Alexander Key - The Magic Meadow.doc

The Magic Meadow, by Alexander Key

This book, in which something most extraordinary happens, is about Brick and Diz Dobie and Lily Rose, and Charlie Pill and Princess—and it is dedicated to all of you who understand them and feel as they did, and have come to believe that practically anything is possible.

1

THE DANDELIONS

For a few startled seconds after he opened his eyes, Brick didn't know what to think. He couldn't quite be­lieve what he saw, yet he was sure he wasn't dreaming. A few seconds ago it had been nearly midnight, and he had been lying in his bed in Ward Nine at Belleview, trying almost desperately to imagine the exact kind of place where he found himself now. Then a curious sound had made him turn his head and look about—and it seemed that the impossible had happened.

Belleview had vanished. Instead of the gloom and the dark, there was now a wonderfully warm sun cutting through the mist. Instead of on a hospital bed, he was lying on thick green grass, and there were clusters of bright-yellow flowers growing about him. The rumble of city traffic had ceased. In its place he could hear the singing of birds and the musical chatter of a tiny stream running past him down the hillside. As he lis­tened, he was aware again of the curious sound that had made him open his eyes. He couldn't identify it, but somehow it didn't seem dangerous.

Brick hardly dared move. Was this real, or had it all been created by imagination? Not just his own, but the combined imaginations of all five of them back in Ward Nine?

Whether it was real or imaginary, something very strange had happened, and he had to find out all he could about it. ..

*              *              *

They, the incurables, had been playing the "traveling" game a long time in Ward Nine. Every night, as soon as the lights were out and the hateful old building had quieted, they would close their eyes and begin to imagine where they would rather be instead of where they were. They had become pretty good at it—Brick, Charlie Pill, and Diz Dobie on the boys' side, and Princess and Lily Rose over in the girls' section beyond the big sliding screen.

They had persuaded Miss Jackson, the night nurse—who was a lot more understanding than the day nurses—to leave the screen partly open at night so that it would be easier to whisper together. Not that they really needed it open, for they had long ago figured out a way to talk secretly. But none of them had folk—no one in Belleview did—and they felt ever so much better and closer when they were not shut apart. After all, the only family that any of them had were the other four.

Princess was better at the traveling game than were the others. She had at least forty times their imagination. Give her half a minute, and she'd have you drifting down a Martian canal in a glass gondola, or maybe riding spotted dolphins through a coral forest, and all the while she'd be exclaiming and chattering away, almost making you believe the things she was pretending to see.

And then one night she'd surprised him by saying, "Brick, I like the place you tell us about better than any of the rest, It's so—so real! Do you s'pose there is such a place?"

"There must be," he told her. "If there wasn't, then how could we see it so clearly when we think about it?"

"Rats!" said Charlie Pill, who always saw the dark side of everything. "We've just been making it up for so long that we've sort of got to thinking of it as real."

"It's real to me," Lily Rose said wistfully. "And I sure wish we could be there."

They all agreed they'd rather be there than in a purely imaginative place like a castle on a cliff or a coral kingdom, or a red marble city on Mars. But Charlie Pill was doubtful.

"Okay," he said. "S'pose it's real, and say we're there. So what? It's just a hill with grass on it-"

"And flowers," Princess interrupted. "Don't ever forget the flowers. Wouldn't it be wonderful to see flowers growing on a hill?"

"Yes," Lily Rose whispered. "I've never seen a hill. Or flowers growing anywhere, except in a pot."

"Me neither," mumbled Diz Dobie, who seldom spoke. He was darker than Lily Rose, and might have been part Mexican or Indian. Lily Rose was more golden, while Princess was as pale as pale could be. Even her hair was silky white.

"Phooey," said Charlie Pill. "What good would it do us if we actually found ourselves in a place like that? I mean, heck, we couldn't run and play. We'd just have to lie there, and—and who'd look after us and feed us?"

Princess laughed. It was like the tinkling of a little silver bell. "Who cares? Why, if I could close my eyes and wake up on a hill with flowers, I wouldn't care about a thing in the world. I'd be so happy I'd be willing to die right there."

They were all silent a moment. Suddenly she said, "Brick, I've read that people can do anything if they really believe they can and—and try hard enough. If we all tried real hard, together, do you s'pose we could turn that hill into a real one, and—and sort of take ourselves there?"

“Why not?" he said. "It's sure worth giving it a whirl."

So they tried it that night and the next. Nothing happened except that the flowered hillside became a little more real and closer in their minds. Brick was ready for anything on the third night, but Charlie Pill spoiled it all by giving up early and  I saying the whole thing was silly.

Long after the others had stopped, more from weariness than from discouragement, and dropped off to sleep, Brick had kept doggedly at it. He'd been told more than once that red­headed people are stubborn; if so, it sure was a help, for he wasn't about to call it quits with that sunny hillside becoming ever brighter in his mind—so bright that he could actually feel the sun beating down on his face.

Then came that incredible moment when the curious noise caused him to open his eyes.

So far, Brick hadn't moved except to turn his head a little to listen. He could still hear the noise. It wasn't loud, and he realized suddenly that he was hearing not just one sound, but many, and that it was coming closer and spreading out around him. Not knowing what it was made him uneasy. It added to a fainter but growing uneasiness that had begun to trouble him from the moment he started asking questions.

Actually, where was he? In a real place—or in a little lost world created by five imaginations? And now that he was here—and all alone at that—just what was he going to do? It was rather frightening to remember what Charlie Pill had said. Alone, he was darned near helpless. He doubted if he could even crawl very far.

While he was trying to puzzle out his situation, a grasshopper buzzed up from a tuft of grass on his right and landed on his chest. He'd never seen a real live grasshopper before, though he knew what it was from pictures. But the pictures hadn't told him it could jump so far and make such a racket, and it startled him. In fact, he almost jerked upright, and the only reason he didn't was that he'd long known he couldn't. Even so, he was briefly aware of muscles tightening in him that he'd forgotten about, and he had the very odd feeling that he could wiggle his toes, which be hadn't been able to do for ages.

But these details quickly escaped him as his attention fas­tened on the grasshopper. It was bright green with touches of brown and yellow, and it had large knowing eyes that seemed to be studying him. It struck him as being a remarkable crea­ture for two reasons: it was just as much alive as he was, and neither he nor Princess nor any of the others had even dreamed of imagining such a thing here.

They had imagined birds and flowers and a warm sun, and the running water he could hear somewhere on his left—but grasshoppers simply hadn't occurred to them. Nor had they thought of including the trees that he could make out through the clearing mist, nor the various strange sounds made by things unknown.

If the grasshopper was real, so were the trees and everything else. This was no imagined spot. It actually existed. But where?

Brick could see very little of his surroundings while he lay on his back, so he struggled up on an elbow to get his head above the grass. But before he could fix anything carefully in his mind, he heard the curious sound that had been worrying him all along.

The creature or creatures making it were almost upon him. In sudden fear he managed to lurch upright. With his move­ment, the grass about him abruptly exploded with a great thunder of wings, and dozens of feathered bodies hurtled into the air as if they had been shot from guns. It was beyond anything in Brick's experience, and it was so unexpected and terrifying that he cried out in panic and sought blindly to escape.

His fright was like pushing a button. Almost instantly the scene about him faded. In the next breath he was clinging to his bed in the cold darkness of Ward Nine at Belleview.

He couldn't help crying out again, for the sudden switch from the warm hillside meadow to hated Belleview was as terrifying as the other happening, and in one respect it was worse. For instead of being in his bed he was only partially in it, and was in immediate danger of falling to the hard floor.

He was already slipping when the lights came on, and he heard Nurse Jackson's swift feet approaching. Then her strong hands caught him and lifted him back into bed.

"My goodness, Brick!" she exclaimed, chuckling as she tucked the covers about him. "What were you trying to do? Run away from us?"

In spite of her light tone he knew she was really worried about him. "I-I've already been away," he admitted slowly. "I just now got back."

"You—what?"

All the others were awake now, and were beginning to bab­ble questions. Princess was staring at him big-eyed above her pillow. "Did—did you actually go there, Brick?" she asked.

"To our place?"

"I sure did!"

"Honest? To—to our hill with the flowers on it?"

"You bet! And it wasn't anything we'd dreamed up, either. It's real!"

Charlie Pill said, "Phooey! You just bad a crazy dream, is all."

"I did not!" Brick protested.

"You did too! You had a nightmare, 'cause I heard you yell. You almost fell out of bed."

"I didn't almost fall out of bed! I mean, that's the way I landed when I came back, and I yelled because I was scared. You'd have been worse than seared! I really went there and I saw things you wouldn't believe. And—and I'd be there now if something hadn't happened."

"Oh, please tell us about it!" Princess begged. "What hap­pened, Brick?"

"Now hold it, everybody," Nurse Jackson ordered. "Just what's going on here? Brick, you tell me.”

Brick drew a deep breath. He didn't mind explaining any­thing to Nurse Jackson, because they all knew she was on their side. She was older than the day nurses, and in her broad dark face there was a look of wisdom and understanding that the others didn't have. The day nurses didn't like Belleview and were always quitting. But Nurse Jackson stayed on in spite of difficulties. She stayed, Brick knew, only because of Ward Nine. Without her, life would have been unthinkable.

"It—it's like this," he began. "You know that game we play?"

She smiled. "Of course. It's a wonderful game."

"Well, there's this place we've been imagining. It's a peachy spot, sort of on a hillside, with lots of sun and grass and flowers, and a little stream of some kind flowing down on one side. . .”   

"Say, that sounds real nice," Nurse Jackson said approvingly. “I wouldn't mind going there myself."

"That's what we thought we'd try to do. You always said the mind can do anything."

"And it can! If you'd ever seen people get well, when all the doctors said it was impossible . . . But go on, Brick."

"Well, we all kept trying to go there for several nights, and tonight I kept on after everybody had gone to sleep. Then—then all at once I felt the sun on my face, real hot, and I heard a funny noise. And when I opened my eyes, I was there!"

There was a sudden breathless silence around him. He could feel everyone staring at him, waiting. Then Princess whispered, "Wha—what happened next, Brick?" And Lily Rose said, "The funny noise—what was that?"

He told them about the grasshopper, and how the worrisome noise had come closer and closer until he moved, and the grass all around him seemed to explode. "I didn't know it was just a bunch of birds," he went on. "Golly, I was never so scared in my life All I wanted when it happened was to get away from there. And I did—zing! I landed right back here in bed—or rather on the edge of the bed, because I'd turned somehow and almost missed it."

Again there was an excited silence around him. Then Diz Dobie whispered, "Whew! That was something!"

"Aw, I don't believe it," Charlie Pill muttered. "If—if you didn't dream it, you're just making it all up

“It's the truth," he said quietly. "Everything happened just like I said." He could sort of feel the others’ thoughts, and he knew that Charlie wanted desperately to believe it all, but that be was afraid of being disappointed. Poor Charlie couldn't help being a pill, which was one of the reasons they called him that. After all, when you're in pain most of the time—though Charlie seldom admitted he was—you could be excused for a lot of things.

At that moment Brick would have given all he owned—which was only a few old books—for something that would convince Charlie Pill of the truth. He knew that Princess believed him, and that Lily Rose and Diz Dobie did too. Then he glanced at Nurse Jackson. She was still standing at the foot of his bed, looking at him curiously. Her eyes were troubled.

"You—you don't think I was dreaming, do you?" he asked.

"Of course not!" she said stoutly. “I'm sure it happened—and I just wish I could have been along!" She chuckled, but her eyes remained troubled. He suddenly realized that she really wanted to believe him, but that she was even more doubtful than Charlie Pill.

How could he convince her? "Those birds," he began. “The ones that scared me so. I didn't get a good look at them, but they were sort of fat and brown, and they popped up around me like guns going off. What d'you s'pose they were?"

"They sound like quail.” Nurse Jackson said thoughtfully. "You must have flushed a big covey of them coming through the grass. Lordy, I haven't seen a covey of quail since-" She stopped and blinked. "Brick, what's that under your neck? I declare if it doesn't look like a leaf!"

For the first time he was aware of something small pressing uncomfortably against the back of his neck, just inside his pajamas. He groped around and got his hand on the thing. It turned out to be a torn bit of a leaf and a crushed yellow flower with some of the petals missing.

"Why, I—I was lying on a whole bunch of flowers like this. I guess, when the birds scared me. . .”

She came slowly over and took the crushed flower with a hand that was not quite steady. "Brick," she said in an awed voice. "Do you know what this is?"

He shook his head. "I never saw one till I found 'em growing all around me at that place."

"Brick, it's a dandelion! But it's winter here, and you won't find one growing anywhere in this part of the country till next spring. Do you realize what this means?"

Charlie Pill gulped excitedly. "I know what it means. It proves he sure enough did go there!"

2

SCOUTING TRIP

By the clock on the opposite wall it was long past midnight, though Brick hardly noticed it. In the sudden reali­zation of what had happened, everybody began to talk at once and Nurse Jackson sank down into the nearest chair, slowly shaking her head while she stared at the battered dandelion.

"Well!" she said, still shaking her head. "Well! It's almost too much for a poor body to accept—but here's the proof, right here in my hand." She got up and passed the dandelion over to Princess and Lily Rose, who were begging for it. Then she sat down again. "It really gets me," she went on. "The more I think about it, the more it gets me. Brick, you actually teleported!"

"I—what?" he said uncertainly, wondering about the word.

"You teleported. That's what you did. I've read of it being done, but I never believed it till now. I sure wish I knew where you went! Have you any idea?"

"It—it was to that place we'd been imagining," he told her. “That's all I know. Only, it's not an imaginary place at all. It's absolutely real."

"Oh, I don't doubt that for an instant," she said quickly. "You brought back an absolutely real dandelion, and I'm sure the birds and the grasshopper you saw were just as real. But where is this place? Somehow I think it's important to know."    She paused, then asked, "Brick, what else did you see besides what you've told us?"

"Why, I—I'm not sure. It all happened so quickly. And the grass was so high I couldn't see much, except right in front of me. I was on the side of a little hill, it seemed like. Some of the flowers were different. I mean, they had white petals and long stems.”

"Probably daisies," said Nurse Jackson. "What about trees? Did you notice any?"

Brick frowned. "Why, I did see some trees! I've just remembered. They were over on the other hill, just across that little stream. But things were sort of misty and I couldn’t tell much about 'em."

"Misty?" Princess echoed curiously. "It was misty over there?"

"Well, a little. I mean, it seemed to be clearing because the sun was just cutting through it, real warm and bright. It was so bright it was dazzling."

Everyone was silent a moment. Suddenly Charlie Pill burst out, "The whole thing's crazy! It just now hit me. Can't you see how crazy it is?"

"What's so crazy about it?”

"Why, the sun! Don't you get it? The sun! It's in the middle of the night here—but where you went it's bright daylight!"

“What of it?" said Princess. "That's no crazier than going from winter to summer. I think it's wonderful!"

"It's wonderful," Nurse Jackson affirmed, "but it is sort of crazy. I just can't figure it out." She carried the dandelion from Lily Rose to Diz Dobie, then sat down and shook her head again. "Brick," she went on, "at first I thought you'd teleported to some place in the South. Georgia, maybe, or even Florida. That would explain the flowers and the warm sun. And also the quail. But if it's night here, it would be night there too. It would he night everywhere except on the other side of the globe, in Europe and Asia."

She stopped, then said, "I'd sure like to pin this down. Brick, think hard. Was the sun almost overhead when you saw it?"

"Not quite. It was just a little to my left."

"H'mm. Without knowing directions, there's no telling whether it was morning or afternoon. But it does rule out most of Europe. As nearly as I can remember, it would be early morning in France, but much later to the east. Say around noon as we get to India, and maybe afternoon in China."

"I wasn't in India or China," Brick said. "I'm sure of that."

"What makes you so sure?" Charlie Pill asked. "Man, you could have been anywhere!"

"But not India or China. I was somewhere in America. I felt it."

"But—but you couldn't have been! It's night all over Amer­ica!"

There was an abrupt silence in the ward. Brick managed to struggle up on his elbows—it was a new position he didn't immediately realize he'd taken—and looked around at the others. On his right, just beyond the thrust-aside screen, Prin­cess and Lily Rose were staring at him tensely, eyes wide with wonder. Without great effort neither girl could do more than turn her head toward him, nor could Charlie Pill on his left, who was all skin and bones. Only Diz Dobie, who was stronger than any of them, was able to force himself over on his side. The brown boy had given the dandelion to Charlie and was now trying to speak, but as usual seemed unable to find words.

Suddenly Princess exclaimed, "What difference does it make where it is? Maybe it's on the other side of the moon—but who cares?" Then she added wistfully, "Oh, I've just got to go there! I've just got to."

"I've got to go, too!" Lily Rose said quickly. "If Brick can do it, I'm sure the rest of us can.”

"Sure we can!" Diz Dobie echoed. "Golly, let's—let's try it right now!"

"Now wait a minute," Nurse Jackson cautioned. "I don't want any of you to try anything until we've talked this over a little more. That place may sound nice, but it could be danger­ous. Just because Brick managed to go there and return safely doesn't mean everyone could do it. Suppose you got over on that hill—but couldn't get back?"

"I wouldn't care in the least," Princess said dreamily. "Why, I'd just lie right there on a bed of dandelions till I died. Sunshine and flowers. . .”

The nurse shook her head. "Let's not get carried away," she reminded them. "I'm all for sunshine and flowers myself, but we have to be practical about this. Brick, you were on that hillside only a few minutes, but I'm sure you learned more than you realize. It's just a matter of my asking you the right ques­tions. Now, think back. What sounds did you hear?"

He closed his eyes and slid down upon his pillow. "There was the funny noise those—those quail were making, then there was the grasshopper—he made a sort of clickity buzz. I remem­ber now that I heard more grasshoppers in the distance, only I didn't realize what they were at the time. There were some birds chirping or singing somewhere, and there was the water on my left. That was the main sound. I couldn't see the water till I got my head up and looked down at the bottom of the hill, but I could hear it flowing. It was sort of gurgling, only it was more like music. It sure was nice."

The silence that followed was broken by a wistful sigh from Princess. Then Nurse Jackson said, "But Brick, those were all nature sounds. Didn't you hear anything else? Traffic in the distance? A factory whistle? And what about machinery hum­ming or clanking, or maybe a car's horn?"

He shook his head. "There was nothing like that."

"How about a radio, or a plane?"

"No, ma'am."

"No sounds of people?"

"I—I didn't hear a thing except what I've told you. It was, well, a real quiet place. Honest, I didn't know a place could be so quiet."

"That's strange. Didn't you see any signs of people?"

"I sure didn't."

"But, Brick, people are practically everywhere. You can't go anywhere without seeing signs of them. Tin cans, bottles, old tires, trash. . .”

He shook his head.

"There has to be something," she insisted. "If you were 'way out in the country, there'd be other signs. Barns, sheds, fences—you just can't get away from fences. . .”

He started to shake his head again, then frowned instead. "I'm not sure, but maybe I did see something. It was just a—a sort of quick glimpse, so I don't know what it was. I—I was so surprised at being there instead of here that I didn't even think about it at the time. But-"

“Can you remember what it was—what it looked like?"

"I'll try. Maybe-"

Suddenly, before he could recall what he'd seen, he was interrupted by the door to the main corridor being thrust open. Miss Preedy, the night supervisor, entered the ward. She was a tall, severe woman who spoke sweetly, but Brick had learned that the sweetness was only a thin veneer over what seemed to be unbending metal.

"What seems to be going on in here?" Miss Preedy de­manded in her most sugary tone. "Having a little midnight party, are we?"

"Oh, somebody just cried out in his sleep and woke up the others," Nurse Jackson said easily. "But everything's all right now.”

"I see. And what is the screen doing open? Haven't I said it was to be kept closed at night? Rules are rules, Miss Jackson, and I expect them to be obeyed." Miss Preedy always ignored the fact that Nurse Jackson was a widow.

"Yes, ma'am. But it had to be opened so I could check on things."

"Well, close it immediately," Miss Preedy ordered. "I never approved of such an arrangement, but it couldn't be helped in an old place like this. It'll certainly be a relief when we finish moving to the new building. At least we can place the children around in some up-to-date wards, though one or two will have to be sent. . .”

She shrugged and started out, but paused briefly to add over her shoulder, "And leave the door open, Miss Jackson. The ward doors should never be closed."

Brick was stunned. He'd heard that some of Belleview's patients—he understood they were just the very old people—were being moved to a new place on the edge of the city. But no one had told him they'd all have to go, and that their group would be broken up. When that happened they might never see each other again.

There was a stifled sob on his right, and he heard Lily Rose whimper, "Wha-what are we going to do if they s-separate us?"

"Now, honey, don't you worry about that," Nurse Jackson said quickly. "They haven't separated you yet, and if they ever try it, it'll be over my dead body."

Her broad black face had become grimly stony. Defiantly leaving the screen open, she went over to the door and snapped out the lights, then peered searchingly into the corridor. Returning, she sat down again and said in a low voice, "Miss Preedy, she was just talking to hear herself talk. The truth is, they don't really know what they're going to do with you. If they'd decided anything, I'd have found out and told you, but they just don't know You see, there's no place to put you.  Somebody goofed on the new building and forgot to make space for you, and over at the Children's Hospital they're splitting at the seams. So you'll have to stay here."

"But—but isn't Belleview condemned?" Brick asked.

She chuckled. "It was condemned five years ago, but it's still creaking along." She paused a moment, then asked quietly, "Brick, have you remembered what you saw before that covey of quail scared you?"

“Well, sort of."

"What do you mean, 'sort of'?"

"Well, I remember what it looked like, but I don't know what it was.

"Oh, tell us!" Princess whispered excitedly. "Tell us all about it!"

"There's not much to tell. It was over on the other hill, on the edge of the trees, and I only saw it for a second before it was blotted out in the mist. At first I thought it was a wall, a high stone wall. I mean, that was the impression I got before the mist covered it. But it could have been some sort of build­ing, a long low one. Or it might have been a shed, or even a fence made of wood. I—I just don't know. Anyway, I'm sure going back for a better look at it."

He raised up on his elbows and glanced at their dim faces on either side. "How about it? Do you all want to try it again and see it we can make it together?"

*              *              *

They tried it, and they tried hard, but it was no use. The hour was far too late, and they were exhausted. Brick was sure he almost made it, for there was a brief moment when he felt the sun's warmth on his face. But it faded on the instant, and when he opened his tired eyes he found he was still in his bed in Ward Nine. Nurse Jackson had left, and by the sound of their breathing he knew the others had fallen to sleep.

Disappointed, he drifted wearily away into a series of troubled dreams in which he seemed to be trying desperately to open a locked door. It was terribly important that he open it, but though he tried dozens and dozens of keys, none of them would fit.

When he opened his eyes again it was morning and almost time for breakfast.

Everything was strangely late that morning. Instead of one of the ever-hurried day nurses finally coming to take care of them, it was Nurse Jackson herself.

"What's happened?" Brick asked worriedly, knowing in­stinctively that something was wrong. Why are you still on duty?"

"Oh, we're a little shorthanded," she said easily. "I just offered to help out. After all, you folks are my special family."

...