“So, that’s a no then, isn’t it,” Wayne’s voice sounded harsher than he intended.
“She was in her room, then she wasn’t,” the officer then said after a short hesitation. “No one saw her leave, no one’s seen her since. Nobody has any idea where she’s gone or why. There’s nothing missing. She’s just vanished and yes, you’re right, we haven’t a clue what to do next. Except hope. There’s always hope, until . . . ” the man didn’t finish his last sentence. Wayne knew what he wanted to say, ‘until a body turns up’. He was glad the officer refrained from giving voice to his darkest fears.
That meant that the authorities could do nothing. Absolutely nothing except to stand around and make useless notes. No one knew how to find Tammy. Nobody knew anything. Not one of the grade twelve’s had seen Tammy since the previous afternoon. She had gone home with her mother in her mother’s car and that was the last her friends and classmates had seen of her.
Wayne worried. The only idea that seemed worth pursuing was the crazy Snap game. He sent a text message to his father, to remind him to act on the article in the Sunday paper. His dad must try and find the phone number of the two brothers in Sabie. Wayne wanted to call them as soon as he got home that afternoon.
Two brothers!
Ken and Ben. What could the kids in Sabie tell him that Ken and Ben couldn’t? He could find Ben now. He should be at school, although Wayne hadn’t seen him amongst the kids interviewed by the police. Ken had told him that Ben behaved very strangely from the instant he reappeared. Wayne knew Ben well. He would find Ben amongst the clusters of youngsters awaiting the school bell and talk to him, see for himself if Ken was right about his brother’s personality change.
After a few minutes of searching, Wayne saw Ben in the shade of some trees talking to a group of girls. It looked as if Ben was entertaining the girls, because they were all laughing with him.
Wayne was astonished at the sight. It was definitely a first for Ben. Girls laughed at Ben. Not with him. Never before had he seen Ben in female company. A single girl would have been surprising in itself. But a group? Ben was always a loner and afraid of girls. His shyness was almost an illness, resulting in or from very low self-esteem, lack of confidence and a very introverted style. Yet, there he was, laughing and joking with several girls. This must be what Ken meant, by a total personality change. Was Ben aware he was different? What would he say about it? Did he even realize he was acting so completely out of character? And, perhaps most importantly, where had he been for those minutes he was missing?
“Hi, Ben,” Wayne called as he approached Ben’s group.
Ben turned towards him and grabbed his right hand.
“How’s it going, Wayne, old pal?” Ben said with a broad smile.
This was definitely different. Being called an old pal was another first. Ben using such a strange greeting and shaking his hand was even more out of character.
“Good, man. Good. I’m good,” Wayne blurted out as he tried to be as enthusiastic as Ben seemed, but Wayne was in too much of a hurry for small-talk. “Although I’m worried sick about Tammy. She’s been gone for almost twenty-four hours now. Vanished right out of her bedroom.” Wayne pressed on. “I heard from Ken that you disappeared for a few minutes last night, too. Do you remember anything about it, and do you know where you went?” Wayne wanted answers before the school bell rang. He wouldn’t get another chance until much later in the day.
“Me? Vanish? No way, buddy. Ken must have been sniffing glue. He probably thought I disappeared when I went to the bathroom. Daft and stupid, he is sometimes. Well, most times really . . . ”
“Sniffed glue?” Wayne asked in astonishment. Some of the girls laughed out loud, but Wayne ignored them. “Does Ken sniff glue?”
“Figure of speech, mate. I didn’t go anywhere. Maybe to the bog or the kitchen. Ken must have nodded off in front of his computer and dreamt about me vanishing. Nice that old Ken still worries about his brother.”
“Ken said you beat him at everything you played . . . ”
The memory brought a smile to Ben’s face. He obviously wanted to impress his girlfriends and made sure they all heard the answer.
“No, bud, I didn’t just beat Ken. I destroyed him. I showed him I’m better at that stupid game he liked so much . . . ”
Wayne stopped listening to Ben boasting. Ben, in turn, lost interest in Wayne and turned back to the girls. Wayne watched as Ben put his arm around a girl’s shoulder and pulled her towards him.
First Wayne couldn’t believe his ears, with Ben using such strange speech patterns. Now he couldn’t believe his eyes. This was not the Ben he knew. He now believed, really believed, Ken’s crazy story. This Ben was not Ken’s brother.
Wayne frowned as Ben walked away, hoping that Tammy wouldn’t change her personality when she reappeared. That would be disastrous. He liked her just the way she was. This self-complacent Ben was a pain in the . . . whatever.
“Ben,” he called, and Ben unwillingly turned towards him again. “Ken said that there was a message on your monitor, before you vanished. It asked if you wanted to play Snap. He said you couldn’t make it go away? Do you remember anything about that?”
Ben glared at him. He was almost snarling. Ben had never appeared so hostile before. Then the boy shook his head. “No message. Ken’s a screw-up. Now leave me alone. I’m busy.”
Wayne turned away. He was sure that Ben knew something, but Wayne was also sure that Ben wasn’t going to talk about it.
That afternoon Wayne phoned Sabie from their landline. He spoke to Diekie Malherbe who had made the video when his older brother, Frik, had disappeared.
Diekie told Wayne that Frik’s girlfriend had dropped him the day prior to the event and that Frik was really depressed. He’d taken it very badly. The only thing that Frik wanted to do was to bury himself in mindless games on the Internet. He wouldn’t talk to anyone. Not him, not any of their friends or even his parents.
“Did you see which game your brother played?” asked Wayne.
“Yes, he played WOW for a while, then Shogun.” The newspaper said that Diekie was fourteen years old. “The last game he played was Snap.”
A strange feeling took hold of Wayne.
“Snap? Are you sure?” Wayne needed to be sure. Confirmation would mean he was definitely on to something.
“Yes, you can even see the message on my video.”
Wayne immediately thought of Ben, and how Ben had changed so much in such a short time.
“After your brother had reappeared,” Wayne asked, “was he still down in the dumps over his girlfriend?”
“No,” Wayne heard surprise in Diekie’s voice even over the telephone. “No, not at all. That’s what’s so weird about all this.”
“Go on,” Wayne urged.
“He phoned another girl and asked her out. Straight away. They went for a milkshake somewhere. He’s totally over his old girlfriend. Like he just didn’t give a damn anymore.” Wayne heard Diekie snap his fingers to emphasize the sudden change in his brother.
Wayne talked a little more, just to be polite, then rang off.
To Wayne, the conversation confirmed that the game, Snap definitely had something to do with the disappearances of Frik and Ben. Yet there was a massive difference between what had happened to Ben and Frik, and what had happened to Tammy. Tammy had not come back, old or changed personality notwithstanding. So, had Snap something to do with what had happened to her?
The previous night he had tried everything to make Snap appear on his computer, but nothing had happened. According to Ken, Ben had said the message had appeared without any warning and that it didn’t want to go away or couldn’t be closed. So, Ben had no choice but to play. Why was that? What was it with this game that made it appear to Ben and Frik but not to him?
There was no obvious answer to Wayne. He was about the same age as the other two, they all had PC’s rather than Apple computers. There seemed to be no difference where the mac
hines were placed, or which sort engines they used. All had used Google. So, what was different? Before the game, Diekie’s brother was down because his girlfriend had dropped him. But Ben hadn’t been dumped. But, perhaps Ben was miserable too, because Ken kept beating him on the computer. So, both Frik and Ben could have been feeling low. Assuming they were depressed, Wayne wasn’t. Okay, he had the assignment to do, but that didn’t get him down. He felt good because . . . It took him a while to admit it. He felt good because he really liked Tammy. And she really liked him. Didn’t she?
Wayne tried to picture the four people he was puzzling over, Ben, Frik, Tammy and himself. It was a bit confusing, so he decided to put his thoughts down on paper.
Wayne went to his bedroom and sat behind his desk-cum-worktop and pulled a pad of paper closer. He opened the pad at the center spread to give him maximum writing space, and wrote on top of the page:
Ben; Frik; Tammy; Me
Underneath both Ben and Frik he wrote: feeling bad, Internet games.
He looked at Tammy’s name. She was feeling okay, wasn’t she? She was happy with their relationship.
Wayne pictured Tammy’s face and tried to remember the last thing she had said. That he could come over to her house? That was true and . . . Nothing wrong there. So, he would go to her house and get his stupid printout! Of course, she said stupid, so she was cross. She must have been cross with him. What had he done? Wayne couldn’t remember. Had she had her hair cut and he hadn’t noticed? No, Tammy wouldn’t get cross because he hadn’t noticed something, she’d just think he was unobservant. It had to be something more serious.
Wayne dug deep into his memory. He pictured himself just before they parted. He was standing there, gazing at her cute little face and laughing. What were they laughing at? Oh no, he thought, he was laughing, Tammy wasn’t. The last time he had seen Tammy he had laughed at a big zit on her face.
She had been feeling bad about it . . .
And he had laughed.
A wave of guilt threatened to engulf Wayne. Tammy had been feeling bad and he had made her feel worse. Much, much worse. He felt such a fool. He had made her feel bad and she had still gone off to do his homework. Damn! He really didn’t deserve her.
Was that the common thread, feeling bad? All three of the disappeared were depressed about something.
Immediately he wrote feeling bad beneath Tammy’s name.
His eyes caught the word Internet.
All three of them had been busy on the Internet, because it seemed as if Tammy had vanished from in front of her machine. He wrote Internet underneath Tammy’s name. So, three depressed teenagers were on the Internet when they disappeared. Could that really be the key to what made Snap appear? It still didn’t seem right. How can a computer, a non-living machine, possibly know how anyone feels? Impossible, he thought, unless there was something behind the machines . . .
If there was, something extraordinarily strange and sinister was happening.
But where was Tammy? Why hasn’t she reappeared? What was the difference?
Wayne looked at his notes. Should he work himself into a bad place, a depressed state, then go on the Internet and see if the Snap message appears?
And if it appears, what then? Will he also disappear and reappear again? And what if he comes back changed, with a different personality?
Maybe he should run it past his dad. Perhaps his dad could be with him while he tried to get the message up on his screen, so that someone will know what’s going on if he disappears, too.
Chapter Twelve
HIROSHI FINISHED SHARPENING the long spear and passed it to Ulrich.
“You can guard us now, too,” Hiroshi said and slapped Ulrich on the back.
Tammy saw Etsu smile before she stooped to pick the eggs up. As far as Etsu was concerned, the more weapons, the better.
“With pleasure,” Ulrich agreed and looked at Tammy as if to say that he was happy to be protecting her.
With Ulrich in the vicinity, Tammy felt safe. More than just safe, Ulrich made her feel special. From all the attention he gave her, she felt that he must really like her. And there was no doubt that he was tugging at her heart strings. She was starting to really like him back. She vowed to keep those feelings in check though, because if they escaped from this place, they lived too far apart for any relationship to really work. Escape would return them all to their countries of origin, probably never to meet again. Would they even remember what happened here? They didn’t know anything about any other occasions when their alter egos may have taken control of their bodies from them. Tammy’s other self had said that she had taken over from Tammy many times before. Yet, if anyone remembered this place, surely the existence of the Alter Ego Dimension would become common knowledge.
Did that mean she could do what she liked here, and no one back home would ever know?
Perhaps she didn’t need to keep those feelings in check after all . . .
The fluttering in her stomach she felt when Ulrich’s hand touched hers, or when he looked at her in his special way, only mattered here. She should seize every moment, enjoy life to the full. Their existence here was temporary. It would only last as long as it took them to escape, or, heaven forbid, until they failed in their bid to survive.
How permanent were the things here? How long could this tree live in its tiny piece of soil? Its deeper roots hadn’t been brought with it. There was no life-giving sunlight or water. At least the atmosphere was breathable.
Tammy looked at her friends. She could trust Hiroshi and Ulrich to protect her against the other selves as long as they survived. But how long would that be? Until they die from hunger and thirst or until another self takes them by surprise? Perhaps it would be better to allow their alter egos to beat them? Then at least the other self can go on living on earth.
Did she want that?
Did she want her detestable, superficial, self-obsessed self to go and live with her mother and be Wayne’s girlfriend? Was that better than dying of hunger and thirst?
Tammy’s depressing train of thought was interrupted as Ulrich took her hand.
“Let’s go to Etsu and Hiroshi’s room,” he said.
A wave of excitement took hold of Tammy. If she could die with Ulrich’s arms around her, death would lose its sting. When she was with him, this grayness, the hunger, the thirst and even the fear, were all suddenly much more bearable. Her negative thoughts vanished. She would fight for her right to life here or at home, as long as she had Ulrich for support.
“I must go to the bathroom,” Tammy said. “Just for a wee.”
Ulrich looked at her and then at Hiroshi.
“Where did you go to the toilet the last three days, Hiroshi?” he asked.
“Behind our room. I think the alter egos clean it up,” Hiroshi answered. “I don’t know how, but it’s always clean the next time we go.”
Ulrich looked at Tammy.
“Hold out a little longer. We need all the moisture we can get to make water,” he said with a smile.
Tammy was shocked.
“Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it sounds,” Ulrich consoled her. “People surviving on small boats for months at sea use the same method. It’s very pure and very clean.”
They used the locations of the tree and the aluminum door to determine what direction they should take to get back to Etsu and Hiroshi’s room. Tammy remembered that it was to the right of the room where she and the window area had first appeared. Ulrich’s bedroom door should be close by, too.
She had read somewhere that humans have one leg fractionally longer than the other, making people walk in circles over distances without landmarks, all because one leg steps a few millimeters further than the other with every pace. Luckily they didn’t have too far to walk, but she was still relieved when, a few minutes later, they arrived at the room.
Inside the room Ulrich explained his plan to make water. He needed a big piece of plastic and heavy objects, like books, to keep
the plastic in place. Then he would put something small but heavy enough on top of the plastic to make it dip just a little into a funnel shape. Lastly they would need something to catch the drops of water. The apparatus would be primitive, but it should work.
On top of Hiroshi’s desk, Tammy found a loose set of four plastic drawers. The whole set was about forty centimeters high, twenty wide and thirty long and the separate drawers could be pulled free. At home she had a similar set of plastic drawers to keep her desk tidy, because the desk itself has no drawers. “Just what we need to catch the water in,” she said aloud.
All four of them gathered around the set of drawers. Inside the drawers were small CD containers, each with twenty-five CD’s or DVD’s inside. The containers had see-through lids that Etsu said could be used as drinking cups. There were also two tin pen trays that would do to cook on. In one of the trays was a pair of compasses with which Tammy quickly made another hole in Chris’s belt. Now the belt fit perfectly around her waist.
Hiroshi helped as much as he could in finding useful items in the room, but he kept glancing toward the room entrance with his sword still poised, the weapon now held single-handed.
At last it felt like they were getting somewhere. They looked at ordinary items, like simple office stationary and furniture, with very different eyes. They discussed each find and the merits of what it could be used for. They pulled drawers and cupboards open and searched through everything from wastepaper baskets to school bags. In one of the school bags they found some school books covered with plastic covers. Not one of them could read the text in the neat handwriting, but the covers they would use in their quest for water.
They removed the plastic covers from the books and inspected them for holes. Ulrich told them to cover any holes with cellophane tape to keep the plastic almost airtight. They would dig holes in the ground next to the tree, put the plastic drawers inside the holes and cover the holes with the plastic covers, making the ground sweat. Drops of water should form underneath the plastic (through condensation, Ulrich told them), provided that there were no holes in the plastic, then trickle down into the drawers.
SNAP! and the Alter Ego Dimension Page 8