SNAP! and the Alter Ego Dimension (4 page)

He dialed Tammy’s land-line and waited. Mrs. Delport answered and he could hear the expectation in her voice. He realized that Tammy was still missing.

“Mrs. Delport, Wayne speaking. Is Tammy there yet?” he asked, although he already guessed the answer.

Tammy’s mother started to cry.

“No, Wayne . . . The police are out looking for her . . . They brought a sniffer-dog to smell her clothes. The dog checked by the swimming pool and the garage. Plenty of scent there, but nothing outside the gate. There was no scent of her in the street.” Mrs. Delport paused. Then she continued: “The police implied that she had run away, and that somebody must have picked her up inside the yard. Lots of youngsters her age run away from home, they said. But no suitcase is gone, Wayne. Her purse with her debit-card is still here. Who would run away without money or a phone?”

“Do you have any idea where she can be, Mrs. Delport?” Wayne asked, wanting to do something. “I can go anywhere and look.”

“I’m out of ideas, Wayne. I don’t know where else to search. I’ve checked with everybody I know, everyone I can think of.” Wayne heard Mrs. Delport start to cry again. “I . . . have even phoned her dad. I thought that maybe she was with him. But he’s so rude nowadays. It is as if he’s always drunk. It is as if his drunken personality has taken over completely. That’s why I can’t think that she would’ve gone to him for any reason. But why would she run away? We didn’t have words or a fall out, Wayne. Did she say anything to you about running away?”

Mrs. Delport’s words sounded like an indictment against him. Perhaps Tammy was hiding because of the spot on her face. Perhaps she had decided not to go back to school until the pimple had cleared. It was his entire fault. He was the reason why Tammy’s poor mother was in such a state. Tammy had run away—without money or her phone . . . But it didn’t make sense. Tammy’s mother was right. Nowadays nobody in their right mind would run away from home without taking at least one of those two items. It’s stupid.

“Mrs. Delport, my father is a former defense force officer. I’ll ask him what he thinks about all of this. Maybe he’ll have a plan. I’ll phone again later. Good bye.”

Wayne put the phone down and walked towards the sitting room where his father was watching cricket on the television. He glanced at the score before sitting beside his dad, who gave him one look and then frowned.

“What’s the matter, Wayne?”

Wayne started to tell his dad about Tammy’s disappearance. Hans Basson, listened attentively to every word Wayne said. Here and there he interrupted to ask a question or clarify what Wayne was trying to explain. The cricket totally forgotten.

“You don’t think Tammy’s run away, do you?” his father asked when Wayne finished.

“No, Dad. At first I thought she was hiding from me, but now it’s getting too late. I’m worried.”

“And it seemed as if Tammy was busy on her computer, her phone left lying there?” his dad asked.

“Yes. And the towel was hanging over the back of the chair,” Wayne answered.

His dad stood up. He was over six feet tall with brown hair and a luxuriant moustache only lightly flecked with gray. Despite a bit of a paunch, his dad was a man that kept himself quite fit. Wayne saw a worried frown between his father’s pensive green eyes.

“There was an article in the Sunday newspaper about a boy who had been next to his younger brother when the former disappeared for a few minutes. Suddenly the boy reappeared again in exactly the same spot. The boy that disappeared was sitting in front of his computer at the time it happened. No one would have believed anything other than that the disappearance hadn’t really happened except for a really lucky break. The younger boy was making a video on his cell phone for a school project and accidentally filmed the disappearance. Of course, most people still thought it was a fake. They thought the boys used Photoshop to alter the video for a joke or something, for sensation.”

Wayne nodded. Nowadays you could alter any photo or video with Photoshop. Even he could change the background of an image or put two or more photos together on one picture. Wayne thought Photoshop was quite a cool package.

As if sensing Wayne’s thoughts, his dad continued: “Trouble was, even the experts couldn’t see how they’d pulled it off.”

Hans walked to the basket in one corner of the sitting room in which Wayne’s mother kept all the old newspapers and magazines before she sent them off for recycling. He knelt down on one knee and started to look through the contents of the basket. Then he stood up with a newspaper in his hand. He sat down next to Wayne and started to turn the pages.

At long last Hans found what he was looking for and read the article aloud. For Wayne it sounded like something from a sci-fi movie.

“Do you believe this boy’s story, Dad?” Wayne asked as his father finished the article.

“I don’t know. He said his brother disappeared for more than five minutes before he reappeared again on his chair. This story sounded so farfetched that I didn’t forget it. I kept thinking about it. Why would a boy tell such an incredible story? What would he or they gain? Nobody is going to believe them,” Hans explained.

“But it did get them into the papers . . . ” Wayne observed, thinking aloud.

Wayne mulled over what his father had said and, noting that the story only ran because the experts couldn’t prove it was faked, Wayne agreed that his father had a point. If something is too farfetched, nobody is going to believe it. So, why take the trouble of telling such a tale?

“Dad, do you think Tammy’s disappearance has something to do with this article in the newspaper?” he wanted to know.

Hans shrugged. “She was in front of her computer, too,” he suggested.

“Heck. Is there any chance that we could contact this boy, Dad? Where do they live?” Wayne looked again at the article. “Sabie!” he announced. He knew Sabie was a town in the Mpumalanga-province in the east of South Africa.

“I’ll contact the newspaper tomorrow. They’ll have the contact details of the people,” Hans promised. “I hope they will let me have it.”

“Dad, if you think Tammy disappeared in the same way as the older brother, why hadn’t she appeared again?” Wayne still found the disappear/reappear story highly unlikely.

“I don’t know. But they were both on their computers. You said it seemed as if Tammy was busy on the Internet, and it looks like she didn’t run away. Her cell phone was lying there. Her purse was still there. All the suitcases and her clothes are accounted for. Perhaps these two cases are linked, except for the fact that Tammy didn’t return after five minutes or so. That’s the only obvious difference, apart from the distance from here to Sabie.”

“The newspaper stated that the boy who disappeared denied it vehemently,” Wayne muttered almost to himself. “Why vehemently? He could have just denied it. He said he thought his younger brother had fallen on his head. That’s why he had filmed all around the room like a crazy person. Don’t you think it’s strange, Dad?”

“Yes, but so is Tammy’s disappearance. We’ll try and contact the people, Wayne, but I hope Tammy will turn up real soon,” Hans said and squeezed Wayne’s shoulder a little. “Her mother must be in a dreadful state.”

“That was good,” Hiroshi spoke English and Tammy sneaked a quick look at his face. “Not nearly enough, but better than nothing.”

Etsu was busy licking her fingers clean. Tammy could still see blood speckles on her fingertips. And in front of each of her new friends lay the reddish carcass of a tiny bird.
Goodness, it’s like a vampire movie,
Tammy thought. It made her feel even more nauseous.

“Is it only the three of us in this place?” she mused aloud to distract herself from the feast. She was becoming hungry too, and she couldn’t afford a weak stomach now. “Did only the two of us play
Snap
? What about the person with the wardrobe?” Tammy asked while she was looking at Etsu.

“No, during the three days that we have been here a whole lot of people showed up. Mostly kids like us. But there were older people, too,” Hiroshi answered, perhaps because he knew Etsu’s English was not up to a complex discussion. “Their alter egos had overpowered them. Or that’s what we think. Because the two persons look alike, they’re even dressed the same, so I didn’t know who’s who. I didn’t know who to defend. They all ran away from me and my sword. But I don’t know how big this place is. This grayness could be infinite or it could be very small. Perhaps we move in circles? There are lots of furniture and bits of walls and windows and office equipment brought here with the other people. We’re wondering if the space where my desk was in our room is now empty, or was it a duplicate that came with us, something created here? Perhaps I am a duplicate too.
Snap
is about duplicates. Copies. But we cannot ask anybody, we’re only guessing.”

“Did your computer ask if you wanted to play
Snap
, Hiroshi?” Tammy asked. There were a thousand questions she wanted answered about this place.

“No, it was only Etsu’s computer that asked the question. But when I came here seconds after Etsu, my alter ego also appeared. He just came from the grayness,” Hiroshi answered. “He took longer to find me than Etsu’s alter ego did, which was a good thing, because it gave me enough time to scare away the other Etsu before mine showed up.”

Suddenly there was a sound like the wind blowing through a tunnel or a pipe of some kind. Tammy got a fright and looked around bewildered.

Lightning fast Hiroshi came to his feet and held the sword ready in front of him.

“Quickly! Get behind me! Back to back!” he shouted. “Somebody is coming.”

“Someone played
Snap
,” Etsu whispered. “We know the sound.”

Tammy and Etsu scrambled to their feet to get beside Hiroshi. Tammy tried to look in the direction the sound came from. She saw a tall, frightened teenager materialized out of nowhere. He appeared like someone beamed down in a Star Trek-movie. It was as if the grayness took the form and color of a human being.

The youngster’s hair was light brown and jelled into short spikes on top of his head. He crouched down, knees bent, arms spread out, looking around him like a trapped animal, eyes wide.

A few seconds later a wooden door appeared behind him, the section of wall around it was covered in posters.

So, that’s how I appeared in this place, Tammy thought.

“Don’t be afraid,” Hiroshi called out loud. “I shall protect you with my sword. Just do as I tell you. Stand with your back to the wall. We’ll explain later.”

The teenager, who Tammy guessed was about the same age as Hiroshi, retreated until his back was against his poster covered wall. He was dressed in a red windbreaker and blue jeans with trainers on his feet. He looked totally disorientated.

Tammy noticed a tiny twinkle in the grayness. Then through that grayness stepped the teenager’s alter ego.

“
Schnapp!”
Tammy heard the alter ego call as if playing the game. The alter ego continued speaking in a language that sounded German. Tammy recognized the name “Einstein”.

With outstretched hands the alter ego stormed towards the newcomer.

The youngster stared motionless at his identical twin. Tammy watched in horror as the alter ego’s hands clamped around the newcomer’s neck.

“JIEJAJIEEE!” yelled Hiroshi and lifted the sword above his head. He stormed towards the alter ego and slashed at it.

The alter ego glanced once at Hiroshi, instantly released the newcomer’s neck and ran as fast it could into the grayness.

“What . . . what on earth was that?” the newcomer wanted to know.

Hiroshi lowered the sword and walked over to him.

Etsu grabbed Tammy’s hand and pulled her towards Hiroshi.

“We must stay close with Hiroshi. The alter egos watch us all time. Grab me and you,” she explained while running and pulling Tammy. “Only five meter, then Hiroshi won’t see us anymore.”

“You’re not on earth,” Hiroshi said to the boy Tammy thought must be Einstein. “We are in the Alter Ego Dimension. Here your other self is waiting and he wants to overpower you and take your place on earth.” Hiroshi paused to give the newcomer time to process this strange new world. Then he continued: “Did you want to play
Snap
?”

“Yes. Yes, but why does that matter? And who are you?” the youngster asked with an unmistakable German accent.

This
Snap
game was played internationally, Tammy decided. Across the whole world people have another self and they can all come here periodically. To the Alter Ego Dimension. How many of them are stuck here? More importantly, how many escape?

“I am Hiroshi Tanaka from Japan and she is my sister, Etsu. The one with the curtain-dress is Tammy Delport from South Africa,” Hiroshi introduced them all.

“Ulrich Zeiss from Frankfurt am Main in D . . . Germany.” He looked at them uncertainly. His eyes rested a few seconds longer on Tammy in her peculiar curtain-dress. “Are you really telling me that I’m not on Earth? Did you . . . did you just start floating and . . . here you are?” He indicated to their surroundings.

“Yes, we floated here. We know what ‘here’ is called, but we don’t know where ‘here’ is,” answered Tammy. “What we know for certain, is that the alter egos are our enemies. They don’t talk much. They only want to overpower us and keep us here, where they are stored, for eternity.”

“What? What are you saying?”

Tammy could hear that Ulrich didn’t believe a word of what she told him.

“The four of us are here in this strange dimension. We can breath, but we don’t know much more. The three of us are not your enemies. The other three that resemble us and the one that resembles you, they are our enemies. Believe me,” Tammy tried to make him understand.

“Look, I was busy on the Internet,” Ulrich began to explain while using his hands. “I can remember I was thinking about my dad and how wonderful it would be if I was as clever as Albert Einstein. And bright enough to read as fast as my dad. Then I could absorb all the information on the Internet like a sponge. Then there was this irritating
Snap
message on my monitor. I thought it was an advert. It didn’t want to move, so I had to play. As soon as I clicked on the ‘Yes’ everything went black and I started to float off and landed here. But where is this place? Are we dreaming? What are we doing here?” Ulrich asked and looked from Tammy to the Japanese. Then he looked down to his shoes, shoes that stood on nothing but grayness.

“Sit down, so that we can tell you the bad news,” Tammy proposed and sat down first. She was now so hungry that she didn’t want to stand any longer. Maybe she should have taken a bite from one of those birds . . .

Never in my life!
she thought.
Raw meat. How gross!
She would rather die.

The other three sat down beside her. Ulrich was the last to do so, and he was much more careful than the Japanese, because of course there was no proper floor to sit on. Hiroshi urged them closer to each other, getting them back to back so that all of them could keep watch in case an alter ego approached. Tammy listened while Hiroshi told Ulrich what he knew of the fate that awaited them. Hiroshi said that they were going to get weaker from lack of food and water and that their alter egos would then overpower them and take their place on earth—if they couldn’t find a way home. In some unexplained manner the alter egos discovered a way to transfer the real people to this dimension and then replaced them permanently. The real people were then stored here for all eternity—whatever that stored meant.

Ulrich listened in disbelief. He frowned.

“So, how are we,” Ulrich tapped his chest, “going to get out of here?”

Tammy saw that although Ulrich’s face was a little distraught, he was very good looking. He was sitting next to her with his legs crossed in front of him. His chin was broad and his hair longer in his neck so that it touched the collar of his red jacket. His brown eyes had an intensive manner of looking at one and he was always trying to catch her eye. She was glad that she had this curtain-dress on or else she would have been very self-conscious all the time. To sit here dressed only in her bikini, would have been bad. With Ulrich watching her all the time, she felt a little uneasy, but not too much. In fact, she liked it.

She pulled the curtain over her bare, cold feet and looked into the grayness.

“At this stage we don’t have a clue as to how to get out of here, Ulrich,” Hiroshi said. “We only know we must defend ourselves against our alter egos. We must stay together. Back to back. We’ve got only one weapon, my sword. Now we must make a thorough search of this place to find food and other weapons. Maybe something really useful came with somebody else. Like a fridge.”

Ulrich searched through the pockets of his jacket. He brought forward his cell phone and a packet of cigarettes. He took a cigarette from the packet and put it between his lips. Out of his other pocket he produced a cigarette lighter.

“
Matte!
Wait! Do not smoke here,” Etsu called. “Where will smoke go? We not know. We perhaps all die.”

“Good point,” Ulrich agreed and put the cigarettes and lighter back in his pocket. He looked at his cell phone and pressed a few buttons.

“There’s no signal here,” Hiroshi said. “The rest, like the flash light, will only work until the battery goes flat. And the flash light doesn’t really help. It only shines five meters in any direction. Etsu and I already tried everything. Here visibility is limited, just five meters all around. After five meters it’s like a wall of grayness. As one walks, the five meters moves with you. It’s very strange.”

“Yes, no signal.” Ulrich switched his cell phone’s light on. The light stopped against the grayness as if something solid was surrounding them. He switched it off, shook his head and slipped the phone into his pocket. “Okay, let’s go and find a door somewhere that leads out of this place.” It sounded as if he was in a hurry.

“First of all we need to find food and water,” Tammy suggested. “I’m thirsty and a little hungry. Does it get dark here? You know, day and night?” She looked towards her window. There was still blue light in the cube through the branches.

Etsu shook her head. “No, our watches are keeping time as usual, that is how we know that it is three days since we got here.”

“My laptop is also working,” Hiroshi said. “Batteries are working here. It’s only the cell phones. They need a signal.”

“
Ach nein!
Are we trapped here forever?” Ulrich said anxiously. “I’m in grade twelve and busy with an international science expo. I haven’t got time to hang around here. The final is in a month’s time. There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done.”

Tammy burst out laughing, although she wasn’t feeling cheerful. Ulrich used the right word to described the predicament they were in. They were indeed hanging around—or so it seemed. It did look as if they were floating, even though they were sitting or standing on something solid.

“I really hope we’re not imprisoned here forever,” Tammy said thinking of her mother. “Why did you get a
Snap
message? What did you wish for? To be like Albert Einstein?”

Ulrich looked ashamed of himself.

“Yes, I wanted to be as clever as Albert Einstein and wished that I could read as fast as my dad. My dad wants me to be as good as he is, but I can’t . . . I’m not.”

“Was that what your alter ego said to you? The only word I could understand was Einstein,” Tammy asked.

“Yes, I keep wondering how he knew that . . . ”

“Apparently, they know everything we are thinking, everything, because they are us,” Tammy explained. “Come on, let’s explore this place. I’m going to get more hungry, and sitting here is definitely not going to help . . . ”

Ulrich got to his feet and stood in front of her. Tammy looked up to him and in his eyes she could see something like adoration. Was he thinking she was cute? Even with her horrid pimple and all? He held out his hand towards her. As she took it she felt a tingling running through her body. It made her blush, like the time when Wayne had taken her hand the first time. A time that now seemed so long ago. There was something in Ulrich’s touch that made her stomach flutter. Despite hunger, thirst and fear, Tammy smiled. A shy, coy and feminine smile.