by Imogen Rose
My head was starting to feel like it was going to explode into millions of pieces of brain goo. “Look, this is confusing. Explain the Wanderer thing again. You claim to time travel. Stan said that he wandered me over to the Bahamas. So, why can’t you do the same if you’re a Wanderer, too? Why are we taking a flight home?”
“Only Sigma-Wanderers can travel from place to place–geographically. Wanderers like me can only travel through time and dimensions.”
“I’m not really understanding the dimension thing….”
“I know. It’s hard to get your head around it. We really only experience the world in one dimension. However, parallel dimensions exist. At the beach, remember how the house you were in disappeared?”
“Yes.”
“Well, it didn’t really disappear. It’s still there. What happened was that I wandered you to another dimension. That house just doesn’t exist in this dimension.”
“Wow, you’re blowing my mind. So what dimension are we in?”
“They aren’t named, but we’re not in the same dimension as your family anymore. Rupert thought it would be safer not to bring you back home for now. So, although we’re going back to Mountain View, we’re going back in another dimension from your family.”
“So I won’t see them? Where are we going then?”
“My dad lives in Mountain View, in this dimension. We’re going to stay with him until it’s safe to bring you back home.”
I nodded, sat back, and closed my eyes. His dad? David looked exhausted. I decided to give him a break. We were landing soon anyway.
It was time to transfer to another flight. David took my hand and led me through the long hallways to immigration, which we passed through quickly, then headed to the next gate to fly back to the U.S. This flight would take us to New York, where we would catch a final flight to San Francisco where David’s dad was picking us up. David slumped into his seat and closed his eyes. I needed more answers, but now was not the time. I was tired as well. I had hardly slept in the last twenty-four hours. I closed my eyes and let the drone from the engines lull me to sleep. I pretty much slept through both the flights.
“Poppet, it’s time to wake up.” David tugged at my sleeve.
“Hmm? Yeah, I’m up.” I rubbed my sleepy eyes.
“We’re going to be landing in about an hour. Here are a few things to freshen up with, then we’ll have something to eat.” He handed me a complimentary airline pouch, which I grabbed before heading to the restroom to make myself a bit more presentable. I gasped when I saw myself in the mirror. Whatever was in that little kit would not be able to deal with this mess. I needed a makeover! I brushed my teeth and tried to deal with my hair. I ended up putting it up in a low bun at the nape of my neck. At least it looked tidy. The tube of cocoa butter helped restore some of the glow to my face, but my eyes still looked puffy, and my lips would have benefited from some gloss. Still, I guessed it would have to do. When I got back to my seat, the tray was down, and a glass of orange juice and a turkey sandwich waited for me.
“Thanks.”
“It’s all they had. The flight attendant said you’d better hurry up and eat because we’re going to start our final descent soon, and you’ll have to flip up your tray. We’ll get some real food once we land.”
I sat down and looked him over. His shoulder was touching mine; I fought not to rub up against it. How come he didn’t look as rough as I did? He looked as hot as ever; my heart somersaulted. Then I remembered my current look. Yuck. No wonder.
“Don’t be silly, you look as beautiful as ever,” he said.
“What? I didn’t say anything,” I blurted.
“Oh, sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I’m still tired.”
“What did you mean, don’t be silly?”
“Well, you were worried about not looking your best….”
“Yeah, but I didn’t say anything!”
He rubbed his shoulder against mine. “We’re touching. I can read your thoughts.”
I instinctively drew away from him. “What the heck? Read my thoughts?”
“Yeah, I have a very strong connection with you. I can feel you, even read your thoughts when I touch you. That’s how I found you. I felt you and tracked you.”
I was at a loss for words.
“Flip your tray table into the upright and locked position, and please fasten your seatbelts,” the flight attendant instructed, interrupting us.
“David?” I prompted, as soon as she left.
Looking weary again, he ran his fingers through his hair. “Later, please?”
I bit down on my lip and peered through the window at the San Francisco skyline below, as I tried to take it all in–Wanderers, mind-reading, tracking.
We had no luggage, so we made it out in no time. I noticed a lady waving at us as we walked out of the gate area. David walked right over and threw his arms around her. I felt a twinge of jealousy rip through me. The woman was model gorgeous, and she was way too close to my David.
“Morena! Great to see you. What are you doing here? Where’s Dad?” David asked.
Morena? Strange name, but it sounded familiar. Her smile had turned into a frown, but that just made her look even more attractive. Her green eyes softened, and she smiled when she noticed me as I came forward and looped my arm through David’s.
“Arizona!” She wrapped her arms around me and drew me in for a hug. “I’m so glad David managed to find you. How are you? Are you hurt in any way? Do you need me to take you to the hospital?”
“No, I’m fine. Who are you?”
Arching her eyebrows, she looked at David.
“Arizona is having issues remembering stuff at the moment,” he explained. “Where’s Dad? I thought he was going to pick us up.”
“I don’t know. We were supposed to meet at his place. I was dropping off some clothes for Arizona, and then we were going to drive here together. He wasn’t home. I waited for a while, but he didn’t show. Finally, I let myself in. I found this note on the coffee table,” she said, her voice breaking.
It was a busy Friday evening at The Hurler, all the regular customers happily settled with their favorite brews in hand. All but one. Sophie noticed that Mr. Swooner was trying to drink from an empty beer mug. She hurried a refill over to his table in the corner. He didn’t even look up as she switched his empty mug for one brimming with foam. He was totally immersed tapping on his laptop keys, sporadically running his fingers over his handwritten notes, his outlines, as he called them. Mr. Swooner–no one knew his first name–was their resident author, writer of bodice-rippers. Resident, as in he was the first one in the door and generally the last customer to leave every day. He was a constant in Sophie’s life. She loved observing him from the counter as he wrote, his facial expressions reflecting his thoughts. Right now, he seemed somber. Perhaps his heroine was in trouble. She left him to his thoughts and walked back to the counter where a group of drunks were impatiently waiting for refills.
Sophie was glad she had managed to convince the owner, Al, to hire Dan and her back after their sudden departure a year ago. She had panicked when their mug shots were flashed on television. As soon as she saw them, she had grabbed Dan, and they had just taken off without so much as a goodbye, after helping themselves to the cash in the till. Then they’d spent a year on the run, working in seedy bars all over the country, running away at any sign of trouble. Three months ago, they had decided to come back to San Francisco, back to The Hurler.
They’d come back to return the money they had stolen, in hopes that it would convince Al to hire them back. Of all the places they’d worked, this had been the best, the easiest. Al was generous to a fault. Sophie knew that he wouldn’t call the cops. He had way too many skeletons in his closet for that. She was, however, scared of what he might do when he saw them. She needn’t have worried. As soon as Al saw them hesitantly peeking in through the doorway, he’d strode over and welcomed them back like they were long-lost buddies. So, they’d ke
pt the money. And they had stayed and worked for him, working longer than normal hours to make it up to him.
Sophie observed him fondly as he threw darts at the board in the corner while joking with his customers. He was a bear of a man, not big, but cuddly-looking. He was unique to say the least. Sophie smiled as he bent to pick up a fallen dart, his new lilac leggings stretching precariously. He wore a matching boa wrapped carelessly around his neck on top of his gray Twisted Sister concert t-shirt. His skin glowed from a gentle dusting of glitter powder. One would have expected a garishly made-up face to top off this look, but that wasn’t the case. He reminded Sophie of her Uncle Joe with a kind, generous, heart-shaped face topped by pepper-gray hair cut into a short bob. He wore glasses and sported a well-trimmed beard, which he played with when he was worried. He wasn’t worried at the moment; his whole face beamed with happiness as he threw another dart, hitting the board dead center and chuckling with delight. Al had taken an instant liking to Dan. It wasn’t hard to see why. They both enjoyed the simple things in life. For Al, that was a bar full of paying customers.
Unfortunately, Dan wasn’t in the same celebratory frame of mind as Al. Sophie noticed him walking in for his break from manning the doors. The year hadn’t done his appearance any favors. He had put on a lot of weight and shaved his head. His face was worn from the constant stress, and the gleam in his eyes had pretty much vanished completely. She had changed, also. Initially, it was in order to disguise herself, but her personality had morphed into her look. She was now a brunette, with bangs cut low so that it hid her eyebrows. She had taken to wearing a pair of horn-rimmed glasses, even though she didn’t need them to correct her vision. Gone was the corporate-looking wardrobe; now she, like Dan, dressed in leather pants and black t-shirts daily.
“Gimme a beer,” Dan muttered, walking up to the bar.
“Here.” She slid a brown Budweiser bottle over to him. “What’s eating you?”
“What do you think?” he said cuttingly, rolling his eyes.
“It’ll be fine,” she soothed. She hoped it would, anyway. Although she felt fairly settled in this job, practically being nonexistent–apart from being on the FBI’s wanted list–was frustrating. She had no driver’s license, credit cards, bank account, no social security number, even. She was thankful that Al had no problems paying them in cash, but what if they got sick? She thought back to her job at Ames, which had come with full benefits.
This was all Raj Sen’s fault. He had to pay. Somehow, she had to find a way to become legitimate again. For that, she’d need lots of money. Money would buy her a new identity in this dimension, should they decide to stay. However, what she really wanted was to go back home. She was aware that it would be impossible to return to her old life; both she and Dan were bound to be on the wanted list in the other dimension as well for abducting the Darley kids. Damn Raj. Going back would mean a necessary change in identity, with new social security numbers. Going back would also mean a chance of getting to see their families again, albeit, in secret. She couldn’t live without seeing her daughter again; she had done this for her, after all. She’d become involved in Raj’s get-rich-quick scheme to make a fast buck so she could better look after Tiffany. Would she even remember her now? She would be three years old. She wondered how her mother had explained her absence to Tiff. Sophie felt a twinge of pain shoot through her as she remembered running her fingers through Tiffany’s wispy brown curls.
“How is it gonna be fine?” Dan snorted. “What the hell are we gonna do with him? We can’t just keep him locked in the basement. What if Al finds out?”
“Finds what out?” Al asked, appearing at the counter.
Sophie shot Dan a venomous glare. What an idiot, always talking out of turn. The bar was full of people. What was he thinking?
“Sophie?” Al prompted.
“Oh, it’s nothing. It’s Dan’s birthday tomorrow, and he’s a bit shy about sharing that. He’ll be forty.” She smirked at Dan.
Al’s face broke into a smile. “Forty! That calls for a celebration! Leave it to me.” He rubbed his hands together in glee. “Dan, could you bring some more snack packs up from the basement? We’re running a bit low up here.”
“Yup, I’ll do that right now.”
“Finish your beer first.” He waved for Dan to sit back down and then made his way back to the dartboard.
“My birthday? Forty? I’m only thirty-four. What’d you say that for?” Dan grumped.
Sophie shrugged. “I had to say something. Besides, now you’ll get to celebrate a birthday if we get stuck here. That should be fun, right?” Dan raised his eyebrows, not looking terribly convinced.
“You better get the snacks. Water our guest while you’re down there.”
~
Kevin rolled around on the hard concrete floor trying to get into a less awkward position. His wrists and legs were duct-taped together, making it nearly impossible to move. Dan had been generous with the duct tape, even sealing his lips shut with a slice from the huge roll. Kevin managed to shuffle his way to the corner and push his body up against the wall so that he was in a semi-sitting position. He looked around. Whosever basement he was in liked to drink; the room was full of alcohol. Cases of beer were piled on top of each other–Budweiser, Heineken, Michelob, even a few foreign labels he’d never heard of. Three walls were lined with metal shelving stuffed full of bottles of wine, vodka, Tequila, gin, and a huge assortment of every liqueur and mixer imaginable. There was a fortune in liquor here, but all he wanted was water. His mouth was parched.
He should have hightailed it out of his house as soon as he had read that note from Dan and Sophie. The note had said that they would call him, though, so he’d been totally unprepared when he had walked into his bedroom, and everything went black as his head was covered with a bag of some sort. Then his hands and ankles were bound and a piece of duct tape stuck over his mouth. He was carried out and driven to this place. When he had been dumped on the cold, hard floor, the bag had been removed to reveal Dan and Sophie. He’d tried to talk, only muffled mmm sounds emanating from behind his taped mouth. They hadn’t said anything, just turned around and walked off, locking the door behind them.
The same door that someone was now unlocking. Kevin braced himself. Was Raj back? The last time he’d encountered Raj was a year ago when Raj had nearly killed him. Then Raj had disappeared. Could he be back to finish the job?
It was Dan, thankfully. As much as he feared his large size, past encounters had shown him to have a pleasant disposition. However, it had been a year since his last run-in with this man, a year which Dan had spent on the run. That might have hardened him.
Dan closed the door, walked over, and pulled the tape from his mouth, peeling some of Kevin’s skin off in the process. He flinched in agony as his lips and skin burned, tears streaming down his face.
“Sorry ‘bout that. I didn’t know the tape would take the skin off like that. Here, have some water.”
Kevin took a sip from the straw, his lips quivering with pain, but the water was soothing as it went down his throat.
“I’m guessing that you’re not ready for grub, so I’ll be back later. We need to move you, anyway.” Dan extended the bottle for another sip, then laid the bottle down on the floor next to him and turned to leave.
“Wait,” Kevin croaked hoarsely.
“Say what?”
“Please. What do you want?”
“Sophie’s gonna talk to you ‘bout that later.”
“Please,” he whispered again.
“Well, money and a way to get home,” Dan replied, before he turned around and walked out the door.
~
“Did you gag him before you came back up?” Sophie asked. She thought it was best to make sure; Dan could be so forgetful.
“Naw. He’s all torn from where I pulled the duct tape off. There was no way I was gonna put another bit of tape on it.”
“What if he yells or screams?”
&nb
sp; “Doubt it.” Dan put the boxes behind the counter. “He can barely speak, and it’s too noisy up here to hear anything anyway. If I hear anything, I’ll head straight back down. I’m gonna go back out and relieve Big Mike now. He needs to feed his chinchilla. Can you let Al know that the snacks are behind the counter?”
Sophie nodded as Dan disappeared to man the door again. It was his turn to lock up, which was perfect. It meant that Al would leave them behind on their own. Then they could deal with Kevin.
David took the note from Morena, his forehead creasing as he read.
“What’s up?” I asked.
Stuffing the note into his pocket, he looked over at Morena with his jaw clenched. His eyes narrowed as she shrugged.
“What the heck is going on?” What was I? Invisible?
“I think we should drive over to my house until we hear from your dad,” Morena suggested.
“David?” I nudged him with my elbow.
“It’s nothing for you to worry about. Let’s head over to Morena’s house. I’m wiped.”
The drive to Mountain View was silent. David spent the entire trip with his eyes shut. He really did seem tired, even after the nap on the plane. I guessed the wandering thing took a lot out of him. Or perhaps he was just pretending to stop me from asking more questions. Morena didn’t seem to be into chatting, either. I didn’t know her anyway, so I spent my time staring out the window.
I had done this drive a zillion times. Everything looked the same. We passed the high school, which also looked just the same. It was hard to believe that we were in another dimension. Maybe we weren’t.
“Can we drive by my house? I need to pick up some clothes,” I asked hopefully.
“Arizona, your house doesn’t exist in this dimension. Don’t worry about clothes, though. I picked some up for you. I picked up some other supplies as well.”
Doesn’t exist in this dimension? I couldn’t get my head around that. “How exactly do we know each other?”
