“Real? In what sense? That you see me, or that I eat and breathe?”
He laughed even though his throat hurt. “Lady, you can cut the head games. If you weren’t real, you couldn’t take the sack off my head and I sure as smack wouldn’t smell your perfume. You see, I’m pretty good with that whole logic deal.”
“I suppose you are. Dear child, do me a favor. Close your eyes.”
“What?”
“Just for an instant. I won’t hurt you. I can’t.”
Jamie had nothing to lose, so he played along.
“Good. Now open.”
He stared into a wall of darkness and felt the sack over his head, as well as something else that didn’t seem possible. Lydia asked the obvious questions before they passed his lips.
“Are you certain I removed the sack? Do you remember anyone pulling the tape off your mouth? Odd, isn’t it? You’ve been talking to me quite freely.”
The tape remained plastered over his mouth. He still breathed through his nose. Jamie felt a tinge of panic. They’re not going to crack me. Faster than a wink, the sack disappeared, and Lydia glowed where she sat. Jamie flexed his jaw and felt no tape.
“Reality, my sweet child, is nothing more than perspective colored with bias. I am here, I am a part of you, and we need to face the challenges ahead. We have very little time.”
Lydia knelt beside Jamie and ran her fingers along his face, down his neck and through his hair. She spoke to him barely above a whisper, as if wishing him good-night.
“Your mother gave you all her heart would allow, given her limitations. I suppose Marlena Sheridan could have been quite popular had she allowed others into her life.” Jamie bristled. “How often did friends come over? Other than the Hugginses – and perhaps the real Lydia – how many people did you see associating with your mother?
“I remember when you were twelve. You had the first inkling that something was wrong with her. You saw it in her eyes, Jamie. Remember? It started one morning at breakfast. You finished your cereal and looked across the table. You couldn’t help but stare. She had a newspaper in front of her and cup of coffee in one hand, but she seemed to be somewhere else. She gazed upward and caught your stare. You saw a coldness that frightened you. She was your mother and yet …”
Jamie trembled. How can she know this? I never told anyone.
“… she wasn’t.” Lydia sighed. “I wish I could have been there to soften the blow. I don’t know what wisdom I might have provided, but you would not have been alone with your fears.”
Jamie stared into Lydia’s crystal blue eyes and saw a twinkle.
“Who are you?” He asked.
“Someone who is now prepared to tell you the truth. I will apologize in advance; what I’m about to say will hurt you. But it can’t be helped.”
Jamie decided to play along once he realized Lydia had to be part of an elaborate mind game. He would’ve preferred a bullet between the eyes to this cruelty, but he’d been given no choice, no escape.
Lydia stretched her arms to her sides then paced around Jamie. “All the threads of life are interlaced. It is the heartbeat of creation itself. You’d have learned that someday, had you been given the chance. You’ve shown curiosity for the world beyond Albion. Thus, you may be open to accepting life’s more extreme possibilities.”
“Oh, yeah? You mean like the possibility that a guy who used to give me and Ben free cans of tuna might try to gun me down? Then a lady who’s not real but looks like she’s fetched and ready for church says, ‘Yo, Jamie. Nice meeting you in the woods at two in the morning. Oh, and by the way, you’re gonna die real soon.’ Those possibilities?”
Lydia stopped in her tracks, her back to Jamie. “Actually, now that you mention it, yes.” She swiveled about, clasped her hands together and nodded in glee. “You have borne witness to these improbable turns. Now I must ask you to consider that these events represent the tiniest threads in a tapestry more enormous and complex than a narrow mind could ever accept. Jamie, you believe in the idea of multiple universes. I know this because you and Michael Cooper have discussed it often. He’s particularly fond of the what-if nature of this concept. Your choice in film and television reinforces the curiosity.”
Jamie rolled his eyes. “Oh, c’mon. Really? I mean, really? You gonna tell me that’s what this is all about?”
“After a fashion. The notion of multiverses is well-grounded scientific theory, even on this relatively juvenile Earth. Let us suppose humans have figured out how to travel between these rifts in the fabric of creation. Don’t you consider the possibilities astounding?”
Jamie tried laughing, but his dry throat gagged, sending him into a coughing frenzy. “Lady, you’re making up this crap as you go.”
Lydia crossed her arms and wouldn’t allow eye contact. “I have an obligation to explain why you are here and why your fate has been sealed.” Her face turned red. “I have no other mission. We were born together. We will die together.” She flew from her seat, her eyes bulging as she practically fell on top of Jamie and grabbed his neck. “You will allow me to finish my mission, and you will not mock me. I have a name, and I prefer to be addressed with respect.”
Her eyebrows flared. A hair on the back of his neck alerted him to the dreadful possibility that this woman believed she was being honest. Lydia let go of his neck without ever having squeezed.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll shut up. Just say your peace. Then get the hell out of
