by Keith LaHue
They were inside of it again, that feeling of being smothered by the mist lasted only a few minutes. The palm tree came into view, and they all breathed a collective sigh of relief as they were back in California.
"Can I see that map you made of LA?" Asked Kenneth once they were safely back at Donna's. James handed it to him.
"We crossed here." Said Ken, pointing to the place on the map where they'd crossed. "We still need to find out about several other areas. Something tells me that none of them will lead to wherever we just were. I think we're looking at some kind of multiple universe things. We may even end up on the moon for all we know." He paused.
"Are you guys in?" He asked.
Donna and James looked at each other for a brief moment. One of Donna's guests stumbled over and asked for a drink. Donna told him to fuck off.
"I'm in," said Donna. "It's better than this."
"I agree. I'm in too, said James."
The three of them sat down, oblivious of the few partygoers that had arrived, and were helping themselves to drinks that did nothing. It was going to be a long night.
24
Dave Sr. lay in bed, wondering what kind of havoc was running wild in the diorama. He still had weeks of recovery before he'd be able to get down in the basement and see to the model he had created. He thought idly that maybe there was some way he could dupe his son into stopping the progress of the creatures that had been a by-product of the creation of the various cities and landscapes. There was a very real danger that some of the beings would begin moving towards a kind of pseudo-sentience. It was dangerous and forbidden by his order. When it came right down to it, Dave was a much better wizard than he was a model builder. All of that time molding clay, shaping plastic and placing pieces of glass, myriad constituents that had gone into the great diorama. He had created some of it from scratch, via conventional means, with help from his son, but at the end of the day, if they were stuck on something, he'd wait until Davey was in bed, and work his magic on the area that had been giving them trouble. The next day he'd tell Davey that he worked long into the night to get it fixed up.
What if the inhabitants of one area began leaking over into an adjacent area? It was supposed to be impossible, the magic that created them shouldn't allow for any free will, or curiosity to intrude upon their preordained lives. They should just keep up the repetition that had been built into them. The barrier he'd placed between worlds should be impenetrable regardless of whether the inhabitants became suddenly self-aware. He shuddered when he thought of China, with its unsecured borders.
Of course, the spell wasn't supposed to go on and on without regular reinforcements. His daily trips to the basement had renewed the source foundation that the diorama was built upon. He mulled it over in his head how he could sneak a charm or other enchantment into Davey's hands. He could tell him to place it in the model, and it would reinvent the whole damn thing with a little luck.
His son wasn't stupid, and he knew already that something was up with the model, he always had. Now he had the pictures of the Great Wall being constructed all on its own. Why the hell had he let that part of the spell run? If only he had stopped it. The world was full of regrets, even for a wizard.
The Dr. had told him it would be another two weeks in the leg cast, the arm was free. That was some consolation. But according to the progress being made on the Great Wall, it would be finished in eight days or so at their current rate. Then there would be thousands of Chinese worker bees that had originally been intended to build a modern Beijing, and now they would probably go to war with one another. What if they managed to breach their area and invade Paris? The Chinese had been programmed as peasants, and when peasants weren't building, they were killing. Paris was modern, but he sure as hell hadn't armed the drones that inhabited that region. None of them should have any real weapons. Not working ones. New York probably had handguns, as he'd built it circa 1990, so crime was rampant in the city. But then again, at what time in human civilization wasn't crime rampant? There had always been crime and terror and killing. It had just progressed through history on an ever-increasing scale.
He would need Davey to bring him something from the model. Something he could enchant while his son was at school, and then have him place it back in the model. The few cars he had created that could be seen (there were a great many in the reality of the tableau) were few and far between, but he thought he could get Davey to pluck that stretch limousine from wherever in Hollywood it was at the present. He could place the spell, and Davey would never have to know.
This was based on the assumption that his son was a moron, which of course he wasn't. Even at eight, he'd already been feeling the stirrings of his latent magical abilities. He'd seen the Great Wall progress, and he knew it wasn't normal for plastic and clay and miniature bricks to build themselves. So part of him knew. He wrestled with the idea of just coming clean with the kid. His order forbade it. Then again, it also forbade the creation of half-life beings, ones that existed neither here nor there, always in that shadow world, the in-betweens. There were limits to magic, as there was to any sufficiently advanced technology of which magic was one of. It just wasn't generally known about, as the positional for disaster should the secrets get out were dire. It had been kept quiet since the dawn of man, and each wizard or witch had taken a sacred vow that could not be broken even if they wanted to.
Wizards that tried to spill the beans to an average person were forever silenced, and stripped of their powers. As the allure of magic was strong, such occurrences were rare. Telling Davey about magic before he came of age, while not strictly a case in which he would be stripped of his powers, was close to it. He wasn't sure if he wanted to push the envelope on that one.
Marigold appeared with lunch. Dave was still at school, it being a Wednesday. Many times in his life he had wanted to tell his wife about his abilities, and he never had. She was destined to remain in the dark there. He loved her very much; ordinarily, wizards would choose a witch with whom to spend the rest of their life, but Marigold had stolen his heart when he was so young. And their progeny would all be magic users. They had planned Davey and wanted two more. Mary wanted a girl. Dave would be happy with whatever fate brought them. She set the tray down beside him.
"You'd better take your pain medicine." He balked at this; he needed a clear head if he was going to enchant the limo tonight.
"I'm not in any pain honey. Actually, I'd like you to do me a favor. Send Davey in right after he gets home from school, would you?"
"He's not coming straight home. He's going to Karl's house, which worries me."
"Why"
"Ever since Karl's mother died, I think Karl has been living in the shadows. The few times he's been over I've seen bruises on him. I called child protective services. They gave me a perfunctory thank you and that was it. I don't know if they looked into the case or not. I think he's being abused by Randy Stenger. And worse, I think Randy murdered his wife. She and I were friendly you know, at least as much as we could be. Randy kept her on a short leash. He's a drunk at the bare minimum. I'm afraid for Karl. I told Davey to be on the lookout while he was over there. When he asked me for what, I told him "anything that looks weird". He's too damn smart for that. He knew without me telling him what to look for. So he's spying for me today."
"I'm not sure how good an idea that was Marigold. What if he becomes a victim himself?
"He won't, Randy's at the dump during the day. He'll be drunk off his ass by the time he gets home, and I told Randy to leave as soon as he arrived. Have you ever been to the dump and seen him sober? I do wish protective services would tell me something. They say they can't. Karl is a good boy. I don't want anything bad to happen to him."
"Well...okay. But send Davey in after dinner then."
"Like I could keep him out of here. You two are thick as thieves. My boys." She smiled graciously, warming Dave's heart, and making him love her all the more.
"Well okay."
/> "Try and get some sleep. You look like you've got something on your mind."
"It's nothing really. I think I'll read. I sleep all the time. And I'm sick of this bed. I want to be back in our bed. Where I belong."
"Two more weeks and you'll be free. I, for one, miss your company in bed."
With that she was gone, leaving Dave to eat his BLT and soup. He was going to get Davey to bring him the limo tonight. It was important.
25
Karl and Davey walked side by side to Karl's house. Karl was scared. He had been extra scared when his dad has started his nightly visits to his room. He hurt and walked with a limp as a result of what his dad had done to him. His dad was going to kill him, he knew it. It was only a matter of time.
And then his dad had brought her home, a little girl from some town far away from here, or so his dad had said. Now she was tied up and gagged in the basement. He'd stopped coming to his room the same night he'd brought the little girl home. He didn't know her name just that his dad had stopped doing that dirty thing to him, and had started to do it to her, every night. She screamed when he did it, so he kept her gagged. Still, sometimes the gag came out and he would hear her cry. He wanted to help her, but he knew if he did, his dad would kill him. Part of him knew that his dad was going to kill him anyway.
That tall lady had come to the house last week, on a Saturday, when Karl was home. She'd seen the vacant look in Karl's eyes, and he'd told her that he was just tired, and no, his dad never hurt him. She'd kept asking questions, over and over. He answered all of them with lies. He knew that night he'd be in for more of his dad’s lessons, and then the dirty thing. His dad had told him to leave the room, that he needed to talk to the lady by himself.
He'd retreated into the living room. She was saying something about "Just the state of the kitchen alone!" and he'd shut out everything after that. The kitchen was a nightmare, filled with half-empty pizza boxes, mold growing everywhere. Dished piled high in both sides of the sink. The dishwasher was broken his dad had said. The lady had cried "Get some soap and water on them!"
The rest of the house wasn't much different than the kitchen. Ashtrays were overflowing, junk from the dump was all over the house. His dad was always bringing home useless things that other people were throwing out. It was everywhere. There was a pile of spent automobile tires in the back yard, along with a broken swing set that would probably kill any kid that tried to use it. That had been his early Christmas present that his dad had brought home a few days ago. It was rusty and broken. And Christmas was weeks off, this was only the third week in November.
He was terrified that Davey would find the girl in the basement. He hoped she would keep quiet; maybe she was in that stunned state she'd been in when Karl snuck her some food. Potato chip crumbs left in the bottom of the bag his dad hadn't finished. She'd started crying when he took the gag off so she could eat. She smelled bad, as she'd gone to the bathroom right there. Karl had wanted to put her pants back on her, but he knew that if he did, his father would have known, and probably killed both of them. When she was done eating the crumbs he put the gag back on her. He had to leave everything the way it was.
Now his main goal was to keep Davey occupied for two hours without him finding out about anything. Not about the girl and not about the dirty thing his dad had done to him. He had a key on a chain hung from his neck, and he led Davey in through the side door. Karl's house was the exact same layout ad Davey's
Davey looked shocked at the state of the kitchen. "Don't you guys ever eat?" he'd asked. Karl had replied that his dad wasn't big in doing the dishes and that with his mother gone...Karl had almost started crying again when he thought of her. He whisked Davey through the rest of the disaster of a house and brought him to his room.
Karl's room was a stunning contrast to the rest of the house. It was immaculate, nothing was left on the floor, the bed was made. Everything neat and tidy. Davey said, "Wow, your room is cleaner than mine!" Karl had said that he liked it clean. He drifted off into thought when Davey had found the toy box. There were only a few toys in it.
After the lady had come, Karl had gone into the kitchen and begun to sort out the stack of dirty dishes. His dad had backhanded him and called him a "faggot doing women's work". Karl knew better than to tell him that since his mom had died, there were no women to do the women's work. So he had left the dishes the way they were. It's not like they were using them. Karl ate his pizza right from the box. He got two pieces a day.
Last night when he'd been eating his two slices of Pizza that he was allowed, his father had wandered into the living room with a beer in his hand ( he didn't eat much, the pizza was never finished) he had looked at the mail his father never opened. There was a letter from the school, saying that Karl wasn't eating lunch and that when they'd asked Karl about it he said he wasn't hungry.
The lie was not true. Karl could barely stand it when he had to watch all of the others in line at the cafeteria, his insides roiled at the sight of hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches and milk. He hadn't had milk since his mother had died. Every day that he stood there watching the other kids eat; one of the teachers would come up to him and ask why he wasn't eating? Did he not have money? He always shook his head and said he just wasn't hungry. One time he almost cried, but he'd held it back. He knew that if he cried, the teachers would know. And then his dad would get into trouble, and then he would get in trouble.
"You don't have many toys," Davey said, waking Karl from his reverie. He'd had more toys. His dad had thrown them away, even his GI Joe. His dad said dolls were for girls. So he'd taken all of his action figures. He even took the Transformer that his mother had gotten him for his final birthday that she'd been alive.
"Well, I don't need a lot of toys!" He was angry now, angry at Davey. Davey had that great model in his basement. He was going to fuck it up big time.
Davey pulled his stuffed bear out from its hiding place under the bed. Karl had hidden it there from his dad. Seeing it made him want to cry again. He grabbed the stuffed toy from Davey, shouting at him: "Mom gave me that! Don't you touch it!" He held the bear close. He would not cry. "Why don't you just go home!"
Davey backed off. He hadn't been ready for the raw emotion. He knew Karl had once been his friend. Not anymore from what he could tell. He retreated through the room and went downstairs by himself.
As he passed the basement door, he thought he heard a sound coming from there, kind of a moan. Leave it to this dump to have a ghost he thought. He was going to tell him mom everything when he got home. He was sure she would do something about it.
Karl was even more scared now. He heard Davey let himself out the front door. Then the tears came. They were born of sadness, hopelessness, and despair, his constant companions. Oh, why had he let Davey in here? This was his place, his one place. It was invaded by his dad sometimes, but not since the girl in the basement had come. His dad spent his dirty time with her now. He sat on the bed and held his toy bear, the one his mother had made him. His father had found everything in the house that was born of his mother's love except this. This was his to keep. If his dad tried to take it away from him, if he found it, Karl would kill him. He didn't know how, but he'd do it. He would kill his father, the mangled distortion of a human being that had killed his mother.
And he didn't care if he got caught. Gradually he settled, and placed the stuffed bear back in its secret place, under the bed, where his drunken father would never look. He hoped the girl would last a long time. It kept his father from coming in at night and making him dirty. For a long time, he just sat there, in the one clean place in the house. He was there, but not there. He just wanted it to end. He knew it would end. He just didn't know how.
Davey told his mother everything as soon as he got home. He was in such a rush to get it out, and then his mother told him to slow down, and not to leave anything out. So he started with the yard, and how it was littered with useless junk that Mr. Stenger had brought home from the du
mp. He told her about the swing set that looked dangerous. He moved on to the kitchen, how it was piled high with moldy and smelly dishes. He took a (correct) guess and said that it looked like all Karl ever got to eat was pizza. He added that he had never seen Karl eat at school since his mother died.
Then he quieted, and told her about Karl's room, how it had been spotless. He told her about how few toys Karl had. He knew that Karl had at least one Transformer and that now it was gone, or maybe hidden. Then he told her about the teddy bear, and how he thought that Karl was going to cry when he pulled it out from under the bed.
When he was done, his mother told him to go to his room. He trudged up the stairs to his room, he knew he wasn't being punished; it was just that his mother had wanted to talk to his father and tell him what Davey had found. Davey felt sorry for Karl and wanted to do something to help him. Somehow he knew that if he gave him one of his Transformers, that it wouldn't last long. He didn't know how he knew, he just did.
His room was right over the guest room. He could hear a little of what his mother was saying to his dad. His dad was telling her to call, call again, and if that didn't work, she was to get Mr. Hawkins from next door and go down there with him and set things right. Davey hadn't heard his dad angry very often, but when he was, watch out. He heard the talking stop, and then his mother went to the phone.
After dinner that night, his mother had calmed down, and she said that his dad wanted to talk to him. Normally he visited his dad, first thing when he got home. But then he'd had to tell about Karl's house, and his mom had sent him upstairs. He finished up his dinner and rinsed his plate.
"Go on Davey, I can take care of the dishes. Your dad has been waiting all day to talk to you." She smiled. "I think it's about the model. But I don't know."
