“Wake up!” a voice whispered, jolting Trixie from a rather pleasant dream.
Opening her eyes, she looked up into a face framed by a riot of curls and instantly knew that something very interesting was about to happen. The face, more often seen reversed in the mirror, was the same as her own and the young woman standing over her was an alternate version of herself. While she had never seen her alter-ego before, Trixie had heard all about her from Jim when he had visited the other reality a year ago and she had been fascinated by the prospect of one day visiting it herself.
“Get dressed,” the double instructed. “I’ve got a job for you to do.”
Trixie sprang out of bed, pushing the other Trixie out of the way, and started rummaging around for something to wear. “What is it?” she asked, in a low voice that threatened to get louder. “Do I get to see your world? Is there a problem there? Can I help you with something? Can I tell Jim that I’m going? How long will I be gone?”
“That is so annoying! Do I really talk that way?” alternative Trixie muttered. “First, you get dressed like I told you to. Then, we’re going back to my world. Then, we’re going to fetch your Jim – that’s going to be the tricky bit. And then I’ll tell you both what it’s all about. Now, get on with getting dressed before someone hears us!”
Muttering in return, Trixie did as she was told and was soon ready to leave. She followed the other woman through the house and into the laundry room, where a patch of wall right next to the washing machine was covered in a swirling pattern of pale blue and green light. Together, the pair stepped through the patch, entering an almost identical room.
Finger to her lips to indicate silence was still needed, the alternate Trixie led the way outside and up the path to Manor House. They were met at the kitchen door by Honey, and the three then crept up the stairs to Honey’s room.
“Ready?” alternate Trixie asked.
Honey nodded. “Hi, Trixie,” she greeted the newcomer. “You stand just inside the door here and wait, okay? I’ll lure our Jim downstairs and our Trixie will fetch your Jim and then you’ll hide with him in the bathroom while our Trixie gives me the signal to let our Jim come back up. Understand?”
“Perfectly,” Trixie replied, grinning.
Without another word, Honey slipped out into the hallway and was soon tapping on Jim’s door. “Jim!” she called softly. “Jim! Can I come in?”
Both Trixies ducked back into the shadows as the door opened and a bleary-eyed Jim peeked out. “What is it?” he demanded.
“Oh, Jim! Trixie went downstairs a while back to fetch something to drink and she hasn’t come back. Do you think you could help me look for her, please?” Honey managed to sound frightened and just a little pathetic.
Jim let out a sigh. “You’ll be fine, Honey. There’s nothing down there to hurt you. Why don’t you go and look for her and let me get back to bed?”
In the shadows, regular Trixie scowled, while alternate Trixie shrugged and seemed resigned.
“Please, Jim,” Honey repeated, and they heard him sigh once more, this time in resignation.
“You really shouldn’t be telling each other those scary stories before bedtime,” he chastised, as they went downstairs together.
Alternate Trixie waited for a few moments, before darting across the hall to Jim’s room. Trixie shortly saw a strange glow coming from the open door, and the sound of muffled voices. The next couple of minutes seemed to take an age to pass, but in fact it was not long before alternate Trixie and regular Jim dashed through the door.
“Quick! Hide!” the other Trixie commanded, before heading out into the hallway once more and sneaking down the stairs.
A short time later, Honey, Trixie and a rather disgruntled Jim tramped up the stairs and returned to their respective rooms. Honey’s bedroom door closed and was locked, then the two who lived in that reality dissolved into soft laughter.
“We did it!” Trixie crowed, high-fiving her best friend. “You two can come out now. It’s safe. Just keep your voices down, especially you, Jim.”
“Do you mind explaining why we’re here?” Jim asked, not looking particularly pleased about the situation.
Honey exchanged a glance with her best friend and Trixie elected to begin. “We need you two to do a bit of spying for us,” she explained. “Brian, Jim, Mart and Dan are up to something and we suspect that it’s going to get everyone into trouble. We want you two to help us find out exactly what it is and to help us stop them, if necessary.”
“Actually,” Honey added, looking a little nervous, “we’re a bit worried that what they’re doing might interrupt the space-time continuum, or whatever it was they did the last time, and either destroy one of the realities, or merge them, or maybe even make another one, and much as we like some of the things about living in this reality, and much as we liked some things about yours even better, and as interesting as it might be to find out about another one, and maybe visit it, we don’t really think it’s such a good idea, because what if we got merged back together and we got the worst bits of each, and not the best, and wouldn’t that be terrible?”
“Like, what if we couldn’t trust Jim and Brian, but we didn’t have extra powers and never met Meldrick and Inga?” Trixie suggested.
“Exactly,” Honey agreed. “It would be terrible! So, we’ve just got to stop Brian from doing whatever it is, because I just can’t stand to be unhappy any longer.”
“I really hope you can be happy, Hon,” regular Trixie told her alternate friend. “But, speaking of Meldrick and Inga, when do I get to meet them?”
Her other self shook her head with a sad smile. “Not this time. Mrs. Tanner inherited her family home in Sweden and the whole family have gone to live there. Our Bob-Whites have gone back to just seven members.”
“But weren’t you and Meldrick…” Trixie paused, looking at her other self to gauge the level of hurt the departure had caused.
Honey laughed. “They were, but that was all off before they even knew they were going. And, of course, now Trixie’s got someone else in mind.”
The other Trixie blushed and swatted her friend’s arm. “Not in front of Jim!”
Far from being embarrassed or annoyed, however, Jim’s expression displayed a glimmer of hope. “You mean, there’s no chance that I’ll have another – ahem – encounter with Inga? Or get stuck watching vampire boy make out with Trixie?”
“Vampire boy?” Honey echoed. “And what do you mean by ‘encounter’?”
“Never mind,” Jim muttered, turning red. Alternate Trixie’s face was also flushed. “Just so long as I don’t have to see either of them again, it’ll be a great improvement on last time. But, wait – if Inga is gone, has the other Jim… er, taken up with someone else?”
Alternate Trixie snorted. “Of course, but you don’t have to worry. He’s between bimbos at the moment.”
“Good to know.” His expression sobered. “But I still don’t see the purpose of our coming here. Why do you need us?”
The pair from the alternate reality shared a look, but Honey spoke. “Brian doesn’t trust us and we don’t trust him, which means that we can’t get close enough to him to know what he’s doing, which is why you’ll be here: to find out for us, while we’re obviously somewhere else, so that we can work together to stop him, before he does something that we can’t stop.”
“So, do you have a plan, or was that it?” Jim asked, frowning.
Alternate Trixie huffed. “Of course we have a plan, Jim! What do you think this is? Random double-grabbing for fun? You’re here because we want your invisibility for spying purposes. Trixie is here to back you up. You’re doing the reconnaissance yourselves, right now, so that you’ll be more familiar with everything here when you come back for the real thing. For this first stage, you’ll only be here for a couple of hours. Then, we’ll get you both back to your own reality long before breakfast and you can continue as usual for a couple of days. Then, you’ll both suddenly have somewhere else you need or want to be next weekend, only in reality you’ll be here with us, when all of our Bob-Whites are here for Honey’s big welcome-home party.”
“By that time,” Honey continued, “we’ll have come up with the details of the next stage of the plan, which will depend, of course, on the things you find out tonight, and, of course, we might have to change when the next stage actually is if you find out anything really different from what we’re expecting, but we don’t want to do that, of course, so we’ll just have to hope that what you find out is what we expect you to find out and not what we don’t expect you to find out.”
“Settle down, Hon,” alternate Trixie laughed, “or we won’t be able to understand a word you say.”
“But how can I,” Honey wailed, “when Jim is sitting right across from me, and we’re talking to him about, you know, stuff, only we can’t talk to him about stuff, because it’s a secret from him and we don’t want him to know that we know, and, if that isn’t enough, I’m talking to two Trixies, and that’s really not right, is it?”
“I think you’ll get used to it,” alternate Trixie answered. “But, for now, we’ve got work to do. First, Jim, you need to get invisible. And naked, of course. Get in the bathroom and get to it.”
Jim did not move. “And what if I don’t?”
Alternate Trixie gave a shrug. “I don’t think you’re going to gamble all of our lives because you don’t want to get your gear off. Trust me, Jim. We’ve done all that we can by ourselves and we really do need your help.”
He closed his eyes for a few moments. “I do trust you, Trixie, but that sounds ominous.”
“It is ominous! That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you,” she answered, as her best friend tried to shush her. “Yes, I admit that you’ll probably be in danger here, but what if you don’t help us?”
Jim got to his feet, but paused to frown at alternate Trixie from the bathroom doorway. “Surely there’s a better way than this?”
She sighed. “This is the best plan we can come up with,” she answered. “The alternative is that your Trixie impersonates me while I go looking for what Brian’s doing, but I think you’ll agree that impersonating yourself is harder than you’d think. And, unlike your double, I’d rather not put her through that, if I had a choice.”
Jim stood still for a moment longer, looking as if he were going to answer back, then stalked into the bathroom, shaking his head. Regular Trixie could tell that this was not going down well with her boyfriend. A few minutes later, the emergence of a hovering bundle of clothes signalled his return. At alternate Trixie’s direction, her double took the bundle and Honey led the pair downstairs.
“Now, go and try to find out what Brian’s hiding and where he has it,” she whispered, as she let them out into the night. “Here’s Trixie’s keys to Crabapple Farm. She’ll meet you in her bedroom to find out all about it and open the portal later – say, three o’clock. That’ll give you two hours.”
“Where should we start looking?” Jim wondered aloud, as they moved away from the house. “Do you think he would keep whatever it is near him, or not?”
Trixie considered. “He probably moves it to different places each night. This is going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack!”
“Worse,” Jim replied, “since we don’t know what we’re looking for.” He stopped short. “But, I thought you had some kind of sixth sense here, that helped you track criminals.”
She closed her eyes and concentrated for a minute. Vague impressions of a hundred different mysteries crowded her consciousness until she almost felt suffocated. From the multitude, she picked out one strand of surreptitious behaviour and concentrated on it until it came into stronger focus. Her hand, which had gently rested on Jim’s invisible arm so that she knew where he was, squeezed tighter and tighter until he cried out in pain. She opened her eyes.
“I don’t know why,” she told him, speaking slowly, “but I think that, whatever it is, it’s mostly in the attic at home. Brian’s definitely in his own bed, and he seems to be asleep. Let’s go and take a look in the attic.”
It took a little effort to sneak into the house and up to the top of the house unheard, but the pair managed it. Once inside, Trixie edged over to the place where she had once found some Civil War relics and eased out a board. In the cavity revealed was a mess of electronic componentry in a partly assembled state.
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, whatever it is, he’s not finished making it, yet.”
Jim must have leaned closer to snag some paperwork, which was there with the rest of the equipment. Trixie’s insides constricted to see the papers rise from the floor, apparently unaided, and hover in front of her. She read, ‘Reality Displacement Device, MK II’ A moment later, one of the half-assembled components rose up and placed itself in her hands.
“If we hide this,” Jim’s voice explained, “he won’t be able to finish it until he can buy more parts. So, is this it, or is there something else to find?”
Trixie concentrated once more, this time finding it a little easier. “He’s got something hidden with him; it’s under his pillow, I think. Should we take the risk and try to get it, do you think?”
Jim considered for a moment. “Maybe I should try. You could watch from the doorway, but I don’t think you should be in the room. If he wakes up, you’d give the game away.”
“Sounds like a plan,” she answered. “Let’s get out of here before anyone catches us and go see what Brian’s hiding.”
They returned the attic to as close as possible to its previous state, then edged their way back down the attic stairs to the floor below. A creaking sound left them hiding, breathless, at the bottom of the stairs for several long minutes, but eventually Jim went out to check that the coast was clear. Finding it so, they made their way along the corridor to the room where Brian and Mart were sleeping.
The door was just slightly ajar, allowing the listeners to hear two steady breathing patterns. Trixie watched as the door swung open, a shiver running up her spine as it did so. In her eagerness to see what was happening, she bumped into Jim, who had not actually entered the room yet. She felt a blush rising in her cheeks as she stepped back and gave him room to move.
When next she peeked into the room, it was to see the edge of Brian’s pillow rising. It had not gone far when the sleeping man let out a sigh and turned over, his hand edging under the pillow. Trixie could imagine Jim holding himself very still. As the sleeper seemed to settle, a different edge of the pillow shifted. Trixie shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she watched the pillow moving, seemingly by itself. It returned to its original position, but no object flew through the air towards her before the door swung closed once more.
A gentle touch on her shoulder told Trixie to move away, in the direction of her room. She went inside, itching with curiosity but not daring to make a sound before the door was closed behind them.
“What happened?” she asked. “Was there something there?”
Jim took his clothes from her and, standing behind her, began to put them on. “I could feel something hard and cold under there. When he turned over, he put his hand right next to it and I didn’t dare to try to take it.”
She frowned. “What do you think it might have been?”
“I don’t know,” he answered. “It was cold and smooth like metal, but I think that was just some sort of outer casing. It could be anything.”
“I guess we’ve done part of what we came to do, at least,” Trixie mumbled. “Even if we don’t know what it is that’s so important that he’s sleeping with it.”
Having nothing more to accomplish before their return home, they secreted themselves in a corner of Trixie’s room and waited for the rendezvous. Trixie was dozing against a fully-clothed and visible Jim when her double arrived at a quarter to three. She smiled to see them curled together and obviously having waited for some time.
“I just knew I could get here early and you’d already be done,” she whispered. “Wake up, Trixie, and tell me everything you know.”
It did not take long to relate the entire sequence of events and to hand over the part they had taken. At the end of the account, alternate Trixie smiled. “That’s great! I knew you could find it. Honey thought that it would be just as hard for you as it has been for me to find out what he’s up to, but I just knew you could help. Can you both make it back for the weekend, do you think? Honey and I will have had time to make proper plans by then.”
Trixie was eager to reply immediately that they would be there, but she cast a glance at her boyfriend before saying so. Reading resignation in his expression, she nodded. “Where do you want us to be?”
The other Trixie thought for a few moments. “I think we’ll have to use the clubhouse portal, but it’ll be risky at both ends. You’ll need to be alone in the storage area of the clubhouse on Friday night at eleven o’clock. Don’t forget to bring your pyjamas and toothbrushes, and some extra clothes. One of us will open a tiny portal to check if it’s okay first. We’ll think of some code words and one of you can say the word. That way, we won’t give the game away with a big portal if there’s someone else there. Any ideas? We need a word meaning the coast is clear and one meaning it’s not. Or, maybe, one meaning try again in an hour and one to say that the clubhouse is a washout and we need a new plan.”
“Dinglebuckles,” regular Trixie exclaimed. “That can be ‘try again in an hour’. It sounds just right for it.”
The other Trixie laughed softly. “Done. And you can say ‘flaming grapes’ if it’s okay and ‘gesundheit’ if I need to make a portal somewhere else. In that case, I’ll find a way through and meet you near the Manor House mailbox as soon as I can.”
“Deal,” regular Trixie answered. “Are we ready to go, now?”
Alternate Trixie nodded and the three crept downstairs to the laundry room once more. The two who were about to return to their own world waited as the other woman passed a hand over the wall until shimmering lights appeared. Her next movements seemed to stretch and refine the portal until it took on the appearance they had seen earlier.
“One other thing,” alternate Trixie remembered. She leaned closer to Jim and pulled him down to whisper something in his ear. Regular Trixie noted with curiosity that he had turned a brilliant red.
“I’ll bear that in mind,” Jim muttered. “See you Friday, Trixie.”
When both Trixies had bid their goodbyes also, the pair returned to their own world.
“What was that all about?” Trixie demanded, in an indignant whisper. “What did she say to you?”
“Uh, I might tell you some other time,” he answered, backing away. “Really, Trix, I’ve got to go. I don’t want to be caught here at this time of night. You’d better get back to bed, too.”
Alone in her bed a short time later, Trixie cast her mind over the last few hours. Part of her was very anxious to return to the alternate reality and solve the mystery that lay there. She felt a qualm when she thought of Jim’s reaction, however. He had been adamant the summer before that he never wanted to return there, yet here they were preparing for such a trip. There were a few fundamental differences, though, which might make it a little easier for Jim. For one thing, he was not required to impersonate his double. Perhaps that would be enough to change the experience from one to be endured to one to be enjoyed. She dwelled on that thought for a long time.
The next thing Trixie knew, bright morning sunshine was flooding her room. Not the least bit weary from her night’s adventure, she bounced out of bed and got the day under way. She was anxious to talk to Jim about what had happened and to make plans about the upcoming trip. The pair met, after breakfast, half-way between their parents’ homes.
“We need to talk,” Trixie told her boyfriend the moment they were near enough to speak in low voices. “Where should we go?”
Jim’s face expressed his mixed feelings. “The lake?” he suggested. “Unless there’s someone already there.”
Trixie took him by the hand and pulled him along in that direction. They reached their destination in a short amount of time, finding that the area was deserted. Taking a seat on the small dock, they each took off their shoes to trail their feet in the cool water.
“I’m not at all happy about this situation,” Jim began with, before Trixie could launch into enthusiastic plans. “Even with some of the improvements since last time, I don’t want to go back.”
“You heard them, though,” Trixie argued. “Brian is doing something really dangerous and we have to help stop him, or our own reality might be affected.”
Her boyfriend sighed. “I know. And that’s why I’m going to go. I wanted you to know that I’m not looking forward to it, though.”
She smiled and kissed him, putting her hand on his knee as she did so. A moment later, a thought occurred to her and she pulled away enough to speak. “What did the other Trixie say to you this morning that embarrassed you so much?”
His eyebrows jerked and he swallowed hard, a tinge of red rising in his face. “Well, it was just something she thought I might need to know, you know? It wasn’t anything I needed to tell you, just that she needed to tell me, in case I might have needed the information.”
“Did anyone ever tell you that you talk like Honey when you’re embarrassed?” she asked, laughing. “Now, I need to know, so you need to spill. Okay?”
The tactic did not work. Jim muttered something about the disadvantages of bullet-proof skin and would not meet her eyes. As she was preparing to make another attempt, the sound of voices reached them. A group of the other Bob-Whites approached for a morning swim. The opportunity for further talk was lost.
The rest of the week passed in a whirlwind of activity and Trixie never managed to corner Jim for long enough to get the secret out of him. The night of the appointment arrived and the pair managed to pretend to leave town separately, heading in different directions, while in reality hiding in the Preserve.
At half past ten, they entered the clubhouse and secured the door behind them. Unwilling to betray their presence to anyone who might be outside, they waited in the dark, keeping a lookout for anyone who might be approaching. A few minutes before eleven, Trixie went to wait in the storage room, while Jim kept watch at the window. In the silence, the tension mounted as the wait was prolonged. Finally, a blue-green glimmer shone in front of Trixie and resolved itself into a portal the size of a quarter.
“Flaming grapes!” Trixie cried, hoping that she could be heard.
The portal winked out of existence. A moment later, another, much larger one developed and the other Trixie stepped through. Smiling at the waiting pair, she motioned them through, then followed them into her world, where the Bob-Whites’ storage area had been replaced by a small bathroom. With a quick movement, she closed the portal and turned to face them.
“Everything’s going to plan,” she told them. “Brian has been grouchy and distracted ever since you left, and the girls and I have come up with a plan that just can’t fail.”
“Why am I feeling very worried about that?” Jim asked, with a twinkle in his eye.
The other Trixie shrugged. “I wouldn’t know,” she replied airily. “Now, come and hear about the plan. You can leave your bags in here.”
She led the way into what, in their world, was the Bob-Whites’ meeting room. Here, however, it lacked the conference table and benches, but had gained some comfortable-looking sofas and arm chairs, a side table or two and a thick area rug. In one corner, near the bathroom door, a tiny kitchenette had also been added. They seated themselves on the sofas and the other Trixie grabbed a sheaf of papers from a table.
“Honey has written it all down for you, in case I forget anything, but the basic plan goes like this: while we keep Brian, Jim, Mart and Dan busy, the two of you are going to find all of the elements of Brian’s so-called invention, dismantle them and reassemble them with dummy parts. We’ve got those ready for you – they’re in a box by the wall. And, so that he doesn’t try it again, you’re also going to alter his plans, so that even if he tries it again with new parts it won’t work. And, in case that plan fails, you’re going to make all of his electronics books disappear.” She pulled out a sheet of paper and thrust it at Jim. “Here’s the schedule of where we’ll all be. The times that you can work are marked on in red – they’re the ones where Brian, Honey and I are all in the same place. You’ll have to be down at the farm early tomorrow, so you’d better get to bed. I’ll check in with you just before lunch tomorrow. Is that all clear?”
“Like mud,” Jim muttered.
“Great,” she answered. “Let me show you how to open the sofa bed, then I’ll be going. The sheets and towels are in the closet in the bathroom. Make sure you keep the curtains drawn – no one will question there being anyone in here, provided they don’t see who it actually is. I’ve left you some food in the refrigerator. All of the keys you need are over there. Oh, and one last thing: Honey’s gardener has been complaining about missing spades and pruning saws again, so you might need to be on the lookout for anything unusual in that respect.”
“Thanks,” regular Trixie replied, as her double crept out into the night. “See you tomorrow.”
With the door closed and locked, the pair faced each other for a few moments without speaking. Eventually, Jim broke the silence, saying, “I guess I’ll go and find us some sheets, then.”
He returned a few moments later, with all of the required linen and some pillows. They made up the bed together without much talking, each keeping their mind on the task. Once they were both ready for bed, and the bed was ready for them, they each stood and looked at it, unwilling to get in.
“This is going to be a bit weird,” Trixie admitted, breaking the silence. “I never thought the first time we shared a bed would be in the clubhouse, or in another reality.”
Jim shook his head, but did not answer. A slight flush tinged his face with red and Trixie was reminded of his earlier embarrassment. She switched off the light and got into bed, feeling it sink a little as her boyfriend did the same. In the darkness, talk seemed to come easier for she soon heard Jim’s voice in her ear.
“You don’t need to worry about things going too far, though, Trix.” His hand slid across her waist and his lips caressed her cheek. “While we’re here, you’ve got bullet-proof skin. Everywhere.”
Trixie felt her face redden. “You mean, since we didn’t at home… we can’t here…”
“That’s what she said,” Jim answered.
“Well, this is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live here,” Trixie murmured. “I just hope nothing goes wrong.”
Continue to part two.
Author’s notes: A huge thank you to Mary N. (Dianafan) who did a very speedy edit for me. I only just got the first draft patched together in time and the latter parts still need some work before they can be posted. This story will be CWP Anniversary 7, because I am posting this first part for my seventh Jixaversary. (Element list will appear at the end of the story.) It’s such an amazing thing to think that I have been doing this for seven entire years. That’s one year for each of the Bob-Whites! I would especially like to thank CathyP for accepting me in the first place and I would also like to thank everyone else at Jix for continuing to make it such a wonderful place.
Oh, and before I forget, Trixie used the word Dinglebuckles in one of the books. I have not had time to look up which one it was, but I am sure that someone will tell me. :D
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