The Four Dimensions of Corey Emerson

Shot in the Juniper

            “You know,” I muttered, sitting up. Emerson had his hands behind his head, now, and was staring at the white moon surrounded by millions upon millions of bright-orange stars. “I think we should get kidnapped, man... Get in trouble... Do something crazy...”

            Emerson rolled onto his side and stared at me. “Excuse me?” He asked quietly. Adophin, Fletcher and Bran were all dead asleep.

            “Honestly, this is so boring! Why can't we be, like, spies or something?! Or like crazy action heroes! We can go all James Bond, or Rocky Balboa or Indiana Jones or... The A-Team! I like the A-Team! Or... like that guy Liam Neeson played in Taken... I mean, granted, his daughter was kidnapped and nearly killed by French guys, but, I don't know... He was in Europe, man! That's pretty cool...”

            Emerson chuckled, sitting up. “Yeah, I know that all these speeches and stuff are kind of uneventful, but I assure you, when this whole war thing gets rolling, you'll be glad to have allies like, for example, your uncle.”

            I huffed, “Yeah. Cowardly, selfish, good-for-nothing Wizards just like him... I'll be so grateful to work with men who leave their families and the world they know, not even wanting to go back...”

            “God, don't do that to yourself!” Emerson scoffed. “Magic is... wonderful, Alice, did you really not suppose that a little change up from the normal mortal world is enough to captivate a man and drive him into pure madness!”

            I blinked, then stared down at my hands, recalling my Dream World and how I wasted two months (granted, it felt like days). I formed a ball of water and sprinkled it on the roots of a nearby tree. The purple lights quickly changed into green, and little neon volts shot through the trunk, all the way up to the leaves. I did it again. And again.

            “See?!” Emerson laughed some more. He sounded weak, though. The laugh was soon accompanied by a foul cough and moan. “Tell me how that's not fun!”

            I looked at him and frowned as he shot a little tongue of flame from his index finger, extinguishing the newly formed water-sphere hovering in between my hands. I kept staring at where the sphere was. It was a while before I dropped my hands and spoke again.

            “Hey, Emerson, now that you're feeling better... back in Camp Pine... when you told me that we'd leave... I mean, in what universe does everything go back to normal? If we return and time is still stopped in that exact same moment we left, no matter what, yeah, you'll still be a teacher, and yeah, I'll still be a high school student about to go to lunch... that won't change... but... I mean, if my dad's dead... My uncle, the all-powerful Wizard, won't leave the Dimensions, and my mother is truly dead as Sir Justin so conveniently confirmed... what'll happen to me? Where would I go?

            “I don't think I have god-parents or anything... Would I be put up for adoption? I mean, I know it's a weird question, but would there be any realm of possibility where I could... I don't know... somehow live with you? I mean, I know that sounds weird, but how cool would it be?” I laughed a little. “I mean, you'd kinda be like my dad! Or we could just be buddies or something... Would I still be in the same school if I were, like, an orphan? I don't how this works... E?”

            Emerson didn't say anything.

            “E?” I asked again. I looked over to him and heard a grunt and a snore.

            He was lying on his back again and it looked like he had fallen asleep.

            I took a clump of fallen leaves and balled them up, chucking them at the sleeping man. “Fine.” I looked over to Adophin's body that was curled up a few feet away from mine. I wasn't tired at all. I crawled over and poked him.