Chapter 11: In Another World

Alvino did not know what to expect. When Mo began to read, he had been preparing himself for a sudden jolt, pain, or something else unpleasant, but for a second, he hadn't even realized it had happened. It was like waking up suddenly from a doze when you hadn't known you were asleep. He looked around and saw that everything had disappeared, the river, the bent aspen, the fields outside Ombra, and had been replaced with a narrow path lined with trees. His parents, Doria, Miranda's mother, and the writer were nowhere to be seen. At this last thought, panic flooded through him, but it only lasted a second. As soon as he turned, he saw he was not alone.

Meggie, Miranda, Elinor, and Darius all looked dizzy and confused, but perfectly fine. Alvino took his sister's hand and tugged it. "Is this it?" he asked. "Are we here?"

Elinor answered instead of Meggie, "Of course we're here, right where we wanted to be. Oh, to think I'll be seeing my very own house again, that is, if a tornado hasn't whisked it away or the ground hasn't opened up beneath it and swallowed it. Mortimer's voice certainly hasn't lost any of its magic."

The shock of switching worlds seemed to have had little effect on her. She began to trot off down the road at a brisk pace despite her age, calling, "Well, come along," over her shoulder. Darius looked at Meggie with his large, owl eyes, shrugged, and followed Elinor at a slower, more cautious pace.

Meggie walked along behind with Alvino still holding her hand anxiously. Miranda walked on Meggie's other side, pressing close to her skirts and gawking at the lines of trees. Alvino also allowed himself to glance around, and he wondered where and how far this house was. Inside, he felt a slight pang of disappointment. He didn't know what he had been expecting, a world made of metal and wheels or a country where the sky was green and the trees were blue, but this world didn't seem any different from the one he had just come from. The trees looked exactly like trees, there were white clouds floating in the blue sky, and there was not a single sign of a car or airplane anywhere.

He tugged his sister's hand again, and when she looked at him, he asked quietly, "Are you sure we're in the right place?"

"Yes, this is it," Meggie answered him softly. "Is something wrong?"

Alvino tried hard not to let disappointment show in his face or voice, but he wasn't altogether successful. "It doesn't look any different from home."

Meggie laughed, the same laugh as their mother, which made him suddenly homesick, though only a little. "Home was based on this world. You can't expect Fenoglio to come up with something completely new. But just wait, you'll see everything you want to see in a short while."

Miranda hadn't said a word since they arrived. Alvino thought that she looked a little scared, but he couldn't quite tell from her face. He personally didn't see anything to be scared of anyway.

They heard Elinor's joyful exclamation from a little ways up the path. "It is still standing after all. Heavens, what a mess the place is in!"

The three stragglers made it to the end of the driveway to stand beside Darius and the exuberant Elinor. Alvino could hardly believe the sight before his eyes and from the way Miranda was staring, he guessed she was as impressed as he was. "That…that's one person's house?" he stammered in surprise.

Elinor turned to face him, beaming, "It is indeed, Alvino. I wish you could see it in its glory, not so run down, but we'll do what we can with her while we're here. Home at last, after twelve years, eh Darius."

She walked across the lawn towards the front door, and the rest followed more slowly. Alvino stared up at the gigantic building that made any one of the nobles' houses in Ombra look like a hut. True, it was covered with ivy and the shutters over the window did not make it look very welcoming, but Alvino was amazed all the same.

Elinor walked up the steps and pulled at the door, only to find it locked. "Bother," she said angrily. "I suppose the house is annoyed at me for abandoning it for so long. Imagine, coming all the way from another world and not being able to get into my own house."

"Maybe there's a window open somewhere," Meggie suggested, "or, if worse comes to worst, we can probably break in one of the lower windows."

Elinor gave her a disapproving look, "Goodness, Meggie, what has living in Inkworld done to you? Breaking in, indeed!"

Miranda suddenly stepped up to the door holding a thin twig in her hand. She slipped the twig into the key hole, and, holding her head close to the door to listen, she jiggled the twig around until something clicked. After taking out the twig and pulling on the door, it opened for her effortlessly. Elinor frowned. "Well, the girl has inherited more from her father than some red hair, hasn't she? I'll have to keep an eye on her."

Meggie let a small smile cross her lips. "Well, the door's open and no windows are broken. Let's see what condition your books are in."

This thought seemed to motivate Elinor greatly, for she stepped in quickly, giving Miranda a brief nod of gratitude as she passed. Alvino went in after Meggie and found himself standing in a large entrance, lined by books. He guessed there were more books in that one room than in all of Ombra and he wondered what Balbalus or Taddeo would say if they could see so many volumes. Elinor acted as if they were long lost children. Immediately, she began brushing dust off them, sneezing, then rubbing her hands over them lovingly and calling to Darius. "They seem to be fine, other than the dust and the fact that no one's looked at them for twelve years. It makes me sad to think of so many books all alone with no one to care for them. I must see how many I can take back."

While Elinor and Darius fussed over the books, Meggie led Alvino and Miranda through to another room, this one devoid of books, but with a table in the middle and odd structures against the wall. Meggie reached over to the wall, touched something, and all of a sudden, the room was flooded with light. Alvino jumped with surprise, and Miranda looked at Meggie as if she were a magician. "How did you do that?" she asked in awe.

Alvino knew. "Electricity," he said proudly, and he carefully inspected the switch set in the wall. "And that's a stove, isn't it?" he said, pointing at one of the strange structures against the wall.

"Yes," Meggie said, lowering her pack to the floor. "Are either of you hungry? We can see if we can find anything edible. Here, help me brush off the table a bit, and cover your noses or you'll be sneezing for weeks."

Elinor and Darius joined them, the former still chattering away about books. When Meggie asked her about food, her frown reappeared. "I'm sure there's still plenty of canned foods down in the cellar – there still was when Orpheus had us locked down there – but I wouldn't trust anything that's twelve or thirteen years old. How about we go to lunch in town? It's only a twenty minute drive or so."

At the mention of driving, Alvino looked up eagerly, but his hopes of riding in a car were squashed for the time being by Meggie. "You're all still in your Inkworld clothes," she said. "Why don't I go to town, buy Alvino and Miranda some clothes, and bring lunch back. You can get settled in, and maybe Alvino and Miranda would like to take a look around the yard and explore the house. Darius, would you like to come with me? I never learned to drive."

It was decided that this was a good idea. Darius disappeared upstairs and reappeared shortly wearing what Alvino thought were very strange clothes. Then he and Meggie, who was in her mother's dress, went back out into the driveway. Alvino went and stood on the doorstep to get a view of the car. There was a rumble like thunder from the garage, then the car appeared to Alvino's delight. Resa had drawn him pictures of the mysterious machines, so he had a fairly good idea of what it looked like, but still, seeing it in person sent shivers up and down his spine. Delight filled him as he watched the vehicle disappear down the lane they had walked up when they arrived. His former disappointment vanished and he felt like whooping. He was in a different world, a world where lights came on with the touch of a hand and structures made of metal moved along the roads. He had dreamed and thought about it for so long, and now finally he was here.

He and Miranda explored the house with a warning from Elinor to not disturb the books, especially ones in poor condition. This Alvino immediately agreed to for he had no interest in the thousands of books laying in every corner and along every hallway. It seemed that the house was even bigger inside than it looked from the outside, and Miranda would have been pleased to explore every nook and cranny for hours, but Alvino grew bored of the rooms piled with books. Finally, he convinced Miranda to go explore the grounds with him. He had seen the lake on the way in and wanted to see the ruined castle that Elinor had told him was once home to robbers.

It was a pleasant spring day, and both children took off their shoes and waded along the shoreline, splashing up water with their feet and looking at their surroundings in interest. "It's something, isn't it?" Alvino laughed after a while. "A whole other world. I wonder how many there are."

"As many as there are books, I suppose," Miranda said, holding out her hand to let a large dragonfly land on it.

"I want to explore them all some day," Alvino said cheerfully. "Every one of them. You'll come with me, won't you?"

Miranda stopped splashing and was silent. Alvino turned to look at her. "What's the matter? You like it here, don't you?"

"Yes, I guess so," Miranda replied unconvincingly. She twirled a lock of hair absently around her finger. "I'll be happy when we go back, and I don't think I'd want to leave again." She shivered. "I know what my father means now about being in the wrong place. It's not right – I don't feel like I belong here. Maybe it's different for you because your family came from here." Alvino didn't know what to say to this, so he kept on walking. A little while later, they heard the rumble of the car, and they raced each other back to the house.

Alvino inspected the strange clothes his sister had brought back for him to wear. The pants were much stiffer than his, and there was only a shirt with no tunic. But he had to admit that he didn't look half as strange as Miranda who was dressed in a pair of the same stiff pants that Meggie called jeans and a pale blue shirt. Meggie had brought back things for sandwiches, which Alvino had eaten at his house, but with which Miranda had no previous experience. They ate in relative silence, mostly because their mouths were full, but towards the end of the meal, Elinor looked around at them and asked, "So, we're here for you two. What is it that you want to do with your two weeks?"

Alvino answered promptly. "I want to see everything."

This only brought a frown from Elinor. "Everything? Hmph, I'm afraid to say that we'd need a good deal longer than two weeks to see everything. How about we go to the seashore? There's sure to be interesting things like motor boats and ice cream that you've never seen before. How about it?"

"Oh," Meggie said suddenly, "what about Fenoglio's old village? He asked me to get his notebooks while we were here. I know it's only a small village, but it's by the sea, and we can drive by the sea to one of the larger villages."

"Maybe we can stop at Capricorn's village," Alvino said excitedly, "and you can show me the crypt where Mother was locked up. Do you think you could find it?"

"Heavens, no!" Elinor said sharply. "Even if we could find that wretched place, I wouldn't take you or anyone else anywhere near it. I'm not letting a perfectly good two week vacation get ruined by horrid memories of Basta and crypts."

Meggie's idea was agreed upon by everyone, and Elinor commented that they should get a move on or it would be dark before they got there, especially if they took a wrong turn which was not at all unlikely. They left their packs in the kitchen, for Elinor said, "There isn't room for all of us and all of those packs in my car. We'll be back here tomorrow after we've been to Fenoglio's place."

They all went out to the car, which was still in the driveway. Elinor and Darius got in the front, and the two Folcharts and Miranda climbed in the back. Alvino looked around with unconcealed delight, but Miranda, once in, was not keen on riding. "It's all right," Meggie said placatingly to her. "You'll get used to it quickly."

They started off, and Alvino gazed around in awe. He was amazed by the smoothness with which they glided along the roads, and when he saw the trees skimming past on either side, he felt like laughing aloud. Miranda, after a brief panic, calmed down and soon had her face pressed to the glass as she watched the landscape speed by. Soon, the two of them were chattering loudly with each other, Meggie was reading a book that she had taken from Elinor's, and Elinor was chatting away to Darius as she drove, oblivious to the fact that he had fallen asleep.

The sun was beginning to sink when they drove into Fenoglio's village. "Heavens above," Elinor exclaimed when they stepped out into the village square, "maybe we won't need to look for another village. This place hasn't certainly grown a fair bit. I hope you remember where the writer's house is, Meggie."

Meggie had always had a good memory and a fine sense of direction. They followed her straight to the house, which they found to be locked. There were no twigs around for Miranda's use, and Elinor was just going to start complaining about coming all the way for nothing, when Meggie found a key behind a brick in the wall.

"I suspected he would have something like that," Meggie explained as she opened the door and they all stepped in. "He told me once that he often locked himself out of his house accidentally. He can be a bit scatterbrained sometimes."

"Sometimes?" Elinor snorted. "Will you look at the place? And I thought my house was a mess."

Darius sneezed loudly as he shut the door, sending dust flying. "I'm surprised no one's bought the house. It's been abandoned for thirteen years."

Meggie found the writing desk, and frowned when she saw that it was littered with notebooks and papers, some blank and some with scribbled words. "Maybe his family still owns it. I think they lived here in the village – his grandchildren did, at least."

Alvino came over in the pretense of helping Meggie search, but really he wanted to see what sort of things were written by the man who had created the world he lived in. He was disappointed, however, for the handwriting was too messy for him to read. He pushed aside several papers absentmindedly, revealing several bound notebooks. "Are these them?" he asked, prodding Meggie.

She picked them up and opened them, and Alvino saw her eyes skimming the pages. Finally, she closed them and smiled broadly at him. "They are actually. Thanks, Alvino."

"Does that mean we can get out of this stuffy place now?" Elinor complained. "If I sneeze one more time, my nose will come off, I'm sure of it."

Once back out on the streets, they found that darkness had fallen. There were no street lights on the ally, and Alvino could barely tell his companions apart in the gloom. There was something sinister about the darkness, his first night in a strange world, and for the first time since he had arrived, he felt what Miranda had mentioned by the lake, the odd feeling of being in the wrong story and place.

"Well, it's obviously far too late to go back to my house." Elinor's voice cut through the dark. "When we were coming in, I noticed a hotel down by the beach. We can spend the night there, and it's bound to have some place where we can get supper."

"Do we have enough money?" Meggie said anxiously. "I was going to see if Mo's wallet was in his room still, but I forgot."

Elinor snorted. "Well, I didn't forget. I grabbed my credit card before we left, and I don't think we have to worry about spending too much. I hadn't managed to spend my fortune all on books yet, and I doubt we'll ever get the chance to spend any of it again, so let's make a holiday of it."

Alvino was starting to tire after a long day of excitement, and Miranda was dragging her feet. He fervently hoped that a hotel was a pleasant place to spend the night, although he felt as if he could sleep quite easily anywhere. He did not remember much of what happened, except that they went into a very large building and Elinor talked for a time to a stranger behind a huge desk. Then Meggie was gently pulling him along a corridor until they reached their rooms. There were two rooms, connected to each other by a door in the middle of the wall. Darius and Alvino took one room, and Elinor, Miranda, and Meggie took the other. Kicking off their shoes, they got into the beds without bothering to undress.

Miranda and Alvino could see each other through the doorway. Miranda smiled sleepily at him as she wriggled into the blankets. "Goodnight, Alvino."

He nodded wearily back and closed his eyes. Strange smells and sounds surrounded him, but as sleep overtook him, all these faded into the background. I'm in another world, he thought drowsily. The thought made him giggle quietly to himself, but a minute later he was asleep.