Karaoke. He wrote.
“You said that Hiroshi had given his sister’s alter ego a very hard blow on the head with his sword?” he asked for clarity. “And you think that her alter ego is dead, which sent Etsu back home. Where was Etsu when that happened? Wasn’t anybody watching her?”
Tammy sighed and started to explain what had happened. She told him about the room and that they were busy collecting all the stuff that was lying by the tree.
“Etsu was busy near the opening. Her alter ego grabbed her and started pulling her away. Hiroshi reacted very fast, and after the blow to the alter ego’s head, they both vanished. Etsu screamed, that’s how Hiroshi could distinguish the alter ego from his sister.
“But just before you came, a little girl was transferred here. Her alter ego was very clever. She screamed and yelled and spun and danced with the little girl and we didn’t know who was who. We didn’t know who to attack.”
“Okay, they look exactly like us. Like in the Snap game,” Wayne said aloud while he was writing it down. “Let’s think . . . ”
“I know! First of all, we need to look different from our alter egos,” Tammy chipped in. “Like me. My alter ego looks the way I did when I first came here in my bikini. I think they can’t change into other clothes. That’s why you wouldn’t mistake me for her now. But the rest of you, you still look like your alter egos. And if they react the same way as you . . . ” Almost everyone was watching and listening to Tammy, although Hiroshi glanced towards the grayness around them so often he looked like he’d developed a twitch.
Tammy pressed on: “Ulrich, take Nick with you and fetch my other curtain. Fast! I’ve got a plan, but without the curtain we’re in danger.”
Ulrich didn’t ask questions. He put his thumb in the air as if he knew what Tammy’s plan was. He ran towards Nick, grabbed him by his arm and shouted: “Come with me!”
Nick didn’t resist. He dropped the wood that he was breaking with his hands and started to run. The two of them disappeared into the grayness.
“Help me, Wayne,” Tammy said in Afrikaans. “Let’s cut this curtain-dress into strips. Then if every one of you puts a scarf around your neck, we’ll be able to tell you apart from your alter egos. There are scissors amongst our stuff . . . ”
“Very clever,” Wayne said and searched through the things lying near the tree. “Two very dirty scissors,” he announced.
“Yes, we used them to eat with. There were birds and eggs in the tree branches.” Wayne’s face was a mixture of awe, shock and horror. “We wanted to survive,” Tammy added when she saw what she thought was a look of disgust.
“I’ve got a clean, sharp pair of scissors,” he replied, and pulled it from his rucksack.
Tammy took his scissors, cut three wide strips out of the curtain material while Wayne held it tight. The fourth piece was the strip she had used as a belt. The cutting went quickly because Tammy only had to cut a centimeter or two, and then she could tear the material apart. Before Ulrich and Nick were back with the other curtain, there were four scarves.
Tammy gave a scarf to everyone. The other curtain she folded neatly and put it by the tree.
“The scarves won’t be of any use if the alter egos copy the idea,” she said, delighted with her plan. “We couldn’t leave the curtain for them to use.”
The others agreed. Hiroshi put more wood on the fire and then they all came to sit by the tree to plan their escape.
Chapter Twenty-three
"NICE,” WAYNE SAID, pleased with everyone’s scarves. Hiroshi tied himself a huge bowtie around his neck with the double strip of material Tammy had used as a belt. Now he was the one looking like a clown. Wayne’s fastened his own strip of material like a very colorful bandana, making him look like a young and well dressed version of Rambo. Nick’s strip was tied as a tie with a simple knot after he’d cut it a bit shorter.
“Next comes the easy part,” Tammy said, ironically. “All we have to do is lure our alter egos close so that we can . . . kill them.”
“And how are we going to do that?” Ulrich asked. “They want to overpower us, they don’t want to die and they know we’ve got weapons.”
“How about one person walk into the grayness alone,” Hiroshi suggested while holding a pen in one hand and an open exercise book on his lap. “Without weapons. The others keep just out of sight. When the bait person yells, the others storm in and kill the alter ego.”
“We have Wayne’s axe, too,” Nick added. “Can we use it as a weapon, Wayne?”
“Of course. Everything that I have with me is at everybody’s disposal. That’s why I brought it,” Wayne answered and felt good about himself. Suddenly he felt no desire or ownership over his possessions. Their lives, even Nick the murderer’s life, was more valuable than any stuff.
Then he wrote in the book:
Plan 1: Must walk one at a time without weapons. The others keep five or six meters away, just out of sight.
“Do you know if the alter egos can see further than five meters?” he asked.
The others shrugged or shook their heads.
“Okay. Plan two.” He looked at Ulrich and then at Nick.
“I’ve an idea that could work, but . . . Hiroshi, where’s your music?” Ulrich asked. “While we’re thinking about plans and writing stuff down, we should be reading the karaoke and singing. To confuse our alter egos, or at least stop them from reading our minds.”
Hiroshi fetched his laptop and opened it on a piece of grass. Everybody was leaning forward—to make sure that the computer would start. Tammy held her breath.
Click! Rrrrr came the familiar sound of a computer booting up. Tammy saw relief on everyone’s face.
Hiroshi’s fingers moved quickly over the keyboard. Then a happy smile made his face glow.
“I’ve got just the right song for us. We all know it and it’s very easy to sing. Listen.” Hiroshi let the music play and he sang cheerfully along as music and lyrics to The Police song, “Every Breath You Take,” came up:
Tammy clapped her hands enthusiastically.
“Perfect! You couldn’t have chosen better, Hiroshi. The alter egos are watching us just like Sting in his band Police, sang. We really can’t move without them knowing it.”
Hiroshi started singing another verse.
Then everybody started to sing while they followed the words on the computer-screen.
They broke out into laughter.
“We don’t exactly sound like a school choir,” Tammy commented. “We were way off-key.”
“Give me the book and pen for a moment, Hiroshi,” Ulrich said. “Hiroshi, start the song from the beginning. I’m going to write my plan down while I’m singing. All of you, please, sing along with me.”
To Wayne their singing sounded like a cat’s choir, but it seemed to be working. While Ulrich was singing the words of the song aloud, he was writing down his plan. Perhaps Ulrich’s alter ego could only hear the words of the song and not his actual thoughts. Here and there Ulrich sang the wrong words in the wrong order, because he wasn’t reading it from the laptop, but he kept on singing anyway. The correct order of the lines didn’t matter.
Hiroshi played the song over and over again and they all sang it over and over again while all of them read his plan.
“Good,” Wayne said. “We need to think of two more plans and write them down. Then we choose one on the paper while we sing. Maybe we’ll outwit our alter egos. When we’ve finished singing, we can start putting the plan with the most votes into action. Do you agree?”
While singing, Tammy and Nick both got a chance to write their plans down in the same book and then the voting started. All of them wrote the number two on the book. Plan two was Ulrich’s plan.
After that they went about their chores. They were not supposed to think about any plan, let alone plan number two. The wastepaper basket was full of ash and had to be emptied. There were already small amounts of water in the plastic drawers in the ground and they p
oured it into one of the four water bottles Wayne brought with him that they had already used. They started a new fire with Ulrich’s lighter, and he left it next to the tree. This time Nick arranged the wood. In Australia he also made regular barbecue fires, he told them.
“I’m going to sleep for a while,” Tammy announced after the work was done. “I’m so very tired.”
“Come lay down next to me and put your head on my lap,” Ulrich proposed and went to sit on the grass in the opening of the cube. “I’ll keep watch for your alter ego. Who else wants to sleep? Hiroshi, give your sword here. You can all take a nap.”
Tammy folded the unused curtain, doubled it over then threw it on the grass next to Ulrich. She went to lay down on it and put her head on Ulrich’s leg. She closed her heavy eyelids and felt Ulrich’s hand stroking her hair. Then she took his left hand and weaved her fingers through his.
She was very tired. She couldn’t worry who wanted to sleep now, she was totally exhausted. She had only slept for an hour or so in two days. That was nowhere near enough. Her body needed rest, no matter what time of day or night it was.
Wayne felt irritable while he was staring at Tammy and Ulrich. He was considering walking over to them and pulling Tammy from Ulrich’s lap. She could sleep on his lap. Why must Ulrich be the cushion and the hero? Hero? No, cushion. Why was it necessary for Tammy to fall in love with Ulrich? Back in Pretoria, would she forget about Ulrich and be his girl again? Or had he squandered his chances with her when he had laughed at her spot? And what about the grade twelve dance in September? He wanted to ask her to go with him. Luckily Ulrich was from Germany. Perhaps . . .
He put his head down on his rucksack. It was almost empty. He had taken out all the provisions, leaving a nice cushion. He was very tired too. He hadn’t slept yet that night, because he had transferred here. He looked at his watch. It must be four in the morning back home. His inner clock told him he must take a nap, even if for only five minutes. He clutched the hunting knife with his fingers. Hiroshi had taken the axe as a weapon when he had given Ulrich the sword . . .
A shot went off.
“Ahhh!”
Wayne woke up. Immediately he jumped up.
A few seconds later Tammy and Ulrich vanished.
“Tammy!” he roared.
He looked backward. Nick was sitting behind him with the pistol supported on his knees and securely aimed at the opening of the cube where Tammy and Ulrich had been a few seconds ago. Next to him Hiroshi got to his feet with the axe in his hand.
“It worked!” Hiroshi said excitedly. “You’re a good shot, Nick. Ulrich’s alter ego had thought, I mean . . . ” He winked. “Had showed up the instant Ulrich had fallen asleep by accident and had let the sword slip from his hand.”
Wayne immediately knew what he meant, but he was not supposed to think about it. A plan had worked.
“But Tammy? Where has she gone?” he asked anxiously and could feel a tightness in his chest.
“Ulrich was holding her hand. He took her with him. The place where they might be is, I suppose, Germany,” Nick said from behind them. “Ulrich’s alter ego took his chance while we were all asleep.”
Wayne was troubled. Why hadn’t Tammy’s alter ego showed up? Why Ulrich’s? Were they wrong in thinking that the alter egos had started to work together?
He didn’t know what had happened to Tammy. Ulrich was supposed to be in Frankfurt in Germany. But Tammy? Where had she gone? Damn! Plan two didn’t work out exactly as they had expected. They . . . No, he mustn’t think about the plans they wrote down. He must think like he had before he fell asleep, think about other things. Then his other self won’t have any knowledge of the other plans.
Would Ulrich speak to Interpol? Would he and Etsu now cooperate to protect the world against their alter egos?
Those thoughts could wait. The here and now was all that mattered.
What’s going on here? How is it possible for the alter egos, after thousands of years, to start taking over from real people? Is there a way he, Nick and Hiroshi could find out?
“Let’s repack everything that we still want in the rucksack and go and explore this place,” Wayne proposed. “All three of us. I brought two flashlights with me.”
“Flashlights don’t work here. I’ve tried with my cell phone’s light. It doesn’t shine further than five meters,” Hiroshi informed him.
“Damn! Somewhere there must be something that had triggered these alter egos. Maybe we can find it and destroy it,” Wayne said.
Nick came to his feet and put the pistol back in his pocket.
“Are we going to leave the tree?” Hiroshi asked.
“Yes, we’ve emptied the drawers,” Wayne answered. “Just put some more wood on the fire. Maybe they’ll leave the tree as it is. But I hope we can get away from this place before we’ll need that water again.”
Chapter Twenty-four
SUDDENLY, EVERYTHING WENT dark around Tammy. She could feel that she was floating again, like the first time she had come to the alter ego dimension. She clung to Ulrich’s hand. Where were they going? Her alter ego wasn’t dead. It was Ulrich’s alter ego that had shown up. For plan two to work they had to be very tired and sleepy. Tammy would sleep while Ulrich would keep watch and pretend to fall asleep. She would be next to him so that her alter ego would come and then she would be the first to be sent back to earth. They would all lie down so that Nick, at the back of the cube, would be able to get a clear shot at her alter ego.
But then the alter Ulrich had shown up instead. The real Ulrich must have dozed off, or his other self would know he was awake.
She could not see Ulrich. She could only feel his strong hand clutching hers. She was not afraid. Ulrich would protect her . . .
No! Her hand was slipping! No, he mustn’t, she mustn’t, let go. She wanted to stay with him. She wanted to go where he was going. Ulrich! Hold my hand. Tammy tried to shout, but there was no sound. Ulrich!
Her hand slipped from his. No!
Flop! She was sitting on her butt. Where was she? It was dark. Dark all around. Totally dark, except . . . Wait . . . there was a little blue light in front of her.
Cautiously she stretched her hand out towards the light and touched a computer screen. Was she back in her room? The chair, the desk. It all felt familiar.
She pushed the chair backwards.
Yes, she was back in her room! She started to recognize shapes. Her window. Her curtains.
She switched the light on at the wall.
She was back! She was really back!
“Mum!” she yelled.
Something was stirring on her bed.
“Mum? Were you sleeping in my bed?”
She stepped closer. Her mother was squinting against the bright light hanging from the ceiling.
“Tammy!”
Her mother sat up straight and folded her arms around Tammy. Tammy held onto her mother and felt her mother’s sobs.
“Etsu said that you’d appear on the exact spot where you had disappeared. I’ve been waiting right here for you, my dear. Right here.”
Her mother pushed her away a little to look at her closely.
“It is you, isn’t it? You’re not your alter ego? Who’s clothes are these?”
“It is me, Mum. My other self is still there on the other side. She’s not dead. She’s a nasty thing. But these are Wayne’s clothes.”
“Wayne?”
“Yes, he came there to rescue me with a rucksack full of food and water and some old clothes of his.”
“Where is he now?” Her mum looked concerned.
“Still in the Alter Ego Dimension.”
“Oh no, I told him to wait for the police to rescue you. Oh dear. His parents will be frantic. He must really love you, Tammy. To risk so much for you.”
Tammy felt very uncomfortable at that. Her anger at Wayne and her friendship with Ulrich were too complicated to share with her mother at this stage. She was still so tired . . .
“Um, yes. I hope he can get out of that place, Mum. It’s not easy. He shouldn’t have gone looking for me, though. I was safe . . . with Ulrich.”
Mrs. Delport frowned. What had Tammy been up to?
Ulrich! Tammy remembered . . .
“Mum, I must send an email. Will you make me a cup of coffee, please? It’s so long since I had a cup . . . How long had I been gone, Mum?”
“Of course. Nearly two days and two nights. I’m so glad you’re back, my love.”
“Me too, Mum.”
Tammy let go of her mother and Mrs. Delport stepped out of the room. Tammy looked at the watch that was lying on her desk. She had put it there two days ago before she had gone swimming. It was a quarter past five. Dawn’s first light was starting to break in the east. Tammy sat on her chair in front of her screen and put the Internet on. She took out a piece of paper from the tracksuit pocket and re-read the email address to make sure she used the right spelling. Then she wrote a message to Ulrich. She had to know if he’d made it back and if she’s ever going to see him again.
Tears rolled down her cheeks. She was glad that she had escaped from that horrible place, but now she probably wouldn’t see Ulrich again. Whatever had started between them was probably over.
Was that for the best?
She had known from the start that she shouldn’t get too fond of Ulrich. That she had to keep her heart in check. She had known all along that it would only bring heartache . . . But she couldn’t stop herself. With his kind-heartedness and friendliness he had won a permanent place in her heart.
She swept a tear from her cheek. There were things to do. She must get on with life. She was back where she belonged. In Pretoria, South Africa. A long way from Germany. Maybe someday, she will see him again.
Once the email was sent, she went downstairs to the kitchen to tell her mother everything that had happened.
SNAP! and the Alter Ego Dimension Page 15