“Time’s passing faster,” Daryl explained. “I suppose it’ll slow down for you when you get there.”
Nathan searched the landscape but found no sign of civilization. “Do you think we’ll come out where the observatory is going to be?”
“That’s my guess.” Daryl looked up at the forest. “Kind of out in the middle of nowhere, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” He checked for his wallet. “At least I have money now, so maybe I can get some decent transportation back to Iowa.”
“Do we stand in the middle of the room again?” Kelly asked.
Nathan hustled toward the telescope. “I’d better get the body out of the way.” He grasped the corpse by the wrists and dragged him to the wall.
“Check his pockets,” Clara called. “Maybe we can find a clue of some kind.”
He searched the man’s pants pockets and found four shotgun shells and a wallet. After rifling through the wallet, he kept a driver’s license and a plastic card that was embedded with an odd set of letters and numbers. After pushing the wallet back into the man’s pocket, he strode to Clara and set his findings on the desk. “If you have to leave, hide the shotgun and shells in the ladies’ room downstairs, so we’ll know where to find them when we get back.”
Clara grabbed a rolling shotgun shell and stood it upright. “If we have to leave, you might have a hard time getting back.”
“Maybe not,” Daryl said. “The other Daryl might be able to get you home.”
“And what if she has to hide, too?” Nathan asked.
“Stop being a worrywart. I found the security codes for all the doors. In fact, I can change them from here if I want to. Daryl Red has the codes there, too, so we can frustrate the bad guys for quite a while. They won’t know the new codes.”
Kelly shifted the violin case toward the cordoned-off entry door. “How did the shotgun guy get in here? It doesn’t look like he blasted through.”
“Maybe that door isn’t secure.” Daryl shifted back to her keyboard. “I’ll get it locked down.”
“Are you taking the mirrors?” Clara asked.
“I’ll take one of them.” He picked it up and tucked it under his arm. “If one of us gets caught, at least the other mirror will be safe.”
Kelly reached for Francesca. “Let’s go. We’ll get a hot breakfast and find a place to sleep.”
The girl yawned and meekly took Kelly’s hand. “And a bath?”
“We’ll see what we can do.”
Nathan led Kelly and Francesca to the center of the room. Nodding toward the wall where the switches had been in Earth Red, he pressed the mirror against his chest. “Ready with the lights?”
Clara walked over to the switch. “Here we go!”
The trumpet fixtures on the perimeter wall flashed to life, sending white beams toward the ceiling that forked into dozens of semitranslucent shafts as they bounced from the apex. The shafts reshaped into brilliant vertical bars around the trio and again melted their surroundings.
Soon, the forest scene shaped itself around them. The racing clouds seemed to put on the brakes and slow to a reasonable speed. Instead of plunging like lead weights, green leaves began to float to the ground in meandering spirals, blown off their erratic paths by gusts of wind that chased the clouds above. The squirrel slowed as well, flicking its tail erratically as he looked on from his perch near the end of a branch.
In the distance, a bank of dark clouds spread a blanket across the sun, casting a deep shadow over the trio. Lightning flashed. The cloud-to-ground strike sent a rumbling boom across the forest and tremors under their feet. A few large raindrops pelted the leafy floor, making a crackling sound as they landed. A fresh breeze blew through Nathan’s hair, cool and invigorating as it kicked up a swirl of dead leaves at his feet. They flew in a cyclonic waltz, blocking the freshness and surrounding them in a dreary blanket of decay.
He tried to peer through the flurry. He had seen this place before, the mirror’s very first strange apparition back in his bedroom.
A sudden gust blew the leafy whirlwind away, clearing their view. To the right, a tri-fold mirror, twice Nathan’s height and three times as wide as his arm span, stood upright, supported by four-by-four wooden posts embedded in the ground.
Shuffling through more dead leaves, the previous autumn’s carpet that spring had not yet swept away, he stared at the seemingly impossible, but now familiar, reflection, an aerial view of the telescope room with Clara and Daryl waving at them from the computer desk. “Interfinity must have erected this here as their transportation dock for Earth Yellow.”
While returning the wave, Kelly touched the right-hand panel. “I guess they thought of everything, didn’t they?”
Holding out his palm to catch the spattering rain, Nathan squinted at the darkening sky. “Maybe, but we didn’t think to bring an umbrella.”
Francesca pointed toward the horizon. “Look!”
As the leaves kicked up again, Nathan bent over to follow her line of sight. A dark twisting funnel roared down from the approaching cloud bank. “It’s a tornado! A big one!”
14
FINDING FRANCESCA
“It’s coming toward us!” Kelly swiveled her head from side to side. “Which way to the road?”
Nathan pointed toward what appeared to be a trail, a narrow path with fewer leaves than the surrounding area. “That way!” He thrust the mirror toward her. “You take this.” Scooping Francesca into his arms, he dashed along the path. As the wind whistled through the branches, leaves and twigs rained all around along with nickel-sized droplets that splashed on his hair and clothes. “Are you with me?” he called back to Kelly.
“Right behind you!”
Francesca stayed quiet, nuzzling her cheek against his neck, even as he leaped over protruding roots or a fallen tree. “We have to find a low area, a ditch or a rainwater trench!”
Kelly’s hoarse voice battled the chaotic noise. “It’s all flat!”
Glancing back, Nathan caught sight of the tornado again, an enormous black funnel of spinning fury. It churned through the forest like a wild monster, uprooting trees and spewing them into the sky. The deafening rumble drowned out nearly every other sound. Only the high pitch of Kelly’s shouts managed to overcome the racket and find their way to his ears.
He spun around. “Give me the violin!”
Kelly sprinted toward him, reaching out the case. Without a word, he set Francesca down and took the violin, popping the latches while Kelly held up the mirror where he could see the raging demon behind them. As the tornado screamed closer, he jerked up his instrument and sawed the bow across the strings, playing a wild rendition of “Be Still My Soul.”
The monstrous funnel drew so close, all he could see in the mirror was its black twisting wall as it tossed out dirt and debris. The wind blew a vicious slap that knocked Francesca to the ground. Hanging on to the mirror with both hands, Kelly straddled her and dropped to her knees to cover Francesca’s shaking body while keeping the mirror in place.
With his back to the cyclone, dozens of rocks and sharp wood fragments slammed into Nathan, his body a shield for the two girls. Finally, the reflection changed, a dim forest road with a van parked near a tree.
“I need a flash of light!” he yelled.
As if in response, lightning blasted down from the sky, knifing into a nearby tree and slicing off a huge limb right over their heads. The tornado lurched forward, spreading its funnel like the deadly arms of death itself. Kelly clenched her eyes shut. Nathan bent over, waiting to be crushed or swept away.
Suddenly, all was quiet. Staying bent, he listened to the strange silence and studied the ground he stood on. His violin case now lay open on a paved road. After setting the violin inside, he looked over at Kelly.
Still holding the mirror, her wide eyes darted all around, and a smile spread across her face. “Now that’s pretty cool!” She pushed a hand under Francesca’s arm and helped her to her feet.
Leavi
ng the case on the ground, Nathan stood up straight. “Cool is right, but I’d rather not go through —”
A new voice interrupted. “Okay, now I’ve seen everything.”
Nathan pivoted. “What?”
Just across the road, a young man leaned against a commercial van, watching them with his arms folded over his long-sleeved T-shirt. “Like I said. Now I’ve seen everything.” He pushed away from the van revealing the lettering on the side — Stoneman Enterprises.
Nathan drew his head back. “Gunther?”
“In the flesh.” Carrying a tire iron, Gunther frowned as he walked toward them, a set of keys jangling from a ring on his jeans belt loop. Although his hair was shorter, his face hadn’t changed. His voice sharpened to a menacing tone. “For a couple of kidnappers, you sure have a lot of divine help … or is it demonic help?”
“Kidnappers?” Nathan backed away spreading his arms in front of Kelly and Francesca. “What are you talking about?”
“You still have her,” Gunther said, stopping and pointing the tire iron at Francesca. “Now I can finally clear my name for good.”
“Clear your name?”
“I didn’t want to believe you kidnapped Francesca. I thought maybe someone else took all three of you.”
“We didn’t kidnap her. We’re trying to get her home.”
Gunther gave him a sarcastic smirk. “It’s taken you almost a year to decide to do that? A little slow, aren’t you?”
“Cool it a second,” Nathan said, holding up his hands. “Just tell us what’s happened since we’ve been gone, and I’ll explain everything.”
Gunther kept a firm grip on his tire iron, but his voice eased. “That day I dropped you off, I noticed a guy drive in as I was leaving, so I went back to check it out. When I saw him sneaking up toward the house with a gun, I took this tire iron and chased him. I got there just as he shot —” He glanced at Francesca. The little girl’s eyes had grown a half size wider. “Anyway, I clobbered him, but he was a tough nut to crack. He fought back and got away, but I didn’t chase him, ‘cause I wanted to stay and help, but you two were gone, kind of vanished into thin air. I called the police, and when they showed up, they asked me where Francesca was. I had no idea a little girl even lived there, so I just told them everything I knew.
“They didn’t believe me at first, and when they couldn’t find her, they put me in jail for two days. When they developed the pictures in the camera Mrs. Romano had with her, they saw the three of you. Now here’s the really weird part. In the picture, there was a big mirror behind you, and it showed the guy with the gun behind Mrs. Romano, but there wasn’t any mirror in the room.
“Anyway, they decided to keep me locked up for a while, because it also showed me getting ready to bash the guy’s head, proving I was there with you. Since they didn’t have any evidence that I actually kidnapped her, and since I obviously didn’t have time to dispose of three bodies, they finally let me go. They dusted for fingerprints, but I guess yours didn’t match anything on file, and they showed the photo to thousands of people and put it on TV, but they came up empty.”
Nathan nodded toward Kelly and Francesca. “That’s because we went to another dimension. We were only gone a little while, and time moves faster here than it does there.”
Gunther lowered the tire iron. “Another dimension?”
“Look,” Nathan said, spreading out his arms, “I know it sounds crazy, but I told you the truth before, and you believed me, and I’m telling the truth now. Didn’t we just appear out of nowhere? Where do you think we came from?”
“Well, she doesn’t look even a day older. They change pretty fast at that age.” Bending over, Gunther stared at Francesca. His eyes began to glisten, and his anger seemed to melt away. Suddenly, his brow scrunched low. “Wait a minute!” He turned abruptly and jogged to his van. After climbing into the back double door, he returned with a poster, unrolling it as he walked. “Here’s a blowup of the photo. I noticed something…”
“You carry around a poster of her?”
“Yeah … well … After searching for her for so long, she kind of grew on me.” He handed one end to Nathan and stretched out the slick paper. He touched Francesca’s poster image, rubbing his fingertip along her nose. Then, after rolling up the poster, he crouched in front of her, drawing close and studying her face. “She still has exactly the same scratch, after all this time.”
Gunther reached out slowly and drew Francesca into his arms, his movements smooth and gentle. She returned the embrace, her eyes focusing on Nathan as she looked over Gunther’s shoulder. She seemed confused yet delighted.
As Gunther pulled away and rose to his feet, he turned back to Nathan and extended his hand. “Welcome back.”
Nathan shook his hand. “Great to be here.”
“How’d you get here?” Kelly asked. “Or, better yet, how’d we get here?”
“I just drove out to a deserted road on my way to my folks’ house and waited.” Gunther shrugged his shoulders. “I have no idea how you got here. Like Nathan said, you just kind of appeared here out of nowhere.”
Kelly scanned the forest. “Where are we, anyway?”
“Near the Iowa and Illinois border. I had just finished a class at school, and this professor-looking type came up to me in the hall. He showed me a photo — the same one we used to make the poster — and asked if I knew the two of you and Francesca. I wasn’t sure I could trust him, so I said something like, ‘What’s it to you?’
“He told me your names. He also knew about me being in the house when it all went down, and he wanted me to help him find the three of you, something about saving your lives. He said he needed someone Nathan could trust, but this guy was sure you wouldn’t trust him. So he couldn’t do it himself.”
“What did he look like?” Nathan asked.
Gunther made circles with his thumbs and forefingers and set them over his eyes. “He wore those owl glasses, like John Lennon wears, and he’s short with kind of a round head.”
Nathan looked at Kelly. “Sounds like Dr. Simon. Must be his counterpart in this dimension.”
“He didn’t tell me his name,” Gunther continued. “He said that if I wanted to” — he drew quote marks in the air — “be of service, I should drive to a safe place and wait for you there.”
“What safe place?”
“I asked the same question. He said it didn’t matter where I went as long as I was there within a certain time frame that he wrote down.”
Nathan raised his eyebrows. “So he knew when the three of us would arrive?”
“Well, not exactly. It was a two-hour window.”
“How long did you have to wait?”
Gunther glanced at his wristwatch. “Only twenty minutes. I brought my textbooks to study, so it wasn’t a problem. When I went to jail, I got fired from my delivery job, so I decided to concentrate on school. Figured it was about time I graduated.”
“What about the tornado?” Kelly asked. “Didn’t it affect you?”
“The radio said it was a hundred miles to the northeast. Just caught a little thunderstorm on my way over here.”
“We were right in its path.” Nathan said. “It nearly blew us to kingdom come.” He looked over at Kelly. With her hair frizzed out and her clothes ruffled, he realized that he probably looked just as mangled. He brushed through his hair, knocking out a shower of leaves, twigs, and dirt. Kelly took his cue and combed out her own hair.
One question still bugged him. How could they possibly show up in a place that Gunther just pulled out of a hat and at exactly the time they were about to get plowed by a tornado and a tree? If they could find Simon, whatever color he was, he’d have a lot of questions to answer.
Gunther backed away, looking around as if worried about someone watching. “This dimensional stuff is too deep for me. I’m just your driver, so if you want a ride somewhere, let’s get going.”
They piled into the van, Kelly and Francesca in the front a
nd Nathan in the cargo area in the back. Nathan leaned forward, bracing himself on Kelly’s headrest. Although her hair smelled of pine mixed with toadstools, it carried the aroma of safety after a storm, a good, safe sensation. “Think we should check out your house?” he asked.
Kelly shook her head. “It’s hours away and it’s too risky. That’s the first place they’d look for us. And, besides, we don’t know how much time’s left before we have to get back for the funeral.”
“True.” Nathan glanced at his wristwatch, but, of course, it couldn’t possibly keep track of time on Earth Red. “I wish we had a cosmic clock.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and looked at the screen. No signal. But what did he expect? It was 1979. “Gunther, can you take us to a telephone? I want to make a few calls to see what’s going on.”
“Sure thing. There’s a Texaco station and a McDonald’s a few miles up the road. You hungry?”
“Starved.” Nathan pulled out his wallet and showed Gunther a twenty-dollar bill. “They probably won’t take these new-style twenties, will they?”
“What’s this?” Gunther took the bill and narrowed his eyes. “Are you into counterfeiting now?”
“Never mind.” Nathan pushed his wallet back into place. “I have some older fives and ones. The McDonald’s clerk probably won’t look at the dates.”
After eating lunch and using the restroom, Gunther, Kelly, and Francesca returned to the van while Nathan used the pay phone at the gas station. When he hung up the receiver, he motioned for Kelly.
She hopped out, and while she ran toward him, he adjusted his watch to match the time on the station’s outdoor clock.
“What’s the news?” she asked as she came to a stop.
Glancing over her shoulder at Gunther and Francesca, Nathan whispered. “I talked to Nikolai, Francesca’s violin teacher. He and his wife raised her in our world after her mother died. I asked him if Francesca were ever found, would he take her in.”
“What did he say?”
“He went nuts. He even started crying. Of course he’d take her. He and his wife were never able to have children.”