The Eye of the Llama

by Gary D. Snyder

Part 4:

When the effect of the stasis ray wore off Carl was not sure what had happened or where he was, but he was quite sure that he was not happy with the situation. Skeets and Rocco had had little trouble delivering him to Felangie and he was now in Minister Khormak's office with, from his point of view, three six-foot tall beings who reminded him a great deal of giant cockroaches. These quite literally alien surroundings eventually convinced him that he was dreaming but just to be safe he remained quite still and said nothing, hoping to not draw any unnecessary attention to himself. Besides, the more massive gravity of Felangie made him feel strangely tired and encouraged him to remain as still as possible.

He needn't have worried. While Skeets and Rocco waited patiently the Minister of War seemed completely preoccupied with other matters. He would look at the DVD case in his hand, then at Skeets and Rocco, then at Carl, and then back at the DVD case again. Every now and again his mouth would open as if to say something, and then close again without a sound. All this time his face went through a remarkable variety of expressions and hues that fascinated Carl. When Khormak finally seemed to tire of this pantomime he collapsed in the chair behind his vast desk with a numb look on his face. Once again he looked at the muscular black man on the DVD case and then at the pale round boy standing in front of him before speaking. To his mild surprise Carl found that he could understand him.

"You idiots!" was all Khormak could say. "This is not Carl Weathers!"

"No," said Carl pleasantly. "Carl Wheezer." He laughed apologetically. "A lot of people make that mistake."

Khormak gave the human a dumbfounded stare before shaking his head and staring accusingly at his assistants. "How could you two bumblers mistake him –" He stabbed at the picture on the DVD case. "- with him?" And he pointed angrily at Carl.

Skeets shrugged ruefully. "An honest mistake. We inquired as to whether he was this Carl Weetser, and he replied that he was."

"It's Weathers, not Weetser!"

Skeets gave another apologetic shrug. "I regret that, while my associate and I pride ourselves on our syntax and grammar, we are not accomplished phoneticists."

Khormak buried his face in his hands and groaned. "That doesn't matter now. What matters now is what I'm supposed to do."

"Couldn't we return the Terran to his planet and find the real champion?" Rocco suggested helpfully.

Khormak shook his head violently. "No. For one thing we can't make another unscheduled trip to Earth without risking an official inquiry or detection. For another, this recorded data is apparently almost thirty Earth years old. It's likely that this Carl Weathers human is in any better shape than this specimen."

"My sincere apologies," said Skeets with a bow. "I assure you that we had no idea that this was not the Earth champion."

"You had no idea," repeated Khormak sarcastically. "You…had…no…idea. You…." His expression and tone of voice suddenly changed. "You had no idea," he said softly. "No idea."

"Yes, that is what I said." Skeets sounded puzzled.

In contrast the Minister sounded almost lighthearted. "And no doubt every other inhabitant of Felangie wouldn't have any idea either."

"Yes, that is a likely possibility," replied Skeets. "But when they find out –"

Carl didn't like the cold smile that Khormak gave him. "Why should they?" said Khormak in a silky voice as he circled Carl like a wolf studying its intended prey. "Gentlemen, may I present to you the Earth's greatest battling champion?"

Back on Earth Jimmy and the others had returned from their outing. The day had been enjoyable, but Jimmy had not said much and his mood had been subdued the entire time. He had told himself over and over that he had done nothing wrong, yet even so he could not help but feel that he had and could not figure it out. Despite the fact that he was a genius he was still only twelve years old and was only beginning to discover the sometimes painful consequences of choices. He gradually became aware that Cindy was angrily calling his name and Sheen and Libby were staring curiously at him.

"I'm sorry," he said. "What did you say?"

"Since whatever you're thinking about is obviously more important than me," Cindy retorted, "I was going to suggest that you go jump in a lake." She slapped her forehead. "Oh, silly me," she added sarcastically. "We aren't there any more. Not that you were much better company then."

Jimmy sighed and hung his head. "You're right. I'm sorry. It's just that I'm worried about Carl."

"What about Carl?" asked Libby.

"He was kind of upset that he couldn't come with us. He was feeling sort of left out," Sheen explained.

"He was?" Cindy looked perplexed. "Why?"

Jimmy tried to explain. "Lately whenever we five have gotten together he's noticed that the four of us kind of pair up and leave him on his own. He was thinking that maybe we were pushing him out of the group, and when we told him only two of us could go with you two girls to the lake…well…"

Both Cindy and Libby looked stricken. "Poor Carl!" exclaimed Libby. "I never really thought of that before, but…I guess that's kind of true."

"I guess there's only one way to handle this problem," said Cindy.

"Ignore it and hope it goes away?" asked Sheen. Libby punched his arm, making him wince.

"No!" said Libby. "We go to him and talk it over. We make him understand that he's still important to us and always will be."

"Exactly!" agreed Cindy emphatically. "I say we go over to his place right now."

"Sounds good to me," said Jimmy. "Let's go."

The four of them made their way to the Wheezer residence, but were surprised to find that he wasn't home. Carl's mother seemed worried the he hadn't returned and was unable to tell them anything other than he had left right after dinner several hours ago without saying where he was going. Jimmy, who was Carl's best friend, tried to comfort her.

"I'm sure there's nothing to worry about, Mrs. Wheezer," he said. "He probably went to see a movie and maybe stop off at the Candy Bar for a snack afterwards."

"You're probably right," answered Mrs. Wheezer with relief. "He did have that card for a free sundae he's been saving. If you see him would you please tell him to call so we won't worry?"

"We sure will," Jimmy promised her. "We'll tell him just as soon as we find him." Only after the door had closed and he had turned to face the others could they see that he looked worried.

"What's up, Jimmy?" asked Sheen as they headed next door to Jimmy's house.

Jimmy shook his head. "I don't know. But I don't think that Carl went to the movies or the Candy Bar. I know about that card he was saving and he used it the day before yesterday."

'Maybe he got another one," Libby suggested.

"You have to buy twenty to get the free one. Even Carl couldn't eat that."

"So he's doing something else somewhere else. What's the big deal?" Cindy wanted to know.

"Maybe nothing," Jimmy admitted. "But I have a feeling about this. Let's get to the lab. I can try tracking him to see where he is."

"How can you do that?" Libby asked.

"I put a tracker in Carl a while back just in case I needed a volunteer at the last minute to help me with an experiment," he explained, activating the DNA scanner to the door of his clubhouse that lead to his lab. "I told him it was a new non-addictive candy I was testing."

"Yeah, I remember that," Sheen commented. "I had some of that myself." He grimaced. "It tasted kind of funny.

"I had some, too," added Libby.

"And so did –" Cindy suddenly glared at Jimmy. "Did you put trackers in us, too, Neutron?"

Jimmy looked innocent. "No."

"Don't lie to me, Neutron," shed growled, advancing on him. "Did you put trackers in us?"

"No," Jimmy repeated as he dropped down the access tube to his lab.

Cindy leaped through the hatch after him, her threatening voice echoing behind her. "I'm serious. Are you lying about not lying?"

"No," Jimmy's voice echoed faintly. Sheen and Libby looked at each other, shrugged, and dropped into the tube after the others.

In the lab Jimmy activated his video screen and touched some controls to throw a glowing grid on its surface. "Vox!" he called. "Scan Retroville for location of Subject Wheezer."

There was brief pause as a glowing line passed over the width of the screen, and then the grid was replaced with the words:

SUBJECT WHEEZER NOT FOUND.

Jimmy frowned. "Extend scan to include tri-county area."

The screen was filled with the boundaries of the region surrounded Retroville with the city at the center. The glowing line passed over the monitor again, albeit more somewhat more slowly as there was more area to cover. After the scan was complete the map outlines were again replaced with the message:

SUBJECT WHEEZER NOT FOUND.

Cindy could see that Jimmy was definitely worried. Rather than have Vox control the scan he punched more buttons and adjusted some dials before activating the electronic search himself. This scan took much longer, and the others watched Jimmy fidget as his nervousness slowly began to infect them. At last the video screen once again displayed:

SUBJECT WHEEZER NOT FOUND.

Jimmy slumped back, stunned. "It can't be," was all he could say. "The scan is negative. I did a full search for him. He's not there."

Cindy voiced the thought that everyone shared. "Then where on Earth is he?"

"That's just it," Jimmy answered as he looked bleakly at the others. "He isn't."

End of Part 4.

Author's Notes:

I apologize that I haven't been posting these more promptly, but as with most other people I have other obligations that sometimes make getting these written, rewritten, re-rewritten, edited, and posted a little difficult.

As in most of my stories I have some subtle and not-so-subtle homages to memorable scenes from various movies and TV shows. The scene in which Jimmy, Carl, and Sheen are wondering what to do is actually from the Oscar-winning film Marty, while the exchange between Jimmy and Cindy about whether or not he put a tracker in her was a nod to a similar scene from Men in Black.