The Universes Inside the Lighthouse

by Stucky, Pam

  Be compassionate. Emma heard Doethine’s words repeating in her head. Step into their story from their perspective.

  “I heard about your friend dying,” said Emma. “I’m so sorry. I can’t even imagine how much that would hurt. That must have been horrible.” Emma felt the tiniest bit of tension flow out of Vik’s hold.

  “… Thank you,” said Vik haltingly. “It was.”

  As quickly as Vik had loosened his grip, it rushed back in again, The Void reclaiming its hold on him. Vik stiffened, and Emma struggled to keep him in her hold.

  “It was his fault,” said Vik. “I don’t need friends, anyway. My life is better without other people. Other people just make trouble. They’re only concerned with their own lives. They say they care about you, and then they ignore you. Other people are unreliable and only cause pain. I am happiest when I am alone.”

  “That can’t be true,” said Emma, pulling Vik with her as she stepped back and to the side in three-quarter time. “Sure, relationships are challenging, but they’re worth it. You were right, earlier, when you said I often wish I were out at the parties, too. Being around people is sometimes scary for me, because I don’t always know the right thing to say. I feel like an idiot. But at the same time, my favorite times are times I’ve spent with friends.”

  The words tumbled out of Emma, but she could tell she wasn’t having any effect on Vik. Keep trying, she told herself, though she felt ready to give up. Be courageous.

  “What do you like to do?” she asked, scrambling for a connection. “Like, do you like dancing? Or, do you like to build things? When I was a kid, on our planet we had these little brick building blocks, and Charlie and I loved to make houses. I never really played with dolls, but I loved to build houses for them. Did you ever do anything like that?”

  For a fleeting moment, Vik—the real Vik—was back again. “I always liked building bridges,” he said. “I liked to see how much weight I could get them to hold.”

  Was that a smile? Not really, Emma decided, but it was the beginning of one. “That’s awesome!” she said. “Bridges are amazing. The fact that people can build something over water, without any supports in the middle, that’s sort of incredible, isn’t it?”

  “Bridges are unnecessary,” said The Void through Vik. “Connection is unnecessary. People have what they need, where they are.”

  Without realizing it, Emma had led Vik away from the rest of the group, farther away than she cared to be. Holding her fear in check, she gently guided their dance in an arc until they were turned around, and started leading them back to the others.

  “Connection is absolutely necessary,” she said. “No one person can provide everything for himself. We need each other. You had the right idea when you built those bridges. And besides, building them was fun, wasn’t it?”

  Vik looked at her. “It was.” He looked away as The Void tried another tactic. “Look, your friends, they’ve forgotten you again already. They aren’t even paying attention to you.”

  Emma didn’t bite. “No, you’re wrong. They’re watching. They trust me. They know I’m strong, and so do I. And if I need them, they’re right there for me.”

  “They didn’t come with you.”

  “They would have if I’d asked.”

  Vik and The Void were silent. Emma took the opportunity to try again.

  “Vik,” she said, “isn’t it hard on you, living with all this anger and pain inside you? This dancing, this is nice, isn’t it? Being with people again instead of being all alone? I know it’s scary. It’s scary for me sometimes, too. It’s scary for me right now. A lot scary. But it’s nice, right?”

  Emma kept her eyes on his, refusing to look away. She would not abandon the young man inside. She would stay with him as she knew her friends would do for her. Step into their story from their perspective. “I can’t imagine how awful it would be to lose a friend. The grief. The feeling that no one else could understand. And The Void, it slipped right in. But The Void lied to you, Vik. People do understand. And even if they don’t, they’re here to listen. I’m here to listen. Dr. Waldo, he knows people who can help you. People who can give you your life back—a real life, not this shell of a life. You have to want it, though, Vik. You have to believe it’s worth it. You have to decide you are willing to fight for it. It has to start with you.”

  Vik’s eyes filled with tears. The struggle within him played out like a light switch going on and off, on and off, on and off. In his eyes, Emma could see him fighting, knew there was hope, but also knew she couldn’t help him by herself. She had to do something, and she had to do something now.

  Doethine, help me, she thought. I don’t know if I can manage what I’m about to try. Help me.

  With all the energy Emma had left in her, she gathered up her friends in her mind for one last trip, and took everyone home.

  chapter fourteen

  Charlie sat on the steps of the lighthouse, on the verge of tears as he held Emma, not knowing what to do. Last he knew, he’d been dancing with Eve and the other Charlie on some desolate planet; then, suddenly, he was here. He’d felt dizzy and discombobulated on arrival back on Earth, so it took him a few minutes to realize Emma was in a far worse condition. Her face was ashen, she was barely breathing, and her heartbeat was more of a puff than a pulse. He’d carried her outside, for fresh air and hoping to find the others there—where had they gone? Had Emma not brought them back, too?—and it was there he was sitting when Ed and the others drove up in Ed’s truck.

  “You’re back! Guys, I don’t know what happened to Emma. Something went wrong when she brought us all back here. I think she’s traveled through the universes too many times. This last one was too much, bringing all of us home. Someone, help her! Dr. Waldo, can you help?” Charlie pleaded without stopping for breath.

  “What are you saying?” said Dr. Waldo, rushing to Emma’s side, feeling her forehead. It was cold and clammy. “She’s traveled through the universes? What do you mean?”

  “And what do you mean, ‘brought all of us back here’?” said Milo.

  Emma’s eyes fluttered.

  “Emma are you there?” said Dr. Waldo. He checked her pulse. “I’m not a medical doctor,” he said, flustered. “I don’t … if we could just get in the Hub …”

  “Charlie, what do you mean ‘brought all of us back here’?” Milo repeated.

  Charlie looked at him, confused. “What do I mean? Don’t you know?” Then, realization spread over his face. “Do you mean you haven’t gone yet? It’s time, isn’t it, time travel, you told us it’s tricky, it must still be in your future, Emma got us back before you left … Emma, you brilliant little dork, how did you do that?” Charlie stopped talking out loud, but his lips still moved, talking to himself as he worked through the sequence of events. After a few moments, he looked up and spoke again. “Ed!” he said. “Ed, do you have a phone and speakers?”

  Puzzled by this odd change of topic, Ed hesitated. “I guess I do, in the car? But Emma—”

  “Go get your phone and your speakers, and hang on to them … and hang on tight to Dr. Waldo, Emma doesn’t know she’s bringing you too …”

  Ed stared at Milo. “Charlie, are you okay? She doesn’t know she’s bringing me where? You’re not making any sense.”

  Charlie grew red in the face. “GET THE SPEAKERS!” he yelled. “Get them, and then hang on to Dr. Waldo, I just know it works, but I don’t know when …”

  Shaking his head, Ed jogged to his car, got his phone and portable speakers out of the glove compartment, and came back to stand next to Dr. Waldo. He linked elbows with with the gray-haired scientist and held tight.

  “Milo!” said Charlie. “Get Ed’s other arm. I don’t know … I mean I know she did it, but …”

  Milo, more familiar with things that made no sense, asked no questions. He stood at Ed’s other side and wrapped his arm around Ed’s, while Ed struggled to hang on to the phone and speakers at the same time.

  �
��I don’t know when it’s going to happen, but just be ready,” said Charlie. “Ben, Charlie, Eve, you too, you’re all going, too. Will you all go? We need you! You have to go!”

  “Of course, whatever you need,” said Eve. “But Charlie, where are we—”

  And then they were gone.

  Breathing heavily, Charlie stared at the empty spaces where the six people had been just moments before. “She got them all. She got them all.” He looked down at Emma, still in his arms. “You got them all, Emma, I mean, I knew you did, because I was there, but you got them all, good job.” He kissed her forehead. “Good job, Emma. Now, I guess, bring them back when you’re ready, which you already did, except where are the rest of them?” He rambled on in his state of panic.

  The familiar sound of Charlie’s voice seeped through Emma’s mind, tickling her brain cells and waking them up. Her eyelids fluttered again, and this time she opened her eyes.

  “Charlie?” she said in a hoarse whisper. “Is that you? The real you? Where are we?”

  Charlie wept with relief as Emma raised herself up to a sitting position. She sat next to her brother and leaned heavily on him for support, looking around.

  “Are we back on Earth? Our Earth? Back at the lighthouse?”

  “Yes, it’s me! Yes, we are,” said Charlie. “You did it, Em, you got us home.” He held her tight, put his chin on the top of her head. “Emma. My Em. You’re going to be okay.”

  “What’s wrong?” she said, sensing there was something Charlie wasn’t telling her.

  “The others,” said Charlie. “I don’t know where they are. You got us—you and me—back here before the rest of them had left. Now they’re off on that planet, I guess, but I don’t know if you got them back, or where they are.”

  Emma took in this information. She was sapped, tired to her bones. She could not imagine being more weary and still being alive. Traveling on her own accord through the universes, three times, bringing people along with her, pulling them out of their own worlds to come to hers, had taken an immense toll on her. She knew without a doubt that she had stretched the boundaries of the rules of the universes.

  “Oh, Charlie,” she said, shaking her head, “I think I’ve messed up. I brought all those people to us, and I didn’t get permission. That can’t be allowed. You can’t just pick people up and move them, that has to be against the rules. Maybe that’s why they’re not back. Maybe I just messed it all up too badly.”

  “Emma, no!” said Charlie, leaning back to look his sister in the eyes. “I asked them. You got us here before you took them to the other planet … I mean … well, when we got here they were still here and hadn’t gone yet, and I asked them if they’d go. Right after I asked, that’s when they disappeared.”

  “They did? You did?” Emma said with relief. “So I didn’t take them without their knowing?”

  “Well,” said Charlie, “I didn’t exactly have time to explain everything, but I told them we needed them. Eve said they’d go, and they were gone.”

  Emma dropped her head back to Charlie’s shoulder. “I’ve missed you, Charlie,” she said.

  “I missed you, too, Em,” he said. “You never did finish telling me where all you went. A ghost universe, and a dinosaur planet, you said? I want to hear all of it.”

  And so she told him everything.

  Emma had finished sharing her stories, and she and Charlie were still sitting on the lighthouse steps, resting, when the others returned. They appeared slowly, a shimmer in the air at first, then growing more solid from moment to moment until finally, they were all reassembled and whole again, back on solid ground.

  The returning space travelers looked at each other, stunned.

  “How …?” said Ben.

  “Emma, did you do that?” said Dr. Waldo. “Did you … travel, without the elevators, without a pigeon, without Dark MATTER? That was dangerous, my child, so very dangerous, do you know?” He looked deeply concerned, but at the same time, he was overflowing with eager questions.

  Emma nodded. “I did that,” she said with a small smile, still tired, but pleased with herself.

  “But how? How did you do that? We’ve speculated that it’s possible, but …”

  “Doethine,” said Emma, looking at Eve. “Great Aunt Doethine told me how.”

  “She did?” said Dr. Waldo, incredulous.

  “Well, not really. She did and she didn’t.” Emma took a page from Doethine’s book and said no more.

  “The time travel, though?” said Ben. “Dr. Waldo, how did she do that? Getting us back at different times? Were we there, and here, at the same time? I don’t understand. How is that possible?”

  Dr. Waldo shrugged. “Time is tricky, my son. Time is tricky. We were probably not in two places at once, we just weren’t all in the same places at the same time,” he said, clarifying nothing. “Best not to try too hard to understand. If it happened, then it happened. Sometimes that’s all we know. And sometimes, we’re not even sure of that.”

  Of all the travelers, Ed had been the least prepared. “What the heck just happened?” he asked. “One minute Charlie’s asking me if I have portable speakers, next minute I’m on some planet with two suns, dancing with Milo like it’s the most important thing in the universe, and then I’m back here again. Can someone maybe please explain?” He leaned against the hood of his car and shook his head in disbelief.

  “Universes,” said Charlie. “Plural.”

  Milo walked over to Ed, joined him in leaning against the car, put an arm around Ed’s shoulders, and started to interpret the chain of events, as best he could.

  Watching this, and seeing the people around her, her new friends, Ben, her brother and her parallel brother from another planet, all united in their confused triumph, left Emma feeling a warm glow of satisfaction. She was exhausted, beyond tired, but she was proud of herself. She’d tackled the universes, she’d taken on Vik—

  “Vik!” she blurted out, sitting up. “Did he go back to Lero? How can we find out?”

  “To Lero? Vik? How would he get there?” Dr. Waldo asked cautiously. “Did you …?”

  “That’s where I sent him,” said Emma, “or at least, that’s where I meant to send him. He’s still inside his mind, Vik is; The Void hasn’t taken him over completely. But I couldn’t do everything myself—keep everyone safe, get us all back here, and save Vik. I sent him back to Lero. Is there a way we can find out if he got there? Is the elevator working yet?”

  “The elevator!” said Dr. Waldo. “I completely forgot why we were on our way here, before we got … well, sidetracked. Emma, my dear, I have traveled far, yes quite far, far and wide into the depths of Western Australia here on your planet, looking, my dear, looking for the oldest thing I could think of, and I’ve brought back with me what I believe will be a new key to the Hub. Would you do the honor of joining me to see if it works?”

  With a beaming smile, Emma nodded.

  Dr. Waldo gleefully quick-stepped through the lighthouse lobby to the storage room, with Emma by his side, held protectively by Charlie as he helped her walk. The others followed closely behind. Dr. Waldo opened the storage room door with his wishing rock. As he switched on the light in the tiny room, everyone piled in, making for a very tight space. Once all limbs were inside, the door closed behind them.

  “The moment of truth,” said Dr. Waldo, taking a small black box out of his lab coat pocket. He held it out in the palm of his hand. “Emma, would you …?”

  The box looked like it might hold an engagement ring or a diamond pendant. Still, Emma knew that if indeed this rock could unlock the Hub again, its worth was far greater than any gemstone. She took the box from Dr. Waldo’s hands and opened the lid.

  The rock inside had been hewn in two. Wavy lines of black, gray, white, and myriad shades of brown danced over the surface exposed by the cut. Another person might have dismissed this as just a pretty rock, but Emma held it as though it were gold. With the rock clutched tightly in her fing
ers, she waved her hand in front of the door to the Hub. Open, dear Hub, we need you back, she thought.

  The doors slid open without hesitation.

  Emma gasped. Dr. Waldo gasped.

  What they saw before them … was nothing.

  A vast, empty space, filled with nothingness.

  “All gone,” said Dr. Waldo with a deep sigh. “All gone. Back to the beginning.”

  Emma was ready to console Dr. Waldo when suddenly he hopped and skipped out of the elevator and into the nothingness.

  “Wait, no, don’t—” she said, but she stopped mid-sentence when she saw Dr. Waldo standing there in the space, suspended in air as though there were a floor beneath him, holding him up. Even as she watched, a floor started to appear under him, spreading out from beneath his feet. Dr. Waldo stood with a look of great concentration, his gaze fixed on his shoes and the space beyond and around them. The ground he apparently was creating out of nothingness grew wider and bigger, a copy of the short-cropped grassy area that had been there before. Except this time, the grass was blue.

  “I get to start all over!” said Dr. Waldo, spreading his arms with joy. “Start from scratch! Thank you, Hub! Everything is possible, you know, everything, now that I know more, know better, I can start all over. Don’t you worry, my friends, just a hiccup in the multiverse. The Hub can be taken down, but as long as we are living and breathing with a will to discover, it cannot be destroyed. Come in, come in, come in to the new Hub!”

  Emma, the Charlies, and all the rest passed through the doorway onto the newly formed blue grass, mouths gaping in awe.