I sit at the shallow creek's edge, holding a notebook and pencil. It's a very pretty day outside, which means that my landscape sketches will look amazing. I've had this huge passion for art ever since I could first hold a pencil, and my skills have been improving ever since.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spy something moving in the bushes near me . It’s too big to be a small deer or rabbit. No, it’s most likely a fellow human being. A human girl, as I see when she steps out of the woods. This strikes me as strange, because I’ve never seen another person here in the few months since I’d discovered this place. It’s a little weird that this untouched forest paradise is only a mile from the suburbs, where I live.
The strange girl walks towards me. She looks to be about ten years old, with messy brownish hair and eerily piercing blue eyes. She’s dressed in brown and green, which makes her look a bit like a walking tree with a head. She notices me watching her and steps up toward me, completely unafraid of me even though I’m probably twice her size.
Looking me straight in the eye, the strange girl says, “Follow me. I have something to show you. Please.” I have a reputation for hardly trusting anyone, including adorable little girls who seem to be five years younger than me. But there’s something about this kid, about the pleading tone in her voice and those enormous and hypnotizing eyes, that makes her seem different...I let her lead me through the bushes and trees. We’re walking off all the marked trails, something I’d never even dreamed of doing before. Does this girl have any idea how dangerous the forest is, even in daylight?
As we walk, she asks me, “What’s your name?” It’s a typical everyday question which I rarely am brave enough to respond to.
“Jenny,” I reply. I’ve just broken the record for the number of words I’ve voluntarily said to a complete stranger.
“And your other name? The one everyone in your family shares?”
She must mean my last name. I’ve never given out my first and last names to someone whose name I don’t even know, but I reply anyway. “Desmond.” At least she doesn’t know my middle name, which, by the way, is Eileen. My full legal name is Jennifer Eileen Desmond, and I don’t like the way it sounds.
When we stop walking, my legs are sore and my feet feel like they’re falling off. We’ve stopped in front of a door that appears to be carved in a tree trunk. It’s very elaborate and pretty, but it’s just a carving. There’s nothing that could possibly be behind it, right?
Weird pink sparkles float around in the air, like they might in a fantasy movie, and the door swings outwards. It’s enough to creep me out.
When we stop walking, my legs are sore and my feet feel like they’re falling off. We’ve stopped in front of a door that appears to be carved in a tree trunk. It’s very elaborate and pretty, but it’s just a carving. There’s nothing that could possibly be behind it, right?
Weird pink sparkles float around in the air, like they might in a fantasy movie, and the door swings outwards. It’s enough to creep me out.
She completely proves me wrong by raising one of her little hands and placing it on the carving.
We walk into the tree trunk. It’s much bigger on the inside than it is outside, and there’s room for a whole house in there. We’re standing in a room with a table and two chairs. A boy, about my age of fifteen, is sitting in one of them. When he sees us, a grin spreads across his freckled face.
“Hyacinth! You’ve brought another human friend of yours! What’s she called?” The little girl, who’s obviously named Hyacinth, quietly says “Jenny Desmond.” As I’m thinking about what an interesting name Hyacinth is, the boy turns to me and says, “She’s my little sister, and she chose her own name. So did I, but my choice is way plainer. I’m Jason.”
Out of politeness, I say, “It’s a nice name, really.” Jason smiles again. “Thanks.” I want to ask him why he implied that he and Hyacinth aren’t exactly human, but before the words can escape my mouth, Jason has an answer.
“You want to know our story, do you? Sit down and I’ll tell you.” He motions at the empty chair next to him. I take a seat, and accidentally drop my sketchbook. It falls open to one of my best sketches, a realistic picture of a squirrel with an acorn. Jason picks up the book, looks at the picture for the longest few seconds ever, and says, “Wow. I really wish I could draw.” He gives the book back to me I’m, surprisingly, more than eager to teach him to draw, but I don’t say this.
“So, about our story... you see, this land was once inhabited by spirits. Humans came along one day and destroyed most of it to put up buildings and whatnot, leaving this small spot untouched. To protect the rest of this land, Hyacinth and I were sent here from another world. There are more of our kind here. And to make up for destroying the forests, humankind has a debt to pay us. Everyone here who’s... like Hyacinth and me... has a human Guardian. The Guardians must protect us always and fight for us, even risk their lives if they have to. And I’m telling you because I think you’re one of them.
I’m positive that Jason has the wrong Jenny Desmond. I’m just another shy and socially awkward girl, not very brave or charming. The only things I’m capable of are drawing, playing the trombone, and trusting absolutely no one except for these strangers. All I can say is, “Really?”
Jason looks me in the eyes. “Really. And your excellent drawings only convince me more. Even the least likely people can be Guardians, Jenny. I’ve seen it with my own two eyes. There was Maia, from a few years ago. She was born paralyzed from the hips down. The poor girl had to use a wheelchair for most of her life. She became the Guardian of one of my friends. I haven’t seen her in a long time.” He sounds like he really feels bad for Maia, like he really misses her.
Because of Maia’s story, I feel a little more comfortable about possibly being a Guardian. I’m not too comfortable, though, because I glance down at my watch and remember that I have an important band rehearsal coming up in about half an hour. I have some time left, so maybe I can stay just a little longer...
Jason, however, doesn’t seem to agree. “Checking the time already, Jenny? It’s okay, you can go to your rehearsal. Come back tomorrow afternoon to learn more.” It scares me how he can read my thoughts so accurately. What’s just as scary is the way Hyacinth watches us. Her eyes creep me out.
Hyacinth opens the door again, using her hand and the weird pink sparkles, and I walk out. I’m already at the rehearsal, in full uniform. I have my trombone and music folder, and I’m surrounded by the rest of my section. I still have my sketchbook on me, though. The rehearsal goes by normally, but my director is constantly yelling, “Jenny Desmond! You, of all people! Play the right notes or you won’t be section leader anymore!” I don’t normally have any problems in band, other than the day I lost my music and had to play all the songs from memory. Today, however, my mind’s filled with the strange events that happened in the forest.
“Jen! Wake up already! You’re always so hyper during rehearsal. What happened to you?” I’m staring off into space, still daydreaming, when I hear someone screaming those words. It’s Kathy McClellan, my best friend since preschool.
Kathy and I walk home together, and her mouth won’t stop moving the whole time. “How’d you just appear at rehearsal with your uniform and everything? Why are you tired? Do you have any candy I can eat? I finally fixed my clarinet. I just hate how they make us come to practice in the summer.” She’s annoying at times, but I’m fairly used to it now.
I sigh and tell her, “I don’t have any candy on me now, but I can tell you everything that happened before the rehearsal. All you have to do is believe me.” I tell her about Jason and Hyacinth and the tree, and she listens. She doesn’t look surprised at all, which is quite surprising itself. When I’m done, she just says, “I believe every word you said. Just take me to meet Jason and Hyacinth. I’m free tomorrow afternoon.”
This is actually a little weird. Is Kathy hiding something? What if she’s a Guardian herself? I try to shake these thoughts out of my head, but don’t succeed.
The next afternoon, I’m on Kathy’s doorstep, impatiently waiting for her to come out of her house. When she finally does, I’ve been frying in the hot sun for almost a half hour, ringing the doorbell every few seconds and hearing her yell, “Almost ready!”
“Sorry it took me so long,” says Kathy. She’s really out of breath, probably from running all around her enormous house, trying to find her lucky shorts and T-shirt. That’s the kind of behavior you can expect from her. After disappearing into her garage to find her bike and helmet, she leaves me waiting for another ten minutes. When she’s finally out again, we ride off into the distance. I lead the way to the carved tree in the forest. I’ve never biked anywhere near the forest, but as Kathy always says, there’s a first time for everything.
We lock up our bikes near the carved tree and knock on the trunk. In a whirl of creepy pink sparkles, the door opens and Hyacinth steps out. “Jenny Desmond! You’re back!” She sounds really excited to see me, and her sparkling blue eyes tell it so. Kathy turns toward me and whispers, “Hyacinth?” I nod.
Once we’re in the tree, we find Jason sitting at his table, holding a pencil. He seems to be drawing, so I walk up and stand next to him. Kathy follows me. “Jason?” she asks me quietly. I nod again.
Jason’s not actually that bad at drawing. He’s working on a picture of the outside of his tree. Kathy and I watch him draw for a full five minutes before he turns around and notices us! “Ready to hear the rest of the story, Jenny?... wait, who’s this? Your friend Kathy?” I never told him anything about Kathy, but he’s already surprised me several times by knowing what I’m about to say even before the words escape my mouth. I just smile politely and say, “Yeah. She wants to hear the story too. I told her the beginning.”
Hyacinth has left the room. It’s actually a little strange, being here without her watching me like she always does. I’ve just noticed that there are three, not two chairs at the table in the middle of the room. Did Jason know that I was bringing Kathy, or did he just get another chair for no reason?
Kathy and I take our seats and Jason starts talking again. He sounds a little worried, and says in a low voice, “I’m afraid there are things I can’t tell you right here. There’s someone who might be watching, someone extremely powerful and scarily evil...” He looks lost in thought. Why’s he speaking in riddles like this? Jason never seemed like the kind of person to speak in riddles.
He doesn’t bother to read my thoughts this time, as he gets up and places his hand on the door, the same way Hyacinth does. There’s no shower of sparkles this time and the door simply swings open. Jason seems to be a lot more practical than his interestingly named, sparkle-obsessed little sister.
Kathy and I follow him through the forest, still staying off the marked trails. I have numerous thoughts about why Jason and Hyacinth have an aversion to trails like this, but Jason doesn’t seem interested in responding to any of them. Since he saw Kathy, he hasn’t been his usual self. Does he already know Kathy, and do they have problems with each other?
Shockingly, that’s the only thought of mine that Jason feels like reading today. “I think I’ve known Kathy once, a long time ago. She just seems familiar, in a weird way.” He doesn’t say this out loud, but his words suddenly start echoing through my mind. Am I reading his thoughts too? It doesn’t take long for me to pick up the answer: “Yes. But this doesn’t mean you’re my Guardian.”
We’re now so deep into the forest that you can’t even hear cars whizzing past on the nearby highway. Because I’m scared of being eaten alive by some wild animal or getting so lost I can’t find a way out of the wilderness, I’ve never been this far away from “civilization” before. None of the marked trails go anywhere around here. But I can still trust Jason, even though he’s not acting like his usual self anymore. The fact that Kathy’s with us makes me feel even safer, as she’s a black belt in karate.
We walk for what seems like forever but probably isn’t. At one point, we actually walk right through a large tree that has a carved door on it, but isn’t the one that Jason and Hyacinth call home. When I walk through it, the tree seems to dissolve all around me. I hardly feel a thing.
When we stop, we’re standing in a large clearing, which strikes me as a less safe place than the carved tree. Here, out in the open, it seems like anyone can just walk in and listen to every word we’re saying. Why did Jason choose this place to stop? “Anyone can find Hyacinth’s and my tree, if they walk far enough off the paths. But to get to this clearing, you have to be able to walk between worlds. Not everyone can do that.” He responds out loud this time, probably so Kathy knows what’s happening too.
Walking between worlds? That sounds like something straight out of a fantasy novel. Of course, since I met Jason and Hyacinth yesterday, I’ve gotten accustomed to strange things happening in my formerly ordinary life. If I was here with anyone else, I would have been petrified with fear. I mean, being trapped in a separate world from the one you’ve known all your life is pretty frightening, isn’t it? But because Jason and Kathy are here, I feel infinitely better.
Jason continues telling us his story: “Remember what I said to you in the tree, just before we left? I mentioned that there’s someone infinitely powerful and evil, someone who might be listening in on everything I tell you? No one knows that person’s name, or even if it’s a person. It might simply be an extremely strong force, so strong that it can be mistaken for someone who’s... like Hyacinth and me. All I know is that it’s trying to destroy what’s left of our kind. I have no idea why.”
Kathy asks about what I’ve been dying to know. “So what exactly are you? You can just tell us now. No one’s listening except me and Jenny, and I’m pretty sure you trust us.” Jason just shakes his head. “Even I don’t quite know, strange as it seems. I can’t remember a time before coming here, to this world, with Hyacinth. Come on, I have something to show you.” He leads us across the clearing and into more trees. Here, however, all the trees have some sort of design carved onto them. They’re not all doors, though. Some trees have animals or plants or abstract symbols etched into them. There are people walking around everywhere. They look fairly normal and are wearing clothes based on leaves or trees or things like that. When they see us, some of the people point at us, turn to one another, and whisper excitedly. Others pay us no attention.
Is this the world that Jason and Hyacinth come from? I get his answer quickly: he has no idea. Strangely, even though we’re in a world even he barely knows, I still completely trust him. I’ve never trusted anyone this much before, not even Kathy or my parents, and I’ve known them all my life. I’ve known Jason for two days.
One of the girls playing in the treetops looks eerily like Hyacinth, and I start to wonder if it’s actually her. As if she’s answering my question, the girl climbs down to the ground and gives Jason an enormous hug for someone so little. Jason laughs and ruffles his sister’s messy brown hair. Watching them makes me wish I had a little sister too.
Kathy, however, doesn’t seem to have noticed Hyacinth here, because her eyes get really wide and she exclaims, “Whoa! What are YOU doing here?!” Hyacinth doesn’t say anything. She just smiles up at Kathy. Hyacinth is a little mysterious, but I still trust her as much as I did when she found me drawing near the creek only yesterday. It’s hard to believe that so much can happen in just two days...
“I don’t know if this is the world that Hyacinth and I are originally from, but we’ve been here many times before. Hyacinth comes here often to visit some of her friends.” As Jason says this, he nods at two girls who have just climbed down from a tree and are now standing next to Hyacinth. One of them looks a bit like Kathy did when she was ten, with curly red hair and green eyes. The other one, who looks to be about my age, is very skinny, with straight black hair and cloudy gray eyes that seem to be hiding something. Both of them have the same pointy ears and sharp noses.
Hyacinth introduces the redheaded girl as Molly and the gray-eyed one as Maia. According to her, they’re sisters. I recognize the name Maia from Jason’s story and ask him quietly: “Is this the girl you were telling me about? She doesn’t seem paralyzed.” Jason doesn’t answer, but I can tell, by the way he looks at her, that it’s the right girl after all. Maia seems to remember him and tells him something in a language I can’t understand. The two of them walk away from us, talking and laughing all the way. They seem happy to see each other after all those years of being separated. Kathy elbows me in the stomach. “I think they’re a couple,” she whispers. Leave it to Kathy to make up her theories about things like that.
Molly’s looking up at Kathy and me, a small smile on her face. “Do you have any food?” she asks, sounding a lot like Kathy. I just shake my head. “Not right now. Do you know where to get some?” Molly just motions for us to follow her, and we do.
Before we know it, we’re standing inside a large tree. A tall man, his shaggy dark hair streaked with red, is organizing what looks like a bookshelf. He looks a bit like Molly and a bit like Maia, so he’s probably their dad. When he sees us come in, he stops his work and turns toward us. “Hello Molly, Hyacinth,” he says, his voice fairly monotonous. He seems to be seeing right through Kathy and me, as if we’re not there.
Molly pulls a small box out of her dress. She gives it to the man, who turns it over in his hands a few times, as if inspecting it. He leads her and Hyacinth into another room, leaving me just standing there with Kathy, completely confused as to why this man was oblivious to our existence.
Soon, the front of the tree swings open and a tall and wiry teenage boy walks in, his arms weighted down with brown bags. He looks like a younger clone of the man who didn’t notice Kathy and me, except he actually knows we’re here. Setting his bags down in a corner of the room, he turns to us and waves. “Sorry about Marcus. That’s the man you just saw. He simply sees right through some of us, like you and me. We’re basically invisible in his eyes.”
The boy opens a door, the same one Hyacinth and Molly walked through with his dad. As he does this, he says, “Don’t ask me for my name. I don’t have one.” Kathy’s eyes mischievously sparkle when she hears this and she asks playfully, “Can I call you No Name?” The boy doesn’t seem to care. “Sure, whatever. Most of the time, others just make up names for me. I have to say that No Name is the weirdest one I’ve gotten.”
Kathy, No Name, and I are standing face-to-face with Molly and Maia’s dad. He doesn’t see any of us, not even No Name. Does this mean he’s human too? Apparently he can’t read my thoughts like Jason can, because he doesn’t say anything in response. I’m pretty sure he’s human.
Marcus is laughing and talking with Molly and Hyacinth in a language none of us can understand. Even No Name looks confused as he tries to tell what the three of them are talking about. “I feel really left out of their conversation,” he says. “If only they could see us.” I tell him that Molly and Hyacinth definitely know we exist, and he just smiles slightly. “Well, that’s good. I don’t want to be completely overlooked.
I feel sorry for No Name. All he wants is to be acknowledged, and he’s invisible to half the people in his own world. He doesn’t even have a proper name. I’m pretty sure no two people call him the same thing.
No Name continues talking. “Marcus isn’t my real dad, even though everyone who can see me thinks he is. I’m adopted, you see, and around half of the... er... people around here can’t see me. I wonder why he hesitates before saying “people.”
“Are we the only humans around here?” Kathy asks. It’s the exact kind of question you’d expect to hear from someone as brash and outgoing as she is.
No Name is visibly happy. It’s a little shocking seeing him like this, because his face normally appears to be plastered into permanent sadness. “You’re human too! Both of you?”
Kathy smiles at the thought of finally making No Name happy, and says, “Yeah. By the way, I’m Kathy and here’s Jen.” She always calls me Jen, not Jenny. It’s how she’s been introducing me to people for a long time. Apparently it suits my personality better.
Hyacinth and Molly have finished talking with Marcus and have turned around to face us. They grin and almost scream our names and runs toward us, but I hold a finger to my lips and Kathy gestures for her to turn away from us. Obediently, both girls stop smiling and looking at us, not even making a sound. I definitely wasn’t that obedient at their age.
“Should we just leave them alone?” No Name whispers. He holds the door for Kathy and me, and we’re standing in the room with the bookshelf-like thing in it. I look closer and see that it actually is a bookshelf, except all the books have strange, runic characters on their spines. “I can’t read these,” says No Name when he catches me examining the shelf. “Marcus, Molly, and her sister Maia are the only ones here who can.” Out of boredom and curiosity, I pull a book down from the shelf. Its cover is green and it’s considerably thinner than all the other books. When I open it, all I see is more weird writing, way beyond decipherment.
Kathy snatches the book out of my hands. “Let me see that. You know I’m good with codes and stuff.” She looks at the book, then snaps pictures of the pages using the camera on her phone. She gently closes the book and puts it back on its shelf, exactly as it was before. “You won’t be confused by this writing for long,” she says, laughing.
No Name, however, looks extremely worried. “What if someone around here finds out that you know how to read their language? The consequences could be really bad, you know. They specifically designed the script to be undecipherable.” Kathy explains that she wants to find out what the strange script really means. “You and Jen are the only people I’ll tell when I finish this, I swear on my life.” It doesn’t surprise me that she thinks she can crack an undecipherable code. She’s really good at this kind of thing, after all.
Molly and Hyacinth have finished doing whatever they were doing with Marcus. “Milo!” yells Molly, at the same time that Hyacinth yells “Richard!” They must both be referring to No Name, as they’re both running toward him. After tackling him and pinning him to the ground, they do the same to Kathy and me. We keep playing like this until Marcus walks in. When Hyacinth and Molly see him, they pretend as if we’re not there. The four of us leave the tree and walk right into Jason and Maia.
“Jason!” Molly and Hyacinth attack him in that playful, adorable way of theirs. After shooing them away, Jason turns to me and says, “I guess you’ve met Brian already.” He says it in a way that makes me think he finds him slightly annoying. I’ve only known No Name for a short time, but he seems like a genuinely nice person, the type that would get along very well with Jason. He might be a little depressing at times, but he’s not the kind of person I’d expect Jason to hate.
“We’re leaving.” Maia walks away from the tree and motions for Jason, Hyacinth, and Molly to come along. No Name, Kathy, and I are left behind. “I don’t think humans are welcome where they’re going. Humans aren’t allowed in half the places they go to. I seriously don’t understand what most people around here have against us,” No Name says, more than a hint of sadness in his voice.
Even though Jason has left, I try to ask him a question by thinking it: Why are humans so discriminated against here? Jason actually answers this time. Apparently, because humans destroyed the forests a long time ago, there’s a bias that all humans are mean, evil creatures. I tell this to Kathy and No Name. Kathy, obviously thinking about deciphering the weird language, says “Cool.”
No Name is a lot more attentive than she is. He replies, “Too bad there’s nothing we can do to make them realize that we’re actually not that bad. And there’s so few of us that even if we were evil, we’d not be able to do any harm.” I wish I could change his attitude and make him think there’s the tiniest little bit of hope for us here. Sadly, my persuasion skills could really use some work.
Kathy finally stops looking so lost in thought. “Hey No Name, want to come over to my and Jen’s world? There are lots of humans back there. You’d quite like it.” She sounds as if she’s inviting him to come to her house to play video games or something like that. Still, maybe the human-friendly environment Kathy and I live in might actually make No Name a little less depressing. It worries me that she can’t pass between worlds like Jason can...
Jason! That’s it! I think of his name, trying to call him back from whatever he’s doing now and tell him that Kathy and I want to go back to our world. Kathy can take care of persuading him to let No Name go back with us even though he seems to not like him.
Through his thoughts, Jason tells me that he can’t come to help us now, but he’ll get someone else to take us home. The person might take awhile to get to us, but we’ll still get home.
“Hey Jen, you got your sketchbook on you?” asks Kathy. I shake my head, as I left it in my room at home. “Jen’s really good at drawing,” Kathy explains to No Name. I feel myself blushing and try to control it. It’s always a little embarrassing when Kathy compliments me in public like that.
We wait outside No Name’s house for a long time. I spend most of the time sleeping; I only had six hours of sleep yesterday because I was reading an awesome book last night. I sleep so soundly I don’t dream about anything, and when I wake up, Kathy is tugging on my hair and yelling “Jen! Sleepyhead! Come on!” in my ear.
The “someone else” that Jason has gotten to take us back home is a cat, a rather small one with enormous gray eyes. “This way,” it says, in the voice of a little girl.
No Name and I are pretty accustomed to out-of-the-ordinary things, so we don’t act very surprised. Kathy, however, is the epitome of bewildered! Her green eyes are almost popping out of their sockets and she screams in shock. “A talking cat! Aaaaaah!”
“No reason to be scared,” the cat says. “I’m Isa and I have to take you back to your world, where I come from too. Come on, now, and keep your surprise to yourself!”
Isa leads us away from the house/tree, through a large clearing much like the one I saw on my way here, and right through the same tree that Kathy, Jason, and I walked through. After all this, we’re not standing in the woods. Instead, we’re right outside Kathy’s house. Isa’s not a cat anymore; she’s now a girl, a few years younger than me. She’s small for her age and has perfectly straight hair and dark skin, and the same gray eyes she had as a cat.
No time at all has passed since we left our world. This is actually a good thing, as Kathy’s parents won’t be too worried about their daughter once they come home. All she told them before she left was, “I’m going to the park with Jen.”
“Isa, No Name, you guys can come in too. I don’t think anyone else is home now, so no one will mind. The key is around here somewhere...” Kathy looks around for the key and finds it under the doormat. She struggles with the lock for a full minute (why am I not surprised?) before the door finally opens and we walk in.
No Name is completely astonished, just like Kathy was when she first heard Isa the cat talk. “This place is huge!” He’s running around and going through all Kathy’s stuff. She doesn’t mind him doing this, and actually looks quite flattered. Isa, however, isn’t as astonished, and all she says is, “Your house is really nice.” She looks like she’s been in our world before.
“Come on upstairs, to my room. I think I might need your help.” We climb the stairs to the third floor of Kathy’s enormous house. No Name takes the steps two at a time, his long legs making it seem effortless.
Once we’re in Kathy’s room, No Name flops down on her bed and laughs. “It’s so... springy!” Kathy doesn’t seem to mind as she pulls out her phone and shows Isa the pictures she took of the book. “Can you read this?” Isa nods. “I can read the language, but the words have no meaning. It’s probably in a code.” She and Kathy work on solving it, leaving No Name and I to talk to each other out of pure boredom.
“Do you ever wish you had an actual name? I mean, something that everyone calls you?” I ask him, not knowing what kind of answer to expect. I just feel really bad for him, and I want him to have an identity for once.
“Actually, I’ve always quite liked the name Trevor, but apparently it doesn’t fit me.” I don’t see why it doesn’t; he actually looks a little like a Trevor. “From now on, that’s your name. I think it fits you just fine,” I try to say reassuringly.
No Name/Trevor stands up in the middle of the room and yells, “My name’s Trevor!” He’s so loud that Kathy and Isa have to cover their ears as they work. “At least we didn’t have the windows open,” they laugh. Still, both of them look happy that Trevor’s finally found the one thing he wanted most: a name.
I have the sudden urge to get some food. “Anyone want popcorn?” Kathy and Isa, who know what popcorn is, say yes. Trevor looks confused, though, so Kathy explains to him: “Popcorn is a type of food. It’s really good!” She runs downstairs to get some.
While we wait, Isa shows Trevor and me the progress she’s made on the code. “It’s one of the easier ciphers to crack, according to Kathy. She really seems to be an expert at this kind of thing. We’ll finish really soon, I’m sure of it.” She goes back to working on the code, and I stick around and watch her.
Kathy comes back soon, carrying a large bag of popcorn. All of us start eating and we finish the whole thing in about fifteen minutes. Soon after we finish the popcorn, Kathy and Isa scream in unison,“YES! We got it!” Trevor and I look over their shoulders at the decoded book page. The script still looks like gibberish, but Isa says she can read it. Before she can start, though, Kathy’s parents walk into the room.
“Hi, Mom and Dad! These are my friends Isa and Trevor. They’re... exchange students. You’ll like them a lot, I’m sure.” I’m very relieved that Kathy didn’t tell them the truth about Isa and Trevor. If she did, her parents would have gotten completely creeped out and grounded her for a week.
Kathy’s parents seem a little pleased that their daughter is making more friends, so they don’t seem to mind that there are two complete strangers in her room. “Nice to meet you two. Oh, hello, Jenny. You kids keep doing... whatever you’re doing, okay?” They leave the room, and Trevor and I wait for Isa to start translating the book page.
“This is a little strange... There are whole words but they don’t make any sense together. I’ll try and translate a bit now: ‘Cat onion pillows explode. Snow is mushroom lake. Green owl wishes world.’ You get the point, don’t you?” Isa sighs and shakes her head. “I think we have to start over.”
She almost rips up the pages of work, but Kathy stops her. “Don’t! Maybe these words mean something. ‘Cat’ -- that’s obviously you, Isa. I have no clue what ‘onion pillows explode’ means. People, like Jen when she was younger, think my huge eyes make me look like an owl, so maybe I’m ‘green owl.’ Earlier today, I wanted, or wished, to go back to this world with you, Jen, and Trevor, so that might be the ‘wishes world’ part.” I just love the way Kathy’s mind works.
Isa looks a little lost, but after thinking about it for a bit, she seems to understand. “I’ll write down the translation for the rest once I get back to my world. By the way, ‘mushroom lake’ could refer to this pool of water, in another world, that’s weirdly shaped like a mushroom. Rumor has it that if you look in the water, you see your true self. The ‘snow’ bit could be about how cold it is there. Want me to take you to that world?”
I’m a little unsure about seeing my “true self”, so I politely decline. So does Trevor, who doesn’t seem like the type to explore random worlds just because he feels like it. Kathy, however, jumps at the opportunity for more adventure, and she and Isa leave the house.
“So what do you want to do?” Trevor asks me. I don’t know, and I tell him that. Out of pure boredom, I pick up a pencil and paper and start drawing a picture of him while he’s not watching me. Drawing people has always been hard for me, but I try to make this picture amazing. I don’t know why I’m putting so much effort into just one drawing...
When I’m finished, I hide the picture under a pile of books. Trevor sees me hide it and pulls it out. I really hope he doesn’t seem offended that I tried to draw him, but he actually seems to like it. “I know what Kathy meant when she said you could draw. Can I have this picture?” I feel myself blushing again, mutter a thank-you, and let him keep the drawing.
We only have to wait a few more minutes before Kathy and Isa come back. I was expecting them to be gone longer, but I suddenly remember that time runs differently in each world.
“How was it?” I ask, hoping that Kathy wasn’t too scared away by her true self. Luckily, she tells me, “It was pretty epic. The pool was actually shaped like a mushroom, and it was definitely big enough to be considered a lake, so I guess we’ve found ‘mushroom lake.’ And I saw my true self! I’m not allowed to tell you about that part, though. Sorry.” What if she’s just saying that because she’s really ugly inside? Of course not; Kathy is the first friend I ever had, and I know her well enough to know that she’s a genuinely nice person.
I hear footsteps approaching Kathy’s room, and worry that her parents might force our new friends to leave after finding out that they’re really not exchange students. So does Isa, who picks up the translation she’s been working on and says her goodbyes. Trevor doesn’t want to leave this world, and he says so. I can understand why, as he’s not invisible to half the people here. Because we don’t know where to keep him in our world without people (namely our parents and Kathy’s brother) wondering where he came from, we promise to come check on him often.
After Isa and Trevor leave, I ask Kathy, “Why can’t you tell me about seeing your true self?” Kathy replies, “If I told you, I’d break some law of the universe or something. Just ask Isa. She knows everything about this stuff. By the way, Isa’s a human, but she’s cursed to be a cat in every world but this one.”
I’m starting to regret not going to the other world with Kathy and Isa, but I’m still a little scared about seeing my true self. I’m generally a nice person, or at least I try to be one, but I sometimes lie or steal things (mostly Kathy’s food, but once I stole my stand partner’s tuner because I forgot mine. I gave it back to him the next week).
Kathy sees me looking lost in thought and wonders, “What were you just thinking so intently about, Jen? Your time alone with Trevor?” Kathy has teased me about so many guys who I don’t even like. Even if I liked someone, they’d probably not like me back because I’m just a shy band nerd, with weird frizzy brown hair, who spends all her spare time drawing, and there’s nothing particularly attractive about that. Trevor’s nice and everything, but I don’t even know him that well. I tell Kathy this, then start annoying her about her relationship with Aidan, my stand partner whose tuner I stole a while ago. Aidan actually wanted to ask Kathy out to the school dance last year, but he was too shy.
Our conversation quickly escalates into a pillow fight, which is what always happens when Kathy teases me like this. We get so loud that her mom finally comes in, along with her older brother Sam. “Your exchange student friends just left. We saw them walk out the door,” she says. “It’s good to see you making new friends, Kathy, but you have to leave for swim practice. Want me to drop you off at your house, Jenny?” I politely decline, saying that I can just ride my bike.
I ride home, feeling the cool evening breeze on my face. When I get there, the first thing I see is my dad saying, “Jennifer, you were gone for two and a half hours! It’s summer vacation, so it’s all right. You only went to the park and Kathy’s house, right?” Not wanting to tell him that I actually spent most of my time in another world, I nod, then go practice my trombone. The rest of the day is completely normal: I finish practicing quickly, eat a very small dinner, and collapse on my bed and fall into a sound, dreamless sleep.
The next day, I wake up to Kathy standing over me and pulling on my hair. Isa is standing next to her. “Wake up, sleepyhead!” they yell. I check the time: 10:14. My parents have probably gone off to work and trusted me to not leave the house. Reluctantly, I roll out of bed and shoo Kathy and Isa away so I can put on a blue skirt and T-shirt. I don’t normally wear skirts, but I just feel like wearing one today.
“You don’t have any important plans for today, do you?” Kathy asks me. I reply, “Other than playing the trombone and drawing a lot, not really.” Isa wonders aloud if I can play something for her, so I pull out the case from under my bed, set up my trombone, and play the piece I used for my All-State Orchestra audition last year. That audition went really well, and I was the only person from my school who got in. Now, however, I don’t play it as well, probably because I’m going too fast and I haven’t practiced this piece since last winter.
Isa doesn’t seem to think I’m horrible, and she and Kathy give me a round of applause. “You should hear our duets!” Kathy laughs. She plays the clarinet and squeaks way too much.
After I pack up my trombone and grab my sketchbook (I never know when I might need it) and phone, I leave the house with Kathy and Isa. My parents call me right before I step outside. “Jenny, we came in your room and saw you sleeping. You slept so soundly we couldn’t wake you up, so we just left for work. Stay safe. We’ll see you tonight.” It looks like I have the whole day to do whatever I want, including going to random worlds with my best friend and a girl who’s almost always cursed to be a cat.
Isa puts her hands together and blows through them, making a small globe of light appear and float near her head. She touches it and it starts growing quickly. In a matter of seconds, it’s as big as she is, and it’s touching the ground. “Walk through it, before it’s too late!” she tells us, stepping into the glowing orb. Kathy goes in after her, and I hesitate before sticking one foot in. I don’t feel a thing, so I walk right through into another world.
I’ve never seen this world before. It looks like a future Earth, with enormous metal buildings, flying cars, and a smoggy gray sky. “We’re here to find Trevor,” says Isa, who has just turned into a cat. Why would we find him in a world like this? Isn’t he supposed to be with Marcus, Molly, and Maia, in the world where people run around in the trees?
I’m still thinking about this as Isa leads us into one of the tallest buildings. It looks like an office building, the kind my parents work in. People and humanoid robots are walking alongside each other. It’s a little hard to tell who’s a person and who’s a robot here. We walk into a room on the first floor and see Trevor and his adoptive family sitting around a table and talking in a strange language. Trevor doesn’t seem to understand anything they say, as he looks completely spaced out. When he sees us walk in, he gets up and stands next to us. Marcus doesn’t seem to care, and Molly and Maia are pretending not to notice us.
Trevor, Kathy, Isa, and I leave the building and step out into the polluted air. “I was only there because, according to Marcus, people probably wouldn’t look for us there, but you did. What were they talking about back there, anyway?” Trevor asks Isa. She responds, “I didn’t hear very much, but they mentioned a cat. Maybe they were referring to me.” Then she gets up on her hind legs, creates a sphere of light like she did outside my house, and we walk through it into the world we were in yesterday, where we first met Trevor, Molly, and Maia.
“I need to show you something. We’ll go to my house, even though it’s really plain by basically everyone’s standards.” Isa leads us into the woods, away from the busy streets, and stops in one of the densest parts of the forest, in front of a pretty small tree. “Well, this is it. Welcome to my humble abode. I’m just a cat, so I don’t need a really fancy house in the middle of the city,” Isa informs us.
We walk into the tree and see that Isa’s basic needs are all fulfilled: she certainly has a roof over her head, her bed is made of leaves, and there’s a small stream nearby where she most likely gets her water. She probably gets food the same way any cat does, by catching and killing it. There aren’t any decorations, though, and the house is just one room. I know what Isa meant when she said her house is really plain.
Isa pulls out a thick pile of paper from under her bed. “I translated and decoded the whole book, and I think I recognize some of it. It’s in a different dialect than I thought it was, which is why we kept getting such weird results in Kathy’s room.” She hands me the document, and Kathy and Trevor read over my shoulder. It seems to be an innocent little story about a lost cat... that is, until I see this bit of text, that can hardly be a coincidence: “And the cat kept walking until she came to a rather small house. In that house lived Jennifer Eileen Desmond, a Guardian like no other.”
I give a little yelp of surprise and point out my full legal name to Isa. She explains, “Those three words were impossible to translate, but if you pronounced them, that’s what they sound like. It’s your full name, isn’t it? That’s just... strange. We need to talk to Jason immediately. Jenny, can you call him over here with your thoughts?” I concentrate on his name again, trying to tell him to come over here as soon as possible. He arrives almost instantly, which really surprises me.
Isa shows Jason the book page with my name on it. He seems slightly displeased by it and asks, “How did you get this?” I tell him that I randomly pulled a book off Marcus’s shelf just to see what language it was in, and Kathy and Isa somehow deciphered it.
“No. This isn’t happening. That book was meant to be undecipherable!” Jason’s voice reveals that he thinks we did something wrong, something we were not supposed to do. Kathy steps up and explains that the code was far from unbreakable. “It was a simple monoalphabetic substitution cipher! That’s one of the easiest to solve!”
“If it’s really that easy to solve, how come the smartest minds in this world have failed to figure it out?” asks Jason. “It’s more than just a code, you see. I designed it so only certain people could break it, and you happened to be those people. When Jenny pulled that book off Marcus’s shelf, she didn’t choose it. It chose her.”
Before Kathy can make a rude comment about everyone in Jason’s world being really stupid for not cracking the code, he starts talking again. “The cat in the story is actually Isa. As you should know by now, Isa is no ordinary human or cat. She’s actually a High Wizard, and has the power to go between worlds as often as she likes. Not everyone can do that. It’s a pretty big accomplishment for a human.”
“And you three,” he continues, pointing at Trevor, Kathy, and me, “are special in your own ways too. You’re not like the other humans, which is one of the reason half the people in this entire world can’t see you. They simply believe that people like you don’t exist, so you’re invisible to them. Remember when we first met, Jenny? I told you that story about the Guardians. Kathy and Brian -- I mean Trevor, you both are Guardians, that much is clear. We don’t know who you protect, though. And Jenny, you’re something more powerful than they are, maybe even more powerful than Isa. No one knows the extent of what you can accomplish.”
I feel a little offended. Some of the kids at school overlook me because I’m quiet, but no one thinks I don’t exist! And Kathy’s so pretty and outgoing that lots of people know her. How can we not exist?! Jason reads my thoughts flawlessly again and explains, “You’re only invisible in this world, but back on Earth you act like normal human beings, blending in with the crowd and never showing anyone your exceptional abilities.”
I never considered myself very “exceptional” before, so I demand proof of my so-called abilities. Jason laughs and says, “You can read my thoughts, can’t you? That’s an example right there. Me reading your thoughts is nothing special, but if it works the other way around, it’s extraordinary. And you can draw strikingly realistic sketches of nature, plus you’re a really good musician. I came to your world and turned invisible when you were playing your audition piece for Isa. How long have you been playing the trombone?”
I tell him that I only started last year, and I’ve never taken private lessons or even played another instrument. For some reason, music came naturally to me, and maybe my being “exceptional” is part of that reason. Still, I’m confused about what Jason said earlier, about how I didn’t choose that book off the shelf but the book chose me. I thought I simply picked a book at random, but apparently I didn’t.
“Remember how I said that the book Jenny picked off Marcus’s shelf chose her? That book doesn’t have a title, and if it does, I didn’t make it up. I was the one who wrote it and trusted Hyacinth with it. The silly girl must have left it in Marcus’s house when she went to play with Molly and Maia. I’ll never trust her with something this important again...” he sighs. If I had a little sister, I’d never call her a silly girl...
“Wait. So if the book didn’t have a title, what’s the writing on the spine supposed to mean?” asks Kathy. Jason replies that it’s just random text that has absolutely no meaning and is just put there to look like a title so people won’t get suspicious about the book. I’m not sure if this is true, but I pretend to believe it and hope that he doesn’t try to read my thoughts.
I don’t strangely trust Jason like I used to; instead I trust Trevor and Isa more because I know them better but for a day less, and we’ve already had a few adventures together. The only things Jason and I did were going to one other world and reading each other’s thoughts. I have to admit I’ve always been a little suspicious of him. It’s probably because of how he seemed to manipulate my mind to make me trust him...
Surprisingly, Jason doesn’t bother to comment on my thoughts and keeps telling us about the book: “I wrote that book many human millennia ago, hoping that someday someone would be able to decode and read it. I think I’ve found the only people in the world who can, and that’s you four. There might be one more of you out there somewhere, and I have a pretty good guess about who he is. By the way, Jenny, what did you do with the book after you took it off Marcus’s shelf?”
Isa has started to sleep on her pine-needle bed, all curled up and adorable. I simply reply, “Kathy put it back exactly as we found it. Do you want me to get it back for you? I’m invisible here, after all. Isa looks really tired, and Trevor seems comfortable here.” Trevor is climbing trees and laughing his heart out. This is the happiest I’ve ever seen him in the short while I’ve known him.
Jason says it would be nice if I went back there, and he tells me how to get back to the city from Isa’s forest home. “Just keep walking straight. Go around all the trees in your way, of course. Walk down the first street you come across, and take a right turn to get to where Marcus lives. His house will be pretty obvious, as it’s one of the biggest there. Wait for him, Molly, or Maia to open the door, and walk in to take the book.”
I’m horrible with directions, and I get lost really easily. All I can do is smile and nod, start walking, and be thankful for my pretty good memory. At least Kathy’s not the one who’s doing this...
Walking straight ahead and avoiding trees is very easy, even for a klutz like me. I start to worry, though, when I walk down the first street I see. It’s very busy and I almost get trampled by the crowds of people walking around. In this world, there don’t seem to be any ways to get around other than on foot. I squeeze through everyone and manage to take the first right. Marcus’s street isn’t that busy, so I don’t have to worry about dying in another world. I find the house easily because I spot Molly and Maia walking out together, not noticing me standing near their house. Before the door closes, I manage to sneak in by sprinting as fast as I can go (which is actually quite slow).
Marcus is in the room with the bookshelf, but he’s facing away from it and reading. I grab the book and wait for him to leave the room so I can run out the open door. He keeps on reading for endless minutes until I give up and push on the side of the tree. Apparently the girls didn’t lock their house when they left, so I can easily leave and go back to Isa’s.
I’m walking down the busy street, trying not to get squished, when I see Molly and Maia in the crowd of people. They’re actually close enough to me that Maia can whisper in my ear. “What are you doing here?” She looks at the book in my hand. “Oh, you have Jason’s book with you. I won’t tell anyone, I swear on my life.” Jason probably told her about the book and how special it is. I smile at her, mutter a thank-you, and run back into the forest, walking straight and not bumping into trees until I get to Isa’s little dwelling.
Isa’s wide awake when I get back, and her little cat face lights up when she sees me. “You have the book!” she exclaims, snatching it from my hands and giving it to Jason, who examines it to see if it’s the real thing and not just a copy. He flips through the pages, then looks up and grins at me. “Thanks! I have to leave now, so I’ll just take this with me.” Jason walks away until I can’t see him in the distance anymore. “He’s probably going on a date with Maia,” Kathy snickers. Isa hears this and replies, “Oh, they’re always inseparable. He seems to really like her, you know. Just like Jenny and Trevor! I can tell he’s thinking about how cute she looks in that skirt!” I look up at Trevor, who’s too busy hanging upside down from a tree branch to notice us talking about him. Why do Isa and Kathy think we like each other? That’s just complete nonsense.
Before I can tell Isa all about Aidan and Kathy, Trevor climbs down from his tree branch. “That was awesome! I don’t have that much open space back in the city because it’s, well, the city.” He does a cartwheel on the ground and laughs. I’ve never heard his laugh before, and it sounds a little like flowing water. “I’m going to live out here, instead of with Marcus. I’ll choose a house and everything tomorrow because I’m too lazy to do all that right now. See you later; Maia and Molly are probably getting worried about me.” He walks away towards the city which he hates so much.
“So what do you want to do?” Isa asks Kathy and me. Kathy just shrugs her shoulders, but I say it might be nice if I could go back to my world now. Kathy wants to go too, so Isa makes the glowing ball of light and we all step through it.
We end up right outside my house. The time is 10:17 in the morning, only three minutes after I reluctantly woke up and put on a skirt for the first time in ages. Time really does run differently when you walk between worlds! Kathy runs to her house to get her clarinet, while Isa and I go to my room and read books that don’t have real magical powers associated with them. When Kathy returns, I play duets with her, just to pass the time. She doesn’t squeak as much, probably because she’s using a new kind of reed. Isa actually seems to like the way my trombone sounds with Kathy’s clarinet, and I can tell she’s not just pretending to think we’re good. “I wish I knew how to play the violin. Maybe when I learn, we can all play something together!” she laughs.
Kathy, Isa, and I hang out and have fun for the rest of the day. We get ice cream, go swimming in Kathy’s backyard pool, and basically do the sort of things we’d do if we were just three normal girls, without “exceptional powers” or the ability to walk through worlds, spending time together.
Isa stays for lunch and a long time after. When we walk around town, people stare at us and wonder who our new friend is. Aidan, Kathy’s future boyfriend, actually stops us on our way to lunch and asks us, “Who’s the new girl? Is she coming to school here?” I just say that she’s a family friend of mine, visiting me for the summer. Aidan responds with “Oh. That’s cool.” and leaves us alone for the rest of the day, much to Kathy’s disappointment. Once he leaves, I tell Isa about him and Kathy and she can’t help but burst out laughing.
Isa has to leave around the same time that my parents are home from work. Before she leaves, she gives Kathy and me one gold medallion each. I look at mine and see “Jenny” engraved on it in flawless cursive writing. “If you ever want to come to my world, rub this medallion between your fingers and concentrate on my name. You’ll arrive right outside my house.”
I give Isa a huge thank-you hug, get home as quickly as possible and avoid telling my parents about my “exceptional powers” which I hardly know anything about except for the fact that they make me draw stuff and play the trombone as well as I can.
When I sleep, I have a slightly strange dream. I’m walking from Kathy’s house to mine all alone, braiding some of my hair as I stride along. When I’m done braiding my hair, I turn around and see Trevor standing behind me, laughing. It’s a completely good-natured laugh, like the one I heard from him in the forest. We walk next to each other the rest of the way, talking the whole time. when we’re a block away from my house, he reaches out and grabs my hand. It feels a little cold, but I quite like it and I don’t object. I wake up before we can get all the way to my house, a vivid memory of the dream still in my mind. Sometimes I remember my dreams, but never this clearly.
Right after I’ve eaten breakfast and gotten ready, I call Kathy and tell her all about the dream, making her swear on her life to never tell anyone except maybe Isa. “If you ever tell Isa, make her promise not to tell anyone else. Especially Trevor, even though this dream was about him,” I tell her. Kathy says she might not see Isa today, as she has to go to her brother’s birthday party. I say happy birthday to Kathy’s brother and hang up the phone.
I might not be able to see Isa or Trevor today either, because my parents announce their plans to make me do lots of awful math problems in order to make me “prepared for the upcoming school year.” Even though I get decent grades in math, these problems are hard and I spend hours on them. When I finish all the math, it’s almost noon so I eat lunch, then do some grammar and reading comprehension exercises that are far worse. Why are my parents torturing me like this? Do they not want me to go visit Isa and Trevor? Do they even know who Isa and Trevor are?
After staring at the paper for about a half hour, I discover that the reading comprehension isn’t actually that bad, so I breeze through it. The grammar problems are annoyingly hard, however, and they take me a little longer. Once I finish, I run upstairs to my room, find Isa’s medallion and rub it between my fingers while thinking of her.
Before I know it, I’m standing in the forest near Isa’s tree. It’s late at night, and I can see two crescent moons and lots of bright stars in the pitch-black sky. A signal flare, or some other bright light, seems to be coming from a much larger tree nearby, so I walk toward it to check it out. It’s Trevor, and he’s just finished moving into his new home.
“Hey, Jenny! My house looks awesome!I had so much time left after moving myself in that I added a bunch of other rooms just for the fun of it. Do you need somewhere to spend the rest of the night?” he asks. I try not to think about my dream and accept his offer. He leads me through a side entrance into a small room with a very comfortable-looking bed that’s made of pine needles like Isa’s.
Once Trevor leaves, I shove the medallion into my pocket and fall asleep. I didn’t sleep too well at night because my dream caused me to wake up a little earlier than I wanted to, and the bed is really comfortable, so I sleep a few more hours before I find Isa standing over me and yelling in my ear to wake me up. It’s bright outside now and it doesn’t look like the sun has just risen. A few moments after I wake up, Kathy is standing in front of Isa’s house.
“I thought you couldn’t come here today!” I exclaim as I run toward her.. Kathy tells me that she also had to do lots of math homework, but zipped right through it (because she’s a freakily smart math nerd who won’t admit it) and decided to come visit Isa and figure out more about why we’re not like other humans. I think the real reason she’s here is to tell Isa about my dream, but I don’t mention it because Trevor’s with us too.
Isa tells Kathy that if she really wants to know about how we’re different, she should ask Jason. “He’s most likely with Maia right now, for really obvious reasons.” She giggles as she says this, and Trevor looks really confused. “She thinks they like each other,” I tell him quietly, and he seems to understand.
It seems like Maia and Jason have decided to take a walk in the forest, as we can see two humanlike shapes standing next to each other in the distance. One’s taller and seems to have Jason’s curly hair, while the other’s a little shorter with Maia’s bony figure. The figures walk closer to us. They’re Maia and Jason after all.
“Ready to see what you can do?” Jason asks Trevor, Kathy, and me.. “The other person who I think is like you lives a little far away in this same world, but we can always teleport. Close your eyes...” I obey him, and shortly after, I feel like I’m riding downhill on my bike at a million miles an hour. My hair is whipping all over my face and my skin feels like it’s getting ripped off my body.
When I finally feel like I’m standing still, after the longest five minutes ever, I open my eyes and see myself in a desert that stretches beyond the horizon. It’s hard to believe that I haven’t gone to another world. There are many little holes dug in the ground, with makeshift stairs leading down them. We walk into one of those stairs into some sort of a house. The first person I see really surprises me: he looks like Aidan, my stand partner.
“Jenny! Kathy! What are you doing here?!” he exclaims. “You’re seriously the last people I expected to walk into my house with Jason and Maia and a random cat!” Isa hisses at Aidan and arches her back.
Jason explains to Aidan, “Kathy’s more than just the pretty girl you wanted to ask out. Her powers are as great as yours. And Jenny’s not only one of the best musicians in the state; no one knows the extent of her magical abilities. Remember how I trained you? I want you to do the same to them. They’ve managed to decode that book I wrote a long time ago.”
Kathy, as usual, has questions: “So if you’re going to train us or something, will we be able to return to our normal everyday lives?” she asks. Aidan replies, “Of course, all you have to do is pass on your powers to someone else. You’ll be completely visible too, as people will be able to believe you exist without extreme magical abilities. They’ll still discriminate against you, as your predecessors were the ones to steal the forest from their people.” I’ve never heard Aidan use such big words before.
“We need to change something! We’ll convince everyone that humans aren’t that bad! And we can use our powers to do that!” Trevor sounds extremely passionate and nothing like his normal, confused and depressed self.
Aidan seems happy that Trevor isn’t being depressed, but he says, “Kathy, come this way. I’ll train you first.” He leads her away from us, through a door in the back of the room. “I hope he doesn’t try to kill her or something,” Isa says after they leave. I can only say, “He was head over heels for Kathy last year. He’d never hurt her.”
A few long minutes later, Kathy walks out of the room. “It didn’t hurt at all! Watch this!” She pulls an index card out of her pocket, holds it in one hand, and snaps her fingers with her other hand. The card turns into a piece of chocolate, which she divides between me, Trevor, Maia, and Jason. It tastes even better than the chocolate from the candy store near my house, which is definitely saying something. The other three kids seem to enjoy it too.
“Trevor, you’re next,” Kathy says. Trevor, looking extremely nervous but excited at the same time, walks into the small room that Kathy came out of. “I wonder what he’ll do with his powers,” I can’t help but comment. “He’ll probably devise some grand scheme to save the world.”
When Trevor steps out, he’s smiling, which is starting to get less and less surprising. “I’m not going to show off like Kathy did. No, I’m conserving my energy to prove all those human-hating weirdos wrong!” His attitude has changed so much since I met him.
I’m obviously next, so I walk into the room with Aidan. It’s very small and there’s one chair in the middle. Aidan motions for me to sit down. “I promise, this won’t hurt,” he says. He doesn’t sound very reassuring, so I brace myself for the worst. All he does is place his hands on my shoulders. It feels normal for a few seconds, but after a while I start thinking I’m getting an electric shock. I’m not in too much pain, though, and I feel... different, like I suddenly know more about everything. My brain feels like it’s bursting at the seams from having so much crammed into it, but that sensation goes away soon.
“You’ve been trained already. I just gave some of my knowledge to you, without losing a thing,” Aidan explains. “It didn’t hurt, did it?” I truthfully reply that I was in a little pain. According to him, it’s because I have more magical potential than Kathy and Trevor combined.
I walk out of the room and Isa demands to see me do something. “You’re supposed to be the second most powerful among us all!” she says. “Of course, I’m more powerful than you...”
Isa probably is more powerful than me, as Jason called her a High Wizard or something like that earlier. Just to make her happy, I say “All right. Here goes.” and start wondering what I should show her. Finally, I think of something: I’ll call my sketchbook to me, even though it’s in another world. I concentrate on my sketchbook, and it appears in my hands, completely intact. “There. I made it come here from another world. Happy? And I’ll send it back again.” I concentrate even more and the sketchbook disappears out of my hands and lands on my desk at home.
Isa is completely astonished. “You have no idea how hard that is, Jenny. Was it really difficult for you?” I shake my head, telling her it was actually extremely easy. “Well, then you might actually be more powerful than me!” Isa sounds like she’s genuinely happy for me, not jealous. It’s been really nice having a friend like her.
“So what are we going to do about people in other worlds hating on us, even though we have so much in common with them?” asks Trevor after Aidan comes and joins us. We start walking out of Aidan’s underground house and through the desert. It looks really boring and not many people are outside because of the sweltering heat. I’m starting to regret wearing a long-sleeved shirt and jeans today...
Jason offers to teleport us back to the city that Maia and Molly live in. Aidan, who’s never teleported before, is very scared, but we all assure him that it’s not that bad. Once we get back, we’re standing in the middle of the really busy street, being completely invisible. Someone’s lying down, not far away from us, screaming in pain and clutching their ankle. I can’t tell what they look like because of the dark hood that’s covering their head.
Trevor steps up to the person and lightly places his hand on their injured ankle. He or she gets up, yelps with joy, and wonders aloud, “How did I heal so fast?” The voice is male, and I recognize it. It’s Marcus. The others seem to know this too, especially Maia and Molly. “Dad...” they whisper in awe. Trevor doesn’t seem to care, as he looks completely drained. I manage to catch him before he falls to the ground in exhaustion, ignoring Isa and Kathy saying things like “That’s so cute!”
Marcus still can’t see any of us except Molly, Maia, and Jason. He says hello to them and thanks them for healing his broken ankle. Maia just laughs and says, “I didn’t do it. My brother did. He’s invisible to you, though.” Marcus seems to dismiss this as complete nonsense. “Maia, you know I can see everything in this world, except for humans with magical powers... he’s not one of them, is he?” He says “them” as if it’s a curse word, like he hates us with a burning passion.
Maia nods her head, looking genuinely displeased by her own father’s bias. “Of course. He used his powers to heal you. It’s just the sort of thing he’d do. He’s almost completely drained now, as this is his first time using magic. All he wants is for you to know that he exists.”
Marcus doesn’t look like he’s buying it. “So you’re trying to say that I’ve been keeping an invisible human boy, with magical powers, in my house for many years? Where does he sleep? What does he eat?” Maia explains, “Remember that little, insignificant room you thought you locked? He slept in there, but he moved out recently. We used to sneak him food, but now he gets his own meals from the forest. This sounds crazy, but believe me, Dad.”
“Sorry, Maia. You’re obviously lying. Humans can’t have powers.” Maia shouts, almost in her dad’s ear, “Yes they can! And one such human just healed your bleeding ankle! Jason and Molly both know him! Right, guys?” Jason and Molly both nod, but Marcus still doesn’t seem convinced. “Maia, why are you lying to your own father? You probably made Jason and Molly take part in whatever crazy scheme you’re planning.”
Maia seems to have given up on convincing her dad that Trevor exists. “Fine. If you don’t want to believe me, I’ll just stop trying to convince you. Trevor -- that’s his name -- really does exist, and he’s been living with us for about the past ten years. Molly and I found him on the streets when he was only five, and we took him in. You never seemed to notice him, and almost bumped into him on many occasions, so we just gave up on telling you about him. We’ll find a way to make you believe he’s real.”
For some random reason, I suddenly wonder where Hyacinth has been all these days. “She’s still in your world, in the tree she led you to when you first met her. She’s probably entertaining herself with those bright pink sparkles of hers,” Jason tells me in his thoughts as we keep walking down the busy street, trying to avoid the massive crowds of people (half of whom can’t even see us yet). I’m still carrying Trevor, with Kathy’s help now. She and Isa have stopped talking about him and me as a couple (for now), though I’m starting to think he’s not that bad...
“So are we the only so-called ‘humans with powers’ around here? And about the Guardian thing, do you know who we’re supposed to look out for?” asks Kathy.
Jason answers, out loud, “Humans with powers are basically Guardians, and they get their powers from the person they’re ‘supposed to look out for,’ as you put it. By the way, Maia and her family used to be humans, but they’ve changed to our kind. I don’t know how they did it, and I never will. Kathy’s probably Hyacinth’s Guardian. It was obvious from the time I met her. The two of them just have a similar presence; I don’t know how to explain it. Trevor’s obviously Marcus’s Guardian, because of how he wanted to heal him. He actually transferred some of his energy to Marcus, which is why he’s so exhausted now. I don’t know who Aidan’s a Guardian to, but Maia thinks it might be me. And as for Jenny, you’re more than they are, sort of like a Guardian for every one of us. That’s why you’re so powerful.”
I’ve never thought I was anyone special, just a plain-looking, slightly nerdy girl who spends all her spare time drawing and playing music. Just last week, I’d never have suspected that I have magical powers just waiting to be awakened, and that I’m invisible to half a world of people, and the guy I like is invisible too... actually, forget about the last bit! All I can hope is that Jason didn’t bother trying to read that thought.
I run up to Jason, who’s walking up front with Maia, and whisper to him, “Can you please stop reading my thoughts? I’m starting to get a little uncomfortable with having to censor everything I think about just so you’ll not hate me for the rest of your life.” Jason agrees and about a minute later, he says “Now I can’t read your thoughts, and you can’t read mine. It’s not like I’d ever hate you for anything you think about, Jenny. We all have... interesting thoughts from time to time.” Is he implying that he recently read my thoughts? I hope not.
We arrive at Marcus’s house, and Maia holds the door open for all of us. Trevor’s eyes are still closed, but his chest heaves up and down as if he’s breathing. I’m taking that as a good sign as I prop him up in a chair. My arms are getting tired, and so are Kathy’s.
Just as we settle down, we hear loud noises outside the house. I volunteer to go outside to check what they are, and find people in the streets, holding torches. “Humans with powers! Seize them!” they yell. “Humans are reckless forest destroyers! Kill them! Kill every last one of them!”
I can feel the anger swelling up in me, giving me the urge to do something about this. I’m not sure exactly what, though... and then it hits me. If the people here like trees so much, and humans are rumored to be tree destroyers, maybe I could do something involving both magic and trees...
I wave my hand above a blank patch of land and a small plant sprouts. I keep growing plants like this and spell out the words “Jennifer Eileen Desmond was here. I’m human.” I write my full name because it’s what appeared in Jason’s book. My middle name isn’t that embarrassing. At least it’s not something outrageous or overly exotic.
I take a while to grow that many little trees, and when I’m done, I’m totally exhausted. I’ve never felt this tired in my life, not even after I played my trombone for three hours without enough rests. Right now, nothing matters except lying down and closing my eyes and drifting into a blissful sleep, never to wake up again... Basically, I feel like I’m dying, and I don’t mind. I’m tired.
Suddenly I feel full of life again, back to normal in less than three seconds. There’s a boy standing over me... I can’t remember his name for a short while... it’s Trevor. “Jenny! You were out for so long that I wanted to come check on you. I’m glad you’re still alive.” That’s the nicest thing anyone’s said to me all day.
Trevor notices the trees I’ve grown. “That’s a nice idea, but we should really move those to the center of the street. That way more people will be able to see them.” I’m worried that he doesn’t have enough energy left to do something like this, after saving my life like he did, but he doesn’t seem to mind. “Maybe we both have the power to do this, and I can also get everyone else...”
He goes back inside and calls the others. Together, we move my message to the middle of the street. The other humans (Trevor, Kathy, Aidan, and Isa who’s taller than she normally is as a cat) sign their names too. We sit back and hope that sometime soon, someone will see our work and realize that we’re not evil destroyers of everything.
Someone does see our work: a young boy, no more than eight years old. “What’s that in the middle of the street?” he wonders aloud, putting out the flame on the torch he’s carrying. “Maybe these humans really aren’t evil after all.”
Trevor tells Jason, “Remove our powers as soon as possible. I want them to see us.” Jason obeys, and I stop feeling like I know too much for my head. I’m back to being regular, normal Jenny. The people in the street seem very surprised that we’ve suddenly appeared in front of them like this, but they can’t deny the truth.
“You’re humans. With powers,” the little boy says. Murmurs spread through the mob, and Kathy has to quiet the down. “We’re human, that’s true. But we don’t have powers anymore. We gave them up forever so you could see us. We were invisible all this while because you didn’t believe in us, and apparently ‘seeing is believing’ works the other way around. I’m Kathy, and these are Jen, Trevor, and Aidan. We... um... come in peace.
This feels like one of those really cheesy endings found only in movies for little kids. Everyone in the mob drops their torches and knives and walks away, resuming their normal, average days.
“I guess we can go back to Earth now. Thanks for everything, guys. I guess people around here don’t need Guardians anymore, as we don’t have our powers” Jeff seems like he’s crying and doing his best to hide it. He’s not the sort of person I would have expected to cry.
Isa asks, “If you’re going back to earth with Jenny and Kathy, can Trevor and I come too? We’re originally from there too, you know. All humans are. Trevor was trapped here, and I only stayed because I liked being a cat!” She looks like a human now, so I think her curse went away with all her powers.
Kathy offers to keep both Isa and Trevor in her house as adopted siblings. “My neighbors, the Donahues, have always wanted to adopt kids. You could go live with them. They’re really nice!.” Both Isa and Trevor agree, and we all head toward home. None of us can go between worlds anymore, so we have to walk for a long time until we get to the portal to Earth.
Right before we leave, we say our final goodbyes to Jason, Hyacinth, Molly, and Maia. They all promise to visit us soon and tell us how things are going and whether or not any more humans have come into their world. Then we step through the really big tree and into our own world again...
In a few days, Isa and Trevor are officially siblings, the adoption papers have been completed, and they’re registered to go to our school in the fall. Kathy and I have been helping them prepare. Neither of them remembers going to a normal human school before, so it’s a little tricky but we manage to educate them about how to survive high school. “Just stick with us during lunch and everything, and you’ll be fine,” we assure them. “We’re all in the same grade, so that should be easy. And hope that you don’t get Mr. Herriman for English. Apparently he’s the hardest teacher.”
The rest of summer goes by normally. Me, Kathy, Trevor, Isa, and Aidan are all inseparable the whole time. People wonder about our new friends and how they got here. When they ask us, I just reply, “These are Isa and Trevor Donahue, and they’ll be going to our school this year.” Few people actually believe they’re siblings until I inform them about how Trevor and Isa are both recently adopted. Then they don’t believe that Trevor and Isa will be starting school with us...
When school finally starts, Isa surprises all of us by trying out for choir and actually getting in. I never expected her to be that kind of person. Trevor ends up being the star of the cross-country team. I guess all he wants is to be outside and run his heart out. Kathy somehow gets the courage to ask Aidan to the first dance, and he says yes. Isa, who’s not going with anyone, forces me to go with Trevor (isn’t that just like her!). We don’t actually slow dance the way Kathy and Aidan do. It’s not as if that disappoints me or anything...
Aidan and I aren’t stand partners anymore, much to my disappointment (he always had his stuff, even when I forgot it). Instead, I’m sitting next to a blonde-haired girl named Caroline, who’s a year younger than me. She’s just as forgetful as I was last year, and I willingly lend her my supplies when she doesn’t have hers. (It’s what a good section leader should do, after all.)
Caroline constantly annoys me by constantly asking me for help reading notes and things like that. I’m a lousy teacher, but I help her anyway. In exchange for this, she teaches me a new way to braid my hair so it doesn’t look so weird. We become close friends really soon, as most stand partners do. I introduce her to Isa, and they become even closer.
One day during the school year, Caroline catches me doodling all over my binder. “What’s that?” she asks, looking closer at my pictures. “Looks like some sort of a cat, and trees with weird pictures all over them, and a book that seems to be in code... You read too much fantasy, Jenny.” I laugh and reply, “Reality is stranger than fiction!” Caroline thinks I’m going insane and promises not to tell anyone this.
A week later, I’m biking home from school when I see Jason standing near my house. “What are you doing here?” I ask him as I lock my bike and open the front door. “There’s another human in our world. Her name’s Cassandra or something like that... I remember, it’s Caroline Slaney! She mentioned something about you going insane. Do you know her, by any chance?”
Caroline’s my new stand partner, the one who thought I was crazy for telling her about my summer vacation! I tell Jason this, and he laughs. “That’s just weird. She doesn’t have powers or anything; she just randomly came in. No one knows how she did it. By the way, can you still draw and play the trombone as well as you could?” I reply, “My musical and artistic abilities are only improving. It must be all the practice I’m putting in, not the powers I don’t have. And I have no clue why I’m talking in big words all of a sudden... I just felt like it!” Lately I’ve been doing more things that I just “felt like.”
I run to my room, dump my backpack on my bed, and bike to the Donahues’ house to tell everyone about Caroline. Luckily for me, Aidan and Kathy are there too. Isa, who knows her almost better than I do, is the most shocked of us all. Kathy and Aidan are in our band class, so they have to ask who she is before realizing how weird it is that she can walk between worlds. Trevor looks the most confused, so we tell him who she is and how she reacted to my story. He’s as surprised as the rest of us. “Well, talk about unlikely. She thought you were insane! She’ll be changing her mind pretty soon...”
Trevor’s right. In a few minutes, my phone starts vibrating in my pocket. I pick it up and see that it’s Caroline calling me. “Jenny! You were right! You’re not insane after all! I guess reality is actually stranger than made-up stuff sometimes! See you tomorrow at school! I can’t wait for you to hear me play the fast part of that annoying song...”
I hang up the phone and tell everyone else, “It’s Caroline. She does believe me after all.” Trevor just smiles at me. “I knew she would. Our story seems a little crazy when people first hear it, but they have to experience it to know it’s real.”
The others seem to know exactly what he’s talking about. So do I. If I’d randomly heard that I have magic powers, any time before the summer, I wouldn’t have believed at all. My response would have been a lot like Caroline’s when I told her my story.
After spending some time at Kathy’s house, I pick up my sketchbook and go back to the forest where I used to draw landscape sketches, the forest where I met Jason and Hyacinth for the first time. I can’t stop drawing today. I draw everything that comes into my mind: Books, cats, random creepy smiley faces, trombones, and people. For the second time (the first was when I drew Trevor in Kathy’s room), I’ve voluntarily drawn people! My drawing skills have seriously improved since before my adventure.
I walk toward the tree where Jason and Hyacinth live in this world. Somehow I naturally know the way, and I have no trouble walking off the trails this time. The door’s closed, so I sit outside and try to copy the intricate designs on it. As I’m doing this, I see what looks like a burning ball of light, like the kind Isa made all the time, calling me to another world. I pack up my sketchbook and walk in, not sure of what’s waiting for me on the other side...
Wow.
ReplyDeleteWeird, right? T_T
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