The Flip Side

The Courtyard

     The next day, breakfast goes by quickly. I fix it this time, which Cass seems happy about. I fix French toast, using my flames to cook them faster. When they're done, I serve them, eat one slice, and go to my room.
     I grab my backpack, pulling out all my school supplies and placing them on the bed. I put a few granola bars, a water bottle, my sketchbook, my markers, and a pencil in the bag. I do one last check to make sure everything is in it, zip it up, and put the strap over my shoulder. I start to walk out of my room, but realize I'm still in my pajamas from last night. I set my bag back down, pulling off my PJs and going to my closet. From it, I grab a pair of black jeans and a tank top, putting them on. I look in the mirror, and realize the sides will get in the way of my flames.
     I take it back off, grabbing a pair of scissors from my desk drawer. I sit down on my bed, and cut the holes a bit lower. I put it back on, looking back in the mirror. A little exposing, but it'll do. Just to be safe, I grab an old light jacket from my closet and pull it on, not bothering to zip it up.
     I grab my bag, and an old baseball cap off of my dresser. Jay gave me the hat for my 10th birthday, and it's kinda ironic. It's got a flaming snowflake on the front. He says he got it custom designed just to suit my 'Miss Fire'n'Ice' identity from my snowflake mug. I pull the hat onto my head, loosening it a bit before walking out the door. It's been a while since I wore this.
     When I walk into the kitchen, Cass is doing the dishes and Jay is cleaning the table. Cass looks at me. "Going somewhere?" I nod.
     "A friend from school invited me to come hang out at The Courtyard with her." I reply, finishing my coffee from earlier. She reaches out for me to hand her the mug, so I do, and she begins to rinse it out.
     "Okay, just be careful. And ask Jay if he'd care to join you. I never can trust you on your own." I nod and ask Jay if he wants to come. He agrees, and grabs his jacket. I'm kinda jealous of that jacket. Most of my stuff has to be fireproof, but he gets a jacket that's specially made to conduct electricity very effectively.
     We say goodbye to Cass, agree to be home by one o'clock, and head out the door. It's fairly warm for mid-fall, but I'm glad I brought the jacket. There's a few adults getting in their cars to leave, dressed in their Sunday best, with their kids in their arms or holding their hands. For obvious reasons, our family never goes to church. A few kids are on the playground at the end of the road, swinging happily and chasing each other around.
     When we get to The Courtyard, I check the time on my phone. It's 11:27, so Star won't be here for another half hour. I sit down on a bench nearby and pull out my sketchbook and pencil. Jay sits down next to me.
     "So what now? You dragged me out here so you could sit and draw?" He says, confused.
     "First of all, you agreed to come with me. I never said you had to. Second, I'm waiting for someone. They'll be here around noon." I say, starting to sketch.
     "Fair enough. What are you drawing?" He asks, indicating my rough sketch that I've put together so far.
     "The Courtyard." I reply. Jay looks at me, then at the park.
     "Why The Courtyard? It's a trash heap!" He gestures to the area around us, and stops pointing at the broken fountain. "Especially that thing. I wish someone would fix that." He rests his head in his hands, letting out a deep sigh.
     I sketch The Courtyard as I saw yesterday. The one Marcus had cleaned up. It's beautiful. I almost wanna go visit right now. I draw the fountain, gushing out a beautiful stream of water. The only change I make from the park I saw yesterday is the sky. I make it bright and clear, instead of the eerie dark daytime there was on the Flip Side.
     Jay looks at my drawing, now fully colored, and tilts his head. I look up at him. "Wanna see it in person?" He nods. I get up, looking around. There's a worn-down park bathroom on the other side of the tennis court. I start walking, and he follows.
     About halfway across the field, someone shouts my name. I turn towards the source of the voice. It's Star. "Hey Artemis!" She looks at Jay. "Who's this?"
     "Star, this is Jay. Jay, this is Star." They shake hands, exchange a few "nice to meet you"s, and we start walking down the hill, Star leading. We head to the woods, walking where the pathway is supposed to be. Star tells us about how she accidentally made her cat float, and couldn't figure out how to get it down. That was the bad part about learning to control you're ability. The control comes step-by-step. So in Star's example, she learned how to change the gravitational pull on a certain object, rather than a space she's in. Normally she knew how to change it back to normal, but only if she was in that area, meaning she would be floating too. But with the cat, if she were to change it's gravitational pull back to normal, with her involved, then her gravitational pull would be stronger, and she would barely be able to pick her feet off the ground.
     We reach the edge of the woods, and I halt everyone, taking off my backpack. I unzip it and reach inside, pulling out a granola bar. I offer one to Star, and she gladly accepts. Jay politely declines, saying he's not hungry. I zip my bag up, and put the strap on my shoulder.
     We head into the woods, and Star poses the question of what happened in the bathroom. Jay chuckles, and I begin to explain it to her. I leave out the bit about throwing up in the stall, because nobody wants to hear about me seeing my lunch for the second time. More importantly, I leave out the part about me creating a supernova of fire, because I'm still not sure I remember it correctly. Instead I just say that I grabbed her and shoved her through the mirror.
     We reach the clearing in the woods. I guess it really has been here all along. We walk in, and No Name is sitting on a stump on the other side of the clearing. He hears us come in, and looks over his shoulder at us. His face is still expressionless like it was when I left the classroom with him on Friday. The only difference is that I can see his eyes. Well, kind of. I can see the light reflecting off his eyes, making them look solid white. Even his eyes make him look dead. He turns back around and goes back to doing whatever he was doing.
     I sit down on a bench nearby. Star sits next to me, and Jay takes a seat on a log in front of us. He asks for a granola bar, and I give him one. He sits there and eats it slowly, and I pull out my sketchbook and show Star the drawing of the park I did earlier. She nods slowly, admiring the detail. She asks where I got the idea of The Courtyard being this clean.
     "Right here, actually..." I reply, standing up. Why is No Name here? I walk towards him, and he glances over his shoulder at me. He immediately goes back to what he was doing. I walk closer, looking over his shoulder. He's looking at something in his hands, and seems to be admiring it, whatever it is. I walk up until I'm right behind him, and look down. His hands. They're.... gone. I tap on his shoulder, and he jumps. His hands reappear. But what's odd is that rather than just popping back into existence, they gradually fade back in. He looks up at me. His eyes are almost hypnotic. I try to focus, trying to see beyond the blank planes I see now. But he grabs my arm. Everything goes black.
     After a moment, my vision slowly returns. We're standing at the edge of an empty lot. The transition from standing on the soft grass to now standing on the hard sidewalk feels weird. I look over at No Name. He's looking at me. He looks away, and starts walking towards the middle of the lot. I hadn't noticed it before, but there's a small pile in the middle. I can't tell what's in the pile from here, but it looks like trash. He gets down on one knee and begins to search through the pile. I start walking towards him, taking small steps. He pushes aside a metal rod, which shocks him slightly when he touches it. He doesn't seem bothered by it. He pushes and tosses piece after piece of wood shards, until he stops, looking at the pile.
     He picks up something small, admiring it. I'm still too far away to tell what it is, but he seems to be dusting it off. I step closer, and he turns towards me. He sets down what he was holding, and grabs my arm. This time my vision doesn't go black. Instead, he stands up, pulls me back to the sidewalk, and then my vision goes black.
     A split second later, I'm still standing in the same place, and the sky is that weird daytime darkness that it always is on the Flip Side. But instead of a pile, there's a house in the middle of the lot. My house. That two story house that I grew up in. I can see the window from which the smoke first erupted from here. I look at No Name. He's walking towards the front door, stopping at the porch. He turns back towards me, motioning for me to follow. I can feel tears streaming down my cheeks. This is the same house where my parents were reduced to ashes, and I'm about to just waltz back in.
     I walk to the front door, and try the handle. It's locked. I turn to No Name. He puts up a finger, gently pushes me aside and knocks on the door.
     "Hey, dipshit! My parents died when I was seven. So unless someone else moved in to this house that technically doesn't even exist-" I'm cut short by the sound of the lock turning. The handle turns, and the door swings open. A woman in her forties greets us with a smile. She holds out her hand to No Name.
     "I'm Susan. Susan Stewart. And you are?" I nearly pass out. No Name grabs her hand, shaking her hand firmly. She looks at him, waiting for him to answer her question. I step forward, offering my own hand.
     "Don't expect him to reply. He hasn't said anything in years. If ever, that is." She nods and shakes my hand. "I'm Artemis." She stops shaking my hand. I can feel her hand turn cold, her face turning pale.
     "Artemis?" She puts a hand to my cheek. "You changed your hair." I laugh, and then break down crying. She pulls me in for a hug, patting my back. After a few moments, she releases the hug, and I wipe away the tears. No Name smiles, but it's an actual smile this time, instead of his lunatic grin. Mother invites us in, and we all step inside. The house looks just like it used to. It looks like some sort of historical preservation society has been in control over it. Everything is exactly where it was before that night.
     I can hear the TV in the living room. It sounds like gibberish to me, but, listening closer, I realize it's playing backwards. I reach into my pocket and pull out my phone. I flip it open, and record what's happening. Mother walks in with a platter of tea, setting it down on the coffee table. After a while, I notice that the TV is just repeating.
     "It's been playing that same clip since you left. Your father and I have been trying to figure it out for years, but neither of us can understand what they're saying. And all they show is that stupid newscaster's face, just reading the same couple of gibberish lines at us every day." I nod, putting my phone back into my pocket. I sit down at the coffee table, and Mother pours us each a cup of tea. I tell her all about what's been happening recently, drinking my entire cup. No Name barely touches his tea, and, as usual, doesn't say a word.
     After I finish my story, Mother offers for us to stay the night. I look at No Name. He raises a finger, as if to say, "hold on" and disappears. Mother jumps, and I assure her that it's normal. A few moments later, No Name returns, giving a thumbs up. I assume he went back to let the others know somehow. He pulls out his phone. That's how.
     Mother ushers us up to my room. I forgot that we didn't have a guest room. Mother says Jay's room is being used for storage now, so we'll both have to stay in my room for the night. I let him have the bed, explaining that I'll have trouble sleeping in it. I grab a throw pillow from the couch, and the spare sheet from Jay's old room. After we have everything set up, we head back downstairs, where Mother is fixing dinner.
     Father walk back into the room, pulling on a shirt. After he gets the shirt on, he sees me, and freezes in his tracks. He looks at Mother, then back at me, and embraces me in a big hug. He seems so much softer than I remember. He has a huge smile on his face, and he holds the hug for a few moments. When he releases, he pats me on the head and ushers us into the dining room, where we eat a nice roast made by Mother. I almost forgot how good her cooking was.
     After dinner, Mother and Father tell me goodnight, and I head back to my room. No Name follows. When we enter the room, he sits down on the edge of the bed, right where I had sat burning the marker on the day of the incident. I grab my PJs from my dresser. They're a bit too small. I tell No Name I'll be right back, and run downstairs. I knock on the door to Mother's room, and she opens it.
     "Hey, can I borrow a pair of PJs? Mine are way too small." She nods, and runs back into her room, returning with her old nightgown and a pair of Father's old PJs.
     "Give these to that quiet kid. He looks like he needs them." She says, handing them to me. I nod, and run back upstairs. I walk into my room, and hand the PJs to No Name. He puts them down in his lap, and looks up at me.
     "Mother said you could wear these. I'm gonna go to the bathroom and change." I say, holding up my nightgown. He nods, and looks back down at the pajamas. I walk out of the room and to the bathroom. I change, trying not to look in the mirror. After I'm done, I head back to my room, and close the door behind me. I look over at No Name. He's already fast asleep, completely hidden under the comforter.
     I tiptoe over, and lift the comforter. I just wanna see his face. But, no surprise, he's still wearing the hoodie. Instead, he's clutching the PJs against his chest. That's when I notice that his breaths are sharp. His back keeps rising and falling in short, quick motions. He's crying. I set the comforter back down, hoping he didn't notice me. I lay down in my makeshift bed, and fall right asleep.