Prism

by Faye Kellerman; Aliza Kellerman

  My father saw me coming down the stairs and stopped yelling at Jace. “Sit,” he commanded. “You too,” he said to my brother.

  So there we were, parked in our living room, my parents on the couch and Jace and I in the wingback chairs opposite them, the only sound my little sister’s wailing.

  “Oh, for God’s sake, can someone take care of Suzy?” My mother rubbed her temples.

  “Sure.” I started to rise, but my father held up his hand. “Jace, go.”

  He got up without a word, took the baby, and went upstairs.

  My father attempted a smile. “All right, Kaida, I’m going to try and make my point as succinctly as possible. You’ve always been a bit of a cheeky girl. A little spunky, keeping us on edge. But you’ve never given us trouble. Trouble, Kaida, is something you’ve managed to avoid until now.”

  “I’m not in trouble.” I thought I sounded very brave and confident.

  “Don’t interrupt your father,” Mom said sternly.

  “May I continue?” My father tapped his index finger against his cheek. I didn’t dare answer the rhetorical question. That should have alerted him that something was wrong with me. But he was too caught up in what was happening.

  He started again. “People have been talking.”

  “Saying what?”

  “Among other things, that you’re hanging out with the wrong sort of people. Tell me, Kaida, do you find endangering your family cool?”

  “I’m not endangering anyone,” I croaked out.

  “Do the words spill dealer have any meaning to you?”

  Damn it, Jace. It was the last time I was going to trust him—ever.

  “Jace was bad enough. He’s a boy and boys do stupid things. But you? Are you trying to get us all arrested?”

  I blanched. “No! Of course—”

  “I don’t care if this is some ridiculous teenage rebellion. I have no patience for it anymore. If I hear anything more about it, then you’re out of this house!” my father roared.

  I sat there and blinked, too stunned to cry. My mother took care of that for me. She burst into tears, and the look of flaming hell on my father’s face melted in seconds.

  “Come here, Kaida,” my mother choked.

  I got up from my chair and sat between them. My mother held my face in her moist palms and kissed my cheeks. “I will kill that boy before I let you hang around him.” She sobbed, hugging my head.

  “We love you, dragon-girl,” my father told me. “That’s why we’re doing this. You know that, right?”

  “Of course.” I smiled a little. “You’re right and I’m very sorry.”

  “Please say that like you mean it,” Dad told me.

  “I do mean it.” I kissed his cheek. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know until Jace told me this afternoon that it was bad. Don’t worry about me. Please.”

  “By the way, Jace wasn’t the one we heard it from,” Mom said.

  “He defended you,” my father said. “He kept saying that I shouldn’t believe everything I hear.” Dad shook his head. “What is it with you two? A sibling conspiracy against the parents?”

  My eyes were wet with tears. “We stick up for each other. It’s what you taught us.” I gave them a closed-mouth smile. “Can I go to bed now?”

  “Have I made myself clear?”

  “Yes.”

  “Go to bed.”

  I bolted from the living room, passing Jace as he exited Suzanne’s nursery.

  “It wasn’t me, I swear,” Jace whispered. “I would never rat you out.”

  “I believe you, Jace.” Although I wasn’t sure that I did. “Good night.”

  I scurried back to bed, staring up at the ceiling, my eyes adjusting to the dimness. My hands were laced like I was praying, and my whole body felt like I was lying on a bed of needles. I knew I should have been frightened into submission because their concerns were real. But instead I felt calm wash over me, knowing the most successful renegades are the silent ones.

  15

  “Hey,” Iggy said.

  “Hey,” I answered back. I took a seat next to him in computer lab. School was just about to let out—our English class was dismissed with five minutes to spare—and I was glad that I had gotten there early enough to find a seat. The lab was a good place to do homework.

  Like homework was important. My entire perspective had changed.

  “Maria was holed up for the weekend. She didn’t return my calls.” He scratched his frizzy orange hair. My thought was Go take a shower.

  But what I said was “Maybe she’s visiting her cousin.”

  “Whatever, Kaida,” Iggy interrupted. “I know she’s not visiting her cousin, okay? Besides, it’s Tuesday and she would have been back by yesterday.”

  I looked at Iggy’s baggy shorts and single earring and thought, I should really punch you right now. Having been in this life for a week or so, I had to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was speaking from concern.

  “I’m sure she’s fine,” I responded quickly.

  “Well, someone’s dressed up this afternoon.” I felt two hands on my shoulders and knew who it was before I turned around.

  “Praise the skies!” I grabbed Maria and sprinted across the room, giving her an impromptu piggyback ride.

  “I appreciate the enthusiasm,” she said when I put her down. “It was temporary, after all.”

  “Told you.” I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to smuggle drugs—yet.

  “What are you doing here after school’s over?”

  “I came here to get my makeup work.”

  “It’s Buchanan. You didn’t miss much. Wanna hang out?”

  “I’ve got to go back home.” She touched her throat. “Just want to be a hundred percent certain.”

  “I get it.”

  “Maria!” Iggy crushed her in a bear hug.

  “Good-to-see-you-too-Ig,” Maria choked out in Iggy’s suffocating grasp.

  Iggy let go of her. Something else caught his attention. “Hey, K, I think your newest conquest is calling you.”

  I turned around. Ozzy was tapping lightly on a window leading out to the hallway. He was so tall that he had to bend down to make his head visible in the window. He gave me a half smile and gestured for me to come outside.

  “Better go before people start yakking.” Maria nudged me in the ribs—hard.

  “Keep this to yourself…please?”

  She made a zip across her lips. I darted out of class and found him by my locker. “How did we suddenly become a couple?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s okay with me.” His smile was dazzling.

  “Me too, except there’s a problem.” I met his eyes. “My parents have forbidden me to see you. I mean I can see you, but I can’t hang—”

  “I get it.” His green eyes darkened and he seemed to shrink. “I figured it was only a matter of time.”

  “It doesn’t mean I’m going to listen…” I sighed. “It does mean that we need to be a little bit more careful.” My eyes swept over the place. The hallways were becoming more and more crowded as students started filing out. I opened my locker. “I don’t want my brother to see us talking.”

  He looked at the ceiling. “You shouldn’t put yourself at risk for me.”

  “It’s not for you, Ozzy—it’s for Joy.” When he didn’t answer me, I whispered, “But I would have taken the risk for you, too.”

  His face became the color of a tomato. “I have news, Kaida.” His eyes darted from me to the crowds. “Wait outside. I’ll pick you up.”

  He walked away. I gave it a minute or two and then went outside and loitered around the student lot. In the meantime, I called my parents and told them I was going home with Maria and I was eating dinner there.

  Mom had no trouble believing that.

  Then I called Maria and asked her to cover for me. She loved the idea of playing secret agent.

  I hated being duplicitous and disobeying my parents, but things needed to happen.
Joy was in trouble with her arm. It was only a matter of time before the infection became obvious and started wreaking havoc on her body. If there was a time for action, it would be now. I thought about it in bed last night, rationalizing that I wasn’t defying my real parents. They were somewhere in some other universe—at least I hoped that was the case. They couldn’t possibly have traveled with me unless the entire journey was in my head. But that would mean it was in Zeke’s and Joy’s heads as well. And why did we know stuff that no one else knew?

  It was mind-boggling to think about it—me here and me there. Did I exist simultaneously? How was that possible?

  Concentrate, Kaida. Now’s not the time for speculation. The point was I loathed the idea that I’d get my parents and family—whoever they really were—into trouble.

  Ozzy pulled up in an ancient pickup truck with a motor that sounded like a thousand vengeful cats. I hopped in. “What’s the age limit for driving here? If you can smoke as soon as you can breathe, can you drive as soon as you can steer?”

  “Age limit is sixteen, but most parents forbid their kids to get behind the wheel until they’re eighteen. The road is a death trap.”

  “But you drive,” I pointed out.

  “Don’t really have a choice. When you need to pick up and deliver stuff all the time, you need to drive.” He looked over his shoulder and pulled the car out of the lot.

  “So you make money, right?”

  “Money?”

  “Picking up and delivering spills.”

  “Cost only plus gas and free spills for my mom,” he told me. “Least they could do when I put myself at risk.”

  “How do you support yourself?”

  “We have a little in savings…not much. That’s why we live like we do.”

  I felt bad about bringing it up, but I was glad he wasn’t making a huge profit with his dealing. I decided silence was golden and turned quiet.

  Ozzy said, “Sports are the big one.”

  “Pardon?”

  “If you really want to prove your machismo, you play sports…knowing what could happen.”

  “Why would people take a risk?”

  “For the glory…and if you’re pro, it’s for the money.”

  “But what if something happens?”

  “That’s the thrill, Kaida. To cheat death.”

  I didn’t answer. I suppose it wasn’t very different from racing autos, knowing that at any minute someone could lose control and crack into a wall. Still, things like basketball and baseball weren’t supposed to be dangerous sports. No wonder Zeke swam instead of playing football. Not too much can happen there.

  “So what’s the big news?” I persisted.

  “First things first. We’ve found some spills for Joy.”

  “That’s great news!” I couldn’t help it. I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “You’re a miracle worker.” I thought a moment. “You said ‘first things first.’ What’s second on the list?”

  “Second is…we’re going to get the hell out of this world.”

  I wasn’t sure if I heard him correctly. “We’re going to get the hell out?”

  “I need to go back with you guys so I can return and help everyone. It’s just unfair to lay all of this on your shoulders.”

  That part was true.

  “I mean, if there was a way in, there must be a way out.”

  “That’s faulty logic.” I rolled down my window for fresh air. “Things don’t happen in reverse. Does the snake spit the mouse back out?” That was an expression my dad used a lot, even when it made no sense. I think he made it up.

  “Perhaps not the mouse in its entirety, perhaps just the skeleton of the mouse.” His face was a mask of focus. “I have to believe that it can be done. I have to believe that there’s a better way.”

  I touched his shoulder as he stopped at a red light. “Don’t get me wrong, I want to get out of here, too. I’m just thinking…what are the chances that we’ll find the exact same cave we fell through? It wasn’t near any significant landmark. We’d have to search miles of desert. And even if we could inspect every square foot of New Mexico, who says the cave even exists?”

  “Kaida?” He kept his eyes focused on the road ahead. “How similar is your world to this world?”

  “Pretty much the same in every aspect except health.”

  “So what would you classify this world as?” He drove as the light flashed green.

  “I’ve thought about it and thought about it. It’s like a parallel universe, but not exactly. I mean, you’re here in this world, but I don’t know if you were back in my original world.”

  “Would you say that these two worlds exist separately but simultaneously? Untouched by each other but in almost perfect similarity?”

  “The key is almost, I think. And health is a pretty big factor, Oz.”

  He grinned. “Oz?”

  “You are the wizard.”

  “I like it, especially coming from you.” I felt my face turn hot, but he had other things in mind than flirting. “So let’s say the two worlds do exist at the same time. Who was your best friend in the other world?”

  “Well, Maria, of course.”

  “And your family, still the same?”

  “Basically…yes.”

  “And your school, your classes, everything that matters to you exists here in this world.”

  “The same people exist, yes.”

  “So if everything exists in harmony with your other universe, then your class trip to Carlsbad should play out exactly as the trip that took you here…in this parallel universe.”

  “But it’s not exactly the same, Ozzy—that’s the point. I don’t know if we can return where I came from. And I certainly don’t know if anyone can go back and forth.” I turned to him. “Do you know anyone who’s gone back and forth?”

  He shook his head no. He looked so dejected that I had to give him—and me—some hope. “It may be possible, but we don’t know.”

  He turned down a dirty street that smelled like turnips. “Tell me what happened…as much as you can remember.”

  “You’ve heard the story.”

  “A recap, then, in your own words.”

  “Mr. Addison lost control of the car. We crashed and the van erupted into flames. It started to pour so we took shelter in a cave. Joy fell down a pit and we tried to rescue her. That’s when we got lost.” I looked at the bleak buildings we were passing. Most of them were in a state of decay. “We were in a cave for around a day, but we finally found a way out. The last thing I remember was a blinding light. Then I woke up in my bed and it was Monday morning and I had to get ready for school.”

  “Just like the people in the archives.”

  “Exactly.”

  Ozzy thought a moment. “Did Mr. Addison survive?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “He didn’t emerge from the crash, but it was dark. I suppose it’s remotely possible that he escaped and we didn’t see him.”

  He tapped the steering wheel with his right hand. “When you go on the upcoming trip, you have to re-create that day. Then we can find the cave.”

  “Ozzy, how can we re-create an accident? And the exact same accident, at that? What makes you think that Mr. Addison is going to want to die?”

  “Like you said, maybe he didn’t die.” He thought for a moment. “It’s like the prism parallel you mentioned. Light goes in and light comes out.”

  “But the light changes from white to multicolored. It’s different.”

  “It’s different, but it’s the same. The light doesn’t suddenly turn into an armchair. Your world is reflected through some weird dimension, and it’s coming out into this world. It’s the same world, I think, just cast in a different light. Everything revolves around your class trip to Carlsbad.”

  “I’m going on the trip, okay?” Just thinking about it made me feel light-headed. The thought of having to re-create that nightm
arish horror. “I’ll go on the trip, Ozzy, but I’m not going to punch Mr. Addison so we swerve and crash. But if it’s destined that we crash again, in the same way…then the three of us will…well, we’ll at least know what to do. Sort of.”

  “I’m just figuring out how I’m supposed to go with you because I’m not a sophomore and it’s not my class trip.” He pulled up to a curb and parked…badly, I saw when we got out.

  “We’ll find a way to sneak you in there,” I told him.

  “I hope so. If I could go back and forth, I could do so much good.”

  I patted his hand and he smiled. In front of us was a dingy brown building with big block letters spelling out Rix Plac. I assumed the e had fallen off. Graffiti painted the walls. “Where are we?”

  “My second home.” He took my hand. “Let’s go.”

  He opened the door, and a musty whiff assaulted my nostrils. It was crowded, and it smelled like beer and hormones. Mostly men between puberty and old age, but there were a few women. I can’t say that the masses looked reputable, but they didn’t look like bums, either. The dress was casual. The place had sawdust on the floors and mirrors on the walls and looked completely unoriginal, just like a thousand other shady bars I’d seen before.

  On television, that is.

  “Ozzy!”

  “Ozster!”

  “My main man, get this gentleman a drink!”

  “Hey, Ozzy,” an older woman on a barstool purred.

  “Hey, Colbert.” He dropped my hand and patted a guy in a collared shirt on the back. “Lester, long time, no see!”

  “Whose fault is that?” a skinny man with a blond comb-over said.

  “Hey, handsome.” A striking woman with red lips, wavy black hair, and a husky voice stood up and pulled Ozzy into a big hug. “How goes it?”

  “Michelle!” he hugged her back. “You look—”

  “I know,” she interrupted and stepped back. “I look fabulous.”

  I coughed. Ozzy smiled and pulled me in front of him. “Kaida, meet Michelle, James’s older sister and my adopted sister.”

  James, as in the spill dealer. It was business. Jealousy quelled, I extended my hand. Michelle took it and smiled warmly. I wanted to ask Oz what we were doing here but knew well enough when to keep my mouth shut. There was a time for action and there was a time to take a backseat. This was caboose time.