The Toby the Trilby Trilogy Boxed Set Read online

  The Amazing

  Adventures of

  Toby the Trilby

  Angela Castillo

  Copyright © 2013 Angela Castillo

  All rights reserved.

  SECOND EDITION

  ISBN: 149351444x

  ISBN-13: 978-1493514441

  For every Toby in the world.

  CONTENTS

  1

  A BEAM OF LIGHT

  3

  2

  EXPEDITION FOR EXIT

  13

  3

  OUT AND ABOUT

  21

  4

  THE SWAMP PEOPLE

  27

  5

  MIA

  41

  6

  AN EVIL DART

  51

  7

  THE STRANGE VILLAGE

  59

  8

  VALERIE’S TALE

  67

  9

  HORACE

  77

  10

  DOWN THE RAVINE

  89

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thank you to my family and friends for listening to excerpts and

  nodding enthusiastically no matter how many times I brought up

  ‘my story.’ Thank you to my husband and children, who had to

  eat pizza far too many times because I was feverishly pounding on keys. Thanksto Evelyn Richesin for editing and listening.

  To Shonna Kimbro, who is an inspiration to our whole, little

  town. And finally, to my friends at Scribophile, if this book

  is readable it is only because of all of you.

  1

  A BEAM OF LIGHT

  One inch farther…

  Toby’s fingers stretched for the patch of energy. The saffron beam splashed his skin and heat flowed through his tiny person. True light from the real sun! He wanted to hug himself in delight but his other hand clutched the rock wall, fingers laced through the Swiss-cheese texture.

  His arms ached. Toby bid farewell to the speck of magical warmth and swung back to the small ledge. He scampered down the cavern wall, fifty feet to the floor below. Water squirted up between his furry toes as he waded through the stream dividing the room.

  A natural cathedral of minerals surrounded him; soft-serve ice cream stalagmites reached for stalactite counterparts. Oblivious to these natural wonders, Toby fixed his eyes on the tiny patch of daylight, the only part of the world above he had ever seen. Here, he caught raindrops and snowflakes. Some visits rewarded him with star sprinkles against a velvet handkerchief of night. He called it his ‘Yawn,’ the cavern’s one penetrable, unexpected opening.

  Gramble Shana was a botanist and loved natural things. She was the most likely person to listen when Toby talked about his favorite room in the cavern they called home.

  ###

  One day he had asked, “Gramble Shana, is God just a big man who shines different colors across my yawn?”

  ‘Gramble’ was his own word; a combination of ‘grandparent’ and ‘grumble.’ His six caretakers became fond of the term, so it stuck.

  Gramble Shana turned from the tomato plants and put down her pruning shears. Her white hair shone under the artificial lamps.

  “Toby, where are all these questions about God coming from? Since you were a tiny Trilby you have studied books and media films about the world above. Haven’t you chosen your faith yet?”

  “I’ve studied so many different cultures,” Toby pulled a tomato off a bush. “Everyone has a different idea about God. I only know what I feel.” He patted his chest with a tiny hand, “My deep inside is empty.”

  Gramble Shana chuckled and brushed loose soil off her denim shirt and skirt. She rose to her feet and handed him a basket. “Empty, huh? Sure it’s not your stomach growling for some of these tomatoes?”

  Though he knew she would never mean to hurt his feelings, Toby wished his grambles would take him more seriously.

  ###

  Toby hung his head down and stared at his shoes on the stream’s bank, unwilling to imprison his feet just yet. Each team member had been chosen for the cavern because of his or her intense passion for science and relied on mathematical equations and logic reasoning to explain most of the mysteries of life. Wildly different (and often hotly debated) religious theories were brought forth by each one, but none of these ideas truly felt right for Toby.

  Shoes in hand, he paused once more. His oversized ears swiveled to catch any sound.

  ###

  This room was where the Voice had first come, many months before. Toby had been reading his favorite tale, the one about a young man who told stories to children. The children looked so happy. Toby could almost hear their sweet voices as they asked the man questions and played with his beard.

  Then it came. “Toby.” A strong, compelling tone. A man’s voice.

  It wasn’t one of the grambles. Could someone be speaking through his yawn?

  “Toby,” the Voice repeated. “Are you listening?”

  “Yes?” He stood to his feet.

  “Toby, you must go. Find them.” The Voice hovered above his head, but he couldn’t see anyone.

  “Find who?” He whirled around. The cavern was empty.

  Then the Voice was gone. He heard it again several times, mostly at night when he was sleeping, and always the same urgent words.

  ###

  Today he heard nothing.

  Toby sighed; a long journey home loomed before him. He entered the tunnel and flipped a light switch. Rows and rows of tunnels stretched before him, leading to thousands of living quarters, storage rooms, giant kitchens and recreational areas. Toby had explored these vast areas a few times when he was first allowed to enter the outer caverns alone, but found only the same rooms, sterile and white with no occupants to bring color and life. Now he avoided these hollow reminders filled with phantom spirits of the people who never came.

  Toby crept past the lab where Gramble Colleen, the biologist, and Gramble Gregory, the physicist, worked. He peeked through a small window that topped the white door. Usually their tall, thin bodies were hunched over desks, checking slides of specimens through microscopes. Though not related, Gramble Gregory and Gramble Colleen looked like brother and sister with their angular faces and haloed tufts of white hair.

  Part of the reason the six scientists had agreed to come to the cavern first was because none of them had close family in the world above. The government needed a small team to test the operating systems and make sure the cavern’s environment would be safe for the millions of people who would follow. They worked and waited for daily instructions.

  After the messages stopped, they would start each day saying, “let’s wait another day, just to make sure.” This had gone on for forty years.

  The desks were empty today. Toby glanced over his shoulder, almost expecting Colleen to be in the hall, thin lips pursed in disapproval. No one was there. He pulled on his shoes.

  A goat bleated through the door of the ‘ranch,’ Gramble Lenora’s domain and home to an ever-growing menagerie of birds, rabbits and other beasts descended from the original few she brought when she’d first came. Polly must sense his presence; she was reminding him of her afternoon snack. He would visit his pet after chores were finished.

  The hallway widened and led into the main kitchen. Toby climbed on a stool, rolled up his sleeves and began washing the stack of dishes accumulated over the last two days. The elderly people were becoming feeble. His list of responsibilities grew longer, but he wasn’t resentful. He loved his guardians. Gramble Howard had taught him chess. He never scolded him when Toby grew too excited and scattered pieces with a
thrash of his tail. Gramble Edward allowed him to play with his stethoscope and the plastic skeletal models lining his doctor’s office. Gramble Gregory and Gramble Colleen tried to reach through their scientific shells with kind words and ideas. But it was Grambles Lenora and Shana who loved him the most. Waves of love flooded from their hearts and followed him wherever he ventured.

  Where was Gramble Shana? Most days she would be in the kitchen by now to scrub produce and ask his opinion on a new recipe. He stepped down from his stool and dried his hands on his pants. Murmured voices drifted in from the dining room down the hall and then--Lenora’s croaking laugh. What were they doing?

  Lights and sound burst upon him as he walked in the door.

  “Surprise!” The grambles rose stiffly from various hiding places around the room. “Happy twelfth name day!”

  Colored streamers twisted overhead and a big frosted cake graced the center of the table. Balloons bobbed cheerful greetings from bookcases and chairs. Toby couldn’t keep a slow smile from spreading across his face.

  Gramble Shana hugged him, wisps of hair from her pinned-up braids tickling his face. “We were in the storage units all day searching for party things. Looks pretty good, don’t you think?”

  “I love it,” Toby whispered.

  Everyone gathered around the table and the grambles sang, in voices hoarse with age, a “Happy Name Day” song composed by Gramble Shana for the occasion.

  “Born from a glass womb,

  on a very special day.

  We made you from

  human and cat DNA.

  The only Trilby in the world,

  with cat tail and ears,

  Our little Toby,

  For twelve wonderful years!

  Toby stood with shining eyes, cheeks pink from the attention.

  Gramble Edward handed him a slice of cake. “I fixed the replicator today and found a program for chocolate fudge swirl. I hope you like it.” He smiled, causing his bushy moustache to tickle the bottom of his nose. He sneezed.

  Gramble Colleen handed him a tissue.

  Gramble Shana’s eyes twinkled and Toby could tell she was remembering the day of his birth. Every year she told him the story.

  How they waited, breathless, for Gramble Edward to pull the tiny, pink baby from the simulated womb. Gramble Colleen had cut the umbilical cord and everyone listened for his first baby cry. “Everyone had tears in our eyes,” Gramble Shana would say, “Even Colleen. We were all excited to become grandparents.”

  Gramble Edward looked through a newborn checklist; nodding as each step went well.

  “But then we saw your ears,” Gramble Shana laughed. “Gregory thought the cat DNA wouldn’t make a difference. He only used a few basic cells to fill in the missing slots where the human samples were damaged. But he was wrong, and so you are a Trilby!”

  Toby finished his cake, trying to find the right words to share his heart. A desire had been planted there, and he could not ignore it any longer.

  “Dear Grambles.” He reached out to them, as though somehow his fingers could filter the words and lessen the pain. “You brought me into this world of Down-Below and care for me with love and tenderness.”

  Six wrinkled faces stretched into smiles, and glasses rattled as gray and white heads nodded.

  He looked down at the last crumbs of his cake, as though they were tea leaves that could somehow foretell his future. “I would be a Frankenstein’s monster to anyone else. Most would say I was soulless…”

  Gramble Lenora looked up sharply, her ginger skin tinged with red. “How can you say that? You are a Trilby. That makes you the most special person in the world!”

  “Especially to us,” said Gramble Shana.

  “But do I have a soul?” Toby’s voice almost dropped to a whisper, the pent-up tears burning behind his green eyes as he stared into the faces of his creators. They did not answer.

  “You pieced me together like a patchwork doll, sewn from pieces of cloth. Who wove the bits of cloth? Who made the first DNA? Who made you?”

  Gramble Gregory’s eyes glistened under his thick, caterpillar eyebrows. “No matter how many lectures and universities we attended, or how many books we have studied, we still ask this question, Toby. All we understand is scientific fact.”

  Toby stood up on his chair. “Then I have no choice. I must journey to the land above ground. If answers exist, I can only find them out there.”

  2

  EXPEDITION FOR EXIT

  Artificial night drifted over the cavern, in reality just a scheduled sleeping period issued by the computers. Toby settled into his hammock and tried to rest, but his thoughts beat on the sides of his mind and demanded attention.

  Quiet voices floated through an air duct from the library, where the grambles held important discussions. Most were extremely adult, dry and dusty as the books surrounding them. Tonight his ears were perked, since his proposed journey would be the topic of conversation. Would his request be considered?

  Gramble Gregory’s gravelly voice rose above the others. Toby rolled out of bed and moved closer to the air duct.

  “The boy is stronger and faster than any other child would be at his age,” he said. “His heightened senses would alert him to danger before he got into trouble.”

  Gramble Shana responded. “How can we let him go out there? We don’t know what the world looks like anymore, or if there’s anything left!”

  Gramble Howard broke in. “I’ve seen the opening the boy visits. Fresh air comes through the hole, and I’ve heard a bird song or two.”

  Toby caught his breath. A wild bird? Could it be possible?

  Gramble Howard, a geologist, spent his days monitoring rock formations and conditions throughout the cave. Toby never knew he had been following him.

  Gramble Colleen said, “All of you know, I was against Lenora and Shana’s crazy idea of bringing the boy into this world from the beginning. Of course, I love him now as my own grandchild. But I never thought it was fair to bring a baby down here…”

  “Life isn’t fair,” said Gramble Edward.

  “Yes, Eddie, so you have said many times. But unlike Toby, we volunteered for this life. No one asked him what he wanted.”

  “That’s just silly!” Gramble Lenora huffed. “Since when has a baby chosen whether or not to be born?”

  “Now he does have a voice,” said Gramble Colleen. “This is what he wants. We would be selfish to make him stay.”

  “I’m going up to check on the poor child.” Toby could hear a chair squeak as Gramble Lenora stood up. “Did you see the look on his face tonight? I have never seen him in such a state!”

  “We’ll continue this discussion in the morning,” said Gramble Howard.

  Toby crept back to bed. Now he understood why the grambles had told him never to eavesdrop. Gramble Colleen didn’t think I should have been created!. Though his heart ached from the revelation, he understood why she had thought this way. Now she fought for him to go on his adventure. He settled into the blankets.

  When Gramble Lenora cracked the door open he pretended to be asleep.

  ###

  The grambles finally agreed Toby could go as long as Gramble Howard accompanied him, but this plan hit a snag when Gramble Howard admitted he couldn’t remember the location of the main exit.

  For days, Gramble Howard scanned cavern blueprints and maps to find the large service elevator built to bring down crowds of a hundred or more, but in the end all he found was a small porthole. This exit could only be accessed by ladder.

  The grambles pondered this announcement, each one considering their own gnarled limbs. None of them could make that climb, not even Howard. The boy must go alone.

  “I have to go,” Toby begged. “Please. I’ll only be gone for a few days. I promise I’ll be careful.”

  Gramble Colleen placed her hand on his shoulder, a rare gesture of affection. “Let the boy go,” she said. “We have taught him everything we could about the world above
, some things must be experienced for ones’ self.”

  The other grambles admitted Gramble Colleen was right. They made preparations and set off for the porthole.

  Toby skipped ahead in excitement, map in hand, while the six grambles crept along the rocky floor, eyes peeled for loose stones and small holes. A twisted ankle or broken hip would be devastating. Lenora’s heavy breathing mixed with the men’s muttered oaths when rough spots were encountered.

  After many twists and turns Toby stopped. His lantern cast strange shadows against the wall as he swung around. “How do we get through?”

  A metal gate stood before them. In the light a ladder gleamed through the bars. A giant, rusted padlock prevented further progress.

  Toby sighed. “So close!”

  Everyone looked at Gramble Howard.

  “I have no idea where the key is.” He rattled the lock. “It’s been twenty years since I locked this gate.”

  “Good thing we never needed to leave in a hurry,” Gramble Lenora’s multi-colored dress billowed out from her bulky form as she leaned against the gate, fanning herself with a clipboard.

  “I was worried about bears.” Gramble Howard reached into his tool bag and pulled out a small hacksaw. “Don’t worry, Toby.” He set the saw against the lock. “We’ll have this gate open in a few minutes.”

  The tool rasped through the cavern, like an old crone’s cackles. The men took turns sawing through the metal. Toby found it hard to keep from pulling the tool out of their hands every few minutes to check for progress.

  Finally the saw, shaky and erratic in Gramble Edward’s hands, bit through the last section of metal with a loud CHINK. Gramble Edward pulled the lock free and swung the gate open.

  Every face but Toby’s fell. This was really happening. He was leaving.