Act Two
Barry returned to the stretch of highway going east. It was a few miles past where Gary made his near fatal U-turn. This would be the safest way east. If he had to follow a highway he felt comfortable knowing it was one which would take him straight back to where the hot rodders had caught him. Thus, he had to travel back in a southeasterly trek. The land would soon be dark and the reddish, yellowish splash of colors told him the dusk was fast arriving. The only light he'd see would be the two moons not including the useless glares of approaching monolith cars.
The street lights--when they were working--would provide ample light. To Barry, though, they were too far apart to be relied upon. Only when he was near them would they provide a near-daylight effect. And there were miles and miles along the highway which lacked street lights altogether.
Funny he thought, how no one really appreciated the beauty of their own homeland. It took the experience of being misplaced on a land of giants to allow the boy and his friends to view the beauty of their planet Earth which was so akin to the giant planet. With time on their hands they had appreciated the breathtaking vistas of the landscapes as they matted with the colorful sky. Ironically, had they had the time when on Earth, or the cause, they could have seen the almost exact same scenes there. Somehow being on a small would lessen the impact, Barry thought. Viewing these gorgeous panoramas from a miniature point of view, frame of reference augmented the beauty just as everything else was augmented. Truly this was a land of untold, great beauty but also of unmentionable, gory horror. And the horror had been both physical and psychological. Subtle and undeniably tangible as well. Barry thought about all these things while he hurried back to the highway beneath a pink, blue, and yellow sky. The sun was gone with a few graying clouds moving in on its former place. When he reached the highway again, Barry was greeted by the beautiful sight of the dusk with only a few cars traveling along. He was tired, having hurried more than he should have. He still had thousands upon thousands of miles left to travel and already his body felt like it needed rest, food, and sleep. He was also lonely but not enough to miss taking in the chill-bringing beauty. Barry hesitated to sit down. He was afraid of falling asleep or becoming catatonic with his eyes open. He had to rest so he plopped down and sat on a boulder, realizing that for once, he was totally on his own.
There had been times he was separated from the others like the time a school boy had captured him and taken him into the school. But they had come to his rescue. This time they wouldn't have the means to come to help him. There would be no Steve to help tell him what to do. No Mr. Fitzhugh, who despite being wrong a great deal of the time, gave forth a calming in any dangerous situation. No Dan either--he who exerted strength and optimism. No Mark who could call forth a solution to almost any mechanical problem. Could Mark find a way to overcome great distance ?
Barry was in danger of being lost in his continued thoughts. He shook himself, almost physically. He nodded his head and stood from the boulder. He would think on the move. He forced himself onward. The land was dark and for awhile the moons were the only light he saw.
While the day had been spring-like, the early evening felt slightly cooler. It reminded Barry of the night before the first day of every new school year, in September back on Earth. Not that he had many of those. Glum. Brooding. Cool yet not cold. Wondering about the hopes ahead yet fearful of the new experiences. The very first time he had left his mother to attend kindergarten class was a vivid memory. No, no, I won't be afraid, he admonished himself. I will not be afraid! He realized how well conditioned his body was for when he turned back to see just how much progress he had made. To his surprise, he couldn't recognize the landscape behind him--proving he had come very far. He told himself he wouldn't defeat himself by turning around too often. That could discourage a walker. It was full night and Barry looked up only once after so many miles.
The gray clouds seemed to take off across the sky leaving a starry blue-black sky of space which presently grew blacker. Far ahead were more gray clouds which worried the boy. He knew the dangers of severe rainstorms ever since they nearly lost the Spindrift to one. A lake had formed around it.
He walked on and on and tapered his pace. He noted his tendency to go too fast. He didn't care for the sights that at first seemed casually interesting to him. Rocks, pebbles, boulders, safety guard rails, sign posts, trees, holes, etc. All seemed to be an endless procession--all resembling each other as he thrust on by them.
Damn, I am still walking too fast, he thought. He was. One tended to move from place to place in the land of the giants by running or at the least, in some quickened pace. For long distances, this type of movement could wear the body down quicker. An added problem was his want to get home sooner--and this made him walk faster. Had he thought about it, he would have felt numb and tense in his shoulders and legs and feet...and he soon would think about it. The going was easy at this time; few hazards. Lucky considering there could have been stranded motorists, resting drivers, accidents, spiders, rodents, etc. The few insects he did see were not the attacking types; the only insects he worried over were the preying mantis and centipede. Spiders really weren't insects. He'd rather meet both a mantis and a centipede than any one spider.
The locale to the left side changed. Barry noticed gigantic structures big enough to hold the race of giants. Here the land became more city like. Huge multi colored structures, mainly square and rectangular, jutted up ominously. They were far across the six lane highways but to Barry they were huge and amazing. He strained his neck as he followed their heights with his eyes and neck. To his right there was nothing of the kind but there were huge, flat structures held up by posts. The only thing he could see from his side was cold, gray steel, with holes in the gray posting. Barry realized as he strode past and saw its painted side, that this was one of the signs that gave travelers the number and name of the exits they needed.
Catching up to the sign and going under it, Barry looked upward but had to walk a distance before he could read the names of the towns on it: Tower Heights, Hawkhurst, Grafton. These he recognized from Mark, Betty, and Dan's related adventure after they returned from one of the cities on the sign. Barry couldn't remember which city it was and found his concentration wavering between a wane and a focus. The focus was too long and dulled his senses as his mind searched for answers that weren't there--or were they? He remembered the three had rode back to the forest area on a train--the outside of a train--during a rainstorm. The boy took comfort that he wouldn't have to experience that type of journey home. This was trying enough a feat. He had been back at Spindrift and there had been so many problems there that the four had little time to mount a mission to find or help the other three. Barry, dulled, began to wonder what was happening there now. Perhaps they were having similar problems and had to abandon any hopes for rescue mission to find him. Again, he felt alone and on is own.
Despite his earlier resistance to it, a wave of cloudy depression washed over Barry, slowing his progress. He was past the sign and approaching an area of construction. Large dirt mounds showed signs of workers who had endeavored to expand the highway lanes. Two story high red cones were lined up, a few fallen over due to wind or careless drivers. A truck was to his right, silent. To his left, an occasional car chugged past but the traffic became less and less. Barry closed his eyes and walked well beyond his desire to continue. Smack in the center of the construction site he blundered to a dark, rusted, steel reinforcement bar. He sat on it, drooping his shoulders, plopping his arms to his upper legs, not caring where his hands fell.
Here he was--a small boy, even for his age, on a churning technological planet filled with thousands of giant people who were soon to start their day--running businesses, working for a living, tending to family and home, and generally going about their lives. Most of them hardly knew he existed. An entire world was operating and people were being fulfilled--and he wasn't included, nor could he ever really know the normal existence the people were enjoying. They were being born, growing, marrying, having children, dying, perhaps moving onto an afterlife. Even if they did know who he was--who he really was--they wouldn't stop those lives to care. Some former inkling deep in his heart told Barry these thoughts were wrong--even dangerous, they flooded his very being. He forced himself not to cry, not to shed a tear but then realized he was beyond crying. No, I won't cry. His body felt very heavy--as heavy as a giant's, yet he couldn't sleep. Occasionally he closed his eyes. Nothing Mattered. No one on this large planet cared about him or worried about him. No one fretted over him. He would just sit here--forever.