Worlds Without End

The man and the boy crept up to the crest of the hill and peeked over, looking down at the mouth of the cave. The boy turned and looked at the man, who consulted a little black book, its cover worn and creased. The pages had long since turned yellow, the binding slowly losing its integrity, the book was held together with a pale blue rubber band. The man turned the pages quickly, brushing gloved fingers over the familiar leaves. Reaching the correct page, one filled with star charts, equations, and notations on the principles of various gas laws, the man glanced at the sky, then back at the page, then to the mouth of the cave. He turned to the boy and nodded his head.

In unison, the man and the boy slid down the side of the hill, kicking up a trail of dust that billowed out behind them in a turquoise cloud. Their heavy boots left behind horizontal lined prints in the sod as they stealthily made their way to the mouth of the cave. As they approached the opening, the atmosphere shifted, and the darkness within expanded and contracted, like a bellows operated by an unseen giant. They looked to each other once more, each nodded in encouragement before they stepped over the threshold into the gloom beyond.

Inside, the cave opened up into a giant cavern, the ceiling so high it disappeared into complete darkness. They made their way slowly toward a source of light that illuminated the center of the vast space. As they got closer to the light, there came a smell that pierced through their helmets and made their eyes water. Methane, Sulphur, and a hint of cayenne cloyed at the hairs of their nostrils and tickled at their senses. They wiggled their noses and shook their heads in an attempt to free themselves of the irritation, for neither dared sneeze, for there in front of them slumbered the infamous Space Dragon. They froze in equal parts awe and fear at the sight.

The snoozing beast took up nearly their entire field of view, and with every breath it took, its form shifted. One moment it took on the appearance of a nebula, the next a black hole, the Milky Way, a flaming comet, it was a chameleon of astronomical phenomena. Behind the dragon, set on a small dais, was a chest made of the finest gold that glinted as the dozing dragon shifted in its sleep.

The man and the boy tiptoed carefully around the dragon, careful to avoid the occasional solar flare as the dragon slept on. They managed to sneak past the dragon and grabbed the chest, one on each side, and hefted it in unison to begin the journey to the exit of the cave. They were almost to the entrance when the boy slipped on a bit of stardust and fell to one knee. The chest slammed loudly as it hit the floor of the cave. They both froze and turned to glance back at the dragon. They watched in horror as first one eye blinked open, then the other, the pupils constricting as the behemoth focused on the intruders. The dragon took on the form of a Red Dwarf as its body rose, and a growl that built like an earthquake shook the cave.

Run!

The man and the boy took off at a sprint, the chest swinging between them as the dragon burst forth from the cave, its wingspan blocked out the twin suns for a moment as it circled the two figures running below. Elves and sprites flared in the atmosphere as the dragon beat its wings, and began to make its dive.

I don’t think we’re going to make it!

Time for Plan B!

The dragon landed in front of the pair, the weight of which caused the rocks around them to bounce into the air as though they were on a trampoline. As the dragon snarled at them, revealing a mouth as vast and wide as the universe, with teeth numbering an asteroid field, the man and the boy slowly lowered the chest to the ground. Then from behind the boy’s back, he withdrew a stick. The beast stopped the murderous approach and turned blue as Neptune in excitement, waving its spiked tail as the boy smiled up at the dragon and flourished the stick back and forth. The boy activated a switch on the side of the stick, and it shot off through the air with a gleeful dragon eagerly following, for it is a well-known fact that space dragons can never resist a game of fetch.

The man and the boy picked up the chest once more and continued their way to the ship. Once inside, they set their treasure down and prepared for lift-off. Once they had cleared the planet’s atmosphere, they put the ship on autopilot and gathered around the chest. The boy bent and examined the front of the chest noting that it required a key to open. The man pulled out his black book, and taped to the inside cover was a tiny silver key. He handed it to the boy, and with a click and a creak, the boy unlocked the chest and lifted the lid.

Inside, in the center at the bottom of the chest, laid a single scratch-off lottery ticket. The man rustled around in his pants pocket for a coin and gave it to the boy, who considered the ticket carefully, before scratching off the silver with enthusiasm. The boy blew at the gray dust, then turned and looked up at the man with a smile.

How much did we win?

$20,000.

Wow! $20,000! What are we gonna do with all that money?

How about a pool full of bubblegum ice cream?

Now that’s a fine idea.

The man and the boy smiled at one another, smiles that were their own, but that resembled one another. The same gap in their front teeth, the same huckleberry eyes that shone with an inner light, the same ears that wiggled just slightly. They looked out the portside window to the planet below, and the stars around, and the worlds without number, and watched as each one began to blink out, and the ship and the scenery around them began to fade.

***

They are in a circular room, surrounded by doors on every side. The doors all look different, some are old, the oak wood splintered with wrought iron hinges. Some are newer, white swinging doors with the sounds of a kitchen coming through the panels. There are beaded doors, and screen doors, and some doors that open up to nothing, just blank space waiting to be filled.

The boy looked up at the man.

I think it’s about time for me to go. Will you be here when I come back?

Oh, I should think so…I hope so.

Where will we go next?

The man smiles softly down at the boy.

Anywhere you like.

The boy nods his head and turns to walk through a wide door that hisses open on hydraulics, and steps through into the room beyond. The man stands in the room of doors and watches the boy disappear from view. He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out the little black book, with the scratch-off lottery ticket tucked inside, then turns and walks toward one of the doors, alone.

***

A woman walks over to a man and a little boy sitting side by side on the sofa in the corner of the Visitor’s Room of the Elysium Gardens Assisted Living Facility. The woman with a gap-toothed smile, and huckleberry eyes, smiles down at the boy and asks him if he’s ready to go. The boy turns to the old man sitting next to him who stares out a window at the lawn below, watching a duck play with a stick. The little boy places his hand softly on the man’s knobby arthritic liver-spotted one, then nods and stands. The woman bends and kisses the old man on the top of his bald head.

“See you next week Dad, love you.”

The boy and the woman walk out the doors that open with the hiss of hydraulics. They walk hand-in-hand, the little boy clutching a stuffed dragon the color of the sun.