: Erica L. is standing inside the Hammar house, having passed through a solid wall, and she’s kinda freaking out about it. She’s convinced that she’s found another dimension, and is starting to work out what nearby planet she might be on when she hears a small whimper. She turns around, and sees Rex’s face emerging through the wall, like he’s pushing through a bubblegum bubble. His nose pops through, followed by the eyes. Somehow, his tongue gets caught on the bubble, stretching to full length before ricocheting back into his mouth. His round, lion-like fur puff emerges, and the wall behind him reforms completely. She hunkers down beside him, hugging his neck hard.
“When we get home, you’re getting ice cream!” she whispers in his ear, causing him to drool even more. Slowly, she stands up and looks around again. Everything in the room is stacked on and around the table with the metal ball, like a kind of shell. The metal ball must be what’s making all this happen. This is the control room. But then, why all this old stuff? Is it all like batteries for the ball? And why this shape? There’s only enough room for two people…or one Hammar.
She hears the sound of grunting and banging around, and turns to look at the opposite wall. The wall becomes almost transparent, revealing Oskar fighting with the final trunk. It takes her a moment to understand what she’s seeing. Then, it hits.
“We have to leave now!”
Doing as he’s told, Rex turns and walks through the wall as if it were nothing but fog.
“Oh.” she says flatly, then follows him through.
She is at once back in total darkness, the sound of leaves crunching under her feet and the dewy air again in her nostrils. She can hear Rex panting at the hole in the fence, waiting for his human to come and let him out. She looks inside the window to see Hammar backing into the room with the trunk, now suddenly manageable. He pulls it into position directly behind the chair at the table, leaving a gap for him to enter. He looks around at his work, his back towards the window. He reaches for a pile of fabric on top of another trunk, a garment bag with hangers. He leaves the room with the bag.
You’ve come this far, she thinks to herself, and puts her head back inside the room. The hum returns, the vibrating less noticeable now. On the trunk he just moved, she can see a large leather handle attached to the side facing the ball. He’ll be using that to pull the trunk in behind him, completing the shell. She looks around the room again. The far wall looks normal, but the wall next to her reveals Hammar in a bedroom. He’s putting on some kind of a costume. Old timey clothes, like in the westerns her Dad likes. She watches him put on a jacket and a round little hat, looking at himself in the mirror. The mirror where she can see herself!
Quickly she turns around and rushed blindly back into the pitch black, thankful the Hammars never went in for landscaping. She stumbles and falls over Rex near the back fence, feeling around frantically for the opening. She looks back to see Hammar bursting into the room, rushing towards the window. She pushes the board aside for Rex, who shoots through like a breeze. She scrambles through, looking back again to see him walk through the wall into the back yard. Like her, he was temporarily blinded. She carefully and quietly replaces the board, and freezes on the other side of the fence, Rex right next to her. They breathe slowly and quietly together, hearing Hammar on the other side, rustling around the yard with a cane.
“Where are you?” he grunts angrily, poking the cane into the furthest reaches of the darkness. “I saw you in the mirror. You were in my house!” They sit with their backs against the fence, looking cautiously at the loose board. Now accustomed to the dark, she can make it out clearly. The banging and cursing continue for a short while, growing fainter, then stopping. Convinced he’s given up, she and Rex make a hasty retreat out of the Jefferson’s yard and back home, faster than she’s ever run before…This is My New Orleans.
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