“To my dad’s bedroom. I know this house well enough to find it, but I’ll need you once we get there.”
After turning right and hustling through a second corridor, they entered a spacious bedroom. Still holding the mirror, Kelly slowed and blinked in the dimness. Nathan flipped the wall switch, but the twin ceiling fan lights stayed dark. “Forgot,” he said. “Still no power.”
Kelly tiptoed around a king-sized bed and stopped in front of a dresser sitting against the far wall. Its attached mirror reflected their shadowy forms and the smaller mirror in Kelly’s hands. On top of the dresser, under a jumble of socks and old receipts, was a large leather photo album.
Kelly laid the mirror next to it and lifted the cover. Inside, photos covered the pages, each one neatly inserted in a protective pocket. “I can’t see them very well. Can you look for one that shows a woman holding a baby?”
Nathan flipped a couple of pages, then pointed at a photo. “Here’s one.”
She slid the mirror over the album, stopping it next to the picture. “Does she look like this woman?”
He stared at the two images. The woman in the mirror swayed from side to side much faster than normal, like a movie playing at high speed. With her distance from his viewpoint and blowing snow veiling her body, he couldn’t get a good look at her face.
“I’m not sure. I think she resembles — ”
“Shh!” Kelly raised a finger to her lips. “Listen!”
Nathan kept quiet. Although he couldn’t hear anything, he knew better than to say so. Kelly’s gift of interpreting sounds from other worlds was at work.
After several seconds, her finger hovered over the woman’s face. “She’s singing to the baby. It’s real fast, but I can pick it up.” Her voice now trembling, Kelly sang the song in a whisper. “Hush little baby, don’t say a word. Mama’s gonna buy you a mockingbird. And if that mockingbird won’t sing, Mama’s gonna buy you a ruby ring.”
“Ruby ring?” Nathan said. “I thought it was a diamond ring.”
“My mother always said ruby. I know, because she used to help me babysit.”
“Your mother?” Nathan pointed at the photo. “So that’s you she’s carrying?”
Kelly nodded. “We must be . . . I mean, they must be freezing. We have to help them.”
“Ahem!”
Nathan looked
Nathan looked up. Jack stood at the door. “You had better return to the other room,” Jack said. “We have a visitor.”
Nathan closed the photo album over the mirror and picked them up. Then, taking Kelly’s hand, he rushed past Jack. When they reached the bedroom, Nathan slowed and peered in. His mother stood with her violin at her side while Cerulean and Amber gazed at a mirror square.
Nathan helped Kelly through the door and gave her the photo album. She opened it and slid out the mirror within.
“What’s up, Mom?” Nathan asked.
His mother nodded toward the mirror in Cerulean’s grip. “See for yourself.”
Cerulean turned the square toward Nathan. A narrow, pale face filled up the entire image — Patar, his eyes glowing red, though a softer hue than usual.
Nathan swallowed. Seeing this vision stalker meant a tongue lashing was probably on the horizon. “I’m here.” He cleared his throat. “What do you want?”
“It occurred to me,” Patar said, his voice more pleasant than usual, “that my earlier instructions were much too vague. Once you reach Earth Yellow you must find a way to travel back to my world to finish your task.” His eyes shifted from side to side, apparently looking at each of the supplicants in turn. “Because of Scarlet’s plunge into Sarah’s Womb, the portal from your world to mine has closed. The only way to enter my world now is to use the observatory.”
Nathan pictured the Earth Yellow observatory mirror, anchored in the foundation at the future site of Interfinity Labs. Nathan knew they’d need more than violins to play “Moonlight Sonata,” the song that opened the portal to Patar’s home in the misty world. Once in the past, Kelly had persuaded a radio station to play the song, but that wasn’t likely to work again. And with Earth Blue in chaos, there was no way they could drive to the observatory here. Still, since Yellow’s time was zooming along, things might be a lot different there now. “Any idea how the Interfinity construction is coming along on Earth Yellow?” he asked.
Patar’s brow bent down slightly. “I am not omniscient. I suggest that you find out.”
“But how? We have a portal, but it leads to downtown Chicago. Can’t we try a few more mirrors?”
“No,” Kelly said, showing him the mirror. “My mother’s walking away. We have to go now!”
Nathan pressed a hand against the side of his head. Once again, the weight of multiple worlds rested on his shoulders, and the wrong decision could mean the deaths of billions. “Okay. Okay. We’ll go.”
“Do you have a vehicle?” Jack asked. “If so, can you transport with it?”
Nathan looked out the window again. Snow now lay an inch thick on the empty driveway. “No. We left the Toyota at Tony Yellow’s house. So even if we went through this mirror, we’d be stuck — ”
“Gunther will show up,” Kelly said. “I know he will, just like he did at the Burger King when he and Francesca dreamed about us.”
Nathan looked at the fierce determination in her eyes. No matter how many times these adventures left her bruised and battered, she was always ready for the next one. “You’re probably right.” He gave Patar a nod. “We have to go and trust in Gunther and Francesca and their dream prophecies.”
Patar’s red eyes brightened. “Remember what I told you about how to save the worlds. You have seen it work. Although it is a tragic path, it is the most efficient one.”
Nathan sighed. Yes, Scarlet’s death did save Earth Red, but the cost was just too high. And what right did Patar have to make that kind of call? He wouldn’t have to suffer; those supplicants meant nothing to him. Firming his lips, Nathan shook his head. He couldn’t kill Amber and Cerulean, even if their deaths would save countless lives. He had to find another way.
As Patar’s image faded, Nathan snatched a cell phone from his pocket. “Better let Daryl know.” He looked at the phone’s screen. “No signal and the battery’s almost dead.”
Kelly tightened her grip on the mirror’s edges. “My mother walked out of sight.”
Nathan dropped the cell phone, picked a flashlight up from the floor, and aimed it at the mirror. “Everyone on this side. I’m not sure how many it will transport, but we’ll soon find out.”
While Nathan, his mother, Jack, Amber, and Kelly positioned themselves in front of the mirror held by Kelly’s extended arms, Cerulean stepped away. “I can be of no help to you there. I will stay and secure the mirrors.” He kissed Amber’s cheek. “And then I must search the dream world here. My new beloved calls for me, and I cannot rest until I find her.”
“Would I be able to help you?” Jack asked. “Although I had no eyes while I was there, I became well acquainted with the sounds and smells of that world.”
Cerulean held out his hand. “Perhaps you would be of service.”
As Jack joined the supplicant, Nathan gave them a nod and turned on the flashlight. The beam bounced off the mirror’s surface and splashed over their bodies. Shattering into thousands of tiny shards, the room crumbled away, replaced by the city corner they had seen in the mirror. Frigid winds tore into their bodies and snow pelted their faces.
Bouncing on her toes, Kelly rubbed her arms. “Brilliant! We forgot to bring coats.”
Nathan untied the sleeves from around his waist and pulled the sweatshirt on over his head. Shivering violently, he scanned the sidewalks. The curtain of falling flakes veiled his view of the nearly vacant block. Tall buildings lined both sides of the street in front of him, and an “L” train rumbled somewhere out of sight, but only a few pedestrians interrupted the sea of white sidewalks and office buildings.
His mother stood to his righ
t, shielding her eyes with one hand and tucking the violin to her side with the other. Amber, now holding the photo album, stooped and pushed her finger into the six-inch layer of white. As dozens of flakes coated her blonde hair and eyebrows, she looked up at Nathan without a hint of a shiver. “The snow is deep enough,” she said. “We could follow her tracks.”
A familiar voice made Nathan turn. “Need some coats?”
3
DEFUSING THE BOMB
Nathan grinned. A young woman, her red hair partially covered by a woolen hood, extended an armful of coats, a wide smile on her face.
He puffed her name in a stream of white vapor. “Daryl!”
“In the flesh.” She pushed the coats toward Kelly. “Yours is on top, Kelly-kins.”
Kelly lifted the coat and slid her arms through the sleeves. “How did you — ”
“Easy. You left the coats in the observatory. I brought them. You know what I always say.” She used her fingers to spell out letters in sign language.
Nathan strung them together. “Be prepared?”
“Hey!” Daryl said. “Look who knows sign language!”
“You always say, ‘Be prepared’?” Kelly asked.
“Well, lately, anyway.” She peeled off the second coat and gave it to Nathan’s mother. “This was Daryl Blue’s. I think it’ll fit you.”
Nathan took the last coat and passed it to Amber, but she pushed it back. “I am not cold.”
He gazed into her bright eyes. Her body, now glowing with a pale golden aura, shifted back and forth as if swaying with an inaudible tune, her bare feet rising to tiptoes and then falling with each cycle. She smiled. “Are you perplexed, Nathan?”
“I guess so.” He pushed his arms through the coat sleeves. “I’m wondering how you stay warm.”
“Now that I am in this world, I can hear the music in the air, and it has eased my troubled mind. Once you learn to dance with the heavenly sounds, the corruption of the elements will no longer affect you.” She touched his cheek with her warm fingers. “This will be a new journey for you, one that cannot be explained here and now.”
“Right,” Kelly said. “We need to find my Earth Yellow mother. She was here a few seconds ago.”
Daryl looked at her wristwatch. “More like seven minutes ago. Gunther and I picked her up while we were looking for you guys.”
“Did Gunther have a dream?” Nathan asked as he zipped up the coat.
“Yep. He and Francesca locked in on you popping into this world right at this location. He picked me up at the observatory yesterday, which was about an hour ago, Earth Blue time.”
“Why did you decide to make the jump?”
She held up a finger. “One, I was on generator power at the observatory, so the equipment couldn’t run much longer, and two” — she lifted another finger — “I found out Earth Red’s in a heap of trouble, so I came here to see what I could do about it.”
“Earth Red? I thought we pushed them away from interfinity.”
“Well . . . sort of. You see — ”
A gunning engine sounded from behind her. As Daryl turned, Nathan looked over her shoulder. A van marked “Stone-man Enterprises” wheeled around a corner, slipping and sliding through the snow. As soon as it straightened, Gunther came into view through the windshield, his face taut.
When the van pulled up to the walkway, Nathan opened the side door, revealing a woman seated on the rear bench holding a bundle in her arms. With shoulder-length brown hair and matching brown eyes, she could have passed for Kelly’s older sister. “Mrs. Clark?” he asked. “Molly Clark?”
Molly tucked the blanket around her baby and scooted away from the cold air. “I am.” An Irish accent flavored her words. “It seems that every stranger in town knows my name.”
“Hop in,” Gunther said, leaning toward the back from the driver’s seat. “Let’s get moving before the zone police find us.”
Nathan helped his mother step up into the van. As she slid close to Molly, she asked, “The zone police?”
Gunther pointed at himself with his thumb. “I’m a marked man. They’re cracking down on us travelers.”
“As well they should,” Molly said, now sitting next to the window. “You people get us all in trouble.”
Gunther gave her a thin smile. “And out of trouble, it seems.”
Nathan reached for Amber’s hand, but she drew it back. She leaned toward the van and peered inside, angling her head as she scanned the interior.
“It’s safe,” he said. “It’s nothing like your prison dome.”
“I have seen such machines in my visions, but I never imagined I would ride in one.” She took his hand, stepped up to the bench, and settled next to Nathan’s mother.
Nathan stepped close to Daryl and whispered, “You can ride shotgun, and I’ll sit with Kelly in the cargo area. I don’t want to mention Kelly’s name in front of Molly for obvious reasons.”
“Gotcha, boss!” Daryl jumped into her seat. “But I wish I had a shotgun. That could come in handy.”
With an eye on her Earth Yellow mother, Kelly hopped up and squeezed into the back. Nathan joined her, whispering, “Is that baby you?”
Nodding, she pushed aside an empty Ritz Crackers box and sat cross-legged on the flat carpet. “Ask her why she’s by herself. It’s important.”
As Gunther began driving away, Nathan cleared his throat. “Uh . . . Molly. We were wondering why you were standing out in the snow. Was someone supposed to pick you up?”
As she turned toward him, a worried look crossed her face, and her Irish accent thickened. “My husband, Tony. We just returned from Europe, and he dropped me off at Neiman Marcus to shop while he picked up a shipment he sent from Scotland. The store closed because of the snowstorm, so I had to watch for him from the sidewalk. I couldn’t very well look for other shelter, because he wouldn’t be able to find me. I had to keep my baby warm somehow, so when Gunther drove by with Tony’s old girlfriend, I decided to ride around with them until Tony came back.”
“His old girlfriend?” Daryl let out a huff. “When pigs fly to Pluto.”
“Tony is a fine man,” Molly said, her voice sharpening, “and since he calls you his former flame, it seems that pigs have sprouted wings.”
Daryl swung toward Molly, her red hair flying. “Speaking of pigs — ”
“Cool it!” Nathan barked. “Let’s just concentrate on finding Tony.”
Crossing her arms, Daryl glared straight ahead, muttering something unintelligible.
Kelly reached up and touched Molly’s shoulder. “Was the shipment a bunch of mirror squares?”
“What?” Molly looked back at her. “How could you know that?”
“It’s a long story, but when we find Tony, I’ll try to explain.
He’s at a sports bar just a couple of blocks away.”
“A sports bar?” Molly asked. “He wouldn’t — ”
“He would. Trust me. You’ll see.” Kelly pointed at a Ford pickup in the distance. “I don’t know the name of the bar, but I think it’s just past that truck.”
Gunther hit the accelerator. “We’ll be there in a second.”
As the van slipped across the snowy pavement, Kelly whispered to Nathan, “My parents have argued about this incident ever since I can remember.”
“A turning point in their marriage?”
“Big time.” She fastened the top button on her coat and rose to her knees. “Let’s see if we can defuse this bomb before it explodes.”
“What are you going to do?” Nathan asked.
“Find Tony and come up with a story that’ll get him off the hook.”
“You mean, tell a lie?”
“If I have to.” She scooted toward the front, her whisper now harsh. “I’ll do anything to keep them loving each other.”
“But maybe we can — ”
“Nathan.” The soft, melodic voice came from the seat in front of them. “I sense disharmony.”
Nathan l
ooked up. His mother and Amber had both turned his way. Her brow wrinkling, Amber continued in a low tone. “Emotional turmoil creates dissonance just as surely as a discordant measure interrupts the flow of a musical masterpiece.”
He bit his lip. Amber was every bit as insightful as Scarlet had been. He wouldn’t be able to hide even the smallest secret from her.
“We’re here,” Gunther announced. The van slid to a stop behind the pickup, a beige Ford F-150.
Molly squinted at it. “That is our truck.”
“Could it be stuck in the snow?” Kelly asked as she squeezed between the seat and the side of the van. “Maybe Tony’s just trying to get help somewhere.” She hopped out of the van and high stepped toward the pickup.
“Everyone wait here,” Nathan said. “I’ll be back in a minute.” Shuffling his feet to clear a path, he followed Kelly to the truck. After brushing snow from the small window on the side of the truck’s cap, he peered inside. Several boxes lay on the bed with “Glasgow, Scotland” imprinted with bold red letters.
He turned to Kelly. “The mirrors.”
“Right.” She nodded toward the bar, a small establishment less than half a block away. “He’s got to be inside.”
A slamming door made them turn. Amber stood on the sidewalk and scanned the area, her eyes narrowing. Hundreds of snowflakes swirled around her head as if attracted to her aura. Her graceful sway now at rest, she shivered, and her voice trembled. “There is much turmoil in the air. The sensation of coldness has penetrated my shield.”
“Then maybe you should get back in the van,” Nathan said.
She shook her head, making the snowflakes fly. “Earth Yellow’s song has drifted away. I must find it again.”
“Who am I to argue with a supplicant?” He took her by the arm. “Let’s get you inside before you freeze.”
He led Amber and Kelly past the bar’s outside seating area. Bordered in front by a wooden rail with varnished support slats, it held five snow-covered tables, but no chairs or stools were in sight.
At the entrance, Nathan stomped his feet to shake off the snow before opening the door. A wave of television noise and rumbling conversation flowed from within, followed by the stench of beer and cigar smoke.