Eugene and Casper
Chapter Four: Through the Looking-Glass
The raven flew down and attacked the dark man, tearing at his hood with its talons. Just then a siren sounded and a white police car squealed to a stop just outside the gate, and two policemen jumped out with guns in hand. The dark man looked over his shoulder, then back at Eugene, and then disappeared like mist.
Eugene looked back at the mirror. There, right in front of him, had appeared a small opening. You could almost call it a door, but not quite. The edges looked like intricately carved stonework, and there was a larger stone at the top of the arch, engraved with the words "Enter Here." But if Eugene noticed any of this, it was only for a moment, for he had flung himself through the entrance just as the two police officers ran through the gate.
There was a burst of light as he flew through the opening and landed hard on his stomach in some prickly bushes. He rolled out of them, as he'd been trained to do, stood up, and found himself in the heart of an ancient forest. The trees surrounding him on every side were tall, so tall that the canopy was obscured by all the clouds beneath it. None of the trees had branches.
Eugene felt very small.
"Psst, you!" Eugene turned around but couldn't see anyone. "Duck!"
Before his mind had finished processing the word, his body had dropped back into the bushes. A moment later, the forest was filled with a reverberating thud, and a row of trees came crashing down just in front of his wide eyes and open mouth.
Eugene lay still. Two or three seconds went by, and then another ear-splintering crash. He looked over and saw a house-sized boot, which lifted up and came down again farther into the forest, felling another row of trees. The boot was connected to a leg, which was connected to the body of a giant the size of the Eiffel Tower. Or at least it appeared that way to Eugene.
"We've got to hightail it out of here," came a voice from behind one of the still-standing trees. "If there are any more of them coming, you see...well, the trees are tall and when they come down, they take out a long path. Come, this way."
Eugene frowned. "Which way? Who are you?"
The voice moved to the left out from behind the tree, but there was still nobody there. "This way."
"I can't see you," said Eugene.
"You can't what? We don't have time for jokes. Quick!" And with that the voice went silent, but Eugene could hear footsteps running in a direction perpendicular to the giant's path. He shrugged and followed.
They weaved their way through the forest, passing over a stream here, leaping over a dried up brook there, following no path in particular. Eugene was looking up at the cloud cover when he ran into something with an oomph and came to a dead stop. He could see nothing, but the voice cried, "Ouch! Watch where you're going!"
"Sorry," Eugene said. "Let's stop. Who are you? Where are we going? Where am I? Why can't I see you?"
"Slow down, slow down." The voice sighed. "My name is Yinks. Now what do you mean, you can't see me? I'm right here, aren't I?"
"I'm serious."
Yinks fell silent for a few moments. "I must've been enchanted while I slept. That would explain why nobody said anything when I slipped out of town last night."
"Are you running away?"
"No," replied Yinks. "Well, yes. But not really. At least not the way you'd normally think of it. It's a long story. Anyway, we're out far enough that we shouldn't be in danger any more."
Eugene sat down on a rock. He looked around at the clearing they were in. It didn't look like Utah to him. "Where am I?"
"You're sitting on a rock. I can see you just fine."
"No, no, that's not what I meant," said Eugene. "What state am I in?"
"Well, you're a human, so you're mostly liquid, with some solid bones and--"
"Stop it!" Eugene stood up. "Be serious. What country is this?" He was about to ask if he was still in Utah, but he had enough sense to realize that if there had ever been any giants in Utah, they had left long ago, around the time of Noah.
"This isn't any country. It's in-between countries. It's the line."
"Very funny," shot back Eugene, sitting back down again. His calves ached from the run.
"I'm serious! The king who drew up the map back in the day used a thick marker, so there are plenty of these in-between lands which no country can lay claim to. Lots of people hide out in them. It's the way it works here. But you're not from here, are you?" Eugene could hear a smile in Yinks' voice.
"No. I'm from Utah."
"Utah? Never heard of it. Must be one of those foreign places," said Yinks.
Just then the initial shock of being transported to another world faded away and Eugene remembered the wad of paper and Casper's plight. "Do you know Casper?"
"Casper? Never heard of him."
"He looks like me. He's going to get kidnapped. Or maybe he already did. I've got to rescue him."
Yinks laughed. "You? Rescue? Right. How old are you?"
"Old enough," said Eugene.
"Whatever. What's your name, kid?"
"Eugene."
"Eugene. Funny name. You must not like your parents very much, then, eh?"
"I like them a lot."
"Oh." With that, Yinks became silent again.
Eugene's mind sprinted, did some hurdles and the high-jump, and finished off with the shot put. He had to find Casper. But how? Yinks was no help. Besides, how did he know Yinks was a good guy? He couldn't even see him. Maybe he was one of Casper's kidnappers. Probably not. He didn't sound like a bad guy, really. More of a joker than anything. But about Casper... What he had to do, he decided, was find somebody who might know him. And then, in a brilliant flash of inspiration, he had it -- the police!
"Hey, where's the nearest police station?"
Yinks yawned. "The what? Please station?"
"You know," said Eugene. "Police. They wear uniforms and protect people and stuff."
"We don't have those here. It's every man for himself." The sound of his voice dropped a couple feet, and Eugene figured (correctly, I might add) that Yinks was sitting down.
The light bulb extinguished itself. If there weren't any police, then who else might know who Casper was? He didn't even know which country he was from. And he probably wasn't exactly famous, come to think of it. Just a no-name kid, like Eugene. He wondered what Casper's parents were like. Did he even have parents? Wherever he was, it seemed awfully different from home. But he liked it. Being chased by a giant? Talking with an invisible man? This sure beat writing out sums in Mr. Stonebridge's class.
His thought was interrupted by a flurry of black dogs which burst into the clearing, growling and with their hides bristling. He had no time to do anything before they were upon him.
"Heel!" came a different voice, and the dogs all retreated. A tall man -- if you could call him a man -- stepped into the clearing. Eugene's heart skipped a beat as he saw the man's thin, bony hands. A raven flew in through the trees and landed on the man's shoulder.
"Welcome to my world, Eugene."
