Chapter 20 -
03/11/2018
I woke to Bulkee’s urgent calls. “Ears. Ears. Ears.”
“What is it?” My eyes blinked open but my vision was unfocused.
“Get up! Hurry!”
I felt him pull on my sleeves. When I sat up, I banged my head against something hard. Blurry eyed I blinked to see a dome over my head.
Bulkee and Sye were on their knees sitting to my left, both with a stern expression on their faces. Everything around us appeared smudged, like we were immersed in a veiled brightness.
Was the bedroom ceiling this low? I tried to recall Doe’s treehouse.
But there was no sight of the leafy mats on the floor. Or the ivy hammocks by the windows. Or the green lanterns of insects along the ceiling.
Instead I was hunched over in this strangely familiar vault that I couldn’t place. I rubbed the crown of my head, when the realization struck me. We were somehow back inside Sye’s crystal bowl. I was lost for words. I felt dazed, when I caught Sye and Bulkee exchange glances.
Sye proceeded to reach under the bowl. When he lifted it up, Bulkee pressed his cheeks to the ground and peeked out. “We are surrounded,” he said.
I blew out air at the sight of the green loafers. My ears drummed with the chattering noises outside. My head was spinning.
How did we get here from the tree house?
Sye flipped the bowl and rolled it onto the side. His body expanded like an inflatable display. The sense of déjà vu shot to my chest, when I was seized by the same force and started growing in size.
I found myself faced with a group of Koalas in enormous green loafers not far from us. Amongst them I spotted a big Koala with a ring of white furs. “Look, it’s Doe over there,” I said.
“Who?” Bulkee squinted.
“Doe. Our friend,” I began to call out. “Look over here, Doe.”
The heads of the Koalas rolled around. The sight of us immediately muted their conversations. An identical expression best described as a mixture of amusement and fright appeared on their faces.
“How do you know my name?” Doe regarded me blankly.
I was puzzled by his reaction. Why was he acting like he didn’t recognize me?
“Doe, it’s me, Sasha. I’m with Bulkee and Sye!” I began walking up to him. But he recoiled, stepping back on his heels like I had frightened him.
“Go out there. They’ve picked you. They want you. Ask them what they are doing in the Pocket of Tree Houses,” someone from the crowd gave him a shove. Doe’s face froze as he stumbled.
I sensed something strange in the air and I couldn’t swallow. I had a bad feeling like when I got toothpaste stuck in my throat.
“Let’s hit the road,” Sye said to us. He walked past me and stood right up to Doe.
My heart sank, as everything began playing out a like movie. Only that I was watching it for the second time. I was in disbelief as Sye and Doe stood ready for the so-called stare contest. The cohort of Koalas marched back. Their chanting started to boom. Sye strode up to retrieve his crystal ball. Doe was in the way, appearing rigid. Sye raised his leg and kicked out his foot.
When his toes brushed by the Koala’s left hand, one spectator screamed. Doe blinked once, twice and again and again. The crowd crumbled. The deranged reaction from the Koalas distracted Sye. He lost his balance, faltering onward. The Koalas began to scatter, spreading all over the intersection. Bulkee jumped in, trying to save the day. The episode was chaotic to say the least.
I drew in a shallow breath. I wanted to shrug, like I knew this was just a prank. “Ha-ha. Very funny, guys. I get it, really,” I said. But the farce carried on and everyone seemed to stick to his part of the script. Cold sweat trickled down my back. I pulled Bulkee onto my shoulder.
“Bulkee. What are you doing?” I whispered.
“Ears. I’m trying to hold it together. Can’t you see?” He raised an eyebrow.
“No. Can’t you see?” I stared back. “This is an exact repeat of yesterday,” I said.
“What yesterday?”
“When we dived out of a pothole,” I threw up my hands. “Remember? We met the Koala and he took us to his tree house.”
“What Koala? What are you talking about?” Bulkee glared at me like I was nuts.
“Okay. That’s just how I think of these creatures,” I heaved, my voice grew louder. I felt a twinge of anxiety. “Everything going on right now had already taken place. Don’t you remember?” I asked, as I picked up the crystal ball. “The Koalas were counting like Sye had challenged them into some sort of a competition. But that’s not what he was doing.”
Sye spanned around. A curious expression appeared on his face. “You weren’t trying to get into a stare contest,” I said to him. “You just want to get this back.” I picked up the crystal ball and handed it to him.
He studied it for a while, before leveling his lavender eyes on mine. “So what happens next, Sasha?”
I held his gaze, recognizing the pinch of trust behind his question. “Well,” I paused. “After you retrieved the ball, the sky turned black. It was so dark that we couldn’t see the Sunpath. The Grits disappeared and so did the sun. We eventually decided to stay for the Cycle to refresh.” I pointed to the big Koala with the white furs. “And Doe took us in.”
“How do you know my name?” Doe asked with wide-eyes.
“Doe, we’ve met before,” I said. “I am Sasha. This is Bulkee. And that is Sye. You are Doe Joey Mosley and you go by Doe.” Part of me wished that he would run up and tell us that, of course, he remembered everything, because he had brought us home with him.
But Doe shook his head and started backing away like he was frightened. “Unbelievable. This is just unbelievable.”
“Ears,” Bulkee sliced a skeptical glance at me. “What is going on?”
“Don’t you guys see what is happening?” I rubbed the sides of my shorts, frustrated that nobody understood. I felt utterly isolated by the lack of recognition from those around me.
Sye placed his hands on my shoulders. “Sasha. Slow down. What else can you tell us?”
I relaxed somewhat and began to think. “Doe took us to his tree house,” I said.
“You know where I live?” the Koala jumped.
“Yes. You live in the sixth house down the Straight-down-forward-and-left Street,” I replied without breaking.
“Is this true?” Sye asked Doe.
The Koala nodded till his head dropped to his feet. “She does seem to know where I live.”
“Sye. Bulkee. You have to believe me,” I went on. “I know because I had visited it. We all had. Come. All of you. I will show you.”
I span on my heels and began walking down one of the roads from the five-way intersection. I headed straight towards the tree house. I heard their footsteps, as I made the hairpin turns and arrived at Doe’s residence.
“There is a small knob on the tree bark,” I told them, while locating it. “Once you turn the knob, a large bulge will appear on the trunk. And you can pull it to the ground,” I lowered the cap. “There you are, the entrance to the house.”
I grinned at their stunned expressions. Their eyes shifted from me to the staircase leading up. “There are two levels inside. And the one upstairs has five ivy hammocks by the windows,” I added. “Now will you believe?”
Doe finally broke free from the shock and rushed upstairs. He peeked inside as if checking to confirm what he was seeing. “Yes. This is my house,” he turned to us with wide, glistening eyes.
“Sasha. You certainly know something,” Sye spoke with amazement.
“How is this possible? We had just arrived this Pocket,” Bulkee shook his head and remained skeptical.
“Bulkee, we hadn’t just arrived. That’s the point,” I corrected him. “We have been at the Pocket of Tree Houses. Somehow there’s a repeat of what happened and nobody besides me has a recollection of it.”
A realization slammed into my head. “Think about it,” I said. “How many Cycles have we gone through in the Period of Chaos?”
“What are you saying, Ears?” asked Bulkee.
I knew I got his attention. “You said that the Period of Chaos started when I was kidnapped. It must be the first Cycle, when you and I met at the AkxieMoreRun Forest. Then we travelled to the Pocket of Origination during the second Cycle.” I raised my fingers and began counting. “The third Cycle in the Pocket of Corns. And the fourth Cycle in the Pocket of Crystals.”
“Right,” Bulkee crossed his arms. “Four Cycles gone.”
“And there should be exactly four Grits marked black on the Belt of Sunpath,” I pointed my arm straight up to the sky. “What do you see up there?”
We all looked to the Belt of the Sunpath over our heads. “One. Two. Three. Four. Five! There are five black dots in the sky!” Doe said, stumbling back a few steps. The Belt of Sunpath was dim but still visible. On it there were five jet-black Grits.
“That’s right. Five black Grits, which means that we have already reached the fifth Cycle in the Period of Chaos, when we first came into the Pocket of Tree Houses. We are going into the sixth Cycle,” I said. “Bulkee, you see it now? The Cycle has spent. We’ve been here. We’ve been to the Pocket of Tree Houses.”
His eyes shifted from me to Sye, as he slowly registered the shock.
“Bulkee,” Sye said. “Maybe you and I can’t process what had transpired. But Sasha is right. We have to take her word for it.”
“This is like Magic,” Doe said, his heavy head started swaying again. “Tell me more, Sasha. What else do you know?”
“It’s not about what I know.,” I said. “It’s about what you can tell us.”
“Me?” asked Doe, wide-eyed.
“Yes,” I said. “You had told us something quite important. You mentioned a Guru. She might be able to tell us what’s happening, why no one seems to remember the fact that we’ve met before. Will you bring us to her?”
“Guru Gumii?” Doe was hesitant. “She will be resting soon, because the Big Gloom is coming.”
“Big Gloom,” I said. “That’s exactly when things got weird. We can’t afford to wait through it and lose another Cycle,” I pressed. “We will have to get to her before the Big Gloom. Will you please help us?”
Doe regarded me with his ears pressed up again his green loafer, like he was in an internal debate. When his head snapped back up, he replied, “I will take you to her.”
“Let’s hurry,” I turned to my friends.
“Wait, Sasha. What are we doing?” Bulkee asked. “Who is this Guru Gumii?”
“She is the one who knows things that others here don’t. She might be able to explain what the Big Gloom was and how we can move ahead to the next Pocket,” I said. “You will have to trust me.”
There was perhaps a split-second pause, before Bulkee walked up to the Koala. “You lead the way, Doe. And we will follow.”
It was already twilight when we made it back to the five-way intersection. We didn’t linger before Doe took us down the path opposite from the road we came from. The murky sky obscured the ground but we ran like we were racing against something far more intimidating than I would ever know.
“What is it?” My eyes blinked open but my vision was unfocused.
“Get up! Hurry!”
I felt him pull on my sleeves. When I sat up, I banged my head against something hard. Blurry eyed I blinked to see a dome over my head.
Bulkee and Sye were on their knees sitting to my left, both with a stern expression on their faces. Everything around us appeared smudged, like we were immersed in a veiled brightness.
Was the bedroom ceiling this low? I tried to recall Doe’s treehouse.
But there was no sight of the leafy mats on the floor. Or the ivy hammocks by the windows. Or the green lanterns of insects along the ceiling.
Instead I was hunched over in this strangely familiar vault that I couldn’t place. I rubbed the crown of my head, when the realization struck me. We were somehow back inside Sye’s crystal bowl. I was lost for words. I felt dazed, when I caught Sye and Bulkee exchange glances.
Sye proceeded to reach under the bowl. When he lifted it up, Bulkee pressed his cheeks to the ground and peeked out. “We are surrounded,” he said.
I blew out air at the sight of the green loafers. My ears drummed with the chattering noises outside. My head was spinning.
How did we get here from the tree house?
Sye flipped the bowl and rolled it onto the side. His body expanded like an inflatable display. The sense of déjà vu shot to my chest, when I was seized by the same force and started growing in size.
I found myself faced with a group of Koalas in enormous green loafers not far from us. Amongst them I spotted a big Koala with a ring of white furs. “Look, it’s Doe over there,” I said.
“Who?” Bulkee squinted.
“Doe. Our friend,” I began to call out. “Look over here, Doe.”
The heads of the Koalas rolled around. The sight of us immediately muted their conversations. An identical expression best described as a mixture of amusement and fright appeared on their faces.
“How do you know my name?” Doe regarded me blankly.
I was puzzled by his reaction. Why was he acting like he didn’t recognize me?
“Doe, it’s me, Sasha. I’m with Bulkee and Sye!” I began walking up to him. But he recoiled, stepping back on his heels like I had frightened him.
“Go out there. They’ve picked you. They want you. Ask them what they are doing in the Pocket of Tree Houses,” someone from the crowd gave him a shove. Doe’s face froze as he stumbled.
I sensed something strange in the air and I couldn’t swallow. I had a bad feeling like when I got toothpaste stuck in my throat.
“Let’s hit the road,” Sye said to us. He walked past me and stood right up to Doe.
My heart sank, as everything began playing out a like movie. Only that I was watching it for the second time. I was in disbelief as Sye and Doe stood ready for the so-called stare contest. The cohort of Koalas marched back. Their chanting started to boom. Sye strode up to retrieve his crystal ball. Doe was in the way, appearing rigid. Sye raised his leg and kicked out his foot.
When his toes brushed by the Koala’s left hand, one spectator screamed. Doe blinked once, twice and again and again. The crowd crumbled. The deranged reaction from the Koalas distracted Sye. He lost his balance, faltering onward. The Koalas began to scatter, spreading all over the intersection. Bulkee jumped in, trying to save the day. The episode was chaotic to say the least.
I drew in a shallow breath. I wanted to shrug, like I knew this was just a prank. “Ha-ha. Very funny, guys. I get it, really,” I said. But the farce carried on and everyone seemed to stick to his part of the script. Cold sweat trickled down my back. I pulled Bulkee onto my shoulder.
“Bulkee. What are you doing?” I whispered.
“Ears. I’m trying to hold it together. Can’t you see?” He raised an eyebrow.
“No. Can’t you see?” I stared back. “This is an exact repeat of yesterday,” I said.
“What yesterday?”
“When we dived out of a pothole,” I threw up my hands. “Remember? We met the Koala and he took us to his tree house.”
“What Koala? What are you talking about?” Bulkee glared at me like I was nuts.
“Okay. That’s just how I think of these creatures,” I heaved, my voice grew louder. I felt a twinge of anxiety. “Everything going on right now had already taken place. Don’t you remember?” I asked, as I picked up the crystal ball. “The Koalas were counting like Sye had challenged them into some sort of a competition. But that’s not what he was doing.”
Sye spanned around. A curious expression appeared on his face. “You weren’t trying to get into a stare contest,” I said to him. “You just want to get this back.” I picked up the crystal ball and handed it to him.
He studied it for a while, before leveling his lavender eyes on mine. “So what happens next, Sasha?”
I held his gaze, recognizing the pinch of trust behind his question. “Well,” I paused. “After you retrieved the ball, the sky turned black. It was so dark that we couldn’t see the Sunpath. The Grits disappeared and so did the sun. We eventually decided to stay for the Cycle to refresh.” I pointed to the big Koala with the white furs. “And Doe took us in.”
“How do you know my name?” Doe asked with wide-eyes.
“Doe, we’ve met before,” I said. “I am Sasha. This is Bulkee. And that is Sye. You are Doe Joey Mosley and you go by Doe.” Part of me wished that he would run up and tell us that, of course, he remembered everything, because he had brought us home with him.
But Doe shook his head and started backing away like he was frightened. “Unbelievable. This is just unbelievable.”
“Ears,” Bulkee sliced a skeptical glance at me. “What is going on?”
“Don’t you guys see what is happening?” I rubbed the sides of my shorts, frustrated that nobody understood. I felt utterly isolated by the lack of recognition from those around me.
Sye placed his hands on my shoulders. “Sasha. Slow down. What else can you tell us?”
I relaxed somewhat and began to think. “Doe took us to his tree house,” I said.
“You know where I live?” the Koala jumped.
“Yes. You live in the sixth house down the Straight-down-forward-and-left Street,” I replied without breaking.
“Is this true?” Sye asked Doe.
The Koala nodded till his head dropped to his feet. “She does seem to know where I live.”
“Sye. Bulkee. You have to believe me,” I went on. “I know because I had visited it. We all had. Come. All of you. I will show you.”
I span on my heels and began walking down one of the roads from the five-way intersection. I headed straight towards the tree house. I heard their footsteps, as I made the hairpin turns and arrived at Doe’s residence.
“There is a small knob on the tree bark,” I told them, while locating it. “Once you turn the knob, a large bulge will appear on the trunk. And you can pull it to the ground,” I lowered the cap. “There you are, the entrance to the house.”
I grinned at their stunned expressions. Their eyes shifted from me to the staircase leading up. “There are two levels inside. And the one upstairs has five ivy hammocks by the windows,” I added. “Now will you believe?”
Doe finally broke free from the shock and rushed upstairs. He peeked inside as if checking to confirm what he was seeing. “Yes. This is my house,” he turned to us with wide, glistening eyes.
“Sasha. You certainly know something,” Sye spoke with amazement.
“How is this possible? We had just arrived this Pocket,” Bulkee shook his head and remained skeptical.
“Bulkee, we hadn’t just arrived. That’s the point,” I corrected him. “We have been at the Pocket of Tree Houses. Somehow there’s a repeat of what happened and nobody besides me has a recollection of it.”
A realization slammed into my head. “Think about it,” I said. “How many Cycles have we gone through in the Period of Chaos?”
“What are you saying, Ears?” asked Bulkee.
I knew I got his attention. “You said that the Period of Chaos started when I was kidnapped. It must be the first Cycle, when you and I met at the AkxieMoreRun Forest. Then we travelled to the Pocket of Origination during the second Cycle.” I raised my fingers and began counting. “The third Cycle in the Pocket of Corns. And the fourth Cycle in the Pocket of Crystals.”
“Right,” Bulkee crossed his arms. “Four Cycles gone.”
“And there should be exactly four Grits marked black on the Belt of Sunpath,” I pointed my arm straight up to the sky. “What do you see up there?”
We all looked to the Belt of the Sunpath over our heads. “One. Two. Three. Four. Five! There are five black dots in the sky!” Doe said, stumbling back a few steps. The Belt of Sunpath was dim but still visible. On it there were five jet-black Grits.
“That’s right. Five black Grits, which means that we have already reached the fifth Cycle in the Period of Chaos, when we first came into the Pocket of Tree Houses. We are going into the sixth Cycle,” I said. “Bulkee, you see it now? The Cycle has spent. We’ve been here. We’ve been to the Pocket of Tree Houses.”
His eyes shifted from me to Sye, as he slowly registered the shock.
“Bulkee,” Sye said. “Maybe you and I can’t process what had transpired. But Sasha is right. We have to take her word for it.”
“This is like Magic,” Doe said, his heavy head started swaying again. “Tell me more, Sasha. What else do you know?”
“It’s not about what I know.,” I said. “It’s about what you can tell us.”
“Me?” asked Doe, wide-eyed.
“Yes,” I said. “You had told us something quite important. You mentioned a Guru. She might be able to tell us what’s happening, why no one seems to remember the fact that we’ve met before. Will you bring us to her?”
“Guru Gumii?” Doe was hesitant. “She will be resting soon, because the Big Gloom is coming.”
“Big Gloom,” I said. “That’s exactly when things got weird. We can’t afford to wait through it and lose another Cycle,” I pressed. “We will have to get to her before the Big Gloom. Will you please help us?”
Doe regarded me with his ears pressed up again his green loafer, like he was in an internal debate. When his head snapped back up, he replied, “I will take you to her.”
“Let’s hurry,” I turned to my friends.
“Wait, Sasha. What are we doing?” Bulkee asked. “Who is this Guru Gumii?”
“She is the one who knows things that others here don’t. She might be able to explain what the Big Gloom was and how we can move ahead to the next Pocket,” I said. “You will have to trust me.”
There was perhaps a split-second pause, before Bulkee walked up to the Koala. “You lead the way, Doe. And we will follow.”
It was already twilight when we made it back to the five-way intersection. We didn’t linger before Doe took us down the path opposite from the road we came from. The murky sky obscured the ground but we ran like we were racing against something far more intimidating than I would ever know.
