“What are you doing on this side of the gate anyway?” the rugged rubber-clad man asked Coco.

“Waiting for you?” Coco said coyly with a wink.

“Cute,” the man said. He was obviously not impressed. “You could be in a lot of trouble for leaving the kingdom. Did you get a pass?”

Coco could see that her usual games and flirtation would get her nowhere. She would have to resort to being herself. After years on the stage and telling men what they wanted to hear for their measly dollars, she wasn’t even sure who that was, but was left with little other choice.

“I woke up here. I mean, not here. I’ve been traveling for a day or so. I woke up a ways from here and the Oracle pointed me this way.”

“You’ve seen the Oracle?” The man looked at her with surprise floating somewhere within his mysterious blue eyes. Coco found it hard to focus when he looked at her.

“Yeah, she told me that—”

The man held up his hand, “I don’t want to know. The things she tells you are between you and her. No one else.”

Coco shot a look at Rudy who was buzzing around gawking at the wreckage of the Gatekeeper.

Rudy shrugged. “Sue me for being curious. But I left, didn’t I? I didn’t hear the whole reading.”

The man looked at Rudy and then back to Coco. “You let him stay?”

“Well, no. Not exactly. I mean, I didn’t know that no one else was supposed to know what she told me. And like he said, he left before she finished.” Coco stammered. She hated that he made her so nervous. He was different from the men she knew. Not just because he wore a rubber suit, or possibly lived in a landfill, but the way that he carried himself—secure, confident, and with a sense of purpose. She felt she could melt right where she stood. “I’m just trying to find my way home.”

“And where might that be?”

“NOT in a landfill?”

“A what?”

“A place like this. Filled with trash?”

He stared at her blankly.

“Forget it. My name is Coco,” she said. She extended her hand with poise, which he took, but did not kiss as she had hoped.

“Adrian,” he said perfunctorily. He grasped her hand firmly and gave it a good shake.

“Can you take me to this kingdom of yours? Maybe someone there can help me?” She batted her eyelashes.

Adrian turned and began to march away. Coco stood and watched him. She looked over at Rudy, who just shrugged and began to follow Adrian.

“Come on then,” Adrian called over his shoulder, “it’s nearly dinner time at the palace. And, personally, I am famished.”

Directly inside the gate sat a pile of decrepit Gatekeepers. They were sad looking, defunct robots, rusted in a heap consisting of a washing machine, a vacuum cleaner, some roller skates, a television set, two pairs of garden shears and a set of crutches. A mass grave for the former guardians of the kingdom. Coco paused to survey the mess and raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Adrian.

“Like I said, sometimes they get out of hand. Come on.”

Adrian led Coco down a path where the trash had been shoveled to either side. They came to a bubbling puddle of greenish goo.

Coco stopped walking. “What is that?”

Adrian smiled brightly. “The pond. You should see it in the moonlight. It’s really very lovely.”

“I’m sure.” Coco tried to hide the look of disgust smeared all over her face. Dead goldfish floated on the surface and insects crawled in and out of the goo. Their bodies were coated in an oil-slick sheen. Mountains of trash towered over them. In the distance, some were topped with paper products. If Coco squinted she could pretend they were snow capped peaks.

There was a park with jagged playground equipment deemed unsafe for children years ago. Yet here, the children in their patchwork rags played and screamed gleefully. A tree in the center of the park dripped with tire swings and dirty, happy children. Their mothers stared cautiously at Coco as she and Adrian walked to the center of the village. Rudy felt a bit ragged and decided to nap the rest of the way to the castle, tucked in the folds of Coco’s over-puffed dress sleeve.

They passed strange dwellings constructed from old tires, wood, and large bricks of compacted waste. Several of the doors had holes large enough to crawl through and the windows were mostly just holes cut raggedly into the trash bricks.

Coco asked Adrian many questions. At first he answered in brief one word responses. But soon he relaxed and became more comfortable conversing with Coco. She learned that he was a knight, but primarily worked as a maintenance man for the Queen. It was his job to repair things like the Gatekeeper, the gate itself, and any other item the Queen felt needed an adjustment.

“Lately, since she is in heat, the Queen will just call a group of the knights to her quarters to check for loose floorboards. I usually find a way out of it, like claiming I am already on a repair. Especially now that the spores are dropping.” Adrian shuddered.

“Spores, like mold? Your queen is human, right?” Coco asked.

“She is mostly human, but yes, like mold. Now that she is in the late stages of this mating cycle, she drops spores. They are meant to attract a mate to her. Essentially by force.”

“Does it work?”

“She’s had three husbands since I have served here, all under the influence of her spores. She eventually grows bored and has them sent to the Chamber. Then the next cycle begins and she starts all over again.”

“What is the Chamber?” Coco asked, linking arms with him.

Adrian smiled down at her. She adored his rare yet brilliant smile. “Let’s just hope you never find out.”