Jack James and the Tribe of the Teddy Bear (13 page)

FIFTEEN

THOUGH JACK’S MOTHER complained on a regular basis about how small and inadequate their new apartment’s kitchen was, she hadn’t lost her ability to whip up some incredible meals. Taco night was the perfect example. She had the table jam-packed with fresh lettuce, onions (both white and green), organic tomatoes, homemade salsa, and her own famous guacamole. All the ingredients to make superb tacos, burritos, tostadas and more.

“I gotta tell ya’ hon’,” Ben crunched into a stuffed corn tortilla. “You’ve outdone yourself tonight. These are delicious.”

“Yeah, Mom. Awesome,” agreed Jack.

“Mmmm!” Lily took a bite of a taco.

“This is great, Mrs. James,” Amelia held up a burrito and smiled. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she told the kids, then eyed her husband. “It would be a lot easier to cook if I had
my
kitchen. I miss it so much.”

Ben took her hand. “Honey, I promise you. When I finish the O/A, we’ll change the world. Just hang in there a little longer, you’ll see.”

“Hang in there?” Liz stood, yanking her hand away. “I’ve been
hanging in there
our whole marriage. My God, I must have been nuts to marry such a delusional man. I’ve got news for you, Ben. It’s kind of hard to hang in there when everything’s falling apart!”

She stomped out of the dining room, leaving everyone behind in an uncomfortable silence—except Ben.

“Don’t worry, kids,” he grinned. “She’ll come around. When she sees how my invention will alter the course of history, she’ll definitely come around. It’s hard to appreciate something until it’s completed, sometimes.”

“Mom’s sad,” Lily muttered at her plate. “She cries a lot.”

“You know what?” Ben suggested. “Let’s talk about something else, shall we? Anything new and exciting happen lately? Hmm?”

“Jack talks to teddy bears and thinks they’re real,” Lily giggled. “Mom says he’s goin’ crazy.”

“Oh yeah, punkin’? That’s very…” Ben choked, spitting up in his mouth. “What?”

“It’s not a teddy bear,” Jack corrected her. “And I’m not going crazy.”

“Hee-hee!” Lily stuck out her tongue and ran from the table singing, “Jack talks to teddy bears! Jack’s goin’ crazy!”

“What does she mean, Jack?” Ben asked playfully. “You…into teddy bears again?”

“No, Dad. I’m ten. I don’t play with teddy bears anymore.”

Ben glanced at Amelia. She shrugged.

“You, uh, gonna drop science to become a ventriloquist?” Ben joked.

“Dad, knock it off.”

“Then what? What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Jack craned his neck, searching for signs of his mother.

“I see,” Ben leaned in and whispered. “Your mom doesn’t want you to talk about it?”

“Dad, I’m not crazy,” Jack whispered, too.

“Mr. James—here,” Amelia handed him her phone. He drank in the information like a sponge.

“Small cryptid,” he thumbed through the file. “Pacific Northwest…less than three feet tall…thick coat…Furry Forest Baby…Tanakee. Tanakee?”

“You’ve heard of them?” Amelia seemed shocked.

“Yeah—well, no,” Ben scowled, deep in thought. “I haven’t. But they sound intriguing.”

“If you think that’s wild, check this out,” Amelia ran her finger along her phone’s touch screen, scrolling to let him read the rest.

“Department of Defense…vanish into thin air…mind control…interdimensional being!” he slapped his hand over his mouth.

“What are you guys whispering about in here?” Liz made her return to the dining room.

“Uh, she was just showing me her new phone,” explained Ben. “These things are getting more and more amazing all the time.”

“Uh-huh,” she scrutinized each of them. “Who’s done?”

“Thanks, Mom,” Jack handed over his dinner plate. “That was great.”

Liz picked up some used dishes, took them into the kitchen, dropped them into the sink, and started the tap. The sound of running water allowed Ben just enough cover to get out a surreptitious question.

“So, you think you’ve identified one of these Tanakee creatures?”

“We think so,” answered Jack. “At Winmart.”

“Winmart? What the devil is it doing there?”

“It’s…living there, pretending to be a teddy bear.”

“Well if that doesn’t beat everything!” he exclaimed, then hunched down, wincing.

“What was that?” Liz raised her voice.

“Nothing, honey,” he spoke up. “I just said I’m helping you clean up, that’s all.”

He got up and gathered the rest of the dishes off the table.

“You guys sure it’s at Winmart?”

“Yeah, why?” responded Jack.

Ben squinted, tapping his temple. “Call it a feeling, but that part about the Tanakee being interdimensional—I mean, my machine works on an interdimensional level. I wonder if there’s a correlation. We
have
to investigate this. Tell you what, let’s go to Winmart right now.”

“But isn’t the store closed?” Amelia said.

“Jack’s mother works there,” suggested Ben. “Maybe she can get us in.”

He tossed a worried glance across the pass-through at Liz while she cleaned the dinner dishes in the other room. Then he huddled with the two kids for one last secret message.

“You two wait here while I make sure it’s okay with her.”

He carried the plates and cups to the kitchen. When he’d finished placing the load in the sink, Liz sighed and shut off the water.

“Tell me this is one of those times we’ll look back on someday and laugh about,” she said. “We’ll remember this time in our lives as just a-a stupid little bump in the road, right? Tell me it won’t always be like this.”

“Liz, you’ve got to know it won’t. You’ve got to know.”

“I don’t know anything anymore. I don’t know where we’re at, and I don’t know where we’re going. I don’t know you, and I’m not sure if I even know myself anymore.”

“Honey, please,” Ben sounded desperate, something Jack wasn’t used to hearing from his father. “You’ve got to believe me. When this technology I’m working on is completed, the world will never be the same. We won’t need money. No one will. It’ll be the end of homelessness and hunger. Forever.”

Liz laughed breathlessly through her sobs.

“You’ve been saying these things for so long. When will it end?”

“Soon, I promise.”

“You can’t keep saying that. You can’t keep skating by on a promise while your family falls apart.”

“Shhh,” he tried to calm her.

“No! I won’t be quiet! You need to understand what you’re doing to this family. Do you even care that your daughter cries herself to sleep? Do you know your son is having delusions? Do you realize the depths of depression you’ve sent me into? We’re suffering, Ben. And you come in here and act like it’s all a big joke!”

“I think I should go,” Amelia hurried out of the dining room.

“Hold on!” Jack followed. “What about Winmart? Dad said he’d go with us.”

Amelia stopped at the front door. “Your dad’s not going anywhere tonight.”

“No, no, NO!” Liz stormed out of the kitchen and up the stairs, Ben three steps behind. “I won’t listen to this anymore!”

“Honey, please! Wait! Please, just wait!”

He got halfway up the steps and stopped.

“Change of plans, guys. We’ll go check out your little critter first thing tomorrow, ‘kay?”

“See,” she smiled. Ben ran to the top of the staircase, then down the hall.

“Maybe we should go by ourselves,” suggested Jack. “I’d hate for it to be missing tomorrow.”

“To tell you the truth,” she admitted. “I’d feel much more comfortable having your father with us. I really got the creeps today.”

SIXTEEN

IN A LITTLE NOOK built inside the electronics department, the humans had put tremendous care toward making a relaxed setting, complete with windows looking out onto fake vistas, decorative wall art, imitation plants and, most importantly, a nice, soft sofa. It might have been a little cramped in there for more than two people, but for five Tanakee it was just right. Even with Pud doing a cannonball against the backrest onto the cushion, the couch had plenty of room for all to sit and watch the seventy-five inch LED, 1080p, HDTV in comfort. Takota didn’t know what all that meant, but Pud made it sound important.

“Uh-uh,” Pud yanked the gadget they called the, ‘remote control,’ out of Cheyton’s grip. “My turn.”

He pointed it at the screen and pressed a button. Takota squealed in horror. He saw a humongous lion, roaring and pouncing with its fang-filled mouth open wide. Pud laughed uncontrollably. Takota relaxed a little, realizing, as Enola had shown him, it was an illusion, a trick of light and color trapped behind glass. The scenes were so convincing even Pud went quiet, enthralled at the panoramic view of a vast wilderness. They were all captivated, none more so than Takota. He was reminded of his home by the massive trees, the elegant, soaring birds, and the sun-kissed summits on the horizon.

“What! Hey!” clicking the remote, Pud drooled at what showed up next on the screen. Larger than the couch, hovering in space was a giant slice of steamy, bubbly pizza. He jumped down and nearly pushed over the TV trying to get his hands on the fictional treat.

“Come on, Pud. Let’s get on with the movie,” Cheyton became impatient. “We don’t have all the time in the world, you know.”

“Yeah, the movie!” Pud hopped onto the sofa again, then clicked the remote. The presentation began with lighthearted music and shots of stuffed animals quite similar to the ones the Tanakee had been hiding amongst. They sat on shelves in what appeared to be a young boy’s bedroom.

“Christopher Robin has toy animals to play with,”
an unseen man said.
“And they all live in a wonderful world…”

“Not this one again,” Ayita let out her irritation. “Do we seriously have to watch this?”

Pud sat in a trance. Ayita wiggled from her seat, scaled to the top of the backrest, and dropped to the floor, storming from the tiny room.

Takota wanted to keep watching. Something made him surrender to Ayita’s moody allure, though. He abandoned the others and ventured to find her.

“Ayita? Where are you?”

He thought he heard her. When he turned he saw humans, and on the spot played the dead game, though it was hard to get his thumping heart under control. Who were these people? What were they doing there after closing time? He thought about his friends watching the movie. Certainly they’d be caught.

He decided to do something. Sneaking on all fours, he crept behind where the people were standing, which, curiously, was on top of a display table. He didn’t question what they were doing. He just knew he had to distract them long enough for the others to make their escape.

He leapt and landed on the stand in front of the two intruders, waving his little, furry hands and hissing—one of the scariest noises he knew. The people didn’t move. Something was wrong. They didn’t have arms. Or feet. And their faces were featureless, with a bump for a nose and no eyes or mouth. He stepped away. Still not sure of what he was seeing, he stepped again and tumbled backward onto the floor. He rubbed his rear, coming to terms with how dumb he’d been. Those things weren’t real people. He picked himself up and glanced around, glad Pud hadn’t seen what he’d just done. Then he decided to get back to searching for Ayita before someone caught on.

He checked the grocery area twice, gobbling a bag of
M&M’s
for an energy boost, and found no sign of her. Then he investigated Kid Kastle, the Lost and Found, and the out of the way areas—paint, automotive, hardware. He felt no closer to her than when he’d started. Finally, he wandered to the toys, hoping to find her in their improvised home up among the fake bears, dogs and bunnies.

“Ayita?” he whispered. Without an answer, he grew impatient. “You up there?”

Rumbling caught his ear. It sounded close, and getting closer. The aisle was empty except for a bunch of dolls and action figures, staring like the eerie undead. He thought he heard the noise coming from behind and jolted in a half circle, assuming a low, combat stance, ready for anything. Again, nothing came.

“Coming through!” a voice startled him into an impromptu somersault, dodging out of the path of the oncoming object. It was Ayita, driving a miniature pink thing on wheels decorated with the word,
Corvette.
She honked the little horn and kept going.

“Hey!” he picked himself up. “You tryin’ to kill me?”

He ran to the end of the aisle to see her drive into a maze of furniture.
Now I have her
, he thought, zipping through office supplies to cut her off near the garden center. He scurried and hid in a small collection of palmettos, waiting.

When Ayita was one row over, he jumped from the floor and clung to a banner with a large picture of a smiling child eating cereal. He swung to another banner, rocked his weight, then released, spinning twice. At the last second he straightened his legs and threw his arms forward, executing a perfect landing in the Corvette’s passenger seat.

Ayita widened her eyes, then squinted. Then she cranked the steering wheel. The car tilted onto two tires, sending him to the ground. He stood and slapped away the dust.

“Are you okay?” she stopped.

“What? Oh, yeah.”

“I know why you’re here,” she said.

“Do you? Good. Maybe you can tell me then we’ll both know.”

“I mean I know how you got here, that you escaped from a bad man, and that he works for someone who wants to capture and enslave our kind.”

She drove away. Takota hurried to get alongside.

“But how?” he asked. “How do you know?”

She responded with silence.

“Eteea,” he answered his own question. “Cheyton told me. Does it happen often?”

She nodded. “Ever since we got here it’s been getting stronger and stronger. Lately I-I don’t know how to describe it. Everything’s speeding up. Eteea seems to be in distress.”

Takota was confused. “How can Eteea be in distress?”

“I’m telling you what I see. I don’t know how it works. It just comes to me. It tells me things. Problem is, lately the visions have been coming so fast, most are impossible to understand.”

“But some you are able to understand, right? That’s what Cheyton told me.”

She slammed the brakes.

“Sounds like he’s been telling you a lot of things. What else did he say?”

“Nothing,” he didn’t want to anger her any more. “I just asked him why you’re so upset at me.”

“Oh, yeah? And what did he tell you?”

“He told me not to be offended, that you sometimes become troubled by what Eteea shows you. Ayita, is there something you want to tell me?”

She sighed. “Your presence here confirms one of my most beautiful, yet at the same time terrible visions. It was a message that came through so vividly, for a few days I thought it
was
real. The vision replaced reality to the point where I’d become immersed in another world, another time. With you.”

Wheels squeaking, she lurched forward and sped off again.

“What? Wait!” he ran to catch her. “What are you talking about?”

“Like I said, all I know is what I see,” she braked once more. “Ever since my visions began, I kept getting the same message, about you coming here.”

“Then what?” he pressed.

“I don’t know. Things get so mixed up. I know one thing for sure, though. It means danger for all of us.”

“Then you agree. Staying here is too risky. You’ve got to help me talk to Cheyton. I can take you all to Wind Whisper Woods. There we’ll be safe.”

She spoke with a hush. “There are things Cheyton doesn’t talk about. In the time after we left the Lost Tribes, we encountered more than just humans trying to capture us. If it were only humans, then it might have been another story altogether. We live with people all day every day, right under their noses. It’s not hard to fool them. We could have found Wind Whisper Woods if they were all we had to contend with. There’s something else. Some kind of evil lurks out there. Not human, though sometimes they appear to be. They stay mostly in the shadows. At one time there was a whole group of them after us. They almost got us, too. One of them nearly killed me. If it weren’t for Cheyton, and if we hadn’t found this place...”

She shuddered. He put his hand on her shoulder.

“They’re hideous, Takota. I never want to see them again.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” he said. “Why can’t they find us here? What makes this place so special?”

“I’ve never been able to understand why we seem to be safe here, but we are. And I’ve got to tell you, none of us want to go back out there any time soon.”

“But, what about your vision? What about the danger you see coming?”

“That’s why I’m so confused,” she buried her face in her hands.

“And angry?”

“No,” she allowed her tear-swollen gaze to meet his. “Not angry. Never angry. Not with you or anyone else. I’m scared. We all are. Cheyton tries not to show it, but it comes out. Like yesterday, when that boy had Pud. He panicked. Cheyton’s been on edge, especially now that you’re here.”

“Then maybe I should just go,” Takota strode away from her.

“Wait!” Ayita got out of her toy car and followed him into children’s wear. “Where are you going to go?”

“No idea,” he rummaged through a pile of tike-sized bags and packs. “I wanted to go home to warn everybody, but something Enola said earlier made sense. I don’t want to lead Savage or those evil beings he works for to Wind Whisper Woods. I’m not much of a fighter, but I’ve got to find a way to stop them.”

Finally, he found a backpack which halfway fit. Despite the fact that it had cartoon pictures of kittens plastered all over, it was wearable.

“What are you doing?” Ayita seemed perplexed.

“Can’t leave without a few provisions,” he announced, then hastened to the checkout lanes where he stuffed his pack full of
M&M’s
packages. That task complete, he hurried for the big glass doors leading outside.

“Wait! You can’t go!” she tried to hold him back. He slipped through her grasp.

“I can and I will,” he marched to the exits, confident they would open automatically. He’d seen them do it so many times for people. “Farewell, Ayita! Tell the others goodbye for me!”

BAM!

He smashed his nose against the unyielding glass.

“Ouch!” he reeled back, perturbed by the surprise, more of a blow to his pride than his snout.

“I told you. You can’t go,” she held back a giggle. “The doors are locked.”

“Yeah? Well, that’s not gonna stop me,” Takota searched for something heavy among a display of various lawn ornaments, including an assortment of cement and ceramic elves, frogs and gnomes. His weapon of choice—a reflective glass ball. He measured its weight and knew it would do nicely.

“What’s going on?” Cheyton demanded. He was across the store and coming at them fast.

“He wants to leave,” Ayita told him. “Say’s he’s gonna fight the shadow beings all by himself.”

“I’m not fighting anyone. I’m leaving!” Takota lifted the garden globe, ready to smash it through the door. In a blur, Cheyton snatched it from his clutches.

“I can’t let you do that,” he put the iridescent globe on its shelf again. “You’ve caused enough damage around here already.”

Takota explained, “You don’t understand. Every second I stay here puts all of you in more danger. There must be another way out of here. I’ve got to go!”

Cheyton glared. “So, there
was
something you’ve been hiding. What is it? What kind of trouble are you in?”

“I was captured by humans,” Takota stared at his feet. “But I escaped. And I found out they have some pretty horrible plans for the entire Tanakee race.”

“What kind of plans?” Cheyton asked.

“They want to take over our minds and use our Eteea powers to make us do terrible things. I can’t let that happen. If I leave, maybe I can lead them away—far away from here. Now, please. Let me go.”

“Go?” Enola emerged from a nearby checkout counter with Pud close to her. “Don’t go, dear. Not now. It’s too dangerous out there.”

“Yeah, you can’t leave,” Pud pleaded. “I haven’t got the chance to beat you in a bike race yet!”

“Stay with us,” Ayita added. “Enola’s right. It’s still too dangerous. Much more dangerous than you might think. It’s better if you stay. Besides, you haven’t been with us very long at all.”

“Yes, stay. Rest and eat some more. Get your strength back,” Enola’s white, fluffy fur shimmered at the ends with that green, almost invisible halo again. Takota blinked, spellbound by her unearthly beauty. “Cheyton, tell him he has to stay.”

Cheyton crossed his arms. “I’m not gonna tell him to do anything. He can go if he wants, but I won’t let him break these doors down. They’re unlocked during the day. He can go then.”