English has now become not only the main tool of global communication, but also one of the most important conditions for studying abroad. Opportunities for students to study abroad given, it is not only about acquiring new knowledge and skills, but also about interacting with different cultures.
It is also a great opportunity to make acquaintances and create professional opportunities. To fully benefit from such education, it is necessary to know English, because English is the most widely used scientific and business language around the world. In this article, we will discuss the advantages of English and the importance of studying abroad and the opportunities it creates for students.
KEYWORDS
Education, English, study abroad, culture, scientific articles, science, technology, IT, programming, grants, scholarships, business, professional development, success, science and innovation, foreign universities, international language.
ENTRANCE
Nowadays, the world is becoming more globalized and everyone needs to improve their knowledge to adapt to the modern education system. In this regard, foreign languages,
In particular, knowing English is becoming one of the necessary skills for every young generation. English is not only a means of international communication, but also a key scientific and academic language. Therefore, every student who wants to study abroad must have excellent knowledge of this language. Knowledge of English is a prerequisite for admission to foreign universities. It creates opportunities to win international grants and scholarships, write scientific articles, and participate in international conferences.
Uzbekistan’s education system is also striving for international standards, and today many schools and universities offer intensive English language training. This serves as an important basis for young people to gain knowledge in the international arena and further improve their future. In developed countries of the world, education is mainly conducted in English, and most international universities set good knowledge of English as an important requirement for admitting students. For example, prestigious universities in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore and European countries require international test results such as IELTS or TOEFL. Such certificates are accepted in foreign higher education institutions and this is one of the main factors that opens the door to learning.
In addition, knowledge of English is very important not only for entering a university, but also for understanding the educational process and conducting scientific activities. The world’s most advanced scientific publications and textbooks are mainly written in English. Also, many international scientific conferences, seminars and forums are also held in this language. If students want to participate in these events and express their opinions freely, they must master English.
Another important aspect of studying abroad is getting to know different cultures and developing the ability to think globally. When a student studies in a foreign country, they are exposed to people of different nationalities and will have the opportunity to communicate with them. This will contribute to his or her personal development and broadens their worldview and improves their social skills. Many young people around the world are enriching their knowledge by studying in foreign countries and preparing for the future are achieving success. For example, Uzbek youth who studied in the United States and Europe are currently working in various fields in our country, implementing international experience.
In addition, English is also a key tool for young people who want to work in international organizations today. The United Nations, which operates globally,
Good English skills are essential for working in organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Professionals working in these organizations communicate with colleagues from all over the world.
They communicate in English and present their scientific work in this language.
Today, with the development of the Internet and technology, the importance of the English language is increasing. The majority of global Internet resources are in English, including scientific articles, online courses and various educational materials are hosted in this language. For example, international educational platforms such as Coursera, EdX, Udemy, FutureLearn have free and paid courses offered by the world’s leading universities. Through these platforms, you can get education in various disciplines, including medicine, engineering, business, psychology, IT and many other areas. If a student does not know English, he may miss out on the opportunity to use such invaluable sources of knowledge.
English is also an indispensable language in the international job market. Today, major international companies, including Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Tesla, Facebook, Samsung, and many other global corporations require their employees to have excellent English skills. Young people who aim to study abroad and work in international companies should start learning this language thoroughly from now on. Knowing English is not only important for studying at foreign universities, but also for finding a well-paid job and competing in the international arena.
It also creates the opportunity to become a successful professional.
In conclusion, the role of English in today’s society is very important. Anyone who wants to study abroad should have a perfect command of this language, because it is not only useful for education, but also it plays an important role in future professional development and personal growth. Learning English is not only about entering foreign universities, but also gaining international experience, conducting scientific research, traveling, developing cultural communication and succeeding in the job market. Therefore, young people should start speaking, writing and understanding this language fluently from now on.
They need to focus on developing their skills, which will provide a solid foundation for their future success.
Strategies for learning English for studying abroad:
The following strategies are recommended for effective English learning:
1. Create a daily language environment – Read books in English, watch movies and documentaries, listen to podcasts and audiobooks in English.
2. Use online learning platforms – study free and paid courses on platforms such as Coursera, EdX, Udemy, Duolingo.
3. Preparing for international tests – preparing for exams such as IELTS, TOEFL, SAT, GRE, as these test results are required for admission to foreign universities.
4. Developing practical communication skills – having conversations in English, participating in international forums and groups, writing essays and articles in English.
5. Study English by field – Each profession and scientific field has its own terminology. Students who intend to study at foreign universities are advised to study the specific terminology in their field.
The role of English in cultural integration and global communication
Knowledge of English is important not only for education and scientific activities, but also for global communication and cultural integration. Students studying abroad get to know different cultures firsthand, communicate with international experts in their field, and have the opportunity to learn from world experience. In this process, knowledge of foreign languages, especially English, makes it easier to adapt to a new environment.
Today, the world’s largest international organizations and companies – the United Nations, the World Bank, UNESCO, the World Health Organization (WHO),
English is the official working language of Google, Microsoft, Tesla, Amazon, and other major global institutions. Working in these organizations, participating in international projects, and becoming a professional in a foreign country also requires a good command of English.
In addition, English is also very important for traveling, participating in various international conferences and seminars. If people studying or working abroad can communicate freely in English, they will not face various problems and will quickly learn new things.
They can adapt to society. For example, students studying at foreign universities can effectively conduct their studies if they can communicate freely with their teachers and classmates. They can also learn about different cultures around the world by participating in international events.
Opportunities to make friends with people from all corners of the world and to establish new business and scientific collaborations will increase.
Reform and rise of English in the education system
In many countries around the world, there are efforts to integrate English into the education system.
Reforms are being implemented. Including:
In the Finnish education system, English is taught as one of the core subjects, and students are taught to conduct academic activities in English from a young age.
South Korea and Japan are placing great emphasis on training international-level specialists, making English an important part of their education programs.
Germany has widely introduced English-language master’s and doctoral programs at many universities.
In the Malaysian and Singaporean education systems, English is taught as a core subject, producing internationally competitive professionals.
Uzbekistan is also carrying out major reforms in this regard. Much attention is being paid to in-depth study of the English language in schools and higher educational institutions. In particular, the demand for obtaining international certificates in English such as IELTS and TOEFL is increasing. This encourages our youth to actively participate in the international scientific and professional arena.
CONCLUSION
Knowledge of English is essential for anyone who wants to study abroad. Learning English helps you study abroad, develop academically and professionally, make foreign friends, and better understand the world. Also, by knowing English well, you can participate in international competitions.
The chances of entering universities, receiving grants and scholarships, and finding a good job in the future will increase.
Therefore, young people should take learning English seriously, because this language is one of the most important tools not only for studying abroad, but also for a successful future.
REFERENCES
1. Crystal, D. (2003). English as a Global Language. Cambridge University Press.
2. Graddol, D. (2006). English Next: Why Global English May Mean the End of ‘English as a
Foreign Language’. British Council.
3. Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford University Press.
4. Kaplan, RB, & Baldauf, RB (2005). Language Planning and Policy in Europe: The Czech
Republic, The European Union and Northern Ireland. Multilingual Matters.
5. Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Pearson Longman.
6. President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. (2021). “Improving the English language learning system
“On measures”, May 19.
7. Official website of the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan. (nd). www.edu.uz
8. British Council. (2020). The Future of English: Global Perspectives. British Council Publications.
9. Cambridge English. (2021). English Proficiency and Economic Growth Report. Cambridge
University Press.
10. Educational Testing Service (ETS). (n.d.). TOEFL Official Website. www.ets.org/toefl
11. IELTS Official Website. (n.d.). International English Language Testing System (IELTS).
I peer at the river from the parallel trail. Crane my head to the left only to see great egret after great egret—massive white birds with necks like S’s. One will lift up effortlessly, take off with the wind, its yellow beak held high, its legs tucked in. With no pomp, no circumstance, they are suddenly in the air and in motion. Outstretched in time. I try to count, seven, eight, nine—there have to be more than ten trailing ovals along the river, mating after each other, white feather after white feather. The box turtles line up on logs, snuggled up to thirteen. Heads and tails indistinguishable from each other as they watch the dance unfold. Two Canadian geese fall from the sky with an obnoxious splash and a horrible honking. My heart skips a beat as I spot a flash of blue—the torso of the great blue heron stands stiller than a tree. Its long legs creep in the shallows, wading stoically through the muck and the algae. From the body of the great bird, a plop of yellow shoots into the water. The rushing current churns and mixes it in the muddy waters, and I remember all of the times that I have touched this river in wonder. The great bird, like a princess in a ballgown, is shitting on the dance floor. Yet it remains regal even in its own excrement. It notices me watching, but it does not care. Mallard ducks, their heads nestled into their own bodies, sleep on the log beside it. The electricity snaps in the heron’s brain, and in a single blink it has lunged down—caught a shining fish in its long black beak before swallowing it whole. I see the shape of the fish as it slides down its gullet. It inches closer on the log, waking the ducks, who fall awkwardly into the water below. My binoculars hang limply from my neck. I am still just the birdwatcher. Staring from afar, searching for some meaning in the air and the shit.
By Thị Lan Anh Tran (Aschaffenburg, Germany) & Musharraf Hussain (Assam, India)
This poem employs the conflict between the United States and Iran as an extended metaphor for modern romantic relationships, where retaliation, infidelity, and cycles of emotional warfare leave behind only barren landscapes within the soul. Through the imagery of conflict and reconciliation, it suggests that forgiveness, healing, and the patient rebuilding of trust are the only foundations upon which enduring love can survive and flourish. Ultimately, the poem reflects on the human cost of both war and broken relationships, reminding us that true victory lies not in defeating one another, but in choosing understanding over vengeance and renewal over ruin.
I
You and I were like two nations,
Standing on opposite shores of pride,
Between us drifted the smoke of accusations
And the missiles of old wounds.
II
I launched a cold silence toward you,
You answered with words sharp as steel.
I built fortresses of wounded ego,
You sent armies of resentment across the border.
And somehow,
People still called it love.
III
Yet what kind of love survives
When every sunrise sounds like an air-raid siren?
The messages that once flew
Like swallows of summer
Turned into drones of suspicion,
Circling endlessly above our skies.
The midnight calls
Became alarms.
IV
Neither side would surrender.
I hid memories of another.
You sought comfort in another embrace.
One betrayal answered another,
One wound demanded repayment.
V
We mistook revenge for justice,
And pain for power.
But every scar carved into your heart
Appeared again upon my own.
For war has never known a victor.
VI
Like cities shattered by bombardment,
Roofs collapsed upon children’s dreams.
Old parents sat in silence
Before empty doorways.
Friends divided into camps.
Family tables lost their laughter.
VII
A broken love affair
Is never only the story of two people.
It echoes through generations.
It shakes the faith of children.
It teaches fearful hearts
To lock their doors against tenderness.
VIII
And beyond us,
Beyond our private ruins,
Every human war steals light from the world.
A city burns from ambition.
A nation weeps beneath hatred.
The earth grows heavier
With walls instead of bridges.
The future loses another hand
That might have reached for peace.
IX
Then came the day
When exhaustion conquered pride.
I stood among the wreckage I had created.
You wandered through gardens
Reduced to ash.
X
The new faces arrived,
And disappeared.
The forbidden passions faded
Like smoke in the wind.
For no lasting palace
Has ever been built
Upon the ruins of a burning home.
XI
Many doors opened.
Yet none carried
The familiar fragrance
Of the soul once called home.
XII
And so,
After countless seasons of conflict,
The flags of hostility were lowered.
Not because every wrong was forgotten,
But because love proved more precious
Than victory.
XIII
I learned the courage of apology.
You discovered the strength of forgiveness.
The final missiles were dismantled.
The final barricades came down.
XIV
We returned to one another
As a strait reopens after a storm,
Allowing ships to cross again.
No winners.
No losers.
Only two weathered hands
Patiently rebuilding what had been lost.
XV
And beneath the golden evening sky,
I held you
As one might hold a homeland
Returned at last from war.
XVI
For in the end,
The greatest triumph
Is not defeating one another.
It is standing amid the ruins of the world
And still choosing
To love again.
KHI HAI TRÁI TIM THÀNH CHIẾN TRƯỜNG
Tác giả: Thị Lan Anh Tran (Aschaffenburg, Germany) & Musharraf Hussain (Assam, India)
I
Em và anh giống hai quốc gia
Đứng ở hai bờ kiêu hãnh,
Giữa làn khói của những lời trách móc
Và những quả tên lửa mang tên tổn thương.
II
Anh ném sang em một câu nói lạnh lùng,
Em đáp trả bằng sự im lặng sắc như dao.
Anh dựng lên những hàng rào tự ái,
Em kéo quân của nỗi hờn ghen tiến vào.
Người ta gọi đó là yêu.
III
Nhưng tình yêu nào lại bình yên
Khi mỗi ngày đều là một cuộc không kích?
Những tin nhắn từng là cánh chim mùa hạ
Bỗng hóa UAV dò xét lẫn nhau.
Những cuộc gọi đêm khuya
Trở thành tiếng còi báo động.
IV
Không ai chịu thua.
Anh nhớ người cũ rồi giấu em.
Em tìm một bờ vai khác để trả đũa.
Ông ăn chả, bà ăn nem,
Hai trái tim cùng ký vào bản tuyên chiến.
V
Chúng ta tưởng mình chiến thắng
Mỗi khi làm người kia đau hơn một chút.
Nhưng nào biết đâu,
Mỗi vết thương của đối phương
Đều in dấu lên chính ngực mình.
Chiến tranh chưa bao giờ có người thắng.
VI
Như những thành phố sau bom đạn,
Mái nhà đổ xuống trên tiếng khóc trẻ thơ.
Cha mẹ già ngồi trước hiên nhà trống vắng.
Bạn bè chia phe.
Những bữa cơm mất đi tiếng cười.
VII
Một cuộc tình đổ vỡ
Chưa bao giờ chỉ là chuyện của hai người.
Nó làm tan nát một gia đình.
Làm niềm tin của con trẻ lung lay.
Làm những người từng tin vào tình yêu
Bỗng sợ phải mở lòng thêm lần nữa.
VIII
Và rộng hơn thế nữa,
Mỗi cuộc chiến của con người
Đều khiến thế giới mất đi một phần ánh sáng.
Một thành phố cháy lên từ lòng tham.
Một dân tộc khóc vì hận thù.
Một hành tinh nặng thêm những hàng rào.
Một tương lai bớt đi những cái nắm tay.
IX
Rồi đến ngày tất cả mệt mỏi.
Anh nhìn quanh những đổ nát mình gây ra.
Em nhìn lại khu vườn đầy tro bụi.
X
Người mới đến rồi đi.
Những cuộc vui ngoài luồng hóa thành hư ảnh.
Bởi chẳng có lâu đài nào được xây vững vàng
Trên nền móng của một mái nhà đang cháy.
XI
Những cánh cửa khác mở ra,
Nhưng chẳng nơi nào mang mùi quen thuộc
Của người đã từng thuộc về mình.
XII
Và thế là,
Sau bao mùa chiến sự,
Hai quốc gia trong tim hạ lá cờ thù địch.
Không phải vì quên hết lỗi lầm,
Mà vì nhận ra tình yêu quý hơn chiến thắng.
XIII
Anh học cách xin lỗi.
Em học cách tha thứ.
Những tên lửa cuối cùng được tháo ngòi.
Những hàng rào cuối cùng được dỡ bỏ.
XIV
Ta trở về bên nhau
Như eo biển sau bão tố lại mở đường cho tàu thuyền qua lại.
Fourth Installment of Otherwise: The Children’s Crusade
by Christopher Bernard
Chapter Twelve: The Subway Stop That Time Forgot
“. . . and we were just starting to explore the books in the burned down library when she found us,” Petey said, finishing his description of the boys’ adventures since riding Dr. Sazerac’s balloon to a crash the day before.
A look passed between a tall, black-haired, serious-looking young man, vaguely Eurasian, maybe seventeen, who Petey guessed was the Ruhtra the girl had mentioned to the guard, and Yram as Petey completed his tale.
“Command of Germanglish theirs not strong be,” Yram said to the young man. “Speak they like books the war in Acirema before.”
“Old Anglish! To its memory all praise!”
“To its memory all praise!”
The three boys and the young man and girl sat around a rickety metal table in a long, low-ceilinged room just beyond the metal door near the abandoned subway station bizarrely crowded with children like refugees from a pillaged school district. The room seemed part of some sort of headquarters or office. Other young people—some very young indeed, yet all of them with the grimly determined looks on their faces of grownups under pressure—were hard at work. They gave the boys little looks of alarm and the air was heavy with tension and hurry, as if something of great moment was pending yet the new arrivals were not so much interrupting the mission as throwing a wrench in it that needed immediate addressing.
The boys had been introduced to the young man as “boys from elsewhere,” a word that seemed to be part of a mysterious code the two seemed to fall into and out of while conferring with each other. The three boys had given their names and the specifics of where they were from, but these drew blank stares and seemed to mean nothing to the other two at the table.
Petey hesitated at the end of his story, but he had heard what they said and saw the look passing between the two and decided to ask the fateful question that had been on the end of his tongue almost as long as the crash.
“Is this Otherwise?”
The young man seemed startled by the question.
“What this ‘Otherwise’?”
Petey had memorized the description he had been given already twice before during his visits, or hallucinations, or psychotic breaks, or whatever they had been, years ago.
“Otherwise is where everything that might have happened but didn’t in the real world, in Howtiz, does happen. With,” he added, “all the consequences.”
The young man looked coolly at him.
“Boy, in your world would I wish to be. Why so sure you from where you come not this ‘Otherwise’?” he said. “How know you this real nicht be? And this be not ‘how it is’?”
Bumper’s eyes seemed to bug out of his head, and Petey detected the tell-tale signs of brain freeze.
The answer shocked Petey as well. The idea had never occurred to him, though he immediately saw how plausible it might look to someone from outside.
It might even be true.
The thought cut through him like ice.
Chace turned very pale.
“How . . . could . . . ?” Bumper tried to get out. Petey had never told Bumper about Otherwise, so this was all new to him.
Chace leaned toward him.
“Don’t even try,” he whispered in Bumper’s ear.
The young man ignored them and turned to Petey.
“Where you are from I do now know,” he said, with a glance at Yram, who gave him a pained look. “Though, admit I, with a long lost past my heart it aches.” He got up and walked around the table. He seemed to get a hunch, and stopped.
“Who the last war won?”
“Which one?” Petey returned.
“Last big one, all the world covering.”
Petey considered. He must mean World War II—that was the last “really big” war that everybody knew about.
“That’s easy,” he said stoutly. “The United States of America.”
Another look, this time more piercing, passed between the young man and Yram.
“Have the Permanent Emergency heard of?”
“Never.” Petey turned to Chace. “Have you?”
“Only what the mater sometimes calls the pater,” Chace replied coolly.
“The Permanent Emergency since the Year of Victory in place.”
“And when was that?” asked Petey, feeling his throat go dry.
“1948.”
“But the Allies won in 1945.”
The young man snorted.
“In 1943 the Alliance, to be precise, lost. Where did you your history learn?”
“In school, like everyone else. America and the Allies won against the Fascists and the Nazis. They stopped the Holocaust! They freed Europe and Asia! It was the greatest victory in the history of the world!”
Petey’s conscience nagged him for exaggerating, after all he couldn’t be certain what he had just said was exactly true, but this guy was so exasperating, he deserved it!
“What this ‘America’? ‘Acirema,’ of course, you mean. Everything backwards you have. The United States of Acirema until 1948 were not pacified.” “What do you mean,‘pacified’?” Petey demanded. “By who?”
“By Izan, of course. All states disbanded and the name changed to Night Reich of Acirema. The country a kolonie of the Germanish empire ever since has been. You fellows from ‘elsewhere’ truly be!”
“An elsewhere like our own past, most strangely,” said Yram.
Even Chace looked shocked at this.
“Impossible,” said Ruhtra. “And yet so.”
He frowned and tapped the fingers of one hand against the knuckles of the other, then walked a few paces away and motioned Yram toward him. They stood whispering for a minute or two while looking uncertainly at the boys.
“I thought the expression ‘deciding their fate’ was one you only saw in books,” Chace muttered to Petey.
As they talked, the girl said, in a louder whisper, “But Ruhtra, what if . . .”
“Live by ‘ifs,’” the young man replied, “and ‘when’ we never shall reach.”
A moment later they returned.
“Gentlemen,” Ruhtra said, almost apologetically, “To have to do this sorry I am. Your existence more in danger be than you possibly can know. In safekeeping we must for the time being place you . . .”
“Safe!” said Petey. “From who? From what?”
Ruhtra gave him an ironic look.
“From yourselves first. Not for long it will be, we promise.” He added, almost to himself, and somewhat enigmatically: “Either way.” He motioned to Yram, who nodded and took out the Luger she had put in her pocket on entering the subway maze.
“Sorry, fellows, I be,” she said, then motioned the pistol toward an inner door. “Please.”
There are offers one can’t refuse, as Petey had learned from the movies, so the boys reluctantly left the long dimly lit room under the eyes of the busy young people there, watching them curiously as they trailed out into a dark, fusty jungle of brackets and piping, walls of rebar and metal gridding, clumps of hanging wires, dust-covered light bulbs, curtains of spider web, and the sounds of scurrying rats till, after what felt like they had been wandering through a labyrinth of mid-twentieth-century industrial technology for a quarter of an hour, they reached a small door under a dim light from a grid of thick glass in the sidewalk twenty feet above, with a defaced sign displaying a triangle in red and the words “DANGER 20,000 VOLTS.”
Which the girl ignored, opening the door with one hand and motioning the boys inside. The door was so small, they had to crawl to get in, though once they were past the door, they found themselves in a cement-walled room, a cell just big enough for the three of them. A single bulb hung from the center of the ceiling. On the floor, there were the remains of someone’s supper.
“Later back I will be,” said the girl, taking the dish from the floor. “To bring you something to eat actually you are able.”
“Can I have a coke?” asked Bumper, with nervous politeness. Bumper’s parents had bred good manners in their boy almost to a fault. He responded to danger with a politeness that grew more exaggerated with the extremity of the danger.
“Yes,” said Yram. “Bring you a coke I can.”
Well that’s a nice surprise! thought Petey. At least it isn’t pronounced “ekoc.”
“How terrible feel we – how terrible feel I – about doing this to you I wish you to know,” the girl said as she stood at the door. “The danger you be in you cannot know. Or the danger we be in. And better to be safe it be . . .”
“‘. . . than sorry,’” said Chase. “Some clichés are the same even in Otherwise.”
Petey gave Chace a rueful look. Now maybe he’d believe in it, wherever it actually was, if they ever got home.
“But just how sorry you do not know you could be,” she said sternly at Chace’s quip. “And if you lucky you be, find out you will never.”
Then she closed the door.
“Now do you believe it?’ Petey said to Chace as they stood under the bleakly burning light bulb. Though he immediately regretted it.
Chace shrugged.
“Believe what?” asked Bumper.
“Now I’d believe in the tooth fairy,” said Chace.
Bumper was mystified.
“You mean you don’t believe in the tooth fairy?” Bumper asked, appalled.
Chace patted Bumper on the back.
“Far be it for me to insult the tooth fairy,” he said. “But I have to admit: there are times I have my doubts.”
Bumper nodded gravely.
“Sometimes I do too,” he said. “Even about Santa Claus . . .”
Chace frowned and mimicked Bumper’s nod.
Petey felt he was about to burst. What did the tooth fairy and Santa Claus have to do with Otherwise? And he was haunted by what Ruhtra had said. Everything that had happened to them, and that had struck him as uncanny and horrible, fell into place if what the young man said was true.
Yet, what if everything Petey had ever lived had been a mirage, and this horror (because it was a horror, almost beyond imagining, yet just possible enough to have been true all the time) what if this was “reality” . . . ?
But what was this? A world where the greatest evil he had ever heard of had won? How could that be possible?
“Well, I can’t believe it,” he said, following his own thoughts.
“What?” said Chace, with an ironic look at his friend. “You mean you’re the one who doesn’t believe now?”
“Not that,” Petey said. “This. I can’t believe where we are. I can’t believe this is real.”
“Well, if it’s your fancy Otherwise after all,” said Chace, “it’s just one possibility among a fabulous infinity of them all. Though it’s a pretty awful one.”
“But you heard what Ruhtra said. What if where we’re from is‘just one possibility’ and what if this is the ‘real world’ and we’ve managed somehow to, I don’t know, miss it—not live in it, never have lived in reality at all? What if we’re just some kind of dream that managed to escape into the real world?”
“Watch it, old son,” said Chace. “You’re getting philosophical.”
“No, I’m not, life is,” said Petey, more philosophically than he realized. “I’m just waking up.”
“Dangerous thing,” Chace muttered. “Waking up.”
Bumper looked back and forth between the two of them.
“What are you two guys talking about?”
“Oh to be young again,” said Chace (who was fourteen), with a nostalgic sigh. “When we were fancy free and not haunted by unanswerable questions.”
Bumper scowled. He was old enough to know when he was being patronized.
“I may be little,” he said, which is how he interpreted “young,” “but I’m not stupid!”
“I didn’t say you were stupid, I said . . .’
“Yes, you did! That’s what you meant!”
“How do you know what I meant?”
“Because I’m not stupid!” And Bumper looked like he was about to tear Chace’s eyes out or perish trying.
“Stop it!” shouted Petey. “Behave yourselves! Don’t fight!” he added, echoing a mantra he had heard often enough from his parents. “Or we’ll never get home again.”
Bumper slumped down on the cement floor and suddenly started whimpering. The other boys looked at him in dismay.
Petey crouched down next to him and put his arm around the little boy’s shoulder.
“I miss home!” Bumper sobbed.
“Me too,” said Petey.
Chace was about to say something sarcastic, but wisely kept it to himself.
“We’ll get there,” said Petey.
“Oh?” asked Bumper, between sobs. He gave Petey a skeptical look. “Just how, smarty pants?”
“I don’t know how. But I know one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“We got here.”
“That’s irrefutably true,” said Chace from the airy heights above them.
“So there’s a way back there. It’s like we slipped through a crack. We just have to find the crack again.”
“The miracle of reverse engineering, as the pater says,” said Chace.
Petey thought: Andslip through even if it’s back to an illusion.
But no: he must not let himself think that. This was the illusion, whatever people here thought. Where he and his friends had come from was reality. They had to get back to the real world. Though the journey might be a long one.
Bumper wiped his eyes.
“But what’s Otherwise?” he said. “And how can ‘otherwise’ be a place?”
Chace groaned as he remembered having the same endless, irresolvable debate with Petey years ago.
“Don’t even think about asking that question!” he said.
“But I already did,” said Bumper innocently.
“That doesn’t mean it gets an answer,” said Chace, definitively closing the discussion.
Chapter Thirteen: The Link
Petey, making himself as comfortable on the cement floor as cement would allow, told Bumper about his two visits to Otherwise (while Chace twisted his lips into a glossary of skeptical pouts, groaning at intervals to express the munificence of his self-denial in not crushing Petey’s claims with sarcasm): the first “when I was almost your age,” on a crooked yellow trolley to the land of the gentle Paonas invaded by the barbarous and brutal Korgans, about Sharlotta (he sighed a little when he remembered her, and his voice gave a little squeak), and how the two of them saved her parents and ended the invasion in a great conflagration.
Then the second time when he and “a friend” (he gave Chace a reproachful glance; Chace, who had never recovered from his “amnesia” about the adventure, suddenly looked as innocent as the snow) were swept out to sea and captured by old-time pirates, then held captive in the brig with a gruff bulldog and a fancy cat until a battle sank the pirate ship, and Petey and his friend and the cat and dog spent days clinging to a piece of wreckage until they were cast on an island ruled by foxes, and Petey and his friend were tried by a court of animals for the crimes of humanity against the animal kingdom over the centuries . . .
“Wow,” said Bumper, “that sounds harsh! My mom’s vegan. But she lets me eat meat because she says if I don’t, I won’t grow.”
Bumper, of course, was little. Chace gave him a look that suggested he might benefit from a diet that was strictly carnivorous.
“Do you think they would have put me on trial?”
“I was eleven,” said Petey, letting that sink in. Age wouldn’t exactly have protected his young friend.
Bumper blinked.
“So,” he asked somberly, “did they hang you?”
“No,” said Petey. “The cat and dog testified in our favor, and we eventually escaped from the island.”
Bumper grew contemplative.
“And so you think we’re in Otherwise now.”
“Yes. Though I keep hoping,” said Petey, “I’ll wake up and realize this is just a bad dream. But after what Ruhtra said, I’m not so sure I want to wake up, now, at all, ever.”
Bumper put on his best daddy look.
“What do you think, Chace?”
Chace’s eyes perceptibly darkened.
“Whether or not we’re in Otherwise,” he said, “we’re someplace that’s really, as the pater would say, ‘fookéd up.’”
Bumper looked shocked when he realized exactly what Chace had just said. His mom, though she was lenient about what he put into his mouth, was not about what came out.
“Oh!” said Bumper.
The boys settled down for a long wait, Petey in a corner with his forehead against his drawn-up knees, Chace sprawled near the opposite wall and staring at the ceiling, Bumper crouched near the door and absent-mindedly picking his nose.
Petey, for the hundredth time, went over what had happened since they launched in Dr. Sazerac’s balloon an eternity ago. Everything here was so familiar and yet so eerie! He couldn’t be just dreaming (which everyone had accused him of when he had tried to describe Otherwise to them), and yet it couldn’t be real! It was like the world he was used to, but everything was upside down. And backwards!
“Do you know what spiders do after they make their cobwebs?” Chace suddenly asked philosophically as he stared up at the ceiling.
“Spiders?” Bumper asked with a quivering voice. He stopped mid nose-pick. He was scared of spiders.
“They,” said Chace giving a deep yawn and stretching his arms as far as they would go, “take a lonnnng nap.”
“How do you know that?”
Chace pointed toward the ceiling.
Bumper looked up.
The ceiling’s four corners were veiled with cobwebs, with several more connecting three of them and one solitary web luffing like a sail mysteriously in the airless cell. A spider lay curled up in the web, asleep. Around it were the remnants of several ingested flies.
Bumper was about to yell in panic when there was a noisy clanking from the cell door. A moment later, it opened with a squeal, and Ruhtra and Yram entered, crawling through the small door.
They stood up under the single hanging bulb and looked down solemnly at the boys, who remained on the floor. The cell felt suddenly very crowded.
Ruhtra glanced away and cleared his throat.
“An apology to you I feel I owe,” he said. “Who you are I couldn’t be sure, and our position here precarious be. Even we about spies must worry. About you I had absolutely sure to be. But all our researches with nothing about any of you.came up. According to all official records, you not to exist.”
Chace pinched his arm hard.
“Ouch!” he said. “I exist, all right. I feel pain, therefore I am. Not sure about you guys,” he added, giving the other two boys a glance. “You could be figments of my imagination. Though if so, I never knew it was so weird.”
“Oh you, truly, exist,” said Ruhtra. “Though best it might be if we all figments of someone’s imagination were and not in the cage of reality locked. But the three of you in a peculiar state be—both here and not here. Officially nonexistent, but, in all practical respects, the most real thing there be, precisely because not recognized as being at all.” He paused, looked hard at them before continuing. “Dissidents to the occupation we be. To a network called the Link dedicated to liberating Acirema from Izan we belong.. Dedicated to the destruction of Izan, to the liberation of Acirema. Because not possible it is in a world with them in it to live. At all.”
He paused and gave them a long stare. Yram gave him a worried look, but said nothing.
“This you need to know about us: that we of children are entirely made, from as young as four and five to as old as myself, seventeen, and a few even older, but kept among the young so suspected we not be by Izan. The adults to Izan rule long have capitulated, calling this ‘to be mature,’ to ‘grow up,’ to ‘accept reality.’ But our position be that certain realties there are to accept one must never. And that to change those realities we can and must—to them overthrow and new realities to create, out of imagination, passion, ingenuity, determination, and, not least, out of memories of a kinder and freer way of life before our conquest, brief as it shall be, by this evil. And with a little luck, the chance be that our way goes. That the lesson of history be, over and over, down the ages: just when despair most justified seems, a stubborn good seizes and takes. Our memories and our dreams to us give hope and us keep alive. This, we believe, the lesson of life itself be, down upon us millions of years: the life that the earth itself be, has been and shall be, until the end of time. And we a duty have—some call the blessing of reality itself—on that lesson to act. In our case, this dictatorship to bring down.”
“Do they call it fascism here?” asked Petey.
“To Fascismo allied it is, it divides with it Eporue, across the Eastern Sea. Our duty is our world from both Fascismo and Izan to liberate. The adults childish call us. We it call—”
Suddenly the roar of an explosion echoed down the tunnels outside.
“Tihs yloh!” Ruhtra said to Yram in alarm. “That ours be?”
“Not that one,” said Yram.
All five of them froze and listened. At first there was a long, deep silence, strangely hollow and empty, as though the elaboration of steel and concrete that surrounded them were waiting for another explosion. Then a muted sound of screaming, as of a mass of panicking children, rolled by in a muddy roar just outside closed door of the cell. Petey heard one word in the white noise: “Poliz!” that immediately washed away.
The young man and woman—looking suddenly much younger than their actual years, more vulnerable than their pretense of competent command had led them to appear to the boys—stared at each other with faces drained pure white.
“A mole!” Ruhtra said in a strangled voice.
A distant sound of tumult, shots, shouting echoed through the subway tunnels.
“Izan,” said Ruhtra, having retained control of himself.
“Plan . . .,” Yram ventured, with a look of despair, “. . . Zero?”
“Not enough bombs primed,” the young man replied coolly. “Only a platoon’s worth with us take down.”—He sniffed at the air, reminding Petey of his family’s pet retriever smelling something undetectable to his human owners. Then Petey smelled it too, smoke penetrating from the tunnels outside, mingling with the noise. Every so often a single scream pierced the tumult.—“Burning the papers at central.” Ruhtra paused. “Betrayed we may be but no excuse to play martyrs to betray the cause.”
The blood in the faces of the three boys suddenly drained away to the dead white of the other two. The thought dawned bleakly on Petey: Is Plan Zero to blow themselves up, to take down the attacking Izan with them?
Ruhtra carefully opened the metal door and he and Yram crawled through and led the boys out to the tunnels, which were quickly filling with smoke and clearer echoes of the rough clangor of attack and high-pitched screaming punctuated by sounds of shots.
A small mass of the children had already filled the main, dimly lit tunnel that the Izan had not yet found; they were eerily silent, disoriented and lost. At the sight of Ruhtra and Yram they stopped and stared at them, half hopefully, half despairingly.
Ruhtra seemed to fully regain his authority at the sight of the frightened children. The distant noises were coming closer. Hard decisions had to be made fast.
Attack the attackers and face near certain annihilation—or try to escape, with possibly the same result? Petey could see the bleak choice at war in the older boy’s countenance.
Then Ruhtra’s face slackened into a look of grim seriousness.
“For more survivors we cannot wait,” he muttered in an aside to Yram. “If to save these we can.”
Yram looked appalled but said nothing.
Ruhtra gestured toward a hefty fourteen-year-old nearby.
“Ganzor,” Ruhtra said in a stage whisper, “your battalion take to the old storm reservoir, and for instructions wait.”
“All day we have not eat. At least lunch can we have?”
“And where that be? White Castles our style not just yet.”
Ruhtra looked at a beautiful Slavic girl standing just behind Ganzor.
“Tatiana, your troops take through the West Village sewer to the Chelsea warehouse.”
Tatiana nodded unsmilingly.
“What if already it they have took?”
“Then it burn down,” he said. “And your people scatter. If hear from you I do not, I will know.”
She again nodded unsmilingly.
“Where Dewitt?”
A thin squinting fifteen-year-old who looked more like a math nerd than a militant, waved from the back of the crowd.
“Your people hide in the service tunnel from the Little Flower’s days that never on any map was found, then south move after the Izan the station clear and in the old Staten Island ferry landing take cover.”
“What about Chingu’s people?” asked Ganzor with a reproachful look.
“Go back now we cannot go,” Ruhtra said. “Who we can we save. And the best for them hope.”
“The survivors they will torture!” Tatiana blurted out.
“Quiet!” Ruhtra said. “All of us they will kill if here they us find. Now, everyone, go!”
“Where you go?” asked Dewitt.
“Better for you, better for us, you not to know. Now move. But our motto remember: ‘Silent, secret, sudden—success!’”
Petey watched as various motley groups of kids—this may have been Otherwise, or maybe it was the Real World after all, but kids, it seemed, were kids, all different and all alike, everywhere and at all times; they were all a bit like Bumper, in fact—a combination of silliness, vulnerability and innocence, everyone looking a little lost and wearing clothes never the right size and always a few years out of fashion, with awkward limbs and soft faces and shining eyes that betrayed an obstinate clarity, like an unforgiving mirror—all of them faded away, in eerie silence, down the tangle of shadows that made up the abandoned subway tunnels. As suddenly as the tunnels had filled, they were now empty, though the distant noise from the abandoned station had not let up.
The three boys followed Ruhtra and Yram down a service tunnel they hadn’t noticed just across from them. Darkness, oil and dust closed around them as the metal door shut behind them with a hollow clang.
_____
Christopher Bernard is a prize-winning author of both poetry and fiction. The two earlier stories in the “Otherwise” series are If You Ride A Crooked Trolley . . . and The Judgment Of Biestia (winner of the Independent Press Award in Preteen Fiction and short-listed for the K M Anthru International Literature Award).
