“How do you… did you know my boyfriend?” she asked. “We just met Mark yesterday,” he said after a pause.
He watched her for a moment.
“Listen, we both lost important people today,” he continued. “I know this is all messed up48, but we need to stay together. At least for a while to get to the bottom of it49.”
She couldn’t see and hear him anymore. Grief finally broke through the barrier of shock. He took her hand and quietly said: “Don’t worry, Lizzy. We’ll figure this out.”
Then he took a ramp to merge onto the highway out of the city.
Chapter 2: Lizzy’s Diary (Present Time)
I guess the most difficult thing in this crazy story is to accept the reality of it and get used to wearing Beth, my twin copy, clothes. The latter isn’t a big problem because we were the same size, and she had good taste. I have six more days before the jump, and I must put all my memories together while they’re still fresh and painful. Yes, pain. I don’t know if I’ll feel it after the jump. It connects me to the past. My past. My life seems to be so long ago. Will I still be me if I lose it?
In any case, I’d better start my diary from the beginning.
I was in the car with Marco – my Mark’s copy – and my life disappeared50 in the rearview mirror51. When we put a couple of hundred miles between us and New York, he started to slow down. I had no more tears in me and was just staring out of the window thoughtlessly52.
The car stopped.
“Here’s where we’ll meet him,” Marсo said. “Who?”
“The man who knows the answers,” he said and opened the door. “Are you coming?” “How do you know that man?” I asked Marco when we got out of the car.
“You told me about him. I mean, Beth. She found him a while ago or he found her. I’m not sure how that happened. In any case, he told us to bring her copy – you – to him. To save you.”
“To do what?”
“Apparently53, someone didn’t want that meeting to happen.” “To do what?!”
“That’s what you and I are going to find out because Lizzie didn’t live long enough to explain that to you and I think he’ll do a better job,” Marco said, looking around. “It should be somewhere close.”
I looked around as well. We were close to a mountain.
“There’s nothing here,” I stated the obvious54. “Aren’t these the Adirondack Mountains?”
I knew that because our company had arranged a corporate retreat in this area a year ago. It was a good outing. We had a lot of fun hiking, canoeing, and checking out waterfalls.
“Not sure what they’re called here, but we call them the Algonquian Hills in my world. This is where we came to your world. There’s supposed to be a cave here,” Marco said looking intently55 in the direction of the mountain. He added: “Oh, I think I see it.”
It took a while to get to the place where we were going, which turned out to be an entrance of the cave. I had not seen it on the company’s retreat. It was big enough for both of us to walk without touching the ceiling. Marco had a couple of flashlights with him. He gave me one, switched his on and led the way. We walked in and went ahead for a hundred meters or so. It was chilly and a bit eerie inside. I shivered.
I began, “How are we supposed to—”
That’s when I saw a big sea green56 flash of light ahead of us that turned into a big pulsating greenish-yellow ball just like bright northern lights. Weirdly57, there was no sound. The ball started to open, like some kind of a portal, and a male silhouette58 walked right out of it.
It lasted a few seconds and then the ball was gone, but the man remained59. He approached60 us. He was in his sixties, with a short gray beard and long hair, wearing khaki pants and a dark green turtleneck sweater61. He seemed nervous, but he was smiling.
“Marco, Lizzy,” the man said as if he knew us well.
So, naturally, I fainted62 because a human being can take only a certain amount of drama and science fiction in one day without losing consciousness63.
I had a dream that I saw my mom. She was smiling and nodding as if she understood my situation. I wanted to get closer to her and ask her what I should do, but when I opened my mouth, I came to my senses.
First, I heard some soft voices. There were two men whispering64. I tried to open my eyes. It wasn’t easy because they were swollen65. I was thirsty66 and I was lying on something soft.
“Ahem67?” I cleared my throat.
“Oh, good.” I heard Marco say. “She’s awake.” I heard him walking over to me.
“Lizzy,” Marco said, taking my hand. “How are you?” “Thirsty,” I said with an effort.
“Listen,” he continued. “This is Peter.”
I opened my eyes and saw the man from the big ball of light. He was smiling and now looked vaguely68 familiar for some reason. He waved at me. I looked at Marco. “He’s your dad, Lizzy,” Marco said.
I’ve never really met my father – or I should say that I don’t remember him. I knew almost nothing about the man except seeing a few pictures of him that my mom kept. Back then, he appeared to be a well-built smart-looking handsome young man in late twenties with short dark hair. I remember that he was smiling in those photos. My mom told me that he was a good man, but he had to be someplace away from the family. I think she made that up. In fact, she never gave me a proper explanation, and, as a little girl, I used to imagine him to be a great explorer blazing a trail69 in some jungle. Other relatives told me that he disappeared when I was a year old.
When I got older that mental portrait of my father slowly faded away70, and I didn’t think much about him. Of course, I was wondering if I was like him from time to time71. I am sure I had a lot of daddy-isn’t-home issues which I had to deal with, but I was pretty sure