“I need a special violin bow. It must be ten feet long, proportional to the dimensions of a normal bow, and light enough for a person to carry without trouble. I realize that this is an odd request, but I cannot reveal its use except for the fact that I need it to save my world.
“Ah, yes! I know you must be doubting. That is why I left proof of my incredible story. You will find attached a twenty-dollar bill. Notice the date and the unusual design. Put it under a magnifying glass and study the details. You will undoubtedly agree that no counterfeiter in the world could create it.
“If you, Mr. Clark, will just construct this bow, a friend of mine in your world will contact me, and I will come back and give you a bill that matches the one I enclosed. With two such bills in your possession, displaying differing serial numbers, dates, and Federal Reserve banks, you will be able to prove that the one you hold now is genuine, for why would a counterfeiter create two different plates if it would be so difficult to make even one? Such a bill could make you rich and famous.
“If, however, fame and fortune are not your desire, I implore you, for the sake of my world, and perhaps yours as well, do me this favor. The task is small, yet the rewards are great. I remain, respectfully yours, Nathan of the Red World.”
Gunther clapped his hands. “That was amazing!”
“Sounds like some spam emails I've been getting,” Daryl said. “This one is even wilder.”
“But every word was true.” Kelly grinned as she jerked the page out of his hand. “You're a sly one, you are.”
“Thank you, my lady.” Nathan gave her a mock bow, then held up a roll of duct tape. “The perfect way to attach a twenty-dollar bill.”
“I'll take care of that part,” Gunther said. “When they move in, I'll make sure he gets it.”
Kelly handed over the letter. “Just remember, even though he has a big head about his talents, he's not stupid, so try to come up with a clever way to deliver it.”
“Trust me. I'm already dreaming up something. And I'll get a regular bow for him, too.”
Nathan tossed the roll of tape to Gunther. “Okay. I guess that's all we can do for now. We'd better get back to Earth Blue.”
Francesca took Dr. Malenkov's arm and leaned against his shoulder. “Hurry back, Son. If Tony gets to work right away, it will probably be only a few days from your perspective, or maybe even less.”
“Right. We'll try to figure out a way to stay in touch. Maybe Dr. Gordon's got a handle on those pictures by now. He might have an idea about how to stay safe when we go to the misty world for real.”
“It's going to take more than Dr. Gordon to get us past those stalkers,” Francesca said.
Kelly leaned close to Francesca and kissed her on the cheek. “I'll miss you.”
“And I will miss you, as well.” The younger girl averted her eyes. “Goodbyes are always painful.”
“Do you remember our last goodbye?” Kelly asked. “I kept my promise.”
Francesca's voice quavered. “You've been … praying for me?”
Kelly nodded, her own voice cracking. “I'm not very good at it, so I don't know if God heard me, but a promise is a promise.”
“He heard.” Francesca took Kelly's hand and drew it gently toward her. She blew on Kelly's knuckles, then pulled her hand closer, pressing Kelly's palm against her own chest. “Prayer from the heart is like a beautiful melody — God loves the music of the soul.”
Kelly backed away, teetering slightly as she caressed her knuckles. Nathan almost jumped over to catch her, but she recovered. She seemed withdrawn, sad, maybe even upset. She swiveled toward him, her eyes glistening. “Uh … can we go now?”
He took her hand. “Yeah. Sure.”
Nathan, Kelly, Daryl, and Gunther returned to the van and drove back to the observatory site. Along the way, they discussed plans for delivering the letter and twenty-dollar bill to Tony. The radio played in the background, filling in the periods of silence. News reports described the latest nightmare-related deaths and gave rule updates straight from Zelda the prophetess. During the five hours of travel, they took turns catching naps. Since Kelly's eyesight stayed clear, she had no trouble driving while the others snoozed.
When they reached the forest and unloaded the motorcycles, Kelly wheeled one of them under the shelter while Gunther held the other upright in front of the mirror and aimed its headlight toward the glass.
Kelly pulled the tarp down to hide her motorcycle. “I think we're ready.”
“Good.” Nathan handed the camera to Kelly and the mirror to Daryl, then pulled his violin from the van. He tuned the strings, making ready to play the Carmen piece that would restore the image of Earth Blue to the tri-fold mirror. For some reason, it had blacked out and returned to a normal reflection, probably because Daryl Blue had changed the channel to Earth Red in order to consult with Dr. Gordon.
As Kelly and Daryl joined Nathan in front of the mirror, Gunther gave them a nod. “I guess I'm a guardian angel for Tony Clark now, too, the angel on his shoulder who keeps prodding him to make that bow.”
“Let us know when it's done.” Nathan pointed at the ground. “Maybe you could plant a sign right here where we can read it.”
Daryl snapped her fingers. “That's it!” She pushed the mirror square into Kelly's hand and backed away from Nathan. “Forget posting a sign. I'll stay here and set up communications!”
Nathan lowered his violin. “How? They don't have the internet, and even if they did, how would you hook up? Interfinity's radio telescope hasn't been constructed.”
“It's what, the early eighties?” Daryl spread out her hands. “The rudiments of the internet are already in place. I know how to construct a radio transmitter and receiver, and I know all the protocols. It shouldn't take long.”
“But wouldn't it mess up your life?” Nathan asked. “I mean, you'll age twice as fast here compared to Earth Red, maybe faster.”
“Hey, we're talking about saving the universe.” Daryl smiled and slid her arm around Gunther's waist. “We'll figure it all out. He's got the muscles and wheels, and I've got the brains.”
“And a whole thimbleful of humility,” Kelly added.
Daryl pointed at her. “At least that much. Maybe more.”
Nathan raised his violin again and eyed Daryl with new admiration. She was willing to make a huge sacrifice—leave home and family to embark on a mind-bending project with an almost complete stranger. “I'll tell Daryl Blue to watch for your call.”
Taking a deep breath, he began the Carmen piece. Kelly pressed closer and crouched to stay out of his way as he stroked the strings. Soon, the mirror darkened, and their images warped into ribbons of color. Nathan pushed through the demanding piece, his arms weakened by the strenuous climb over the void, even though it was nothing but a vision.
Several seconds later, the observatory floor came into focus. Daryl Blue rose from her chair, so slowly it was painful watching her. As Dr. Gordon had said, Earth Yellow's time passage compared to the other Earths fluctuated, so Daryl Blue's motion appeared jerky, almost at a standstill for a moment and maybe at a tenth of her normal speed at other times.
Gunther pushed the motorcycle closer and offered a weak smile. “Be thinking about us. The nightmare situation here is really a …” Flashing a grin, he shrugged. “A nightmare.”
“We will.” Nathan nodded at Gunther. “Hit the light.”
The headlamp's beam bounced off the three mirror faces and intersected a few feet in front to create an elliptical halo, flat and standing upright, with a rainbow-like perimeter — seven layered stripes that surrounded a glowing yellowish-white oval.
With a nod to Gunther and Daryl, Nathan repacked his violin in the case, took Kelly's hand, and walked into the ellipse. As usual, the scene around them shattered into millions of pieces. As if taken by a fresh breeze, the pieces flew apart and disappeared, revealing the telescope room. At first, the room was distorted in a twisting coil, but it slowly straightened and clari
fied. Within a few seconds, they were back.
Daryl hurried over to them. “Where's Red?”
Nathan gestured behind him with his thumb. “She stayed to set up a network so we can communicate with Earth Yellow. Since time's moving a lot faster there, she could try to call you soon.”
Jogging to the desk, Daryl shouted back, “I'll bet I know what frequency she'll use. I'll see if I can locate it.”
Kelly tightened her grip on Nathan's hand. “Keep me close. My eyesight's messed up again.”
He tried to get a look at her eyes, but she kept her head low. Obviously all these changes were getting to her. After several hours of normal eyesight, now she had to view the world through a dirty filter. Home had become a place to dread.
As he led her to the computer desk, he glanced up at the ceiling. Daryl Red and Gunther were no longer there, nor was the motorcycle. The grass waved furiously, rain beat against the ground, and a man sloshed by, far faster than humanly possible. Nathan caught a glimpse of his circular glasses. It had to be Dr. Simon, but was it the Blue or Yellow version? It was impossible to tell.
The ceiling faded to black and then to the familiar chaotic blobs of color. Daryl, staring at the laptop, slid her finger across the touch pad. As a line of numbers ran along the bottom of the screen, she shook her head. “No trace of Red's signal yet. I'll tune Dr. Gordon back in.”
Nathan led Kelly to a chair at an adjacent desk and scanned the dim chamber. The telescope cast a long shadow across the tiles, the entry for guided tours stood slightly ajar, and the elevator door was closed. The floor indicator displayed a red numeral one. “Where's Clara?” Nathan asked.
Keeping her gaze locked on the computer screen, Daryl flicked her thumb toward the ceiling. “Clara Red and Dr. Gordon are still up there. Clara Blue went to get some munchies.”
Nathan looked up. His faithful tutor stared back at him, her arms crossed over her open trench coat. Dr. Gordon sat next to her, studying an image on his laptop screen.
Clara's voice boomed through the speakers in the wall. “You weren't gone very long. Did you accomplish anything significant?”
Still looking upward, Nathan eased closer to the center of the room. “Quite a bit. We spent at least twelve hours over there.”
“Only an hour and a half here,” Clara said. “Tell us what happened, and we'll report on the photos.”
As Nathan began the story, Clara Blue returned with sub sandwiches, enough for everyone. Daryl only nibbled at hers, while Kelly ate more heartily. Nathan took a big bite at every convenient pause in his tale. His stomach clock told him he hadn't eaten since the sandwich at Burger King, and all the rope climbing in the misty world, real or not, had left him famished.
After he told of Daryl's commitment to stay on Earth Yellow, he settled back in a desk chair. “That's about it.”
“Very interesting,” Dr. Gordon said. “I trust that you will find our discoveries equally interesting.” He swung around in his chair and looked up at them, though it seemed downward from Nathan's viewpoint.
“Daryl,” Dr. Gordon continued, “the photographs I selected for examination should now be in your folder. Please display number one on your screen.”
“Will do.” Daryl pecked at her keyboard for a second, then pointed at her monitor. “Got it!”
Nathan rolled his chair closer and peered at the photo. Tsayad, facing the camera, appeared to be speaking in song, probably a minute or so after he greeted them on the glassy path. Carrying his songbook, his head tilted slightly upward, he seemed normal enough, at least as normal as a vision stalker could look.
“Do you see anything unusual?” Dr. Gordon asked.
“Besides the white hair, the pale face, and the mist all around?” Nathan shrugged. “Not really.”
“Daryl, focus on his hands and enlarge the area.”
“No problem.” Within a couple of seconds, the stalker's hands filled the screen, both grasping the songbook.
“Nathan,” Dr. Gordon said, “I want to see if you notice this feature on your own in order to be sure that I am not just imagining it.”
As he studied the photo, Nathan drifted closer and closer to the screen. What could Dr. Gordon be seeing? The stalker's right index finger pointed at a note on the right-hand page, and his left thumb held the book open by pressing against the left-hand page. Nothing unusual except …
“Wait!” he said out loud. “Daryl, can you blow up that line of music, the one his finger's on?”
“Sure thing.”
Nathan rose to his feet and drew so close his nose came within inches of the monitor. “It's C Major, but it's kind of strange. There are lots of sharps and flats, no sense of following the key.”
“Exactly,” Dr. Gordon said. “Did your experience in that world provide any reason for such dissonance?”
Nathan's mind latched on to that word — dissonance. It had cropped up, something Scarlet had said. The stalkers feed on fear and the dissonance fear creates. It wasn't much, but it was something. “I'll think about it,” he said. “Go on to the next one.”
“Very well. Daryl, display number two.”
A new image replaced the first, a photo of the three domes, including the twelve stalkers surrounding Scarlet's dome. Barely visible between the legs of two stalkers, Scarlet sat in her trembling crouch, appearing small and frail.
“This discovery is subtler,” Dr. Gordon said. “Concentrate on the positioning of the people surrounding the dome.”
Nathan again leaned as close as possible. He and Kelly had heard this ungodly choir singing their dissonant notes. Could their song be related to the musical staff in the book? They had sung while they faced Scarlet, but the notes had come so quickly, and the combination had been so irritating, he hadn't focused on any pattern, either musically or in the way they stood. But now, he could concentrate.
Able to see through the dome to the other side, he counted the genders — seven men and five women. He drew back for a moment. Something else was like this, something in his musical training that echoed this seven-versus-five circular pattern. A phrase popped into his mind— a chromatic circle. If the males stood for the natural notes, and the females the sharps or flats, they could easily represent the complete scale. He lifted a finger toward the closest choir member. “They're musical notes. Each stalker stands for a note in the chromatic circle.”
Dr. Gordon nodded. “Good. I was wondering if I was just imagining things.”
“Anything else unusual in the pictures?” Nathan asked.
“Just the one of Francesca in the Wal-Mart. That's number three, Daryl. I included this one after you told your story. I am confident that you will quickly discover the inconsistency.”
She tapped the laptop pad and brought up the photo. In the image, Francesca appeared to be a little younger than the girl who had accompanied him to the misty world, maybe a year, maybe less. The flash from the camera had illuminated her body and face brilliantly. Wearing a blue smock over a red shirt, she held her violin in the crook of her arm. Nothing unusual about that, yet, the image of Dr. Malenkov startled him. Yes, he had seen her adoptive father at the Wal-Mart, but now the object in his hands became clear, a huge violin bow.
Nathan backed away from the screen. How could that be? If Nikolai and Francesca already had a bow, why didn't either of them mention it while he was plotting to get one constructed? Unless …
He looked at Kelly, then at Daryl. They had seen the ghosts, too, but how could Francesca have traveled to the Wal-Mart in Earth Blue from her bedroom in Earth Yellow? It just didn't make sense.
Then, like a soft echo, Scarlet's words came back to him once again. You, my love, are one of the gifted, and another is searching for you in her dreams. Perhaps we can guide her to a convenient place to meet you.
“It was a dream,” Nathan said out loud. “Scarlet guided Francesca's dream thoughts to me at the Wal-Mart, and somehow the approach of interfinity is breaking down the barrier to the world of dream
s. But why wouldn't Francesca have mentioned the bow?”
Dr. Gordon stroked his chin for a moment, then looked up at Nathan again. “How quickly do you forget your dreams, especially the details?”
Nathan responded with a nod. Dreams always faded quickly, usually by the afternoon. That could explain why Francesca hadn't mentioned the bow. Scarlet had probably planned the whole thing — calling him to Earth Yellow to reunite with Francesca and showing him the kind of bow they needed in order to play the celestial violin. Scarlet planted the idea in his mind long before he tried to swing the basket over the strings.
“So what do we do now?” Nathan asked.
Dr. Gordon rose and walked toward the telescope, one hand in his pocket as he assumed a thoughtful pacing mode. “I suggest going back to the four hundred mirrors to search for your parents. Risking unnecessary cross-dimensional jumps isn't wise, but if you locate Solomon, acquiring his aid would be worth the risk. In the meantime, Daryl Blue will try to communicate with Daryl Red. When the bow is finished, we will summon you for another journey to Earth Yellow.”
“What effect is interfinity having on Earth Red?” Nathan asked.
Dr. Gordon stopped and looked up. “Confusion and widespread panic, not only from the appearance of long-dead airline crash survivors, but the rift in the cosmos is now visible in the heavens. At night, a black chasm obliterates our view of at least a tenth of the stars. They are simply gone.”
“Gone?” Kelly asked as she cast her wandering gaze upward. “How could stars disappear?”
Dr. Gordon shrugged. “That's what the top astronomers on the planet are trying to figure out. But while they're scratching their heads, the world continues to have a sanity meltdown.”
“Yeah,” Nathan said. “It's kind of like that here on Blue. People are confused, especially older folks who feel like they're living in the past. And the skies are messed up, too. It's been cloudy most of the time, but whenever it clears, I can see a layer of sparkles mixed in with the blue.”