Class Starts

Dennis and Jack were quick out of bed that morning, eager to get the day started and go to school. They had news to tell, that they’d gotten a new big brother named Patrick, and they could hardly wait. They didn’t hesitate to wake Patrick up for breakfast by bounding into his room while it was still dark, turning on his light and bouncing on his bed.  Patrick sat up with a sleepy smile and grabbed them both by their pajamas; they wrestled and laughed on his bed until Nina called that breakfast was ready.

At the table both Tobias and Nina enjoyed seeing their two sons shifting all their attention to Patrick; they didn’t have to say a word.

“Will you meet us at the playground after school, Patrick?” Jack asked.

“Of course I will. Where is it? And what’s there?” Patrick asked.

“It’s tons of fun—there’re things you can ride, and a big maze you run through, and Jack and I play soccer,” Dennis chimed in.

“Yes, you should go with them and have a look, Patrick—it’s for all ages,” Tobias added.

Nina explained that down around the White City Mountain are a lot of places they call playgrounds, but really they’re where kids and adults meet. “We’ve built them on natural plateaus, from all the way up here down to the outer wall of the city at the base of the mountain. Along the streets you’ll also see some small parks and other open places near open-air cafés.  We try to take advantage of the views over the valley; even small shops and workshops—well, you name it—they all have either a green space attached or a great view.”

“There’s a lot you can do here if you’re interested,” Tobias added.

When they had finished breakfast Nina announced, “Well, kids, it’s time for school.”

Dennis and Jack clattered noisily away from the table to gather their bags. Patrick smiled as he watched them go, and then he looked up at Nina, who was leaving the table herself to go to work.

“What do you do?” Patrick asked.

“I work with elderly and especially handicapped people in the South Wing with Ms. Matey. That’s how Tobias and I first met. It was in a home for the elderly, and Tobias came there one day to entertain.”

Tobias smiled. “Yep, and the first time I met her I magically made Nina fall in love with me,” he added, laughing.

Nina and Patrick laughed too, and Patrick asked, “Okay, but not right away—it took some effort, right?”

“Yes, you’re right, there, Patrick. When it comes to relationships, that kind of magic you just don’t pull off in one performance. To impress her—God, that was hard,” Tobias said, pretending to groan a bit while leaning back in his chair.

Tobias and Nina engaged in a bit of a playful nagging with Patrick as the amused witness, until they realized the morning was getting on and Nina had to rush to get ready and go.

“So Patrick, what do you want to do today? I’m not going to do anything special this week; I’ve taken the week off to show you around. So where do we begin?” Tobias asked in a relaxed manner, leaning back.

“I don’t know. But I want to go with Dennis and Jack when they come home from school—is that okay?”

“Definitely! That is a must—little brothers with big requests you just can’t ignore. And anyway, at the playground they’re the best ones to show you around,” Tobias joked.

Tobias gave him some options for starting. There was so much Patrick wanted to see that he couldn’t make up his mind, so Tobias devised a working plan for the week. First he wanted to show Patrick the Skyjland valley to give him an idea about what Skyjland looked like, and Patrick was all for that.

“I think we’ll start with the snake rail from the top of the valley following the wall down to the coast, which will give us a great view of most of the valley.”

Patrick laughed. “Snake rail—what’s that?” he asked.

Tobias laughed too, as he was aware he was teasing. To Patrick everything was so different that names of things had no consequence at all. Tobias gave him an overview, and again Patrick just couldn’t wait to get going.

The Snake Railway followed the valley wall all the way around and along the shore. One rail on the outer side of the wall traveled one way, clockwise, and the other rail on inner wall traveled the other way. As Patrick had seen from above when they landed, some sections must be like giant rollercoaster rides. Tobias told him that the valley wall’s highest peak was almost ten-thousand feet high, and because the wall was built following the highest ground, there were lots of ups and downs, and in some sections it was really steep, almost like a free fall.

To get to the Snake Rail, Tobias and Patrick took a Worm Tube that looked almost like a worm. Inside the White City Mountain was a network of tunnels, like a subway, where these worm-like trains picked up passengers from over a hundred stations all over the mountain, connecting the valley villages.

“A lot of people here work with communication, and we take pride in running our trains often and all day and night, so nobody needs to wait for a train for longer than five minutes. This way we don’t need any cars, taxis, or busses clogging up roads—they’re for walking, cycling, and such. If someone needs a special kind of transport, like farmers, we use our Mushes and Cyls. They can land and take off from anywhere, even out in the ocean.”

Tobias continued to explain while they rode their worm, without any outside noise or break in speed from station to station; his description was like a slide show for Tobias. The station from where they embarked was only about a hundred feet from their apartment. There were short-range and long-distant worms you could get on or easily switch to, so within the White City you could go anywhere within a maximum of fifteen minutes from home, no queues or crowds.

The station areas were like open plazas, running back from the main street into the mountain, with small stores on either side. From the inside of the plaza the tunnel looked like a large, opalescent tube gently bending, coming out from the mountain. As a worm stopped, the tube opened along its side, as did the worm, and you could walk freely in and out, like through an open wall. On the other inner side of the worm were seats of various shapes with enough room for suitcases, prams, and wheelchair-like carriages that seemed to float on air without the wheels.

These plazas were obviously meeting places. On the other side of the main street with a view over the valley were restaurants, cafés, and pubs. Art was displayed in the plaza along with benches and flowerbeds at the outer edges too; otherwise it was clean, for allergic reasons, Tobias explained.

“We have no pets, birds, or any other kind of animals inside the city walls—not a rat or insect either; they can’t get in. Those who like animals live in the villages outside the city, and there are special transports for them.” Patrick had never had a pet before; he wondered if this meant he couldn’t have one while he was living with Tobias.  He saved that question for later, though.

They switched to another worm at a junction inside the city mountain, and in a few minutes they arrived at a valley wall tower. It was the highest wall tower, and the view over the valley to the sea was stunning.

“Each tower has a small village at its base, and each one specializes in something like a craft or food. They’re each like a small country you can visit to buy things and enjoy special meals. Ms. Nodi sees to it that these villages keep their identities and don’t have to deal with competition from elsewhere.”

The village here was called Goat Tower, and of course they had goats and highland cattle from which they produced local food, including a delicious cheese, and handicrafts made from horns and wool. Tobias took Patrick for a walk to have a look around, and Patrick asked about the relaxed atmosphere and the people living there.

“They come from practically all over the world, but mostly from highland countries where they practiced their trades and professions before they came here. We used to trade with many of them, and if they were ostracized in their own countries then we invited them here. It’s strange how different cultures can blend in and work together if you just leave judgmental morals and organized religions out of it.”

Patrick looked up at Tobias with a questioning expression.

“You know, we don’t disapprove of morals or religion, we just disapprove of people misusing them. And the strange thing is—do you know what that is, Patrick?”

Patrick shook his head.

“Our values in life and what we believe in are so alike, regardless of where we come from. Here you don’t need to segregate people in classes, one being better than the other, and you don’t need for social rules to be enforced through the church. Its funny how we find God, harmony, and peace in other people and ourselves by being together. We find joy in other people and in being ourselves. I think that’s what “divine” really is, what life is all about. When people come here, they don’t feel any need to go to church, and we don’t have any, anyway. People come together as family and friends throughout the day all the time.”

Patrick stood closer to Tobias to indicate he thought he understood, but he had no experience with socially enforced morality, whatever that was, or religion.  He’d never even been in a church. What Tobias said to him sounded reasonable though … but had to be added to the things Patrick wanted to think about more and ask about later.

Next they boarded the snake train that ran on the inside track, following the east valley wall down to the coast. From inside the snake, the floor-to-ceiling windows provided a panoramic view of the eastern valley, and between the hill tops the wall could be several hundred feet high. The snake train didn’t go as fast as it could—“We enjoy the views traveling here so much that we’ve slowed it down,” Tobias explained.

When they crested that last brink of the valley, down a slope to the coastline, they were treated to a view of the ocean spread far before them. The morning sun reflected off its surface brightly, and the green hills to the left soaked in the light.

Tobias and Patrick got off at one of the east coast towers and took a stroll in the village at the base that spread out to the shore. There was a small harbor with some ordinary-looking boats bobbing in it, and a pier jutted out in the sea. But those boats were mainly for recreation, Tobias explained. The fishermen used the Mushes and Cyls that were provided to them, and the fishing harbor was farther down in the ground in the same tower where they had disembarked from the snake rail.

“You see, we don’t have private Mushes; we don’t own things like that here. What we need most times is provided to us, depending on our trade and profession. When we need to ship anything to our homes, we have it transported by our mail service. They use Cyls that land on our balconies—that’s another reason why the villages are built on hills and slopes and our balconies are so big.” 

Patrick enjoyed this; he had never been to the coast or seen the sea before, not in real life, at least, and this looked much different than what he’d seen on TV.  The village was built on a low hill that jutted gently out to the shore.  Patrick asked if they could go there. Tobias explained that it was not much for swimming—the water was too cold, and the beach with its small, smooth rocks felt funny to walk on. The icy sea, throughout millions of years, had polished them. It was inspiring to look at though, and the sound of the surf lapping up on the pebbly shore was brand new to Patrick.

That day the sea was calm, almost like a mirror. Tobias searched for some flat stones and skipped them on the surface a few times. Patrick picked up some stones, too, and after a short lesson from Tobias in how to flick his wrist, he skipped them too, and for a while they competed to see who could make the most skips with a single stone.

The climate this close to the sea was colder, so after choosing for themselves a special, darker stone as a souvenir, they walked back to the village.

Patrick wasn’t surprised by the fact that there were handicapped people around, but he wasn’t prepared for the variety of their handicaps and thus the variety of ways they all used to travel.  Many used a device kind of like a wheelchair, but instead of wheels it floated on air. There were also bicycles, scooters, and in-line-skates, and a couple of kids were out on their skateboards just playing around. In the center of the village on the seaside was a big playground and park where most people—adults and kids—were.

“But without cars—and there’s no motorcycles either—the streets seem to be only for walking. How do people move big things around?” Patrick asked.

Tobias smiled. “Do you see those strange, round chimneys on all the houses here—they are Cyls chimneys—some transports, except mail, go through there, like Santa you know,” Tobias said, laughing.

Patrick laughed too, thinking, “Of course, stupid me, why didn’t I think of that.”

“Ms. Matey has seen to it that we do it that way—it’s a social thing because the mailmen (women, too, of course) are very appreciated and take their time talking to people and even popping in for a coffee sometimes. No one here needs to be alone,” Tobias further explained.

At the playground Patrick stopped to watch some kids his age playing a strange game where they used clubs to try to pass big wooden balls through some hurdles.

After it was clear Patrick was truly interested in this game, Tobias urged, “Do you want to ask if you could join them?”

“Can I?” Patrick asked shyly.

“Of course you can. Just tell them you’ve never played and they’ll show you how.”

Patrick smiled back at Tobias and walked over to the kids. And like there was nothing to it, he was invited into the next game. The game had four players, and one of the girls invited Patrick to share her club, while she explained what the game was all about. Her name was Lilly, she told him, and he though she might be 16, like him. She didn’t look handicapped, but she talked a bit slowly and oddly. Patrick got used to that in just a few minutes.

Tobias took a seat on a nearby park bench to enjoy the game. Patrick and Lilly seemed to get along, and they played well out on the court. They didn’t win, but coming in second seemed to please them almost as much. When the game finished Patrick thanked everyone and in turn received a gentle arm squeeze from Lilly. Tobias smiled, wondering if Patrick had ever had a girlfriend.

“So, did you ask for her number?” Tobias asked.

Patrick blushed a bit. “No,” he answered, shyly.

“Well, why don’t you? She looks nice. You have your TeeWee, so use it.”

Patrick took up his TeeWee and tried to figure out what to do now to find her number.

“No, not that way. Take your TeeWee and go and ask her. She knows what to do.”

After several seconds of hesitation Patrick walked up to Lilly, TeeWee in hand, and she smiled at him. They chatted for a while and bumped their TeeWees together before Patrick returned to Tobias.

“She just touched my TeeWee display and did something, and I got her number,” Patrick said.

“Yes, and by doing that she also got yours, right?”

Patrick smiled back at Tobias in confirmation.

While they continued their stroll along the coastal village boulevard Tobias talked about the village and the way they lived there, and then they stopped at a small kiosk to each have an ice cream. It was free, of course; why not, as Tobias explained: “It’s a social thing. Everyone should be able to enjoy an ice cream now and then. That’s how Ms. Nodi runs her business. We all have something to do, like selling ice cream for free, for instance.”

“Tell you what,” he suddenly said. “Let’s go out for dinner this evening, to one of our favorite restaurants, so you’ll see how that works. I think you’ll like it—Dennis and Jack love it.”

Patrick approved, and through his TeeWee Tobias sent a message to Nina, who agreed as well.

They spent the rest of the day walking along the coast, and when the afternoon arrived they took a Distance Worm back home, which was quick—only ten minutes traveling underground. Soon after they settled in, Dennis and Jack came home from school, throwing their jackets and backpacks on the hall floor, grabbing hold of Patrick, and then hurrying to show him the playground. Tobias just had to smile while picking up their things because this time they had a good reason to rush out.

Patrick wasn’t given a chance to protest; Dennis and Jack were quick to show off their big brother to everyone.

The playground was mostly grassy, with sections of trees around the edges.  At one end was a big café where parents sat chatting and watching their children play. Within the café’s premises children could borrow all kinds of things to play with, and Dennis and Jack picked up a soccer ball there. “But I haven’t got the right shoes,” Patrick tried to complain. Those could be borrowed too, so no excuses were accepted.

Patrick hadn’t played soccer before, but that didn’t matter. After a few kicks and some explanations, the three boys started a game with a handful of others. Patrick was surprised that, as with the game he played with Lilly, both boys and girls played, some being more handicapped than others.  They all looked to be at a similar age maybe, but their soccer skills must have varied a lot, he thought.

But again, no problem: no one was left out, and those with handicaps or no talent were given the ball to play, too. Okay, they missed the ball sometimes and even passed it to the opposite team, but that didn’t seem to matter.  Everyone laughed and tried hard, and there was lots of shouting and running and good-spirited joking about the score.

On their way home Patrick had to ask Dennis and Jack about that, how they could play together despite their skills being so uneven.

“It’s fun,” Jack answered simply.

“You should see the big soccer game at the castle. They play the same there, too,” Dennis explained.

Patrick didn’t quite understand, so when they got home he had to ask Tobias.

“Yes, it’s great!” Tobias laughed. “What do you say, guys? What about taking Patrick to the Saturday soccer game at the castle?”

Dennis and Jack jumped around enthusiastically cheering, and Nina was in for it too, so that was settled.

Tobias sent them to the bathroom to wash up, and they all met on the balcony, Tobias telling the others what he and Patrick had done during the day. After everyone shared a pitcher of lemonade, they set out for dinner.

Again, they didn’t have to go far. The restaurant they were heading to was in the plaza where Tobias and Patrick had gotten on and off the worm, but on the other end with a view over the valley.

Once inside Patrick saw that all the tables were the big kind, for ten or more people, and instead of choosing a free table Nina went over to one where people were already sitting and asked if it was okay to join them. It must have been, because Nina waved to her family to come over.

“You see, Patrick, this is how we do it; this is how we meet, and learn about each other, and maintain friendships. As long as you’re polite—most everyone will welcome you in.

Patrick was amazed. At their table was another couple with two children, a boy and a girl, a bit younger than Dennis and Jack. But their mother hand no arms, so instead she used her feet. Her seat was a bit higher so she could reach up, but otherwise, there was nothing to it, and both families set to chatting right away, with Dennis and Jack bragging about their big brother, of course.

Patrick went to sleep early that night and dreamed contentedly. He was exhausted by all the new impressions—as well as the two sports games he’d played—but he wouldn’t want to have missed any of it.

The next day Tobias took him up to the castle, and he showed Patrick an ancient garden, explaining that these plants and small trees were what sprouted when the valley glacier had melted away.

Patrick again hit the hay early after yet another day filled with wonderments, including a return trip with Dennis and Jack to the playground. It seemed to him that in an instant he knew more people and had more friends than he had known in his entire life. It was a lot to take in, but Patrick’s joy shone through his exhaustion. As he was falling asleep he remembered that he still had Lilly’s number … but that too would have to wait.

Tobias and Nina stayed up late that evening talking about the next day to come, when they would take Patrick to see Mr. Green for his class. They both wondered why Patrick didn’t seem to be worried to meet Mr. Green after that nasty late night news experience. In fact, Tobias and Nina felt a bit awkward about the situation because they also didn’t understand what had happened in their living room with Patrick. They both hoped that tomorrow perhaps would bring them some answers.

So, Wednesday morning, Dennis and Jack entered the kitchen for breakfast at about the same time as Patrick, and they started chatting simultaneously as if they were unaware of the significance of the day. Whether Patrick was hiding his concern or felt confident, Tobias and Nina didn’t know. Nina had taken the day off so she’d be there for any surprises.

They were supposed to show up at nine-thirty in the east wing of the castle, a classroom that was easy to find on the first floor. When they arrived, Mr. Green was standing outside the door and invited them in. Tobias and Nina felt it odd to be welcomed by that tiny, strange Mr. Green, shaking hands and smiling. During that late night news show, Mr. Green had engraved an authority that couldn’t be denied, but that was not all that made the situation strange.

Few had met Mr. Green, and no one had heard of him shaking hands. This friendliness in sudden contrast to how he had neutralized Mr. Cantini a few nights ago felt awkward. Patrick, however, showed no sign of conflicted feelings.

The classroom was large enough for about thirty students. Its ceiling was tall, almost fifteen feet high, and its ancient-looking windows were styled much like those of a castle, revealing a view of the eastern city slopes with its streets, terraces, and houses running down to the city outer wall, and the river floating by outside it creating an ancient fosse. 

Tobias, Nina, and Patrick weren’t the first to arrive; five other kids were there with their parents, and soon a couple of more students arrived, also with their parents, and they were greeted by Mr. Green in the same friendly manner as the others.

It was obvious to Nina and Tobias that all the kids must have been adopted like Patrick, because their parents’ appearances didn’t match their children. Patrick was the only black child there, but upon closer inspection no kids looked the same, as if they each had come from a different corner of the Earth. None had any visible handicap, and their ages seemed to be from Patrick’s to about twenty years old.

As Mr. Green closed the classroom door after having welcomed the last family in, Tobias could count nine of them there. No one spoke.

Mr. Green walked to the front, where the teacher’s desk had been raised a foot above the floor on a dais. Nevertheless, Mr. Green was still shorter than all the others. He told them to come forward and spread out in front of him, not to stand there in the back of the room. They all shuffled closer, and then Mr. Green started to talk.

“I would like to welcome you all once again. Everyone who was invited has come, and for that I’m very grateful. You haven’t received much of an explanation regarding what this class is about, but I will tell you that now. Each of you students has a talent—that is how Ms. Matey and I first became aware of your existence. You have all met me before under not-so-nice circumstances, but without you knowing about it. There are other kids with the same or similar talents, but not all are welcome here. As you know, Skyjland is special, and we need it to stay that way.”

Mr. Green shifted his weight from one foot to the other before he continued.

“If you want, in this class I will teach you about your talents and show you how to use them. Your talents are not the same—you all differ—but one thing you have in common is that you can move to other dimensions in a room. So far you’ve been unaware of this. Ms. Matey and I found you that way because we have that talent, too. In another way we found Mr. Zed and Ms. Nodi, but that’s another story that this class will reveal later.

“This room we’re in now isn’t merely three dimensional, or four dimensional with time included, as we’re usually aware of. There are other dimensions, and they are many—and some quite impossible to understand—but nevertheless, they exist. What you and your parents need to understand is that this talent of yours is not only a blessing; I would rather describe it as a curse, for several reasons, as I know from personal experience.”

Both Tobias and Nina twitched a bit as Mr. Green said those last words, but still he emitted friendliness without any intention to harm anyone. A quick look around at all the parents revealed more worry, but their children were as calm as could be.

As if he could read their minds, Mr. Green said, “Now, there’s nothing to be alarmed about, and I’m really happy that all of you brought you parents here, because you need them, and they need you. So on this first day I will try to tell you what this is all about—how class can help you develop as persons and be of assistance further on.”

There were lots of bewildered looks as Mr. Green suggested a short break for the parents and their children to meet each other.

“Do you know what he’s talking about?” Tobias whispered to Patrick.

“No, I have no idea, but he’s telling the truth; I know he’s not cheating.”

Tobias stood quietly for a moment as Nina began introducing herself to the others, with a smile. Then he straightened up, as Mr. Green walked closer, apparently happily taking part in presenting everyone to each other, chatting as if he were one of them. Him? Mr. Green? How…?

That late night news show was no joke; Tobias knew that it had scared even him. What had changed? Whatever was going on, Tobias felt eager to learn and to know. He might be a magician, but he felt this was out of his league.

…

To be continued Friday 26 March.