by R. L. Austin
Some of the mirrors had people sitting or standing near them. Other people had left their mirror and were groping their way through the pitch black that Emily knew was all around them. Only a few people were close enough for her to see clearly, but she did not recognize any of them. A few were wearing modern clothes, but others wore outfits so outdated they looked like costumes from old movies.
“Whoa, this is totally awesome.” Tyler was looking around with the same wide-eyed expression she had. His hand was still on her shoulder, and it was obvious he was seeing everything she did. Emily glanced at Nick and noticed that he had returned to a vacant stare after he handed her the watch. Emily hated to leave him in darkness, and he might have an idea of what was going on, so she took his hand and placed it on her other shoulder.
Nick looked around with surprise, but he didn’t gawk like Tyler. “I suspected there was a lot more going on here, and this confirms it. It also looks like you’ve found the secret to moving between mirrors. I can see why Tyler puts so much faith in you.”
Nick’s praise felt good, but Emily also had a growing concern. “There’s so many of them. It could take a long time to find the right one.” She was looking around the enormous hall, trying to decide where to begin, when Tyler tapped her shoulder and pointed to the mirror beside them.
“Look.” The view through the mirror no longer showed the dining room, but the rear hallway.
Emily gasped in surprise. “How?”
Tyler shrugged. “Who cares? Let’s get the heck out of here.”
“I agree,” Nick added. “We can figure the rest out later. Right now, we should concentrate on getting out of here while we can.”
Emily was as eager to leave as they were, but something had caused the change in mirrors, and she wanted to understand. If she was in charge, then she should be able to make decisions. Besides, the shift in the mirror could be important. “Just a sec, I want to try something.”
The triad had no dials or switches, so Emily focused on the watch. It hadn’t done anything before, but it hadn’t been complete, either. Maybe putting the two pieces together had activated it.
She turned it over several times to get a good look at both sides. The only obvious thing that could be changed on the watch was the time. She recalled Nick saying the hands on the watch were set to 11:00 when he was pushed through a mirror at the Exploratorium, and Tyler remembered the watch was at 11:05 when he was trapped in the hallway mirror.
Emily noticed that Nick and Tyler were watching closely, so she said, “I’ve got an idea,” before she adjusted the hands on the watch to 11:00.
The scene outside the mirror switched from the hallway to the dining room. She adjusted the hands back to 11:05, and the view returned to the hallway. When she tried to adjust the hands forward from 11:05, they refused to budge.
Nick was still watching over her shoulder, and he gave a nod of appreciation. “That was a brilliant deduction on your part.”
“Thanks. It was just a guess.” Despite her modest answer, Emily was cheering to herself. Being the leader didn’t seem so hard after all.
Tyler was closest to the mirror and seemed edgy. “Now that we know how the watch works. Let’s get out of here. I’m ready to go home.”
Emily also felt ready to leave. “Okay, everybody, hold on tight.” She stepped through the hallway mirror with Tyler and Nick in tow. Once they were clear of the mirror, Nick released his grip on her, but she noticed that Tyler’s hand lingered on her shoulder. Good.
The three of them made their way to the back yard and circled around the garage to reach the iron gate in front of the house. They moved quickly down the sidewalk, but once they were well away from the property, Nick stopped and held up his hands. “Wait a second, you two. We need to talk.” When he had their attention, he continued. “Okay, here’s the plan. Me and Tyler are going home to Walnut Creek. Emily, I know this is going to seem sudden, but I’d like you to come with us.”
“What?” Emily hadn’t thought much beyond getting Tyler and Nick away from the house, and she hadn’t given any thought to what she was going to do. “I can’t leave.”
Nick smiled as if he expected her reaction. “I understand your hesitation, but I don’t think it’s safe for you to go back to the house alone. We don’t know what your uncle might do, and we can’t let him get his hands on the triad and watch again.”
Emily was trying to decide how to respond when something occurred to her. Returning home was as easy as stepping through a mirror. It was an idea that would have seemed impossible only an hour before, but now she knew she could do it. “Okay, but I’ll need to call my parents as soon as it’s safe.”
“That’s a good idea.” Nick had been serious up to this point, but now he turned to Tyler with a big smile. “How about we go home and see your mother? I, for one, am more than ready.”
Tyler was nodding in agreement. “I’m ready to go home too.”
Emily was still trying to adjust to the idea that she was leaving home without a word to her parents, when Tyler fell in step beside her. “I’m glad you’re coming home with us. You’ll like Walnut Creek.”
Emily had seen the town on a map before they moved, so she had an idea where it was. “Thanks.”
“And you can stay in my room. I’ll sleep on the couch like I do when Aunt Carol visits.”
Emily almost stumbled at the thought of sleeping in Tyler’s bedroom, in his bed. If this didn’t make Tracy choke with envy, nothing would.
The three of them reached the BART train without incident, and Tyler waited until Emily chose a seat before he plopped down next to her. “Boy, am I glad to be going home!”
Emily hadn’t been on a BART train before. She pretended to be looking out the window, but she was really focused on Tyler because he was lightly bumping against her every time the train rocked. Tyler glanced her way every few seconds, so she guessed he was noticing it as well.
Nick and Tyler used the train ride to catch up. Tyler did his best to explain everything that had occurred over the prior year while his father listened. When Nick learned that his wife had become the mayor of Walnut Creek, he was shocked. “She mentioned that she might run for office, but I still can’t believe my wife is the town mayor. I wonder if I’ll have to call her Mrs. Mayor, or if I can get away with Mayor Barbara.”
Emily could easily see where Tyler inherited his sense of humor.
“I already tried that.” Tyler grinned at his father. “She threatened to ground me when I called her Mayor Mom.” Father and son shared a good laugh before Tyler turned to Emily. “We haven’t had any guests since she became mayor. As our first guest, you should probably call her ‘Mayor Andrews,’ or maybe ‘Your Mayorness’ would work.”
“I’m lucky I know how to curtsey.” Emily stood and gave them a quick demonstration, which earned a round of applause.
Tyler also told his father about joining the track team at school, and proudly announced that the team’s winning season had earned him a trophy.
Nick patted Tyler on the back. “Congratulations! That’s great. I don’t think I ever told you, but I was on my high school track team in Anaheim. We were a crazy bunch of guys, always clowning around.” He laughed at the memory. “But I guess we had too much fun because we never won anything, certainly not a trophy.”
The conversation continued until the train approached Walnut Creek. Emily was always included, which helped convince her she had done the right thing by leaving her uncle’s house. It didn’t make her stop worrying about her parents’ reaction, or having to face her uncle when she got home, but she was able to relax and enjoy the moment.
Nick, who had been laughing most of the way, grew quiet when the train pulled into the station. He looked somber when he said, “Son, your mother will have panicked after you went missing, and both of us coming home at the same time will be a tremendous shock. I can’t think of any way to ease her into this, so we’ll need to be ready if she is emotionally overwhelmed
by our double homecoming.”
Tyler leaned forward in a rare moment of seriousness of his own. “She’s going cry, that’s for sure. But it’s also going to be the happiest day of her life.”
Nick put his arm around his son and squeezed. “Wow, you have grown up while I was away.” He put his other arm around Emily and held them as they made their way out of the station and hailed a taxi.
The three of them arrived at Tyler’s house around midnight, and their sudden return was as chaotic as expected. Emily remained at a respectful distance while Tyler’s mother cried and smothered her husband and son with hugs and kisses. She would pause long enough to pepper them with questions about where they had been, only to start crying and kissing them again without waiting for an answer.
Nick kept telling her, “We’ll explain everything after you’ve calmed down,” but his words had no effect.
It also reminded Emily that it was late and she still hadn’t called her parents. She stepped into a quiet hallway and pulled out her phone to check for messages, but there were none. Emily had never been out so late, so she was surprised her parents hadn’t called. She pulled up the number to her mother’s cell phone, intending to call, but her thumb hesitated over the button. Jean’s phone would be turned off and put away if she didn’t realize Emily was gone. If she did know, she would be frantic to learn where Emily was, who she was with, and when she was coming home.
Emily had to call, she knew, but first she had to decide what she was going to say. She couldn’t tell her parents why she left or where she was. If she told them about Tyler and Nick, she would need to explain who they were, a nearly impossible task without talking about mirrors and voices. It was probably best not to mention them, which didn’t leave a whole lot of things she could talk about. She considered not calling at all, but leaving her parents to worry would be even worse. At the very least, they deserved to know she was safe. The more Emily thought about it, the more certain she was that the call wasn’t going to end well, but she still pushed the call button.
Emily felt a strange mix of relief and regret when she heard the sterile voice of digital voicemail. “Hi, Mom, it’s me. I wanted to let you know I’m safe and that I love you and Dad. This may not make sense right now, but I had to leave, and, well, I can’t tell you where I am. I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone, but I can tell you I’m safe. I promise to explain everything, just not right now. So please try not to worry about me too much. Remember that I love you, and I’ll call again tomorrow. Bye.”
Ending the call started a battle raging inside of Emily. One part of her hoped that her mother would call right back, while another part of her feared the same thing. She returned to the living room and sank onto the sofa while she stared at her phone. It remained silent.
CHAPTER 7
Tyler bounded into the living room where Emily was waiting. “Okay, it’s ready.”
She had been sitting on the sofa for an hour, waiting, while he cleaned his room. He had run past her earlier, explaining that he needed to get something from the garage. When he came back through he was carrying a can of spackle and a putty knife. Emily knew what they were used for, having repaired a series of nail holes in the walls of her own bedroom before her family move. She wondered if the holes he was trying to fill were nail holes or something bigger. The idea of Tyler desperately trying to fill gaping holes in his bedroom walls brought a grin. She couldn’t wait to see his room.
“Ta-da!” Tyler flung open his bedroom door to reveal a decent-sized room with an entire wall covered in car and truck posters. The bed had a stack of fresh sheets sitting on top of a blue comforter that was boldly printed in a race-car pattern. Emily stepped inside and looked down at the rug. It had a drag-strip design that extended from the door to the bed. It was every inch a boy’s room, but at least it would provide her with some privacy.
She was looking around the room for newly patched holes when Tyler warned, “Whatever you do, don’t open the closet door.”
“Why, what’s in it?” She looked for the closet, but it wasn’t anywhere she could see.
Tyler stuck his hands in his back pockets and shifted his weight to one foot. “Everything that was on the…well, all my stuff, that’s what.”
Emily knew exactly what he meant. She felt a strong urge to crack a joke about having a messy room, but decided to be nice instead. “Okay, I won’t open your closet door. I promise.”
Tyler gave his brow an exaggerated swipe. “Whew! Thanks.” It triggered a shared laugh before he continued. “I hope you don’t mind staying with us until Dad figures out what to do about your uncle and the triad.”
“No, I’m okay.” The watch was in Emily’s pocket, and the triad was in her hand. She had been holding it since they arrived. “I know this thing should be hidden, somewhere safe, but I can’t stop thinking about the people trapped inside the mirrors. They have families, and they probably miss them just as much as you missed your dad.”
“Wow, you’re right. I almost forgot about them,” Tyler admitted. “But I’m sure you’ll figure out a way to save them too.”
The compliment felt good, almost as good as when they held hands. “I hope so.”
They were interrupted by a knock. Tyler’s mother was clinging to Nick, who said, “Emily, I need to ask a favor.”
“A favor? From me?” She couldn’t imagine what kind of favor Nick would need from her.
“Yes. I would like you to show Barbara how the triad works.”
“Oh.” Emily couldn’t think of anything else to say. They hadn’t discussed what to do with the triad, but she didn’t expect to show anyone. She looked at Tyler, who was as surprised as she was.
Nick stepped into the room with an apologetic look. “I know we didn’t discuss this before, but I can’t think of a better way to explain where Tyler and I have been. Even if I tried, I’d probably sound like a lunatic. But I think all of Barbara’s questions will be answered by watching a simple demonstration. I hope you don’t mind.”
Emily knew he was right. “No, I don’t mind, and that would be simpler than trying to explain.” Everything Emily had experienced was still difficult for her to believe, so it was reasonable to expect others to have trouble understanding. She had been wondering how she was ever going to explain everything to her parents, and a demonstration did seem like the easiest way. She looked around the room but didn’t see any mirrors. “Do you mean right now?”
“Yes, if that wouldn’t be too much trouble.”
“Okay, but I’ll need a mirror.”
“There’s one right here.” Tyler pointed to a small alcove in the back of his room that Emily hadn’t noticed. “You can use this one.”
Emily found a full-length mirror attached to the outside of Tyler’s closet door. She stood in front of the mirror, waiting, until Nick and Barbara had moved far enough into the room to have a good view. Barbara was still clinging to Nick’s arm as if she never wanted to let go, but she watched Emily with keen interest.
“Okay, here I go.” Emily held the triad in front of her and stepped through the mirror. She turned around to see Nick and Tyler fussing over Barbara’s slumped figure. “Oh no! I didn’t mean to do that.”
Emily felt guilty for shocking Tyler’s mother so badly, but she wasn’t going to waste an opportunity to investigate the watch. She pulled it out of her pocket and was surprised to see the hands had adjusted themselves to 11:10. She had the watch in her possession the whole time and she hadn’t adjusted the hands, so they must have changed on their own. She reset the hands to 11:05, and the scene through the mirror changed to the rear hallway of her uncle’s house. Another shift to 11:00 and the scene changed to her uncle’s dining room. Returning the hands to 11:10 brought back Tyler’s bedroom.
The brief experiment confirmed her suspicion that each position on the watch was linked to a specific mirror, and the position seemed to correlate to the sequence in which the mirrors had been used for the first time. If her hunch was
correct, then the earlier the time on the watch, the further in the past that mirror had been used. If the first three settings of the eleventh hour related to the most recent mirrors, it made sense that she could work her way back to the very first mirror by setting the hands to 10:55, 10:50, 10:45, and so on. All those settings represented a great many mirrors, like those lining the quasi-hallway she was standing in again.
She considered trying some earlier settings to see if she recognized the view through the mirrors, but Barbara had recovered enough to get back to her feet. Oops, time to get back. Emily stepped out the mirror into Tyler’s room, which sent Barbara right back to the floor.
Emily gave a pained smile. “Sorry about that.”
Nick looked up from patting his wife’s cheek. “It’s okay, Emily. I knew this might happen, but it was the only way to show her the truth. I hated to do it, but there was no other way.”
Tyler and Nick got Barbara to her feet, but her legs were wobbly, so they each grabbed an arm to support her.
“You’re okay, honey.” Nick brushed back the hair that had fallen across her face, which was still drained of color. “We’re going to take you to lie down.”
The three of them shuffled out of the room, leaving Emily behind. It gave her a moment to sit down and think. She had taken nothing when she left her uncle’s home, and this was the best opportunity she would have to return home for a few things she needed. She stuck her head out of the room long enough to make sure everyone was gone before she returned to the mirror and stepped through. A quick adjustment of the hands on the watch to 11:05 brought back the rear hallway of her uncle’s house. Emily poked her head out and looked both ways before she stepped out.
The house was quiet, almost too quiet, as she tiptoed to the rear stairs and climbed to her room. She kept expecting to hear her uncle’s heavy footsteps, her parent’s worried voices, or the sound of a police siren, but the house remained eerily silent.