The Land of Make Believe

by Michael Arnold

  “Whisk-pey, if you don’t mind, can I ask you a fast question and you won’t give me a hard time because I asked you?” Amose asked.

  Ento jumped in her lap under the table.

  “Yes, go ahead, Dad, but I can’t promise you anything,” she said. Both of her parents laughed and so did she for a brief moment, until Amose’s question was asked. “Were you in the city the whole entire time of the storm, darling?”

  Before answering Whisk-pey paused and put him in his comfortable spot on her shoulder.

  “Why does that matter, Dad? I’m not a prisoner. I shouldn’t be held here in my city, not able to go outside and explore things that I never seen before and shot my sling shot!”

  “She has a point, Amose. She isn’t a prisoner. She should be able to leave sometimes.”

  “Kalite, would you stop being an instigator and let me handle this?”

  “Yes, and I’m not being an interrogator!”

  “And I didn’t say interrogator. I said instigator,” Amose said.

  “Instigator, interrogator they both are the same thing!” Kalite shook her head, while Ento laughed.

  “I don’t want to upset you I just want to be aware of your well-being. You are part of me. You are my daughter and I want the best for the both of you!”

  “So rather to tell the truth, I smell the burnt weeds of the Dark Forest on your clothes. I know you have been out of the city today.”

  “Amose!” Kalite shouted.

  “Let me handle this, I know what I’m doing.”

  “So, are you going to tell the truth or am I going to have to take some of your recreation away from you and keep you away from Gilma?”

  “Amose, don’t accuse her of something that you don’t know she did!” Kalite yelled.

  “Did you go to the Dark Forest or did that Gilma, who I can’t tell from an owl or an eagle, fly you out there!” Now Amose was on his feet barely able to keep his balance. He didn’t hear Kalite’s angry yells for Amose to leave their daughter alone nor did he see the tears that were welling up in her eyes. All he saw was a daughter who he believed disobeyed his order never to go into the Dark Forest.

  “Yes, yes I went there, Dad. I was there playing with my sling shot.” Then as if the room had heard a feather drop everything became instantly quiet.

  “All I know is what you told me, Dad. What you told all of us here at Make Believe that the Dark Forest is bad and we are never to go there. If the Wolf-people are so bad, I wanted to see for myself. That’s why I went. Now are you happy that your daughter disobeyed you because she wanted to see something for herself?

  “Now, if you don’t mind I’m going to my room. I’m not in the mood to eat anymore!”

  Kalite gave Amose a look of disgust before she hurried behind Whisk-pey, but by the time she got to her bedroom door, Whisk-pey had shut and locked it. “Whisk-pey, darling, this is your mother. Open the door so I can talk to you!”

  “No, go away, Mom. I don’t want to talk to anyone right now!”

  “Whisk-pey, it’s your mother. It isn’t your dad. Maybe you should open up for her!” Ento whispered. Whisk-pey closed her eyes and cuffed her arms together in a fetal position.

  “No, I don’t want to talk to either one of them, and if you insist that I talk to either one of them, Ento, I will put you out of my room and you won’t be able to come back ever again!”

  “Gosh, your penalty doesn’t fit my crime, but you are the one who makes the rules. I’m sorry,” Ento said, cuddling right around her neck.

  “I just want to speak for a moment, that’s all, Whisk-pey,” Kalite said, placing her triangle ear to the door. She wanted to hear whatever she could hear behind her daughter’s bedroom door.

  “No! I don’t want to talk to you or Dad. I want to sleep and I don’t want you or Dad interrupting me, so please go away, now!” Whisk-pey’s voice spelled anger for not just how she felt but what she may say if the banging on her bedroom door continued.

  “Okay, dear, if you want to sleep I won’t bother you. I am leaving now.” Kalite left but she didn’t leave without feeling a bit of anger herself.

  “Amose, you didn’t have to speak to her like that. She is just a fourteen-year-old girl. She has feelings just like you and I do. Next time you need to have a little sympathy just like I had for you, when I was working on your leg.”

  As if she wasn’t speaking to him, or as if she wasn’t there, Amose kept on eating. At one point he hobbled away from the table, walked to the counter where the blackberry pie was, cut himself a slice and walked back to the table and began eating it.

  “You need to lighten up. The way you talk to those men who work for you is not the way you are supposed to talk to your daughter. Amose, are you listening to me or am I talking to myself?”

  Amose burped rudely. “Are you finished yet, Kalite?”

  “What do you mean am I finished? I want you to fix our hurting daughter back there!” Kalite yelled, standing by his chair, watching him and waiting for the explanation that she expected to hear from him, while he wolfed down the rest of his dinner.

  She didn’t get the one she expected, but she got one. “It’s called growing up, Kalite. If she can go out learn how to shoot a sling shot, swim, jump from one of those fifty feet high mountains and land on her feet then she can listen and take heed to what her father has to say to her! Just as you know, just like all of us know, the Dark Forest is bad, the Wolf-people who lived there are bad, they have no dealings here and we have no dealings there!”

  Now Amose was back on his feet. “All I have is the two of you. I have a duty to keep and that is to make sure that you and Whisk-pey are safe. And if she goes into a place that is not safe for her, then it’s my responsibility to make sure I tell her it isn’t safe. Let her do whatever she is doing in there. In the morning she will be fine, everything will be back to normal. But for now leave her alone, just as she told you.”

  Kalite wanted to pop Amose one good one across his lips and thank him at the same time for what he said, but convinced herself that only one of those things would be sufficient. She chose one. “I thank you, Amose, for being concerned. You are really a good husband. Maybe I overreacted. Yes, the Dark Forest is bad and so are the Wolf-people and you not condoning her actions is what makes you a good father,” Kalite said.

  “Trust me, Kalite, she will be fine in the morning. If we both stop to think for a moment how many times we have gotten on to our daughter and she has ran off to her bedroom mad and upset? That is what girls her age do. This is nothing new. Sleep is the perfect medicine. You will see in the morning she will be perfectly alright,” Amose said. “Come on sit with me, dear, and have a piece of your blackberry pie that you made for us, it’s good!”

  She looked beside her a couple of feet away at Whisk-pey’s bedroom then back at Amose. “I think a piece of blackberry pie would be good!” When the evening was totally gone and the dark skies confirmed it, Amose and Kalite went to bed only seconds after she thought about trying one more time to see if her daughter would respond to her knocks. She will be alright in the morning. Leave her alone this is what girls her age do. That’s what kept Kalite from banging endlessly on her daughter’s door, trying to get her to talk. The night air was cool, but not cold as it entered Whisk-pey’s tree bark window. She wasn’t asleep. So Whisk-pey didn’t have to wake to the hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo sound of the breeze.

  Ento was asleep beside her. But he woke up when Whisk-pey got up and walked to the open window.

  “I was dreaming about blueberry plum pie. In the dream I had it all to myself, but I did share with you. What was so cool about the dream, Whisk-pey, was once I finished with one of those pies, Kalite made me another and another and another!”

  “Shouldn’t you be asleep, Ento? I guess I’ll take the blame for that. Maybe all the tossing and turning I did woke you. If so I am sorry!”

  “Oh come on, Whisk-pey, don’t be hard on yourself. Yeah the tossing and turning was kind of anno
ying!” Then he stopped when Whisk-pey gave him a strange look with a smile. “But it didn’t bother me. I was okay with it. Your tossing and turning wasn’t bad!”

  “What does that look like to you, Ento?” Whisk-pey asked, looking away from the open window at her bed where Ento was.

  “I don’t know but if I get up there where you are I may be able to tell you!” Ento jumped on her shoulder and together they peered out the window. “It looks like a lot of damage to me, Whisk-pey. What does it look like to you?”

  “I mean up there in the sky, silly – those bright colorful things that are way up in the skies?”

  “I’m not sure. Whatever they are, it’s the first time I ever seen them. You?” Ento asked.

  “Yes, yes, it is the first time that I ever seen that, but it looks so cool, Ento.”

  Ento didn’t reply. He knew what her curiosity was going to bring – not just to her but to him as well since they were inseparable friends.

  “There’s only one way to find out what those colors are in our city, Ento!”

  “I guess you want to see them up close, right?”

  “You got it, Ento. You’re such a smart friend!”

  How did I guess? Ento thought.

  Chapter 5

  To think “no, I’m not going with you” or “don’t go out there. Leave it alone, Whisk-pey,” would be the first time Ento the frog actually blurted those words out of his mouth. But because this wasn’t the typical Whisk-pey Ento had been use to, if he even showed a sign of thinking that he didn’t want Whisk-pey to go out to where those lights were, she would kick him out of her room or she would go alone and he would get blamed by Whisk-pey’s parents for allowing her to go out of the house. Ultimately, he would get thrown out of the house forever.

  “So, you’re serious? You want to go out to where those colorful lights in the sky are?” She turned her head to Ento and paused for a brief second. “I mean, I have no problem with it. I think it would be cool to go on a journey with my friend Whisk-pey. As long as you pack some snacks for the trip I’m all in!” Ento replied.

  “I knew you would want to see these lights in the sky just like me, and yes, of course, I will pack some snacks for the trip just in case it is a little far away!” Whisk-pey said.

  Oh, my gooey-goo, what am I getting myself into? Again, I have to find a way to keep myself out of these scary situation instead of getting myself into it. Ento thought. His smile was forced. Inside he felt disappointed and mad at himself.

  “I think I better start packing your food bag, Ento!”

  “Thank you, Whisk-pey, you are the best!”

  “Awh, that is sweet of you, Ento!” Whisk-pey said, rubbing the green hair that went from his back up to the top of his forehead. The bag was similar to the one Whisk-pey used to carry the rocks and her sling-shot, but this one was a little bigger and contained two storage compartments instead of one.

  “Okay, I think that is everything. We are all ready to….”

  Then as if Whisk-pey’s words were taken right out of her head, she was struck with a silent awh. Her parents’ bedroom door opened and out came Kalite.

  “Quick, Ento, don’t say anything and don’t make a sound. We have to hide until mother goes back in the room.”

  “Hide where? There is nowhere to hide in this…”

  “Just hide in my satchel. Fast!” Whisk-pey urged.

  “Did you remember to close your door, Whisk-pey?” Ento’s question was a whisper from underneath the kitchen table where they hid. Whisk-pey didn’t say anything but the two of them looked out, Ento’s head peeking out of the satchel as they strained to see her bedroom door. They could see the door from where they were hiding, but when they didn’t hear any footsteps they thought the worst.

  Then there was a sigh of relief when Kalite walked into the kitchen. “How many times do I have to tell Amose that he has to refrigerate this pie, if it is going to have the same taste that it had when I baked it. What will it take for him to learn this?” Kalite said to herself. With the pie in her hand and she walking to the refrigerator, she looked around when she heard a giggle out of Ento’s mouth.

  Quickly, Whisk-pey put her pointer finger against her closed lips, signifying for Ento to be quiet, but then figured that she had to resort to a better plan. She shoved him all the way down into her satchel.

  “Humm, I heard something. What could that have been?” Kalite said to herself before she began searching the kitchen. “Just my imagination, I suppose,” she said when she didn’t see anything, placing the pie in the refrigerator. She walked back to her room only stopping to embrace her temptation of knocking on Whisk-pey’s door and turning the knob as she had done in the past, and just as she did when she exited her bedroom and before she re-entered it.

  Whisk-pey and Ento got back to her bedroom. She closed and locked the door while Ento got out of the satchel. Whisk-pey collapsed on her bed. “Wow! That was ever so close!”

  “Yes, but it was so much fun. I never did that before; hiding from my mom. That was cool. Don’t you think so, Ento?” Whisk-pey asked.

  “You live a little on the dangerous side. I am learning that each and every day that we are with each other. But if you say it was fun, then I say it was fun too, Whisk-pey!”

  She was all smiles. Her heart bellowed in the lights that showed in her skies, this dream, this opportunity to see something different, something that she never saw before, mesmerized her.

  “Come on, Ento I want us to be back way before Mom and Dad wake up!”

  “What if those lights in the sky are really far out and we are gone longer than we expect and…, and…”

  “No need to worry, my little froggy friend, we will be back in time and I will guarantee that. We are just going to see the lights and back. Here we go. It is as easy as one, two, three.”

  Ento, having spent so much time with Whisk-pey in and out of the house, he was surer the opposite of what Whisk-pey said would happen. They climbed out of the window and down the tree. They were on the other side of the ladder which extended from the bottom of the tree to the front door of the tree house in no time.

  Whisk-pey looked at the damage the storm had done to the city: broken trees, debris everywhere, houses that were under construction now damaged to the point of reconstructing. Neither she nor Ento was surprise by this damage since what they were seeing wasn’t anything that they hadn’t seen before in their city. The focus became clearer when Whisk-pey stood and peered up at the dark skies that displayed a multitude of colors.

  “I don’t think we can walk there, can we, Whisk-pey?” Ento asked.

  Whisk-pey looked closer, examining what she saw hinged upon the skies’ darkness.

  “No, no of course not, Ento. We can’t possibly walk and get there and back home before Mom and Dad wake up. We are going to have to call Gilma!”

  “Oh no, not again! You have to be kidding me. Too much more of her and I am going to have a nervous breakdown,” Ento said as the two of them continued forward.

  Gilma landed near Whisk-pey and Ento shortly after she had been summoned.

  “My, were you sitting on our house or something? You got here so fast!”

  “No, I was actually trying to sleep but when you called I had to see what all the calling was about,” Gilma replied.

  Whisk-pey didn’t reply with her mouth but her hands did the talking. She pointed to the skies where the assorted colors became brighter.

  “Tell me you have seen that before Gilma!” A long paused finally led into her answer. “It doesn’t look familiar but the trail that I see across the skies and heading down behind those trees, I think I know that place.”

  “Well, what are we waiting for? I want to see where those lights are coming from. So, come on, let’s go!”

  After Ento snuck a handful of mixed nuts out of the satchel, he ate them and poked his head out of it.

  “I think the people that live there, Whisk-pey, way behind those trees are very peculia
r people!”

  “Peculiar? What does that supposed to mean? I just want to go see the lights up close, me and Ento do.”

  Don’t put my name in it I wanted to stay home and sleep but because you want to go on one of your adventures…., here we are, again! Ento thought but continued to eat his nuts.

  “When I say peculiar I mean they are different. They are strange people that I see doing strange things, Whisk-pey. They are isolated people who don’t associate with anyone but themselves. I don’t feel too comfortable being around them or close to where they are!”

  Good! Now maybe the two of us can climb up that tree and get back into bed and sleep. Please, Whisk-pey, the lights are pointless and sleep means everything, so come on and reconsider what you are doing!

  “Just take me close to the lights and drop us off. Me and Ento will handle this, we are the dynamic twosome!”

  “I think you better speak for yourself on that one, Whisk-pey,” Ento put in. “I am going along with you on this sightseeing expedition but I am not dynamic I’m just your partner in your journey wherever this place of lights is.”

  “Okay, I will take you but the moment I sense trouble Whisk-pey I’m getting you and Ento out of there and I am bring you back home, does your parents know that you are living the house at this time of the night?” She didn’t want to come out and lie nor did she want to disclose every bit of details that happen with her and her father. “No, they don’t know that I am leaving, I want it to stay that way, Gilma. Could you please promise me that when we get back from seeing the lights that we can keep what we’ve done a secret, please?”

  “You and your secrets! I may not have any more room in my head to keep another secret. So if you have any more coming, I suggest you keep them to yourself until further notice.”

  The storm had passed and the air which was warm earlier had now turned into a cool breeze. Ento, who was in his favorite spot when he wasn’t riding on board Gilma, kept himself inside of the satchel.