Out of the Hedge, pt 4

"My way? My way where?"

"Back to the real world," Gertrude explained.

"This is real too!"

"Geez, I know, Rita, I'm just explaining so Charlie understands."

"Actually, I remember where I live."

"Really? But you have amnesia!"

"Rita!"

"What, he totally does!" She pouted, turned her back, crossed her arms and stomped off demonstratively, but only a few steps, not really putting any distance between them.

"Anyway," Charlie said, breaking in. "Like I said, I just don't know what I'm doing here, I never said I forgot who I am or where I live. I mean, I did tell you my name. Last thing I remember, I was in St Abraham Park, and there was this grove of trees..."

"Abby park? That's-"

"Rita, shush, he's remembering something."

"Yeah. Yeah... I went to the park, I mean, I just moved here, so I was just kind of exploring, but there was a grove of trees that I recognized from somewhere. I don't know that I ever saw them before, they just seemed so familiar. I remember the sun was up high, it was lunchtime, and the trees, there were just maybe four or five in the middle of this huge lawn, but they cast this really dense shadow. It was like a pitch black shade on the ground in there. I remember thinking it felt so weird, and so familiar, it felt... so out of place."

"Did... did you go in?" Gertrude whispered, and it was only then that Charlie noticed he was speaking in hushed tones himself.

"Yeah. And I don't remember anything after that."

For the first time since he'd met them, the three fell silent. Julian sniffed the air and scanned the forest around them. Rita stared at her feet. Gertrude's eyes went unfocused, looking at a point somewhere through Charlie's head. As he should have known, Rita was the first to speak.

"I know where Abby park is, we can take you!"

"What? I never agreed to babysitting."

"She's right, Julian, we have to help him. Plus, he's so close, and it's on the way."

"And then what? No. This is a bad idea."

"Come on, would you rather he went to the other side? Because if we don't bring him back, they will. Or if he gets lost again, and..."

Julian sighed. "Fine. If he tries something, I'll break his neck." Charlie had the feeling it wouldn't be the first time.

"Then it's settled."

"Yay!"

They set off alongside a wide trail that looked wheel-worn. The sun was out again, which made no sense to Charlie, but he refrained from bringing it up since everything he said only garnered strange looks. Julian led the way, keeping them off the trail itself, but with his eyes trained on it at all times.

"Why don't we walk on the trail instead?" asked Charlie as he kicked a root in revenge for stubbing his toe on it. "Ow."

"Julian says it's bad luck," Rita answered, slightly out of breath.

"Oh." He let it rest. In the short time he'd observed them, Charlie had noticed that they all seemed to have their own little fixations. Rita, who seemed otherwise very friendly, had ignored his offered hand twice, first when he tried to shake hands and later when she had tripped and fallen and he tried to help her up. Julian trusted no one and nothing, least of which the trail they were following. After his own run-in with the ravager, Charlie couldn't blame him. Gertrude stopped approximately every 100 meters to turn ponderously around full circle while the others waited. Charlie thought to himself that having one of these people in a class would have driven his colleagues back at the university insane inside a week, but he didn't mind at all. In fact, he found their antics oddly soothing. He felt safe with them.

Strangely, the trail ended in the middle of an alley. Charlie started. He had been so focused on not being tripped by protruding roots that he hadn't noticed the forest receding, but now when he looked back it was on the horizon. He followed the others through a large stone archway, and now he heard the cars going by, people yelling, a dog barking. He took in the atmosphere and filtered out Gertrude and Julian.

"Was this open?" she said.

"I saw Turner go through ahead of us," he reassured her.

"Hey guys, I never even noticed us getting out of the woods." Charlie pointed back, and then turned to look down his own index finger through the archway at an inner yard with an outdoor cafe where people appeared to be having tea. There were buildings all around, and no forest or horizon in sight. Charlie quickly brought his hand back down, but forgot to close his mouth.

"What the- Move! What are you doing?"

Someone grabbed him and pulled him further down the alley, where he fell flat on his back.

"Julian, he didn't know, he's a newbie! And look, it's closed now!"

Sprawled on the ground, Charlie looked up at the sky framed by brick walls rising towards it. The goat entered his field of vision, bent down and scowled at him. Then he left, leaving Charlie to pick himself up. He brushed off some dirt, and then realized what he was wearing.

"Oh." Then he looked at the others, heading out onto a busy street. "Wait! You can't go out there!" They stopped on the sidewalk to turn back and face him, and he caught up. "People will go nuts, I mean, you guys don't exactly blend in."

"See?" said Rita and pointed out this apparently ludicrous behaviour to the others.

"So maybe he is new," Julian conceded grudgingly.

"Charlie, it's alright, they don't see what you see. Look." Gertrude indicated a few passers-by, and sure enough, they didn't as much as glance at her. "They can't see what we really look like, they only see the mask. Here, I'll show you."

Gertrude took a breath, closed her eyes and wiped her hand over her face. Suddenly, where an alien butterfly girl had stood, was a lanky and rather ordinary looking 20-something with dyed blue hair. She had colourful tattoos down her forearms where her wings had been, and now that he thought about it, she'd always worn those dark leather jeans, t-shirt and chains, he had just been too focused on the rest of her appearance to notice. She just looked like she was really into punk. Or maybe in a band.

Now that he had a human comparison, he looked at the other two, who were still in their non-human forms, and connected the dots. Julian was barechested and his mask most likely had a goatee. Drummer? Rita was curvy, extrovert and would probably make an attractive human. Lead singer?

"Hey, you guys need a bass player?"

"Aw hell no! He is not joining the band!"

"Haha, I'm joking, Julian, I don't play."

For a split second, they just stared at him. Then they laughed.

"Shit, man, you had me. Hey, maybe you're alright." Julian slapped Charlie on the shoulder and walked past him, leaving the girls wide-eyed in disbelief.