Morningstar: Epilogue: But not the end…

 

Epilogue: But not the end…

 

          After finishing the binder and some discussion as they attempted to decipher the note from Jason, there was a long pause.  Karen finally breaks the silence; “I’m going to kill her!  I’m just going to kill her!”  Another long pause followed while Dave looked at his wife with a rather perplexed and worried look.  “Oh no, you don’t believe her, do you???  This is absurd.  This has to be an elaborate joke.  A very inappropriate and poorly timed elaborate joke.  Who knows what that spot on the carpet is.  Lucky for her we’re replacing it.”

          “But we know that a lot of this is true.”

          “That’s what makes it so clever.  We both know she’s a very smart girl.”

          “Well, there’s some things I want to check out.  Just give me a few minutes and I’ll be back.  Let’s not decide or do anything until I look into a few things.”

          Dave left the den and after quite a few minutes returned with T.J. and a piece of string.  “Have a seat T.J. I’ll get back to you in just a minute.”  T.J. sat down on the couch perpendicular at the corner to the one Karen was sitting on.  Karen noticed he was holding a book of some kind.  Dave then held out a piece of string.  “There’s a bunch of broken string on the lilacs and ivy outside.  It looks like our clever daughter wasn’t clever enough to tie it all together with anything stronger than string.  The wind must have blown it all apart. … And yes, there was a piece of plywood and boxes scattered in the yard.  It looks like they were blown down by the windstorm last night.  It took me a while to find the plywood because it was completely covered by snow.”

          Karen let out an enormous sigh of exacerbation and frustration.  “Dave, you’re making me upset.  I’m starting to think you’re in on this joke of Anna’s, and if you are…”

          “I’m not.” Dave interrupted, getting a little more irritated himself.  Then taking the book from T.J. and handing it to Karen.  “Look at this.  Everything Anna described is in there and a whole lot more.  This sure looks genuine to me and most of the stuff in there is way beyond Anna’s ability.”  Then, with an authoritative, almost argumentative, impeccable tone and air, he asked, “do you think she got a college professor or one of her teachers to collude with her on this elaborate joke???  Before you answer,” then turning towards T.J. “T.J. please tell your mother what you told me.”

          “I had to pee.  Anna was talking.  I saw someone there.”  T.J. pointed to the east wall.  “The wall was gone.  Anna said it was a dream.”

          “Well, Karen?”  With an almost victorious, sound in his voice as if he had forgotten what it would really mean if his argument was the truth.  “We both know T.J. doesn’t lie.  Anna might; but T.J. does NOT!”

          “You’re right Dave.  T.J. doesn’t lie but he does get confused.  I’ll have to admit though, between what T.J. just said and this journal, especially this stuff about Einstein-Rosen bridges I’m starting to wonder…  This wasn’t just copied from the internet or a text book.  There are at least two different people writing here and they obviously know what they’re talking about.  It… it’s just too incredible…  It’s impossible!”

          “Either way we need to get a hold of Amanda and Beth’s parents.  If this is just a hoax, they’ll probably know where the girls are.  I know neither Amanda nor Beth’s parents are involved in this.  This isn’t the type of joke… Max would be involved with.”

          “I agree, Max wouldn’t do anything like this; but they’re at the cabin and we don’t even know where that is.”

          “We’ll stop by both houses to make sure no one’s there.  I’ll call Mike on the cell as we go and ask if he’ll either give us directions or show us.  We should take all this stuff with us.”

          “Ok, that sounds reasonable.”

          All three of the Turners got their coats and boots on again and drove to the two homes, picked up Mike after Dave first called, and drove to the Cabin.  The Teeples confirmed that the note at the end of the binder was Jason’s handwriting; however, they were not able to decipher any more than the Turners could.  Together they reviewed the most relevant portions of the binder and journal.  They were all in varying degrees of shock; but, since none of their missing children had been found or had turned up and Sarah and Max’s assertions that there is just no way Beth would have been involved in any kind of hoax like this (They left open the possibility Jason might…) they all decided the best course of action was to return home and wait.  If no one showed up they would gather at the Turners home at about 4:30 the next morning.

          As they drove into their driveway a disheveled blond-haired woman got out of her car across the street and ran towards the Turners as they were approaching their front door.  Frantically, she asked; “Where’s my Bekah?”

          “Are you Sue Munson?” Karen asked.

          “Yes, where’s Bekah?  I had a taxi drive me around town and thought this was one of the places she might have gone.  I saw my car across the street and knocked on your door.  I’ve been waiting for hours.  Now it’s dark.  Where’s Bekah?”

          “We really don’t know; but come in and we’ll tell you what we do know.  Anna, Amanda, Beth, and Jason are all missing too.”

          Dave got something for T.J., who was confused and asking questions, to eat and got him up to bed, hoping he could sleep.  He then brought some food into the living room for himself, Karen, and Sue.  Sue was reading the binder; however, Karen was pointing out the most pertinent sections so she wouldn’t have to read through the whole thing.

          “You don’t think this is true, do you???” Sue asked Karen.

          “I don’t know, at first I thought it was a big joke; but with you here and what you’ve confirmed about Cid, there’s even more to corroborate the story.  Dave is inclined to believe it more than I am; but some of the things here… I just wonder if it might be possible.  We’re all going to meet here at 4:30 in the morning and wait in the den to see what happens.  Maybe the kids will all show up and have a big laugh and then they’ll be grounded for the rest of their lives; but, and I’m sorry to say it, that just doesn’t sound quite as likely anymore, not now,” Karen held up the binder and journal, “this is sounding more likely than my joke theory.  Do you want to just spend the night?  You can sleep in Anna’s bed.”

          Sue hesitated, “if you don’t mind, how about I just stay here on the sofa.”

          “That will be fine,” answered Dave, “I’ll get some blankets.  Karen, do you want to show her where the bathroom is and maybe get her something to eat?”

          Dave and Karen were both up about 4: A.M. the next morning.  Sue was still sleeping restlessly.  They grabbed food to share with the other parents and took it into the den to wait.  Soon after, they heard a knock at the door.  Karen woke Sue up while Dave answered the door.  All four parents, plus Mike were there together.  After brief introductions and filling in some of Sue’s parts of the story, they all gathered in the den.  No one was able to eat any of the food placed on the table.

          Mike, fixing his eye on something he noticed in the wall behind the couch situated against the west wall, hobbled over, and moving a picture slightly to one side and pointed to a small hole he had discovered said; “yep, looks like the bullet is still in there.”

          “We completely forgot to look for that;” said Dave.  How did you know it was there? 

          “I just noticed the frame had a little black groove on the edge;” responded Mike.

          Suddenly the East wall disappeared, and everyone could see what looked like an open field.  They first noticed a young blond-haired girl running towards them with a dark-haired man holding her hand as they ran, he with a significant limp.  Within seconds they were in the den.  The blond, with dirty matted hair, a few extra pounds and just a little taller than when her mother had seen her just a couple days ago, immediately started sobbing.  Running to Sue, all she could say was “MOM!”  Sue stood up and just started bawling.  The other parents were on the edge of their seats in anticipation.  Next, they saw five people on horses, galloping towards the opening.  Just before arriving at the portal they stopped and quickly dismounted.  Beth came through first with long, matted, dirty, red hair, dressed in what appeared to me Native American winter clothing.  She also started sobbing immediately and ran to hug her parents who were now standing in front of a couch.  She was followed almost immediately by Jason and Amanda, then Anna, holding the hand of another young man who looked familiar to the Teeples; but caused their hearts to almost stop amidst all the emotion of the reunion.  Anna, Amanda, and Beth, all ran to their parents; but Jason and Tye quickly darted into Anna’s room with what appeared to be pieces of hide wrapped around their hands.  Everyone could hear the sound of breaking glass as then broke and jumped out the window.  Amidst all the sobbing both Dave and Mike noticed a large group of painted men charging on their horses towards the open wall, then just as suddenly as it appeared, the portal vanished.

          Within a couple of minutes Jason and Tye reentered the house, through the door this time.  Sarah ran towards Jason, followed by Mike.  Beth was still sobbing in her father’s arms.

          “Mom, Tye and I have to do something right now.  We’ll be right back.  Can I borrow the keys?”  A perplexed, anxious look enveloped Sarah’s face.  “Trust me mom, it’ll be ok now.  We’ll be right back.”

          Sarah handed the keys to the van to Jason and the two boys immediately left the house again.

          The parents and one grandparent continued to hug and cry with their children.  Everyone was dressed in more typical Native American clothing with the exception of Pierre Trembley, who Bekah introduced to everyone, and Anna and Tye, who were both dressed in somewhat unusual but more modern street clothing.  They were all dirty and smelled badly.  Beth was probably an inch taller and it had appeared that Jason had grown a little too.  Anna walked over to close her bedroom door to keep the cold air out.  She was possibly an inch and a half taller, a little heaver and shapelier than when her parents had seen her last.  Pierre had the dress and look of an old-time trapper or frontiersman.  His English seemed to be limited, he appeared to be about 18 or 19 years old and about 5’7”.  He had dark brown hair and a large friendly smile.  His face showed almost giddiness and relief, though the countenance of the others was now beginning to show more relief.

          All the parents and Mike, asked; “what happened, are you ok?”

          All the kids responded with some semblance of; “we’re fine.  We’ll tell you EVERYTHING, but right now were exhausted, hungry, and dirty.”  They all asked in one fashion or another, “can we get something to eat, maybe take a shower, and get some sleep first.”

          Bekah, still crying part of the time added with imploring emphasis; “mom, we’ve been gone a whole year.”  Sue almost fainted and had to be steadied by Pierre.

          Beth then added; “we’ve all been gone for a year except Anna.  She’s been gone almost two.”  That additional information shocked the rest of the parents with both Karen and Sarah sitting down in dismay and Mike stumbling.  Probably the only reason Max didn’t sit down was he now had to steady his father.

          Noticing the food on the table the kids quickly devoured everything Dave and Karen had laid out.  Anna asked; “can we raid the kitchen, then we all need to get cleaned up and get some sleep.”

          “Sure!” stammered Dave.  All the parents and Mike were now seated on the two couches in silence and near shock.

          After about 20 minutes Jason and Tye returned.  “Sorry about that.  We had to get outside to close the portal.  The quickest way was through Anna’s window.  Anna said it was stuck so we had to break it.   Me and Tye just moved the stones.  Tye has them hidden,” then turning to the Turners.  “They’ll never cause you or anyone else living in this house any more problems.”

          “If it’s ok, after we get something to eat, Jason and I will board up Anna’s window for now.  We’ll be back and fix it tomorrow after we get cleaned up and get some sleep.  Sarah, is it ok if I spend a few nights with you?”  With Tye’s words, all doubts were gone, and Sarah couldn’t contain herself any longer.  Amidst tears flowing again, she ran to Tye and weaping, hugged him as hard as she possibly could.  “Your mom and dad, Mia?”

          “I’ll tell you everything tomorrow.  I promise; but they’re all great, including my youngest sister, Dahnaya.”

“WHAT???” Sarah blurted out.

The End of Part 1