A Pocketful of Hopes

I heard Jenny screaming and rushed out of my bed to see her. What I saw when I got there scared me so badly I almost ran away.

I flung her door open as I heard Mother and Father’s heavy, exhaustion-laden footfalls coming from down the hall.

Jenny’s room was bathed in blue light of multiple shades, and there were gold swirls everywhere in the air around her. Jenny was screaming and disappearing into the center of the room where the light was brightest, light blue.

I didn’t think; I just ran to grab her, and then the light started to eat up my arms as well.

We looked back as we heard Mother shout and Father gasp. Their faces framed in the doorway—masks of horror and disbelief. They ran and tried to reach for us, and then the world dissolved around us, and we were left standing under a muddy green sky with a foul stench rotting in the air.

The ground beneath our bare feet was cruddy, and the shabby grass worn and sickly-looking. There were large stretches of bare earth around us, and the patch that we stood on held a swirl of blackened, dead blades of grass.

I turned to look around and found great shapes all around us. Buildings with lots of glass...much of it shattered and broken. No trees, and strange bubbling vats of some odorous, thick liquid.

Where were we...and where were Mother and Father?

“Timmy, what has happened to us?” Her large brown eyes that mirrored my own stared up at me, and she reflexively clutched at her teddy bear, Nedrincks, that hadn’t made the trip with us. Finding him gone, her lip began to quiver.

She was close to crying, and I never knew what to do when she cried. I normally went back to work with Father and let Mother handle it, or looked away to give Jenny time to compose herself...which never really worked if I was to be honest. I simply didn’t know what to do.

This time, though, there was no work with Father and no Mother...and Jenny had every right to be upset. I was scared too, but I was older, so I had to stay clear-minded.

I put my hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes.

“Nedrincks is guarding Mother and Father at home. He is doing his duty because he knows we are quite capable. He will be waiting for you when we get back.”

I took comfort in the lie myself.

Jenny wiped the tears that had started to fall with the back of her chubby hand and gave me a scathing look while shrugging my hands from her small shoulders.

“I am not dumb. Nedrincks is back at the house, and he is a stuffed toy. Don’t talk to me like I am a child, Timothy!”

I sighed, deflating. Mother used these stories to make Jenny feel better. It worked when Mother did it. Just like Father putting his hands on her shoulders worked to calm her too. I didn’t know what to do. I was scared and tired too.

“Fine. Nedrincks is gone, we have no idea where we are, it smells terrible, Mother and Father are gone, and we are alone. We have no idea where to find food or shelter, or if there is anyone out there who could help us. Happy now?” I all but shouted at her and then threw up my hands.

She stood taller, squared her shoulders, and looked me straight in the eye.

“Yes! Now let’s go look for some help...or at least shelter. It will be night in less time than we think. The dark always comes quicker than you think!”

She pulled out a few biscuits from the pocket she had sewn into her cream-colored, flower-patterned nightgown in secret last year. Jenny often got hungry at night. So did I, but I had a pocket in my sleep shirt.

She handed me a biscuit, ate one herself, and put the rest back in her pocket.

I ate slowly and wished I had been smart enough to fill my sleep shirt pocket last night before bed. Mother and Father sharply discouraged the practice. No food in bed. But we both got so hungry in the night!

“How many of those do you have?”

She frowned.

“Not near enough!... ’Round six, maybe.”

I nodded.

“It will have to be enough till we can find more food.”

I wasn’t happy with our chances.

Jenny frowned.

“We’ll need shoes first....”

She looked pointedly at all of the glass that lay scattered and glittering on the ground.

She sounded so much like Mother right then, I relaxed some.

This was not good. We couldn’t very well stand out here till help came...if it came at all. Two nightshirts and a pocketful of biscuits.

Hmmm...

I looked for any long grass to weave sandals from. I’d seen Father do this before he got work in town.

And nothing.

Mud shoes crumbled. Rocks couldn’t be tied. What to do?

Well, we could cannibalize the sleeves of our shirts to make socks...but that would be pale protection.

I sighed and began to tear the sleeves of my patched ivory shirt. When Jenny saw me, she caught on and tore her own. If we folded them over, they might work for a bit.

As we began fastening them to our feet, preparing to set off and explore this strange place, a bright flash appeared in front of us just outside the circle of dead grass.

It was golden around the edges of what looked like a tear in the air. The inner part was an appley green. There were those same odd sparks that glittered everywhere like campfire embers, if they were made of gold flakes.

I wondered if they were part of whatever brought us here.

I wanted to go toward that light, and Jenny did too. I saw it in her eyes when I looked over at her...but I also saw wariness. It mirrored my own.

Something in my gut told me that this doorway wasn’t headed to Mother and Father or Jenny’s bedroom.

It just felt different.

“Don’t, Tim. That portal isn’t right.”

Jenny put a hand across my chest, bringing me up short as I had started to move towards it reflexively.

As she said that, a dark brown stuffed bear appeared and hobbled towards us. It looked like it had been torn apart and stitched back together hastily...and poorly.

It also had metal parts replacing its left leg and right arm...and the upper right chunk of its head and both of its ears.

The part of its head that had been replaced had a red, glassy eye where its normal black eye would have been.

Jenny’s eyes went wide.

“Neddy!”

It was indeed Nedrincks, but last I checked, Neddy didn’t look like that or seem so scary.

Jenny and I unconsciously pulled together.

In a voice that made me feel cold all over, Nedrinks warbled,

“Found YOU!”