“So we’ve lost a month. Twenty-eight days to be exact. Think about it. We spent one moon cycle—that’s twenty-eight days, isn’t it?—with the Dunjini. So it should be the end of October by now. Do you see? That means each time we go back into the portal it goes back to the same date as when we first entered the portal.”
Not only are we trapped in an alternative reality, but we’re trapped in time too.
***
It’s another sweltering day. The heat has been relentless all week and without electricity there’s no air-conditioning or fans. We work in the garden at dawn and dusk and try to rest during the middle of the day, although it’s hard even to sleep when it’s so hot.
The air is smoky too, the smell of a bushfire. It’s been burning for days. Sara says the fire is probably far inland. She says it’s much worse than this when the fires are close.
Since we bumped into Mr Jones I’ve seen two more familiar faces; Mrs Li, who works in the library, and Mr Stone, a teacher at my school. In our world, that is. In this world neither of them recognises me. It happened to Jack too, when he was going to get some wood with Noah. They walked past Jeanette Walker, who’s one of Mum’s friends. Jack said she looked right through him. Jeanette’s even been to our house a few times. In our world, Jeanette Walker would definitely recognise Jack.
Jack and I discuss it. The same people can exist in two different realities. That’s a weird thought. Are there millions of versions of each person out there somewhere? What if those people came through the portal and met themselves? What if we bump into ourselves? We can’t answer those questions. But all the familiar people we’ve seen so far have been older. Jack’s theory (Jack’s good at this stuff) is that this reality and our own world used to be the same but they split apart before we were born but after people like Jeanette and Mrs Li were born. Jack says if we knew all the people who exist in both worlds we could work out exactly what year people stopped having doubles, and that would tell us when the split happened.
Not that it would help us.
***
Noah comes home with a bag containing what looks like a shapeless blob of transparent jelly.
“Jellyfish,” he says. “Everything else was fished out years ago. There’s no shortage of these though. They don’t taste of much, but they’re protein.” He soaks the jellyfish in a bucket of water all afternoon, then slices them into strips and throws them into the stew. He’s right: they taste of nothing. A bit salty, that’s all.
This evening some of Sara and Noah’s friends come round and there’s laughing and singing and guitar playing. Even Noah lightens up and seems to be enjoying himself.
We tell the others we’re Sara and Noah’s cousins from Sydney. After our parents died we lived with our aunt for a couple of years but now we’ve decided to come here. That’s the story Sara made up for us. Sara and Noah’s friends want to know how things are in Sydney. We tell them it’s the same as Baytown. We try to avoid too many details.
Tonight is the new moon. We’ve been here two weeks. Two weeks to go.
***
Why don’t you just move Inland?” I ask Noah and Sara. “Surely it’s better than staying here.”
Noah stirs the fire with his stick. “Once it was obvious the seas were rising, millions did flee the Coast. But the Inland towns can’t cope. They’ve got bushfires, droughts up there. Fields have turned to dust. Cattle are dying. There are no jobs or houses.
“With no work and nowhere to live, the Coasties who moved Inland became desperate. They formed gangs and began to attack Inlanders. Robbing them, seizing their homes. So the Inlanders formed their own gangs and fought back. Things came to a head with the Canberra Riots. They say 20,000 people died. That was nothing compared to the riots in Europe but we’d never had anything like it here. The country was falling into anarchy. The government had to act.”
“That’s when they introduced the zones,” Sara says. “Coast and Inland. At first it was just checkpoints. Then the Fences appeared, and the patrols. Suddenly, the Coast was cut off from Inland. You can get past the Fence—that’s not impossible—but if you don’t have an Inland Permit you’ll be picked up and dumped back on the Coast. And you can’t get an Inland Permit unless you’ve got a job or own property Inland. The official line is everyone will be resettled Inland eventually. But we all know that’s not going to happen.”
Noah pokes a knife though a potato on the fire. He decides it’s ready and scoops the rest of the potatoes onto a plate. He gazes into the fire for a while.
“The government’s plan is to let everyone on the Coast die—from disease, starvation or whatever—then hope there’s enough food left for those Inland. Of course that’s not what they say, but everyone knows it.”
***
Sara and I are on our way to the Fortress when we see a woman walking on the other side of the road. Like most people here she shuffles along with her head down, trying not to be noticed. But I know her instantly.
“Mum,” I shout. “Mum, it’s me, Kaya.” I start to run across the road towards her. She sees me coming and backs away. She looks scared. I think she’d run if she could, but she’s limping slightly and I guess she knows she can’t outrun me.
“Please ...” she whimpers. She fumbles in her pocket and produces a piece of paper, which she flings towards me. It’s a ten-dollar note. “It’s all I’ve got. Take it. Please ...”
“Mum, it’s me. Kaya. Don’t you ...” I begin. But it’s no use. I can see from her blank look that she doesn’t recognise me. I feel numb. In this world, I’m not her daughter. I guess that means in this world I was never born.
“Please, keep the money. I don’t want to hurt you,” I say. I pick up the note and hold it out for her. She looks confused, then nervously reaches out and takes the note from my hand. “Thank you,” she mumbles. For a second our eyes meet and I search in vain for any faint glimmer of recognition. But all I can see is fear and confusion.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I thought you were ... someone else.”
I turn and run back across the road. I’m crying. I can’t bear to see Mum like this, so scared and pathetic, her spirit broken. My mum is a strong woman, not scared of anything.
***
The next day the air is thick with smoke, blotting out the sun. At least that means it’s not so hot, but it makes you cough if you go outdoors. I tell Jack about Mum and he wants to find her but I say what’s the point. In this world she’s not our mum but just a frail, frightened woman trying to survive. Anyway I don’t know where she lives. Sara and I go to Blaster’s house. Sara says Noah and Jack are not invited, which makes me nervous.
Blaster is sitting on the red sofa, watching the news again. He’s alone.
“Ah, my two Baytown beauties,” he says without looking up. “Brighten up the place, don’t you.” Sara glances at me and rolls her eyes.
“Get cleaning then,” Blaster says. On the television men in suits are going into a meeting. The reporter is saying something about a border dispute between the United States and Canada. Blaster seems fascinated.
“Canada, eh? That’s the place. Especially now they’ve got that whole new north coast, what with the Arctic ice gone and all. They say there’s still fish up there. Nice an’ cool up in the north, too. The Yanks will invade soon. Bound to. Won’t be able to keep their hands off it.”
Blaster stretches back. He has arms like tree trunks and a neck like a bull. So far I haven’t seen him leave the sofa, but he must lift a lot of weights or something.
“Make us an omelette babe,” he says to Sara. Sara turns to go to the kitchen. I start to follow but Blaster calls me back.
“Not you. You wait here.” He’s a real charmer, is Blaster. I see Sara glance back and frown. But she goes out, leaving me alone with Blaster, who puts his feet up on a stool.
“Come over here and give me a foot massage,” he says. It’s an order, not a request, and I do what I’m told. I’ve no idea how to do a foot massag
e so I just press the soles of his giant feet with my thumbs.
Blaster gives me that look again. “You’re a good-lookin’ girl Kaya. I might have some opportunities for someone like you. Maybe you’d like to come round on your own next time. To discuss it, like. When Sara’s up at the Fortress ...”
I pray for Sara to come back. I can see where this is heading. At what point do I say no to Blaster? Like Noah said, he doesn’t strike me as a man who takes no for an answer.
But Blaster stops talking. Something has caught his eye.
“Nice necklace you got there. Let me see it.”
I feel a knot of panic in my stomach at the mention of the necklace. Because of course it’s not the necklace that Blaster is looking at. It’s the crystal hanging from it. The maala crystal. I know I should probably leave it at Noah and Sara’s house, but somehow I don’t feel right without it, so I wear it everywhere. But normally I make sure I keep it hidden beneath my T-shirt. It must have slipped out. I curse my carelessness as I lean forward to let Blaster see the crystal. Maybe he just wants to perv down my T-shirt at my boobs. I think I’d prefer that right now.
“No, no, take it off. Give it to me.” He holds out his hand.
Reluctantly I slip the necklace over my head and hand it to Blaster. He turns it over in his hands. Like everyone, he’s fascinated by the way it changes colour as it catches the light.
“Beautiful,” he murmurs. “What sort of crystal is this? I ain’t never seen one like this before.”
“I’m not sure, Blaster,” I say. I can feel the sweat on my forehead as I wait for Blaster to give the necklace back.
But Blaster doesn’t. Instead he slips the necklace, with the maala crystal, into his pocket. His mood has changed too. He seems to have lost interest in me.
“Go and help Sara in the kitchen,” he says, turning back to the television. I open my mouth to ask for the crystal back, but no words come. I’m afraid, or in shock. Maybe both.
What Blaster wants, he takes. Isn’t that what Sara said?
“You still here?” Blaster mutters, his eyes on the television. He’s unpredictable. And scary. I find myself walking to the kitchen. I feel the room swirl around me as I walk.
In the kitchen, Sara looks at me in concern.
“Are you all right Kaya? You’re very pale. What’s wrong?” she asks. “Did Blaster ...”
“The ... crystal. Blaster took the crystal.”
Sara looks puzzled. I realise I haven’t told her about the maala crystal. As far as she’s concerned it’s just a pretty stone.
I’m in a daze. Sara takes Blaster his omelette but Blaster takes no further interest in us. He’s right into this news report about Canada and America. He just grunts when Sara tells him we’re leaving.
“So?” Sara says when we’re out of Blaster’s place. “What’s the big deal with this crystal? A present from your boyfriend or something?”
“No, it’s ... we need it to get home. It’s some sort of key to the portal. The Stone Gate.”
Sara raises an eyebrow.
“I thought you said the Stone Gate is just a big rock. You didn’t tell us there’s an actual door.”
“It’s not. It’s not a real key. But the portal only works if you’re holding one of these crystals. Billy called it a maala crystal. Without a maala crystal, the Stone Gate is just a big rock.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Well, Billy says so. And Billy’s the only person we’ve met so far who knows anything about the portal. All I know is I was wearing the crystal when we went through the portal ...”
Sara looks at me warily.
“You still believe me, don’t you?” I ask.
“I dunno. I think I do. God knows why. Logically you’re mad, of course. Me too, for listening to you. But I want to believe you. And there’s definitely something weird about you two.”
We’re almost home. At the corner of the street a group of youths watch us pass. Noah’s right. No one seems to hassle him or Sara.
“I’ll ask Blaster to give you back the necklace. Or maybe Noah can persuade him if I can’t.” Sara thinks for a while. “Or maybe if you lay out the whole story about the portal, show him your invisible mirror trick, he might believe you. Tell him he can come and watch you go through the portal. But don’t get your hopes up. Blaster never gives things back. That’s not his style.”
***
The smoke today makes it hard to breathe.
Sara is worried she hasn’t seen Mrs Lipardi, the elderly lady who lives a few doors down the street, for a week. We go to check if she’s all right. We knock but there’s no answer. Sara tries the door. It’s locked, but Sara levers it open with her hunting knife. As soon as she opens the door, there’s a terrible smell. It’s all I can do not to throw up. Sara pushes open the living room door and there’s Mrs Lipardi, lying on the floor, not moving.
I’ve never seen a dead person before. But I know immediately that I’m looking at one now.
Sara kneels and takes Mrs Lipardi’s pulse, although there’s no point. The stench is too much for me. I run outside and throw up. A short while later Sara comes out.
“Poor Mrs Lipardi. She’s probably been dead a few days, judging from the smell. We’d better go and tell the registry.”
“What caused her ...”
“I don’t know. Heatstroke, maybe. A lot of old people die that way nowadays. Or it might have been the smoke. She had breathing difficulties anyway. It’s not uncommon. An elderly person living alone, no phone to call an ambulance. Anyway, she knew she’d end up like this. She hasn’t been able to get her medication since the doctor left. Doctors are in demand Inland, so why would they stay on the Coast? Nurses too. The hospitals on the Coast barely function nowadays. Next time we get an outbreak of malaria or Ross River fever or something, it’s going to kill people like a medieval plague.”
***
The four of us go to see Blaster to ask for the crystal back. I feel lightheaded as we walk to his place. My heart is thumping. This time, however, it’s nothing to do with my life force fading or anything like that. It’s fear. The fear that Blaster won’t give us the crystal back. We need that crystal or we’re dead.
As always, we find Blaster sitting on his red sofa watching television. On the screen firefighters are battling a bushfire. Three of Blaster’s men sit around the table playing cards.
“... strong winds continue to fan the flames as the fire front sweeps across ...” the announcer says.
“This fire’s a real big ‘un,” Blaster says. “Even worse than last year.” He turns to me. “Sara says you want to ask me something.”
I take a deep breath and launch into our story.
“I know this is hard to believe, but the crystal you took yesterday is a sort of magic stone that acts like a key to unlock a ... erm, a portal between different realities, which opens every full moon.”
I realise I must sound insane but I press on.
“It’s up in the forest above Hillview Street. We came through the portal from our own reality and ended up here, but we need the crystal to get back again. If we can’t get back we’ll ...”
I keep going, spilling out the whole story about the portal and the Dunjini and what Billy said about our life force fading and how the crystal opens the portal. I pause. Blaster is staring at me in astonishment.
“What sort of bullshit is this?” he asks.
“It’s not bullshit. We can prove it. Have you got a mirror?”
Blaster nods at one of his men, who scurries off and returns moments later with a mirror.
“Now, hold it up towards us,” I tell him. “Look at our reflections.”
Blaster’s eyes open even wider.
“What the ...”
“We don’t show up in mirrors because we’re from a parallel reality. Our life energy is still in our world.” I can hear how silly my words sound even as I say them. We’re from a parallel universe. Yeah, right, course you are.
“That’s why we won’t show up on the security cameras,” Jack adds, pointing to the camera on the ceiling. Blaster looks at him for a moment. We’ve got his attention now. He gets up and walks across to the computer. He fiddles with the mouse and the overhead camera swivels to face Jack. Blaster stares at the screen.
“Connor, sit next to the boy,” he tells one of the men.
Connor does as he’s told and goes to sit next to Jack. Blaster stares at his computer again.
“Paddy, get Frankie in here,” Blaster barks. Paddy scurries off and returns with another man.
Blaster walks slowly over to the man, until their noses are almost touching.
“Remind me Frankie, what’s your job round here?”
“Sec ... security, Blaster,” the man stammers. He’s a big man, with bulging forearms and a tattoo of a dragon climbing his neck. But he’s shaking.
“Noticed anything unusual recently, Frankie, have you?” Blaster presses his face even closer to Frankie’s.
“N ... no boss.”
“For instance, how two kids on the gate camera turn into four kids once they get inside?”
Without warning, Blaster slams his fist into the man’s stomach. It’s a short, hard punch with no backswing. Frankie groans as the air is knocked out of him, then his legs buckle and he drops to his knees, gasping for breath. Blaster grabs the baseball bat that’s propped up against the table and brings it down on the man’s skull. There’s a sickening crunch and Frankie slumps forward, then silence.
“Get him out of here,” Blaster snaps. Paddy drags Frankie’s limp body out of the room.
No one makes a sound.
“Get someone on security who can keep their eyes open,” Blaster says. He turns back to us.
“Right. Nice story. About the parallel realities and all that. You don’t expect me to believe it, of course. You kids got some nerve, coming in here and giving me bullshit like that.”
I brace myself. I can feel myself shaking. Then Blaster throws his head back and lets out a roar of laughter.
“That’s good. That’s funny. I like kids with a bit of nerve. And that’s quite a trick you got there. Care to tell me how you do it?”