Fall into the Sky

Across the light blue carpet of the living room lay the body of a woman. A floor lamp illuminated the side of her blond head that had been repeatedly bludgeoned. Blood drenched her face and had splashed over everything: her floral nightgown, the carpet, the sofa, the lampshade, and even a few drops had reached the green curtains drawn across the sliding door. 

Richard Spencer stood with his back to the curtains, his chest heaving, as he surveyed his dead wife. His thin brown hair and soft, oval face were sprayed with blood, as was his starched white shirt. His right hand clutched a small, marble lamp that had caved in her skull within seconds. When his breath slowed down, he dropped the lamp on the floor and turned into the hallway off of the living room. He entered the bathroom and dropped to his knees beside his five-year-old daughter.

Mathilda lay on the floor, and like her mother, she wore a nightgown. But unlike her mother, her face was bloated and purple from being drowned minutes ago. 

Richard sniffed and cradled her in his arms. It was his fault she was dead . . .

He walked outside to the backyard where he opened a gate in the wooden fence. He kicked the gate shut behind him and half-ran across an uneven field that ran to the edge of a forest. Behind him was the dim light of the neighborhood street lamps, but they grew dimmer the further he moved on, and soon he was unable to tell how close the forest was until he almost ran into a tree.

He had walked in the forest many times with Mathilda, but now he stumbled through the undergrowth, and he could barely avoid the trees, blinded by his tears and the blackness. Finally, a glinting in the distance suggested that the forest was coming to an end.

Richard emerged onto the banks of Frisbee Lake, so-called because it was unusually but perfectly circular. People said it must be a natural lake, however, because there was no record of the lake being man-made.

He and Mathilda had come out here frequently together, but that was not why he was here. He breathed deeply, and he tried to remember what had led him here tonight.

He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and said in a clear voice, “My name is Darys Thien.”

He stared at the lake, and shortly, he saw that it had changed. Moments before, the lake had been rippled by the wind, holding a dim, glittering reflection of the starry sky. Now the water was incredibly still, and onto its surface was a vivid image of a night sky, or perhaps of space itself. Stars, planets, and moons were visible, and Richard, if he were not still holding his daughter, would have reached down to touch the bright blue planet nearest him.

Through this image broke forth a figure, rising slowly out of the depths. When he was ankle-deep in the lake, which did not seem to be a lake anymore for he was not wet, he walked over to Richard, who knew himself better now.

The stranger, apart from his extraordinary appearance, looked ordinary. He had graying blond hair swept to the side and a heart-shaped face, and he wore a brown jacket, jeans and a striped shirt. He smiled.

“My name is Ferald Jorris,” he said. “You are from my dimension, are you not?”

“I’m Darys Thien. I left our dimension ten years ago because I met and married a woman who was from here.”

“Ah.” He gazed uncertainly at Mathilda in his arms. “Is that your wife?”

“No, my daughter,” he replied mournfully. “She drowned.”

“My apologies,” he said swiftly. “These parallel universes are often confusing. People can be completely different sizes than what we might be used to. In one universe,” he continued, pulling a flat metal square out of his pocket, “all the women are giants and the men are very small. The men, I must add, run terrified from them, making reproduction extremely difficult. I had to stun one woman who had taken an obnoxious liking to me.”

While telling his story, he had pressed the flat metal square onto Mathilda’s chest. Immediately water rushed from every pore of her body. Her face regained its normal shape and color, and she began to breathe comfortably.

“There you go,” said Ferald Jorris cheerfully, replacing the object in his jacket. “She’s good as new. Portal travelers are required to carry a first aid kit for such circumstances as yours. But what about yourself, Darys Thien? I was told you would never come back home, and we could hardly believe it when we heard your voice through the portal.”

Darys had meanwhile been repeatedly kissing his daughter’s head, and only now he looked at Ferald. “Thank you, Ferald. You saved her life.”

“I hardly did a thing,” he said dismissively, “but I suppose this dimension is rather primitive. I’m required to ask, however, if you remember much of our dimension and if you would like to return home? Your daughter is welcome, of course.”

“I had a hard time recalling the meaning of this place,” he murmured. “It wasn’t until my daughter was dead that I knew instinctively I could come here and - and she could be saved.”

“If you don’t recall much, it’s that portal amnesia. When people move to parallel universes for a long time, they begin to forget that the life they remember actually took place in another dimension. It makes life in the new dimension an easier transition.”

“It’s coming back to me now. Yes, I’ve had portal amnesia. But it doesn’t matter. Ferald Jorris, I want you to take my daughter with you. She’ll forget me. She needs to forget me,” said Darys firmly. “I’m a murderer.”

Perplexed, Ferald asked, “You drowned her?”

Ferald almost spoke but was interrupted by a new, tiny voice that said, “Daddy?”

“Hi, baby,” responded Darys, smiling, glad that it was too dark for her to distinguish the blood all over him.

“Where’s Mommy?” she whispered.

“I’m afraid Mommy can’t come right now.”

“You promise she won’t come?”

Ferald peered at her curiously when he heard these words.

“I promise,” said Darys.

“Mommy got really mad at me and - and she tried to hurt me, Daddy.”

“I know, baby, but I’ve made it so she never does again. Would you like to see your favorite lake?” He set her down and she started to exclaim in awe at its transformation.

“What really happened?” asked Ferald gently.

Darys sighed. “I came home from work. My wife, Emmy, was in the living room, reading a book. We said nothing to each other; we have lived separate lives for years though we live in the same house. I went to the bathroom and Mathilda was floating in a bathtub full of water. I tried to revive her but couldn’t. I went to her mother, and she - she didn’t even pretend she hadn’t done it. She said if it hadn’t been for our daughter and all the time I spent on her, then we would’ve been happy together. That’s when I killed her.”

“I see,” he said quietly. 

“It’s all my fault,” he blurted. “I was talked into being a portal traveler by a friend of mine, who died here in this dimension, and I couldn’t bear the thought of going home to his family because I felt they would blame me. Then I met Emmy, and she seemed so in love with me, and she wanted to marry me so badly, that I married her. I’m not sure I ever loved her, but then we had Mathilda. I loved her so much that Emmy was jealous, jealous enough to kill her. Everything I do is accursed.”

“It seems to me,” said Ferald thoughtfully, “that you have always lived by the choices that others have made for you. Perhaps your life would be better if you made your own choices?”

Darys watched Mathilda running up and down by the edge of water, or space, touching the heavenly bodies that lay nearest her.

“You may be right,” he said softly.

“I am,” he said warmly. “Come, both of you! Come, and as we portal travelers say, fall into the sky.”

Darys called his daughter to him, and hand in hand, they strolled into the Round Lake, which soon resumed its shifting watery depths.