Echo of Dreams 1/4
by Meredith Bronwen Mallory
mallorys-girl@cinci.rr.com

There was, once more, the vortex, in it's endless, blinding tunnel of myriad
images and colors. It was the same as it had always been, and yet it was
not. This time, for Quinn Mallory, the rip in time and space was more, it
was filled with a voice, and static- there was a lot of static- as if
something sinister were interfering with what should have been a very clear
and beautiful transmission. The voice would have been sweet, and familiar,
he knew that. He tried to turn his head, he wanted to see the others, to
know that he wasn't nuts, but he couldn't, because he was elsewhere....

***

    He knew exactly where he was when the misty dizziness receded to the
back ground. He was in his double's house, on Meteor World. The fading sun
of a world's last day was streaming through the dusty lace curtains of the
kitchen window, filling the room with a kind of  daze, and it was sweet. He
could see the basement door was open, and through that, he could see  the
half-made table waiting. The slightly wilted daisies in a glass bottle, the
place mats, and the unlit candles. A romantic touch, because that was what
it was supposed to be, a romantic dinner, the last dinner of the last day of
a dying world. Quinn turned his head, and saw HER. He didn't say, or even
think, her name because it hurt too much anymore. She had become like a
dream, hazy and distant, and he hated himself for that.

    <Blame it on sliding> Maggie had said, as if that explained it all, <it
messes up your sense of time> It had certainly messed up hers. But HER, he
should have been able to save her, should have kept a closer eye on her,
like his double had warned him. How long ago had that been? Ten worlds?
Twenty? Who knew. HER name was a synonym for guilt now, another word for
pain. Saying her name was like saying 'my fault'. And it was true, it was
his fault and his alone. He couldn't change that by blaming Remmy.. or
Maggie, or Colin, for being alive when SHE wasn't, and he certainly didn't
feel like HE was. And yet, there SHE was, standing there, fumbling with a
T.V. dinner. It was like so many of the dreams he'd had lately that that was
what he'd thought it was at first... a memory. But it wasn't, because her
hair was red, and she was wearing the same flowered T-shirt and faded blue
jeans she had the last time he saw her. Her back was to him, but he knew
instinctively that she felt his presence. It was one of her 'things'.

    He watched her for a while... didn't she seem thinner? If that were
possible. Didn't she seem smaller somehow, like a woman that has come a
great distance to get were she is. After a while, she said;
"Hello, Quinn? Do you plan on standing there all day? It doesn't cost
anymore to sit, you know," he could sense the smile in her voice, though she
still faced away from him.
"I guess," What could he say?
"I'm glad to see you," she said as she turned around, having given up on the
dinner. She came to the kitchen table and sat on the end of it, hands
clasped in her lap as she looked down at him. It was the only time she was
taller than he was. Her face seemed pale.
"I... how?" He stumbled over the words.
    
"I don't know. We're not really here, on this world... our minds, together,
they're reconstructing what we each remember. I think we both liked this
world," she blushed slightly, looking down at her hands, then back up at
him. Her brown eyes seemed wiser when they met his, as if she'd grown more
in the past six months than he ever could have imagined. Where was she then,
if she wasn't here, if neither of them were here? "My body is on another
world, I'm in a coma."
"The Kromaggs?" he asked, reaching out for her hand. It was warm and small
in his own. 
"No, the Zealanders saved me from them. They're friends, Quinn. They're
fighting the Kromaggs... they have a sliding army. They liberated the base
on Earth 113... that's how they found me. I slipped into a coma about a day
after they found me. It's been two weeks," she sighed.
"Are you alright?" he stood, taking inventory of her almost. All seemed in
order, but they'd probably starved her.
"They broke one of my legs... and a rib, but I'm fine," she smiled, the
first real smile he'd seen from her here. It was positively radiant, and he
basked in it. 
"Who are these Zealanders?" he asked at last.
"On their world, America is an island chain. They have superior technology,
compared to even the Kromaggs," she smiled again, "They kick Kromagg ass."
"I'll bet," he smiled and gave her a hug, "I'm so glad to see you, I thought
you were dead."
"Nope,"  she hugged him back, "But it was close. I was afraid you guys had
forgotten all about me."
"Never." he said. It meant more than just that, that little, five letter
word. It meant a hellava lot more. She looked up at him, and he silently
begged her to read between the lines. That was when he felt it recede. The
feel of her shirt, the sharpness of the sunlight in her hair, the smell of
the dinner, they all dulled, becoming washed out, like a messy watercolor.
"Wade!" he called out to her. There, he'd said it, and it hadn't hurt as
much.
"I'll see you later!" she called out into the mist that had engulfed
them....

***

    "Quinn! Quinn!" Some one was shaking him, her worried voice filtered
through his thoughts, and the last of that other-worldly mist dissipated. It
was Maggie, her face hovering close, forehead wrinkled.
"I'm wake!" he shouted, and she jerked backwards, "Sorry," he added.
"Hey, Q-ball," Remmy said, "It's okay. We just thought we'd lost you for a
second there... man! You were just lay'n there..." he sighed with relief.
Quinn nodded, glancing over at Colin. His brother, too, seemed worried, but
he said nothing. 
"What happened there, Mallory?" Maggie asked, all business. He looked around
at the faces of his friends and decided not to tell them. They'd think he
was nuts... no, best to wait. Later, Wade had said. That implied they would
see each other again. He'd wait until he had more information, and knew for
sure that he wasn't actually crazy, before he said anything.
"I guess I just blacked out," he lied, 'Maybe I landed too hard." The others
nodded, it had happened before.
"All right, Q-ball," Remmy said, "Just take it easy, will you?"
"Sure." They headed for the hotel.

***

    "Back so soon?" Wade asked jokingly. He took a seat on one of the
folding chairs. They were in the basement now, in the corner he could see
the 'time machine', and his doubles laundry. The sunlight spilled down the
steps through the open door, and Wade sat framed in it. The table was all
ready now, the candles were lit and the food was steaming on the plates. He
wondered distractedly  if he would be able to taste it. He smiled at her,
and she smiled back.
"They thought I should take a nap," he told her by way of explanation. She
nodded.
"Remmy, Maggie, and the new one," Wade stated softly. of course she must
feel betrayed, he realized, to be replaced so quickly.
"There's still a void... a large one," he told her, reaching across the
table and placing his large hand over her's. She nodded, brightening a bit.
She picked up her fork and pushed her food around on her plate.
"I wonder if we'll actually make it through dinner this time?" he asked. She
looked up at him suddenly, blushing near-crimson. Then she looked away
quickly, down at her food.
Quinn smiled.