Lindsey is a freelance writer, who also works as a screenplay reader. Dimensions is a sci-fi novel of ideas that is reminscent of Lost where characters can travel to other, seemingly idyllic, dimensions. Only, their memories are compromised in this alternate reality, and each must remember the connection they have to their world.
Dimensions
By Lindsey Michelle
By Lindsey Michelle
The more they learned about their house and town, the more Paul and Vera went from being curious bystanders to full participants in the dual-dimension world. Though they always stayed on their side of the line, the couple, particularly Vera, found it increasingly easy to pick out the visitors in their dimension. There was always some subtle difference, some manner of dress or gesture in these visitors – perhaps they reminded her of Bill or Matthew, her closest observations of the other world. But the women, too, stuck out. Since others in town didn’t seem to notice, Paul figured the changes must be indiscernible to most. It became a game between the two of them – who could spot the outsider first.
While shopping for groceries one afternoon, Vera nudged Paul. She redirected his gaze to a young woman, holding two boxes of cereal while reading the labels. Vera always did the grocery shopping for their guests, but she sometimes saw stray visitors at the market – and they were always confused. Vera didn’t know how to explain their money system to them, and she didn’t quite understand theirs. As part of the documents that Harold left her, Vera came across numerous receipts from the other dimension – she saw each item listed with symbols that she figured represented their currency. A few of the receipts went on for pages. For all forms of shopping, the mind was one’s pocketbook. Vera simply thought of the items she needed and they were available to her. She had always shopped in a daze, never thinking about it much until she witnessed these visitors pouring over their choices.
“Maybe we should help her,” Paul whispered to his wife. “Doesn’t it bother you to watch her struggle?”
Vera watched the woman put both boxes back on the shelf and slink out of the market. “A little,” she replied. “But we can’t even reason with our own guests. You know better, Paul.”
Paul frowned. “I know.”
“What is your sudden desire to help these people?” Vera asked a moment later.
“I overheard one of the guests saying she felt like she’d been given a gift by being sent here – a vacation, really, in a place where – I quote – ‘the chaos of my daily life didn’t follow me’,” Paul paused. He turned to Vera, his eyes tired, his mouth in a straight line. “You and I have given our lives to this place.”
“There’s no guarantee a vacation would feel like how they describe,” Vera responded, trying to be practical. “We should be happy that we live in the place so many want to visit.”
They were silent until they carried their groceries outside.
Vera inched out of the parking lot. She hesitated before turning onto the highway. She still had the chance to turn right instead of left, to drive by Dave’s and peer through the window instead of returning straight home.
“Who’s she with?” Paul asked as Vera wrapped her fingers around the steering wheel.
“My guess? Lionel.” She closed her eyes. “I knew this was happening, why didn’t I pay more attention? I’ve always paid close attention.”
Paul disliked seeing his wife in distress. “Well – we can start now.”
“I can’t spy on her,” Vera exclaimed, to herself more than Paul.
“She said she’d stay at home, she lied... we asked her to keep an eye on the guests, she left the guests by themselves.”
Paul paused. “I think a little spying is justified.”
Vera sighed.
“Let’s go home,” Paul said, and then, realizing, “I’m sure she’s beat us there.”
Lionel was the first man who Allison ever fell in love with – of all men, a man from the other dimension. It was too much like Sadie. Allison was even in the same point of her life as Sadie had been when she met Bill. Had that been the reason Vera had closed her eyes to Allison and Lionel’s flirtation? It was yet another reminder of Sadie and the past, the one wound that would never fade. Sometimes she envied her neighbors, whose memories still buried old hurts and softened bad images. She used to be like that, but found it unlikely she’d ever regress.
Vera tried to push these thoughts from her mind as she entered her house. She needed to stop blaming Sadie’s death for her own inability to impress important facts to Allison. Vera knew that the more honest she was with Allison, she too would lose some of her memory wash, but she feared it was time to level with her daughter. Her relationship with Lionel may already be too serious.
Vera found Allison on the front porch, a notebook in her lap. She held a pen in her hand but she wasn’t writing – instead she stared at the pounding surf, waves crashing beneath the early evening sky. Vera closed the screen door behind her and took a seat in one of the Adirondack chairs near Allison.
“Where’s Lionel?” Vera asked in lieu of a greeting.
Allison looked at her, surprised, then exasperated. “Mom.”
Vera felt like a broken record, but she began to restate all of her tired warnings to Allison. She reminded her that she still had to act as she always had, to be polite but not too chatty and especially never form attachments to the guests. She was finding the courage to continue – there was so much of which Allison wasn’t aware – and tell her about Bill and Sadie and Matthew, but Allison interrupted her.
“You’re acting as though I’m in love with him,” she said stoically. “He wanted a sandwich. I’m not forming an attachment. I’m leaving for college soon.”
Allison’s cheeks burned. It was a lie, of course, and she had difficulty even saying the words. She cared deeply for Lionel, she loved him. He claimed to love her, too. It was Allison’s carefree attitude, he told her, that originally attracted him to her. He didn’t talk about his home or job, and Allison didn’t press. He did ask questions, and despite Vera’s warnings, she didn’t understand what was harmful about answering banal inquires such as what the next city looked like and how her parents treated the guests in the house. But she dodged more intimate questions with a laugh or a smile. They met discreetly, often sneaking out for a late-night swim when the beach was dark and empty. Allison began to smile as she thought of the previous night, then remembered Vera’s presence.
“I have homework to finish,” Allison announced and closed her notebook.
Vera would later regret not taking Allison by the arm and forcing her to sit there longer, to have the full conversation that Vera envisioned in her head. Instead she let Allison stand and reenter the house.
“Why was I the only woman able find a wonderful man from this dimension?” Vera asked later that night when she got into bed next to Paul.
Paul laughed, and Vera agreed that the question did sound funny when stated aloud, but she was worried. “Perhaps I should go in and talk to her.”
“Unless this is the point where we’ve done the most we can,” Paul said.
Allison and Lionel’s romance played out just as Vera feared. The differences between the dimensions were apparent, and Allison eventually caved, telling Lionel everything she’d held back about the guests and the role of the house. Vera was furious and also panicked when she discovered that Allison had been so forthcoming with Lionel. She didn’t know what effect that would have on any of them. Paul tried to comfort Vera – they were lucky, after all, that Allison was privy to such limited information. But Vera was still upset, sure that she would have been able to stop things from progressing so far if she hadn’t hesitated. Allison was crushed when Lionel disappeared. They were fairly certain he returned to his own home, but Allison was as inconsolable as if he had died.
“Can he return?” Allison asked repeatedly, much to Vera’s chagrin. The best thing, she figured, was for Lionel to forget about the dimension and never return again. But Allison’s heartbroken face pained her. There was the occasional guest that managed to visit the house more than once – Vera decided she would be honest with Allison.
If Lionel was very strong, Vera told her, there was always a chance he could return.
He wasn’t, and he didn’t.
What bothered Vera immensely was that Allison’s memory of Lionel refused to fade. Her broken heart healed, of course, and later Allison immersed herself in college life. She no longer cried for Lionel, but she clearly recalled him. This confused Vera, for although Allison had an interest in the guests, she never seemed particularly in tune with them. Allison had always lacked the psychic ability that Vera possessed. Eventually they never spoke of Lionel anymore, but Vera was certain that Allison still remembered.
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