by T K Foster
Billy was immediately aware of the red hot flash of embarrassment shining across his face directly following that scream. Similarly the girl who emerged from behind the stone was just as surprised, and her roar had in fact been just a startled squeal.
The two strangers stared at each other for a short while, neither knowing what should happen next.
This girl that stood before him and several paces away was roughly six feet tall, skinny with long legs, and a pretty, lightly freckled face. She had red hair which jutted out at the sides in two pig tails and she wore green shorts and a white t-shirt with an emblem of some weird looking, big eared, furry animal on the front. Her skin was pale, but blemish free and white like milk.
The really strange thing about her though was her feet. The right one appeared to be larger than the left and protruding above the top of her ankle sock was a line of dark hair.
Billy cringed. He thought it quite gross.
“What is your name?” the girl spoke in a high pitched voice, certainly breaking the silence.
Billy’s mouth was solid, unmoving, restrained. No sound came from him.
“Yoo-hoo.... short boy.... what is your name?”
He managed an almost inaudible reply. “Billy”, he said.
“Hello Billy”, she shrieked and skipped awkwardly forward, almost sideways, to stand before him. She outstretched her right arm, almost cartoon like in its length, and grabbed his hand to shake it. “My name is Cetra. My first name is Et, but that just sounds like a noise someone makes when they are not surprised by something, or they do not care about something, you know, like et, with a shrug of their shoulders,” she shrugged her shoulders. “So I like to be called Cetra, it sounds much better, and stronger. My parents would always laugh when they told new friends about us, they would say ‘We have several children, Jib, Job, Bo, Bin, Lonny, Can, Et Cetra, you get the idea’, and then they would all laugh, but I never did get the joke.”
Billy was reeling, he wasn’t quite sure if he had got anything out of the girl’s monumental discourse, except maybe her name.... “Cetra?” he replied, unsure.
“Nice to meet you Billy,” she said simply, then waited.
She was staring down at him, her wide smile gleaming with perfect white teeth and the light spray of freckles across her face gave her otherwise milky features a lovely splash of colour. This girl before him verily glowed. She was vibrant, she was energetic, she was marvellous. She was wonderful....
One moment though, where had she come from? Billy had to know.
“Where did you come from?” he asked.
“From over there,” Cetra said plainly and pointed towards the tall rock she had emerged from behind. “Remember, Billy, you screamed like a girl when you saw me.”
Billy’s face shone red again. “No, I mean, there’s nothing around us. How did you get here?”
Cetra’s finger remained pointed at the rock. “The door,” she said.
“Behind the pillar?”
“Affirmative, Billy. You are a smart one”.
Billy couldn’t tell if she was mocking him or complimenting him.
“Come, have a look,” Cetra squeaked as she grabbed his hand and skipped him towards the rock.
At the back of the pillar there was a small rectangular knob of stone about four feet above ground level. The stone pillar itself was sheer and there appeared to be no gaps, nor creases, to indicate the outline of a door. Billy was bewildered.
“See, Billy, there is the handle.”
“Where is the spout?” Billy joked.
The expression on Cetra’s face remained the same.
“Do you want to go through the door?” she asked with a great deal of excitement and anticipation regarding his answer.
Billy shrugged, “Ok”.
Cetra clapped her hands and grinned, that being, her grin was strangely larger now than her normal grin. She seemed to be very animated in her appearance, like every expression was exaggerated. When she reached out for Billy’s hand her arm was suddenly longer and bigger; or that’s how it seemed anyway.
Cetra pushed on the handle and said to Billy in a low, maitre d’ style voice, “Enter please sir”.
Now Billy was confused, because nothing happened. No door opened, no light flashed; there was no whooshing sound like in all the science fiction movies he’d seen. Nothing... just an eerie silence and an odd girl standing beside him.
Not sure what he should do, or even say for that matter, Billy ignored his instincts, grimaced at the girl, and walked into the door.
CHAPTER FOUR
