Part Two
Regular Trixie frowned. “If she’d kept that open, we could have followed her.”
Her brother shrugged. “Just make another one, Trixie. See you later, everyone.”
The others called replies as they left the clubhouse, intent on their own destinations.
Trixie formed the portal and turned to Brian. “Ready?”
He winced. “As I’ll ever be.”
She disappeared through the portal and he followed close behind. The portal winked out of existence.
“Hey! Why did you do that?” Brian demanded. “I only just made it through.”
In front of him, Trixie stood stock-still, her face a ghostly white.
“Where are we?” she whispered.
Brian glanced around and shook his head. “The clubhouse, of course.”
“But which clubhouse?” she wanted to know. “This isn’t the version of the clubhouse from the alternate reality and it isn’t the one from ours. So, where are we?”
Heart beginning to beat faster, Brian looked around himself. “I don’t know. You’re right: the things in the storage area don’t look familiar. The main room is… shabbier, I guess, than ours.”
“I’m getting us out of here,” she decided, moving over to the stretch of wall they found best for forming portals. She made the right moves, but not a glimmer showed. “Or, maybe not.”
She moved around, trying different places, but with no effect. “You try,” she urged. “You never know. Maybe you can make them here, wherever that is, even though I can’t.”
Brian gave her a dubious look. He, personally, had never been able to make portals. His double from the alternate reality lost that ability a year ago. But the panic was rising in Trixie’s face, so he copied her movements. Nothing.
Trixie took a couple of deep breaths. “Okay. What now?”
He stopped and thought for a few moments. “What if it has something to do with the thing we’re here to get? Maybe if we find the fragment, we’ll be able to open the portal and leave.”
She stared at him. “But why would the fragment be here? How could Bobby have hidden something in a whole other reality?”
Brian looked away, still thinking hard. “The other Brian already theorised that power had transferred to the brooch. When Bobby dropped the original device into the washing machine, it opened the barrier between the realities, right? Could his breaking the brooch have opened another barrier? Bobby may have intended to hide the parts in his own reality and inadvertently pushed them through portals into this world.”
She looked to the door. “Well, in that case, we should be able to find the others. They’ll be arriving through their own portals any time now.”
“Do you have any abilities here?” he wondered, as she reached for the door handle.
Trixie stopped. “Let me try. Hmm… I don’t feel any threads of activity from any enemies. And if I scratch my arm, it makes a mark. I think that proves pretty well that we’re not in the alternate reality that we know.”
She closed her eyes and disappeared – or, at least, her body did; her clothes stayed visible, looking very strange without any visible means of support.
Brian sighed. “Okay. So, you have your own ability. I don’t suppose that proves anything.”
His sister reappeared, looking worried. “But abilities never made it through portals before. They always stayed in their own reality.”
Brian nodded. “That concerns me, too.”
“Well, I don’t think we have time to worry about it right now,” Trixie decided. “What do you think we should do? Go look for the others, or go look for the fragment?”
He considered for only a moment. “The fragment. If, after we find it, we still can’t make a portal, then we can worry about finding the others.”
Trixie nodded agreement. Peeking out through a window, she checked that the coast was clear before opening the door and slipping outside. The pair walked quietly, keeping eyes and ears open for clues of anyone around them. As they neared the lake, the sounds of splashing and high-pitched voices came to their ears.
“Oh, no! There’s someone there already,” Trixie grumbled. “It sounds like kids. They might be there for hours.”
“Maybe we should go back to the clubhouse to wait,” Brian suggested, but Trixie shook her head.
She fiddled in her pocket, looking for one of the mints she sometimes carried. “Let’s see if we can get a look at them. They’re busy playing; they won’t notice us.”
Weary lines gathered on Brian’s face, but he followed his sister off the path and through the undergrowth. At last, she found a vantage point.
“Hey! It’s Moms. But who are all those kids?”
Brian looked from the woman at the edge of the lake – who was playing with a dark-haired toddler while four bigger children swam – to his sister and back again.
“That’s not Moms.”
Trixie shot him a strange look. “Of course it is.”
“No.” He pointed to the woman. “That’s not Moms. That’s you.”
“No!”
“Shush!”
Trixie slapped a hand over her mouth and they both ducked down. She slipped into invisibility, ripping off her T-shirt and handing it to Brian so that she could get higher and see better.
“She’s looking this way. She looks suspicious,” Trixie whispered. “Oh! That really is me, isn’t it? But how did this happen? Have we come to the future somehow?”
The other Trixie shook her head and returned her attention to the little boy. The invisible Trixie put her shirt back on and regained visibility.
“Please don’t tell me I grow up to have five kids!”
“They’re not necessarily all yours,” he answered, suppressing a grin. “And that’s not our most pressing problem right now.”
“That’s what you think.” She cut off his objection before he could give it voice. “Okay, okay. I know. Find the fragment. Get out of here.”
At that moment, the older Trixie called out, “Time to go!”
The four in the deeper water groaned and splashed and whined, “Please, Moms, five more minutes?” She was firm, however, and had all of them out of the lake within a couple of minutes, including a young teenage girl that the hidden watchers had not previously noticed. But just as the other Trixie had them all ready to leave, a group of five teenagers arrived.
“Hi Mrs. Frayne,” one of the girls called, from just behind where Brian and Trixie hid. “How’s the water?”
“Still a bit cold, but you get used to it,” the older Trixie answered, while bending down to pick something up. “Enjoy your swim!”
“Who are they?” the other Trixie wondered. “And why did they call me that?”
Brian shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe the you here is married to Jim?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
He peered at the teens. “That girl looks a lot like Celia. And she looks old enough that… well, depending on how old you are here, I would have thought she looks old enough to have been born by the time you’re the age you are now. I don’t think this is the future. At least, I don’t think it’s our future.”
Trixie looked in the direction her other self had gone. “I’m going to follow her.”
“Wait. Why?”
She cast him an exasperated look. “We’re not doing any good here and who knows what I might find out?”
“Trixie.”
“I’ll be back in a little while. You can stay here and watch them, if you want.”
He frowned, considering his options. “Okay. But stay out of sight.”
She grinned. “That’s what I’m good at.”
Away from her brother, she became invisible and stripped off, but left her shoes on to protect her feet. It did not take her long to catch up to the group. Her double was carrying the littlest boy; one of the bigger kids trailed along behind, dragging his feet.
“Can we go riding this afternoon?” the middle girl asked. “Please?”
The older Trixie nodded. “If Regan says it’s okay. Do you want to check with him on the way past?”
The girl nodded and ran ahead.
They followed a well-worn path past the stables and through a grove of trees. The other girl came back, at a run, saying that Regan had agreed. Trixie glanced in that direction and nearly gasped aloud as she caught sight of him astride an unfamiliar horse. His red hair had greyed at the temples and lines had appeared on his face, but he still looked fit and healthy. Surely fifteen years had passed for him since she saw him the day before.
The trees blocked out all view of Manor House and its grounds as they walked on. Shortly afterwards, another house came into view. Trixie stopped short to examine it. She could not say why, but she felt sure this house had stood here for many decades. Which, in her world, was impossible.
The older Trixie’s procession of children entered at the back door and were lost from view. She hesitated for a minute, then headed back the way she had come. As she rounded Manor House, another familiar figure emerged from the front door.
“I’ll see you later, Mother. I’ll bring Andrew up after his nap.”
“That would be lovely,” the faint voice of Mrs. Wheeler replied, from just inside the house.
Trixie stepped into the garden and hid her visible shoes behind a plant just before Honey passed. The older woman looked slim and youthful, but much more mature than the Honey that Trixie was used to. She was just wondering whether to follow her instead when she heard a low grumble of thunder.
A few steps down the path, Honey stopped and looked around. “Strange,” she muttered, then hurried on her way.
Trixie looked up at the sky, which was turning ominously dark along one horizon. She stepped out of the garden and was just considering what to do next when the young teenager appeared from the direction of the mysterious house. As the girl cast a furtive look behind her, Trixie decided to follow.
They took the shortest path to the lake, but as they drew near, the girl hesitated. For a moment, Trixie thought that Brian was about to be discovered, but then the girl chose a different hiding place.
Walking quietly, Trixie positioned herself a little in front of the girl. The boys in the lake splashed and the girls squealed in response. Wide-eyed, the dark-haired girl hiding in the bushes peered out at them. One of the boys strolled out of the water and the girl’s eyes followed him. A blush rose on her pretty face and she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. In that moment, Trixie felt sure she was witnessing a first crush.
The boy picked up his towel and began to dry himself. As he turned in their direction, the girl gasped and ducked down. Trixie took a peek at her and saw that the blush had deepened to blotches of red on the girl’s cheeks. The girl peeked again and saw that the boy had turned his back. He pulled on a T-shirt. The girl sighed in disappointment. Before he turned again, she ran off the way she had come.
Smiling at the scene she had just watched, Trixie back-tracked to the place she had stashed her clothes. After dressing quickly, she returned to where Brian hid.
“What’s happening?” she asked, nodding in the direction of the lake.
He shrugged. “Not much. I think one of those boys might be Regan’s son. He looks a lot like Dan.”
“I saw Regan. He looks old.” She glanced again at the sky as another clap of thunder sounded, much nearer this time. “And I saw a house in a place that no house should be, looking like it’s been there a hundred years. I’m pretty sure you’re right: this isn’t our future.”
In the lake, the other teenagers had noticed the approaching storm and were now getting out of the water.
“This looks like our chance,” Trixie noted.
Brian shook his head. “It’s our chance to find some kind of shelter,” he countered. “I don’t want to be stuck out here in a thunderstorm.”
“Once they’re gone, we can start looking. If we don’t find it in ten minutes, then we can get to shelter.”
The five teens hurried away. Trixie barely waited until they were out of sight before she scrambled out of the bushes. She began to hunt along the ground. After a moment’s pause, Brian followed her example. Barely two minutes later, however, large drops of rain began to fall. A rush of wind swept past them. Then, even as Brian opened his mouth to call a halt, the air filled with the sound of static and the whole sky turned white as a lightning bolt came down somewhere close by.
Brian grabbed Trixie’s arm and pulled her into the boathouse, shutting the door behind them.
“That was way too close for comfort,” he commented, sinking down onto a bench seat that he had never seen in there before.
“Ugh! Now what do we do?” Trixie opened the door to look out, only to have Brian shut it again.
He frowned. “We wait for the storm to pass.”
Another lightning strike flashed through the small window at the same time as the boom of thunder. The whole building vibrated with it. Rain lashed against the glass.
“It’s hot in here,” Trixie complained, only a moment later. “Can’t we have the door open?”
“No,” Brian answered, but was drowned out by the next strike. He added, after the noise had subsided and their ears had a moment to adjust, “Not until I say so.”
Trixie slumped onto the bench and sulked. The next two strikes had a gap between the lightning and the thunder; the boathouse rattled less for these. Gradually, the sound of the storm lessened. The rain eased off and then stopped. Thunder could only be heard in the distance.
“Now you can open the door,” Brian told her.
Trixie got up and threw it open, mindless of whether anyone was outside. She stepped out into the cooler air, taking a deep breath.
“Let’s get searching,” she urged, peering around for likely hiding spots.
Brian walked out to the edge of the water and shook his head. “It’s in there.”
Trixie stopped and stared at him. “How do you know?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. But I can feel it. It’s under the water, a stone’s throw from the edge.”
“You mean, Bobby threw it in there.”
He shrugged again. “Probably. I’d guess he meant it to go further, but he’s twelve.”
“How are we going to find it?” she wondered. “All those people have been swimming in here. They could have buried it.”
Brian stripped off his shoes and shirt. “I guess I’ll have to go and look. At least I have an idea of where I’m looking.”
Trixie kicked off her shoes and reached into her shorts pockets to empty them – only to find them already empty. She slapped a hand over her mouth.
“My mints!”
Brian stopped, already knee-deep in the lake. “What?”
“I had a packet of mints. In my pocket. I ate one right about the time we hid in the bush over there. And now I don’t have them. I and saw her – me – pick something up in the same place I was when I last had them.”
He hesitated for a moment. “I don’t think we need to worry about them. In fact, I’m sure we don’t. This is the important thing.”
Trixie nodded and followed him into the water, staying a step or two behind. As the water reached his chest, Brian slowed.
“It’s here. I’m going down to look.”
He dove beneath the water and Trixie waited anxiously. She could see nothing down there. After a short time, he returned, took another breath and dove again. Three times more he did this before Trixie caught his arm.
“This isn’t working. Let me help.”
He shook his head, panting a little. “I’ve nearly got it. It’s caught between some rocks. I just need a little longer down there.”
Trixie rolled her eyes. “Then let me help.”
He considered for a moment, then took her hand. “Ready? Dive!”
He pulled her with him under the water and they swam to the bottom. Brian put Trixie’s hands on a particular rock. She tugged at it, lifting it off the bottom, but could not remove it entirely. Brian rummaged under it until a blue glow lit up the water. His hand must have closed over the object because the light dimmed. A moment later, he held up the hand that held it and they rose to the surface together, gasping for breath.
“Let’s get back to the clubhouse,” she urged, half-walking, half-swimming to the shore.
Trixie gathered together the hem of her shirt and squeezed out the excess water, then slipped her wet feet into her shoes. She looked back over her shoulder to hurry her brother along. He picked up his shirt and used it to dry his face.
“Come on! We need to see if it helps!”
He resisted her efforts to hurry, complaining of how uncomfortable it was to walk in wet clothes, but at last they reached the clubhouse. Trixie rushed to the right spot and tried again to form a portal.
“Oh, no! What do we do now?” she wondered, bumping her head against it.
Brian thought for a moment. “Maybe you need to hold this.”
She reached out and took the broken piece of brooch, gasping as she felt the power rush through her. A portal began to form where her hand still touched the wall. Smiling at Brian with relief, she turned and got it ready, making it a little bigger than usual.
“We’ll go through together, okay? That way, if it’s wrong, we’ll both end up in the same place.”
He nodded his agreement, took her hand and they stepped through.
Continue to part three.
Notes are at the end.
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