by Jason Letts
I got to my feet and continued down the long set of stairs. I had an ache in my hip, but I was concentrating on the opening at the bottom where I could see sand beneath the tree branches.
It came closer, but I wasn’t moving fast enough. I had to get there now. The steps felt like they were taking forever, but I leapt off the last one and landed on the hot sand. About thirty feet separated me from the water, but the glare of the sun on it made it hard for me to see any flailing girl in the process of drowning.
I stampeded through the sand, kicking it up as I pushed through. A woman was sunbathing just beside me, possibly sleeping. It must be Miriam Wheeler. I blew past her and started to scream.
“Cammie! Cammie!”
My voice was already hoarse from the running. My legs were getting tired and I feared I was too late. I got closer to the water, but only a few faint ripples were visible amongst the waves. Racing for them, I fought and fought and hoped to get there in time.
Still fully dressed, I smacked into the water, slowing suddenly as the liquid held me back. A forearm broke the surface in front of me for just a second before vanishing underneath. I pushed forward, trudging in up to my knees and then my waist. There was some shouting behind me, but I couldn’t even hear it.
Time was running out. I dove forward, feeling the cool wave splash against my face as the liquid mass consumed me entirely. Opening my eyes, there was something in the water just a few feet away. A floating figure, nearly limp, Cammie’s brown hair fanned out toward the surface and mingled with the sun’s submerged rays.
I wrapped my arms around her and heaved her into the air. To my surprise, I was still able to stand here. The water only made it up to my shoulders. As I held her close and jerked and pushed to get her back to land, I had no idea if I’d made it in time. She wasn’t moving. She felt cold. The pressure of this moment was drowning me.
Cammie sputtered and gasped as I carried her to shore. Thank goodness she didn’t need CPR or anything, because I didn’t know how to do that though Miriam would. She whimpered, producing a dull moan. I was relieved, and I squeezed her lightly, just so glad to have her alive in my arms.
“What is going on?” Miriam asked.
Cammie’s curly brown-haired, bathing suit wearing mother was at the edge of the beach, full of concern. My screaming must have woken her up. Still in a daze from the exertion and the rush, I didn’t have any idea what to say. I put Cammie down on the beach and got my first good look at her. She could barely open her eyelids, but otherwise she didn’t look like she was in that bad a shape.
Somehow I’d saved her, and I couldn’t hold back the feeling of ecstasy. The rush of adrenaline, joy, and relief made me lightheaded, and for once in a very long time I felt good about what had happened. Everything would be ok now.
Miriam knelt down and brushed Cammie’s hair back.
“Sweetie, remember what I told you. You can only go in waist deep. Come and sit down on the blanket.”
Miriam took her daughter’s hand, but before escorting her away she turned to the left and hollered down the beach.
“Nathan, you were supposed to keep an eye on your sister!”
The mention of his name shocked me back to life. I turned to look and found Nathan, now a nine-year-old boy, skipping rocks a long ways down the sandy beach by a stone embankment. He’d been oblivious to all that was going on and only barely pulled himself from his own amusement when his mother called.
“She’s fine,” he said, almost too quietly for any of us to hear. I realized then that he wasn’t Nathan. He was already Nate and would be for the rest of his life.
But none of that mattered. I’d done what I needed to do, and now I could go. Cammie was safe. She’d live a long life during which she’d invent the cure for Huntington’s disease. All I needed was for Eve to take me to that moment and then I could get back to my love.
“I’m ready!” I said, expecting her to appear and whisk me away. The waves kept washing against my ankles. The beach remained largely empty. No sign of anyone who looked exactly like me anywhere.
I did get the attention of Miriam though, and she turned around to face me, Cammie at her side.
“I don’t know what’s come over me. You’re completely right and I’m very sorry. Thank you so much,” she said, smiling but a bit embarrassed.
But that wasn’t what I wanted to hear. In fact, I didn’t want to be talking to any of them at all. Where was Eve? A sinking feeling overwhelmed me, one that grew more intense as each moment passed. I wasn’t going anywhere.
“What were you doing out here anyway?” Miriam asked. Her smile faltered and the incongruities of what was going on started to add up. I was someone she’d never seen before. My clothes were soaked. I didn’t belong here. I’d raced into the water to save her daughter from drowning.
I was shaking now, and my head felt like it was about to explode. Eve wasn’t coming, and the answer for that was because I wasn’t ready to leave. I didn’t have what I needed to save Nathan, which had been our agreement. I felt ill, and I collapsed onto my hands and knees. My fingers sunk into the moist sand.
“Are you alright?” Miriam asked, her concern coming back in full force. I jerked my head to look at the five-year-old girl I’d just saved. Expressionless, Cammie just stared back at me. How long would it take her to invent the cure for Huntington’s? Fifty years? More?
That’s how Eve would take me back to save Nathan but I could never be with him. I had nothing but a lifetime here with Nate in this callous world to look forward to, while the man I loved was hidden away somewhere I could never get to on my own.
I took a deep breath and glanced over at Miriam, finally realizing that she had been talking to me. Time kept moving forward, and there was nothing I could do about it, no way to escape. What was I supposed to do now, tan on the beach? Whether I liked it or not, this was the beginning of a new life.
“I’m…” Nothing worth saying came to my lips. Struggling to get to my feet, I had to figure out what to do now.
“You look a little bit lost is all,” Miriam continued, offering a sympathetic smile. “How did you get here?”
I sighed while my mind scrambled to come up with an answer. Behind me I could hear a loud plunk against the surface of the water. Must’ve been Nate throwing a big rock.
“There was a problem,” I gushed, and Miriam nodded to show she was following along. “I’ve been living with my boyfriend a ways away, but he became…abusive.”
“Oh, you poor dear,” Miriam said, consoling me with an arm around my shoulders. Cammie had already found a spot on the beach to make a sand castle, and Miriam led me from the shore as though it had been me who almost drowned.
“I didn’t know where to go, so I’ve just been wandering around the lake until I happened to see your daughter sinking in the water.”
“I see. Well the least I can do to thank you is tend to any cuts or bruises you have. I’m a nurse after all,” Miriam offered.
“That’s very kind of you, but I don’t have any cuts or bruises,” I said, and Miriam’s questioning look made me think she’d found a hole in my story. “Just a bump on my side from when he pushed me into a dresser that makes it hard to walk.”
Falling on the stairs may not have been such a bad thing after all. Maybe that spot was red and tender, but the real pain came from telling a story that made Nathan look bad. Even though he would never do anything to hurt me, I didn’t have any choice but to place the blame on him.
Miriam didn’t seem all that convinced, and I was more afraid than ever she would expose me for being a liar. Her brown nurse’s eyes searched me for the truth as though I were a conniving patient.
“When I woke up, I swear you were shouting Cammie’s name. How could you possibly have known it?” she asked.
Her question made my stomach jump. There wasn’t a single plausible answer I could imagine, and each moment I spent thinking made it more obvious something disturbing was going on. I sto
od there, waiting for her curious expression to change into one of malice when she realized the truth.
“Maybe you had heard me using it earlier,” Miriam shrugged, a smile returning to her face. After all the bad turns I’d experienced lately, I could’ve dropped and kissed her feet for the tiny bit of mercy she just showed. She must’ve known how unlikely her excuse was, but she was trusting enough to go along with it.
Gesturing for me to follow her, Miriam took a step up the beach toward the stairs.
“Why don’t we head into the cabin and then you can call your family.”
“Oh,” I hesitated, forcing her to turn back. “I actually don’t have any family.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Miriam said, putting her hand to her heart.
Now she was beginning to understand the position I was in. I couldn’t be whisked away just as quickly as I’d appeared. She’d have to choose to either let me into her life and her family’s or cast me out into the unforgiving unknown. We both stood there awkwardly, the sun beating down on us and my wet clothes sticking to my skin.
“What’s your name anyway?” Miriam asked, encouraging my hopes. That question always put me on edge, making me wonder who I was now. At this moment I’m a nineteen-year-old girl who’s completely dependent on the kindness of strangers in a world where she certainly doesn’t belong.
“I’m Sarah,” I said, conjuring the best smile I could as I shook her hand. I might not always be, but that’s who I was for right now.
Making sure Cammie was tagging along, Miriam led me up the stairs to their cabin on the hill. It was gray with a large porch overlooking the lake. I scratched my head to remember if my Nathan had ever mentioned it, but I don’t think he did, which made me think something had happened to this cabin.
The interior was rustic but comfortable, most of the furniture and items on the shelves striking me as antiques. Being out of the hot sun felt like a huge relief, and I finally started to breathe easily and get my senses back when I heard some rustling in the furthest room by the fireplace.
Gladys emerged a moment later wearing a large wicker hat to block out the sun. It looked like she was on her way to the beach, and even spotting a stranger in her living room wasn’t enough to break her good mood.
“Who’ve we got here?” she asked Miriam, who put her hands on my shoulders and guided me closer.
“This is Sarah, and she’s actually a little stranded. She’s going to be staying with us for a bit until we get things figured out for her.”
Just hearing those words come in through my ears did wonders for putting me at ease. Maybe I still didn’t belong here, but finding someone who was willing to take a chance on me meant so much that a knot formed in my center and I thought I might get teary. None of them could ever understand the incredible gratefulness I felt in my heart.
“You any good at Yahtzee?” Gladys asked, appraising me from head to toe.
“No, I’d probably lose every time,” I answered, amusing Gladys.
“She sounds perfect to me,” she added, and Miriam and I laughed.
It struck me then how different Gladys was from when I saw her in the nursing home. It looked like she’d been down to her final days there, but at this time she still had much of her spirit and initiative. I blinked hard when I realized what this day would mean for her.
Losing Cammie would’ve been the start of her own long decline, but the future looked much brighter for Gladys from here on out, not to mention for Miriam. Even though I wasn’t meant to be here and would be stuck for a very long time, I’d already improved the lives of a number of people and found it difficult to wish I could take it all back.
If I had to spend this time away from Nathan, I would use it in a way that would make him proud. My love for him would shine through everything I did for Gladys, Miriam, Cammie, and even little Nate, and I would tell myself that if I was good enough I would finally get to see Nathan again when it was all over.
Chapter 13
Though they’d come to an agreement, Eve still refused to just snap her fingers and make the switch. She insisted on leaving just the way she’d arrived, and both she and Nathan turned their heads to Cam, who seemed caught off guard by their sudden focus on her.
“Umm…ok,” she consented.
Blinking rapidly as she hesitated, Cam seemed to have a hard time bringing herself to do what she had to do. She went down to the basement and carted the pieces of her experiment to the living room, but it always seemed to take a lot of effort for her to assemble everything. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Eve gone. She’d been trying so hard lately to distance herself from what she used to be that it took fighting through her mind to do it.
Eye shadow replaced her goggles, and she wore trendy t-shirts instead of her lab coat, but she still managed to fix the Hofmann Voltameter to the wall. The closet still had the holes drilled into it and the foam sealing the door, not that they even probably needed any of it. Cam kept glancing at Eve, expecting her to be fine if they cut a few corners, but Eve held firm and forced her to set everything up.
“We’re going to need the battery from the Volvo,” Cam droned, making it clear she was basically doing all of this against her will.
“I’ll get it,” Nathan offered. He’d been glancing at the clock and practically chewing his fingernails in anticipation of the switch, and now he jogged out of the room to get the final piece they needed.
Suddenly alone together, Eve sidled up next to Cam and opened her mouth to speak, but Cam cut her off.
“Why are you letting us make you leave?” Cam asked point blank. Eve actually didn’t appear to know what to say, and Cam looked deeper into her blue eyes. “You don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to. You don’t have to make deals or agreements at all. That makes me think you want this to happen. Maybe you’ve planned it all along. Am I right?”
Eve shied away, her confidence more shaken in this moment than it ever was before.
“I’m not going to go back on my word,” she muttered, but Cam continued to press her.
“No, you won’t, and that’s why there’s always so much you’re not telling us, isn’t there? Lying by omission, that’s what this is. What’s going to happen when you go in that closet?”
Cam’s suspicion startled Eve to a point, but in an instant her expression changed and Eve restored her sense of control. She regained the flirty, mischievous look in her eye.
“That’s the fun of being human. You’ll just have to wait and find out.”
Cam glared at her hard, not at all amused. She could tell they were being tricked, but there wasn’t anything they could do about it. This is what Nathan wanted anyway, and for him to get to be with the one he loved one last time might still be better than the alternative. But that still didn’t mean it had to be this way, making it easy for Cam to decide whose fault it was.
“So you’re really a spirit from Infinity? What sad hands the world has been placed into.”
Cam said it with all the icy malice she could muster, but that only seemed to make it more laughable to Eve.
“Don’t pretend you didn’t already know that,” she chuckled.
Nathan returned bearing the car battery and the jumper cables. The trident-shaped Voltameter was hooked to the wall, and the tubes that would convey the hydrogen gas into the closet were in place. A vacuum was ready to suck the air out of the closet. All they needed was for Eve to go inside.
“We’re all set,” Cam said after clamping the jumper cables to the bridge, making the water inside the central chamber start to bubble and the hydrogen and oxygen gas collect on each side.
Nathan reached for the closet door and pulled it open, gesturing for Eve to let him shut her inside.
“I guess this is goodbye,” she said, almost looking forlorn about it. Cam had no sympathy though.
“Close your eyes and hold your breath,” she instructed, and Eve nodded at the irony. Almost ashamed, Eve brushed a strand of hair away
from Cam’s contact-covered eyes.
“Don’t hold all this against me, ok? I was really trying to help you.”
Cam didn’t respond though, leaving Eve to head toward the closet. Nathan’s handsome face betrayed little kindness, but that didn’t stop Eve from moving close to him like a lover.
“Give me something timeless,” she whispered, extending her ankles and giving him the softest kiss. His lips hardly moved at all, and she had to shake her head to brush off his apathy. “I’ve made it so you won’t forget I was here when I go, but that doesn’t mean you can’t choose to forget. If there’s one thing you can remember that I really mean, it’s this. I can see why she fell for you.”
Eve waited a moment for him to say something, but Nathan wasn’t about to give her the courtesy of a goodbye either. Her face strangely placid, Eve stepped into the closet and disappeared behind the closed door.
Both Nathan and Cam released a sigh. They’d made it this far, now they just had to see if the person they expected to see returned.
“Are you nervous?” Cam asked Nathan, both of them keenly aware of what Eve had promised to deliver. “There’s no telling what atrocities she’s committed.”
“We’ll find a way to save her,” he promised. Now that Eve was gone, he appeared determined and more hopeful. Things were going to be ok.
“We should call for an ambulance,” Cam suggested, and Nathan immediately reached for his phone.
“You’re brilliant,” he cheered, making his sister smile.
Cam switched on the vacuum while Nathan made the call. The humming motor worked to suck the air out of the sealed closet, and once it was gone Cam turned the valve to release the hydrogen gas. The quarks in the gas would jump between the parallel universes, taking Eve someplace else and hopefully putting Sarah in her place.
Once he was notified that the ambulance was on its way, Nathan put down the phone and approached the closet door. He and Cam both held their breath because they’d done everything they could do, and now they just needed to watch and see what happens.