James Winter: Beginnings

Michel’s Mansion; the next morning.

  James sat beside Jones on the latter’s big king-sized bed with his arm around his cousin. Seli and Leo stood in front of them, frantically helping to discuss what they would tell James’ mother and Uncle Michel.

  Last night, they had transformed into full sized humans and fallen, quite noisily and clumsily, on the carpet in the sitting room of Michel’s Mansion. Fortunately, Nemo had been fast asleep by then and did not even move a muscle to the noise. Of course, the man was almost dead. The cells in his body must’ve been doing everything they could to help him regain strength and energy, if they were not dying already.

  The place was eerie and quiet, so they had all sneaked into their individual rooms and slept, right after showering, of course.

  Now, at five thirty in the morning, Seli had quietly gathered them in Jones’ room so they could prepare before revealing themselves to Nemo and the others, who must be utterly distraught by now. Time went super slow in the Inside in relative to the Outside, but James felt sure they had been in the Inside too long enough for anybody not to notice.

  They heard footsteps hit the stairs, coming closer. It was now or never.

  You’d think that they had to lie, right? Because no one would believe it if they told them the true story, huh? Seli came up with a better idea.

  The door opened slowly, like the person coming was hesitant to come into the room. It open ed wider.

  It was James’ mum. James’ heart melted at the sight of her. He couldn’t believe how much he had missed his sometimes annoying but most of the time sweet mother. Now he was starting to comprehend the intense pain that she must have been going through following the loss of her only son. James felt guilty.

  Lucy seemed to be looking at something in the hallway. As soon as she turned and raised her head, her face froze, her eyes widened and she dropped her phone, which she had been holding.

  She carefully but quickly scanned the teenagers, as if to make sure she wasn’t having hallucinations again or seeing ghosts. Then, when she was satisfied that these were no mirages, she let out an infinite scream that ricocheted off everything in the house.

  Was it just James’ imagination or did he really hear a glass explode downstairs?

  “Hi, mum,” she said and his mother’s scream broke into heavy sobs. She hugged her son tighter than fifteen Cornies (and one Cornie was difficult). James was delighted to smell that distinct perfume on her mother that seemed to have stuck with her as long as James remembered. It smelt something close to lavender.

  James inhaled it like it was his life. Lucy brought the others into a tight hug, too. It was a warm feeling that James didn’t know he would ever want.

  Nemo burst into the room carrying a heavy spanner with grease all over it. He glanced around frantically, tremor in his eyes, clutching the spanner with the readiness to knock someone’s sense out.

  “What happening?” He growled. “Why did you scream-“His eyes fell on James and the others and he scowled. He looked like he wanted to scream, too, but he held it in.

  “Where the heck have you guys been?” he said, lowering the spanner, which made wet grease stain Jones’ carpet.

  “Yes,” Lucy urged, wiping tears from her cheeks. “Explain.”

  “Um,”Seli looked at the others for backup, but they were dry. “Well, on that morning of the bike ride, we got a little lost…”

  The others nodded rapidly.

  James joined in. “Yeah, it was like we just shrank into another world and suddenly could see things that no ordinary human being can see. It was extremely frustrating at first.”

  “Yeah,” Leo said, catching on. “But we had help from some tiny friends. They helped us find our way back home. We landed last night.”

  Nemo and Lucy exchanged worried glances.

  “And why are you so hurt?” Nemo jerked his head at Jones, who still had a million plasters taped to his face and arms. In fact, ever since they had gotten out of the Inside, he was looking way better than he had been, which led to the conclusion that materializing in or out of the Inside made wounds heal faster.

  Jones looked at the wounds on his arms. James could see he was desperately trying to find something to say that wasn’t a lie but that would confuse Nemo and Lucy. “Well, I was uh, beaten by some Germs, but it was nothing major.”

  Nemo and Lucy looked alarmed now. Lucy scratched her neck, the way she did when she was nervous.

  “They probably haven’t had anything to eat in some days now, that’s why their talking gibberish. Let’s make some heavy breakfast for them.”

  Nemo and Lucy turned and went, and James smiled back at his friends. They were geniuses.