A small beam of light shone through a crack
in the corner of the Susan Cooper Elementry. The light hit a large inflatable
elephant and reflected down below over one boy, the age of three.
The light shone over his head, and he put
down the puzzle he was working on, blinking, surprised. A four-year old
turned to watch and moved back, surprised. The rest of the boys and girls
stumbled over in a circle around the young boy and let their heads fall
to the ground.
The class recited a phrase around the young
boy.
'This is Merry, ruler of Light!'
And they went back to their toys. The boy
blinked and went to sleep.
3 years later...
'Too many!' 3-year old James slammed the puzzle
down into the floor and crawled over by Will.
'What?'
'Too many peices in that puzzle, thats what.
Just too many.' James sat fuming to himself. Will, having nothing much
to say to comfort a boy who had another Great Problem as the class had
to confront every day, slid over and picked up a book, and after struggling
to read the word 'lurching' threw it down and crawled into his corner.
Will was exactly 4 years, 11 months and 29
days old , and so was the oldest of the preschool class of 9. His corner
became his when the previous holder passed on through the Doors. Nobody
knew what happened when the Doors were opened and the 5-year old child
passed through, but it was said to be a whole other world through there.
It was this anticipation that made Will pass
on the jelly sandwich. He just wasn't hungry. His small mind was full of
unanswered questions. Why did people think going through there was good?
He was perfectly happy as he was, and wanted to remain that way. This 'kindergarten'
was a whole different game. Literally.
Craft time rolled around and Will forgot his
troubles dabbing glue on a star made from popsicle sticks and letting a
Teacher help him pour on glitter. He happily acted like himself until he
rolled into bed and his mother left the room, thinking him asleep.
But his eyes were wide open. What would the
world be like, the fateful hour when the time rolled around that it would
be five years since his birth? Well, he would just have to find out and
see for himself.
***
"Yes...Light to Light and Dark to Dark."
He hopped out if his bed alone and made his way downstairs. He looked around. Everyone was asleep, and it was his birthday. He climbed onto a couch that allowed him to look out the huge picture window in the front of the house.
It had snowed. Will was shocked. The world was totally different out there. Mounds of snow created trees and paths, forming a forest of snow and slush.
Will shivered.
He made his way across, pulling on a huge jacket of his father's. He felt comfortable enough. He was five, what could possibly go wrong out there? Five year olds weren't afraid of anything.
The snow reached up to his waist. Will moved the best he could across to the road where the plow had cleared it's winding path. He walked down the path for some time, wondering where he was going, and then stopped as he saw someone he knew: John Smith, a 5-year old who Will had known before he had passed through the Doors.
"G'Morning, John."
John had a small plastic screwdriver in his hand, which he was turning in random places in order to fix the tricycle before him. The tricycle was all sleek black, and never before had Will seen one like it. It had the words SD-46X written in silver on the side. John glanced at Will and grunted, as if he was disappointed in something.
"Morning. What are you doing here?"
"It's my birthday."
A new voice from a few steps away broke in. "A birthday...in the middle of winter... And you will be five."
Will observed the boy, six years of age, who stood before him clad in all black and a high collar. His hair was a wavy red, and his eyes were a cold blue. His eyebrows, far too dark and too close together for his age, frowned even while he smiled at Will, giving him a sense of darkness.
"Already learning to slip away from your parents, Will?"
"She's always complaining about some girls stealing her sugar cookies...she won't even notice I'm gone."
The boy frowned even deeper and yet all the same smiled brightly. He pulled a sugar cookie from his pocket and broke it in two. "Then, Will, share a peice of one with me, if you have never had the chance to have them yourself." He reached out invitingly.
Just then, John picked up his hammer and hit the handlebar, throwing snow from the bike up and around Will and the red haired boy. The boy blinked and rubbed his eyes. "Ouyay illway ieday for that, John," he said rapidly, and Will could not understand the first three words of his sentence. And as he took his trike and began to leave, the spell he had over Will was broken, and he saw the peril of sharing a cookie with him.
When he turned around, John was once again using his plastic screwdriver, this time on a all white tricycle Will had not noticed before-the color blended with the snow so well it was only slightly visible when you looked right at it.
John saw Will and looked up. "Just needs a minor wheel fix...you can ride her to your school if you want." The trike suddenly rolled, by itself, around and near to Will. Will stepped back. "Freaky."
John chuckled. "Dont mind that, it likes to scare people. Runs on double-Cs, by the way."
Will reached out to the white tricycle and pushed it forward and back. He was about to agree but he suddenly thought of something and dropped his hand. "...No..." he said breifly. "I think I am supposed to go alone."
John nodded and turned the trike upside down. Will began to walk off, a little disappointed. He had at least expected some word of farewell. As he thought that, he looked back and something made him forget about any goodbyes.
The wheels John was putting on were not like any he had seen before. The treads were in the shape of a circle, quartered by a cross.
A/N: And that's it for chapter one, I'm going back to bed.