“You stole my line,” Jason said, trying to recover from the shock that the visitor was a cute girl around his age.
“They haven’t changed your wardrobe yet,” she commented, looking him up and down.
“Those aren’t your clothes?” Jason asked.
She smirked, plucking at the yellow top. “Not exactly my style. But my other outfit makes me look too much like a Beyonder.”
“You’re a Beyonder too?” Jason exclaimed.
The Blind King sat down.
The girl grinned. “They warned me in advance that you’re from my world. Totally ruined the surprise.”
Jason glanced at the Blind King. Their host waited in silence, a small smile on his lips, listening with his hands folded on the edge of the table. Jason realized he was the only person still standing, and sat down. “How long have you been here?”
“This will be my fifth night,” she replied.
“Mine, too!”
“Pardon me,” the Blind King interjected. “Would the two of you mind verifying that you both truly come from the Beyond? I do not believe either of you is an imposter, but it never hurts to be certain.”
“Ooh,” the girl said with delight. “Cross-examination.”
“Where are you from?” Jason asked.
“Olympia, Washington,” the girl responded. “You?”
“Vista, Colorado.”
She nodded vaguely. “What’s the capital of Pennsylvania?”
“I don’t know. Philadelphia?”
“No. But that’s the kind of wrong answer somebody from America would give. Let me guess, you’re not a very serious student?”
“Just because I’m not a trivia expert doesn’t make me a bad student,” Jason complained. “I’m in eighth grade. I take honors classes. What’s the actual capital of Pennsylvania?”
“Harrisburg,” she replied smugly.
“I’ll believe you. Who won the 2004 World Series?”
She shrugged. “The Yankees?”
“The Yankees? And you claim to be an American?” He enjoyed rubbing it in after her attitude about Harrisburg. “It was the Red Sox. The year they broke the curse.”
“But the Yankees win the series a lot, right?”
“They’ve won the most,” he conceded.
“Do you play baseball or just watch it?” she asked.
“I pitch for school and on a club team. And I’m a pretty good infielder. What year are you in school?”
“I skipped a grade, so I’m in ninth. But I’m homeschooled. I only go to school to run track.”
“How do you skip grades when you’re homeschooled? Mom just decides to shorten her teaching career?”
She scowled. “My classes are much harder than anything in public schools.”
“If you say so. What track events?”
“Hurdles and pole vault.”
“Pole vault?” Jason repeated, impressed. “You must have some guts.”
“I like trying new things,” she said.
“I’m long past convinced,” the Blind King inserted. “Judging from your inflections, I would say you speak English in a similar manner, and based on your intonations, I feel confident that you’re both telling the truth. But I already knew that. Consider the exercise a lesson in vigilance. Without extreme caution you will not survive. Shall we eat?”
Jason started transferring meat to his plate. “What’s your name?” he asked the girl.
“Rachel,” she replied, spooning vegetables onto the Blind King’s plate, then helping herself. “You?”
“I’m Jason.” Following her example, he shared several cuts of pheasant with the Blind King.
“Don’t mind me,” the Blind King protested. “My table is set in such a fashion as to enable me to feed myself. Eat your food and get acquainted.”
“Can you believe we’re actually here?” Rachel asked as Jason made a small pile of mashed vegetables on his plate.
“I’ve had a hard time getting used to all of this,” Jason admitted, trying a bite of pheasant. “Did you get swallowed by a hippo too?”
“Excuse me?”
“Jason came into our world through the jaws of a hippopotamus,” the Blind King explained. “The residue of very old magic. There is no rarer or stranger portal connecting our realities.”
Rachel pursed her lips. “What, the way I came here was typical?”
The Blind King shook his head. “In these times any visit from a Beyonder is virtually inconceivable.”
“You came through a different way?” Jason asked.
“I was hiking with my parents,” Rachel said, her eyes losing focus. “We were in Arches National Park, in southern Utah.”
“But you’re from Washington,” Jason said. “Let me guess—the vacation schedule for homeschool is flexible.”
“I actually have less vacation time than most kids,” Rachel corrected. “Homeschool is portable. My parents are big on firsthand experiences. We do lots of field trips. Museums. Foreign countries. National parks. They’re big on nature.”
“I’ve always wanted to travel more. Do you speak other languages and stuff?”
Her eyes lit up. “I love languages. I speak pretty fluent French and Spanish. I’m okay at Italian and Portuguese. And I can sort of get by in Russian, Chinese, and a couple others.”
Jason gave a low whistle. “You’ve been to all those places? Italy and China and everywhere?”
“Yeah.”
“Sounds like you guys have some money.”
“Dad made a lot as a software designer. He’s semiretired. I’m an only child.”
“You were telling how you came here,” the Blind King prompted.
“Right,” Rachel said, raking her fingers through her dark brown hair. “Dad had hired a local guide to take us off the beaten path. He drove us around in a jeep through some amazing country. Have you been to Arches?”
“No. I’ve been to the Grand Canyon.”
“Me too. The Grand Canyon was just a big hole in the ground. Arches and Bryce Canyon seemed much cooler to me. They’re full of these awesome spires and bridges made with stones in all these crazy colors.”
“You should write a travel guide,” Jason said dryly.
“Anyhow, our guide was taking us to some smaller stone arches. The kind you can’t find on maps or drive to on a road. He parked beside an arroyo—that’s what he called a ravine—and we walked from there. The arroyo branched in a couple places, and while we were stopped for a snack at one point, I saw this beautiful blue and gold butterfly. Each wing was nearly the size of my hand. They almost looked metallic.”