SNAP! and the Alter Ego Dimension

by Ann Hite Kemp

  “Better not, Wayne, it may be dangerous. I’ll try and contact Interpol. Let them send professionals to look for Tammy. What’s your email address?”

  Wayne spelled out his address slowly so that Mrs. Delport could take it down accurately. Then they rang off.

  Wayne stared at the screen of his monitor. Damn it! Why must Etsu Tanaka be in Japan? It’s four o’clock in the morning in Tokyo. She’ll be sleeping for another two hours or more. He didn’t want to wait two hours. If that place was dangerous, two hours could see him arriving too late. He wanted to go to Tammy now and rescue her. Tell her how sorry he was for laughing at her spot. Promise that he would never, ever do it again. Darn! He would learn from his mistakes.

  He quickly read his emails. Maybe Etsu Tanaka’s email had already arrived.

  With shaking fingers he logged on and typed in his email password. Luckily Tammy and her mother have a close relationship, or else her mother wouldn’t have known her password and couldn’t have read Tammy’s messages.

  Wait a minute . . . Tammy and Etsu must have had exchanged their email-addresses. How else could Etsu have sent an email? She really was with Tammy. They had talked . . .

  If only Etsu was awake . . .

  He would send her a message. Maybe she was awake. Maybe she would answer immediately.

  Ah, the email was there!

  He read the message quickly, then again:

  Hallo Tammy’s mother,

  Your daughter Tammy is trapped in the Alter Ego Dimension. She cannot escape. My brother killed my alter ego which freed me. Now I’m back at home. My brother is still with Tammy, she’s also made friends with a German boy named Ulrich and maybe an Australian named Nick. There is no food and water. Everybody is very hungry and thirsty. Alter egos want to overpower them and keep them there. Then they will come to earth, taking their place. We played Snap on the Internet, that game took us to the Alter Ego Dimension. Once there, the alter egos try to quickly overpower and capture us, then they are free to occupy our minds and bodies on earth.

  Tell people not to play Snap on the Internet. Many people and children came there and unfortunately we couldn’t save them. They vanished into grayness. There is nothing in that dimension. Only things brought through with you, things reflected in computer monitors. My brother was sitting behind me when I was captured, that was why we went there together.

  My brother will look after Tammy with our grandfather’s sword which he has with him. I’m sure he will get her home.

  Be strong.

  Etsu Tanaka from Tokyo, Japan

  Over and over again Wayne read the message.

  No food and water? They vanished into grayness? Things behind you that came with? What does this all mean? Her brother is looking after Tammy with an old man’s sword? She has a German friend? What’s going on there? Was there a war raging, or what? What was the grayness into which they vanished? Were “they” the people they couldn’t save?

  He must find out more from this Etsu. The more questions he asked, the more answers she’d give, the more he’ll know and the better prepared he can be.

  Darn! Look at what a mess he pushed Tammy into. And all because of his stupid, arrogant behavior. There were three men or boys with Tammy. One of them was protecting her with a sword. What a mess. That all happened because he made fun of a spot.

  Why was he not like his big brother? Everybody was always saying Yuri was so gentle and friendly. Everybody liked Yuri, because he was kind-hearted.

  He wished he could be like Yuri.

  Do you want to play Snap?

  He stared open mouthed at the message on the screen.

  Fear came throbbing in Wayne’s chest. His heartbeat sounded like drumbeats in his ears.

  Yes, No, Help

  What now? Was he going or staying?

  What did Etsu say about Snap?

  Wayne wanted to read her email again, but couldn’t. The message was in front of it.

  Should he rush off and call his dad, or will the message disappear after a few minutes? Could he call his dad on his phone and ask him to come to his room?

  NO!

  Wayne stared at Etsu’s email. The Snap-message had disappeared.

  Stupefied, Wayne stared at the screen. Damn it! Now he’d lost the chance to play.

  Wayne didn’t know what to think or do. He stared at the screen. What now? Why did this happen? Ken said that the message wouldn’t go away. Ken said that Ben had to play. So why then, did his message disappear?

  Because he wanted to call his dad? Can this game read minds?

  But this is not a game, Wayne realized. This Snap has something to do with alter egos. The other self. His other self was himself—only a little different. Did his other self know he wanted to call his dad, and so made the message disappear? Was his other self a clever and cunning Wayne?

  Damn it. This other self knows what he thinks and what he intends to do. If he wanted to let this game show up on his screen again, he had to be very, very careful.

  He has to control his thoughts.

  What did he do to make the message appear?

  What were his last thoughts?

  He had wished he was like his brother, Yuri.

  Okay, he could do it again. It should be easy, because deep inside he really did want to be like his brother. If he had been like Yuri, Tammy would still be with her mother. Yuri would never laugh at anybody’s natural face. Never. He’d pretend not to notice. Yuri had been head boy in twelfth grade. At university he was elected to something important in the Students Union. Yuri has a really cute girlfriend that’s totally besotted with him. Like he’s made of gold or something.

  If he was like Yuri, Tammy would have thought he was made of gold, too. He wished, he really wished he was more like Yuri. He was very jealous of his big brother. Yuri was so absolutely perfect. He wasn’t worth the soles of Yuri’s feet.

  He so much wanted to be like Yuri . . . Yuri was perfect in every way . . .

  Do you want to play Snap?

  His hand was on the mouse.

  Without hesitating he clicked on: Yes.

  Chapter Twenty

  "WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF WOOD," Hiroshi informed them while they were returning to the tree. They put the bowl of water, CD lids and the mug close to the trunk.

  “Are the water condensers working?” Nick asked.

  “I’ll check,” Ulrich said and went to crouch next to some plastic sheeting. He took out two of the wooden pins they’d made from branches and peeked underneath. As he raised the plastic everyone could see water trickle down toward the tray.

  “Yes!” Tammy shouted, pointing, “Look, look at all the water droplets hanging on the plastic. My goodness, Ulrich, you’re a genius.”

  Everybody stared at the visible signs of moisture on the inside of the clear plastic, although Hiroshi soon turned back to watch the entrance. The soil was definitely sweating from the heat of the fire.

  Ulrich straitened up, beaming.

  “Let’s break some more wood before we explore this place properly. When we come across wooden doors we should bring them back with us. We’ve got enough paper. A whole cabinet full.”

  “We’ll have to empty the metal basket, soon. It’s getting full of ash,” Tammy said. “Then we’ll have to start the fire again. We’ve lots of clothes to hold the hot basket with. We won’t have to wait for it to cool down.”

  “Better still would be a second bin,” Nick observed.

  “Sorry, folks, but I need the bathroom,” Tammy said, again looking slightly embarrassed.

  “I’ll come with you,” Ulrich proposed and picked up his spear, “and stand guard.”

  He lifted an exercise book from the ground, took Tammy’s hand and pulled her close to him. Again Tammy thought fleetingly of resisting, but in the end she didn’t. Together they went behind the aluminum doors.

  Leaving Hiroshi on guard, Tammy, Ulrich and Nick walked close beside each other into the unknown grayness. After Tammy and U
lrich had gone behind the aluminum sliding door, they had rinsed their hands with a little water in one of the CD-holders’ lids. Tammy’s hands felt a little cleaner than before and they recycled the dirty water by pouring it into one of the holes where they had the trays set up.

  Tammy’s right hand was held protectively in Ulrich’s left. His right hand was clutching the wooden spear. Tammy held her short, wooden spike in her left hand. The fingers of Nick’s right hand were folded around the handgrip of the pistol. The safety clip was down. They were going to explore the place, and if they were lucky, Nick would lead them to the location of the hordes of little light spots.

  Unfortunately Hiroshi had to stay with the tree and their precious water, but he really didn’t mind, he assured them. Now that he had drunk two full mugs of water, he was satisfied that he could take on his own alter ego or all of them at once with the sword.

  They came across wooden doors, wooden tables and wooden cupboards wherever they went. As they collected the furniture they talked about things unconnected to their plans. They hoped that this would stop their other selves knowing exactly what these plans were. Perhaps the alter egos had to be physically watching them to know exactly what they were thinking.

  Every now and then Tammy thought she saw a light speck somewhere. She felt as if she was watched constantly, but as soon as she tried to concentrate on the light, it vanished.

  After what felt like hours, they arrived at the place with the myriad tiny lights Nick had told them about. There were bright, tiny specks of light as far as they could see to the left, right and upwards. Whenever Tammy moved a few steps to either side, new lights would appear and others disappear. Even with all the lights they could only see five meters in all directions, except downwards. But the specks of light didn’t seem to make any light, they didn’t illuminate the grayness. All was still a mind-numbingly dull gray.

  Tammy let go of Ulrich’s hand and tried to touch them. She failed. As her hand closed around lights they trickled through her fingers. They reacted like water or, more accurately, like mercury. In her science class she had played with mercury once. She had put her finger on top of a drop of mercury and had watched the silvery substance glide away to another spot on the flat plate.

  While she gazed at the lights she wondered who in the world’s alter ego was just brushed by her hand. Her mother’s? Wayne’s? A whole school somewhere? Were these alter egos stored according to age, or geographic area? Who’s in charge of this place? Angels? Was this place part of the creation? A heaven or a hell, maybe?

  Not a heaven, Tammy decided immediately. Rather a hell, because these alter egos were definitely evil. Had these alter egos gone out of control like in science fiction story books?

  They obviously wanted to take over the world, but why? Why hadn’t they already? How was she ever going to know, because there was nobody to ask here.

  “I wonder what lies behind these specks?” she wondered aloud and looked at Ulrich and Nick who were also playing with the tiny lights. “Or do you think they keep on into infinity?”

  “That’s the million dollar question,” Nick said and sniffed at the lights.

  “I want to walk in them,” Tammy said.

  “Better not, your alter ego may be close, hidden amongst them. Stay with us,” Ulrich suggested, protectively.

  “Hold my hand,” Tammy said. “I’ll only take two steps. I want to feel what it’s like to be surrounded by thousands of tiny lights.”

  Ulrich clutched Tammy’s hand and let her walk into the lights.

  She could feel how the speckles closed around her body, touched her arms, her face . . . They engulfed her completely . . . covered her mouth, filled her ears, blocked her nose, hurt her eyes. She couldn’t breathe! She was suffocating! She . . .

  She was pulled, then yanked from the lights.

  “Donner und Blitzen. What’s happened?” Ulrich demanded. “The specks turned red!”

  Tammy shook her head and gasped for air.

  “They . . . were trying to . . . wanted to suffocate me,” she answered and stared at the apparently lifeless lights. The sight was calm and serene again, no hint of redness remained. The thought crossed her mind that these lights looked like thousands of wicked eyes that were staring at her.

  “Let’s get away from here!” Nick exclaimed, his voice edged with fear. “These things may come alive!”

  “They are alive,” Tammy muttered and ran her fingers through her hair, subconsciously checking that no lights lingered where she couldn’t see them.

  They turned around and ran back towards the place where they had gathered the wooden items.

  But they came to the cube with the tree first.

  “No!” Nick exclaimed. “We shouldn’t be here yet. Where’s all the stuff that we found? Did we walk straight past it?”

  “Impossible,” Ulrich stated. “We walked back by the same route. There was a lot of stuff. We would’ve seen something. I think the alter egos moved it. That means . . . That can only mean . . . ”

  His voice tailed off as he was probably lost in thought.

  “Means what, Ulrich?” Tammy asked.

  “That our alter egos are working together!”

  “But they couldn’t make the things disappear. They must still be here somewhere,” Nick insisted.

  “We’ll just have to find some more. The door of my room was close to your window, Tammy. Let’s go and get it before the alter egos hide that, too.”

  Ulrich pulled Tammy forward and together they ran as fast as they could through the cold grayness. In their free hands they clutched their weapons.

  “There! There’s a piece of my window,” Tammy cried, almost out of breath.

  They carried on forward and the window with its branches and patch of blue sky came fully into view. So did Ulrich’s bedroom door.

  Suddenly there was the sound of wind through a tunnel.

  Ulrich pulled Tammy close to him and kept the spear ready. Tammy held her spike defensively in front of her body.

  Someone with a huge rucksack on his back appeared right beside them. Scared and tense, Tammy waited expectantly for that person’s alter ego to show himself.

  Then he came.

  But . . . It was . . .

  “Wayne!?” she yelled surprised.

  The real Wayne swung around. The bulging rucksack made him lose his balance. He toppled in slow motion sideways, landing on top of the pack. Behind him a wall with posters of motorbikes appeared.

  With outstretched hands the alter Wayne advanced through the grayness towards Wayne.

  Immediately Tammy plucked her hand free from Ulrich’s grip and stormed towards alter Wayne. She waved the wooden spike in front of her.

  “Leave him alone!” she screamed and stabbed with all her might at Wayne’s double.

  He jumped out of the way.

  And she missed completely, almost striking the real Wayne as he tried to rise to his feet!

  Before the alter ego could say: Snap! he turned and disappeared from view.

  Tammy went to kneel next to Wayne.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked in Afrikaans, her native language.

  Wayne’s face brightened up. “Looking for you,” he said, smiling. “I found you, I really found you!”

  He reached for her face and stroked her cheek gently.

  “You’re ice cold,” he said, concerned.

  “Yes, it’s cold here, always.”

  “I brought you warm clothes. Some of my old clothes.”

  Ulrich came to crouch by them and put his hand possessively on Tammy’s back.

  “Do you know one another?” he asked, although the answer was obvious.

  Tammy looked at him with her head tilted sideways.

  “Yes,” she answered in English. She saw a hint of jealousy in his eyes. Then she looked back at Wayne. “You’ll have to speak English. This place is multi-national.”

  She sounded like an old hand to herself. A veteran of th
is dimension.

  “Meet Ulrich. He’s from Germany,” she said, again in English. “This is Wayne. He’s with me in grade twelve, in the same school.”

  She saw Wayne’s frown, followed his gaze and realized he was looking at Ulrich’s hand on her back.

  Oh goodness! Did Wayne come here to look for her? To rescue her? Had he put his own life in danger for her? The idea of a knight in shining armor coming to rescue his damsel in distress really appealed to her romantic side. Did he care so much for her? That was so very nice, but it hadn’t looked that way the last time she had seen him. Well, that’s his bad luck. She’d moved on, but . . . she needed confirmation.

  “Did you come here looking for me?” she asked.

  “Yes, I had to, because I laughed at you. I felt so bad and . . . who did you wish you could be?” he asked in Afrikaans, unfastening the strap around his waist and waggling the rucksack from his back.

  “English, please,” Tammy demanded, “or else nobody will understand you.”

  Wayne repeated his conversation in English for the benefit of Ulrich.

  “So, what do you mean by, ‘who did I wish I could be’?” Tammy asked.

  “The Snap game only appears when you feel really bad about yourself and wish you could be like somebody else,” Wayne lapsed back into Afrikaans. “I had a really tough time trying to get the Snap message on the screen so that I could come here, bring you some stuff and rescue you.”

  “Food! Did you bring food?” Tammy wanted to know excitedly.

  “Yes, but who did you wish you could be?” Wayne persisted.

  Tammy pressed her lips together and blushed a little. Well, quite a lot, because for the first time in the Alter Ego Dimension she felt her cheeks were hot.

  “That’s my secret,” she answered, coyly.

  Then another important thought struck her. If Wayne had come here to look for her, she had vanished from earth. Was there a hole in the wall where her window was? What about her poor mother?