Shining Star spoke up first and said, “Hello Mr. Bixbee. I have brought you some strangers. They have come here to ask you important questions. I hope that we are not bothering you.”
“Oh, no. I always have time to be of assistance to neighbors and strangers alike. Please inform me of what you need,” said Mr. Bixbee.
Louis stared at Crystal and Crystal stared at Louis.
“Go ahead, Crystal. You tell him.”
“No, Louis. Since it was your idea to go on this adventure, why don’t you do it?”
Both of them were rather shy now.
“I think you are a little apprehensive of me. Is that correct?” Mr. Bixbee smiled and asked.
“Well, I guess you’re right. It’s sometimes hard to talk to adults. Nothing personal.” Louis explained.
“Really, there is nothing to be concerned about. I am only here to help. Please proceed and make your inquiry. There is really nothing for you to be fearful about,” said Mr. Bixbee.
“Well, first, let me introduce ourselves. My name is Louis and this is Crystal.”
“Hello, Mr. Bixbee,” she said.
“It is entirely my honor to meet the both of you,” Mr. Bixbee bowed.
“We came to ask you how to get back home. We asked Shining Star where on Earth we were, but he says he has never heard of Earth! We don’t understand any of this. Can you help us?” asked Louis.
Mr. Bixbee’s expression transformed from friendliness to one of deep concern. This worried Louis and Crystal.
“Did you come to Tetra through an opening or a hole?” Mr. Bixbee asked pointedly.
“How did you know? It’s a long story but, yes, we dropped through a hole. We’ve been trying to get back home ever since,” replied Louis.
“I will explain but, first, let me get you some food and some drink. I’m sure that you are hungry and tired from your journey here,” said Mr. Bixbee.
“Do you have any rope? I’m very hungry too,” said Shining Star.
“Why, of course, my friend. I have plenty of rope for you to eat. Please, all of you come to my house and I will explain everything.”
They walked along a long narrow path lined on either side by the most unusual trees Crystal and Louis had ever seen. The trees were adorned with red-striped leaves and green-speckled trunks. As the wind wafted through the trees, ringing sounds could be heard from small pine cones hanging from the branches. Some of them had fallen to the ground.
Crystal was curious and picked one up to inspect. “Hey, look at this. Every time I rattle this pine cone, it makes a beautiful ringing sound.”
“There seems to be something inside that causes the ringing,” Louis observed.
“Let’s see what it is,” she said.
Louis cracked one open with his foot. There was a jewel-like object inside, approximately the size of a small almond.
Crystal picked up the shiny object and marveled at the glistening texture. The warmth of her hand caused the gem to change color. Within a few minutes, it started to quiver and vibrate. Then, without warning, the gem split open and a tiny insect resembling a butterfly emerged. The pretty insect stretched its wings for a few moments and flew off with a barely audible giggle.
“Wow,” Louis said.
“Wow,” Crystal agreed.
“I’m guessing you don’t have these sorts of things where you come from,” Shining Star said.
“You might say that. Back where we come from, gems don’t turn into butterflies!” Crystal said with incredulity. “This wonderful place never fails to amaze me.”
They continued down the road and over the ridge of a steep hill. Louis and Crystal saw enormously huge mounds. The hills were made up of many small parts and items. They couldn’t quite see what the objects were, but the shapes and colors looked familiar to them.
They arrived at the area of the colossal hills. Louis went to one large pile and saw that it was entirely made up of shoes! There were hundreds of thousands of shoes in every make, design, size, and color imaginable.
Crystal looked at another huge pile that was made exclusively of pens and pencils.
There were hills as far as they could see. Some were comprised of stuffed animals while others were entirely made of keys.
The categories of things seemed to be endless.
Crystal asked, “What are all these hills of stuff for, anyway? Why is there so much junk here, Mr. Bixbee?”
“Junk? Junk? Did you say all of this was JUNK?” said Mr. Bixbee indignantly. “Why, this isn’t JUNK. What you see here are things. To be more precise, they are lost things. I and the hundreds of Rasauq creatures in this region sort all of this!”
A Rasauq poked his head out of a pile of shoelaces and grinned a big toothy grin. It looked just like a raccoon, except green. It had extraordinary looking hands with seven fingers on each one. With all those fingers, it was a perfectly equipped animal for the task of sorting things.
“Gee, I didn’t mean to make you mad, Sir. I was just saying what I thought about all of this jun. . .I mean things,” she said.
“But where did all these things come from, Mr. Bixbee?” asked Louis.
“You have so many questions. I think we need a comfortable place to sit down and discuss all of this. Let us go to my house over there.”
A good distance away from one of the tallest hills was a house made of marbles.
“Just when I thought I couldn’t be surprised by anything else, I am surprised again,” Louis said in a whisper to Crystal.
CHAPTER 7
UNDERSTANDING THE UNSEEN
Mr. Bixbee’s house of marbles was an amazing sight.
“Welcome to my home. Please make yourselves comfortable,” said Mr. Bixbee quite proudly.
Crystal, Louis, and Shining Star walked through a gate leading to the main entrance of the house. The gate was comprised of thousands of red and blue marbles. They varied greatly in dimension, but most of them were about the size of a gumball. They entered through the front door, also made of marbles, and into Mr. Bixbee’s living room.
Mr. Bixbee invited them to sit down on a sofa made of orange and red marbles. They were quite surprised to discover that the sofa was very soft and comfortable.
Mr. Bixbee noticed the amazed expression on Louis’s face and explained, “The sofa is made of soft glass marbles.”
This was something that didn’t make sense to Louis. But then again, nothing was making much sense since he arrived in Tetra.
Crystal and Louis saw that the entire house and everything in it was made of marbles — the chairs, the tables, the walls, the bed, the ceilings, the kitchen sink, the floors, everything!
Mr. Bixbee set down a tray of exotic-looking food and drink for his guests and, of course, rope for Shining Star.
“How did you find a house like this, Mr. Bixbee?” Crystal asked between bites.
“I didn’t find this house. I built this house with my own hands. I gathered millions of soft and hard marbles in the marble mines not far from here. I have used them as my primary building material for everything in this house. The marbles have unique properties. They adhere to each other quite permanently when they are pressed together with force. In other words, they stick like glue.”
“This is all very wonderful, Mr. Bixbee. I don’t want to be rude, but we came here to find out how to return home,” reminded Louis.
“Mr. Bixbee, Louis is right. While both of us are totally amazed of the things we have seen in Tetra, we still want to go home. Can you help us?” Crystal said in a pleading voice.
“Yes, yes. Of course. I apologize for the delay. I will get to the point of your inquiry. What I am about to tell you will, in all probability, be very difficult to accept. Both of you will most likely think that I am either delusional or fabricating everything I am imparting to you. I will attempt to explain how you arrived here, and what can be done in order for you to return to your place of origin. I only ask that you keep an open mind and listen without any forego
ne conclusions,” Mr. Bixbee said very seriously.
“Mr. Bixbee, after all the odd sights we have seen since coming here to Tetra, I don’t think there is anything that will make us doubt what you say,” said Louis.
“Well then, let me begin by asking you a few questions.” He put his hands behind his back and paced back and forth. “You mentioned that you are from Earth. Is that correct?”
“Yes,” replied Louis.
“Have you ever lost an item and were unable to recover it? Have you ever speculated as to where these things have gone?” Mr. Bixbee asked.
“Well, sure. Everybody loses things all the time. In fact, just before I arrived in Tetra, my mom lost her favorite ruby ring. Lost things are misplaced by people. They don’t go anywhere. Things aren’t found because we don’t know where they are. That’s all,” Louis said.
“No. That is not all,” Mr. Bixbee lectured.
“What you say is an assumption as to what happens to lost things, but there is more to this than meets the eye. Things which are never recovered are not lost but have, in fact, disappeared. This is a prominent distinction. In your world, there are millions and millions of tiny entryways which connect to Tetra. These portals are very small and go unnoticed because they are in unassuming nooks and crannies, making them virtually unseen and undetected.
“Small objects such as keys, eyeglasses, pencils, pens, coins, shoes, socks, small pets, and anything else you can think of fall through these miniscule entryways to here. These portals are located in the most mundane and average locations. They exist in the cracks of sofas, underneath desks, inside drawers, in cabinets, on roads, in the streets, in schoolyards. . .”
“That’s what happened to us! We came here through a hole found at the bottom of a schoolyard trash can!” interrupted Crystal.
“The large entryways which lead to Tetra, the one which you evidently used to arrive here, are extraordinarily rare if not impossible to discover. The smaller ones are much more numerous and common,” said Mr. Bixbee.
“I don’t understand. How did all these ‘holes’ appear in the first place?” asked Louis.
Mr. Bixbee stopped pacing, faced Louis and said, “I cannot explain this. But from what is written in our ancient Tetran books, the world of Tetra and Earth, are somehow connected by these strange gateways. These connections may be space-time-dimensional passageways.”
“I remember reading about something like that in science fiction stories. I always thought this sort of stuff was impossible,” Louis said.
Mr. Bixbee continued, “Some have argued that these portals are magical or supernatural in nature. Of these opinions, I cannot substantiate one way or another. What I do know is that the portals exist and do what they do.”
“So, we aren’t on Earth anymore? We’re on another world? That’s crazy! Do you expect me to believe that?” Louis said almost too loudly.
“It would seem that you were not prepared to believe as easily as you thought,” said Mr. Bixbee knowingly.
“But if you will recall, your arrival here in Tetra was through an entryway. Nothing you have seen here resembles anything you are familiar with on Earth. You have seen the multiple suns in the sky. What other conclusion can you come to? Do you have any other explanation?” asked Mr. Bixbee pointedly.
“Well, no. I guess there are a lot of things that I don’t have the answer to,” said Louis.
“Very good. So you are admitting that you do not have a reasonable explanation to all of this?”
“Right,” answered Louis.
“Then what is left is your answer — the unreasonable — that which cannot be explained, but is true, nonetheless.”
Crystal broke in and said, “Right now, I don’t really care if what you say is true or not. All I care about right now is how to get home. My mom and dad must be very worried by now. Please, tell me how to get home, Mr. Bixbee.”
“First of all, I must explain that it will be most unlikely that you will be able to leave through the portal in which you arrived here.”
“WHAT? You mean we can’t go home?” Crystal shouted.
“I did not say that. What I said is the way to exit Tetra may not be possible if certain conditions are not met.”
“How do we get back home then? Is there a way to do it?” asked Louis.
“Yes. But it all depends on several things.”
“What?” Crystal asked with deep concern.
“It is crucial that you have lost something.”
“What do you mean by that?” Louis said puzzled.
“That is how you will be able to return home. As I told you before, my job is to sort out all the lost things that arrive here; the things that arrive here through the numerous transport holes located on Earth. In order for you to open another entryway to return home, you must locate an item among all these items that was previously lost.”
“Is that all? That’s easy. All we have to do is pick anything here, since everything here is lost!” Crystal said with hope.
“Unfortunately, it is not as simplistic as that. You must find a lost item that is directly or indirectly owned by you. In other words, the item must either belong to you or an immediate relative. The lost item may act as a beacon or homing signal between our two worlds. It is all very mysterious and I really do not understand how this process works or whether I have all my facts correct about the procedure.”
Crystal and Louis walked outside.
“If what Mr. Bixbee says is true, I don’t think we’ll ever get out of Tetra. I’ve lost pens, pencils, and keys but how will I know if the items are really mine when I see them? They all look the same to me,” she sighed as she looked at the thousands of piles of objects.
“Wait, my mom lost her favorite ring. The ring was very unusual because the ruby was shaped like a double heart. I also lost my sweater today during that fight with Gus. That sweater should be easy to find because it doesn’t look like any other sweater ever made.”
Mr. Bixbee overheard Louis and Crystal and said, “If you would like to look for your lost items, you may start your search over there.”
Mr. Bixbee pointed to a breathtakingly tall and extremely wide mound.
“Of all the hills, that hill of sweaters is the largest one of all. And the second largest hill is. . .”
“Rings, right?” Louis said.
“Why, yes. But how did you guess?”
“I just had a feeling it was,” Louis sighed.
“If you wish to start your search today, you had better start now as it is beginning to get dark. You must be on your guard because the Xombos come out at night to look for victims.”
“Xombos? What are Xombos, Mr. Bixbee?” asked Crystal nervously.
“Xombos are one of the more undesirable inhabitants of Tetra. They attack the helpless and weak in darkly shadowed places, but their favorite time is the night. Many Tetrans stay indoors to avoid confrontations with them. If not for the Xombos, we would lead more peaceful lives. However, they are but one of the many nuisances and threats, which we must share our existence with, in this wonderful world of ours.
“As beautiful as many of the citizens of Tetra are, the Xombos seem to be a distinct antithesis. They are horrid looking creatures with large green eyes. They are tall and emaciated with irregular blue markings all over their bodies. Their legs are long and skeletal with large, jutting knobby knees. Xombos do not like anyone and not so surprisingly, no one has much affinity for the Xombos either.”
“You should fight them! If they bother you, why don’t you do something about it?” asked Louis.
“It is not the way the citizens of Tetra have chosen to live. Tetrans have no weapons. Tetrans choose not to fight. We do not want to fight. We are peace-loving and do not wish to get involved in such maters. It may seem strange to you, but fighting is not always the best solution,” Mr. Bixbee explained.
“Well, now that you mention it, I can see your point,” Louis laughed.
He remembered h
is own encounter with Gus in the schoolyard.
“We won’t stay out too long. We’re just going to search for a little awhile,” Crystal said.
“Return to the house if you become hungry. There is plenty of food and drink in the kitchen. You are more than welcome to it. You may sleep on the two sofas in the living room when you are ready to retire. It is essential that you remember not to stay out too late. The Xombos will be near and you must not place your lives in danger. Please be careful.”
Mr. Bixbee went inside and turned off the lights. He was concerned that his new friends might be in danger but also understood their desperation in wanting to return home. He knew it would have been fruitless to try to convince them to start their search the next day. For small children, they exhibited a great deal of drive and determination.
He might have helped them search if not for the dread he personally felt for the Xombos. It would not be exaggerating to say that Mr. Bixbee was ashamed of himself for his cowardice. All he could do was to hope that Louis, Crystal, and Shining Star would be able to defend themselves if the situation came to that.
They trekked toward the huge mountainous hills of lost things. On the way, they could not help themselves from being enthralled by the glorious night sky.
Tetra had four beautiful moons, so there would be more than enough light for them to search during the late hours. Each moon varied in color from deep red to golden yellow. It was a stunning sight but also served as a stark reminder to them that they were far away from Earth. If it were within their power to catch a glimpse of just the one moon they were so familiar with back home, they would have certainly done so.
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Louis and Shining Star climbed to the top of the ring hill and searched for his mother’s ring. There were literally tens of millions of lost rings. The rings came in a multitude of various sizes, shapes, colors, and designs. They saw rings that were made from every conceivable material imaginable. One gold ring was so big, Louis was able to fit his two thumbs inside of it. But of all the many thousands of rings he examined, he didn’t see anything resembling his mother’s double-hearted ruby ring.
Louis in the Land of Tetra Page 6
