12

  Brad

  We met by the lake Saturday morning, we found Christian’s car already there but no Christian, just a note on his car addressed to us.

  Got here early, getting ready, see you on the other side.

  Cody shrugged and handed it to me, and Susie looked over my shoulder to read it. “Christian sure is determined,” Cody laughed nervously then looked to us, “This could be a huge pay day for us, and remember, it’s just a guy with a flute, it’s not like it’s a Dragon or something,” he said.

  “Dragon, ughh,” Susie groaned, “God help us if Christian ever thinks we could actually take on a Dragon,” she said.

  “I mean, this is a fairytale world, and people think we’re the heroes, heroes don’t get hurt in fantasy world,” I said, trying to reassure her, “I remember most of these stories from class, the heroes usually just come in at the last minute, and slice a well fed and resting beast, there’s never really some great fight or something, the heroes just win,” I said.

  “That makes sense,” Cody said, “If we’re the heroes, we can’t get hurt, that’s the rules of this world, at least that’s the rules of this world Christian has made a pretty good argument for being,” he said.

  “Just a guy with a flute,” Susie closed her eyes, “Maybe he’ll listen to reason, maybe if we cut him in on some of the gold, he’ll just give the kids back. That’s why he took them, just for the gold, right?” she asked. Susie’s first idea, when fighting human enemies at least, was to just try talking to them. Try to reason with these sixteenth century minds with twenty-first century reason.

  Susie was always the one of us who cared about people the most, maybe that’s why she’s the one who became the angriest when Christian continued to push the envelope on what was right and wrong when it came to both the moral complexities, and simplicities, of Somewhere Else.

  Cody was first in the lake, I looked to Susie, “It’s fine, Christian seems to know this world like the back of his hand already. I think we know enough about a guy like him to know that he wouldn’t do anything dangerous, much less ask us to do anything dangerous,” I tried to reassure her.

  “You boys better be right,” she said before jumping in.

  I took a moment before joining my friends, “Let’s be heroes,” I said to myself before jumping in. Heroes, that’s what Christian wanted to be more than anything. Well, almost anything. There was one thing he was chasing in that world more than anything else. And damn us for not realizing what that prize he so longed for was before it was too late.

  I jumped in the lake. It’s still hard trying to describe what it felt like, traveling Somewhere Else I mean. After years of jumping into lakes and pools and other such bodies of water you expect this crashing sensation, this rush of cold. That didn’t happen when we jumped in that lake. There was a rush, but of warmth not cold. And there was this kind of crash that happened, it felt like you were being enveloped by something, but it certainly wasn’t water. Though when we saw each other emerging on this or that side of the lake it looked as if we appeared to have fallen and slammed in the ground it wasn’t like that. You just kind of landed on the ground. Maybe the sight of someone else falling from a foot or two up was a trick of the eyes and a trick of the mind to process the fact you had just seen someone appear out of nowhere.

  Also, unlike jumping into water, you don’t have to hold your breath. You’re not bereft of oxygen when you dive in. Holding our breath was a habit most of us had broken by our last time on the other side of the lake.

  You just jump in, a warmness overcomes you, and the next thing you know, you’re lying face first in a field of grass both greener and softer than any field you could possibly find in the real world. It’s odd, trying to describe what that grass was like. Its texture was closer to moss, soft like moss, but not went or damp less the time it was Somewhere Else was close to sunrise and just the perfect amount of morning dew had gathered on the thick and comforting grass blades.

  I pushed myself up, Christian was already changed, apparently, he really had been spending more time there than the rest of us. He had some simple armor, a nice shirt of chain mail and a new sheath for his sword. He wore them over his black tunic and grey pants.

  “Where did you get that, you said this wasn’t dangerous, you’re dressed in, well, that,” Susie said, looking to Christian.

  “I spent a few coins to get some stuff, I just got it because it makes me look cool, it does, right?” Christian asked, turning, and striking a pose to model for us.

  “That Pied Piper might actually think I’m a real Knight,” he said, “If he thinks a real Knight is on his case, he’ll fold,” he turned to Susie, “Don’t you worry, I’ll make him fold,” he said.

  Cody and I changed into our clothing, and we took up our weapons. Cody sighed as he put his axe on the holster in a belt Christian had commissioned for him, and I took the strap of my mace and threw it over my shoulder.

  “So, which way?” I asked, ready to follow Christian on the first of our many adventures Somewhere Else. We did good over there, not just today, but on many of the days that followed. There were weekends where we came Somewhere Else and changed people’s lives, changed them for the better. I’ll leave arguing if what we did there was right or wrong for Susie and Cody to hash out amongst their own accounts. But I do believe that we did help people over there.

  “Here’s a river,” Christian said, “We can probably follow this to Hamelin, the story had a river in it, where the Piper drowned the rats, some interpretations say that’s where he drowned the children,” Christian said.

  “Some interpretations? What do you mean?” I asked, I was ignorant to think that this world worked exactly like the stories in our textbook.

  Christian turned to us, “The Grimm Fairytales have been collected in several editions and anthologies, some stories the publishers of the day they were printing in, modified a few of the stories. None of them worse than the Mouse changed them of course, but there are multiple retellings of all these stories. You need to remember that before the Grimm Brothers came along most of these tales were told in an oral tradition, passed down over generations, some of them warnings, some of them parables, I may have a lot of knowledge about this world, I’ve read the Grimm tales in several different editions, but that doesn’t mean I know exactly how every story works,” he said, turning to the river and continuing on the path next to it as he rested his hand on his sword’s hilt, “Let’s just hope that what happened here wasn’t the worst of those interpretations,” he stayed true to his mission, to his crusade to bring peace to this world we all realized too late that he loved so much.

  I overheard Susie stressing her concerns to Cody, “Just a guy with a flute,” she said, rolling her eyes, “A guy with a flute that might have killed a bunch of kids, and we’re supposed to take him on?” she asked.

  Christian overheard that, and turned to Susie, “That’s not what happened,” he said, his voice carrying the weight of a man trying to reassure himself, “This world makes sense, everything I’ve seen in this world tells me it makes sense, it’s not like our world. Things are good here, or at least they can be if a hero comes to save the day,” he looked down for a second. Knowing what he eventually did, the fact that he would argue that this was a world that ‘made sense’ as he said, it was so obvious that he would do what he was reduced too.

  “If we act, we can save the children,” he said as we came over the hill to a great town. It wasn’t a city, no tall buildings, no great towers, it was a town much bigger and more prosperous then that first town he showed us, but it still lacked the true infrastructure of a city. It was just as the legend said, it was a village, the village of Hamelin who collectively learned far too harsh a lesson that you should pay a man what you agreed to pay for a service he provided.

  “Think of the children,” Christian turned to Susie, “If they can be saved, we have to save them,” he said as he led us to the village.

  This was the first time we saw the dark underbelly of Somewhere Else. The first time we saw how a place as amazing as this was like when the great hero hadn’t arrived yet. Before the Woodsman or Prince Charming swooped in to save the day. The women, mothers, of the town just walked around like ghost, bereft of their children, and bereft of any reason to keep going. Christian took the lead on our first adventure. He spoke to the distressed mothers, to the constables, and to people of the village who saw what way that the piper took the children.

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  “North,” Christian told us after finding all the information he could, “That’s where the Piper went, north,” he said.

  We went over the river, possibly over the watery graves of children with miser parents that thought they could get away with paying what they owed.

  Past the river that cut through the land, over a bridge that I was half worried a Billy goat would come out and threaten a kick or challenge us with a riddle. I don’t know if that’s a Grimm Tale, I’m not as well studied as Christian was in the intricacies that he discovered and theorized this world worked in. Past the bridge of out of Hamelin, we found a field. One of the most beautiful sights you could see in our world or Somewhere Else. A great field of a green I would think impossible in our world, the real world. Flowers bloomed from the ground in colors I can’t even describe. I saw the children playing, frolicking, dancing like there was no worry for tomorrow. At the center of the great dance, was the Piper, playing his little flute and spinning melodies and music as he directed his choir of obedient children.

  “Piper!” Christian spoke first as we approached him, his sword already drawn, “Release these children, send them back to their homes and there will be no issue,” he said, holding his sword at the ready. We didn’t know if he could do something so violent…yet. But looking back, Christian would most likely have killed the Piper if Susie didn’t open her mouth and lead us to a more sensible agreement.

  “These children are mine, they’re my payment. I did my work and I earned a payment, the town of Hamelin refused to agree to the terms I laid out, so I took a fair substitute for the riches I was to receive,” he played another ballad on his flute, and the children danced around, the girls picked flowers to put in their hair and the boys spun and danced with merriment and bravery as they each took a girls hand to dance with, “I treat them well, just look at the fun they’re having,” the Piper smiled and continued to play if flute as the children continued to dance and frolic without a care in the world.

  “Christian, hold back,” Susie said, stepping forward, “Listen to me, Piper, wait, why am I calling you Piper, what’s your name?” Susie asked.

  “My name?” the Piper looked at us confused, “Why I’m the Piper, that’s my name,” he said, “That’s my name so you may just call me The Piper,” he smiled before returning to his flute and spinning another tune.

  Susie huffed and rolled her eyes, I feel that she was exasperated by this world since halfway through that first lunch in the town with Christian, “Okay, Mr. Piper-”

  “Just Piper is fine,” he corrected her without even looking up from his flute.

  “Okay? Piper?” Susie was getting frustrated, “Look, I know that the town came to a disagreement with you, about payment for-”

  “They stifled in their promise to pay me a set and agreed upon sum of gold for services tendered, there’s no need for flowery language darling,”

  “Yeah, sure, but why take the children, what value are they to you?” she asked, “I’m sure if you just brought them back to town, we could all sit down and work something out, surely some gold can outweigh whatever you think you’re getting by kidnapping all these children?”

  The Piper took a deep sigh and stopped playing, he put his flute down on the stump he sat upon. The instant his hand left his flute the children stopped dancing. It was an odd sight, they just kind of fell into this trance. Each held the dance partner they had at the time, as if for support, and just kind of swayed together. I looked over the field of children and could see they all carried this kind of blank, emotionless, dead stare in their eyes. I looked to Cody, and he was equally as freaked out by it as I was. I looked to Christian, while he was obeying Susie’s wish that he kept his sword down, he still kept his hand in a steel grip on it, lowered, but still at the ready. I wrote it off as Christian just trying to strike a strong pose and intimidate The Piper. Knowing what I know now though, without Susie there Christian most likely would have bum rushed this skinny limp wristed flutist and solve everyone’s problem as fast as he could.

  “Let me guess,” the Piper smiled, “Your travelers, aren’t you? Here visiting from some distant land of this or that, some faraway place that doesn’t understand what truly holds power here?” he asked.

  “Where we’re from is none of your concern, return the Children,” Christian said through gritted teeth. He had a look of blood lust on his face and I, for one, don’t blame him. This wasn’t some evil stepmother trying to get her own daughter favor over her rich dead husband’s child, this wasn’t an evil queen trying to consolidate mere political power. If you think about it, he was even worse than Morgan. Wait, you don’t know about Morgan yet, we’ll get to her later. The I’m making is that this was a man who kidnapped dozens of children and may have been planning to do God knows what to them.

  “Do you know the power there is, in the heart of a child, in a child’s innocence?” he said, taking a deep breath, reaching for his flute. Christian stomped up to him and put his sword right at the Piper’s wrist, “Touch that flute again, before we’ve come to terms, and you lose it,” he said, his voice low and with a command no one in our school would ever believe he could have.

  Here Christian had sold us on an easy adventure, something small, something simple to wet our beaks and earn a few of those precious gold coins we were all guilty of coveting. His simple hero’s quest brought us face to face with what could be thought of as one of the dastardliest beings in that other world. He said he didn’t have a name, he said he was just a piper, but he was far more. I think at least. I don’t know what kind of horror this man who could command every child that heard his dulcet tunes to follow his lead and obey his every command had in store for them.

  We never did get an answer to the Piper’s question. That question about the power of innocence. Just another mystery we left unanswered in this world. I don’t know what cryptic riddle the Piper was trying to weave for us. I don’t know if his powers for persuasion were tied solely to his flute, or if he had this inane power to try and convince someone to act in the way he wished. The power of a child, the power of innocence. Innocence was the one thing none of us left that world with when all was said and done.

  “Very well,” the Piper moved his hand away from the flute, brought it to his other hand and interlaced his fingers to crack his knuckles as he took a deep breath.

  “Under what conditions would you have me refund my due payment for? Surely I can’t walk away with nothing, I did provide a valuable service, a horrible pest, the rats I mean,” he smiled an dark and evil smile, “Could have gotten to the grain, could have gotten in the water, for all we know they could have contaminated Hamelin, brought a plague of sickness and death affecting young and old alike, without me and my merry tunes all of that humble village could have been dead in scant weeks,” he said, “I want what I’m owed, I told them what I would be owed and they reneged. Tell me, how will you, you travelers, heroes from what I’m sure is a far off and distant land, how will you get me my due?”

  “Let us bring the Children back,” Susie said, “That’s first, we’ll bring the children back and once the people realize that this can be solved, I’m sure in their regret they’ll pay you, pay you what you’re owed,” she said.

  “With interest?” the Piper raised his eyebrows.

  Susie closed her eyes, “With interest, we’ll cut you in on our share for rescuing the children, just give the children back, please,” Susie pleaded.

  “Very well,” he looked to Christian, “If I could reach for my flute, brave Knight, only to escort the children back of course,” he said.

  Christian lowered his sword, I could see him biting his lip, ready to end this wicked man as he reluctantly sheathed it.

  “Very good,” the Piper smiled, jumped off his stump and took his flute in hand, “Come along children,” he said with a cheery voice as he brought the flute to his mouth and began to play the merriest tune I had ever heard from a flute. He began to make his way back to Hamelin as we followed him, keeping a close eye on him to make sure he didn’t try anything. The children followed along happy as clams skipping and laughing as the Piper stayed true to his world and returned the children to the village.

  Seeing the light come back to the mother’s eyes as they saw the crowd of children laughing without a care as they returned home made it all worth it, it made everything worth it. Every sin that was committed in this strange Somewhere Else place, we did do good over there, we really did. Mothers would grab their children and the instant a boy or girl was enveloped in their mother’s arms the trance of the Piper was broken from their minds, and then they began to weep, parent and child alike at the feeling of being reunited.

  “There, you’ve what you want, now for my payment, or I could spin another tune, take the children someplace even you heroes can’t find me,” the Piper turned to Christian, almost as if he knew that if it was one of us who would do anything for the safety of this children it was him.

  “Let’s strike a deal,” Christian said, leading the Piper to city hall.

  Christian took over the negotiations, Susie was biting her lip, ready to say so much, but Christian asserted himself as the man who would solve this, “Pay the Piper,” Christian said, “What you agreed, and another tenth, just pay him,” Christian said.

  “Anything, anything brave sir Knight,” the Mayor of Hamelin said, almost groveling to Christian in thanks. The town opened their coffers and gave the Piper everything he was owed plus another tenth.

  “Forgive us, Piper,” he said as he gave that fat heavy sack of coins to this magical man of music.

  The Piper smiled, put his sack of coin on his belt and tipped his hat to us, “Very well, I thank you for letting this come to sensible terms,” his grin grew wider, “If you’re ever in need of my services again, well, I’ll know,” he winked.

  As he made his way out Christian followed him, grabbed his shoulder and ripped him around, “If that flute of yours ever endangers a child again, I’ll know,” he said, “I will find you, and you won’t have the blessing of my companions to help us reach a peaceful agreement, leave these lands. If you don’t intend to help people with whatever power you have, with what that flute gives you, you will lose a hand, do you understand me?” Christian said.

  The Piper took a deep breath, “I wonder how long you’ll last, you’re not the first traveler I’ve met, I’ve met more than a few of you over the decades,” even with Christian bearing down on him ready to do so much violence to him were he to put a toe out of line, the Piper just smiled this knowing smile, “Travelers to this world, so often start with the most noble intentions,” he laughed a snide laugh, “I guess we’ll see, we’ll see what the price of your innocence is,” he said turning his back to Christian and making his way out of the town hall as he played another merry, yet hauntingly familiar, tune on his flute.