Chapter 17: Storytime Everlasting

“So, yeah, that’s my story,” Cecily finally concluded, her throat dry after an hour of talking. She had planned to just tell the villagers about how she had ended up in their world and the various mishaps since then, but they had immediately interrupted her and asked to hear about her birth, so she’d had to rewind and tell her entire life story instead. Cecily hated telling people about her life: beside the fact that August was the undisputed storyteller of the family, she just didn’t like sharing personal details about herself. But the villagers were insistent, and they hung on her every word.

“You’ve had a fascinating life, Cecily,” Beginning told her in that weird baby voice of hers. “I don’t understand a lot of the things you were talking about, but it sounds like it was quite the adventure.”

“Yeah, that’s one way to put it,” Cecily muttered. Growing up with no parents, being raised by a grandmother who had inconveniently died, barely graduating high school, and working a dead-end job she hated was all quite the adventure. And now she was telling her story to a bunch of Oompa-Loompas who had no concept of time or personal boundaries. Adventure after adventure. Lucky me. At least she’d gotten her own name right when she introduced herself this time.

“But anyway, enough about me. What’s your story? How do you know about France?” Cecily asked eagerly, looking around the group.

Beginning looked around at the other villagers. “Hmm, it has gotten awfully late,” she said. “Why don’t we tell you our stories in the morning, after breakfast?”

“It’s okay, I’m not tired,” Cecily quickly lied. It was dark out, and she was exhausted, but she was desperate to figure out the story behind these strange people and their connection to the other Earthlings that had come here before. Plus, the sooner she got her information, the sooner she could start looking for August and Ravioli Girl.

Beginning shook her head with a smile. “Our stories are long and many, so it would be wise to get some rest so we’ll have energy tomorrow. We’ll have all day to talk then.”

Cecily grimaced as the group agreed. All day? She could easily imagine these people talking for hours on end, maybe over multiple days. August really should have been the one to end up in this forest, she thought. He would have enjoyed the storytelling.

The villagers all got up from their seats, but they didn’t scatter to their homes as Cecily had expected. Instead, they all began hugging each other, each person individually wishing everyone else a good night. “What fresh hell is this?” Cecily asked aloud as she watched them embracing. A few of them tried to approach her, but she quickly warded them off and retreated outside the pavilion. It took a good twenty minutes for everyone to hug everyone else, then they finally dispersed for the night.

Keep, Pick, and a man named Fall invited Cecily to stay in their house that night, so she followed them into one of the buildings. Apparently all the villagers lived together in homes of three or four people, with no organization based on age or gender, which Cecily supposed was progressive of them. She felt pretty safe sleeping in their house, despite the fact that these were the weirdest people she’d ever encountered. They were creepy in a too-nice way rather than a threatening way, so she figured she was more in danger of dying by second-hand embarrassment than physical harm.

The house was beautiful, with ornate carvings in the wood both inside and outside. There was a soft rug covering most of the living room floor and the walls were full of paintings. It was, by far, the nicest house Cecily had ever been in, either on Earth or in this world. Each of Cecily’s hosts offered to let her take their bed, but she opted to sleep on the couch rather than displace any of them.

She was amazed by how comfortable the couch was, and found herself drifting off almost immediately. These people may be crazy, she thought drowsily, but they sure know their interior design.

The next morning, Cecily woke up to see Pick sitting on the floor staring at her. If she’d had any shits left to give, Cecily would have been really freaked out, but at this point she would have been surprised if someone hadn’t been watching her sleep. “Morning,” she sighed. “How long have you been there?”

The blue-skinned woman frowned. “You sleep so restlessly. You were rolling over so much, it looked like you were in pain. I almost woke you.”

Cecily sat up, feeling wonderfully rested. “Oh, I’m fine, don’t worry. I was probably just having a crazy dream.”

“A dream?” Pick looked confused. “What’s that?”

“Oh, you guys don’t get those? It’s a thing where you imagine things happening in your sleep,” she tried to explain. “You usually don’t remember them very well when you wake up–at least I don’t.”

Pick’s eyes widened. “Those sound fascinating! Why didn’t you mention them before?”

Because then you would have made me recount every dream I’ve ever had, Cecily thought, but just shrugged in response as she got up. Her clothes were gross from running through the forest in them but she didn’t want to borrow any from these strangers, who were all wearing either old-fashioned tunics or loose dresses. They all looked comfortable and had lovely embroidery, but Cecily had been carefully protecting her jeans for two months and didn’t want to relinquish them to anyone.

Keep and Fall had already left the house, so Cecily and Pick went out to join them. Cecily had assumed that the big community meal last night was a special occasion, but the whole village was making breakfast together this morning, so it looked like all their meals were communal. Cooking and eating took about two hours, then they waited another hour while some of the villagers took care of chores like cleaning and tending to their farm outside the forest. Apparently storytime had to wait until everyone was together, so Cecily sat impatiently in the pavilion while everyone meandered about, taking care of their tasks at a leisurely pace.

“So this is life without capitalism,” she said to herself as she watched their methodical work. “It would be perfect if it wasn’t so damn slow.”

Once the colorful communists had finally finished their chores, they arranged the pavilion benches back into a circle and sat down.

“Alright, Cecily,” Beginning said when they were all seated, “you wanted to hear our stories.”

Cecily looked at the two-dozen people gathered around, then back at their faintly glowing leader. “Yes, and if one of you could maybe summarize everyone’s stories, that would be ideal. I don’t need each individual tale.” She braced herself for them to get offended or sad, but Beginning nodded understandingly.

“That’s true, there is plenty of time to hear from everyone. Perhaps we can do one or two people’s stories per day so we can spread it out more!”

“Yes, that sounds great!” Cecily replied, sending up a silent prayer that this would be her last day in this forest town. “Could we start with whoever knows the most about the French?”

Beginning laughed. “I’d say we all know the same amount about the French, but I can go first since I’m the oldest.”

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Cecily looked at the teenage girl, then around at the other villagers, many of whom were middle-aged or older. “You’re the oldest?”

“Yes, I was made first–out of everyone here anyway. The actual oldest person doesn’t live with us.”

“Is that Baby?” Cecily interrupted. “Do you know him?”

Beginning gave her a delighted smile. “Do you know Baby? You left that part out of your story!”

“I came here looking for him!” Cecily exclaimed, feeling hopeful again. “Do you know where he is?”

Beginning’s face fell slightly. “Well, yes, but…he doesn’t really like to be disturbed. He finds our lifestyle…unappealing.”

All the more reason for me to find him, Cecily thought, but forced herself to nod calmly. “I understand. Do you think that you could point me in his direction, though? Just in case?”

Beginning thought for a moment, then nodded. “Yes, I can see how you’d be eager to hear his story, too. Once we’ve all told you ours, we’ll take you to him so he can tell you as well! That way you’ll get each person’s story and everyone will get the chance to talk.”

Suddenly the one-a-day storytelling arrangement didn’t sound as appealing. I’ll have to speedrun all these people’s stories so they’ll take me to Baby, Cecily decided. Which shouldn’t be too hard because, given what I’ve seen, their lives are all exactly the same.

Beginning cleared her throat and began to talk. “I was the second person made here, just a few years after Baby.”

“Wait,” Cecily interrupted again. “When you say you were made… Who or what made you?”

“The Creator,” Beginning said matter-of-factly. “But I never met them. Baby did, but he doesn’t talk about it much. I think the Guardian told him not to share details when he left.”

“And who’s the Guardian?” Cecily asked again, and noticed a faint twitch in Beginning’s eye.

“I will tell you my story, Cecily, and I will be sure to include all the details,” the girl said calmly, and Cecily quickly held up her hands in a surrender.

“I’m sorry. Go on.”

Beginning took a deep breath and smiled. “When I was made, the Guardian told me to keep Baby company and look out for the others that would be made soon. He said that eventually the world would be full of people, plants, and animals. At that point it was just him, me, and Baby, plus the Creator, wherever they were. A bunch of fruit trees grew shortly thereafter, then more plants and animals started popping up, just like the Guardian had said, until this whole forest existed! And after a few months, Root was made!” Beginning grinned at a man with yellow skin, who smiled and waved back. “After that, people started coming every few weeks! There was Pick, then Amble, then Keep, then…”

Cecily zoned out a little while Beginning named each of the two dozen villagers in the order of their creation. I need to know more about this Creator, she thought, weighing the pros and cons of attempting another interruption. Eventually, she decided to hold off and see if Beginning would get there on her own.

“As we were getting more people,” the glowing girl continued, “we started a little village and were having a great time! But little did we know, there were other people in the world, too!” Cecily raised her eyes at the dramatic flair. Beginning was really getting into this storytelling, and her neighbors looked way too interested for people who had lived through this along with her.

“The French arrived a few years after we had all been created!” Beginning exclaimed, and the other villagers nodded appreciatively. “There were fifteen of them and they were from Earth like you. They were pretty freaked out when they first met us, but they warmed up to us eventually, especially as the generations passed. Did you know the French have children?” Beginning interrupted herself to ask Cecily. “I guess that may not be surprising for you, since you were also born as a child. But they had this whole thing where they would be born, then grow up, have children, and get old! It was so strange!” Beginning’s eyes were literally shining at the memory, then they faded as she frowned. “And then they would die, which wasn’t fun. Apparently they had lived around the Creator for decades, but after a while, they were sent away and came to live with us instead! But it didn’t work out in the long term.”

Beginning’s crestfallen expression was new to Cecily, and she was intrigued despite herself. “What happened?” she asked.

Beginning raised her hands in an expression of helplessness. “I suppose we were too different. It was offputting for them that we don’t age, and it made us sad that they die, so in the end they decided to leave. At that point there were new people that had been made, but they were more like the French: they aged and died, and eventually people even started being born! They followed the French away, and we were the last ones left here, so we’ve been taking care of this forest ever since!”

“This is the forest where all of that happened?” Cecily asked, looking around at the Earth-like trees and their resident birds.

“Yes, indeed! In a way, this is where the whole world began–at least, all the living parts of it.” Beginning smiled. “This was the first place, and we were the first people. In the two hundred years since everyone else left, not a lot of people have come through here, but every now and then we get a visitor. For example–”

“Wait,” Cecily butted in, earning another eye twitch from Beginning. “It’s only been two hundred years? People have only existed for two hundred years?”

Beginning shook her head. “No, no, if you’re including the time before the French left, it’s been a good three hundred years since Baby and I were made.” She cocked her head at Cecily. “Why? How long have people existed in your world?”

“I don’t know, I think they’ve existed for thousands of years,” Cecily responded, realizing how little she knew about natural history. “The Earth itself is millions of years old, maybe even billions.”

Beginning audibly gasped and the others looked at each other with wide eyes. “I never realized how ancient your world is,” Beginning said with awe. “Your Creator must be so experienced!”

Cecily thought about that. She’d grown up believing in God, but hadn’t really revisited that belief since her entire view on reality was shattered upon discovering an alternate world. Was there a different god for each world, or was this where Earth’s god went to get out all his bad ideas?

Beginning shook her head. “Sorry, I keep getting distracted. I still have two hundred years to cover!” She continued talking, but it was all about the villagers’ lives and the hobbies they used to kill time for centuries, so Cecily let herself zone out a little. So, these people are immortal and ageless, they don’t reproduce, and they seem pretty okay with the whole situation, she recapped in her head. There is a Creator and their Guardian that Baby has actually met in person, and there was a group of French people that got zapped here, had families, and never went home. It was all information that felt important, but none of it seemed encouraging for figuring out how to get home, unless Baby could somehow get her in touch with the Creator and the mysterious god was benevolent enough to send her back to Earth.

She zoned in and out for the next hour of Beginning’s story, then clapped politely when the girl concluded with, “and now you are here and I’m telling you my story! You can ask any questions you want now.”

There were a lot of things Cecily wanted to know about the Creator and the process of making the world, but it sounded like Baby would be the person she’d have to ask about those things. Instead, the first question she could think of was, “Do you get bored, living forever?” August had told her about a book he’d read with characters who were cursed to live forever and they’d sounded miserable, but Beginning’s people didn’t seem like that.

Beginning shrugged. “Occasionally, but when all the chores are finished, we have plenty of hobbies to keep us busy, or we just sit and chat with each other!”

“But don’t all those things get old? I mean, don’t you get tired of your hobbies or run out of things to talk about after spending so long here?” Cecily insisted.

The glowing girl shook her head. “No, I never get tired of any of it.” The other villagers shook their heads in agreement. “I can’t imagine ever not enjoying my friends’ company!” she added, grinning at the others.

“Huh,” Cecily said thoughtfully. I suppose that’s the merciful way to grant immortality: give them boundless energy and no sense of boredom. They were all a bit like children in that way, even the ones that appeared older. Cecily cleared her throat. “Do you think maybe I could talk to Baby next? I’m especially curious about his story, since he met the Creator.”

Beginning frowned. “Baby is… different from the rest of us. He doesn’t like living with the group, and he sometimes gets in a bad mood.” She said the last part in a lower voice, as if she was announcing that Baby was sleeping with the secretary rather than just experiencing a normal range of emotions.

“I’m sure I can handle that,” Cecily told her confidently. “I’ve had a bad mood or two myself, so I can relate.”

Beginning looked over the assembly of villagers, biting her lip. “Do you guys think it would be okay?”

There was some murmured discussion among the colorful people, then Pick announced, “I think so. It’s been a while since we’ve seen him, and I bet he would be interested to hear this new story!” Her words were followed by general sounds of agreement, then Beginning smiled and nodded. “Alright, so it’s settled! After all of us have told our stories, we’ll take Cecily to Baby!”

“Wait, after?” Cecily asked, about to protest, but Beginning was already gesturing for Root to stand up and take his turn storytelling. Cecily sighed. She couldn’t get to Baby on her own, so she was at their mercy, stuck in the beginning of the world until the end of storytime.