There was once a boy who lived in a land that moved. Sometimes the country was an island in the ocean. Sometimes it was a mountain amidst the plains. And sometimes it was a haven among the clouds.
This boy did not have a name, and he didn’t see why other people would ever want to have one. The boy knew about names: he knew that they defined someone. One can often tell what sort of person someone else is just by their name. Therefore, the boy did not like names and was glad that he was not fettered by one.
Regardless of this fact, the boy was called something. Almost all of the people of the Moving Country knew the boy, and so they all had a name for him. Some people called him Fleetfoot, some people called him Scratcher, and some people called him very nasty names which the author is uncomfortable taking note of. But the most common name of all for the boy was Young Lad.
This name, in fact, had its own derivatives. When Young Lad was being sneaky and devious, people would not want to shout out his whole title (as that would take a good deal of pronunciation and moving of the lips), so they would cry out “Y.L.!”, or “Whyll!”
Young Lad wasn’t sure how he felt about this, as Whyll sounded a bit like Will, and that was a name. However, since Will was also a thing which meant determination, he let it pass.
Young Lad, however, never really adopted his common title. He acknowledged people when they called him by any name, but whenever he introduced himself he would say something unique; something particular to that time of his life. For example when a baker made his acquaintance after the boy had been up all night staring at the sky, Young Lad introduced himself as “the boy who talks with the Moon.” When an adventurer asked the boy what his name was after the child had shown an astonishing amount of courage, Young Lad replied “I am the one who knows that life is more than myself.” He was a very poetic child (though hardly romantic). In fact, the boy could say such deep things sometimes that many questioned whether he was a child at all. To tell the truth, Young Lad had looked the same age for as long as anyone could remember. Even Havel, the old woodcarver, merely smiled knowingly when questioned on Young Lad’s origins. Havel was the oldest colonist, and a very wise man. He seemed to be at one with the earth, and could work magic with healing. He was a man of many hobbies, but his favorite was woodcarving and that is what he identified himself with.
Havel was, in fact, most likely the closest thing that Whyll had to family. Whyll could be found at least one day a week in Havel’s woodshop, watching the old man’s face turn young again as he fashioned a figure out of an oak branch. Whyll felt at peace in the woodshop, as did all who went there. Something about the smell of woodshavings and the coffee that Havel was famous for relaxed the nerves, and slowed the heart.
It is an interesting fact that, although Havel was the oldest person in the Moving Country, he was the only one who had a soul as young and joyous as Young Lad’s.
Young Lad lived in an abandoned cathedral. He said that he felt safe there. He would pass long nights with one of the sacred candles close to his side, staring up at the pictures on the stained-glass windows. The cathedral was not necessarily homey, and would have spooked many a child. But Whyll wasn’t a normal boy; he was a brave lad. He was the kind of person who is absolutely astonishing and didn’t even realize it. Young Lad claimed that he had snuck into the cathedral and listened to the nuns sing when it still had services many years ago, but no one believed him because no one even remembered that the cathedral had housed nuns when Whyll mentioned the fact. Eventually it was established that nuns had lived in underground chambers of the cathedral which could be found by going through what had been thought to be an entrance to a bomb shelter. Not much could be found in these catacombs, save three headdresses and four dozen beds. These beds were Young Lad’s joy.
“I may not have a proper house,” he would say, “but I have more beds than anyone in the whole village, and that’s the truth! Bed’s the best part of a house, anyways. I never have understood how people could stand to be in their cottages during the day.”
A long while ago he had slept down in the catacombs, but had stopped for reasons no one knew. However, he had dragged a few beds from the cells to the organ-room, and it was there that he slept. He used the curtains which had covered the windows for sheets and blankets (and occasionally as a cloak). He despised hung curtains. He loved having the light in the cathedral, even if he wasn’t in it. He said that the light stayed in the cathedral after dark and whispered to him while he was sleeping.
The nighttime did not frighten Young Lad. When asked if he was ever afraid sleeping in that dark, dusty cathedral at night he replied that it would be silly to be scared of something that had neither tooth nor claw, but was deep and soft and just a bit magical. Deep and soft, he called the night, because it had a deep feeling that made you think that nothing could be in front of you, and a soft feeling, like you were cocooned in a coat of blankets.
Despite getting awfully dirty during the daytime, Whyll was very particular about washing before going to bed. It was after one of these washings (which were performed with a hose in the garden) that Young Lad realized that he must have misplaced his shirt. He hardly ever wore his shirt since it would get dirty in his exploring anyways, and usually only put it on before he went to bed or if he were going to see someone. He thought that it was very gentlemanly to be covered up when seeing people who were respectful, especially the “lady folk,” as he called them.
“If God had wanted us to walk around without clothes on all the time,” Young Lad would say, “Then He wouldn’t have made us to look so ridiculous without them.”
However, Young Lad never was proud enough to think himself respectful, and hardly ever wore anything beyond what was necessary when he was playing by himself in the Further.
Regardless of this, Whyll was quite put out when he couldn’t find his shirt, since he was very worried that he wouldn’t be able to see Havel or Ms. Tea again, as they were the very most respectable people he knew, and he couldn’t possibly have a “decent conversation” with one of them when his torso was bare. So Young Lad hunted for his shirt. He searched high and low for his shirt, and for so long that his legs began to ache and his eyelids began to droop with weariness.
“I suppose it’s time to be...not...awake…” he said with an immense yawn. In fact, his yawn was so gargantuan that a moth flew into his mouth and he inadvertently swallowed it whole and continued on his path without so much as a pause in his step. “After all, I shouldn’t be seeing too many respectable people while I’m unconscious.”
Young Lad let out a small burp, and a puff of moth dust emerged from his mouth.
The boy crawled into bed and shivered thoroughly, crawling deep into the mound of curtains which engulfed his mattress. Eventually he was completely covered, except for his eyes which stared at the moon through the stained glass until the boy went to sleep.
Most people drift off into the land of dreams. Young Lad trod intently forward into it, as though he were a citizen of the place.
Whyll awoke with a start, and looked straight into the eyes of the intruder whom he knew was there. It wasn’t hard, since the intruder had just slipped on the puddle that Young Lad had made from his bath drippings and slammed into the organ. Fortunately for the sneak, they had caught themselves. Young Lad leapt from his sheets, fell off of the mattress and face-first onto the ground when he had tried to jump when the curtain was still wrapped around his left ankle, retrieved himself, sprang up, and leapt towards the intruder. But the intruder was gone. No! Not gone: at the door. The Locked Door. Young Lad had never been able to open that door, and had named it thus. He ran after the trespasser shouting “Stop, burglar!” He rather liked the word burglar. It was then that the boy realized that the “burglar” was about the same height as he was.
“Ah, a diminutive burglar!” He thought.
He rushed and grabbed the invader around the stomach, and shouted his victory over the sneak. Which was when he found his shirt.
“My my!” Whyll cried. “A diminutive burglar who wants to steal my clothes! I can’t have that, now! I can’t go seeing Wilder with naught but my skin!”
“I didn’t want to steal your clothes!” Said the diminutive burglar, in a rather high voice. “And I’m not a burglar. I’m a girl.”
“Oh ho! Trying to get me to run away, are you?” Young Lad replied suspiciously. “Assuming you are a girl (which you’re not, or at least, you don’t smell like you are) why would you want to take a boy’s shirt?”
“Because...because I didn’t have anything else to wear...because my other clothes are all in...tatters...and...and...and…” The vertically challenged interloper could not finish her sentence, and instead burst out into tears.
“By Jupiter!” Young Lad exclaimed. “It is a girl!” He began to back away slowly with alarm, as one would with a rabid and hungry coyote, but then noticed that the creature didn’t seem to have ulterior motives.
“Oh dear!” Whyll sighed. “Don’t cry because you smell like a boy, now-”
The girl began to wail.
“Erm...I meant a very nice smelling boy…”
A small pond of tears was forming between the girl’s knees.
“Who has recently been walking amidst roses…”
The girl’s hands, which were covering her face, began to act as a waterfall for her tears.
“What a strange small naked burglar you are!” Whyll said. “You take my shirt and then burst into tears when I say you smell like a boy! Well of course you smell like a boy! That’s my shirt!”
The girl looked at the fabric with surprise, and then at Young Lad in relief.
“No wonder you smell so strongly of boy! That thing hasn’t seen soap in years!”
The girl swallowed what seemed to be bile which had sprung into her mouth. After getting her lunch back down, the girl cleared her throat and spoke.
“Is there something else I might be able to wear?” She asked.
Young Lad smiled and offered his hand.
“Follow me.”
“I’m sorry I stole your clothes,” the girl said. “I just didn’t know what to do. The things I had on before were barely threads anymore, and it was cold outside.”
“That’s quite all right.” Young Lad said over the stream of hot water that was coming out of the kitchen spigot and practically scalding his hands. “It’s not the first time someone stole my clothes!”
“Really?” The young girl asked in astonishment. She was now wrapped in one of the old red curtains of the cathedral. It was actually quite modest: there was quite a lot of surface area for one very small girl.
“Really.” Young Lad answered. “Except last time it was for purposes of voodoo or something, so that was different.”
The girl smiled, and Whyll turned round to dry his hands.
“Better not make a sarcastic comment like that again!” He whispered to himself. “Otherwise it’ll be Veronica all over again.”
“Would you like some tea?” Young Lad asked.
“Oh, tea sounds wonderful!”
“Excellent! I’ll get the water brewing then. I have some special herbs here which are said to ward off disease and frightful creatures. Plus it tastes delicious.”
“My, do you have disease and frightful creatures you’re trying to ward off?” The girl asked in alarm.
“Yes, actually. In fact they’ve been accosting me this very day.” Whyll replied. “Don’t worry, though; nothing harmful to you. Right then, would you like some cheese with that?”
“Yes, please.”
Whyll climbed up onto the counter, and opened a cupboard door. The girl couldn’t see inside the cupboard, although she got the feeling that it was a very deep storage space.
“Drat!” Whyll exclaimed, looking deeper into the cupboard. “I know it’s in here somewhere…”
“Oh, don’t go to any extra trouble!” The girl started, but Whyll interrupted her.
“It’s no trouble at all, I know it’s here somewhere.” He said, climbing all the way
into the cupboard. The girl heard a great deal of rustling around in the space, until Whyll finally emerged (his left hand with the cheese in it first), and set the lump of dairy (as well as a second lump) on the counter, then turned around and started the tea brewing. The girl looked at Whyll suspiciously, then picked up one of the lumps and began chewing it.
“My, this is marvelous cheese!” The girl exclaimed.
“Thank you! It’s from a good old friend. She says that it’s very well aged.” He turned around, and looked at what the girl was nibbling.
“Is something wrong?” The girl asked.
“Well, that’s actually my soap that you’re enjoying right now.” The boy said. The girl promptly spat the stuff out (“Into the trashcan.” Whyll noticed. “I never would’ve thought of that myself!”) and looked at Whyll sheepishly.
“Sorry!” She said awkwardly. “It’s been awhile since I’ve tasted cheese, and I guess I didn’t remember that it wasn’t supposed to taste like that.”
“From the looks of you,” Whyll said, “It’s been awhile since you’ve tasted anything.”
The girl looked down, uncomfortable.
“How about some bread to go with the cheese?” Young lad asked. “I happen to have picked up a batch just tonight!”
“Oh, thank you!” The girl said, as she grabbed the second hunk. She looked at it quizzically. “This one is cheese, right?”
“Yeah.” Said Whyll. “Wait!” He looked at it closer. “Yeah. Wait!” He picked it up and sniffed it. “Yeah, that’s cheese. Very aged cheese, hard to tell sometimes.”
Young Lad picked up the soap with the tooth-marks pointing away from him and tossed the bar into the sink, where his shirt was laying. At the moment he, too, had a curtain wrapped around his torso, as he wouldn’t have been caught dead shirtless in front of a lady, at least in a civilized situation.
“You decided that your shirt could use a dip, then?” The girl asked.
“Hm? Oh, yes. It’s gotten especially dirty recently, to tell the truth.”
“Ah, that’s right. You’re trying to stay healthy from disease.”
“Yes, yes quite right.” Young Lad began thoroughly scrubbing his face (with soap, if you would believe it). “Don’t want the germs to have any foothold on my health.”
“Do you live here alone, then?” The girl asked.
“Oh, no! Not at all!” Young Lad replied. “I have rats, mice, cats…” Young Lad glanced at the girl and couldn’t tell if she looked interested or disgusted. Hoping it was disgust, he went on.
“And I have a dog (oh, and he has fleas), and a community of cockroaches” (this boast was a bit of an over-statement) “and a dead squirrel, and- oh!” He said, getting quiet quickly. He leaned closer with an impish glee. “And sometimes...I hear voices.”
At this moment he had hoped the girl either would’ve fainted or have run screaming from the cathedral, but instead her eyes lit up with hope.
“Really?” She asked, an excited smile springing to her face. “I do too.”
Young Lad looked at her with a blank expression. His schpeel would’ve worked with most girls. In fact, a list of so many unhygienic peculiarities would’ve sent any girl that he had ever met running long before he had gotten to the cherry-on-top of insanity.
“You…” Young Lad started, and then cleared his throat. “You do?”
“Yes! That’s why I was out in the cold, that’s why I’m so far from my village, that’s why my parents…” She stopped abruptly. After a bit she smiled (interestingly enough it was not a forced smile) and said “Perhaps we could indulge in the tea?”
“Of course.” Young Lad said. He had not expected this girl to act this way, and was at a loss as to how to address her. Disoriented, he grabbed the jar of honey from the cupboard and set it on the counter.
“Two teaspoons?” He asked.
“Yes, thank you.”
He mechanically lowered the spoon into the jar of the sticky stuff, raised it out, then lowered it into the cup. Stir, stir, stir. Like clockwork.
Young Lad’s mind was elsewhere. He didn’t know how to approach the girl at this point. He didn’t know if he should try to get rid of her or if he should befriend her. He had never met someone so young who heard voices like he did. Or at least, he had not met someone like this in a very long time. Whyll handed the girl her tea.
“You really hear voices?” Young Lad asked hesitantly. The girl nodded, contentedly gripping her steaming cup near her chin with her shoulders hunched up.
“How long ago did it start?” Whyll questioned.
“Two years, four months, and one day.” The girl answered abruptly. She looked up at him and smiled sadly. “My ninth birthday.”
Whyll nodded and began stirring honey into his tea.
“It changed everything, you know.” The girl said. “The voices made me see things that weren’t there, but it all seemed so real. When I told my friends what I thought I had seen, they just stared at me. Then when they told their parents, they locked me up in an asylum. The voices reprimanded me, and hurt me. When I was crying out in pain an old man heard me, and said that he knew what I was going through. He told me that the voices weren’t actually inside of me, and that they could only hurt me if I let them. He said that I could block them out, that I didn’t have to listen to them. That I had a voice of my own.”
The girl stared into the cup of tea as if it was a Palantir showing her the scene once more. Young Lad listened intently. The girl looked up from her tea, and took a sip.
“I broke away from the voices, and I broke away from the asylum. Then I ran. I ran like I could do nothing else, I sprinted as if it was my nature, I flew as if from a fire. I don’t know what happened to my village, to my country. I am a long ways away now, how far I do not know. Nor will I question. This is the life granted to me, and it is the one thing I cannot run from. To be on the outside looking in, to know things I can only just believe, this is my story. And it is not a story worth hearing, for my burden is not one worth bearing.”
Young Lad looked at her.
“You don’t have to run.” He said. “Pilgrims settle, even if they are far from home.”
“I am no pilgrim,” the girl said sadly. “I am an outcast. I am not a foreigner in a strange land. I am a glitch persecuted in my own country.”
“This is not your country,” Young Lad said.
“It is my home.”
“You have not seen your home yet, nor has it entered into your imagination.”
“Boy, there is no place for people like us in this world.” She replied. It was not spiteful.
“No place in this world.”
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