• Tick tock tick tock watch the clock before it stops. Science will bar the way please oh please stay. Humming the strange tune to herself the short redheaded girl skipped along the road. Tourists milled around her so she had no reason to hide. Just in case she glanced over her shoulder. There was no sign of the click of girls who dedicated their lives to making her miserable. Poor them, they’d never succeed. Piper slipped past a tourist into her mother’s shop/home. She loved the shop; it was nice to live right above your mom’s workplace. It was busy today, but then again, New York was always busy. Today just happened to be sunny so people stayed out longer.
    A woman with cheeks that were permanently the color of apples smiled at Piper. That, and hair color, were the only things she’d seemed to inherit from her. Waddling on her squat legs which hardly held up her round shape she leaned forward and kissed Piper on the cheek. She made a face and skipped to the back door of the shop. “I’m just stopping by to grab my wallet, I’m eating out tonight.” That was how it usually went; Piper checked on her mom to see how business was going, ate out, and then came home late so she wouldn’t have to talk to her much. There wasn’t much of a mother-daughter relationship. They were both fine with it though. The kissing on the cheek and hugging was just so that gossiping neighbors didn’t blurt it out for everyone to hear then for it to become a huge rumor that Piper secretly wants to kill her mother or something.
    Once her wallet was safely in the back pocket of her mini camouflage skirt/shorts Piper skipped out the back door onto the street right behind it. The street was more of an alley and could only have one car going one way if the car was small enough so hardly any tourists bothered going there. They obviously watched too many horror movies where people were kidnapped in dark alleys. The alley/street wasn’t dark at all so Piper didn’t get the point. Everyone had some sort of irrational fear, though. Piper’s was noises in the dark.
    Heading towards her favorite restaurant, a small place which sold Italian food, Piper continued to skip and hum. She had no idea what the eerie tune she was humming was from or why the same two sentences kept popping into her head with the tune but the tune was good so she continued to hum it. The sound of her humming echoed strangely off the brick walls of the stores lined up on either side of her. Piper stopped and frowned. She was always humming yet this had never happened before. Leaning forward she peered closely at one of the brick walls. It looked as it always did. They were just old bricks with a few small plants growing off of them. With a shake of her head she continued to skip down the road.
    “Hey! Favorite customer! Want the usual?” A small Asian woman, small meaning five foot tall, the same size as Piper, greeted her. She’d always found it funny that an Asian would run an Italian restaurant but others probably would find it funny if Piper, a Scottish girl, ran an Italian shop too. Piper nodded in reply and sat down at her corner window seat. Nobody else chose to sit there because it was the one and only single person seat in the room. Plus if you were a loner and sat there you’d look dark and suspicious. With Piper she always looked like she was about to burst into a big grin.
    A steaming dish of noodles with alfredo sauce was placed under her nose. Piper grinned at Ms. Siv, the shop owner. She bet the cook had made it ahead of time. After all, Piper had been going to the shop for dinner for two months now. Before she could dig into the noodles a glass of ice tea slid next to the bowl. “How you so skinny when eat like this?” Ms. Siv put her hands on her hips. She and Piper were both slight and skinny so that if they were the same age and Piper weren’t a different race they’d be twins.
    “It’s called belly magic. I have lots of it.” Piper winked and dug in. Within minutes she was finished with the food and looked up. Before there hadn’t been anyone in the shop but now almost every table was full. Back when she’d actually eaten at home her mom always said she went into a trance when she ate. She stood up and stretched. Now she was going to climb around on the rooftops till dark came. Dropping by the front desk to pay for the meal first Piper skipped out the door. Now that the tourist noise had gone down a bit she wouldn’t bother whistling because it may creep out the few tourists who still dared wander the streets.
    The sun had hardly set. Piper wasn’t surprised. She woke up early, ate breakfast early, ate lunch early, and dinner early so by the end of the day she was ahead of the sun. The customers in the Italian shop were probably worried that the shop would close soon and end up keeping them from eating dinner. That or they were just hanging out. Piper could never guess the thoughts of crazy tourists.
    As she contemplated what the people in the restaurant were doing eating so early something out of place caught her eye. A shadow of a man crept up the side of a nearby building. When she stepped closer and compared her shadow with the other one she realized that the other shadow was both lighter in color and had strange, wobbly edges. Then Piper realized what was really odd about the shadow. Nobody was casting it. The feet of the shadow ended abruptly instead of connecting with its owner’s feet. Without warning the shadow stepped forward and began to walk away from her. Common sense told her not to follow it but curiosity won over. The song she’d had stuck in her head all day sprung to mind as she walked faster to catch up with it. Strangely enough the shadow led her back into the alley/street which led to the back door of her home. Just as she’d caught up with it the shadow stopped again. If she’d interpreted it correctly it appeared to shake its head and began to walk forward again.
    Piper frowned and bit her lip. Something felt wrong about this. She’d passed her backdoor already but the shadow was continuing to walk. Once again curiosity won. Her feet seemed to move without her noticing. She began to sprint to catch up with the shadow. Then something appeared in front of her face and her forehead met up with something.
    ~
    A massive bug stared at her. Spots swam before her eyes. Piper blinked several times and corrected herself. It wasn’t a bug at all. A man wearing goggles, they weren’t overly large so she wasn’t sure why she’d thought of a bug, was leaning over her. The edge of his mouth tugged downwards in a tiny frown and he stood up. Blinking more to clear her head Piper sat up then froze. She lay down again and rubbed her eyes. That wasn’t right at all. There was a tree in front of her. Bark, moss, branches, definitely a tree. It wasn’t right there’d been no tree in front of her. She’d been walking on her street following… a shadow of a man. Her eyes sprang open and she sat up.
    Staring into the distance, the man wearing goggles completely ignored her. His black hair was wild in a careful, brushed kind of way. He wore a worn dark brown overcoat, a scarf, and baggy pants. His outline matched the shadow perfectly down to an extremely wild hair which stuck up near the center of his head. Piper tried hard to hold it back but the grin came anyway. This was so strange. Maybe soon she’d start laughing hysterically. Lying down wasn’t going to get her anywhere though, hysterical or not. Piper carefully pulled herself onto her feet using a low hanging branch. The forest seemed unnaturally thick and untamed.
    The man was staring at her again. Or was he a teenager like her? She couldn’t tell with the scarf and goggles covering most of his face. A strange contraption was strapped to his wrist like a watch except instead of a clock it had a small screen. Like an iPhone except square. As if realizing what she was staring at, he pulled his jacket over the device. Turning away from her he began to walk in the opposite direction. Well he obviously wasn’t going to help. Piper brushed a few specks of bark from the collision from her forehead and began to follow him. “Excuse me, where am I?” No answer. “Well, somebody’s rude.” She continued to follow him.
    He stopped and glanced at the device on his arm again. Piper peered over his shoulder in the most annoying way she could. It was kind of difficult, him being normal height or tall and her being so short, but she managed it. “What’s that? Some kind of phone on the wrist? An iPod? Oh I know, I bet it’s some kind of computer they’ve just invented but I haven’t heard of.” Until he answered she’d have a one sided conversation. Once she’d done that for a whole hour on a plane because the person next to her was a snobby teenage girl who refused to talk. They eventually blew up and answered her first question.
    The man’s shoulders rose then fell in a soundless sigh. “You’re in a forest. This is Earth. Reality 916.” His voice was no more than a whisper. At least he’d given in quicker than the snobby girl on the plane. Piper continued to follow him silently for a few moments. Reality 916? That made no sense. She’d find out sooner or later. Life always worked out that way.
    “So… What’s your name? I’m Piper. Piper McKenzie. I know, boring name, but it matches me pretty well. Not that I’m boring. I think that I’m more like in the middle of the range of boring to interesting. What would you say you are? I think you’re almost interesting but kinda weird so it brings you back a bit on the range chart thingy.” She was fully prepared to launch into another one sided conversation.
    “I’m a bit less than almost interesting.” The scarf over his mouth hardly moved at all when he whispered his answer. Piper noticed the absence of the answer of her first question. Oh well. She’d let him be anonymous.
    “Hmm. I guess I’ll call you Bugeye. Matches the goggles. Or Seriousy. Or Serious Black! Nah that’d be copying. Spiky! Yeah. Matches your hair.” She reached up and poked one of the wild strands. He made no effort to block her or reply. Spiky it was then. “Well… Where are you from? Is wherever you’re going your home? I’m from a place much more boring than this really thick forest. The nearest forest doesn’t have half as many trees as this one. Plus they don’t seem as green. I live in a city with tons of building and tourists everywhere. Even in winter. I don’t understand tourists. My house is kinda small but I don’t spend any time in it so it doesn’t matter. Where I live is right above a little clothing shop my mom owns. My room is just a bed. I love the bed though. It’s very comfy and the covers are kind of like my protective barrier against bad dreams.” Pausing for a breath she noticed that the forest was beginning to thin.
    “My home is in a city too. There are buildings all around and a river. Not much greenery unless you count the confined trees in the sidewalks. I live in a large apartment. The bedroom is large but I prefer to sleep on the couch. There’s a dream catcher by my door but it doesn’t work.” Piper would’ve danced in delight if it weren’t for the fast pace he was setting. Spiky was actually answering almost all of her questions!
    “What’s your city called? I live in New York. I know, doesn’t match my accent. I lived in Scotland half my life. Scotland is much better and less busy than New York but my mom just cares about her job. I don’t care. We share a mutual respect.” The trees were still continuing to thin but she still couldn’t see very far.
    “London. I believe that it’s just as loud as New York.”
    His answers were so short. Piper bit her lip as she jogged to catch up with his long strides. There was a pattern with his answers. He only gave as much information as she gave him. No more, no less.