A Vacation for Eric Creel

"Is it far from here?" came the next question, as Eric struggled to keep pace with Garret.

"The Door was created as a bridge between the world of the Faerie and the world of men," continued Garret , seemingly oblivious to Eric’s question, "It was formed ages ago, so if there was ever a need, the faerie creatures would be able to escape into your world. It required a gathering of all the magics so a breach could be formed. Lately, there have been wars between various tribes of gnomes, and more and more people have been leaving. People are tired of the constant battles, and their towns and villages being sacked by gnomeish armies. The battles are becoming more fierce all the while too. This might not have been such a pleasant time to come. But you needn’t worry about being sacked and pillaged, all human visitors stay in Timbuk3. It is located in the center of the Elven nation. The gnomes wouldn’t, couldn’t in fact, ever come close to there. They know the elves could squash them in one fell swoop."

All the while, Eric Creel wasn’t sure if he could believe what he was hearing. Garret chattered away about gnomes, whatever the hell they were, and elves like they were a daily occurrence. Had he inadvertently gotten hooked up with some psycho? He looked over at his guide, and was about to ask him a question, when Eric saw what he had missed before: Garret had long pointed ears! Eric’s jaw dropped , he stopped short in mid stride and stood gapping.

"You...Your a...but, but ... I... I don’t...Oh, Jesus! Your an Elf!" Instantly the other people on the street turned to see what the commotion was all about. Just as quickly Garret turned on Eric and yanked him into a dingy alley way, then thrust him against a wall.

"Listen up Creel. If we going to go any further together, then you’ve got to understand a few things." Eric squirmed, but Garret had him pinned tightly against the wall. "Yes, I am an Elf. A very astute observation. Now if there are any more outbursts like the one you just had, you’ll be finding yourself in an even more uncomfortable situation than your in right now. Are we savvy?" Eric nodded his head vigorously, he was afraid of what might happen if he didn’t. "You are going to experience first hand what most people only dream of as children. So I strongly suggest that you hold your tongue until we are in a more private place, which shan’t be long."

Garret let Eric go, and he slid to the ground, his legs having deserted him. Eric wasn’t sure why he had scared so badly. He lived in New York , he had been mugged at gun point. So why had this scared him? Garret looked like he was trying not to laugh as he offered Eric a hand up. Eric declined. He suddenly felt incredible foolish. He looked around as he brushed himself off and straightened his jacket. Good God, he hoped no one saw that.

"Come on," Garret was saying, " My truck is just down the street. The rest of our gear is in it. We need to get going, if we want to reach the Door by dark. We’ve got a good two mile walk in the woods. So let’s not waste time. And remember you don’t speak until we are in my car, safely away from the prying public ears."

"Yeah, all right," Eric said as he looked around cautiously. As it turned out, he needn’t have worried about spectators, because Garret, true to his word, was already down the street, holding open the door to an extremely beat-up truck.

"Come on, we haven’t got all day you know." Eric got into the truck, and soon they were making their way through the middle of the small town.

"Sorry about back there on the street," Eric said lamely. "I was just so surprised. And you had just been saying all that stuff about The Door, and..." he trailed off not knowing what else to say.

"I sort of over reacted too. It just that we have so little time to spare. You see, no one pays you any attention when you are calmly walking along, talking about something lightly in an off-handed sort of way. No one is interested. It’s when you start to make a whole lot of commotion, that peoples’ heads start to turn and their prick up."

Eric sat shame faced and silent beside Garret in the truck, think about what a fool Garret must think him. Before now he was never really sure if he had believed the ad in the paper. He had envisioned a sort of Disney World in the extreme. But this was the real thing, or at least he thought it was real. Suddenly he had to fight down an urge to reach out and touch Garret’s ears. How much weirder could this vacation get? A hell of a lot, thought Eric.