Chapter 11. John is having fun.
John got out of the room by means of flying, just how the Adventurous had predicted. Of course, he did that before, without flying, but that time did not really count, because he had to spend his entire time running away from the Tenacious and did not really get anywhere. This time, when John appeared on the upper floor, he noticed that there was a door. He was pretty sure it was not there before when he and Bradley knocked out the Unknowns, otherwise why would they not use it and instead run in that dark corridor on the other side?
John walked towards the door and swung it open. He was outside of the building! That was not quite outside yet, because he found himself standing on a patio, and there were no stairs leading down. But that was not a problem for John at all, because now he could fly! He jumped off the patio and flew away from the building up over the city. At first he saw bunch of other buildings like the one he left, but after some time he noticed that he was flying over a park with patches of trees and open spaces where there were different attractions. And a bunch of kids were down below, too!
Spotting a place that had a roller coaster and water slides, John successfully landed in the middle. He looked around for a place where they were selling tickets. He still had the money in his pocket, and more in the bag in his room that he forgot he had. But now he remembered that unlike Bradley and Megan he took a lot of money, and now he could have lots of fun. He soon saw the booth, approached it and bought tickets. Yes, they were indeed sold for the money that he had in his pocket. John was surprised the booth was manned by another boy of his age, but not that much surprised, because he began to get used to it. If everybody in this world were the same age, he reasoned, it was natural that they would have common jobs like this since someone had to do them. John wondered whether there was a requirement to go to a regular school where they taught math and all that stuff, besides flying, because this was in the very end of his to-do list. He reasoned that they more likely didn’t have such a school because everybody was the same age and, therefore, couldn’t teach each other.
All day long John had fun. There were also some attractions where it was necessary to be able to fly, and John had the most fun riding those. One of them, for example, lifted John high up into the air and dropped off. Then John could free-fly for as long as he wanted and then gained control by regular flying to land. John went on that ride at least five times. Another one would speed up on a horizontal line and then project him out of the seat so that he would for quite a bit keep flying forward on inertia, and only then would have to use his ability to fly to safely get down.
John went home only when it became totally dark. The park was empty, and the last ride closed. John was thrown off of it and, instead of landing, flew home. With great difficulties did he find his patio, because there were many of them, and they all looked the same. Then he sneaked into the building, and right away saw the handle in the ceiling where his room was underneath. There was no corresponding handle for Bradley’s room. John opened his ceiling door and flew down to his room. Immediately he started banging on Bradley’s wall, and when Bradley replied, he told him all about what he did that day.
“…And then I went on this other ride that would throw you off in the air, and you could fall for a while until you decided to take control and start flying; I went on it many times! You should really learn to fly and join me a few days from now. Flying is not hard! When you succeed for the first time, it’s a very smooth learning curve afterwards. Honestly, when I learned to fly upward, my body sort of started doing it by itself…”
John wanted Bradley to join him the next day, but he was sure it would take some time to convince Bradley. He took all these things way too seriously. Even if Megan were right, the skill of flying could also have positive sides. For one, it would give all of them an ability to escape from these rooms, and this was the first step for getting out of the World of the Unknowns. Secondly, John was not sure the World of the Unknowns was so bad that one had to escape from it. If he found out that after flying test he could learn more cool things, he might consider staying here. Either way, Bradley and Megan should take it easier. John kept talking for a while, but was not getting any positive feedback from Bradley. He almost decided to quit and go to bed, when Bradley suddenly agreed to start practicing the next day. John cheered up and went to bed happy.
In the middle of a very interesting dream about flying John heard several bangs on the wall and hastily jumped out of bed making a loud noise. He figured, Bradley was practicing flying and had some questions.
“It sounds like I woke you up, but this is very important”, said Bradley. “What is in your backpack?”
“Money…” John responded, taken aback by the nature of the question.
“Are you sure? Can you check real quick?” Bradley insisted.
John got worried – why was Bradley in doubt? He returned to his bed and opened his backpack, which he stored deep under the bed next to the wall. Money was still there.
“It’s still here,” he reported. “Why? Is yours gone?”
“No, but I have weird things happening with the content of my backpack. I’ll tell you later,” Bradley said. “Besides money, is there anything else in your backpack?”
“No, just money,” John responded. “What’s happening? Is it safe to keep money there?”
“Probably…” Bradley said, uncertainty in his voice, as if he didn’t want to be responsible should the money be gone the next day.
“Come on, what’s going on? What is in YOUR backpack?” John asked, completely forgetting about Bradley’s flying issues. Now he was more worried that he would lose the money and would no longer be able to pay for the rides.
“Books,” replied Bradley. “But they are not the same as our school books I took to school that day. They are all about the world of the Unknowns. History, science, Quercutese, math…”
“What, what?..” interrupted John. He did not understand “Quercutese”, but Bradley repeated, “You know, all the stuff about the world of the Unknowns”.
“I got that part, but what did you say after that?”
“The subjects,” explained Bradley, “History of the Unknowns, Science with their weird laws of physics where there is no time, Quercutese…”
The word sounded intriguing but did not make any sense to John. “Hold on, what is that?” he asked, interrupting Bradley.
“It’s their language, but I’m not sure why they have a textbook on it. Is it not your impression that they speak English?”
“Of course they speak English,” John agreed. “Hold on…” He thought for a while. He was so busy with rides that he did not have time to make acquaintances or pay attention to what languages people around him were speaking. However, he clearly remembered that some people spoke languages other than English. He did not give it any thought, because in America people also spoke different languages and it was nothing unusual. “You know what,” he said to Bradley, “I heard other languages today in the park. I don’t distinguish them very well, though. I thought they were just some of our common languages, like Spanish or Chinese…”
“Did you notice what kind of people were in the park?” asked Bradley. “Did they look like the Unknowns or like normal people?”
“Do you see any difference?” John asked, surprised. “To me they look totally alike”.
“They look alike,” Bradley agreed, “But they behave differently. Haven’t you noticed?”
But John responded negatively. He honestly did not perceive anything different or strange about the kids in the park today. Everyone was happy about what they were doing and totally enjoyed themselves, but so did he. Given what they were doing, it was natural.
“Ok, thank you, John,” Bradley said, finishing up with the conversation. “Time to go to sleep now.”
“Hold on, you haven’t told me yet, do you think it’s safe to keep money in the backpack? Is there a chance it will turn into books?”
??
?I don’t know,” Bradley replied. “I wouldn’t be completely sure it wouldn’t happen, though I believe the chances of it happening are low since you still have the money,” he said honestly. “However, if the money does convert into books, you will have fun reading them, so it’s not a catastrophe.”
“Speak for yourself,” John said, hoping that Bradley was right and nothing would happen to the money since nothing had happened yet. “Good night.”
Just in case, John decided not to keep the money in the backpack anymore. He stuffed the money under his mattress. This way, in his opinion, there would be room for books in the backpack should they appear, and the money would be safe. After that, he went to bed.
[back to top]