Chapter 20: Three Mammals on a Road Trip
August rushed to the door, opening it and looking out into the forest. “Bright?” he called out. “Bright!” Even though it had been mere moments since they left, there was no sign of either Bright or Amy. How did they get out of here so fast? August wondered, feeling his heart twist with worry. And what are they going to do?
He looked back into the log house at Cecily and Baby. “They’re gone. You don’t think they went–”
“To Puddle and Glow’s house? Yeah, I do think!” Cecily got up and joined him at the door. “Amy already had it out for Puddle, and now knowing that Glow is literally God and that she’s the reason we’re stuck here? Who knows what Amy will do with that information?”
August did his best to breathe steadily. Finding out the truth about Glow was shocking enough, but adding the stress of Amy’s potential retaliation made him feel like he was going to collapse in on himself. “We have to go after them,” he said, clutching the door frame for support.
Cecily was silent for a moment. “Do we?”
“Cecily!” August was stunned. “What if she hurts Glow with her robots?”
“Can she hurt Glow? Apparently this is a deity we’re talking about. If anything, we should be worried about what Glow will do to Amy!”
She had a point. While Glow had often complained about boredom, hunger, or other human issues, she had never been physically hurt in the time August had known her. Still, that didn’t mean it was impossible. “She may be a deity, but she’s still a kid. We should at least warn her and Puddle about what is happening.”
“Speaking of that, what’s Puddle’s deal?” Cecily interjected, furrowing her eyebrows. “He claims to be Glow’s father, but if she’s God, then is he also a god or is he lying?” She looked back at Baby, who was watching their conversation from his beanbag chair with a dismayed expression. “Do you know Puddle?”
He shook his head, and August could see his internal debate on his chubby little-kid face. “Puddle and Glow are our neighbors and friends,” August told him, hoping his sincerity came through in his voice. “We would never hurt them, and we want to make sure no one else does.”
Baby seemed at war with himself for a few more seconds, then got up and walked over to join August and Cecily. “Is Puddle the name of her Guardian?”
Cecily threw up her hands. “At this point he could be her High Priest of Inter-World Kidnapping for all we know. But sure, let’s go with your thing.”
“Will you come with us?” August asked Baby. “It could be really helpful to have someone who knows Glow in her role as the Creator.”
Baby shook his head. “I can’t.” He looked genuinely sad, and August’s heart hurt to see that expression on a little kid. “We were friends for decades, but then when other people started appearing and I started meeting them and learning more about the world… well, I grew up. Not physically, as you can see, but I changed, and she didn’t. She can subconsciously create any kind of person imaginable, but she can’t control them once they’re made, and that means she can’t prevent them from outgrowing her. She tried to befriend the kids she’d brought from Earth, too, but when they aged and she didn’t, it was really upsetting for her. That’s one of the reasons she and her Guardian left to go live somewhere else.”
“Is that why there are no kids allowed near her?” August realized aloud. He thought about the little girl making friends over and over again only to have each one grow up and leave her behind–or worse, grow old and die right in front of her. No wonder she keeps bringing people from Earth on accident, he thought, disturbed. She’s constantly desperate for company.
Baby clasped his hands nervously. “All this to say, I can’t go back. It would be upsetting for both me and her, and I don’t want to cause any more storms.”
“That’s understandable,” August said absently as his mind immediately started running with the thought of the storms. Were they reflecting Glow’s emotions? What had she been so mad about a few days ago when the angry storm came through?
“Hey.” Cecily snapped her fingers in August’s face. “Stop pondering, we need to focus. Baby, do you know a fast way we could get home from here?”
Baby frowned at her. “How would I know that? I don’t even know where you live.”
She folded her arms. “Some helper you are. For the oldest person alive, I thought you’d know this kind of stuff.”
“Oldest doesn’t mean most well-traveled!”
“Stop it,” August said, unable to believe he was breaking up an argument between his twenty-year-old sister and a three-hundred-year-old child. Somebody had to be the adult, and it wasn’t going to be either of those two. He took a deep breath. “Here’s the plan: Echo’s house won’t be ready to teleport until tomorrow at the earliest, but it could be a little longer, and I don’t think we can risk waiting around. I vote we ask the people here if they know which direction the Creator went when she left– without revealing who she is,” he added as Baby’s mouth opened in protest. “Then we do what we can to get to her before Amy does.”
Cecily nodded. “Okay.” August waited for her to add an objection or snarky observation, and she must have noticed because she rolled her eyes. “What? I’m agreeing with you! I can’t come up with a better plan right now and we seem to be on a clock, so let’s go before the whole world breaks open like a piñata or whatever happens when a mortal attacks God.”
August felt a spike of embarrassment for his doubt in her. “Right, sorry. Let’s go.”
As the two of them took off at a run toward the village, August could hear Cecily sigh under her breath, “I should have asked to try the slide first.”
They made it back to the pavilion quickly and Cecily grabbed the first person they came across, an older woman with blue skin.
“Pick, we need to get to where the Creator lives. Do you know where she–they–went when they left?” Cecily demanded.
“Well, no, I don’t,” Pick said apologetically. “Why do you need to find the Creator?”
Cecily was already moving on to the next person, so August gave Pick a small smile. “Sorry, and thanks for your help.”
Cecily interrogated a few other people, but no one knew where the Creator lived, including Beginning.
“Ugh, how are we going to get home?” August groaned, then caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Lavender was scratching its back against a tree, shaking it enough to knock down a few small branches. August ran to the cat, an idea forming. “Lavender, we need to get home,” he told it, looking deep into its dark eyes. “Do you know where we first met? Could you get us back there?” He still wasn’t entirely sure the kitten understood human speech, let alone had a good sense of direction, but he felt like it was worth a try.
Lavender stopped scratching and cocked its head, staring at August. Then it mewed and nudged him with its head, crouching down as if to encourage him to climb on its back. August grinned. “Hey, Silly! I think Lavender can take us there!” he called to his sister, who came running over.
When Cecily approached, however, Lavender stood back up and hissed at her, its fur standing up slightly. “Woah, there, buddy, it’s okay,” August tried to comfort the cat. “It’s just Cecily. She’s my sister, she’s good.” Lavender still wasn’t having any of it, and backed away slightly when Cecily tried to approach it again.
“Well, it still hates me,” she observed drily.
August groaned. “That plan was almost going to work.”
“It still could.”
“What do you mean?”
Cecily looked pained. “I don’t like the idea of you dealing with this without me, but if the cat can get you to Puddle in time, it may be worth it. I’ll find another way and catch up with you as soon as I can.”
As soon as she said it, August knew that it was the right call, but his heart still sank at the thought of splitting up again so soon after their last separation. “Okay,” he agreed. “Echo’s house should come to one of us when it’s mobile again, so we can use that to meet back up.” He started to climb onto Lavender’s back, but Cecily stopped him.
“Here,” she said somberly, taking off her necklace. “Take the raccoon.”
“Um, thanks,” August said, slipping the chain around his neck. He wasn’t sure what he would do with it, but it was a nice gesture of support.
Cecily gave him a hug. “Be careful, and don’t let them push you around.”
It was what she’d said to him on his first day of college, too, the first time he’d gone somewhere she couldn’t defend him. “I won’t,” he promised just like he had then. Hopefully this time he wouldn’t be lying.
Cecily stepped back and August climbed aboard his kitten, feeling like a doomed Pokemon trainer with a giant purple cat as his ride and a ferocious raccoon in his necklace. Before he could dwell too much on the “doomed” part, Lavender took off with an enormous bound, away from this world’s equivalent of the garden of Eden and toward… somewhere.
Riding a giant kitten was a lot harder when said kitten was running. On their way to Cecily, Lavender had let August climb aboard for the second half, but they had been going at a calm walk. Now, August was clinging to the cat’s long fur and trying to hold himself in place as Lavender’s entire body rippled with each bound. They were making excellent time, though: in a matter of minutes they had left the forest where Beginning’s people lived, then after a short pause when Lavender got distracted by some large butterflies, they had begun sprinting across the colorful fields.
August thought through several versions of what could happen. Ideally, he would reach Puddle and Glow’s house before Amy did, warn them what was going on, and they could get somewhere safe, perhaps somewhere that Amy couldn’t find them. Or, if he arrived too late and Amy was already attacking the house with her robots, he and Lavender could help protect Glow while Puddle took care of the robots. Maybe he could also talk some sense into Bright and convince him to stop helping Amy, then Amy would give up when she realized she was on her own.
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Why does he help her anyway? August wondered, irritated. If he doesn’t care about anyone, why latch onto someone like that? And why Amy of all people? It didn’t make sense, and it irritated August more than it probably should. Then again, everything about Bright irritated him more than it should.
After what could have been 30 minutes or two hours of bouncing on Lavender’s back, August finally felt the movement stop as Lavender took a break. They were still in the middle of nowhere, and August wondered just how big this world was, and just how much empty space it included. Would Glow gradually fill in these fields over time, or would they stay wild and unoccupied forever?
More importantly, where the heck are we? August thought as he hopped down to stretch his legs. The fact that they hadn’t passed Bright and Amy added to August’s nervousness: either those two were moving incredibly fast or August was going in the wrong direction. He’d known that trusting a kitten that may or may not have understood the mission was risky, but now he realized just how helpless he was in this situation. He didn’t know how far they were from home, so he would have to ride Lavender indefinitely, with no idea whether they were heading in the right direction until they reached the kitten’s destination, at which point it would be far too late to fix things if they were in the wrong place. He was literally riding into the unknown, and he hated the unknown. Cecily had always been better at going into things without a plan: she could roll with the punches and make the most of failures. August, on the other hand, thrived on knowing exactly what he was doing, which was not a great quality to have in a world run by a five-year-old.
Lavender took a few more breaks over the following hours of running. August had never ridden any animal before, and while Lavender’s thick, soft fur made for a nice seat, his legs had gotten sore from gripping the cat’s sides and his hands were burning from holding the handfuls of fur so tightly. He hoped he wasn’t hurting Lavender, but he didn’t want to risk loosening his grip and potentially flying off the cat’s back.
The sun had fully set and it was hard for August to see, leaving him grateful for cats’ nocturnal tendencies as Lavender continued onward. Eventually, they ran past a town of colorful buildings that August thought looked a lot like Seed’s town, but it was hard to be sure in the dark and he still didn’t know if all towns looked the same or not. From there they passed through a field of green and orange grass that looked like where August and Cecily had met Smudge, so August’s hopes started to rise. Maybe they really were heading in the right direction.
His hopes were confirmed when Lavender jumped over the small river separating Glow from all other children, then stopped at the small gorge where August had first met the litter of giant kittens. Lavender hopped down into the narrow pit and lay down, seeming very satisfied with itself. “This is great, buddy, but I need to get to Puddle and Glow’s house,” August said, patting Lavender’s side. “Could you keep going a little further that way?” He leaned forward so the kitten could see him pointing toward the center of the forest.
Lavender didn’t even acknowledge his request. After a few seconds, August slid down from his seat and looked the cat in the face. “Come on, we’re almost there. I’ll point the way,” he plead, but Lavender yawned and stretched, then curled up in a ball and either fell asleep or pointedly ignored August.
“Okay,” August sighed. “I can do the last stretch on my own.” It was pretty dark in the forest at night, but it was helpful to know that Glow’s house was directly in the center of the circular forest, so if he continued in the same direction they’d been going, he was pretty sure he’d get there. He took off at a jog, which only lasted about ten minutes before he had to slow to a walk. He had never been much of an athlete, and while he felt comfortable walking for extended stretches of time, he wasn’t anywhere near running shape, especially when his entire body was sore from kitten-back riding.
Keeping to a brisk walk, he soon found the thin trail that Amy had used when they rode Bartholemew the day they first met, and he followed that back to Amy’s house, skirting around it instead of passing by. From there, he broke into another short spurt of jogging as he found the path that led right by his house. He passed his house, then pushed himself into a full sprint for the few minutes it took to get to Puddle and Glow’s. Amy wasn’t outside and the windows of the house were dark, which were either good signs or very bad signs.
August stopped at the door, panting, and banged on it with his fist. “Puddle! Glow! Are you okay in there?” he yelled inside. Should I let myself in? he wondered anxiously. He pounded on the door a few more times and was about to check if it was unlocked when it swung open.
“August!” Puddle exclaimed, looking him over. “What happened to you?” August was about to protest that Puddle was the one in trouble, then he compared their appearances. Puddle was wearing XXXXL blue pajamas and an old-timey night cap with a pom pom on the end, while August was wearing dirty and sweat-stained clothes covered in long purple cat hair.
“I… I was worried that…” August stammered, then changed tactics. “Is Amy here?”
“No, why would Amy be here?” Puddle’s eyes were worried and he put a large hand on August’s shoulder. “Where’s Cecily? Did something happen to her?”
“No, she’s fine, she stayed behind so I could get here faster.” August took a deep breath and had out with it. “We found out who Glow is. Cecily, me, Amy, and Bright. We all found out together.”
Puddle’s body stiffened and his hand tightened on August’s shoulder. He was silent for a few seconds, then cocked his head to the side in a forced display of confusion. “What do you mean, ‘who Glow is’? Glow is my daughter.” He kept his voice very measured and steady, but August could see a hint of fear in the huge man’s face.
“Glow is the Creator of this world,” August whispered. “And I’m pretty sure you know that.”
Puddle stared at him for what felt like a very long time, then pulled his hand back. “Come inside,” he said softly. “And keep your voice down. She’s asleep.”
August followed Puddle into the house and sat down in the small living room. Puddle lit a lamp, which cast enough light for them to see each other but still left most of the room shrouded in shadow. “I don’t want to make too much light or noise, in case it wakes Glow,” Puddle said as he moved two soft armchairs to face each other next to the lamp.
“She doesn’t know, does she?” August said as he sat in the smaller of the two chairs. Puddle shook his head as he sat in the other.
“How did you find out?” Puddle asked. He didn’t sound angry, and the fear had also faded from his voice, replaced with a sort of resignation that August found even more alarming.
August briefly summarized meeting the First People, and specifically Baby, in an attempt to find a way home. “Baby didn’t tell us that the Creator was Glow, but I put the pieces together,” he concluded. “Unfortunately, Amy was also in the room, and she and Bright left right after we made that connection. Cecily and I assumed she was going to come here to confront you, so I came in the hopes I could get here first and warn you. Since Amy already has it out for you, we were afraid she might do something drastic.”
“She might,” Puddle agreed, “but I’m not too worried about any physical attacks Amy might throw at me. I’ll have to keep a much closer eye on Glow, maybe even move her again.” He sighed. “She hates moving.”
“You aren’t her father, are you?” August asked quietly. He should have felt nervous or at least embarrassed to ask that question, but all he felt was curiosity and concern for the enormous and suddenly vulnerable man sitting across from him.
Puddle let out a long sigh. “I don’t think so,” he answered. “If anything, it’s more likely that she made me. All I know is that I am here to protect and care for her, although whether I was given that role by the same force that created Glow herself, or if she caused me to appear when she recognized the need for a guardian, I don’t know.”
“So you’ve existed for hundreds of years with the sole purpose of looking after Glow?” August remembered last week, when they’d first seen Puddle destroy a batch of knife Roombas. He’d hinted that he was just there to protect Glow, but August had assumed that was just Puddle being a lonely single dad. The truth was way more concerning.
Puddle smiled, though, the lamplight flickering on his face. “Yes, and it is a wonderful existence. I can assure you, even though I am not Glow’s literal father, caring for her is very rewarding and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, even after all this time.”
It’s like how the First People never get bored, August realized. Everyone here seems designed to be happy with whatever cards they’re dealt. Next question. “Did you create the spell to keep other children away?”
Puddle nodded. “I tried many times to help Glow make friends with other children, but every time they grew up, she would become so upset and it was heartbreaking to watch–not to mention the effect it had on the entire world. If she made a friend that was already an adult, though, it didn’t have as strong an impact when they got older, so I decided it would be better for her if she only met adults moving forward.”
August accepted that answer, but was still trying to figure out how to word the question that he most wanted to ask. As he was thinking, he heard a quiet noise from the direction of Glow’s room, which August had been inside once at her request. It looked like any small child’s room: drawings tacked to the walls, some drawings directly on the walls themselves, various toys strewn about the floor. August and Puddle both froze at the sound, listening for any hint that Glow was awake. After a few seconds, Puddle got up and walked to her room, returning shortly after. “She’s still asleep,” he reported as he sat back down.
“Why?” August finally asked. “Why doesn’t she know? Why haven’t you told her?”
Puddle was quiet for a long moment. “How would you feel,” he finally said, “if you knew that everything that had ever happened was because of you? That your thoughts, moods, and desires impacted everyone in the world in drastic and often unpredictable ways?”
August considered. He had a tendency to blame himself for things even if they weren’t his fault, so the guilt of everything in the world actually being his fault was not a concept he relished. “That would be terrible,” he admitted.
“I can’t do that to her,” Puddle said. “And I can’t let anyone else do that to her either. She deserves to be happy and not to feel the weight of the world on her.”
“But the weight of the world is on her,” August pointed out, “whether she knows it or not.”
“The world is doing fine,” Puddle said, his voice getting a bit sharper. “It won’t be made any better by the misery of an innocent child. And that’s not even mentioning what other people might do with that information. Glow certainly wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret, and can you imagine how people would try to manipulate or exploit her if they knew she was the Creator? That’s why no one can ever know. Well,” he sighed, “except you and the others. I still don’t know what to do about that.”
“Send us home,” August said, feeling like the solution was obvious. “Figure out how to get Glow to reverse whatever she did to bring us here, then Cecily, Amy, and I will be gone and you won’t have to worry about us knowing your secret.”
“She can’t reverse it. She doesn’t know how, and neither do I. And even if you did manage to get home, Glow could accidentally bring you back at any point if she was feeling lonely or missing you.” Puddle ran a hand down his tired face. “I’m sorry, August, but there’s nothing I can do to help you get home.”
“Nothing that you’re willing to do,” August quietly corrected him.
Puddle sighed. “Yes. I’ve done my best to help you and Cecily to have a good life here, and I’ll continue to do so, but that’s as much as I can do. I really am sorry.”
August stared at him. “So that’s it, then?” If Cecily were here, she would have some choice words for Puddle, maybe even enough to convince him to do something, but August had nothing more to say.
We can’t go home, he thought. Glow can’t send us back, and even if we find a way back, she’ll just bring us here again. We’re stuck. Even though he had been the one to suggest finding a more stable way of living in this world, August had never seen it as a permanent arrangement. Now, the realization that he was never going home hit him like the stack of novels he’d never get to finish. Back on Earth, he and Cecily would be declared missing, then probably dead, their belongings would be given away, and their friends and neighbors would wonder what had happened to them. All that would be left of August was a single self-published paperback gathering dust on a library shelf.
“Are you going to be alright?” Puddle asked. August really wanted to believe that the man cared about him and Cecily, but if he did care, it wasn’t enough. Part of August understood: if he had to choose between Cecily’s happiness and anyone else’s, he would choose his sister every time, but Cecily wasn’t inadvertently kidnapping people every time she got a little lonely.
“I don’t know,” August said, standing up. “But right now, I’m going to go sleep.”
“I’ll walk you to your house,” Puddle offered, standing as well, but August waved him off.
“No, stay with Glow. I’ll be fine.” I’ll figure out a way to be fine. Of course, once he had to break the news to Cecily, all bets were off.