The River Between Us

An adolescent girl, Helena, discovers her family's history when visiting her grandparent's cottage. This coming of age story is full of adventure as Helena gets more than a trip to the west coast.

Helena is in her adolescent years annually visits her grandparents on the west coast during her summer break. This is always an exciting time for her because she gets to see how the coast culture changes throughout the year. She brings back fashion, a new food trend as well as memories each time she visits. Her grandparents live in a cutesy cottage in the deserted-like countryside. She loves the atmosphere that it brings her each time she arrives. There is nothing but serenity and a bit of curiosity as the foliage grows each year.

 

Once she arrives at the cottage, her grandmother is awaiting her with arms wide open. There is nothing more endearing than the warm embrace of a loved one. She is welcomed inside this cottage and see that her grandmother made her favorite dinner…a Cornish hen roasted beautifully with all the fixin’s, homemade rolls, mashed potatoes and garden fresh veggies. Delighted at the sight, she snatches a roll and munches on it while her grandmother unveils that the dessert for the evening is a homemade strawberry cake with buttercream icing. Helena’s eyes sparkle with joy as she looks at the culinary masterpiece of a cake. By the time she unpacks her suitcases, it’s time to dig in.

 

As Helena licks her dessert plate clean, she retires to her room where her grandparents always have it ready to jump into to sleep. This room was small, but just enough space to make it feel as if she was home again. Before going to bed, she calls her parents to check in and tell them she safely arrived and is in good spirits. Her parents are glad and tell her to have fun and behave.

 

The next morning is here and she awakes to the smell of something sweet, something meaty, and something savory. Barely having her eyes opened, she peeks out to see her ole grandmother in the kitchen cracking some eggs to scramble with a pile of bacon ready to eat. As she is slowly making her way to the kitchen area, she startles her grandmother. Her grandmother asks her why she is up so early (mind you it’s about 10 am in the Midwest) and remembers that she is used to being up at this time where she lives. Helena asks if she could help her grandmother in any way but she happily declines and tells her to find a chair and grab a glass out of the cabinet. Doing so, the grandmother pours her granddaughter a hefty glass of orange juice and some water. They both sit down and start talking and catching up on whatever comes to mind.

 

Helena asks her grandmother where her grandfather is. Not only is it making the cottage incomplete, it was rather odd that he was gone when she arrived. Her grandmother explains that the countryside has been having a bobcat population problem and is part of the Wildlife Protection Patrol where they hunt them or at least try to relocate them safely.

 

This is a slight surprise to Helena because she knows her grandfather wasn’t as adventurous before. He would tend to his vintage truck (being a 2010 Ford f150) and do craftsmanship pieces for the natives of the countryside. The “natives” are people who are consciously placed inside tribal people, who are Native Americans who had genocide pandemic in the late 2020’s. The bodies of the last few got clones and transformed to different qualities so they could still “live on” and still be relevant to the future populations of the countryside. Her grandparents are secretly the last two Native Americans who fled before the genocide started. The returned when the last of their people were extinct. They haven’t been marked as Native Americans and strive to hide their true identity but living off the grid. Only their vehicles are programmed to know their location, their car who picked up Helena became invisible mid-air before returning to their cottage.

 

Helena still confused at what is happening, she wants more detail from her grandmother. Although she takes a second to think about how she will enlighten her granddaughter, she insists that is just a mere warning mission and that someone had given them a tip about a clutter of Bobcats in the area. Helena gives an unsatisfactory sigh and complies with what her grandmother has said.

 

Once everything is cleaned up from the breakfast they feasted on and the grandmother turns on her virtual reality mask and plants herself on the couch to live in the late-morning game shows that are on for most of the day. Helena finds herself outside to check in what has ensued in the past year. Her grandparents' cottage sits on a few hundreds of acres of land along a lake that is perfect for swimming. She starts to wonder effortlessly at the trees and wild flowers that are perfectly dancing in the breeze. She uncovers a newly forested path and strolls in the direction of the winding path. The path has no faded to nothing. She is in the midst of a part of the forest she hasn’t been to. A little worried at first but imagines what she could possibly find in this new territory. The last time she was here, she found an unearthed crystal that was various green and violet hues. She thought that if she could find that, there has got to be more to discover.

 

As she got deeper into the forest, a small river that breaks the foliage of the forest greets her. Surprised, she is tempted to cross the river and see what new land has in store for her. The only thing that is stopping her is a 30-foot drop from the edge of her side of the forest. She doesn’t want to risk injury and the worry of her grandmother for her to take it. Realizing what time is it; she retrieves back to her grandparent’s residence just in time to see the return of her grandfather.

 

Once again, an amazing feast is upon them for supper. Her grandfather praises his wife on such a homely warm meal and he has missed it as well as her. Helena eagerly asks her grandfather if he saw anything while hunting down the Bobcats. With a slight smirk on his face directed to his wife, he declines to spill any information about what he did. The grandmother then realizes what he means and her eyes get big as they ever could. Helena realizes something is up and is too curious to not know something. She gets fairly annoyed and ponders the question to her grandmother who instantly has a frightful presence to herself. The grandmother tells Helena that it isn’t necessary to ask what was happening and that she should just be glad her grandfather is back and in one piece. She gives a nervous laugh and starts to pick up supper.

 

At this point, the atmosphere of the cottage is uneasy. Her grandfather is cleaning up and heading to bed. As he is nowhere to hear the two in the living room, Helena tells her grandmother that she found another part of the forest today. In response to this statement, her grandmother pauses and asks her to repeat herself. She did, telling her that there is a river in between the forest. Silence takes over and the grandmother drops the plate in the sink, which makes a loud chime. She faces her granddaughter and tells her to go outside and she’ll be right there. With that being said, she does so with a very confused and worried face. Why must we go outside? What is happening?

 

Her grandmother arrives shortly after Helena finds a place to sit. The sky is very bright with various planets (new earth was formed, it is closer to other planets, meaning that the moon we would see is replaced with planets) shining in the black sky. Right as she steps outside, her grandmother is questioning her and what she has seen throughout the forest. Helena explains her day as she was wondering into the forest and saw a new path that she had not seen last year. Her grandmother is slightly shocked and yet fearful of what she had discovered. Once Helena is done talking, her grandmother pulls her close, almost face-to-face, and whispers that she has uncovered the way to the old civilization that no one knows about except for her grandparents.

Shocked, she asked why no one knows about the rest of the forest and how there could be more of their people even though they were thought to be extinct. Her grandmother sighs, trying not to burst her granddaughter's bubble, and tells her that she thinks it’s time to explain a few things.

 

First of all, she would be the only one from her family that would come see her grandparents. Which in her eyes didn’t really mean anything due to her family moved to the Midwest when she was a baby and her parents didn’t tell her younger siblings that they had grandparents. It was a little oasis for her to leave and get some alone time before the school year resumed. The only reason why she was able to come is that her mother had an arranged marriage to one of the hybrid natives when she was younger that produced one of the first hybrid native-foreign babies of the future. This meant that she had true Native American blood in her and there hasn’t been a true-blood for centuries. She was technically a rare species and every year people would try to find her and kill her. Her grandfather was away not because of the tip of Bobcats, but because someone found out that their granddaughter would be coming back for her annual trip. The Bobcats were part of the protection as well as the newly innovated robo-cats that could protect 24/7. The only way she could communicate was in the cottage so that people couldn’t hack into their network and locate her.

 

Helena was in shock but didn’t understand why the river was to be feared and why she couldn’t go over to the other side of the forest if she was technically a native. Again, her grandmother, fearful of what could happen if the WHOLE truth came out asked her if she wanted to know everything. Helena didn’t have anything to lose so she nodded her head and gripped the bark of the stump she was sitting on.

 

With a deep breath, her grandmother went into a full detail about that the other side of the forest was actually a parallel universe and that her “normal” body and spirit was on the other side. If she were to meet this said person, there could only be one, so basically she would genocide herself. This would only explain some off occurrences that she experienced when she was in her hometown. She would feel pain for a quick second in any part of her body and sometimes would bruise where it had happened. Her grandmother tried to explain that when she was gone during her school year, her “old” self would be there with her grandparents. So, in terms, she would feel the exact things her other part would since they were in the same universe. The river that was there was actually the thing that prevented a crossover accidentally. If she were to adventure to the river, she would be instantly killed. The river has a poisonous molecule from the genocide years ago. This is how they prevented the natives from crossing over to escape. When it was over, the Wildlife Protection Patrol thought they had cleared all the poison away by counteracting the mixture with more neutral atoms that absorbed the danger. They only knew it didn’t work when Helena's mother tried to explore and fell only to put a few toes in the water that instantly became necrotic and fell off. The granddaughter was in awe of what she learned but became vaguely concerned about her mother’s well being. Another secret was that her mother wasn’t a native and that her grandparents on the outskirts found her abandoned due to her parents being part of the genocide team. Instead of being spiteful and leaving her, her grandparents took her in and treated her like their own. In return, her grandparents set her up with a real native in order to receive true native blood in her family. This was truly a special thing for Helena and regrets everything a typical pre-teen does to her parents. One final truth came out about what happened to her real father. Once her mom’s real parents went to come find her, they used a DNA based program that can locate relatives using DNA of a close relative. They tracked her down only to see that she was with a native and become furious. Her dad tries to reach for her to protect her but then her husband blocks him in return her paternal father kills her husband right in front of her and her maternal mother. In these years of genocide (basically people have moved on and turned their hate towards the actual founders of America), people didn’t even blink an eye to this. Helena’s mother (who was around 19 at the time) now has to be a single mother and protect her baby from any harm. Freaking out over what happened, she rushed back to her parents to tell them that her real parents found her and killer her husband. Her “real” parents have their blood boiling and tell her to run far away that she wouldn’t be found but beforehand they took some of Helena’s DNA samples to create a “new” person but has no trace of native blood inside.

 

As shocked as this girl is, she is scared to know that they basically made a “back-up” of her in case something did happen to her. Her mom knew all along and didn’t tell her even though she had many times to explain why she looked slightly different from her siblings. Still, Helena is trying to process all of this that has been revealed. She has a suggestion.

 

She asked her grandmother if she could send the other version of her back home. Her grandmother knew that she would ask about it, and told her if she was mature enough to make that decision she could. As she was about to say yes, her grandmother gave her one more piece of information that would make the decision more serious. She revealed that when she comes back each year, the natives who are still alive are trying to study her to find her a real native to marry, just like her mother was set up. Even though this wasn’t too much of a surprise, Helena asked what would the other version of her do if she never came back due to her safety.

 

The grandmother let out a big huff of sadness and said that basically her clone would be sacrificed in return of her safety and her other “soul” would protect her and guide herself back to the countryside. Basically saying she would run away with her mother knowing what was happening. The only part that would be negative is that she would only be allowed to stay on the other side and never get to cross the river to see her grandparents. This is only because she would be a true native that people across the country think are extinct. She would have a happy life and be apart of the new wave of natives. Helena is afraid to choose that since she as learned the truth surrounding her life, she had to choose soon. Helena asked if there would be any way that she could communicate to her grandparents if she agreed to live in the parallel universe.

 

Now, knowing that she said more than she should have, her grandmother told her that they have access to the other side but only when it’s a new moon and they have a ritual to transform into their spirit animal. Her grandmother would be an owl because she was wise when they fled the genocide. Her grandfather would be a Bobcat since they are strong and protective of their offspring.  Helena makes a connection that her grandfather has the ability to change into a Bobcat whenever because he was protecting the land…but as a Bobcat with fellow natives from the other side.

 

The grandmother looks up at the sky and sees that the planets are dimming meaning that it’s almost full-night (which is when the earth has their “night”). She says that the decision has to be made before the planets disappear, once it is complete night, the planets fade until dusk the following day.

 

Helena looks up at the sky and realizes it is almost time for full-night. Pondering at everything that has been said and her heart is at a middle ground; she starts to tear with an overwhelming emotion. She takes a glance at the opening of the forest and goes on a full sprint to the river. Being older, her grandmother cries out for her to stop even though she knows what is happening. Her grandfather hears his wife’s cries and transforms and darts out the door in full Bobcat mode.

 

He is almost to her and is nearing the river. Helena is four feet away from the bank and her grandfather leaps and bites her calf, making her fall just before she is attempting a crazy sacrifice. Although she is upset and scared, she doesn’t realize that it is her grandfather and tries to fight him off. Her rage and cries are up to a boiling point to where she doesn’t even realize she herself has been transformed into a spirit animal. As her grandfather, who back away and reformed back to his normal self, looks upon his granddaughter. The moonlight shining is shining on her fur coat. She howls at the moon, her grandfather is in awe of his granddaughter who is formed as a wolf, not any wolf, but an alpha wolf. As he tries to say her name she is growling at him as if he is blocking her from her choice. He tells her that he is proud that she is taking her true form and is glad she knew the truth. The grandfather comes closer to her as she is subconsciously learning she transformed. Now that she is seeing this he tells her to go. The quest is to find her clone in the woods on the other side and to kill her. Helena scuffs and nods in acknowledgment and heads off. The grandfather transforms back to return to his wife with the news. They go back into the cottage to send a message to the mother, who knew at this point (Helena is 12) she had to know the truth and to make a choice due to it would have automatically happened when she turned 13.

 

 It would have been confusing to Helena if one day she disappeared only to be on the other side of the river without ever knowing what happened. Now she has made the choice of being with her true people. This is a whole new step as she is a pioneer to the rebirth of the natives.

 

Author's Note

This is a rough draft for a creative writing I did as if this was for the popular series "Black Mirror".