“Yes. I’ve been packed for about an hour.” I answered trying not to chuckle. “I’m assuming you’re still looking for something, right?”
“Well, it’s just that I can’t remember where I put the sunscreen.”
“Did you look in the medicine cabinet?” I asked, starting a list of places to which all answers came out in the affirmative form.
“Did you check Phred’s suitcase?” Ieda questioned with a suggestion I hadn’t though of.
“Well, no not really. I assumed he needed it more than us for the trip to the hotel.” She said.
“You lived in that castle for however many years and you don’t have a trace of skin cancer on you without sunscreen. Phred will be fine.”
“When you put it that way, who needs sunscreen?” She retorted humorously. We all giggled.
Packing in the Brekon’s house was an unusual experience…for me, at least. Normally, I would just pack and my parents would merely acknowledge that I had finished while they figure out a way to pack everything else but the kitchen sink. Here, Emiloy and Ieda would actually assist me. Plus, it felt fun. However, seeing as I only needed one spare change of clothes because we all doubted that I’d have a chance to change while rescuing, we scoured the house for anything useful. We packed my cell phone first. Twenty minutes later after finding nothing else useful other than Ray’s new and unused knife, we packed the phone charger.
Next came Ieda and Emiloy’s bags because they figured that they’d go on a two-week cruise. Ieda packed nearly an entire wardrobe of clothes whereas Emiloy packed nearly three. It’s amazing how women fit all the clothes they pick into one or two suitcases. That’s one reason I respect them as much as I do.
“Since we’re finished now, I guess we can finally be on our way.” Ieda stated, breaking the awkward silence. Emiloy and I agreed together and exited the house to the hybrid in the driveway. We placed the suitcases and backpack in the trunk, got in the car, and drove off. I drove on the way to LAX (which was uneventful, by the way) and Emiloy insisted during the drive over that she drive after they drop me off. Brining you up to speed on Ieda’s driving experience, she still doesn’t have her license and continuously fails both tests.
Finally parallel parking next to the white curb in front of the doors, Emiloy and I got out of the car. The look on her face when she met me at the trunk worried me; she held my boarding pass and my hotel reservation.
“I’m so sorry I forgot to give these to you before we got here!” she yell-whispered.
“It’s ok. At least it was before I got to the desk.” I reassured. She smiled as I took both papers out of her hands and put the reservation in my bag. The urge to hug her suddenly came about and so I did. She hesitantly wrapped her arms around making the hug a two-way hug.
“Thanks for taking me in last month.” I solemnly whispered.
“Your welcome. However, saving my children would be a nice way of paying me back.” She joked (I hoped she did). The hug ended and I slid the straps over my shoulders, turned to face the glass sliding doors, and walked through; the car drove away, heading to a parking lot and waiting to be used after a long wait during a cruise to God knows where.
~*-P.G.O.A.A-*~
“If your license plate reads ‘955 DIK’, please remove your vehicle from the red zone. The red zone is for authorized vehicles only.” The loud speaker announced as Richard and I headed to his car; he parked in the red zone and wanted to get back before they announce his license plate over the loudspeaker.
“Damn!” he loudly swore in front of a crowd of people that turned, cocked, and spun their heads as soon as the word left his mouth. I rolled my eyes. Even more embarrassment. How does anyone live with this guy? I wondered. He apologized to the crowd and to me and we were off again.
We arrived outside in the nick of time before the tow truck pulled the trashed and wrecked, and annoyingly ultra-violet colored SUV away. Unfortunately, I had to pay since Richard had been broke since, I guess, Ray and Rachel took care of whatever matters they took care of. As the truck driver sped off and I flung my backpack onto the backseat scattered with dozens and dozens of paper and paper cups with the unmistakable insignia of Starbucks Coffee, he thanked me so many times that I couldn’t even keep up. Only one “you’re welcome” came out of me and that was when we finally reached our destination of Edwardsville, Kansas City, Missouri. What a name.
“Edwardsville. Why here? Why not somewhere closer to the airport?” I asked, trying to engage in real conversation as we walked up the steps of City Hall.
“I’m not too sure. Personally, I think that it’s the most direct erect link.” I shuddered. “Not erect in that manner. Geez, not everything has a sexual connotation, you know.” That wasn’t the reason I shuddered; a voice cried for help in my head. We stepped out of his atrocious car and walked up the steps. He opened the door for me. As I walked in, I gazed at some sort of portal-looking thing in the center of the room; its center aligned with the center of the rotunda’s top. Velvet colored dividing ropes attached to gold posts stood around the perimeter.
“Yep, that’s it. Not much, but it’s more than you think. Ah, Mr. Mayor. It’s been a while!” I thought the mayor muttered that it hadn’t been long enough, so I chuckled.
“What’re you laughing at boy?” he rudely asked me.
“A joke someone told me on the plane over here.” I lied quickly.
“Well, share it with us. I bet it’s that funny to make me laugh.” He pressed. Crap, what did I get myself into? Lesse, uh . . . gah! Why can’t I think of any? Wait, she actually did tell me a joke. How did it start again? Uh, oh yeah!
“There’s these three vampires at a bar—”
“I don’t care about any vampires! What is with those mythological creatures and your generation?” He shut me down pretty fast. Thank God!
“Um, what was the rest of the joke? Now I’m curious.” Richard asked. The mayor face-palmed behind him. I didn’t dare make a noise.
“d**k, we’re here for a reason. Remember?” I asked as if I were talking to someone of a significantly younger age.
“Oh, yeah. This little guy,” he patted my shoulder, which is three inches higher than his, “Needs to get to the hotel. Can he go through?”
“That’s all?! Well, of course he can! It’s a landmark now and doesn’t need hiding anymore! It’s only roped off because I don’t want anyone to trip at night! Yes, and go away d**k Derk Rex!” he stormed his plump body away to his office.
In less than a heartbeat, I ducked under the ropes and stood on the teleporter. My surroundings turned a pure white as I sank into the device; I felt scared as to what would happen next. Once I was completely submerged and floating in midair, a gust of wind I’d estimate at a hundred miles per hour pushed me at my back for about a minute. The cylindrical walls of this tunnel I was in fused the colors of a rainbow into all sorts of distortion options found on most Photoshops. At about half my journey, a white light started to appear at the other end. It grew with every passing second the wind pushed me; the end was near.
Screaming, I tumbled out of the tunnel and landed on my tailbone. The pain lasted for several minutes as I lie there on the . . . cloud? I forgot my pain and sat up. For as far as I could see, white, puffy clouds surrounded my environment. A castle stood at a far distance with a lake about southeast from it. To the left of where I faced, smoke pillared high in what remained of the sky. I figured that was my best bet at reaching the castle. Before I headed out, I figured that calling Richard would be a good idea . . . until,
“Where’s my backpack?” I asked as I rummaged through the fluff, thinking I had lost it in the great mess that engulfed the supposed ground I kneeled on. I searched for nothing because seconds later, the portal spewed out the miniature black backpack. I then remembered that I left it in the car.
“Wherever you are, thanks d**k!” I screamed. The comment echoed all across my new environment; I forgot the acoustics difference. My face blushing now, I picked myself up off of the stable ground and started out on my trek to the smoke pillar. Luckily, someone had the sense to form a small path by coloring certain parts of the cloud yellow. I figured this as cliché and plagiarized but who would care if someone stole from the Wizard of Oz? The path was made of clouds anyway, the quartet didn’t sing about a yellow “clouded” road.
I finally arrived at the spot where the smoke pillar stood. In a village. As soon as I set foot in the village, every head turned to me. Every adult, every child, every elder, even everyone inside opened their shutters just to glance at me. Babies started crying. I felt very unwanted. Almost as unwanted as that time I ran up to some random kids at school to get a free hug and they instantly put down their signs*. Only one person stepped forward after what seemed like…well, a long time.
“Who sent you, stranger?” he asked with an anxious look.
“No one sent me. I’m here just because. I’m trying to—”
“It’s not him everyone!” he then shouted before I could finish. Everyone sighed and went on about their business. They acted as if nothing happened. Well, though nothing really did happen, but it was as if they for—oh, forget it. The man walked off and left me there dumbstruck.
The village looked like any other village. Rustic wood houses, elm trees tunneled the way to the other side of the village with their branches reaching out to the ones directly across from them, multiple flowers littered the grassy landscape beneath the trees and close to the well by one of the residents houses, and, of course, the bright fire dancing with all its might against a small wind. Other trees could be seen from where I stood, but most were hidden behind the elm. All of this landscape, and put it on top of a stable cloud and that’s basically the village.
“Phred! Long time, no see!” A voice called not to far in front of me. I tried to pick the voice out of the crowd; I missed the one waving to me. It wasn’t until he was closer to me that I saw who wanted me. He stopped in front of me and bear hugged me (not one of the more fun times of my life). The air spewed out of me as he wrapped his rough arms around me. It was only until I coughed that he let go of me just to regain consciousness.
“Sorry ‘bout that, still don’t know my own strength. Remember me?” Remember? How could I? I’ve never seen a more beautiful place in my life…let alone him.
“You probably don’t thanks to your accident when you, those other two, and Ieda rescued me. I’m Trevor Ipét.” He extended his hand for a handshake.
“You know Ieda?” I asked as we shook.
“Of cour—oh, never mind. We’re cousins.” He told me.
“Oh.” I said, with my voice cracking. “So, where am I? And are we really on a cloud?” I asked, starting to make questions to better know this place.
“Well, right now, you’re in the village of Elm,” another obvious name I could have come up with for this place, “and yeah, we are indeed on a cloud. No more questions out here . . . c’mon. I gotta take you to my uncle’s place.” He started to walk away. Before I followed him, I stared at the ground in disbelief that this was a cloud.
“This way!” he shouted next to the house with the well. I regained my attention span and walked off to the hut.
~*-P.G.O.A.A-*~
“…And that’s how we know that this is really a cloud.” Ieda’s father finally finished. That had to be one of the most inhuman stories I had ever heard in my entire life. No, not one of the most. THE most. “And if you don’t want to end up splattered on the earth like that woman, you best not do that type of thing here. Got it?” That also convinced me never to have children when Rachel and I get married. Rachel . . .
“Um, do you guys know how to get to the castle? I assume I still follow the yellow clouds but I just wanna be on the safe side.” I asked getting back to the entire reason I was there.
“You assumed correctly. But don’t worry, Trevor here’ll direct you to the hotel and to your room.” That inspired another question for me to ask.
“Was that castle always a hotel or was it a castle before?”
“What’s that supposed to mean? You were one of the ones who—oh, right. You wouldn’t know about that. No, it belonged to King Danile, who wed Emiloy Brekon when the first incident – not involving you – occurred, as a castle. After the second incident – yours – it turned into a hotel because of personal reasons.” He answered, with a hint of annoyance and a dash of importance. Hmmm, hunger words. My stomach growled.
“You hungry?” Trevor asked, speaking for the first time in over two hours. We’ve got some food if you like.”
“Nah, thanks though. We really should be getting to the castle. Ya know, before nightfall.” They burst out laughing as if I were a lunatic entertaining a scientist with the stupidest ideas ever.
“Nightfall, here? Phred, you forget. Not only are we on a cloud, but we’re above them, too.” Trevor explained while holding back giggles unsuccessfully. I frowned at their enjoyment of me not knowing what they already know. But I also literally frowned.
“Cheer up, Phred. You couldn’t have known about that…you only just got here.” I ignored the father’s/uncle’s his comment for I heard, crystal clear, the sound of a flatline on a heart rate machine. I tensed and wanted it to stop. The only thing I thought of during it was if Ray and Rachel were ok. It finally stopped, thankfully.
“Hey, you ok?” Trevor asked.
“Wha? Oh, yeah. I’m fine. Um, can we set off now?” My head felt light and the room began to spin . . . but not as much as when you’re about to pass out. I guess the word I’m looking for is dazed.
“You sure? You don’t look too good. We can—”
“No! I-I mean, no. We really should be going. Besides, I’m not checked in yet.”
“Obviously.” The storyteller mumbled clear enough for me to understand. Was his goal to humiliate me just because of my faulty memory that was apparently not my fault?
I stood up and walked over to the door, where Trevor met me. We said our good-byes and left for our destination.
*Thank you FML for posting that story of which I take no credit for.
heart Author XIV
