Getting Home

Part 29

"The Edge?" I said unbelievably.

"Yes." Henry was silent for a few moments before nodding. "Yes, that's what the Caretaker calls it. The Path leads straight to it."

"And it takes months to get there?"

Henry nodded.

I was quiet as I contemplated. Finally, I said, "Can you ask him if there's, like... anything to eat? In this place, I mean."

Henry looked confused. "Eat?"

Uh-oh.

"Yes," I said. "Eat. You're going to tell me you know what a 'steed' is, but not eating?"

He shrugged.

Getting better and better.

I swallowed nervously, not sure if I even wanted to ask the next question. The soft green ground continued rolling by underneath us, so soft and giving that the Civic didn't bounce or bump even a single time.

It almost felt like we were floating.

"Henry, are you..." I swallowed nervously. "Are you an alien? Are we on a different planet?

Pretty sure that by now, you already know the look he gave me, so...

Another dead-end.

"Sorry, Ava," he said suddenly, his voice sad.

"It's okay, Henry," I said. "It's not your fault. We'll figure it out."

Unless I starve to death first.

We fell comfortably silent again. The Civic continued revving high as we crossed the vast, lush green land, the buzzing of the engine blaring out for how far I had no idea. I glanced once in the rearview mirror, seeing how disheveled I really was—my hair was a crazy mess, my face covered in cement dust and dirt from the parking garage.

There was a diagonal cut down the center of my lips; when I opened my mouth, the diagonal cut separated; when I closed, the diagonal line came back together.

The Civic suddenly started hitching, moving forward jerkily.

Oh no. No no no.

Henry looked around, panicked. "Ava?"

The car gave one big, last shudder. I looked up—

And there it was.

The long, deep line cut across directly in front of us, carved deeply across the landscape in front of us like an invisible fence, blocking off the other side. It was perfectly straight, shooting directly ninety-degree to our left and rights, stretching on forever beyond both horizons.

The width was only a little wider than the Civic itself—almost like it was perfectly cut for a car.

The Path.

The Civic continued to shudder, the engine sounding choppy as we slowly came to a stop in front of the path—

Then shutting completely off.

The Caretaker climbed clumsily out of the open backseat window, falling out of view. Henry let out a deep breath, slumping in the seat as though he had been on edge for a long time.

"You okay?" I said.

"I think so," he said straightening up. "I don't know what that was."

We got out.

The Path was a little lower than the surrounding ground; as we walked to the small, sloping lip on the side, I was finally able to see the ground... a light, translucent purple.