Scott Birrenkott currently resides in Wisconsin where he recently received his Juris Doctorate from Marquette University Law School. He has pet fish, and a snail, and a frog, too. This story is his first publication though another will also be appearing in the next issue of Liquid Imagination. He hopes that it is the first of many to come. Find him on Twitter @sbirrenkott.
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Ammyland
by Forrest Roy Johnson; published July 19, 2013
Third Place Award, July 2013 Fiction Contest
“Hello.”
Katherine blinked. She lifted a hand to shade her eyes from the mid-morning sun. On the trail ahead of her stood a blonde and curly-haired little girl wearing a sky-blue dress. She looked at Katherine with eyes the same shade as her dress.
“My name is Ammy. What’s yours?”
“Katherine,” she said. “My name is Katherine. Why … What are you doing out here?”
“I live here.”
“I didn’t know anyone lived out here. Is your daddy a ranger or something? Where are your parents?” Katherine had never heard of anyone, ranger or otherwise, living in Henry State Park, but what else could the girl have meant?
“I don’t have any parents. Do you want to see where I live?” Without waiting for an answer, Ammy scurried off into the sparse brush.
Katherine had seen strange things in the park before — a dead deer halfway up a tall maple, squirrels throwing acorns at a hiker’s dog — but what in heaven’s name was this? She patted her front pocket, knowing her cell phone was back in her car but checking for it anyway. She’d just have to keep an eye on the girl until she could figure out what was going on.
Ammy, already a dozen yards ahead, turned and grinned. “Hurry up, pokey-butt!”
Ammy ran with all the unabashed enthusiasm of youth. Fit as she was, Katherine struggled to navigate the underbrush and vegetation that choked the hillside they climbed.
After several minutes of frenzied climbing, Ammy stopped abruptly and sat in the cleft of a largish ash tree. Ammy faced downhill, watching Katherine as she dragged herself the last few feet to join her. The Whetstone River wound its way through the valley below. As Katherine leaned against the tree, she looked down at it, wondering how much of her sweat had traveled in it over the years on its long voyage to the Gulf of Mexico, via the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers.
“Pretty, huh?”
Katherine nodded. “Very. Is this where you live?”
Ammy crinkled her nose and giggled. “Of course not. How could I live in a tree? I live that way,” she pointed behind her, still further up the hill.
“Must be a dickens of a time carrying your groceries up there.”
Ammy laughed. “I like you, Katherine.” She bit her bottom lip. “I hope Baldo likes you too. He doesn’t usually like visitors. But you’re nice. He won’t mind.”
“Who’s Baldo?”
“He’s my friend. I live with him.”
“How long have you been friends with Baldo?”
“I dunno,” she shrugged. “A while. Since this summer, a couple weeks after school.”
“And you live up there somewhere?” Katherine nodded to the higher edges of the slope.
“Yeah. I’ll show you, come on.” This time she reached out and grabbed Katherine’s hand.
Just before the hill’s crest, they came to a tumble of deadfall trees. Ammy scampered in, despite Katherine’s attempt to restrain her. What sort of wild animals might be in there? Raccoons? Skunks?
“No, hey! Don’t go in there!” She hurried over to collect the girl, but she was gone.
“Down here!”
Katherine saw a dark fissure concealed by the fallen trees. Ammy’s voice issued up from it. As Katherine’s eyes adjusted, she saw rough, steep steps of packed earth and loose stone leading to an uneven floor ten feet down. She descended, uncomfortable with the idea of crawling into some sort of animal’s den. But yet, she could see some dim light from somewhere inside the fissure. Once at the bottom of the stairs she saw Ammy silhouetted against a thin rectangle of yellow-orange light on the far end of a short tunnel.
“Ammy, what is this?”
“It’s where I live.”
“But where did this come from? There aren’t any caves here.”
“I made it. Let me show you.” She passed through the doorway — the rectangle of light — and Katherine followed. The door itself was steel-banded and riveted. And beyond it, a grand stairway leading down to a chandelier-lit and lushly carpeted ballroom.
The door creaked shut behind them. Katherine started and turned back at the noise. Flanking the door were two massive men in lobster-tail armor and gunmetal gray masks. They stood perfectly still, left arms to their sides and right arms crossed in front, hands on the grips of crude cudgels. Only the faint motion of their chests told Katherine they were not merely suits of mounted armor.
“What … what are they?”
“Oh. They’re my Tin Soldiers. Well, they’re sort of mine. Corbin made them, but I made him. My room’s this way.” She bounced down the stairs and disappeared into the wide hallway on the right.
As Katherine went down, she felt the gaze of those Tin Soldiers on her back. It gave her the willies.
Katherine knew that some species of hallucinogenic mushrooms grew in the park. She certainly wouldn’t have ingested any, but she wondered if she’d somehow come in contact with one and if that would be enough to make her see little girls and Tin Soldiers and ballrooms. That’s it, she thought, I’m just having some weird dream. Let’s see where it goes.
Ammy stopped in front of a huge door. “I want you to meet Baldo,” she whispered, “but you have to promise to be real quiet, okay? Shh.” She opened it a crack.
Katherine nodded and slipped in after her. In the center of the room, an enormous man, ten feet tall and nearly as broad, sat on an equally huge bed with his back to the door. Ammy scrambled up and jumped on his back.
“Wooh!” the giant said, jumping. “Ammy? Ammy, you scare me.”
The girl simply giggled at this. “Hey, Baldo. I have a surprise for you. Close your eye and turn around.”
He turned. Katherine managed to hold back a cry when she saw his face. Baldo only had one eye, the size of a dinner plate, in the middle of his forehead. He didn’t have a nose to speak of, only a lump with nostrils, and two huge incisors jutted up from his lower jaw.
“Okay, look!”
Baldo’s eye opened. He shrieked and leapt behind the bed, sending Ammy flying onto a pillow like a giggling ragdoll. “AUUUUGH! What is it, Ammy? Is it a bitey-boo? I not like the bitey-boos!”
“No, Baldo,” said Ammy, laughing and swimming her way to the top of the crater she’d made in the pillow, “this is my friend Katherine. She’s nice and she won’t bite you at all.”
“Hello, Baldo,” Katherine waved. “She’s right, I promise not to bite.”
Baldo peeked Kilroy-style over the edge of the bed. “Hi Katherine.” He looked at Ammy dubiously. “You promise?”
“Of course, you silly. Pick me up, let’s go shake hands together.”
Baldo plucked Ammy up and sat her on his shoulder, walked over to Katherine. He stooped, delicately took Katherine’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Katherine. I Baldo.”
“It’s nice to meet you too, Baldo.” She was amazed at the sense of restrained power in the giant’s grip, like he could snap tree limbs one moment and pet butterflies the next.
“I hungry, Ammy,” he said, almost immediately forgetting about Katherine. “We go get food?”
“Okay. Bring Katherine too, Baldo.”
“Oh! Hi, Katherine. You get ride on me?” Without waiting for an answer, he scooped her up and deposited her on his other shoulder. “Jackie make food?”
“Yes, Baldo, Jackie will make lunch for us, like always.” Ammy grinned at Katherine and rolled her eyes, as if to say, You see what I have to put up with?
They lumbered down the hallway, its
high ceiling affording just enough clearance for the giant and his passengers. A few doors down from Baldo’s room, Ammy tapped his ear. “Hey, hold on. Let me down. I bet Biki wants to eat. I’ll see if he’s awake.”
Baldo obediently lowered her and she crept to a small door. He let Katherine down and said, “Biki funny. Watch Ammy.”
Katherine ducked through the doorway and saw Ammy at the foot of a child-sized hammock. In it, a tiny man with a long beard and gnarled, sharp features lay snoring. On his head, a long, pom-pommed sleeping cap dangled the fuzzy ball precariously close to his mouth; it nearly went down his throat with every breath. Ammy started tickling his feet.
“Eeeyahhh!” The little man sat bolt upright, twin daggers shining in his hands. His eyes gleamed wildly as Ammy jumped back laughing. “Ohh, Princess Amethyst, you miscreant! Beware who you awaken so rudely, I am a warrior and my instincts are razor sharp!” He sheathed the daggers.
“Oh, you’d never hurt me, Biki.”
“Not intentionally, I assure you, but without knowing it I may do you harm. Especially when awoken suddenly! Which brings me back to – Hold on now, who’s this?”
“This is my friend Katherine. Katherine, this is my friend Biki.”
“Lady Katherine,” Biki knelt and bowed his head, “humblest apologies for my temperamental and rash words.”
“Um, just Katherine, please.” She felt herself flushing. “I’m not a ‘lady,’ by any means.”
“Nonsense! A woman of your beauty and grace must be descended from only the noblest of noble families. I pray, Lady Katherine, do not be offended by my coarse words and humble demeanor. I am but the least of Princess Amethyst’s servants, and I put myself in your service.”
“Um, okay. I think we’re going to eat now, so if you’re hungry …”
“Hi Biki!” Baldo bellowed from the hall. “Jackie make lunch!”
“Ah, you’ve met Baldo, I see.” Biki leaned close to Katherine. “A good fellow, but a bit on the repetitive side.”
“Hi Biki!”
“Hello, Baldo. Did Princess Amethyst awaken you very rudely as well?”
The giant blushed, looked down like a schoolboy caught doing something sweet for a crush. “No. I just scared of bitey-boos.”
“Ah, those vile little buggers. Well, they shan’t bother you here, not once you’ve gotten a solid meal under your belt.”
“Jackie make lunch.”
“And a delightful one it shall be, no doubt. Princess Amethyst, would you lead the way, then?”
At the far end of the hall, large wooden doors opened into a banquet hall. Thick stone pillars supported the cathedral ceiling, sconces lit the lower portions, and a rough-hewn table stretched almost the length of the chamber. Four large fireplaces burned along the outside walls. And from a doorway on the far end issued a clatter of metal pots and pans.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” called a baritone yet clearly feminine voice, “you caught me just a little unprepared for your friend. It’ll be just one moment, so take a seat and I’ll be right out!”
Ammy grabbed Katherine’s hand, walked to more or less the middle of the table, and sat. Biki took the seat next to Katherine, and Baldo sat on the floor opposite.
A few moments later, a grizzly bear wearing a chef’s hat and carrying several covered platters hurried out of the kitchen area. “Here you are, ladies and gentlemen. Now, Miss, I do hope you don’t mind what I’ve prepared. We only have so much to work with here — not like all the fancy ingredients you can get where you’re from.” Jackie — for that’s naturally who it was — revealed Katherine’s platter: A whole roast duck, perfectly golden brown, stuffed with cranberries and wild rice, and garnished with leafy greens.
Jackie brought out her own meal and joined the table next to Baldo.
“This is the most delicious thing I think I’ve ever tasted,” said Katherine between mouthfuls.
“Oh, it was nothing.”
“No, really. Did you do this just for me?”
“Of course I did. Just like Baldo’s meal is just for him, and Biki’s is for him, and Ammy’s, and my own.”
Katherine glanced around at the rapidly dwindling meal in front of each of her companions. Fish and berries for Jackie, doughnuts for Ammy, a steaming bushel of Brussels sprouts for Baldo, and an entire spit-roasted pig for Biki.
“I knew what you wanted, that’s all.”
“But how? How did you even know I was here?”
Jackie simply winked and tapped one finger on the side of her nose.
As Katherine nibbled on the last of her meal, she felt her eyelids drooping. And she wasn’t the only one. Jackie let out a rumbling yawn and ambled over to curl up by the fire, and Ammy sprawled herself on the bear’s side, falling instantly to sleep. Baldo lay face-up on the long table, his arms dangling. Biki, a gnawed ham still in his hand, leaned back against Baldo’s shoulder.
Why not, Katherine thought. She sat with her back to a pillar, closed her eyes, let sleep take her.