Mythology in Macana's Mind

Macana had always loved the thrill of mythology. She loved to learn about dragons, shape shifters, fairies, vampires, and of course magicians or sorcerers. Her mother had been a mythologist and her father was a psychologist. Both of Macana’s parents believed that there was a door way to a world of magic in her mind. Macana and her sister Marisa were identical twins, so basically both of them loved the stories that made mythology: mythology.  Macana and her sister were 11 years old. Both had pin-straight blonde hair and electric blue eyes. Many boys fell head over heels for them. The only person that made life worth-while was Steve who is also 11. If you hadn’t realized before, I’m Macana and this is my story.

My parents called me and Marisa into the living room to have a family chat. This usually happened every year on the first day of school. But this year is different. I’m going into the sixth grade at a new school and the only person I know that’s going to be there is my sister. That’s what I was thinking about when my mother started to talk. “Macana, Marisa, I understand that you two are probably scared but remember that you will make many friends and pay attention in all of your classes.  Also, if you get bored just walk into your mind.  Then, there’s always magic around every corner.” I always took the last two sentences for granted. I believed that “just walk into your mind” meant use your imagination.

Alright, about an hour later I’m standing in front of I.S. 55. It didn’t look any different than P.S.52, so I guess it couldn’t be all bad. On my summer assignment it told me to go to room 138 for home room. My sister and I were walking the hallway with about 300 other kids. As usual, I trip but I landed on this really cute boy. He had black hair that was cut close to his scalp and dazzling green eyes. Marisa must have seen me staring. “Hello. I’m so sorry. My sister can really be a klutz.” She stuck out her hand, he shook it. Compared to us this boy was at least three inches taller. But then again we were short compared to everybody. “My name’s Marisa. This is my sister Macana.” He looked at me. “Hi. I’m Steve. What room are you going to?” he had the smoothest voice I’ve ever heard! “Were going to room 138, what  about you?” Marisa asked. “138 just like you two. I think it’s down the hall and to the left.” 

So all day in class I stared at him, which wasn’t hard because in every single class I sat behind him. While walking home with about another block left until we got there, we saw Steve. We caught up to him. “Do you live by here?” I stupidly asked. “Uh, yeah.I just moved into the house next to you guys. What‘s up?”  Macana was speechless. Why hadn’t she realized he moved in? “So, I have an all-star baseball game tomorrow and figured you girls would like to go.”My sister said- “Yes, Macana and I would love to see your game, right Macana? I shook my head up and down so hard my head hurt when I stopped.

The next day of school went basically the same as the first. Nothing new there. While walking home I saw Steve and he was already three blocks ahead of me. How does he walk so fast? Well I ran and eventually caught up to him, leaving my sister talking to some boy outside of his house. “What time is the game?” I asked. “4:00, at 255 Bleat St., Wakana Field. You’re coming right?” “Yeah I am. I think my sister is coming too.” We finished walking home and while I watched him fumble with his keys I dug my own out of my book bag. At the same time we walked in through our front doors only for me to find my father waiting in the living room. “Macana, where have you been? Where is your sister? Who were you just talking to?” Apparently Macana missed everything her father said because she completely blocked him out of her head and ran upstairs to her room. She walked down the sky-blue painted hallway until she came to a purple door with the words “Macana’s room, go away!” in bright orange letters. She opened the door to where she saw all of her posters of werewolves, sorcerers, and vampires.

The walls were bright green, the back of her door was violet, and her bed had bright green sheets and darker green pillow cases. She loved this room but what was important was to find a sporty yet fancy-attractive outfit to where to Steve’s baseball game. Eventually she picked a Joe DiMaggio jersey and denim shorts with holes at the bottom. All right she thought. It’s3:30 now and Wakana Field is four blocks away. If I leave now I will get there by3:50 and will get to see the National Anthem. So she and Marisa walked the four blocks and watched a little girl sing the National Anthem, then watched all of the players run out onto the field. Then, the opening pitch and finally the first inning. Steve was up first and hit two foul balls. Then, a third pitch and everything for me went totally dark.

When I opened my eyes I was definitely not in a ballpark! I was on a sidewalk. All the houses were exactly the same. I looked for a street sign and when I found one a few houses away, it was blank! I got up and walked down a street, then another, then another, yet every street sign was blank. When I finally saw a teenage girl walking on the sidewalk I walked over to her. “Hi. I’m Macana, who are you?” “I’m Farisma, nice to meet you.” “Where am I?” “You’re in Chozzo, the land of mystics.”

“The land of mystics? Is this a joke? When I was 7 years old I wrote a story about a place called Chozzo. It was a city where there were vampires, witches, shape-shifters, werewolves, and gypsies.” “Yeah, well that would pretty much sum up Chozzo.” Macana was stunned. Was she dreaming? She pinched herself, nothing. Macana sighed. “So Farisma, where do you live around here? “ I live a few houses down with a werewolf.” “A werewolf!?” Macana thought out loud. “Yeah, you should meet him. He’s really sweet. “Sure, why not?” I’m about to meet a werewolf! Macana thought excitedly. Walking down a block that looked like all the others, we stopped at a purple house with a dark purple door with vacant windows and a very dark almost black balcony. Macana walked over to the door and knocked. Then, I bet you would not have guessed who opened the door. It was Steve!!! I just couldn’t get and words out of my mouth and after a lone eerie silence I yelled “Steve!” Then he ran.

I was running at full speed now, but he was already five blocks down and turning around the corner. When I realized I was panting I stopped and realized Farisma was chasing me. When she caught up “why did Steve run from you? You screamed then he ran and then you started to run! What happened?” “Well, before I came here to Chozzo, I knew him. We went to school together.” “Oh, well that can’t be possible. Steve will never been able to leave Chozzo. So there’s no way you knew him outside of it.” Macana was shocked and confused. If Steve never left here, how was he in New York? She thought. While sitting inside of Farisma’s home, we waited for Steve to come back.

“So if Steve is a werewolf, what are you?” I asked. “Well, I’m a witch. And please don’t mistake me for someone who rides a broom and wears a pointy hat like in the myths.” Farisma answered back.  Wow, I’m in the presence of a real witch! I wonder what else is real. “Oh, and whatever you do, don’t knock on the neighbors house.” But, before Macana can ask “why” Farisma continued talking. “This is because there are vampires to the right and a witch’s shop to the left. Neither likes to be annoyed.”  “So, what’s a witch’s shop?” “It’s a place where you can get potions and herbs.” “Oh, are there shape shifters and gypsies here too?” Macana asked eagerly. “Yeah but they have the next few blocks over. Shape shifters and gypsies don’t like witches so they stay on their own block as much as possible.” This is just like the story from when I was seven years old!
I heard the door open. “Farisma, are you in here?” It was Steve’s voice.  He cautiously stuck his head into the living room. And when he saw Macana his body froze. “Steve, why did you run away? You left Macana and me waiting here for you for almost an hour. Are you okay?” “I’m fine I was just shocked to see a new comer here. It’s pretty boring around here.”Steve said unusually shaky. Farisma must have heard it too. “Any rules you have broken lately Steve? You sound like you have gotten yourself in trouble. “No, no, no trouble at all.” “From what Macana tells me, you two knew each other out side of Chozzo. Is this correct?” “Well, yes and no.” “I’m confused.”I finally said after an eerie silence.

“How can it be yes and no?” Farisma asked almost amusingly. “Well, about two months ago I sent Grummoon to a place called New York. And while he was there he shifted into me, used my name, and applied himself at I.S.55. That’s where he met Macana and her twin sister. How Macana got here I know nothing about.” Farisma and Steve looked at me. “What?” “How did you get here Macana?” Farisma, obviously paying close attention. “I got hit with a foul ball at this Grummoon dude’s baseball game. I’m still confused about the whole Grummoon-Steve thing.”I said panting.
“The reason you’re confused about Grummoon is because he’s a shape shifter. He has never ever-gotten a feature wrong. That’s why I choose him for the job.” “You see werewolves are territorial and can’t leave their area. So they would send a shape shifter to a place they wish to go. Then, have a gypsy set a psychic connection so you can hear, see, talk, and feel through the shape shifter. It’s actually a very simple process.” Farisma said all-cocky. Now Macana was interested.  Shape shifters, witches, werewolves, gypsies, and vampires. All the things Macana loved. 
“Well it does make sense, so I guess we’re cool then Steve. Right? “Yeah we’re cool Macana. Sorry for all of the commotion.” Macana sighed. How did I end up falling in love with a werewolf? Macana thought. So, later on Macana found out that when she first came to Chozzo, it was 7am. And that would explain why no one was out and about. So now it’s 12o’clock and things only just got started for Macana.

“Hey Farisma, what is there to do here in Chozzo? I asked cautiously.” “Well if you’d like we could go play mini golf. What about you Steve?” After Steve said no about mini golf, we set out and had gone four blocks away from the house and that’s when I first saw three mini golf courses. The first hole was a long patch of blood- red grass and at the end was a mouth. A mouth of teeth and a dripping vampire’s fang! “Um, Farisma where is the hole?” “Well, there isn’t a hole. You have to try to hit the vampire fang. If you do, you win.” “Oh.” So we played the hole and I found out that I’m really bad at mini golf. I missed the fang about 9 times. Ok, so then we moved onto the next hole. Now, it’s kind of hard to describe it, mostly because there was a lot of smoke on the course and because Farisma explained that it’s best if you don’t try to look through the smoke because it’ll make you dizzy.

I did pretty well on that hole because all you had to do was get it past the smoke. Then, we moved onto the third and final hole. Now, for this hole what you had to do was hit a plastic shape shifter when he turned into a bird, which for me was very difficult. I kept hitting when it turned into a cat or a truck. So overall Farisma beat me at all three holes and then I heard a growl. I was afraid it was a hungry werewolf, but as it turns out it was my stomach. “So are there any food places around?” “Yea there’s a,  McDonalds two blocks up the street.”
While we were walking I had a few questions I wanted to ask Farisma. “Does a werewolf really kill people for their organs? Will a vampire suck a human dry if he/she wanted to? Can witches really bring people back from the dead? Can a werewolf loose all of his teeth and grow them back in a matter of seconds? Can a shape shifter turn into and maybe even revive a person’s soul?” “Well, a werewolf does eat people’s organs, a vampire can suck a human dry, witches can’t bring people back from the dead, werewolves’ teeth will grow back within seconds of falling out, and a shape shifter can turn into someone that’s dead but can’t revive their soul. Is that what you wanted to know?” Wow. All I can say is wow. It’s amazing that somebody could know so much about these creatures. Well as they say “takes one to know one”. 

So now that it is about 4o’clock in Chozzo time, and at McDonalds I got a ten piece chicken nugget meal and a vanilla frosty. Even though that was something I could have done at home, it still was awesome! And, the best part was you wouldn’t even be able to tell if the people in McDonalds were humans or creatures. It was just like being home, but… it wasn’t home. “How do I get back to New York?” “Well,  don’t know. I still can’t even figure out how you got here. Maybe you should talk to Grummoon. He lives-well-he lives- no one really knows where shape shifters live. They’re always moving around.” “Great, let’s just make things more complicated.” Macana sighed. Why is everything here so complicated?

So after we caught up with Steve, we went to sit down at Dunkin Donuts and I had an iced mocha latte with extra chocolate syrup. It was astonishing! Farisma had a blue raspberry coolada mixed with very berry, to be truthful, it looked weird. Steve had a soft serve cone of vanilla and strawberry twist. At least that was normal. Now it was about five o’clock and we were just walking on a random block so Steven started to talk “I have a bit of information that I think could help you to find Grummoon. I heard that he currently is on block 92 in the city. We are now on block 90, so we should see his house in about two minutes.  How in the world can they tell the difference? So walking the two blocks only took us about five minutes. At one door, we had stopped; the weirdest thing was that instead of the door being dark purple like the others, this door was black. Not the kind of shady, grayish, black that you normally would see, but it was as black as night fall.

We had knocked on the door. After five more knocks Steve got impatient. So he kicked down the door. Farisma and I exchanged looks, walking through the door that was now in pieces, we realized nobody was there. Now the weirdest thing was that I remembered my story from when I was seven. I remembered that I pretended to be the main character Aza. I remember Aza, Steve, and Farisma walking through the door just as we did. Amazing how that happens huh? We searched around the house; we found a few books, board games, a book of names, and a bunch of pictures. There was also one picture of Steve which I guessed Grummoon used to look like Steve back in New York. Nothing explained where Grummoon could’ve gone. We didn’t know what to do next.

We went for dinner at some diner. I couldn’t concentrate on my food; I just wanted to get home. We ate in total solitude, we all obviously were pondering about how I got to Chozzo in the first place. If we can find out how I got here, maybe it can give us some clues about getting back. We went to the mall. Maybe some shopping could take our minds off things. We went through Hot Topic, Icing, Journeys, Joyce Leslie, and Borders. Absolutely nothing could keep our minds from cluttering. We left the mall at eight o’clock. We didn’t buy anything, and when we reached Farisma and Steve’s house, I realized I had no spare clothes than what I had on. Farisma loaned me a blue night gown. It was a little strange; there were little triangles on it and it was two pieces one tied to my throat coming from the back and another from the front.

I climbed into the bed under the nice thick gray sheets. I don’t know how I did it but I slowly dozed off into sleep. When I woke up I wasn’t in Chozzo anymore. I was on a tilted bed with a wire sticking out of my right hand. I looked around, what I saw was weird; there was one window with fresh flowers and a sink in one corner. A man dressed in what could have been a lab coat or a… doctor! Was I in a hospital! Voices kept talking in the distance. The doctor lifted my eyelids waved a flash light into my eyes. “Macana, Macana, can you hear me?” he asked. “Yes crystal clear.” My head pounded like crazy. “I think I have a headache.” “My dear, I think it’s a little more than a headache. You have had a concussion for two days. Your family is waiting outside.” What???

My mother came in. She was crying. “Mom what’s wrong? Why are you crying? Why am I in a hospital? How did I get here? Where’s Farisma?” “Honey who is Farisma?” I told them about the baseball game, meeting Farisma, seeing Steve, and what we did in Chozzo. When I had finished the story, both of them looked at me with a puzzled faces. After about twenty minutes my mom said, “Sweetie, there is no place called Chozzo and no one called Farisma or Steve. “What…” how, what?

So I went to school and guess what, nobody had ever heard of Steve, how weird. Nobody believes I was actually in Chozzo. They all said that was the concussion talking. I don’t think so it was all too real. What do you think?