“Hey—I think it likes you!” Felix joked.
Brady was eye-to-eye with the flying robot. A long steel beak protruded from the bird’s head and looked ready to pierce a concrete wall. Its sapphire eyes cast a bluish tint on its stubby body, and beneath its torso was a tail of metal blades arranged like a paper fan.
For a creature no larger than Brady’s fist, it was menacing.
Brady looked over at Felix, who returned his gaze. When he took a step to the side, the bird moved with him. He took another step, and the bird followed again. Regardless of where he went, the bird matched his movements.
At last, hoping the bird would lose interest and fly back to wherever it had come from, Brady stood completely still with his arms at his sides—his version of playing dead. Still the bird hovered in front of him.
“Um, Felix? This thing won’t stop following me. Felix?”
Brady spotted his brother creeping up behind the bird, quiet as a mouse. Brady shook his head in protest. “Not a good idea—stay away from that thing! Don’t do it Fe—”
It was too late. Felix lunged at the bird, his arms outstretched; the bird deftly dodged his assault, moving higher into the air, and Felix slid face-first into the ground.
As Brady looked on, stunned, a plate on the bird’s chest slid back, and the bird started to spin around. Its beak split wide and it let loose a siren that could be heard for miles. Bright lights flashed from the opening on its torso, adding to the effect.
Brady dragged his brother up by his shirt and took off running as fast as he could. Felix didn’t hesitate to follow along this time.
But as they ran, the bird followed closely behind, never relenting. The noise was overwhelming, and the bird’s flashing light seemed to slow time to a crawl. Terrified, the boys kept going, their washed-out forms moving frantically among the trees.
And then it ended as abruptly as it has started. The flashes of light stopped and the bird’s beak slammed shut. It floated by their side for a second more, and then it drifted away into the night and vanished.
01110110
Fortunately, the garage was still empty when the brothers arrived home. They made their way to the kitchen, remembering to turn off the lights in case their mom showed up unexpectedly. Brady opened the refrigerator door, eagerly retrieved a carton of milk, and filled two tall glasses. He kept one for himself and slid the other across the countertop to his brother. Felix tore into a fresh pack of Oreos he had taken from their pantry, and responded in kind by pushing a stack of cookies back to Brady.
“Do you think they came from another world?” Felix asked.
“Another world? You mean, you think they’re aliens or something?”
“Sort of like aliens I guess. But not from outer space. I mean, maybe that light was a door to somewhere else…”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
Before tonight, Brady would never have believed something like this. But after what he had seen, anything was possible.
Their conversation was cut short by the loud hum of the garage door motor churning to life.
“Mom’s home!” said Felix, gulping down the rest of his milk. Brady grabbed the empty glass from his brother and put it in the sink, but not before Felix fished out a soggy cookie and inhaled it.
They made it upstairs in record time.
10101110
Brady took off his shirt and dove into bed. A few minutes later he heard the sound of footsteps coming down the hall. The thin streak of light on the floor widened into a yellow wedge as his bedroom door creaked open, his mom’s shadow looming tall.
He closed his eyes as she picked a white sheet off the floor, shook it so it snapped taut, and let it fall gently over him. She stood there for a few seconds, then left the room and closed his door with a soft click. Brady listened to his mom’s footsteps making their way down the hall to Felix’s room.
Brady forced his eyes shut, knowing full well that sleep was out of the question. He wondered if his brother was having more luck. He doubted it.
The minutes passed as he thought about the woods. The sky beyond his window had gone from black to blue, the first signs of morning. The sun would be up soon.
Figuring there was no way his brother was asleep either, he let himself out of his room and tiptoed quietly down the hallway. He could hear his mom’s TV soothing her to sleep.
He crept into his brother’s room—a marvel of modern technology. It looked like a computer had exploded on the floor. Circuits, wires, LED lights, batteries, and other electronic parts were scattered in every nook and cranny. Felix’s prized possession, a framed vintage poster of the Millennium Falcon, hung on the wall. It had been their father’s, and it had yellowed a bit over the years and was beginning to curl up slightly at the corners.
A collection of colored plastic spheres dangled from the ceiling—a model of the solar system. Replica Saturn struck Brady in the forehead as he made his way across the room.
Felix was sitting up in his bed with his phone. “Hey, Brady. Having trouble falling asleep?”
“Yeah. I thought I’d come see what you’re up to.”
“Just reading a bit,” Felix replied, flicking through some text on his phone.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said earlier,” Brady said. “You know, the thing about other worlds? Maybe we could look it up online.”
“It’s worth a try. Let me switch my phone over to the monitor so we can both look.”
Felix walked over to his desk and sat down in a cheap office chair his mother had picked up at yard sale a few years ago. Brady stood behind him and looked over his shoulder. Felix waved his phone next to a monitor propped up on the desk. The screen came to life with a progress bar that quickly filled up. After a second, the connection was complete, and the monitor now displayed exactly what was on his phone. They were looking at Felix’s home screen, which was overflowing with colorful icons.
Felix set his phone down on the desk and retrieved a keyboard and mouse stashed away in his desk drawer. He swiped through page after page of games before he came to his favorite search app. He launched it, and a sparse white screen with a text input field appeared. He started typing:
door to another world
He pressed enter, and the screen filled with pictures of imaginary doors opening into different places. Some were of exotic locations on Earth, with old wood-paneled doors suspended in midair, opening onto remote paradises. Others included illustrations of otherworldly places, stone gateways and arches that led into unexplored universes rendered from the deepest recesses of someone’s imagination. They were beautiful, but they looked nothing like what the boys had seen earlier tonight.
Brady frowned in frustration as Felix scrolled through the search results. These were all fantasy. What they had seen tonight, or at least thought they had seen, was the real thing. Something no one else had ever experienced. He had no idea what he was looking for, but he realized that whatever it was, he probably wouldn’t find it here.
“None of those look right. Try searching for multiple worlds.”
Felix cleared the search box and typed in the new words. The page quickly repopulated. These results were far more interesting. There were pages talking about many-worlds, parallel universes, and something about quantum mechanics.
Felix clicked on the entry that discussed parallel universes. Together, they read through the first paragraph or two before Brady gave up. The stuff was way over his head.
“Make any sense to you?” he asked.
“Sort of,” said Felix, still reading. “I’ll copy some of these so we can ask Ms. Cooper about it the next time we’re in town. She’ll know this stuff inside and out.”
Ms. Cooper ran the local bookstore and knew all things science. Brady and Felix would spend hours in the bookstore on rainy days picking her brain.
“Hey, Brady. Do you think, if there really are multiple universes, that Dad’s around in one of them?”
Brady star
ed down at the screen. “Maybe. But if so, there’s probably another you and I that need him there more than this you and I need him here.”
They sat in silence, considering the possibility. Finally, Felix reached out and turned off the monitor. From the window, they could see the first light of sunrise spreading across the land.
“I’m exhausted, Felix. It’s already morning. We should try to get some sleep. Mom will probably be up in a few hours and will need our help around the house. She’s not going to be happy when she finds out we left a mess downstairs.”
With that, Brady said goodnight and let himself out of Felix’s room. He made his way back to his own bedroom and lay down on his bed, exhausted. He was out as soon as his head touched the pillow.
Chapter 5: Gutenberg’s
HOURS LATER, Brady’s door cracked open a hair and a voice called gently, “It’s one in the afternoon. I think it’s time to get yourself out of bed.”
Ms. Banks poked her head into the room. Her hair was pulled back in a bun, and she wore a black Pixies short-sleeved tee with a white long-sleeved shirt tucked beneath it. With an exaggerated groan, Brady rolled over and pulled the pillow over his head to drown out the noise.
His mom tried again, this time irritated. “Time to wake up, Brady. I’m not going to ask again.”
“Yeah, sure, I’ll get up in a…”
Brady’s voice trailed off and he fell back asleep.
Brady’s mom burst through the door, walked over to his window, and pulled back the curtains so that the afternoon light flooded into the room. She yanked the pillow off her son’s head and sat down on the bed next to him.
Brady scowled and recoiled from the light quicker than a vampire.
Ms. Banks spoke as calmly as she could bear. “I don’t know what you and Felix were up to last night, but you left quite a mess downstairs. The living room is a wreck. There’s popcorn all over the couch, and I almost tripped over an empty carton of ice cream last night when I came home. My shoes have cookie dough on them now. I want you both to clean it up—and the kitchen, too. You also left dirty glasses in the sink. I’ve told you before that I don’t want to live in a pigsty. I’m only going to ask you once.”
Brady retreated into the corner of his bed and held a sheet up to defend himself. “I’ll get it in a few minutes. I promise.”
“Thank you,” his mom said, standing up.
“How was work, Mom?”
Her tone grew softer. “Long and uneventful, which is both good and bad, I guess. We were pretty slow last night. The good news is that I have the next few days off. I need to run a few errands in town, if you’d like to come along. I feel like I haven’t seen either of you in ages.”
“I’m pretty tired. I figured I’d just stay home today.”
“Tired? That’s the understatement of the century. Come on, it won’t be that bad. You and Felix can go say hi to Ms. Cooper at Gutenberg’s, maybe check out the books. She says it always makes her day when she gets to see you.”
“Sure, I, um—is Felix up yet?”
“No, he’s still asleep. I’m going to wake him up next.” Brady’s mom glanced outside just as a tiny bird fluttered by the window. She shifted her gaze to follow it, but it was gone as quickly as it had come. She turned back to Brady. “What were you guys doing up so late anyway?”
“There were some good movies on TV last night,” Brady said. “We ate too much sugar and couldn’t fall asleep.” He wasn’t lying exactly. Stretching the truth, perhaps.
As he became more lucid, memories of the previous night flooded into his mind. For a moment he considered telling his mom everything, but then thought the better of it after realizing it might not end well for him.
“Anyway,” his mom said, “take a shower and get ready to go into town. Maybe we can get lunch at the diner. Or in your case, breakfast.
01100110
An hour or so later, Brady was clean, dressed, and running the vacuum cleaner hose through the cushions on the family room couch. The loud roar of the fan reverberated through the house, drowning everything else out. He was simultaneously amazed and disgusted by how filthy the room was. It had been spotless when his mom had left for work the previous evening. No wonder she was so irritated.
“Turn it off! Turn it off!”
Brady heard the faint sound of someone yelling over the blaring of the vacuum cleaner. He looked up in time to see a ruffled-looking Felix leaning over the balcony waving his arms frantically. Brady stomped on the vacuum’s foot pedal and the house fell into a deep hush.
In an instant, Felix calmed down—Dr. Jekyll returning to Mr. Hyde. “Thanks. I have a splitting headache.”
“No problem. Mom wants us to get the mess down here cleaned up before we go into town.” Brady smiled up at his brother, knowing what was in store for him. “And… I saved all of the dishes for you, Felix.”
Felix scowled. “Great. Where is Mom anyway?”
“Outside, working in the garden. She said she’d be done by the time we finished cleaning.”
Felix ambled lazily down the stairs and collapsed on the couch, wiping the sleep from his eyes. “I still feel like the whole thing was a dream.”
“It wasn’t, I promise.” Brady picked a pillow off the couch and tossed it at his brother. “Can you please help me get this stuff cleaned up?”
Felix picked himself up and sauntered into the kitchen. Brady could hear the water from the faucet running and dishes clanking together as his mom opened the front door and set a basket of fresh vegetables down on the foyer tile.
“Are you guys done yet?” she said, dusting off her hands. “I’m ready to go once you finish up.” Her eyes perked up when she heard the sound of dishes from the kitchen. “When did your brother wake up?”
“A few minutes ago.”
Brady’s mom wore her worry on her sleeves. “Is everything okay with you two? It’s not like you guys to sleep in so much. Especially Felix.”
“We’re fine. Like I said, we just stayed up too—”
“Hey Mom!” Felix interrupted as he rounded the corner.
“Good morning—I mean afternoon, Felix. I left the car running outside. Ready to go?”
The boys nodded, and a few minutes later the three of them were in the self-driving Bronco.
“Drive us to Daniel’s,” Ms. Banks said.
“Drive to Daniel’s?” came a computerized voice from the car’s speakers.
“Yes.” Daniel’s was a cozy diner they frequented whenever they were in town.
“Confirmed. The trip is estimated to take about ten minutes. Starting navigation.”
As the computer finished speaking, the car’s engine silently engaged and the car slowly accelerated backward out of the garage. It then turned around and began to wind down the long driveway.
From the front seat, Brady watched the shrubs and trees pass by and listened to gravel crunching beneath the tires. Ms. Banks leaned to the side in her seat and turned around to face Felix, who was slumped down in the back, almost dozing.
“Hey, sleepyhead. Are you hungry?”
“Starving.”
“I figured as much. You must have burned a ton of calories in bed, wasting the day away.”
Brady laughed under his breath but stopped suddenly when he noticed Felix glaring at him. Eventually the angry veneer faded and Felix gave a slight grin.
“Yeah, we stayed up too late last night. Sorry.”
“Your brother said you guys got caught up watching movies. What was on, anyway?”
Felix stole a sideways glance at Brady.
“It was a horror movie marathon. Some really old ones from the nineties: classics. I couldn’t fall asleep afterwards.”
Ms. Banks rolled her eyes. “You know I don’t want you guys watching that trash all the time. I would hope you would tune in to something more educational—like that’s ever going to happen.”
11110110
After breakfast, Brady and Felix made their way to
Gutenberg’s. It was a slow day in town and there wasn’t much traffic. The bell above the door rang as they entered the red brick shop.
Wooden beams spanned the full width of the ceiling. Warm hues of red, green, yellow, and blue light shined through the collection of Tiffany lamps scattered throughout the interior; they reflected off the worn wooden floors like a kaleidoscope. The walls were lined with stained wooden trim that had turned a warm golden yellow over the years. Persian rugs were thoughtfully placed throughout.
To Brady and Felix, it felt like stepping into another time.
An older woman with a short gray bob and black, thick-rimmed glasses sat behind a computer pecking away at the keyboard. A ballpoint pen was tucked comfortably behind her left ear.
Felix stepped out from behind his brother as they walked inside. “Hi Ms. Cooper, how’s it going?”
The clacking of the keys stopped abruptly as two ocean blue eyes peered over the top of the screen. Ms. Cooper smiled down at the boys. She had once worked as a scientist, but after funding for her research had dried up, she was forced to try something different. Thus she’d owned and operated Gutenberg’s for the last ten years. Brady and Felix had a mutual respect for Ms. Cooper that they didn’t have for most other adults. She spoke to them like they were grown ups rather than kids; she didn’t patronize. Over the years they had grown to trust her. It was never her style to judge.
“It’s going okay,” Ms. Cooper said. “A little slow today. Are you here with your mum?”
Brady and Felix looked around the store. It was usually brimming with people of all ages, but right now, they were the only customers in sight.
“She’s picking up some groceries,” Brady offered.
Felix began randomly thumbing through some books that lined the shelves. “Ms. Cooper—do you believe that other worlds exist?”
“Absolutely,” she said. “Our universe is a very, very big place. Sooner or later you’re bound to run into another planet like Earth. Some scientists even think that if you could travel far enough, you’d find an exact copy of our world—and of yourself. Not that that would be a good thing in your case, Felix.” She winked at Brady. “But any such world would be terribly far away, so you don’t have to worry about giving yourself a high five any time soon.”
The Quantum Door Page 4
