Kev (3 page)

“Green tea?” said Brok.

“Yes,” said the girl.

Brok prepared two green teas and delivered
them. “So, how long are you staying?”

“I don’t know,” I said, looking up at the
sky, noticing two suns hanging high and a moon hovering over the
horizon.

“We’re not going to be here long,” said the
girl.

“Where are we?” I said.

“Uthio Minor, the universe’s greatest
paradise,” said Brok.

“Yeah, but where’s that?”

“About thirty-seven billion light-years from
Earth,” said the girl.

“I don’t understand,” I said, although part
of me did understand, and the voice told me to try to remember this
place.

“Have a drink. Maybe that will help,” said
Brok.

I took a sip of the tea and gasped. This was
not green tea. It tasted like--what did it taste like? Something
like maple syrup mixed with jet fuel. I heard laughter, familiar
voices, and then a woman’s voice.

“Welcome to
The If Only You Could Remember
Experience
,” said the woman. I looked around for the source of
the voice, but only saw Brok and the girl.

“It’s all in your head, Kev,” said the girl.
“Just relax.”

In that instant, an infinite number of lives
passed before my eyes, all my lives, each different, but somehow
the same. I remembered and forgot countless times, sometimes
possessing infinite knowledge, sometimes not knowing who I was. The
moment passed and I found myself sitting cross-legged in the
kitchen of my home in Connecticut, a home I had forgotten. I saw a
woman standing near the refrigerator, talking to a man. Something
told me these were my parents, although I did not recognize
them.

“Where’s Kev?” said the man.

“Oh, he’s in his room, taking apart his
airplane,” said the woman. “Why don’t you go see him?”

“In a minute. I’ve been thinking about
something.”

“What’s that?”

“I think we should change Kev’s name.”

“Why would we do that?” said the woman,
turning to face the man.

“Don’t you think Kev is a stupid name? Don’t
you think we should name him Kevin?”

“What’s wrong with Kev?”

“I don’t know. It’s not a real name. It’s an
abbreviation, if anything.”

“Well, it was your mother’s dying wish that
we name him Kev,” said the woman.

“You and I both know she was drunk when she
said that. She must have meant Kevin.”

“I don’t know. Why does it matter?”

“It’s just a stupid name. Anyway, maybe we
could name him Jeremy or something else.”

“That would just confuse him, dear. Anyway,
if you feel that strongly about it we can have it changed to Kevin,
but I’m still going to call him Kev.”

“Okay,” said the man.

I blinked and found myself back at the bar,
now staring at the girl.

“Well?” said the girl.

“What?” I said, having virtually no memory of
what I had just experienced..

“It didn’t work,” said the girl to Brok.

“What didn’t work?” I said.

“You’ll figure it out eventually,” said the
girl.

“I don’t understand what’s going on,” I
said.

“I can’t tell you,” said the girl. “You have
to figure it out on your own. Rules are rules, after all.”

“What rules?” I said. “Are we playing a
game?”

“You’ll see,” said the girl. “Where should we
go next?”

I paused for a moment before saying, “Is any
of this real?”

“In a way,” said the girl. “You know what?
Maybe we could go somewhere really cool. I haven’t been to Bela
Feck in a while. You’ve been there before, but I’m sure you don’t
remember.”

“Okay,” I said, now in a haze. “What’s it
like?”

Once again, the world distorted, and then we
appeared on the deck of a super-massive platform in the middle of a
vast, green sea, a giant, pale blue sun setting. On top of the
platform rose skyscrapers miles high. I saw aliens of various
shapes and sizes roaming around, ignoring the two Earth-children in
their midst.

Strange kite-like creatures floated above,
green and yellow, and I could smell mint in the air. “How are you
doing this?” I said.

“You should know, Kev. It’s sad that you
don’t.”

“We are on another planet,” I said, mostly to
myself. “We can breathe here.”

“Well, not all worlds are like this, of
course, but there a millions upon millions that are. There are many
places we can’t go, places beyond strange. I’ve seen many of them,
but only when protected by containment fields. Some day, I’ll take
you to Galthinon, if you don’t find it yourself first.”

“Containment fields? Galthinon?”

“Yeah, they a very useful when you’re in some
places. As for Galthinon…well, you’ll just have to see for
yourself. Too bad you can’t remember.”

“Who am I?” I said struck by a strange doubt,
feeling the clear cube pulse in my pocket, and wondering if I would
ever find out.

“You are. Doesn’t that tell you enough?” said
the girl. “You hungry?”

“Yeah,” I said, my belief that this might be
a dream taking hold of me again.

The girl led me to a small building on the
edge of the platform. On the pale red wall facing us, I saw a gray
square and an opening. She placed her hand on the gray square and
then reached into the opening, pulling out a small cup filled with
something that looked like crushed green ice, handing it to me
along with a spoon. She got one for herself and brought me over to
a yellow bench.

I scooped a bit of the green ice onto the
spoon and tasted it, surprised to find it tasted much like lime and
cherry mixed together. “Is this safe to eat?”

“Yeah, of course, dummy. Do you think I would
try to poison you?”

“What is it?”

“Not sure, but it’s good. I call it
Goog.”

“Goog,” I said, taking another bite. “Is it
nutritious?”

“Doesn’t matter. Eat anything you want.
You’ll be fine.”

“You know, I’d think I would remember if I
had been here before,” I said.

“Nah, you forget things all the time. You
really should destroy that black cube of yours.”

How did she know about the black cube? “Why
should I destroy it?”

“You have a tendency to lose your memories
when you use it.”

“Use it for what?”

The girl looked at me, a sad smile on her
face. “I want to tell you, but now is not the right time, Kev.”

I pulled out the black cube and looked at it.
As I moved to press the button on it, the girl stopped me. “Not
now.”

“Why?” I said.

“You should only use it when you really need
to,” she said.

“I don’t even know what it is,” I said.

“You’ll remember.”

Later, we went to the top of one of the
skyscrapers. From the top, we could see other platforms in the
distance, immense structures with skyscrapers as tall as the ones
on this platform. Flying ships moved to and fro, some landing on
our platform, some going to distant places.

“I like coming here,” she said.

“It’s beautiful. Are there other places like
this?”

“Well, Hithatios is somewhat like this,
although the buildings aren’t as large, and the sky is yellow
there. You have to use a containment field there. Can’t breath the
air.”

“How many places have you visited?”

“I’ve lost track. Far more than I can count,
but my favorite place is Uthio Minor. That is our planet.”

“Ours?”

“Yes, Kev. We are the only ones who live
there. Well, right now, anyway.”

“What about Brok?”

“He lives on Travet.”

“Is that a nice place?”

“It’s different. I’ve only been there once
and that was enough for me.”

“I know I’m going to wake up soon, so I want
to thank you.”

“Kev, I can say with absolute certainty that
you are awake.”

“Maybe we should get back,” said the
girl.

“How much time has passed?” I said.

“Back home, no time will have passed. I can
bring us to any time we want to go, except the future. To the
relative future, yes, but the true future hasn’t happened yet.”

“What does that mean?”

“What year do you think it is?” she said.

“It’s two thousand, five.”

“Wrong, dummy. It’s three thousand,
thirty-seven, Earth time.”

“How is that possible?”

“You’re living in the past. You’ll see soon
enough. Anyway, we’re in three thousand, thirty-seven right now.
When we were on Uthio Minor we were also in three thousand,
thirty-seven.”

I tried to understand, to make my confused
brain accept things, but I found myself in a haze. “You’re really
not going to tell me what’s going on, are you?”

“You’re going to figure it out. Anyway, it’s
against the rules.”

“What rules? What are you talking about?”

“I can’t tell you. I’ve already said too
much.”

We returned to the park in Macon and played
for a couple of hours before the girl left. She said she had to
take care of something important, and disappeared right before my
eyes.

The next day, I went to the park, waiting for
her to return. She showed up, as I was about to leave.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said.

“I didn’t think you were real.”

“Oh, I’m real. You might be too,” she
said.

I didn’t ask for an explanation, knowing it
was pointless. “Maybe we can go somewhere else today,” I said.

“Not today. I just stopped by to say hi.”

“Couldn’t you have just gone back in time to
when I first came here?”

“I can only come to you in your relative
present, not your past, Kev. You explained it to me once, but I
have to admit, I didn’t understand a word you said.”

“But, you said this is the past.”

“It is my past, not yours. Well, it is your
past, but not the way you might think.”

“Not helpful.”

“I know, but I don’t really get it.”

“How much time do you have?”

“Only enough time for this,” she said, giving
me a kiss and then disappearing.

I returned to Uncle Joe’s and we spent the
rest of the day on the airstrip he had built on one of his fields,
flying remote controlled airplanes.

“Uncle Joe, can we go to a jewelry store
today?”

“Why?”

“I want to get a ring for the girl.”

“What girl?”

“The girl in the park,” I said. I hadn’t told
Uncle Joe about the girl.

“Okay. We can do that. What’s her name?”

“I don’t know. She won’t tell me.”

Uncle Joe laughed, “Girls are difficult
creatures.”

“I know.”

On my last day in Macon, the girl appeared at
the park. She apologized for going missing, claiming she had
trouble finding me, which struck me as odd although I didn’t
question it.

“I didn’t think you were coming back,” I
said. I had spent every day at the park waiting for her, only
leaving when Uncle Joe came to get me.

“Don’t worry, Kev. Even if you’re lost, I’ll
find you, although you can be hard to find sometimes.”

“I have something for you,” I said, reaching
inside my pocket and pulling out a silver ring with a single, small
amethyst. I knelt down and put it on her finger, seeing tears come
to her eyes. She dropped down to her knees and kissed me.

“I love you, Kev. Some day you will truly
understand that. I hope it’s soon, dummy,” she said, punching me on
the shoulder. “You’re it.” She jumped up and sped off into the
park.

We spent the day chasing each other in the
park, laughing and screaming. I remember everything now, but I
remember that day more clearly than any other. At the time, I knew
few things, but I knew I loved her more than anything else.

Finally, we stopped to catch our breath. I
knew it was time to leave, but didn’t know how to end things.

“You could visit me in Connecticut, you
know,” I said.

She paused before saying, “We’ll see. You’ll
probably forget me anyway.”

“I’ll never forget you,” I said.

“Kev, you’ve forgotten me countless times.
You will forget me.”

I swore I wouldn’t forget her, but had
already forgotten her by the time I reached my aunt’s house in
Connecticut.

While I had been away, Aunt Helen arranged
for me to get into Baker, the private school Clive would be
attending in the fall, the school I had begged to attend. Before
Baker would accept me I had to go through a series of tests, so my
aunt drove me to the school where I spent several hours being
interviewed and tested. The next day, the school accepted me,
noting that I had scored higher on my tests than any other student
in their history. In fact, I had perfect scores.

I moved into my dormitory a week later.

For whatever reason, I remembered Clive, and
counted myself lucky when I found out I would be rooming with
him.

Clive and I had the same classes and always
sat next to each other. He liked to pass notes to me in class,
notes that detailed all of the challenges I would face on The Show.
Some of them were ridiculous, like “survive in the vacuum of
space,” and “battle Excretorian ants,” but others I knew were
challenges I would really face, like, “keep Clive from suffocating
you,” and “jump out of a two-story window.”

I survived his challenges, always harmed, but
never permanently injured, and Clive always said things like, “You
just don’t get it,” and “Are you terminally stupid?”

Every now and then, I remembered a girl, a
nameless girl, who may or may not have been real. She was in my
dreams, both waking and asleep. I heard her voice. Sometimes, I
felt her kiss.

Toward the end of the school year, my aunt
agreed to have Clive stay with us for the summer, so Clive and I
made our plans, Clive focusing on creating challenges for The Show,
and me focusing on finding other things we could do. I told him
about my fort, the one thing I truly remembered from my past
life.