Twenty minutes later we drove up to a grocery store and pulled in to a parking space.
“I could use a break,” Fred said as he climbed out of the car.
I followed him in to the store, knowing he was going to feel stupid when I bought the Pop-Tarts. The moment we entered, I could see that something wasn’t right. The displays were nothing like I was used to seeing. All kinds of diet foods were prominently displayed at the end of the aisles, the fresh produce section was much larger than I’d ever seen before, and a video played on a television touting how wonderful a box of sugar-free snacks were.
I stopped, staring at the unusual displays.
“Well, missy, let’s go,” Fred said.
“What? Oh, okay.” Walking down the main aisle, looking for the snacks, I gawked at row after row of fat-free and sugar-free goods. Finally I came to the right place and strode to the shelf that held the Pop-Tarts. Frantically, my gaze scanned the shelves, looking for the normal chocolate Pop-Tarts, but all I saw were the sugar and fat-free variety.
What is going on?
“Well?” Fred asked, obviously pleased with himself.
“Uh,” I stammered, my heart beginning to pound at the surprise of not finding what I had expected, what had always been normal, but was clearly not the norm here. “I don’t understand.” I turned toward Fred.
He laughed. “I don’t understand you. What did you think you’d see here?”
“I, uh, I don’t know.” More than anything I wanted to get home to my family. “You win. Can we go now?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Following Fred back out to his truck, I silently climbed in. He pulled away from the store and re-entered the freeway.
After ten minutes of silence, Fred said, “Morgan.”
I turned to look at him. “Yes?”
“You’re kind of an odd gal, ain’t ya?”
I’d never considered myself odd before and wondered what he meant. “Why do you say that?”
Fred glanced at me before looking back at the freeway. “It’s almost like you’ve never heard of F.A.T.”
“Fat? Of course I’ve heard of fat. I just don’t get why everyone around here is so obsessed with it.”
Fred looked at me again, incredulity clear on his face. “Do you have any idea how many lives that organization has ruined?”
“Organization? What organization?”
“F.A.T. F - A - T.” He pronounced each letter. “You know, Federally Assisted Thinning.”
I shook my head, more confused than ever. “What?”
“Have you been living under a rock? How could you not know about F.A.T.?”
Feeling stupid and like I was missing something very important, I sighed. “I just don’t, okay? What is it anyway?”
“Only the most massive theft of our freedom as Americans.”
I didn’t want to talk about politics, I just wanted to know what was going on. After the crazy things that had happened to me in the last two days, I was more desperate than ever to figure out what had happened to my family. Why and how had they left our house so suddenly? Why did Mom say Dad was gone? Could it have something to do with this F.A.T. organization that Fred had mentioned? “What do you mean?” I asked.
“Sure, too many Americans are overweight and yes, I agree that it is costing our country billions, but where I have a problem is with the government forcing people to lose weight.” He glanced at me again. “That’s just not right.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. “I still don’t understand.”
“You’re not too bright, are ya?”
Offended in the extreme, I said, “Or maybe you’re full of crap.”
He stared at me for a moment, then burst out laughing as his attention returned to the road. “Okay, maybe I’m wrong about you.”
I grinned smugly, proud I had figured out he was making it all up.
“But that don’t change the facts, missy,” he said, all traces of humor gone.
Irritated now, I looked his way, ready to glare at him, but saw him pointing out the window. My gaze followed the direction of his finger and I gasped.
Chapter Ten
A large sign came into view and my eyes widened as I read it.
F.A.T. CENTER
NEXT EXIT
My head swiveled as we passed the sign, my gaze glued to the words. When it was out of sight, my head spun in Fred’s direction, my mouth handing open in disbelief.
He just nodded, not looking happy to be proved right. “And there it is,” he said, looking to my right.
My head twisted toward my window and I saw a cluster of low buildings surrounding one very large building. On the south side of the structures I saw row after row of produce with people bent over working in the fields.
“What are they doing?” I watched until the people were specks in the distance.
“They grow a lot of their own food there. Everyone is expected to help.” He paused, then murmured, “It’s hard work.”
“Have you been there?” I stared at his face, his white whiskers catching the sunlight coming in through the windshield.
He looked at me for a moment before facing the road again. “Believe it or not, I used to be quite heavy.”
I did find it hard to believe. He was so thin now, probably underweight.
“That’s a nice way of putting it,” he continued. “No matter. I eventually found myself at a F.A.T. center and little by little all that extra weight came off.”
He stopped talking and seemed to be deep in some memory. Though I didn’t want to interrupt his thoughts, I needed to know more. “How long ago was this?”
“Oh, ‘bout ten years, I reckon.”
His answer surprised me. If these F.A.T. centers had been around that long, why hadn’t I ever heard of them? “And you’ve kept the weight off all these years? That’s impressive.”
He laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. “Don’t have much choice, do I?”
“What do you mean? Why not?”
“I can’t afford to be sent there again. I don’t have anything left. It’s true that I might be healthier.” He gave me a sidelong glance. “And I emphasize might. But I lost everything else in the meantime.”
A sense of melancholy came over him and he was silent for several minutes. I didn’t say anything, lost in my own thoughts. When he started speaking again, it startled me.
“My wife turned me in.”
My gaze went back to him as he focused on the road.
“She’d been on me to lose weight for years,” he continued. “I guess she finally gave up on me. Right before they came for me, she handed me divorce papers. I guess she figured she didn’t want to get dragged down with me.”
“Came for you? Why did you go if you didn’t want to?
His laugh came out as a short bark. “You make it sound like I had a choice.”
My eyebrows drew together. “Didn’t you?”
He glanced at me. “No one ever has a choice.”
“So if someone turns you in for being overweight, you get dragged off to one of those F.A.T. centers?”
“Used to be that way.”
“Oh,” I said, an odd feeling of relief that things had changed.
“Now though, everyone is monitored on their bathroom scale. No need to turn anyone in. The government knows right away if you need to be brought in.”
I nodded, disturbed by this information. I’d never been monitored on my bathroom scale, at least that I was aware of.
“Hey,” Fred said. “Why don’t you know this already? You been livin’ off the grid or somethin’? That why you hitchin’?”
Confusion swept over me at his question. Why didn’t I know about this? And why was my family gone? I couldn’t come up with an explanation. Something very strange was going on and I had no idea what it was.
As crazy as it would sound, and despite the fact that Mrs. Donaldson had thought I had been telling a wild story, I decided to tell Fre
d what had been happening to me ever since I’d run away. He seemed like a nice man. Maybe he could help me figure it out. “This is going to sound crazy,” I started, glancing at Fred, then staring out the windshield. “I’ve been living my life like everyone else, but I’ve never heard of F.A.T. before you told me about it.”
“That don’t make no sense,” he said, scowling.
“Well, that’s not all.” I hesitated, not sure how to explain what I’d gone through.
“What else, missy? You got some sorta secret you’re hidin’?”
“Well, no. But I don’t understand some other things that have happened.” I paused, looking in his direction. “And I’m afraid you won’t believe me.”
“If you don’t tell me, then how will I have the chance to decide?”
“Decide what?”
“Whether you’re pullin’ my leg or not.” He looked at me, a stern expression on his face.
Tears sprang to my eyes and I looked away.
“Okay, missy. What’s goin’ on?”
I met his gaze, then he looked back at the road. “I swear, Fred. This is the truth.”
He nodded.
Then I told him how I’d run away and found the hut, then had to leave through the tunnel. How my family had moved, but the woman said they’d been gone several weeks, even though I had been there just the night before.
“Well, first off, you shouldn’t of run away.”
“I know that now,” I said. “But that doesn’t help me.”
“I’m not surprised about your family movin’ though. That happens all the time.” He looked at me for a moment. “Is anyone in your family overweight?”
I thought about my parents and how they’d both always been a little heavy, but it had never been an issue. “I guess my dad might be.”
“A lot of families have to sell their house when they’re taken to a F.A.T. center.”
“Why?”
“How else are they gonna pay for it?”
“You mean they’re forced to go there, but they’re also forced to pay for it?”
“Yep.”
As I considered those ideas, I was quiet. Then, “Are you saying you think my dad was taken to a F.A.T. center and they had to sell the house to pay for it?”
“That’s how it usually works.”
“But it doesn’t make sense that it could all happen so fast. And that woman said she’d lived in my house for weeks.”
He was quiet for a minute, then said, “I’ve always been a fan of science fiction.” He paused. “It sounds to me like you came from some parallel universe or somethin’.”
I laughed. “What does that even mean?”
He didn’t laugh. “Some people believe that there are alternate realities, very similar to this one, but with some differences.”
“And how would I have gotten here? I didn’t travel on a spaceship or anything. I’ve only walked.”
“Tell me more about that place where you had to walk in the tunnel.”
I thought about the hut and how the tree had fallen on the door, forcing me to find another way out and how I’d climbed down into the cellar and then found the long, long hallway. “Well, it was just a building. Nothing special or unusual about it.”
“But it was after you’d gone through that tunnel that everything changed, right?”
“Well, yeah. But I don’t remember traveling through the universe or anything.”
He chuckled. “Those that believe say you can’t always tell when you’ve gone through one of them wormholes or whatever they’re called.”
“Oh. So how would you know if you did?”
“How should I know? I didn’t say I believed in it. Just that some people do.”
I didn’t respond. I wasn’t sure if I believed what he’d suggested, although it did pretty much explain everything. But I found it hard to believe that I wouldn’t have felt something or seen something if I had traveled to a different universe. I shook my head. The idea was too crazy for me. There had to be another explanation. “How much longer until we get to Timber Hills?”
“Oh, about an hour, I’d say.”
“Good.” I was ready to get back to my family. They would be able to explain what had happened.
Sixty minutes later we entered the city limits of the town where my parents now lived. It was late afternoon and the sun still shone.
“Do you want me to take you to your house?” Fred asked.
“Uh, well, I don’t know exactly where it is.”
“We can find out and I’ll drop you off. How’s that?”
I smiled at the stranger who had been so kind. “Okay. Maybe I’ll have you drop me off a little ways from the house though. I don’t know what Mom would say if she saw me getting out of your truck.”
“Sure, okay.”
We followed the directions I’d gotten from Google Maps. A short time later we turned onto a street that was supposed to be near mine. Fred stopped at the corner.
“How’s this?” he asked.
“This will work.” I reached for the door handle. “Thanks for the ride. I really appreciate it.”
“Hold on a second.” He reached across me into the glove box, pulled out a scrap of paper and a pen, and wrote something on it. “Here’s my phone number. If you can’t find your family, give me a call.”
I took the paper from him and shoved it in my pocket. “Thanks, Fred.”
“Good luck with everything, Morgan. I hope you figure it all out.”
I smiled. “Me, too.”
He nodded and I climbed out, taking my jacket with me, and shut the door. I watched as he drove off, feeling like my only friend had just left.
Chapter Eleven
The neighborhood looked nothing like I had imagined. With the name “Timber Hills”, I’d pictured rolling hills and lots of trees. But this place was mostly concrete with a few sad-looking trees at houses where people evidently had hoped to help the place live up to its name.
I visualized the house I’d run away from, the one where I’d expected to find my family, the one I so recently hadn’t wanted to move to and knew I’d give anything to be back there with my family again.
Feeling discouraged by the gloomy looking neighborhood, I trudged forward. As I consulted my Google maps printout, I thought about what Fred had said about me being from another universe.
Is that even possible? And if it is, how does it work? The idea astounded me and I pushed it aside, not wanting to consider the ramifications when I was so close to finding my family.
Instead, I studied the houses as I walked. All of them were smaller than the one up north. For the most part the yards were unkempt, although there were a few that looked like they were taken care of. Graffiti covered most of the fences, and music blared from a house where a car was up on blocks.
When I saw a group of young men loitering at one house, I stared straight ahead, grateful they were on the other side of the street, and hoped they wouldn’t pay attention to me. As I passed, I heard sudden laughter and wondered if they were talking about me. Ignoring them, I hurried past and when I reached the end of the street I turned left onto what was supposedly my street.
Disappointed to see that the houses here looked even worse than the ones on the street I had just come down, I pressed forward, looking for my address. No one seemed to be around on this street and I was able to walk without incident. Finally my house came into sight and my heart pounded. I wasn’t surprised to see that my house was one with a tidy yard; Mom had always taken pride in the appearance of our house.
There were no cars in the driveway and I wondered if anyone was home. Cautiously, I approached the front door. Even though this was the address Mom had written in the email, I had never been here before and didn’t want to barge into a stranger’s house by mistake. I took hold of the doorknob and turned, but it was locked. I stepped off the porch and walked toward the back gate.
As I approached the gate I heard barking and immediately recog
nized Goldie’s bark. Relief flooded me when I knew I had actually found my family and hot tears pushed their way into my eyes. I yanked on the string for the gate latch and when I heard it give, I shoved it open. Goldie rushed out, her tail wagging. Squatting down, I wrapped my arms around her neck and pressed my face into her soft fur. Quiet sobs escaped my mouth and I held on to our dog as I worked to gain control of my emotions.
After a few moments my tears slowed, then stopped and I released Goldie. As I stood, she pranced around me and I smiled, the familiarity of her behavior filling me with warmth. I closed and latched the gate behind me and walked around the side of the house, with Goldie following me, until I reached the back door. I pulled on the door handle, but this door was locked too. I wondered when they’d be back and then wondered if I could find another way inside. On my way through the backyard I had noticed a door that most likely led to the attached garage. I walked back to it and was pleasantly surprised when it was unlocked. I entered the single car garage and closed my eyes for a moment, trying to adjust to the dark interior. Goldie had trailed me and she ran right to the door that led into the house.
Following her this time, I reached the door in only a few steps and hoped my luck would hold out. The door opened under my hand and I smiled, glad to be able to get in. But then I thought about the neighborhood and worried that someone had been careless about locking the house. Anyone could have walked in; in fact a stranger could be in the house right now. Sudden fear pulsed through me, but I forced myself to walk through the door.
I found myself in the kitchen and was surprised to see the breakfast dishes still in the sink. Mom had always been a stickler for making sure the kitchen was clean before we left the house in the morning. For some reason I found the mess disturbing. Almost without thinking I set my jacket on the table, then went to the sink and began rinsing the dishes, then looked around for the dishwasher so I could load them. But there wasn’t one.
No wonder they hadn’t cleaned up. The dishes had to be done by hand.
I set the dish I was holding back into the sink and went to the refrigerator, stepping around Goldie as she sniffed the floor. Pulling open the door, I perused the items inside but was disappointed to find very little food there. My stomach rumbled and I remembered I hadn’t eaten anything since the stale Pop-Tart in Fred’s truck.
Gone (Parallel Trilogy, Book 1) Page 8