Junior High

1st Place
The Thirteenth Dimension
by
Nancy Dabu • 8th Grade

The Thirteenth Dimension, as it was called, is still spoken of in a fearful whisper, even though no one can recall the fateful day it was driven to its demise by deceit—its sturdy walls crumbling like the cement pillars of Troy. It was a highly unusual world; perhaps the only to be ruled, not by humans, but by horses, horses that are as intelligent as you or I, and far more clever.

Irony played a cruel hand in its fate, as The Thirteenth Dimension was destroyed from within by corruption, and corruption would soon restore it to its former glory.

The Dimensioners, as they called themselves, scattered when their home ceased to exist. Exactly when this happened, nobody is certain, and the only clue we have about the true reason for The Thirteenth Dimension's ruin can be found in its infamously power-hungry citizens. In various places, former residents of the Dimension, their descendants, or even others that had passed through its borders on their travels, still like to discuss the topic if things are uneventful. Like many other stories, it has been told and retold so many times that each version is slightly different, and often the only similarity arguing villagers can find among themselves is they had begun and ended in the same place.

Awhile ago, not quite so long that there were no living Dimensioners remaining, but long enough that these Dimensioners were treated with unparalleled reverence that stemmed from fear, two horses began to establish The Thirteenth Dimension as a great empire. One was Relic, a vindictive and irritable soul of a deep ebony hue and a regal stature fit for a king. The other was Caliph, who had the grand presence of a queen and was renowned for her beauty and prowess. As the sun set one lazy summer day, an angry voice was heard, one unfamiliar to the Dimensioners and very frightening indeed. Many flocked to the site, but the voice's owner was gone, and despite their attempts, they had failed to hear much. What they did hear, however, was positively exciting:

"With closed eyes and exposed fears, Caliph, you will be devoured: for your worth, your life, and your throne . . ."

For years afterwards, those who witnessed the look of pure terror in Caliph's eyes would marvel at how quickly she seemed to realize The Thirteenth Dimension would never again enjoy peace.

If envy had not clouded their judgment, surely they would have been alarmed and disdainful, because Caliph was merciful and good. Unfortunately for her, she did not evoke much fear in her subjects, and thus they did not hold the same respect towards her as they did for Relic.

There was a low buzz the next day as everyone rushed to exchange opinions and details. The gossip united the Dimensioners, who had long been split into four quarrelsome nations: Eaglecrest, Hawkmeadow, Gullshore, and Ravenglade. Many of them approached Caliph—mothers clutching children close to their sides.

"I told you," Caliph said stubbornly, on the seventh occasion she was approached. She was quite irritable—a deviation from her usual amiable self, something the eavesdropping birds eagerly took of note.

"All this power has turned her funny," said Bloodlust, her trusted second-in-command.

The Gulls exchanged dark looks, and as they spread the rumor that Caliph's own allies no longer had faith in her; hardly anyone believed their queen was still an able ruler. Few cared that the Gulls were regarded as the most treacherous and mistrusted of all The Thirteenth Dimension's nations. They were too busy enjoying the excitement.

The Eagles were also mistrusted, but only because they had a fierce loyalty to other Eagles and were often more cunning and successful than the other birds. The Ravens and Hawks were, for the most part, peaceful. They had never before instigated a conflict or declared war, but even they did not remain loyal to Caliph for long. The Ravens tried vainly to declare themselves neutral, but upon realizing their failure, chose to side with the other birds against Caliph and her weakened rule.

"If you do not support our mutiny of Caliph, we will leave and find ourselves a new ruler, because you alone, Relic, are our leader—she is far too timid and inept," they declared unanimously, nodding fervently—emboldened by their numbers.

The Dimensioners reeled with shock. Relic had always come across as power-hungry, ill tempered, and careless; they had expected him to heed their complaints and exile Caliph in order to keep his own throne.

"Go." Relic continued, "You are not wanted here . . . find yourselves a new home, a new ruler." He spoke harshly, as if they were wasting his time.

The Dimensioners were embarrassed and angry. "Keeping his loyalties with Caliph and not us! We will leave," cried Bloodlust, "and leave them here to rot!"

Her words were met with enthusiastic cheers and scattered nods. Blinded by greed, they left, gazing at Relic and Caliph with contempt as they passed. The sun set on empty fields, because The Thirteenth Dimension and its residents no longer existed.

"That was clever, Caliph, one of your more sinister ideas," said Relic with a satisfied smirk.

"Yes, well, they never did learn . . . " she said slowly. "Nothing is ever what it seems."

Shelliana Joel Brandshucks was the most beautiful person in Tuckstun City. Well, she wasn't exactly a person. Many words in the human language would fit: extra-terrestrial being, alien life form, Martian. She referred to herself as a perfectly normal, attractive resident of Mars. Shelli (as her friends called her), was rather stuck-up and just a little bit too proud of her appearance. Miss Brandshuck's long green hair (the most popular hair color on Mars) and perfect smile were, and still are, the envy of the planet. One day she married a handsome young Martian named Varn and they decided to have a child.

That's when the problems started.

On the day of the baby's birth the whole city was watching. Naturally, everyone expected the baby to get its looks from the mother. That is why everybody was quite disappointed. First of all, Shelli gave birth to twins. To an Earthling's eyes the tiny girl and little boy were very cute indeed. The girl had blond hair, light skin, and two big brown eyes that looked in wonder at the disgusted faces peering down at her. The boy looked identical to his sister, except his large eyes were the color of the sky. But on Mars, blond hair was unheard of, skin color was either pink or orange (preferably pink), and nobody had two eyes. Occasionally a Martian appeared who had one eye, but the majority of the planet had four.

Shelli was ashamed and gave her children to scientists to study. Right before she did so, however, she gave the babies the ugliest names she could think of: Elizabeth and John.

The scientists claimed neither were of the Martian race, nor related to any species of animal on the planet. As they continued to do tests, they announced that the children had two lungs apiece and only one heart. Although astronomers on Mars were very advanced and knew of many alien races on other planets, none they had studied fitted that description. Nobody knew what to do with the twins, so the scientists decided to keep them for testing.

It was wonderful coincidence, that at that moment, using very high tech gear, Mars construction workers were building a planet. They decided it should be small and covered mostly with oceans amongst seven continents—a simple design. It would be quite amusing using Doppler radar or digital watches to observe future inhabitants of the planet struggle for millions of years. Now they had to think of a good name that would fit the planet. At first it was Mercury, but they wanted to save that for a future planet. It was Jadone Jocksons who thought of the perfect appellation: "Earth, we shall call it!" he announced to the other workers. It was a rather sensible name because, in the Martian language, ear means mostly and th means water.

On the day scheduled for Earth to launch into its fixed orbit around the sun, Shelli came up with a brilliant idea: "Why not put these two monsters on Earth and cast the planet into space with them on it!" All the residents of Mars concurred and the children were set inside the rocket and blasted off.

The two children became the very first inhabitants of our beautiful planet Earth. Elizabeth and John were very happy, but, for them, how they had originally materialized remained a mystery. After all, they were just babies at the time. As the twins grew, they decided to call their new race "humans." And in case you are wondering, the whole caveman thing was just a hoax Elizabeth devised to explain their strange appearance on the planet.

By the way, you may also be wondering: "Where on earth was the father during all these events? How could he have let all this happen?" Well, I didn't like it any more than you. My wife totally took over when she saw our kids. Shelli had the whole planet against me! But I guess it turned out for the better. I mean, Elizabeth and John did start off your population, right?

And, I wasn't lying when I said I was handsome.

It was a chilly afternoon in July. I was teaching my class about the planets. How Grady Merghart discovered Jupiter and Fred Zupthpen claimed Pluto. (As always Zener Von Shnitzel the 22nd was throwing spitballs at Adam Rice. He was looking forward to detention, again.) When I was about to get into Saturn's Rings, we were interrupted by principal Tyliesh Maximesh the 3rd's voice on the speaker: "Get into the shelter; aliens have landed! HURRY!"

Soon everyone was screaming and running into the shelter. As assistant principal, I made sure the other classes made it in safely; I also went to stand in the doorway to tell hysterical passersby there was a safe haven in the school. After a few more moments of waiting, I saw aliens! I ran quickly into the shelter and shut the doors.

A few hours of silence went by, then Adam Rice started saying things like: "They've come to study us" and "They're going to take us away." He was scaring the little kids. I told him to shut up, even though I knew he was probably right. Kindergartners started crying: "WE'RE HUNGRY! WE'RE HUNGRY!" I gave them food, and, as it was late, I sent the children to bed. Once they were asleep, the adults and I talked about the situation for hours. Then we went to bed, but as soon as we were going, BANG! The door busted open and in came the aliens!

Linda Intveld ran to protect the children, when there was another BANG!—and she fell dead. The aliens came closer. I saw Adam and Zener watching as they grabbed us, and took us to their ship. Inside, there were a lot of huge empty tubes and one had Principal Maximesh in it.

The aliens studied us for years. When they were finally going to leave, they threw me out and put the rest in tubes. Painfully, I watched the aliens' ship take off. When I went back to the shelter I found many had died. The survivors took an oath to find the aliens' planet and destroy it.

Years later (after they finally had graduated), Adam and Zener found the planet and declared war. I watched as they set off to the planet called . . . Earth.

An update of Aesop's classic fable The Ant and the Grasshopper. This time the lazy anteater watches TV and plays with action figures while the industrious ant sews and insulates his home for winter. When the cold sets in, who will survive?

Trying to teach a twelve-foot-high monster good manners—and hiding him from your mother is never easy . . .

Young Soto writes about America's favorite pastime with a boy named Sam and a dog named Bob.