too, well beyond the mere extraordinary curiosity of having a woman contact him through his bathroom mirror from another distant place on the earth. She had developed a bit of a crush for the handsome German with the broken English, but then when she unilaterally decided to be with him and to jump through the Anomaly’s portal to escape having to return to Corpus Christi with Raul, she quickly came to realize that Johann was married … or at least living with a woman. Johann had not been home at the time, but from the things Lupita had seen in Johann’s home, there had been no doubt that he was in a committed relationship. Lupita realized then what an idiot she had been, but there was no way she was going to go back to Antarctica. She wasn’t going back just so she could be shipped off for government questioning, and then sent home to Corpus with Raul. So she left Johann’s house, quickly, because she didn’t want anyone coming to bring her back, not even Bernie.
Bernie had seen her making her escape from Antarctica through the portal, and although she cared greatly for Dr. Bernard Skarpinski – her white knight – that geologist who had first appeared in her bathroom mirror, she knew she had to run away from him, too. So, instead Lupita walked out of Johann’s house, not even bothering to look back, and without Johann or his wife, knowing that she had even been there in his home.
From that point she was stuck as she wandered the streets of Rothenburg for two days. It was a strange, yet beautiful little city. And a wonder she had never heard of it, what with its medieval towers and ramparts that surrounded the older parts of the city. Rothenburg was like a fairy tale kingdom that had been dropped on top of a modern day world, mixing old castle towers, ramparts, and walls with steel and concrete edifices which were filled with offices and shops and restaurants.
Lupita liked the feel of the place, and wondered why she had not ever heard of it. The rough-hewn ramparts of medieval architecture combined with plaster and timber buildings dating back a couple of centuries, and the newer, modern-day structures that reminded her of the States, even though many of the signs on them were emblazoned in a language she did not understand, seemed like something that should be quite well-known throughout the world. It was a place that made her feel at peace, too, in spite of the gloom she felt over Johann’s dishonesty and the loneliness that poked at her stomach when she thought of Bernie, now continents away from her. Over those two days of wandering the streets of Rothenburg, she had wondered what it would be like to actually stay there. But then the emptiness in her stomach, more so from lack of food than distress, and the absence of a passport, money, or a grasp of the German language would creep in, snapping her out of her daydreaming as she walked those chilly autumn, foreign streets.
“We need your help, Lupita Espinoza,” Gebrihl said, jarring her from her recollections.
“How did you even know to find me here in the church?” Lupita asked. “You say you can sense the Anomaly opening the connections, but I don’t have the mirror with me here, so how could you have known to come here?”
Gebrihl hovered closer and then he stopped, leaning toward her. He reached out and his translucent, glowing hand touched the sleeve of her parka, which she had not removed since leaving Antarctica because of the cooler climate of Germany at this time of the year. When he pulled away his hand, the outline of it where he had touched her was glowing green upon her sleeve. “When a being makes passage through the portals there is a residue that is left behind that we can detect. Your clothing and your body are saturated with that residue.”
That light syrupy film that Lupita had found herself covered in the two times she had passed through the mirrors was what Gebrihl was talking about. It was cold and sticky, but it evaporated quickly like a mist. Or at least she had thought that was what had happened since it seemed to have gone away an hour or so after she landed in Johann’s bathroom.
“Take us to the mirror where the paa’riel connected a portal,” said Mikihl, but his tone suggested that this was a request.
Lupita sensed these beings were not dangerous, despite the strangeness of their appearance. And she did not feel afraid of Gebrihl or Mikihl at all. They seemed gentle, peaceful, and comforting in a sort of way. They were also in a similar situation as Lupita. Stranded travelers, just like her, seeking a way home, even if their home sounded like it was much further away than Corpus Christi or even Marble Point Station, Antarctica.
“I can’t,” she said. Lupita didn’t know what she was going to do about her current situation, but there was no way she was going back.
“Why would you refuse to assist us?” Gebrihl asked.
Lupita’s nostrils flared. “If you can read my mind, then you already know why I won’t.”
“We can, yet your thoughts are clouded, conflicted,” said Mikihl.
Lupita shook her head as she stood from the pew. “I’m sorry, but I’m not going back. I don’t want to be questioned by the government, or get into any trouble, and I certainly do not want to go back with my boyfriend to Corpus Christi. There’s nothing but trouble for me if I go back.”
“You will not be harmed for your actions, Lupita Espinoza,” said Gebrihl. “Fear not, for we will make certain of that. But we do need you to take us there. You are the only one we have been able to find that can take us back to the paa’riel.”
“But I already told you, it’s in Antarctica. Why not just go there for yourselves. If you could come here to find me, then you can go there.”
“You are correct, we could travel there,” replied Gebrihl. “But it would be easier this way.”
“Not for me,” Lupita snapped. “Besides, even if I took you back to the mirror that I came through to get here, you said so yourself – the Anomaly is what opens the passages, not the mirrors they are connecting with. What good would it do to go there now?”
“Perhaps someone will open it again,” said Gebrihl. “It is likely someone will come looking for you, especially if you were supposed to be returning to your home and would now be missing from this place in Antarctica.”
Bernie, she thought.
Bernie would be able to look at the settings on the Mirror Anomaly to see where she had gone. Lupita had left Johann’s house quickly enough for the very reason that Bernie Skarpinski might come looking for her out of concern, despite everyone being prohibited from using the Mirror Anomaly until experts from the United States could arrive to examine it.
“I have no idea if anyone will be looking for me or not,” she said. “It’s not like I told anyone where I was going, you know. I told you – “
“Lupita, you must take us there,” said Gebrihl, his tone suggesting he read her mind clearly enough to see through her lie. “Your people have now discovered the paa’riel. It is a powerful device that if misused could have terrible consequences.”
“You mean misused by the government?”
“Perhaps,” replied Gebrihl. “But we are also concerned that our fallen brother might also seek out the paa’riel and misuse it himself.”
“Fallen brother?” Lupita asked.
“Although we believe he no longer exists, as we have not encountered him for millennia, there is the possibility that he might live, and we cannot allow him to find it, either.”
Lupita had not thought of that. There was more at stake here than just her fear of being interrogated by government authorities or having to go back home with Raul. She had just been thinking that she was running away from her miserable life, and also from government officials who were certain to “debrief her”, when there was a greater problem at hand. Those same government officials who would debrief her might decide to misuse the Mirror Anomaly. Or if they did not, there was the chance someone else would.
“You would be doing the right thing, Lupita Espinoza,” said Gebrihl, as he floated slightly away from her.
She wasn’t entirely certain of it, but perhaps Gebrihl was correct. And she could not afford to make any more stupid choices. For once, she needed to do the right thing.
For once she needed to do something different.
Even as she exited St. Mary’s Church out into an afternoon cast in drizzling rain, and began walking along the streets back toward Johann’s house just a few blocks away on a street called Sudstrasse, she realized then that what she had been pulled into when Bernie first appeared in her bathroom mirror several weeks ago had become something of great importance to the whole world. Lupita Espinoza was not looking forward to confronting Johann should he be home, much less going back to Antarctica, but she also knew, as she had always known about life in general, that there was always a reason for why things happened.
She recalled how she had become pregnant with Alejandro. Then, twenty years in the past, she had been trapped into something based upon a bad decision. But in the end, she had brought into the world a precious child who had been the one bright spot in her life. Now here she was faced with something that was far different from that moment, yet it was just as important. She just had to have faith that whatever the reason for everything that was happening to her, that it would work out for the best – just like Alejandro.
Her anxiety grew as she approached Johann’s house and began walking up the sidewalk to his front door, her parka slick and her brownish, greying hair damp with the