YesterWorld (Book 2 of the Down World Series)

Original Edition: Chapter Six

FYI: This chapter works really well if you play the song above on low volume while reading. Love seeing your comments and thoughts! Thank you again for supporting this story.

*****

I stood in the shadows of our garage, watching my father at his work station in the corner. He was doing his favorite thing in the world: fixing up an old computer, bobbing his head to a song on his headphones. The computer was splayed out before him in a million little pieces, waiting to be put back together by his calloused hands.

After a moment, he looked up and noticed me there. A smile popped into his eyes at the sight of me, and he pressed a button on his phone so the music switched from his headphones to a small speaker. He hung the headphones on a little wall hook, which was Dad's invitation for me to join him.

It was one of his favorite old albums, Buffalo Springfield. Neither of us said anything for a moment as I approached the work desk, surveying his progress so far, and the lyrics to the old song echoed off the concrete walls.

There you stood on the edge of your feather,

Expecting to fly

While I laughed, I wondered whether

I could wave goodbye,

Knowing that you'd gone...

Dad broke the spell by turning the volume down, his head still buried in his work.

"Hand me that DVI cable, will you, honey?"

"Sure, Dad."

After a moment of tinkering with the cable, he spoke again. "I Skyped your brother today."

My heart still caught in my throat whenever Robbie was mentioned. It was hard to believe, even to this day, that Robbie and I had barely any relationship. He'd been raised so far away from me in this reality, and in such a different environment, helping our mom run that little hotel outside of Portland.

"He said the classes are much harder this year at U of Oregon."

I nodded, always afraid of saying too much, giving anything away. "That makes sense," I finally added. "He's a sophomore now."

Somehow the word "sophomore" struck me with a painful throb. A sophomore like I had been when I started a new high school without him, in the old reality where he had "died" at thirteen. A sophomore, meaning I had missed his whole first year of college, just like I had missed the nineteen years before that.

If I closed my eyes, I could still feel the cold night air whipping our faces as we ran from the pyramid house, all those years ago, when Kieren had dared us to spend the night there. And now there was no one left to remember that night with me. My whole life, everything that had mattered, everything I had felt, ripped away day after day.

My brother and I were like two divergent rivers in this plane, twisting away from each other, never intertwining, wending through the earth towards two opposing oceans. I missed him so much sometimes that my bones ached with the pain of it.

A sob escaped my mouth, and once it had started, a tidal wave of sobs followed behind. My father dropped his tools and just held me, rocking me slightly against his chest.

"Oh, Marina," he whispered. "My sweet girl."

"I'm sorry, Dad," I whispered through my tears, not wanting to break away from his protective arms.