The next morning we were huddled around our breakfast, all efforts at small talk quashed by the anticipation of what I would tell them next.

“All right, Jimmy-san,” Tanaka said through his oily mustache, “please hurry with eggs and toast and tell what happened, for crying up loud, neh?”

We all laughed at his failed attempt at an American saying.

“What?” he roared.

“Okay, okay,” I said, glad that he had kind of broken the ice. “Before Tanaka gets his eyebrows in a wad, I'll tell you.”

I pushed my plate aside and folded my hands on the table in front of me. I leaned on my forearms, and tried to look at everyone as I spoke.

“The first thing we have to do is a little vague, because Farmer gave me another riddle.” Everyone groaned.

“It's not so bad, guys. It doesn't sound as hard as the last one, really.”

“What is it?” Miyoko asked.

“We have to go to a place where there is no north—in other words, a place called The Northless Point. Tanaka, if you can figure that one out, I'll give you a buck.”

He snapped to attention, his finger whipping down from his face into his lap—we'd caught him in a suspicious itch of the nose.

“Yes,” he said, “I start thinking right away.”

“We have three weeks, I mean, two weeks and six days—twenty days. At that time a rip in the Black Curtain will appear, and I will have only fifty-six minutes in which to go in, find one of those iron gateways, and find some woman called The Lady of the Storm. She'll direct me on how to find this Dream Warden we've talked about, who will apparently reveal to me the Fourth Gift. Then I have to get back out before the Rip closes. All in fifty-six minutes.”

There was a pause, the silence thick with contemplation.

The first thing all of us wanted to do was to get off the stupid ocean.

So it was decided. We would go back to Japan, where Geezer was supposed to have gathered as many of the Alliance as possible. Once there, we would somehow figure out where to find the Northless Point and—hopefully—obtain the Fourth Gift. Then, we could regroup and decide what needed to happen in order to win the battle against the Shadow Ka and the Stompers.

That point in time seemed so distant. When we spoke of it, none of us had any concept of what that battle would be like. We didn't even know if it was something that the Alliance could help with, or if it was something I had to do on my own. But we could only take it one step at a time, and obtaining the Fourth Gift was the next item on the agenda. We hoped everything else would fall into place after that.

Of course, we should have known better.

The next morning, I sat at my favorite spot again, looking out into the great ocean from the front of the ship. We had nineteen days left now, and I couldn't believe how long that suddenly seemed. We had been at sea for weeks, even months, and now three weeks seemed like a lifetime.

Rusty joined me after a while. Since our little spat—if you could even call it that—we had not spoken much, and I could tell by his demeanor that he was about to set things straight. Even before he began, I was ashamed that I had not initiated this talk.

“Jimmy,” he said, “you are looking at a complete fart-for-brains.” I knew it was his bizarre way of apologizing, but I didn't let on.

“Oh, please, Rusty, what're you talking about?”

“I'm sorry little bro. I don't know how else to say it except I'm jealous sometimes, dude.” He put his arms over the railing, leaning his forearms against the cold metal, and folded his hands, looking out over the ocean. We were both kind of too embarrassed to look at each other.

“I understand.”

I understand? That was the best thing I could come up with after he'd just been man enough to apologize?

“Look,” I tried again, “if it makes you feel any better, all this stuff gets me so scared that I constantly wish it wasn't me that had to … do it all, or whatever. I hate it sometimes, man.”

“Really? It looks like you kind of enjoy being Superman to me.”

“What do you mean? Am I getting cocky?”

“Well … kind of, I don't know. Just being honest, sorry.”

“No, it's … it's okay. I'll try to quit being a poop head.”

He swiveled toward me and shook his head.

“No, don't do anything different, I mean it. Geez, talk about stupid—it's about the dumbest thing in the world for me to worry about in the middle of all this garbage. You have to save the world, you little brat.”

“Don't say that, it makes me feel like I can never do it. I'm just trying to tackle things one problem at a time. Right now, all I can think about is getting the last Gift. After that … we'll see what happens.”

“Man, Jimmy, come on. Think about the things you can do. And didn't you say that old farmer guy told you the Fourth Gift is the most powerful or something like that?”

I nodded.

“Give me a break. What are you scared of? You're gonna kick some major tail when the time comes. And all of us—we'll be there, doing whatever we can to help. We're going to win, Jimmy, and get our old lives back—the good ole days, you'll see.”

“I hope you're right, but it still scares the crud out of me.”

“Well, ya know what? You may be my little brother, but I just want you to know that I look up to you.”

He patted me on the shoulder, and walked away.

I was so glad he left then, because it would've really stunk for him to see the wet thing fall out of my eye.