authorjeffbaker

Just Off the Blue Area

by Mike Mayak

NOTE: Didn’t expect to do another sequel but I guess this is Part Three. Check the earlier stories taking place in The Under: “A Bicycle Built Fortuitously” and “Blue Shoes” also on this blog—-jeff

“‘Scuse me,” a squat man wearing a floppy red hat said as he brushed past Franco and Anthony. “Got my drinks.”

He handed a cup to somebody in a green hat in the back row.

Anthony decided to make small talk.

“Some game, huh?” Anthony asked.

“If you like that sort of thing,” the man in the red hat said.

“We, uh, aren’t from around here,” Franco said for what felt like the tenth time in the last hour. “We don’t even know what the game is.”

“We call it “Shoemerang,” the man in the red hat explained. “I keep waiting for the shoes to turn around and come back.”

“Uh, you know real boomerangs don’t come back?” Anthony said.

“Neither do these,” the man in the green hat snickered. Red hat joined in.

“You know what the winner gets?” someone else said.

“What?” Franco asked.

“One of my special cream pies. We call it Shoemeringue too.”

Franco looked around, half expecting to see a White Rabbit hop up and pull out a pocket watch.

Suddenly there was a commotion from the crowd. People were looking up and pointing. Most of them were angry.

“Well, that’s no fair.” The man in the red hat said.

“What?” Anthony asked.

“Look up,” the man in the green hat said.

They did. The sky had been clear, also it had been near dusk. Now it was daylight and the sky was filled with roiling grey clouds.

“Playing with time and the weather. No fair!” yelled the man in the green hat.

“Dirty pool!!” The man in the red hat yelled.

Anthony was wondering how they knew what pool was when Franco tapped him on the shoulder.

“I think it’s time to go,” Franco said pointing at the bicycle which was swaying from side to side on the ground.

“Yeah. Probably,” Anthony said as Franco hopped on the seat and Anthony sat down behind him, glad the seat was long and that they had been a couple for a while as he grabbed Franco’s waist.

Franco started to pedal carefully behind the rows of people when the bike slowly ascended and floated over the crowd as it got higher and higher.

Somebody noticed.

“Hey! They’re cheating!” That was a voice from the crowd, joined by other loud, angry voices and followed by people on the ground throwing drinks and food at the two young men on the flying bicycle.

“We’re not even playing!” Anthony yelled down as a strange looking fruit soared past his foot.

“Hang on, I’m gonna try to go faster,” Franco said as he pushed on the bike handles. The bike responded by angling upward and zipping into the clouds. Clouds which smelled funny and familiar.

“I think the bike wanted us out of there because it was about to rain.” Franco said.

“So?” Anthony asked.

“We don’t know what comes out of these clouds.” Franco said.

“Oh.” Anthony said.

“But I think it smelled like…” Franco began to say. Then something zipped past them, hurtling downward.

Then there was another one. And another.

“Hang on!” Franco yelled as the bike soared upward and broke the upper layer of clouds.

“Shoes!” Anthony gasped. “Those were shoes!”

“Yeah,” Franco said. “Work boots, I think. I thought the cloud smelled familiar.”

“Sure hope they have some kind of warning system down there…” Anthony said. “And that those boots aren’t steel toed.”

“Owch.” Franco said. He glanced down, hoping to see some of the city if they had cleared where the cloud was. The cloud was only dimly visible through the blue-green misty light that looked like the bottom of the swimming pool. Above them was a silvery mirror-like oval splotched with dark green. The Bicycle was headed right for it.

“Oh-Oh” Anthony said.

“Look out!” Franco yelled.

They hit the oval with a splash.

The two young men gasped for air, which fortunately there was a lot of. Also blue sky, and green grass and trees on a lake bank a few feet away. The bicycle had popped out from under them and was floating on its side next to them. They had burst through a covering of greenish lily pads.

A large green frog was laying on one of the pads that was still floating, looking like he had been overturned by the pair’s sudden emergence.

“Well,” the frog croaked. “NOW you’ve done it!”

—end—

Blue Shoes

by Mike Mayak

(Sequel to “A Bicycle Built Fortuitously”)

Franco and Anthony had followed the Yellow Man’s directions and pushed the bicycle to The Midnight Cafe which was positioned under a yellow, neon sign of a crescent Moon. The furnishings, wrought-iron chairs and tables and wallpaper were yellow but thankfully the food wasn’t, although Anthony did order some Golden pancakes.

They were amazed that when they asked about money and were told that since they didn’t have any of the Yellow Issue bills, the meal was free.

“But only the first time,” their waiter said.

That seemed to be the way things were done in The Under, the land their Bicycle had flown them to.

After they finished eating they asked the waiter what there was to do in town.

“Oh, nothing right now.” the Waiter said. “The real excitement is over in the Blue Area. The Games should be starting up soon.”

“What Games?” Anthony asked. “We’re not from around here.”

“Everybody in The Under makes such a big deal about it,” the Waiter said. “But it’s just flat boring as far as I’m concerned.”

Franco shrugged. “Okay.”

They glanced over at the bike propped against the table.

“Think it wants to get us out from, uh, under here?” Franco said.

“Hopefully not until we’re done exploring.” Anthony said.

They loved exploring. Most couples did it in a car or a plane. The Bicycle had flown them all around the world and into this world a few hours ago. It was what came of being magical.

They politely turned down dessert; a large yellow lemon pie and headed back on the street pushing the bike until they came to a large map on the wall. It indicated which area was which and where they were.

“Must be like the map the Yellow Man mentioned,” Franco said.

“Uh huh,” Anthony said, hanging on him and looking over his shoulder. “And the Blue Area isn’t too far from here.”

“If the map’s accurate none of The Under is very big,” Franco said.

“Well, we are under a swimming pool,” Anthony said with a grin. He kissed Franco and the two of them walked on in the direction of the Blue Area.

“Hey, think we should just ride the bike?” Franco asked. “It still works as a bike you know. Ground-based transportation and all.”

“Yeah, but we don’t know what other vehicles may be on the roads.” Anthony said. “For all we know there could be a steamroller driven by a hungry shark.”

“Underwater stuff, yeah. Of course.” Franco said.

There was no big sign, and everything didn’t all go blue when they walked into the Blue Area but they noticed a few differences. For one thing, every building had a blue plaque on it. And there was a small building labeled “Blue Area Cafe” on its big front window.

They did notice one thing though; it was getting dark.

“Hey, I thought it was sunrise when we got here?” Anthony said.

“I know.” Franco said. “We haven’t been here that long. But we don’t know how long the day is.”

There was a tall man in a blue robe on a ladder adjusting one of the tall lamps. Franco called over to him.

“Uh, excuse me. Blue Man?”

The man turned, looking a little like the Yellow Man they had met in the previous story.

“Yeah?” The Blue Man said.

“We’re new around here.” Franco said. “We just walked over from the Yellow Area. Are you guys in a different time zone or something here?”

“Oh no,” the Blue Man said. “We’re just turning up the lamps and turning down the daylight. Dusk is a lot better for The Games.” He twisted something in the lamp which was glowing softly.

“What Games exactly?” Franco asked. “Olympics or Football?”

“Don’t know what those are,” the Blue Man said climbing down the ladder. “But you can see ‘em for yourself, if you just follow the…”

There was a loud cheer from a crowd.

“…noise.”

“Thanks,” Franco said with a wave of his hand as the two of them walked the bike around a cluster of buildings, following the sound.

They came to what looked like a town square and that was where they started to see crowds.

“Here for the Game?” a man in a red suit and peaked hat said. “It’s over there. Good luck getting a good spot!”

Anthony and Franco waved a “thanks” and walked the bike around the back of the crowd. Through some luck they came across a barrier where they could look down and see what was going on.

At the edge of the square, at what looked like the edge of town were a long row of very normal telephone or electrical poles. The wires ran from the top of one to the top of another like they did in the world Anthony and Franco knew. But underneath and to one side was a man wearing a gaudy T-shirt with what was probably a team logo on it. He was bent over, looking upward and holding a pair of shoes the way a man would hold a bowling ball. The shoes looked like Nike’s but they were bright blue.

There were calls of encouragement from the crowd.

“C’mon, Mylo!” “Go, Mylo!!”

The crowd hushed as Mylo took a step forward and tossed the shoes upward. The laces were tied together and they swirled around each other like a bola Anthony had seen once.

There was a cheer from the crowd that turned into a loud groan as the shoes soared over the wires and the pole and landed on the ground.

“They’re not…” Anthony said.

Franco just stood there with a broadening smile.

Meanwhile, another man wearing the same logo on his T-shirt stepped forward holding a pare of laced together work boots. Blue, of course.

“Awriiight, Keldrick!!” someone in the crowd yelled. Anthony and Franco noticed Mylo standing with the crowd pumping his fist in the air. The next player, Keldrick, was taller and had a blue lanyard over his shirt.

Keldrick stood in the assigned spot, took the bowler’s stance, gauged the distance and with practiced ease tossed the boots upward. They spun and soared and the crowd let out a long “aaaaaahhhhhhhh” that followed the arcing trajectory of the boots until they hit the line at the top of the pole, spun around the wire and hung there. Then the crowd let out with a triumphant yell, and Franco and Anthony found themselves cheering as well.

There was a pause as four people, three men and a woman, all wearing robes and peaked hats, each outfit a different color, blue, red, yellow and green, stepped up and measured the distance from where the men had stood to under where the shoes had snagged the wire. After consulting together, the three men looked at Keldrick and Mylo and nodded.

The crowd burst into a loud cheer.

“I keep expecting somebody to sing about the Yellow Brick Road,” Franco quipped.

—end—

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

I’m quitting this here, it’s way too long to be a “Flash Fiction” story, but a lot of mine balloon up! I hadn’t expected to do a sequel but when the idea for the shoe tossing competition hit me, I realized it would be perfect for the earlier characters. And the “Wizard Of Oz” references and similarities just kind of happened. I grew up reading Baum’s “Oz” books and have read some of his others—wonderful! I don’t know if I’ll ever continue any of this, but it’s been fun. Oh, the earlier story “A Bicycle Built Fortuitously” appeared on this blog at the end of December.

——mike