There Goes the Neighborhood

by Gary J. Davies

  ****

  Memorandum for the Record # 47-000237; 246/2347

  From: Earth Geodetic Survey Office, 3rd District

  To: Alien Artifact Subcommittee; Central Council

  Subject: International Park Object Investigation

  Sirs/Madams:

  As regards our scientific investigation of the structure and function of the suspected alien artifact (hereafter referred to as the Object) discovered recently by our staff in the International Park of this District, I can report only meager progress. The Object remains totally impervious to all standard methods of interrogation, including material analysis through chemical, mechanical, particle/energy beam and quantum attractor techniques. In addition, it continues to resist all efforts to move it; indeed, it remains 'stationary' relative to the surrounding rock strata, despite the removal of all supporting strata structures. That is, it currently defies gravity and 'floats' several meters above ground level, through mechanisms unknown and as yet totally undetected (see holographic images and parametric data provided as Attachment (1)).

  As long as it remains thus, fixed within the confines of the Park, more extreme means of physical examination are out of the question. Indeed, there is growing journalistic and scientific speculation on a possible relationship between the Object and the amazing growth and regenerative phenomena long observed for living things within the surrounding Park. As a result, there is increasing public and political pressure for even our current, limited investigations to be completely terminated.

  However, in relation to the archeological investigation of the site, I am pleased to report discovery of apparently relevant hand-written narrative material (see printed excerpt and Notes provided as Attachment (2)), found encased in the artificial rock structure that hid the Object. Verified to be authentic and of the same period as the encasing rock and mortar structure, the attachment is definitely of mere human origins, yet appears to provide important clues to the Object's properties, and to identify the historical circumstances of its burial three and a half centuries ago. We ask that the document be submitted to the Council Science Board for further study.

  Sincerely; Sheldon Jans, Chief Geologist, Earth Geodetic Survey Office, 3rd District

  Attachment (2) Excerpt:

  My name is Hank Krenson. I'm writing down my story in this journal that we Krensons have started so we can keep track of what happens with us and the Cube.

  We always kept to ourselves up on the Mountain; my family, my Pa's family, and his Pa's family. Living isolated that way isn’t so unusual for folks in these parts of Oregon, but we were more serious about it than most, and with good reason.

  In back of the house a grove of huge trees stretches up the valley for a half-mile till it hits the Mountain. I learned early on not to ask too many questions about that grove, about why we kept it in the family for so long without logging it, why we had a big fence around it, or why we never talked to outsiders about it. There were secrets on the Mountain that even the family wasn’t to talk about.

  Whatever else the grove on our land was, it was the most important thing in our lives. Pa was always checking the fence and fixing it when needed, no matter what. When I got old enough I helped, though I still wasn’t allowed inside the grove. Even schoolwork wasn't important, compared to guarding the upper grove. Besides checking fence for breaks caused by animals or fallen trees, we'd look for signs of outsiders poking around. Once in a while a hunter or two would show up, and we'd run-um off. This is big country, with lots of other places for folks to hunt.

  When I say Pa was strict, I don't mean that he ever beat me or anything like that; he didn't have too, he was always a forceful man in lots of ways, and could control me or just about anyone for that matter, with just a look. He was a determined man; it showed in his eyes, and the set of his jaw, and the way he stood and walked. Strong, that's how I mostly remember him.

  That's partly why his death a few years ago, and Ma's death shortly after that, were such big shocks. Before that, none of us were ever even sick before. Strange it happened that way, while they were away from the Mountain for the first time in years, just as it happened with our grandparents years earlier. Then again they were all much older than they looked, most well over a hundred, and I guess the years finally caught up with them.

  By that time I had married my Julia, and learned from Pa what he knew of the grove and its secrets. He never explained the grove to me when I was a child, until finally I just up and asked one fine spring morning when I was twelve and feeling all grown up and full of questions.

  "OK, Son," said Pa. "I guess you're old enough. Let's take us a walk." We did: up the path around back, past the garden on the hill, and straight to the gate of the fence that blocked the upper valley. Using one of the keys he always kept strung to his belt he unlocked the big old padlock, opened the gate wide, and motioned to me to go in. I knew I had come of age at last!

  After walking among some fine trees we came to a second fence with a second locked gate. I hadn’t even known about it, since it couldn't quite be seen from outside the first one. It looked older, and Pa explained that it was put up by my granddaddy, before Pa was even born. While the outside fence was six foot of chain link with three barbed-wire lines on top, this second fence was all barbed wire. It reminded me of ones I saw in a movie at school on the great wars. The posts were all hand-done, but the wire and lock were store-bought. Though it was mostly old, it was still kept up good; some of the wire and posts looked new.

  Beyond the second gate the path wound its way through woods that showed no signs of ever seeing ax or saw. The trees were Douglas Fur and Red Cedar as great in size as those Redwoods I had seen pictures of in books from town. I knew these trees were worth big money. After all, logging is what most folks do around here; that, or making things from the wood, or selling supplies and such to those that do. I figured then that the trees were the answer to why we guarded the grove, and said as much to Pa.

  He laughed. "The trees are just part of God’s plan to hide what's in the grove, son," he said. "What's hidden in there is evil, an abomination to God and nature, boy. Years ago your granddaddy pledged to the Lord that he and his kin would keep it hidden from the World. That's just what your grandpa did, and then I did, and now you. Today I'll show you what’s hidden here, and tell you what I can about it."

  We walked deeper into the grove; and all the while the trees got bigger and bigger, the further up that valley we went. They were much bigger than those trees pictured in the library books that they called Redwood or Sequoia, though they were still fir and cedar. There were bushes and vines and ferns and moss and all sorts of flowers too, bigger and healthier looking then I ever saw before. There were flowers big as dinner plates and berries big as apples, and bugs you don’t even want to hear about.

  We were all the while walking to the right of the stream that rushed down through our little valley in a hurry. As we went, the trail got faint, like it wasn't used much, and it narrowed with the valley, until it was just a narrow ledge along the stream that swirled and spat a dozen yards below. The water was swift and clear as spring rain, and I could see fish shapes, big ones, darting about in it. We didn’t see many animals, but there was plenty of animal sign of all kinds, more than I ever saw before, from possum to black-tailed mule deer and black and brown bear.

  We went through the remains of two more fences, or just gates really, since they only stretched between the cliff-side and stream, but these were really old, and so rotten they wouldn't keep out a thing. Animals probably knocked these down, along with the rot and falling tree limbs.

  "These inner fences we don't keep up now-a-days boy," explained Pa. "They're too deep in. Got to keep folks clean out of the woods. If folks ever see them big trees, there won't be no stopping um."

  "But they're our trees, ain't they Pa?" I asked him.

  "Sure Son," he said back. "But rich, greedy folks got ways to get what they want; sometimes it don't matter
what's right or what's law. So we got to keep everyone out of these woods boy; that's the pure and simple fact of it."

  As we wound our way round a bend in the trail Pa took my hand, held it tight, and walked slow, like we were sneaking up on a black-tail buck. It felt strange, my Pa holding my hand like that, when I was a grown-up of twelve. With every step, I expected some monster to step out from around the bend, like in the movies on TV or in the theatre in town. Or, just as bad, a bear. This is still griz country, and sneaking around quiet like that isn't too smart. You’ve got to let a griz know you're coming, so it can get out of your way, if you're lucky and it has a mind to.

  Suddenly, Pa stopped. I looked at what was ahead, but didn't see anything out of sorts, except that the path ended at an extra-wide stretch of ledge, wide enough for a few small trees and bushes. Pa knelt down next to me, and pointed to the cliff face ahead, where it turned back towards the cascading stream.

  It looked odd. There was a five-yard wide stretch where the cliff fell back like a cave, though that wasn't right either, because there aren't trees inside caves, or light and streams. The more I stared, the stranger it seemed. I couldn't rightly make out what I was looking at.

  "Move yourself a little to the left and right," said Pa. "You'll see it directly."

  "Is it a cave?" I asked.

  "No Son, it's kind of a big box that looks like it's made of mirrors, though it isn’t mirrors either," he said.

  With that hint, I could make it out at last. What showed of it was what years later my boy Ned learned in school was called a cube shape, with all the sides we could see being an equal square. The reason it was so hard to make out was that it seemed to be made of mirrors facing out, so that it looked like the trees and rocks around it. The Cube was big; it was near three men long to a side. Half of it seemed to be sticking out of the solid black rock of the volcano. Altogether, it was peculiar.

  But it wasn't scary. In fact, if not for Pa's firm grip on my shoulder, I'd have been working my way close to get a better look. I started to ask Pa a question, but he shushed me up and pulled me back down the path, away from the Cube in the cliff. When we were well out of earshot from the thing, he started telling me about it.

  Pa swore that if a body gets too close, the Cube changes things. That's what he said, and anything he said, I counted on as pure fact.

  "What does it change Pa?" I asked.

  "Grandpa said near everything changes, Son," he told me. "Worst is, next thing you know, your family is different people, and things you thought happened didn't happen, and folks say things happened that you don't remember. Sometimes good things, but sometimes things that are terrible. That's why we Krensons say it's evil. The way this family figures, that thing and us have been put together for a reason. And that reason is this: it's our job to keep it hid. Your granddad figured he couldn't trust that job to other folks, and the way lots of folks are these days, that's still true for sure."

  I must have been standing there with a stupid look on my face, like I didn't understand, because I sure didn't.

  "That's OK Son," he said. "I know it's a lot to swallow in one gulp. We can chew on it some more sometime."

  We talked about it again a couple times after that, but Pa didn't seem to know any more about the Cube than he told me that first time.

  We Krensons never once left the grove unguarded, even after that worst of days when my wife Julia and our little Kate had the accident coming home from the market in town, except for during the funeral itself. Sheriff Marks forced us to lay Julia and Kate to rest in the graveyard near town, instead of at our place like I wanted, where Pa, and Ma, and the other Krensons are buried. Only me and my son Ned were left, alive and alone on the Mountain.

  I confess I was in poor shape after that. Until then I guess I thought I was the strong one, the one that could go on forever, no matter what. But it was Julia that helped me see things that way, and little Kate too.

  Julia was always there for all of us, full of gentle strength and love. She fed us, and nursed us when we needed it, and when there was a dispute, she set things right. On special days like birthdays, or when we were troubled, she played her piano with nimble fingers dancing soft across the old worn keys, floating magic through the valley, causing our souls to soar.

  Then there was Kate. What could me or anyone write about Kate that would explain what she meant to us ordinary folks? She was like wild spring daffodils poking up through late winter snow, and warm summer sunshine and wind on bare skin; she was the spark that got us all burning with life, even though I guess we didn't fully know it, until after she was gone. If Julia was our strength, little Kate was our heart and soul.

  Both of them were gone, and they took the best of me with them. Days and months and years got too long, faded, and dark, without my ladies. I even let my watch of the grove lapse. That's when Ned quit school, to watch the grove better; not because I told him to but because he knew it was the right thing to do, once I told him about the Cube. It helped bring me around some, him fully accepting the Krenson burden, but by then we'd already sold most of the chickens and horses, which we raised for cash money.

  Two years after Julia and Kate left us, Sheriff Marks came by with a taxman from the county, and they explained everything to me. I had to pay the back-taxes in three weeks or we would lose our land. We owed $5,547, which wouldn't sound like much to city folks, but since I had only about $500 from already selling Julia's piano and everything else I could. What was I going to do? I tried getting loans but all the banks were lined up to get our land at auction and didn’t want to help us. Getting work in town was the best answer, if I had more time, but I didn’t.

  Two days later there were two loggers poking around. Sure, they were both made up like hunters, but from the way they looked at the trees at the edge of the grove, I knew what they were really after.

  "Some fine wood you got here mister Krenson," said the small, shifty-eyed one. He reminded me of a weasel I caught up with once, that was after the chickens. "Must be good hunting too," he remarked. "That why you got it all fenced up that-a-way?" All the time, the big one was eyeing up the trees at the edge of the grove. They were over two hundred feet tall. I wondered what they'd have thought if they could have seen the really big trees, further in, that were ten times as tall.

  “This is private property,” I told them; and my shotgun pointed at them showed them the truth of that.

  "Sure, but we'd like to hunt it. I'll pay you plenty."

  "We don't allow for hunting, except our own; this is sign posted, private property," I told him again. “No hunting, no trespassing, no exceptions.”

  "I hear you need some tax money. Maybe we could talk it over. I might be interested in buying your place, or maybe just the lumber rights, if the rest looks as good as what I can see here. I'll give you more than you'll get from a county auction."

  That was probably true, and for just a bit I even thought about giving up right then and there and selling them the land or the lumber rights, but old habits and the family commitment were too strong. I let loose one barrel, above their heads; that got their attention and respect right away. The big one started to bring his gun up towards me, but when he saw I had the drop on him with my twelve-gage, he thought better of it, and the both of them moved out fast.

  "That was a mistake!" said the weasel, as he slinked away. "We'll be back when this land is ours!"

  That's when I remembered what my Pa had said about the Cube being able to change things. I decided to try to use the Cube, as things couldn't get much worse than they already were.

  In under an hour I was standing in front of the Cube, just like my Pa always told me not to do no matter what. I chucked a couple of stones at the thing, and they just bounced off the smooth surface. Nothing happened. I walked closer. Close up I could make out the sides and top better, and I could even see a corner on the top of the Cube, just clear of the cliff. I could also see a bottom corner. All in all, it looked like i
t was a perfect cube after all.

  But the reflections in its mirror face were most peculiar, I could see. Pa was right, it wasn’t just a mirror. I wasn't showing up in it at all! When I studied it, I noticed other differences too. Leaves and branches out of place. Clouds where it should be clear. Yet most things, trees and rock and so forth, were exactly the same, just like they would be in a mirror. I figured that the Cube must be showing what COULD be, and not what really was. If that was the case, maybe me not showing up in there was a bad sign.

  I reached out with a shaking hand to touch the cube, expecting to receive an electric shock or worse. Its surface was smooth and hard, and solid as a mountain side. It didn’t feel hot or cold or give me a shock, it just felt hard.

  That first day I sat for hours just looking into the Cube and waiting, but nothing much happened. At one point the Cube shimmered for a moment and what appeared in it changed just a bit. But that was all. I went back to the house and found out that nothing had changed there at all. If the Cube could really change things, just sitting and watching it wasn’t how it worked.

  The next day, when I got there after a little snow, I saw myself looking back at me out of the Cube, only I was wearing different clothes! I figured that meant I'd survive a change and get new clothes if the Cube changed things, so I walked towards the Cube. I left my old boots behind, figuring to get the newer ones that I saw me wearing in the Cube. I saw my image inside coming towards me.

  Suddenly, I was being pulled towards the Cube, hard. But instead of hitting against it, I just got pulled right into it and through the surface of it, into my other self!

  Then there I was, sort of waking up as I stood a few feet from the Cube. Something had sure happened, but did anything change? For one thing, I was wearing the same clothes, and still didn't have any boots on. I looked into the Cube, and caught a glimpse of my other self walking away! Also, there sitting in the snow inside the Cube were my old boots that I had just taken off! They looked pretty good to me right then, as I was standing in half a foot of snow in only my worn out socks. I reached for them old boots, but the Cube was once again as solid as a granite mountain. I tried sticks and rocks, but nothing would get into that Cube for them old boots! I finally sacrificed a couple of layers of flannel shirts off my back for on my feet, and headed back towards the house.

  The first clue I had that things were different was that my keys didn't fit the first gate lock I came to. I called out to my boy Ned, as he was a grown young man now and had the spare set, but I supposed I couldn't be heard from that gate, because he didn't come. After waiting and calling for near an hour, I half climbed and half broke my way through both fences, and finally got back to the cabin.

  Strange enough, the cabin was empty, and it was locked too, and I had to break into my own house. Where was Ned?

  Inside, the place was a mess. There was dirty laundry and dishes all over, and worse, there were empty liquor bottles everywhere. I checked to the bedrooms and there was no evidence of anybody but me living in the place. I found papers from the county about the taxes, so the Cube hadn't changed that part, though what money I had saved and hid to help pay the taxes was gone.

  Then, in a bedroom drawer, I found the news clipping from the car accident two years ago. In it, it said Julia and Kate were killed, but it said that Ned was killed too!

  I was thrown into a fit of despair. I was wrong before; things could be worse, much worse! Now by using the Cube I had killed my own boy Ned! I understood then about the mess and the bottles in cabin. I did it all myself, living alone like that without even Ned.

  There was only one thing I could do; after putting on some spare boots that were even worse than my first pair, I went back to the Cube and watched and waited, like before. After two days trying I saw me again in the Cube. We walked towards each other, like before, and the Cube again changed things.

  Again, I was left locked inside the fence gates. But this time, when I called out, Ned came and got me. He thought me hugging him was odd, and he also remarked that I was wearing some strange clothes. Of course, I knew I was the same, and told him so.

  Then he replied with what I thought was a strange thing to say, at the time. "You're the one that changed, Pa!" he said. "I've seen it before. You've been to the Cube."

  "You're mistaken Son," I said. "You're changed; you just don't remember. That’s the way it works. The Cube changes everything."

  When we got back to the house, the biggest surprise was waiting with supper. In my house, cooking with my Julie's apron and pots and pans, was the widow Harper, just as brazen as can be!

  "You two take them dirty boots off," she squawked at us. "And wash them hands good or you ain't getting no grub."

  I caught Ned looking at me all amused, while I tried to make sense of things. What was that witch doing here? Ned was acting like it was the most natural thing in the World. Suddenly, it hit me like a ton of manure. I was married to the ugly cow!

  “Come on, you lazy men!” the old crow squawked. “I got to pay the taxes and do everything around here!”

  Ned had started to take off his coat and boots, but I stood there frozen. The thought of sharing a bed with the widow had crossed my mind. There was only one thing I could do. "I, ah, forgot something. I'll be right back," I told them, and I was outside before they could say a thing. I started back for the Cube. Whatever changes it made next, I prayed they included getting rid of that woman.

  "WAIT PA!" called Ned, following me and catching up to my older legs fast. Behind him, from inside the cabin, I could hear awful yelling. "Before you go back to that Cube, we got to talk," he said.

  "I don't think you understand, Son. I got to try to get the Cube to make things better."

  "I figured as much Pa. But there's some things YOU don't understand. Let's tell each other what we know while we got the chance."

  I didn't think he could tell me much, because it was me going to the Cube and changing everything, not him. I figured I was in some sort of 'could be' world, and maybe he wasn't even real. What could he tell me that wouldn't be all different after my next visit to the Cube anyway? But Ned always was a smart boy, and I should have expected more of him.

  As we walked, I told him my story, like I wrote it here, and then he told me his. He said from his point of view, I was the tenth Hank Krenson he'd met in two years. It all started after Julia and Kate got killed, and then increased after Hank married Harper. There had been six Hank's in just the last week! He told me that each time I was mostly the same, but that we all remembered different lives, and each had big problems that drove them to use the Cube. And to a man, they all thought that they were getting the Cube to change the World each time they went to it.

  "But what else could it be, Ned?" I asked, as we went through the final gate and locked it behind us. Good thing Ned was along, as I still didn't have the right keys.

  "I been figuring on that Pa," he told me. "What if there are a whole lot of worlds almost the same, and the Cube lets a fellow trade places with someone from the other world they see in the Cube?"

  I damn near fell over at that point, I don't mind confessing. I thought about it and thought about it then, and if what Ned was saying was right, it explained a lot of things. It explained why I had my own memories that I kept, and so did the folks here in this world. It explained why I didn't change going through the Cube, not even my boots. And a lot of worlds almost the same might be an easier thing to swallow than thinking that the Cube changed the whole world except me!

  The idea shed new light on everything. I wasn't responsible for getting the Cube to change things, because it wasn't changing anything except where I was! All the time I was trying to fix things using the Cube, I wasn't really helping anything, I was just trading my troubles for someone else's. And in the process, I'd run away from my own world, and my own Ned.

  With that understanding, my plans changed. The most important thing now was to get back where I started, to my own world and my
own Ned.

  We reached the Cube. Inside, through that strange mirror that wasn't a mirror, was a Hank and a young Ned arriving, looking back at us with the same look of astonishment on their faces that we must have had. Was this my Ned and my world that I was looking at this time? I had no idea, but I figured I should go through the Cube and find out.

  "Watch it Pa!" warned Ned. "You and your double get too close and the Cube will pull you in." He pulled me back a few feet, and I saw the other Ned do the same with the other Hank.

  "But I got to go through, Son. I want to get back to where I started!"

  Ned looked at me sadly. "I know that, Pa. But there's a couple other things I want to tell you first, and I want you to tell to the other Neds you meet. That's how we Neds have been working on this thing, especially for the last few days." He pointed and waved at the Ned in the Cube, and the Ned waved back.

  I had a sudden crazy vision of hundreds, thousands, or Lord knows how many Neds trying to figure out the Cube and solve the problems of a host of lost Hanks moving from world to world.

  "Pa, one thing we figured out is that only the same person can trade places with himself, if you know what I mean. For instance, you couldn't change places with that Ned you see in the Cube, you can only switch places with your other self. The other thing we figured out is that worlds seen in the Cube change about every six hours. If you switch again, tell that to any Neds you meet. That’s how we Neds are passing information."

  "I think maybe I seen the Cube change a few times myself, son. Does the change happen when what you see in the Cube gets blurry for a second or two?"

  "That's right, Pa. Now I don't know if that's useful, but the way we figure it, you Hanks better keep using the Cube and we Neds better stay put and try to figure things out."

  "Have you Neds figured out how we Hanks can tell which world is ours?" I asked him.

  "No. But that's a good question for Neds and Hanks to work on."

  "Well, I got one idea we can pass on. So far, my gate keys don't work since I left my world. When I really get home, I figure they'll work."

  "Keys might work in more than one world, but let’s pass that idea on. One problem is, you have to go through the Cube to try it."

  "Maybe we should all write signs to show each other. That way nobody needs to go through the Cube to pass a message. Anyway, I suppose I better be moving on. Good luck, Son."

  We hugged each other, and then when I walked to the Cube, my other self was waiting for me. The Cube pulled me to it for the last few feet and then we were switched.

  This world wasn't my world either, I quickly learned, though as in all the worlds, it was only days till taxes were due. After exchanging information with the Ned and resting the night, I was on to another world the very next day.

  In this fourth world the surprise of my life greeted me a little ways down the path. It was Julia, alive and well! She said hello when she saw me, and at the soft sight of her and the pure sound of her voice I fell to my knees and started babbling like a baby. After a bit, she helped me up and walked me down the trail.

  I guess it should have been pure wonderful for me, but it wasn't quite right. This was Julia, but not my Julia, and from the way she acted, she thought much the same about me.

  When we got into the biggest trees, I got another huge shock. Many of the trees were cut down and gone, and there was an ugly logging road where the footpath had been. I stumbled over to the nearest giant stump and kneeled on it and ran my hands over the wood, more tears streaming from my eyes. Thousands of years of life, cut down by puny, greedy men that would be dust inside a century!

  I looked up to see Julia studying me. "You're not my Hank, are you?" she asked.

  "No. No I'm not," I confessed.

  Strangely, she said "Good!", and then she came to me and held me close, and kissed away my tears. Were it not for the terrible destruction that sickened that place, things might have gone beyond kissing then and there.

  "How did this happen?" I asked her. "Did we sell the land? Did they take it for taxes?"

  "Nope. This was your idea, or rather, it was my Hank's idea," she explained, and the pain in her voice and look was plain. "It started out with just a few trees to pay taxes, but it went way past that. Once he saw all that money rolling in, there was no stopping him. He planned on selling the Cube next."

  "Selling the Cube?" I repeated, dumbfounded. "That's crazy!"

  "That's what Ned thought," she said.

  "Good! I'll want to talk to Ned about all this."

  I started back for the house, but now it was her turn to cry. She told me then the worst thing of all. Her Hank killed Ned a few days ago, during a fight over trees and the Cube.

  "That's what my Hank was trying to change when he used the Cube. But it didn't change things here, and bring back Ned like he said it would, it just changed him! To the better, I thought, as the first thing the new Hank did was throw out the loggers, but then the new Hank explained to me how the Cube really works, and how he was trying to get back to his own world."

  If there were bad Hanks, at least there were good Hanks and Neds and Julias to help set things straight. "So that wasn't your Hank that just switched with me?" I asked.

  "No. That Hank was just trying to get home to pay taxes."

  "I've about given up on that," I confessed.

  "Don't" she said. "I've got plenty of money; I'll give you what you need, like I did for him." She pointed down the logging road and there alongside it was a huge new house, bigger even than any in town!

  At the house was another miracle: Kate! She looked a little older, but it was her. I smiled and went to hug her, but she pulled away.

  "It's OK Kate," comforted Julia. "It's another nice Pa, like the last one."

  She gradually warmed up to me after that, and I was happier by the minute, just being there with Julia and Kate. But there was a sadness deep inside me. I knew I had to leave. I had to keep looking for my own world. I felt bad about it though. Strange and terrible it must have been for this Julia, and this poor dear little Kate, to both suffer from their own Hank, and then have strangers like me thrown into their lives. With all their money, they were as sad in their world as I was in mine, maybe even worse. Odd though that between this world and mine, one's strengths were the other's weaknesses. This one had Julia, Kate, and tax money; mine had Ned, trees, and if I ever got back, me!

  That's when a really crazy idea started to form in my mind. I talked to Julia about it, after Kate went to bed, and she liked it. But there was one piece missing. For it to work, I would have to travel from here back to my own world, and we couldn't figure how to do that. Which world was mine? How could I tell?

  Then, as fate would have it, I took off my old boots.

  "Those used to be your spare boots! What happened to your other pair?" she asked.

  Laughing, I told her how I left them in the snow of my world at the Cube, and ended up bare-foot!

  "But I've seen them!" she exclaimed. "They were still there when my Hank went into the Cube three days ago."

  Of course, why didn't I think of it before this? As long as those worthless old boots sat there, I had a way of telling which world was mine. But that meant that a Ned-murdering, tree cutting, Cube selling Hank was in my world, unless he had already used the Cube again. I had to get back to my world, fast!

  Julia and I were up late making plans, and then we set out at dawn, after explaining things to Kate. Soon we sat up camp with our tents near the Cube, and we began our vigil. We took turns watching for the Cube to change worlds. After we had the six-hour cycle worked out, we each returned to the house for a few hours at a time to take care of Kate and to get supplies.

  For one of the cycles the cube was totally black. We reasoned that in the other world involved, the Cube had been completely covered up. Not a bad idea, I figured. Hide the damn thing!

  For another of the cycles solders with guns were in the Cube. One held up a sign that said this was go
vernment property and we should surrender and come out of the Cube. For six hours we watched the clueless solders try to force their way through the Cube with torches, explosives, chemicals, and electric power. They pointed their guns at us and tried to shoot us. None of it did anything to the Cube. Towards the end of the cycle we smiled and waved goodbye to them.

  Once we saw a Hank that wanted to 'switch', and once we saw a Ned. But we didn't see the boots, and we both began to lose hope. This whole thing was a long shot from the start; maybe we would never see the boots. Maybe someone moved them, or maybe the Cube would never show the same world again. Maybe there were thousands or millions of other worlds, and mine would never show up again until we were long dead.

  Then after almost two weeks, it happened. I was standing watch when the Cube shimmered. There they were: my old beat-up good for nothing holes in the soles black boots, right there in the snow where I left them! I ran to the Cube face and started jumping up and down and screaming, I was so excited.

  Suddenly, there in the Cube was Ned, my own Ned, looking me over. I smiled and waved, but he didn't respond. How many Hank Krensons had he seen in this Cube over the several days, I wondered? I had to convince him it was me.

  "I'm your real Pa," my first sign said.

  He came prepared too. "Prove it!" is what he wrote on his own little chalkboard.

  "Those are my boots I left almost three weeks ago," I answered. I pointed to the boots on his side, then to the even more beat up spare pair I had on.

  He looked interested, but held up his "Prove it," message again.

  "Hank you got more than two weeks ago is a rotten skunk," I wrote. "Must be stopped."

  "Are you better?" he wrote. "Need proof."

  "Cardboard in each boot," I wrote, and pointed at the boots on his side. "Cheerios box."

  He looked in the boots, and smiling, pulled out the cereal box cardboard. That did the trick. "Miss you. How will you come home, and stop bad Pa?" he wrote.

  "Have plan. Must hurry. You bring bad Hank here to go into the Cube. We Hanks must switch places. Have one hour to do it!"

  "I'll try," he wrote last, then he was running home, and I was running to tell Julia that our plan was on at last!

  An hour later, I watched from behind bushes as Ned brought Hank back to the Cube with him. They were arguing. Finally, Ned pointed at the Cube and got Hank to stand closer, and then pushed him from behind! At the same time, I ran to the Cube. I knew when I felt the Cube pulling me that it was working. In moments, we were switched!

  I gave Ned a hug.

  "You sure you're my real Pa?" he asked. We never hugged much before, maybe that got him to wandering some more.

  "Let's find out for sure, Son." We walked through the grove together. The trees were alive and wonderful.

  "There's logging men coming tomorrow to see the grove," said Ned.

  "Not anymore," I told him. "We're keeping the grove." And then I pulled a big wad of tax cash out of my pocket and told him some of what happened to me in the last weeks.

  In return, he told me that though the Hank that just left was hit pretty hard when he learned that Julie and Kate were dead, he was more interested in logging and in selling the Cube than anything else. The Hank before that one, the first one I got changed with, was a nice fella that was just looking to get back to his own world, but the evil Hank soon took his place. Right away, Ned was planning to trade that one in, and he spent most of last several days at the Cube, exchanging messages with Neds. But he wanted me back, not just any Hank.

  "You need to see this, Son," I said. I pulled out my keys, and unlocked the gate locks. He knew for sure then I was his true Pa, and I knew he was my real son too.

  Then we got moving. There was a lot to get done, and we only had about four and a half hours to finish it all. I got two shovels and some tarps and ropes and rushed them and Ned to the truck, and then I drove us towards town in a big hurry.

  "Are we going to pay the taxes now?" Ned asked.

  "Nope," I said. "Not yet. If anything goes wrong you’ll pay the taxes with that first batch of cash, but I’ve got bigger plans." There was something even more important and he just had to trust me, I told him, even if what I wanted to do seemed crazy.

  He didn't know how crazy it was until we got to the cemetery. There I told him that in another world I found a live Ma and Kate.

  "But Ma and Kate are dead Pa!" he said.

  "Here that's true, but every world is a little different," I explained. "In the place I'm talking about, Ma and Kate are just fine, but they got big problems, so they'd like to come here and live with us."

  "But they still wouldn't be Ma and Kate!" he protested.

  "Not exactly," I admitted. "But they're depending on us to help them and we can't let them down. But there's a catch to it Son, and it ain't an easy one," I said. "Those that go through the Cube have to be the same people. There has to be the same person on each side to make the trade. I had to always switch with another Hank; that's just the way it works. So that's how it has got to work for Ma and Kate, Lord willing."

  It was suddenly clear to him then, what I was working my way up to, and why we were arriving at the cemetery with shovels. "Pa, no! We can't do that," he said. "It's our Ma and Kate here, our real Ma and Kate!"

  But I already had the shovels, and was pulling him out of the truck and towards the graves. "It's got to be done and now, there ain't no way around it. And you got to help. The Cube shifts from place to place. We have less than three and a half hours left." I handed him a shovel and started digging furiously at Julia's grave. "Besides, I told them we'd be there in three hours, and there’s a lot of digging to do!"

  He stood there looking at me, maybe not believing what was happening. "But Pa, it just ain't right," he said.

  I pointed at Julia's and Kate's headstones. "You can't be telling me THIS is right! I know nothing can bring your real Ma and Kate back, Son. But there is another Ma and Kate, and they need us now, both of us. We can't fail them this time. And Son, I can't get it done without your help."

  But something was still bothering him. "Why'd you come back anyway, Pa?" he asked me. "Why didn't you all just stay where you were? Then you wouldn't need to do any of this."

  "Couple reasons. First off, THIS is my home. You'll know what that means, having or not having a home, if we don't get those taxes paid. Second, and most important, there's you."

  "Me?"

  "Yep. In that other world, Ma and Kate are fine, but not you, Son. You see, that monster we just sent back to be with Julia and Kate not only cut down all the trees, he murdered you in his world. And now he’s there with his Julia and Kate."

  He picked up his shovel and started digging.

  It took more than two hours to dig up both graves. Then I did the worst part; I wrapped the remains in the tarps we brought. How I found the strength to do it, I don't rightly know.

  After putting the bodies in the truck, we closed the caskets and pushed some of the dirt back in, though there wasn't time to put it all back the way it was.

  Then we drove fast, and finally up through the back field as far as the truck would go, almost to the first gate.

  The walk was the worst thing I ever did. I carried Julia and Ned carried Kate. Julia was too light and stiff, not like a person at all, and the smell that came through the tarp made me gag. There was some snow, and if we were thinking straight, we'd have stopped at the house for the toboggan, but once we were started, we just had to make do. We were both panting and grunting, as the loads we carried got heavy, then weighty, then impossible.

  Finally, we were there. As yet there was no one to be seen on the other side, and there were only a few minutes left before the Cube would change worlds. We could only talk again after we caught our breaths. "Son, you must make the trade. Stand near the Cube with the tarps," I said. "You got to be ready for when they come!"

  He was too tired to argue, and soon he was standing in front of the Cube, holding
up a tarp end in each hand.

  Then all at once they were there, running hand in hand towards him. It was Julia and Kate, alive; there was no mistake about it. They both stopped and stood there a few steps back for a scant moment, looking at us and smiling, though they seemed tired too, like they'd just ran all the way.

  Suddenly they turned and looked back like they heard something, and there was the Hank with the fancy coat, coming at them full tilt! Not only that, but the two loggers I saw a few days ago, the little weasel and the big man, were right behind him, carrying rifles!

  Julia moved towards us, pulling Kate along. but I could see that the Hank in the Cube was gaining fast, and would reach them about when they reached the Cube. Ned stood frozen on our side, but I pushed him and the two tarps closer to the Cube, and then jumped away, just as I started to feel the Cube try to pull me towards it.

  Ned, the tarp-wrapped remains, and from the other side Julia, Kate, and Hank all hit the Cube. Poor Ned ended up flattened on the ground, but seeing it was a live Ma and Kate doing it, and they were hugging and kissing him, he didn't mind so much.

  "Ned, we just took two broken families, and made one good one from it," Julia said, as the three of them moved away from the Cube. "We know we're not exactly your lost family, but we thought this out with your Pa, Ned, and this was the best we could do."

  In the Cube the well-dressed Hank was banging on it and probably screaming, his face a mask of hate and rage. I saw the body-filled tarps at his feet, and almost felt sorry for the man. But he had betrayed and murdered kin, and I was glad to be rid of him and get this Julia and Kate away from him. Beside him the two loggers stood glaring at us too, though I didn't at first understand what they were so mad about. Then Julia showed me all the money she had with her; enough for the taxes for many a year, some of it probably from the loggers!

  "I'd say you did well, Julia," I told her, and I gave her and Kate a big hug and kiss. Then we all started down the mountain. We had our family again.

  We decided to cover-up the Cube on our side, as it could only bring more trouble. Evil people could get control of the Cube, and innocent people and their trees could get hurt. It still gave us health and made things grow though, so we still had to protect the grove on our side. We measured our biggest trees to be three hundred feet around and two thousand feet tall, so we had had a big job. But with the whole family there to work at it, we knew we could do it.