Horses on the highway

"What do you study here?" Minerva asked ignoring the two who were still stupefied.

"Art" John said proudly, "Quick lets leave before campus police come.

John tugged at his horse which followed him out the door past the two still wide mouthed students.

"Who is gonna clean this mess you left," the young man was indicating at the pile of horse s**t on the floor.

"They left, babe. Did that bearded guy say he went here?"

In hindsight having the horses follow them worked in their favor once again. As soon as they exited the workshop John came to a ghastly realization, he had no money son either way they would have had to walk home which was not close by. John had the foresight to go to the nearest lost and found to change his clothes. It might have been overlooked in the painting but here he would be accused of indecent exposure. Minerva didn't change with the aid of Fireball in the girls washroom she dried her own clothes while John sat with the horses. He was wearing a white t-shirt and a blue hood with the campus insignia and matching sweat pants and crocs.

When Minerva stepped out of the building her clothes were dry. Riding clothes huh, was she that attached to them. It was around four in the afternoon by the time thy got to the campus gates. They were walking quietly beside their horses amid strange looks from the few people that the passed. He explained to the guards that they had come from the equestrian club down the road and he produced his campus ID to show to the security guys. One of them was about to say something but stopped himself and these "horsemen" passed through. They weren't sure whether it was against campus regulations to have horses on the school grounds since no one ever did.

As the two left the gates the security grabbed his phone and made one phone call.

Ursula was sitting in the living room watching TV. This was turning out to be a slow Saturday. It was just her and Carol watching daytime television like they had always done. For a summer day it was quite cool but it was also very boring. Carol had the remote in her hand as she changed the channels one after another looking for something interesting to watch.

"Luck isn't on our side today Sula, might as well start on dinner."

"Need help?"

"Nah, I'm good, just relax you've had a long week." It was her first official week on the job all the grunt work had been pushed on her, which was quite a lot. Her mornings and afternoons were fully occupied.

"Okay, I wont help but I will keep you company."

"If you're going to follow me, I might as well put you to work." Carol said as she opened fridge. A phone started ringing. Ursula pulled hers from her back pocket and shook her head saying it wasn't hers. Carol closed the fridge and walked over to the living room where she had left her phone.

"It ain't mine either, could it be-" her sentence trailed off as she rushed to the study. The study was adjacent to the living room. She opened the door and sure enough the phone was ringing in there but suddenly stopped. Carol opened the top drawer and the phone was the first thing. This was the hotline they had created when John first disappeared. It rung constantly at first but they were mostly goodwill messages which though they were welcome was not what they wanted most. Eventually the frequent phone calls died down and about two years had passed. Carol still charged the phone from time to time just in case. She had refused to set up an empty grave as had been suggested by her shrink as a way to move on.

"What could they want? did they find his stuff?" The caller ID read Excellent University Security. She showed this to Ursula. As they were mulling this over the phone rang again startling both of them. Carol almost dropped the phone and was hesitant to answer and handed it to Ursula

"Hello." Ursula answered

"This is Excellent University Security."

"Yes, how can I hep you today."

"Do you know a young man named John, I remember he went missing about two years ago?"

"Yes," she stopped holding her breath, "I'm his sister, hold on let me put you on speaker so that my mom can hear." She tapped the screen and placed the phone on the table and told him to go on.

"As I was saying," the voice on the other side of the phone begun, "I was doing a check on some people today, a young lady and a young man, as they left the campus gates the young man used your brother's ID."

"Did you hold them?"

"Unfortunately we couldn't, they seemed to be in a hurry, I'm not sure it was him, he had a beard and looked totally different from the picture and they had horses."

"What do you mean horses? Vehicles with horses?"

"No, actual horses, they headed west." The phone hung up and it was Carol's and Ursula's turn to be stupefied.

"John with a beard and a horse? That doesn't sound like him" Carol said

"It's been two years, who knows."

"You head towards the university and try to track them down. I will call your father before I head out, this is the first ever real lead we ever got." Ursula could tell that Carol was excited and her hopes were all the way up.

"Mom, just in case - " Ursula said reaching out to hug her after she grabbed her car keys.

"I know it might not be him, but I hope its him, drive safe." From the kitchen she could hear her daughters car start then drive off. She picked up her phone and dialed Malik.

"Honey, I just received a call that someone used Johns school ID at his campus." she said immediately the phone was picked up, "Sula is headed there now."

"Okay I'll head that way too-" he listened for a while before shock registered on his face, "- what do you mean horses."

"I know right, anyways see you later." she hung up and headed for her car after locking the door. The neighbor across the street was shocked one vehicle after another was leaving the driveway across her street.

Once outside the gates they turned to the right and climbed on their horses. The city skyline was visible in the distance.

"What are those in the distance?"

"Those are buildings I was telling you about."

"Really? I thought you were joking."

"Since I have experienced your home, its your turn to experience mine."

"Explain something to me first, how did we end up here?"

"Same way I ended up there, by way of some magical painting, we exited through the painting. I don't know how it works, all I know is that i approached a huge painting and fell in and you found me by the side of the road. Someone made these paintings and somehow your world was born.

"Are you saying that the god who created our world is an artist like you?"

"I doubt that, It has to be someone with immense power and in this world no such people exist. You and me might be the most powerful people in this world." John said nonchalantly, "Trust me, I also want to unravel this mystery, we'll take it slow. our journey had only just begun."

John reached into his pockets and pulled out his dead phone. An idea had struck him. He took off his gloves and held this thumb over the charging hole and pushed a small amount of electricity through. the screen lit for a moment and he got excited but soon some smoke started coming from the phone and it caught fire after which he dropped it at the nearest garbage bin.

"Lets take a shortcut, we can speed, exercise the horses a little."

By the time Ursula got to the University gate about thirty minutes had passed since she left the driveway. She followed the road through a route that John might follow home but there was no sign of them or any horses at all. She was looking and stopping around to ask people, no one had seen any people riding horses and looked at her like she was insane.

"I can't find them anywhere." she said picking up a call from her father.

"Ill do another sweep, then we can go home, maybe he went there." Just as he said this Carol was calling, "Hold on let me add her to the call."

"Hey Sula, Honey some people here said they saw two people on horseback, I'm at that convenience store, Its called 2M3M, meet me here."

"Were close by, five minutes." They all hung up the phone and father and daughter turned their cars around.

John and Minerva approached a large gate on their horses dismounted. The guard stepped out of his office and approached them.

"Who are you and what business do you have here?"

"C'mon Mike, Its me John from 312."

"Really? Show some ID."

"Looks like I will have to shave, no one seems to recognize me," he muttered under his breath as he pulled out his wallet and showed his ID to Mike.

"Damn dude, where you been? Its been two years since you disappeared, and whats with the horses,"

"That's a long story, another time, is my mom home?"

"Everyone left in a rush about an hour and a half ago, I don't know where they went."

"Okay, thanks man, they'll find me home and this is Miner a friend." John made a last minute introduction as they went through the now open gates.

"Two years? How long were we under the water? Do you remember anything?" John had managed to hide his shock from Mike.

"Nothing, everything wen blank and the next thing I remember was falling through the - painting." she said with a pause. " I kid you not it sounds stupid to say,"

They waved at the neighborhood kids who were shocked to see their horses and made their way to 312.

"I wonder if the key is in the same spot?" John said after they had tied their horses to the tree in the front yard. Retrieving the key he opened the front door and with a sigh he said, "Home at last!"

"Make yourself at home," he said pointing to the living room as he rushed to his room to hide his swords. His room was a mess. As expected its been two years. He found a spot and rushed back downstairs to pour some juice and went to sit on the couch and turned on the TV. Minerva was taken aback.

"Now remember what we talked about, we don't want them to ask to many questions," to which she nodded as they heard cars pull up on the driveway.

Carol, Malik and Ursula had just met at 2M3M store when Mike called Carol and told them that John had just passed through the gate on horseback. Not a moment was wasted and as though Mike knew how fast they would be coming he had opened the gates before hand.

As Ursula pulled her car into the driveway and saw the horses jumped she still couldn't believe it John on a horse, unthinkable. The others exited their cars with a similar look of shocks Ursula and walked towards the front door. They could hear the noise on the TV and Ursula opened the door and led the way to the living room. Before her stood a bearded young man who had barely aged.

"Hey sis, Mom, Dad sorry that I was gone for too long," he made to embrace them and they all fell into each other with tears in their eyes.