The Magic Meadow (5 page)

“But she can come back here any time she wishes. I told her how.”

Lily Rose said in a small voice, “Maybe she can't, alone. None of us here could go over there alone. We've been trying. Maybe, if everybody could have hung on to each other's hand …”

“But we couldn't,” said Charlie Pill. “We just gave out. You know what I think? It sure gets me, but I think Brick's the only guy who can go to that place. And when he goes, I'm thinking he can take only one of us at a time.”

“I believe Charlie's right,” said Lily Rose.

“Me too,” said Diz Dobie.

“Oh, dear!” Nurse Jackson seemed to have forgotten the tray she had been holding all the while. Suddenly she ordered, “Brick, you get yourself over to that dandelion place fast and bring that poor girl back here!”

Before he could answer, Miss Preedy, the night supervisor, appeared in the doorway. Brick glimpsed her in the nick of time and managed to flip the bedclothes over himself before he was seen. It would never do to have her start asking questions he couldn't easily answer, or to have her even suspect he was regaining the use of a body that long had been paralyzed. If she did, she'd pack him off fast to one of the children's homes, and that would really put the fix to things.

“What in the world,” Miss Preedy began sweetly, “are all the beds doing jammed together like this? Explain that, Miss Jackson.”

“Don't ask me to explain anything,” Nurse Jackson replied with equal sweetness. “I just now got in here, and I've been on duty ever since—”

“And where's that pale girl?” Miss Preedy interrupted, looking down her long nose at the empty bed. “Don't tell me they found a place for her in the new building!”

Nurse Jackson sighed. “I doubt it. She must have been moved by mistake. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see her back here any minute.”

“I hope not. It would be one less patient to worry about. And Miss Jackson, the lights should have been out six minutes ago. We mustn't waste taxpayers' money. And what have I said about that screen? Rules are rules, and as long as we are here, I expect them to be obeyed.”

The moment Miss Preedy was safely away from the ward, Nurse Jackson closed the door and ordered, “Get going, Brick! Hurry!”

Brick swallowed. He was so tired from all his exertions that he had grave doubts of his ability to go anywhere for a while. As for returning immediately with another person …“Please,” he began, “if I can make it—and I'll do my best—I don't know when I can get back. So maybe I'd better take some blankets or something along for protection.”

Nurse Jackson went swiftly to the cabinet in the far corner and returned with a pair of gray blankets. She folded them tightly and tucked them under his arms.

“Try hard,” she said urgently. “And good luck!”

Brick closed his eyes and concentrated. He figured he might as well save himself all the extra effort he could, so he directed his thoughts upon the spot near the spring where he had seen Princess last.

Now, as before, time seemed to stand still. Possibly it was his concern for Princess that overcame his weakness and gave him the force he needed. It is also likely that he was finding it easier to use his newly discovered ability. Whatever the reason, he was all at once aware of a change, and suddenly he felt the hot sun beating down on him.

He opened his eyes, and found he was exactly where he had wished to be.

But Princess was not where he had left her. She was nowhere in sight.

4

FLIGHT

Brick sat up, feeling a sudden cold clutching of uneasiness, and looked quickly around. The uneasiness changed to fear. The fear mounted and stabbed him to his knees, and finally to his feet. He was not immediately aware that much of his weariness had vanished, and that he could actually stand with very little effort. All his thoughts were on Princess. She was like a sister to him, a younger sister who had always looked up to him and whom he had to protect. If anything had happened to her …

Again and again, more frantically each time, his eyes searched the length and breadth of the meadow, the windings of the brook running through it, and the edges of the surrounding woods. There was no sign of Princess anywhere.

He was almost afraid to call out for her. His tortured imagination was conjuring a succession of dangers that might be lurking in the shadows of the woods. This was a strange land, totally unknown. Why, the people who had constructed the curious building might be savage barbarians, or even vicious humanoids of the kind he'd once read about in a science-fiction story. If they hadn't found Princess and captured her, maybe she'd been dragged away and devoured by a bloodthirsty beast, say a saber-toothed tiger. The country really did look wild.

He ran an unsteady hand through his thatch of dark-red hair, then tugged on it as if to straighten out his thoughts. This was no time to let his imagination run away with him. He had to be practical. Suddenly it occurred to him that possibly, just possibly, she'd grown tired of waiting for him, or had begun to worry, and had decided to follow him to the building.

Once more he studied the slope on the other side of the spring. Then, in despair, he remembered how long it had taken him to reach the trees. Could Princess have crawled that far since he'd last seen her? Considering how little strength she had, it didn't seem possible.

As he felt the hot sun biting through his flimsy pajamas, he wondered if there was a shady hiding place close by which she might have crawled into and gone to sleep. There were bushes and shrubs scattered all along the main brook. As his eyes swung slowly to the right, he saw, just above the boggy ground from which the spring flowed, a clump of low shrubs overgrown with vines. Was that something white under the leaves?

“Princess!” he cried, and went stumbling toward her.

He didn't make it on his feet, but presently he crawled into a leafy cave, shady and cool and comfortable with matted grass. Princess was sound asleep as he entered, but when he spoke her name again, she stirred and sat up, rubbing her eyes.

“Golly, you sure had me scared!” he said. “I didn't see you when I got back and I thought something had run off with you.”

“It was too hot,” she explained. “Oh, I love the sun, but I've heard that too much of it at first can hurt people, so I came here.” Then, her eyes suddenly bright with curiosity, she asked tensely, “Brick, what did you find up at that place?”

When he had told her all that had happened, she exclaimed, “Oh, I've just got to see that house! If you'll help me, I'm sure I can get up there! Please, Brick—”

“No. It's time we went back to Ward Nine. Nurse Jackson said—”

“But I don't want to go back! I never want to see that place again.”

“But—but you can't stay here! Not by yourself!”

“Of course I can! Anyway, I wouldn't be alone very long. It won't take you any time to go to Ward Nine and get the others.”

As he stared at her, she added quickly, “And don't tell me we haven't a place to stay. Didn't you say that house has bunks in it? If it's open and not being used, I'm sure nobody—”

“Princess,” he interrupted, “we don't know anything about the people who own that house. What if they're humanoids or something?”

“Oh, pooh! What if they are? I'll take them to Miss Preedy. Anyway, humanoids
could
be fun, 'specially if they spoke nothing but music and came in bright colors.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Brick, do—do you 'spose we're in another world?”

“I'll be jiggered if I know. This could be Siberia.”

“Oh, no! Siberia is always yards and yards deep in snow, 'specially now. This is a
warm
place. I love it, and I'm going to stay here. And you've got to hurry and bring the others before they are moved. Why, it would be the awfullest thing if we were separated and never saw each other again, and they never had a chance to get well.” She stopped and looked at him earnestly. “Brick, you—you're not afraid to live here, are you?”

“Afraid? Naw! But we've got to be practical. We'll need clothes and things. And what about food?”

“Oh, we could have Nurse Jackson bring clothes for us. And we couldn't possibly go hungry. This is an—an absolutely magical place. Look!”

She held up something that looked like a ripe strawberry, then pressed it into his mouth. “Eat it,” she ordered.

He could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times he'd eaten strawberries in Ward Nine. It was whispered, in fact, that more of the taxpayers' money went into private pockets at Belleview than into food. This strawberry was like no other he'd ever tasted.

“Wow!” he exclaimed. “Where'd you get it?”

“Why, they're all over the place! I'm surprised you didn't notice them. There must be bushels and bushels growing wild all along the brook.”

The thought of so many wild berries, free for the picking, wiped away his last concern. He didn't know much about the outdoors, but he figured if one kind of food grew wild, there'd be other kinds as well.

“Okay,” he said. “I'll go back and get the others. But you'd better come with me. You'll have to talk to them. They'll want to hear your side of it as well as mine—Nurse Jackson especially.”

“Brick, I—I hate to go back. I've an awful feeling about it.”

“But you've
got
to go. You know that.”

“I—I s'pose so.”

“Then hang on to my hand, and concentrate. Concentrate hard on your bed, for I sure don't want you landing on that old cement floor!”

The transfer took longer this time, and a great deal more effort. Brick decided it was partly because he was so tired, but mainly because he had to build up a lot more power for two people. It sort of worried him to realize how much everyone would soon be depending upon him—for what if his ability failed at the wrong moment? But it was the kind of thing he didn't like to think about, so he tried to put it out of his mind.

They landed safely in their beds, and the first person he saw when he opened his eyes was Nurse Jackson, dozing in the chair in front of him. But the others were awake, waiting and watching.

“They're back!” Lily Rose and Charlie Pill cried together, and Nurse Jackson sat up with a jerk, blinking.

“Heaven be praised!” she breathed. She bounced to her feet, hurriedly rubbing the weariness from her brown eyes, and looked closely at Princess. “Oh, my, that sun did pink you a little,” she announced. “Brick caught it, too. I was scared to death you'd get a bad burn—but this shouldn't bother you too much. If it does, I'll put something on it.”

“I wasn't out in it long,” Princess explained. “I found a shady spot and crawled into it. Oh, I sure hated to come back! But Brick said I should, so I could tell you about it. We've just
got
to go there—it's the most wonderful place! There are strawberries everywhere—wild ones, and they're absolutely the yummiest things you've ever tasted!”

“Strawberries?” Diz Dobie echoed wonderingly.

“Strawberries!” Lily Rose whispered.

“Phooey!” said Charlie Pill. “I don't believe it. Strawberries don't grow wild.”

“They did when I was a kid in Alabama,” Nurse Jackson told him, and Princess sat up and opened her right hand and said, “Look!”

In her small hand were three slightly crushed but very red and luscious berries. Nurse Jackson passed them around, and they vanished instantly into three eager mouths. While the berries were being relished, three pairs of eyes stared at Princess, who had never been known to sit up before without help.

“You can sit up!” Charlie Pill said in a small voice. Then he burst out, “We've got to go there! And once I get there, I'm not coming back, ever!”

“That's what I want to talk about,” Brick said. “I know everybody wants to go—that is, if Nurse Jackson comes with us. You—you told us you'd come,” he added, looking at her earnestly.

“I'm not about to stay here,” the nurse retorted. “But, Brick, we'll have to plan this carefully, and then move fast. First, I'd better know more about this house you saw. What's it like inside?”

He described it carefully, and told her everything he could remember about it.

She frowned. “Strange. Can't be a residence. Must be a sort of camp, or maybe one of those youth hostels some countries fix up for hikers. Anyway, so long as it's not locked, there can't be any objection to our using it for a while. Did those bunks have any bedding on them?”

“I—I didn't notice.”

“Well, it doesn't matter. We'll have to take blankets anyway. Did you have any trouble with those two I gave you?”

He'd forgotten all about them. “I got there with them okay. They must be near the spring where I dropped them.”

“I'm glad to know that,” she said. “It means you can carry things as well as people, and that's important. Now, let me see….” She sat down and closed her eyes. “You'll need shoes—sneakers if I can get them—jeans, shirts.… I think all of us should wear jeans on a trip like this. And socks and towels and handkerchiefs. I can pack everything into laundry bags. And, Brick, you can hang on to a bag every time you take one of us over.…”

Suddenly she stopped, and a startled expression came over her broad face. “Why, this is downright crazy! Here I am talking as if we're going on a little camping trip—and we may end up in Australia or on one of the moons of Jupiter.”

Princess said, “It can't be Australia, 'cause I didn't notice any kangaroos. But we did see a big black horse and two deer. Oh, they were beautiful!”

Nurse Jackson blinked. “Well, I don't care where it is so long as there are no man-eating beasts and bill collectors.” She stood up and began pacing about the ward. “Now, let me see. First, I'd better go down into the basement and see what's in Donations. It'll save time if I can find enough clothing there. If not, I'll have to wait till the stores open in the morning.”