Beyond the Doors Page 16

  All the same, they had retreated behind Charlotte’s car.

  Their caution was rewarded when the massive wall plummeted down in one swift crash, sending out billowing folds of dust in its wake. When the air finally cleared, Dimitri poked his head out and waved.

  “Hello? No squishy?”

  “No squishy, Dimitri,” said Zack. “Ready, Mom?”

  Sydney scowled inwardly. Zack might have welcomed their mother back with open arms, but Sydney wasn’t yet sold. To be safe, she was keeping her emotional distance: calling her Charlotte rather than Mom, refusing any offers of a hug. “Let’s go see if your plan works, Charlotte,” she said. “I’ll bring the rat.”

  She lifted Ratty’s cage by the handle and walked past Charlotte into the house.

  “That’s a rat?” asked Charlotte, alarmed.

  Behind them, Zack wrestled with the plain wooden door their mother had made them stop and purchase from a local House Depot on their way here. She hadn’t explained why they needed a new door, but Sydney had her suspicions.

  “Zack? Sydney? Outside?” Dimitri’s face was a mask of confusion as the siblings approached. “You go through door. Inside. Now outside. I confused.”

  “We…sort of found a window,” said Zack.

  “Window? Now I very confused.”

  Charlotte regained her composure and hustled forward. “Right. Where’s my sister?” she asked.

  “Ah! Miss Gladys! Yes!” The man welcomed the change of subject. “In kitchen.”

  “The kitchen. Good. I can make a smoothie,” announced Charlotte, though Sydney felt she was in for a disappointment. “Are my…my daughters with her?”

  “Janice and Alexa,” explained Sydney. “We brought Alexa’s rat. She’ll be thrilled.” She indicated Ratty’s cage. Dimitri’s eyes widened, and he took a step back.

  “Ah. Rat,” he said. “Very nice. Yes. No. They no here.”

  “Where’d they go?” asked Zack.

  “They no tell Dimitri,” confessed the oddly accented man. “But I think they in memory. Looking for you.”

  “That’s not the door we went through,” said Zack.

  “Duh,” interjected Sydney. “They cracked that one in half.” She motioned with Ratty’s cage toward the broken door lying a few feet away from the platform.

  “You disappeared,” mumbled Aunt Gladys from the curtained doorway. She hadn’t been able to take her eyes off Zack and Sydney since they’d entered the kitchen, causing her to fall to the floor with a yelp of surprise. “I saw. You vanished. Into thin air. Very upsetting. I ate two bowls of cereal.”

  A wave of sympathy washed over Sydney. She hoped Charlotte’s idea worked.

  “What is it with you kids?” griped the woman Sydney refused to call Mom. “The MemoryVerse is not a playground! I swear, when they get back, I’ll…I’ll…I’ll ground them! Yes! I can do that. I’m the mother.”

  Sydney felt that was still up for debate, but let it drop. “Do we go in there and get them?” she asked, setting the cage down.

  “Under no circumstances!” stated Charlotte, stomping her foot because, Sydney guessed, she’d seen an angry mom stomp her foot once on TV.

  “They could be dozens of memories away from this one by now,” added Zack. “We’d never find them.”

  “This is incredibly upsetting.” Charlotte paced back and forth in front of the platform, once again wringing her hands together as if struggling to properly clean them. “We can’t switch out the door until they return, which means we can’t fix my sister, which means we can’t find my mother’s door.”

  “Will you shut up about Grandma’s door?” Sydney was on the verge of a RAGE. “Janice and Alexa are in danger! Your daughters! But why should you care? You don’t care about them! You don’t care about Dad! You don’t care about any of us! You’re not my mother!” She gave the platform a solid boot—though the platform, in its defense, really hadn’t done anything to deserve such violence—and ran into Zack’s arms, who covered her protectively and rubbed her back, calming her down.

  “Not your mother?” asked Aunt Gladys. “Does that mean she’s not my sister? I’m so confused.”

  “Is done!” announced Dimitri, shoving his way into the room. He cast his proud face about, taking in the gloom and misery dripping off everyone’s chin, and jerked back as if physically struck. “Is bad time. I come back.”

  Charlotte stopped pacing and stood, trembling slightly. “You’re right, Sydney,” she whispered. “You’re absolutely right. I left you. I’m so sorry. I thought I had to…I just wish…”

  They never learned what it was she wished for because her confession was suddenly interrupted by a blast of dazzling light pouring forth from the door as it was opened from within. Everyone looked away, shielding their eyes, until a telltale slam! rang out with the clarity of an all clear siren.

  “Zacky! Sydney!” cheered a tiny voice both siblings knew well.

  Sydney had barely forced her eyes open before little Alexa barreled into her and Zack, nearly knocking them to the floor.

  “How did you guys get back?” asked Janice. “Gramps said your doorknob disintegrated.”

  “You met Pop-Pop?” asked Sydney.

  Janice nodded. “Pop-Pop. I like that.”

  Zack pulled her into the group hug. “It is so good to see you,” he said. “Why’d you go in there?”

  “To find you, silly,” said Alexa. “You were trapped.”

  “Which leads back to my earlier question,” said Janice. “How’d you get out?”

  “I got them out.”

  Four heads turned as one, and Charlotte looked for all the world like she was about to have a heart attack. Or maybe bad indigestion.

  “Guys,” said Zack, clearing his throat, “this is—”

  “Mommy!” declared Alexa, jumping up and racing to Charlotte’s side. She wrapped her arms around her mother’s legs, a look of ultimate bliss lighting up her face. “I love you!”

  Charlotte awkwardly patted her youngest daughter on the head. “Hello…honey,” she said.

  Alexa poked her head out from between her mother’s knees. “Guys, look! It’s Mommy!”

  Sydney nodded, not trusting herself to say anything. She looked at Janice, curious to see how she was taking the unexpected reunion, and was amused to find her older sister’s eyes bugging out of her head like she was on the moon without a helmet.

  “Mmm…Mom?” Janice muttered.

  “In the…er…flesh,” said Charlotte, blushing slightly.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Rebuked, Charlotte swallowed a reply, giving Alexa’s hair an extra pat as if it were a security blanket. “I used to live here, you know.”

  “You used to live at our house, too,” reminded Janice. Sydney swelled with sisterly love.

  “Now that Janice and Alexa are back,” interrupted Zack, all too obviously changing the subject, “we can try Mom’s plan.”

  “Plan?” asked Janice.

  Charlotte turned back to the curtained entryway. “Is everything ready, Dimitri?” she asked.

  Dimitri sprang to life like somebody had just plugged him into an electrical outlet. “Yes. Is ready.”

  “We think we have a way to bring Aunt Gladys back,” explained Zack.

  “Did I go somewhere?” Aunt Gladys asked.

  “Now that you guys are here, we can—” He stopped midsentence. Wondering why, Sydney turned back to look and found Janice scowling. Their older sister gave the stiffest of head shakes in answer to Zack’s raised eyebrow, so he coughed and continued. “We can hopefully get to the bottom of this.”

  Everyone followed the cheerful Dimitri out of the room. As she ducked under the curtain, Sydney cast a quick glance back and caught Janice whispering something into the ear of a wide-eyed Zack.

  The group congregated once again in the kitchen. Aunt Gladys immediately gravitated to the cupboard, almost unconsciously pouring herself a bowl of Honey Nut Oat Blast Ring-a-Dings.
Sydney’s eyes, meanwhile, were drawn to the true oddity that now stood in the doorway—a door.

  “The first step is simple,” began Charlotte. “Gladys, if you’ll…Gladys? Put the spoon down.”

  “I’m nervous.”

  “Fine. Just set it…Zack, can you…?”

  Zack walked over and took the spoon out of Aunt Gladys’s hand. “It’s okay, Aunt Gladys,” he said. “This is the easy part.”

  “There’s a hard part?” she asked.

  “Somebody want to explain what’s going on?” asked Janice, who—Sydney noticed—was looking more at Dimitri than at Charlotte.

  “Someone messed with my sister’s memory,” stated Charlotte. “We need to find out who. And when. And how.”

  “And why,” added Sydney.

  “Yes. Good one. Okay. Gladys, you said the last thing you remember is a carnival?”

  “Oh! It was lovely. There were elephants. I wanted to ride one. Father said no.” She pouted.

  “What else do you remember?”

  “Um…I’m not…It’s all so…Oh! Oh!” She lit up. “A girl was sick on me! Right on my dress! It was nasty!”

  Charlotte looked around guiltily. “That was me.”

  “You? No, it was a little girl. Bigger than me. Not as big as you.”

  “I used to be smaller.” She turned to the others. “I was eight. Had way too much cotton candy. Lifelong weakness. All right, Gladys, go ahead. Walk through that door.” She pointed to the new door separating the kitchen from the front hall.

  Nervously, Aunt Gladys stood and approached the door. “Just open it and walk through?” she asked.

  “It’s all right, Aunt Gladys,” encouraged Sydney.

  Hand trembling, Aunt Gladys twisted the knob, opened the door, stepped through, and closed it behind her. “Did I disappear?” she asked from the other side of the door.

  “No, Gladys,” said Charlotte with just a hint of sarcasm. “You did not disappear.”

  “Oh. Will I ever see you again?”

  “Oh, for the love of…!” cried Charlotte. “Just open the stupid…!”

  The door opened and Aunt Gladys walked back into the kitchen. “I don’t feel any different,” she said.

  “It’s just a door!” Charlotte clenched her teeth in frustration.

  “We need to go into your memories,” explained Sydney. “The only way to be sure we enter yours instead of anyone else’s is to use a brand-new door. Right now, you’re the only one who’s ever used that door. According to Charlotte, when we hook it up, we’re guaranteed to enter your memories.”

  “Who’s Charlotte?” asked Alexa.

  Sydney paused. “Mom,” she finally said.

  “Why do you call her Charlotte?” asked the innocent little girl in her most innocent-little-girl voice. Sydney just shook her head, feeling no desire to explain.

  Charlotte had Aunt Gladys walk through the new door a dozen more times until she felt it had absorbed enough of Aunt Gladys’s ethereal essence (whatever that meant) to be of use. Then she had Dimitri take it down and lug it back to the central room.

  The whole time, Sydney kept noticing Janice and Zack looking suspiciously at Dimitri. She wasn’t sure why. As near as she could tell, the odd, jumpy man wasn’t doing much more than standing around, waiting to be told what to do.

  Somebody had better clue her in soon. She didn’t like being left out.

  Once the new door was in place, Charlotte worked the controls on the big banks of computers (all the while muttering about old, archaic technology) until the machine groaned to life, sending the now-familiar blue sparks of energy racing around the door. Then she grabbed a doorknob from the drawer and stepped onto the platform.

  “Father was wrong about one thing. Well, many things, but one in particular. These doors can take you to any point in someone’s memories. You can control it. Guide it. I’m going back to that carnival.”

  Charlotte had already explained all that to Sydney and Zack on the ride over, so Sydney figured her mom was just showing off. It was actually a pretty basic trick, once you got past how absolutely impossible the whole business ought to have been.

  “You shouldn’t go in there alone,” said Zack.

  “Yes, I should,” she disagreed. “The MemoryVerse is dangerous. You know that.”

  “MemoryVerse?” asked Alexa.

  “I’ll explain later,” promised Sydney.

  “Gladys,” continued Charlotte, “a man gave you ice cream?”

  “He had a big mustache,” confirmed Aunt Gladys. “Very nice man. I had Rocky Road.”

  “Fine. A man with a mustache.” She pulled on a pair of rubber gloves. “Everybody, just stay here. Do not follow me.” She opened the door and stepped into the blinding white light.

  Sydney was tempted to say sarcastically What are you, my mother? but held back.

  “Is Mommy back?” asked Alexa for the four zillionth time.

  “No,” answered her grumpy brother yet again.

  Alexa bopped around the room to stand next to Janice, who sat by the big computers, glaring out at everyone. “What’s taking her so long?” she asked her big sister.

  “I don’t know,” repeated Janice through her teeth.

  Undaunted, Alexa set off once again around the room and plopped herself on the floor by the platform next to Sydney. “Do you think she’ll be back soon?” she asked. “I gotta pee.”

  “Go pee,” said Sydney, before quickly adding, “In the bathroom.”

  Well, duh, thought Alexa. I’m not a baby. But whether to use a potty wasn’t the issue. “I don’t want to miss anything,” she admitted.

  “You won’t,” said her sister.

  “I might.”

  “Will you just go already?”

  Alexa didn’t take Sydney’s sudden snap personally. Everyone was all tense and on edge and stuff. It was boring. “Come with me?” she asked. “I don’t want to go alone.”

  “No,” growled Sydney, getting up and walking away.

  Alexa crossed her arms and considered pouting, but decided against it. Instead, she called out to the whole room. “Somebody has to come to the potty with me,” she announced.

  Everyone looked down and shuffled their feet. Finally, Dimitri raised his hand. “I go,” he said.

  “No!” burst out Janice and Zack at the same time. Dimitri froze, hand still in the air, looking like a chastised puppy.

  “She’s…a girl,” continued Zack.

  “Yes!” agreed Janice. “And there aren’t any doors.”

  “I no look,” assured Dimitri.

  “No,” said Janice. “Out of the question.”

  Alexa didn’t know what the big deal was, but she could see Janice was in one of her bossy moods, so she moved on. “Aunt Gladys, will you go to the potty with me?” asked Alexa.

  “Me?” Aunt Gladys looked up, startled. “I suppose…I mean…”

  That was enough for Alexa. She skipped over to her aunt, grabbed her hand, and pulled her through the curtain.

  As nervous and jittery as waiting for Mommy was making her feel, Alexa was glad to be back at Aunt Gladys’s house. She and Janice had dropped through the laundry chute and walked out into a really nasty-looking hallway. How they had gone from falling straight down to walking calmly through a door, Alexa hadn’t known and hadn’t really cared. They had gotten away from the horrible old man with the big needle. That was all that mattered.

  A moment later, Grampy had come through the door. “Boisterous bunions, that was close! When I saw you’d stumbled into that particular memory, I was afraid I wouldn’t get there in time!”

  He had then led Alexa and Janice down the nasty, smelly hallway toward another door, first making sure they had a knob with them. He’d gone on to tell them all about his visit with their siblings before asking why that particular door had been destroyed. This had been a little awkward for Alexa, since she still kind of felt it was a little bit her fault, but Janice had been good and blamed it all
on Dimitri. This had gotten Grampy’s attention and he’d taken Janice aside and said a few things Alexa couldn’t hear. Then he’d taken the knob, attached it to the door at the end of the hall, and ushered them through.

  Alexa had been needing to go pee pretty much ever since.

  “Are you excited to get your memory back, Aunt Gladys?” called Alexa from the bathroom. As Janice had mentioned, there weren’t any doors, but Aunt Gladys was helpfully hanging out in the next room.

  “My memory? Yes. I think. Also a bit nervous,” admitted Aunt Gladys. “I don’t really know…what I’m like. Well, no. I know who I am. But do I? What if I’m another person? Do I like that person?”

  “I liked her,” said Alexa.

  “Oh.”

  Aunt Gladys sounded sad. It took Alexa a moment to figure out why, but then she got it. “I like you, too!” she said.

  “Oh! That’s nice.”

  “Do you think you’ll feel anything? You know, when you change?”

  “Change what, dear?”

  “You know…” Alexa tried to find the right words. “Change back into Aunt Gladys.”

  It was a couple of seconds before her aunt replied. When she finally did, she sounded even more confused than normal. “Who else would I…? Where are you? Are you going? You’re using a potty, yes? Hello? Arthur? No, not Arthur. You’re a girl. The little one. Abraham? Where is everyone?”

  Alexa clapped her hands excitedly. Mommy had done it!

  They returned to the central room to find it in chaos.

  Mommy was screaming at Dimitri, who was hiding behind Sydney, who was screaming at Zack and Janice, who were screaming right back at Sydney.

  Upon entering the room, Aunt Gladys joined in the screaming.

  “Charlotte! In this house! How dare you?”

  “Miss Gladys!” cried a desperate Dimitri, grasping at a possible lifeline. “Tell sister I no go! I no go!”

  “It was you!” accused Mommy, jabbing a finger at the frenetic foreigner. “I saw you!”

  “I no go!”

  “Out of the way, Sydney!” shouted Janice.