Page 20 of Riding My Dragons

”Where?” Byron asked, echoing my own next natural question.

Now she did look up at us, with moist eyes.Haltingly, Jenna asked, “Have you ever heard of the idea that there’s more than one world?”

Byron and I traded another look.I blinked at him, completely puzzled.But there was something more knowing in my friend’s expression.He said, “You mean like parallel worlds?Is that what you’re talking about?”

She didn’t answer yes.She only nodded.

Rubbing his chin, Byron said, “So you’re telling us that you’re actually from a parallel world.”

”I said you wouldn’t believe me,” she half-whispered.

”Not necessarily,” said Byron.

Jerking my head back slightly in surprise, I said to Byron, “What do you mean, ‘not necessarily’?”

Byron slapped me on one arm.“Come on, Elliot, you’ve heard about things like this.There’s this group of people; you’ve heard of them.They believe there’s another world alongside our own, separated from this world by some sort of different quantum frequency or something.Jenna probably understands it better than we do.These people claim you can go back and forth between that world and this one under the right conditions.Some of them say they’ve actually done it.”He faced Jenna.“And you’re telling us you’ve done this.You’re from the other world.”

Rubbing my neck, I said, “Okay, I’m going to have to hear this from the beginning because I’m not following it at all.”

Byron and I both pulled up chairs.Looking down at her hands in her lap, Jenna said, “Where I come from is a planet just like this one, except it’s called Earth.Daddy and Uncle Neal were researching new sources of clean energy, and somehow, they found a hole or an opening between universes.They discovered the Ambience.And trying to find a way to use it, they found Tellus.”She finally looked back at us.“And theyfound a way to come from Earth to here.They were like kids on Christmas morning.”

I wrinkled my brow, not understanding.“Christmas?”

”Oh, right, you don’t have that here,” said Jenna.“It’s a holiday full of presents that people on Earth love.Anyway, they were so excited, they thought the best way to learn about the Ambience was to explore where it came from.So, they invented a way to travel across the quantum domains, and they came here.”

”Yes, that’s sounding familiar,” said Byron.“I’ve met people who talk about this stuff, about the other world on the other side of the, what did you call it, ‘quantum domain’.”Byron was as fascinated as I was bewildered by the whole thing.“So how did they do it?How did they get here from Earth?And how did you do it?”

Now talking more easily, Jenna said, “I got into their notes and recordings, and I found out about…the ring.”

”The ring?” Byron and I asked, almost in unison.

”Yes.In their workshop, they left this ring, and a recording of how to use it.The ring…you set it on the floor, and you spin it.And the spinning somehow triggers the devices inside it, and they generate an energy that opens a gap, or a portal, I guess, in the quantum domain, that a person can go through.That’s how they traveled across.And one day, when I was depressed and upset at my father for leaving me, I took the ring and used it.And that was how I first came here.”

Scratching my head, I said, “That’s amazing.”

“I kept going back and forth between worlds for a while, going through the material that Daddy and Uncle Neal left,” she went on.“That’s how I pieced together that they came to Pendrake Tech and started studying the Ambience here.And they met this group of people, the Intercross, who were interested in traveling across the domains.And how theylearned about how some Scalers don’t like the idea of a place like Earth.”

The name of that group, “The Intercross,” almost made me laugh, and I had to cover my mouth to hide it.I didn’t want to seem as if I were making light of this thing, but it sounded too much like “The Intercourse,” which was what brought us and Jenna together in the first place.

“Why don’t they like the idea of Earth?” I asked, to get more serious about it.

”It’s a political thing,” Byron explained.“You know how some people, like some of your relatives, think of Scalers as the natural rulers of the world?Think how threatened they’d feel if people believed in the existence of a world just like ours, except where there aren’t any dragons at all, Scalers or otherwise?”I thought of things I’d told Jenna about my own family.Byron addressed Jenna.“That’s right, isn’t it?On Earth, no such people as the Scalers evolved with humans, did they?”

Jenna shrugged.“No.On Earth, humans are the highest form of life, and they rule the whole world.Or they fight over who should run the world and how they should run it.It’s not that different from here in that way—just no dragons.Really big lizards, but no dragons.”

”Damn,” I said, curling my lips.“No matter what world it is, people really are alike everywhere.”

“So, this domain ring,” Byron continued, intrigued.“I assume you still have it.”

”Yes,” said Jenna.“Only Uncle Neal and a few people that he trusts know that I have it.They’ve been looking for my father ever since…,” her voice caught a little, “he disappeared.”

“So, he really just ‘disappeared’?” I said.“Without a trace, without leaving a word?”

Her eyes getting wet again, Jenna answered, “Nothing.And Uncle Neal and his friends have been searching for him.And I decided to come here to try to find out whatever I can on my own.Uncle Neal helped me establish an identity on this world and get into Pendrake Tech, which gives me kind of a home base.I’ve been learning about Tellus the way they did, and looking for clues about where Daddy might be.So far, I’ve come up empty handed.So has Uncle Neal, who travels around and keeps in touch.”She hung her head again.“I shouldn’t be messing around the way I’ve been.I’ve just run into such a dead end, with all questions and no answers.”She looked back at me.“And then there was you and your friends, and you’ve been…kind of a distraction.”

I reached out to her and touched her softly on one arm.“I know you must feel kind of irresponsible, being with us.I get that.But you’ve been mostly on your own in a strange world where you haven’t been for very long, and you must have had to get to know so many different things from what you’re used to, back on Earth.And you’ve probably not had that many people to share things with, have you?”

She nodded no at me.

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