Week 12.5 – Frog Boy Redux

Previously: Digger has traveled back in time to become Frog Boy, where he has found a mysterious glowing crystal. And now…

He held the pendant close to his face and examined it. The crystal was the same one, he was sure of it. Same size and shape, although now that he took a closer look at it, he could see something else he hadn’t noticed before. There was some kind of symbol carved into it, nearly invisible against the clear quartz surface and obscured by the blue glow.

He reached a finger up to trace the symbol. The guy he’d taken the pendant from grunted in pain and as his finger brushed against the crystal’s surface, the raucous clatter of the flea market fell away in an instant, replaced by a rushing in his ears as the world grew dark.

The darkness was their motel room; they’d never bothered to turn on the lights, so the only light was what leaked in around the blackout curtains and the flickering light from the TV, which was fine by him. And the rushing noise was once again not the sound of time rushing past his ears, but merely the swirl of the toilet.

[blockquote type=”blockquote_quotes” align=”right”]He ran his fingertip over the mark, halfway expecting to disappear. “There’s something carved on the stone…”[/blockquote]Twain stepped out of the bathroom, glanced at Digger and did a double-take. “Who the hell are you?” he asked, taking up a defensive posture.

Digger ripped off the smelly rubber mask. “Calm down. It’s just me.”

Twain looked at him for a moment, perplexed, taking in the jumpsuit, the frog mask, the swim fins on his feet. And then he burst out laughing. “What the hell were you doing?”

“It’s not even like that,” Digger said. He threw down the mask. “The stupid cup doesn’t work.”

“You didn’t go back in time?” Twain asked as he washed his hands.

“Oh, I went back in time, all right,” Digger said. “I went back almost 15 years and became my own worst enemy. What I didn’t do was prevent the Cobalt Czar from taking his hostage.”

“Are you sure?”

“Do you know what I’m talking about?”

“Of course,” Twain said.

“Then I’m sure,” Digger said. “If we both know about it, then it still happened.”

“Damn,” Twain said. “It sounds less useful than I’d hoped.”

“Tell me about it,” Digger said. “One weird thing, though.”

“What?”

Digger went to the cup, sitting still assembed on the dresser next to the TV. He took it apart and pulled out the crystal, examined it closely. And yes, on one side, he could make out the faint mark carved into its surface. He ran his fingertip over the mark, halfway expecting to disappear. “There’s something carved on the stone,” he told Twain.

“What?” Twain stepped to Digger’s side to peer closely at the surface of the crystal.

“I don’t know,” Digger said. “Looks like a Chinese letter or something.”

“Character,” Twain corrected. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

Before Digger could ask what he was doing, Twain was out the door. He returned about ten minutes later with a small sack from a convenience store. He held out his hand. “Give me the crystal.”

What is Twain planning? And what could the Chinese character mean? Join us next week for the next exciting chapter of Hero Go Home!

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