ODDILY (10 page)

“
How many points do you have?” He asked from over his shoulder.

“
I don’t know.” She whispered back.

A faint light reflected off the silvery yellow water as the two traveled through tunnels where the ceiling barely cleared her deadbeat partner’s head. She marveled at the walls full of an unknown shimmering substance clinging to them.

“
What do you think that stuff is,” she asked, after a long silence.

Lucas ducked his head a bit to pass under a low point in the ceiling. “It resembles the substance floating in the water, only shinier.”

Oddily gazed over the side of the dinghy into the shimmering water and viewed the silver flakes floating by. It reminded her of a snow globe that had been shaken. Porcelain white fish swam about and silver starfish were scattered along the bottom. It was a wonderland like no other she had ever seen before and she wanted to dangle her hand in it.

Despite Lucas’s warning, she lowered her arm over the side and let her fingers skim the surface of the water. To her surprise, it was warm to the touch.

As they progressed down the stream at a slow but steady pace, Oddily started to experience a tingling sensation. For some reason, she knew it came from the water. The warm, prickly feeling crept up her arm, inch by inch, until the unusual sensation covered her whole body; and then, very slowly, it faded away until the feeling was entirely gone. She realized she had unintentionally slipped into one of her dream sprees during this soothing experience.

“
How peculiar,” she thought after pulling her fingers out of the water to allow her head to clear.

As the two continued to drift down the stream, Oddily became cramped in the back of the dinghy, and tried to move her legs into a more comfortable position.

“
What are you doing behind me?” Lucas asked.

Oddily knew her knees pressed against his back, and she was embarrassed. “I’m so sorry,” she fretted, wiggling around like a worm. “Call me crazy, but I think this dinghy is shrinking!”

“
The stranger gave a brief distorted, artificial laugh, as if he knew something she didn’t. He leaned forward to give her more leg room, but her knees still jabbed him from behind.

“
I’m serious, Lucas!” A hint of concern touched her voice. “I think this dinghy has a leak because it’s shrinking.”

Lucas examined the dinghy. “What you say does not compute. The raft is functional.”

Oddily shook her head in dismay, frustrated with the whole matter. She wanted to climb out of the boat and get away from this virtual Maxim look-a-like with a faded personality, but no dry land appeared for her to step upon. Finally, with a sigh of acceptance, she waited for the unknown to show its face.

The dinghy floated along for nearly three more miles before it emerged from the tunnel waterways and came to rest against the shore of a beautiful beach. The sun shined down through the clear blue skies and the sunlight sparkled off the sand in small diamond shaped clusters of light.

Oddily breathed in the fresh and invigorating air. The clean atmosphere worked as a magical balm exhilarating her while taking in the view. Lucas stepped out of the boat first, and she wondered where the game would lead them next.

Lucas turned to give her a helping hand, but drew back with a distorted expression. To her surprise, this young man’s face seemed to freeze up on him, as though he needed to realign his facial features. Finally, a fairly realistic look of concern took over.

“
Where’s the redhead?” He asked, raising his mechanical voice an octave.

Oddily gazed up at him with her demure, questioning way, not yet realizing she had turned into a beautiful stranger sitting in the dinghy with a cute perplexed glimmer in her eyes.

“
What happened to the other girl?” he asked again in a higher range of sound when she didn’t respond.

“
Stop it. You’re sounding crazy Lucas, or whoever you are. And stop looking at me like that. You’re causing me to feel uncomfortable!”

“
Your voice—you sound the same as the redhead.” Lucas tried to appear as though he were stunned by the sound of her voice, but he still wasn’t convincing.

Oddily blinked hard in bewilderment. She had no way of knowing that Lucas, this poor imitation of a human, stared at a girl with long golden blonde hair instead of her redheaded self. She didn’t understand that the soft baby blue eyes staring up at him like a young kitten were her new eyes.  She also would never be able to fathom the idea that his watching her climb out of the boat, would take his breath away when he had no real lungs to breathe.

Oddily’s first clue that something had happened to her was her height standing next to Lucas. She was much taller than usual and let out a stifled sound after she glanced down at herself. She stared at her long legs and arms, turning them this way and that, as if seeing herself for the first time.

“
What has happened to me?  Have I grown a whole foot taller?”

“
Your height is not all that has changed.” Lucas bobbed his head while staring at her. “You have transformed into someone else.”

Oddily’s hands flew to her face and touched her new features with the tips of her fingers. Her nose felt thinner, and her lips fuller, like how she pictured herself in the dream spree she was just on while floating down the stream.

“
Wait a minute,” she grabbed a strand of hair and brought the piece forward to see the color.

“
I’m a blonde!” she gasped,” Just like in my dream spree. How can this be?”

Lucas pointed to her fingers on one of her hands still showing the silvery substance from the water clinging to them. “You touched it after you agreed you wouldn’t?”

Oddily frowned. “I’m sorry.  The stream was so beautiful I couldn’t help myself.” Then her soft baby blue eyes grew wide as if pleasantly surprised. “Do you think my looks were changed by touching the strange substance?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “That is what the stream does. Your dreams are fulfilled.”

“
The silver substance brought my dream spree to life!” she chirped joyfully, and then paused, concern touching her eyes. “Do you think I look all right?”

“
I think you look beautiful.”

Oddily’s head nearly swooned with delight at his words. To be referred to as beautiful felt truly remarkable and her new and improved appearance suddenly made everything seem possible—every wonderful dream attainable. She continued to be lost in her dreams, her thoughts far away on some fair dreamland of her mind when the game was yanked from her lovely eyes.

* * * * * *

Moments before Oddily had awakened, Maxim stood over her while she rested on the bed—lost deep in a simulated kid’s game. Finding her using the glasses was what he had hoped for and her bedroom light left on made the setting perfect. It became evident how she got the device away from him. He found traces of chocolate all over his paperwork in the glove compartment of his car. Where she had them hidden until she got home remained a mystery.

He glanced around the room and put his plan into motion. It seemed as though he was creating the reenactment of a crime scene, and in a way, it was true. He planned to make her bedroom appear as it did the first time he took the glasses from her. He was certain this would end the crazy adventure he became a part of, and this distraction had to end.

Maxim walked over to the closet and took her new dress and boots and replaced them with her old boots she had left behind at the department store. He felt like a jerk for taking the new items from her when she had so little, but there was no other way. Never in his practical mind did he imagine himself in a bizarre situation like this. Here he was—Maxim, with no last name, intruding, uninvited into a strange girl’s bedroom like a thief to take back something that belonged to him. The whole experience was so surreal!

After he arranged the boots as neatly as she had her new ones, he proceeded to replace the glasses with a pair that appeared exactly the same only they had no inner electronics. If anyone were to examine them, the conclusion would be that the device belonged to a kid who loved anything to do with Science fiction.

Maxim was just about to make a quick switch when he heard the front door open. Angry voices entered the house, badgering back and forth over someone’s car, and a high, whiny voice protested angrily.

“
How else did the car get in the gully, Starla?” a deep voice shouted.

“
Dad, I’ve been trying to tell you, someone stole my car! Why won’t you believe me?"

Maxim listened through the closed door and realized that the car Oddily drove belonged to her foster sister. He also heard the sound of footsteps coming his way. In one reckless motion, he tossed the fake glasses, missing Oddily’s bed, grabbed the real ones from her eyes, and narrowly escaped out the window.

Oddily’s eyes fluttered open just before someone knocked on her door. “Oddily, will you come out here, please?” Starla’s mom, Mrs. Maples, sounded upset.

“
Give me a minute!” Oddily sat up and frantically searched for her glasses and found them on the floor by her bed. She snatched them up and hid them under her pillow. She wanted desperately to get back to her new look and continue that incredible game, but it would have to wait.

15

The next morning, Oddily became lost in her thoughts while dragging herself to school. There were too many things to ponder over in her confused mind. Starla’s Mini Cooper had been found in the gully across the street from the shopping village. The police got involved, and the furious Mr. and Mrs. Maples were blaming Starla for the accident, believing she was trying to fib her way out of trouble.

Oddily knew she took Starla’s car in the game, but that wasn’t for real. Who would do such a thing in real life and yet, why had the car been found in the same place as in the game? Oddily remembered how she was questioned by Starla’s parents in the living room the night before, asking if she had seen anything out of the ordinary around their daughter’s car that day and her response was an honest, no.

Then, there were the glasses. The wonderful, magical new treasure she had found. When she went back to her room, she tried to return to the ‘Stream of Dreams’ game, but the glasses didn’t work; most likely broken when they fell to the floor. She could still feel her heart ache with disappointment.

She also mused over the loss of her new dress and boots even though the clothes were never truly hers. If she had remained in the game, she would have been wearing her new outfit, and Maxim would be driving her home to his castle. She thought about the dashing Prince Charming, with his flawlessly handsome face and wondered curiously at his uncanny resemblance to the guy who helped her out of the dumpster the day before. That meant that somewhere, wherever that was, this guy was real, at least appearance wise. Darn it! She should have let him give her a lift home when offered. Then something dawned on her. Both guys had the same name…Maxim.

Oddily reached Forest Ridge High and was walking through the campus when she stopped, her bottom lip beginning to quiver. A page torn out from her personal journal was posted on the flag pole. She hurried over and tore it off, crumbling it up into a ball while she looked around for more. She quickened her steps towards the girl’s bathroom and spotted three students reading another posting from her journal on the bulletin board. She marched over and snatched them off as well, right in front of them.

Oddily became frantic, crazed incoherence engulfing her mind. There were more postings scattered throughout the entire campus, and Oddily had taken down as many as possible before the bell rang. She waited for students to disperse to their classes while large tears stained the front of her dress. When there were only a few stragglers left on campus, she continued her search for more pages of her journal.

“
Are you looking for these?” The voice came from Jack, the kindly old janitor who was holding a pile of entries in his hand.

Oddily mutely nodded her head.

“
Here yah go, Missy,” He handed her the small pile he had already taken down, and she was grateful for his help. “Havin’ a bit of a rough start this mornin’?”

She nodded her head again in agreement.

“
Well…yah better get off to class now. The tardy bell sounded five minutes ago.”

Oddily hurried away but didn’t go to class just yet. There was something she needed to do first. She ducked into the girl’s bathroom and opened her backpack. Her journal was still there, except for a bunch of missing spaces where the torn entries once were. Oddily still had some blank pages left to fill, so she tore them out and started to write feverishly. When she finished, she hurried around the campus and re-posted the revised version of her entries and headed for her first class.

It didn’t take long for the excitement to begin. When students headed for their second class, they became distracted, lingering in front of the entries with muffled laughs directed towards Kip and Starla.

Oddily strained to hear their comments while she stayed several arm lengths away, and doubled over in a fit of uncontrolled laughter and delight when she heard their response. She held onto her stomach as she continued to eavesdrop.

“
Listen to this one! It’s two in the morning, and Starla is snoring so loud, I can’t sleep. Maybe she should become a lumberjack with that sawing noise she makes. I overheard her mom say she has a deviated septum, whatever that means.” The students laughed with one another.