Once they had moved off, the littler kids were happy to run off towards the playground, which had all the best things to play on. It even had a rocket ship shaped slide, one of Spencer’s favorites from when he had been younger.
Now though, he was just a bit to old to play on a playground. A few of the other kids in the group obviously were as well. Surely the Perfects were, or at least he had thought that. The Perfects went about playing on the swings and slide and monkey bars with a diligence that was almost business like. Spencer thought to go play with them, but instead started a game of catch with a ball one of the other kids had brought from a store. Most of the older kids played, and some of the Perfects as well (including the tomboy Perfect Girl Jane, right on queue).
After a while the sun began to fade. Not set, it hadn’t even moved. Just fade in place. Jack announced it was time to go, and Spencer was heartbroken at the prospect of leaving.
“Goodbye Spence,” Julie said waving to him.
“Bye,” he said quieter. He felt like he was waking up from a dream of a new friend he would never dream of again.
Which is why he was doubly elated when Smiling Jack lead them not to the Grand Closet, but to the long log cabin across from his mansion that they had seen on their way to Nanny Gurdy’s,
“Here’s where you get to sleep,” he said, excited as usual to be giving the good news.
Spencer checked out the cabin with the other kids. Lots of bunk beds, and a few singles, they even had two bathrooms. No TV, no lights even, but still he was both excited and happy to be staying, like someone who wakes up and gets ready for school only to find out it’s Sunday. Yet at the same time a new concern grew in his mind which he hadn’t thought before.
If Smiling Jack’s not going to make us go home, he thought. What if we wanted to go home?
It wasn’t long until he had his answer. One of the youngest of the children, a girl who came up no higher than Spencer’s waist, began to whimper. Nanny Gurdy, who had come to tuck them in, noticed her first and spoke to her in hushed tones. The little girl nodding in reply to what she said.
“Jack,” said Nanny Gurdy. “I think Misty here doesn’t want to stay. She wants to go home.”
“Reallly,” Jack asked. His smile never faltering even in his evident surprise and concern. “Of course you can go home if you want Misty. Anyone here can go home any time they want. But if you leave you can never ever return to Nowhere Blvd, and we have so much to show you. Are you sure you want to leave?”
Misty’s only reply was once again a tearful nod.
“Ok Misty,” Jack said. “Nanny, take her to the house and get ready to take her home. But Misty won’t you please wait a moment before leaving so I can come say goodbye. You’ll wait at the house a moment for me, won’t you Misty?”
Misty nodded again, smiling, and her and Nanny went off hand in hand.
Jack watched them leave then turned to the rest of the children, his eyes and voice grave even if his expression wasn’t.
“There is one thing, children, that you must remember above all things,” he said as the last rays of light faded behind him. “I didn’t want to tell you this before because I didn’t want to scare you, but it isn’t safe to go out at night in Nowhere Blvd. It’s very very dark and you could get very lost. Worse still, there are the Rejected Things in the forests of Nowhere Blvd. They don’t dare come into town during the day, but at night…Well of course it’s perfectly safe locked up here in the cabin, my magic protects you here. But if you tried to go outside, anything could happen…”
The idea seemed a little silly to Spencer until he looked around at how dark it had become in the cabin in just the last few minutes. He could barely make out the faces around him. Jack’s grin almost floating in the dark like the Cheshire Cat’s.
“And then you’d miss out on all the wonderful FUN we’re going to have tomorrow,” he said, lightening up in tone. “Well goodnight children, goodnight!”
With that he slipped out the door, locking it from the outside (the only door with a lock Spencer had seen in Nowhere Blvd). Spencer wasted no time undressing and getting into bed. He thought for a moment of what Jack had meant by “Rejected.” He couldn’t really guess, but the connotation of a sort of monster was pretty clear. He thought he would be awake for a while thinking about it in this strange place, but instead fell asleep soon after and dreamt dreams he soon forgot.
Spencer’s parents had done a pretty good job of putting a bedroom together for him in the few days he’d been locked up in the hospital. His old bed, his old dresser, even a lot of his old toys. New clothes, which he supposed represented his mom’s best guess at his size. Same old closet, which he wasn’t happy about. But he had some ideas on that. He’d thought back to his second trip between the worlds through Jack’s Grand Closet. However it worked, it needed darkness. He knew it somehow, could just sense it on the trip back. Somehow the darkness was how it worked. And unlike in Nowhere Blvd, here artificial light was plentiful.
Things with his parents were awkward. He remembered the house, and remembered them. Yet still it felt for all the world like he was with strangers in a strange house. Despite Spencer’s not having said a word, his mom talked non-stop, as if to avoid any unpleasant silences. His father barely spoke at all, clearly at a loss for what to say. Baby Suzie would spin around and play pointlessly for awhile, then demand something of her parents and scream when she didn’t get it. Spencer found himself getting annoyed by her fast.
In addition he felt crowded, and on edge. Worse yet, he couldn’t stop sneezing. His eyes burning and watering.
“Allergies,” his mom said. “We’ll have to get you some medicine.”
Spencer didn’t remember having allergies, but on the other hand he hadn’t been around so much as a flower in at least two years, so he figured he just wasn’t used to the air. For lunch they had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, sitting around awkwardly at the kitchen table. He remembered the snack as being one of his favorites, but now it only tasted strange. When the food in the hospital had tasted strange, he’d assumed it was just because it was hospital food. But he realized now it was him. The sandwich gave him stomach cramps, as if his body didn’t know what to do with it.
He’d dreamt about this house and fresh air and bright skies and real food for years, and now all of them seemed to be assaulting him in different ways. It all made him on edge, made him angry. He felt he’d been cheated somehow, been given a dream come true only to find out nothing was the way it was supposed to be. He wanted to be somewhere else, but didn’t know where.
That night Spencer skipped dinner (breakfast and lunch was already more than he was used to eating in a day). He went to bed at nightfall, like you got used to doing living in the woods. In truth he could barely keep his eyes open, the day had exhausted him. He didn’t know how sitting around a house could be more exhausting than hiding from a forest full of monsters, but didn’t question it. Before bed his parents made him brush his teeth, a process which was painful and produced not a small amount of blood from his malnutritioned gums.
In his room he left the light on, closet door open where the light could reach every corner of it. His parents had left him with a nightlight, which he plugged in under the bed so the light would reach the shadows there as well. After he’d pushed the bed in front of the door, of course. He didn’t plan on allowing himself to be cornered in here. He tried to lay on the bed, but it was too soft and hurt his back. Instead he took a blanket and pillow and slept on the floor, a substantial step up in comfort from what he was used to. He rested with his fingertips touching the cool steel of a knife under his pillow, which he had snuck from a drawer in the kitchen.