I suddenly remembered the glowing trophy thing on Domino’s desk. “I saw some of that once.”
“I don’t think so, ’cause I don’t think you’ve been to the place I got it.”
“Where’d you get it?”
“Edge of the world, boy. Only place it grows.”
“You know,” I said after another pause, “I’m pretty sure that’s not the moon.”
“Bah!” Chepito said.
“Does it ever set?” I asked. “When’s the last time you saw the sun?”
“The sea plays tricks on your mind, sonny. Get used to it.”
I sighed and motioned to Glottis, who grabbed Chepito by his pole and lifted him up.
“Hey, lay off!” Chepito exclaimed, thrashing his limbs. “Get yer own damn lamp! Leggo, leggo, leggo!”
“C’mon, Glottis,” I said, turning toward the Pearl.
“Where are you taking me?” Chepito demanded to know.
“To the moon,” I answered.
It took a lot longer to get where we were going than I had expected. Maybe the sea didn’t play the kind of tricks Chepito thought it did, but it was hard to judge distances. Still, the Pearl slowly grew bigger and eventually we topped a rise overlooking the deep hollow it sat in. Across from where we stood was a large half-shell with the Pearl resting inside. I couldn’t be sure, but it looked kind of fake. I mean, how could a pearl—however big it was—shine like that? And yet… the Land of the Dead was a very strange place.
“The Pearl!” Chepito exclaimed. “I knew I’d find ’er some day! I’m rich! Rich, riii—”
I clamped Chepito’s jaw shut with my hand. “Shhh!” I hissed. “Something’s wrong! Listen!”
We did and heard a faint, warbling cry. It grew louder, turning into watery screams. We looked up, where the noise was coming from, and saw several shapes falling toward the Pearl, all souls flailing their limbs in a futile attempt to swim.
“Manny,” Glottis said, sounding very worried, “what’s going on?”
I had no answer and just shook my head.
When the souls got close enough to the Pearl that they were brightly lit, a shape suddenly darted out from beneath the shelf that held the Pearl. It rocketed toward the falling souls, reaching out eight giant arms to scoop them up. The demon octopus turned and went back into the hollow. Back in the shadow under the Pearl, the octopus thrust the souls into what looked like a submarine. But it was hard to judge just what lay there in that shadow from where we were standing.
“Manny,” Glottis said, peering intently into the hollow, “I think that octopus is looking right at us.”
I couldn’t make out anything other than an oblong blur and a blobby blur. “How can you tell?”
“Maybe I have better eyesight than you.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Do you suppose this is what happened to Meche?”
Glottis only shrugged.
Chepito leaned forward like a dog straining at its leash. “Oh, if only that thing would just go away, I could get that Pearl!”
When Chepito moved, I thought I saw the shadow under the Pearl shift.
“It’s attracted to light,” I said to Glottis.
“Uh-huh,” he agreed.
“Take a swim, Cheppie,” I said. “You’re attracting too much attention to us.”
“Too bad,” he sneered. “That Pearl is mine.”
“OK,” I said. “Glottis…” I gestured for him to follow as I started walking around the rim of the hollow.
“You know,” I said, “if we can find out where that monster takes those people, we might find Meche there.”
“Yeah,” he said, “but how does this figure into stolen Double-N tickets and everything?”
“You’ve been thinking about that, too, huh? I don’t know, carnal. I’ve got a feeling there’s more to the scam than anyone’s suspected.”
“Hey, Manny…” Glottis said urgently. He pointed behind us.
I turned around and there was Chepito. “Don’t even think about sneaking off with my Pearl!” he declared.
I sighed wearily. “Look, mano,” I said, “if you can fit that cue ball into your pocket, it’s all yours. I’ve got bigger things to worry about, so give us space.”
“Hah!” was all he said.
“Maybe we should just throw him in,” Glottis said.
I looked at him in surprise. “Hey! We don’t know what really happens to those people!”
“Oh, yeah,” he said, sheepish. “Good point.”
I turned back to Chepito. “I’m trying to be reasonable,” I said, “but you’re not making it easy.” I took a step forward. “You gotta—”
Chepito took a step back, then suddenly cried out and fell backwards, but didn’t go down all the way. He thrashed his arms and jerked his body but seemed strangely rooted to that one spot. “I’m stuck!” he exclaimed. I looked down and saw he had one foot wedged into a little crevice.
“Manny!” Glottis said just as I saw movement down in the hollow. The octopus was on the move.
Glottis and I looked at each other, then we both threw ourselves over the edge.
“Hey!” Chepito screamed as we tumbled down the steep slope. “You can’t leave me here all alone!”
We got to the bottom just as the octopus was shooting past overhead. Glottis picked me up and quickly swam under the overhang. It was a submarine under there.
The octopus returned with a screaming Chepito held in one arm. It thrust him into the sub and then got inside itself.
“I guess it didn’t notice us,” Glottis said.
We climbed onto the sub and held on tight as the screws started to spin silently. The sub rose up and sailed out of the hollow and made a slow turn.
“Look like we’re heading south,” I shouted through the rushing water.
“But there’s nothing on that edge of the world,” Glottis shouted back, “except…”
“…the edge!” we finished together.
The Edge of the World
The sub traveled quickly through dark waters for several hours before we came to a rising shelf. The water became brighter, with sunlight penetrating the shallower water and another kind of light coming from ahead. The other light grew in strength and eventually revealed itself to be a huge, fluorescing coral reef. The sub threaded its way past and into the water beyond. On the other side of the reef the seabed rose higher, up to a series of ‘foothills’ leading to an island.
As the sub rushed past the reef we looked down and saw, near particularly bright regions, clusters of souls apparently mining the glowing coral.
“Well,” I said to Glottis, “at least the octopus doesn’t eat them.”
“Yeah,” he said, “but maybe we should get off now before we become part of the chain gang.”
“Good idea,” I said and we pushed away from the sub.
We settled to the bottom as the sub continued on its way. We approached the base of the island, near some industrial-looking structures rooted in the seabed.
“Manny…” Glottis began.
“Don’t ask, carnal,” I said, “’cause I don’t know.”
I looked around and then started walking toward the structures.
“Is this a good idea, Manny?” Glottis asked.
“We’ve come this far,” I answered. “Besides, we don’t really know where we are. The only way we’re going to get out is to go through.”