by E. R. Mason
“Well if they were shuffling everything around they could have stirred up all the dust and then it settled overnight.”
“You think people came in here yesterday and even changed the pictures on the wall and everything?”
“So what’s the answer?”
“There isn’t any answer. This place is some kind of ghost house. It’s like haunted or something. I don’t care what anybody says. Change a whole room of furniture almost overnight? Get out of here!”
“Maybe somebody is just getting ready to move in here and their bringing all their stuff in. Doesn’t that make more sense, Rem?”
“Jax, all this dust on everything.”
“Okay, I agree, that is kind of weird. We’ll show it to Sky and see what she thinks. It’s probably something we haven’t thought of.”
“Yeah, right. Don’t hold your breath on that.”
“Anyway, we’ve got to show you something incredible downstairs. You’ve got to take a look and see what you think.”
“It’s not a dead body or something, is it?”
“For gosh sake. Just come on.”
Jax coaxed Remy down the steps to the darkness of the dingy basement. There he had to keep waiting for his friend as he shied away from various objects stacked around the place. Each doorway seemed to be a new threat of death so that Jax had to keep urging him on. Finally in the well room, Remy side-stepped carefully up to the brick circle and looked over the edge keeping his flashlight near his body for fear of dropping it.
“Oh my god it’s the doorway to hell! That’s what it is.” he said with sincere exaggeration.
“Come on, Rem. Get real. Was there anything you saw on the web about this place having a well or a mineshaft?” asked Jax.
Remy ignored his friend’s question and looked back at them. “This must be where all the bodies went,” he said staring back down into the hole.
“For heaven’s sake, Remy! What an imagination!” said Skyla.
“Yeah? Well you haven’t seen the room upstairs.” answered Remy. “And, by the way, could we finish talking about this up there?”
“But what about your internet search? Was there ever any reference to mining at this place?” persisted Jax.
“This estate went through quite a few owners,” replied Remy. “I think back in the early 1900s there was one couple where the husband was a retired miner, but it didn’t say anything about a doorway to hell.”
“This was probably a well to begin with,” said Skyla. “Some of the equipment stacked up against the wall is pumping equipment.”
“Yes, but they use that stuff for mining too, right?” suggested Jax.
“I’ve gotta head upstairs,” said Remy. “This is not a fun place. It smells funny down here. It’s probably from the dead bodies.”
Skyla and Jax followed their friend back up to the real world where he immediately motioned Skyla over to see his pictures. He gave her every opportunity to explain the problem between the photo and reality of the adjacent room, and try as she may there were no answers that seemed satisfactory.
“It has to be that someone is moving in,” she repeated. “That’s the only logical explanation.”
“The dust, Skyla. The layer of dust on everything,” countered Remy.
“It’s a dirt road leading in. Every time a car comes racing this way it brings a cloud of it,” argued Skyla.
“Well, suit yourself. Are we done here for today? Can we get out of here?” asked Remy.
“Did you copy all my photos onto the flash drive?” asked Skyla.
“All loaded. Here you go. One steak dinner now due.” Remy handed her the drive.
“Thanks, and now I have pictures of the well I need added.”
“I’ll include those in the steak dinner at no extra charge,” said Remy.
Skyla pulled out her mobile phone. “The cab won’t be here for another hour. Maybe I can call them.”
Jax grabbed his own phone and checked it. “I do not have mobile service,” he said disparagingly.
Remy spoke with despair. “I do not have any bars either,” he said, rolling his eyes for emphasis. “At least all my watches agree about the time.”
“It’s okay,” replied Skyla. “Mine’s working.”
Remy looked at Jax. “Thank God. Another hour here? No thank you.”
“Hello, this is Skyla Corina. We’re ready to be picked up . . . We’re out on Sutton Road. One of your drivers brought us out here this morning. He knows exactly where . . . No, I’m certain it was your service . . . Well the driver must not have entered it in your records yet. Can you come get us, anyway? . . . The address is 2440 Sutton Road. It’s the only place for miles around. You can’t miss it . . . Okay, thank you.”
“Skyla, what time do you have on your mobile phone?” asked Remy.
“One-twenty. Why do you ask?”
“Well I’ll be a son-of-a-gun. Every one of these watches are right on.” Remy had lined up his six wrist and pocket watches on the table.
Jax came alongside and stared down at them. “Well, so much for the magnetic interference theory, buddy.”
“Man, this place just keeps serving up surprises,” said Remy.
Jax looked at Skyla. “You know, I might be starting to agree with him just a bit.”
“What are you talking about? The watches?” she asked.
“The last couple of times we were out here our watches lost time somehow. It was like too much to be a coincidence, but now this time all of them are right on.”
“Maybe you guys are looking for spooky things that aren’t really there, and that’s the reason you’re finding some,” replied Skyla.
“Say what you want about us. The place is weird,” insisted Remy.
Remy chose to wait outside for the taxi while Skyla and Jax continued to explore. To Remy’s relief, the taxi showed up right on schedule. He jumped in the front seat. Jax and Skyla sat close in the back.
“So we can talk about our plans over dinner, okay?” asked Skyla.
The word “dinner” triggered Remy. He twisted around and looked at Skyla. “Dinner, you say? Great. Time and place? I’ll be there.”
Jax was the first to be dropped off. Being home was relief mixed with apprehension. Every time the exploration was supposed to wrap up, a new, even more challenging task seemed to crop up. Still, Skyla was worth it. Despite her ambiguous remarks, it felt like he was getting closer. Even now, he could still almost feel her pushing against his shoulder or standing intimately close. In a romantic stupor, Jax went to his room, stretched out on the bed, and stared at the ceiling. Without intending to, he dozed off.
The downstairs phone was ringing. Jax pushed up on one elbow and wondered if he should answer it. It was usually bill collectors. He finally decided knowing was better than wondering. He bounded downstairs, and grabbed the wall phone receiver just in time. “Yes?”
“Jax . . .”
“Rem! What are you doing calling on this phone?”
“Because my mobile still doesn’t have service and neither does yours.”
Jax pulled his mobile out of his pocket and looked. Just as Remy had said there was no service. “How’d you know that?” he asked.
“Never mind that, Jax. You don’t know the deep shit we’re in, do you?”
“What? Did somebody find out about us going in that house? How bad could it be?”
“Jax, listen to me. It’s Wednesday.”
“Rem, you feeling okay? I hate to break this to you, but it’s Thursday, buddy. All day. . .”
“No Jax. That’s what I’m saying. It’s supposed to be Thursday. It was Thursday when we hooked up with Skyla this morning, but it’s Wednesday again now.”
“Oh man, Rem. You’re scaring me, buddy. Did you take something? You using again? Maybe I better come over.”
“Jax, I’m not on drugs. I’m telling you it’s Wednesday. Turn your TV on to the weather channel or go online on your Mom’s PC.”
“Rem
, I don’t need to turn on the TV. It’s Wednesday. Man, what have you been doing?”
“Jax, turn on your TV to the weather channel. Look at the time and date on the upper left hand corner of the screen. If you tell me it says Thursday, I’ll shut up and have a laugh. Just do it.”
“God, I feel stupid doing this. I know it’s some kind of joke or something. You’re not fooling me, Rem.” Jax went into the living room, tapped at the remote and brought up the weather channel. To his surprise the top of the screen did say Wednesday. He burst out in laughter at Remy’s neurotic assumption. Back at the phone he tried to sound sympathetic. “Okay, it does say Wednesday. It’s just a typo by the station manager. That’s all. You’re way over reacting like you always do. The house thing has you all neurotic.”
“Oh yeah? Well how come everything else says Wednesday too? And, I just watched a car back into our garbage cans out on the street. Garbage pickup was Wednesday.”
“Man Rem, you are one imaginative dude. I’m coming over there right now and we’ll straighten this out. You just wait right there.”
Jax hung up, laughed to himself, and went to the utility room for his bike.
The bike was not there.
He stood in confusion. His Mom must have pushed it outside to do some laundry and then forgot to bring it back in. He grabbed a light coat and went out the front door to look. Before he could, a dark car pulled up in front of his house. The driver’s window rolled down. It was Skyla.
“Get in! Hurry!” she called and she waited with the engine running.
From the tone of her voice, Jax knew this was not the time for questions. He quickly locked the front door and climbed in the car. Before he could even buckle up she stomped on the gas and was speeding down the street.
“Kind of fast, isn’t it, Sky?”
She did not reply.
“Are you taking us to the dinner you promised? Is that what this is?”
Skyla did not answer.
“I was just on my way to Remy’s. It’s kind of important. I need to check on him. He used to have a drug problem.”
“That’s where we’re going,” replied Skyla curtly.
“Whose car is this?”
“Mine. It’s a rental.”
“Care to tell me what’s going on?”
“Not now. After we pick up Remy. Let me concentrate on my driving.”
“Okay but when we get there, be careful what you say. I don’t know what he’s been doing, but he thinks it’s Wednesday.”
Skyla stole a quick glance at Jax. “It is Wednesday.”
Chapter 5
They found Remy in the garage with the big door open. Skyla jerked her car into the driveway and stopped too quickly causing a chirp of tires. She put down her window, stuck her head out and yelled, “Get in!”
Remy froze for a moment from the car speeding into his driveway. He ignored Skyla’s command and went back to untangling a bundle of wire. “Just a moment. I need this wall-plug.”
“Remy, drop it right now, and get in. Hurry!” demanded Skyla.
Remy looked up again, a confused expression locked on his face.
Skyla yelled, “Now, Remy! Hurry!”
Something in the tone of Skyla’s voice made Remy drop the cables he was holding. He slapped the button for the garage door and trotted to the car. He climbed in the back and waited for an explanation. Skyla backed out too quickly, squealing the tires again. Without pausing, she powered away. As she went, another vehicle passed by them going in the opposite direction.
“That was my folks,” said Remy in a daze.
Immediately Skyla pulled off into a driveway where they could watch Remy’s parent arrive home. His parents parked in the driveway, climbed out of the car and headed in the house. Slowly one of the car’s back doors opened and a third person slid out. He was holding a large shopping bag from a computer supply shop. He stood fishing around in the bag. His face was clearly visible.
“I refuse to believe this is happening,” said Remy, stunned.
The figure finished checking his bag, looked around the neighborhood for a moment, then headed inside. There was no mistake. It was a second Remy.
Skyla backed quickly out and raced the car down the roadway. No one spoke. As she turned off Remy’s street, she glanced at her two friends. “If you see anyone you know along the way, do not wave to them. Keep your heads down so you won’t be seen.”
Jax gave up trying to understand what was happening. “Sky . . .”
“Never mind, Jax. Wait until we get to my place. We’ll be safe there.”
“We’re not safe here?” replied Remy in disbelief.
Although the trip became burdened by heavy silence, Skyla seemed completely immune. She handled the car well, slowing when other vehicles were in sight, speeding up when the way was clear. Finally they approached the marina. Skyla paused at the closed gate. She swiped an ID card and the gate slid open. She found an out of the way spot to park. “Let’s go,” she said. “Follow me.”
She led her friends out onto her pier and at the halfway point stopped and unhooked the boarding chain to the large, expensive cruiser. She stepped aboard, unlocked the hatchway to the lower decks and waved them to follow.
The room at the bottom of a short set of steps was an immaculate stainless steel galley. She pointed them past it to the room beyond, a fairly large, lush living area, complete with wall mounted TV, sofas, chairs, and tables.
“Please sit. Does anyone need something? Water, juice, anything?”
The other two sat and stared silently with dumbfounded looks.
“The head is right through that door, if either of you need it.”
Remy’s voice was a pitch higher than usual. “Sky, what is happening?”
“This is going to take a while,” she replied. “We’ll need tea.”
Skyla slipped back into the galley and began banging dishes. She returned after a few minutes. The smell of brewing tea was already in the air.
“So, you both clearly saw him, right? The other Remy, I mean.”
Jax and Remy looked up at her like deer in the headlights.
“Gentlemen, when we left this morning to go to Demon House it was Thursday. When we returned home, it had suddenly become Wednesday again. Somehow, at some point, we time shifted back 24 hours. Now, are either of you unable to accept that?”
“It could have just been a relative of Remy’s who looks a lot like him.” said Jax, in desperation.
Skyla sighed, grabbed the TV controller and switched on the wall mounted TV. She flipped through channels until she reached a stock market channel. The date on one of the readouts on the screen said Wednesday.
Remy looked over at his friend and spoke in a whiny voice. “This is what I was trying to tell you. It’s Wednesday again. That guy was me. It was the same shopping bag. It had Soldier’s Eye in it. I had to mess with it because the cardboard box came open and the accessories were trying to fall out of the bag.”
Jax looked back at Remy displeased that his friend was taking sides with Skyla.
Skyla came and sat between them. She looked at Jax and spoke with a tone of affection. “Would I lie to you?”
“I don’t know, is anything you’ve told me true?”
Skyla sat back. “Okay, I had that coming. But no, I haven’t lied to you, not really. I use this boat as my home address. It’s my Uncle’s. It’s a good escape route if I ever got caught being on my own and all. I don’t live here. That way if truancy officers, or Child Services, or anybody else came looking for me, they’d never find anyone home. I’ve got a camera and recorder wired up with a phone line. If anybody comes aboard, the boat calls me and I can dial up the camera on my smart phone and see who’s looking for me. I actually live in the apartment over that old guy’s garage I told you about. It had to be that way. If they catch someone underage living alone, they take them away, you know? So really, I haven’t lied to you about anything. I couldn’t let you visit my place in case t
he wrong people saw you. If they did, you’d have been dragged into it. All of that is kind of mute now that I’m 18, except there’s an awful lot of forged documents around signed by me. That’s still a worry.”
Remy stood, went to a nearby chair, and sat, leaving Skyla and Jax on the sofa. Having regained his composure, he gave a short cough for attention. “If I might, let me ask again, what the hell is happening?”
Skyla stood. “The tea’s ready. Give me a second.”
With cream and sugar set out, and three steaming mugs distributed, Skyla took her seat back on the sofa with Jax.
“Somehow we have been thrown back in time and there’s only one logical way to proceed,” said Skyla.
“Go home and sleep it off and hope this is just a bad dream?” suggested Remy.
“We can’t do that, Remy. We have to wait right here until we catch back up with our time. Then we’ll be alright,” insisted Skyla.
“How do you know that?” asked Jax.
“Why can’t we just go home?” interrupted Remy.
“You can’t go home because it could kill you, Remy,” said Skyla.
“How do you know that?” asked Jax.
“I read a book once by one of the world’s leading physicists, T.R. Martin. It’s called ‘Backtrack.’ A sci-fi story about someone who goes back in time to when they were young. Right now we all have specific memories of what happened on Wednesday. If any of us goes home and meets our earlier self, it alters the other self’s memory of events for Wednesday. That in turn is uploaded into our brains and suddenly our brains are trapped trying to resolve two different memories for the same time period. In treating mental patients who are delusional and have multiple memories of a certain time in their lives, making them face reality has sometimes caused severe damage to the brain because it cannot resolve two different memories for the same moment in time. So the threat is real and is a clinically proven danger. That’s how I know we must not change anything that happened on Wednesday.”