Chapter 2
“How did you two get in here?” the man demanded then looked past them and closed his eyes. “I forgot to close the door.”
He was enormously tall and his bones seemed to stick out everywhere. No one would say he was a bit good looking. In fact, he was rather ugly with a long, narrow stern face and long pointed nose. His voice was different, too. They’d heard someone talk like that on the old British films their parents liked to watch. Why would he come all the way from England just to steal their dog?
Sean stared at the walls. “Why didn’t we see these walls till we got inside?”
“What do you think? They are invisible from the outside!”
Invisible? The children glanced at each other then looked back at the man. It must be the heat.
The man sat down at the table, picked up the teapot with one large, bony hand and looked at them. “Tea? Only one sandwich, I’m afraid. But, there’s probably just time for a sip or two of tea before the door slides shut. Not precisely sure when that will happen, so it’s probably best to move along. Off you go then.”
The children blinked several times as they transferred their eyes from the man to the teapot. “We don’t drink tea anyway,” Reece finally said.
He was about to take a sip from his cup, but lowered it as he stared at them in amazement. “Don’t drink tea?! Good heavens! Hardly bears thinking!” he said then added. “I say, you had better be off before the door closes.” He took a sip of tea before shoving the rest of his sandwich into his mouth. Chewing once or twice he swallowed the entire thing in one large gulp, then stared through them with unblinking dark brown eyes while his skinny legs and knobby knees jigged up in down in constant motion.
The children turned around then looked at each other. Door? There was just an opening, but there wasn’t any door.
Having finished his sandwich, the man jumped up, opened a small door in the wall and took out a dish of ice cream and a spoon.
The children looked past him, but there was nothing else in there except the dish of ice cream and spoon. That cupboard had to be a freezer; otherwise the ice cream would be melted. Yet why have only a dish of ice cream and a spoon in it?
Bear nudged Sean’s hand whining pitifully. Sean squared his shoulders and began to speak. “It’s like this. You stole our dog, and we’re. . . we’re taking him home now.”
The man jumped as his eyes focused on them. “Still here?! I thought I told you to leave before the door slides shut!” The man took another bite of ice cream before adding. “My dear boy, I am most awfully sorry you feel that way about the dog, but you two simply must clear out before it’s too late! In any case, I am not in the habit of stealing things. I am simply borrowing him.”
Reece spoke with the courage of one who stands three feet from the opening. “Does Bear look like a library book to you?”
Sean shot a quick look at Reece. This was a side of his sister he’d never seen. Before he could add to her comment, he heard the swish of something behind them.
“Well, that’s torn it!” The man glared at the children then swallowed his final bite before uttering a disgusted sigh. “But, see here, if I’m not very much mistaken, I did warn you three times, and now I’m stuck with the two of you!” He picked up the luncheon dishes and placed them in the freezer, but the freezer was so small that he had to rearrange everything before he could shut the door. Once the door was securely fastened, he pressed a button beside it.
‘Torn it’? “I didn’t hear anything tear,” Sean said, while Reece remained focused and mystified by the freezer door. Why did he put his dirty dishes in the freezer?
Another disgusted sigh. “No, no, you silly boy, it is just a phrase meaning that you’ve upset my plans, rather like. . .when you’ve spilt milk on your Sunday best and say well that’s torn it. Now, I’ve got to change clothes before I leave the house. Except, in this case, I’m stuck with you.”
“We’re going to leave and take Bear home, so you are definitely not stuck with us.” Sean grabbed hold of Bear’s collar, and they turned to leave.
Another sigh escaped his lips. “Are you totally deaf or didn’t you hear that door slide shut behind you?” He patted his stomach a few times then returned to the panel of blinking lights.
Really, this man was the most easily disgusted person they’d ever met. He was continually sighing as though these two children were such a bother when he was the one who stole their dog.
Sean looked over his shoulder then turned to look over the other one. What happened to the opening? He leaned closer to Reece “Um, I don’t see the opening where we came in. Maybe there was a door.”
Reece transferred her gaze from the odd little freezer to the space behind them. “But we didn’t hear anything click shut.”
“I know, but it’s not there now. How are we going to get out of here?”
“We only took a couple of steps inside. It couldn’t just disappear.”
They placed their hands on the wall and stepped several feet in both directions, but everything was discouragingly solid. Bear followed them sniffing and scratching at the wall.
It was definitely awkward asking this tall stranger what happened to the opening they’d just walked through. He obviously thoroughly disapproved of them as it was, so he couldn’t object to their leaving. But, would he let them take Bear.
“We don’t know who you are, and we’re not supposed to talk to strangers,” Reece began. “So, I think, I mean, we absolutely must go home now!”
“Go home you say? If only that were possible.” The stranger glanced away from the many lights his hands fluttered over. “But if it would ease your frantic nerves to know who I am, my name is Professor. . .just call me Professor. Now, I’m no longer a stranger.” When he saw the children open their mouths, he added. “You needn’t bother telling me your names, because I shan’t remember them.”
At seven, Sean simply refused to allow tears to crowd his eyes. “Why isn’t it possible to go home?”
The disgusted sigh again. “You two really are the absolute limit. You did hear the door slide shut?”
Well, the opening was gone now, so they nodded, but his back was to them, so Reece stated the obvious. “Can’t you just open it again?”
“The reason I said ‘that’s torn it’, is because the door most definitely cannot be opened again!”
Reece blinked several times. “You mean never, ever open again?”
“Of course, it will open again! Once we get there.”
Reece thought for a second. They were in the middle of the woods, where could they possibly go. “Is this a special kind of van or something?”
The Professor didn’t honor that question with so much as a disgusted sigh.
Sean gathered his courage and asked. “You’re not kidnapping us or anything are you? Because, that’s against the law.”
At this, the Professor turned to look at the two children. Well, it was more like a glare than a look. “I shouldn’t think I would be inclined to kidnap two miniature beings I know so very little about and don’t particularly like.” Having said that, he turned back towards the panel of lights and added. “In any case, breaking the law holds very little appeal for me, because I don’t particularly like the idea of being incarcerated.”
An uncomfortable silence settled in for a full sixty seconds while the children digested what the Professor had said. What did incarcerate actually mean? At this point, they were afraid to ask. They figured it must be bad since he didn’t like the idea, and if people who broke the law were incarcerated, maybe it had something to do with jail. At the same time, they’d never been around someone who so obviously disliked them. There just had to be a way out.
“Is there another door?” asked Sean softly.
“No.”
No other door.
Sean looked up at Reece. “I think this is why we’re not supposed to leave the yard without telling anybody.”
Reece nodde
d her head absently. “It’ll open when we get somewhere, so where are we going? Not too far I hope.”
“I have set my controls for a specific destination and time, but one is never entirely sure or at least not positively sure how things will turn out on the test run. The old equipment had become a bit unreliable, you see. Well, dicey at times, so I’ve developed something new.”
The children looked at each other with deep frowns etched between their eyebrows. ‘Test run?’ ‘Dicey?’ ‘Developed something new’?
“Well, Mama’s baking cookies,” Reece said. “So you need to get us back by then or she’ll be worried.”
“My dear girl. . .”
Really this was getting old. “My name is Reece, and this is my brother, Sean.”
“My dear girl, I can hardly make a promise over something as insignificant and trivial as cookies. In any case, you needn’t worry about time.”
“Why?” they both asked.
“Because time does not change in the outside world once the door closes.”