by Nigel G. Mitchell
"We wanna stay here," Quinn said. "This place is great. These people are so friendly and happy that we just...feel happy, too. David never had loving parents until now. And I never had a father in my world. So what's the point of leaving? We may never have it so good again."
"You can't be serious," Arturo said. "After...after all we've been through and done..."
"Hey, professor," Rembrandt said. "Lay off 'em, man. If they wanna stay, why can't we let 'em stay? As a matter of fact...I wouldn't mind hangin' around here myself."
Arturo turned to face him. "Mister Brown? Why on Earth would you stay here?"
"Look around you, man. This place is filled with happiness and joy. It's paradise."
"It's abnormal!" Arturo yelled. "There's something terribly wrong here!"
"No, there isn't, professor," Wade said. "There's something wrong with you. Ever since we got here, you've been trying to find a dark side to this place. Well, there isn't. I haven't felt this happy in my whole life. I don't want it to end. I'm staying, too."
Arturo swept the room with his gaze. He looked at the faces of his colleagues and noticed for the first time that they were all smiling. The broad smiles he had seen on everyone since they arrived in this world. The unreasoning joy at simply being alive. Arturo was surprised at how it unnerved him.
Arturo pointed at Quinn. "You...something's happened to all of you. You've been affected by this world, haven't you?"
Michael and his wife looked at each other, allowing a thought to pass unspoken between them. As Quinn took a step forward, Mrs. Mallory let go of David and slipped out into another room.
"Hey," Quinn said, "professor, calm down. There's no conspiracy here."
"Yes, there is," Arturo said. "There is something in this world that is bringing out unreasonable joy in everyone. For some reason, I have yet to be affected, but I think it wise that we find somewhere to protect ourselves from it."
"Forget it, professor," Wade said. "First of all, we haven't been 'affected' by anything. We're just in a loving environment. That brings out happiness in people. Second of all, even if we were being zapped by whatever Happiness Ray you think we are, so what? What's wrong with feeling good?"
"I'll tell you what's wrong," Arturo said. "When it makes you think nothing of giving your purse to the man who robbed you, that's what's wrong. When you decide to abandon your quest for the last two years to stay in a world you barely know for no apparent reason, that's what's wrong. We are all in grave danger, can't you see that?"
Rembrandt was still smiling as he reached out for the professor. "Hey, man, you're just confused. Relax and we'll talk..."
Arturo knocked Rembrandt's hand away, then backed up a few steps to stay out of reach. "Stay away from me. All of you. I don't know what's going on, but I fear it might be contagious."
The front door rang. Mrs. Mallory came from another room to unlock it. Two men in police uniforms walked into the house, smiling from ear-to-ear. They entered the living room, belts jangling.
"What seems to be the problem here?" one of the policemen asked.
Mrs. Mallory pointed at Arturo. "I'm afraid this man is being a disturbance. He's trying to upset us and take away our sons."
"Outrageous," Arturo yelled. "These are not your sons!"
Quinn moved to put his arm around her. He remained smiling at Arturo, but his eyes had hardened into a cold, piercing gaze. "We are now. Come on, professor. Go with them. I guarantee after they're done with you, you're gonna feel a lot better."
The two policemen began to walk towards the professor. One of them pulled out a set of handcuffs. The other held up his hands and made reassuring comments. The front door was blocked by Quinn and his family. Wade and Rembrandt stood in front of the windows. David watched him with a solemn expression.
Arturo bolted across the living room. He heard the yells and pounding boots of the policemen coming after him. He plunged through the door into the adjoining kitchen. Arturo almost slipped on the polished tiles, but kept going to the
back door.
He collided with it full-force. The lock shattered, sending the door flying open to expose the now-darkening city. Beneath a full moon, Arturo dashed down the back staircase and ran. The policemen were coming up behind him. Arturo heard a clicking sound. Then a bang. A gunshot.
"That was a warning shot, sir!" one of the policemen yelled. "We don't want to shoot you, but we will if we have to!"
Arturo bolted across the grassy backyard. He came to a chain link fence. He began to climb up it, the metal links rattling as his fingers clasped them, gasping for breath. He wasn't built for this kind of excitement. He was a theoretical physicist, not an action hero. But he had to keep moving for his own sake and the sake of the others.
Arturo reached the top of the fence. He looked back. The policemen were charging across the backyard towards him. Light shone out of the open backdoor, silhouetting Quinn, Mister and Mrs. Mallory, Wade, and Rembrandt. They just stood there, watching. He couldn't make out their faces, but he knew they were smiling.
One of the police officers aimed at him. There was another bang. The fence pinged as something hit it, giving off sparks. Arturo released the fence. He fell. The ground slammed into him, driving out his breath. But he struggled to his feet again and ran, arms pumping, breath thick in his lungs.
Arturo ran. He ran for blocks before he even got the courage to look back. When he saw there was no one there, Arturo kept going. He didn't know where he was headed, but he knew he'd find out when he got there. Occasionally, he would hear something like footsteps coming after him, but they always disappeared a few seconds later.
Arturo was surprised when he at last came to the edge of Golden Gate Park. He slowed his pace and the exertion caught up with him. Arturo had to stop and just breathe for a few minutes, trying to recover. When he felt he could manage to move again, Arturo began to walk towards the park.
Why was he here? He didn't know. He supposed it was as good a place as any. It was a large, open area in which he could hide and figure things out. It was also where they had first arrived. Maybe there was some clue as to the cause of his friends' affliction.
What was it? Arturo thought hard, trying to think. He didn't seem to be affected by whatever was in these people. Arturo forced a smile to return the greeting thrown at him by a passerby. Somewhere along their journey into this world, the others had been exposed to something or done something that he hadn't.
Arturo sat down on a park bench. He smiled at a man pushing a baby carriage who said "Good evening" to him. It was hard to think. The events of the past few hours were a blur to him now. He had no idea what he was going to do, even if he did figure out what went wrong.
A man in torn jeans walked up to him, stepping out of the shadows into a shaft of moonlight. He smiled.
Arturo's heart leapt at the sight of him. "You...you are the one who stole that woman's purse." At last, the first person in San Francisco the professor had seen who wasn't a candidate for the Mickey Mouse Club."
The thief nodded, still smiling. "That's right. I can't understand why I did that now. It seems so pointless. It didn't make me happy. But I'm happy now, and I want to make amends."
He held out the old woman's purse. "Here. Please give this back to that poor woman if you see her."
Arturo's heart sank. "You...you're like them now. Happy."
The man nodded with that same stupid smile on his face that the others did.
Arturo grabbed the man's shoulder, and pulled him in. "Look, it's very important that I find out what's affecting these people and you. Earlier, you were a normal person."
"You mean unhappy," the man said.
"Yes, unhappy. Now you're not. Why?"
"Easy, man," the thief said. "It's because I was from Los Angeles. A cesspool of misery and decay. But then I got off the bus to San Francisco. Sure, at first I didn't realize what I had. Robbing that old lady was the first thing I did. But then I wandered around for a while, met the people, and realized there's happiness all around us..."
"Yes, yes, whatever," Arturo murmured. "So you were from out of town, just like us. And then you came into the city, like us. And...now you're like them. But why? What have you done since you came here?"
The man opened his mouth to speak, but Arturo looked over his shoulder. A police car rolled down the street with a spotlight shining out of the passenger window to play over the outskirts of Golden Gate Park.
Arturo quickly broke his grip on the man and hurried as quickly as he could into the park. Charging across grass and down cobblestone walkways, Arturo plunged deeper and deeper into the trees. All the while, he looked back to see if the police followed. They weren't that he could see, but he had to be sure.
Then Arturo heard the voice of a man screaming at the top of his lungs. Suddenly, Arturo knew why he had come to the park after all.
He followed the path to the Lincoln statue where Crazy Kenny stood on the same bench, shaking his fist in the air as he yelled. People walked by him, only pausing to look at him in amusement or toss a coin into a jar on the bench next to him.
"They're controlling your minds!" he roared. "The Powers That Be have you under their spell! Curb your gluttony or be under their control for all eternity! Mind control, ladies and gentlemen! Mind control!"
Arturo walked towards him as if in a daze. As he drew near, Crazy Kenny stopped speaking to look down at him.
The old man's face collapsed into a frown. "Your friends, the ones with you before...they're being controlled now, aren't they?"
"You're not crazy, are you?" Arturo asked. "You're telling the truth. You know what's going on. Please...tell me."
"I'll do more than that." Crazy Kenny stepped down from the bench. "I'll show you."
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