Posh

     Jonas leaned on his hands, looking all around him. He was on the top of a grassy hill. In the direction the boys had rolled, he could see a valley spread over with pink and green and blue houses, all pale, like a faded rainbow. Little tiny people walked in the streets, and he wasn’t sure if they seemed smaller because he was so far away, or because they really were little and tiny. To the right and left, forest sprawled as far as he could see, or at least he thought it was forest. The trees were mostly blue, with white trunks, and some of them seemed to be floating. He rubbed his eyes, wondering if this was a dream. Ever since he’d waited for Sunny and saved her from Madame’s carriage, strange things had been happening. He wondered why he hadn’t thought of mother and Sunny very much, and if Madame had kidnapped him and he would see them again.

     Laughter came from behind him, sounding as if it had echoed from across the world and was only now arriving at his ears. He whirled around, looking over the flat, long top of the grassy hill. A tall person with bare arms was dancing and waving and shouting, but not at him.

     “I did it!” Jonas heard. It was Madame. She’s gone mad, right off her rocker. Jonas stepped backward and tripped over a stone hidden in the tall grass. He gave a little yell, and Madame became silent. The rock scraped his back, but he didn’t move, hoping she hadn’t seen him. “Boy,” she was calling. “You’re all right?” He still didn’t moved. Suddenly the grass rustle and parted, and she was there, closer than he’d thought she was. He stood up and moved away again, careful not to trip. “Are you?” she asked, her eyes bright.

     “I want to know where I am,” Jonas said, a bit more rudely than he would have if he had just met Madame. If she hadn’t dragged him through her house and into the yellow room, that is. Perhaps dragged wasn’t the word, but he hadn’t had much of a choice, had he?

     “The little people call it Posh, but they’re a bit silly. Its real name is Mina. We did it, boy, we did it!” she said, taking his shoulders and shaking him.

     “My name is Jonas,” he said crossly. He was beginning to miss his mother very much, and wished furiously that he were back beside the road, waiting.

     “Yes, yes, Jonas,” she said, staring over his head at the bright city. “This is all immaterial. You’re here, ready to fulfill your purpose.”

    “What is that?” he asked. “What is my purpose?” He repeated her words to keep himself from blubbing or something.

     “Your purpose?” she asked. Her face was far away among the tiny people, and she didn’t move her eyes to him.

     “You know it; I don’t,” he said, very shortly indeed. Now he was only afraid he was going to be too impolite to a lady and she would tell his mother. Madame suddenly looked very sad, and she sat right down, the grasses about her head.

     “My son is down in Poshland, and I can’t bring him out, because they don’t allow big people to enter their city,” she said. Jonas felt a lump in his throat, watching tears well in her eyes. “Do you see, dear boy?” She looked at him, then reached up and touched his hand. He sat down next to her, thinking she was a swell lady if she would only be like this always. “I couldn’t tell you I needed to take you out-of-world. Out of country is bad enough for many. I tried to keep you confused so you wouldn’t run away, not that I didn’t respect you, for you certainly have the right mind for this, and I even thought you would be a good companion for Dilly when he’s grown, for I know you would understand that there is more to life than earth, and won’t you go down and search for him, won’t you?” She took a very deep breath after all this, staring into his eyes. He looked over all her face, and at her hands, trying to make sure this wasn’t a trick, and he would be made into a ‘play’, or perhaps a slave condemned to forever repaint the entire city in different colors. He thought green would be nice, if that were the case. He still didn’t know what a play was, but he had the idea it was something like Mimi. He shuddered, and tried to bring his thoughts together.

     “How can I find him?” he asked, steepling his hands in his lap as father had done before he’d gone and died in the war. Silly man, thinking he could survive bullets and such. If Jonas had his way with it, everyone would share land, and live together, even your neighbors eyes were slanted or they were very tall or…Jonas shook his head, thinking something in the air was making him think too fast.

      “Check in the play-circus,” she said. “They thought he was a play, you see, and once they get those, they don’t like to let them go. I don’t think they hurt him, but if they treat him like the other plays, he’ll be teased something dreadful. What you have to do, is dye your hair blue, and act as if you’re a grown little. You’ll have lots of time before they figure it out. Come on,” she said, standing up quickly and walking down the hill in her bare feet. He hurried after her.

      “I didn’t say yes yet,” he said.

     “Why no, of course not,” she said, but she didn’t slow down. The steep hill didn’t bother her, and they were both soon at the bottom. “I’m only going to show you where to find the coco plant that will make your hair blue, should you decide to go and find Dilly.”

     The coco plant was on the edge of the strange woods, and its leaves were outrageously blue. She used the white petals in his hair, though, and told him he was very blue indeed. He was getting excited about seeing the colored city, and he didn’t pretend to not know what he would do anymore.

     “You can just walk right in,” she said, looking at his hair, and then at his pants. “Ask for a shirt at the circus. They won’t mind. They’ll like your pants, though. Don’t let them take them,” she said. He nodded, wondering how silly that would look, he walking around in his boxers, looking for a play named Dilly that perhaps didn’t want to leave with him, surrounded by real-blue hair and pretending to be a little, and it reminded him of the room of yarn at Madame’s house, because they’re hair was so bristly, and that reminded him of Sunny’s yellow dress that she sometimes wore, and then he knew that something was definitely silly-making about the air, because he was losing his edge. Madame led him along the blue and white forest and left him in sight of the first bright house, and she was already gone before he remembered to ask what Dilly looked like. He was tempted very much to explore that strange woods first, but he thought he would get lost, and how would he get back to earth then, and perhaps animals lived there, and would eat him, and he wished he could get some kind of mask to breathe through because it was getting very hard to think in this air. The city smelled like cotton candy, fresh made, still wisping off the stick.

The Doors are Gone

     “I am not mad, Jonas Barry,” she said, still staring forward. “I am only different.” She could have been laughing, but he didn’t want to assume. Assuming hadn’t helped in life thus far, for the first thirteen years. He was sure it wouldn’t help in the next thirteen.

     The room was absolutely square, more square than a room could usually be. Jonas looked hard at the walls, and had the feeling that this room was not part of Madame’s house. But how could that be? Such a thing was unexplainable. The walls were white, reflecting the yellow lights on the ceiling with intensity. Perhaps it was just the reflection that made the walls seem to shimmer, and move up and down. As if the perfectly square room were floating in the center of the house, a different kind of place than the other rooms. Jonas wondered, if Mimi, or one of the men with the names like his were standing outside the door, if they could see…

     Jonas’s mouth opened wide and he let out his lungs very quickly. Of course they couldn’t see, because the doors were gone. “Madame?” he asked, but he sounded like a thirteen year old boy that was scared to be left alone. He didn’t like that. Madame smiled and stepped close to him, putting her heavy arm around his shoulders. He was surprised that though her arm was slender, it was heavy.

     “It will be all right, dear boy. You’ll see your mother in one of these lives,” she said. That didn’t help him.

     “Where are the doors?” he asked. “I would like to leave.” The walls were smooth, shining, seemed to be made of light. A low hum was beginning, and rose to shimmer in his bones.

     “It’s too late, boy,” she said. Her face was no longer tender, but set, as if determined to do something. There was nothing in the room to do. “We’re going to be taken up. I need you to remove your shirt and shoes,” she said. Jonas only stared at her. She bent down and flipped off her boots. Jonas looked at her stockings, and his stomach began to squeeze tight. He thought of his mother, and wished she were on the other side of the light, waiting for him. The hum was very loud, and he gripped his head and tried to keep his thoughts in it. Madame leaned into his face and kicked at his feet, and he pulled off his shoes. The light was hot, and he followed her motion and pulled his shirt over his head. The heat came over his skin in waves, and he looked away from her bare, bony shoulders as she dropped her over dress to the floor. He stood up straight for a moment, but then a rushing whooshed past him and he crouched to the floor, afraid he would swept up and smashed against the wall.

     Roaring, roaring, roaring, all around him, pulling at his shoulders, his hair straight up, and then it was all gone.

     *

     “Oh my, Silla. What a funny play you have!”

     “It’s not my play. I only found it on the hill. I don’t know what to do with it. Should I touch it?”

     Jonas felt something flat rubbing his shoulder. His eyes were opened, and he felt as if he’d never closed them. He blinked to make sure he could. “Oh, I think the play is awake!” a little boy shout/whispered. Jonas rolled onto his back and looked up into the faces of two very small boys. He thought they were boys. Their hands hung at their sides, flat, with very short fingers at the edges of their wide palms. Their hair was bright blue, and standing up straight and bristly. Jonas stared at them, and his arms twitched without him telling them to. The boys scuttled back, their black eyes widening. “Oh, oh,” the one on the right said, putting his hand over his face. “Oh my, it really is quite a play, Silla.” Silla stepped close again, smiling and showing a mouth of sharp teeth.

     “Wake up, play. We’re ready for you,” he said.

     “I’m not a play,” Jonas said.

     “Waaah!” the one on the right said. “Don’t wake it, Silla. Put it back!”

     “I won’t hurt you,” Jonas said, sitting up. The blue haired boys ran backward, even Silla looking frightened. “Could you tell me where Madame is?”

     “Waaah!” they both screamed, turning and running with their paws over their faces. The hill Jonas was sprawled on was steep, but just when Jonas was worried that they were going to fall, they both made a little leap and tucked into balls and rolled off, disappearing into the orange sun-shadow below.