Falling

In a bedroom, far, far away and a time, long, long ago, a brother and sister sat on the sister’s bed, contemplating their lot in life. They had lived in the hotel for as long as they could remember, although that was notthatlong as the girl, Katie, was only ten and her older brother, Stevie, was only thirteen. They each had their own room in the hotel, but they spent as much time as they could together, as, in truth, they really only had each other. To be fair, they did have their animal companions with them. There was Teddy, a fluffy brown bear who was perfect for cuddles and always had a kind word to say. He had always been Katie’s companion. Then there was the Captain. Yeah, that is what he was called, and no one could remember a different name. He, too, was a bear, albeit one both smaller and older than Teddy, always with his Captain’s cap firmly on his head. His short brown fur was cropped close to the skin and never seem to grow much longer. Captain had a gift for sarcasm, not unlike his pal, Stevie, but they all knew deep down, he had a heart of gold.

The hotel was run by a kindly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Walters. They had a son, Reg, who was a little older than Stevie, but he kept mostly to himself in his secret room in the cellar of the hotel. The Walters allowed Stevie and Katie to stay in the hotel for free but would not share with them where the brother and sister had come from. They were treated like family – closer to the Walters than the typical guest, but both of them longed to know where they were from and how they had ended up in the hotel.

They spent many days exploring the lands around the hotel, as it stood at a crossroads in a vast forest of birch and ash. Sometimes, they were joined by the hotel security – a wonderful and silly dog that called himself, Mystery. Mystery had formed a close attachment to Katie, but all five of them were quite close. Mystery had his own house at the edge of the woods, and sometimes, Katie, Teddy, the Captain and Stevie would join him there for a tea party or a game of Slap Jacks.

This evening, however, Stevie and Katie were in Katie’s room, trying to figure out what their plan was for the next day. It was summertime, so the bus would not be coming for school, and all of their friends lived in town, on the other side of the forest. Sometimes, Mr. or Mrs. Walters would take one or both of them into town to visit friends, but those plans usually had to be made well in advance. Sometimes, Stevie would get together with Reg’s friends and play games, but he tried to spend most of his time with Katie as they really only had each other. Katie was suggesting following the forest path down to the lake and going for a swim when they both felt a low rumble. Stevie frowned. “Was that thunder?”

Katie glanced out the window and then back at Stevie. “I don’t think so. There’s not a cloud in the sky.” But even as she spoke, the rumble came again.

“A big truck, maybe?”

“Way out here? That’s just crazy.”

Stevie frowned, “What then?” He started to get up to go outside, when he noticed Teddy was pointing at something on the floor. “What is it, Teddy?”

“What’s that?” he asked, a slight tremor in his voice.

Both Stevie and Katie looked to where Teddy was pointing, seeing what looked like a narrow crack in the floor, with a red glow emanating from it. Katie seemed to pick up on Teddy’s fear. “What is that?”

The Captain. “Is this place finally falling apart?”

Stevie cuffed the bear lightly on the back of the head. “That’s not funny, Captain.” No sooner had the words left his lips when there was another rumble louder than either of the previous sounds. “Is it an earthquake?” asked Stevie to no one in particular, just as the crack in the floor widened and a new fissure speared out from it perpendicular and nearly five feet wide.

“Stevie, I’m scared,” said Katie. “What do we do?”

Stevie was looking at the door to Katie’s room, but the crack had widened considerably and was between the bed where they sat and the door. “I don’t know, I’m scared too.” Just then, a crack appeared right next to the bed and both kids pulled their feet up. “Stay on the bed!” shouted Stevie. “Whatever happens, at least we’re together!”

They sat in a rough circle, as close to the center of the bed as they could get. Stevie held on to the Captain’s small paw, who in turn gripped Teddy. Teddy held on to Katie and Katie grabbed Stevie’s other hand. Suddenly, along with the loudest rumble yet, the crevice near the bed widened suddenly and the bed began to slide toward it, tipping alarmingly. Then, a new crevice appeared on the other side of the bed and the wall of the room, disappeared into the floor. The rumbling was constant now and the whole room was shaking. With the new crack, the bed leveled out, but suddenly, there was nothing supporting it and it dropped out from beneath them.

The bed plunged into the depths, the walls of red glowing rock on all sides rising rapidly even as they got further and further away. The bed began to spin slowly in a circle as the four friends clung to the blankets, afraid to move for fear of falling off. Soon, the walls were so distant, that the sensation of movement grew less and less. In fact, it felt more like they were floating, rather than falling. Only the rush of wind at the edges of the bed indicated just how fast they were falling. That and the ceiling farther and farther away becoming a smaller and smaller circle of light.

Finally, the light disappeared completely. They could no longer see the ceiling or even the red glowing walls. Even as their eyes adjusted, they were plunged into such a complete darkness that the only way they could tell that they were all still together was that they were still holding hands/paws. And still they fell. Seconds became minutes, and minutes became hours and still they fell. It had been early evening when this started, but now both the kids and the bears were actually feeling sleepy, they had been falling so long. Katie’s voice echoed out of the darkness across from Stevie. “This is crazy, and I know I should be scared, but mostly I’m just really sleepy.”

Stevie chuckled in the darkness. “Go ahead and stretch out and get some sleep. I’m sure it will be ‘safe’ for now.” He made air quotes around the word safe, knowing full well that she could not see him. “I’ll stay awake and wake you if anything significant happens.”

Stevie felt Katie pull away from him and crawl under the covers at the head of the bed. Teddy audibly yawned. “I’m gonna join her, it that’s okay.” Teddy crawled up into Katie’s arms and laid his head on the pillow.

Stevie made himself as comfortable as possible, resting his back against the footboard of the bed. The Captain maneuvered to sit beside him. After a few minutes of staring into the darkness, Captain nudged Stevie. “I’ll keep an eye out for when you inevitably fall asleep.” He did a surprisingly good job of keeping the tremor of fear out of his voice.

Stevie laughed, scratching the Captain’s back. “Yeah, buddy, you do that.”

They sat in silence, the only sound besides the steady breathing of the four of them was the vague rush of wind on all sides of them. Stevie did not know how long he sat there in the changeless darkness, but he eventually fell to listening to the rhythmic soft snores of the other three and he could feel the Captain leaning up against him. So much for being vigilant. Eventually, when nothing changed, Stevie, too fell into a deep slumber and they continued to fall.

Stevie awoke to someone vigorously shaking his shoulder. “Stevie, wake up, we’ve landed.”

Stevie yawned and opened his eyes. Then he closed them immediately against the harsh sunlight. Sunlight? He opened his eyes again, this time slowly. The bed rested quietly in the center of a forest clearing. All around them, only a few feet away, towered huge cedars and pine trees. “Where are we?”

Katie was bouncing up and down on the bed. “I don’t know, but at least we aren’t falling anymore.”

The Captain stirred and waddled over to the edge of the bed. “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto.”

“Who is Toto?” asked Teddy, still wiping the sleep out of his eyes.

The others laughed and Katie hopped off the bed, standing in the short grass of the clearing. “We should go exploring.”

“What time is it?” asked Teddy, hopping off the bed and grabbing Katie’s hand.

Stevie sat on the edge of the bed, looking up into the sky. “Well, the sun is almost directly above us, so it must be close to noon.” He tried to sound more confident than he felt.

The Captain climbed up Stevie’s back and sat astride his shoulders. “Lead on, McDuff.”

Stevie stood up and the four of them walked around the edge of the clearing. It was not very big, maybe twenty feet in diameter and almost perfectly round. Tall fir trees lined the entire clearing. There was not much to find other than the bed itself – mostly the bed sitting in a field of short grass and a few wildflowers.

Katie picked a purple flower and stuck it in her hair. She was smiling and laughing. She was happy and excited and not scared anymore. “Look, look. A path.” She pointed to an opening in the wall of trees almost directly opposite the head of the bed.

It was not a very wide path, but it was definitely a path. The ground here was worn down to bare dirt and the dirt was lined by small white stones. Katie led the way as they headed down the path. The path wound around a bit, avoiding certain larger trees and taking the path of least resistance, but in general, continued in the same direction away from the clearing. They walked for about twenty minutes, the forest on either side of the path remaining essentially unchanging. They occasionally heard the sounds of distant birds but saw no other living creature – even insects. The sun had hardly changed position, so even if they knew how, it was impossible to tell which direction they traveled. Katie, still undeterred and full of energy, broke the silence. “Where do you think it goes?”

“Into the woods, of course,” explained Teddy solemnly, revealing his penchant for stating the obvious.

The Captain laughed. “You’re not wrong, Teddy. You definitely are not wrong.”

“I guess we will just have to keep following it to find out,” chimed in Stevie. And so, they continued along the path, all four of them wondering to what it might lead.

After they had walked for the better part of an hour, the path lead into a clearing. This clearing was much larger, almost fifty yards across. In the center of the meadow, in striking contrast to the short green grass and colorful wildflowers, was a small house. The house was a single-story white cottage that stood only about eight feet tall at the peak of its terracotta tiled roof. There was a single low door, maybe four feet tall painted a brilliant green. On either side of the door was a small window covered by bright blue shudders. In front of the house was a white picket fence that enclosed a perfectly trimmed yard of dark green grass. The path they had been following lead right up to the small gate, directly opposite the cottage door. “Now I wonder who could live here?” asked the Captain.

“Shall we find out?” asked Katie, walking up to the gate. She lifted the latch a pushed open the gate, but she waited for Stevie to lead the way to the door. “You knock.”

Stevie sighed, “Yeah, okay,” he said, willing his voice to sound confident. He walked up to green door and knocked hard with his knuckles, as there appeared to be no bell.

“Come in?” The voice was that of a questioning and possibly sad girl.

Stevie tried the door and found it unlocked, so he slowly pushed the door open. “Hello?”

Katie pushed past Stevie with Teddy in tow. “Who is it?” She found herself in a tiny living room with four small chairs around a small, round table. There was one other door in the small room that lead to a second room. In the center of the table was a round chocolate cake with ten candles on it. Written in yellow words around the candles were the words, “Happy Birthday.” A girl, about the same age as Katie sat in one of the chairs. She looked up from the cake and her previously glum face lit up. “Who are you?”

Katie sat down in the chair opposite the girl and Teddy climbed up in the little chair between them. “I’m Katie and this is my best friend Teddy,” she said. “That’s Stevie, my brother and his pal, the Captain. What’s your name? Is it your birthday?”

Stevie also sat down, but as he took the last chair, the Captain stayed astride his shoulders. “Take a breath, Katie. Let the poor girl answer.”

The girl sat politely, waiting for Katie to do just that. “My name is Kailani. Yes, it’s my birthday.” She pouted. “I woke up in that room over there on a huge bed all alone. I was sad until you guys came by.” The smile returned to her face. “Do you guys want some cake?”

They all spoke at once, “That sounds great!” Then they all erupted in laughter, even Kailani as the words between them became a jumbled mess.

Just then, a loud, very familiar rumble, sounded all around them. “Oh, no!” exclaimed Teddy. “Not again.”

“We need to get to your bed!” shouted Katie, trying her best to be heard over the rumbling as a fissure appeared near the front door.

“Why! What’s happening?” Kailani shouted back.

“The cracks,” explained Stevie. “In a few minutes, the ground is going to disappear. “Of course, he could not be sure of this, but if experience were any teacher, it was a sound argument.

“Grab the cake!” shouted the Captain. “I’m hungry.” They all stood up, knocking the chairs over as Stevie grabbed the cake and another crack appeared in front of the bedroom door.

Stevie reacted first, running toward the other door and leaping over the crack while simultaneously opening the bedroom door. He held open the door as the other came after, giving each of the girls and Teddy a helping hand. Sometimes it was good to be the older brother. So far, there were no cracks or fissures in the bedroom floor, but Katie and Stevie knew that would not last. Katie was the first to reach the bed. It was indeed enormous, twice the size of Katie’s bed in the hotel. She climbed up onto it and helped Kailani and Teddy up. Stevie and the Captain were last, reaching the bed just as another loud rumble shook the whole house and cracks appeared on all sides of the bed.

The Captain slid down to the bed. “Who is that?”

They all looked to where the Captain was pointing and Kailani burst into a huge grin. “It’s Buzzy! Buzzy, what are you doing here? Where did you come from?”

“I’ve been here the whole time, silly. I was just under the covers. What’s happening?”

“I don’t know. My new friends were going to share my cake, but then the world started falling apart.”

Suddenly the bed gave a lurch and Stevie shouted, “Brace yourself!”

Kailani watched, wide-eyed, as the others held hands and moved to the center of the bed. Quickly, she and Buzzy joined their circle between Teddy and the Captain. They settled into place, with the cake in the center as the bed suddenly dropped, and once again they were falling. At first, Kailani was scared, but when she saw that the others were smiling in the strange red light, she relaxed and just looked around. Once again, in only a matter of minutes, the ceiling and walls receded into the distance and the six of them were plunged into darkness. Once again, they were falling and slowly spinning – only the rush of wind to indicate they were moving at all. Gradually, they all grew comfortable and let their hands and paws drop to their sides.

When nobody else spoke up, the Captain whispered, “I’m still hungry, when do we get cake.”

“We don’t have a knife,” suggested Stevie.

“Or plates,” said Katie.

“Or forks,” added Kailani.

“Or spoons?” asked Teddy.

“That’s okay!” exclaimed Buzzy. “We all have hands, paws or proboscises!”

They all laughed and began digging into the cake.