Chapter Four: Where's Brainy?

"Oh, Papa Smurf!" cried Smurfette, nearly at the point of tears. "Brainy's gone! What are we going to do?"

Molk was wringing eight of his greenish hands in an anxious display of worry. "And, he has my glasses too!" he moaned in his alien accent. "Who knows when he could be! How will we ever find him? How will I ever get home without those glasses?"

Papa Smurf suddenly found himself bombarded with distressed questions, comments, and suggestions from Molk and his little Smurfs. Trying very hard to suppress the worry that was threatening to overwhelm him, Papa Smurf raised his hands for silence.

Slowly, the anxious chatter died down.

"Please, please my little Smurfs! Please! This is an incredibly delicate situation. The dangers here are nearly unimaginable. Wherever there is time travel, there is always the very real possibility of drastic changes to the timeline. There is only one person we can go to for help."

"Who's that, Papa Smurf?" asked Molk.

Papa Smurf wore his most serious face. "Father Time," he answered. "He's the only one who could possibly know what has become of poor Brainy-and your glasses. Also, he lives in a large cave, not far from Mother Nature's house. This cave is a special, magical space that is protected from all changes in the timeline. We should be safe there while we work to figure out how to solve this mess."

"Then what are we waiting for," asked Hefty, eager for some action to relieve the helpless frustration he was feeling. "Let's get going!"

Many of the other Smurfs voiced their heartfelt agreement. Papa Smurf raised his hands again.

"Not so fast, my little Smurfs!" he cried over the rising din. "I know Father Time will not take kindly to one hundred Smurfs suddenly appearing at his doorstep. The fewer of us that go, the easier it will be to get him to help us. Besides, it is not a good idea to leave the village vacant for too long. I will need only three volunteers, plus Molk, to come with me on this journey."

At least four dozen blue hands shot up. Papa Smurf considered each carefully. "No, I'm sorry Greedy, but with Brainy gone I'll need you to keep an eye on the village. Tailor, Dreamy, you're needed here as well. Clumsy, I'll need you to take care of Baby for me while I'm gone."

"Uh, but, Papa Smurf!" exclaimed Clumsy. "Brainy's my best friend! You've gotta let me come along!"

Papa Smurf looked into Clumsy's guileless face and sighed. "Very well, Clumsy, you can come. Poet, it'll be your responsibility to watch over Baby."

"You can count on me, Papa Smurf," said Poet with flourish. Papa Smurf almost smiled.

"I know I can, Poet. Hefty, Smurfette, you will form the remainder of our party."

"Yes, Papa Smurf," chorused the two Smurfs solemnly.

Papa Smurf turned to the rest of the disappointed crowd. "We will try to smurf back as soon as we can," he assured them. "Pay attention to Greedy as you would to me while I'm away. Good-bye, my little Smurfs."

"Good-bye, Papa Smurf!" the remaining Smurfs chorused. "Good luck!"

Papa Smurf, Molk, Clumsy, Smurfette, and Hefty started off into the forest at once, headed for Father Time's cave and, hopefully, some answers.

Brainy stood up on his tuft of grass and shoved the heavier of the two pairs of glasses over his nose. To his vast relief, the world finally came into focus. All too soon, however, that relief turned into anxiety.

"Where has everysmurf gone?" he asked himself, peering around the deserted river bank apprehensively. "I still seem to be in the same spot," he observed. "Nothing seems changed. Except for-wait a minute! What are these doing here?"

Shoving the enchanted glasses into a pocket of his white pants, Brainy rushed over to a group of several small bushes covered all over with red berries. They stood next to a tall tree with a thick trunk. At the base of the trunk was a strange pattern of thick, knitted bark as if the tree had sustained an injury long ago and had since healed itself.

"Smurfberry bushes!" Brainy exclaimed, picking a few berries and popping them in his mouth. "But, I don't remember there ever being smurfberry bushes this far from Farmer's fields."

He spun around and examined the river bank again. "This is the same place where we were smurfing volleysmurf just a few minutes ago. Everything looks pretty much the same except for these bushes." His legs suddenly felt weak under him. He sat hard on the flat, grassy ground.

"Could Hefty be right?" he asked himself softly. "Could I really be stuck somewhere in the past? All alone?" He looked down and noticed his hands were shaking nervously. He forced them still.

"Well, even if I am stuck in the past," he said firmly, "I can't be totally alone. There has to be somesmurf somewhere who can help me get back home." Suddenly a thought came to him. He stood up and brightened. "Perhaps I haven't smurfed back all that far! Perhaps, I've only smurfed back a few years! Maybe if I head for the village, Papa Smurf will be there and he can help me get back!"

Feeling much better, Brainy ate a few more smurfberries, then started walking in the direction of Smurf Village. After a few paces, he heard a familiar Smurf tune being whistled somewhere nearby. He stopped and listened. The sound of whistling was coming closer. He ran towards it.

"Hello?" he called. "Is anysmurf out there?"

The whistling stopped abruptly. "Who's there?" came a voice. "Who is that?"

"Are you from the village?" asked Brainy. "Can you tell me what year this is?"

A Smurf in a grass hat and baggy overalls stepped out from behind a rambling cluster of briar bushes. Brainy stopped short.

"Who are you?" he asked, suddenly frightened again. He had never seen this Smurf before. He was carrying a heavy-looking sack on his back and several roughly made books under his arm. He looked tired, as if he had been walking for a long, long time. His face was unshaven. Reddish-brown bristles glinted in the sunlight that filtered through the thick canopy of leaves above. He was looking at Brainy with at least as much surprise and apprehension as Brainy was looking at him.

"I believe I asked you that question first, my young Smurf," he replied. His voice sounded kind and strangely familiar.

"My name's Brainy," said Brainy. "Brainy Smurf. I'm looking for Smurf Village."

The older Smurf looked confused and strangely excited. "There's a village of Smurfs near here?" He looked away, speaking more to himself than to Brainy.

"It must have formed while I was away. How amazing! Perhaps my idea has become reality without my even having to smurf anything about it!"

Brainy's eyes widened in alarm. "Do you mean to say you have never heard of Smurf Village?"

The strange Smurf looked back at him, his eyes still shining. "No. I've never seen a village of Smurfs in all of my travels. They seem to prefer living alone, watching over their own sections of forests or meadows or beach or jungle. It's a real shame too, because I have the idea-and my studies suggest that I am correct-that if we all got together we would be much stronger."

"So, there is no Smurf Village here?"

"Well, there wasn't one when I left. You can call me Smurf, by the way," said the older Smurf, noticing with some concern how his words seemed to have depressed the young Smurf. "I live here, or at least I did before I smurfed off on my travels. That was over three hundred years ago now." He smiled. "It seems longer. I'm not really the traveling type, and I must admit I've been a bit homesick. What did you say you were called?"

Brainy shot the older Smurf a somewhat haughty look, rather upset that he had forgotten his name so quickly. "Brainy Smurf," he said.

"Brainy," the Smurf repeated. "Curious. You know, during my travels I smurfed across many Smurfs from many different countries. However, you are the first to call yourself anything besides 'Smurf'. Why is this?"

Brainy stared at him. He'd gone back to a time so distant Smurfs didn't even have names to distinguish one from the other! He swallowed his growing anxiety and answered as best he could.

"Well, it's so that I can be smurfed apart from all the other Smurfs. I mean, if you just called out 'Smurf', who knows how many would come running. But if you called for 'Brainy Smurf', only I would come."

The Smurf nodded, fascinated. "And, what is that device you are wearing over your eyes? I've never smurfed anything like it."

Brainy was confused for a moment, then he understood. "Oh, you mean my glasses? Well, they're so I can see."

"See what?" asked the Smurf.

"Well, anything. Everything. I'm all but blind without them," Brainy admitted, unsure whether he should be telling all this to a stranger.

The older Smurf came closer. Brainy stepped back.

"May I see your glasses, Brainy?" asked the Smurf eagerly. "I promise I won't damage them."

Brainy was very uncomfortable giving up his glasses to a stranger. He put a hand to them protectively. "Well, I'm not sure that would be a good idea."

"Please?" begged the Smurf. "I'll be very careful!"

Brainy pulled his glasses off and squinted at the blurry, bluish blob in front of him. Hesitantly, he held them out towards the stranger. "Well, all right."

The stranger took them gently from Brainy's hand and turned them over and over, examining them. Then, he slipped them over his own eyes.

"Ough!" he exclaimed in surprise and discomfort. "I can't see a thing through these glasses!"

"That's because they were made for my eyes. Their job is to correct my unsmurfy vision. Give them back now!"

The strange Smurf placed them gingerly in Brainy's hand. Before Brainy could slip them on again, he said, "Wait, don't smurf them on yet."

"Why not?" asked Brainy.

"I want to try something first." He held up a hand with three fingers extended. "How many fingers do you see?"

Brainy squinted at the blue smudge before him. Try as he might, he couldn't get his eyes to focus on the Smurf's hand. As he watched, it melted and merged with the brown and green smudges that made up the forest. "Let me smurf on my glasses and I'll tell you."

"You mean, you can't see my fingers?"

"Yes," said Brainy, starting to get annoyed. "That's exactly what I mean."

The blue blur stepped closer. "How about now?"

"No."

The stranger stepped forward until his fingers were barely two inches from Brainy's nose.

"Now?"

Brainy sighed, exasperated, then concentrated very hard on trying to see the Smurf's fingers.

"Erm, two?" he asked hesitantly.

The Smurf kept his fingers in place. "Put on your glasses," he said. Brainy did, feeling the relief he always felt as the world came back into focus around him.

"Oh," he said, looking again at the fingers. "Three."

The Smurf dropped his hand and stepped back to look him over. "Amazing," he commented.

Brainy felt very uncomfortable. This strange Smurf was examining him as if he were some kind of curiosity.

"I did tell you I couldn't see without my glasses," he snapped. "There's no need to go on staring at me like that."

The Smurf gave a start. "Oh, I am sorry if I've been rude," he said, and he really sounded apologetic. "I was just thinking. A Smurf with your, eh, handicap, if I may, would naturally find it very difficult to survive on his own in the wild. If I may ask, where did you get those glasses?"

Brainy spoke before he thought. "Well, Papa Smurf made them for me when I was just a little Smurfling." At the Smurf's astonished expression, Brainy suddenly remembered when he was. He hoped he hadn't just changed anything in the timeline by mentioning Papa Smurf. "Erm, maybe I shouldn't have said that."

But it was too late. "Brainy," said the Smurf with barely suppressed excitement, "I have never met anysmurf like you before! There are so many questions I have to ask you! Would you please come with me to my home? We could share a meal and in return for answering my questions, I could smurf you some of the adventures I've had during the last three hundred years."

Brainy wasn't sure what to do. He had never in his life felt so alone. Papa Smurf had always been there to help him make decisions like this before, or at least to help rescue him from the consequences of decisions badly made. Now, however, Papa Smurf was untold centuries away. Brainy had no one he could turn to for advice or guidance. He had to depend on himself. Masking his uncomfortable uncertainty with a straight, self-confident posture, Brainy nodded to the Smurf. "Very well," he said. "But I might not be able to answer all your questions, particularly if you're going to ask about Papa Smurf."

The stranger nodded. "Oh, I understand. Come along, it's this way."