Getting Home

Part 29

At first.

The light purple very slowly began to swirl—so subtle at first I wasn't even sure it was happening. But as I continued watching, there was no doubt. The translucence was clearer than I thought at first; I could see... bubbles... clouds... stuff, beginning to move around—under the solid surface of the ground.

Then it began to change color.

The entire Path became a long stream of slow, swirling flotsam of colors; the colors all came together, a lazy spinning and melding of beautiful ruby red melting into turquoise blue, emerald green flowing into lilac purple, coral orange, glittering gold and more, all of it mixing and swaying and melting together into a beautiful, living rainbow road.

"Henry, it's beautiful," I breathed.

This time, his hand slipped into mine.

We stood there for a while, forgetting everything, watching the stunning colors of the Path swirl and brighten, mix and fade, over and over.

Finally, I remembered something.

"Henry, I thought the Caretaker said it took months to get here," I said.

Henry looked around. "So did I."

Speaking of the Caretaker, I looked around, assuming he had disappeared again—but he was actually still by the Civic, his back to us. Whatever he was doing, he sure didn't seem as impressed as we were by the color-morphing rainbow path.

I guess even the most beautiful things can get old and no longer be special... if you see it enough and stop appreciating it.

"He's not going with us," Henry said.

"Wait—what?"

"He says the Edge is that way." Henry pointed down the Path to our left. "But he's going the other way—" Henry pointed to the right. "To visit his Uncle, the Gatekeeper. In the City."

Wait—what?

"Uncle?" I said. "City?"

"Town? Village?" Henry frowned, confused. "It's... it's hard to say what he means, exactly. To speak it, I mean."

"That's okay, Henry. You're doing fine." Except for the "months" thing—we literally got here in half-an-hour.

But maybe that was just another translation issue.

"He does have a request, though," Henry said.

What now?

The Caretaker slowly turned to face us—holding the Starbucks cup.

"He wants... the cup?" I said.

Henry nodded.

I was oddly stumped for a moment—was that a good idea? I mean... I've literally never littered even once on my own planet, much less somebody else's. What if there was some kind of effect I couldn't even think of? Like what if the Caretaker took cup to his people, and they all started worshipping it as a god or something?

What if it altered their world somehow?

Their future?

This whole thing is all in your head anyways, right?

"Nobody will believe him, anyhow," Henry said, interrupting my thoughts.

"Huh?"

"That he even met us—met me."

The Caretaker slowly made his way to the path, gingerly stepping onto it. Then he just started walking away.

Suuuper slow.

That certainly answered why he had said it would take months to get here—because it would for him, moving at a speed like that. After ten minutes of watching him penguin-waddle away (which only got him like barely twenty feet), he suddenly stopped, turning back to face us.

He slowly raised the Starbucks cup to us.

Cheers.

Then he turned back around and kept going.

"I kind of miss him already," Henry said, watching him.

"He was kind of cute," I admitted, tentatively touching the Path with the toe of my sneaker. The ground was currently swirling greenish-blue—it reminded me of old marbles I used to have. But no matter how it looked—it felt the same as the rest of the surrounding ground...

Soft. Giving. Stable.

"Is it safe?" I said.

Henry shrugged.

We got back into the Civic, just the two of us now. I had a tiny bit of trepidation—the Path felt the same, but driving a car on it? I had no idea how much a car weighed, but...

I knew it was a lot.

"Only one way to find out," Henry said.

I turned the key to start the Civic.

Nothing.