“And you talk about the Seahawks all the time,” Jack caused half of the kids to crack up, including a little chuckle from Mrs. Adams.
“Okay everyone,” she regained order. “Let’s calm down. Be polite and listen to Jack.”
Twenty-five crestfallen students reluctantly settled into their antique wooden seats and the sound of creaking filled the room. Willow Elementary, in a bygone era, had once been the town’s high school. Hand built in the 1890s out of lumber logged directly from local foothills, the building had a feel of a well-worn shoe.
Jack cleared his throat, considered the disappointed expressions, and decided to go off script.
“You guys are into monsters, right?” a few kids perked up, mostly the boys. “Vampires, werewolves, boogie men, things that go bump in the night?”
“Sure,” Dillon chattered at his normal, rapid pace. “But what does that have to do with those mirrors?”
“Everything,” Jack stood close and beheld his likenesses. Three freckle-nosed kids with chin length, sandy hair returned the stare. “Imagine these aren’t really reflections. Imagine they’re windows into other dimensions,” he angled the mirrors, causing his images to double, triple, quadruple and so on until countless Jacks trailed into infinity. “Now imagine these dimensions go on forever. If there were endless universes, then that would prove the existence of monsters.”
“Yeah, how?” Dillon leaned back in his chair, resting his head in his hands.
“That’s a great question. I’m glad you asked,” he was warming up. “Just think about it. Who are these so-called monsters, and why are they so, well, monstrous? Take vampires, for instance. Blood sucking beings with supernatural strength. Dracula, the most famous of all vampires…”
“Ahem!” Candice Rogers, the biggest Twilight fan in Willow Elementary, sneered and pointed at her Robert Pattinson T-shirt.
Jack conceded. “Okay, second-most famous vampire. At any rate, allegedly Dracula was able to transform into a bat, or even dematerialize into mist. Werewolves are shapeshifters, too. Ghosts, demons, even Bigfoot and Queenie the Columbia River Dragon all have the same thing in common, which is this unearthly ability to change physical shape or vanish entirely.”
“Queenie the River Dragon!” Dillon sat straight. “Oh, no you didn’t. You didn’t just mention Queenie, did you? Nobody believes in that stupid legend.”
“One guy does,” added Dillon’s buddy Mike Miller, a big kid with a bowl haircut and gaps between his teeth. When he smiled, he resembled a demented version of Moe from the Three Stooges. “That crazy old Captain Kimbo believes it.”
“Jack?” Dillon glared. “Are you really saying you believe in that stuff?”
Both friends slapped their desks in amusement. A quick squint of scorn from the teacher made them lower it to a light snickering.
“You may think they’re just stories,” Jack told them. “Legends passed down from generation to generation to explain the unexplainable. But I’m telling you it’s entirely possible these beings can and do exist. There are multiple dimensions, don’t you get it? Don’t you understand what this may mean?”
“I know,” Dillon spoke up. “It means you’re a nutbar!”
The students went wild again. Except Amelia, of course. She remained expressionless. Jack shook his head, imploring Mrs. Adams for support, but even she’d gotten caught in the whimsy of the moment. She made an attempt to conceal her grin. The temptation proved too great. Already in the grips of delirium, the sight of his sad face made her let loose an involuntary barrage of laughter.
Right then, he wished more than ever his father had finished his interdimensional machine, the O/A. How cool would it have been to show those loudmouths just how wrong they were? While the tormentors pointed and ridiculed, he daydreamed about pushing a button on the device and, Blip! he’d be gone, transported in an instant to some other place. Better yet, he’d make the class disappear. Or maybe he’d reach into another dimension and conjure one of those monsters the kids liked so much. He pictured it so vividly…
He presses the O/A and it shoots a pinpoint of energy, causing a rippling distortion in the air which cracks and grows, bursting with brilliance and forcing everyone to cower.
Something emerges from the brightness. It’s an absurdly large paw with absurdly large claws. Wendy lets loose a skin crawling shriek. Dillon babbles on and on, begging someone to save him, but it’s way too late for rescues.
“It’s a werewolf!” Dillon wails when it maneuvers out of the ripple completely.
“Let’s get outta here!” Mike attempts to make a run for it when another hand reaches from behind the curtain of warped space. The new figure breaks from the unknown dimension, a sizzling hunger in its bloodshot scowl, a frothy sheen dripping from its protruding fangs.
“A vampire! We’re all gonna die!”
The immense wolfman snatches Dillon and the vampire does the same with Mike, holding them in place, fussing and squirming. With no effort at all, they lift the two boys off the ground, legs dangling, feverish pleas for help going unheeded. Then something even more amazing happens—the werewolf turns and speaks to Jack in perfect English.
“Okay, Jack. Time’s up,” it seems confused, then irritated. “Oh, not again. Wake up!”
The school bell rings. Jack shakes from his fantasy. He blinks and realizes there is no O/A, no fissure in space-time, and worst of all, no monsters terrorizing Dillon and Mike.
“Okay, people,” Mrs. Adams managed to speak past the giggles. “Class is dismissed.”
Jack glanced at the clock. “Wait! Hold on! There’s more! Much, much more!”
“We know, we know,” Dillon gave him an indifferent wave. “We’ve heard it all before.”
But they hadn’t. Nobody had heard what he’d planned to tell them, nobody except Jack and his father, whom he hadn’t seen in quite some time.
“But…”
“Just face it, Jack,” Dillon cut him off. “Nobody cares.”
Mike lobbed the final insult. “Yeah. Nobody.”
AS THE CLASSROOM EMPTIED, Jack pouted at the old wooden floor and sank his fists into the pockets of his jeans. He’d been convinced this was going to be the turning point. Finally, he would be able to explain his father’s research and the incredible possibilities it held for the future of mankind. Instead, he ran into a force far greater—apathy.
“Nobody’s interested?” he repeated to himself. “How can nobody be interested?”
“I’m interested, Jack.”
His stomach churned with a flock of butterflies. Amelia. Talking to him.
“I, uh,” he swallowed.
“Do you want to walk me to the bus stop?” she seemed unaware of his stammering.
“Uh…um.”
“He’d be delighted,” Mrs. Adams had to help him put on his goose down jacket. Then she handed him his backpack. “Bye, you two,” she waved. He couldn’t respond. He was on autopilot, watching Amelia wrap herself in a grey sweater. She hitched her oversized, white fabric handbag on one shoulder, and he followed her out the classroom door a drooling zombie.
Amelia just smiled, revealing a subtle overbite.
“I’m glad that’s over, aren’t you?” she rolled her eyes.
“You’re glad that’s over?” he repeated, following her to the exits.
“You know, those presentations, silly,” she giggled, her bright orange sandals flipping and flopping. “Don’t tell me you actually enjoyed it. It’s a form of torture, I swear. Child abuse, really.”
“Child abuse?” Jack parroted her words. It was his only coping mechanism.
“Yeah. Making us stand up there in front of the class. It’s traumatizing,” she touched his hand. “Did you know they did a study and found that people would rather confront death than make a speech in front of a crowd?”
“You…you know that?” Jack felt his shyness fading. “Yeah. I knew that.”
She went on. “I also know you have one heck of an imagi
nation.”
He froze in his tracks. She walked two steps before realizing he’d stopped. Then she turned and flashed a grin. He got the feeling she knew what he was thinking, and it gave him the creeps.
“Did I hit a nerve?” she asked.
“No. I just,” he stammered. His daydreaming episodes were becoming more and more frequent, and he was having difficulty keeping them secret. “How’d you know?”
“It wasn’t hard to spot. You just stood there for a few seconds. And it looked like you were seeing something, something no one else could see. What’s with that?”
He started walking again, mindful the bus drivers around there didn’t wait for dawdlers. “Is it that obvious? I-I do have a pretty active imagination.”
“Hey, it’s all right. So you’re a little different. I like that about you,” she watched him out of the corner of her eye. “Besides, it’s good to be different. I pride myself in being different.”
“Different, huh? Is that why you’re here in Willow? Because you’re different?”
She shot a glare at him. “What do you know? What have people been saying?”
“Nothing,” he didn’t want to lie. He didn’t want to tell her the truth, either. People were talking.
“That’s okay. Small towns and gossip go hand in hand, I guess.”
“So, can you tell me why you had to leave your hometown and move here to Willow?”
She examined the floor. “I’d rather not. Can you tell me what you were daydreaming about?”
It was his turn to study his own feet. “I’d rather not.”
THEY STROLLED OUTSIDE and a seagull squawked overhead. It swept downhill toward the waterfront, where a fleet of trawlers sat in their slips. Massive Willow Bridge loomed on the horizon, a gateway to the mighty Pacific beyond. The Columbia River stretched for miles, carving the landscape and ensconcing the town of Willow between Young’s Bay and the coastal mountain range. It was the far northwest corner of Oregon, and distant, snow-tipped peaks, shrouded in haze, sat nestled in green foothills bisected by valley after valley after valley. Overlooking the school from the top of Coxcomb Hill stood Willow Column, a 125-foot tower and historic landmark. On the far bank sparkled the state of Washington, teeming with evergreens as far as the eye cared to wander.
It was a magical place. Jack had always thought so. He loved the glorious scenery of Willow. He didn’t have time to take in the sights, though. He was too busy gazing at Amelia.
“Listen, about your presentation,” she changed the subject. “I think you were missing something.”
“Oh, yeah, what would that be?” he forgot all about his nerves.
“I just didn’t know where you were going with the whole ‘monsters’ thing. I mean, why be so sensationalist about it?”
He eyed her. “It’s not sensationalist when you think about it, really. With multiple dimensions, anything is possible, even the existence of what we would call, ‘monsters.’ Where they come from they might not be monsters at all. Heck, in his own world a vampire might be ordinary. Like me and you.”
“Hey, who are you calling ordinary?” she gave a wry smile.
“Well, maybe not us. We’re not so ordinary. Neither is my dad. He’s the one who first taught me about the multiverse when I was a kid.”
“When you were a kid? What are you now, like a hundred?”
“You know what I mean,” he laughed. “Ever since I was a baby, my dad’s been letting me in on his work. I knew about different dimensions even before I could walk. It’s really important research, and he’s on the verge of a breakthrough that might just change the world.”
“If it’s so important, then why are those boys always teasing you?”
“You know how it is with people like Dillon and Mike,” he shook his head. “I mean, they’re always making fun of my dad and his work, but if I only…”
Jack quit talking when both boys hopped from behind a hedgerow as if uttering their names had summoned them magically.
“My dad, my dad!” Mike whined. “Blah, blah, blah, my dad!”
The two chortled.
“Your dad’s a weirdo,” Dillon spoke faster than ever. “Him and his half-baked experiments, he almost blew up the town!”
Cackling, the two circled Jack and his new friend.
“Leave him alone, you creeps!” Amelia hissed.
“Amelia?” Wendy showed up, wearing a look of disdain through her narrow glasses. Behind her, with hands on hips, stood her groupies Jamie, Heather and Betsy. “What in the world are you doing with him?”
Amelia held her chin high and regarded Jack, then Wendy. She kept her lips tight. He could tell she wanted to say something and was holding back.
“You don’t…like him, do you?”
The girls giggled uncontrollably, then started singing in sickly sarcastic voices. “Jack and Amelia sittin’ in a tree…”
“Oh, grow UP!” Amelia waved her hand. “I was just talking to him about his presentation.”
“You mean his freak show,” Dillon butted in, chatting a mile a minute. “Him and his weird ideas, always going on and on about his kooky dad. What is it again, Jack? What’s your dad gonna do? Travel to a new dimension? What a freak!”
“You don’t know anything about my father,” Jack barked at him.
“Sure I do,” he barked back. “I know enough. I know he used to be a teacher until…the incident.”
Mike howled and slapped Jack hard between his shoulders.
“The incident? What incident?” Amelia sounded perplexed.
“You mean you don’t know?” Dillon seemed pleased to have the audience for his humiliating tale. “He blew up the high school.”
“He did not!” protested Jack. “It was just a little accident.”
“Little? You call that little!” Dillon raised his voice so everyone within a square mile heard. “My sister said they had to evacuate the entire school. He caused millions of dollars in damage.”
“It was only a few hundred thousand, not millions. And no one was hurt,” countered Jack.
Dillon responded, “He was lucky nobody was killed. People said he had, oh I don’t know, something like one point one kajillion gigawatts of electricity pumping through there for some…what was it, Jack? What was he doing?”
Jack did his best to blink away a tear before anyone noticed it. Too late.
“Oh, look,” Wendy spouted. “I think he’s about to cry!”
“Stop it, all of you!” Amelia resisted. “Can’t you see you’re hurting his feelings!”
“Wow,” Dillon grinned. “Check out New Girl. Doesn’t she have an attitude? I think New Girl might be hiding something behind that attitude of hers. What do you guys think?”
“I think you might be right, Dillon,” Wendy agreed.
“Just leave us alone, okay?” Jack spoke up. “What will it take to get you to leave us alone?”
“I know,” Betsy raised her hand as if still in class. “Truth or dare!”
“Truth or dare! Truth or dare!” the girls chanted all at once.
“That’s a great idea!” Wendy came alight.
“No-ho way!” Jack protested. “Not truth or dare. Not again.”
“Not you, stupid,” she pointed at Amelia. “Her.”
Jack eyed Amelia, then Wendy. “You can’t make her do anything. Amelia, don’t listen to her.”
“No, Jack. It’s okay,” she cast a glance at Wendy. “If I play your silly game, will you leave Jack alone about his dad?”
Wendy asked the boys, “You okay with that?”
“All right,” Dillon wiped his hands. “New Girl? Truth or dare?”
She sized him up, squinting until it seemed she was going to cause his brain to explode with her mind. Then she made her decision heard.
“Truth.”
“Truth it is,” he laughed. “Tell us, New Girl. Exactly why did you have to move to Willow? And remember, you have to tell the truth.”
Her smile disap
peared. She blinked twice and sighed. “Oh, all right. Fine. Dare.”
“She changes her mind!” Dillon flung his hands. “Dare, huh? Let’s see here.”
“I know,” Wendy whispered into his ear.
His eyes darted and his mouth dropped. “YES! Okay, New Girl. Here’s your dare. I dare you…”
“WE dare,” Wendy added.
“Okay, okay. We dare you to kiss Jack!”
The kids let out a united, “Whooo!”
Jack’s stomach came alive. The butterflies were fighting to get out all at once. He tried not to look at Amelia, but his actions were involuntary. He feared she would be shocked, or worse, disgusted. Instead, what he saw both surprised and pleased him. She wasn’t sickened by the prospect. Quite the opposite. She seemed more than willing to accept.
“Okay,” she smiled. The butterflies went crazy.
“Whooo!” again went the chorus.
“We’re not talking about some little peck on the cheek, either. We mean a real kiss.”
Amelia was unfazed. “Okay.”
“On the lips.”
Everyone went silent.
“Okay.”
“Whooo!”
Jack thought he’d pass out. When he’d gotten up that morning, he figured the most interesting thing that would happen to him all day was maybe he’d get a few questions about omnidimensional power, not a kiss from the prettiest girl in school.
Amelia took him by the elbows. Staring, she leaned in.
“Wait!” Dillon stopped her. “Jack. You need to be blindfolded.”
“What! Why!” Amelia protested. “Jack, what do you think?”
“He doesn’t mind,” Dillon put his hands over Jack’s eyes. “No peeking, now. Okay, New Girl. Go for it.”
Jack waited, trying not to exhale. He wasn’t sure if he had bad breath or not. The burger he ate for lunch had onions.
“Okay, Jack! Here she comes,” Dillon announced.
“Pucker up, Jack,” Mike advised him. “Get ready for your kiss!”
Jack James and the Tribe of the Teddy Bear Page 2
