Sato and Mothball stared at each other for what seemed like a full hour, eyes locked, eyebrows raised. She was filthy from head to toe, her hair hanging in ratty strings to her shoulders. Sato kept thinking she’d disappear any second, sure that he was having a hallucination. The staring became almost comical. Especially when she broke into a grin and simply said, “’Ello.”
Hearing her speak snapped Sato from his trance. “Mothball! What are you doing here? Where are we? What happened to everyone else?”
Mothball limped forward, eyeing Lisa as if she’d just noticed Tick’s sister was there. “No idea what’s ’appened. Felt like I’ve been nappin’ for a full week, just woke up, and ’ere I am in a ruddy place that can’t possibly exist. How long you been ’ere?”
Sato realized he had no clue. “I . . . don’t know. Maybe an hour? I wasn’t here very long before Lisa showed up. By the way, this is Tick’s sister.”
Mothball couldn’t hide her surprise. “What in the name of the Grand Minister is Tick’s wee little sis doin’ ’ere?”
“Nice to meet you too,” Lisa said in deadpan voice.
“So sorry,” she said quickly, holding out one of her gigantic hands. After Lisa shook it, Mothball continued. “Just surprised, is all. What are the ruddy chances of us meetin’ ’ere with you?”
Lisa shook her head. “You think you’re confused? Guess how I feel.”
Sato felt it too. Everything seemed to have gone completely insane. He turned in a circle, throwing his arms up to gesture at their strange surroundings. “Where could this possibly be? What is it? Why would the three of us—”
Before he could finish, that same humming noise vibrated through the air, this time coming from a spot directly in front of him. At the same time, a dark blue square of marble rotated on an unseen axis, completely turning over until what had been the bottom was now the top, though with dark-red squiggly lines scratched across its surface. As soon as the tile settled into place, a person appeared on the marble square, instantly flashing into existence.
It was Mothball’s mom, Windasill.
Sato swore right then he was done being surprised.
Mothball ran to her mom and pulled her into a massive hug as Windasill looked about in confusion.
“Don’t worry,” Mothball said after stepping back. “None of us know a ruddy thing, but thank the heavens we’re together. Mayhaps the old man’ll show up soon, he will.”
“It was so dreadful,” Windasill said after giving her daughter the kindest smile Sato thought he’d ever seen. “The shaking, the lightning. Last thing I remember, a bolt of energy came straight down on me head. Burned like the dickens, it did. Then it was dark, like sleep. I was barely aware. Next thing I know, I’m ’ere. Mothball, what’s going on, dear?”
“Don’t know.” She shrugged and looked at Sato.
“Me, neither,” Sato murmured.
“Does anyone at least have a guess?” Lisa asked. “Come on. You guys are Realitants, right? At least take a wild stab at it.”
Sato was impressed with Tick’s sister. She was no nonsense, level-headed. Brave. Tick had once made her out to be a smart-aleck pain in the rear. Maybe hard times had brought out her inner strength.
“Well?” Lisa said.
“If I ’ad to make a guess,” Mothball said, folding her arms as her eyes revealed she was frantically trying to come up with an answer. “I reckon I’d say that . . . well, me instincts tell me that . . . if that lightning was . . . mayhaps it could’ve been . . . if you think about it . . .”
Luckily, another humming sound saved her. Sato looked to his right just in time to see a light green, marble square settle into place after rotating. An instant later, Rutger appeared, sitting on his bum in his black pants and black shirt, looking as frightened as Sato had ever seen him.
“What happened?” he yelled, scrambling to get his short legs under him. He looked so much like a huge ball pitching back and forth on two sticks that Sato worried what Lisa would think. He’d grown quite fond of Rutger, despite the constant teasing, and he always worried when the short man met new people. But Lisa seemed completely at ease, and his esteem for her went up another notch.
Before anyone could answer Rutger’s inquiry, another humming sounded. Sato didn’t look around in time to see the marble rotate, but about forty feet behind him, Tollaseat had appeared.
Windasill’s shriek of delight had barely pierced the air when there came another humming. Then another. Then another. Sato was spinning in circles trying to catch sight of all the flipping tiles. People appeared each time, people he didn’t know. Most of them were tall like Mothball and obviously from the Fifth. Hum, hum, hum—the sound blended together into a resonating vibration that strangely soothed his nerves.
Suddenly it was like musical popcorn. More and more and more marble slabs spun in ninety degrees all around him, changing colors as they did so, while a stunned, often dirty, sometimes injured person winked into existence on top. Sato finally quit trying to take it all in and instead focused on Mothball, then Rutger. Both of them were gawking at the strange sight around them, but Lisa was staring straight at him.
She raised her eyebrows in an unspoken question.
“You know I don’t know what’s going on,” Sato said. “Let’s just hope none of these people are maniacs bent on killing us.”
“I just don’t . . .” She trailed off, her eyes focusing on something past Sato’s shoulder. They widened in surprise, then shock, then a huge smile wiped the anguish and confusion off her face.
“What?” he asked, already turning to see what she’d discovered.
Lisa shrieked with joy, brushing past him and sprinting toward a group of shorter people—compared to the Fifths anyway—a heavyset man, a brown-haired woman, and a little girl.
It had to be Kayla. And Tick’s parents, too.
Sato hurried after Lisa, feeling a rush of excitement at meeting Tick’s family, somehow putting out of his mind that they were all standing in an impossible place with no explanation of how they’d gotten there.
Lisa reached her family and practically tackled Kayla, pulling her into a tight embrace and twirling her around. Their mom and dad soon joined in, a group of entwined arms, jumping up and down and laughing. It was one of the sweetest things Sato had ever seen.
When he reached them, he stopped, wondering if maybe he should’ve left them alone to their reunion.