The Magnificent Glass Globe

by N. R Bergeson

  Ike had a look of sheer panic on his face as he stared in Helen’s direction. It didn’t take long to see why. A bright green snake was uncoiling from a branch just near Helen’s head, and moving directly toward her.

  “An emerald boa!” Mary said in amazement.

  She’d never seen such a brilliantly-colored snake before. It was beautiful.

  “What are we going to do?” Ike said, frightened. “What if it eats her?”

  Mary laughed out loud. The snake was big, but probably no more than three or four feet long. Helen was far too large to become prey for a snake like this.

  “Don’t worry,” Mary assured her brother. “It’s probably just curious about what landed in its tree. Helen’s way too big to eat.”

  “Really?” Ike asked.

  “Definitely,” Mary replied. “But let’s wait a moment anyway until it goes on its way. Sometimes snakes will strike if they feel threatened.”

  “Okay,” Ike said, sounding not at all comforted by Mary’s words.

  Mary looked closely at Helen and thought she could see her chest rising and falling. She longed to rush forward and make sure Helen wasn’t seriously injured. But for the moment, Mary waited. In fact, she actually hoped that Helen stayed unconscious for just a few moments more. Helen hated snakes. Waking up to monkeys pawing at her face was bad enough for Mary. Helen waking to find a large, bright green boa constrictor staring into her eyes would be far worse.

  Ike whimpered as the exploring serpent slid particularly close to Helen’s face. Every few seconds, the snake’s forked, purplish tongue darted in and out. Mary knew the snake was just exploring her surroundings, much like the way that humans taste, touch, and smell. But when that narrow tongue flicked out and touched Helen’s face, even Mary shuddered a little. What would Helen do if she knew what was happening? Hopefully, one day Mary could get a kick out of teasing Helen about this.

  The boa slithered over Helen’s unconscious form a few more times, then finally moved onto another branch. As soon as the boa was far enough away, Mary quickly climbed down. She sighed with relief as she confirmed that Helen was indeed breathing. Scanning her friend, Mary couldn’t see any blood or other serious injuries. Miraculously, they’d all survived falling into the tree relatively unscathed.

  “Try and wake her up,” Ike said.

  Mary paused, wondering for a moment how she’d break the news to Helen.

  “What do you think she’ll say when she wakes up?” Mary asked.

  Ike shrugged.

  “I dunno. Probably threaten to kill you or something.”

  Mary laughed nervously. In truth, Ike might not be that far off. Mary was always uncomfortable when Helen’s bad temper made an appearance.

  “We’ll have to wake her up anyway,” Ike said. “We might as well get it over with.”

  Mary nodded, and steeled herself as she reached out and gently shook Helen in an attempt to rouse her. She didn’t respond at first, looking as comfortable and relaxed as if she were sound asleep in a big, soft bed, rather than stuck laying on uncomfortable branches. Mary tried harder, and finally, Helen began to stir.

  “Mary?” she asked as her eyes fluttered open. “What on earth is going on?”

  “Well … ” she began, unsure of how to break the news.

  But there was no reason to postpone the truth. Taking a deep breath, Mary explained the entire situation. Helen sat up, completely silent as she listened.

  Helen didn’t act alarmed at all to learn that she was high up in a tree. She sat silently, not saying a single word until Mary had finished.

  “Are you okay?” Mary asked, nervous about Helen’s silence.

  Helen closed her eyes for a moment as if pondering the situation. In an instant, her eyes flew open, burning with rage. All calmness completely disappeared.

  “Mary, I’m going to kill you!” she screamed.

  Birds and monkeys screeched all around them, echoing Helen’s yelling.

  “Told you so,” Ike said.

  “I’m … I’m sorry,” was all Mary could say.

  She’d seen Helen mad, but never like this.

  Unsure of what to do, Mary slowly moved away. Helen didn’t look at her, instead staring off into the leaves, her face seething with anger.

  “I promise I’ll find a way to get us home,” Mary said, hoping for a response from her friend.

  None came.

  Mary tried desperately to think of what else to say. She knew their survival was her responsibility. But beyond that, she was at a loss of what to say. She only knew that now definitely was not the right time to tell Helen about the snake.

  How to Get Down?

  As Mary waited for Helen’s anger to fade, she regretted not just giving the old janitor the globe. Maybe everything would’ve been better that way. Helen and Ike probably thought so.

  At the same time, Mary knew that would’ve been a mistake, especially now that she understood what the globe actually did. Mary didn’t even want to imagine what the power of the globe could be used for in the wrong person’s hands.

  The globe.

  “That’s it!” she cried out as the realization hit her like a thunderbolt.

  “What?” Ike asked.

  “The globe!” Mary said. “What happened to it?”

  It had been in her hands when they arrived. Mary hadn’t been able to see it, but she still felt it until just before they fell into the tree.

  “If it transported here to the rainforest with us, then maybe we can use it to get back home!” she declared, excitement filling her as the idea formed.

  As soon as she said it, the hopeful thought was replaced by a horrifying one. What if it didn’t travel with them? Mary had no idea how it actually worked. For all she knew, they might have transported while the globe went back to the warehouse. The janitor could’ve just picked it up and walked away.

  That thought was worse than anything Mary could’ve imagined. If true, then all of her efforts to protect the globe would have been for nothing.

  At the suggestion of a possible quick way home, Helen’s anger started to melt away.

  “That’s great!” she said. “Then let’s get down so we can look for it.”

  “Sure,” Mary said, worried as she continued to think of the globe in the janitor’s hands.

  “What is it?” Helen asked, noticing Mary’s frown.

  “What if the globe didn’t travel with us? What if it stayed in the warehouse instead? If the janitor has it, who knows how he’ll use it?”

  “We’ll find the globe,” Helen said, reassuringly. “I’m sure it’s here somewhere.”

  “And what if it’s not?” Ike asked, picking up on Mary’s worry.

  “Then we’ll have to rely on your sister to get us out of here. Who knew that her useless knowledge of the rainforest might just pay off someday?” Helen replied.

  Mary smiled. Maybe Helen might actually forgive her after all.

  “Then let’s find a way out of this tree,” Mary said.

  “And then what?” Ike asked.

  “We’ll look for the globe on the ground. If it’s not here, then we can’t waste any more time. We’ll need to gather survival supplies. Then, we’ll need to make our way toward the river. Our best bet is to get to the water as soon as possible, and hope we see a passing boat that can help us,” Mary proposed.

  “Sounds like a plan,” Helen agreed. “But how are we supposed to get down? I’m not going to volunteer to do a swan dive and test how soft the ground is.”

  “What about vines?” Ike suggested. “If we can find some, we can climb down, just like we’re using ropes.”

  “Ha! I’d like to see that, Tarzan!” Helen teased.

  Mary trembled with anxiety at hearing Ike’s suggestion. The thought of dangling precariously on a vine with a hundred feet of nothing between her and the ground her wasn’t very pleasant. But was there any other way? They weren’t going t
o find a ladder.

  They searched for vines along the lower branches, but didn’t find anything in their tree.

  “I’ll try next door,” said Helen.

  Mary shuddered as Helen casually jumped from their tree to the branches of the neighboring tree. She took a gulp and did her best to follow.

  “Hey, look at this!” Helen shouted, after a couple of minutes. “Will these work?”

  Mary peered through the leaves and found her friend reaching from a lower limb, with half of her body precariously dangling about fifty feet above the jungle floor. Mary instinctively clamped her eyes shut and turned away, too nervous to even look.

  When Helen didn’t scream or indicate that she was falling, Mary reluctantly cracked an eye looked again in Helen’s direction.

  “This might just work,” said Helen, who reached out and grabbed one of several long, droopy, rope-like vines.

  They didn’t look like the vines Mary had envisioned. She imagined green, leafy vines, like those in cartoons. These were part of the actual tree, and were brown like the tree’s bark. Helen wiggled a vine back and forth. It swayed, but was stiffer than a rope would’ve been. The wood-like vines stretched down, nearly to the rainforest floor.

  “What do you think?” Helen asked, as she tested out a few vines by tugging on them as she hung from the limb. “They seem strong enough to hold us.”

  “I think this will work,” Mary said, carefully crossing into the neighboring tree and covering her nervousness with fake excitement.

  “Well, let’s do it then,” Helen said, eagerly. “No use waiting. This vine feels the strongest to me. Who’s going first?”

  “Not it!” called Ike.

  Mary knew that she should probably take the lead, but said nothing. In the moment of truth, with the ground plainly visible far below, Mary wondered if she’d actually be able to go through with it.

  “Oh fine,” Helen said. “I’ll go first. You two are real wimps, you know?”

  Helen stretched out her shirt sleeves and covered the palms of her hands. She leaned down and took ahold of the vine.

  “See you at the bottom!” she said, shooting a crazy smile at Mary and Ike.

  And with that, she dropped. No, Helen jumped off the lower limb of the giant tree. It only took a few seconds before she reached the ground. Helen slid down the vine like a fire pole, twirling as she went. When she reached the end, she let go and landed safely on her feet.

  “Now that was fun!” Helen shouted up at them from down below.

  Mary and Ike stared in disbelief at their daredevil friend.

  “Are you okay?” Mary yelled down, still unable to believe what she’d just seen.

  She knew that Helen was fearless, but who, with any shred of sanity, would just jump out of a tree like that?

  “I’m fine,” she yelled back. “It’s a little rough on the hands, though, so be careful.”

  Mary turned her brother.

  “Ike, I think you should go next.”

  Ike looked back at her incredulously.

  “No way! You go!”

  “We both have to go down at some point,” Mary reasoned. “What if I go first, and then you decide not to? I don’t want you stuck up here.”

  Mary wondered if she wasn’t just looking for any excuse to delay her own climb.

  “I’m not a baby!” Ike countered. “I just don’t want to go yet, that’s all!”

  “Are you two chickens going to just sit up there all day?” Helen yelled from far below. “Don’t worry! You’ll be fine. I promise I’ll catch you if you fall.”

  “Oh, alright!” Ike finally relented. “I’ll go. But no way am I going to pull a stunt like Helen.”

  Ike cautiously slipped his legs off the limb, and slowly started to inch his way down the vine. He hugged the vine with both arms and legs, hanging on for dear life. Moving as slowly as a sloth, Ike scaled down, inch by inch.

  It took a long time, but Mary didn’t mind. The longer he took, the more it delayed her own turn.

  At last, Ike reached the bottom. Hanging from the end of the vine, he stretched as close to the ground as possible before letting go. The drop was only a couple of feet, but he still fell right onto his rear end.

  “I’m okay!” he yelled, standing up quickly and brushing himself off.

  “Now your turn, Mary,” Helen called.

  It’s now or never, Mary thought.

  She grabbed the vine, her heart pounding.

  I can do this!

  Mary’s inner will somehow pushed her to action, and she dropped off the branch.

  For a moment she just hung there, swinging slightly, suspended far above the ground. She felt like she’d just jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. Both her arms and legs clenched around the vine, which now felt far too thin to support her.

  Mary started her climb, a millimeter at a time. She kept her eyes tightly shut, not wanting to think about the distance between her and the ground.

  Far below, Mary heard Helen and Ike shouting encouragement. They’d both made the climb. Shouldn’t she be able to do it too? Hand over hand, she kept moving. Every inch took her an inch closer to safety.

  The shouting grew louder. She was almost there. Mary sped up, gaining confidence yet eager to be done.

  Snap!

  Without warning, Mary heard the sound. Immediately, she was weightless.

  “Mary!” Helen yelled.

  The vine that had been tight in Mary’s hands was now limp. She was falling!

  There wasn’t even time to scream. It was over in an instant. Instead of hitting the ground, Mary felt Helen’s arms catching her. They both toppled to the forest floor in a heap. Mary opened her eyes, only to see Helen lying next to her, laughing.

  “What’s the matter? Afraid of heights?” Helen asked.

  “Maybe a little,” Mary admitted. “What happened?”

  “Your vine broke. But you were almost at the bottom anyway. You would’ve only been slightly injured if I didn’t catch you.”

  “Thanks for doing that,” Mary said.

  “No problem, what are friends for?” said Helen, laughing, then suddenly deadpanning in mock seriousness. “But don’t forget, I’m still going to kill you when we get out of this mess. I just need you to get me home first, so I can kill you properly.”

  Mary hugged her friend, and she and Helen laughed deeply as they sat in the dirt.

  “You girls are freaks!” Ike said. “Come on, let’s get out of here!”

  Find the Water

  Her moment of joy was short-lived. Despite Mary’s hoping, the globe was nowhere to be found. Ike and Helen helped her search everywhere near the tree. But it was no use. It wasn’t anywhere on the ground. Her only consolation was finding Grandpa’s machete, stuck into the soft rainforest floor like Excalibur in the stone.

  “Now the janitor has the globe!” Mary cried out in dismay.

  If the janitor had the globe, what would he do with it? Mary felt empty as she contemplated the terrible consequences that might follow.

  “Who cares? He can have the stupid thing,” Ike said. “All I want to know is how we’re supposed to get home now?”

  Mary couldn’t even answer. She was too busy fighting back tears.

  “Mary, I guess we’ll need you to save us after all,” Helen said, patting her on the back.

  Mary looked up at her friend through tear-filled eyes.

  “I don’t think—” she started.

  “Yes you can!” Helen interrupted. “If anybody can figure this out, it’s you!”

  Mary didn’t know whether Helen was being sincere, or just trying to inspire her. Maybe it was both. Either way, it helped. She latched onto Helen’s encouragement.

  “I’ll try,” she feebly committed.

  “Alright good! What should we do first?” Helen asked, pressing the momentum.

  Mary wiped her eyes and studied her surroundings
. The only thing she was sure of was the need to make their way toward the river. But which way was that? Every direction looked the same.

  “We need to go south. I think,” Mary began, trying to visualize where they might be. “When we using the globe, we were headed toward a major branch of the Amazon River. We would have landed there, but when Ike bumped me, it shifted our position, pushing us to the north.”

  “Sorry,” Ike said. “How was I supposed to know that we were going to get magically dumped here? Plus, aren’t you glad we didn’t actually land in the river?”

  He did have a point. That would have been a disaster. They wouldn’t have survived the strong currents of the Amazon.

  “So which way is south then?” Helen asked, eager to move.

  “I think it’s probably this way,” Mary said, pointing in one direction.

  Then again, was it?

  “Or maybe this way,” she said, pointing in a completely different direction.

  “What if we start walking the wrong way?” Ike asked. “Won’t it only take us only deeper into the jungle?”

  “You’re right,” Mary admitted. “Going the wrong direction won’t do us any good.”

  High above the trees, Mary heard rumbling thunder. The sounds of the rainforest grew steadily louder as thousands of raindrops fell down upon the leafy canopy.

  “Oh great,” Helen said. “We don’t know which way to go, and now we’re about to get soaked!”

  “I’m already soaked with my own sweat,” Ike said. “I don’t think the rain will make a difference.”

  “Thanks, Ike,” Helen said, not holding back on the sarcasm. “Nothing like a sweat update from you. Any other important bodily functions you’d like to fill us in on?”

  “No, wait guys, this is a good thing!” Mary said.

  “What, my sweat?” Ike asked.

  “No, the rain!” Mary exclaimed. “We’ll need to drink as much water as possible whenever we get the chance! Any other water we find will probably make us sick. But the rain might be clean enough.”

  Mary fumbled through the backpack. She pulled out the two metal canteens.

  “These aren’t very big, but at least we can hold some water in them. Let’s drink as much as possible, then fill these up so we’ll have some water to last until the next rainfall. Quick, try to find a steady stream of water coming from a tree,” Mary said, eagerly looking around.