Second Chances: Another Dimension

Second Chances

Another Dimension

"There you are," she said. "I was wondering if you were coming or not."

I looked into her eyes,

"Yeah, I guess."

She smiled a familiar smile,

"How have you been," she asked.

I looked around the strange room and replied,

"I've been better I suppose."

I looked more deeply into her eyes and asked, "Do I know you?"

She held my hand and gently smiled,

"More than you'll ever know.

I'm  from a long time ago. 

 I've changed a lot. I'm not the same young girl I was back then."

Things began getting blurry. I tried focusing on her face but her image became dim and distorted.

Darkness crept in all around. It was as if I were looking through a tunnel, but the opening kept getting smaller and smaller until there was nothing at all, only complete darkness.

I don't know how I got to where I was, but I found myself sitting on a park bench looking across the lake at a white mansion owned by one of the more prominent families of our fair city.

It was a lazy breezy day. White caps formed as they crashed into the muddy banks.

Children played chase while mothers looked on, ever diligent.

Two boys were flying kites, letting out all the string they had. They soared high over head as the boys bobbed and weaved trying to get their kites to perform intricate maneuvers.

"There you are." said the young girl sitting next to me.

I turned and with a startled expression on my face looked at her. Funny, I hadn't noticed her before.

"You look a little pale, are you alright."

I sat teetering back and forth, a little dazed, a little confused, and a little bewildered by my surroundings. Where was I, and how did I get here?

"Where am I?" I asked.

"Oh my," she replied, "that can't be a good thing. A person should always know where they are, or else...or else, well...all I can say is, I've known of some people who ended up in the looney bin. A person should always be aware of these things."

I put both hands on the bench and tried to steady myself.

"I don't feel so great," I said.

She pulled off her backpack and yanked out a package of jalapeno cheese crackers.

"Here," she said, "you need something to eat."

I took the package, opened it up, and ate each one slowly.

Surprisingly, within a few moments, I began to feel better.

"There you are," she said. "The color is coming back to your face. Why, you look almost human again. It's always a good thing for a person to look human, wouldn't you say?"

I turned to look at her. She had long, wavy brown hair, pale blue colored eyes, and was very pretty.

"Something is missing," I said.

"Missing?" she replied, "What? I promise I haven't taken anything. I would never take something that wasn't mine. I swear I'm innocent. Who would steal something from a person, especially when that someone is just two steps from the...you know...looney bin?"

She paused and looked at me seriously.

"My mother told me, 'to take something that isn't yours is pure thievery.'

I am no thief, sir. It is almost certain a crime against God for sure."

I looked up and with a bedazzled look in my eyes, said,

"Time," I said, "Time is missing."

"Time," she queried, "what do you mean? Are you from another dimension?

I've heard people who travel from other dimensions always lose time, and some other stuff too, but I can't recall it all."

I leaned back in the park bench trying to recall the past few moments and replied,

"Yeah, I heard that too."

I starred across the lake and said,

" I remember being in a strange, bright, cold room and then... BAM! I'm here."

I hesitated a bit before continuing,

"But wait, there's more. There was this familiar looking old woman. She said something strange, something that gave me the chills."

The girl scratched her head,

"What happened to her, the strange older woman?"

"She faded into darkness just before I met you."

I looked at her,

"You probably really think I'm crazy now, huh?"

"Oh no!," she exclaimed, "It's mysterious. I love mysteries. There's nothing more interestingly fun than piecing together parts of a good mystery."

"I suppose so," I said, "if you're on the outside of the mystery.

But to actually be the mystery is something else."

She twisted and contorted her face and replied slowly,

"Hmm, I suppose you're right. I never thought of it like that before, but then again, I've never met anyone from another dimension."

I leaned forward and put my chin in the palm of my hand,

"Me either."

To my right, sitting on the edge of the park bench, was a burgundy colored motorcycle helmet. She looked and pointed,

"Is that yours?" she asked.

I turned and looked,

"I don't know, maybe."

"Oh dear," she chirped, "you're worse off than I thought."

She reached over and grabbed my hand. There was something familiar about her touch.

"Well, let's get to the bottom of this mystery, you and me."

I looked at her curiously,

"Really, you want to run off with some stranger you don't even know? What if I were some horrible psycho-maniac killer who preys on girls in the park, where would you be then, huh?"

She looked at me and giggled,

"Silly goose. You're no psycho-maniac killer!"

"Really," I replied, "and how do you know?"

"I just do," she commented. "I have a way of knowing certain things about people."

She grabbed my hand again and said,

"Get up, reach into your pockets, and see what's in there."

I stood slowly, reached into my pockets, and pulled out a key.

"What's that?" she asked.

I held it out front and said,

"A key."

She looked at me as though I were some sort of  imbecile, which I probably was, but under the circumstances, I could come up with no better response.

"I know it's a key," she said, "silly thing you, but what's it a key to?"

I held it out and examined it,

"It's a key to a Kawasaki, I think."

She pointed to a nearby parking lot,

"You mean like that one over there?"

I turned and looked,

"Hmm, maybe."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," she said.

She grabbed my hand and practically had to pull me to the bike. I was still a bit dazed from my sudden dimensional time breach appearance. I lagged behind just enough that it forced her to tug me along.

"Come on you, we'll never know until we try the key."

The excitement of not knowing sparked a sense of urgency in her demeanor. She was like a child on an Easter Egg hunt.

We stood in front of a large oak door. It marked the entry way to a large white brick home on a street that looked oddly familiar.

I stared into her pale blue eyes, confused and lost.

"Oh dear," she said, "It's happening again, isn't it?"

"What?" I replied.

"Time dimensional leaps." she said.

We stood close to each other, face to face as if we were about to kiss.

"You do remember me, don't you, the girl in the park?"

I backed away,

"I...."

She interrupted my confused state,

"It's all a blank to you, isn't it?"

I turned and sat in a large porch swing that faced the street. It was made of some sort of hard wood and was painted pale white like the house.

"How long have we..." I began, but she, anticipating my question, answering,

"Since this morning. You apparently appeared from, who knows where, and things just took off from that point.

We went out, you know, to a movie. We had a wonderful time. It's always a good thing when two people have a wonderful time together, don't you think so?"

She sat down beside me, held my hand, and giggled,

"And guess what...we like each other! I think you were about to kiss me goodnight when you zoned out again."

I looked at her with a blank expression, trying to piece together the hours past, the lost time, the lost memories. It was like trying to piece together a jigsaw puzzle, only with some of the pieces missing.

"I'm sorry," I said, "but, what did you say your name was again?"

"Oh dear," she frowned, "it's worse than I thought. These time dimensions are things new to me, and I don't understand them at all."

She gazed into my eyes and asked,

"Where do you go when you leave? Do you travel to other places, are there other girls in these other dimensions?"

I shrugged my shoulders and replied,

"I don't know. Everything is blank, but I think there's only you, and now."

"Oh good," she sighed, "I think that's just about the most wonderful thing you could have said, if it's true, that is. I would hate to have to share you with some girl from another dimension."

"Elli," I whispered.

"What?" she asked.

"Elli, your name is Elli!"

"Good boy," she smiled. "Bet if you kissed me like you were about to, you'd remember what a wonderful time we had tonight.

Well...whatta' ya' think?"

I turned and smiled back,

"Hmm, maybe so."

I held her in my arms and kissed her gently.

"Nope," I said as I pulled away.

"Still blank,huh, " she sighed.

"Yep," I nodded.

"Maybe you didn't try hard enough. Maybe you didn't have your whole heart into it.

I've heard it takes a great deal of concentration, and heart, to bring back lost memories.

Try again."

"Elli," I asked, "Where are we?"

"Oh dear," she replied, "Not again. Well, at least this time you remembered my name."

                             Second Dimension

"How fast are we going," she asked.

"Huh, what?" I muttered.

"Speed," she said, "How fast?"

I looked down to check the speedometer. It wasn't where I expected it to be. My left hand was gripping some kind of stick controller. Nothing looked familiar.

This wasn't my motorcycle!

I located the speedo and found it just to my right, it read 95 mph airspeed.

Air speed, what the...?

There was a whirling sound blaring in my ears kinda' like a helicopter, only different.

Wind swept past adding to the noise of an engine located somewhere behind me. We were moving fast.

I leaned over toward my right and looked down. There, 2,000 feet below was mother earth.

"We're flying!" I shouted.

"I certainly hope so." said the girl.

She was seated just behind me in the small two person cockpit cabin.

It was then I realized I was behind the controls of some kind of something, I just couldn't figure out what kind of something.

My mind wandered wildly. Had I ever flown one of these things before?

"What are you doing Andy? We're going the wrong way."

Wrong way...if only she knew. I took a quick review of my setting and somehow, as if I'd been flying all my life, took control of the craft.

I put us into a sharp U-turn and headed south. I wasn't sure where we were headed, I just aimed in the direction that seemed the most familiar. Out of nowhere appeared a small private airport where I set the machine down gently.

I took in a deep breath and muttered, "Where are we Elli?"

"Who are you talking to Andy?" replied the girl.

I turned and looked behind me and was shocked by what I saw.

She had the reddest hair, a billion freckles, and the warmest smile I had ever seen.

Unwisely I commented, "You're not Elli."

She looked at me with those eyes of hers as if to say, "Duh."

She crossed her arms and asked, "Whose Elli, huh?"

I was really confused. The best I could do was say, "OOps."

I had been skipping dimensions again, but this time it involved someone other than Elli.

I wondered, was I done with Elli. I kinda' hoped not because I liked her a lot.

We got out of the small aircraft and walked to a small air terminal located just a few yards ahead.

"You never did answer my question." she continued, "Whose Elli."

She grabbed me by my left shoulder and spun me around. She was pretty strong to be so smallish in size.

I looked into her eyes. She seemed to be almost crying.

"A girl, " I said. "Just someone I used to know."

I looked at her again when it struck me, I don't know this girl. Is she someone important in my life, or just a casual acquaintance?

"There you are again," she said.

I looked up,

"Elli! I said, "your back."

"Yes, and so are you. I was worried. You were gone a little longer than usual this time."

She wrapped her arms around me and kissed me on the cheek.

"I wish you wouldn't leave anymore."

I smiled and told her of my latest episode. She frowned, looked at the ground and sighed,

"Drats! Just as I had feared. A girl from another dimension."

She wrapped both arms around my neck, looked into my eyes, and asked,

"Do you like her?"

"No, I mean, I don't think so. I don't even know her name. It was such a brief moment in time, I didn't have time to discover anything about anything."

We sat in the big double swing that hung from Elli's front porch.

I turned and looked at her,

"I can tell you this much, she has red hair, and a billion freckles."

"I can't help it," she said, "I was born this way. You shouldn't make fun of me that way." She put her hand on mine and squeezed it tightly.

"Elli, what are you doing?"

She squeezed tighter and replied,

"Her again. Who is this Elli you keep mentioning, and don't tell me she's just a girl. I want to know the truth."

She eased up her grip and whimpered,

"Sometimes you act as though you don't want to get married, the way you seem to drift away. It's as if you're not even here sometimes."

I suddenly couldn't breath anymore. It felt like something was pressing against my chest. What was happening to me, was I having a heart attack?

I looked, it was her again, the girl of a billion freckles and red hair.

"Oh no, not again." I mumbled.

"Not what? What does that mean, 'not again?'" she asked.

I stumbled about a bit trying to come up with a explanation, but how does one explain skipping between time dimensions without sounding insane. Maybe Elli was right, maybe I did belong in a looney bin. If only she were here now.

Finally I looked at her and started what I hoped would settle things. What I got was more than I bargained for.

"It means," I said, "it means...oh boy, what does it mean?"

"Whose Elli?" she demanded.

I paused to collect my thoughts. How do I explain this?

"Elli." I murmured, "is from another place."

"Okay," she replied. "Is it far or near?"

I looked at her with a blank expression on my face and shrugged my shoulders,

"I don't really know."

She tilted her head sideways and replied,

"That's just about the dumbest thing I ever heard you say."

"It's true," I said. I don't know where she's from, or time she's from."

She grabbed me by both shoulders and shook me,

"WHAT, are you crazy? What do you mean, you don't know what time she's from?

Is she a girl from your past, or what?"

I looked around the small air terminal, taking in all the images my eyes would allow. The terminal clerk was behind a desk writing in a daily log book, totally disconnected from our conversation.

"I think, 'or what' would be the best answer here?" I replied.

"I don't understand," she muttered with a sigh.

Slowly I turned, "Elli is from another dimension," I explained.

"Oh Andy," she cried, "If you don't want to marry me just be honest. You don't have to make up all these stories. Tell me the truth, do you or don't you?"

I leaned back in the bench, placed one hand across my mouth and said,

"The truth is, I don't even know who you are. For all I know, we just met."

She buried her face in her hands and started crying. She got up and made a dash to the side exit leading to a parking lot. She jumped into a car and sped off.

I looked at the terminal manager and said,

"There goes my ride I guess."

He looked back, apparently catching the last part of our conversation,

"Boy, he said, "You're a real idiot."

"WHAT!" I exclaimed, "she...I...who...what...where the...ahhhggg! I'm so confused Mr."

"And stupid," he replied. "You can't just talk to the Mayors daughter like that. He's got more money stashed in his rear pocket than the entire county has in the bank.

Around here he has more influence than the President himself.

I wouldn't want to be you right now. He'll have your head on a platter for this, that's a guarantee."

I stammered and replied, "But...but...who...the Mayors daughter?"

"Yeah," the manager said, "You know, Annie Bell McDonald.

The two of you have been sweethearts since you got here two years ago.

Boy, if I were you I'd get my head cleared as quick as I could because, as I said before, the Mayor won't be non too happy hearing how you've treated his one and only little girl.

"Look, Mr..."

"It's Bob, always has been."

"Yeah, whatever Bob. Look, there's been a terrible mistake here..."

Bob interrupted again,

"Yep boy, and you just made it."

"No, you don't understand...I...I really do..."

"There you are again. I thought for sure I had lost you for good this time. It's been a whole day. I've missed you terribly."

She threw her arms around me and hugged me as though she hadn't seen me in weeks.

"ELLI, thank God it's you!" I exclaimed. "You gotta' help me, I'm in BIG trouble."
" Why, what's wrong? What have you done?" asked a bewildered Elli.

"I only wish I knew."

I was a total mess. I paced back and forth on Elli's front porch. I was confused and fearful of what might come next.

"Mark," Elli said, "sit down and tell everything you can remember. Maybe we can solve this thing once and for all."

I looked at her curiously. It was the first time she had called me by my name. I never knew it before.

She held my hand gently and said, "Tell me what's happened."

I took a deep breath and then began spilling out all I could remember.

"I think I'm getting married to the Mayor's daughter, Annie Bell McDonald, only now he, the Mayor, is going to kill me just because I can't remember anything, not even her. I'm a dead man if I go back, DEAD as with a capital D E A D! And she was crying, and I didn't have a ride, and the terminal manager said I was in big trouble, and ...and..."

Elli took me by the shoulders and shook me,

"Hey, slow down a bit. I can't understand what you are saying, talking that fast and all.

Married...Annie Bell. This is worse than I could dream."

"Yes," I said, "Elli, I don't want to get married."

I stood hand in hand with a girl dressed all in white. I turned to look at her, it was Annie Bell, and she didn't look too happy.

"Her again," she whimpered, "I thought you were done with her. Oh Andy, how could you, and on our wedding day too."

I turned and looked at the minister standing before me. He had the strangest expression on his face.

"Boy," he said, "you're on your own now."

I turned back and faced Annie Bell and spat out a confused, "Oh Boy!"

She grabbed both my hands, squeezed tightly and asked,

"Well, do you?"

"Do I what?" I asked.

"Oh Andy," she cried, "don't you want me for your bride?"

She drooped her head and started to cry.

"What's wrong with you? You've been acting odd all week, what, with all your tales about leaping through time dimensions, not to mention Elli, whoever she is, or if she even exist.

Tell me now before it's too late. What's it going to be? Are we getting married or not?"

I held her hands and looked into her face,

"Elli," I said, "I'm back."

"I know," she said, "I wished it so."

I put my arms around her and held her tight, hoping I would stay this time.

"How so?" I asked.

She looked at me a little confused by her own statement,

"I don't know," she said, "I just wished and wished, and here you are."

"You mean, you can wish things into being?"

She looked at me still a little confused,

"I think so, I'm not sure."

Suddenly my mind began to whirl. Who was I? Was I real or an imagined image of Elli's wishful thoughts?

"Elli," I asked, "who am I?"

"A boy," she said, "from a picture I saw once. I wished you to appear there on that park bench where we met. I didn't know you were time dimensional then."

She looked at me and started crying,

"I've done a terrible thing I'm afraid. I think I've ruined your life as it was.

Maybe if I wish hard enough you'll go back and live your life just the way it's supposed to be. Maybe if your lucky, you'll get a second chance with Annie Bell."

I look at her sharply,

"Elli, no. I don't want no stinking second chances. There's only you, I want you, no one else.

"I'm sorry," she said, "it has to be this way."

She turned and walked into her house, and closed the door behind her.

I stood looking into Annie Bell's pretty blue eyes and said,

"I do."

The End

Author's Note

I've been away for awhile. Seems I've had other interest for awhile. Besides, my file is running low.
Oh my, what have I gotten myself into this time? Maybe there will be more to this story...maybe not.
Dear me, this has gotten longer than I intended.

Reviews

[emmajoy]

'"A boy," she said, "from a picture I saw once. I wished you to appear there on that park bench where we met. I didn't know you were time dimensional then." '

Read this once, read this twice, gone back in time and forward, sometimes a little muddled! This really is a great story,(but then, anything to do with Time grabs my interest!) and here there's a bucket-load of it, fascinating and bewildering tho it is. You introduce new 'dimensions' move on, return.. bring in another clue but never the same one. Not sure who the traveller is, whether one or two or four, different names; different so much! Don't really know or understand how the mystery actually works, but it does.. and the ending is... as perfect as it can be.. probably!

[Ted Kniffen]

This is a wonderful story of time jumping. Well written. I really enjoyed it.