Chapter 1. The substitutes.
When Bradley heard noises around him in the morning, his first feeling was that he would have to get up and get ready for work in the prison factory of the Unknowns. He felt relief seeing his brother Dustin’s smiley face instead of a sullen guard. He happily jumped out of bed. “We’re back, back, back!” his soul sang.
“You can’t imagine, Dustin, how glad I am to see YOU!” exclaimed Bradley. “Are we off to the airport now? I have lots of questions for you.”
Dustin’s smile changed into an expression of surprise, but Bradley ignored it. He suspected that Dustin was about to play a trick on him, but he did not care. It was better than the other alternative, should he not have escaped from the Unknowns. All these weeks of the same routine, making the parts for the rides, which the Unknowns had fun riding, working all day and falling to bed the minute they returned back to the prison cells. Bradley had a chill come down his spine at the mere recollection of what he and Megan were through after they stupidly entered the unidentified wooden building at the school ground, one sunny Monday morning before the start of class. The escape that he so longed for and expectations of happy reunion with the family. Instead, they were scolded for getting lost at a tour during a vacation, but still, still, he was back home in America!
“I already collected all your knickknacks and dumped them in the bag,” Dustin reported, his face now showing disappointment with his brother being such a lazy bum that he had to do all the work for him. “It took me ten minutes to locate everything. You may want to double check.”
“Bradley, Dustin!” Bradley heard his father call knocking at the door. “Let’s go for breakfast!”
Realization of the seriousness of whatever happened back home while he and Megan were in the World of the Unknowns started to dawn on Bradley during breakfast. It was conveniently served in the hotel, so they did not have to make a special trip to a restaurant. Bradley noticed that he and Megan were carefully watched all the way down to the fourth floor where the breakfast lounge was. When the elevator door opened, his father stretched his arm as if to prevent Bradley from rushing in without waiting for people to come out. Then he put an iron grip on his shoulder when they entered the lounge, as if Bradley were going to storm in without waiting to be seated. Bradley started feeling uneasy. He wanted to talk to Dustin; his older brother should have known what was going on. But starting this conversation with their parents right there seemed inappropriate to Bradley.
Bradley and Megan ordered huge omelets and pancakes to be made, and then they went back for more stuff, such as fried potatoes with vegetables and yogurt. Bradley felt like he could eat everything that was served after not eating anything in the World of the Unknowns for such a long time. To his surprise, he discovered that his stomach was not bottomless nonetheless. Once in a while he received disapproving looks from his parents. But since he behaved more or less civilly, not counting his insatiable appetite, he was left alone. Nobody said anything about previous day events, and Bradley decided he would wait till better times, too.
Not much happened during the flight, either. He and Megan were sitting in one row with their father, and Dustin across the aisle with their mother. Their father sat in the aisle seat, as if to prevent them, kids, from running around. Since Bradley fell asleep late last night, he dozed off and woke up only when the flight attendant announced that they were preparing for landing.
In the car, on the way home from the airport, Bradley took the uncomfortable middle seat in the back. He was hoping he would get a chance to talk to Dustin if his father turned on music and would not pay attention to their conversation. His first intention was to ask Megan to sit there, because of the concern he had that Dustin would taunt him. But then he decided to initiate a conversation with his brother, which he intended to continue when they got home. The father turned on music when they got off the freeway and started driving the neighborhood streets.
Silent the entire time since they left the airport, Bradley began in a quiet voice addressing Dustin, “So what did you do yesterday in Atlanta?”
Bradley took an approach of a long conversation, which started from some completely unrelated topic.
“What did YOU think we were doing?” Dustin gave him a surprised look. “Waiting for you to be found, of course,” he added. Then, changing his mind to be friendly, he went on, “Actually, Mom was hanging around the area where you were lost, there were some cool boutiques; and me and Dad went to Cyclorama. He wanted to see the Texas, too, as you know.”
“So you did go to see the General, did you?” Bradley asked in excitement that was quenched by realization that he, in fact, missed both.
“Of course we did, you were there, too,” Dustin raised his brow.
Bradley swallowed his objection, and went on with the conversation, “So how was the Cyclorama?”
“Pretty impressive. The canvas is huge, lots of soldier figures there, and they look like they are normal size, but, in fact, they are only half the height of an adult. The tour guide went over there and stood right next to one of them. But what I liked the most, was the video of the Great Train Chaise that I watched a couple of times while Dad was taking pictures of the Texas from all sides and angles.”
“What was so good about it?” Bradley inquired.
“Basically, they showed the entire story, as if interviewing the participants of the chase, James Andrews and William Fuller, after the event. They showed how the chase progressed from James Andrew breaking a few rails here and there, and then disconnecting the entire train car to send it rolling backward to slow down the pursuers. It culminated in them setting a car on fire and then disconnecting it from the locomotive, but Fuller managed to quench it. I think it may be historically inaccurate, but was sure impressive.”
“Yeah, my escape with James Andrews yesterday was not so dramatic,” Bradley began and promptly shut his mouth.
“What are you talking about?” Dustin turned towards him, concern written all over his face.
“Nothing…” Bradley said promptly.
The car entered the driveway, and, luckily for Bradley, the conversation ended. Bradley and Megan were told to carry their suitcases upstairs to their bedrooms. Bradley hoped that they would not be burdened with a bunch of chores that often was the case after a vacation, so that he and Megan could go over to their neighbor and friend John and see whether he was home. John entered the unidentified wooden structure at the school ground with them, and, to Bradley’s knowledge, was stuck in the World of the Unknowns up to this day. Of course, since he switched sides, he presumably did not suffer as much, but she should not be at home.
When Bradley and Megan carried their suitcases upstairs and were about to go inside their bedrooms to unpack, Bradley slowed down and turned to Megan. He said, “I’m glad to be home finally. The conversation with Dustin in the car didn’t go so well. I blew it in the end, as you might have heard. Now I’m hoping to get to John’s and see if he’s there. This may be a better chance to find out what’s going on. I bet, John’s missing, and we should tell his parents what happened.”
He heard his father call from the living room, “Bradley, Megan, unpack your bags, wash your clothes and put all the stuff away. Then dinner and bed time.”
Bradley was surprised that his father was ordering them to bed. It was only seven o’clock, and it was summer time and a Saturday!
“To bed? Why so early?” Bradley shouted. He slept on the plane and was now full of energy. His intentions to visit John might not become reality if their father put them to bed right away.
“So you can be on time for school on Monday, not like it was the week before vacation when you were late every single day,” the father shouted back.
“We had to have totally messed up if he is so strict about this,” Bradley thought. Oh, why, why, why did they have to go to summer school? Did they fail a bunch of classes in the end of the spring quarter? Maybe, teachers automatically entered bad grades beca
use he and Megan missed so many classes?
Bradley pushed the suitcase into his room with his foot and looked down the staircase into the living room. “Is this because we missed classes in spring?” he asked his father.
“Yes, that, too, and overall very poor performance, as you may guess,” his father responded.
“But we were not here!” Bradley exclaimed in frustration, unable to hold back the truth that he could not convey in a trustworthy manner.
“Tell your stories to somebody else,” the father objected. “Start unpacking now.”
Not that Bradley expected any other outcome from his burst, but he shrugged his shoulders in desperation and turned to Megan, who was standing right there all the time.
“Do you understand what’s going on?” Bradley whispered so that he could not be heard by their parents downstairs. “All this talk about us being lost for only a few hours… Dustin said we were there to see the General. I didn’t see it. Did you? Have you noticed Dad watched us like a hawk all day today? And now this… We know that we were not here, but if it weren’t us, then who was it? Let’s hurry and try to sneak out to John’s out of the garage when we start laundry.”
“What if John is there?” suggested Megan. “I mean, not John, but somebody else that everybody believes to be John.”
Bradley thought about this already, and it was even more important to find out if that were the case. He and Megan unpacked their suitcases as fast as they’d never done before and were shortly running downstairs to the garage with the laundry baskets. Bradley noticed a surprised look on his father’s face as he was passing through the living room.
“Did you see how he was looking at us this time? As if he were surprised to see us do what he told us to,” Bradley said to Megan as the garage door closed behind them. “I’m convinced someone was acting here on our part, and we have to figure out, who!”
Megan and Bradley quickly loaded the machine, pushed the button and peeked out of the garage door into the kitchen. The parents weren’t there.
“Lucky! They probably went to carry their stuff upstairs. Quick!” Bradley said, and he and Megan sneaked out of the house through the front door. They ran fast towards their neighbors’ yard, crossed it and banged on the door. John’s father appeared in the doorway, saw who it was and shouted, “You, again! How many times did I tell you not to come over anymore? John is not allowed to play with you!”
“Is he at least home?” began Bradley.
“He better be, otherwise he is in trouble,” John’s father growled. “Now you go home, too!”
“Are you sure that it is indeed John?” Bradley attempted to continue.
“Who else?!!!” John’s father roared. “Now go, otherwise I will call your parents!”
Bradley’s conviction of the substitutes was getting confirmed by the real data. John’s parents thought John was at home, while Bradley and Megan were convinced he was still in the World of the Unknowns.
“One more quick question, was John lost in the past three months, even for a short period of time?” Bradley dared to ask John’s father, even after the threat of his parents being called.
“No,” John’s father answered briefly and sternly stared at Bradley and Megan.
Bradley promptly turned around to prevent any further confrontation. He and Megan sneaked back into the house. In the living room their father was sitting down to read, and he said, “Very well, get ready for bed while laundry is running.”
“Ok, Dad,” said Bradley and Megan simultaneously.
They did not discuss it, but independently decided that given the current situation it would be wise to be obedient and respectful to all adults. This appeared to be the best strategy for them to remedy the situation. Whoever the substitutes were, after talking to John’s father, it became absolutely clear they did exist. Apart from identifying these substitutes, the key was to behave even better than Bradley and Megan did before the World of the Unknowns adventure started.