Kev (17 page)

She told me about another planet she claimed
I had frequented, a place called Galthinon, a strange and immense
world in another dimension. She said I used to go there quite
often, but wasn’t sure why. She had never been there, but told me
it was a beautiful world, a world I had created, something she had
heard from two unnamed others. Ruby added that I was one of only
three beings allowed to visit that world, the two others being the
aforementioned beings who had described the beauty of Galthinon to
her.

By that point, I had gotten used to getting
partial answers to my questions and vague descriptions of events,
people and places. Several times, Ruby had mentioned something
about rules, though she wouldn’t explain these rules. She claimed
to have broken rule six, and possibly other rules, adding she
wasn’t entirely sure because she wasn’t really paying attention
when the rules were stated.

We had some drinks and some laughs. Despite
my rather alarming experience with Ruby, I found myself quite taken
by her. She had tremendous depth and a terribly powerful urge to be
a parent, loving children more than anything else. She told me
about my sons, the three Kev’s and about my daughter Soph. She told
me the children absolutely adored me and that I was an amazing
father, at least when I was around, which more often than not was
not the case.

“So, do you want to go meet everyone?” said
Ruby.

“Do you have a spaceship or something?” I
said.

Ruby laughed, pulling out a little, purple
cube from some hidden place in her dress. “No, Kev. We’re going to
teleport there. What year do you think it is?”

“Haven’t the foggiest.”

“It’s a trick question, Kev,” called out
Max.

“Okay, what year is it?” I said.

“Well, we’re in two thousand, sixteen, but
the present is three thousand, three hundred, thirty-seven.”

“So, let me get this straight. I’ve been
traveling in time, right?”

“Kev, you have traveled in time more than
anyone I have ever met. Of course, most of the time you were using
the black cube, so you…oh, shit. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“What? What did you say?” I said, trying to
remember what Ruby had let slip. Something about a black cube and
time travel, I thought, but I wasn’t sure.

“It’s nothing. Anyway, let’s go to Uthio
Minor.”

We appeared inside a home made of bamboo,
with a thatched roof and floors that appeared to be made of cork,
springy and strange. This appeared to be the family room of the
house. Off to my right I saw the kitchen and a dining area. On a
couch in the middle of the room, I saw a large, brown man with a
silly grin on his face. This had to be Clive, based on what Ruby
had told me. In the kitchen, with her back turned to me, I saw a
young woman. At the dining table, I saw a young girl playing with
some sort of holographic ball. The woman in the kitchen turned to
me and smiled, and in that instant I remembered her from a brief
glimpse of my childhood that I remembered from my green tea
experience. This was my one true love.

“Where have you been?” said the girl.

“He doesn’t remember anything,” said Ruby,
laughing.

“Oh, too bad,” chuckled Clive. “I was hoping
we could have some fun with the Proth Sphere.” I noticed a floating
yellow sphere in the corner of the family room, wondering what it
was for a moment before I heard it say, “Hey, Kev. You want to
connect?”

“Uh…”

“Maybe later,” said Clive, getting up from
the couch and giving me a bone crushing hug. “Great to have you
back. Do you have that million dollars you owe me?”

“What?” I said.

“He’s messing with you, Kev,” said the
girl.

The young girl, who I assumed had to be Soph,
came over and gave me a hug. “You want to play Mister Spider after
dinner, daddy?”

“Sure, if you tell me what Mister Spider
is.”

“It’s tickle torture!”

I gave Soph a quick tickle on her sides and
she screamed, pulling away and running to the other side of the
room.

“I’m going to give birth and then bring back
the Kev’s,” said Ruby, disappearing.

I felt an overwhelming urge to cry, wondering
why I could remember nothing of my life.

After dinner, I played with the three eldest
Kev’s and Soph, running around the house, happy to have what I had,
even if I couldn’t remember a damned thing. When I wasn’t playing
with them, I sat with Ruby, holding Kev the fourth in my arms, a
truly wondrous experience. Hours passed and night came; we all
turned in.

“I had sex with Ruby,” I said to the girl,
feeling ashamed.

“I know, Kev. It’s nothing to worry about.
She drugged you. It’s her way.”

“A pretty strange way, if you ask me, but I
can’t complain. The Kev’s are amazing. Soph is wonderful too. I
hate it that I can’t remember. I feel like I’ve missed out on so
much.”

“You’ll remember,” said the girl, kissing me
softly and curling up next to me.

I had a million questions, but harbored a
very deep suspicion that I would get no answers.

In the morning, I awoke alone, got up and
found new clothes, and then went out into the family room. There I
saw an older, wrinkly man sitting on the couch. The girl was in the
kitchen, and Soph had gone out to play on the beach.

“Ah, Kev. Back from the dead,” said the man,
Aputi.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know your name,” I
said.

“Of course you don’t. I’m Aputi, or uncle
Aputi as the kids call me.”

“Are you related to me?”

“God no. Just an old friend.”

I sat beside Aputi, wondering if he would
shed any light on things and was more than a little surprised to
find him more than a little communicative. Much of what he told me
I had already heard from Ruby, but there were a couple of things
that were new to me. One, in particular, which he said in
confidence to me, stood out. Aputi made me swear I would not tell
anyone and then said, “Kev, in three days, the universe is going to
come to a rather sudden end unless you help me find something that
will allow me to save it.”

“What’s that?”

“A little, yellow cube.”

“Where is it?”

“How should I know? But, you can find it.
That I am sure of.”

“Well, shouldn’t we tell the others? They can
help us find it.”

“Absolutely not. They are the ones who are
trying to end the universe.”

“What?”

“Nihilists, every last one of them, including
the kids. They all want to terminate the universe forever, but you
and I can stop them if you get me the yellow cube.”

“But, I don’t remember anything. I have no
idea where to look.”

“Well, I know this much; the person who has
it is a human female.”

“Are the others really trying to end the
universe or are you just pulling my leg?”

“Pulling your leg? Hardly. This is quite
serious, and if the others find out what you and I are trying to
do, they will not be merciful.”

I didn’t know what to believe. Here I was,
living a new life with a family that seemed so wonderful, and now
Aputi was telling me they were a bunch of nihilists who wanted to
end the universe.

“Before I lost my memories did I want to end
the universe too?”

“Absolutely not, and you were onto them and I
know you were close to finding the yellow cube. Try to remember.
You know where it is, I’m sure of it.”

I searched my memories of my last green tea
experience, hoping to find something there and caught a glimpse of
a little, yellow cube in the hands of a woman, but I could not see
the woman. However, I noticed a ring on one of her fingers, a
little silver band with an amethyst. That stuck in my head. I knew
that memory held the key to finding the yellow cube. However, I did
not know who had it.

“She has a ring,” I said.

“A ring? Countless women have rings. Come on.
Search deeper.”

I probed deeper and remembered something
about the yellow cube. It could be used to manipulate matter.
Anything that could manipulate matter had to be uniquely powerful.
In the hands of the wrong person it could lead to all sorts of
horrors.

The girl walked into the room, interrupting
my train of thought, handing me a glass of greenish liquid, which I
assumed was green tea, but not
green tea
. On her hand I saw
a silver ring with an amethyst. I knew who had the yellow cube, but
I couldn’t believe it, in much the same way that I couldn’t believe
that the girl would want to terminate the universe. The girl kissed
me and then returned to the kitchen.

“Well?” said Aputi.

“I have no clue where it could be,” I said,
wondering if Aputi could be trusted. Nothing I had experienced in
the last day supported the theory that the girl, Clive, and the
others wanted to destroy the universe.

“Well, in three days, we are all going to
die, unless you find it. You don’t have it do you?”

“No.”

“Are you sure? You might have found it and
forgotten.”

“No. I have a clear cube, a red cube, and a
black cube. No yellow cube.”

“You have the red cube?” said Aputi, his eyes
widening. Although Aputi did not know what the red cube could do,
he believed, as did many in the universe, that it was an artifact
of great power, an item that could give him great power.

“Yeah. What is it?”

Aputi had a hungry look. “Can I see it?”

I started reaching into my pocket, but
stopped, suddenly suspicious. “You know what, Aputi? I want to
believe you, but I’m going to need some evidence to support your
claim. For all I know you want this yellow cube to do something
just as horrible as ending the universe.”

Aputi’s shoulders sagged. “Well, don’t blame
me when you don’t exist anymore, Kev.”

“So, you can’t prove it?”

“Look, I overheard them talking. Clive is
going to use the Proth Sphere on you on your birthday and that will
end the universe.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Proth Sphere,” hissed Aputi. “It makes
all of your dreams and nightmares come true. One of your nightmares
is the end of the universe. You see, in your nightmare, a giant
nozzle sucks up the universe, destroying everything. Don’t you
remember that?”

In that instant, I did remember that
nightmare quite vividly, and new weight was put on Aputi’s words.
“So, where is the sphere? Maybe we can hide it somewhere.”

“Clive has it and you are not going to be
able to get it from him. We need the yellow cube, Kev. That is the
only solution.”

Of course, not everything Aputi said was
false. The Proth Sphere could make that nightmare come true.
Further, I did clearly remember the nightmare, so Aputi wasn’t
lying about that. However, the part about Clive and the others
connecting me to the sphere to end the universe could have been
false, and was false, although I did not know that. What I did know
was that I didn’t want to take any chances. I did not want the
universe to end.

“Maybe I should hide somewhere where they
can’t find me.”

“They’ll find you, Kev. They always do.”

“Well, why didn’t they connect me to the
sphere when I arrived? Why the wait?”

“I don’t know. I only know what I heard. Now,
if you could somehow control what you gave to the sphere while
connected to it, none of this would be an issue, but you have lost
your memories and I’m sure you don’t know how to do that.”

Again, Aputi was telling the truth, but he
had lied about Clive and the others connecting me to the sphere on
my birthday.

“Look,” I said, a plan forming in my troubled
mind. “Why don’t you tell me how to fix this with the yellow cube
and if I find it I will save the universe. I don’t want to be rude,
but I don’t know if I can trust you.”

“There isn’t enough time to train you, Kev.
It takes years to master the yellow cube. You could do one thing
wrong and turn the entire universe into a giant cesspool. Do you
want that to happen?”

“Then I’ll have to go into hiding, but I
don’t know where to hide.”

“I told you. They’ll find you. You have
nowhere to hide.”

“Then I’ll have to take my chances,” I
said.

“I swear you are the most stubborn human I
have ever met. Just get the cube and I’ll teach you how to use
it.”

Later that day, while searching my bedroom, I
found the yellow cube in a box underneath the dresser. I put it in
my pocket and then took a walk on the beach. Aputi had left not
long after our conversation, but said he would be back for dinner.
He told me we would need to use the yellow cube to reorganize the
Proth Sphere’s matter so that it couldn’t process my end of the
universe nightmare. Of course, this was just rubbish. The Proth
Sphere was pure energy, not matter. However, I knew nothing about
the sphere, so accepted Aputi’s claim.

I sat on the couch and turned on the TV,
which happened to be a holographic television, something I found
quite remarkable. I found some movie about a love affair between a
beautiful Nidian and a snail and zoned out until the girl
interrupted me.

“Kev, have you seen my yellow cube?”

I didn’t want to lie, so I said, “Why? What
is it?”

“It re-organizes matter. It’s gone
missing.”

“Do you think the kids might have it?” I
said, careful not to lie.

“I doubt it. Did you see Aputi go into the
bedroom at any point?”

“Aputi?”

“Yes. Did he go into the bedroom?”

“I don’t know, why?”

“Because if he gets his hands on the yellow
cube, all hell is going to break loose.”

“What do you mean?”

“Aputi has wanted that yellow cube for ages,
Kev. Don’t you remember when he wanted to wipe out everyone on
Earth except for three million people and re-engineer their minds
so he could ‘save the universe,’ and he tried to get you to find it
for him?”