The Universes Inside the Lighthouse

by Stucky, Pam

  “She makes a lot of lists,” said Charlie.

  “Me too,” smiled Parallel Emma, reaching to give an awkward fist bump to her parallel self. Emma smiled back at her alter self, and added that bit of information to her list.

  “Sorry, guys, I know this is fascinating—unbelievable but fascinating—and I’d love to learn more, too, but this isn’t helping us, and it’s not helping Eve get back to her father,” said Parallel Amy Renee. She turned to Eve. “What do you propose we do, Eve? I’m sorry, but this is beyond my ken. How can we help you?”

  For a moment, Eve looked frightened at the responsibility. Then, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, willing away the fear. “Okay. Okay. We need to see if we can get back into the Hub yet. If we can’t, then we need to look around here. I thought we’d come to the wrong place—I thought we were still on the other Earth—but maybe this is where Dr. Waldo meant us to go. Maybe Vik is here, after all. We need to look around for him.” She shook her head. “It took us forever to walk here from the lighthouse. We probably lost him already. I should have been paying attention.” She twirled the ring on her finger, the one with the rock that, through the back of the band, was in constant contact with her skin. “I wasn’t paying attention. I thought we hadn’t gone anywhere so I didn’t even look. But we need to try to find Vik here. We can’t give up just yet.” Finally, she landed on a plan of action that satisfied her, and her mood calmed. “We’ll look for Vik first. Then, whether we find him or not, we’ll figure out a way to get back into the Hub.”

  Despite being somewhat confused about the whole parallel Earth scenario, the parallel family quickly rallied around Eve’s plan. In the end, due simply to the size of their rental car, it was decided that Parallel Charlie and Parallel Emma would join Charlie, Emma, Eve, and Ben on the quest to find Vik, and the parents would stay home. Ben wanted to go find Parallel Ben, but Eve convinced him there was no time for that.

  “Can we come back one day and meet him?” Ben asked. How often would any of them have a chance to meet a true doppelgänger?

  “I’m not even sure how we got here in the first place,” Eve said. As it wasn’t a flat-out “no,” Ben held out hope and agreed to move on with the search.

  The six teens piled into the car. Parallel Charlie drove; Eve sat next to him in the middle front seat, but she was practically in Ben’s lap, in the passenger seat. Charlie sat in the middle in the back, with Parallel Emma on his left, and Emma on his right.

  “Not exactly the seating configuration I would have chosen,” said Charlie, eyeing with jealousy how close Eve was to Ben. From either side of him, both Parallel Emma and Emma punched Charlie in the arm. “Definitely not how I would have arranged us,” he mumbled.

  They drove around the island a while, none of them quite sure what they were looking for. Eve held the energy-tracing rock in her hand, checking it constantly to see if it was giving off any signals. It was not.

  “What do we do if we find this guy?” asked Parallel Charlie. “I’d say between the six of us we can hold him, but is there a Multiverse Police we can call to come get him?” In the course of driving around, Eve, Ben, Emma, and Charlie had pretty much gotten Parallel Charlie and Parallel Emma up to speed on the idea of the multiverse.

  “Multiverse Police,” repeated Charlie, snickering. “We are funny, funny people, Parallel Charlie. To think there are two of us. The universes are so lucky!” He and Parallel Charlie high-fived.

  “No Multiverse Police,” said Eve. “Dad and I each have a device to use if we find him, it’ll send him straight back to our planet—and universe, obviously—where they’ll deal with him. At least, that’s the idea. Testing was … well, it wasn’t entirely consistent. But it’s the best we have. Dr. Waldo calls them ‘pigeons,’ named after the idea of homing pigeons. They can’t take you everywhere, but they can be calibrated to take you to one specific place—in our case, home.”

  Eve’s words sounded ominous. “What do you mean, ‘testing wasn’t consistent’?” asked Emma, suppressing an urge to ask to see the pigeon. She didn’t want to look overeager.

  “Well,” said Eve, “There may have been occasions on which the object that was supposed to be sent home, actually was … sort of obliterated.”

  “Obliterated?” asked Parallel Charlie, swerving slightly on the road. “Obliterated how?”

  “We think the particles of the object were … spread out, more or less. That’s our best guess, based on the particles that did come through. But,” she said with forced cheerfulness, “that was in early tests. Almost all the later testing went perfectly well.”

  “‘Almost all,’” said Emma. “Remind me not to use one of those ‘pigeons.’” Traveling the universes sounded fun, she thought, but only so long as she actually remained in one piece.

  “Dr. Waldo didn’t tell me all that,” said Ben, his eyes wide.

  “What do you mean? When did you talk with him about the pigeons?” asked Eve.

  “When I first came back to the Hub, by myself. He and I talked a while about my coming along with you. He gave me a pigeon, too, in case we find Vik. But he didn’t say it could obliterate anyone.” He looked sobered and a little distressed. What other critical information had Dr. Waldo withheld?

  “Well, it’s not meant for any of us to use, anyway,” said Eve. “And Dr. Waldo has always been an optimist. He’s probably assuming he’s got all the bugs worked out. And maybe he has. He tinkers with these all the time, takes back the ones we have and gives us new ones that he says will work better. If he gave you one, it’s probably even more accurate than mine. Don’t worry. You won’t need to use it anyway. We’ll use mine instead.”

  Despite her words, Ben did not look reassured.

  Charlie, however, was agitated to learn that yet again, Ben had won the Multiverse Lottery. First, Ben got to come along without playing tricks on his parents. Second, he got to sit with—or practically under—Eve in this car. And now this. Emma could feel Charlie’s aggravation emanating from him. Even Parallel Emma knew something was bothering her parallel twin, but she didn’t have enough information to know what it was. Emma and Parallel Emma exchanged a look of commiseration. He may be an idiot, but he was their idiot, and it didn’t make them happy to see him distressed.

  After driving around aimlessly for two hours and finding absolutely nothing, Eve declared the mission a failure and said the best thing to do would be for the non-parallels to go back to the Hub and try to get back in. “Maybe whatever was wrong has been fixed,” she said, though she didn’t sound hopeful.

  They drove back to the cabin to say goodbye to Parallel Amy Renee and Parallel Glen, and then Parallel Charlie drove all the teens to the lighthouse.

  “Can we come in?” Parallel Charlie asked. “To the elevator? Just to see?”

  But Eve was adamant. They’d already wasted enough time. They needed to get back to the Hub, get back to the search.

  That is, if Eve could get them back at all.

  chapter eight

  Walking through the lighthouse lobby that looked exactly like the one on their own Earth, the travelers piled into the storage room. “At least that worked,” said Eve. For whatever reason, the wishing rock master key would still unlock the door from the lobby into the elevator. But when Eve tried to get through to the Hub again, the inside door remained stubbornly closed.

  “No!” cried out Eve in frustration. “No, no, no!” She pounded her fists on the wall that stood between her and the safety of the Hub and let out a primal scream. “Let us in! Dr. Waldo, let us in!” Ben reached out for her, and the young woman collapsed into his arms.

  Whether or not Dr. Waldo heard them, the door remained closed.

  Emma felt Eve’s pain. Eve was separated from her father and her world, as now Emma and Charlie and Ben were separated from their own Earth. Emma felt certain that if they were stuck here, all the parallel families would take them in, but it wouldn’t be the same. And what of their own parents and famili
es, back home? She and Charlie had run off without saying a thing, sneaking away, certain that they’d go off, discover new planets, find Vik, and be home before dinner. Now what? Everything had gone wrong. She had no idea what to do. She was glad Eve had sent Parallel Charlie and Parallel Emma home. They were nice enough, obviously, but coping with the reality of their existence on top of everything else would have been just too much at the moment. She turned to her brother and slouched into his shoulder for comfort. He wrapped his arms around her and placed his chin on top of her head.

  Eve rested in Ben’s embrace, deep in thought, staring at the wall. In a moment, however, her demeanor changed from despair to resolve. She stood up straight with a look of firm determination. “I’m getting you guys home,” she said. “I just am.” Without stopping to warn the others to hang on to something, Eve punched coordinates into the panel. She braced herself against the wall, and they waited.

  At first, nothing. Then, the sound of the boot being sucked out of the mud. The dizziness. The insides turning out. The metallic smoky honey smell.

  The silence.

  The corners of Eve’s mouth turned up in a weak smile. “We’re home?”

  She opened the door to the outside.

  Looking over Eve’s shoulder, Ben shook his head slowly. “I don’t think this is home,” he said.

  Through the open door, a roar of surging water crashed all around them and echoed throughout the interior of the traveling storage room. Holding tight to the frame of the door with one hand and reaching behind her to hold on to Charlie with the other, Emma peered cautiously around the door frame. Spray from a crashing wave spattered her face, and she ducked immediately back into the safety of the elevator. “What in the world!” she said, wiping her face with her sleeve. She looked out again.

  This elevator was definitely not tucked serenely inside a quiet lighthouse like those on Earth. On this world, this elevator was perched quite precariously on a jagged island, a tiny bit of barren lava-like reef jutting out above the roiling waters of an endless sea. The drop-off from the elevator to the water was only a few feet beyond the open door. There was not another bit of land in sight. The ocean churned around them, threatening sinisterly to reach in with a fickle wave and grab the youngsters, forever claiming them for the watery depths of this planet.

  “Not here!” said Eve. She closed the door rapidly, just as a great swell of water burst against the rock they’d landed on.

  With the door shut on the wet world, the cacophony of the sea disappeared. The only sound was that of the four teens, breathing hard.

  Emma’s heart was beating as fast as one of Dr. Waldo’s jigs. “What was that?” she said, catching her breath.

  Eve shook her head. “Wrong planet, that’s for sure. No way Vik could be there,” she said. She looked at the panel. “Try again, Eve, try again,” she muttered to herself.

  Still unsettled, the others watched without word as Eve input more coordinates into the device on the elevator wall. Eve grasped at the wishing rock pendant around her neck as she finished the sequence.

  “Here goes nothing again,” she said.

  Boot sucking. Wooziness. Smoke.

  The door opened.

  In complete contrast to the watery world they’d just escaped, this planet spread out before them arid and thirsty as far as the eye could see in the blazing light. Not one bush, tree, or hill marred the horizon. An occasional gust of wind lifted the dust in a stunted short-lived swirl.

  Emma’s throat felt parched just looking at the scene.

  Taking off her jacket as the torrid heat crowded out the cool air within the elevator, Eve stepped cautiously outside. The others followed. Ben set down his own jacket just outside the elevator door.

  “So we can find the door again,” he said at Emma’s inquiring look.

  Emma didn’t understand, but didn’t want to admit her ignorance. She just nodded.

  The group wandered slowly and aimlessly away from the safety of the elevator. Looking for what, no one could say; the terrain harbored no secrets, unless they were underground. A flat nothingness surrounded them. Emma spun slowly in a circle to survey all the land. She saw nothing.

  Nothing! She suddenly panicked. Where was the elevator? She could see the lump of Ben’s jacket, but nothing else.

  “Eve!” she said. “The elevator! It’s gone!”

  Eve turned back toward where they’d come from, and saw the nothingness where there once had been something, but her expression didn’t change. “It’s okay,” she said. “That’s what happens. There’s no building here to hide the elevator, so it hides itself. But it’s still there. You have your necklace on, right, with the wishing rock?”

  Emma nodded.

  “So, if you go closer, you’ll sort of ‘feel’ the elevator again. Think about the elevator and let the universes know you want in, and when you’re close enough, the door will open. Don’t worry,” she continued with a smile. “You get used to it. This isn’t my first rodeo, as you all say.”

  Emma looked at Ben, who was grinning from ear to ear. Clearly, he’d already been told about this disappearing act. His black jacket stood out darkly on the beige landscape, an inky bread crumb to help them find their way back.

  To convince herself that they were all still safe, Emma did as Eve said—she walked closer to Ben’s jacket. Just as Eve had promised, after a few steps Emma started to feel a vibration. It didn’t seem to be coming from the wishing rock on the cord around her neck, but rather from all around her. Her skin hummed, her ears filled with a silent thrumming. “Yes,” she said. “Even without the jacket I’d know. We’re close. I can tell.” Not quite sure how to talk to the universes, she sent out a hesitant thought: Open the door, please? Universes, please open the door? With another step she was close enough, and the door slid open.

  “Definitely smart,” Emma said to Ben, nodding at his jacket.

  Emma moved away from the elevator and the door closed again. The elevator disappeared.

  One hand on his hip, another shielding his eyes from the glaring sunlight, Charlie surveyed the unchanging landscape. “He can’t be here, can he?” he asked Eve. “Where could he even go?”

  Holding her right hand out in front of her, the hand with the energy rock ring calibrated to Vik’s energy, Eve squinted and blinked. “We don’t know what else is out there. It looks like a whole lot of nothing from here, but there could be a city just over the horizon. Still, to get there he’d have to walk there, and that’s a long way to go. I agree, I don’t think he’s here. It’s just—” Eve shook her right hand. “I can’t tell—the light is tricky.” She looked up into the sky. “Two suns, that doesn’t help. I don’t think I’m seeing energy trails, but the light, it’s making mirages or something in the air, it’s so hard to tell.” She shook her head, then involuntarily shuddered. “This place is awful. Gives me the creeps. Nothing could live here,” she said. “I’m not even sure we could.”

  “Wait!” said Charlie. “Can we breathe? Is there oxygen?” He inhaled deeply several times, as if breathing more would answer his question.

  “We’re fine,” said Emma. “Remember, the bracelets? The amber with the air bubble? Remember what Dr. Waldo said, the atmospheric shield?” She reached out for his left arm, where the bracelet was securely clasped around his wrist. “You’re fine, Charles,” she said. “Pay attention. Calm down.”

  Eve pointed at her bracelet. “Probably using the air bubble right now,” she agreed.

  Emma inhaled deeply, grateful for the amber rock that provided them with the oxygen they were used to. Her exhale was almost a sigh as she scanned this foreign planet. Nothing here but nothing, she thought, but yet felt compelled to explore, at least a little bit. Who knew when she’d have another opportunity like this? The absence of anything but dust and sun felt bleak, but at the same time there was a peaceful calm in the lack. No encumbrances. No material goods to have or not have and be judged against. No confusing people to baffle and fru
strate her. She walked slowly in the direction of one of the suns, mesmerized by the void around her.

  Hearing Eve’s twinkling laughter, Emma looked back. She’d wandered farther than she realized. Eve, Ben, and Charlie were laughing, sharing a joke she wasn’t a part of. Like always. Even here, millions or billions or who knew how many miles away from home.

  I could just stay here and they wouldn’t even notice.

  The words appeared fully formed in Emma’s head without her bidding, but as she thought them she knew it was true.

  She looked at the bracelet on her wrist. I’m sure I can breathe without this, she thought. The air is just fine here. Something in her told her it was true. She reached to take it off.

  “Em! What are you doing!” The others had decided there was no point in staying, and Charlie had jogged over to get his sister, just as she’d released the bracelet’s hidden clasp. “Put that back on!” He reached out, grabbed her hand and the bracelet, and snapped it back on her wrist.

  “What were you thinking, Emma Ree?” Charlie studied her eyes, his face contorted with worry.

  She stared at him. What indeed had she been thinking?

  Catching her hand in his, Charlie led Emma back toward Eve and Ben, who were standing by Ben’s jacket at the open elevator door. Emma felt dazed, puzzled by her own actions. What happened back there? Seeking to comfort herself, Emma reached out and punched Charlie on the shoulder. “Dork,” she said softly.

  But Charlie didn’t return the punch like he usually did. Instead, he gave her a wide smile, then let go of her hand and ran off ahead to join the others.

  Once they were all in the elevator with the door sealed shut behind them, Emma’s head seemed to clear a bit. That was weird, she thought. The epitome of discombobulating. Maybe she wasn’t quite as ready to travel the universes as she’d thought.

  Eve, determined to get them back to Dr. Waldo, stood and stared at the wall that should have let them back into the Hub. If sheer force of gaze could have opened it, she would have opened it with her eyes. But the entrance remained resolutely closed.