Whistlestop (4 page)

“
Yes, Dad.” The line went
dead. He pushed the phone into his pocket. An odd feeling began to
creep over him, as though hundreds of eyes were watching him. He
looked around and could not see a soul. Then he noticed two cats
across the street, crouched underneath a hedge. He could hear their
low growls as they began to creep toward him. He stood and turned
back to go inside. As he was opening the door, he turned to see one
of the cats jumping through the air right at him. Its fangs and
claws were exposed. When it was just a foot from his face, a flash
of white came from his left, striking the cat and sending it
tumbling to the ground. Standing in front of him, a small white dog
faced off the cats, which hissed and growled at him. Jerry thought
about slipping inside, but he could not ignore the small dog that
kept him from being attacked. Then, several other dogs arrived,
forming a line between Jerry and the cats. The cats began to back
off, then turned and ran. The dogs took off after them. Knowing the
white dog was safe, he went back inside. What an altogether strange
day it was beginning to be, he thought.

Jerry and Jeremy were sitting quietly
in the den. Jerry’s father, Jeremy Davis Winslow I, was pacing back
and forth in front of them. Dinner had been peaceful and quiet, but
there was tension in the house. Jerry could see the worry in Lynn
and Lilian’s faces all day. After dinner, Jerry’s mother, Angie,
was in the living room with the women while the men had their chat.
“So, there were cats too?” the elder Jeremy asked.

“
Two, yeah, there were two
cats, Dad,” Jerry said. “What the hell is this all
about?”

“
And a pack of dogs showed
up to help you?”

“
How many times do we have
to go through this, Dad?”

The elder Jeremy sat heavily in an
armchair and held his head in his hands, shaking it slowly from
side to side. “My dad said this was bound to happen. I prayed to
God he was wrong. I’m so sorry.”

“
What’s going on,
Dad?”

“
My dad thought we’d be
safe here,” the elder Jeremy said. “I should have known when he was
slaughtered in front of us, but I was too young and naive. I forgot
the past, and that was my crime. Perhaps if I had remembered, I
could have saved him.”

“
What are you trying to
say, Dad?” Jerry asked.

“
Isn’t it obvious, Dad?”
little Jeremy said. “It’s all true. My friend Jeremiah was
right.”

Jerry’s father showed no expression.
He stared at nothing in particular and began, “I was born in the
village of Winslow, just to the west of the valley of Thrace on the
planet Winterpast. It was such a beautiful place back then, before
the invasion by the Empire of Axis. Rolling hills covered by grass
and trees as far as the eye could see. The Winslow River provided
fresh water and an abundance of fish. The river and fertile land
provided all the sustenance our people would ever need. Back then,
I was known as Jeremy Davis Iron-heart of Winslow. Do you know why
Grandpa Mort named me Jeremy, and why I have passed on that
tradition?” Jerry shook his head slowly from side to side, but
little Jeremy was grinning from ear to ear. “We are all named after
Jeremiah Beetleweed Mosscatcher. Grandpa Mort said we needed to
honor him for everything he did for our family and planet. Clearly,
he has continued to watch over us, although even he could not stop
Grandpa Mort’s murder.”

“
You have to realize how
silly all of this sounds, Dad,” Jerry replied. “It would take years
traveling at the speed of light to reach the closest star. The
technology to do even that is hundreds of years in the
future.”

“
I’m sorry, Jerry, but you
are speaking from the framework of what you can see and what you
have been taught here. Your viewpoint is constrained by your
prejudices. There is a lot more to the universe than what you
believe.”

Jerry walked over to a cabinet and
grabbed two glasses, filling each half full of whisky. He handed
one to his father and sipped the other. “Okay then, enlighten me.”
He sat back on the couch next to his son and crossed his
legs.

The elder Jeremy sighed heavily. “We
really don’t have time for this, especially if cats are now
involved. But if you insist, let me give you a taste of reality.
First, how many dimensions are there in physical space?”

“
Three, right? Height,
width and depth.”

“
Not really,” his father
noted. “Einstein noted that mass causes those three dimensions to
curve. Well then, what do they curve into?” Jerry looked frustrated
and stared at his feet, while little Jeremy was day-dreaming. “In
the theoretical physics of this time, some scientists claim there
must be eleven dimensions, ten physical and one time.” He leaned
toward the other two and whispered, “You know what? They’re
right!”

“
I’m really confused right
now, Dad,” Jerry said. “What does all of that mean to us and the
danger to our family?”

“
Our senses are limited to
acknowledging things that share all three of the spatial dimensions
we experience. If a thing shared only two of those dimensions, we
might see it as an apparition, like a ghost. It looks pretty real
until it moves or turns and disappears. If another thing shares
only one dimension with us, we might hear or sense something, but
we believe it is our imagination. If yet another thing does not
share any dimensions with us, we are blissfully unaware of its
existence. What makes it even more intriguing is those things have
the same experience with us. They are our ghosts and we are their
apparitions, and yet, we are all here in this spot at the same
moment in time.”

“
Grandpa,” Jeremy
interrupted, “the man on the movie called this the Empty Realm.
What does that mean?”

“
Jeremy, I’m glad you
asked. This set of dimensions is enormous, something like ninety
billion light-years from edge to edge. There are billions of
galaxies, each containing billions of stars and countless trillions
of planets. Yet, as your father noted, each star is impossibly far
from the next. Most realities are not like this one. When the
Emperor’s troops discovered it, they realized it would be the
perfect place to exile their enemies. Over time, they would forget
the other realms and come to believe their own was the only plane
of existence. It seems they were right.”

“
Wouldn’t their friends try
to find them and return them to their own home planets?” Jerry
asked.

“
Yes, but the vastness of
this realm makes that task virtually impossible. Take Earth for
example. If you were taken from this place and put on a planet in
this realm five billion light years away, how long would it take
you to find Earth again, even if you could travel from one planet
to the next in only seconds? With quintillions of worlds to
examine, the task would never end.”

“
Then why are we in danger,
Dad? Surely, we are just as lost as the other exiles. Why are we a
threat?”

“
We are not a typical
family, Jerry. We are Knights of Winterpast. And we have a
permanent links to all the dimensions of creation, both from our
own bodies and especially through Jeremiah Beetleweed
Mosscatcher.”

“
I’m a knight!” little
Jeremy announced proudly.

“
Dad, I’m an accountant and
Jeremy is eight years old. We most certainly are not Knights of
Winterpast.”

“
Believe what you will,
Son, but you are most certainly a knight. As long as you choose to
doubt the obvious, we will remain in danger.”

There was a knock at the door and
Jerry’s mother, Angie, walked into the room. “Honey, I think we
need to stay here a few days.”

“
Is something wrong, Mom?”
Jerry asked.

Angie walked over to her grandson and
took his hands. “Jeremy, it’s your bedtime. Your mom is waiting
outside to take you upstairs, okay?”

“
But I’m a Knight of
Winterpast, Grandma. I shouldn’t have to go to bed
early.”

Angie shot an angry look at her
husband, and then smiled and said, “Jeremy, it’s a school day
tomorrow. Get moving.” He frowned but obeyed. He kissed everyone
goodnight and left the room, closing the door after him. “What
exactly did you say, Jeremy?”

“
Hardly anything, honey,
just what they needed to know.”

“
Did you talk about the
cats or tell them about me?” she asked.

“
No, dear.”

“
What is all this with
cats, Mom?” Jerry asked. “This whole thing is getting pretty
weird.”

She sat next to Jerry and put her hand
on his knee. “Honey, just let me say that almost all cats are just
cats, and almost all dogs are just dogs and leave it at
that.”

“
Almost all?” Jerry
quizzed.

“
Virtually all, Jerry,” she
replied.

“
You two talk in code, did
you know that?”

“
Son, obviously what your
mother is saying is that not all cats and dogs are cats and dogs.
Isn’t that clear enough for you?” Jeremy said.

“
Then what are they?” Jerry
asked.

“
Not tonight, Son,” Angie
stated. “Tomorrow will be a better day, and you have work too, so
we’ll wish you a good night.” She leaned in and kissed his
cheek.

“
You’re sending me to bed
in my own house?”

“
Please go help Lynn make
up the guest room for us, okay sweetie?” she smiled.

Jerry looked at his parents
quizzically for a moment and then gave up arguing. He walked out of
the room and slammed the door behind him. “So, why do we need to
stay here, Angie?”

“
There are at least a
hundred cats within half a block. They’ve formed a perimeter around
the house. Is that enough reason for you?”

“
Oh my God,” Jeremy
moaned.

Jerry was fast asleep, but was not
having a restful night. He was dreaming about a wall of fire
surrounding his house. At first, he noticed the smell of burning
wood, but there was something more acrid in the smell that reminded
him of the scent he had picked up from Brad Lincoln during their
confrontation at the ballpark. He climbed out of bed and could see
the flames and black smoke through the windows. All his neighbors’
houses were on fire. Fred Tompkins was pulling his wife through
their front door. She lay motionless as Fred tried to revive her.
As Jerry watched, a cat, the size of a large dog, pounced on his
neighbor’s back and began to bite and rip at his flesh. Fred fought
desperately to get the cat off his back. The two rolled around on
the grass as the veil of smoke began to obscure them. Then the cat
lunged at his neck, sinking its fangs into his throat. Fred let one
final gurgling scream and then fell silent and motionless. Jerry’s
feet felt frozen to the floor in panic. He had just witnessed a
murder and could see all the houses burning to the ground. He
wondered how many burned corpses would be found inside those
houses. As he stared at the cat, it turned its head and began to
stare back at him, its face wet with blood. The cat crouched down
and launched itself into the air, flying right toward him. Jerry
tried to back away but could not move his feet. The cat crashed
through the window, sending shards of glass everywhere.

Jerry sat upright in bed, panting for
air and covered in sweat. The room was quiet, the window unbroken,
and Lynn was sleeping soundly. He hurried over to the window and
saw that everything looked totally normal. He sighed heavily and
reprimanded himself for the stupid dream. How could household cats
get that big, he asked himself. His heart was pounding and his
thoughts were still filled with the nightmare, so he went to check
on his family. As soon as he stepped out of the bedroom, his panic
returned. Somehow, there was a reddish glow coming from under
little Jeremy’s door. The doorknob glowed brightly. He hurried over
and put his hand an inch away from the knob. He could feel the heat
radiating from the knob and the breath of hot air coming under the
door on his bare feet. He pulled off his pajama top and wrapped it
around his hand several times as an insulator. He held his breath
for a second and grabbed and turned the knob, pushing the door
open. The blast of heat from inside the room almost caused him to
faint. He pulled off the top from his hand and noticed it was
singed. He looked around the room. Jeremy was still sleeping, but
had kicked off all the covers. Then he saw them. Ten large cats
were sitting around Jeremy’s bed, watching him. They all turned
their heads to look at Jerry. The three closest cats stood and
began to snarl and hiss at him. Jerry tried to maneuver around the
animals to get closer to his son, but the cats moved as one, until
they had cornered him. “This has got to be another nightmare,” he
said out loud.

“
You are such a fool,
Knight of Winterpast,” the closest cat said in a human voice that
sounded oddly like Brad Lincoln. “The sins of your grandfather have
stained your heart, which we are happy to extract from you. Only
your deaths can cleanse your souls and release Winterpast from its
torment.”

“
What the hell are you
talking about?” Jerry shouted. “And why am I talking to a goddamn
cat!”

The cats all looked to their left
toward a darkened corner of the room. A tiny white light appeared
on the floor. It stretched into a white line about three feet long.
The line then stretched up until it formed the photograph-like
image of a man. That image then expanded forward until a man
wearing a long red hooded robe was standing in the room. The cats
had all turned to face the man and were prostrating themselves
before him. He smiled and nodded at the cats, and one by one, they
all jumped up on a dresser and out the open window, which then
slammed shut after the last cat was gone. “Jeremy Davis Winslow II,
Knight of Winterpast, I presume,” the man said in a deep, throaty
voice.