Excerpt: Lunch at Midnight on the Isle of Pa'lank

Mincemeat pie. Mincemeat pie. Take a step.
“Oh, dear. That won’t work.” Stancy called. Jonas jumped, completely losing his concentration.
The sand that he’d been walking on had long drags from the many steps he’d been taking.
“Do you see what I mean? I told you that it wouldn’t work, and you didn’t believe me. I let you go so that you could try to see for yourself, but now it’s time to quit this foolish attempt, and to come with me. There’s a dragon to be slayed, and a monster to be caught. The monster, I need remind you, is entirely your fault.”
“I’m facing North, right?” Jonas hoped that he was at least able to discern one direction from the other. Otherwise, what would his third grade teacher thing.
When he got home, he resolved to teach Tammy how to be able to find directions. Then, he realized, “I’m missing, aren’t I?”
“No. You’re right here.”
“In my world.”
“Oh. In that case, yes. You are indeed missing.”
“I didn’t even think of that at first. I was too busy wondering how I got here. Why me?”
“Well, your parents are immigrants from Pa’Lank, aren’t they? Didn’t they want to escape from our world?”
This was completely new to Jonas. “What?”
“Haven’t they celebrated pies more than anything else? Don’t you have pies all year round? And weren’t you born on the magical date?”
Jonas furrowed his brows. He didn’t know what the magical date would be. Christmas? November 11th? His birthday was in June. It wasn’t special. It wasn’t even a government holiday. “What’s the ‘magical date’ that you’re talking about?”
“You should know. You were born on March 14th, at one fifty nine in the afternoon.”
An involuntary shudder ran down Jonas. He had started to suspect it when she had mentioned the love of pies. Jonas here by mistake. They were looking for Marshall. They needed Marshall the hero. They did not need Jonas the giant.