Paraworld Zero (21 page)

    “Holy cow!” Tonya exclaimed.

    “I guess things aren’t always what they appear,” Simon said.

    “Yeah, remind me not to climb any trees while we’re out here.”

    Although a little sick to their stomachs, they decided to move on. The forest
grew thinner and thinner as they traveled.

    “Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Simon asked. He opened his fanny
pack and pulled out an apple.

    “Of course I do. It’s not much farther. I used to go here all the time when
you were in your coma.”

    Twenty minutes later, they found themselves at the edge of a small hill
covered with thick green grass. Tonya crawled up the hill with great difficulty, sliding
backwards a few times because of the slippery vegetation. When she got to the top, Simon extended
his hand to help her up the last few feet. For a second she wondered how he had gotten to the top
so fast, but then she realized he must have zoomed up the hill with his hover chair when she
wasn’t looking. Tonya took his hand and yanked him out of the chair. He fell onto the
grass.

    “You little booger!” she said, standing up. “If you don’t stop using that
chair, you’ll be sorry.”

    Simon rubbed his side. “I know, I know,” he said. “I guess I’m just getting
lazy.” He pressed the button on his glasses to release them from his face. They seemed
okay.

    Tonya grabbed his hand and helped him to his feet. They limped to the edge of
the precipice and looked over the vast stretch of fields bearing lakes of wheat, tanned by the
hot sun. Thousands of giant Puds labored with their hairy farbearuses—the same type of animal
Har’s mother had ridden earlier—to harvest the crop. From the high vantage point of the mountain,
they looked like tiny ants.

    Beyond the rich farmland lay a blue ocean, which extended as far as the eye
could see. The bright sun cast its rays onto the cracked watery mirror of the placid ocean,
causing the different shades of red and orange to spill like paint upon the cool waters.

    “Isn’t this beautiful?” Tonya sighed, her hair turning a light auburn color.
The tranquility of the scene masked her fear of heights.

    Simon nodded in agreement. The whole time he had been on Pudo, he had never
traveled very far from the hospital. He knew the city was built upon the flattened summit of a
high mountain, but he didn’t realize how high they really were.

    “So then,” Tonya said abruptly. “You put one hand on my back, like this.” She
placed Simon’s right hand beneath her left shoulder blade. “And then you take my right hand, like
this—”

    “Wh-wh-what are you doing?”

    “I’m teaching you how to dance.”

    “I thought we came up here to do magic.”

    “Oh, you have your
whole
life to do magic. But how many opportunities do you get to dance on a
mountaintop
overlooking the world?” Tonya said in a misty voice.

    She batted her eyes at him and tossed her hair playfully. Simon opened his
mouth to object, but he could see that it was no use arguing, so he consented… reluctantly. Tonya
placed her left hand near his right shoulder and then raised their arms up high. Simon had to
stretch because he was shorter than her.

    “Okay, now step forward with your right foot.” The boy stepped forward. “Your
other right.”

    “That
is
my right!”

    “Oh, sorry. Step forward with your
left
foot.” Simon felt silly, but she pushed him on. “Now bring your right foot to the
side, and then slide your left foot over. Good! Now bring your right foot back… Left foot to the
side and let your right foot slide over. Good!”

    She dragged him around like a rag doll.
“ONE—two—three…
ONE—two—three…
ONE—two—three…” she called out the rhythm. “You’re getting it.”

    Simon stumbled but regained his balance. Soon, he was actually leading them
in the waltz. It was exhilarating. He was doing it—he was dancing!

    “Are you sure you’ve never danced before?”

    “Positive.”

    “You’re pretty good, for a beginner. Let’s quicken the pace.”

    The young teenagers danced merrily upon the cliff top, and after a while, it
didn’t even seem like their feet were touching the ground. They gracefully glided in every
direction—both smiling happily. Tonya’s long auburn hair swayed back and forth in the cool, fresh
breeze. Simon had never seen her hair this color before. He liked it.

    Finally exhausted, they stopped their waltz to take a rest. Tonya bent over
to catch her breath. She brushed her hair out of her face and smiled affectionately at
Simon.

    “That was actually fun,” the boy said, panting lightly.

    “See, Simon, dancing is fun.”

    Tonya was still short of breath. She straightened up and said carefully,
“Someday… when you find a girl you like…” She took one of his hands and placed it around her slim
waist. “You’ll hold her like this…” She brought his other hand to her waist as well. “And she’ll
put her hands on your shoulders…” She rested her hands on his collarbone and nudged him softly to
move. “Then, you’ll dance—slowly… like this.” They started to rotate—ever so delicately. “This
gives you a chance to relax,” she said. “To forget about everything and just enjoy the company of
the person you’re with.”

    Trying to avoid eye contact, Simon looked out at the ocean. Birds dressed in
colorful robes swam joyfully through the white clumps of cloud painted upon an azure sky. It
seemed peaceful, in a way, to look out and see the majestic ocean waves becoming smaller and
smaller, their frothy curls eventually merging with the horizon.

    Simon noticed that Tonya was humming. He recognized the melody immediately;
it was one of the songs they’d heard at the cafe back on Earth.

    The boy now faced the mountain. He could see the high-rise towers of glass
and metal glimmering in the distance. He’d never been in that part of the city before; Dr.
Troodle’s home was located in a more prestigious part of town—away from the hustle and bustle of
city life.

    
What a contrast
, he thought as he turned towards the calm ocean once more.

    “The Elders would be upset with me right now,” Tonya informed him. “Young
girls are not allowed to be alone with boys.”

    “Why’s that?”

    Simon fixed his eyes on Tonya’s beautiful hair. It was changing into an even
deeper auburn color.

    “Because something might happen,” she said, closing her eyes.

    Simon replied slowly, “I think I agree with the Elders… If you put two people
together long enough, you never know what could happen.”

    They seemed to be getting closer and closer as they danced. The boy finally
looked into Tonya’s eyes, and everything around him seemed to disappear—everything, that is, but
her lovely face. Like a magnet, he was drawn closer… closer. Her hands were now wrapped around
the back of his neck. Was she pulling him in or was he moving closer of his own accord? Simon
couldn’t seem to fight it any longer. He closed his eyes.

    Just then, a loud and annoying voice startled them both. “What are you guys
doing?”

Chapter 14
    

    

    Tonya shoved Simon away, which made him lose his balance and fall. He looked
up from the ground to see Thorn walking over to them.

    “You were standing!” Thorn said. The tiny boy stood with his mouth gaped open
and his eyes wide with excitement.

    Tonya flung up her hands and yelled melodramatically, “It’s a miracle!”

    Simon crawled to his hover chair and sat down. “Wh-wh-what are you doing
here?” he asked, trying to hide his embarrassment.

    “I followed you,” the little Pud replied. “I wanted to see what you guys were
up to.”

    “Nothing!” Tonya blurted in her native Chamelean language. She switched to
Pudo so that Thorn could understand. “Absolutely nothing.” Her beautiful auburn hair turned a
fiery red.

    “Yeah, I could see that.”

    Ignoring the comment, Simon cleared his throat and said, “Tonya was just
about to give me a magic lesson. Do you want to join us?”

    Thorn’s eyes lit up. “Sure! That would be fun.”

    “Just remember, Thorny,” Tonya said, “this lesson is meant for Simon. He’s
the only one who can do magic on this planet.”

    Thorn raised an eyebrow. “Whatever you say, Butblacruze. But I still want to
try.”

    “And don’t call me Butblacruze!”

    Tonya brought out her wand and slapped it into Thornapple’s hand. He winced
in pain.

    “All right then,” she said. “First off, you have to understand what
electro-magical energy is—”

    Thorn interrupted, “I thought you said there wasn’t any of that on
Pudo.”

    “There isn’t.”

    “Then why bother teaching us about it?”

    “Because, know-it-all,
you
can’t do magic without it. Besides, I don’t plan on being in this horrible paraworld
my whole life. My father is a very rich and powerful man. If there’s anyone out there who can
find me and get me out of here, it’s him.”

    She caressed the silver ring on her finger. The dim light representing her
father’s life force flickered on the band. Thorn opened his mouth to speak but stopped. He nodded
for her to continue.

    “Think of E.M. energy as waves of light,” she said, trying to speak clearly.
To Simon, she spoke perfect English, but to Thorn, she had an awful accent. “Except for the
parastream and the lousy paraworld we’re in right now, this energy fills every nook and cranny of
the paraverse, but its intensity varies dramatically. You can have a bunch of electro-magical
energy in one spot, while just a couple feet away, hardly any. And just like light, those waves
are constantly moving around. So when you feel a pocket of E.M. energy, that’s the time to cast
your spell. Unfortunately, it’s kinda hard to time it right. And to make things even more
difficult, each spell requires a different level of electro-magical energy to perform.”

    “So how do you know when you’re standing in a pocket of E.M. energy?” Simon
asked.

    “Well, it takes a lot of experience to recognize it. That’s why the royal
family set up the schools of magical learning. The more often you cast spells, the easier it is
to recognize the energy and use it to your advantage. Other than that, I can’t really explain it.
You just have to feel it to know what I’m talking about.”

    “But you said yourself that Earth had more E.M. energy than any other
paraworld you’d ever been to. How come I wasn’t able to do any magic when I was there?”

    “That’s the same question I’ve been wondering,” Tonya said. “I think
Earthlings must be different from everyone else in the paraverse. Instead of being able to cast
spells using E.M. energy, you can cast spells without it.” She put her hand to her mouth and
gasped. “In fact, I bet E.M. waves nullify your magical abilities! That must be it—that’s the
answer! It explains everything.”

    “I don’t know,” Simon said, meticulously rubbing his mother’s medallion.
“Maybe there’s something more to it than that.”

    “What else could it be?” she argued, now speaking in the Chamelean language.
“I heard there are some crazy people out there who put themselves in strange electro-magical
devices—kind of like a tanning booth—but instead of trying to get a tan, they’re trying to become
more endowed with magical abilities. What ends up happening is that they usually die from
overexposure. Maybe…” Her excitement peaked. “Just maybe, because you lived in a paraworld that
had ultra-high levels of E.M. energy, your body developed an immunity!”

    The theory sounded plausible. Simon felt much better physically on Pudo than
he ever did on Earth, but he couldn’t rule out the young woman from his dreams—or his medallion,
for that matter.

    “You might be right,” he said, trying to pacify her. For some reason, he felt
hesitant to divulge his unusual dreams to Tonya. Perhaps he fancied the idea of being special,
even if he really wasn’t. Tonya didn’t have to know his true source of power—not yet, at
least.

    “Of course I’m right. Look, Simon, I’d say your homeworld has the highest
levels of E.M. energy in the whole paraverse. Any normal person would die within a few hours of
visiting your planet, but somehow, your people are able to withstand the prolonged exposure. I
just don’t see any other explanation.”

    “So are you saying I’m a mutant or something?”

    “Maybe. Anything or anyone exposed to high levels of E.M. waves for an
extended period of time becomes altered by that energy.”