The Land of Yesterday Read online

  Dedication

  For my mother, to whom I threw the letter, and for my grandmother, who caught it. You are the light and the love and the daisies. Every story leads back to you.

  (And for the one reading this now, who may need a friend to help navigate the darkness, listen close. I’ve traveled this dark path before and know where the lanterns are hidden. It’s treacherous to go alone. But if you’re ready, take my hand. We can walk together.

  I’ll tell you a story along the way. . . .)

  Epigraph

  COURAGE, DEAR HEART.

  —C. S. LEWIS

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Chapter 1: The Tuesday Cecelia Thought Tuesdays Couldn’t Get Any Worse

  Chapter 2: The Tragedy of Celadon Ignatius Dahl

  Chapter 3: The House of Widdendream

  Chapter 4: The Miraculously Magical Pen

  Chapter 5: A Surprise from the Other Side

  Chapter 6: A Ghost with Pale-Green Eyes

  Chapter 7: Into the Monster’s Mouth

  Chapter 8: Through the Rabbit Hole

  Chapter 9: The Dröm Ballong and Two Very Curious Gnomes

  Chapter 10: The Boy and His Sheep

  Chapter 11: The Planet of Nightmares

  Chapter 12: He Loved His Sister Most of All

  Chapter 13: The Haunted Galaxy

  Chapter 14: The Caterwaul of the Land of Yesterday

  Chapter 15: Mother, Is That You?

  Chapter 16: Nothing Will Make Me Forget

  Chapter 17: Slippery, Crumply Things

  Chapter 18: A Prisoner and a Daring Escape

  Chapter 19: A Trail, a Lock, and an Unusually Heroic Key

  Chapter 20: An Unlikely Ally

  Chapter 21: A Bittersweet Not-Goodbye

  Chapter 22: A Stairway to the Bottom of the Sea

  Chapter 23: The Mysterious Torment Surrounding Aubergine

  Chapter 24: The Hideous Truth

  Chapter 25: Widdendream’s Confession

  Chapter 26: The Pen Really Is Mightier Than the Sword

  Chapter 27: The Beginning After the End

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Chapter 1

  The Tuesday Cecelia Thought Tuesdays Couldn’t Get Any Worse

  Six weeks plus one day ago, Cecelia Dahl understood the world. She resided in a town called Hungrig, in a crooked house named Widdendream. Daisies circled the lake outside her window. Sharp mountains loomed over her town. Cecelia’s midnight-blue hair grew long, fast, and cantankerous. Dogs barked. Cats meowed. Widdendream cared for its residents, as all good houses should. And Cecelia’s family loved her, unconditionally.

  Then Monday rolled into Tuesday and Cecelia did the bad thing. Now the world had narrowed down to this: Tuesday hated Cecelia and Cecelia hated it back.

  It being another evil Tuesday, Cecelia didn’t want to go to school. But today being evil, what she wanted didn’t matter.

  Upon first inspection, her classroom appeared nonthreatening. Same faces, same teacher, same desk. Still, she had to keep reminding herself that even ax murderers looked pleasant enough with their axes behind their backs.

  To distract herself, Cecelia made sketches with her special pen. She drew daisies, and an interstellar hot-air balloon exploring unknown lands. She sneaked peeks at her favorite adventure book, Around the World in Eighty Minutes, while Miss Podsnappery assured the class that the Gnomes of the Stratosphere of Now most certainly did not exist.

  In Cecelia’s opinion, people who didn’t believe in fantastical things were awfully hard to listen to.

  “Cecelia?” Miss Podsnappery pushed up her horn-rimmed glasses and sidled over to Cecelia’s desk. “Whatever do you call that instrument in your hand?”

  Every eye in class turned to Cecelia. They judged her charcoal sweater, black-and-gray-striped dress, frayed tights, and scuffed boots before moving on to her unique fountain pen. It had a barrel of gold and glass made to resemble a map of the stars. Its cap was carved like the gears of a clock and screwed on tight. The inner lapis-blue ink cartridge even came with a special plug to keep the ink inside, and there was not another like it in all the world. Usually, Cecelia left her pen at home, but today, she felt she might need it.

  “This,” Cecelia replied, holding up the device in question, “is what is called a pen.” Miss Podsnappery was a kind yet simple creature and quite easily confused, so Cecelia tried to keep her answers as straightforward as possible.

  “A pen you say?” Miss Podsnappery grinned, displaying two rows of skewed yellow teeth. “Imagine!” She unhunched herself from over Cecelia’s desk and turned to the class. “Isn’t that wonderful?”

  The class replied with silence, the language of tumbleweeds and gape-mouth stares.

  “Yes,” Cecelia said with a sigh. “Though it’s no ordinary pen. My mother gave it to me last year. She claimed it could perform miracles, ones that brought the writer and reader together, like magic.” Cecelia lowered her eyes and wrapped her hair around her neck like a scarf. “Once, I even believed it powerful enough to reach those who’d passed into the Land of Yesterday. Now I’m not so sure.”

  “Ah.” Miss Podsnappery nodded, eyebrows crumpled into squiggly lines. “I understand completely.”

  But Cecelia knew Miss Podsnappery didn’t understand what she was talking about. Like many adults, her teacher’s imagination had shrunk considerably since childhood. Had Cecelia told Miss Podsnappery about the letters she’d tried sending to Yesterday, or the awful thing she’d done to prompt them, her teacher’s brain might have exploded. Cecelia would not take that chance. She had hurt enough people already.

  Without warning, Miss Podsnappery’s birdlike head jerked toward the door. A hush fell over the class. Distant footsteps drew closer outside in the hall. Miss Podsnappery gulped. “Principal Furbelow.”

  It was a well-known fact that their principal detested leaving his office for any reason other than a student emergency or full-blown calamity. It being evil Tuesday, Cecelia stared down at her fidgeting hands, certain of only one thing.

  Something terrible was coming.

  And it was coming for her.

  Cecelia squeezed her special pen tighter. As she did, memories of her mother flooded her mind. Of strolling to the lake holding hands as the wind played toss with their hair. Of sharing stories by the water’s edge, surrounded by daisies. Cecelia could almost hear their laughter now. Once, she had known how to make her mother smile.

  Not anymore.

  Principal Furbelow’s footfalls hit the hall like thunderclaps shouting Cecelia’s name.

  CE—CE—LIA—DAHL.

  CE—CE—LIA—DAHL.

  The desks shook. The window glass trembled. The skies darkened to hurricane gray. Principal Furbelow knocked on the door.

  Thud.

  Thud.

  THUD.

  And Miss Podsnappery let him in.

  Every child followed the principal with a pointed gaze. He stopped at Cecelia’s desk, as she knew he would, and stared down at her. Her skin crawled with terror. She wanted to run and hide. But evil Tuesday had her trapped. When the principal opened his mouth to speak, Cecelia braced herself.

  “????? ????, ???’?? ???? ?? ???? ???? ??.” A series of groans and grunts and alien sounds she didn’t understand was all she heard when he spoke.

  Cecelia turned in confusion and asked Penelope Ness, who sat in the desk behind her, “Could you understand what he said?” But all that came out of Penelope’s mouth were honks and coughs and nonsense, a foreign language of farts.

&
nbsp; Cecelia swung around to Bram Popinjay—a friend with fabulous hair and crooked teeth. Bram enjoyed Cecelia’s strangeness, unlike most everyone else. “Bram, can you understand me?” She pointed at the principal. “Can you understand him?”

  Bram shook his head sadly and answered, “?’?? ?????? ?????????? ???. ??? ??? ????? ??? ???? ???? ??????.”

  Word farts.

  Oh souls.

  She’d read about this phenomenon, technically known as “Wordfartopotamus Syndrome,” in Fantastical Maladies Weekly. Some experts didn’t believe in the syndrome. Those who did claimed the ailment came and went without warning, and affected only those who’d lost loved ones to Yesterday. The article said individuals caught under its spell experienced a language breakdown so severe, anyone they encountered who had never lost a loved one sounded identical to trumpeting farts. But why would she get this now, and not six weeks earlier when she’d lost her brother?

  Unless Yesterday had taken another someone she loved.

  Cecelia, still looking helplessly at Bram, spun around so fast at the thought, her hair swept her desk and knocked her neatly organized pencils and perfectly stacked papers to the floor. She glanced at the mess and gasped. Her chin trembled. Heat prickled her eyes and Cecelia burst into tears, right in the middle of class.

  Six weeks and one day earlier, random outbreaks of Wordfartopotamus Syndrome and messes of pencils and papers wouldn’t have bothered her a bit. But now everything brought panic and fear.

  When Principal Furbelow motioned for her to stand, Cecelia grabbed her things, and gripped her special pen tight. She thought of her mother, who shared her midnight-blue hair, bronze skin, and odd arrangement of freckles. Not long ago, they shared most things, except for ice-cream cones, toothpicks, the way they hung the toilet-paper roll, and, lastly, their eyes. Cecelia’s were as midnight blue as her hair, yet her mother’s were bluish purple, the same shade as her name, Mazarine. Icy slime pulsed through Cecelia’s veins as Principal Furbelow led Cecelia from class.

  Descending the second-floor staircase, Cecelia’s footsteps echoed into infinity. Each clunk knocked on a door to her memories. Cecelia recalled the time her mother took her little brother to the lake instead of her. How Celadon had even returned with daisies in his hair. “Why did you take him and not me?” Cecelia asked, hurt. “Daisies by the lake are our special thing.”

  Her mother held her closer and smiled. “I have a story for you. Did you know that on the day of your birth, you left a piece of your heart inside me?” Cecelia shook her head, eyes wide. “It’s true. A strand of your unique you-ness wound out from your heart and rooted into mine like a seed. Soon after, that thread of Cecelianess bloomed into a daisy, and filled me with the most glorious light. I shone so brightly, another seed took root, and soon, it blossomed into a daisy right beside yours.”

  Cecelia glared, and groaned, “Celadon.”

  The corners of Mazarine’s eyes crinkled like tiny bird feet. “You should feel proud, Cecelia. That second bloom could have sprung up anywhere, but chose to be by your side, to always look up to you.” Cecelia rested her head on her mother’s chest, listening for the flowers in her heart. And as she drifted off to sleep, her mother whispered warmly in Cecelia’s ear, “Daisies will always remind me of you. . . .”

  With a few parting honks and gassy declarations, Principal Furbelow escorted Cecelia outside onto the front steps. He nodded to someone in the distance, patted her shoulder, and then left Cecelia to her fate.

  Fog rolled through the parking lot toward her. It didn’t take long for a familiar form to slog out of the mist. Mussed black hair, smudges of dirt on his face, eggplant-colored suit, buttoned and hung all wrong.

  Father.

  Aubergine Dahl shuffled up the school steps toward Cecelia. He stared at her as if searching for something to say—something he couldn’t find. Yet, despite the panic lighting fireworks in her veins, Cecelia rushed him with open arms, and squeezed.

  He smelled of misery, musty basements, and home.

  “What’s happened?” Cecelia grabbed his filthy lapels. He continued to stare at her blankly, with eyes so like her brother Celadon’s, pale green as shallow seas. “Why are you here early? Say something. Anything to let me know you and Mother are okay.”

  Her father pushed a stray bit of hair out of Cecelia’s eye and gave her a sad smile. “I’ve been better. But I’ll live. I’ll tell you the rest in the c—”

  “Oh my souls!” Cecelia screeched so loud, blackbirds propelled from the trees. “You understood me. I had a feeling you would, but for a moment, I worried you wouldn’t.”

  Aubergine gave her a curious look and guided her through the fog. “Many things are perplexing, Cecelia. But my understanding of you is not one of them.”

  In the car, a clump of freshly pulled daisies lay across the dash. Cecelia chose a strand of her hair and gnawed. When the strand tried squirming away, she held tighter.

  Unable to hold her questions any longer, she finally asked, “This is about Mother, isn’t it? Tuesday’s finally gotten to her, hasn’t it?”

  Aubergine stayed quiet so long, his silence grew around them like cobwebs, pinning them inside the car. After a deep breath, he answered, “She’s gone, Cecelia.”

  “Gone?” Cecelia stuffed her hands into her sleeves and hugged herself tight. Her eyes stung with more stupid tears. She used to be brave—fighting invisible monsters with her Joan of Arc replica sword, daydreaming about sailing away on more adventures. But now nothing made sense, not even herself. “What do you mean, gone?”

  “She left to look for your brother in the Land of Yesterday. She just couldn’t stand being away from him any longer. I told her I was working on a way we could all go together. An invention I’d been working on for years but never had reason to perfect until . . . until Celadon left us. But a taxi had already come for her, and wouldn’t wait.” He met Cecelia’s eyes. “I’m afraid that if your mother does find him, she might not return.”

  No! Cecelia thought fiercely. No, no, no!

  Her mother had suffered terrible despair since her brother’s death, during which time she barely spoke to Cecelia at all. But she never thought she’d leave; despite everything, Cecelia never thought her mother would leave her.

  “Why didn’t you go after her—why didn’t you stop her?” Cecelia clenched her fists and willed back stinging tears. “How could you just let her go?”

  Lightning flashed across the darkening sky.

  “I did everything I could to convince her to stay. But sometimes, despite our best efforts, people leave anyway, even when we don’t want them to.” He poked the tip of her nose. “Besides, how could I leave without you?”

  Thunder rolled overhead. It reminded Cecelia of her mother’s laughter during summer downpours. How whenever thunderstorms moved over Hungrig, she and her mother would race outside onto the hill and dance in the rain until they were soaked and their cheeks hurt. Laugh until they fell to the grass and cried tears of joy. Now she might never hear her mother’s laughter again.

  Cecelia’s heart twisted like a bloody rag.

  She never even said goodbye.

  Chapter 2

  The Tragedy of Celadon Ignatius Dahl

  Monday prior to the first evil Tuesday had been typical. Cecelia had spent the early morning cutting out paper dolls and shouting at her brother to go away. After school, she’d played outside—dressing up the neighbor’s cat, Fresno, in his favorite bonnet of flowers, stars, and swirls. Come twilight, her father called her indoors.

  “Looks like our fun has come to an end, Sir Fresno the Wicked, but tomorrow is coattails-and-hat day, don’t forget.” Cecelia—reluctantly—dehatted Fresno, while her hair patted the tabby’s sleek black fur. “See you tomorrow!” Cecelia shouted as she and Fresno skidded away in opposite directions.

  “Father?”

  “Up here, Cecelia,” Aubergine called from her bedroom. What was he doing in there? As much as she loved her parents, she de
spised her parents entering her room. Every adventurer needed a sanctuary—a place to unwind from adventuring—and Cecelia’s bedroom was hers.

  As she stomped up the staircase, plaster dust rained from the walls. Widdendream huffed and puffed and struggled to patch the deepening cracks as Cecelia clomped her way up.

  Aubergine Dahl stood in the center of her rug—or rather, in the center of a pile of clothes and yarn and paper and shoes and books and trash and cups and plates and art and sandwich crusts—shaking his head. “It’s a wonder you find your bed among this rubbish,” her father said while taking extra-high steps out of the pile of refuse. “You’ll need to clean this up before bed. Understand?”

  Cecelia scowled; her traitorous hair gave a clap. For some reason, it enjoyed cleaning messes. “But—”

  “Clean your room now, or no new books—library books included—for three months.” The devilish man crossed his arms with a smirk. “Take it or leave it.”

  He knew perfectly well she’d always take that deal. In the end, she grunted, “Fine.”

  “Excellent.” Without another word, her father left Cecelia (and her hair) to her work.

  Once she (and her hair) had finished cleaning, Cecelia burst out of her bedroom on her way to brush her teeth when she spied the freshly polished banister. The wood gleamed in the hall lights like a wave beneath a full moon, begging to be surfed. Her hair pulled toward it, echoing Cecelia’s craving, itching for a ride, too.

  Needing no more convincing, Cecelia did the thing she’d been warned not to do more than any other not-to-do thing. She grabbed onto the knob at the top of the staircase banister, pulled herself up, and balanced the rail like a surfer. After a minute of imagining herself dominating the world’s biggest wave, she readied to slide down the railing all the way to the bottom. Except, while lowering herself, her foot slipped and knocked the banister knob to the floor.

  “Oh souls.” The broken knob bounced loudly on the landing and stopped.

  Her mother would not be impressed.