Parallel Roads

by Mel Teshco

  Tara took over the driving, saying, ‘You look beat, and I’m too tangled up with thoughts to sleep, so you might as well get some rest while you can.’

  Jessie nodded, though he knew he wouldn’t sleep for even a minute.

  He was wrong.

  The moment he leaned back and closed his eyes, he was sucked into the dark void of oblivion and into the bizarre arms of a dozen different dreams.

  He was at a racetrack, pushing through the crowd with his heart thumping and sweat popping on his brow. Something was wrong … very wrong. If only he knew what exactly made him fearful.

  His eyes locked on a flash of colour. It was the bright crimson coat of his father’s retreating back as he moved through the sombre grey-dressed crowd. Jessie swallowed. The visual reminded him of blood oozing through sludge.

  ‘Stop!’ he shouted, but his voice came out in an odd sounding, croaky whisper. He knew with a startling clarity that his father was about to gamble every last cent on a ‘sure bet’.

  He forced his legs into action, but the faster he tried to run the slower he got, until his father was nowhere to be seen and the crowd had evaporated like they’d never been. A dark fog billowed all around him but he kept right on running, chasing down whatever horror awaited him … whatever it was he had to stop.

  His shoes squelched, sticking a little on the ground. He looked down, his vision becoming 20/20 and awarding him with the visual of thick, dark blood coating the road.

  ‘Lolita!’ he screamed.

  He woke up with a start, his eyes darting sidewards at Tara. She turned to him. ‘You okay?’

  He blew out a long, slow breath. ‘I was having more damn nightmares.’

  She shook her head. ‘Then they must have been long, complex nightmares.’

  He automatically glanced at his watch, and though it gleamed in the dark, the second hand still wasn’t moving. ‘What time is it?’ he mumbled, before looking at the dash and seeing the digital reading. His mouth dropped open. It was five am. Aside from his bit of driving earlier in the night, he’d slept almost the entire journey.

  ‘God, I’m sorry Tara, you must be exhausted.’

  She touched his arm. ‘Actually, I’m not feeling too bad. I had a lot of time to think things through.’

  He glanced at the sign that flashed past. Mirraway. Thirty-five kilometres. Bloody hell. He really had slept the night away. He turned to Tara. ‘I think I owe you a massage and a home-cooked meal.’

  ‘I’m going to hold you to that,’ she said with a smile in her voice.

  It seemed no time later when Tara pulled the SUV in front of her once restaurant and residence. Fingers of light marked the dark sky, and a chill was in the air, no doubt heralding a hot, dry day.

  Tara stamped her feet and rubbed her arms, getting circulation through her limbs after sitting stagnant in the Hummer for so long.

  Jessie hoisted the backpack over a shoulder, took her hand and said huskily, ‘It must be time for that massage.’

  ***

  Jessie woke up first, blinking at the weak rays of sunlight coming through the bedroom window. It was already late afternoon, well past time to make something quick and easy to eat and get back on the road.

  Tara mumbled something in her sleep when he climbed out. Her steady breathing told him she needed more rest and he left her in bed while he looked in her cupboards and decided on a quick, basic meal. He grabbed some spaghetti pasta, mince, onion, garlic, soy sauce and tomato paste, along with a little oil for the pan.

  The spaghetti bolognaise was almost done when Tara stumbled out of bed, covering a yawn with a hand and looking so damn adorable he wanted to take her into his arms.

  He did exactly that and she looked up with a smile and said, ‘What was that for?’

  ‘No reason.’ Aside from the fact I really am falling for you.

  Her eyes sparkled. ‘Well, I like it.’

  ‘Good, because I plan to pull you into my arms at every chance I get.’

  A faint flush spread across her cheeks and she ducked her head, as if uncertain how to react. Then her nose creased and she inhaled and said, ‘Something smells delicious.’

  He grinned. ‘I’ve cooked grandma’s basic bolognaise.’

  ‘Oh, so a gourmet dinner.’ She clapped her hands. ‘I can’t wait to try it.’

  Tara got out the plates and cutlery, and while he dished up she turned on the television. They sat at the table, laughing and joking like two adolescents who were more than a little in love as they slurped up their spaghetti and splattered meat sauce on their tops.

  But then the news came on and their laughter died out.

  Prime Minister Turnbull admitted peace talks failed with President O’Sheandha. Turnbull didn’t mince words today and suggested a chemical attack within the next twenty-four hours is a very real concern that can’t be ruled out.

  ‘Oh my god.’ Tara’s face paled as she used the remote and clicked off the broadcast, before pushing her half-full plate aside. ‘I really don’t like the sound of this dimension at all anymore.’

  Jessie stood. ‘Neither do I.’ He blew out a slow, steadying breath, though his pulse hammered erratically. ‘I think we should get the hell out of here.’

  Tara nodded, and he grabbed their backpack as she scooped up her clutch purse. Not even a minute later they were climbing into the SUV and driving out of Mirraway.

  Tara twisted and looked behind her at the receding town. ‘All these people might not be here one day if that crazy president has his way,’ she whispered.

  Jessie took her hand once more in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze. He was all too aware shock had set in, going by her pale face and colourless voice. ‘We can only hope and pray the president is blustering and it won’t ever happen.’

  She nodded. ‘Yes.’

  When he turned into the now too familiar track, Tara stayed silent and grim. Jessie didn’t bother with small talk. What could one do to bolster the spirits after such a dire prediction on the news?

  Only once the track had ended and Jessie had parked in front of the old house did Tara break the silence. She turned towards him, her expression tender and contemplative. ‘All of this has got me thinking how fragile and short life can be. And how stupid it would be not to tell the man I care about, more than anything else in the world, how much I really do love him.’

  If the world had ended right then and there he wouldn’t have been more surprised. Emotion thickened his throat and made speech impossible. Then he managed to croak, ‘You really mean that?’

  Her eyes glistened, one of her hands clasping his thigh. ‘I do, Jessie. I love you.’

  His own vision blurred as he placed a hand over hers. ‘I love you too, Tara.’ He dragged in a breath. ‘If anything happened to you I don’t know what I’d do … how I’d go on.’

  She reached up, her hand soft, and yet emitting such strength as she clasped one side of his face. Her voice wobbled a little at the serious of the situation. ‘Nothing’s going to happen to me, Jessie. I have faith you’ll keep me out of harm’s way, and save your sister.’

  Jessie’s chest ached, and he leaned over and kissed her full on the lips, savouring her sweetness, even as he wished he could show her in every way just how much she really did mean to him.

  But to keep Tara safe they needed to get out of this dimension and into his own. He drew back, staring at her with heartfelt emotions no doubt filling his eyes. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

  She nodded sagely, and after they climbed out, backpack, flashlight, clutch purse and money packet in hand, Tara turned to him and said, ‘Let’s make certain this is the right dimension this time.’

  He nodded. ‘I’ll sure as hell try.’

  Though it was still light outside, the interior of the house was steeped in shadow and eerily cold. Tara shivered and flicked on the flashlight. ‘This should be getting easier, but it’s not at all.’

  He nodded. ‘I know.’

  Though nobody
knew what their future held, this dimensional thing blindsided them at best. The highs and lows were extreme.

  Taking a deep breath, he preceded her up the ladder and waited for her to join him. Not even a minute later she was handing him the lipstick from her clutch purse, and he began to write.

  Tara pregnant and married to me. Mother and sister dead. Mum’s old house a drug and alcohol clinic. Still a chef and live in Double Bay. Dad alive with gambling addiction. Threat of chemical war.

  Tara’s breath whistled. ‘That dimension was a doozy.’

  ‘Yes, it was,’ he agreed. He looked up at her and watched the light play over her face. He’d never get enough of looking at her. ‘Are you ready to find my dimension?’

  Hello.

  At the voice echoing somewhere from inside the roof, Tara looked at him with something close to denial, then nodded and said huskily, ‘Past ready.’

  The flashlight beam bounced around below him as Tara climbed down a different manhole. Jessie shivered as though in premonition. He didn’t know how many more of these dimensions he could take. A person’s mind could surely only take on so many differences before yielding to madness?

  Taking a steadying breath and adjusting the weight of the backpack, he turned and put a foot on the top rung, then followed Tara down.

  ‘Watch out for the cockroach,’ she said when he was about to step onto the floor. She shuddered, as though the voice in the roof was already forgotten in favour of the hated bug. ‘Cockroaches are about the only creepy-crawly I’m truly afraid of. I used to have nightmares about them … I mean, what other creature can you chop its head off and it continues to live for another week or more?’

  Jessie stepped down and pivoted on legs that’d gone like rubber. Was the cockroach a sign? Tara shone the flashlight on the seedy roach as it ambled across the room.

  He glanced around the room, desperate to ascertain if this really was the same room he’d entered … days ago? It seemed like a lifetime ago. He glanced at his watch, frowning when the Rolex clearly wasn’t ticking again. If this was his world would his watch be working?

  He strode towards the mustard chair that lay on its side. Was this chair skewed more sharply one way? He turned to Tara. His heart thudded, his mouth drying. ‘I think this is it. I think this is my dimension.’

  Tara’s eyes lit up behind the flashlight. ‘Are you serious?’

  His voice came out rusty and disused. ‘Yes.’

  It was a euphoria that only escalated on finding his jacket in the back seat of the Hummer, and soon after at seeing the sorry-looking barbed wire fence under the glare of his headlights that cut through the growing shadows.

  He glanced at Tara in the passenger seat, his joy fading a little. She looked ragged around the edges, as though everything had finally caught up to her.

  He rubbed a hand over his face, and then asked, ‘Are you okay?’

  She managed a wan smile that made her look even more washed out. ‘I’m not feeling all that well,’ she admitted. ‘I think maybe everything is starting to feel real. Or maybe I’m just a little dehydrated.’

  He nodded. ‘It’s been a lot to take in, that’s for sure.’ He drove over a straggly tree that’d fallen across the track, the Hummer’s big wheels snapping over its trunk. ‘We’ll stop at the service station on the way through and get some bottled water.’

  Except when they arrived at Mirraway, the service station he’d come to expect was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a lone flickering streetlight showcased an old mechanic shop with a single pump bowser.

  ‘Well fuck me,’ he murmured, transfixed by the tin, ramshackle business as he pulled into its dirt driveway. ‘We really are back in my dimension.’

  But he wouldn’t be asking the elderly owner any questions tonight. A sign clearly stated the shop closed at six pm. They’d missed him by little over half an hour.

  Jessie cut the engine and climbed out, Tara alighting at the same time. She rubbed her arms up and down as if to ward off a chill, though it was mild verging on hot, despite it being dark. ‘Things really are different in this dimension,’ she said, glancing down the highway to where the service station had been.

  He nodded. ‘Yes. But at least now I know I’m not crazy.’

  Tara shook her head. ‘Never crazy.’

  Jessie’s chest expanded, warmth filling him. She really was a beautiful person, inside and out. And he probably didn’t deserve her. He stepped towards her, his arms going around her and pulling her in close. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you who I was. But I’m not sorry I found you,’ he said, wanting to say so much more but fearful he’d push her away.

  ‘I’m sorry too,’ she admitted in a small, muffled voice. She looked up, her voice clear and sure. ‘But I’m not sorry that you found me, either.’

  The tension in his body slowly ebbed when they finally drew apart. Tara gave him a weak smile, and even under the dim light he could make out her wan face, her overbright eyes.

  Before he could give into his concern, a black shape glided from the night sky, then banked sharply before it settled onto the bowser with a flutter of black wings and a blink of its one eye. The crow stared at them for a few seconds, then let loose with a loud caw.

  A shiver trickled up and down his spine. Why now did the crow show itself?

  ‘It’s Midge,’ Tara whispered, before she stepped towards the crow, one hand out. The bird didn’t move, just stared at her with its now unblinking eye.

  Jessie took a step towards Tara. ‘I’m not sure you should—’

  The next second Midge hopped onto Tara’s proffered hand before it sidled all the way up her arm until it was perched on her shoulder. Tara giggled, despite the scratches left on her arm and the fact she looked about ready to pass out. ‘He only ever sat on granddad’s shoulder.’

  Jessie considered the big, blue-black bird that looked almost self-righteous on Tara’s shoulder. ‘If Midge was your grandfather’s pet, how old would that make the bird now?’

  ‘I’m not sure. Fifteen, twenty years? How long do crows live anyway?’

  Jessie frowned. ‘I have no idea.’ Even under the weak streetlight he was growing concerned by Tara’s increasing pallor. ‘Come on, let’s call into your house and get some water before we head off. You really don’t look too well.’

  Tara nodded and the crow launched off her arm in a noisy flap of wings, its shape barely distinguishable in the dark sky as it landed on the roof of the old mechanic shop.

  Tara stared up at the shadowy bird, twirling a lock of hair around a finger. ‘So it’s not just people who are in every dimension.’

  Jessie opened her door and waited for her to turn and climb in. He nodded as she clipped on her seat belt. ‘That’s how it seems.’

  A road train roared past them as he waited to turn north. He drove back up the highway a hundred yards before pulling into Mirraway’s main street and its trickle of houses and mostly closed-down shops.

  ‘Oh my god.’

  Tara’s choked voice scarcely registered as he slowed, driving on autopilot past the hotel on one side and the burnt-out shell of Tara’s business and residence on the other.

  He stopped farther down the street, before his gaze returned to the yellow police tape that cordoned off the building. A crime scene? His belly twisted. There was no way of knowing if they were implicated or not.

  Tara pressed a hand to her mouth, eyes wide. ‘What the hell is going on, Jessie?’ Her hand dropped. She blinked. ‘Are some things meant to happen, eventually? Will my place burn down in every dimension in the future?’

  She shivered and he leaned over, taking his jacket they’d used as a pillow, and draping it over her shoulders. ‘I don’t know,’ he said, though he had a feeling she was right. Which meant his sister might yet die whether he intervened or not.

  His hands fisted. No, he wouldn’t let that happen. He hadn’t gone through all this for nothing. His sister would live, at least in this dimension.

  Tar
a turned to him. ‘Was my house still here when you passed through?’

  He shook his head. ‘I don’t know. I mean, I stayed on the highway. I had no need to turn into the main street.’

  He unclipped his seatbelt, his mind still grappling to come to terms with this latest round of events. ‘I’m going to grab some bottles of water and see what I can find out.’

  A good thing the convenience store was open until late, trading for the local people who would otherwise have a long drive to the supermarket in the next big town.

  Tara put a hand over his. ‘Don’t ask Harrison. He might be as guilty of arson in this dimension as he was the last.’

  Jessie nodded. ‘I won’t see him, not unless the worker in the convenience store knows nothing.’

  Tara shrugged off his jacket and unclipped her own seatbelt. ‘Then I’m coming too. Lettie only moved to Mirraway a few weeks back when she bought the store, and most people find her close-mouthed. She liked me well enough though, she should tell me what she knows.’

  Jessie entered the shop right beside Tara, to find the shopkeeper in the same floral dress he’d seen her in another dimension, with the same black apron tied at the back and doing little to cover her mass.

  The woman turned and Tara smiled and said, ‘Hi Lettie, how’s things?’

  Lettie frowned, her button eyes almost disappearing as they narrowed on Tara. ‘Sorry, do I know you?’

  Tara’s smile slipped and Jessie stepped into the conversation. ‘Yes, I’m sure we’ve met.’

  Lettie turned her attention to him, a faint frown superseded by a glimmer of recognition in her eyes. ‘You sure do look familiar.’ She clapped a hand over her red-painted mouth. ‘Oh my god, you’re that famous TV chef. Jessie McCormick!’

  He nodded. ‘Yes, that’s me.’

  Lettie waddled forwards, her arms outstretched as she grasped his wrists. ‘I’m so pleased to meet you.’ She grinned almost coyly, ‘I’ve tested dozens of your recipes. Not one of them was a dud.’

  Tara cleared her throat. ‘We passed a burnt-out building, do you know what happened?’