Far Side of the Universe Read online

  After dispensing some last words of advice that his students weren’t really listening to, Merlin asked them to hold hands in the circle. “As soon as you reach the other side, you can let go of each other’s hands. I don’t need to be with you to bring you back, but do try to stay together; otherwise it will be a lot more difficult. For you just as well as for me. You’ll know it’s time to come back by a feeling, most likely a rush of cold air at the nape of your neck. Find an area where no one can see you and then get back into a circle. To help me, there is something I must ask you to do. Once you’re back in the circle formation, focus all your attention on this place, this classroom, just as you focused on the hill. It’s imperative that your thoughts not stray to some unknown place. ”

  Merlin’s words was getting harder to follow and making even less sense ever since he had told them about Lalea. His fear and worry were partly to blame, but his desire to stop them from going was the real culprit. He hoped that if his explanations got really confusing, they might change their minds. Answers that raised more questions and explanations that sounded muddled. A futile attempt to push back what had already gotten started. It was what he had set in motion the day he had entered this school to teach history to some students who were“ a little bit different from the others,” as the principal of Napoleon High school had condescendingly described them .

  Methodically, the five students drew closer to Merlin and, without realizing it, were in the same places as on their first trip. A ritual in the making had gone unnoticed. They looked at each other one last time, an unconscious farewell, and then closed their eyes. Merlin began describing the same scene, their symbolic countdown, with the final number, so to speak, granting them permission to open their eyes.

  They were standing on a hill, the same hill sown with yellow flowers, but this time there were no butterflies. They had arrived when only the nocturnal kind fluttered about. With a mix of fear and excitement, they let go off each other’s hands. They had truly left. They were on the other side. Merlin couldn’t accompany them to where they were now heading. Sara was the first to express her joy. Jumping up and down with raised arms, turning around and singing, “I can walk, I can walk...” One by one, she grabbed each person’s hand, leading them into a frenzied dance. Even Cosmo, usually so serious, surprised himself by hopping around for a few seconds.

  Unable to control their blissful smiles, they headed down the hill. Just like a group of young teens strolling in the moonlight, just for the pleasure of hanging out together. Sara sped past them, sometimes running, and then circling back to them like a young dog. Arthur copied her. He somehow managed to trip himself and tumble onto the cool grass. They all burst out laughing, including Arthur. This mishap did nothing to spoil his good mood. Falling could be quite entertaining when you’re able to get back on your feet.

  At the end of the slope was a serpentine creek, a sliver of flowing water. Titiana was pleasantly surprised by a stinging sensation when she dipped her fingers into the chilly water. Green-tinged stars reflected below. Startled, Cosmo looked up to the sky and noticed what none had seen before. Not only were the stars green, but they weren’t a part of any constellation he recognized. An avid astronomer, Cosmo knew every possible position of the stars in the sky. At this moment he realized their surroundings were unknown, new, and potentially dangerous. He called the others to come close to him, and he warned them to be on guard. Even the water, seemingly benign, could be harmful for them. Arthur, whose lips were moist, was about to ask Cosmo why when men armed with sharp spears jumped out in front of them. They had barely been there fifteen minutes and had already ignored Merlin’s foremost advice: don’t draw attention to yourselves.

  CHAPTER 6 A MAN APPEARS DRESSED IN WHITE

  Piled one on top of the other in an underground jail, the fearless senior M students were moping. Four men had surrounded them without saying a word except to growl when their captives didn’t seem to move fast enough. They had been led to a cage with earthen walls and a ceiling made of tightly woven branches well out of their reach. No one had tried to harm them, but it was a less than ideal way to begin their journey.

  They tried screaming and crying out for help when they had been shoved into the hole with just a minimum of courtesy. Their captors, seemingly quite irritated, dumped buckets of cold water on them to keep them quiet. They greeted the morning as prisoners, thoroughly soaked and more than a little anxious. Albin, the oldest, had taken on the role of protector, and so he couldn’t forgive himself for not preventing their capture. He moved away from his friends to a small spot, or corner if the place hadn’t been circular. The only hope was for Merlin to call them back before they were condemned to a really harsh sentence. They now had proof supporting Merlin’s theory: the speed of time was different in the two worlds. Titiana pointed out that their mechanical time, their classroom hour, had run out a long time ago. In the sky, the pale green stars had ceded their place to a bright light. Day had replaced night, and they were still imprisoned.

  When the pale morning shadows were eclipsed by strong light, the cage door above them was pulled open. A square-looking hand dropped a roughly hewn ladder down to them, which they scaled one by one. At the top, they came face to face with what looked like a circus muscle man with his strong build and shirt open all the way to his bronze belt buckle displaying a chest full of red hair. He shook everyone’s hands, practically crushing them. Then he spoke in a phlegmy voice, eliminating at least one of their concerns: the inhabitants on Lalea appeared to speak the same language as they did.

  “It’d seem to me, wee ones, you sorely need dry clothing. Since the sun isn’t yet so strong to heat you up. Would you care to have a bite to eat?”

  “Would you please leave our young friends alone, Hector?”

  The one who had just intervened looked as distinguished as he sounded. He contrasted sharply with the man called Hector. He was wearing clothing almost as white as his hair, not an easy feat considering the village’s dirt roads. He moved slowly towards the nervous group, aided by a cane with a design resembling a maple leaf.

  “I was just being welcoming, Mr. le Cambraire. Didn’t want to be so brash after last night.”

  “I agree, Hector. But you know the rules, don’t you?”

  Hector nodded his head sheepishly.

  “Well, go tell Maria, would you please? That shouldn’t take you too long.”

  “I’m taking leave right now, Mr. le Cambraire.”

  Before leaving, Hector gave a big wink to Sara who was the nearest to him and said, “Don’t you let him be too strict with you, missy.” He then took off running.

  They followed in his footsteps for a few seconds before turning around to “Mr. Cambraire” or whatever his name was. His friendly smile disappeared as soon as Hector left. Once he was out of sight, they noticed he looked a bit sterner. He frowned as he eyed them carefully, tapping his hands on the handle of the cane. Silence spread like oil in water, disrupted only by everyday noises of a busy town. Or whatever idea the five travelers had of daily city life before the invention of motor cars.

  From the corner of his eye, Arthur glimpsed a strange face, young looking and red-headed. The apparition, if it did indeed exist, disappeared as soon as he turned to face it. Le Cambraire, standing before them, gave a small cough. Then a louder one. It seemed he expected some sort of reaction from them, but no one knew what or why. Worried that they might say something inappropriate or even shocking to the man in front of them, they stood speechless. Their main fear was saying something out of ignorance that would provoke even more anger.

  A short while had passed, and they couldn’t wait forever for the skies to tell them how to act, so Albin, being the oldest, got up the courage to speak.

  “Mr, um, le Cambraire? I wanted to say that, um, we apologize. We’re not sure what we did wrong, but whatever it was, we didn’t mean any harm. If you could explain to us why we were arrested, I promise you we’ll never do whatever it was again.
Mr. le Cambraire?”

  The man in white was trying to hide his surprise.

  “You don’t know what you did! You don’t know! Where in the world do you come from? There’s a curfew here. It’s strictly forbidden to roam around outside at night. It’s a safety measure. Strange things happen in the area at dark. How could you not know about it? Where do you come from?”

  “Um...”

  Albin glanced at his friends. How were they going to answer the question without revealing too much? Cosmo jumped in, unaware of what he was about to unleash. It would take a while before they fully understood it.

  “I don’t think you’re familiar with the town we come from, sir. It took us a long time to get here. We come from far away.”

  “Far away? You come from far way. That’s impossible, you’re so young.”

  “But why, if...”

  “No, I’d rather not talk about it right now. Achilles, Hector’s son, hiding over there behind that barrel, has been spying on us for a good quarter of an hour. It’s best that you go ahead and eat. I’ll try to find some clothes to fit you.”

  And since they didn’t seem to be in any rush, le Cambraire hurried them away in a voice that betrayed his irritation.

  As soon as le Cambraire had turned his back, a little face with a comically turned- up nose and patches of freckles belonging to a little rascal of about eight or so years slipped out from behind a barrel where he’d been hiding. Achilles was ready to greet them. The little red-headed spy hadn’t been a figment of Arthur’s imagination after all.

  Achilles ran towards them, jumping playfully from side to side. He grabbed Titiana’s hand and then Sara’s, leading them to a wooden house with doorway a bit bigger than the other houses. It appeared to be Hector and his family’s home. Achilles was the oldest of the children. Four more little ones were scrambling around the table, one of whom was the only daughter. She was still at that age when crawling was a lot faster than walking.

  Hector was seated at the head of the table, hard at work carving a piece of wood with a knife he had probably made himself. Marie, his wife, was stirring a thick soup in a cauldron heated by enormous burning logs. Marie had her back to them when they entered the room but, recognizing Achilles’ footsteps, had set down her spoon to greet them. Stepping over the other children, she welcomed them with a warm smile and a hug that displayed a protruding belly announcing the imminent arrival of another offspring.

  A pleasant aroma wafted through the house. It wasn’t just from the simmering stew, which happened to look rather vile, but also came from the various dried flower bouquets arranged with care throughout the room. The table where they were seated was made of thick, solid wood. Just like the house. Cosmo didn’t doubt its inhabitants were well protected against every kind of bad weather. And it was clear that Hector had made sure of it.

  As soon as they sat down, Marie served them each a bowl filled to the brim with her concoction. They immediately dipped their spoons into the stew with gusto. Despite its unknown ingredients and appearance that Cosmo found unappetizing, the dish that Marie called brockni tasted delicious. They shared their bowls with the children who had come to sit on their laps. Arthur held the youngest of them, and the others sat wherever they liked. Only Achilles was too old to sit on someone’s lap to be fed, and Cosmo wouldn’t have been able to support any extra weight.

  As Arthur was playing with the child on his lap, making her laugh as he tickled her, he noticed a strange toy on the shelf in front of him. It looked like a stuffed animal that had lost its fur. The blue leather looked worn as if it had been tossed around by many a child. The toy stuffed animal wasn’t very big, twenty inches tall at the most, and its big, round eyes stared down at Arthur. His impression of it quickly changed. It appeared to be staring. But its eyes seemed too real, and as Arthur studied it, the toy moved. At first he thought he’d imagined its ears wiggling. Then it leaned towards him and scrunched up its nose as if to sniff him. He couldn’t ignore the evidence when the stuffed animal scooted to the edge, jumped onto the table, and landed right in front of Arthur, holding out a tiny hand to him in a genteel manner. As the little girl on Arthur’s lap was clapping, obviously delighted, he grabbed its tiny paw, both smooth and rough, that slipped into his hand, and a wide smile appeared on the doll’s monkey-like face. He discreetly searched for the mechanism that activated the toy as he complimented the couple.

  “What an extraordinary toy!”

  Marie replied with amusement at first. But very quickly her tone turned serious and even suspicious.

  “A toy? But this is no toy. Don’t you see it’s a schlirb? Are yours so different? Where are you from anyway?”

  Marie examined the floor behind them, getting up to check the doorway. Then she stood firmly in front of the table, hands on her hips. The children, realizing that their mother was upset, squirmed off the guests’ laps. Only the little girl didn’t seem frightened, perhaps because she was distracted by the doll who was combing her hair.

  Arthur asked the question that all his friends were wondering.

  “But, what’s a schlirb?”

  He would have been better off saying nothing, because it then became apparent that everyone should know what a schlirb was. And she didn’t seem at all happy to be hosting the type of person who had no clue what one was.

  Her indignation couldn’t have come at a better moment. Cosmo felt a rustling of air on the back of his neck just as she was telling them to get out. He turned around, but he already knew that no ordinary breeze had blown into the room. His companions’ reactions confirmed it, being the only ones at the table who had shivered. Albin leaned towards him, raised his eyebrows, and then nodded. They needed to escape the house fast and find an isolated spot. And now they no longer needed to make up an excuse to leave.

  They got up quickly; the blast of air had become more insistent. They flew outside almost running after a quick smile to thank Hector and Marie. They hurried to reach the bottom of the hill, the river being out of sight of the village. In a rush, they grabbed each other’s hands and closed their eyes. When they reopened them, they were back in their classroom.

  CHAPTER 7 GENIUSES AT DINNER

  They were back and once again in their wheelchairs, their companions of misfortune. Merlin inspected them from head to toe. They were completely dry from the trip back, leaving him no clues about their adventure. He refrained from asking questions. Out of pride, reticence, or because he realized he was no longer a participant in these trips. Merlin was out of the picture. He would have to get used to this idea, and he couldn’t help feeling a little bitter. And there was also the worry he’d felt about letting his protégés go out and explore without any way for him to protect them.

  Arthur was the most excited of all, though Albin was a close second. Very close. Arthur let out a “yeehaw” worthy of a cowboy. Merlin called them to order and reminded them they still needed to remain discreet. His colleagues might get curious about such enthusiastic yelps coming from his classroom. He decided to ask them questions. Quickly. They only had a few minutes left before another group of students entered the room.

  Merlin was clearly surprised to hear about the curfew and worried by the news that the inhabitants had already figured they were different. There was nothing comforting about letting them make a return trip to Lalea. But he’d made a promise, and his friend had expressly asked him to send this group of students who were a bit less mobile than others. That’s why, despite his hesitation, he planned another interlude to the far side of the universe for their next class, two days later.

  On that particular evening, Cosmo’s parents were both home. In an effort to preserve some semblance of a normal family life, they tried to eat dinner together with their son at least once a month. It was an event they had to squeeze into their busy schedules. On this evening, they went as far as turning off their cell phones. It was very important for them to be fully present and totally available for their son. Once a month.
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  Their housekeeper had prepared a Nordic-themed dinner in honor of the award Cosmo’s father had just received from Norway, a special recognition for his studies on evolution, synergy, and the complementarity of macromolecules in direct relation to pollution and climate conditions. He had done his research outdoors in conditions that hadn’t been the easiest, and in diverse parts of the world. In one particular study, which had taken him several months, the majority of the interns who had signed up to work with the illustrious Professor Scientia had dropped out. He had been there alone to complete the study, though his wife, an ecologist by profession, did send him data concerning pollution in regions with temperate climates.

  He had recently completed his report and was already looking for his next topic to of study. These lulls between projects were his only moments he paid any attention to what was going on in the world around him. His family was well aware that it was only temporary. Soon, he would be consumed by a new subject and in the process of becoming an expert in it. He had been born with an extraordinary brain with a limitless capacity to learn. He had already obtained several doctorates and had no problem holding his own with the top scholars on the planet. The only subject he still hadn’t mastered was his son’s fragile limbs. Cosmo suspected that this was one of the reasons why he applied himself so hard in every other field.