Sashtun lay awake for a long while after Carson the elder brought him a couple of blankets and a pillow. He felt strange and wrong, and no one here except Davey believed him, although he thought Carson was open to the possibility he might be telling the truth, if only because he couldn’t figure out why Sashtun might say such things if they weren’t true. After he started hearing snoring from Carson and Amanda’s bedroom, he slipped a hand inside his shirt, and then his pants, and felt his new female parts. He was too revolted to masturbate; he just felt the need to ground himself, to remind himself that this was real and not a nightmare.
He’d been so skeptical of Davey’s story when they first met; he’d claimed to have been changed into a little girl by the portal, and to have remained that way for over a month in defiance of all that wizards thought they understood about transformation spells. Now Davey was his natural sex and age again, and Sashtun was a middle-aged woman — or simply old, to give it a blunter name. He could hardly wait until the portal opened again and he could return home, to be a young man again.
But if he couldn’t convince the Platts to let him stay here, he would never return. Kashpur might open the portal as often as he liked; if Sashtun were staying in a lodging house a mile away, or more likely several miles, as it seemed that Davey’s family lived in a sparsely-populated suburb, he couldn’t possibly be notified of the portal opening in time to get here. Not unless Kashpur was able to get the portal to stay open far longer than before, which might not be possible. And who knew how long the money from the gold and jewels would hold out, buying lodging and food here? He knew from what Davey had said that they were valuable here, but a child, even a ten-year-old, was an unreliable source for the relative values and costs of things.
Finally, after worrying over this for a considerable time, he fell asleep. He woke to the sounds of clattering dishes coming from the kitchen. He got up and found Davey’s sister Amy eating some sort of tiny cakes floating in milk.
“Good morning,” she said. “Thanks again for bringing Davey home.”
“You’re welcome,” he said. “Do you believe us? That Davey went to another world, and that I’m a native of that world?”
“I don’t know,” Amy said. “It sounds really cool if it’s true. But —” she said, and shrugged. “It also sounds kind of crazy.”
Sashtun sighed. “I think your father might believe me now, but I’m not sure. Your mother is sure I’m lying, but can’t explain why. I wish I could prove it.” He yawned. “What time is it?”
In response, Amy only pointed at something. Sashtun followed her finger and saw glowing green numbers on a black panel — 6:45. So... about five hours since he’d lain down, much less since he’d fallen asleep. Davey had said their hours here were one twenty-fourth of a day, and had estimated that a day in his world was roughly the same as a day back home. He sighed. “Could I please get a bowl of whatever you’re having?”
“Sure,” Amy said. “The box is right here, and the milk is in the fridge. Spoons are in that drawer,” she said, pointing, “and bowls in that cabinet.”
Sashtun foraged as directed and managed to put together a bowl of what Amy told him was called “cereal.” It was sweet and crunchy, more like a dessert than a breakfast food. He hadn’t been eating long when Amanda came in, giving Sashtun a cautious look, and poured herself a cup of something darker than tea.
“Do you want some?” she asked.
“Some what?” Sashtun asked. “Amy helped me get some, uh, ‘cereal.’”
“Some coffee?”
“It’s stuff Mom and Dad drink to help them wake up in the morning,” Amy supplied. “Kids aren’t supposed to drink it because it’ll stunt our growth or something.”
Sashtun paused. If it was unhealthy for children, might it be of dubious value to adults as well? And yet he did need help waking up more. Well, one cup couldn’t hurt. “Yes, please.”
Amanda poured another cup. “How do you like it?”
“What do you mean?” She hadn’t tasted any yet, how could she know?
Amanda stared at him. “Black or with sugar or milk...? Never mind, you can get that yourself.” She slid the cup across the table at Sashtun. “I’m going to have some yogurt and a banana; let me know if you want some.”
“I think this will fill me up for now,” Sashtun said. He didn’t want to impose on his hosts more than necessary. He might, if he could persuade them to it, need to stay with them for days or weeks.
The “coffee” was extremely bitter, and Sashtun realized why Amanda had asked if he wanted sugar or milk with it. He poured a bit of milk in, stirred it with the spoon he was eating her cereal with, and tried it again; better. He didn’t feel more awake yet, but perhaps by the time he finished the cup...
Carson the elder and Davey came in a while later, followed by Carson the younger. Carson the elder had already dressed for work. When Davey came downstairs, his parents and sister started grilling him about his experiences in Sashtun’s world. They seemed to be hoping to find some contradiction or inconsistency in what he said, or between his account and Sashtun’s. Natural enough, if they’d never heard of a real portal to another world. They were rare enough in Sashtun’s world; there were stories of wizards under the last dynasty of the old empire making them, and rumors that wizards across the sea in Qonimu had done so, but nothing more recent, closer at hand or reliable until this cabinet had turned up in Tirishkun’s estate sale. And perhaps Tirishkun had never been able to get it to work consistently enough to announce his discovery; he’d let it gather dust until he died... unless, as Kashpur and Sashtun hoped, he’d been working on it when he died, and simply hadn’t had time to get it working consistently.
“How much magic did you see while you were there?” Amy asked.
“Well,” Davey said, “besides the portal, and the cars and elevators, not a lot. I mean, there was a lot of magic stuff in the shop, but I wasn’t supposed to use it. Now and then I saw Syuna or Tyemba demonstrating how something worked to one of the customers. And Nidlaya and Kashpur did spells on me to try to turn me back into a boy, but they didn’t work.”
“Tell us more about the cars,” Carson said. “You said the engines didn’t make any noise, but how do you know they ran on magic and not electricity?”
“Because Tyemba said so, and because why would you put an electric engine in a wooden car and run it on cobblestones? And in Zindla’s and Kashpur’s apartments, there weren’t any wires connecting the lamps to the wall, and no electrical outlets.”
Sashtun had mostly kept quiet, just nodding and saying “Yes, that’s right,” now and then. At this point he said “We know what electricity is, but we can’t do much useful with it, like you apparently can.”
Carson glanced at her, and then said to Davey, “Did you see a lot of metal things there? Or were most things made of wood and stone?”
Davey thought for a moment. “Yeah, most of the buildings looked like they were wood or stone. But some of the bigger ones might have been concrete. Syuna’s store and apartment were wood, anyway — I’m not sure about Kashpur’s apartment building, I think it was concrete?”
“How many stories was it?”
“Thirty-five. They said they used magic to make the walls stronger; I think the tallest they can build without magic is around ten or twelve stories.”
“That’s right,” said Sashtun.
This went on for a while longer. At last, Carson said: “Well, I need to get to work. Carson and Amy, you’ll take the bus as usual. Don’t tell anyone at school about Davey or Sashtun yet.”
Amanda said “Davey, I’m taking the day off work. We’ll drop off Sashtun at the gold-buying place, and I’ll take you to the doctor, and then take you to school and meet with your teachers about making up the last six months of work. I’m afraid you may have to repeat a grade, but I hope we can avoid that.”
Davey nodded. “Why the doctor? Do you still think I’m crazy?”
Amanda flinched. “I don’t know, honey. I hope not. The doctors are going to help us find out.”
“I don’t see how,” Davey said, sulking. “You all met Sashtun and you don’t believe her; why would the doctor believe me when Sashtun isn’t around to back me up?”
Amanda shrugged helplessly. “We need to make sure you’re okay after you’ve been away for so long. You missed your checkup, so you’re past due for that even if...” She swallowed. “Even if you’re okay.” She turned to Sashtun and said: “You can have your shower after the kids and me.”
“All right.”
Davey took his shower after Amy and Carson had theirs. Then he showed Sashtun how to fiddle with the knobs to get the water the right temperature, and left her to take a shower — Mom didn’t seem to believe that Sashtun needed help with it, but Davey explained that they didn’t have showers in the other world, and only took baths a couple of times a week.
“Are you going to lend her some clothes?” Davey said when he came out of the bathroom and Sashtun closed the door behind him. “When I lived with Zindla and her family, they borrowed some clothes from Zindla’s cousins that sort of fit me, and then they sewed me a couple of outfits from scratch.”
“I don’t think anything I have would fit her,” Mom said. “She’s too tall. And I’m sure she’s got plenty of clothes of her own somewhere, and she’s just wearing those weird men’s clothes to sell this story.”
Davey stamped in frustration. “Why don’t you believe us?” He felt he was on the verge of tears, but he wasn’t going to cry, not now that he was a boy again.
“Don’t you understand, Davey? It’s just — it’s so weird, and you don’t have any proof. You disappear and come back and you expect us to believe that story without any proof, and you won’t —” She broke off, knelt, and hugged Davey again. She’d been doing that a lot, four times so far this morning and twice last night by Davey’s count. It was nice at first, but it was starting to get old. “I’m sorry, but I can’t believe something so impossible without proof.”
“She showed you the books —”
“Have you ever heard of the Voynich Manuscript? We can look it up together later — only believe me, the books are no proof. There are several books in strange writing systems that nobody can read here in our world, and nobody assumes they’re from another dimension.”
“Oh,” Davey said. “Then I guess we’ll just have to wait until the portal opens again. Kashpur will be trying to get it open as often as he can so he can bring Sashtun home.”
“If —” Mom hesitated. “If you see it open again, yell and I’ll come run and look at it. But for now we need to get ready. I don’t think they’ll put you in classes right away after we meet with the principal, but you’d better get your calculator and some notebooks and pencils together just in case they do.”
So Davey went and got ready, and a little while later they and Sashtun left the house. They first went to a strip mall where there was a store that said WE BUY GOLD. On the way, Sashtun asked a lot of questions, like where could she go from there to find a place to stay, and how many dollars should she expect to pay for a place to stay or a meal so she didn’t get overcharged, and how she could get in contact with them again to see if Kashpur had gotten the portal working again? Mom gave her begrudging answers, and Davey tore a page out of one of his notebooks and wrote down their address and Mom and Dad’s phone numbers to give it to her.
After they dropped off Sashtun, they went to the pediatrician’s office. They had a long wait, because, Mom said, they were fitting Davey in specially when they didn’t have an appointment ahead of time. After a couple of hours, in which Davey read through both of the issues of Boys' Life in the waiting room and started reading a book that was written for kids a lot younger than him, they were called back. First Megan the nurse checked his temperature and blood pressure and stuff, and then Megan left and Dr. Menendez came in.
Dr. Menendez smiled and said, “It’s so good to see you again, Davey. When your mother told me you’d gone missing, I was... upset. Do you want to tell me what happened?”
“I don’t know,” Davey said. “Are you going to believe me? Mom and Dad didn’t.”
“I promise I’ll listen,” Dr. Menendez said. “I won’t ask questions until you’re done talking, if you like.”
“Okay.” So Davey started at the beginning, with the previous owner of the house and her murals. Mom interrupted some early on, but Dr. Menendez asked her not to, and she kept quiet after that. Dr. Menendez did as he’d promised and didn’t say or ask anything until Davey got to the end, when he gave their address and phone numbers to Sashtun just before they dropped her off at the gold-buying place.
Then Dr. Menendez started asking questions, like Amy had done last night, like Mom and Dad had done this morning. Davey answered them, at least the ones he could. There were a lot of questions he couldn’t answer, though, because he’d spent almost all his time in Zindla’s or Kashpur’s apartment and hadn’t seen all that much of the city they lived in, much less the rest of the world.
Then he started Davey’s usual checkup, listening to his heart and lungs and tapping his knees with the little hammer, and a lot of other stuff that Davey couldn’t remember him doing before. He had Davey take off his clothes and examined him all over before he got dressed again.
Then he said, “I’m going to talk with your mother for a few minutes, okay, Davey? Would you like a lollipop or a peppermint?”
“A peppermint, please.”
He gave Davey a peppermint from the jar, and then slipped out into the hallway with Davey’s mom.
