Silla-Tierra

Book 3 of the mysterious wheelchair

Chapter 1:The Inventor’s Fall

On the 23rd of December there was a winter storm outside. To avoid the weather Mr. Quzefuly, a 75 year old man, was wrapping up a Christmas gift for his 30 year old son, Zuphixy. In the middle of wrapping he saw something that reminded him of his wife. His wife had passed away a year before. She had passed from a complication of ALS which upset him. With eyes filled with tears from grief, he didn't see his yellow and black cordless electric screwdriver resting on the hardwood. His foot had caught the handle, and the tool had spun across the room. It had caused him to lose his balance. So he fell face first onto the floor. His leg bent from under him. It was only once he was on the floor did he even realize what he tripped over. His leg twisted at an unnatural angle.

He lived alone, and his son wasn’t scheduled to arrive until the next day. Mr. Quzefuly realized with a heavy heart that he would be stuck lying in his living room for the next twelve hours. The warmth from the fireplace kept him warm as the night progressed. The smell of smoke gave comfort and his body gave in to sleep.

When he awoke the next morning, the storm had disappeared. Unknown to him the sun was brightly shining. He had no clue what time it was, until the grandfather clock rang at ten in the morning. He was surprised that it was that time because he believed his son Zuphixy, and his family were supposed to be at his place at eight that morning. It was still dark in the house with the blackout curtains closed still.

Meanwhile across town, Zuphixy was digging out his car while his wife Purpleten was trying to get a hold of Mr. Quzefuly. She was trying to let him know that they would be late due to the storm the night before. But when she got no answer she became scared. In panic she decided to send her son Zoofixty Jr. to go check on his grandfather by snowboarding across town. Snowboarding was the only way to get there with so much snow on the streets. Reluctantly he agreed when he heard that they couldn't get a hold of his grandfather.

He let himself in with a spare key his father gave him. They had the key just for this reason. After closing the door behind him the smell of welding got to him. As he was not used to the smell, he found that it was a strong smell in the house. He took off his wet boots and snow gear. After he was sure that he was respecting his grandparents rule, he called out “Grampa are you here? My parents sent me to check on you. There's so much snow outside they can't get the car dug out so I came by using my snowboard to let you know.”

Now, Mr. Quzefuly heard Zoofixy Jr.’s voice as he was lying face down on the living room floor. When he tried to respond his voice was too muffled to understand, as was talking into the floor. Zoofixy Jr. could hear where his grandfather's voice was coming from so he walked into the living room. He was shocked at the sight he saw and stopped dead in his tracks. Only after Mr. Quzefuly banged his hand on the floor, Zoofixy Jr. snapped out of it and rushed to his grandfather's landline phone. He called his father who was a surgeon at the local hospital. His father told him to call for an ambulance right away, which Zoofixy Jr. did. Because of the snow outside, the ambulance had a hard time getting there fast. Which was very stressful for Zoofixy Jr. and his grandfather.

Meanwhile Zoofixy Jr.'s mother was left out of what was going on. She was still planning to celebrate Christmas at Mr. Quzefulys. Seeing as she used to be a living wheelchair in Silla-Tierra ten years ago, she did not understand how bad things were. She stayed at home baking treats for Christmas.

Purpleton was known around the town as a woman who always wore purple, with purple makeup. Because she was a chair for most of her life, she didn’t know how to put makeup on very well. Most people in the town thought that she was a bit eccentric and tried to stay away from interacting with her. Purpleten noticed people acting differently around her, which made her feel a bit isolated. She tends to stay home a lot more than she would like to.

Now no one knows how long Mr. Quzefuly has been laying there. He himself did not even know because before he had fallen he was so busy with the gift he had no idea of what time it was. So the medical people had to assume the worst. Dr. Zuphixy had arranged for Mr. Quzefuly to go straight into surgery, bypassing the emergency department. Dr. Zuphixy had got everything prearranged and had all the paperwork fill out before Mr. Quzefuly had even got to the hospital. Mr. Quzefuly in his way of belittling the situation, tried to stand up as the nurses were transferring him to the surgery table. He said, “Oh it’s ok. I don't need the surgery. I just tripped, I can walk. Let’s go open the gifts.” As he was talking they put the sleeping gas mask on him and he started to dream about the Christmas he was supposed to be having.

As that was going on, back home Purpleten was still baking up a storm of Christmas snacks for Zoofixy Jr. When the ambulance took his grandfather away to the hospital, Zoofixy Jr. snow boarded back home and told Purpleten what happened. Because she lived in Silla-Tierra all her life, to her the grandfather's broken leg is no big deal because she sees it as nothing bigger than a flat tire. Zoofixy Jr. kept thinking about his grandfather. He was scared out of his wits that he was going to lose his grandfather. He had forgotten what life in Silla-Tierra was like, as they had lived here in the human world for just as long as he had in Silla-Tierra.

After the surgery, Mr. Quzefuly was allowed to go home in a wheelchair on christmas eve. Zoofixy Jr. went to the hospital to pick his grandfather up. Just as Dr. Zuphixy was using his own wheelchair to pull Mr. Quzefuly out of the hospital with a rope, Mr. Quzefuly and the wheelchair just vanished. Leaving Zuphixy sitting there with the rope dragging on the ground behind him. Zuphixy is frozen in shock, in his brain he thought; it is impossible for someone to just disappear.