Beyond the Reflection's Edge

  As he watched the mirror, his eyes glowed yet again, becoming brighter than ever before. Soon, the glass surface flickered and transformed into a close-up of a man’s profile — Dr. Simon’s. As Nathan played on, the portrait clarified. Simon clutched a steering wheel, bouncing up and down as if driving over a bumpy road. The scenery through the window behind him passed by quickly, farmland of some kind. Several black-and-white cows grazed in fenced, grassy fields, and, in another lot, a big-wheeled tractor dragged a plow through rich black earth.

  Simon’s lips moved. Soon, his voice became audible, a slow, careful speech seemingly designed for recording.

  “Nathan Shepherd, if you can hear me, you have learned by now that music is the key to opening a video and audio portal between dimensions. You might have also learned that flashes of light allow you to move between the dimensions once the portal is open.”

  Kelly walked into the room, her eyes widening. “Holy —”

  “Shhh!” Nathan warned.

  Dr. Simon continued. “You can use a flashlight, a flickering lamp, almost anything that surpasses a certain lumens minimum, but that is far too technical for this message. I need you to come here to help me stop a madman who is trying to manipulate these dimensions for his own purposes. I know you have lost your mother and father, but there is still hope. Come to this place so that we can prevent interfinity. The entire cosmos is at stake.”

  The message began again. Nathan lowered his bow and repacked his violin. Within seconds, Dr. Simon’s image faded, and the mirror returned to normal. Leaving his violin case on the bed, he grabbed the screwdriver from the shelf and pried his mirror loose again.

  Kelly shivered. “I don’t like how he said that.”

  “I didn’t like any thing he said.” He stuffed his mirror into his backpack. “What part bugged you?”

  She picked up her bag and mimicked his voice. “The entire cosmos is at stake.”

  “Maybe that’s part of the bait.” After sliding the backpack on, he picked up his suitcase. “He probably doesn’t know that you heard my parents talking about him, so he’s luring me every way he can.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  He took Kelly’s bag and slung the strap over his shoulder. “Be a hero.”

  “Don’t overload yourself, hero.” She smiled and pointed at the laptop case on the floor. “I’ll get that.”

  They hurried out to the Camry. With the garage door rumbling open, Daryl lifted a bag into the trunk and tossed the keys toward Kelly, who snatched them deftly out of the air. While Kelly started the car, Nathan shoved the other bags on top of Daryl’s. When he opened the back door to get in, Daryl was already sitting there.

  “Ride up front,” she said, reaching for his backpack. “When I get done with my story, I’m gonna lie down and snooze.”

  As soon as Nathan hopped in and slammed the door, Kelly screeched out of the driveway and zoomed onto the main road. Now driving at a safer speed, she angled her head toward Daryl. “Okay. Time to spill it. Tell us everything you know about Interfinity.”

  Daryl closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat, a proud smile spreading across her face. “Interfinity used to be called ‘StarCast.’ They got a lot of press about their project to send radio signals into space, you know, hoping to contact any intelligent life out there.” She opened her eyes. “Remember the movie ET? This was bigger, like souped-up, extraterrestrial phone tag. Crazy, right? But, guess what? They got an answer!”

  Kelly’s eyes shot wide open. “Not from an alien!”

  “No! That’s the weirdest part of all. They got an answer from themselves!”

  “From themselves?”

  “Yeah. And a whole lot quicker than they thought possible!”

  “Did the signal bounce off something?” Nathan asked. “Maybe it went in a circle?”

  “Nope!” Daryl gave him a mischievous smirk. “You of all people should be able to figure it out. Keep guessing.”

  “Keep guessing? That could take hours!” Nathan thumped his head back against the seat. As the countryside zoomed by, scenes of approaching autumn — a hint of color in the maple trees, withering corn tassels, and a flock of birds beginning a migratory journey — the theme from Vivaldi’s “Autumn” played in his mind. As the sweet violins eased his tensions, he closed his eyes and imagined the notes’ arrangement on the staff, each one sprouting in its proper position as it played. When the pages filled, a breeze picked them up and carried them into the sky, page after page joining in a musical chain reaching toward heaven. Finally, when the last page drifted away, he opened his eyes. “They sent music into outer space, didn’t they?”

  Daryl pointed at him. “Smart boy!”

  “What made them decide to play music?” Kelly asked.

  Daryl restarted her rapid-fire chatter. “They tried everything, but when they sent music, they finally got an answer, and it was the same music they sent out. So they started experimenting with different varieties. They recorded about a hundred songs, mostly classical, but some rock and country, even some polka, and they started broadcasting them in order. But do you know what happened? They started getting back song number five on the list while they were still sending song number three!”

  “So it couldn’t have been bouncing back at them,” Nathan said.

  “Brilliant deduction, Holmes!” Daryl grinned and pushed Nathan’s elbow with her foot. “So after all their experiments, they came up with a wild theory When Dr. Gordon presented his paper on it during a seminar at a fancy scientists’ convention, he got laughed out of the building, and he lost his grant from the National Science Foundation.”

  “I’ll bet that really ticked him off,” Kelly said.

  “Oh, yeah! He went out and got what you might call” — Daryl drew quotation marks in the air — “alternative funding from some kind of fringe group.”

  “How do you know they’re fringe?”

  “Are you kidding me? Anyone who would throw money at this crazy project has got to be fringe.”

  Kelly glanced at her in the rearview mirror. “But you don’t think it’s crazy, right?”

  “Normal people think it is, but, as you know” — Daryl pressed her thumb against her chest — “I’m far from normal.”

  “No argument here,” Kelly said, rolling her eyes. “Go on.”

  “Anyway, Dr. Gordon sponsored this seminar for students who were interested in learning about radio telescopes and broadcasting into space, which sounded reasonable enough to a lot of teachers, so he had about four or five hundred kids show up. But as he got to know the group, he pulled some of us aside into a special workshop and explained his newest theories.”

  She lowered her voice to a dramatic whisper. “He believes there are multiple dimensions exactly like ours, only they’re slightly off time-wise.” She set her palms close together. “While something happens here,” she said, wiggling the fingers on one hand, “it happens a little while later in one of the other dimensions.” She wiggled her other fingers to match. “But it might have already happened in a third one.”

  “So that’s why they got the music before they sent it,” Nathan said. “They were sending it to themselves from another dimension, only they were farther ahead in time.”

  “Exactly!” Daryl leaned back and sighed. “It’s fun talking to smart people. I don’t have to spell everything out.”

  “How many dimensions are there?” Kelly asked.

  “No clue. Dr. Gordon identified at least three, but he thinks there might be more. We tried to pry more information out of him, but he went all Gandalf on us. You know …” Daryl leaned between the front seats and glanced at Kelly and Nathan in turn. “Keep it secret. Keep it safe.”

  Kelly pushed her back with her elbow. “You and your movies.”

  “Dr. Gordon seemed to be a good guy,” Daryl continued, “so when he emailed me about Nathan’s parents and said he could help find the killer, I decided to keep a lookout and tell him if Nat
han showed up at our school. I heard he did the same for a lot of kids at other schools.” Flashing a grin, she winked at Nathan. “I guess I got lucky.”

  Nathan plopped back against the headrest. “I need a witness protection program. If they broadcast my address on the news, only a couple more people will know where I live.”

  “Want some music?” Kelly asked, reaching for the radio. “It’ll help you relax.”

  “And risk hearing another moaning call from a different world? Not really. My head’s about to explode.”

  Watching her side mirror, Kelly merged onto the interstate. “Then settle back and chill. We have about five hours to go.”

  He closed his eyes. “What about your dad? You gonna call him?”

  “Later. I’ll just tell him we’re out on a date. Hell get a kick out of that.”

  He opened one eye. “Really?”

  “Well…” Kelly let a smile break through. “He likes you.”

  “Yeah,” Daryl piped up. “And after Kelly decided to give up guys because of her mom —”

  “Daryl!” Kelly tightened her grip on the wheel. “Hush!”

  “What’s the big deal? Everyone knows about your parents. Anyway Steven decided, with parents like that, she’d be kind of loose, too, so one night she had to put him in his place.”

  Kelly’s cheeks turned bright red. “Daryl, cut it out!”

  “Why? I’m complimenting you. He deserved that kick in the groin.”

  “Daryl! If you don’t stop it, I’ll —”

  “So she said she wouldn’t ever date anyone again unless the perfect gentleman came along, and that worried her dad. I guess he thought she’d turn butch or something, but since she just called you a perfect gentleman, everyone will be happy.”

  Kelly lowered her head and growled. “You won’t be happy when I kick you out of the car and make you walk home.”

  “You can’t. I know all your secrets.” Daryl closed her eyes and yawned. “Wake me when we get to Illinois. I like to blow kisses at state welcome signs.”

  Kelly gripped the wheel with stiffened fingers, her biceps flexed and her gaze fixed straight ahead.

  Nathan pulled his lips in. No way was he going to breathe a word right now. If Kelly got any hotter, steam would spew out her ears.

  After a few minutes, a light snore sounded from the back-seat. Kelly let out a long sigh and relaxed her grip. With a glistening tear in her eye, she spoke softly. “I guess I don’t have anything left to hide, do I?”

  He replied with a light shrug. “I didn’t hear anything so terrible.”

  “Daryl made it sound a lot better than it was.” As she turned toward him, the tear meandered down her cheek. “I’m not the kind of girl you’d be interested in.”

  “Don’t you mean…” Leaning toward her, he lowered his voice. “… you weren’t that kind of girl?”

  She wiped the tear, but a new one streamed from her other eye. “Does it make any difference? What’s done is done.”

  “Yeah. It makes a difference.” He rubbed his finger along the seatbelt strap, swallowing to keep his voice from quaking. “It makes a big difference, at least to me.”

  Her lips formed a trembling smile. “Why should it make a difference?”

  “Like you said. What’s done is done.” He raised his shoulders in another casual shrug. “I love you for who you are now.”

  Kelly’s eyes slowly narrowed, and a hint of anger spiced her voice. “Don’t use that word on me.”

  He drew his head back. “What are you talking about? What word?”

  “I’ve heard it too many times. My mom used it. My dad used it. Steven used it. And none of them ever meant it. They just used it.”

  “You mean love?”

  She rubbed a new tear away from each eye. “You can’t possibly love me yet. Don’t say it unless you really mean it!”

  “Okay sorry.” He folded his arms over his chest and slid closer to the window. Who would’ve thought he could get into trouble by using that word? He did love his new sister, so didn’t it make sense to let her know?

  Her lips trembled again, but she said nothing. As new tears streamed, she kept her eyes focused ahead.

  Nathan let out a quiet sigh. Kelly didn’t need to hear the word; she needed to see love acted out. He popped open the glove box. “You got any tissue in here?”

  “In my purse.”

  He fished out a pack of tissues and handed her one. “Want me to drive a while?”

  Wiping her eyes, she nodded again. “Thank you. We need gas anyway.”

  Nathan turned and yanked on the cuff of Daryl’s jeans. “Wake up, O keeper of the dimensional secrets. It’s time to dock the Millennium Falcon.”

  Blinking her eyes, Daryl yawned. “You know, you shouldn’t talk about movies so much. It gets kind of annoying after a while.”

  After stopping at a convenience store, filling up with gas, and grabbing some snacks, Nathan set his Dr Pepper bottle in the cup holder and started the car. “Everyone ready?”

  “I’m ready,” Daryl called from the backseat. She pulled a Hershey’s Kiss from her bag of candy and unwrapped the foil. “Anyone want a Kiss?”

  Kelly smirked. “Not from you.” As she leaned against a pillow she had squished between her head and the window, she closed her eyes and pushed Nathan’s leg with her sock-covered toe. “Ask him. Guys always want a kiss.”

  He reached back. “Sure. I’ll have one.” After popping it in his mouth, he found a classical station on the radio and kept the volume low, hoping it wouldn’t activate the mirror in the back. During a soothing Chopin sonata, Daryl fell asleep, again snoring quietly while Kelly eased into a restless nap. Her eyelids twitched from time to time, and her brow furrowed. Once, she even let out a low groan and whispered something imperceptible.

  Nathan squeezed the steering wheel. Bad dreams. But it would be such a shame to wake her up. With her lips slightly pursed, her eyes closed, and her hands spread softly on her lap, she looked more like a child than a young woman. Still, she had probably experienced far more pain than any child should have to suffer.

  Thinking back on her recent tirade, Nathan shook his head. It was tragic. She didn’t know the true meaning of love. She couldn’t even stand hearing the word. Yet, she needed love. She deserved to be loved. Oh, so desperately.

  Edging his hand toward her, he watched her out of the corner of his eye. He slid his hand under hers and held it, barely touching her skin. Her fingers twitched and returned the light grasp, and a gentle smile spread across her face. He caressed her knuckles with his thumb. Maybe now her bad dreams had finally ended.

  A cell phone rang. Nathan jerked back his hand and scanned the seats. “Where did I put it?”

  Kelly sat upright, her eyes blinking. Daryl’s heavy breathing ended with a snort.

  The chime sounded again, leading Kelly to the floorboard. “Right here.” She picked it up and laid it in Nathan’s palm.

  Opening the flap with one hand, he raised it to his ear. “Hello?”

  “Nathan, are you almost here?”

  “Hi, Clara. We’ve got about three hours to go. Why?”

  “Tell Kelly to floor it. I need you to —”

  Silence.

  “Clara?” Nathan looked at the phone’s screen. The call had dropped.

  Kelly leaned toward him, her brow lowering. “What’s wrong?”

  He closed the phone. “It sounds like Clara’s in trouble.”

  10

  WARP SPEED

  As the speedometer pushed past eighty, Kelly set a hand on the dashboard. “This isn’t a back road, Nathan. If a state trooper clocks you, it’ll take a lot longer than three hours to get there.”

  “Good point.” Easing up on the accelerator, he glanced at the mirror again. “Someone’s following us. As soon as I took off, he did, too, and now he’s slowing down again.”

  Kelly swung around and stared out the back. “Could it be Dr. Gordon?”

  “Looks lik
e his Town Car. I saw it at the school.”

  She swiveled back and tightened her seatbelt. “Then floor it. Now we want a cop to catch us.”

  Daryl flopped back in her seat. “All right!” she said, slapping her thighs. “It’s adventure time!”

  When the digits read ninety-one, Nathan reached toward the back. “Can you find my mirror? It’s in my backpack.”

  Daryl pushed his hand away. “Keep your eyes on the road. I’ll get it.” After jerking it out, she held it on her lap. “What do you want me to do with it?”

  “Just look into it. Use it like a rearview mirror and tell me what you see.”

  She held the mirror in front of her face. “Ew! I’m a mess!”

  As the speedometer passed one hundred, the engine whined and rattled loudly. Nathan turned up the radio and glanced at her through his own rearview mirror. “Watch the road. Not your face.”

  “I can do both.” Daryl pushed her hair back and primped her curly red bangs. “Nothing yet.”

  Kelly looked at the speedometer, her grip on her armrest tensing along with her voice. “I can’t believe you’re going this fast.”

  “Once in Israel, Clara and I did a hundred and ten on motor-cycles, running from six guys with Uzis in the back of a pickup. She told me, ‘When a life’s in danger, there is no speed limit.’”

  Nathan weaved around cars, alternately braking and accelerating again as he changed lanes. After a few minutes, Daryl called out, her voice calm. “What am I supposed to be looking for?”

  Keeping his focus ahead, he reached back. “Give it to me!” He jerked it forward and propped it on the dashboard.

  “I’ll hold it for you,” Kelly said, reaching to secure it.

  Constantly glancing around — from the road ahead, to the normal rearview, to his father’s mirror — he continued his mad dash, banking left, then right, then back again. A memory flashed. This was his nightmare! How could that be?