QUANTUM

by Imogen Rose

  “What’s up, Simla? Dig in!”

  “Naw, I don’t like strawberries,” she explained, and pulled out sour cream and onion chips.

  I helped myself to a handful of those as well and washed them down with Coke. Whatever the three of us felt about each other, for now we had to remain united. So I decided to share a bit of what I knew.

  “It’s got to be the Sigma-Ws,” I announced.

  “Say what?” Justin mumbled, as Simla looked over questioningly.

  “The Sigma–Ws,” I repeated, thinking that these two were really ignorant for half-Wanderers–if that’s what they are called.

  “Yes, I think you get it. We don’t know what you’re talking about. ‘Splain,” Simla snapped, clearly irritated.

  “You’ve never heard of Sigma-Wanderers?”

  “No!” Justin practically hollered at me.

  “Okay, okay, keep your pants on,” I soothed. “The Sigma-Wanderers, as you can tell by the name, are a type of Wanderer.”

  “I thought there were just the Wanderers,” Justin grumbled, looking over at Simla who nodded. “How many types are there and how do you know?”

  “Well, I don’t know how many different types there are. I just know about the Sigma-Ws because Rupert’s mom told us about them.”

  “Rupert’s mom? What’s she got to do with it? Anyway, tell us what you think they are first.”

  I couldn’t help but catch that little snide comment–what I think. Gah. “Well, unlike regular Wanderers, Sigma-Wanderers can travel geographically, as well as through time and dimensions. That’s why I think they are responsible. I mean, we are in Paris!” I concluded triumphantly.

  “Why would they take us and then bring us here?” Simla inquired.

  “Well, it’s not them, per se… it’s the baddie Sigmas,” I said.

  Justin cracked up. “Baddie? What are you? Five?”

  “Oh, shut your face, you know what I mean!” I really needed to give up on Ella’s lingo. “Anyhow, the not-so-nice bunch,” I continued, grimacing at Justin, “are led by a Sigma called Potomal.”

  “Silly name,” Simla remarked, rolling her eyes.

  “Yup,” I agreed. “Potomal wants to seize power and control of the Sigma-Ws, who, if I understand this correctly, rule the Wanderers. Don’t know why he wants control.”

  “Well that’s pretty obvious, isn’t it, airhead?” Justin scowled. “Everyone wants power!”

  “Not so sure about that,” I said. “Anyhow, if you shut your mouth, I’ll continue. That’s unless you don’t want to know what I know.”

  Justin nodded, so I continued. “Apparently Potomal has been watching you for some time,” I said, looking over at Simla.

  “Me? Why?”

  “Because he thinks that you will be easy to recruit to his cause, since you seem to hate everyone. So that’s probably why you’re here. Maybe he’s been watching you, too, Justin and you’re here for the same reason. I can’t for the life of me understand why I’m here, though!”

  “Rupert’s mom told you all this?” Simla asked thoughtfully.

  “Yes.”

  “How does she know? Is she a Sigma-W?” Simla asked, her eyes narrowing.

  “Yeah.”

  “What about Rupert, is he one as well?”

  “No.”

  “So assuming Simla and I are here as potential recruits, which would explain the nice lodgings, we still have you to contend with. Why do you have the nicest room? Maybe they took you by mistake. Maybe they were after my dad or Rupert’s mom,” he mused.

  I guess that was possible. They could, in fact, have been after Rupert. He was a potential Sigma-W, after all. I guess we would know soon enough. In the meantime, we had everything we needed here. “So what are you two going to do if Potomal wants to recruit you?”

  They both shrugged.

  “Sheesh, I don’t know. I guess I’d have to know a lot more before I make a decision of any kind,” Justin said. “Show me the money!”

  “Oh, don’t be an ass,” Simla responded. “If it means that they’ll teach us both to wander, well… then it’s a no-brainer. I mean, our own type has practically abandoned any intention of accepting us.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Justin said. “My dad thinks that they’ll let me wander–eventually. I just have to prove myself.”

  “And how are you going to do that, Justin? Pretend to suddenly become a good citizen?” Simla asked sarcastically.

  “Actually, yes. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve been putting in a lot of community service hours and haven’t been in any trouble for a whole year! So unless the Sigmas are offering something really sweet, I’m not interested.”

  “They may teach you to wander geographically,” Simla mused.

  “Still not worth it, I can hop on a flight anytime.”

  “Guys, we know we’re in Paris, but have you two wondered when we are in Paris?”

  They both looked at me like I had asked the most profound question ever.

  “Not until now, Arizona,” Justin replied. “Well, there are no dinosaurs outside, so it must be post-dinosaur age anyway. When was the Eiffel tower built?”

  I shrugged as Simla perked up and replied, “1889. Had to do a report on it last year.”

  I was impressed that she remembered. The food in the refrigerator was from this decade, but if we were in the past perhaps it was brought here from the future. I went and looked out the window again. The cars were all small. No Hummers in sight, however, this was Europe, so that wasn’t unusual. Even if we have been relocated in time, it was not drastic and we wouldn’t be able to tell if we were in a different dimension or not, so there was no point speculating.

  “Simla, are you really thinking of defecting?” Justin asked her again.

  “Sheesh, it’s not defecting, I have nothing to defect from! Mom’s gone and so has the chance of me ever being able to wander.”

  “That’s not true. You’ve been living with Dad and me for a year. I’m sure he’s noticed that just like me, you’ve stayed out of trouble. I’m sure he’ll vouch for you eventually. Give it some time.”

  I couldn’t help but snort.

  “What?” Justin exclaimed grumpily. “What now?”

  “She’s hardly been staying out of trouble,” I laughed.

  “Yes she has. We’ve both been clean for a whole year. We haven’t even gotten detention!”

  “So, blackmail is okay, is it?” I asked, looking at Simla intently.

  “What you talking about, Arizona? Blackmail?” Justin asked bemusedly.

  “Shall I tell him or would you like to, Simla?”

  She sighed and looked over to Justin with obvious resignation, her shoulders slumped forward and big sad puppy eyes in full action. “Justin, I had no choice.”

  “No choice?”

  “I had to do it for my dad.”

  “You’re in contact with your dad? How?”

  “Last year before he took off through the portal, we planned that if he didn’t make contact with me to tell me otherwise, we would meet up in a planned spot at a planned time. I was to get the blueprints for the portal off Olivia and give them to him. We planned to meet earlier today, in the Stevens dimension at a cottage.

  “Last year, after Halloween, I decided to extract the blueprints from Olivia and have her transport me back to my dad, as he asked me to do if I didn’t hear from him. I obviously had to use leverage to get Olivia to give me the prints.”

  “Wow, I’m not even going to ask you what you did, I don’t want to know,” Justin sighed.

  “I do,” I said.

  Simla shot me the evil eye. Nice. “It’s not important right now. Anyway, I did go back and he has the prints,” she practically spat at me.

  “And you’re not winning any good-behavior points, I can see that,” Justin shrugged. “Was getting him the prints really worth ruining your chances to wander? Really, Simla. Even I’m disappointed in you.”

  “I don�
�t care what you think! There was no way the Elders were ever going to let me wander, no matter what you think. So stuff you. I wanted to help Dad. He’s all I have left. Can’t you understand that?”

  Even though Justin was shaking his head in disgust, I could empathize. Our dads may not always be perfect, but they are family. I couldn’t really blame Simla for wanting to help her dad. I probably would have done the same. I mean I probably would have gotten the blueprints. Since she didn’t say how she got them, however, I couldn’t condone or disagree with her methods, though blackmailing my mom was absolutely unforgivable and it must have been pretty serious leverage.

  Simla stomped out of the kitchen back toward a bedroom that I assumed was hers. Justin and I followed her in, closing the door behind us. Simla plunked herself on the bed. She was clearly sulking.

  “I hope it is Poto or whatever his name is, and that he wants to recruit me! I’d join him in a heartbeat,” she said sulkily.

  “Simla, don’t do anything rash,” Justin said softly. “I know you don’t want to admit it at the moment, but you know that you’ve been happy living in my house with Dad and me for the past year. We’ve had some fun times together. Everything seemed so relaxed and uneventful. Don’t get yourself into an untenable situation just because you’re angry. Weigh out all the pros and cons carefully. Not just for yourself, but also for your father. Think of how your decision to join some kind of subversive paranormal group may affect him.”

  “It would probably afford him the power that he really wants,” Simla suggested.

  “Maybe, but you don’t know that. You don’t know what Potomal wants from you or if this even has anything to do with him and the Sigma-Ws. After all, Arizona could’ve just made that up.”

  “Why would I do that, you idiot?” I asked, irritated. “Anyhow, looks like we’re going to find out soon. Or perhaps another person has been taken and brought here. I can hear noises from the hallway.”

  “Shush!” Simla hissed at me as she went over to the door and put her ear to it. Justin and I followed and did the same. We could hear footsteps approaching, so we stood back and waited. The doorknob turned and the door creaked open.

  All hell had broken loose at the Darley mansion. Constance turned to Olivia, Inez and Larry, as she carefully put the 1960’s telephone receiver back in its cradle.

  “Olivia, you’re needed back home. You should go as well, Larry.”

  “What’s going on?” Olivia asked, immediately sensing that something was horribly wrong.

  “Olivia, Rupert will explain as soon as you get there. Larry?”

  Larry nodded and gently took Olivia by the arm and led her out of the house.

  A sense of dark foreboding had overtaken Inez’s usually calm spirit. She could feel herself almost shaking with fear. What could be so disastrous to cause Constance to emit such negativity? Inez was too afraid to ask. So she just looked over at Constance apprehensively. The doorbell rang.

  David came walking into the kitchen with a wide smile, which lifted the mood in the room–almost. However, he must have also sensed that something was wrong, as he stopped dead and the smile dropped from his face. “What’s going on? Mom? What happened?”

  Constance stopped chewing her lower lip and turned to face both Inez and her son. “Amadea just called. She’s over at the Darley Mansion.”

  “Rupert’s mom?” David asked, looking at her for confirmation. She nodded. “She wasn’t there when I left the house.”

  “Was everything okay when you left?” Constance queried.

  “Yeah, I guess. I mean, I know something is going on with Simla, but I’m guessing something additional is up by the look of things here. Is Simla back?”

  Constance shook her head. “Arizona and Justin have disappeared.”

  “What?” exclaimed both David and Inez simultaneously.

  “Amadea was very brief about it. She’s heading over here shortly to bring us up to date. All I know for the moment is that both Justin and Arizona have disappeared. I don’t know anything more.”

  “I’m going to head back over,” David said, backing away toward the door.

  “No,” Constance ordered with authority. “Stay. Amadea will be here shortly.”

  ~

  The drive back to the house was mostly silent. Neither Olivia nor Larry spoke at first. Larry was concentrating on getting them there as quickly as possible. Hadn’t they had enough drama for one day? Olivia sighed as she pictured the scene that had taken place earlier today.

  Simla had come back to Ames looking satisfied but a little sad. This wasn’t surprising really. Leaving her dad again couldn’t be easy. Olivia had wondered why she decided not to stay with him. That had been partly explained when Simla demanded a repeat visit the following week. When Olivia had asked her for what, Simla turned into her usual evasive, defiant self. Olivia had merely shrugged. The main thing was for them both to return through the portal, as Larry was expecting them. She could deal with the demand for the second visit later. It had clearly been initiated by Raj. Simla hadn’t mentioned anything about two visits before her visit with him. Perhaps he’d sent her back for something. Perhaps he planned to return with her the next time? Whatever it was, those plans had come to an abrupt end in the portal.

  Simla had simply disappeared. There was no other way to describe it. She had faded right before Olivia’s eyes. She wished that she could have reacted more efficiently–grabbed hold of Simla. However, before she’d even reached out, Simla was gone.

  She had explained it–explain may have been too refined a word, spewed it out in a muddled fashion–to Larry when she transported back through by herself and he insisted on driving her straight to Constance’s house.

  This, of course, had something to do with the Wanderers. Regular folk don’t just disappear, not like that. Although still not a hundred percent convinced about the Wanderers, Olivia had, with reservations, accepted that something was definitely going on, something she was unable to explain. She’d never seen a wandering take place before, if that’s what she’d seen happen to Simla–that or some kind of spontaneous vaporization. She hypothesized that the portal could have affected Simla’s physiology somehow. However, why was only Simla affected? Nothing had happened to her, Olivia thought to herself. She was still transported through normally.

  The elephant-in-the-room difference between Simla and her was that Simla’s mother was allegedly a Wanderer. Had been. Erica was unfortunately no longer with them. Olivia sighed.

  “What’s up, Ollie?” Larry asked. “You’ve sighed about a million times.”

  “Well, I’m guessing that there is some news about Simla, which is why we’re going back. Constance sounded pretty grave; it’s got me even more worried, if that’s possible.”

  “I know what you mean,” Larry agreed. “Wonder how Rupert would have received any news first?” Larry mused. “I guess we’ll find out in a moment,” he said, as he turned into the Darley driveway.

  The front door opened before they even came to a stop and Kellan flew down the stairs to meet them. It was immediately apparent that something was seriously wrong. Tears were streaming down Kellan’s face as he flung himself into Larry’s arms the moment he climbed out the car.

  It was a scene Olivia had witnessed only once before. Kellan had been about six then and his mother had just passed. He appeared to be just as distraught at the moment. Whatever could have happened? Rupert and Grayson–what was he doing here?–came walking down to Olivia, both appearing extremely agitated. “Rup, what’s happened?” Olivia choked out, her fears mounting.

  “Ollie, Arizona has disappeared.”

  “And so has Justin,” Grayson added.

  Olivia took a step back, so she could properly see Rupert’s face. “Rup?” She tried to absorb Rupert’s hurried, and rather confused, recount of what had happened. Only Kellan seemed to have witnessed the act itself. She looked over at him, there was no point questioning him about it right now. She felt all the
blood drain from her.

  “Ollie?”

  “Rup, did Kellan say how?”

  “He’s not been able to say much, but he did manage to share that she turned into mist. We were all standing in the kitchen talking and then she was gone.”

  “Sounds exactly like what happened with Simla in the portal,” Olivia confirmed. “Was Justin in the kitchen also?”

  “No,” Grayson said. “He disappeared from my car on our way to Constance’s house. I stopped here as I was just minutes away.”