The whole side of the floater, that's what they called their ship, slid up like an invisible garage door. Since I could see right through the craft's walls, it was disorienting. How do they keep from bumping into see-through walls?

My leg felt amazing. Those see-through bandages and probably the pain medication made it possible to walk. One of the men in purple held onto my arm to steady me. That was probably a really good idea. I wasn't certain of my footing.

What they called the dock wasn't like anything I'd ever seen before. Once we stepped onto the platform, and walked down a couple of stairs to the ground floor, I looked around. Wow! This was so cool. The walls appeared to be illuminated from within. Everything was lighted perfectly without any shadows. The floor was some sort of rock, I think, at least if felt like stone. The ceiling, well I couldn't really see a ceiling, it must have been real far up. It was like all the walls stretched up, and up, and up until they just disappeared.

While I was gawking at the walls and looking for a ceiling--whoosh. Click. Another craft slid into the bay. This docking area was enormous and all along the sides were strange machines and grayish boxes with screens like televisions, but with numbers and stuff. None of them made a sound, but all were turned on and working, I could tell because of the blinking lights in various shades of red, yellow, blue, and green. There were a lot of people seated at desks or engaged in their jobs. When they moved, they walked briskly from one place to another. I had the feeling that when my craft came in everything had stopped. All eyes had been watching. All ears had been listening. Not now. Now, it was back to work.

We stopped just in front of our rescue ambulance and watched while the side panel on the other one zipped open. Out came two people, a man, and a woman dressed in the same style jumpsuits, only blue instead of purple. Each of them held the arm of someone and when they turned around I saw that they were escorting Freck and Mrs. Anderton. I wanted to run over to them, but the man gently told me, "You better not. Remember your injured leg. Even though it feels good now you could harm it by overdoing. Also, even without an injury first-time visitors need time to adjust. To find their sea legs. You would probably fall over." To prove it, he let go and sure enough, my legs were wobbly. I was grateful when he took my arm again to steady me.

Instead, I hollered, "Freck, Mizzus Anderton!" They looked my way and for a moment, they didn't seem to even recognize me. It was like they were having a dream and hadn't come out of it yet. Or maybe they were just confused by their surroundings. I sure could understand that. This was the strangest place I'd ever been in.

"By the way," said the man beside me, "My name is Ren." Ren was tall, taller than my six foot two inch father. He had dark brown hair that looked like it had just been trimmed. His clothing was very clean and pressed to perfection. In fact, everyone I saw so far was like that. Ren had expressive eyes. Ya could see that he cared.

He told me, "If you need me, I work the second shift, purple team, Solvers Dock Number One. You are in good hands here, you need not worry about anything."

"But...but...where is here, Mr. Ren?"

"Goodness," He chuckled and clapped me on the shoulder as if I was an equal instead of a kid, "It is not Mr. Ren, just Ren. And as for this place, you are now in the Kingdom of the Keepers. While you are here as our guest, you, and your friends are under our protection."

"Keepers?" I asked, "You mean like in a zoo? Zookeepers?"

Ren had a warm laugh. It wasn't as infectious as Nellie's at the diner, but it seemed friendly and not as loud. No, Wishes not at all like a zookeeper."

I wondered how he knew my name. Everyone was calling me Wishes, but no one had asked for my name. Hmm. What he was saying was too interesting to ask him then, so I decided to save it for later.

"The keepers are the Keepers of Knowledge. We find, record, and preserve all the innovations, and great thoughts of mankind. We collect all that has been hidden, or lost to your world. Everything that has ever happened or learned on earth is stored here. It is quite a challenge, I can tell you that."

"Everythin'?"

"Yes, everything."

"From caveman times?"

"And before."

"Wow, really? What about Atlantis, Ren? Do you have all of that too?"

"To tell the truth, I am pretty sure that we do, but you would have ask someone higher than me to get an answer to that question. The Keepers, the record keepers, say everything and I believe them. Atlantis would certainly be in the records, if there truly was such a place."

"Where are we goin' now?"

Ren looked down with knitted brows, "First we are going to take the three of you to the hospital for a more thorough examination. The lair-beasts are not the cleanest of species. They carry disease and decay. You probably noticed the stench coming off them. Lair-beasts cast off germs and viruses like a lawn sprinkler watering grass. It's best to run you through a few tests to confirm that you are free of contamination."

About this time, Freck and Mrs. Anderton caught up to us. Mrs. Anderton was stunned, but Freck was very excited and talkin' a mile a minute. "Wishes, can you believe this place? I thought we were goin' ta die. We didn't know what happened to you. Whiles we was runnin' we got scooped up inta the air. We didn't even see what grabbed us. Suddenly we was inside an invisible flyin' thing. People dressed in blue checked us over from head to foot. I don't know what they were lookin' for but one tol' the captain that we was okay. Is that what happened ta you too?"

"Exactly, Freck. I'll have to tell you more about it later, but one of those saber-tooth tiger things clawed my leg. They patched me up in the floater."

"How are you feeling Wishes?" Freck asked. "Yer walkin' so I guess it ain't hurtin' much." Then she stopped and said, "Wait. Did you say tigers? We only saw one."

"Yeah, the one diggin' the hole by you turned to chase me like we planned. Waitin' for me to return was another one blockin' my path. I switched direction on the fly all the while wishin' for a miracle. And a miracle did happen, 'cuz I was snatched right out of the jaws of the beast. I don't know how they did it, but a split second later it would'a been curtains for me."

Freck whispered, "They all seem very nice and friendly, but do we know if we can trust them?"

I replied, "We don't really have a choice, do we? I cain't tell ya how we even got here. Last I saw we were headin' lickety-split right toward a big 'ol cypress tree. I held my hands over my eyes so I wouldn't see us crash. There were a couple of odd sounds, a whirrr and a whoosh, and suddenly we landed in here. Anyways we couldn't leave if we wanted ta. How we got in here and the way out is somethin' I don't know yet. It's probably best if we just go along, until we can figure it all out."

"Okay Wishes."

"Freck, I do have a question for you. Did they call you and Mizzus Anderton by name? They knew mine even though I hadn't told 'em."

"Come ta think of it Wishes, they did know our names. Ain't that strange?"

Mizzus Anderton was very quiet. She was lookin' around as if she was tryin' ta memorize everythin' she saw. She was laggin' a little behind on account of her takin' it all in. Freck went up to ask Ren about somethin' and I fell back in step with Mrs. Anderton.

"Mizzus Anderton," I asked, "Do you know what this place is?"

She whispered back, "I ain't never seen anythin' like this in my whole life. This unbelievable facility is right under our noses, and nobody knows anythin' 'bout it. Amazin' ain't it?"

I spoke quietly, "Ren, the man talking to Freck, told me that this is the Kingdom of the Keepers of Knowledge. Does that mean anythin' ta you, Mizzus Anderton?"

She answered, "Keepers of Knowledge, huh? I never heard tell of 'em. What do you suppose they do? Are they part of the government?"

"I don't think so. Ren said that they have been here since before the cavemen."

"Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, can you just imagine that? Either we're bein' played for a bunch of suckers, or we've stumbled on the most important discovery in the history of man."

When we caught up with Ren and Freck Mrs. Anderton asked, "Where are we goin' Ren?"

"I already told Wishes that we are making the Keeper's Hospital our first stop. He needs a more thorough exam than he received on the floater. There are many very nasty biologic agents in Locci Woods that could cause all of you and possibly the Kingdom great harm. It is always better to be safe than sorry. Do you agree Mrs. Anderton?"

She nodded her head yes. Presently we came to the end of the hall and stood in front of a waterfall. At least it looked like a waterfall ta me. It cascaded down from some great height, and passed right through the stone floor. Nothin' was wet though. Usually with a waterfall things get splashed on but we didn't get sprayed or nothin'. What kind of water don't make things wet?

"This," Ren spoke up like a tour guide, "is one of the ways we travel throughout the Kingdom. We call it a water-vator. It's similar to your elevators except it will take us anywhere we wish to go."

At that, he motioned that we should walk into the waterfall, or water-vator, or whatever it was. I resisted, "I don't think I will. I'll get soaked to the bone."

Ren responded, "No Wishes, I promise you won't get wet. Here I will prove it to you." He thrust his arm into the curtain of water clear up to his shoulder. When he brought it back out he invited all of us to feel his jumpsuit and hands. We did. I was surprised. He warn't wet--not a drop.

Mrs. Anderton, I'm certain, felt that she should set an example of bravery for us. She drew herself up, took a deep breath, and stepped through the waterish curtain. We heard a girlish giggle as she shouted, "Come on in, the water's fine," which was kind of funny. It made is laugh. Freck and I glanced at each other, then stepped through together. There is nothin' like bein' with a friend when you have to do somethin' a little scary. Ren joined us.

On the other side of the waterfall, we found ourselves in an eight-by-eight room that glowed just like the hallway. There weren't any buttons, or levers of that I could see. It was just a plain, empty room. "How does it work?" I asked.

Ren said, "Thought energy. All matter is made of the same thing, tiny packets of vibrating energy. Energy, the force that runs the universe, is influenced by our thoughts. All you have to do is picture in your mind where you want to go and the water-vator does the rest."

"Ren," I asked, "When you said everythin' did you mean everythin' or just mechanical things?"

I thought I was beginnin' to sound like a broken record. I had asked him the same thin' before when he told me about Keepers recordin' everythin'.

Ren looked down and smiled, "Everything. Animal, vegetable, or mineral--it's all the same stuff. The only thing that shapes and directs it is the power of thought. The stronger and more focused the thought the faster it all comes into being.

"Magic, or what you might think of as magic, is nothing more than focused thought acting upon unformed energy. When you learn to control your thought, you can shape formless energy, and mold it into anything you need. If you are hungry, you can pull food out of the air. If you are thirsty, you can hold up an empty vessel and fill it from what appears to be--nothing."

This time Mrs. Anderton had another question, "Ren, are you, yourself, able to do all of those things like pull food out of thin air?"

"I wish I could," Ren laughed, "I can manipulate simple things like this 'vator, but to produce something out of nothing takes a real master. I work on my skills every day and sometime, I praise the Gardner, I will become one with the source of all power. Until someone becomes completely in-tune with the Gardner and unlimited energy, those special abilities are unavailable to them.

"As of now I can use thought energy to get us through the drops of water so we didn't get wet. By thought, we will now ask the water-vator to take us to the hospital. All I have to do is picture the place, as clearly and precisely as I can, and we instantly arrive."

Just as soon as he finished that sentence he said, "Here we are."

There warn't any sensation of movement at all. "How far are we away from the dock?" I wanted to know.

Ren responded, "I've never thought of it in those terms, but I'd guess about five Topside miles."

"Five miles!" I think we all said it at the same time.

"Nothing travels faster than thought--nothing." He told us.