The Two Worlds

The Two Worlds

by Alisha Howard

CHAPTER ONE

The day I found Turgor I learned three
things: grass can talk, the sun can frown and there is life on
other planets.

Let me explain.

I was just an average
seventeen-year-old that happened to take a nap in science class.
The day hadn’t started out the way I would have planned. I was
running late, had missed my bus, and my grandmother Mary wouldn’t
budge on letting me take her old Oldsmobile out of the garage. This
meant I had to cough up bus money and brave the horrible public
transportation that Jackson offered.

It was the middle of August, and the
humidity bored down on me as I trekked up our massive hill to the
main street where the bus stop beckoned. When I finally made it
there, my sandy brown hair was standing on end from the heat and my
carefully placed eyeliner was starting to run. Perfect.

“
You look like hell,” my
sister, Nia, greeted me as I stalked into the school towards my
locker. “What happened?”

“
Alarm clock,” I grumbled,
opening the locker a bit too hard. It bounced back with a
claaaaang.
Nia winced. She had been awake enough to take the
school bus that stopped at our house every morning.

“
Late night?”

“
Forgot I had a book report
for English that’s due,” I sighed. “Had to pull an
all-nighter.”

“
That sucks,” Nia
sympathized, falling into step with me. I smirked to myself. She
didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. Nia’s straight a,
teacher’s pet record was untarnished.

We walked in silence for a few moments
before Nia perked. “So guess who asked me out this morning at
breakfast?”

I quirked an eyebrow. Guys were always
asking Nia out, and who could blame them? With long legs,
honey-brown skin and big brown eyes, Nia was irresistible to any
high school male. She was also picky. “Another jock?”

“
Yeah, but not just any
jock. Lamar Delucca.”

I raised my other eyebrow. Lamar was
the stereotypical popular jock—All American, rich, and great
looking. But for some reason, he never had a girlfriend. Rumor
around school was that he preferred the same sex, but his clout
with everyone made him immune to harassment.

“
Didn’t know he was
interested in your type,” I quipped, chuckling.

Nia threw me a glare. “He’s not gay.”
She sighed. “He’s just shy. Anyway, he asked me out, and I said
yes.”

“
When’s the
date?”

“
This Friday. We’re going to
see
Kill It Before It Dies
.”

“
Sounds fun.”

Nia sighed again, happy with herself. I
rolled my eyes before we went our separate ways, off to class. The
first stop for me was dreaded science.

Shuffling in, I avoided looking at the
small brown human with skin like a prune sitting at the front of
the class, preferring to look at the clock instead. Only forty more
minutes left.

“
Good afternoon,” the small
prune screeched.

“
Good afternoon,” came the
deadened response.

The human prune stood up and turned to
the chalkboard. “Today, we’re learning about osmosis.” She turned
to the class and looked down her nose. “So pay attention. Open your
book to page one eighteen.”

As Mrs. Temely droned on, I pulled out
my notebook and started to draw nothing in particular. Soon,
though, a small elf emerged. It was staring up at me with a crooked
grin. I grinned back and used a colored pen to give it fiery red
hair.

“
Ms. McLaughlin?” it said. I
frowned. Elves weren’t supposed to talk.

“
MS. MCLAUGHLIN?” I jumped
and looked up. Mrs. Temely was looking at me with a very
disapproving and shrunken face.

“
Yes, Mrs.
Temely?”

“
What have I told you about
daydreaming?”

“
I wasn’t daydreaming. I
was—”

“
Not paying attention.” The
class snickered. “Now, if I catch you doodling again, I’ll send you
to detention. Got it?” I nodded and stared at the chalkboard, my
mind wandering. I thought back to Nia’s conversation about Lamar
and felt a snippet of envy. Nia and I were complete opposites.
Where she was popular, I was an utter failure. Unfortunately, I was
a C student at best, and despite my efforts, I could never dance as
well as she could. She made the cheerleading team the first time
she tried out, and the cheerleaders’ laughter at my tryouts was
still ringing in my ears. I directed my stare at the
clock.

Taunting me, it stared back, refusing
to move. I gave a smothered sigh and looked back down at my desk.
My eyelids were feeling heavy, and I closed them for a moment,
promising myself to open them on the count of five. Of course, that
didn’t happen.

CHAPTER TWO

The sun looked down at me and frowned,
making the ground I was laying on warm.

“
Hey!” I cried out, jumping
to my feet. Looking around, I noticed that there was nothing but a
sea of blue-green grass around me, and the little patch of ground I
had been lying on had now sprouted grass as well. Panic kicked in.
Where was I? Where was everyone else? And better yet, did I just
see the sun frown at me?
Since when does the sun have eyes? And
facial expressions?

Breathing hard, I looked around me
while all of the horror stories the five o’clock news aired about
missing persons came rushing at me. Crying out I began to run,
hoping to find someone to help me. The grass swayed as if to move
out of my way as I ran through the thickness, attempting to find a
way out of this horrible place. The smell of dew floated across my
nose, tingling my senses. I planned on running until I reached a
telephone, police station, or stranger with a machete to help me
get out...

Tripping, I fell and landed hard on my
chin. I moaned and lay still for a moment, hoping that whatever I
tripped over would just disappear and I wouldn’t have to face it at
all.

“
Ouch,” it said, still
hidden in the blue grass. I jumped to my feet, ignoring the searing
pain, and was about to jet off into the horizon again when I
realized I recognized that voice.

“
Nia?”

She sat up suddenly, frowning and
rubbing her leg. “Why’d you run over me?”

I stood there flabbergasted. “What are
you doing here?” I shouted. “Where in God’s name are
we?”

She rolled her eyes and put her fingers
to her lips. “You’re disrupting the Minces.”

“
THE WHAT?”

“
The Minces, Kay.” Nia stood
up and lowered her voice to a whisper. “The grass?”

I looked around my feet and noticed
that the grass had developed miniature eyes and small slits of
mouths. They were frowning as well. I took a couple of deep breaths
and started screaming again.

“
Ouch!” I yelled as one of
the smaller Minces took a tiny, yet noticeable bite out of my leg.
Swearing, I hopped on one leg, stepping on other Minces that got in
my way, and Nia gave a grin.

“
Okay,” she said, advancing
upon me, “we’re going to have to do this the hard way.” Raising her
finger to her mouth again, she shushed me. Looking satisfied with
herself, she began to stroll away.

“
Hey,” I began but then
stopped. I tried speaking again and realized that I couldn’t talk.
Apparently me standing in the middle of the Minces with one leg up
and flapping my mouth like a fish amused Nia, and she began to
laugh.

“
What’s so funny?” I mouthed
at her, furious.

She appeared to understand me and said,
“You. Come on. You’re not hurt. I just created another patch of
skin for you.”

I removed my hand slowly from my ankle
and noticed there were no bite marks.

“
Put your leg down, and
let’s go. We’ve got a bit of catching up to do.”

I glanced at her, then at the Minces,
and back at the sun before finally following her through the tiny
population that stood glaring up at me. As we walked, Nia asked,
“What took you so long?”

I stared at her.

“
I mean, you’re obviously an
Awakener. And it usually takes Awakeners a couple of before they
actually enter Turgor. But you’ve taken your sweet time.” She
looked at me. “Well, I guess the important part is that you’re
here.”

I thought as we walked on. Turgor? When
we were kids, my grandfather would sit us around the fireplace at
night and tell us about the imaginary planet of Turgor. His
favorite topic was the Death Walkers, creatures on the planet that
could control the inhabitants’ timely demise. Nia and I would sit
captivated for hours as he excitedly told us another piece of
Turgorian history. The fond memory tightened my throat, and I
automatically blinked away tears that were creeping to the surface.
No time for that.

We couldn’t possibly be here, I
decided. Remembering that I had closed my eyes in science, I
realized I was asleep. As we walked, I made out a small gate, only
two and a half feet tall at most, standing alone in the middle of
the grass. I glanced at Nia, who seemed to know where she was
going, and kept walking towards the gate. Nia paused for a moment
when we reached it, glancing at me before shaking her
head.

“
Nah, I’ll give you your
voice back when we get in. The Mince can get pretty upset when you
yell. It disturbs their sleep.” I rolled my eyes as she walked
behind me and gave me a violent shove. In a flash I felt my flesh
tingle then crawl, and out of nowhere the gate that had only stood
two feet tall was now towering into the sky. I looked over in alarm
for Nia and watched slightly disturbed but definitely amazed as her
normal sized body shrunk until she in whole was standing next to
me.

She shivered. “I can never get used to
the shrinking part. Oh, hi.”

I turned around to face a huge blue
wall. Gasping, I fell back, looking up at the wall bent down
squinting at me.

“
I should step on you the
way
you
stepped on Uncle Morty,” it said, its voice high.
Staring up at the wall, I recognized its small eyes and slanted
mouth.

“
Sorry, Anny,” Nia said,
coming to my rescue. “She’s new here, an Awakener. Kay, this is
Anny, a Mince. Anny, this is Kay.”

Anny gave a high-pitched harrumph and
stood back up. “She had better watch where she steps next time,”
she threatened.

Nia nodded and grabbed my arm, rushing
me inside the gate. “Anny can be kind of cranky sometimes,” Nia
whispered in my ear, but I wasn’t paying attention.

I gaped at the world in front of me. If
I hadn’t been bitten by grass a few minutes earlier, I would have
thought I just happened to get lost on the way home and stumbled
upon a new age suburbia, complete with tidy houses and neat lawns.
Kids skipped rope while parents looked on, dogs barked excitedly at
imaginary squirrels, birds chirped, and kites flew in the
sky.

Except, it wasn’t normal. Something was
different. I stood still for a moment and then noticed. The kids
that were skipping rope weren’t holding the rope. It moved on its
own. The dogs barking at the imaginary squirrels had extra legs or
extra eyes. Mailboxes moved from one spot to another, getting in
the way of traveling people and offering to take their mail. The
telephone poles slightly leaned towards each other,
whispering.

“
This is just a dream,” I
chanted to myself under my breath. But why was it so hard to wake
up?

An incredible mixture of people and
creatures unfolded in front of me. There were normal people in
jeans, t-shirts, shorts, miniskirts, and tennis shoes all talking,
laughing, joking, arguing, and having a good time. And then there
were not so normal people, people who had orange and green tints to
their skin, incredibly small people, and huge people.