In the Beginning
Part 2
My
dream ended abruptly as I handed my paper in and glanced at my watch. To my
horror, I realized that my 8am class had started nearly 20 minutes ago. Oh, jee-zus,
I gotta move!, I thought frantically, sitting bolt upright in the
bed. If Kathy finds me here, I'm dead meat! I threw my clothes on, then
ransacked the area under the bed trying to find my shoes. When I finally found
them, I yanked them out, then hopped around like an idiot trying to get them on
while standing. As I bounced past the window, my stomach suddenly dropped in
panic.
There,
coming up the walkway to the dorm, was Kathy.
"Nooo!"
I whimpered. If she finds out I missed most of my class, I'm really dead
meat!, I thought hysterically. I jammed my foot into my other Reebok and
shuffled toward the door in an attempt to put it all the way on, grabbing my
paper up as I passed the desk.
When
I entered the hall, it occurred to me that Kathy usually came in the back door
nearest the room. I'll just duck out the front way, then!, I thought,
running stealthily up the hallway.
By
the time I reached the door, I was running top speed and feeling good. Once
again, I had foiled my roommate's evil plot to catch me in the act.
By
the way, Einstein's whole E=mc-squared thing is a complete sham and I'm proof perfect
of that. I mean, you take my mass and multiply it by me going at twice the
speed of light out a swinging door that my sneaky and much less resistant
roommmate's coming through the other side of and by the time my noggin rebounds
off that door and hit the ground, you won't get a drop of energy out of me...
When
I began to come around again, I could still feel a slight throbbing in my head,
although it wasn't nearly as bad as when I first fell. With a tired moan, I
reached up to see if my wound was still there and was surprised to feel
nothing. No bandage, no bump, no dry blood, nothing. I did, however, feel
another hand touch my own. It felt smaller and cooler than my own, and even a
little comforting. I opened my eyes, expecting to see an E/R nurse, Kathy or
maybe my mother.
But
it wasn't the fact that I could tell I wasn't in a hospital or the dorm anymore
that shocked me to a sitting position.
It
wasn't the fact that I saw a little girl kneeling next to me instead of whom
I'd expected.
It
wasn't even the fact that I knew who she was.
It
was that I knew she didn't exist.
"Oh
my...ho-ly...y-you're..." I stammered.
"Christine,"
she said, calmly. "And you're Daina."
"Yeah,
but you...I mean, I...you don't...I...I created you!" I gasped in
horror, pointing from myself to her shakily. "I mean, I just saved you in
a story I wrote for class!"
"I
know," she nodded. "Thanks."
"But,
I mean...you're not..."
"Real?"
finished Chris. "Of course not. But I am here."
I
paused to stare at her, this embodiment of a figment of my imagination in an
oversized t-shirt and cut-off jeans, then shook my head. "I'm dreaming.
That's what it is. I'm dreaming and you're not real and I'm just in massive
shock from the bump on my head and..."
"You're
not dreaming," Christine giggled, pulling her two long black braids
back over her shoulders. "Well, not exactly. Well...it kinda depends on
the way you look at it..."
I'm
looking at it in complete horror, man, I thought, feeling lightheaded.
"I've only fainted once in my lifetime and that was a few minutes ago. I
think I'm going for a second." I began to fall backwards again and
Christine dove to catch me.
"No,
no, wait, don't faint again, I'll do my best to help you, but you've gotta
stay awake." She sounded so distressed that I put my faint on hold. If
for no other reason than to figure out where I am, I decided.
"Okay,"
I began, taking a deep breath. "I know you're my kid sister, for story's
sake, but where am I and how did you get real?"
"That's
easy," came the reply. "I'm not real. You're in your subconscious
mind, so it just seems like I am."
"That's
impossible," I disagreed flatly. "How can I be in my mind and my body
at the same time?"
"Well,
you're not, really, you just think you are. Right now, your body is on the
floor outside the door you just..."
"Ran
into like a ton of bricks," I groaned. "This much I remember."
"Right.
Anyway, your conscious mind is, well, sorta like sleeping. But your
subconscious mind never stops working, even when your body does."
The
look on my face was sufficient grounds enough to warrant another explanation
from Chris.
"Some
of this I understand and some of it I don't. And I can tell you get none of it.
Let's try this." She put a hand over my eyes and a strange feeling came
over me. Suddenly, I could see a diagram in front of me with Chris near it.
"Okay, this is your mind," Chris was saying, pointing to the slightly
lopsided circle. A line separated the circle into halves. "This
half," Chris continued, "is your conscious mind and that's the front
part. That's where you short term memory is and that's where you do all the
physical stuff with your body. When this half of your mind is asleep, your body
doesn't work and neither does the other half of your brain. This half,"
she added, pointing to the opposite side, "is your subconscious. This side
kicks in at night and it's got all your dreams and stories and stuff in
it."
"Like
you?" I asked.
"Like
me," she nodded. "Most of the things you and Kathy write or talk
about in D&D are from things you dream about, day or night, right? Well,
that's us."
"Us?"
"Me
and everyone else you use in stories," she replied. "Bad guys and
good guys. Okay, wake up."
I
opened my eyes and realized I had been daydreaming the entire diagram with the
help of Chris' power to weave dreams. "Okay," I said thoughtfully,
"I think I'm beginning to understand this. I'm in my conscious mind when
I'm awake and my subconscious is active when my conscious is asleep. I'm
asleep, but right now I'm actually in my subconscious somehow, so everything
that would normally be a dream to my conscious is now real."
"You've
got it," said Chris, shrugging.
"I
don't even know what I'm talkin' about!" I gasped exasperatedly.
"I mean, assuming what I just said makes any sense, how is it that I'm not
just dreaming this all like I should be? I mean, you're not supposed to know
when your subconscious is working, right?"
"I
think that's where the problem is. Something's happened to you that has both
halves of your brain sort of working together so that your conscious knows what
your subconscious is doing. Kind of like your reality focus has gone from your
world to your subconscious world."
"Kinda
like I fought the door and the door won," I added, wryly.
"The
problem is I don't know how to get you back to your conscious mind again,"
Chris shrugged.
"Well,
if I don't figure that out, how am I ever gonna wake up again? I mean,
technically, I'm in a coma, which means...I'm...(I slowed down as the
significance of this hit me)...trapped..." Christine nodded. "Ohhh
boy," I sighed. "This is a problem." I sat thoughtfully
for a moment, then asked, "How come you know all this?"
"Just
smart, I guess," shrugged Chris.
"Hey,"
I began, suddenly struck with a thought, "if you're here, then maybe all
the other stuff..." I paused.
"Yes?"
said Chris.
"Well,
as long as I'm looking for a way out of here," I began, "and as long
as you're here, it stands to reason that other people I made might be around
here too, like, uh, Target and Robin and..."
"Or
Caustria itself."
"Caustria?
But that would mean that..." I paused, then was struck with a new
realization. "Oh, wow! You mean all the story stuff I ever made is
here? The whole world of Caustria?"
"Of
course!" smiled the 5-year-old with the charm I proudly remembered
developing in her for many different Dungeons & Dragons quests and stories.
"Well,
what're we waiting for!" I exclaimed, jumping up. "Let's go!"