The Orb's Call

The entire globe was covered in blue. Streaming through cerulean clouds, azure light cast a single, omnipresent tone over the countryside. On this blue day, which would eventually position Bibby in a very strange place, she was consumed by the tears that were streaming down her friend's face.

Gently, she said, "What's causing this leak?" "As far as I know, you have no reason to cry."

Her friend's voice was heavy with grief as she answered, "'As far as you know' is the right way to put it." "I didn't inform you. My mother is in the hospital right now.

"Oh." Beside her, on the park bench, was Bibby. "That is awful. I'm so sorry.

After wiping her eyes and saying a brief "thank you," her buddy left Bibby alone herself on the bench. She allowed her thoughts to wander while holding her onyx orb in her hand. If one could make the people into what one wished, this small bench on this little earth, a patchwork of green and blue, was a nice place to live. Bibby's parents, as well as the parents of others, were extremely concerned about her extraordinary talent in this area. To put it politely, they all told her she was crazy. However, Bibby and her buddy believed that she was unique due to her deep creativity rather than her insanity.

An unusual sight for the summer was a man walking by wearing a heavy coat. Bibby noticed an angel's wings peeking out from under the cloth—how lovely! He might sing the clouds away, or he could fly over the town and leave the earth behind. The clouds! The cleanest clumps of cotton candy one could possibly discover, they were little fluffs.

Bibby looked at her timepiece. She left the park after realizing it was time to head home. She went by trees whose leaves were glowing with the season's hues; flames were burning all around, but the wood never burnt. When she realized they weren't real, she questioned why no one was attempting to put them out. They existed only in her imagination. She told herself to disregard it all. If people thought you truly believed in your inventions, that was the only thing you could do when they thought you were strange.

She indulged a particular penchant for attempting to give life to inanimate objects by asking her orb, "What would you do if you thought the trees were on fire?" It did not reply, as usual. On this occasion, though, it slipped out of her grasp and appeared to turn toward her as it drifted in front of her.

It slid just out of reach as she groped for its string. Bibby moved forward and extended his hand once more, but the ball just continued to float farther away. How odd, she thought, that rather of drifting upward, it would glide horizontally, away from her and just her.

She followed it as it continued its steady retreat, curious to see where a simple orb might be heading. It picked up speed, and before long she was sprinting to stay up. Despite her longstanding distaste for jogging, she started to appreciate her legs' steady beat. The world turned into a blur of movement, a gust of wind, and a pulsing rhythm that soothed her to sleep. Every time she began to fall asleep, she was startled awake by a burst of energy that she sensed flowing from the sphere. The world and its inhabitants, the aromas of cooking from neighboring homes, and blurs of vision blended with blurs of sound. Her eyes watered and blinked against the weird, tickling feeling of the wind.

Then she found herself standing in her home's front yard, breathless. The sphere glided inside as the door swung open. She went in after it. Everything had changed. The ceiling was a twisted green, and the walls were purple. Shades of blue, red, and yellow were emitted by the lighting. She chased the ball into the corridor after spotting a flicker of it vanish around a corner. Her sister turned to face Bibby as she stood there. She sported long eyelashes capped with small beads and had developed bunny ears. She appeared completely normal else. Disregarding her, Bibby followed the orb's rope inside her bedroom.

Over the bed, the ball had become stationary. Bibby was seated on the mattress and cradling the item in front of her face. On its surface, a pair of bright eyeballs developed, obscuring her view. Its mouth widened, swallowing, engulfing, opening into a blacker emptiness than the center of a black hole. It engulfed her entire, stretching.

She kept tripping and falling. The lips closed over her and the room shrank away. She was surrounded by darkness, but she could see objects flying past her, which could only indicate that she was falling past them. There were balloons, books, turtles, more balloons, confetti, streamers, sparklers, and then there was a startling change: gunfire, grenade blasts, fireworks, and nuclear warheads screaming at a million miles per hour in the direction of an interplanetary attack on Mars. Bibby stated out loud to herself, "After all, it's only right, since they came to us first."

Bibby had no recollection of falling asleep when she woke up in a field. Curious to see where she had fallen to after such a fall, she sat up and looked about. She was reminded of the intense energy drinks her friends used to give her by the buzzing energy in the air. At the age of twelve, she was deemed too young to consume coffee, which could cause her to overheat and cause her to die the same way her elder brother had—drinks that had caused him to die young. However, she never did. She cherished those items.

In a huge, undulating landscape that seemed to go on for miles in all directions, she was perched on a high ridge. Mountains pierced the sky in the distance, beyond the undulating hills. The Verdant Knolls were where she was. With its face gone, the onyx orb drifted before her. It then made a U-turn.

"Hello," it said.

"Hello," Bibby said, not a bit surprised that it could talk. She could anticipate anything following the events of the day.

It said, "Have we met?"

Bibby responded, "That's a silly question," and got to his feet. "If anyone should know who I am, it would be the one who brought me here."

"I do not know you," claimed the orb. However, I assume you are familiar with clouds. I'll ask them your name.

She was left alone in the vast plain as it drifted off into the sky. She glanced around once again and saw something strange: the tall and short grass did not clearly separate. She asked out loud, "But why is there any short grass at all?" "Surely it can't stay this short without someone to tend it."

In order to investigate, she began to move toward a patch of tall grass, but all of a sudden she was back on top of the ridge, confronting the orb and its shining eyes. They gazed into her head, into her heart, into her soul.

That's how it felt, anyway. It was actually just trying to remember what the clouds had spoken.

"They say you are called Barbera," the orb pointed out.

"Oh," Bibby corrected, feeling pretty astute. "But that's my name, not what people call me," she said. "What did you ask them?"

However, the orb had already left, heading back to the clouds to discover her name. She took advantage of the chance to check on the grass once again, but when she peered around, the long grass was gone. It was replaced by splotches of blue grass amidst the verdant surroundings. Bibby made the decision to look at one of the odd patches.

She approached and knelt next to a blue patch. She cried, "Why, it's moving!" Yes, it was; like a dog, the patch started to turn over. But before she could see what lay beyond it, she found herself back on the mountaintop, the orb floating in front of her.

The orb uttered, "They say your name is Bibby," Although Bibby was tempted to correct it once more—that her name was Barbera and that others called her Bibby—she kept quiet out of concern that it might simply vanish once more. As long as it continued to consult the clouds, she would never get it to speak.

Bibby said, "Yes, that's right," in deception. It's your turn now, isn't it? "Who are you?"

The orb hesitated before answering, "I am," and Bibby was afraid it may drift away to pose even this basic query to the clouds. However, it concluded with "the Orb of Elation."

"Really?" With a hint of amusement, Bibby said. "And what does your name mean?"

She regretted the question right away. Once again, the orb left her alone as it murmured something about not knowing and floated out toward the sky. Then she found herself back on the hill, staring at the orb once more. "I'll never learn anything if it always has to ask the clouds," she muttered.

"That was fast," she said.

"That is because I did not have to go all the way to the clouds this time," it continued. "I remembered part of the way there."

"Alright then, what does your name mean?" Bibby inquired, her interest now sincere.

After a brief pause, the orb said, "My name is 'the Orb of Elation'."

Bibby remarked, "Yes, I think you have said that already," as her patience wore thin.

The orb reassured her, "That's right, I have," "I was just reminding you so that you will be able to fully understand this next part." It hesitated once more.

Impatiently, Bibby asked, "So what does your name mean?"

"The Orb of Elation is my name," it reiterated.

"You have said that," Bibby replied. She decided to give it one last opportunity before abandoning it to its cycles of self-reminders and consultations with the clouds because she had almost given up on receiving a direct response.

According to the orb, "Oh, that's right," "Yes, I have. I'll simply tell you since I know you're sick of me letting you figure it out on your own." The orb hesitated, and Bibby resisted the need to just turn and leave.

"My name," it said, "is 'the Orb of Elation' because," there was another delay, and Bibby became irate since it had brought her here, so it should at least spit forth a response. It concluded with the words, "If someone catches me, they will be happy for the rest of their life."