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Perry lands on Nenmar

Another star began to get brighter as the storm approached it.
This time, Perry’s finger compartment billowed into the
atmosphere of its selected planet. The resignation to fate was
complete; the struggle was lost. Perry braced himself mentally as
best he could for whatever unknown fate might lie ahead. A
strange peace came over him.

Perry glanced from edge to edge of the planet as he approached
it. The planet seemed farther from its star than Perry recalled Earth
was from its sun. Each of its polar ice caps covered at least a third
of the planet’s surface. The presence of ice caps relieved his fear of
being dropped into molten rock or metal. With less of his mental
energy taken up by fear of another fight for his life, Perry focused
on observing his surroundings. There seemed to be no tilt to the
planet’s axis. As he got closer, he saw two almost identical bands of
clouds on the planet. It was as if they were connecting the two huge
ice caps. They seemed to be a matching pair, just like the ice caps
themselves. "Amazing symmetry," Perry was pleased to hear his
own voice, proving he still could speak.

The finger grew closer to the point that the planet took up all of
Perry’s forward view. He began to see blue sky for the first time
since he left Earth. Looking back from watching the approaching
ground, Perry could see the spaceship with the red Lazy L marking
that he had seen in the center of the storm. The spaceship was
following him, but it did not intervene. Perry’s heart fluttered at the
thought of being watched by some strange intelligent beings. He
watched the Lazy L spaceship pull back and disappear into the
upper sky. Did they not care about him after all? Did they ever care?
The cold loneliness once again chilled his whole being.

Looking down, Perry saw the ground approaching. There were
forests, lakes and fields. Most important to Perry, there were
roads—a way home. The Earth lay beckoning below. Perry prepared
himself to fight to escape the cosmic storm, which had disrupted
his life. All he could think about was setting his feet on terra firma
and seeing his friends again. It won’t be long now, he thought. This
time, he would be more aggressive with the trees!

Perry grabbed a limb from the top of a tree that appeared thick
enough not to break off if the billowing finger pulled him back up
again. The upward pressure began, but Perry prevailed, holding on
for dear life.

He had won! Perry watched the finger recede back up into the
sky and disappear. A lingering but dissipating "spider web in the
face" feeling was all that was left of the thing that had held Perry
captive. He climbed down the tree and placed his feet on firm
ground for the first time since he was caught up from the Rosser’s
field. Plants, trees, Earth! Home! Perry’s glasses were scratched up a
little, but he was unhurt and grateful to be back.

Exhausted, Perry sat down on a soft bed of thick vines at the
base of the tree, which he had climbed down. He rested his back
against the tree, and closed his eyes. Perry’s head swirled from the
incredible ordeal had just experienced.

Perry opened his eyes and looked around to get his bearings. It
seemed he must have landed in the tropics. The trees had an
unfamiliar green bark. The vines and their leaves were a purplish
color, and seemed to cover the forest floor everywhere in all
directions. A residual feather tickle from the receded space prison
annoyed Perry’s exposed skill. His hand caught in the vines as he
lifted it to scratch his nose. The vine was soft but very strong and
he had to maneuver his hand through the tangles to extract it from
the vine.

The sky suddenly darkened with clouds, and in an instant it
was raining hard. There was no shelter in sight and Perry sat still
where he was. The rain was cool but not unpleasant. Perry held
his mouth open and enjoyed a refreshing drink from the pounding
torrents. The rain lasted for about 30 minutes, and then stopped
as quickly as it had started. The sky cleared, the clouds giving way
to crisp sunrays.

The ground and foliage were left very wet and the air smelled like
the fresh rain that had fallen. Perry was drenched. He felt
comfortable soaking wet, and wondered whether or not his sanity
had been washed away by the sudden cloudburst just past.

A small animal scampered over to Perry’s right. The creature
looked like a groundhog with very thick fur. Its eyes were large,
and it had no tail. The animal turned, looked at Perry, and then
sat up on its hindquarters to get a better look and sniff of him.
Then, it scampered off about its business. The creature negotiated
the thick vines with great natural skill, hopping over and
burrowing through them.

Rested and refreshed, Perry stood up to take in his surroundings
and determine the direction in which to proceed.

The more Perry took in the surrounding scene, the more things
did not seem right. Something was strange about the shadows.
They seemed to move visibly. Perry placed his thumb on the
shadow line on one of the trees to mark a reference point. The
shadow line moved about the width of his thumb in just a few
seconds. Perry glanced up toward the sun and made mental note of
the specific tree limbs through which it was shining. He then shut
his eyes and counted only to ten—then he glanced up again at the
same tree limbs. The sun had half moved away toward the next set
of limbs. Maybe his mind had been slowed by his trip in the cosmic
storm. But that did not compute with the seeming normal
movements of the little ground hog creature.

Perry again looked up into the trees to see what kind of birds or
monkeys were in the canopy. He saw no sign of either. Looking on
the ground, he studied the thick undergrowth. It would be difficult to
wade through without getting his feet stuck in the tangle of vines that
seemed to cover the ground as far as he could see. "For a tropical rain
forest, there sure is very little life here," Perry heard himself say in a
loud voice. It seemed like a strange, but not inaccurate, thing to say.

Perry sensed that he was getting nowhere fast.

There was a ridge on each side, and Perry sensed he was in a
gulch of some sort. He decided to try to go up to the top one of the
ridges to see if he could find a reference point. From there Perry
hoped to find one of the roads he had seen before he landed,
navigate to civilization somewhere, and arrange transportation back
home. From the ghostly looks of this place, the sooner the better. It
was shaded well and the lengthening shadows drifted everywhere
in a haunting dance.

Which way to go? Perry wondered. Before he began his ascent,
he stood still to listen for any clues as to the best direction to take.

Faintly, but unmistakably, Perry heard voices coming from beyond
the ridge in front of him. People! Find them, and I’ll soon be on my
way home!

Perry began to make his way through the dense network of
ground vines toward his objective, the ridge. Each step was
laborious, as he had to reach down each time to untangle his
ankles. Every movement of arm or leg was sheer effort against the
resistance of the vines. After only a short distance, Perry sat down
to rest. He had gone only about one fourth of the way to the top of
the ridge. With the sun moving so rapidly across the sky, Perry
forced himself to continue moving ahead.

To avoid getting his ankles caught in the vines, Perry tried rolling
up the hill to the ridge. He began to get the knack of it after a few
turns and soon was traveling three times as fast as when he was
trying to walk. The leaves rustled with a soft crushing sound as
Perry rolled up the hill—the spin of seeing alternating canopy and
ground vines provided a soothing fuzzy head feeling. The sweet
smell of the vines permeated Perry’s nostrils, but the sap was
neither sticky nor seemed to stain his clothes.

Perry became increasingly optimistic, as the voices grew closer
with his progress. A feeling of triumph came over Perry as he
reached the top, got to his feet and stumbled out into an open field.
For once in his life, Perry thought, he had handled something on his
own. Perry’s escape from the floating sky prison was his doing and
no one else’s. His father would be proud of him.

As Perry scanned the landscape, he wondered how he could have
been carried out of the solar system and returned alive to Earth. The
air, the trees, and the rain—it was overwhelmingly wonderful to be
back on Earth! No one would believe him but it did not matter. Soon
he would be on his way home from this incredible adventure. He
walked toward the voices, formulating how he would ask for help.

Perry’s hopes were dashed when he saw the people behind the
voices. With a jolt, he realized he was not on Earth. His
consciousness faded away.