Immersion

by J M Hart

  “How are you, Cal?”

  “Sore, like I fell on my face.”

  “Wiggle your fingers and toes for me. Does it hurt anywhere? Look at my finger, any dizziness?”

  “I think I’m dreaming. Is this a dream?” “Why do you think you’re dreaming, Cal?”

  “Because we’re butted up against my parent’s veranda forty minutes away from Wollongong?” Suddenly she sat up and whipped her head left and right searching for the swarm that had chased them. Her eyes widened, memories flooding in. “The beast, the swarm, where is it? The kids, Daniel, the kids!”

  “Keep still. No sudden movements, we’re all safe. How did you do it, Callie? How did you get us here?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know what happened.”

  “It was Kevin,” Jade said, still rigid in her seat, only swiveling her eyes in their direction.

  “What? Kevin, how?” Daniel moved around the front of the car yelling back at the others. “Sally, Kath, Alex — how are you guys doing?”

  “Shaun woke up, Daddy. Kath said if he moves she’s going to sit on him.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Alex. Maybe you should keep an eye on both of them.”

  Jade tried hard not to laugh, afraid of moving. It was all so absurd.

  “Okay, Daddy.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Jade saw Sally come up on Callie’s side of the car holding her nose. “I'm all right, Daniel. How are you, Cal?”

  “Could be better.”

  Daniel opened Jade’s door and went through the same procedure he’d probably done a thousand times for car crash victims.

  “You seem uninjured,” Daniel said. “Although without an X-ray I can’t be a hundred per cent sure.”

  Callie was already getting out of the car, ignoring his protests. “Jade, sweetie, are you okay?”

  “I’ll be fine,” Jade said, slowly moving and rubbing her neck.

  Kevin, with Molly in his arms, came up on Jade’s side of the car. Callie walked around and hugged Kevin and Molly as one, before taking the baby into her arms. Kevin stood there as if stunned, but automatically reached out his hand to Jade and helped her from the vehicle.

  Alex shouted, “I’d give you a hug, Mommy, but I have to watch Shaun.”

  Callie went to him and affectionately ruffled his hair. Jade saw the way Kath was looking at Shaun. Callie passed Molly over to Kath and said, “Take care of her, will you,” as she knelt by Shaun and went through the same procedures as Daniel, making sure there was no bleeding or symptoms of internal damage. He was obviously concussed and had a gash on his head.

  “Do you think you can sit up?”

  “Yeah … my hands — they don’t hurt.” He sat up and started to pull at his bandages with his teeth. “Take them off,” he said, in between biting at the bandages. “Take them off.”

  “Shaun, you need to leave them on. It’s going to take a few weeks for them to heal,” Daniel shouted.

  “TAKE THEM OFF.”

  Callie frowned and moved away.

  “Hey, mate!” Daniel said. “That’s no way to talk. If you want them off that badly, okay. But you won’t be able to do anything and it’s going to hurt like hell if you knock them.”

  “They don’t hurt any more,” Shaun said. “They just stopped. One second they were on fire and then they just stopped hurting.”

  Daniel unwrapped Shaun’s right hand and Callie unwrapped his left. They both slowed as they removed the final strands, careful not to rip the wet gauze too fast.

  “This is going to hurt a bit,” Callie said.

  “No, no, it won’t. It doesn’t hurt any more.” Shaun jerked his hands away and the final bandage fell to the ground. His hands were healed. There was no sign of the burns.

  “Just like my leg,” Tim said. Tim flinched as Kevin nudged him in the ribs.

  Callie and Daniel were flipping and rubbing Shaun’s hands, over and over. Shaun smiled. Jade thought it was the first time she had seen him smile.

  Tim said quietly to Kevin, “Why have his hands healed, but his head is still bleeding, and my mom has a broken —?” Kevin elbowed him hard.

  “I can answer that,” Jade said. “When we passed through the membrane of the parallel world, he was healed of existing injuries. But when we were ejected back into this reality we were at the mercy of gravity and he hit his head when the cars crashed. And your mom was probably king-hit by the airbag like Callie and I.”

  Everyone looked at Jade.

  “Don’t you know anything about quantum physics? It’s the healing part that really confuses me,” she said. “And don’t look at me for answers,” she said, looking directly at Callie. “It’s your son who can manipulate time and space.”

  “How did we get here?” Sally asked Daniel, ignoring Jade as if she found her words baffling.

  “Right now, your guess is as good as mine,” Daniel said, watching Kevin, Tim and Alex walk up the veranda steps to the house. Kevin fished the spare key out of the hanging flowerpot and opened the front door.

  “How about we get our things inside? We also need to separate these cars. We can talk about this when our nerves have calmed, and we can rationally analyze the situation.” Daniel lifted the cover off the back of the Dodge and started unloading. Shaun stood next to him. “Why don’t you go inside with the others and take it easy? Just don’t fall asleep for a few hours.”

  “No, I want to help. My hands don’t hurt. I can’t believe it. There is a place where everything can be healed. How did it happen?” He raised his eyes up and looked directly into Daniel’s. “My dad believed there was such a place. I thought he was just …” Shaun looked away.

  Daniel saw the pain. “I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t know, mate. I’m just as confused as you. I thank God we’re alive. What was that thing chasing us? I have never seen anything like it in my life.”

  “It’s from hell,” Shaun said.

  “Well, it has to have come from somewhere, but I’m not sure that hell is the answer. You want to take this?” Daniel handed over the cardboard box of canned and packet foods.

  “It is. I was there — when the gates were opened ten years ago in the Middle East.”

  Daniel stopped and looked at Shaun, not sure what he was talking about. Shaun was struggling to reveal something he had kept hidden for a very long time.

  “He took me on a dig. He was an archaeologist, my dad. My mom was dying and he believed he had found a cure. A world where there was no pain and suffering. Immortality. He called it heaven on earth. He blew up ten men along with a young girl, Rachel, to have that artefact. But then he sold it to a prince, or a Russian oil tycoon in Egypt, I’m not sure. I am only starting to recall what happened and piece the memories together. I thought he just wanted the money for medicine.” There were two flights, not one, he remembered. “My dad argued with the buyer about something. I was drugged most of the time, lying on a red and gold silky daybed, but occasionally I woke to hear my dad yelling, begging them to let him use the artefact, to open the door to a place that would heal his dying wife. My father carried me as they escorted us off the premises, shoving us into a limo and driving us to the airport.”

  Jade couldn’t help her curiosity, but now wished she had gone in with the others. Daniel seemed as if he didn’t know what to say to Shaun. She felt he was telling the truth. Maybe some of the story was confused in Shaun’s mind because he was young and fragile when something extraordinary happened to him and now he believed all of it to be true memories. She watched Shaun pull out a bulging leather pouch and pour the contents into his hand.

  “I think they somehow needed these too.”

  Jade couldn’t see.

  “They fell out of Dad’s backpack to the Jeep’s floor and I took them.”

  Kookaburras laughed, crows cawed and the smell of cow manure suddenly overwhelmed Jade’s senses. Shaun tipped the contents back into the pouch and shoved them deep into his front pocket.

&nbs
p; “Be careful you don’t lose them. They would be worth a fair bit. You shouldn’t carry them around.”

  “Sure.” Shaun took the boxes from Daniel and walked up the porch stairs.

  *

  Night was falling by the time they had dinner, cleaned up and were settled for the evening. In the living room, Shaun was playing a game of jacks with Alex on the rug using the stones from his pocket. He scooped them up off the floor as soon as Daniel walked into the room. “Where’s Kevin?”

  “He went outside to the hangar to show off the plane to Jade. I think he’s got a thing for her. Has he really flown it?”

  “Yeah, Callie’s dad taught him as soon as he could see out the window. He’s a pretty awesome dude. Why don’t you guys get along?”

  “I don’t know.” Shaun closed up and walked out of the house.

  “Come on, little guy, it’s past your bedtime.” Alex jumped up into Daniel’s arms and hugged him tight.

  “I don’t want to sleep alone. I’m scared the angry giant is going to pull the roof off the house when I’m sleeping, and stick his hand inside and search through the rooms until he finds me. Shaun said that he would sleep with me and stab its hand if it tried to get me. But he just left, where is he going?”

  “He’s just gone to get some fresh air. How about I stay with you until he comes back?” Daniel carried Alex to bed. He nudged open the bedroom door with his foot and laid him down on the bed.

  “No, not this bed! Shaun said he would sleep in this bed in case it comes through the door and he will attack it so I can run away.”

  “Okay, buddy,” he said, laying Alex on the other single bed. He closed the window and the shutters. Alex was making him aware of his own fears. I suppose we are all going to be a little jumpy and afraid for a while. Daniel lay on the bed, sharing the pillow with Alex, and started to tell him a story about the time when Alex had visited his nanna and pop in the school holidays with Callie and Kevin. “Early in the morning, Kevin showed you how to milk the cow. When you were finished, he pulled two straws out of his back pocket and gave you one. Together you sat in the barn on the hay drinking the warm milk.” Daniel felt Alex’s breathing settle into a peaceful rhythm. The door squeaked open and Shaun popped his head in. Daniel waved for him to come in and turned on the bedside light and whispered, “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, tired. I’m going to hit the pillow,” Shaun said.

  “I’ll come in and check on you both later. Thanks for your help today.”

  “You don’t need to check on me,” Shaun said, lying on the bed with his back to Daniel.

  “Night.” Daniel left the bedside light on and quietly walked out.

  *

  At the far end of the sweeping wooden veranda that stretched around the country home Jade sat in an egg-shaped white cane chair that was hanging from the roof. Jade had her feet tucked up on the seat and she rested her chin on her knees. She studied her toes, thinking of her parents. Her contact lenses were annoying her but she resisted the urge to rub. Kath and Sally had made themselves comfortable sitting on a cane sofa.

  “Mobile phones are useless these days,” Kath said to Sally. “We can’t just stay here, we have to do something.”

  A warm morning breeze gently lifted Jade’s raven hair as she vacated her solitary chair. She went inside and the screen door closed quietly by itself. Jade agreed with Kath, having tried to call her dad six times this morning, without success. She went to the bathroom to dry her eyes and adjust her contact lenses. She thought about Kevin and couldn’t help believing that he could help her get back to her dad and find her mom.

  It had now been a couple of days since they had arrived and everyone was on edge. Kevin had asked his dad if they could go for a walk up Saddleback Mountain later today, saying it was important, but he didn’t know why.

  Jade could hear the boys at the back of the house, and Daniel and Callie were in the kitchen cleaning up from breakfast. The house reminded her of her own home, just a lot bigger. She closed the bathroom door. Her eyes were irritated from crying and she fished out her contact lenses. Sitting on the edge of the toilet seat she grabbed her stomach as if in physical pain, then dropped her head forward and cried. Her tears splashed onto the blue and white tiles. Jade hardly moved for ten minutes, letting it all out. She felt her mind becoming distracted, intrigued by the way her tears had landed in between the tiles and falling close enough together to dampen the grout. How random … but no, it wasn’t random, was it? Because her posture and lack of movement created the same pathway for each tear to fall. It gave her some sense of relief to see order amongst the chaos. “S = k log W,” she said aloud. “S = k log W.”

  Bang, bang, bang. “How long are you going to be in there? I’ve got to do a number two,” Alex’s muffled voice said.

  “Coming out now.” She flushed the toilet and washed her face and hands.

  “Hurry, I can feel it popping out like a turtle head.”

  “That’s disgusting, Alex.” She pulled open the door and held it for him, but he didn’t rush in.

  “Are you sad?”

  “No, just dirt in my eyes.”

  “That’s what Kevin says too.”

  “I thought you were busting?”

  “Is it going to smell? Do I have to hold my breath?”

  “Is what going to smell?” Jade said.

  “In there,” he said, pointing inside the bathroom. “You were in there for such a long time you must have done a number two.”

  “No, it’s not going to smell,” she said. A smile crept across her face and she gave him a little push inside the bathroom. Just before the door closed, Alex yelled, “Oh, K’s looking for you.”

  Jade walked down the long hallway towards the back of the house and out to the veranda. It was peaceful and everything looked so ordinary, it was hard to believe the world was falling apart. She had to stop thinking like that; it didn’t help anyone. Focus on sifting through the disorder to find order. She leant against the rail and looked out across the fields. The hangar side door boomed as Shaun slammed it behind him.

  “And stay away from my brother,” Kevin yelled.

  Jade watched Shaun turn around and lunge at Kevin and suddenly they were both on the ground wrestling. She jumped over the wooden rail. “Stop it, you two,” she said, coming up beside them. Tim came running over and pulled at Kevin. Jade pulled at Shaun’s shirt.

  “Stop it,” she said.

  Daniel came up behind her and pulled Jade off Shaun. “What’s going on here? All of you over here, park yourselves on the steps.”

  Kevin dug his elbow into Shaun’s ribs as he got up and as he went to the steps Shaun smacked him up the back of the head.

  “Enough, you two. Kevin, what’s going on? Why don’t you two get along?”

  “I don’t know, Dad.”

  “Yes, you do, don’t give me that.”

  “Maybe you would like to explain, Shaun?”

  “He’s a bully,” Tim said. “He beats up on anyone who pisses him off and has a fascination for petrol bombs.”

  “Shut up!” Shaun said, swiping at Tim.

  “How do you know this, Tim? Think carefully before you answer. I have only seen Shaun helping out since he has been here with us. He has paid more attention to Alex than you, Kevin. He has just lost his father in a fire and you are accusing him of being a firebug. Did you see him start any fires?”

  “Well, no, because —” Tim said.

  “So you didn’t see him start any. Did he tell you he started any?”

  “No, but —”

  “But what?”

  “I was there.”

  “You were at the scene of the fire?”

  “We were down at the river when we saw Shaun and his entourage leave the area just before it went up,” Kevin said. “That’s all.”

  “We need to work together, guys. You both have seen what happens if you give in to urges of violence. Nobody wins, we all lose. For the rest of the day I want yo
u two to work together. Whatever your differences are, or what you think each other has done, you leave behind now and you start to care for one another. I know it sounds gross, but try it. You understand what I’m saying? Kevin — Shaun?”

  Jade watched Kevin and Shaun avoid looking at each other until the tension seemed to ease as Kevin relaxed.

  “Sure, Dad. I’m sorry, we all deserve a second chance.”

  “Shaun?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, pack a couple of backpacks and we will take that hike up the mountain.”

  Jade stood up and Kevin followed with Tim. “Wait up, guys,” Daniel said to Kevin and Shaun, still sitting on the veranda steps. “Together. If one of you is in the toilet I want to see the other one standing outside the door waiting. Got the picture?”

  Jade found the image funny and quickly turned away. Shaun stood up and fell into step with them.

  “Why do you guys dislike each other?” Jade asked.

  “It’s nothing,” Kevin said.

  “Nothing!” Tim said.

  “He broke my leg, crushed my knee. He is a maniac,” Tim burst out.

  “I knew I broke it!” Shaun said, as if a puzzle had just been solved. “I heard it crack, but then when I fell off the roof I saw you standing next to me. I couldn’t work it out.”

  “There, he admitted it,” Tim said, looking at Jade. “I told you he broke my leg.”

  “Is that when you went into the parallel world to escape the fire?” Jade asked. “If it is, that explains why you saw him walking around, Shaun. He had been healed. Isn’t that amazing? You could create a space for the sick to walk through — like opening and closing a door — as long as they work out why they are sick in the first place, because everything has a cause and effect. Like what’s happening around the world. There has to be a root cause somewhere that we can go back to and correct.”

  Shaun looked at Tim’s leg again and back at Jade and she thought he was going to cry.