The History of the Ear Men

Chapter 1: Catkaty Learns About Silla-Tierra

One spring evening, six-year-old Catkaty was getting ready for bed. She suddenly asked her mother, “Can you tell me the story of the living wheelchairs again?”

Purpleten said, “I was living in a land where everyone is a wheelchair. The land was called Silla‑Tierra. My dad told me that his great‑grandmother was the first generation to be living wheelchairs. I never knew what it was like not being one. From what he told me, she was going to school just like you are.

“One day, a boy came into class who was not in a wheelchair. Instead, he could walk, which had never happened before. She didn’t think much of it until other kids started making fun of him. They weren’t making fun of him for walking. They were making fun of him because his body was covered in pimples that looked like ears.

“As he got older, the spots that looked like ears also got bigger, and more of them appeared. Other kids kept making fun of him, which only made him mad.”

Catkaty interrupted, “But she was not a wheelchair yet, right?”

Purpleten said, “Yes, you’re right! Why do you want me to tell you this story if you already know it?”

Catkaty answered, “Kids at school were asking me about my family, and I want to make sure I say it right.”

Purpleten said, “Okay, but why don’t you tell me the story, and I can correct you if you get something wrong?”

Catkaty sighed and said, “Well… because you do it better!”

Purpleten gave her daughter a hug and continued the story.

Okay. By this time, the boy with the spots that looked like ears was going to high school. He got himself a job fixing wheelchairs. Some of his classmates had started fighting with him. To get back at them, he picked a heart‑shaped flower and used it to paint a chair. He thought it would turn bright red, but instead it turned the chair royal purple!”

Catkaty interrupted again, “What does that have to do with our family history?”

Purpleten said, “I was getting to that. I think it’s important to talk about the color, because that’s why we like that purple shade more than your dad does.”

Just then, Zuphixy, a normal human who uses a wheelchair to get around and who is also Catkaty’s father, came into the room and said, “How many times are you going to want to hear the story? She only knows her part of it. She doesn’t know my part, which comes later.”

Purpleten said, “Well, you can tell her your part when we get there, but for now I’ll continue the story until that part. You come about Two Thousand years later, or as my parents called it, ‘wheels.’

“Back to the boy with the spots that looked like ears. He gave his newly painted wheelchair to one of the boys who had been making fun of him.”

Catkaty exclaimed, “This is getting to the good part!”

Purpleten ignored her daughter and continued the story. “Just as the boy sat in his new wheelchair, something magical happened. The next thing he knew, his body had turned into a wheelchair.”

Just then, Catkaty’s older brother walked into the room, dripping wet and asking for a towel, as he had just come out of the shower. Without looking at her son, Purpleten said, “Check the cupboard.” Instead of getting a towel, he sat down on his sister’s bed to listen to the story.

Purpleten said, “The boy with the ear shapes, which had now become a man, grabbed us and took us prisoner. I’m not really sure what your father did, but with his help we managed to escape. I was so scared I couldn’t even talk to your dad.”

“The funny thing was, in order to escape, your father had to swim across a lake, pulling me on a raft. Being a wheelchair, I can’t get wet. That was the first time I ever saw a creature in the water.”

“After that, all the wheelchairs I knew came and took us home. Your father stayed and lived with us. Once we were adults, your dad worked for the local police as a detective to keep the man with the ears away from our town. I think he did a good job of it.”

Zoofixy Jr. said, “I’ll take the story from here, because I know it’s about me! I don’t like how you make me sound like the bad one.” Purpleten said, “Okay, but I want your sister to understand that some of what you did back then was wrong.”

Zoofixy Jr. said, “I know, but what’s done is done, and she should understand why I did what I did.”

“Anyway, when I was eight years old, our dad took me to a local beach where he taught me how to make sandcastles. Suddenly, a group of men with the ear shapes grabbed me and took me to their basement. They gave me a bowl and said, “Eat now.”

The stuff inside looked strange to me, because I wasn’t used to the kind of food they ate. Their food was like my Dad’s human food. I could recognize it as my dad’s food, since he still ate human food, while we wheelchairs would eat leaves as candy and trunks of trees as what humans call broccoli.”

“They told me that if my parents didn’t have a child, then the spell could never be broken, and they could keep making wheelchairs.”

Catkaty looked at her brother and asked, “Weren’t you scared?”

Zoofixy Jr. replied, “No, not really. I figured Dad would come sooner or later. He always came to the rescue. Then those men left me in the forest your mother mentioned earlier. Soon after that, our dad found me there and took me home. I was so glad to see him, but just as I thought things were going to calm down, he vanished from my life for a while.”

Zoofixy Jr. ran out of the room, crying at the memory. Purpleten had to remind him that everything was good now before he continued the story.”

After returning to his sister’s room, he said, “That’s why I started all the fires in town. I was hoping it would bring back Dad. But…” He looked at his mom to see if he should say anything about the streaking, then continued, “Over the next year, I kept acting out to get Dad to come back, because at the time I didn’t understand where he had gone.”

“When I turned seventeen, our grandmother, from Dad’s side of the family, showed up at our house. Until that day, I didn’t even know we had her. At first, I didn’t trust that she was who she said she was. Then, around that time, Dad showed up, and that’s when I learned he had gone to another world. One I didn’t even know existed.”

“That’s when I learned about the magic of the heart‑shaped flowers, which sent our whole family to that world for the first time. Soon after, Grandmother passed away from ALS. After that, Grandfather hurt his hips, and we all found ourselves in that world again.”

“I wanted to stay there, so I tried to get rid of the flowers. Instead I ended up back in this world just before you were born. Soon after, the rest of our family returned here too, and we’ve been here ever since.”

Catkaty interrupted, “How does someone get to that magic world?”

Purpleten said, “From what your dad told me, you must sit in a purple wheelchair to go there. To get back, you need power from the heart‑shaped flower.”

Catkaty said, “But Dad sits in a wheelchair all the time, and he doesn’t always go to that other world. Why?”

Purpleten said, “I think it only works when that world needs our family’s help.”