Young Writers Society

They wouldn't let him relax. His head was growing heavier and heavier, and an ache started behind his eyes and slowly traveled back through his head, gripping his brain. He wasn't used to concentrating on humanity for this long. He stood in front of the desk, gripping the dark green, marbled counter top to steady himself.

"We can't release him like this."

He recognized the voice of the doctor who had first called him by his name again. What was that name anyway? He'd forgotten again.

"Albert Black is clearly in no mental state to be roaming the streets." The doctor again.

Who was Albert Black? The name was familiar...he felt another stinging pinch inside his elbow.

"Pay attention, you fool! You have to get out of here before we can really help you. Your name is Albert Black, and you are in perfectly stable mental condition. Now tell the doctor that!"

Albert straightened his stooped shoulders and interrupted the doctor's heated conversation with a voice that only cracked slightly.

"My name is Albert Black and I am in perfectly stable mental condition."

A small sigh sounded inside his head. "Oh, dear. This is going to be harder than I thought. Pay attention, they're talking!"

"Mr. Black, we need you to sign these papers before we release you." The woman behind the desk handed him a pen and some papers.

Here was something he knew, at last. Words on paper. He skimmed the paper easily, and signed with hands that shook under the weight of the pen.

"You can't be letting him go like this! He didn't even understand me when I was talking to him earlier. He can't count, he can't listen, he didn't know his own name." That was the doctor again.

The woman behind the desk shrugged. "He seemed perfectly lucid when he signed the papers, and he's been living alone for the past seven years, and he has a stable job at Coca-Cola in the office. I can't keep him here, doctor."

Albert watched the doctor's back as he walked away. The headache was starting to fade, and he let himself sink back into his head again. He turned from the desk, faintly noting that the woman was talking to him, but ignoring it. Even the little burning pinches he ignored as he walked out of the hospital and down the steps. He stuffed his hands deep into the pockets of his newly washed jeans - the hospital staff had washed his clothes before returning them.

Albert felt unaccountably tired. Perhaps he would sleep when he got home.

"Albert!" That tiny voice inside his head sounded insistently.

"What?" Albert asked. He frowned as he saw a passing child stare at him. "What?" he snapped again.

"Albert, do you even know where you're going?"

Albert stopped abruptly. He slowly raised his head and opened his eyes for what seemed to be the first time in a long while. He saw the crowded, unfamiliar street, full of strangers who were looking at him oddly. The sunlight was too bright for Albert, too yellow and happy.

"All right, I give up. Take me home," Albert demanded. He hunched his shoulders, shrinking away from the assault on his senses.

"Albert, you really need to get more familiar with this town! For goodness' sake."

"Take me home, please?" Albert asked, his voice plaintive in the sudden ringing in his ears.

"Oh, very well. But you're not getting out of what you have coming to you," warned the voice.

The world began to twist around Albert and he shut his eyes, gulping as his stomach twisted. His ears abruptly stopped ringing, and in the absolute silence he heard a tiny noise, like a bell tingling. Then the world zoomed back into focus and he found himself on the familiar steps leading up to his room. He gasped in relief and shuffled hurriedly up the stairs.

"Here he is, the one I told you about," said the voice. "The poor fellow's really far gone."

Albert wondered briefly who the voice was talking to, but then his door swung open and he glimpsed a worn old couch that he hadn't even known he'd owned. He stumbled over to it and sank down onto it gratefully, letting the poof of dust settle down on him like a carpet. He sneezed twice, then slept.

***

Albert's long, narrow body lay unmoving on the long couch, in the dim, unlit upper floor of his apartment. There were no furnishings besides that couch, and one small table on which was piled an enormous pile of encyclopedias, dictionaries and a thesaurus.

The barren, dusty room was absolutely quiet for a long time. Then, with a sound like a tiny bell ringing, a pinpoint of light appeared on top of the pile of books. Two seconds later, another light appeared, and another bell rang. Then the room was filled with the sounds of ringing bells, and every surface began to glow with a silver light as thousands upon thousands of tiny dots appeared in the room.

As soon as the sweet singing of the bells had ceased, one point of light darted forward and spun once in the air before hovering.

"We have to help this poor guy. Surely we can all agree about that." The voice was small, but filled the room and reached every silver-lit corner.

A chorus of ringing bells signaled agreement.

"He can see us and hear us and talk to us. He is a rarity among humans. We need to preserve him so we can learn more about his kind."

Another chorus of bells. The silvery dot seemed to grow bigger as it kept speaking. "He has been trapped, a prisoner in his own mind for the past seven years. He is still young in human years, and has much life left to live. We have to help free him from his self-made trap and help him start to live again!"

Another dot danced up to join the first. "But how will we accomplish this? We can't very well follow him around talking into his head. It'd only make him withdraw into himself more, because we can only communicate to his mind. Our voices will not reach his human ears."

"We'll have to go to their dimension," said the first dot.

A murmuring tinkle of bells passed through the room. The second dot drew back. "All of us? Impossible! The world's population would soar out of control, and our concentration of power would be all out of whack. It just wouldn't work. Remember what happened the last time?"

"How could I forget," muttered the first dot, sinking in the air slightly. "You remind me constantly."

"Unless..." Bells tinkled wildly as they turned towards the new, larger dot which now floated forward. "It might work if only one of us went."

"But sir," the second dot whined, "we are a group. Our duties take the cooperation of the whole."

"I could....I mean, the one who ended up going...could easily keep up their part of the duties in the human dimension. As we learned before, the dimension does not affect our ability to maintain control." The first dot came to the larger dot eagerly. "Please, please let one of us go! Please?"

"I don't see the harm in it," said the large dot. "Just until you get this man straightened out."

"Yes, of course," said the small dot, floating joyfully towards the ceiling. "Oh my goodness, oh my oh my, oh my!"

"You'll find it much less pleasant than you expect," warned the larger dot. "The human body is a heavy, meaty material and will take some getting used to. Everything you do will have a much larger effect on the Earth. You will have to learn to temper yourself when performing your duties."

"Yes, sir," said the smaller dot, sinking back down again. "Of course, sir. We should do it right away while he's still asleep!"

"One more thing," said the large dot. "You must realize that once we have normalized Albert, he will no longer be able to see into the fifth dimension. That is how you will know he is fully cured. You must not form any undue attachments to the human."

"Yes, sir," said the small dot. "Of course. Now? Now? Oh my, oh my!"

Wordlessly, to the light jangling of bells, the dots swarmed forward until they surrounded the smaller dot. They merged until they were all one large circle of light, shedding a silvery glow over the entire room. There was an abrupt, absolute silence and the walls of room seemed to flex and lose their solid quality, waving like seaweed at the bottom of the ocean. In the center of the silver glow, a solid form slowly began to grow. It was a slightly darker shade than the rest of the light, and as it expanded, the circle of light expanded as well. It grew until it was six feet long and three feet wide. The silver light seemed to be stretching thinner as the form inside grew larger, until finally the circle of light exploded outwards, tiny dots littering the entire floor, ceiling and rippling walls before disappearing.

The form hovered in the air, still unclear in the now-dim room. Then, abruptly, the walls snapped back upright, the sounds of the street outside came back into focus, and the form that had been hovering in the air crashed to the floor directly on top of the table with the books on it. The weight all landed on one side of the table, and the books were catapulted across the room and landed in a neat stack on Albert's back. Albert started awake and the pile of books on his back teetered. As he sat up, they fell over all together. He glanced down at them, white skin of his forehead wrinkled in a puzzled frown. He put a shaking pale hand to his forehead and covered his eyes.

"Hello!"

Albert looked around for the new voice. It sounded familiar to his fuddled brain.

"Hello, it's me! Me! Remember? Oh, my oh my oh my!"