A Mirror of Desire

Chapter 10: A Gathering

"C'mon, Teek!" Mabel urged, shoving through some heavy brush and letting it lash back.

"Mom and Dad will kill me if they find I sneaked out," T.K. muttered. "Where are we going? It's so dark! Ouch! That slapped me right in the face!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but if you'd come up beside me here, we'd shove the branches aside together! And don't worry about your folks. They're snoring away. I mean, it's after eleven! All parents everywhere are in bed by this time!"

The pine branches rustled as T.K. pulled up beside her. "OK, I guess. When are you going to tell me where we're headed?"

"It's like a wishing well," Mabel told him, reaching and fumbling a little to hold his hand. "My brother told me about it. Well, part of it, but I eavesdrop a whole lot! He an'—well, a girl—made a wish, and it's made them fall madly in love!"

"Uh—I don't think we need to make a wish for that," T.K. said nervously.

"Not a wish to fall in love, silly!" Mabel said. "Just to be happy! That's all. Heck, we can handle the rest of it ourselves! Huh? Huh? Huh?" She gave him a sharp nudge with the old elbow.

They were following, roughly, the same path that Wendy and Dipper took when they ran the nature trail, but since Mabel, though very active, was not into running as exercise and had never traveled that route, they had missed the path and instead the two of them were going overland, uphill and down again, wading through tall grass and patches of brush higher than their heads. The vegetation brushed against them and the long grass soaked their jeans with dew. "Are you sure you know where it is?" T.K. asked.

"I know exactly where it probably approximately is!" Mabel shot back. "And even if we get lost, so what? It doesn't matter so long as we're in this thing together. We're having an adventure, Teek! Uh—by the way, I never asked. Does it bother you that I'm callin' you Teek?"

"Huh? No, I like it!" T.K. gave her hand a little squeeze. "Nobody's ever had a nickname for me before. Well, if you don't count 'Four Eyes' and 'Dorky McDorkface.'"

"I don't count those at all," Mabel said. "Look, I got it, we can wish for you to have a great career as a movie director! And if it's not real magic, so what? It's like, inspiration! You make the wish an' it inspires you to work hard to make it come true, right? You know perspiration is ninety-nine percent inspiration! Or something. Dipper's said that before, I think, or something a whole lot like that. I don't always pay close attention to Dipper."

"Uh, OK, I think I know what you mean—oof! Wait! Wait! Gopher hole! Darn it! Hang on, Mabel, I have to get my shoe out!"

He knelt and stuck his hand down into the hole that he'd stepped in. Then he jumped back, falling on his butt. In the glare of Mabel's flashlight, a Gnome with a crumpled red cap popped out, holding a blue sneaker and rubbing his head. He glared at T.K. and gabbled at him in Gnomish, waving both arms, before hurling the shoe with all his might. It went about six inches and plopped down on the ground. The still-grumbling Gnome withdrew underground again.

Mabel held her flashlight beam so T.K. could see how to put the sneaker on and re-tie the laces. "I'm having a hard time getting my head around those Gnomes," he said. "You see them a lot downtown now. Never used to! Nobody bats an eye at them anymore, but they're weird, man!"

"They're a civic treasure!" Mabel insisted. "What other town has a population of little bad-tempered pointy-headed guys with beards? Besides, they're personal friends of mine. I nearly married a thousand of them when I was twelve! But there was no chemistry between us, I swear. They meant nothing to me! Well, very little. Not like you and me, Teek!"

T.K.—Teek, as he was beginning to prefer to be called—gave her a shy smile, shading his eyes from her flashlight. "Just a passing summer romance, then?"

"Yeah. Come to think of it, more like a summer horror movie, really."

"I thought the Gnomes lived up in trees or something."

"The civilized ones do. They used to all live underground, Dipper says. Ages ago. Now just the feral ones make burrows. Got your shoe back on? Forward! I think it's this way."

And not so far away—

"The air feels funny," Dipper said, sniffing like an apprehensive rabbit. "Tingly."

Wendy put her hand on his arm and gripped it as if she were nervous. "I know, man. Electric, like right before a big storm."

"Yeah."

Then she was in his head:

—Dipper, this has been botherin' me, man. What did you mean when you said if we, you know, really got together you wouldn't even finish high school?

—Well, you know, I'd have to support you somehow. I mean, we can't just start, you know, doing it. Neither of us would feel right about that. We were toying with the idea of marriage—

—yeah, it'd hafta be that, or for sure, my dad would take an axe to you—an' me both, probably. So—

—so I'd have to get a job to support us, and I'm fourteen! Working at a burger place, or whatever, you know, minimum wage.

—Soos would hire us both on.

—Sure, and Grunkle Stan would back him with enough money to pay us so Soos wouldn't lose on the deal, but do we want that? Depending on our friends and family instead of making it on our own?

—No. No. You're right, man. That would majorly suck.

—Yeah, and anyhow, Wendy, I want to do it all the right way when the time comes! I want us to be off to a good start, and I want us to have a real future ahead when we do it. I mean, we could go to college together—

—Hah! As if I could get admitted to one!

—You know you could!

—Aw, Dip, they'll look at my school records—

—your school records won't matter. Not when they learn about you, not when they see you—

—What makes you think that?

Dipper gave her a punch on the arm—really the lightest of taps—and said firmly, "Because you're a flippin' Corduroy!"

After a few moments of silent walking, Wendy said, "You know what, Dip? You're a smart guy, an' I know you can prob'ly get into any university in America. But hear this, man: whether it's Backupsmore or Harvard or even West Coast Tech, I solemnly swear I will get admission and I'll be an A student, too, just so's I can be with you. And you're right! I am a Corduroy! In your face, College Board!"

"I love you so much right now!"

"I know, dude. Tell me about it later! 'Cause at the moment, well—"

Let's face it. People in love stop and kiss. A lot. But soon they resumed their walk.

And only a few moments later, off in the deep night, they saw a dark circle ahead in the distance, barely visible in the very pale light of the stars.

They grabbed hold of each other's hand. And together they thought, This is it.

They were almost there.

Ford led the way, and Lorena—well, she sort of shambled after him, frequently catching her toes on roots or nearly blundering into a tree. Ford called back, "That was a very good idea of yours, to check the aerial survey maps in the library! Good thing you have a key!"

"Thank you, Ford. Or—would you mind if I called you 'dear?'"

"Oh, yes, certainly, that's customary," Ford said. "Very well. Yes, I'd like that—darling."

"Dear, your hand is so big and warm and strong."

"Yes, polydactyly will do that. Ah! There's our landmark ahead. I'll bet we saved at least twenty minutes by parking behind the sawmill and cutting through the woods rather than going around by way of the Mystery Shack."

"I wish we could see better."

"Oh, wait, I forgot." Ford stopped and reached over to switch on Lorena's night-vision goggles. "I meant to power these up earlier. There! Is that better?"

"My, yes! Very clear. Except everything's sort of green! But at least I can see now!"

"I have flashlights, too, if we need them. Now look: There's the creek that forms a break in the woods. We just follow the direction of flow until the land opens up. Past the edge of the forest we'll come upon a low grassy hill, no trees and a very gentle slope, and once we climb that, we should be within a few hundred feet of the pond. It's in sort of a dale just on the far side of the first hill."

"You lead," Lorena said. "I'll follow."

"I'm still not sure what we're going to do when we get there," Ford admitted.

"Well—I can't speak Ancient Greek, but I did memorize an English transcription of a song written in the eighth century BC by Hesiod. It might or might not work. It's called 'Na kalései tis Nýmfes.'"

"Hmm. 'An Incantation for Nymphs.'"

"You speak Greek?"

In a modest tone, Ford said, "Well, a smattering. I'm really only fluent in French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Scots Gaelic, but I can converse after a halting fashion in Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek—sorry, I'm sounding like a boastful jerk."

"No, you're not—mon amour!"

"J'taime," he said, smiling in the green-lit darkness. "Lorena, I hear Paris is a delightful place for a honeymoon!"

They topped the hill and gazed down. "Oh, my," Lorena said softly.

"We may already be too late," Ford replied, staring at what was happening below.

"Here we are," Wendy said. "OK, you naiad, or whatever. You tossed back our second and third pennies, so we came back when there's no moon. We have to ask you for a favor."

"We have to talk," Dipper said to the still water. "Please."

"The wish, like, came true too well," Wendy explained. "We're almost one person, the two of us. But it's not workin' out so good for us!"

"We don't want to fall out of love, though. We just need your help!"

"Dude," Wendy said, "I think something's happenin'!"

The pool became visible, glowing a soft yet penetrating blue—an ice-blue, an aurora-blue, the full moon shining on snow, or the moonlight filtering into the depths of the sea. The color slowly pulsated, lighting up the whole area, silvering Wendy's and Dipper's faces. "It's so beautiful," Dipper said.

"Look—it's moving!"

The pool was not rippling exactly—more like bounding up and down in very slow motion, a trampoline surface on which something invisible and huge leaped up and down, up and down. Now the center bulged, now it sank.

—Dude, it's almost like—

—something's trying to bust out—

—oh, man, there's like a woman—

—made of water—

—and light—coming up from the depths!

She rose from the radiance, a being human in form, tall and slim and shimmering, utterly transparent, glowing from within, like a living crystal statue, or one carved from living ice—and yet she was liquid, her features shimmering and fluid.

She was beautiful and nude—

—Dipper, man! Seriously, is that the FIRST thing you notice?

—with shapely breasts, a narrow waist, long graceful legs. Her hair was even longer than Wendy's, but it wasn't hair; rather it was a bubbly waterfall cascading down her back, clinging to her round buttocks, dripping down her thighs and audibly into the water. She had no . . . feet, or at least they did not show. Her ankles remained in the water.

She did not walk, but glided toward them, and stopped only a couple of feet away. If they took three steps to the water's very edge and she stretched out her arm, they could have touched her fingertips. She tilted her face to the left and right, her eyes open, no irises or pupils visible, but she clearly could see them. She smiled, and the smile had no threat in it, but a great gentleness.

—My children.

The words had not been spoken, but they shimmered in Wendy's and Dipper's minds, soft and motherly and reassuring. Dipper felt—well—awe. This being was more than human. She had ethereal beauty, and in her he sensed great force, sublime power.

He loved her!

Not as he loved Wendy, but with a kind of adoration. He almost wanted to fall on his knees and worship her—and, he felt sure, so did Wendy, but she seemed to be resisting—

—Don't do it, Dipper!

—and his knees locked. "I won't," he said aloud. "That would be wrong. Look, uh, Shining Woman—is it OK to call you that?"

—My name is Numina.

"Numina, we feel that you're greater and, and more powerful than we are. And we, uh, honor that. But please, take back the gift you gave us. We don't want to fall out of love—"

"Yeah, we don't want that, but sharing every thought, every feeling, well, humans aren't made for that! It's too much for us."

—Maybe taking back the wish can be done. But it could hurt you. It could cost you. One of you must retrieve the token.

"The penny, you mean?" Dipper asked.

"Oh, girl—uh, Numina, do you mean we have to, like, dive in and hunt for it?"

—You must seek it in the depths, grasp it, and return to this world with it. If you lose it—you can never return to the world of air.

"I got this," Dipper said, tossing his cap on the grass and pulling off his shirt.

"No way, dude! When you were assistant lifeguard I found out that you can hardly swim! I'm goin' in, Numina!"

—It may well hurt you.

"Wendy, you can't! If it's dangerous—wait, how will it hurt?"

—You have touched transcendence. Without it, a part of your heart may forever ache.

Wendy asked, "But it won't, like, make us not love each other, right?"

—That is up to you. I will say only that true love may save you, for it alone makes hearts whole. How true is your love, my children?

Wendy stripped to bra and panties. "True enough that I'm goin' in. Dipper, no!"

He was holding her wrist, and he had stripped to his undershorts. "We go together," he said firmly.

—Then be brave, my children.

Dipper took a deep breath, he and Wendy made just one small step to wade into the water—

—and immediately plunged in over their heads. As they dropped, Dipper thought—but he wasn't sure—that he heard both Grunkle Ford and Mabel both shouting his name.

Then water and silence filled his ears, and he and Wendy had transformed into figures of shimmering light, like Numina, and they floated in a world of illuminated men and women in pairs, who smiled at them and beckoned them to sink ever deeper, ever deeper.

Down.

Down.

Down into darkness.