by Sara Rosin

Chapter 1: Stories

I was never really adventurous. Sure, I read books about people going on courageous adventures, and I listened to Crazy Billy’s stories every other day, but I’d never really been on an adventure and never really thought so much about it. I wished I was more adventurous and resourceful. Then I could escape this awful city forever. The Oorbs say we have it all, living in Theinav—the good/wealthy section of the city of Timba. But the Oorbs don’t know what it’s like over here. Oorbs are people in the bad/poor section of Timba. We’re not allowed to meet with them. It’s a general Theinav rule, but sometimes when I go to Crazy Billy’s house for stories, I see Oorbs coming for the stories too. Oorbs aren’t bad, in my opinion. They just have a lot of crime. Some Oorbs try to come and steal from the Theinav Bank. Few have actually done it without being caught. When they are caught in Theinav, they’re killed on the spot. Oorbs are allowed in Simpletalm though. That’s the normal section of Timba. They’re quite boring. The Oorbs aren’t treated fairly anywhere, though. That is, except for Oorber. Honestly, I’d rather be an Oorb than a Simple. Or maybe even more than that, I’d want to be a Thein! Theins can’t do anything. If a Thein tries to rebel against the mayor of the section, they’re killed. If they try to hunt, they’re dead. If they try to meet with an Oorb, they’re dead. If they try to go to the Mystic Forest to escape from the city, they’re put right back in Timba. The Mystic Forest is known to hold the exit out of Timba. Few go looking for the exit; few return. There was one person who did return from the deadly Mystic Forest. His name is Crazy Billy, and he lives in Simpletalm. I visit him to get stories about what it’s like out there, out of Timba. He says there are buildings as tall as the sky, but the ground is very dirty, green, and brown, but very soft. Or gray and hard. Some people say he’s just imagining all this stuff and he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I believe him, though, and so do the Oorbs. The Oorbs have sly looks on their faces. The ones I’ve met all have that same look. They go hunting for food they can’t afford at the Timba Market. The Timba Market is in Simpletalm, and everyone goes there to buy their food. It’s the only market in the whole city. The Theins always have enough money to go to the market. The Simples sometimes hunt for food, but the wealthier ones (but who aren’t wealthy enough to live in Theinav) go to the market for food.

Only once have I seen an Oorb at the market. I knew him from Crazy Billy’s house. His name was Matt. He had a distant look in his eyes, blond hair, and brown eyes. He remembered me, too; he nodded his head towards me. I nodded back. He came up to me and quietly said, “Billy’s looking for you, Julia. He has to tell you something.”

“Thanks, Matt! Here, take this!” I said, giving him the banana I’d just bought.

“Thanks!” he said, and he ran off.

That was only last week, and I was going to see Billy tonight. I didn’t think anybody would be there, or he wouldn’t have called me privately. My mom didn’t know anything about me meeting Billy and all, but I hope she didn’t mind. At night I snuck over to Billy’s house. I came in through the back door.

“Hey Billy! How is everything?” I asked. Then I looked at his face. He had a very serious look on his face. He was looking down at his feet.

“These fund your harder,” he mumbled. What’s he talking about? I thought.

“What?” I asked. Billy wasn’t making sense now. He was just glancing at my face then looking down every five seconds.

“They found yer Pops,” he said in his accent. “He had an arrow through his heart. They don’t know who murdered him. All they know is that it was with a bow and arrow, and he’s only been dead for two to three weeks. I’m sorry. I know he went missing one year ago, but at least now you have him.” I slowly started to process what he just said. It was like reaching for a door that was never there. My father wasn’t coming back like I’d always imagined. He was dead.

 

Chapter 2: Oorber

My father went into the Mystic Forest last year to find the exit out of the city. He always wrote letters about how fascinating it was and how there were friendly people out there. I wondered if one of those “friendly people” killed him. He said he ran out of the food we packed him, but he was doing well just hunting and picking berries. My father was the adventurer I’d always looked up to—even when he stopped writing letters and went missing. He was the man you would see on television—resourceful, charismatic, funny, and a hero, at least to me. My mother probably already found out, too. My mother was also great, but she only focused on the boys. I have a brother, and that’s it. His name is Ron. He looks exactly like her. Same blond hair and blue eyes. I, on the other hand, look nothing like my family. I have brown hair and big green eyes.

When I stopped crying, I ran home; my mother was crying in the kitchen while Ron was trying to soothe her. I ran up to my room. Ron was only seven! He didn’t even care when our father went missing, and he didn’t care that he was dead! I was so angry at him! But not only him—everyone! It’s everyone’s fault! Nobody except Crazy Billy went looking for the exit. Well, the ones who did go looking either died in the forest or lived there! They’re probably the ones who killed my father. I was so upset. I ran out of my room and out the front door. I just kept running and running, wanting to escape. I didn’t know how far I ran until I crossed the border to Oorber. I started to slow down. Uh-Oh! I thought. It’s nighttime! That means it’s crime time! Nighttime was when all the criminals came out and robbed, killed, or mugged, and I was running down an alley at nighttime in Oorber! I looked behind me to make sure no one was following me. I banged into something warm but hard. I fell backwards. I looked up to see three teenage boys walking towards me. I saw the middle one touching his stomach. That was the one I ran into.

“So,” the middle one said while he chewed gum. “You trying to pounce on me?” He had the same sly look as the rest did.

“I-I-I didn’t mean to! I was just running from Thein—” I stopped myself. Now they knew I was a Thein! Why did I say that? They were going to pounce me!

“Awesome! You got away! What you steal?” the one on the left asked. Yes! I thought He thought I stole from Theinav and was running back home! I went along.

“Yeah, you know that’s just wah I do!” I said in a bad imitation of their accent. I showed them my wallet, pretending that was what I stole. They took it from me. Uh-Oh!

“Student ID card—Julia Rockwell! And the picture is of you!” the right one said. Before they could understand, I started running. I ran and ran. They caught me though. One of them was about to punch me, but then they heard a voice.

“Stop it!” a boy’s voice said. They dropped me and started running. There was a buff boy in the alley way. He started to walk towards me.

“Sorry about those boys. They’re delinquents. You look like a Thein. Why are you here?” he asked.

“I—I was running?” I said.

“Great reason!” he said sarcastically. “It looks like you were headed for the Mystic Forest. What’s that all about?” he asked.

“I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Well, you better.”

“Fine, I’ll tell you.”

“Good.”

“My dad got murdered in the Mystic Forest.”

“What are you going to do?”

He had sandy-blond hair and forest-green eyes. Green like the Mystic Forest. All of a sudden, I knew what I was going to do.

“Go into the forest, find the exit, and avenge my father’s death,” I said, surprisingly with much confidence.

 

Chapter 3: The Mystic Forest

“Come on!” I said, and he followed me. We ran to the edge of the city. I took one step onto the grass, and knew I was doing the right thing.

“Are you sure you want to come?” I asked him. After I told him I was going to go into the forest to find an exit and avenge my father’s death, he said he was going to help me. I argued because I barely knew him, and I didn’t trust him much. Then we talked for a while. His name was Brian, he was 13 years old, he wanted to escape the city as much as I did, and he used to be a Simple, but his parents died in a car accident. He was living with his grandfather. I didn’t entirely trust him, so I only told him my name was Julia, I was 12 years old, I was bored of being a Thein, and my father had recently died. I started to trust him after we talked even more. He said he wanted to help his family because they were Oorbs and they got treated badly. He reminded me of my father in a way—with his motivation and his charisma and loving adventure so much.

Now we were at the edge of the Mystic Forest. We looked at each other and walked into the forest. After we talked, we both decided to go back to leave a note, then meet at Simpletalm. So I ran home and took a tent, food, pencil, paper, and two sleeping bags, then wrote a note. The note said:

 

Dear Mom and Ron,

I left for a little while to do something

with my new friend. I can’t tell you where

I went or else they’ll come to find us. But

I’ll probably see you in three weeks, around

then. I love you! Take care.

-Julia Rockwell

Then I left to Simpletalm. I hoped nobody was awake to find me. Well, of course they wouldn’t be. It’s against the Theinav law for a child not to be asleep by 9:30 pm and for an adult by 10:30 pm. Maybe a rebellious child was out like me. I heard a twig crack behind me. I whipped around. Nobody was there.

“Hello? Anybody there?” I screamed. Then Brian came out. I sighed with relief.

“You scared me!” I said, but laughed.

“You ready to go?” he asked.

I said, “Yes,” and this time we went in the forest for real. We walked about 15 miles. At 5:00 am, we were panting like mad. We decided to sleep until 9:00 am. I took out the two sleeping bags.

“You want to take shifts?” Brian asked.

“Nah, I doubt anyone will be out here,” I said. I was too tired to keep my eyes open, and I just couldn’t do shifts. I fell asleep as soon as I was in the sleeping bag. I dreamed of my father.

*        *        *

I woke up screaming.

“What’s going on?” he asked, rubbing his eyes. I didn’t answer him. I just took out the paper and pencil and began to draw the house and the man. I enjoyed nothing more than drawing, but this time it was not for fun. It was serious. The man was probably around his mid-forties. He was wearing a big hat, and I couldn’t see anything but his big green eyes. The house was white with four square windows. It had a porch in the front and a few chairs on it.

“Come on! We have to get going. There are houses in the forest right?” I asked Brian.

“Yeah, I guess. That’s what I heard at least,” he said.

“Okay, after we eat breakfast, we’ll be on our way,” I said. We laid out our breakfast: two apples, a protein bar only made for Theins, and a bag of nuts. Not a very good breakfast, but it’s the most we could have if we didn’t want to run out. We started walking. There was an awkward silence until he started talking.

“What was in the dream?” he asked. I probably should tell him because I haven’t told him much, I thought.

“Well, you and my father were fishing while I was picking berries. We were all having a good time. He came over to me and we were talking a lot, having fun together. Talking about memories. Like that time we went swimming in this pond and he told me about these things called floaties in the outside world. He was always talking about the outside world. Anyways, after that he went fishing with you again. Then, there was this big house that came out of nowhere. A man came out of it and shot my father with a bow and arrow. I think the dream means something,” I said, thinking about it more and more.

“Do you think this man is the one who killed your father?” he asked, while pulling out the drawing.

“Possibly. I mean, why not?” I said. In Timba, people got dreams for reasons most of the time when they were in need. I just had a feeling. But the man who could have been the killer looked so familiar. But I knew what my father looked like. He was the man in my dream, the man who was in my mind since last year. But I remember something about the most likely killer. A-a smile, was it? No, not a smile. I think it was the eyes! Yes! The eyes! His smiling big green eyes. Where do I remember them from? And only the eyes? That’s a little strange. From when I was a baby I think. What was he doing then? Was he my father’s friend? Did he betray my father? I needed to find out.

“I think I know the guy,” I said

“How? What happened?”

“I’m not sure. I just remember the eyes, looking at them when I was a baby,” I said, a little shyly.

“Well, let’s go find the exit and your father’s murderer because I have a strong feeling that’s telling me to go to the left,” he said. And off we went to the left.

*            *            *

“Oh my god! We’ve been walking for hours and it’s only four o’clock!” I said, frustrated.

“Well if you think we haven’t gotten anywhere, then look ahead,” he said. I looked ahead. There in the distance was a big stream. We ran towards the stream. We were so thirsty because when I “so wisely” suggested we not take shifts, someone stole all the drinks we packed. The question is: Who? There was no one out here. I decided not to think about it. I had too many mysteries going on already. We drank from it. Then I spotted a fishing rod.

“We must be close! Look! There’s a fishing rod!” I said. We left and hunted on the way. We didn’t get much—a squirrel and a turkey, which was okay. Then we saw three deer. I turned around and when I looked back, he was smiling.

“We got ourselves dinner!” he said. I smiled back. But then the moment was ruined. A man came out. He had dark hair and big green eyes. Uh-oh, I thought. He’s gonna murder us! I looked at Brian. He had a scared look on his face.

“Julia?” the man said. He lifted his hat. I squinted a bit. Was that… my father?

Chapter 4: The Unknown Man

“Who are you?” I asked. I thought he was my father. He didn’t look like my real father though. My real father was dead. He looked like me. I know that’s crazy, but once he took off his hat, he had brown hair and green eyes! A lot of people have that too. But he had the same expressions and body shape as me. He obviously couldn’t be, because my father was dead.

“Look how much you’ve grown!” he said, now smiling.

“You killed my father!” I burst out. He looked stunned and so did I.

“I didn’t kill nobody’s father!” he said, looking betrayed. Then who was he, and where did I know him from?

“Then who are you?” I asked getting more and more curious.

“Do you recognize me?” he asked with one eyebrow raised.

“Only your eyes,” I said back, trying to sound like I knew what was going on. Truthfully, I didn’t know.

“Why don’t you come over to my house?” he said. I didn’t know whether to go or not, but I decided to go. We walked for about 5 more minutes and then we saw a white house—the exact same one I saw in my dream. We walked into the house and into the living room. I saw a man sitting down.

“Billy?” I asked. Billy turned around. He smiled at me.

“Hey, Kiddo! I knew you’d find your way!” he said, still smiling. I just looked at him. Even though Billy was my friend, I couldn’t smile now. I was just too confused, and the man never answered my question!

“Who are you?!” I asked, making it clear that that was all I wanted to know.

“Now, Julia, maybe we should discuss this over a cup of iced tea?” Billy asked. I didn’t want to say yes, but it was too tempting. We all walked into the kitchen. The man got out the iced tea and gave us each a cup. Then he poured it in to them.

“Please explain,” I said politely.

“Well when yer ‘mother and father’ got married, they wanted to have a baby, but yer mama couldn’t have one. There were no adoption centers back then, so they decided to do it the hard way. Yer pops went into the Mystic Forest to find a baby. He found Paul’s house. You were only 6 months. You were living with your pops and mama when he stole you. He loved you from the moment he took you. Loved you more than the boy that came out unexpectedly. But yer ‘mama’ thought that you weren’t good, that you were more boyish than girlish because you didn’t want to go shopping with her and you’d rather go swimming or something with your ‘dad.’ I know this because your father talked to me also,” Billy said wisely. Then Paul continued.

“Me and your mother were searching like crazy. We couldn’t find you anywhere. They hid you at the exit of Timba. Billy didn’t know that they stole you then, so he told them where the exit was. Your other father was a great man until he did that. Don’t be mad at him, but you can trust me,” he said. I didn’t know why, but I did trust him for some reason. The ambiance here made me happy, and I didn’t know who else to trust except for Brian and Billy, of course. I smiled at him, telling him that I trusted him. We heard the door open.

“Where is she?” It was my ‘mother’s’ voice. She came into the kitchen. She was holding a knife.

“You betrayed me! You lied to me!” I said, screaming at her.

“Your father liked you better than me! You were a nothing!” she screamed back. Paul came up in between us.

“Why, Hello Paul,” she said. She dropped the knife. Paul picked it up.

“Get out of my house!” he said. She ran out, not caring about me. Well, that was something I’ve never seen before, I thought.

“Wait a second,” I said, immediately snapping back to the moment. “Where’s my mother?” I wanted to see my mother, too.To see if I was anything like her.

“She went out to the market. You know there is a shorter way to the house,” my… dad said. He looked at my face and smiled.
“You look like your mother, but you have your father’s eyes,” Billy said, looking from me to my dad.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” I asked. “Shouldn’t we get out of Timba?”

“We’re going to when your mother comes and once Brian gets his family,” he said, winking at Brian.

“I-I I don’t know if I can…” he said.

“What? But you’ve been so excited to leave. It’s your dream,” I said, so surprised. What did he mean he wouldn’t go? It was his life’s dream!

“My grandfather is too old to walk all  the way and I can’t leave him,” he said. “But I have a plan. When he dies, I’ll come. And that will be soon for sure. We’ll write each other every day,” he said, declaring everything.

“Well, you can live in my house for sure! I bet my mother fled from the house once she realized I knew everything,” I said.

“Thanks,” he said and we hugged. We all talked for a little longer, but then Brian left. Almost right when he left, my real mother came in. She immediately recognized me. We hugged for a while. I remembered her after a tiny bit of background information. But I only remembered the smile of my mother. I was elated to be with my real family. But I wasn’t sure how I felt about my ‘dad’. Should I be mad or upset? I decided to be neither. I didn’t want to be upset or angry with him. I just decided he was my second father, and I loved him even if he did something horrible. My second mother, I was angry with. Definitely!

We started packing everything for the move. I didn’t have anything, but my mother, whose name was Lilly, told me we would get me things in the other place. I was kind of upset. I didn’t even get to meet them properly. I sat on the couch thinking about them and my other dad. Then my dad came in.

“Look what I found,” he said, excited. He held out a photo album. It said “Julia Throughout the Years.” We opened it and there I was, month one, holding a teddy bear. Me again month two with my mother smiling. Month three was my father lying down but holding me in the air like I was flying. Month four, five, and six were with me, my mother, and my father. I couldn’t wait to get out of Timba to be with them and start over. Now I was reaching for a door that was never there but someday I would find—looking for a dream that was almost impossible, but that someday I would achieve.