“Which ones are our students?” I asked.
“The blue one.”
The BLUE one? Where was the blue?
“Well.” Fairy interrupted. “There are over 1000 different shades of blue in TUH.”
“WHAT?” My jaw dropped. “How am I going to find the correct shade of blue!!!???”
“Don’t panic.” He laughed. “That’s why I’m here, to assist you”
Knowing that I would not be going through this alone made me I feel a little better.
“The periphery area is the place you’re going to search.” Secretary continued.
“How about here? What’s in here?” I pointed to the center of the map. The reason I asked was because I noticed that only the border areas of the map had building and structures and the center was conspicuously empty and featureless.
“Those areas are for the non-students. You won’t be going there.”
That looks pretty boring anyway - I rolled up my eyes.
“You can turn your hand over now.” Secretary said.
The 3D Map immediately vanished and the card detached itself from the glove.
“Keep the MAP in your pocket. And, you’ll need one more item here.” She placed a pin on my chest. “This is an Alarm. It will remind you of Earth Time. When you hear the first beep it means you have 3 hours left. The second beep, 2 hours left and the third beep…”
“1 hour left.” I sighed and looked down at it. “What if I can’t… What’s going to happen?”
“Kid.” Fairy placed one hand on my shoulder. “It’s your first time in TUH, your mission is to find your students and bring them back to Earth. There will be different missions or lessons for you every time you come back, so don’t treat it like it’s your last. I’m sure you can complete this mission, just believe in yourself.”
“There are over 1000 different shades of blue in TUH.”
13
TUH Station
In the orphanages, you would always come across some troubled kids. Some of them had bruises on their faces and bodies, cuts and scars on their arms and the look of anger and sadness in their eyes. They rarely spoke to anyone but you could hear their tears and screams at night when everyone was asleep. But I remembered this one little boy, named Eric, who arrived at the orphanage with bruises on his arms and legs, broken teeth and messy hair. Unlike other kids, he loved to talk and told me he got all those bruises from his parents. I asked him why they did that to him, he just said ‘Punishment’. I asked him what he did to deserve such punishment, he said ‘Nothing’.
I was punished by Christine once. I went out to ride my new red bike and lost count of time. Just when she was about to call the police to report a missing child I came home. She burst out crying, and didn’t talk to me for two days until she saw me struggle to dump my new bike into the trashcan. She scolded me for being irresponsible as she took out the bike.
Mr. Golden was also punished by me once. This one time I found my brand new pair of pink shoes in the backyard, chewed up pretty badly. I didn’t want Annie or Morris to know, so I just started wearing long pants to cover my feet. I was mad and didn’t play with Mr. Golden for few days, until one afternoon he came back from somewhere with a pair of baby shoes in his mouth and left them at my feet.
In the white room, Fairy and I stood in front of one of the doors, while Secretary tapped her fingertips on it as if typing in some sort of code
“You’re all set.” She said to me. “Since it’s your first time, you might not be comfortable with the bright lights, close your eyes when the door opens. Good luck and see you soon.”
The door became transparent and the incredible brightness from the other side blinded me almost immediately. I lowered my head and covered my eyes with my hands. Fairy pushed me from behind as I slowly inch forward. At about the fifth step, I felt an unusual but warm sensation flowing into my body, starting from my feet and ascending inch by inch to the top of my head. It was like a pair of healing hands slowing massaging away the stress and the pain in my muscles. My body was loose and relaxed, I felt like a new newborn baby. When the bright lights gradually soften, I was able to open my eyes and an enormous futuristic landscape appeared before me with a variety of different creatures walking about.
“Fairy, where is it? ... Fairy? FAIRY?”
Fairy was gone. I looked behind me and saw a countless numbers of doors. There were so many I didn’t know which one I came through from.
“Geez… that grandpa…” I muttered.
“Who’s Grandpa? Me?”
I spun around, but still didn’t see Fairy.
“Hey, I’m here!”
In front of me, floating in midair was a little creature, no bigger than a soda can. Its body was blue and shape like a peanut. It had small bright eyes and four small sphere-like appendages. On top of its head were long, colorful and fluffy feathers that looked like flower petals. Each one of them moved up and down gently in a different rhythm.
“Are you…FAIRY?” I asked, staring at this bizarre creature.
“Yes!” Its body gleamed.
“But… you… you didn’t look like this…” I pointed to general direction of where we came through.
“It’s what I’m supposed to look like. I change my appearance depending on what planet I’m on. When you met me on Earth, I was in human form because you saw me through your human eyes.”
“Umm?” I scratched my head. “So, you’re saying if other aliens visited Earth, we wouldn’t be able to tell?”
“Well, it’s because I work for TUH that’s why I have this power.” Fairy’s body glowed brighter to show its pride. “But if an alien, that doesn’t work for TUH visit Earth, you might not see them in their original form either, you might not even see them at all. It’s simply because every creature is created with different elements, and they’re not all visible to human eyes.”
Ah, maybe that was why I couldn’t see air but Robot could.
Behind us one of the doors opened and a cactus-like creature in a red and blue uniform stepped out and gave us a stare before walking off.
“That’s not from our office right?” I asked. “I don’t remember which door is ours, there are so many…”
“You don’t have to remember the exact door. Any of these doors you see will take you back where you came from. It’s set up that you can’t sneak onto another planet. That’s why everyone first starts off at the Operation Center.” Fairy said.
“Very interesting.” I tilted my head slightly.
“So Fairy, where is it? This is where I can find the other students?”
“No. This is the Station. We’ll have to take a bus to the school.”
A BUS? Really? A high-tech place like this still needs to use buses? - I sniggered.
“You don’t really have to take a bus to get to the school.” Fairy must have heard my thoughts. “The station’s main purpose is to make the student feel welcome and more at home. All the students are very young, TUH wants them to feel like they’re on a fun field trip, to enjoy the time here and not worry too much about passing or failing. It’s HOME for them.”
“I see, because without the students, their planets will die.” I nodded.
“It works the other way around too. Without a planet, the creatures and beings you see here will have no place to live and die. In fact a planet doesn’t need to have anybody living on it in order for it to survive. You can think of a planet as a living being. TUH just helps provide a better living environment for the beings on their planet.”
“Oh…” I sighed.
“Why do you sound so sad?” Fairy asked.
“I was just thinking about all the pollution on my planet and how badly people treat the earth, I read the news… Now I feel really bad.”
“Not only that. All the fighting, killing and wars can damage a planet too. That’s why we hope that the students can learn how to love and help their planets from TUH. You’re all like the cells in a human body, i
f they are stronger, healthier and work together then the body would live better life.”
I nodded quietly again.
Fairy and I made our way to the area where everyone was waiting for the bus, but all the lines were so long that I couldn’t see what was going on ahead of me.
“Seems like we’ll have to wait for a long time.” I shrugged.
“No, we won’t.” Fairy gleamed.
He was right, the line moved pretty fast and soon there were only about 10 students ahead of us.
On the ground, at the end of each line was a large sliver circle where these white rectangular objects continuously rose from underneath it. It must be the bus Fairy was talking about. These objects rose and slid around the circle to let passengers in and out. It was typically the size of school bus, but it changed depending on the size of the students and how many of them wanted to get on. Once the object was filled with passengers, it flew upwards until it completely disappeared into the ceiling.
“Hey, Fairy… the bus has no door, so we just walked in like that?” I was very afraid to make a fool of myself in front of these aliens.
“FIRST TIME, Huh?”
An incredibly tall bamboo-like creature standing in front of us in line turned around and spoke to me in a rustling sound. It had no face, no features.
“Er… yes.” I nodded timidly.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. WELCOME TO TUH!” Suddenly, it produced a screech and five sharp, knives-like appendages sprung open from the top of its head, like switchblades. I was so frightened I almost fainted.
“That’s how they say hello.” Fairy whispered to my ear while I was still frozen like a statue. Then I thought about Robot and wondered if punching someone in the back or slapping their faces were their way of saying hello.
“Hey, that was a Key Holder.” A smaller stone-like student spoke to Bamboo in a very soft voice, but I could still hear it.
“Do you have their kind in your school?” He threw a quick glimpse at me, although I couldn’t be sure because it had no face or eyes.
“No.” Bamboo said.
“Me neither, I wonder what their planet looks like.”
There were about 20 students in our bus. Looking from inside out, the wall of the bus was completely transparent.
“It’s moving already? Wow, it’s so quiet.” I pressed my nose and hands against the wall of the bus and watched the other passenger become smaller and smaller as they wait for their turn.
“You won’t feel a thing even if it spins.” Fairy said.
“Really? Amazing… But I like roller coaster. You know what that is?”
“We have something better than that.” It responded in an arrogant tone while its body gleamed.
As the bus flew through the ceiling, I could see that the Station was oval, resembling an egg. Outside of it was a vast city with an assortment of futuristic looking buildings, each connected to one another with these glowing and flickering lines.
With a rapid rotation of our bus, the interior wall turned from transparent into a solid white making it impossible to see outside.
“You like it so far?” Fairy asked.
“Of course! Everything is so cool in here!” I nodded. “But I have a question, it seems like everyone understands each other’s language. Have they all passed the test like I did?”
“Oh no, they understand each other because they all went to the Operation Center first and one of the surgeries gives each students the ability to understand different languages. However, this ability can only be activated in TUH and is not available to them when they go back to their own planets. Key Holders are different though, you took and passed the three tests, so you can understand any language wherever you go.”
“Awesome!” I said with pride. Having gained this ability, it made the six months journey to TUH valley seemed totally worth it.
“Alright, since we still have a bit of times before our arrival, I’ll give you a brief introductions to TUH, how about that?”
I nodded.
“You might still be wondering what TUH really is. It’s not a physical place, because time and space doesn’t exist here. That’s why you don’t age. Everything goes back to a pure and simple state, what I like call ZERO.”
“ZERO?” I repeated.
“Yes. When you are in ZERO, you’re more flexible; you’re filled with more creativity, imagination and energy. You’re not polluted with negativity and constraints. That’s why TUH picked little kids because their minds are closer to ZERO.”
“Because it’s easier to teach them, right?” I interrupted.
“It’s not just about teaching or learning, it’s more about expressing their feelings and desires in a positive way. We choose the students based on what their fellow beings need on their own planet.”
“What they usually need?”
“Well, every planet is different. For Earth, you probably need something like technology, medicine, arts…”
“Other planets don’t need those?”
“It really depends. You remember the two students in front of us earlier? They were saying they don’t have your kind in their schools. Which means you and them might not have the same needs.”
I thought about what D said: “the shapeless thing you found here on Earth might not exist on another world.”
“It’s just so amazing to meet all these beings from other planets!” I grinned. “I always thought I would never see one. I bet all these students will never forget about their experience!”
“Unfortunately they’ll have to.”
“What do you mean?” I frowned.
“Students don’t stay here forever. When the time comes, they’ll have to graduate. There are two options once you graduate, one is to stay in TUH and become a full-time worker, but the catch is you can never go back to your own planet ever again. The other is to go back to you planet but all your memories of TUH will be erased.”
“What!? That’s not fair? How can you erase someone’s past?”
“Well… the thing is… if you can figure out how to be in ZERO even after you grow up, then you’ll remember your time here at TUH. It’s just most of the beings don’t.”
“How do I live in ZERO then?”
“Every moment is the same moment, everything is the same thing.”
“WHAT?” I narrowed my eyes.
“That’s the answer. You just have to figure it out yourself.”
I wish I could.
“Also, there are few rules in TUH that you should know. One, we don’t like negative emotions here. Human emotions such as anger, hate, jealousy, and sadness are just not needed here. A little negativity is tolerated because humans are born to have them. However, if it becomes too much it will only serve to pull you away from ZERO, to the point where you’ll not to able to do well in TUH or do anything meaningful to help your planet. So, if students display too much negative emotion, then there’s a possibility that they’ll be dismissed from TUH. Of course we’ll do everything within our power to fix it first, because we don’t want them to bring their negativity back to their planets.”
“But Fairy, I think I’m angry and sad all the time… I can’t help…” I shrugged.
“You need to learn to detach yourself from those negative emotions. You can think about something that makes you happy or you can imagine a dream or wish that makes you happy and look forward to it becoming true.”
“A happy dream? A happy wish? Okay, I’ll try next time. But hey, I don’t get it, if TUH is full of happiness and there are no negative emotions why would anyone want to leave after they graduate?”
“Because there’s another rule I haven’t told you about yet. “
“What’s that?”
“You can’t fall in love or have a relationship in TUH.”
“Fall in love? We’re just kids!” I giggled.
“Well, just because you don’t grow physically doesn’t mean you don’t grow emotionally. This rule is made for t
he Tuher, those who works in TUH. You have to know that intimate interactions and relationships are very important to every living being.”
“If it’s very important, why don’t you allow them to have one here? I always thought LOVE is a good thing. How can you deny it?”
“No, of course we don't deny LOVE. It’s one of the most valuable elements in the universe. But rules are rules, no falling in love”
“So you are saying no to marriage.”
“If that’s how you define love, then yes, no marriage.”
“Oh… I thought that’s what happened when two people fall in love. They get married and have babies.”
“I’ll let the adults on Earth teach you that part. But no, we don’t create newborns here. In TUH, we prefer equal love for all than just devoting yourself to a significant other. Love is a powerful emotion, if you can’t handle it sometimes it can be disastrous.”
“Disastrous!? That serious?”
“Well, there’s a legend…” Fairy lowered its voice as if it didn’t want anyone else to hear it.
“Long time ago, even before I was born, there was a time where TUH had no rules. There were two young, beautiful and talented workers here that fell in love with each other. Their love brought much joy to TUH and everyone was happier for it. Until one day, one of them foregoes a very important mission because they couldn’t bear to be apart. It caused tremendous catastrophe to a planet. In light of such destruction they were severely punished. One stayed in TUH and served, the other was sent to a cold, desolate and remote planet to live alone forever.”
“Wow… but at least they didn’t get killed. That’s the worst, right?” I asked.
“Killed? Kid, there are worst punishment than death; sometimes death is the easy way out. But to live each day knowing that you can never be with the one person you love the most that to me is the worst punishment of all. But hey, it’s just a legend, so I’m told. It might not even be true.”
At that moment I thought about the punishment I got from Christine for riding my bike out too late and how insignificant it was when compared to knowing that she was leaving me for good.
I also thought about Mr. Golden and how he chewed up my brand new pair of shoes. Looking back now, those shoes had become one of my favorite items, a reminder of the time I was with him.