So, it is four months to the day since I attended my writer's workshop. Since then, obviously I have not not been posting a while lot. There are plenty of reasons why this is, but mostly it has been to life altering circumstances that have been requiring my full attention to process and accept.
Regardless, I have been participating in Advanced Fiction Writing at the University of Iowa this fall; honing some skills, getting great feedback and making a few contacts! I submitted one of my favorite pieces for a couple of assignments, reworked it a little and am pretty happy with the revision.
I have posted the revision here.
Start Fiction:
Surprised to hear thunder on a sunny September afternoon, Darryl strolled to the south door of the machine shed to check the sky. As he stepped over the threshold, the sky split; a crackling boom shook the machine shed. Darryl jumped.
Looking to the horizon, Darryl dropped the carburetor he was holding and adjusted his hat to get a better view. A vibrant green light emanated from the center of an astronomical anomaly in the southern sky; a fountain hanging sideways in the sky, shooting illuminated green water. Darryl heard Penny and Paige running towards him, but he kept his eyes fixed on the anomaly.
"Daddy, what is that?" Paige, the older twin, asked as she took up position next to her dad.
"I don't know," he said, studying the sky.
"Maybe you should head to the lab," Penny said as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
"It sure is pretty," Paige said.
Indeed, it was quite the spectacle. However, Darryl didn't possess his daughters’ innocence. He felt there was potentially nothing good to come of this anomaly that had sprung up within the earth's atmosphere, and so close to his home.
"How far is it from us, Daddy?" Paige asked as she stepped forward using her hand as a visor. "How big do you think it is?"
"That's a good question," Darryl said. He felt it must be close enough and big enough to shake the machine shed, but its appearance was deceptive. Darryl figured that it must not be too big since his pager had not gone off--yet. Being one of the leading quantum physicists in the world had its moments, but he was definitely the go to man on anything abnormal; and this anomaly hanging in the sky was anything but normal. Whatever it was, it made him nervous.
"How would you two like to join me in the lab?" The two girls turned to each other and smiled. They tried to contain their excitement, as they bounced towards the lab building each holding one of their dad's hands.
Several years prior Darryl had converted the old machine shed into a state of the art laboratory complete with several underground chambers, shortly after their mother had died in an automobile accident. He knew he had to be able to work from home and raise his girls as he and Beth had planned.
As the three of them reached the door of the lab, the anomaly created another sonic boom. Paige turned around to look as they began to enter the lab's airlock."Daddy," Paige said. "Some... Something is coming out of that thing in the sky."
Darryl and Penny spun around to see a small object shoot out of the center of the anomaly. None of them flinched. The object was cylindrical--at first impression, anyway. Darryl thought of an escape pod.
"Either that anomaly is huge, or we are closer than we think," he said. The girls didn't respond, they just watched the object as it fell towards the horizon. Darryl tried to estimate the trajectory of the object, but it was almost impossible without any kind of data as to size or distance of the object; he just watched.
As it reached the horizon he expected it to simply disappear, instead it hit about fifteen hundred yards due south with loud explosion; debris and dust shot upward. At the same instance, the anomaly in the sky collapsed with a thunderous bang.
"Let's go!" Darryl shouted as he began to run to the truck. The girls responded and sprinted behind him. He checked his beeper and cell phone as he ran; nothing.
Strange, he thought. Surely something had to register somewhere.
The girls jumped into the back seat of the truck, buckled their seat belts and put on their helmets. "Ready!" they yelled. Darryl floored it and off they went. Rocks banged against the wheel wells and dust shot out from behind the truck much like exhaust from a rocket. Trying to head in a straight direction, Darryl looked to his directional heading on the console, but it was bouncing all around.
"Are we headed in the right direction, ladies?" he shouted back to the girls.
"Yes," Paige shouted back as Penny shook her head in agreement. Both girls had their goggles pulled down as the dust rolled in the windows. Leaning forward in their seats, Paige and Penny kept their focus in the direction of the crash site as their heads bounced from the rough terrain.
Ten years old or not, the girls were all business when it came to adventure; and this was no ordinary adventure. Darryl caught a glimpse of his daughters in the mirror and smiled. Their mother would be so proud, he thought. They approached what Darryl felt was the final hill before finding the object. He let off the accelerator a little and the truck died.
"Why are we stopping, Daddy?" Paige said.
"It wasn't me," he told her.
He turned the key. Nothing. Not even a click. Completely dead. He looked around as the dust settled. Everything seemed so calm, quiet. Darryl expected to smell the prairie burning from the explosion of the impact. Nothing.
"Time to hoof it?" Penny asked as she and her sister unbuckled their seat belts.
"Yeah," Darryl said as he opened his door slowly. "Time to hoof it." Looking around, he realized that the explosion should have scared off most wildlife. There seemed to be a good population calmly milling around the prairie, although several birds flew in a cockeyed manner; probably the same electromagnetic interference that messed with his truck's compass. "Let's not get in a big hurry, all right girls," he said as he turned to the ridge and noticed they were both standing perfectly still, helmets and goggles intact.
Darryl walked up to the girls with deliberate steps, being mindful of the possible debris fragments hidden in the long prairie grasses. "Girls?" he said. No answer; they didn’t move. He took several deep breaths. Darryl reached the girls as they began to slowly remove their goggles. He rubbed his eyes. No one spoke; no one was certain of what they were seeing.
"But... there was an explosion," Paige said as the three of them stood overlooking four hundred yards of pristine prairie; no crater, no smoke, no fire, and most importantly no debris.
"There most certainly was," Darryl said stepping forward. The grass was knee deep, swirling about them in the afternoon breeze.
"Did we get off course?" Penny asked as she looked back towards the farm. "Seems right," she said as she swung her helmet with one hand and put her other hand on her hip. Paige agreed.
Darryl continued forward, cautiously "You two coming?" he shouted back over his shoulder. The girls fell in line and followed their dad, keeping a set distance of approximately five feet between each other. All three kept their heads and eyes moving, observing everything they possibly could.
"It couldn't be much farther from here, could it?" Paige said.
"I didn't think so," Darryl said. "But it is hard to tell considering we have no idea what the anomaly or the object that came out of it was."
"We can't be too far," Penny began, "since the truck lost power and the compass went goofy; its gotta be here somewhere, right?"
"Right," Darryl said. A hundred yards across the prairie, Darryl stopped and the girls caught up with him.
"Do you smell that?" Paige said as she turned to her dad.
"What is that?" Penny asked as she turned around, tugging on Paige's shirt.
"Stop it," Paige said, but Penny kept tugging. Paige turned to smack her but froze with her hand in midair. "Dad?" she said as she tugged on his shirt. Darryl turned and followed the girls' gaze. Behind them, there was smoke; floating above their heads to the north.
"I guess we are heading in the right direction after all," he said.
Paige looked back and forth. "How can we.. why can't we..."
"I think we should just take our time," Penny said.
Paige continued to spin her head around, trying to understand what she was, and wasn't, seeing.
"Some sort of stealth," Paige said under her breath.
"But how?" Penny asked. All three of them looked back and forth once again; were they really prepared for this adventure? Darryl wondered how far this illusion played in front of them; he drew a screwdriver from his overalls and threw it ahead of them. As it left his hand, it was completely visible for about ten feet or so until the air rippled, like water; then the screwdriver was gone. Several seconds passed before they heard a clang. It had hit something metal.
"Careful where you are throwing things," a female voice called out. The girls jumped behind their dad, clinging to his waist and peeping around him towards the voice.
Darryl spread his arms out, palms up. "I mean you no harm," he called back to the voice.
"I know," the woman replied. Paige and Penny stepped out from behind their dad and took a couple steps towards the voice.
"She," Paige began, "she sounds familiar."
"Indeed," Darryl said as all three of them found themselves drawn forward. The air in front of them began to ripple, just as it did for the screwdriver. A round opening formed. As they stepped past the doorway, the prairie began to look as they had originally expected: charred with a massive crater. At the closest end of the crater lay the object: a ship of sorts, sticking out of the earth as though it were riding a wave. Darryl estimated it was only six feet in breadth and maybe ten feet in length; much bigger than his initial assessment when it shot towards the earth. To his surprise, the crater was considerably smaller than he had anticipated.
He was amazed the ship was intact, considering the impact they witnessed.
"It's okay," the female called out, "it's safe, I promise." While they had no reason to trust someone who just fell from the sky through an anomaly, all three of them continued to step forward.
"Dad," Paige said taking hold of his hand, "don't we know her?"
Penny took the lead, walking tall and sure. No fear was detectable in the ten year old. She seemed... excited.
"I’m afraid we may, Paige," Darryl said, squeezing her hand. They stepped through he opening and the full scale of the impact stopped the two of them in their tracks. Penny, eyes wide, kept walking towards the object. "Whoa," Darryl said. He turned around and watched the air de-ripple; the portal closed. From this vantage point, the damage from the impact was completely visible. He figured there was about a two hundred and fifty square yard area scorched.
Darryl stepped forward, tugging a reluctant Paige with him. Inspecting the object as they approached, he noticed a woman making her way around the object. The woman was tall, slender and had a beautiful head of dark red hair just like his girls; and his wife. She stopped next to the object, reached her hand up and leaned against it. She smiled excitedly, as though she was welcoming old friends. Penny ran up to the woman and hugged her tightly. Darryl and Paige approached their position, both mesmerized by the object. Both Penny and the woman laughed. Darryl's stomach sank. There was a good reason he felt like he knew this woman and it was not good.
"Penny?" he said.
"Yes?" both Penny and the woman responded.
"Your name is Penny, too?" Paige asked the woman, her grip tightened on Darryl’s hand. The woman and Penny walked up to her. The woman knelt down in front of Paige, took her hands and stared in to her eyes. Paige returned the stare, studying the woman's face. Her eyes widened. "You ARE Penny!" she squealed.
"Actually, I go by Penelope."
"Of course," Darryl said as he knelt down next to Paige looking into Penelope's eyes. It sure was Penny, all grown up. "Welcome home," he said. "Or welcome back, I guess?"
"Thanks, dad," she said.
"I don't understand," Paige said crossing her arms.
"Maybe Penny can explain," Penelope said.
"She's me!" Penny told her.
Paige looked at Darryl with blank eyes. Perhaps it was too much to take in, even for his little Paige. "It's all right," he told her. He looked to Penelope, "I think we need to talk."
"Agreed," she said as they both stood. Darryl rubbed Paige's shoulders, reassuring her it was going to be all right. Penny danced and sang around the three of them. She grabbed Paige's hand, coaxing her to join.
Darryl and Penelope walked towards the object. "It is a ship of sorts," she said, as they walked around the side of the object. Keeping a slight distance between the ship and Penelope, he recognized the design, something he had once conceived years ago; but the material...
"Do you want to take a look inside?" Penelope asked.
"No, actually," Darryl said. He looked back to the girls to make sure they were out of earshot. Penny was turning a dazed Paige in circles. He looked at Penelope, "What are you doing here, Penny? Do you not understand the consequences of being here?"
Penelope crossed her arms, turned her head away from Darryl. "Another lecture," she said.
"Do you understand the consequences?" he said stepping forward. "Whatever you were trying to accomplish failed before it began, defeated once you broke through the anomaly," he told her. "You just altered your existence, our existence; altered our very reality."
"Who says this isn't how this reality is suppose to unfold?" Penelope said. "Isn't the reality that you believe needs to be maintained still in fact in existence within its proper reality?" She knocked on the ship and a door slowly opened. "Besides, it wasn't all my idea," she told him as she stepped back and turned towards the door. There stood another tall, slender woman with a head of dark red hair.
"Paige?" he gasped. "What... why girls?" Darryl crossed his arms and began to pace in front of them. He took several deep breaths, looked up and down, back and forth between the women.
"Why not?" the older Paige said as she stepped out of the ship.
"Who is she?" young Paige asked, now standing next to Darryl.
"Maybe she, they, should explain," he said throwing his hands up in the air, turning away. Young Paige looked back and forth from Penny to the women, especially her older self. "It's you, Paige," Penny told her. She put her arm around her; Penelope followed suit and put her arm around her twin.
"Sister friends forever!" Penelope exclaimed.
"This isn't right," young Paige said. She removed Penny's arm from around her shoulders and walked over to Darryl. "This isn't right, daddy." He knelt down and hugged her. At least someone has some sense, he thought.
"Why here? Why now?" he asked the women.
They looked at each other, looked in to the ship and then back at Darryl. "You want it all now, don't you?" Penelope said.
"The sooner and more detailed the better," he replied.
"Very well," the older Paige said. "We are not from this timeline, this reality; this multiverse," she began to explain. Darryl swayed a little, forcing him to lean on the younger Paige. "Our universe in our multiverse is dying; on the verge of cataclysmic annihilation."
"Incredible," Darryl said. He looked around, again. He checked his beeper, again. A slight sweat began to bead on his forehead. “Incredible.”
"You were all going to die?" young Paige asked.
"We were, and we felt if we had the ability to escape, then we should take that chance," Penelope said.
"But why now?" Darryl said. He moved towards the ship, Penny. "You could have picked any time, by why this period of time in our multiverse; why this multiverse?" The women just stared at Darryl.
"It was the only multiverse they could find that was most like our own," a third woman's voice called out from the ship. Darryl's heart raced. He knew that voice for certain: the voice of the dead.
"This is wrong, girls," Darryl said to e elder twins as he watched the door of the ship. "You should not have brought her here, not now," he said, his voice cracking a bit.
Penny and young Paige ran to their father and held his hands. "That sounds like... mom," Penny said. Darryl pulled his girls close; this was going to mess with all of their minds, and hearts. Yet another tall, slender woman with a head of dark red hair, albeit with a touch of gray, came to the door.
"Darryl," she said.
"Beth," he whispered.
"Mom?" Penny and young Paige said. They ran to her and hugged her. Penelope and the older Paige came to Darryl and hugged him as he stood stunned.
"There was only room for three in the shuttle," Beth told him as she squeezed the childhood versions of her daughters. "You couldn't work out the calculations for any larger of a shuttle, so, you sent us on."
"We knew you'd understand once we arrived," Penelope told him as she kissed him on the cheek.
Darryl let the moment sink in; looking over the shuttle, wondering why his other self couldn't make the calculations work for one more passenger, how he made the calculations at all, wondering how his daughters, the younger Paige and Penny, were going to adapt to what was happening. "But, the technology...your ship... your mass added to this universe..." Darryl said. "How will we fit you into this world, this universe, without destroying it as well?"
Beth broke free from the younger sisters and went to Darryl. She cradled his face in her hands, "You'll figure it all out, just like you did in our universe."
He looked Beth in the eyes, he tried to absorb her confidence in this horrible mess of a situation; he couldn’t. “But, did I?” Darryl said. His voice cracked. His mind raced, his emotions swelled like a tsunami: joy, anger, frustration, confusion, terror. Then, the full force of the tsunami hit. He pushed Beth’s hands away and stepped back. “Too many variables, Beth,” he whispered.
Darryl felt a tug at his shirt. It was the younger Paige. “Daddy,” she said as she pulled him further away from Beth. “Thisisn’t
Darryl couldn't argue with Paige. He knew he should try to comfort her, but he was unsettled himself. Even though she was ten, he picked her up as he continued to move away from Beth and the others. Penny had stopped dancing and stared at him and Paige.
“Everything is gonna be all right, Daddy,” Penny called out. “If you are half as smart in their world, then the other you is still really smart, right?” She began to take small steps forward, releasing Penelope’s hand. The discomfort was contagious.
“Darryl,” Beth said as she reached into her pocket. “You knew enough to give yourself answers on how we got here,” she told him as she extended a notebook. A paper notebook. Even the other universe, Darryl preferred paper.
Darryl looked at Beth and squeezed Paige as he continued to move away. While he was resistant to their presence, he also knew they were here to stay--at least for as long as his universe would last.
Beth tossed the notebook to him. He caught the notebook with one hand and sat down with Paige on the ground. He didn’t want to know, he didn’t want to read his calculations from another life unless it would send them back; back to stabilize the balance between the two universes, but he had a feeling that wasn't a possibility.
Penny moved quickly to Darryl and hung on his shoulders, looking at the notebook. “See, everything is all right, right?” she asked, speaking softly into his ear.
A loud buzz snapped across the sky above them. Everyone looked to the sky, ducking slightly; everyone except Darryl.
“And so it begins,” he said as he flipped more urgently through the notebook, then stopped. He moved to stand, shedding the younger twins. Focusing on the page, Darryl mumbled to himself as he walked in a circle.
Penny and Paige held hands, swaying with Darryl as he moved; they had been through this routine many times in the lab as their dad worked out problems.
"Does your dad do this, too?" she asked the elder Paige.
"Yes," she answered. "But, he was never this... nervous."
Another loud buzz snapped across the sky followed by an explosion; and this time, green light shot out.
"It's happening too fast," Darryl said as he looked to the sky, dropping the notebook. "There's no time... no time to fix this." His frenzy drained out of his body with his strength; his head fell back on his neck, his shoulders slumped, his breath barely noticeable.
"Daddy?" Paige said. "This isn't right, is it?"
Darryl lowered his head and looked his girls, young Penny and Paige. He had never sugar-coated his answers, and as they stood on the precipice of the inevitable collapse of their universe it was not a good time to start. "No," he said as he walked to them and knelt down. "This is not good at all."
The elder girls and Beth began to made their way to them, taking small steps. Darryl could hear them whispering among themselves as they approached. He knew they were probably more in doubt than his girls. After all, their dad had told them it would all be okay.
"Darryl," Beth said as she placed her hand on his shoulder. "What is wrong?"
He wished the elder versions of his girls and Beth would go away, and leave him alone with his daughters through their last few moments in existence. "Your Darryl didn't account for the differential in the density of matter in this universe."
"Are you..." Penelope began to say as she looked to the sky. The green light had returned, hanging above them brewing like a late summer thunderhead. They all drew closer, watching the sky. "There isn't suppose to be any residuals," she said as she grabbed her sister's hand. "Dad said -"
"The variables were wrong," Darryl said as the anomaly intensified into a blinding light. The sky buzzed and cracked once more; the concussion knocked them all to the ground. Darryl fell backwards, the air knocked out of him as he hit, the younger twins calling out for him as they stumbled, trying to regain their footing.
"What's happening?" Beth called out over the steady buzz.
Darryl struggled to catch his breath, instinctively wanting to calm his daughters even as their world was coming to an end. But as the buzz grew into an increasing cacophony of pops, whistles and cracks, he knew there was little he could actually do to calm anyone at this point. The earth began to shake as the cracks and pops turned into explosions; what footing Darryl had regained was quickly lost. He crawled to his girls, all five of them and squeezed as many of them as tight as he could. As they bounced across the scorched prairie, ten arms gripped Darryl more and more. Even if he wanted to tell them he loved them, they wouldn't hear him over the splitting of the sky.
Darryl was certain his eardrums had ruptured as a deafening silence hit them, but the earth had stopped shaking as well. The ten arms gripping Darryl loosened a bit. No one spoke as they all looked to the sky. There, in the center of the vibrant green anomaly was an opening; a black opening that was about to devour the earth. The annihilation of the universe hung above them.
"It sure is pretty", Darryl said as he found incredible beauty in the anomaly as it once again intensified in luminosity, widened exponentially and instantaneously destroyed both universes.
End Fiction.
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