Authors: Linda Pohring
Oddily was carried to another bedroom full of frills, bows, and flowery fabrics appearing to be decorated by a professional designer, except for the toys scattered haphazardly around the floor.
She was placed on the ground floor inside a Victorian dollhouse, but the giant's conversation was directed to the room above. The situation was becoming absurdly surreal and silly; however, what followed wasn’t funny at all. Bobbitt took a boy doll from the upstairs bedroom, and proceeded to bounce it up and down in front of her bewildered eyes.
“
Pssst,” Oddily heard the sound and glanced in that direction. A bald-headed boy with silver eyes, whom she guessed to be eight or nine, hid under the giant fu-fu bed, waving his hands at her to get her attention. He stared straight at her, and she met his stare with wide eyes. His creepy features made her heart flip-flop in her chest.
“
Hi Nexa, my name is Dennis Dux,” Bobbitt lowered her voice to sound more boyish.
Oddily didn’t respond, remaining frozen where she stood.
“
I said, Hi Nexa—Answer me!”
For Bobbitt, it didn’t take much to make her cranky, and Oddily knew she had to say something. “I’m not Nexa,” she felt foolish speaking to the doll.
“
Your answer does not compute. Do you want to go to a party?”
“
Sure, I...” Oddily’s voice trailed off when she spotted the freaky boy again, signaling for her to flee.
“
Okay, I’ll pick you up at seven.” Apparently, Bobbitt didn’t care whether she finished her sentence or not.
Oddily felt ridiculous, but waved goodbye to the doll while Bobbitt crawled across the carpet, mumbling something about a party dress. That meant another change of clothes.
Oddily glanced over to the bed where she had last seen the boy, and he still beckoned her to join him. She shook her head in panic refusing to move for fear she would be caught; but, when she thought of the giant undressing her in front of the kid with silver eyes, she took off running, side-stepping a pair of ballet slippers, and ran under the bed.
“
Hurry,” he grabbed her by the arm and dragged her breathless body to the back section of the bed, behind an old hat box.
“
Where did you go—silly thing?” Bobbitt dropped the boy toy and started to search the room. “Why are you hiding, Nexa? You’ve never done that before!”
Oddily remained silent, too overwhelmed even to try and catch her breath.
“
Come here!” Bobbitt stomped her foot impatiently. “I don’t have all day!”
The two remained quiet.
“
Fine, see if I care.”
Oddily sighed in relief when the youngster left the room. The girl started to sing and thankfully, the happy tune grew fainter and fainter.
“
I am Oliver, and you need to get out of here before she gets back,” the boy spoke with an unusual, quirky sound to his voice, a strange intonation.
“
Will you help me?”
“
That’s up to you, depending on how many points you have stored up?”
“
What do you mean?” her face took on a forlorn expression while she followed Oliver out from under the bed.
“
You know—the points collected so far in the game. You can buy tools to help yourself get out of this mess and win.”
“
I’m sorry. I don’t know what you're talking about,” a new surge of fear swept over her.
“
Didn’t you read the directions before you entered?” he asked, in a flat, matter of fact tone.
While tears streamed down her cheeks, Oddily found herself lost for words because Oliver sounded disturbingly insane.
“
You are programmed to play the game, Nexa.” He answered her silence.
Oddily shrugged, “Who is Nexa?”
“
You are, of course.”
That did it! Oddily moved away from him as fast as she could, back to the Victorian dollhouse, and tried to find a place to hide when she noticed the door to the plastic refrigerator was slightly ajar.
“
Oliver, this refrigerator has a real door!” The boy gazed to where she pointed.
“
You found your first secret exit—fifty points,” he spoke with no real surprise in his tone.
“
First—you mean there’s more?” She became more confused than ever.
“
Sure, the game has twelve of them.”
Oddily gazed around the young giants’ bedroom until a cracking noise caused her to avert her wondering eyes back to Oliver. “What was that?”
“
Stiff hinges,” His statement sounded lifeless while Oddily stepped up to the opened door. Together they peered into a hole and spotted a stairway leading down into darkness.
Oddily got an eerie sensation in the pit of her stomach. “It looks spooky,” she stammered.
“
I wonder where it leads to,” the intonation of Oliver’s voice started to mess with her head. Besides his appearance, there was something off about the kid, as though the boy had no real feelings or emotions.
Oliver was still staring down into the dark abyss when she heard a strange vacuum sound coming from the hallway, towards Bobbitt’s bedroom.
“
Follow me!” Without hesitation, Oliver jumped into the hole and started down the stairs. “That mutt must be back from its walk.”
“
What are you talking about? As if in response to her question, an enormous brown dog with a pink rhinestone collar entered the room. His prominent nose was sniffing its way towards her.
Oddily hopped in after him and scrambled down the rickety, cobwebbed stairway. The air had a pungent, musty odor which made it difficult to breathe, but she didn’t care. The dog’s growl, resonating down into the hole was much more of a concern than stale air. She continued on, listening intently until the terrifying sound of the dog disappeared.
“
How far down do you think we are?” she held onto the back of the boy’s shirt with her free hand, and an old wooden railing with the other.
Oliver glanced back up the stairway to the opening and spotted a speck of light, the size of a flashlight. “I think we are half way to China by now.”
“
That’s silly,” she giggled, despite herself.
Enveloped in darkness, Oddily felt her way, step by step, down the planks. She faithfully followed behind Oliver, hardly believing this was happening to her. She wanted to return to her own world, but didn’t know how. She felt trapped inside a kid’s world of weirdness.
Suddenly, a wave of nausea threatened to overwhelm her. “Oliver, I think I’m going to puke.”
“
What is puke?”
“
You don’t want to know,” she gulped.
Oddily kept swallowing her spit to calm her stomach, and continued her journey until Oliver announced that his foot landed on the ground. As if by magic, dim, yellow lights blinked on, exposing a long tunnel made of the living earth.
“
How did you do that with the lights?”
Oliver shrugged. “I didn’t do anything! Are you sure you don’t have any more tools?” he waited for her response, but her wide eyed blank stare gave him his answer.
The two continued their journey in single file because of the narrow tunnel. Oliver went first, then her, as they wandered through the uncertain lines of the earthen walls. Deep tree roots pierced the tunnel with water dripping down from above. It caused quite a bit of moisture with hunks of earth falling periodically from the walls.
She clung close to Oliver as she stumbled over the uneven floor, terrified the passageway would collapse on them. All kinds of fears tried to creep into her mind, but she brushed them aside the best she could in an attempt to be strong.
After some time, they rounded a bend in the otherwise straight path and Oliver stopped so suddenly, she bumped into him.
“
What’s the matter?” She whispered.
“
There’s an opening up ahead.”
“
Let me have a look.” Oddily peeked around Oliver, and adjusted her eyes while the kid stood like a mannequin. “You are right, let’s follow…”
Mr. Belmont removed the device from Oddily’s eyes and placed them on her desk, disrupting the virtual world.
“
Are you all right?” the teacher’s voice sounded concerned while he stared at the pale, disoriented Oddily staring into space with her mouth gaping open.
“
Paul, go get the nurse—hurry!”
The startled Oddily jerked in her seat and snapped her head towards Mr. Belmont when she realized she was back in the classroom.
Paul got up to fetch the nurse, but Oddily found her voice and blurted out, “No. I…I’m OK!” She wasn’t fibbing because as soon as the glasses left her eyes she had come back to this world.
“
Are you sure?” The teacher wasn’t convinced.
Oddily nodded her head, while she snatched up the device and shoved it into her backpack.
8
Oddily’s next class was Physical Education. The locker room filled with girls changing into their gym clothes. Nothing smelled quite like a room full of stinky tennis shoes and sweat stained P.E. clothes.
As usual, Oddily was the only one not getting dressed. Instead, she sat on the bench in front of her gym locker reliving the strange phenomenon that took place in history class. To appear busy, she rummaged through her backpack, pretending to have lost something until everyone left for Aerobics.
Every day she had a different excuse not to change her clothes with anyone around. Her favorites were a stuck locker, forgotten gym clothes, a headache or injury, and too late for class.
The thought of undressing in front of anyone was humiliating, knowing her training bra had already become the butt for many locker room jokes. Girl’s her age had fully developed while she remained as flat as a pancake. Thank goodness, Oliver showed up and helped her escape from the giantess. She couldn’t imagine what would have happened if he hadn’t. Surely, she would be the victim of embarrassment for the rest of her life if Bobbitt had played dress up with her in front of the young boy. That was unless the chest fairy had quickly come to her rescue. She sighed when she thought of the quirky, deadhead, Oliver, with his bald head, unnatural silver hued eyes and unfortunately, his lifeless personality.
Oddily found the magical glasses tucked in the corner of her backpack and shook her head in amazement as she took them out, re-examining them until the tardy bell rang.
A huge crowd of girls milled around the gym room floor, giggling and talking, when the shrill sound of a whistle brought most of the conversation to a halt. All eyes turned in the direction of the gym teacher.
“
Cut the chatter, students!” Coach Berkley bellowed, and the rest became dead silent. The girls’ gym instructor sounded gruff, not sparing anyone’s feelings. Most learned to ignore her, although occasionally a girl would burst into tears when the teacher’s criticism became particularly harsh. She ordered everyone to line up in a straight line and took the roll call while Oddily managed to sneak in line unnoticed.
It didn’t take long for the P.E. teacher’s gaze to fall on the space below the neckline of Oddily’s gym shirt. She swiftly walked over to pull her out of line. “Oddily, if this is a joke, I’m not laughing!”
“
I’m not trying to be funny.” Oddily’s response came with such sincerity the coach had no choice but to believe her.
“
It appears as though you have developed breasts overnight.”
Oddily’s eyes widened. “Is it that obvious,” she whispered. “I just thought if I stuffed my bra a little it would—never mind.”
“
I believe you can do without the enhancement,” the coach cleared her throat, and Oddily thought she caught a twinkle in the teacher’s eye.
“
I guess you’re right,” Oddily made a face, “Besides, I think they’re lopsided.”
Oddily had already retrieved one ball of tissue and dug for the other while hearing muffled whispers and snickers from the classmates. Oddily handed the Kleenex to the coach and scurried back in line, ignoring everyone; this was including the watchful eye of a handsome stranger she wasn’t even aware of—someone who could hardly contain his amusement.
The whole class exercised, completing a standard routine of leg lifts, arm circles, toe curls, and side twists. Oddily was moist with perspiration and out of breath by the time the whistle twilled, and everyone came to a halt.
“
Okay, hit the showers girls—you stink!”
As Oddily stood in line for the drinking fountain, she knew something was up. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a few girls surrounding Starla, full of excitement as they walked with her to the showers. The small group shot amused looks her way while Starla spun another web of meanness.
9
The surprise attack came right after lunch. Oddily was waiting for the huge mass of kids to leave the cafeteria when she spotted Kip at the side door, chomping on a toothpick.
“
Come here,” he waggled his finger at her.
“
Me?” Oddily pointed to herself.
Kip nodded; but when Oddily remained in her seat, he marched over to her table and snatched her backpack from off of her shoulder.