The Gate: Part 1 of the Hinterlands Series

by Charlotte Grey

I guess it's worth a try,” She turned back to the little boy and pointed to herself. Her Japanese was awful, but it was better than nothing.

  “My name is Shannon. What's your name?”

  The boy stopped crying abruptly. “S – Sato.”

  “I'm sorry, Sato. I don't speak Japanese. Do you speak English?”

  He shook his head and said something quickly in his native tongue, but Shannon recognized none of it.

  “I'm sorry. I don't understand,” she said, rubbing his arm in an attempt to convey that she cared he was struggling. “How old are you?”

  “Six.”

  She gestured to Ben, who handed the cup of tea to the boy. “His name is Ben.”

  Reluctantly, Sato accepted the cup and took a cautious sip. He made a strange face, but continued to drink.

  “There you go,” said Shannon. “See? It's okay. You're going to be okay.”

  Shannon stood up and collapsed heavily onto the bed, still shaking from her encounter outdoors. “This is – this is incredible. Are you sure he wasn't cognizant before tonight?”

  “I'm positive. He's been jumping rope every day for years. No child could withstand such repetition.”

  “Something must've snapped him out of it,” she thought aloud. “He's never had trouble getting back to his house?”

  “No. But like I've said, every once in awhile, someone slips up.”

  “See, that just doesn't make sense to me. If they're doing the same thing day in and day out, without fail, there's no way they'd slip up. They're, like – glitching out or something.”

  “They're what?”

  “But they're not. Because if Sato's any indication, they're real people. So what stopped the repetition? Was it something I did?”

  “What do you mean?” Ben raised an eyebrow.

  “I jumped rope with Sato and the two girls today when I was trying to get their attention. I tripped over the rope, and they kept going. Sato kept jumping, and the girls kept swinging it, but for a few seconds, the rope stopped turning. What if that was enough to trigger something in Sato's mind? What if the wind snapped him out of it completely?”

  “It's a thought...”

  “Have you ever bumped into someone the day they got trapped outside?”

  “I have no idea,” Ben scratched his head. “But it's not something I've ever really paid attention to. Usually I talk to them, but I let them carry on. Anything else is an accident.”

  “Well,” said Shannon. “An accident tripped Sato up. I bet we can do the same to the other people in this town. What if we can bring them out of whatever this funk is and turn this into a little community? Sure, we'd still be trapped here, but at least we wouldn't be alone. This could be a cute town if we woke these people up and did some repairs. And hey, if we had more minds at work, maybe we could even figure out how to get out of here. We could have a genius in our midst and not even know it.”

  “Look, Shannon,” Ben began. “Clearly you can see I'm not a very brave person. I'm cautious, calculated, and I've never jumped into anything in my life – pardon the expression. If you'd said that before your act of courage, before I saw Sato here with my own two eyes, I'd have said you were mad. But this has been a mad day, and it's the first time I've had – or heard – original ideas in a very long time. I tire of caution. In many ways, I'm not so different from the others. I want to change that, and I want to help you.”

  “Good,” Shannon nodded. “We start tomorrow, then.”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “Oh, I have a few ideas I'm mulling over,” she smiled slyly, but said no more on the matter.

  When Sato had finished his tea, Shannon tucked him into bed and made her way to the sofa. Ben threw several thick blankets onto the ground to make a temporary bed. She reached her arms around her back and tried to loosen the awful corset that had been constricting her midriff since she arrived, but still couldn't figure out how to undo the ties.

  “Hey, Ben?” she laughed nervously. “Can I ask you a really awkward question?”

  “Go on...”

  “Uh, do you know how to loosen these things? I can't even lie down with it on, and I'm trading it in for something I'm a little more used to first thing tomorrow, but until then...”

  He cleared his throat. “Women in your time don't wear corsets?”

  “Nope.”

  “I knew a few women who would have loved to hear that,” he moved behind her, and she felt his fingers lace through the back of it. “Now, let's see what we can do about this.”

  He nimbly untied the back of her corset, working his fingers between the laces. Ben traveled down her spine, pulling the strings loose until he got to the small of her back. Occasionally his fingers brushed the skin underneath, and Shannon closed her eyes, enjoying his touch. In a world where sensory pleasures seemed so few, it was a comfort to know that skin still felt good.

  When he had finished, Shannon turned around to thank him. “That's so much better.”

  “No more corsets in your future; I take it?” he smiled.

  “God, no.”

  “We'll hunt something down in the morning,” Ben made his way back to the mess of covers on the ground. “Good night.”

  “Good night.”

  Covering up with a crocheted throw, Shannon closed her eyes. It was still strange to think that the dead could sleep, but she welcomed the fatigue that washed over her. She let it envelop her in a thick, hazy sleep, knowing that when morning came, she would be ready to tackle the afterlife head-on.

  END

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