6

  Cody

  Christian wasn’t in class Monday.

  During Mrs. Pate’s English class, I barely paid attention. She called on me when I was totally out of it, and I said the last bit of information I remembered from her lectures.

  “Briar Rose?” I said, knowing I was about to look like an idiot.

  “Oh, are you wrapped up in the Grimm Fairytales as well, I knew a few of you kids would get it, no, we’re actually talking about Beowulf now,” she said.

  “Sorry,” I said, sinking in my chair as Christian so often did, “You got me, I’m sorry, I was thinking about something else, there’s some stuff going on at home, I’m sorry,” I said as my eyes wandered back to that empty chair in the back of the room.

  “You don’t need to go into detail,” Mrs. Pate said, not wanting a student to distract class airing his private life out for everyone to hear, “But do remember you’re in class, try to pay attention,” she said.

  I didn’t. But luckily, she didn’t notice, and I made it to the bell. After hitting my locker to put away books I wouldn’t need for the night’s homework. Practice was canceled today, weather, or at least or looked like there would be weather. Maybe it’s stuff like that that’s the reason we never made state.

  I headed to the parking lot, Brad and Susie were waiting by my car. I closed my eyes, took a breath.

  “Christian wasn’t in pre-cal,” Susie said.

  “He wasn’t in History either,” Brad said.

  “Where is he, you’re his friend,” Susie said.

  “I don’t know,” I shook my head, trying to defend myself, “I asked him if we could meet Sunday, he said he had something to do at home, I asked him if I would see him Monday, and he said sure, I’m am his friend,” I nodded, reassuring myself, “But I’m not his keeper, I don’t know where he is,” I said.

  “He went back,” Susie said, resting her fists on her hips, “He went back to the farm didn’t he, he went back to that stupid lake, went to wherever the that portal in the lake brought us too,” she said.

  “The Flu is going around, he could be sick,” I said.

  “Flu,” Susie brushed me off, “He went back, and you know it, I guarantee it, you saw how he looked in that world, he was mesmerized by it,” she said.

  I shook my head, “He’ll have to come back eventually, you know we can’t tell anyone about it, the questions people would ask, how high this would go,” I said.

  “The Government, we tell anyone about this, and the government is going to be all over us,” Brad said, “But I agree, Christian probably did go back, you need to talk to him,” he said.

  “Who cares if he went back, from what little we saw of it it’s just a nice field, some beautiful mountains in the distance, he took a camping trip, took a three-day weekend, probably fed some line to his parents,”

  This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

  “We can’t tell anyone,” Susie said.

  “Yeah, again, the Government,” Brad said before Susie cut him off.

  “Brad’s right, we can’t tell anyone because best case we’ll look crazy, and worst case we’ll be dragged away by some government convoy to answer questions for the rest of our lives, and I do not want to be dragged away, I have cheer practice,” she said.

  “No one is getting dragged away,” I said, “If he did go back, and that’s a big if, how much time could he possibly spend there, there’s nothing there from what we saw, it was a wide-open field of nothing. Did he go back? maybe,” I looked to Brad, “Maybe,” I repeated, “Maybe he just took a holiday, if he did go back,” I looked to Susie, “From what I’ve gathered about Christian he’s not a risk taker, and I know you two saw that too, if anything harrowing happened in that place, he probably panicked and jumped back in the lake and he’ll be in school tomorrow, and when he is here, in school tomorrow, I will talk to him. I’ll figure out what happened, and if he’s not in school tomorrow, well, again the Flu is going around,” I said, “I’ll ask some teachers, Mrs. Pate saw me and him hanging out, she actually commended me, said it was nice that Christian found a friend,” I paused after that, it was nice that Christian found a friend, he deserved that, not just for the help he gave me on the test. He was a good man, when we get further in the story, I hope that you, the reader, see that even for his faulted and un-thought-out actions, he was a good man. “It won’t look suspicious if I’m asking about him, Susie, who do you have for Pre-Cal?” I asked, turning to her.

  “Mrs. Raymond,” she said, “We played Whiteboard today, everyone was pissed Christian wasn’t there,” she said.

  “Whiteboard? That’s a Jr. High game,” I said.

  “Well, she knew at least half the class needed an edge on the next test, my half won by the way,” Susie said, shaking her head and leaning against my car.

  “Okay, so we give Christian one day’s benefit worth of doubt, could be a coincidence, could be he dove into an alien world, we don’t know anything right now, if he’s at school tomorrow I’ll find him, and I’ll talk to him,” I said.

  “I’m not going to ask him,” Susie said, “I’ve never talked to him in class once and I’m not going to start with something this crazy,” she said, turning away from me and flicking her hair.

  “Again, I will state, I don’t want to know anything about this, I don’t want the fucking government knocking down my door, I don’t want a fucking policeman knocking down my door,” Brad said, shaking his haead.

  “No one is going to knock down anyone’s doors, everything’s going to be fine, I will talk to Christian, find out he had the flu, or a cold, or damn it maybe even a bad cough that got his mom to call the school and keep him out for a day, he did fall into a lake,” I said.

  “We all fell into a lake,” Susie said, “We didn’t even get wet,” she looked away.

  “If he’s not in school tomorrow, I’ll head to his house, and if we still can’t find him, there’s always an option to-”

  “Don’t you even suggest it,” Susie cut me off, “I am never going back to that lake, I am never going back to that farm, I don’t care who’s throwing a party,” she said.

  Susie was the last of us to warm up to the Somewhere Else. I’m not saying it’s because she’s a woman, though as a woman traveling to a place with an 14th century mindset could have its own pitfalls, but I know she found just as much fun and joy there as Brad and I did.

  “He probably just got a bit carried away, I’m sure he’ll be here tomorrow. I understand why he could get caught up in it, we discovered something big, something really big,” I said.

  “You better be sure,” Susie said, “Just make sure that he doesn’t do something crazy like come out and tell everyone about what we found, I don’t need that kind of trouble in my life, none of us do,” Susie said.

  I put my hands on her shoulders, trying to reassure her, “Susie, it’s going to be fine. If you’re right about Christian then I would imagine that telling anyone else about that world is the last thing he’s going to want to do,” I said.

  Susie closed her eyes, sighed, looked down for a second, “That makes sense, but we need to find out if he’s going there, we don’t know what that world is, it could be dangerous,” she said, “We have to make sure he’s not spending time there, for his own good,” she said. This would come to haunt us all later, of Christian spending too much time Somewhere Else, and of Susie telling us we needed to stop him.