Beyond the Reflection’s Edge (29 page)

He slid the box a couple of feet in front of the mirror, which reflected the blood-splotched container perfectly, including its unopened state.

“Nothing’s happening yet.” He picked up the stack of paper and sat down. While they were waiting, maybe he could decipher his parents’ words. Good thing the pages were numbered. He rifled through the sheets until he found page one, then gave the rest to Kelly. “Can you sort these while I work on this one?”

“Sure.” She divided the stack and handed half to Francesca. “Want to help?”

Francesca grinned. “Anything for my son.”

He returned the grin. “Cool it, Mom.” Settling back against the wall, he dug the pencil stub out of his pocket and underlined every three-syllable word on the page. He and his father had often used this quick algorithm for handwritten notes. The last letter in the first underlined word would be the first letter in the decrypted note. The second to last letter in the next word would follow, and so on. When he reached the beginning letter of a word, he would start again with the last letter of the next three-syllable word.

He pointed at the first word.
Royalty.
He jotted
Y
down in the margin. The next word was
pollution
, so the second letter was
O
. Next came
interrupt
, so the letter was
U.

He continued the tedious process, penciling the letters neatly around the margin, adding hyphens where he thought the words might break. When Kelly handed him the second page, he copied his letter string on the back of the first sheet and used it for his decoded message from that point on.

From time to time, he glanced at the mirror, but the box was always closed. As he grew tired, he paused after every deciphered word, leaning his head back and closing his eyes for
a few seconds. Two more shotgun blasts, each one louder than the others, brought new chills, but he stayed calm and worked slowly. He couldn’t afford to make a mistake. One missed three-syllable word or a miscounted letter would ruin the entire decryption. He resisted the urge to read the message, forcing himself to move on letter by letter. Not knowing what it said would force him to work faster.

Kelly’s yawns grew frequent, and Francesca fell asleep on the floor, but Nathan had to keep going. Finally, he took a deep breath and set down the last page. “Okay, let’s see what we’ve got.”

Kelly scooted over and looked on.

He read, barely whispering the words. “Your goal, stop Mictar from making interfinity, collision of dimensions. Trust Gordon Red, not Gordon Blue. Trust Simon Red. Unsure of Simon Blue. We are your parents from other dimension, not your real ones. Help us escape to stop Mictar, but get to the funeral on Earth Red.”

Nathan let the page slip from his fingers. Taking a deep breath, he tried to speak, but his throat clamped shut. Mom and Dad really were dead.

Kelly rubbed his shoulder. “Oh, Nathan. I’m so sorry.”

He leaned his head against the tiles and squeezed his eyelids closed. As tears seeped out, he bit his lip hard, fighting back a spasm. After taking a quick breath, he choked out, “I really thought… I could find them… I still hoped they were alive.”

She slid her hand into his, interlocking their thumbs. “But we can still save the other Nathan’s parents.”

“I know,” he said, blinking away the tears, “but the other Nathan is dead. I’d be an orphan, and they’d be childless.”

She brushed her fingers across his knuckles. “I guess, if you want, you could trade places. You could be their son, and you’d have new parents.”

“It wouldn’t be the same, and you know it.”

“Maybe I don’t know it.” She released his hand and folded
hers in her lap. “I’d take your parents from the other dimension any day.”

He gazed into her sad eyes. “I guess I can’t blame you for that. You have it pretty rough.”

As a flush of red colored her cheeks, her voice sharpened. “You don’t know the half of it! He makes me play basketball with guys more than a foot taller than me, and when I get punched in the face, he laughs and makes fun of me if I cry. Last year, when he wanted Steven on the team, he practically made me go out with him, and he even picked out this low-cut dress for me to wear.” She laid her hands on her breasts. “I guess he notices I’m a girl only when it’s convenient for him.”

Nathan waved for her to lower her hands. “I get the picture. You don’t have to do that.”

She sighed and returned her hands to her lap. “And you already know he brings women home, even though he and Mom aren’t divorced yet.”

“Yeah.” He lowered his head. “That’s pretty bad. I’m sorry.”

She touched his knee with her fingers. “Don’t be. It’s his fault, and nobody else’s.”

Nathan watched her fingers. Still slightly dirty from cleaning the spark plugs, her gentle caress spoke volumes. Again, this strange blending of femininity and toughness enchanted him. “I guess I always hope that people can change, you know, decide to reform. Maybe your father has a spark of… chivalry, I guess you could say. We just have to find it and help it grow.”

“My dad?” She rolled her eyes. “Get real. He’s so stubborn, he makes mules look compliant. To him, chivalry means not belching quite so loud when women are around.”

He closed his eyes. One comment she made attached itself to his brain and wouldn’t let go. He just had to ask. After a few seconds, he looked at her again. “Can I ask you one question?”

“As long as I’m spilling my guts, you might as well.”

He spoke softly, trying hard to convey a tone of sympathy. “That dress… the low-cut one. Did you wear it?”

Kelly tightened her clasped hands. Her cheeks flushed again as she whispered, “I wore it.”

“Because your dad made you wear it?”

Now focusing on her lap, she shook her head. “To be honest, I liked it. I knew it was wrong, and I knew my father shouldn’t be using me that way but I liked how I felt when I wore it. I liked the way Steven looked at me.”

He tried to gain eye contact as he softened his tone even further. “Would you wear it now?”

As she looked up at him, a tear made its way toward her cheek. “During the summer, my father was playing an away game in his summer league, so I went out with some girlfriends to the mall in Des Moines, and I saw my mother in a restaurant with a guy I didn’t recognize.” She lowered her head again. Tears dripped to her jeans as her voice trembled and pitched higher. “She was wearing my dress, and the guy was staring at her, but not at her eyes. I wanted to scream, ‘Mother! What are you doing? Are you some kind of hooker?’” Raising her head, she pointed at herself. “But then I realized that I was the hooker. I was the one trying to hook a guy into doing something by giving him a look at my…” She glanced at Francesca, who was now stirring. “My body.”

“So what did you do?”

“When my mother got home and went to bed, I sneaked into her room and took back my dress. I burned it the next morning.”

Nathan couldn’t stop a smile from breaking through. “You burned it?”

“It was kind of ceremonial. I went to the backyard and laid it over some dried cornstalks along with this skimpy tank top I had and set it all on fire. Then I buried the ashes and stomped on their grave.” She, too, let a thin smile turn her lips. “I swore
out loud that I wasn’t going to be like my mother, so I started replacing my wardrobe bit by bit. And when I met you, it made me more determined than ever.”

He set a finger on his chest.
“I
made you determined? How?”

“Nathan, don’t make me get all sensitive and sappy. I’ve bared my soul enough for one day.”

He took her hand and raised it to his lips. After giving her a soft peck on her knuckles, he said, “You gave me a great compliment. You don’t have to explain it.”

As he let go of her hand, her cheeks turned redder than ever, but she just stared at him and said nothing.

Pushing his hands behind his head, he peeked at Francesca, who snoozed without a care. “So I guess people
can
change,” he said. “Even your father.”

“You don’t know him like I do.”

“How can you be so sure? He might —”

“Nathan!” Kelly pointed at the mirror.

He spun around on his knees. “The box is open!”

Kelly laid her hand on top of the real box. In the mirror, her fingers passed right through the flipped-up lid and stopped at the opening. “That’s creepy.”

Sliding forward, Nathan pushed close enough to the mirror to get one knee on each side of the box while staying in view of the reflected image. “Okay. Just like with the trunk, don’t look at the real box while I do this.”

“Gotcha.”

While staring at the reflection, he leaned forward, moving his field of vision until the real box was out of sight. He guided his mirror hands over the bloodstained top, which opened away from his body, blocking a view of what was inside. He reached in and felt something flat, smooth, and glassy, just like the mirror, but as he slid his fingers farther down, they came across something unexpected, something more tactile and bulky.

He grasped the bulky object and, lifting carefully, placed the contents on the floor. Then, he picked up the box and turned it over, hoping to dump out anything left inside. After closing his eyes for a brief moment, he set the box down and looked at it on the floor rather than in the mirror. As expected, it was closed.

He pushed the box, now much lighter, out of the way. A mirror identical to the other one leaned against his thigh. His father’s camera was attached to the back, secured by at least three layers of duct tape. He picked up the package and showed it to Kelly.

As she touched the silvery tape, her lips twitched. “Who would attach a camera to a mirror with duct tape?”

“Kind of strange, isn’t it?” He looked up at her. Had she figured out who really brought it? As he carefully peeled the tape and rubbed away the glue residue from the mirror, he focused on his work, not wanting to face Kelly’s piercing stare. He didn’t even want to think about the possibilities, just in case she could somehow read his mind. “So,” he said, still rubbing away glue, “if someone wanted us to get this stuff to the other Nathan’s parents, we’d better start looking for them again.”

“What about the shotgun guy?”

“It’s been quiet for a while. The way he was bleeding, he might be dead by now.”

“So if your parents aren’t in that room with the chains, where else could they be?”

Nathan searched her eyes, so inquisitive, so sincere. Since he had the benefit of knowing what happened to her Earth Blue father, shouldn’t she have the same benefit? It would be tough, but she could handle it. He motioned toward the hall with his thumb. “Let’s see what we can find out.”

Less than a minute later, Nathan pushed open the door to the secure area, carrying the violin case and both mirrors, while Kelly wearing the camera strap around her neck, led the bleary-eyed Francesca by the hand. After padding quietly through the hallways and stepping over the two dead guards, they approached the back door. A breeze poured through a basketball-sized hole that perforated the jamb and panel where the lock used to be. The door swung open an inch or so, making the hinges squeak a soft complaint, then thudded shut again. As it repeated the opening and closing cycle, the hallway appeared to be breathing.

Nathan set down his load and pulled the door open. Blood-stains smeared the threshold and the concrete pad on the outside, but Tony’s body and his car were gone.

Suddenly, headlight beams swept across the lawn and aimed their way. Nathan hustled the girls back inside and pushed them into the same corner he had hidden in. As he eased the door closed, he kept watch through the shattered window. It looked like the same car Kelly’s father drove, but it was too dark to tell.

Kelly bolted from the corner and peered through the hole in the jamb. “That’s our Camry!”

As the car turned under the light that radiated from the fixture on the wall, the driver’s face came into view. “Clara!” Nathan whispered. He swung the door open and ran outside.

The car stopped abruptly. Clara jumped out and embraced him. “Oh, Nathan! It’s really you!” She laid her hand behind his head and pulled him close, her entire body shaking. “My dear boy! I thought I’d never see you again!”

The passenger door opened, and Daryl emerged, shivering in her gray hoodie. When she saw Kelly, her eyes shot open. “You’re here!”

Kelly spread out her hands and smiled. “In the flesh.”

Daryl ran around the car and wrapped her arms around Kelly. “I can’t believe you’re both alive!”

Nathan allowed Clara to enjoy the embrace, not wanting to remind her that he wasn’t the Nathan she remembered. Still, there was too much to do. He pulled back slowly and looked into Clara’s glistening eyes. Dried tear tracks stained her cheeks. “Are you all right?” he asked.

She brushed away a new tear. “Many terrible events have taken place, but as soon as I gather my wits, I will explain.”

“Right. We all have to get our bearings.” He nodded at Kelly. “We’re from another dimension, and you’re —”

“We’re from Earth Blue,” Daryl interrupted, “while you’re from Earth Red. The other Daryl explained it all to me.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “The Earth Red Daryl contacted you? How?”

“Apparently Interfinity has a rudimentary network connection between the dimensions. It’s not like they can browse the web from another dimension, but Daryl Red figured out how to send me an email.” She grinned broadly. “I’m so proud of her!”

Kelly’s stare riveted on the Camry. Her voice took on a slight tremble. “So did the other Daryl tell you to bring the mirror and the camera to us?”

“We were trying to get them to your parents… or the other Nathan’s parents, I guess.” Daryl shook her head, making her red hair fly in the breeze. “It’s all so confusing, but Daryl Red gave me the code for that door, so we thought we could get it done.”

Kelly cleared her throat. Punctuated by suppressed sobs, her words broke into shattered pieces. “Who… who brought… the box… to the door?”

While Daryl embraced Kelly again, Clara grasped Nathan’s arm and led him to the Camry, whispering, “We put him in the backseat, but I wanted to show you first.”