Gateways through the Penumbra (Chapter Five)

Chapter Five: Otherlands

Note: I am working on a bit more in the beginning where the following happens...[I see 'celia, fight with her, shift into another reality to escape, lose Jack in the process, then follow 'celia to the Otherlands after searching for Jack through many different worlds which seen quickly.]

I couldn’t make a doorway in the way that Acelia did, the only way I knew to travel from one bit of the world to the next was to walk. I didn’t understand how these intersecting and overlapping borders worked, but I needed to do something to follow Acelia, to find out the truth for Jack if nothing else. I set out across the park, aiming for the trees on the horizon. There was no sign of the white birds or the nearly adverted disaster. I feared the darkness and knew that it would be another long night of running and hiding until dawn came again. I came to the edge of the tree line and found myself standing in a low hung fog; the air was cooler here and the trees seemed thicker and wilder than they’d looked from a distance. As a walked, my feet crunched on leaves piled in heaps upon the ground, releasing a moldy, earthy scent into the still air. I worked my way up a rise and once I was at the top of the hill I saw a green valley spread like a wide leaf stretching across the rolling land for miles below me.

The air here had a different quality, I felt as if something in it were sniffing me, trying to decide if I was a welcome friend or an intruder to be attacked. The feeling passed and I picked my way through the small plants and bushes, working my way to the bottom and onto the rolling hills and grassy plain below. It was a strange and fantastical world that I found. I could feel magic nearly, but it was like seeing the pastoral world of past generations married with today's technology and the magic of the Otherlands held it all together. I passed roads with modern day cars and trucks speeding by at a distance. They same roads were shared with sagging wooden wagons pulled by farm animals and poor-looking people walking on foot behind.

I saw farmhouses with corn fields as far as I could see waving in the crisp Fall breeze and a mile later I passed skyscrapers and modern houses all jumbled together. There didn’t seem to be strip malls or modern stores, but rather old-fashioned market squares with tents and wooden tables manned by crafters and trades people.

Darkness was falling swiftly and I knew I needed to find a place to stay; I started studying the people I passed on the road and slowing down as I passed farms and houses. Nothing quite felt right and I was anxious because the people clung together in family groups and gave me hostile looks when I stumbled too close on the road. I noticed that everyone, even small babies and old crones, wore a necklace or a pendant of some sort around their neck. I had nothing and my tank top and jeans seemed too sparse in a world where the women wore ankle-length dresses in Earth tones with brown kerchiefs covering their hair. I knew that I needed to find some clothes and a necklace as soon as possible if I was going to have any hope of blending into this world; the last thing I wanted was for men to approach me as a prostitute because of my clothes.

I followed a large family with many children running around and tumbling down the road like a litter of puppies for several hours. They didn’t give me dirty looks, but they didn’t address me either. When they stopped for water a skin was passed to me, but the man didn’t make eye contact. The woman was plump and motherly, leaning fondly on her farmer husband and patting her children as they came to rest against her side during these breaks. We were almost into a small town with a market square just ahead when the family turned off the road and into the drive of a rundown farm almost hidden by stalks of ten foot tall corn. I hesitated at the turn. But didn’t follow, I’d seen the subtle negative shake of the man’s head and the fear in the woman’s eyes. I wouldn’t bring trouble on these people.

I had shifted to walk on when I saw the woman slide off her kerchief and wrap something small inside before she let the breeze take it and send it flying to me. I caught it in the air, but when I turned back the family had already gone. I opened the cloth bundle and found the cord from her necklace. I ducked and placed it over my head, at least now my chest wasn’t so bare and maybe someone would think I’d lost my pendant. I tied my hair into a loose knot at the back of my head and folded the kerchief in the way I’d seen the women wear them, straightening it as it came to rest low on my forehead. Whoever she was, I knew she was trying to help me blend in with the other women from this world.

A slipped into the large crowd coming into the market to purchase the makings for dinner and through the equally large crowd of people leaving the market since it was the end of the day. I observed everyone around me, what they said, what they wore and how they acted, trying to file away as much information as possible in order to survive, all the while watching for any sign of Acelia. I spotted a jeweler working in a makeshift stall with bits of silver and wire. I perused her wares trying to act casual, but she scowled at me so I quickly moved on. I’d seen what I needed; now I needed to get some of the strange coins that passed for currency in this world.

A loud bell started clanging high on top of the largest tent signaling the end of the market day. I didn’t know what else to do so I followed the farmers through an opening in between stands and into the town itself. I hesitated to ask about hotels or places to stay with no money, not wanting to be remembered in case something went wrong, but with darkness approaching I had to do something fast. I saw a young girl with a rush basket, she was laughing and smiling as she skipped through the square, so I decided she’d be safe to ask.

“Um, excuse me,” I said quietly, stopping her with my hand gently placed on her shoulder.

She looked up at me with her big blue eyes opened wide and her lips pulled together in a little moue of worry.

“Could you tell me where I might find a place to stay tonight?”

She still didn’t answer, but instead, she looked me up and down, her eyes lingering on the empty cording lying on my chest.

“Be careful, or you’ll get scanned,” she whispered, pulling me by the arm to a dim corner in between two stalls.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean,” I said kindly.

“Family-less and outsiders get the scan,” she said, “you don’t want that.”

“Well, what should I do?” I said solemnly.

“Go see Marguerite, she might help you, her twin brother was taken instead of her, so she’ll understand.”

“Who is she, where do I find her?”

“She’s the jeweler,” the little girl said thoughtfully, “she has a stall in the market. She has long white hair and-“

“I saw her," I interrupted, "I know the one, but what about tonight? Can she find me someplace to stay tonight?”

“No, no, she only comes to the market every two weeks, you have to come back.”

The bell had stopped ringing and the square was almost empty. There was a scuffle at one of the openings leading into the square as people rushed to get out of the way of something or someone coming through. I looked up and I could see a group of black robed men making their way through the square eying the stragglers with suspicion.

“Quick, come with me,” the girl said, tugging me along. “We’ve got to get you out of here.”

We ducked and snuck around the corner, crawling underneath the fruit stall and making our way to the road and into the fields.

“Who were they?” I asked.

"Those men are from the Master’s office," she whispered, "They’ll give you the scan for sure!"

"Why?" I said, holding her by the shoulders and looking into her terrified eyes. "You've got to tell me, I think you know I'm not from here..."

She reached up and held the empty cord around my neck as she found the words to explain, "For being an outsider and for not being protected by a clan. For women here, your family is your only protection from the scan.”

We sat on the rich soil, hiding in the tall corn and listening in case we heard the seekers coming too close. She must have seen my hunger on my face, as I realized how much food surrounded us because she stood and carefully bent a stalk, snapping off a piece of almost ripe, tri-colored corn.

“Here,” she said, handing me the stalk with an embarrassed smile.

“Thanks,” I answered, distracted by the food and already ripping into it.

“Look, um...girl," I said seriously. "I don’t want you to get into trouble for helping me.”

“Harla,” she said with a soft lilt in her voice, “my name is Harla and it’s alright. They took my mom you know,” she said sadly.

“No, I didn’t know,” I said softly. “What is the scan anyway?”

“I don’t know what they do, it is something to do with the technology we use,” she said, “When I was littler everything was farms and carts, now we have technology like cars and trucks, but I’ve heard people talking about it when they don’t think I hear.”

“What did they say about it?”

“Well, my da’ says the scan is a machine that ‘Harvests the price’—”

“What price? What does it do?” I wondered aloud.

She started crying, wiping her face on her apron and trying to hide it. Then her words came tumbling out in a rush, “My mom came back, but she died, it did something to her, they took her family mark and made her wear a silver eye around her neck. She wouldn’t talk to me, she didn’t know me, I tried to sneak into the shed and feed her, but she wouldn’t eat…”

As she poured out her story, I could feel her pain and her grief. Her confusion and worry washed over me and lodged right inside of my heart. “Shhh, it’s alright, nothing like that will ever happen to you,” I promised her.

“But, it will,” she cried, “it will, my mom, she built us a modern house and my brothers and my da’, they liked having all that modern stuff and the pickup truck, and then it went away and the stuff stopped working and my mom died and my da’, he’s changed and he gives me this look when he thinks I don’t see him, like he’s just waiting for me to get bigger or something. He keeps telling my brothers I’m a ‘commodity’ and that I’ll, ‘have a use soon enough.’ I don’t know, but I’m really scared.”

I leaned over and pulled her in close, feeling her ribs poking through her dress.

I sighed, and said, “I wish I could help you somehow, Harla.”

“Thanks, I know you will,” she replied quietly.

From somewhere deep inside herself, she gathered her strength and regained her composure. She pulled her basket of vegetables from the market into her lap and handed me a few.

“Here, take these and make your way to the coast by night, I’ve heard people whisper about the Bantuu Islands and a place called the 'Outsider’s cove'. Maybe they can help you. And, here, take my necklace," she said handing me a small pendant on a long piece of leather cording. "You need it more than I do, I’ll tell them I lost it and when my da’ takes me to buy a new one on market day next I’ll tell Marguerite what you need. I’ll look for you then. I hope you make it.” She got up quickly as if she were determined to leave quickly before she lost her courage, but she looked back at me as she walked away, calling, “What’s your name, so I can tell the jeweler?”

“Six,” I said, “My full name is ‘Six of Diamonds’ and I owe you for your help today, Harla. You probably saved my life.”

“More than your life, Six,” she said sadly as she was passing out of the last rows of corn, “the scan takes your soul.”

The story continues in "Chapter Six: The Bantuu Islands and the Outsider's Cave."