appeared in the light on the edge of the loft. Before Thaddeus could get a good look it crashed to the floor with the loudest thud of all.
The boy ran over to it. He stopped very suddenly when he got a look at what it was. A whitish bean bag in the shape of a person was lying on the floor. It had scuff marks on it and a few stains. Thaddeus stepped back and looked up at the loft.
“I think you dropped something.”
“Don’t be alarmed, this happens all the time.” The scientist said, only the voice did not come from the loft, it came from the bean bag.
Thaddeus jumped back as the person shaped bean bag began to move. It drew its arms in under the body and pushed up. The head flopped back and rested awkwardly in an upward position. It had eyes and a mouth printed on it. The eyes blinked and moved and then the mouth opened.
“I can’t really climb down the ladder anymore. I should just get rid of it, I guess.”
Before he knew what he was doing Thaddeus was against the far wall, staring terrifyingly at the moving bean bag.
“Don’t be scared. I should have told you I was a little different.”
“How—what—are you a . . .?”
“This might take some explaining.” The bean bag said, shifting around until it was sitting against the wall, smiling at Thaddeus. “Do you know how sometimes you are given a wish and it actually comes true?”
“No.” Thaddeus whispered, unable to take his eyes off the bizarre creature.
“Oh, well sometimes wishes come true, especially if you tell them to a would-be sorcerer. Not that sorcerers are real or anything. Well I guess they are. I certainly didn’t start out like this. I was a very prominent scientist once, as I said, studying the migratory pattern of fish. Anyway I became very sick about thirty years ago and the doctor told me I didn’t have much time left. That’s when I was visited by a sorcerer. Of course I didn’t believe in such nonsense. He told me to make a wish and it might come true. Well at that point I was angry with my own body for betraying my mind by letting a disease take hold. I wished that I could stay alive and not have to worry about ever getting sick again. The next day I woke up like this. The wish transferred my mind into this bean bag doll so I could continue my research. The only problem is that I could not get around easily anymore and that made my research very hard. As you can probably tell walking is not my forte anymore. That’s when I met Galen. He helped me by going out to the water for me and studying the fish. The lake out there is connected to a stream and that goes to the ocean. That’s how the fish get in. Actually one year beavers showed up—”
“That wish was magic?” Thaddeus interrupted.
“It depends, what is your definition of magic?”
Thaddeus had to think about that. He had never really thought about it before. “I guess it’s when something happens that shouldn’t.”
“Then yes it was magic.”
“Magic’s not real.” Thaddeus announced proudly. “My parents don’t let me read those stories because it’s not real. I read the stories where writers can come up with ideas without cheating.”
“Magic’s not real? So says the boy talking to a bean bag man.”
Thaddeus had no response to that.
“So Galen thinks I can help you?” The scientist said. He tried to get up but his legs couldn’t hold his weight and he fell back down. “I wonder why he thinks that.”
“He said that you study cases like mine as a hobby, but he wouldn’t say what my case is.”
The scientist’s printed on eyes stared at Thaddeus. “Do you know where you are?”
“No, I can’t seem to find any markers to show me how to get back to where I live.”
“You won’t find them.” The scientist said seriously. “You won’t find them because you aren’t where you think you are. You’re close but y
ou are also so far away.”
“How can I be close and far away?” Thaddeus asked folding his arms.
The scientist sighed. “Those woods and that meadow were the same ones you saw with your parents, only different. They were in the exact same place but without your people. Does that make sense?”
“Not at all.”
“Alright let me try a different way. You said that meadow was part of a park, right?”
“Yes.” Thaddeus said slowly.
“To start let’s go to the beginning. We live in two different parts of the same Earth. The Earth is the same way for both of us, at least at the start it is. Your half turned to cities long before my half and now you have large buildings and neighborhoods and all sorts of cool things because your half stayed put. My half only recently, and I still mean hundreds of years, started living in cities. We are the same age but behind, do you understand?”
“I didn’t get a word of that.” Thaddeus confessed. “Two Earths are the same or something.”
“It’s a tricky idea to pick up on at first. The world has two very different very distinct sides. Not sides like sides of a page but sides as in differences. This half of the world lives right along with yours but we never see yours and we never see what you build.”
“Like a um, a different dimension?”
“Not really, at least not that I’ve seen. This is the same dimension, just two different sides of it. Have you ever seen a person out of the corner of your eye or a shadow move when it shouldn’t? You’re seeing our world. You know of the spirit world right? Some say that it is right along with our own but we can’t see it. That’s the way it is for us. When you saw the meadow with your parents it was the same as the meadow you saw once you got here. Because it hadn’t changed much in hundreds of years it looked the same in both. Of course grass will be in different places and things like that.”
“Alright.” Thaddeus said, attempting to figure this out. “You’re saying that we are right along with my world right now and that I can get back real easy. I don’t really care where I am, I just want to get home. My parents are probably worried and I’m scared I won’t get back.”
“I wish I could tell you it was easy. I’ve studied the two worlds extensively, but everything is still theoretical. I’ve heard rumors that people could go through the boundary, but I’ve never had the chance to talk to someone who remembered the other side as well as you do.”
Thaddeus’s heart dropped. “Is there any way to get back?”
“Remember what I said about the sorcerer? That might help. I don’t know where to find anyone like that, though, and usually the wishes don’t end up the way you want. What you need is a safe and efficient way to get back, but I don’t know what that is. I do know something that might help. That sorcerer gave me something the day he came all those years ago. I keep it with me for good luck. I have it here in my pocket, come over and get it. I can’t get it, I don’t have fingers.”
Thaddeus went closer to the bean bag man with a look of disgust on his face. He tried to hide it but it was hard.
A pocket was sewed into the scientist. Thaddeus reached in while looking away and pulled out a little brown stone in the shape of a flower.
“That’s a pilgrim’s amulet. It is supposed to bring good luck as a pilgrim journeys across the land to wherever they are going. There is sacred oil in it. The source has long been lost. The sorcerer said that this little clay flower held the power of the wish. The power was used up when I became this. If you find one of these then it might help you get back. I know of nothing else in the whole world that has the power that this little flower has shown me. If there is ever another way then I don’t know it.”
Thaddeus dropped the clay flower amulet back in the scientist’s pocket. “So my only way home is to find something like that?” Thaddeus asked.
“As far as I know, yes.”
Thaddeus sat in one of the hard chairs and tried not to cry. He was lost in a different world that he never knew existed. He imagined his parents looking for him and never finding him. He had to get back, and he was determined to get back any way possible. “Where can I find one of those?” His voice shook slightly.
“I’ll see if I can point you in the right direction. But first you look hungry and tired, let’s fix you up.”