by Stuart Jaffe
Roni’s blood heated fast. “Another secret. I suppose I should get a list of books that I’m banned from reading. It’ll make it easier for you to hide things from me.”
“You should know better than to question me about things you aren’t informed on.”
“How can I be informed when you won’t tell me anything? You want to keep me trapped downstairs, but you are being pigheaded to think that you’re protecting me. Not after a year of knowing the truth about our world. If anything, you put my life in greater danger. How am I supposed to make informed decisions, to lead the next group of the Society, when I know so little? I guess I’ll have to do like Waterfield and explore the caverns myself.”
Gram slammed her purse on the table. “You will not. To do so is to risk death, and I won’t have it. Whatever your problems with me, they do not give you the right to break ranks, to go off on your own, make your own choices with any of this.”
“You don’t get to tell me —”
“I damn well do. Being the leader of this group says so. If you defy me, there will be serious repercussions.”
Roni’s face dropped. “Are you really threatening me? What was the point of taking me in after Mom’s death, of raising me to be strong and independent, if you’re going to treat me like this?”
“The fact that you ask such a question, once again shows me that you are not ready for the greater responsibilities of the Society. We cannot be selfish. We cannot go off on our own like Gerald Waterfield and ignore the others of the team. To do so invites disaster. And any disaster involving the Society can mean disaster for all of mankind.”
“Then why not work with me instead of against me?”
“You sound just like Waterfield. You’re happy to cooperate as long as we all go along with you. Well, that’s not the way this works.”
“But —”
“That’s it. This is done. No more talk about Waterfield or the Book on the Isle. I don’t want you mentioning journeys into the caverns because there won’t be any. And above all else, you do not speak a word of any of this to Elliot. The poor man has suffered enough. Now, go home before I really get mad.”
Roni saw the cold fury in Gram’s face. There would be no reasoning with her that night. But Roni did not want to be reasonable. With a huff, she stormed across the room, flung open the front door, and stomped out.
The frosty night air slammed into her with a strong wind. Hugging her arms against the chill, she trudged along the sidewalk. Her thoughts raged.
Gram had no right to impose her will upon them. Being the leader did not make her a dictator. Worse, she acted like she knew everything, had all the answers, but if that were true, then she abandoned Yal-hara purposefully. And what purpose could warrant trapping a being in our universe when it doesn’t belong here?
Oh, that old woman had so many secrets held close to the vest — and she dared to criticize Roni for being selfish!
Roni walked onward and tried to calm her anger. She thought about the cavern with all those books leading to all those universes. Each streetlight she passed under, each flicker of television or computer screen in a window, each car driving by with its headlights flashing over her — all the lights like universes spread out before her. And all she needed to do was find one small light sitting on an island.
But then she thought of Elliot and the horror on his face when he saw the journal. As much as Roni wanted to ignore all Gram had said, her final words about Elliot echoed — the poor man has suffered enough. Roni wanted to ask him, but she had dredged up something dark, and she couldn’t do that to him. At least, not unless she had no other choice.
And I do have a choice.
She had Waterfield’s journal, after all. He had made the trip to the Isle by himself. So could she.
Except she didn’t want to. She did not have the gene for becoming an explorer, mounting expeditions into uncharted territories. The only reason she looked into any of this was Yal-hara. It was a moral choice, not one of discovery, not one of defiance.
No, she thought as she glanced back toward the bookstore. The moral aspect of it — helping Yal-hara find her way home — was only one part. Mostly, she wanted to get the kyolo stones to help her with her lost memories.
Perhaps, then, she was selfish. But before she attempted to traverse the caverns alone, before she took steps against Gram’s wishes that could never be taken back, before she gambled everything, she figured she should at least try her only other source of information one last time. It had been years since she really tried to talk to him, to do anything more than sit by his side, to attempt to get through. Yet it seemed like the right thing to do.
Nodding in the chilly air, seeing her breath plume out in vanishing vapor, she thought, Okay then. Tomorrow morning, I’m going to visit my father.
The Belmont Behavioral Hospital had been constructed in West Philadelphia, and if not for a small sign out front, there would be no way to know the building’s purpose. But Roni knew. Whenever she drove this way to visit her father, whenever she passed beneath the gates and parked in the visitor section, whenever she heard the echoing click of her shoes or smelled the hospital aroma of disinfectant blended with disease, she could not avoid remembering why this building existed.
“Ms. Rider, good to see you again,” the front desk nurse said.
“Uh-huh.” Roni didn’t mean to be rude, but visiting her father never settled well within her. She had no room for small talk.
The nurse handed over a clipboard and plastered on a smile. Roni knew the routine. Sign in, wait to be called, then get escorted to the visiting room where she would sit and wait for somebody to bring her father out. Meanwhile, other visitors spoke in low voices with their loved ones. Some of the patients responded. Others gazed off half-dead. For Roni, it was always a coin-toss which version of her father would appear.
An orderly opened the doors, wheeled Mr. Rider into the visitor’s room, and stopped at Roni’s table. “Your father’s been doing real well lately. I’m sure he’s excited to see you today.” The orderly patted Mr. Rider’s shoulder and walked off.
Growing up, Roni’s image of her father centered on his shoulders — big, broad shoulders that she could sit on at a parade or when she was tired of walking. Muscular shoulders that never weakened no matter how many times she asked to be swung through the air. The shoulders of a powerful bear.
But seeing him now, she shuddered. All the strength had left him. His arms, once thick enough for Roni to do chin-ups on, had become thin reeds. His eyes sank into his skeletal head. Worse, she saw no light behind them, no spark of cognizance.
Yet she had to try. “Hi, Dad. It’s Roni. You been doing okay?”
No response.
“Things for me have been unusual. I mean, a year ago my biggest problem was that I had no direction in life. Remember that? Gram always bickering that I needed to pick a career already.” Roni snickered. “I was so stressed out about all that, but I’m telling you, that was easy street. Now, the fate of the universe depends on me.”
His mouth dropped open an inch. Odd. But Roni figured it was nothing more than his drugs kicking in.
“Anyway, I’m sorry I haven’t been here more often. I suppose you get it. Not like you signed yourself in here because you thought you were spending too much time with me. I mean, let’s be honest. After mom died, you fell apart and you couldn’t be bothered with me. Oh, don’t worry. I don’t hold it against you. Really. I did at one time, but I’m all grown up now. And ever since my life has changed, this last year, well, my perspective on a lot of things has changed, too. After all, nobody is what they seem on the outside. I grew up thinking Gram and Elliot and Sully were the cutest, little old trio. Never would I have guessed they were heroes. They really are. Call themselves The Parallel Society.”
His head turned towards her. His eyes focused on her.
Roni tried to speak more, but her throat constricted. Nodding and smiling like an eager child, she finally f
ound her words. “It’s true. You know about it? The three of them go around closing up rifts with other universes. Strange, though, that they always talk about it in those terms — universes — when really they only fix things on Earth. I wonder if there are rifts billions of miles away from here. There must be. Maybe there’s another Society on another planet out there.”
He shifted in his wheelchair an inch, leaning closer as she spoke.
“You understand what I’m talking about, don’t you? You do. I can see it. Now that I’m thinking about it, I shouldn’t be surprised. They offered a job to Mom. She turned it down, of course, but no matter how wild a life she led, she always came back to you. So, she probably told you about Gram. Did you ever learn about the caverns? You’d be amazed to see them.”
His hand reached out and found her wrist. Though his grip shook, she could tell that if he had more strength, he would have held her tight. In a whisper, he said, “Stay away from the caverns.”
“Dad? You hear me?”
With more force, he said, “Stay away from the dark thing in the caverns.”
“I’m not in the caverns. Not regularly. I’m just a researcher. You don’t have to worry. I’ll never see the dark thing.”
Tears brimmed on the edges of his eyes. “The dark thing — the hellspider — it will destroy you.”
Roni’s muscles froze. “What?”
His head drooped as his eyes rolled.
“No,” Roni said. “Come on. Tell me.”
“The hellspider,” he said in a slow drone. “Leave it alone.” Then his eyes closed and he snored.
Roni stayed for twenty minutes more, trying to bring her father back. Twice he lifted his head and looked about the room, but he never regained lucidity that day. Eventually, the orderlies wheeled him off to his bed.
Driving to Olburg, Roni tried to make sense of everything he had said. Except none of the parts appeared to connect with the bits of information she had acquired. Even if there had been a connection, it might have been nothing more than lunatic ravings. A hellspider? She couldn’t fully trust anything he said.
Yet she couldn’t dismiss it either.
Not that it mattered. Gram now knew about some of it — enough that she had shut down the whole thing. Roni had built up an idea that she would present all her research to the team, that she would then explain about Kenneth Bay and Yal-hara, and that Gram would be so impressed, she would insist on Roni leading the charge into the caverns. That would never happen now.
“Damn it,” she yelled in her car. Turning on the radio, she blasted classic rock for a few miles but flicked it off before the first song had ended. That was her career in the Society. Over before it began. Not even a one-hit wonder.
She found a parking space on the street several blocks from her apartment. As she strolled home, she tried to let go of the failure and the stress. If she could accept her position as the librarian and not the adventurer, she would do far better. And why not? She never wanted to go into the caverns in the first place. Never wanted any of this. Why not simply hole up in the Grand Library? She could be of great assistance to those equipped to deal with the other universes, yet she should never have to bloody her own hands.
Chuckling, she picked up her pace. That sounded good except for the part where she would have to be under the thumb of Gram. Plus, one day, Gram would find somebody to take over — not Roni, of course, because the researcher can’t be the leader — which would leave Roni being under the thumb of yet another formidable Society member. No, that wouldn’t work either.
“Finally, you are home,” a voice called out.
Roni looked up and all she saw ahead of her was trouble. Elliot waited for her in the doorway.
Chapter 7
As Roni opened the door to her apartment, Elliot brushed through straight for the center of the room. With his cane, he pushed aside the robe and dirty blouse discarded on the floor. Standing between her old television and her worn couch, he lifted the cane shoulder-height with his right hand. His left traced a figure eight repeatedly.
Roni knew not to speak while Elliot cast a spell. She gently closed the door before going down the hall to the bathroom. When she returned a few minutes later, the air around Elliot’s hand shimmered. She leaned against the wall and waited.
The shimmering increased its frequency right before Roni heard a pop. Then her ears clogged up as if from the pressure of sitting in an airplane changing altitude. Rubbing her ears, she tried to get them to clear, but nothing helped.
Lowering his hands, Elliot turned towards her. Despite all the sounds around her being muted, when he spoke, his voice cut through the thick gauze in the air. “This spell will not last long, so I advise you to be honest with me. For the moment, nobody can hear what we say. Anyone attempting to snoop on us will know nothing.”
“Who would be snooping?” Roni asked, her own voice louder than she expected.
“Not everybody in the world that knows the truth agrees with the Society. We have our enemies.”
Roni wondered where Yal-hara and Kenneth Bay fell in that dichotomy — friend or foe. She had accepted them at face value — mostly because of the map fragment — but seeing the deep concern in Elliot’s eyes worried her.
Placing both his hands on the top of his cane, Elliot tilted forward. “Now is the time when you must tell me all that you know about the Book on the Isle and how you came to know it.”
“I just stumbled upon it. I was working in the Grand Library like always, and I came across Waterfield’s journal. You were the last to check it out, so I got curious.”
Elliot shook his head. “Even without powers I can see that you are lying. I have known you since you were little, after all. Do not try to deceive me. I shall offer you one more opportunity. Tell me the truth.” His stern expression cracked for an instant, and beneath it, Roni saw mournful sadness.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Here’s the truth.” And she told him everything that had occurred since Kenneth Bay sat down across from her in the Olburg Chestnut.”
When she finished, Elliot gave a thoughtful grunt. “Yal-hara. We never did the right thing with her. We wanted to, but there was no way to pinpoint her specific universe. Not that we know.”
“Why couldn’t you just open the book that captured the original rift? Let her go through.”
“Because we never did capture it. It disappeared on its own as if that universe merely grazed ours instead of intersecting it.”
“Yal-hara says she needs this kyolo stone to find another rift to her universe. That with the stone, she can find her way home. Is that right? Is she telling me the truth?”
“Maybe.”
“But these stones are everywhere in the Book on the Isle. She said that. Is that much true?”
“It once was true, but I have not been to that place in many years.”
Roni pushed off the wall, her head cocked in disbelief. “You’ve been there? You’ve seen the Book on the Isle?”
Closing his eyes as if the words might cause him to scream, he opted instead to nod.
A dark thought struck her. “What’s the hellspider?”
Elliot’s eyes snapped open. “Hellspider? I have never heard of that.”
“I thought we were going to be honest here.”
“I am. I have never heard of nor have I ever seen something called a hellspider.”
She believed him. “What about my Lost Time? Yal-hara said that the stones she wants could also help me with my memory.”
“I don’t know.”
“How can you know so little about this when it’s obvious that you’re connected to it all?”
“Because I have never met Yal-hara, so I cannot confirm the truth of her words. I am assuming that you also have not met her.”
Crossing her arms, Roni said, “Just her guy, Kenneth Bay. He called himself her emissary.”
“I know him. His father, Roger Bay, was the man I dealt with on the few occasions Yal-hara reached
out to us.”
“If you worked with them before, then you should know whether I can trust them.”
He chuckled. “You most certainly cannot trust them. But that does not mean they have lied to you. Yal-hara has been stuck here for a long time, and she wants to find her way back to her world. That much is true. Whether the kyolo stones can save her, whether they can help you, I do not know. I doubt Yal-hara knows for sure, either.”
“So this is all a gamble?”
“Perhaps a better way to say this would be that Yal-hara is making a highly educated guess.”
Roni walked to the couch and slumped into its lumpy cushions. “Then I have to try, right? I have to go to this Book on the Isle and get some of those kyolo stones. And I have to prepare myself for the fact that it might not work — at least, not for me.”
“The Book on the Isle leads to a wondrous place.”
“Waterfield wrote that it’s a paradise.”
“Indeed, it is. Possibly the most extraordinary world I’ve ever seen. Yet such worlds of beauty and peace can do more harm than the dark, evil worlds.” Elliot’s gaze lowered. “A world of paradise gives hope. And hope — real, pure hope — is destined to be destroyed.”
“Maybe,” she said, a dread excitement building as a bonfire grows from a single flame. “But knowing the place is real, confirming it because you’ve been there, that sort of means I have to go now. I can’t turn away. I have to try — for Yal-hara and for myself.”
Roni heard a high-pitched whine followed by a pop similar to the one earlier. Elliot shuffled toward the front door. “The spell is done,” he said.
“Thank you for telling me this. It’s going to help me make this decision.”
“Do not lie to yourself. You have already made that decision.”
“I suppose I did. That’s it then. I’m going to the Isle.”
“Good. I assumed as much when you first mentioned the Isle. That is why I have taken the liberty of packing supplies for the trip. We should get started right away.”
“We?”
“I expect you to come along. It would be too lonely to do it by myself. Now, get some clothes together and we will be off.”