RETURN OF THE QUEEN
a NEVERWORLD STORY
Charley stomped his feet and blew into his hands, but it didn’t help much. It was bitter cold, and the wind was blowing. He had been standing out back of the Rumpleton’s house for almost an hour and was just about to go find Samantha when she suddenly appeared around the corner.
“There you are,” he said. “You know how cold it is out here?’
“Sorry. I had to wait for Constance to go to bed.”
“She’s in bed? It’s like, nine o’clock.”
“You think that’s bad? Reginald has been snoring in his chair for an hour. Constance had to hit him on the head to wake him and tell him it was time for bed.”
Charley shook his head. “Grown-ups are like the weirdest creatures on the planet. So, did you bring everything?”
“I have the map and the key. Other than that, I only have the clothes I’m wearing. You have your half of the map?”
He opened his jacket, revealing the rolled-up poster of the blue parrot. behind it, the embroidered faces of two of Santa’s elves smiled out from a t-shirt.
“All you’re wearing is that jacket and a thin shirt? No wonder you’re cold.”
“Two shirts. In Neverworld, this is a mail shirt, remember? When it turns back into mail, I want something under it. Mail is cold.”
“Always thinking, Charley.”
“Hey, this shirt saved my life once and I’m not going back without it.”
He lifted a backpack off the ground. “I also have a pack full of stuff we’ll need.” He sneezed. “So what’s the plan?”
“We need a place to study this map and find a way back to Neverworld. The mall will be open for another hour.”
“The mall,” Charley groaned. “That’s a long, cold walk.”
Samantha held up a set of keys.
“No way! We’re going to steal Candice’s car? I am so impressed with you right now.”
“No, Charley, we’re not stealing it. We’re just going to... you know, borrow it. Once we find the door, I’ll text her and tell her where it is.”
“Do you even have your license?” Charley asked.
“I have a permit. Same thing.”
“Um, I’m pretty sure it isn’t.”
“You want to walk?”
Charley threw up his hands. “Hey, I’m not being critical. I took my dad’s car out the first time when I was nine.”
“Yeah, I remember. I also remember he was not happy.’
“You think he was mad? Constance is going to kill you.”
Samantha became serious. “No Charley, she won’t, because she won’t ever see me again. I’m going back to Neverworld to stay. I want to make sure you understand that. No matter what happens, I’m never coming back.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know. And I’m coming with you.”
She smiled. “And I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. But remember, we have a map and a key that opens every door. If you ever want to come home, you can.”
Charley looked around. His house was dark. His dad had left earlier in the evening with his stepmother, a woman who on a daily basis, made clear how little she cared for Charley. As usual, since he was nine years old, Charley was left to fend for himself.
Samantha’s foster parents, the Rumpletons, wanted nothing to do with her and were waiting for the day she would graduate high school, and they could finally kick her out of the house without looking heartless. They were mean and uncaring, but at least they had never punished Samantha with a belt across the back. Charley couldn’t say the same.
“What would I come back for, Sam?” Charley asked.
Quietly, Samantha put the car in neutral and they pushed it down the driveway and into the street. With Charley pushing by himself, Samantha waited until they were several houses away, before starting the engine.
He jumped in the passenger seat and closed the door, panting hard. “Cars... are... heavy.”
“Lucky for me, you’re strong.”
The mall was only a few miles from their block, and they parked the car near the entrance. It was near closing time and the food court was almost empty. Samantha chose a table near the back and pulled out her map from her purse. Small black dots were scattered across the surface. Occasionally, several dots would suddenly move to a different location.
“Hey,” said Charley. “I just thought of something.”
Samantha was bent over the map, looking closely for a door near their location. “What?”
“Well, your map shows the doors on this side, but for us to know where we're going, we need a map that shows the doors in Neverworld too.”
He pulled the rolled-up poster of a blue parrot from his jacket. “And mine is still just a poster.”
Samantha took it and turned it over. Charley was right. One side had a poorly drawn picture of a blue parrot, and the other side was blank.
“It doesn’t make sense,” she said. “Captain Jones said his was only one half of the map. But if his only works in Neverworld and mine only works here, then what good would having both halves do you?”
“Two halves,” Charley repeated. “Maybe that’s it.”
“What do you mean?”
“How do you make a whole out of two halves?”
“I don’t know, put them together?”
Charley nodded.
“It can’t be that simple,” she said but put Charley’s poster next to the map on the table.
Nothing happened.
“No, not like that. If each piece is going to be a side, then they have to be on top of each other.”
Flipping the map over so the blank side was up, he laid the blue parrot poster on top.
“Still nothing,” Samantha said. “Wait. Look, what’s that black dot in the middle?”
As they watched, a small black dot began to grow in the very center of the poster, right in the parrot’s head.
“It looks like the first time we saw the other side of the map with Captain Jones,” Charley said.
With a glance to Samantha, he carefully stuck his finger in the growing black dot. And it went through!
“Yep,” he said, pulling his finger back quickly, “it’s a hole alright.”
The hole was getting bigger and changing shape. “Charley, what does that look like to you?”
Charley tilted his head. “I don’t know, a keyhole?”
They both looked at each other. “You don’t think...?” he started.
“Only one way to find out.”
Samantha reached for the golden key she had tied on a string around her neck. With Charley holding his breath, she stuck the key in the hole.
There was a flash of light from the table, so bright it made them both close their eyes and turn away. When they turned back, the parrot was gone. In its place was a map—a map of Neverworld. Tiny black dots dance across the surface. Samantha removed the key, and the hole slowly disappeared.
Charley picked up the paper and turned it over. On one side was their world, on the other, the map of Neverworld.
“Sam, it worked! We’ve got it. We’ve got the only complete map of both worlds.”
“Yeah, now we just have to figure out how to use it.”
Charley glanced at his watch. “We better figure it out soon. This place will be closing in a few minutes.”
Samantha placed the map back on the table, Outworld side up.
“The map is the whole world, and the dots are so tiny. It’s hard to tell what’s a door and what is just a crease in the paper.”
She used her hands to try and smooth the paper out and as she did, the area under her hands grew.
“Whoa!” Charley said. “It’s like on your phone. You want to close in on something, you just push your hands apart, and it expands. How cool is that? The faeries had computers before computers.”
“Ok, so that’s how you locate a specific door,” Samantha said, “but how do you find out where it opens on the other side? I mean, suppose I pick this door,”
She touched a black dot with her finger. “Where does it open in Neverworld?” She lifted the paper off the table to get a better look.
“Coursea,” Charley said.
“What?”
“Coursea. That door you touched opens on Coursea. Look.”
Samantha turned the map over. On the map of Neverworld, one of the black dots now glowed red. The dot was on the island of Coursea.
“Touch a door, see where it opens,” Charley said.
“Or touch a door near where you want to go and find the closest one to you that lights up.”
“Cool. Let me try something else.”
He began touching random dots, finally finding one that caused a second dot to glow red on the same side.
“Why’d you do that?” Samantha asked.
“Don’t you see? This map not only gets you from Outworld to Neverworld, but you can also move between doors on the same side.”
He squinted at the now glowing red dot. “Hey, want to go to Hawaii?”
“That’s not what we’re here for.”
“Right. Ok, so now we got a map, and we know how to use it,” Charley said. “That only leaves one question.”
“What’s that?”
“Where do we want to go?’
Samantha set the map down gently on the table. “Yeah. it’s been three months since we left. A lot could have happened.”
“Maybe even longer. Remember, Captain Jones said time doesn’t always run at the same rate between the Outworld and Neverworld. And the whole place was close to all-out war when we left.”
“True. When we left, Tom was heading out on a ship, and I wouldn’t even know to begin looking for Captain Jones.” She thought for a minute. “Daphne,” she said.
“How can we find her?”
“She was going to rebuild her tavern, remember. We’ll start in Skaven.”
“Uh, Sam, I hate to remind you, but that’s also where we fought our first vampires, remember?”
She waved him off. “They were out for Captain Jones, and he isn’t with us. Besides, they were sent by Lir and that argument’s been settled. Now, we just have to find a door near her tavern and see how far away the one on this side is.”
She flipped the map over and found several doors near Skaven, but most of the corresponding doors on this side were way too far away, some on completely different continents. Each door had a distinct set of symbols that Samantha couldn’t decipher. One she knew was a time-lock door, like the one she had Charley had used before, but that was on the other side of the world.
“Ok. I have good news and bad news,” she said, finally. “I found a door to Skaven and it’s very, very close.”
"Great,” Charley said. “So what’s the bad news.”
“Trust me, you’re not going to like it.”
***
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“I knew you’d be like this. Seriously, what is the big deal?”
They were standing outside one of the mall stores, Charley with his arms crossed and a frown on his face.
“The big deal is this a store for girls. Specifically, it’s a store that sells girl’s underwear and ONLY girl’s underwear. Guys don’t go in.”
“Don’t be silly, of course, they do. Lots of guys buy their girlfriends presents from here.”
“Yeah, well you’re not my girlfriend and I don’t even like spending money on my own underwear.”
She groaned. “We’re not going to buy anything. We’re just going to go in, find the door and pass through.”
He glanced inside. “And where is the door?’
Samantha mumbled.
“Where?”
She sighed. “In one of the dressing rooms.”
“Ok, that’s it, we’re outta here. Let’s go find another door.”
“Charley the next closest door to Skaven is clear across the country.”
“Hey, we got a car. The drive will be fun. I’ll even throw in for gas.”
She pulled him back as he started to walk away. “No. Look, I’ll go in the dressing room and find the door. You just stand outside until we’re ready to pass through.”
“And what am I supposed to say if someone asks why I’m standing there looking like a dork.”
“No one is going to ask, and if they do just tell them I’m your sister.”
Before he could protest further, Samantha grabbed him by the collar and pulled him into the store, randomly grabbing a few things off the racks.
“May I help you?” the salesgirl asked as they passed.
“Nope. Just going to try a few things on,” Samantha said, waving the items.
When they reached the back, Samantha quickly re-checked the map, then entered the last dressing room. Charley shuffled nervously as the salesgirl appeared around the corner carrying several small articles of clothing on hangers.
“We have a sale on some things I thought your... girlfriend might want to try,” she said.
“Sister,” Charley said.
“Oh, and you’re guarding the door for her. That’s sweet.”
“Yeah, well, she’s... like really shy.”
“Charley,” came a voice from behind the door, “come in here and give me a hand.”
The salesgirl raised her eyebrows. “Shy?”
Charley went red to the ears. “Well...”
“Get in here and help me pull, “Samantha said.
“Haha. Yeah, see, she has this weird... extra... arm thing... clothes don’t fit right. It can be a struggle.”
“Arm?”
“ Arm, leg. I forget.”
The salesgirl smile faded. “Whatever. We close in ten minutes, so...”
She spun around and Charley thought he distinctly heard the word ‘weirdos’.
As soon as the salesgirl turn the corner, Charley rushed into the dressing room. “Are you crazy? The salesgirl was standing right outside the door. She thought we... well, forget what she thought.”
“Oh, never mind her. The key is stuck.”
On the far wall of the room, Charley saw the gold key embedded in the wall. “How’d you find the keyhole?”
“Huh? Oh, I just waved the key around the room and when it got close enough, the keyhole just appeared. And no, don’t ask me how I knew to do that, I just did. But now it’s jammed, and I can’t turn it.”
He jiggled the key. “You tried turning it before it was all the way in.”
“How do you know that?”
Charley frowned. “Sam, you might have been born in Neverworld; your mother might have been a faerie, but no one in either world knows more about locks than me. Stand back.”
“Charley, we’re in a dressing room. Not a whole of ‘back’ here.”
“Oh, right. Never mind.” He began shaking the key from side to side, turning it back and working it free.”
“Don’t break it,” Samantha warned.
“Don’t break the magic golden key that is like, a thousand years old? I’ll do my best.” Just then, the key released, and he pulled it out. “Ok, now let’s do this the right way.” He slowly reinserted the key all the way until there was an audible, ‘click’.
There was a pounding on the dressing room door. “Closing in five minutes,” screeched the salesgirl. Again, Charley was sure he heard her whisper, ‘weirdos’ as she walked away.
“As soon as I turn this key, we’ll be back in Neverworld,” Charley said. “Scared?”
“A little,” Samantha admitted. “But mostly I’m excited, aren’t you?”
“What, going back to a place with no electricity or running water? To a place filled with pirates, swordfights, werewolves, and vampires? Who wouldn’t be excited?"