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Sheila lifted up the brass gargoyle-head knocker and rapped on the door. She had just turned back down Cardinal Street and, instead of going directly home, had headed for an old Victorian house at the top of Mockingbird Hill. She hadn't visited Dr. Reit in weeks, and she was suddenly seized with a strong desire to see him again.
She had been standing out front, knocking and ringing the doorbell, for almost five minutes, but there was no answer. She finally gave up and walked around the house, through the overgrown grass and shrubbery, to the back door. "Dr. Reit, are you home?" she called, as she neared his ramshackle back porch.
A tall man with a shock of wild gray and white hair stuck his head out the inside door from the house. His intelligent dark eyes darted back and forth. "Who's there? Who's calling?"
"It's me," Sheila answered, pulling open the unlocked screen door.
At the sight of her, the man's face brightened. "What a fine surprise. Come in, come in, by all means." He held the door open and Sheila stepped into his chaotic laboratory, crammed full of test tubes, petri dishes, stacks of yellowing papers, and all kinds of strange contraptions.
Her eyes instantly traveled to the Molecular Acceleration Transport Device in the corner of the room, which looked like nothing more than a full-sized mirror with gray vented motors on either side. Its panel board stood just off to the right. Only the faint purple-white glow coming from the center of the reflective transporter window hinted at the power it would emit when fully activated.
"How goes it?" asked Dr. Reit as he perched on a high stool, sweeping his rumpled white lab coat behind him.
"Okay, I guess," Sheila answered, bending to pet Dr. Reit's tiger-striped cat, Einstein. "Things seem kind of boring after, you know, everything."
"They would, yes, I can well imagine," he said sympathetically. "Speaking of your recent adventures, you've come at an opportune time." He hopped off his stool and rummaged through a tall metal cabinet. "I have something to show you," he said, pulling out a metal box about the size of a TV remote-control device.
"It's my newest innovation—the Molecular Transport Tracker."
Sheila took the box from him and studied it. The casing was khaki green, with three purple switches across the middle and a thick yellow wire curling down its length.
''How does it work?" Sheila asked, turning the surprisingly heavy object over in her hands before giving it back to the scientist.
"You may remember what a difficult time I had finding you once you tumbled through the transporter window," Dr. Reit said.
Sheila laughed. "I sure do. But somehow you always managed to pop up when I really needed you.”
"Sometimes it worked out quite well, I agree," Dr. Reit said with a soft chuckle, "but it was all too unpredictable, too chancy. Theoretically, this device will tell me exactly where a person on the other side of the window is located. I can then bring him or her back without going through the window myself." Dr Reit held the box out in front of him. "Just flip the top switch, like this, and then move the bottom switch to the left . . ." No sooner had Dr. Reit demonstrated than a series of numbers came up on a small screen at the side of the transporter. "Those coordinates are telling me that I'm standing right here " he explained, "but I think they might just as well pinpoint a person on the other side-"
"That's great!" said Sheila, sincerely enthused. "You're a genius, Dr. Reit."
The scientist smiled modestly. "It was simply a matter of fine-tuning something I'd already developed. I haven't even tested it yet. It simply works in theory. Your unplanned trip through the transporter forced me to test that invention out before it was quite ready."
Sheila grew silent. Once again she was thinking about Morning Star. "I'll test the Tracker for you," she said.
Dr. Reit clasped his hands behind his back and paced the floor. "No, no. That would be much too dangerous. You're home safe and sound now. Let's leave well enough alone."
"But, Dr. Reit, I want to go back. I need to," Sheila begged. "I've been having this dream that my unicorn, Morning Star, is in some kind of trouble. Maybe the others are in danger, too."
"All the more reason to stay right here," he cautioned.
"They're my friends. I've got to go if they need me."
Dr. Reit studied Sheila's face. "You're a brave and loyal girl. I've always admired that in you." For a moment Sheila was sure he was going to weaken, but then he shook his head. "No, there's absolutely no guarantee that you'd even wind up in the same place. You could land on another planet for all I know."
"Have you moved the dials since I returned?"
''No-”
"Then I'd probably land right in the main square of Campora, in the same spot that we left,'' Sheila argued. ''I'll just go through, have a quick visit, and beep you with this thing when I want to come back."
Dr. Reit pressed his lips together thoughtfully. "No, I'm afraid I must be firm on this. It's just too risky."
"You're sure?"
"Quite sure."
"Don't you ever think about them, Dr. Reit?" Sheila asked sadly
"I do, indeed, often."
"I may never see them again."
“That is possible," Dr. Reit said, "but let's not think negatively. If I get this thing perfected, perhaps we can talk then. But right now I'm about ready for supper. And from the way Einstein is circling around my feet, I'd say he is, too. Care to join us?''
"No, thanks. I'd better get home."
Dr. Reit put his lanky arm around Sheila's shoulder and walked her to the back door. "You've had a most extraordinary experience, Sheila. It's going to take you a little while to readjust to our world. Give yourself some time."
"I'll try"' Sheila said with a faint smile. "It was good seeing you again, anyway.”
Dr. Reit gathered Einstein up in the crook of his right arm and waved as Sheila shut the screen door behind her. "The pleasure was mine. Come visit me often," he said.
Sheila trudged down Mockingbird Hill and stopped at the corner. The second the light turned green, a car honked at the one in front of it. Its driver was probably impatient to get home after a long day at work. "Hold your horses!'' the man in the first car screamed out his window.
Hold your horses. It made Sheila think of Morning Star but lately everything did.
Sheila got home and found the house empty. There was a note from her mother on the refrigerator door: Gone to the mall. Dad bowling. Frozen dinners are in the freezer. See you around 8. Love, Mom."
Sheila took a dinner of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and carrots from the freezer, ripped open the box, and popped the tray into the microwave oven.
She poured herself a cola, and when the microwave beeped to tell her the dinner was done, she took her meal to the coffee table in the den and used the remote control to turn on the TV. News, News. A game show. News. More news. She snapped the set off.
Sheila ate her TV dinner, hardly tasting it, then checked the digital readout on the VCR for the time. It was 6:40.
The next thing Sheila did, she did without thinking. It was as if her body were on automatic pilot. Somewhere inside she knew that if she thought too hard, she would change her mind. Her common sense would stop her. And she didn't want to be stopped. Another side of Sheila, a more powerful, intuitive side, was guiding her movements.
Sheila picked up the lavender backpack, which she had tossed in the front hall, and carried it upstairs to her bedroom. She unzipped it, dumped the contents onto her bed, and started to repack it.
She had left her old pack with Dian, one of Illyria's warriors. What would she take along this time? Her first journey through time and space had been a matter of chance, but now she was going to plan ahead.
Sheila put in some clean underwear, two T-shirts, and a sweatshirt. The jeans she was wearing were all she would need for pants. "I'm not leaving without my toothbrush this time," she said out loud and ducked into the bathroom to get it and a tube of toothpaste. She grabbed a box of Band-Aids and a roll of antacid tablets from the medicine cabinet, remembering how her stomach had felt after a dinner of roasted bats.
Returning to her bedroom, Sheila took her new tape recorder with the headphones from her dresser. What tapes should she bring? Definitely Springsteen, and U-2. Iltyria would like the new Whitney Houston tape, since she'd liked the old one. Sheila grabbed a handful of other cassettes, including some blanks, and threw them into the pack. Then she dug down deep into her top drawer, where she kept odds and ends, and pulled out an unopened card of batteries. These went into the pack as well.
Sheila glanced around her room. What else? Her Polaroid camera sat on the bookshelf. The unicorn warriors could have a lot of fun with that. She reached back into her top drawer for two extra rolls of film and tossed them on the bed. At the bottom of the drawer she found a clear red plastic water pistol. She and Cookie had been fooling around with them last summer at camp. Her friends might find the pistol entertaining.
Her backpack was almost full, but not quite. Sheila looked at the books on her shelf. Illyria would be fascinated by the paperback atlas. And then there was a book of photos, The Twentieth Century in Pictures. That would help her explain many seemingly strange things to her friends. She stuffed the books into her backpack along with a half-empty notebook and a pen. Sheila headed downstairs to the kitchen for a trash bag to carry additional items. She unrolled a large black plastic bag and grabbed a bunch of carrots from the refrigerator. The unicorns would like those.
Fishing through her mother's catch-all drawer, she found a pack of sparklers from last July. They would be fun. Next to them was a yellow plastic lighter. That would last longer than matches. Sheila also found a portable first-aid kit—perfect for Pelu, the warrior woman known as the healer.
Sheila then decided it would be nice to bring small gifts for everyone. She searched the house looking for suitable presents—things that no one in her house paid attention to, but that would delight her faraway friends.
It was 7:30 by the time Sheila was finished. She tossed the bag and her pack into the front hall. Now she just had to write a note so her parents wouldn't worry.
Sheila did some quick calculations. The last time she had been gone for months, and it had seemed like hours at home. So, suppose she stayed for a week this time. It would seem like . ... what? About fifteen minutes here.' She might be back before her parents even came home. Better to play it safe, though.
"Dear Mom and Dad," she wrote. "I went to the movies with Cookie. Be home by 9. Love, Sheila." Nine was her schoolday curfew. They wouldn’t be upset by that.
Sheila dragged her stuff out onto the front steps. The bags were heavy, but she managed to get herself balanced. In a short while she was walking back up Mockingbird Hill.
Sheila stopped outside Dr. Reit's house. Only the front rooms were lit. She walked quietly around to the back of the house and slipped through the screen door. Carefully she pushed in the back door, knowing that absent-minded Dr. Reit rarely remembered to lock it.
She stood in the dark lab. It was lit only by the faint purplish glow emitted by the Molecular Acceleration Transport Device over in the corner. Once Sheila's eyes adjusted, she saw the Tracker sitting on the table exactly where Dr. Reit had left it that afternoon.
Sheila set her bag and pack down in front of the trans-porter window. She found a long yellow legal-sized pad and pen on the table near the Tracker. "Dear Dr. Reit," she wrote. "Please don't be too angry with me. I just had to go back and make sure everything's okay. I can't get over this feeling that Morning Star needs me. She's my unicorn and no one else can help her the way I can. I've taken the Tracker and I'll let you know when I need to come back. Thanks, and, as I said, please don't be mad."
Sheila signed the note, then propped the pad up so Dr. Reit would be sure to see it. Then she thought of something else- What if she wanted to come back before Dr. Reit even knew she was gone? That could be a problem. But no, she remembered Dr. Reit telling her that whenever the Molecular Transport Device was activated, it made lights flicker all through the house. Dr. Reit would surely see the lights going, and he would rush to his laboratory to find out what was happening. Then he would see her note.
Picking up the Tracker, Sheila walked over to the transporter window. And suddenly, for the first time since she had decided to leave, she felt frightened. What if something went wrong? What if she just kept spinning through time and space and never landed anywhere? Maybe she would wind up in some unknown, even stranger place.
Her hands trembled as she looked down at the Tracker. She had to have faith in Dr. Reit and his inventions. With the Tracker, he would be able to bring her back, no matter what. . . . She hoped.
Holding the Tracker in one hand, Sheila used her free hand to pull the lever of the transporter. The window screen began pulsing with a throbbing violet light that gradually be-came an even deeper shade of purple. Dr. Reit had once told her it was best to wait until the screen was a solid, steady purple before going through.
Sheila heard a low hum and knew that the lights in the house had started to flicker. She had to make it through the window before Dr. Reit came to investigate.
Already she could hear his footsteps hurrying down the hall. Was the screen dark enough? It would have to do. She threw her bag and her pack through the window. They disappeared instantly.
The footsteps were getting very close. It was now or never. Sheila took a deep breath and prepared to jump. At that moment the door flew open and Dr. Reit appeared. Sheila took one look at his horrified face, bathed in the glow of purple light, and leapt quickly into the screen. She heard him cry' out, "Sheila! Don't!" and then she was tumbling, spinning head over heels into a bottomless gray void.
Back To Chapter Listings!
Chapter 1: Haunted Days, Sleepless Nights
Chapter 3: Return to Campora
Chapter 4: Into the Wilderness
Chapter 5: Reunion
Chapter 6: The Unicorns' Lament
Chapter 7: Spellbound
Chapter 8: Stops Along the Way
Chapter 9: The Hickorites
Chapter 10: Across the Unknown Sea
Chapter 11: Queelotoo
Chapter 12: In Ankzar’s Prison
Chapter 13: The Words of Reemergence
Chapter 14: Simi's Revenge
Chapter 15: Sheila’s Magic
Chapter 16: Homeward Bound
Email: Nikki