Chapter 14
Assembling the gate was the easy part. He took the best pieces of all the pieces he had collected, and before you knew it, we had portal in our front yard. Getting it to work, was the problem. John made red stone blocks and torches and nothing seemed to work.
“Maybe you should attach my trident as a lightning rod,” I said. John grunted.
“This is not a movie.”
“Maybe we should take a break,” I said. John looked at me. He went back to work. “Let’s go adventuring,” I said.
“Eston, not now,” John said.
“You always tell me, sometimes you got a take a break. The answer will come to you when you take a break,” I said. “Please. Dad. Come swimming with me.”
John relented, ungracefully. We swam for a bit. We went fishing. Fishing usually cheered him up. It was too late to go adventuring so we planned our trip for the next day. We would go east, up and over the mountain. We went to bed. We said our thank you’s, and then we slept. The next morning John stared at the arch while we ate breakfast.
“You’re taking me adventuring,” I said.
John nodded. He found Shatner already geared up with supplies. Tool box. Fencing posts.
Gates. Food. Extra armor and weapons. My frost walker boots. We saddled up and headed out. John was quiet.
“Wouldn’t it be cool to enchant horse shoes with frost walker so the horses don’t have to swim?” I asked.
John nodded.
“2121, I guess,” I said. He scanned the country side for dangers and artifacts, but I could see his mind wasn’t in it. I sang, “Johnnny, Johnnny, John John.”
He grimaced at me.
“Solar, Solarchariot,” I sang. “Eston,” John said, lightly. “Where are you?” I asked.
“Thinking,” John said.
“Thinking about what?” I asked.
“You called me dad yesterday,” John said. “You’ve never done that.”
“Mom called you John. It stuck,” I said.
John nodded.
“I know you’re my dad,” I said. John nodded. “Clyde says…”
“Wait,” John said, interrupting me. “I want you to be very thoughtful with your next answer. Does Clyde treat you alright?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Very well. I don’t need to know about what Clyde says or what you two, or you three do together,” John said.
“You want me to keep it a secret?” I asked.
“No,” John said. “If you are ever being harmed, you tell me, you tell your mother, you tell a teacher. You ask for help. But otherwise, I don’t need to know.”
“What if I want to share?” I said.
“You can,” John said. “I am just saying, you don’t have to.”
“Clyde and Mom say I have two dads now,” I said. “I told them no. There is just you.”
“It is okay, even reasonable, to love and respect other people,” John said.
“You’re my dad. I call you John. Why would I call anyone else, dad?” I asked.
John maneuvered Tex closer to me. Shatner’s lead was tied to Tex’s saddle. He followed Tex and John better than he followed me.
“Dad is a title. It’s a badge. Not all fathers are dads. There are men who haven’t fathered children who can hold the title dad,” John said. “If Clyde treats you and your mother well, give him a badge. I am not diminished by you holding love. The more love you hold, the more expanded I am. Be kind and love as many people as you can.”
“I love you, Dad,” I said.
“I love you, Son,” John said.
And in that moment, we discovered something new. A village. With people! And in that moment, I found a purpose.
“These people aren’t safe,” I said.
“They must be doing something right,” John said. “They’re alive.”
“We need to fence them in and this place up,” I said. “We need to make them safe.”
“Do you remember the prime directive,” John asked me.
“Dad, they’re our neighbors. They’re the first people we’ve met. Please,” I said. John got off the horse, and led Tex by a lead. I followed, staying behind Tex. “Are we going to help them?” I asked.
“We’re going to open hailing frequencies,” John said.
We drew closer, slowly enough as to not be seen as a threat. People came out to greet us. There were no dogs, but there were lots of cats. You could hear them mewing. There were cows, pigs, sheep, and stacks of hay. It was pretty rustic; almost Heartland.
“Hello,” John said.
“Ha, haaa. Ha ha.” We assumed this one was the lead villager. They were kind of strange looking.
“He’s funny,” I said, laughing. “You understand him?” John asked.
“I think so. I think he said, welcome stranger. Would you like to trade?”
“Seriously? You got all of that from hahaha?” John asked.
“No, John. It’s like Thai. You now all ‘M. A.’ words ‘ma,’ can be five different things depending on your tonality? Ma, maaa, mah, maw.” I said. And that’s true. Ma, depending on how say it could be mother or horse or dog poop. You really got to be careful with intonation.
“Ma, ma, ma, ma,” John said.
The villagers laughed. One little girl covered her mouth trying not to laugh.
“No, John. Don’t you listen? Ma, Maaa, Mah, Maw…”
“Ha ha, haaa haa,” the chief said. “See, he understands me,” I said.
“Damn it,” John said. “I could really use a universal translator.”
“Do know why 555 is the same as LOL in English?” I asked. “Not now, Eston,” John said.
“Because the Thai word for 5 is ha,” I said. The villagers laughed.
“Alright, then, smarty pants,” John said. “Tell them, if they let us spend the night here, we will construct a fence around their village and light the place with more torches.”
I repeated John’s words in English. “Ha ha,” John said.
The villagers laughed. The chief villager hugged John.
“I think they understand us,” I said. “We better get to work. It will be night soon.”
So, John and I got to work on the fence. Villagers hid in their homes once the sun went down. John protected a straggler from a zombie.
“Eston, go inside,” John said.
“I am going to help you,” I said. I shot a creeper and he fell back into a hole. “I will cover you while you work.”
John nodded and continued with the fence. He worked fast. I placed torches. Chester took out a spider. To make the fencing material stretch, we attached them to houses. Zombies made it into the village as we worked and banged on the villager doors. I took them out with arrows, and a little help from Chester. Most of the creepers saw the cats and kept clear of us. John had to stop only twice to take out a skeleton. His sword work as improved since arriving in this world. Consequently, so has mine. It took almost all night, but we fenced in the entire village and then set torches and lanterns throughout the village to scare monsters from spawning. Morning arrived and we gave each other badges. First village saved! The villagers seemed really impressed.
We sat and breakfast. They shared food with us. John discussed collecting stone and putting another fence all the way around the village, like he did at our home, to make an additional barrier. While he drew up the plans and did the math on how many stones he was going to need, I watched as some of the villagers danced and played music.
“I think they’re happier,” I said.
“Yeah,” John said, trying to do math without Loxy’s help. “Are they humans?” I asked.
John gave up on the math. He looked at the villager staring at him. Come to think of it, they all seemed to stare at us a lot. It was kind of creepy in a way, but I suppose could be their way of being attentive. “I don’t know. Close enough,” John said.
“Their noses are funny,” I said.
“Reminds me of the Goons from Popeye,” John said. He saw that I didn’t understand. He took out a book and drew some goons. One of the villagers laughed, and posed, doing arm muscle gestures. They were full of antics. “No. No. I am not drawing you. This a cartoon I watched as a child. They were island people.” The chief called the poser away. John stopped to consider the matter further. “I have heard that there is an alien race that are human enough we can interbreed, and they supposedly have big noses. I wonder if these guys are them.”
“You’re telling me about aliens?” I asked. “Isn’t that against the rules?”
“Well, technically. I haven’t met these guys, and you can find out about them on google easy enough, so I haven’t really told you anything that isn’t available for conjecture,” John said.
One of the villagers invited John to come dance. It was kind of a Russian folks song kind of dance, lots of feet kicking and line dancing. I got up to participate.
“Come on, dad!” I said.
Chester barked. He pranced around like a show dog. He is such a good dog. John is not a good dancer. I think I was doing okay. Until the bell rang. The music stopped, and everyone ran towards their houses. John, Chester, and I were left bewildered in silence.
“Did we do something wrong?” I asked.
Then there came a sound, like someone blowing on a horn. John and I looked around for a threat and discovered a new enemy. Pillagers!
The pillagers were a scary bunch of marauding bad guys. They looked like the villagers, except a little grayer in complexion. They also looked seriously angry. They seemed to be in uniform, as they were all dressed alike. There was one carrying a flag. A bolt shot over my head. Chester charged. I nearly followed, but John took me to the ground. He rolled us, and came up behind the well. Then he ran me towards the black smith’s house.
“Stay in here!” John said.
John departed the black smith’s house firing an arrow. Bolts flew at him and he took cover behind the well. He would occasionally pop his head up around and let an arrow fly. John rarely misses. They became obsessed with taking my dad out, but they stayed outside the fenced area. I heard Chester yelp. I started to come out.
“Stay put!” John snapped me.
I wanted to help. I searched the black smith hoping to find a weapon or arrows. I saw John advance towards the Pillagers, taking refuge by a house. I saw him take out one the bad guys even as Chester was attacking him. There was nothing useful in the chest, but iron blocks. I remembered my golem idea and decided to give it a go. If nothing else, I could push an iron block armor stand and use it for protection. Three iron blocks, one lantern from my inventory, and I had a nice little cross to stand behind and shoot.
My creation came instantly to life and ran towards the Pillagers. “Help, Chester!” I said.
The golem was clumsy and awkward, but it advanced as far as the fence. Some pillagers backed away from the fence. Some were thrown away from the fence. John advanced, firing his bow. He broke the fence so the golem could advance. John grabbed up a cross bow and took out the Pillager riding the elephant. I am pretty sure it was an elephant. At any rate, when the battle was over, the elephant was the last one standing
“Don’t kill the elephant!” I said.
John went towards it. It made as if it were going to attack him, but John held his ground. “Easy, little buddy,” he said. The elephant made a noise and raised up on its hind legs. It dropped its forefeet back to the ground. You could feel it through the earth. John gave it a beet. It accepted. It took like ten of them, but the elephant relaxed. I am pretty sure I saw hearts. John advanced and cut the harness free. The entire saddle platform fell, and it was clear that the Pillagers controlled the beast through pain. Relieved of the harness, the creature was now much calmer. It touched John with its trunk.
Villagers emerged from their homes. I came forwards, picking up arrows magically through tech as I drew close.
“I told you we could make a robot,” I said. “Yeah, you did,” John said.
He hugged me. Suddenly, I remembered, and yelled: “Chester!”
John got down on his knees to be at eye level. “Eston, Chester’s no longer with us.”
“No!” I said. “We can heal him with rotten zombie flesh.”
“He’s gone,” John said.
I started to cry and then got mad. I hit John.
“I told you! It’s not safe here.” John pulled me into an embrace and held me.
“I hate you. This is all your fault,” I said.
Still he held me. He did not let go. I tried to break free. The fastest way to break free was to stop squirming. I stopped fighting, but I was still mad.
“I want to go home to mom,” I said.
“I know,” John said. “And I will get you home. I will keep you safe till then.”
“You can’t even keep a dog safe,” I said.
“Chester was a good dog,” John said.
I wiped my eyes. The villagers were standing around us. They were crying. The chief motioned us to follow him.
“Come on,” John said, standing me on my feet. He got up.
We followed the chief and several elders into the temple. They opened a secret door and we descended to the basement. There was portal here, very much like our, only made of obsidian. It was contained in an alcove. The chief showed him something. It looked old. Ancient even. Maybe it was debris from a spaceship. They gave each of us one to examine. The chief tried to communicate something to us, but we just couldn’t understand. They had a secret library, an enchantment table. They gave John a book. It looked like a tech upgrade. I was curious, but they kept trying to say something to us and we just couldn’t get it.
We watched as they placed Ender pearls inside slots that ran the sides of their portal. One of the guys sparked a flint and steel inside the portal and it came to life. John cursed.
“I think 1.21 gigawatts would have been overkill,” I said.
“Yeah,” John agreed. He was staring at the soft, purple curtain film of energy that sparkled and gently rippled like waves on a pool.
“You could have blown up the whole planet,” I said.
John looked at me. “No I wouldn’t have,” John said. He looked at the portal
“Probably not.”
“I wonder if the whole planets gets re-spawned if that happens,” I said. “What a lovely thought,” John said.
“Do you think Chester will re-spawn somewhere?” I asked. “I have evidence that we always re-spawn,” John said.
“Will he remember us?” I asked. “Who could forget us?” John said.
“I have heard stories of pets crossing the country to reunite with owners,” Eston said.
“Are those stories true?”
“They are,” John said.
The chief motioned us to come forwards. We held our ground. As if we were going to cross through the portal! That would be just nuts, right? Who knows where it would go? The chief positioned two steps forward, then motioned to wait. He stepped out of the way. Someone threw a lever, and a series of pistons squashed the Ender pearls against the portal. There was a blinding flash of light. When John and I could see again, we found ourselves at John’s home, in Texas. We were back in the real world. Our world. Earth.
“Yes!” I said.
John was dazed. It was that dazed look that said he was accessing Data.
“We’re back home at exactly the time we would have arrived had we teleported straight home,” John said.
“Really?” I asked. “So no one even missed us?”
“Loxy, complete full medical diagnostic on me and Eston,” John said.
Loxy’s voice was sweet. Like Karen Carpenter sweet. She could sing to sleep in nothing flat. “Still worried about teleporting are you?” Even though she asked this in good humor, she did run the exam per the request.
“Jetsy is online,” I said.
“That’s interesting,” Loxy said. “Based on telomerase measurements, it would appear you have both aged one day since being transported.”
“We were gone like months!” John said.
And then Space Force arrived in John’s home. It wasn’t as spooky as it was with Ender men, but they came. A medical team advanced. They don’t carry tricorders in Space Force. Their suits are the tricorders. Their suits scan the world and the people, and probably even shared data with Loxy and Jetsy, are personal assistants. There were no secrets between tech.
This is where it gets weird. They confiscated everything in our inventory. They took us to a secret Dallas Space Force Base. They grilled us with questions. They call it a debriefing. Apparently, they knew something was awry when we didn’t arrive at our schedule destination, the theatre. We told them about our experience. We told them about how we got home. I am sure it made a funny montage, Dad and I, telling our story, bouncing between the two of us, me all dramatic, and Dad being all cool and nonchalant. One of the doctors was interested in the fact that the transport happened in second, but we seemed to have aged a day; we claimed we were gone months. The AI were able to calculate we were gone for like 7 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, and 13 hours and 33 seconds. I think the derived it from the disparity between our personal assistance being out of sync with our thoughts and bodies. I don’t know how they arrived at that. Spooky math. John told me when the kids returned to the UK from Narnia, they were always the same age they when they left- even though they lived in Narnia until they were adults.
“That’s cool. Are you going to read it to me?” I asked. “Sure,” John said.
The admiral entered. If I could put money on it, I would swear he was an older, fatter, Captain Kirk.
“Whose idea was it to name the donkey Shatner?” he asked.
“Mine, Sir,” John and I both said.
The admiral frowned. “You’re real team, aren’t you?! Well, this little adventure of yours is now classified. Top Secret. You hear me. You are both sworn to secrecy.”
“Can I tell my mom?” I asked.
“Yes,” John said simultaneously with the Admiral’s “No,”
“He is a civilian and…”
“We’re giving him an infield promotion to cadet,” the Admiral said. “Both of you are sworn to secrecy.”
“Wait wait wait,” John said. “You guys know about this world?”
“We call it Minecraft,” I said.
“Why?” the admiral said. “It’s what we do,” I said.
“We name stuff,” John clarified. “It’s more than that,” I said. “Shhh,” John waved me.
“No, shh. He just said I am now a cadet. I have questions. My turn. Starting with, why is it a secret?” I asked.
“Do you realize how much chaos there would be if every kid tried to dial into this Minecraft world?” the admiral said.
“All hell might break loose?” John said.
“But you’ve known about this world?” I asked.
“Yes, we know about it. You’re the first people to make it back,” the Admiral said. “Alive.”
“Really?” John said.
“Our understanding of the situation is their tech ran amok and they’re sending out distress calls in search of heroes,” the Admiral explained.
“Ran amok how?” John asked.
“Ever seen forbidden planet?” the admiral asked. “Oh,” John said.
“What about Forbidden Planet?” I asked. “I’ll tell you later,” John said.
“But…”
“Eston,” John said.
“Fine. There’s range on the teleporters, right? How close is this planet?” I asked.
“Pretty close,” the admiral said.
“How close is pretty close?” John asked. “Pretty darn,” the admiral said.
“That’s funny,” I said.
“Their distress signal occasionally glitches our tech and shifts our people to their planet,” the admiral said. “Sometimes our system glitches and brings monsters from their world to ours.”
“I thought they were aliens,” I said.
“Some aliens are monsters,” the admiral said. “I would stay out of Japan until this tech issue is resolved.”
“So, if this place is close, we could go back there if we wanted?” I asked.
“We’re not going back there,” John said.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because it’s dangerous,” John said.
“You said danger is our middle name,” I said. “I never said that,” John said.
“Okay, so I paraphrased. It was more like, risk is our business,” I said.
“He didn’t say that,” the admiral said.
“I am pretty sure that’s what he said,” I said.
“Um, back on point, we’re not going back,” John said. “But it was fun,” I said.
“For you!” John said. “You had life of luxury there. I had to work my ass off.”
“I worked, too!” I said.
“I died,” John said.
“So?” I said. “You came back.”
“I died a lot!” John said.
“You came back each time,” I said. “You came back more than that damn cat from the New Christi Minstrels!” Seriously, google that song. It’s a great song. Funny!
“We’re not going back there,” John told me. He looked at the Admiral. “We’re not going back.”
“Yes, you are,” the Admiral said. “Really?” John and I both said.
“We need a foot hold. Your base sound promising, and we want to know more about the
villagers who sent you back,” the Admiral said. “You survived seven months there. You’ll be going back, with a team. Both of you. But not now. Go home. Enjoy your vacation.”
“You used up our vacation debriefing us,” John said.
“I’ll reimburse you,” the admiral said. “Get Eston back to his mother. We’ll contact you when we’re ready.”
And just like that, we went back home. Texas home. They kept us under lock and key for almost my entire vacation. Seriously, John and I now have body guards. We finished up our time together and then flew to San Jose on a Boeing 737. This was first class. This was nostalgic. This was the way things used to be. John presented me to mom, a little older, wiser, but none the less for the ware.
“Have fun?” Mom asked.
“It was the best vacation ever,” I said.
“Oh? What did you do?” mom asked.
“Nothing,” I said.
Mom frowned at me and then turned her attention to John. I wonder if fire protection works in this world. “What did you do?”
“Nothing,” John said.
“That’s a stupid hat,” Mom said. “I told him that already,” I said.
“Seriously, what did you do?” mom asked.
“We built homes with blocks. We rode horses. We stayed on a farm and sheered sheep, and fed cattle, mined for gold and diamonds, and went fishing,” John said.
“Seriously? You hate fishing,” Mom said. That was all she got out of that. Maybe because we had rock kits where we broke out gems at home.
“Well, sometimes you just got to do what you got to do,” John said. The announcer called final boarding call for John’s return trip. “Alright, got to go. Holo you when I get home.”
“You hate flying,” Mom said. “I love flying,” John said. “We love flying,” I said.
I waved goodbye to dad, knowing full well I would see him again. Maybe even go adventuring.