by Andy Young
guess so,” said Natalie. “Can we go to the wall?”
“Follow me,” said Shrug.
They followed the path, which eventually met another path, a place Natalie had never been before.
“So I never really went home, did I?”
Shrug shrugged; Natalie glared at him. “Hey,” he said, throwing up his hands. “What kind of question is that? You’ve never gone anywhere.”
“What are you saying? All this really is a dream?”
“Of course not. But it isn’t somewhere else, either. Everything is just...how you look at it. The Kingdom has always been there. And right now your home is close. It’s right here.”
“Behind that door?”
“No, no. It’s here. It’s wherever it needs to be. The door was just something the girls did for you.”
Natalie snorted. “So there has always been a big ol’ forest in the parking lot of my school, eh?”
“Now you’re getting it,” said Shrug. They kept walking, and soon were at the wall, approaching it from a new angle.
“And I suppose the wall has always been here?”
“Of course. How else could it be? And you have always been Nightfall. You always will be.”
“But you said there were others.”
Shrug shook his head. “Never mind. I thought you understood.”
They climbed the stairs to the top, walked to the fourteenth door. Ms. Silver was there, her pale eyes open.
“It’s about time,” she said.
“Sorry,” said Natalie. “What do I need to do?”
“I have a riddle for you,” said Ms. Silver. “A little piece of sun on a little piece of rope. What am I?”
“How many guesses do I get?”
“As many as you need.”
“Really? That’s...unexpected. Oh, wait, I got it. That was an easy one.”
“Then why don’t you say the answer?”
“Will this make everything better?”
“I’m sure it will,” said Ms. Silver with a smile.
“I’m asking you, Shrug. Will school be normal again? All the kids?”
“I’m not prepared to say that school will be normal,” said Shrug.
“I don’t mean normal, like nothing weird ever happens. Just normal. You know.”
“But I don’t,” said Shrug. “What’s normal? I’m not going to promise anything and have to be accountable for it. You mean will it all be normal for you, don’t you? Maybe you should think about what you think normal is before you ask a question like that.”
Natalie smiled. “I get it, Shrug. You said that it is all a way of seeing, right? If I think it will be normal than whatever I think is what will be.”
Shrug frowned. “That’s dumb. Did you imagine the Kingdom before you came here?”
“No.”
“But it is here just the same.”
“Daytime thinking,” said Ms. Silver.
“Tell me about it,” said Shrug. “You’re not done with your task, Nightfall. Even if you are right about this door, there are two more to go. There is no telling how things will be until then.”
“Then let’s get it done,” said Natalie. “The answer is a candle.” She pulled the door open. Inside was an impressive bonfire, a six-foot high stack of wood blazing madly. Natalie could feel the furious heat on her face, though oddly the fire was built right on the snow, which showed no sign of melting.
“Two more doors,” said Natalie. “I’m almost done.”
She woke up; it was daytime, but that was all she knew- her clock was dead. She rolled out of bed and went to check on her parents. They were still asleep.
“Hey!” said Natalie. “Time to get up.”
Natalie had always been annoyed at those movies where somebody hears something behind them and they turn around slowly to see what it is. Who would turn around slowly? If you were in the forest and a twig snapped behind you, wouldn’t you turn around quickly to see what it was, so you could react in time? But now, as she approached the bed where her unresponsive parents were, Natalie thought she understood. The people in the movies weren’t moving slowly because they were being stupid; they were moving slowly because they already were sure something terrible was behind them, and they didn’t want to know. Natalie’s feet felt heavy, unwilling to take the next step towards the bed. What if they were...no, she couldn’t think it.
But what if they were dead? There, she thought it. What if they were dead because she hadn’t opened that door when she should? What would she do? How could she explain it to anyone? Where would she live? Would opening the last two doors fix it? Was there anything out there that could fix dead?
She ran forward and pulled back the covers, shook her mom’s shoulders, yelled at them, slapped her dad in the face, screamed, “Wake up!!” But there was nothing.
Except- yes. She could see it. There it was again. Her dad was breathing, his chest moving up and down oh so slowly. And her mom was breathing too. So, not dead. But messed up. Sick, or some kind of magic. Still her fault. She imagined calling the doctor, or 911. How could she explain the problem? Or would she just call them and let them think what they wanted about why it happened? As long as they tried to fix her mom and dad. But could they? Can doctors fix magic?
But all the phones were dead. No lights would turn on, either. Maybe the whole world is like this, asleep like my parents, until I finish what I am supposed to do. Unless skipping that door has already messed things up forever. She went outside, sat on the steps, waited for a car to pass by, but of course none did. Jessie was over on her own front porch, leaning against her house, eyes closed, and she didn’t wake up when Natalie went over and poked her, called her name. She thought of school, but it would be so spooky there, with all those empty hallways echoing, and no lights.
She walked to Heidi’s house, and Heidi was there, on the porch like Jessie, except Heidi was dressed in her pajamas and slippers. Natalie didn’t even bother trying to wake her up; it was scary and frustrating having people just ignore you like that. They might as well really be dead, she thought. But she could see Heidi breathing, like Jessie had been. I hope she isn’t cold, dressed like she is, thought Natalie.
She walked a little more, past the school, but she still didn’t want to go in. She went home instead, ate something for breakfast, tried all the lights in the house, went to her room, closed the door. There was no way to tell what time it was without the clock, and the sky outside was a pale, uniform gray, quite like the sky in the Kingdom, so she couldn’t even tell if it was morning or afternoon. Maybe my mistake wasn’t not opening the door, she thought. Maybe it was when I left the Kingdom, when the creepy girls led me to my room. Maybe I’ve got the worlds all mixed up. It’s a good thing everyone is asleep. I don’t have to explain to them how I’ve screwed things up.
She sat on her bed, tried to read a book, gave it up. She changed into her nightclothes, way too early, sat on her bed again. She thought of napping, though she wasn’t tired, but maybe if she went to sleep she could just go to the Kingdom early and finish things. She laid down and closed her eyes, tried to will herself to sleep, but she was not at all tired. She sat up beside her pillows and waited, for hours. Eventually the sky outside the window turned a darker gray, then even darker, then black. She yawned, fell back, closed her eyes.
Ms. Pink was there, not Shrug, but Natalie was back in the spot where she had always arrived, and knew the way. Ms. Pink lunged forward and crashed her cone-body into Natalie, sending her sprawling into the snow.
“Hey!” said Natalie. She rolled over onto all fours, started to stand, but Ms. Pink knocked her down again. “Stop it!”
“I’ve had quite enough of this,” said Ms. Pink. “No more doors.”
Natalie rolled away, crouched, leaped a few feet, tried to stand. Ms. Pink knocked her over again.
“Ms. Pink, I have to finish.”
&nbs
p; “You’ve done enough.”
“But everything is all messed up!”
“And whose fault do you think that is?”
Natalie got on all fours again, started to stand, then grabbed at Ms. Pink when she charged her. It’s not easy to grab a smooth cone, or to knock one over. Ms. Pink evaded her grasp and backed away, but it gave Natalie enough time to get to her feet. Ms. Pink charged again; Natalie dodged, then started running down the path, Ms. Pink at her heels.
“Leave me alone!”
“Stay away from the doors!”
They rounded a bend, but the snow was deeper here, slowing Natalie down. Ms. Pink caught up to her and knocked her over again, face down into the drifts.
“Why are you doing this?” sobbed Natalie in frustration.
“You should ask yourself that!” said Ms. Pink. “Why?”
“Because it is what I have to do.”
“That’s what Shrug told you. But look at how everything is messed up.”
“Because I skipped a door.”
“It just seems that way, but it all would be messed up anyway, Nightfall, even if you’d opened that door. The doors are the problem, not the solution. It’s just going to get worse. You have to stop.”
“Why should I believe you?” said Natalie.
“Why should you believe anyone? Look for yourself. The world is messed up. I’m just telling you why.”
“But what about the spring?”
“Since when does Nightfall bring the spring? Stupid girl.”
What if she is right, thought Natalie, and it won’t get better? What if opening the last doors doesn’t fix things? Then the world is
