Steven stood on the grass that grew half an inch above the ground. He had his head tilted back as he stared skyward, using his cupped hands to shield his eyes. Everyone else looked up as the body of Burnfingers Begay seemed to coalesce out of thin air.
As they watched, he shrank and solidified. Soon he was no more than an Everest-sized Burnfingers, then hillside-size. His legs became opaque as he filled up the space where he’d been. Finally he was as he’d been before. He picked up Steven and tossed him into the air, catching him easily. Steven was still laughing as they walked back to the motor home together.
“I got big,” he said in response to the questions on their waiting faces. “I just kept growing and growing and spreading myself out.” He glanced at Frank. “Better to grow extra arms, I think.”
“We thought you’d evaporated or something,” said Alicia, relieved.
“Or come apart,” Flucca added.
“Nope. I just got bigger. Than this place, than this world, than this whole reality line. I got so big I could see several reality lines at once. There’s a lot to see in just one reality. I got so big I could see right into our own reality. It looks real fine, let me tell you, and damned if it didn’t make me a little homesick.
“When I started to come back into myself I made sure to take a good look at part of all the realities I could see. Particularly the roads.” He turned and nodded toward the windshield. “I know which line leads to your Vanishing Point,” he said to Mouse.
“Did you see anything else?” she asked him intently. “Could you see how the Spinner was doing?”
Burnfingers shook his head. “I guess that was too far up the road. All I could see was that it was the right one. All the roads led to the same place, but this was the one that got there the quickest.”
“All realities end there,” she murmured. “That’s why it’s called the Vanishing Point. Are you sure that’s what you saw?”
“Sure I’m sure. It was impressive, let me tell you. Enough to drive a person insane. But since I am already crazy it did not bother me at all.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay.” Frank extended a hand. Burnfingers slapped at it and Frank returned the high five. He didn’t even mind when Alicia gave their startled guest a surprise kiss and hug.
“All right, then. We know which way we have to go to get where we’re goin’. Let’s go there and get this taken care of.”
“What is really amusing,” said Burnfingers, “is that the road to the Vanishing Point leads right back through Los Angeles.”
“Now that’s funny.” Frank was feeling better than he had in some time. “That’s the last place in the Cosmos where you’d think reality would be strong.”
“A matter of perception,” Mouse commented. “Many realities twist back on themselves. I’m not surprised I have to return to where I’ve been in order to get where I wasn’t. It may even be possible for me to leave you at your home and continue the rest of the way myself.”
“Let’s not worry about that now.” Alicia patted Mouse’s hand reassuringly. “We’ve come this far together. If we have to, we’ll see you through the rest of the way, too.”
“Don’t promise so quickly. Once back among familiar surroundings, you may not be so eager to give them up.”
“One thing at a time. Let’s get back to L.A. first.”
Alicia looked past Mouse and Burnfingers. “Wait a minute, Frank. Don’t forget Steven.”
“That’s right.” Wendy retreated to look out the door. “He’s still outside, Mom. I’ll get him.”
She walked to the doorway, stopped to stare. Her little brother was standing again where he’d gone to meet Burnfingers, but he wasn’t alone. He was talking to angelfish. A whole school of them. They swam in close formation around him, a whirlpool of orange and black and red and yellow fins and scales. They were talking to him, and he was talking back.
When Wendy said nothing, Alicia finally rolled down her own window. As soon as she saw what was going on she leaned out and yelled, “Steven! Get back in here! Right now!”
Frank leaned over his wife, the small hairs on the back of his neck rising when he saw his son engulfed by fish that were swimming in air instead of ocean. He rushed to the door.
“Steven! You heard your mother. Get over here!”
The boy turned toward the motor home, peering between the circling fish. His tone was apologetic. “Sorry, Dad. I can’t. See, I’ve been talking to my friends and I’ve gotta go with them.”
Frank stood frozen in the doorway, gazing, dumbfounded, at his precocious, overweight son. “This isn’t a game, kiddo, and we don’t have time to play. We’ve got to be on our way. We’ve got to get home.”
“Oh, I know that. You guys go on ahead and I’ll catch up.”
“Catch up? What do you mean, catch…”
The sentence died away. He found himself standing and staring, without a net of reason to support him. Ascending at a sharp angle, the school of angelfish climbed into the western sky. Wearing a broad, innocent grin, Steven dog-paddled furiously after them.
“Steven!” Alicia had left her chair and crowded in the doorway beside her husband. “Oh my God, what’s happening! Steven, this is your mother! You get back here right now!”
The boy had caught up to the school, was surrounded by softly waving fins. He called back apologetically. “I can’t, Mom and Dad. I’m really sorry, but I have to go.” He was at once astonishing and comical as he hung there, treading air. “See, these guys are my friends. They wanna help me find something. Something important.”
At any moment Frank expected his son to plunge earthward. He was a hundred feet above the ground and had to shout to make himself heard.
“See,” Steven was telling them, “this is the place where everybody finds out what they can do, what they’re really about. Dad, you can grow extra arms, and Mom, you’re just Mom, only more so. Mr. Flucca can copy himself, and Burnfingers can get as big as he really is, and Wendy just stays scared a lot, and Mouse—Mouse sings, just like she’s been telling us all along. Now it’s my turn, but I’ve got to go with these guys.” He gestured at the milling, impatient school. “They’ve promised to show me the important stuff, but I have to go with ’em.”
“Steven, you aren’t flying anywhere with a bunch of maybe-fish to see anything.” Frank tried to make himself sound stern and threatening, but he was too frightened to do a really good job of it. “We’re going right now, and you’re coming with us.”
The boy shook his head. “Sorry, Dad. It’s okay, they’re friends. I’ll catch up. I’ve gotta go with ’em. I’ll come back as soon as they’ve shown me how to do the stuff.”
“What kind of ‘stuff’?” Alicia didn’t really want to know but didn’t know what else to say. There was no way for her to go and get him.
Steven’s grin got even wider. He sucked in his belly and puffed out his chest. “I can obulate!”
With that he turned and resumed his dog-paddling as the angelfish convoyed him in steady procession toward the clouds.
“Steven, Stevie!” Frank jumped out of the motor home and started running, trying to chase the fleeing flock—or was it school?—on foot. “Steven, come back here!”
“It’s all right, Dad.” The little-boy voice was confident but very faint now. “Everything’s gonna be okay. You guys go on. Don’t worry about me, and tell Mom not to worry, too. I’m with my friends.”
It didn’t take Frank long to run out of breath. He slowed, stopped, bending over and sucking air as he rested on the grass that grew above the ground. He lifted his gaze and stared until the school became tiny specks surrounding a slightly larger speck. Then there was only a single speck.
Then there was nothing.
Forcing down the lump in his throat, he turned and walked slowly back to the motor home. They were all waiting for him, silent. He ignored everyone’s eyes but Alicia’s.
“We have to go after him,” she said softly.
“How?” It was a frustrated growl. “This is a Winnebago. Not a spaceship, not an airplane.”
“Well, we have to do something. We can’t just leave him here.” She was looking past him toward the horizon.
He leaned against the doorjamb. “What do you suggest we do?”
She had no reply to that. It was left to Mouse to comment. “We must go on.” The words were painful in the stillness of the day. “Remember, if we linger too long in any one place it will enable the Anarchis to locate us. Then all will be lost.”
Frank turned to her, his tone bitter. “What about my son?”
