But he could hear, and the first thing he heard was children laughing. When his eyes cleared he saw a room full of children playing in their pajamas with all kinds of toys. Bright sunlight shone through the high windows, though it had been night only moments before. The room itself was long, like a grand hallway. The door they came through was at one end (and looked like nothing so much as another closet door), the only other door was at the far other end. In between the walls were painting with images of children in ecstatic play at all kinds of wonderful places. Places like amusement parks and forests filled with mystical creatures and real animals alike. Their smiling faces and wide eyes imploring you to abandon yourself to fun.
Some of the children in the room looked up at him in curiosity, but most of the others stared and smiled at Mr. Buttons as if they knew him. A couple of the younger ones even ran up and hugged his fluffy legs. Twins boys, Spence saw, probably kindergartners by the looks of them. Mr. Buttons returned the hug with his big bear arms. Spence thought it must be pretty nice to be hugged by those arms.
The kids were all kinds of ages, though probably only a few younger than the twins and only one or two older than Spence. The toys themselves looked like lots of fun, if not very new. In fact they looked like antiques. Old toy guns and rocking horses and four-square balls and ventriloquist dummies. Exactly the kind of toys that he had never been allowed to play with for fear of breaking them. He stared at them all open mouthed and thought that Mr. Buttons was right, this was a wonderful dream.
“Go on Spencer,” said Mr. Buttons, as if reading his thoughts. “Go have fun.”
Spencer did just that. Making new friends with the other children. All of which spoke English. As the hours went on he began to doubt this was a dream, it was too real, too long. Which was fine with him, he’d always known in his heart there were places like this, that magic was real. And here it was, proof. Mr. Buttons alone was proof, who went away and came back through the closet door at the end of the hall a few times bringing more surprised children, until the room held a few more than his classroom at school.
And then, just when Spencer was beginning to wonder if they would play forever in this magical place, he arrived. If every magic trick must have a magician, than this was clearly him. He walked in from the door at the other end of the grand hall, tall and skinny and with the biggest smile Spencer had ever seen. He wore a black coat and tails with top hat, almost like Willie Wonka but more graceful and deliberate in his movements.
“Hi everyone,” he beamed, spreading his arms wide. “I’m Smiling Jack! Welcome to my home. Welcome to Nowhere Blvd!”
The day in Nowhere Blvd started like this. First, Jack lead them out like the Pied Piper himself. Out of the hall, down the sweeping black staircase of the high ceilinged main room, out of the mansion, into a sun filled day atop a high hill overlooking a wonderful town. They could see the shops along cobblestone streets, the friendly looking houses, even a Ferris wheel off in the distance. The whole scene reminded Spencer of Candy-Land.
Jack said how it was all for them, a place of fun and play for as long as they wanted to stay.
“I’m going to show you everything,” he said in tones of delight, still with that never ending smile. “But first there’s someone I want you to meet.”
Jack lead them down the hill and to the right, a direction Spencer arbitrarily associated with west. The sun was too high in the sky to navigate it that way (the way his dad had taught him), so Spencer figured Jack’s mansion was at one end of the place and a landmark that could be seen from anywhere, so he called it north. Spencer didn’t want to get lost, his dad had taught him how never to get lost. You especially didn’t want to get lost in a dream, you never knew what might happen in one.
Jack went before the line of children and Mr. Buttons trailed it down the winding path. And at the end they found themselves at the most warm and inviting looking house Spencer had ever seen. Old red brick and slanted roof with a neat little chimney pointing out of it. He couldn’t quite put his finger on why, but it just seemed to smile at them somehow. Comfy looking, but also big. Big enough for all them. He noticed some of the children were skipping along and singing as they went.
“Over the river and through the woods, to grandmothers house we go….”
And as if summoned by the song, the front door opened and out she walked to welcome them. She didn’t look like Spencer’s grandmother. Spencer’s grandmother had been thin and had leathery skin from living in the desert all her life. But at the same time she did look like Spencer’s grandmother. She looked like everyone’s grandmother. The way she smiled welcome at them, beaming joy to see them. She was short and plump and round, with a poof of curly white hair upon her head and tiny round glasses on her nose.
“Kids,” said Smiling Jack. “I want you to meet Nanny Gurdy.”
“Oh come in, come in,” she said, waving at them. “Have some pie.”
There was all kinds of tasty treats at Nanny Gurdy’s. Pies and cakes and French toast cinnamon roles. Nanny giggled and fawned over them, bringing out plate after plate and licking her lips as she watched them eat. She might have been hungry, the way she kept licking those lips, but Spencer never saw her take a bite for herself. Jack went away for a bit while everyone ate their fills, some falling asleep for a nap on the comfy couches and chairs. Not Spencer though, tired as he was from only sleeping half the night. He hated to go to sleep when he might miss something exciting. Instead he played with a few others in the yard, a game of tag. They had to play in the front, Nanny said the back was only for special occasions. Spencer could only see so much of it before the view was blocked by a wide and tall wall of hedges.
The sleeping children didn’t get to sleep long, though some would have been happy too. When Smiling Jack came back it was time to play, ready or not. This time Mr. Buttons wasn’t with him, so Nanny came along to help give the tour.
They headed south along the cobbled path, Spencer still reckoning the mansion as true north. All the more so since the sun had declined to move an inch in the time they were inside. Smiling Jack lead them in a repeating song, sort of like “Row Row Row Your Boat”, except in a language Spencer didn’t recognize. A sibilant, piping one he didn’t think he’d ever heard. Nanny pointed out a long cabin as they passed, saying it was where their guests stayed. Spencer wondered what kind of magical people those would be, and wished he could be one of them.
They passed a lake surrounded by cattails on their right (named simply Jack’s Lake, according to their host). Off to their left they saw a path leading off to the amusement park, Ferris wheel and roller coaster towering high against the very pale blue of the sky.
“Can we go? Can we go?” asked some of the bolder kids, including the twins who each held one of Nanny’s hands.
“Soon, soon, everyone!” said Jack, doing a skillful spin in place to talk back to them and keep walking at the same time. “But first I want you to meet some more friends. Friends I made from boys and girls just like you, who came to visit me a long time ago and decided they loved it so much they wanted to stay forever.”
On they went to the end of the path. What Spencer judged to be the far south end of town judging by the wall of dark forest in the distance. Off a ways to the East were little houses that looked like the bungalows he and his parents had stayed in while on a trip to Disney World, though he didn’t know if a “bungalow” was only called that if it was on a beach. He wondered for the first time if his parents wondered where he had gone. The thought didn’t bother him much, he still thought he might wake at any minute. It was all just so unreal.