Lizard People by Charlie Price

situation, the more confused he got. Now he wasn’t sure of anything that had happened to him in this place. Did his window change each day? Or did he move to different locations? Was he in a building or on a ship of some kind? And was he talking to a person or a lizard?
    â€œI need to talk to Dr. Monitor,” Marco said. “I want to go to his office with you and I’ll show you the entry or exit or whatever it is.”
    â€œWell, I want to talk with Dr. Monitor, too,” Dr. Gila said. “But he’s missing. No one has seen him since the day you were admitted.”
    â€œHe’s gone through the portal!” Marco practically yelled at Dr. Gila. “I told him about it. About how I got here. That’s why you can’t find him.”
    Dr. Gila was up and out of the room before Marco had even finished speaking.
    She came back with a shot-putter of a woman wearing a yellow uniform that was covered with what Marco first thought were medals, but which turned out to be tools of all kinds.
    â€œShow us what you call the portal,” Dr. Gila said. It sounded like an order.
    Yes! Marco tried not to let them see how eager he was. Practically free!
    The woman in yellow took two different-sized buttons off her tunic and placed them on Marco’s cheek. “Stabilizer and locator,” his headset translated.
    Marco didn’t like the sound of that but had no time to protest as they briskly led him out to the street. A toboggan-type board slid up to them and both women stepped up on it. Marco joined them and it glided away immediately.
    â€œThe locator traces your spatial memory,” Dr. Gila explained as they sped along in what Marco thought was the direction of the park.
    And the stabilizer? Marco wondered.
    Tonight I wasn’t as uncomfortable as I’d been the night before. With my eyes closed, it was a little like being told a weird bedtime story. I could picture the whole thing as he spoke, like I was watching a movie. But in the back of my mind, I was computing. This can’t be true, so what’s going on here?
    â€œThe entry point is under the biggest branch a few feet from the trunk,” Marco told the two women.
    The big woman in yellow took a lie detector box off her belt and held it above her head. In less than a minute, a silver tube appeared. They sang to each other, but Marco didn’t get a translation. Yellow took a small cylinder out of her pants pocket, and it unrolled to form a screen. The silver tube began projecting onto it.
    The field. Gliders. Then a man in a pale blue smock coming in from the side and dismounting his glider. Walking around the field like he was mowing the lawn. Covering every square foot. His motions became jerky as the video fast-forwarded. Then he was gone. Reverse to the man walking. Slow. He’s by the tree. He’s standing under the branch. He walks forward a couple of steps and … disappears!
    â€œHe found it,” Marco told Dr. Gila. The picture moved back, forward, back, forward. The same thing happened each time. Poof, he was gone. Yellow sent the tube away with a flick of her wrist.
    Marco thought the doctor was starting to shift color. He tried to distract her. “Wait a minute,” he said. “I have an idea.” He realized the genius of it. “I’ll go back after him. That makes sense because I know how to get around in 2007, and you all don’t. I’ll bring him back. He’s probably just sightseeing. When I bring him back, you guys tell me how to cure my mom’s mental illness and I go home to Riverton and never bother you again. Everybody gets what they want.” Marco was very pleased with himself as he watched Dr. Gila confer with Yellow. That good feeling was short-lived.
    â€œInspector Anole and I agree.” Dr. Gila was removing buttons and stick pins from her smock, taking small gadgets out of her pockets, and handing them to the constable, one by one. She