The Sister Paradox

by Jack Campbell

  Fortunately, I didn’t yet know that from that point on things were going to get a lot weirder.

  Chapter Two

  Mom, Meet Your Daughter

  “Hi, Mom. You’re home.”

  She was in the kitchen, sitting at the breakfast table going through today’s mail. Mom glanced at me with a questioning expression. “Yes. I just got back from showing a house. I think I made a sale. Why are you home from school so early, Liam?”

  I sat down opposite her, trying to figure out how to explain the situation, and only coming up with the truth. “The principal made me bring my sister home.”

  Mom gave one of her heavy, exasperated sighs. I’m not sure why, but it seems I’ve been hearing more and more of those the last couple of years. “What really happened?”

  “Seriously, Mom. I had to bring my sister home.”

  “Gee, and here I’ve thought you were an only child all these years.”

  “Mom, I’m not joking.”

  “Really.” She was looking at me like she was trying to figure out what I was up to this time. “Liam, I’d know if I’d ever had a daughter. Believe me. And your father never had any other children, either. Nor have we ever adopted anyone. You don’t have a sister.”

  “I know that, but everybody else thinks I have a sister, and the principal made me bring her home!”

  Mom drummed her fingers on the top of the kitchen table, her mouth twisted in that way it does when she’s thinking. “What are you trying to accomplish here?”

  “I’m trying to tell you the truth!”

  “Fine, young man, if you had to bring your sister home, where is she?”

  “Right out there. That’s her.” I pointed out to the backyard, where I’d left Kari talking with a couple of sparrows she had met on our way inside. “I thought you wouldn’t be home yet so when she stopped to talk to some birds, I said fine.”

  Mom had her that’s-about-enough-of-this face on by now, but she stood up and looked out the window. Mom just stood there, staring, her expression getting more annoyed and sort of upset. Had Kari disappeared back into Elsewhere and left me stuck with an empty backyard and a totally ridiculous story? “Mom, I—”

  “That’s enough, Liam,” Mom said in the kind of voice that made it clear she meant it. “What’s the meaning of this?”

  “I swear they told me this girl was my sister and—”

  “That’s not what I mean and you know it!” Mom turned a real glare on me. “Why is Kari wearing a sword? Is that why she got sent home from school?”

  I stared at her for a moment, realized my mouth was hanging open, then managed to nod. “Uh…yeah.”

  “Why did you let her wear a sword to school, Liam?”

  I stared at Mom again, feeling seriously persecuted. “You’re yelling at me? Why don’t you ask her why she wore a sword to school?”

  “Because you’re her big brother and—” Mom’s voice cut off abruptly. Her eyes got really big and her mouth hung partway open as she stared back at me.

  “Are you okay, Mom?” I asked.

  Mom moved her mouth a couple of times without making a sound, her expression now half-scared and half-stunned, then slowly turned her head back to look out the window at Kari again. “Your…sister?” Mom’s voice sounded really, really strange.

  “Uh…yeah. That’s what everybody keeps saying, anyway.”

  “You don’t have a sister!”

  “I know!”

  “Then what—? Wait a minute.” Mom closed her eyes, shook her head as if dizzy, then looked outside again. “Kari?” she whispered, then gathered herself and yelled out the window. “Young lady, you stop talking with those birds and get in here this instant!”

  “Mother?” I could hear Kari’s answer, filled with emotion. “Yes, honored Mother!”

  A moment later I heard Kari banging at the outside door, rolled my eyes, and got up to open the door for her since she apparently didn’t know how to turn the doorknob. Kari rushed past me into the kitchen, stood staring at Mom with an awestruck expression, then actually went to one knee and clasped her hands together in front of her. “Honored Mother,” she said. “You are so beautiful.”

  Mom got a funny look on her face as she stared at Kari. “Don’t…don’t try to talk your way out of this. Where…where have you been?”

  “In your garden, honored Mother,” Kari breathed, her expression still enthralled as she gazed at Mom.

  I sat down again. “It’s the backyard,” I corrected Kari.

  “No!” Mom said to Kari, apparently ignoring me instead of giving me the usual ‘don’t use that surly teenager tone of voice’ speech. I never thought that not hearing that speech would annoy me. “Not just now,” Mom added. “How…how old are you, Kari?”

  “I have seen the seasons pass fourteen times.”

  “Fourteen years?” Mom whispered. “You’re fourteen years old?”

  “Yes, honored Mother.”

  Mom swallowed and nodded, staring back at Kari. “Where have you been for the last…fourteen…years?”

  I had been watching them with a growing feeling of being left out, which I’m totally not used to because I’m the only kid in this family. So now I answered in a voice that I admit had more than the usual surly teenager tones. “She’s been nowhere.”

  “Elsewhere,” Kari corrected. “I have been Elsewhere.”

  “Elsewhere, nowhere. Same difference.”

  Kari shot me a baffled look. “Honored Mother, I believe that Liam is mocking me.”

  “Stop mocking your sister, Liam.” The instant Mom got through saying that she shook her head again and stared at us. “Did I just say that?”

  I nodded, fighting down a burst of irritation that Mom had immediately sided with Kari. “You said it.”

  “What am I going to tell your Father?” Mom wondered. “No, wait. Kari, have you ever met your father?”

  “No, honored Mother.”

  “Lucky for him,” Mom muttered. “If he’d— How could I have had a daughter and not known it?” she wailed.

  “I came to be in the wrong place,” Kari admitted, “through no fault of yours.”

  “But—” Mom studied Kari carefully. “I know it’s true, but I don’t know how I know that, or how it can be true.”

  I looked at both of them. “There is sort of a resemblance between you two,” I had to admit.

  Mom stared at Kari again, wordless for a moment, taking in her clothing. “Why are you wearing a sword, Kari?” Mom finally asked. “Yes. Let’s focus on that. Tell me why you have a sword. Where did you get it?”

  “It was given to me by the Lord and Lady of the Great Fen,” Kari explained.

  “The Great Fen?”

  “Between the Mountains of Ogreholm and the River of the Naiads.”

  “Oh.” Mom gave me an accusing look, as if I somehow had something to do with the Ogre Mountains and the Naiad River. “And why did you wear it to school?”

  “I need it, honored Mother,” Kari said. “The Sword of Fate carries an enchantment which gives it great power in time of need. I will need it on an urgent quest which Liam and I must undertake.”

  “Oh”,” Mom repeated. “A quest. Is this one of those game things like your brother plays on his computer all the time?”

  Kari frowned in puzzlement. “Com-pew-ter, honored Mother?”

  “You don’t know what a computer is?”

  “Alas, no, honored Mother. You say my brother plays on it. Is a com-pew-ter then a musical instrument? I play the minstrel’s harp well, though I have not mine with me. But I have not played the com-pew-ter.”

  Mom reached over and grabbed a chair, then sat down in it pretty hard and just kept staring at Kari. “That’s nice. Musical training is very…I’m sorry, but this is…why do you keep calling me honored Mother?”

  Kari bit her lip, her eyes shining again as she looked at Mom. “It is only proper to use polite terms of address to those we honor.”

  “Poli
te? You’re saying it’s good manners?” Kari nodded and Mom somehow looked even more stunned than before. “I have a teenage daughter and she has good manners?”

  I wasn’t sure why, but that sounded like a crack aimed at me, and I hadn’t done anything. “Hey!”

  Mom looked at me for a moment like she couldn’t remember who I was, which really ticked me off. “Liam,” she finally said, like she had only then recalled my name. “Why didn’t you tell me about her?”

  “I did! I sat here and said, I had to bring my sister home, and you kept saying, you don’t have a sister, and I kept saying, I know, but she’s here anyway, and you kept saying—”

  “All right!” Mom interrupted. “Kari, how do I know your name and who you are even though I don’t know who you are?”

  Kari scrunched her face up and spoke with care, as if she were trying to say something just right. “It is complicated, honored Mother. You did not chose to give me up. It happened without your knowledge or consent, and because of that I am told that a small part of me has always been here and you have always known it.”

  Mom listened intently, started to nod, then shook her head. “I’m so confused. Stand up, Kari. Why are you kneeling?”

  “It is only proper to render respect to those we honor.”

  “You’re polite,” I said sourly. “We get it.”

  Kari came to her feet, looking at Mom with a worried expression. “Are you feeling all right, honored Mother? You appear distraught.”

  “Distraught?” I asked, laughing at the word.

  “Honored Mother, Liam is—”

  “Will you kids stop it!” Mom snapped. “You two know I don’t like it when you fight with each other.”

  “Mom,” I said, getting more upset myself. “I’m pretty sure this is the only time I’ve ever fought with her around you!”

  “That’s right, isn’t it?” Mom nodded slowly, her face pale now. “I need to lay down for a while.”

  Kari reached out and touched her hand gently. “Is there any way I can assist you, honored Mother? Are you not happy that I am here?”

  Mom stared for a moment at Kari’s fingers where they rested on her wrist, then smiled. “Yes, Kari, I am happy. But I need a little time to absorb this. This is…it’s…a little unusual.”

  “The Archimaede said it might be difficult for you.”

  “W-what’s an Archimaede?”

  “They’re a lot like a Dyrac,” I told Mom.

  “But much, much smarter,” Kari added quickly.

  “Oh.” Mom, still pale, stood up and pointed toward her bedroom with a shaking finger. “I really need to lay down.”

  I finally remembered the envelope in my backpack. “I’ve got—”

  “Not now, Liam. Go play with your sister.” Mom’s eyes looked funny again. “Your sister. Just go in there. Both of you. I’m going to rest for a while. I’m sure I’ll feel better in a little while.” She gave Kari a look like she wasn’t sure Kari would still be there in a little while. “Don’t…don’t leave.”

  Kari smiled at her. “We may have to leave, but I will be back if you wish it, honored Mother.”

  “Yes. Yes, I do wish it.” Mom tottered off to the bedroom, talking to herself under her breath, while I led Kari into the living room. I flopped down on the sofa while Kari wandered around, giving little exclamations as she focused on different objects. At one point she walked around the television, looking at it from different angles before peering into the front. “This is not a very good mirror,” she said.

  “Yeah. I’m trying to convince Mom and Dad to get a new one that’s a lot better.” I watched her for a while, trying to figure her out. Who gave her permission to horn into my life, anyway? And what was with the way Kari had acted toward Mom? Was she trying to make me look bad? “Kari, why were you looking at Mom like that?”

  “At Mother? Like what?”

  “Like she was the most wonderful thing you’d ever seen, or something.”

  Kari tilted her head as she stared at me. “She is the most wonderful thing I have ever seen.”

  “Uh, Kari, maybe Mom’s kind of pretty, I guess, like you said, but she’s not—”

  She laughed. “Liam, you are mocking me again. I am learning about you, you see! Do you actually think I would believe that you do not know just how wonderful a thing a mother is to her child? I have seen elven lords and ladies in their full glory under the stars, holding court with unicorns, hippogriffs, wyverns, and other charmed creatures while the moon struck sparks from the jewel-embedded walls of their castles, and it was nothing compared to the moment I first looked into my mother’s eyes.”

  Kari paused, her face shining at the memory, while I gaped at her and tried to figure out if she was serious. Sure, Mom’s all right. Most of the time, anyway. But I couldn’t match the woman I had known for my whole life with this vision that Kari claimed she had seen. “But she’s just Mom.”

  “‘Just Mom’? Liam, you cannot play me for such a fool. No one could be so blinded by familiarity as you pretend to be.”

  For some reason I didn’t want Kari to think I took Mom for granted. Because I don’t. No way. At least, I’m pretty sure I don’t. I mean, I’m always telling her…uh…hi in the morning, sometimes at least, and bye when I leave, sometimes, and…uh…what’s to eat, Mom? I do say that a lot. And…uh…

  All of a sudden, I felt sort of rotten. “Man.”

  “Excuse me?” Kari looked around.

  “What?”

  “You addressed another man, but I do not see another man here.”

  Another man? Which meant she thought I was…? Maybe Kari wasn’t so bad after all. “No, I just…realized that I need to say thank you to Mom a little more often.”

  Kari had stopped to look at a family picture, me about six years ago along with Mom and Dad, all dressed up for the portrait. I think I look like a geek in the picture, but Mom thinks it’s nice. “This is Father?” Kari asked.

  “Yeah. He’s out of town right now. Dad has to travel for business sometimes.”

  “What does he do for business?”

  “He—” Right about then I realized that I didn’t really know. “He works for….” Time to change the subject. “Let’s just say for the sake of argument that you really are my sister…”

  “You know that I am, dearest brother.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. “How come I know that? And if you’ve been somewhere, nowhere, wherever—”

  “Elsewhere.”

  “For fourteen years, why did you show up here today?”

  Kari’s expression grew solemn and she sat down on a footrest, crossing her legs and shrugging her shoulders to settle the sword scabbard on her back with the ease of long practice. “It has to do with the walls between worlds. Do you know of them?”

  “No.”

  “Oh.” She furrowed her brow in concentration. “What did the Archimaede say? All worlds are here. At the same time. But the walls keep them apart, so even though they are all here, they stay separate in different places.”

  “You mean like the multi-verse? Lots of different dimensions coexisting but separate?”

  “Perhaps it is.” Kari gestured with her hands. “I told you I ended up in Elsewhere because something slipped. You do not remember? I did tell you. I know I did.”

  “Okay, okay. You told me.”

  “According to the Archimaede, who must know of this multi-verse of yours, other things from here have slipped into Elsewhere as well. Too many of them. Because of that there is what he called a strain, as if the fabric of the walls is being pulled apart.”

  I hunched forward, half-searching her face for signs she was kidding and half-searching for any hidden cameras that I still suspected might be filming this for the world’s amusement. “What kind of things have slipped into Elsewhere?”

  Kari threw up both hands. “Small objects, apparently. Though I am not nearly so small as I once was. Things that have gone missing here because they ended
up in Elsewhere.”

  I couldn’t resist. “You mean like socks and TV remotes?”

  “Socks and what?”

  “TV remotes.” She just stared at me. Which made sense when I remembered that she had thought our TV was a bad mirror. Apparently, Kari had never heard of television. How weird is that? “Never mind. It was supposed to be a joke.”

  “Oh.” She smiled in the way people do when they’re trying to be polite. “I suppose people in your world lose these ree-motes sometimes? Then you understand what I am speaking of. Sometimes something which is lost is truly lost, losing its place in one world and finding a resting place in another. This sort of thing happens because even though it is very improbable, it is not impossible, and what is not impossible must occur at times in the infinity of possibilities. So says the Archimaede.”

  That made a strange kind of sense. “That sounds like quantum physics. You mean if there’re’ infinite possible worlds then anything that could happen sooner or later will happen.”

  “Just so! The Archimaede must know your kwan-tum fiz-icks. But, every time something slips into the wrong world, it causes a strain on the walls between those worlds. It belongs in one world, but it exists in another world, and so its wave crosses the walls and weakens them.” Kari sighed, looking sad for some reason. “So those things must be returned to their own world.”

  “Wave? Like wave function? I know I’ve heard of that.” I spread my own hands. “So what does this have to do with us?” Right after I said “us” I realized that I had actually spoken of Kari and I doing something together. This girl was slipping herself right into my nice little part of the world. I needed to do whatever she needed done so she would go back to nowhere and let me get on with my life and what I wanted to do.

  Unaware of my thoughts, Kari smiled at me. “We have to get those objects from Elsewhere and return them to here. That will relieve the strain. It is a quest, Liam. The quest I spoke of. Our quest. And a very important one, as you must see.”