Paraworld Zero (7 page)

    “Oh, I think I’m feeling a little sick,” she said nonchalantly. “My hair
always turns brown when I’m feeling yucky.”

    “That’s so weird.”

    “Yeah, the color of my hair changes all the time; it just depends on what I’m
doing or how I’m feeling.”

    “Like a chameleon,” Simon said.

    “Or a mood ring,” Abu chimed in.

    “
Abu!
” Simon cried.

    “
Ooooh,
very much sorry!”

    Tonya continued. “Well, anyway, I don’t feel like myself today. Maybe I’m
just hungry.” She called out to the driver, “Abu, can you drop us off someplace where we can
eat?”

    Pretending to be startled, the man responded, “What? Oh, I’m sorry. I was not
listening—but to answer your question: Yes. There is a cafe one block from here. Shall I drop you
off there?”

    “Yeah, that would be great.” Tonya closed her eyes and massaged her
temples.

    The yellow cab screeched to the side of the curb. Simon quickly got out and
stretched his legs. He questioned whether he should report Abu’s atrocious driving to the
authorities but ruled against it. The last thing he needed right now was to get involved with the
police.

    “Thanks, Abu,” Tonya said kindly.

    “Well, I do not think the cafe will accept video games instead of money, but
you can try.” At that, the turbaned man disappeared recklessly into the rush of traffic.

    The two children walked towards the cafe with their heads tilted
upwards.

    “Have you been here before?” Tonya asked.

    “Not at this one. They used to be located near the park. Mrs. Trimble took me
there once when I was younger. I remember seeing the tail end of a car stuck in the wall of the
building. It was pretty cool.”

    Tonya’s eyes widened but she said nothing. As they opened the front door,
loud music spilled out into the air. A big smile formed on Tonya’s face, and streaks of orange
appeared in her curly hair.

    “So what do you call this?” she asked, bouncing her head up and down with the
beat.

    “Trouble,” Simon answered with a deep sigh.

    A server met them at the door as they walked into the Hard Rock Cafe.

    “Aren’t you two supposed to be in school right now?” the bubbly young lady
chided.

    Simon wondered how the woman could have such a cheery disposition with that
loud noise blaring everywhere.

    “Actually, I’m on a field trip,” Tonya answered.

    “Oh. Where’s the rest of your class?”

    “I don’t know. I got separated from them, but now that my mobile
paratransmitter is fully charged with electro-magical energy, I’m sure I’ll be able to transport
myself back to my homeworld without any problems. I just need to get some sustenance before I
leave.”

    “Okay then—well, I hope you find your class.” The clueless girl laughed as
though everything Tonya had just told her had gone through one ear and out the other. “Just
follow me, and I’ll take you to your booth.”

    Simon thought the young lady had either put her head next to the loud
speakers too long or dipped her onion rings one time too many in the Heavy Metal Bar-B-Que
sauce.

    As their server led them through the restaurant, Tonya got excited at seeing
the guitars, clothing, and other memorabilia hanging on the walls. The items on one wall in
particular especially interested her.

    “What’s all this?” she asked, stopping their server.

    “Oh, this is the
god wall
.”

    Tonya turned her head sideways in astonishment. A canvas of polytheistic
religious images covered the wall. “May we sit here?”

    “Yeah, sure,” the lady said, smiling. “Oh, I almost forgot. My name’s Mandy,
and I’ll be your server today. To start you off, what would you like to drink?”

    “Do you have Saparellia?”

    “No, I don’t think so.” Mandy frowned.

    Tonya persisted. “How about Mando Gwaki?”

    “Sorry,” said the young woman.

    “Well, do you have—”

    “We’ll just have water,” Simon said, cutting in.

    Mandy looked like she had just lost her favorite teddy bear. People who
ordered water rarely gave big tips. “All right, here’s your menus. I’ll be back in a moment with
your…
water.
” Mandy spun around and walked off, discouraged.

    Tonya looked at the god wall again. “Wow, so you worship many gods?”

    “No,” Simon replied. “Everyone just kinda picks the one they like.”

    “Interesting. You know, I’ve seen some of these gods before.”

    “Really?” Simon perked up. “Which ones?”

    “Well, this is the main one I’ve seen,” she said, pointing to some foreign
money on the wall. “I think there are people in every paraworld who worship money above all
else.”

    “Huh? I never thought of it that way. I guess you’re right. The thing most
people do all day is try to earn money. I guess it makes them happy.”

    “
Nah,
money doesn’t make people happy. People earn money because they have to. You can’t
survive in the paraverse without it. It’s the people who love money more than their family—more
than their friends, more than anything else—who scare me. They tend to use that money to gain
power and to influence people to do what they want. I should know… my father’s one of
them.”

    “I’m sorry to hear that,” Simon said. “My father left before I was born, and
I never got to meet him. My mother didn’t have any money. I guess that’s one reason why she died…
At least you have a family.” Simon turned his head and brushed a small tear from his eye. Why was
he opening up to this strange girl?

    “Oh, Simon, that’s so sad,” Tonya said softly. “I didn’t know.”

    She put her hand on his and then leaned over the table and gave him a small
kiss on the cheek. It was a very impromptu gesture—not something she was accustomed to doing—but,
somehow, during that brief moment, it seemed acceptable—almost natural—as if they had been
friends for an eternity. Tonya rubbed his shoulder with her other hand and sat down.

    Wide-eyed and open-mouthed, Simon stared at her in shock; he had never been
kissed before. Tonya slowly withdrew her hand from his and blushed. The orange in her hair
morphed into a light pink color.

    “Here’s your waters,” Mandy said, interrupting the awkward silence. “Miss,
you have some way-cool hair. I’m always trying to color mine, but I can’t ever get it to
take.”

    “Thanks,” Tonya muttered, taking a sip of water.

    “So what’ll it be today?” Mandy asked cheerfully.

    “Don’t worry, Simon,” Tonya said, jingling a small green pouch in her hand.
“Get whatever you want. I’m paying.”

    Simon looked at the skintight tunic his companion was wearing and wondered
where she had been concealing that pouch this whole time.

    “I’ll have one of those over there,” she said, pointing to the booth next to
them.

    Mandy wrote on a pad of paper and said, “Jumbo Combo.”

    Tonya flipped the menu over. “And give me a couple of these.”

    Mandy continued writing. “Two root beer floats.”

    A waiter walked by with some hamburgers and fries. “Oh! Oh! Those look good!
I’ll take two of those.”

    Mandy turned to Simon. “And for you, sir?”

    “I’ll just have some fries.”

    The server looked like she had just lost her teddy bear again.

    “Come on, Simon,” Tonya pushed. “You’ve got to be hungry.” She pointed to the
menu and said, “He’ll have two of these.”

    Within a short while, hamburgers and fries covered their whole table. Tonya
went berserk, inhaling her food. She acted like a five-year-old who had never been out of the
house before.

    “What’s this?”

    “Ketchup.”

    “What’s this?”

    “A pickle.”

    “What’s this?”

    “A toothpick—don’t eat it!”

    Tonya continued to drive Simon crazy with all of her mindless questions until
their server showed up. “Wow,” Mandy observed. “I can’t believe you ate all this food.”

    Tonya took one more sip from her drink. “What do you call this, again?”

    “Root beer float.”

    “It’s very good. I think I’ll have two more.”

    Mandy’s mouth dropped. “All right, two more root beer floats coming
up.”

    “And can you bring us the check?” Simon called out to the server as she
walked away. He turned to his companion. “Tonya, how can you eat so much food and still be so
skinny?”

    “Well, actually, I don’t usually eat this much,” the girl confessed. “It’s
just, I’ve never had anything like this before. On my world we mostly eat grass and seeds.”

    “Grass!” Simon repeated incredulously.

    “Yeah, the Elders of Chamel discourage us from eating meat because they’re
afraid people will revert to being savage reptiles.” She snorted. “Scientists in my dimension
think we evolved from lizards, but I think that’s just a bunch of garbage.”

    “That’s funny. A lot of people here on Earth think we evolved from monkeys or
apes.”

    “Well, if I evolved from a lizard and you evolved from a monkey, then why do
we look so much alike?” She ate the last fry on her plate and chuckled. “I suppose science is
always the alternative to religion. There’s a growing faction in the paraverse that claims that
science is supreme over all—even over magic—and I’ve been told that these zealots can get pretty
violent with their anti-magic views.”

    “So do you think of magic as a religion?” Simon asked.

    “No, not a religion. I guess you could look at magic in the same way people
look at money. It’s more of a means to an end than anything. My teachers are always saying that—”
She began to speak dramatically as though she were imitating a scholarly old man. “
Magic can be used for good or for evil; it can fuel the flames of war or it can soothe the
anguish of pain.
” Her voice returned to normal. “But most people aren’t inclined to perform
magic in the first place because it takes training and skill. That’s why I’m in school—to become
the greatest magician ever! Well, at least that’s what my parents expect of me.”

    “Here ya go!” Mandy appeared with two root beer floats. “Alrighty then,
here’s your bill. I assume you’re going to pay for this with cash?”

    Tonya opened her green pouch and spilled out a bunch of strangely shaped
coins onto the table. “There ya go,” she said.

    Mandy picked up one of the square coins and tried to read the inscription on
it. “Um,” she started, “this all ya got?”

    “Is it not enough?” Tonya asked in surprise.

    “I’ll tell you what,” the young lady said with a forced smile. “You just stay
right here, and I’ll go get someone to help us.”

    Mandy walked away briskly.

    “I don’t feel so good, all of a sudden,” Tonya said.

    “I’m not surprised, after all you just ate.”

    “No, I’ve felt kinda weird ever since I arrived on your paraworld,” she said,
massaging her forehead.

    Seconds later, Simon spotted Mandy and a husky man with a short beard walking
towards them. “I think we’re in trouble,” he moaned.

    “Hello, kids,” the manager said in a not-too-pleasant sort of way. “I’ve been
told that you don’t want to pay for your meal.”

    “No, it’s not that,” Simon said. “My friend here is from out of town, and she
didn’t realize you wouldn’t accept her money.”

    “Where are you from, young lady?”

    Tonya huffed. “Paraworld 4329.”

    “Para what?” the man asked angrily.

    “Maybe we could wash some dishes or something,” Simon suggested.

    “No, we have a way of dealing with customers who don’t pay their bills,” the
manager said, wringing his hands.

    Just then, the sound of a news reporter replaced all of the loud music in the
building. The televisions hooked to the walls no longer displayed images of music videos but,
instead, showed scenes of a demolished alley.

    
“…And the search goes on for the two children who, among other things, single-handedly
destroyed more than a dozen cars and attacked two high school students. What you are about to see
is exclusive footage of the attack.
”

    The TV screens showed Spike being jerked around in the air by the yellow
strings of electricity that Tonya had created during their encounter. Some people in the Hard
Rock Cafe gasped, while others smiled uncertainly. The scene finally ended with exploding cars
and shattering windows.

    The news reporter continued, “I have here with me one of the victims of this
brutal attack.”

    Buz’s cut-up face appeared on the television screen. “We were just minding
our own business when, all of a sudden, this alien girl came out of nowhere and tried to kill
us.”

    “Alien girl?” the reporter asked.

    “Yeah, she said she was from another planet and that she wanted to turn us
into her slaves!”

    The reporter faced the camera. “Well, there you have it. Is this really an
alien invasion, or just an elaborate hoax perpetuated by a host of tourists and school kids? I
can tell you this much: the government isn’t taking any chances. Even as we speak, the streets of
New York are being combed by armed troops. If anyone knows the whereabouts of these two children,
you are encouraged to contact your local authorities immediately.”

    The TV then showed a closeup image of Simon and Tonya running away from the
disaster site.