“I don’t know what’s wrong! Where’s Geth?” Leven said frantically.
“He’s . . .”
“Just take me.”
Winter pulled Leven by the hand and wove through the thick throngs of enthusiastic fans.
“Did Clover find you?” Leven yelled.
“Of course,” Clover said, from on top of Leven’s head. “Do you still feel like my uncle?”
“Something’s going on,” Leven shouted to Winter as she led the way. “Time’s not acting right.”
Leven slammed into a tall cog carrying three glasses of pink ale. The liquid seemed to freeze in time and then in an instant it blew out all over the crowd.
“Sorry,” Winter said as they continued to rush through.
“I don’t understand what’s happening,” Clover said.
“Time’s messed up,” Leven said.
Geth was standing behind a short stone wall that was blocking the tents from the field. Leven stumbled into him.
“What is it?” Geth asked, holding him up. “You’re as white as gunt.”
“Something’s happening,” Leven whispered fiercely. “I’m not sure, but I feel like someone’s picking away bits of my time.”
“I don’t understand,” Geth replied.
The Pidgins scored and the place erupted in cheers. Thousands of white balls were thrown up against the sphere.
“Watch,” Leven said, pointing to the glass ball.
Two players slammed up against the inside of the court and the beginning of a new crack was born.
“I don’t see what you’re saying.” Geth looked concerned.
“Time’s stopping and starting or something,” Leven insisted. “I don’t know how, but I can feel it.”
For the first time ever Leven saw a wave of fear cross Geth’s face. Geth turned to look in Azure’s direction.
“What is it?” Winter asked.
The Pidgins scored as the Pawns lost another player.
“There,” Geth pointed. “The man with his cloak pulled up, sitting behind Azure.”
A short robed being leaned into Azure and whispered something. Geth could see a smear of blue beneath the man’s nose.
“Azure is stopping Time,” Geth said.
“He can do that?” Leven asked, scared.
“He’s done it before.”
“I felt this way at Far Hall,” Leven said.
“That’s how he disappeared,” Geth said.
“But why is he stopping it now?” Winter asked frantically.
“I’m not sure.”
“It just stopped again,” Leven said.
“For how long?” Geth asked.
“I have no idea,” Leven admitted. “But it’s not for brief moments. It feels long.”
“How long?” Winter repeated.
“I don’t know,” Leven insisted.
“Maybe that’s why I feel so hungry,” Clover said, trying really hard to sound concerned.
“It doesn’t work that way,” Geth said. “He’s doing something with that time. While we all sit here he’s setting up our demise. It must be the Dearth. He’s buying the Dearth time.”
“I figure he’s stopped it at least six times so far,” Leven said. “For how long I’m not sure.”
They moved along the back of the stone wall.
Two players slammed into the inside wall of the sphere and a loud, cracking noise began to chirp like an alarm.
The fans were whipped up and frothy.
“He’s stopped it again,” Leven whispered fiercely.
“We could lose days just trying to get to him,” Winter pointed out.
“Just keep moving,” Geth insisted. “It’s all we can do.”
Leven knew that what seemed like a short walk could take weeks to complete.
“Want me to mess with him?” Clover whispered into Leven’s ear. “I can get there faster than you.”
Leven nodded.
“But be careful.”
“Of course,” Clover smiled, having no idea what he was really stepping into.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Coming to an Uncomfortable Understanding
Tim bent down and tried to help Janet up. Unfortunately, she was a whisp and there was nothing to hold onto to help up. He tried again, but achieved the same results.
“She’s not there,” Tim said, amazed. “I can’t pick her up.”
The echoes surrounding Tim laughed.
“What happened?” Swig asked.
“I think she fainted,” Tim said.
A tall, fiery being knelt by Tim and gazed compassionately at Janet. Tim looked at him and contemplated screaming and running away.
“She’ll be fine,” the being said. “She’s very resilient.”
Tim was speechless. His brilliant mind was still trying to comprehend the environment and creatures he was now a part of.
“I am Osck,” the tall being said.
“I’m Tim.” Tim extended his hand.
“I have no use for that,” Osck said. “I’ve my own.”
Osck showed Tim both his hands.
“You have something on your head,” Osck observed.
Tim touched his ball cap, staring curiously.
“Look,” Osck said. “She’s beautiful even when silent.”
Tim looked around, wondering who he was talking about.
“Oh, her?” he said, pointing to Janet.
“Yes,” Osck said. “You know each other?”
“She was the mother of a girl I’m looking for,” Tim said.
“Yes, she has spoken about a girl,” Osck said. “Her eyes get smeared and interesting when she does.”
Janet began to stir. She was wearing an old yellow housedress with faded red flowers on the front. It looked like the same outfit she had been wearing when Tim had last seen her. Her hair was loose, and her face looked far more relaxed than Tim remembered. Her heavy body seemed less bulky as a whisp.
Janet blinked and smiled at Osck. She sat up and made eye contact with Tim. Once again she gasped.
“How can you be here?” Janet screeched.
Osck looked at her like she had just done something beautiful.
“I’m not sure how I got here myself,” Tim replied.
“Are you whole?” Janet reached out. Her hand passed right through Tim’s arm.
Osck touched Tim on the shoulder.
“He’s a nit,” Osck said. “Are you here to fight the battle with us?”
“I’m here to find Winter,” Tim said, looking at Janet.
Janet put her hand to her mouth. “How’s that possible? Winter’s here?”
“I think so,” Tim said softly.
Janet began to cry.
“I like how she looks when she does that,” Osck pointed.
Swig was invisible and sitting on Tim’s shoulder. He laughed at Osck’s words.
“You were asking about Winter when I last saw you in Reality,” Janet said. “When I sent you away.”
“And I’ve been searching for her ever since.”
Janet looked like she had been punched in the face.
“And I did nothing,” she mourned.
“Yet,” Osck said comfortingly, “that’s the thing about possibilities. They are always around.”
“Apparently Winter’s well-known here,” Tim said to Janet. “A lot of people in Cusp have heard of her. They say she’s fighting the war. I was hoping she might be here.”
“I don’t understand,” Janet said. “How could they know her?”
“She’s from Foo.”
Janet closed her brown eyes and then opened them slowly.
“She’s a nit, isn’t she?” Janet asked. “She froze my hair once.”
“She has frozen a number of things,” Tim said. “My hope was to find her and make sure she was safe. Now, however, I’m not certain I can even save myself.”
“You must march with us, then,” Osck said passionately. “Azure’s army has room for all who wan
t their freedom.”
“March?”
“Today we begin the hard march into Cusp,” Osck said. “Once Cusp is taken we will be one step closer to finding a way out of Foo.”
“Is that possible?”
“Azure promises it is,” Osck said. “Then Janet and I will be together. She will be whole and I will reflect her. So will you march?”
“I’m not sure,” Tim said.
“And I’m not leaving without Winter,” Janet insisted. “I turned my back on her once, but not again.”
“What’s in the other direction?” Tim pointed to the far horizon.
“The Swollen Forest,” Osck said. “And Morfit is back a bit where the sky is black.”
“Could Winter be there?” Tim asked.
Osck shrugged. Fiery streaks of light raced through his veins, and Tim could see his own reflection in Osck’s shoulder.
“I don’t know where Winter is,” Osck pointed out naively. “But your chance for reunion is best if Azure succeeds.”
“I’ve heard both good and bad about Azure,” Tim said. “A lot of people in Cusp fear him and think he’s misguided.”
“Most in Cusp fear the possibilities Azure promises,” Osck said firmly, his ears burning like red-hot flames. “Azure promises multiple gifts and freedom for all. The day’s coming when we will dream our own dreams. March with us.”
“I will until I discover that Winter’s somewhere else,” Tim said. “I’ve got to finish this.”
“Same here,” Janet said passionately.
“What of us?” Osck said sadly.
“Osck,” Janet said tenderly, “I will never be truly whole until I have found her and told her I’m sorry.”
“Then we will find her,” Osck said. “And we will be one of those groups.”
“Groups?” Tim asked.
“Where there’s people who live in a house.”
“A family?” Tim smiled.
“Yes,” Osck said. “What about you, Tim? Do you live in a house with people?”
Tim nodded.
“Do they all wear things on their heads?”
“Just me,” Tim said.
“Would it be possible for you to stand so that I can reflect the top of you?” Osck asked. “The top of your head is fascinating.”
Tim took off his ball cap. He looked at it in his hands. He had tucked it into his pocket before he had been snatched into Foo. He had gotten it years ago from his wife, Wendy. She insisted it wasn’t because he was going bald, but because the sun can be harmful to people with large foreheads. The front of the cap had a picture of a bulldog on it.
Tim stared at the hat for a few seconds. He handed it to Osck.
Osck squinted and stepped back.
“No,” Tim said. “I want you to have it.”
“But I don’t have one to give you,” Osck pointed out.
“Will you help me . . . us . . . find Winter?”
“Of course.”
Tim held the hat out further.
Osck took it carefully. He looked at the bulldog and turned the hat around in his hands. He placed it on his head and smiled. His smile turned his ears red, causing them to spark up. The hat caught fire and in two seconds it was nothing but ashes.
“Thank you,” Osck said as ashes drifted off of him. “Your head looked better when you were wearing it. That’s quite a sacrifice.”
“I’ve got to be dreaming,” Tim murmured to himself.
“You’re not,” Swig whispered back from the back of Tim’s neck. “Are you sure you want to join up with all these people?”
“I’m not sure of anything anymore,” Tim said quietly.
“Are you hungry?” Osck asked.
Osck walked Tim over to one of the cooking circles and loaded him up with a plate full of gravy-covered sheep, stick-beaten potatoes, and a large mug of rich, cold milk. With a full stomach things seemed much less worrisome but just as unbelievable.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Blue Hole Lake
In most of America fall was getting long in the tooth and large bits of winter could be felt in the early mornings and late at night. But in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, the weather was still warm enough for the inhabitants to wear shorts and sandals.
It was early morning, and the mild chill of a new day was beginning to slide off of visitors and settle only in the cold ground beneath their feet.
Santa Rosa was waking up. Of course, the small town would never really get all the way up. The best it could hope for was a slouch. It was a lazy spot with brown homes and buildings that sat on the edge of dirt roads like boxy spotted frogs. There were a few paved roads and only a couple of restaurants that looked as if they wouldn’t pass a board of health inspection. Interstate 40 cut through the middle of the town and most cars traveling the freeway were content to just keep on going.
Dusty, faded signs and billboards touted Santa Rosa as the diving capital of the Southwest. The claim seemed absurd, since the town was landlocked and barren, but thanks to some extraordinary sinkholes filled with water, numerous divers would come and practice their skills in Santa Rosa.
The most famous sinkhole was called Blue Hole Lake. It wasn’t much larger than a community pool, but it was over eighty feet deep. It was an artesian spring that pumped more than three thousand gallons a minute of water up and then downstream. On a day when few scuba divers were practicing in it, the water was so clear it was said you could spot a nickel on the bottom of the lake from up top.
The small lake was surrounded by a short brick wall on two sides and a high stone cliff at the back. There were some stairs at the front for people who preferred to walk carefully into the lake and a cement platform off the north wall that allowed the less cautious to dive in. A couple of worn picnic tables sat near a dive shop that, on its best days, didn’t look like much more than an abandoned building.
“Not much of a town,” Dennis said, taking in his surroundings. “There doesn’t look to be a single building that couldn’t use some repair.”
“Thanks for the commentary,” Ezra said.
“It’s just so brown,” Dennis added. “Remember Germany?”
“No,” Ezra mocked. “I’ve completely forgotten what happened to me just a short while ago. I’m so stupid that I have no memory of an entire country or that we were just there.”
Dennis shook his shaved head and mumbled something under his breath.
“Smart retort, baldy,” Ezra snickered.
“You realize I could just flick you out into the water and never have to bother with you again?” Dennis asked.
“You realize that even though you’ve become more assertive, your IQ hasn’t risen a bit?”
Dennis held Ezra with two fingers and positioned his other hand to flick him.
“Frightening,” Ezra yawned. “Where’s that round woman, Addy?”
“Buying food.”
“There’s a shocker.”
Ezra and Dennis had gotten to town the night before and rented a room at a motel called the Tower, with maroon doors and weekly rates.
Terry and Addy had their own room next door. The confused couple were still trying to digest all the new information that Ezra had given them. The idea of Foo is not always easy to take in. Especially for people with small, unimaginative, selfish brains like Terry and Addy.
“So you’re sure this is it?” Dennis said, pointing at Blue Hole Lake.
“I hate answering pointless questions the first time,” Ezra scolded. “And here you are asking for the tenth time. Yes, I’m sure it’s it.”
“And there’s a hole down there beneath that grate?”
“That’s what that web site said,” Ezra answered, defeated. “There are two grates, actually.”
“The water’s so clear.”
Dennis was correct in his description. The water in Blue Hole Lake was crystal clear and the temperature stayed at a consistent sixty-three degrees. There was a large grate at the bottom of the lake covering t
he natural spring. The sides of the lake were rocky and sloped inward like an upside-down bell. The web site also talked about the hidden caves and openings beneath the lake under the grates.
Two divers were currently in the water practicing their diving skills. Every few moments a fistful of bubbles would percolate to the surface. The parking lot next to the lake was almost empty. A couple of tourists walked around taking pictures and commenting on how beautiful the water was.
“There’s no way we could swim down through that grate without being seen,” Dennis whispered. “Besides, it’s gotta be sealed closed.”
“You have no vision,” Ezra said. “By the time we are done
using . . . I mean, helping Terry and Addy, people are going to be begging us to drain this lake and open the gateway.”
Ezra stopped talking and began to tremble. Dennis looked down at the angry toothpick sitting quietly in his shirt pocket. Ezra burned hot, turning red as he did so.
“Are you okay?” Dennis asked.
“Quiet,” Ezra sobbed.
“Your emotions are a disaster.”
Ezra leaned his head against Dennis and sobbed. “What has Geth done to me? I’m nothing but pain and confusion.”
“And nail polish,” Dennis said.
Ezra poked Dennis through his shirt pocket. They walked around the lake one more time and then out into the parking lot.
“We’ll set the tent up just over there.” Ezra pointed to an empty field across the street. The ground was covered with nothing but dirt and small scrub and rocks.
“It’s beautiful,” Dennis said sarcastically.
“I know,” Ezra smiled.
“And you think Terry can pull it off?”
“It’s debatable. You humans have such a difficult time doing anything right,” Ezra said. “But if Terry fails we’ll steal his robe and you can do it.”
“I hope he doesn’t fail, then,” Dennis said.
“You have so little gumption,” Ezra snapped. “If there’s one thing I have discovered about you people in Reality it’s that so many of you are just waiting around to believe in something. We’ll give the masses what they want.”
“And you’re sure this gateway works?”
“I went through it once a long time ago, while I was still a part of Geth.”