//------------------------------// // The Day I Saw a God's Smile // Story: The Dim Light // by Kiari Nicademus //------------------------------// Chapter 1 “Son, hurry up, it’s time to go to church!” Dad shouted from downstairs, his voice brisk and anxious. “Aren’t you ready yet?” “I don’t really want to go today dad. I’ll do my prayers tonight, okay?” I called back from my room, yawning and pulling on my trousers and T-shirt. “I don’t think I’ll be struck down if I happened to miss just one day.” I could hear my dad about ready to shout at me, but my mother’s voice beat him to it. “Honey, just let him have the one day off.” After a few moments my Dad grunted in response and shortly afterwards the door slammed shut. I put my belt through the loops and tightened it, then flopped back onto my bed. There was a whole day to work with, but what to do? I hadn’t skipped church before, but I knew that there were quite a lot of shops still open. Maybe the shopping mall would be worth my time? Reaching into my pocket, I quickly grabbed my cell phone, flipping it open. After fiddling with the buttons, I pressed call and placed it next to my ear, waiting for someone to pick up the other end. *Ring*Ring*Ring*Ring*Ri*“Hi there, it’s Tamara, who’s calling.” came a feminine voice over the line. “Hey there Tamara, it’s Aramil.” “Aramil, what’re you calling for right before church?” A feminine voice said, the tone quiet and almost secretive. “I’m not going to church today. I wanted to know, do you want to hang out at the mall?” I asked, rubbing the back of my head with my empty left hand. “Do you happen to have a cast-iron explanation for how my immortal soul won’t go to hell if I miss church?” “Well no but...” “Then it’s a no. Sorry, but you’re going alone today, like it or not,” she muttered, punctuating the last four words with healthy patches of silence, then hung up on me. “Well then, I guess that went smoothly,” I sighed, flipping my phone shut and tucking it into my pocket. Truth be told, I can’t really say I expected anything better than that anyways. She’d always been extremely strict on the topic of church. Then again, so was I usually, but for some reason that I can’t even begin to explain, I felt like going to church was somehow counterproductive to my faith. Crazy I know, but it just felt right. I continued to lie on my bed for a while, pondering what I would do. Go to my friend’s house? No, they’d all be at church. Play a few video games? Once again no, I’d rather do homework, sad that I don’t have any. Go to the mall? You know, I guess that it wouldn’t hurt if I went there. Sure I’d be a peculiar customer, but they could handle that. So with a plan in hand I stood up, grabbed my wallet and jacket, and left the house. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The bus started to roll away from the stop, leaving me and a couple of Goths on the malls walkway. I just walked over to the mall, the Goths sticking next to me. They were dressed to the hilt in patchwork clothing that seemed to be entirely crafted from cannibalized outfits, and even had eye shadow on, but were chatting up a storm, wide smiles plastered onto their faces. I let myself be swept into their group, and before I knew it I was in a café, the lighting dark and the feeling somber. The grins on the others face had fallen by now into a sort of tight lipped smile, their voices now making calm conversation. As they walked straight to a table, I headed toward the café’s counter. “What do you serve here?” I asked the works lady, her garb similar to the Goth groups. She looked me up once, twice, then asked, “Mundy?” “Excuse me?” “Are you a Mundy?” she repeated. “What’s a Mundy?” “Mundane person, and besides, you answered my question with yours.” She said, pulling out a small menu, it’s cover red leather, and proffering it to me. “Here’s the Mundy list.” “Can I see the non-Mundy list?” I asked, pushing the list back. “You sure? Some of the things get rather crazy.” She replied, raising an eyebrow. “Why not.” I smiled, grinning. “Having an iron stomach does have a few benefits.” She said nothing in reply, but rather handed out a second menu, this one covered in black leather, a picture of a glowing blue five pointed star on the cover. I took the menu from her and walked over to the table and sat down, opening the menu and flipping through it. I immediately understood why she was saying I was a mundy; the writing on the menu was absolute gibberish to me, with tons of little runes replacing the usual alphabetical letters. After a moment of trying to puzzle it out I gave up and closed the menu and slapped it down on the table. “Gaaah, I don’t understand any of this!” “Need some help then?” I bent my head all the way back over my chair in order to see who was talking to me. It was a middle aged man, dressed inside a grey suit with flyaway white hair covering his head and face. After soaking in the upside down image of the man, I worked up the ability to respond. “I guess so, if you don’t mind.” He walked to the other side of the table and plopped down, then picked up the menu and started scanning it’s pages. “So then,” he muttered, eyes still glued to the menu, “what do you like to eat?” “I guess I’d have to say I like spicy food if forced to pick something.” I shrugged, leaning backwards into my chair. “Not too spicy, but semi-hot food is my preference.” “Well then,” he laughed, a broad grin spreading over his face, “why don’t we order you what I like to call the crazy contraption?” “The what?” “It’s a weird combination of sushi, squid, hamburger, and they somehow even add cornbread. They put a bit of red pepper paste in it, and it all rolls together to make you one delicious meal!” He said, still smiling. I stared at him open mouthed, then shut it and gulped as a platter was suddenly placed down in front of me. It was covered in tiny little sushi pieces, a collection of meat stuffed inside a wrapping of cornbread, with dried seaweed surrounding the whole creation. I couldn’t see the red pepper paste, but one sniff of the platter told me that it was somewhere within. “So then, guess I’m going to have first pick?” he asked, and when I merely nodded meekly in response, he picked up one of the sushi pieces and popped it into his mouth, chewing on it slowly. I waited until he swallowed it, and, after seeing how he hadn’t yet died from eating the monstrosity, I hesitantly picked one of the pieces up and lifted it to my mouth. You can do this! I thought, then nibbled into the sushi. My eyes shot open in shock. The cornbread, even though it wasn’t meant for this purpose, hadn’t been flavored with honey or butter yet, making it the equivalent of sweet breadcrumbs. The meat inside was mostly hamburger, but a little bit of squid flavor poked through, along with a slight hint of fish. Wrapped inside the seaweed, the little bunch of food, along with some red bean paste that was somewhere within the concoction made for a tasty meal, albeit one that was absolutely crazy. After a moment of silence, the man beside me swallowed and said, “So how is it?” “It’s, well, good I guess.” I mumbled, taking a second one. He burst out laughing. “Evidently it is if you want more. Let me guess, it was weird, but still good?” I just nodded in response. “Well then, remember this; while something may at first look unsavory, it may turn out to be worth the while. But,” he mumbled, watching a man walk by with a hamburger stuffed in a giant McDonalds box, “the opposite is also true.” We continued to eat in silence, and, once the platter was done, the waitress came over to our table and put down a little board. “Here’s your bill.” She said, wandering over to the Goths table, all of them busily writing with one another. As I reached out for my wallet the man said. “Nope, don’t worry about it.” And dropped a wad of cash on top of the bill. “You gave something weird a shot, and even let me join you, so meals on me.” As he stood up I blurted out, “Um, hey, do you want to hang out together today?” Once I realized what I had said, I blushed scarlet and clamped my mouth shut, looking straight down at the table. I heard the chair clattering on the floor, and smiled wanly. Meet someone who seems nice, need a friend for the day, and scare him off in se“So where are we going then?” My head shot up quick as a wink, and saw the man standing next to me, smiling warmly. “What did you have planned to do today then?” “I don’t really know what to do, I’ve never been here on a Sunday, most of the shops I go to usually are all closed for church.” I replied, sighing. “So you’re a highly religious type then?” he asked, scratching the back of his head as I stood up. “I’ve never really considered myself as being overly zealous, but maybe I am.” I replied. “Still, doesn’t mean I have to hurt everyone else by forcing them to follow my god, right?” “Sometimes following a god isn’t a bad thing.” He sighed, then smiled and looked around the mall. “So then, what do you like to do?” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It had been one of the weirdest days in my life. I had just met an older man, had food that seemed to come from secret cult, had played inside a game arcade with someone who could hands down beat me in any shooter there was, had a game of chess, and felt like I had suddenly gained an eccentric uncle. After we had spent about three hours hanging out around the mall, we went to an open aired food stall, a few plastic tables surrounding it, and bought ourselves a couple of hotdogs. “So then,” he said, crossing his left leg over his right, blowing on his Frank slightly to cool it down. “had an okay day so far?” “I’d have to go with yes…” I replied, taking a bite from my hotdog. “But,” I said around a small mouthful of food, “I must say, somethings been bothering me since I met you, and I just realized what it is.” “What?” he asked, raising an eyebrow, taking a chunk out of his own frankfurter. "You remind me of a person in a book." I said around my mouthful of hotdog. "Who?" he asked, displaying a great ability for one liners. “A guy named Fizban actually.” I sighed, swallowing my hotdog and looking him in the eye. "You have the same type of flyaway hair as he does, and your suit looks like the same shade of grey as his robes. Heck," I chuckled, smiling slightly, "You're even the same age as he should be." As I continued to sit there and watch him I expected shock or confusion to spread across his features, but instead he smiled and quickly gulped his food. “You know the Dragonlance chronicles?” he said, his eyes sparkling in wonder. “Well, yeah. Everyone else seems to love the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, but I always enjoyed reading Dragonlance. Dragonlance just seemed to click with me; the characters, the world setting, the plotline, all of it. I guess that it just keeps drawing me back to it, even though I'm not a big fan of fantasy.” The man sighed and leaned over the table to me. “…What if I told you that it was all real?” he asked quietly. “Could I call you crazy then?” I asked, rolling my eyes as I took another big bite of my hotdog. He laughed and slowly stood up, leaving his hotdog half eaten on the table. “Do you want me to show you?” He asked, holding out his right hand to me, smiling slightly. I stared at the hand, and two different thoughts suddenly started fighting for control in my head. On one hand, pardon the pun, I wanted to laugh, to shout at him, to ignore him for acting crazy. On the other hand I wanted to take the hand, to let myself believe, if only for a moment, that I could actually travel with him to the land I had read about. “Do you swear you’re not going to try anything funny?” I asked, looking straight into his eyes, putting my hotdog down. His smile grew bigger as he responded, “I swear.” My eyes searched his for some hint of dishonesty, but I couldn’t find any. Gulping, I looked down at his hand, and, feeling for some reason like I was about to embark upon the greatest adventure of my life, I reached out and took it. As I touched it swirling darkness erupted from all around us, tiny beacons of light scattered throughout the void, and then we were gone, both of our hotdogs still lying on the table, partially eaten.