And then I woke up, Chapter 2: Detention

Chapter 2:  Detention

    "Matt, check this one out," Tammy hissed across the table. 
    Matt was standing up with his head twisted funny counting quietly to himself.  "Wait a minute," he said, "I'm right in the middle of something, here, try this and then I'll see what you found."  Tammy stood up and camer around the table.  Matt didn't look at her.  "Stare at this picture and count slowly to 60 and then stare at the white page next to it."  The picture was of a green, orange and black flag.  She started counting and staring, staring and counting.  "Oh, WOW!"  Matt breathed, "that's cool!"
    "I knew that's what would happen," Tammy said, after she finished her couldn't, I could tell becaese the colors were exactly opposite.  Of course it would be red white and blue, what else would it be?  But it it very cool.  I can still see it on the wall and on the table."
    "Do you know why it happens?"
    "Your eyeballs get tired of looking at orange, green and black?"
    "That's pretty much it--you use up all the chemicals needed to see those colors so when you stop looking, you see the opposite.  It's pretty cool."
    "It sure is, now check this one out."  Matt came over and looked into Tammy's book. 
    "Oh, cool, it's one of those magic eye things."
    "Yeah, but check it out, dude, it's not just any magic eye.  This is really fun!"
    "I thought you said detention was not your ideas of fun!  Sometimes I'm kinda slow at this."
    "I usually get them right away.  Hey, I didn't know Mr. Sorensen and Mr. Beakley would give us such a fun project--and extra credit in both science and English.  I didn't know what to expect.  I've never been to detention before.  Keep trying, this is the best one I've ever seen."
    "Never been to detention?  That's because you're such a goody-goody."
    "Am not!"
    "Are, too!  Oh!  I got it.  It's a mandala, a mandala within a mandala.  I think it's a portal.  Maybe we can use it to travel."
    "How?"
    Matt looked at his watch.  Okay, we've got half an hour.  First we need to prop the book up.  OK, ready, hold my hand."
    "Here, in the library?  We'll get in trouble."
    "Just do it."  He snatched her hand.  "OK, now we both unfocus and stare at it until it's in focus.  Find the mandala and stare at the center.  It's a portal, works sort of like a black hole, only gentler.  I'm not sure where we're going to come out, so we should remember to look and see where the portal is on the other end.  It may not even go Mearddth, and some of the other worlds having shifting topography.  Even Mearddth does, sometimes.  Oh, he said, here we are.  It's a flower on this end, and it looks like all the other flowers.  The others may be portals too, but may not take us back to the library."
    "Here, tie this ribbon around it carefully," Tammy said, pulling it out of her hair.  Sheep and goats grazed on the far side of the field.  "I hope none of them eats our portal," Tammy said, nervously, pointing.  "Maybe we should just go back.  We're going to get lost, or get in trouble."
    "Nah," Matt said, "Portals are just other entries into the dreamworld.  Our bodies are back in the library staring at the book and if we don't show up, Sorensen or Beakley will just shake us gently and we'll wake up.  We may be a little disoriented, but it'll be fine."
    The funnel-shaped flower with the deep purple center stood about ten feet from a tall pine.  Beyond the pine, the ground sloped away to a meadow, and in the meadow was a small cabin.  It looked deserted.  "Let's go down there," Matt said, taking off at a run through the field.  He lifted from the ground and began to fly, faster and faster, until he hovered right above the cabin.  Laughing, Tammy followed him, leaping into the air and flying.  It was such a rush of excitement to fly like that.  She wanted to just fly and fly, over the hills and the distant peaks.  Vaguely, she remembered that they had to go back.  Besides, Matt seemed intent on something else.  "Come here," he said, settling to the ground in front of the cabin.  I want to show you something."  With that, he stepped right through the cabin wall and disappeared.  A moment later, he reappeared, coming through the wall in another place, as if it were made out of standing water, only he wasn't wet.
    Tammy walked up to the cabin wall and knocked on it hard.  It was solid as a newly peeled log.  Rock hard.  She knocked again.  "Yes?" a voice said, a high girlish voice that sounded like an old woman pretending to be a girl.  "Who is it?"
    "Uh, it's me, Tammy  Wilson,  and Matt Martin is here, too.  Who are you?  Where are you?"
    "I'm in here of course.  Come on in, but don't let the cat out."  Matt walked back through the wall.  Tammy went and opened the front door and stuck her foot in front of a cat that was trying to escape.  The cat bit her foot and then leaped over it.  Tammy grabbed it by the scruff of the neck.  It hissed and spit and suddenly got huge.  Tammy managed to slam the door with the cat inside.  The cat almost filled the entire room.  And it was not happy.  Its eyes were a malevolent red and its teeth were needle sharp and it was looking hungrily at Tammy.
    It looked like it was now too big to get out the door.  Tammy put her hand on the knob and carefully turned it. She zipped out and slammed the door.  But the car shrunk to the size of a mouse and slipped under the bottom.  Tammy snatched it and opened the door and went back in.  An old lady sat in a rocker by the fire.  She deposited the cat, now normal-sized, in her lap and sat down in another rocker by the fire.  The cat leaped over, curled up in her lap and started purring.  Tammy tentatively petted it.  The purring grew to the size of a lion's roar. 
    "I'm not sure I like this world," Tammy said.  "It's too scary and unpredictable."
    Matt was rocking in the chair beside her.  HE got up, and opened the curtain of the window beside the old woman.  "Feel anything?" he asked.  The whole house was shaking as if there were an earthquake or something. 
    She looked out the window.  Trees were bouncing past.  "The house is moving," she observed, feeling stupid as she spoke for stating the obvious.
    "Chicken leg," Matt said, "that's my guess.  I think we've just had the honor and privilege of stumbling into the lair of the Baba Yaga.  Madam," he continued, turned to address the old woman.  May I ask your name?"
    ""You may ask, but I may not answer.  You may beg, but I may not spare you.  First I will ask you a riddle.  If you answer correctly, I will spare your lives this time.  If not, I will eat you for dinner."  She rubbed her hands together.
    "What is your riddle, Madam?" asked Matt, calmly.
    "What walks on four legs and then on two legs and then on three?"
    "Oh, that's an easy one, Madam.  That's man, who crawls as a baby, walks on two legs and a man, and uses a cane as and old man.  Now I get to ask you a question.  What is the one thing that it is most important for us to know or do next?"
    "Since there are two of you, and since each of you has passed a test of sorts, I will give you two answers.  Three, really.  What you need to know is that your world is at a turning point and if it is not turned back, there will be no turning back and all will be lost.  What you need to do is continue as you are, for the path before you is the answer to saving the world.  And finally, If you don't leave immediately, I will eat you anyway.  And next time, I may eat you without warning."
    Matt got up and calmly walked through the wall beside his chair.  Tammy got up, set the cat on the Baba Yaga's lap and calmly walked into the wall and fell to the floor.  She got up, and tried again and fell to the floor again. 
    "It's like swimming," the Baba Yaga said, kindly.  You know you can dive into the water and it will open to let you through.  It is only your preconception that keeps you inside."  She picked up a very large fork, dropped the cat to the floor and walked toward Tammy cackling madly.
    "Water," Tammy thought.  "It's just like water."  She squeezed through, but it didn't feel like water.  It was more like disintegrating and reintegrating, like grinding through sand with all her molecules.  Not that she knew what that felt like, really, but that's what she imagined.
    The cat squeezed through after her, its claws unsheathed and it's mouth open.  Saliva dripped from its tongue.  And the house hopped after her on one huge yellow scaly chicken leg. 
    "Fly," screamed Matt, "fly!"
    Tammy flew.  Matt flew beside her.  The cat flew too, but after a little ways, it turned and flew back to the house and walked through the walls.
    "We're not where we started, how will we find our way back?"
    "There's the tree with the ribbon, way over there."
    "We didn't tie the ribbon on the tree.  We tied it on the flower."
    "I know, but the mid is a very strange place.  Let's go check it out."
    In an instant, they were there.  "How'd we get here so fast?" Tammy asked.
    "Intention."  In Mearddth, you don't really haev to walk or fly, you just arrive where you want to be.  See, here's the flower, come on, let's go."  In an isntant, he was gone. 
    "Intention," Tammy repeated herself.  And there she was, sitting on the seat staring at the magic eye mandala portal picture.  The clock said the same time as when they'd left.
    "Did you intend that, too?" Tammy asked, pointing at the clock.  "Of course.  We need the extra credits in Science and English to help bring up the zero Miss Wingsley is going to give us in Math today.  So quick, we've got a half hour, do you want to type or dictate?"
    "Let's take turns, 15 minutes each.  But one thing, first.  Can you die in a dream?"
    "Well, yeah, actually you can," Matt said, somewhat sheepishly.  "I'll tell you about it later."