“If I ’ad to make a guess,” Mothball said, folding her arms as her eyes revealed she was frantically trying to come up with an answer. “I reckon I’d say that . . . well, me instincts tell me that . . . if that lightning was . . . mayhaps it could’ve been . . . if you think about it . . .”
Luckily, another humming sound saved her. Sato looked to his right just in time to see a light green, marble square settle into place after rotating. An instant later, Rutger appeared, sitting on his bum in his black pants and black shirt, looking as frightened as Sato had ever seen him.
“What happened?” he yelled, scrambling to get his short legs under him. He looked so much like a huge ball pitching back and forth on two sticks that Sato worried what Lisa would think. He’d grown quite fond of Rutger, despite the constant teasing, and he always worried when the short man met new people. But Lisa seemed completely at ease, and his esteem for her went up another notch.
Before anyone could answer Rutger’s inquiry, another humming sounded. Sato didn’t look around in time to see the marble rotate, but about forty feet behind him, Tollaseat had appeared.
Windasill’s shriek of delight had barely pierced the air when there came another humming. Then another. Then another. Sato was spinning in circles trying to catch sight of all the flipping tiles. People appeared each time, people he didn’t know. Most of them were tall like Mothball and obviously from the Fifth. Hum, hum, hum—the sound blended together into a resonating vibration that strangely soothed his nerves.
Suddenly it was like musical popcorn. More and more and more marble slabs spun in ninety degrees all around him, changing colors as they did so, while a stunned, often dirty, sometimes injured person winked into existence on top. Sato finally quit trying to take it all in and instead focused on Mothball, then Rutger. Both of them were gawking at the strange sight around them, but Lisa was staring straight at him.
She raised her eyebrows in an unspoken question.
“You know I don’t know what’s going on,” Sato said. “Let’s just hope none of these people are maniacs bent on killing us.”
“I just don’t . . .” She trailed off, her eyes focusing on something past Sato’s shoulder. They widened in surprise, then shock, then a huge smile wiped the anguish and confusion off her face.
“What?” he asked, already turning to see what she’d discovered.
Lisa shrieked with joy, brushing past him and sprinting toward a group of shorter people—compared to the Fifths anyway—a heavyset man, a brown-haired woman, and a little girl.
It had to be Kayla. And Tick’s parents, too.
Sato hurried after Lisa, feeling a rush of excitement at meeting Tick’s family, somehow putting out of his mind that they were all standing in an impossible place with no explanation of how they’d gotten there.
Lisa reached her family and practically tackled Kayla, pulling her into a tight embrace and twirling her around. Their mom and dad soon joined in, a group of entwined arms, jumping up and down and laughing. It was one of the sweetest things Sato had ever seen.
When he reached them, he stopped, wondering if maybe he should’ve left them alone to their reunion.
Lisa saw him and broke apart from the vise of her dad’s arms. “Mom, Dad—this is Tick’s friend Sato.” She reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him closer for the introductions.
“I’m Edgar,” her dad said, taking Sato’s hand and shaking it vigorously. “I don’t know where we are or how we got here, but I’m honored to meet one of my son’s partners in crime.”
“Nice . . . nice to meet you,” Sato managed to mumble. Everything suddenly felt like a dream.
Tick’s mom pulled Sato into a long hug, then looked at him as she squeezed his shoulders. “I’m Lorena, and it’s an honor indeed. Atticus told us about your parents and what happened to them. I was so sorry to hear the news. Your mom and I were dear, dear friends for many years. But after I left the Realitants, I had no choice but to lose touch with her. It has been one of the biggest regrets of my life.”
Sato raised his eyebrows. “Why’d you have to do that? Why couldn’t you stay friends?”
Lorena looked at the ground for a second, a flash of fear on her face. But then she returned her gaze to him and her eyes were filled with resolve. “Because Jane said she’d kill me if I ever contacted a Realitant again. She was scared I’d tell them about the Thirteenth Reality before she was ready.”
Chapter
29
~
The Only Hope
Tick spent a long minute simply staring at the shifting faces of the glowing Haunce. Their eyes stared back, full of scrutiny and concern, waiting to hear his reaction to the pronouncement that Tick was the only one who could save the Realities from ripping apart and ceasing to exist forever. No pressure, right?