Everywhere and Everywhen

            by Kevin Hogg

An empty parking lot—always a good sign. Plenty of time for an ambitious and undisturbed forest walk. Definitely worth booking Monday morning off to make it happen. Alyce slung her backpack over one shoulder and set off.

She strung together a series of her favorite trails, pausing to enjoy a few berries that were just ripening. She couldn’t have hoped for a quieter day to enjoy the bird songs.

A rustle in the trees. Alyce stopped, her hand reaching for the bear spray in the side pocket of the backpack. A quick scan showed nothing nearby. And then the song came forth from the trees, one that she couldn’t place.

She had an app on her phone for just this situation. It acknowledged the sound but didn’t register any matches. Silently, she followed the sound, stepping over logs and weaving around trees as the song kept leading her farther. She looked back, trying to memorize a route back to the main path. Suddenly, her ankle folded over, caught in a hole. She fell, then realized she couldn’t put weight on it to get back up.

Ahead of her, she noticed the clearing for the first time. She was surrounded by foot-tall grass, which filled the clearing aside from the ship. At least, that was her first impression. It was just a collection of three logs, but they appeared to be laid out in the outline of a ship’s hull—two curved logs touching at the front, with a straight log between them at the back. On every side of it, the ground was bare.

Alyce crawled to the logs and sat, taking a minute to think of a plan. Once again, the bird song came, this time from almost straight above. A bright red bird looked down at her, chirping in a way she had never heard before. It almost seemed to glow in the sunlight.

Eventually, she lay in the middle of the logs, elevating her ankle to slow the swelling. From above, the bird locked eyes with her. Alyce found herself unable to look away.

The pain came in waves, and Alyce felt lightheaded. She closed her eyes, the red bird’s face still visible in her mind. It was her final vision before losing consciousness…

* * *

She awoke in the dark, her ankle still in excruciating pain. Above and to the west, a full moon shone. At least, she was pretty sure it was west. The ship—her mind insisted on thinking of it as a ship—must be facing due east. Only a few hours until sunrise, then. Best to stay put.

In the morning, Alyce tried putting some weight on the ankle. No good. She could call Rhett for help, though. She pulled her phone out of a pocket. Dead. It had been a warm night, so it was surprising that the battery had drained so quickly.

Still, her parents would notice that she wasn’t around in the morning…or maybe they would just assume she had stayed at Rhett’s house. Likewise, Rhett would assume that she was at home. But neither would think to call the other because of the tension between them. Had anyone realized she was missing at all?

Alyce was fairly sure she could find her way back to the main trail. If nobody was looking for her anyway, it seemed like the best choice. Fortunately, she found a stick that she could lean on as she made her way back to the car.

It took much longer at her slower pace, but she was relieved to see Rhett’s car parked next to her own. He was walking around her car, as if examining it for clues. She shouted his name.

No response. Alyce kept walking closer, calling over and over, but Rhett didn’t seem to hear. Finally, she stood right in front of him. He looked right through Alyce, then took a step forward. Surprised by the sudden movement, she braced for the impact, but none came.

He continued walking, Alyce calling after him repeatedly to no avail. At the entrance to the trail, he turned and opened his mouth, appearing to call Alyce’s name, but there was no sound. He disappeared between the trees.

Unable to figure out what this must mean, she came up with a plan. If she could drive home, Rhett would notice that her car was missing and know that she was safe. She reached into her left pocket and found it empty. It was the same with every other pocket. Her keys must have fallen out while she was sleeping, she realized.

Leaning on the stick, she made her way back toward the clearing. The birds, too, were silent today. As she approached the point where she had left the trail the day before, she hesitated. Surely it would be better to stay on the path, where she could be found easily? And yet, she remembered Rhett seemingly walking through her in the parking lot, unable to hear her or be heard.

The red bird’s call came again, making up her mind for her. She was extra careful this time, not wanting to make the ankle any worse. Eventually, the clearing materialized in front of her. She was just in time to see a glowing red streak fly out of reach, a familiar silver glint in its mouth.

“My key! Please, please bring it back!” she called, knowing it was pointless to beg for help from an animal.

Alyce sat back on the log. With yet another plan foiled, she had little choice but to wait for rescue.

As she sat, it occurred to her that the forest wasn’t just quiet today—it was silent. Although the trees moved in the wind, and birds occasionally flew above, not even the slightest sound was audible. She spoke out loud, “Hello?” It was a relief to know that she hadn’t lost her hearing altogether, but she hadn’t the slightest idea of what had happened to the other forest sounds.

The waiting was unbearable, but Alyce forced herself to stay awake. Strangely, she didn’t feel hungry or thirsty. The pain in her ankle remained, but, aside from that, she felt only boredom and loneliness. Even as the sun lowered in the sky, the worry she would have expected didn’t come.

And then a figure emerged. Alyce squinted in the dim light and recognized Ivy, an old friend from high school. As before, she stood and tried to get her attention, but there was no response. About fifty feet on either side of Ivy, two more people walked the forest in straight lines. Clearly a search party, but why couldn’t they see her? Why couldn’t they hear her, when she was so close? Occasionally, the searchers stopped to shout, but Alyce could not hear them, either.

It seemed pointless to follow them. Alyce leaned back against a log and prepared for a long, lonely night.

She fought to stay awake as long as possible, but she was suddenly snapped out of sleep by that mysterious bird call. She was drifting off again when she noticed approaching movement.

It was Rhett. Surely the search must have been called off for the night, but he remained, pacing the forest with a flashlight. However, he didn’t look side to side like the other members of the search party. He had a curious look on his face, gazing up into the trees.

Just as she had, he paused at the ship, looking up where the red bird was now barely visible in the darkness. He looked away quickly, as if its glow was painful to stare at. He sat down on the log, not five feet from Alyce. He called out into the night, and she was sure he was shouting her name. “I’m right here,” she said, despite knowing that he couldn’t hear.

He dropped the flashlight and cried, head down and shoulders trembling. Alyce would have given anything to comfort him. Eventually, he lay down inside the ship and fell asleep. This time, Alyce had no problem staying awake. She didn’t know if she would ever see him again, and she didn’t want to miss a second of this opportunity.

* * *

Late in the morning, Rhett sat up and looked around as if trying to recall why he was on the forest floor.

From behind him, Alyce sighed. “I miss you, Rhett. I don’t know why you can’t hear me or see me, but I love you.”

Rhett turned around in shock. “Alyce! How did you get here?”

“You mean, you can see me?”

“Of course I can. I’m just…I was looking for you all day and half the night, and then you showed up right where I was sleeping.”

Alyce stood up, ignoring the pain in her ankle. “I was here all along. I saw you twice, but you walked right past me…or through me. I sat next to you last night, talking to you.”

Rhett shook his head. “But, that’s impossible.”

Alyce held his arm. “You followed the red bird’s call, looked up at him, and then sat down and cried.”

Rhett turned to her with a shocked look. “You…you were here. But I couldn’t see you?” He paused. “I can’t explain it, but I can see you now.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter. We’re together again. I should let my parents know I’m okay. Were they worried about me?”

Rhett hesitated. “I…I don’t know. I called and asked if you were there, but they just said ‘no’ and hung up. I’m sure they care. They just don’t want anything to do with me, or for you to have anything to do with me.”

Alyce put her arms around him. “It’s their loss. You’ve done nothing to make them treat you this way.”

They started walking together. “I just think we could be so happy together if…hey, what’s wrong with your ankle?” Rhett asked.

“I twisted it. I think it was a gopher hole.”

Rhett put his arm around her. “We’ll get you back home to rest it.”

As they walked, Rhett said quietly, “I’m totally serious, though. If you’re ever up for…”

“Just running away,” Alyce finished. “I know, I know. I just don’t think it’s that simple.”

They walked in silence for a few minutes. “You know,” Rhett said, “it’s eerily quiet today. You’d think we’d at least hear some leaves rustling.”

“Mmhmm,” Alyce replied, trying to wrap her mind around any of the recent events.

Her fears were confirmed when they reached the cars. Rhett pressed the unlock button on his keys. Nothing happened. He reached out to unlock the door manually, and his hand slid right through. He pulled it back in alarm.

“What just happened? Are we…are we ghosts?” he stammered.

“I don’t think so,” said Alyce. “I don’t know how to explain it, but I just don’t…feel dead.”

“Are you okay to walk home?” Rhett asked.

“I’m going to have to be,” said Alyce. “I’ll just need a bit of help, and a few breaks along the way.”

* * *

At Alyce’s house, Rhett reached out to knock on the door. Just as with the car, his hand passed through. “Right. Forgot about that.” The couple walked through the wall of the house and discovered Alyce’s parents sitting in the kitchen.

“Mom! Dad! I’m home!” Alyce began. No reply. She continued to talk, waving her hand in their faces and even shouting. They remained unaware of her presence.

As Alyce and Rhett stood silently, her parents began talking to each other. At least, it looked like they were talking. “Do you hear anything?” Alyce asked Rhett.

“Not a word,” he replied.

Alyce’s father folded up his newspaper and put it down. Alyce looked at the front page, then held Rhett’s hand. “I don’t know what to do. It feels like we’re lost. I just…” She looked at Rhett’s wrist. “What day is it?”

He tried to pull his hand away to check his watch, but Alyce held it back. “No, just…what day do you think it is?”

“It’s Wednesday. You went missing on Monday. I gathered a search party on Tuesday. Today has to be Wednesday.”

“Okay, now look at your watch.”

Rhett held up his wrist. “Thursday? That’s got to be a mistake.” He turned the dial to correct the day. “It won’t move. I don’t get it. I’ve never had a problem with it before. But it must just be…”

Alyce stopped him. “I think we need to get back to the forest.”

Along the way, she explained her theory. “On Tuesday, you couldn’t see or hear me. The rest of the search party couldn’t see or hear me. It was like I was there, but not really there.”

“Which makes no sense,” Rhett agreed. “We walked from one end of the forest to the other. We searched everywhere.”

Alyce nodded. “And today, you can see me.”

Rhett agreed. “True, or else we couldn’t be having this conversation.”

“So, something must have happened to me on Monday night and you on Tuesday night. There’s only one explanation that makes sense. Well, it doesn’t really make sense, but…”

They arrived at the ship. “…but I think we need to lie down and rest.”

Rhett looked for a grassy spot, but Alyce stopped him. “Inside the ship.”

“The ship?”

“The logs look like a ship’s hull.”

Rhett examined them and nodded slowly. “But, it’s not a real ship.”

“No, that’s where the confusion comes in. I’m just wondering…what if it works like a ship? Like, if it’s taking us somewhere?”

“But we’re still in the same spot.”

“Then maybe it’s taking us somewhen.”

Rhett nodded again. “It seems far-fetched, but I’m starting to follow.”

Alyce pulled Rhett’s wrist toward her. “It still says Thursday. Let’s sleep on it. See what it says in the morning.”

Although it was only early evening, the exhausted couple drifted off much sooner than they would have thought possible.

* * *

Once again, the red bird came just as the sun began to rise.

Immediately, Alyce asked Rhett, “What does it say?”

Rhett squinted in the dim light. “Saturday,” he said. “I don’t believe it. It says Saturday. I mean, there’s no way we slept through an entire day, right?”

“Not a chance. We somehow shifted forward an entire day. Like this ship carried us around the world and into tomorrow.”

“It still sounds crazy, and yet…it’s facing east, so it’s at least the right direction.”

“That’s it!” said Alyce. “It’s facing east. But what if we turned it around?”

“I wasn’t serious,” Rhett replied.

“But I am,” Alyce insisted. “Help me with these logs.”

Soon, they had the ship looking almost identical but facing west.

“So,” said Rhett, “your plan is to sleep in it again tonight?”

“What else is there to do?” she asked.

“Well, there’s also the question of how we’re supposed to kill time until night. You can hardly walk, and, even if you could, I don’t know what we could do. I mean, we’re invisible, so we…”

“We can do anything we want,” Alyce finished with a smile.

* * *

That evening, they checked Rhett’s watch again. “Saturday,” Rhett reported. “And a great day, at that. I mean, no arguments with your parents. Just the two of us.”

Alyce interrupted. “Yes, I loved spending the day with you. I’m sorry, but I just need to focus on what’s happening.”

Rhett lay down. “You’re right. Let’s see what happens.”

It was much harder to sleep, but Alyce eventually drifted off. Rhett took much longer. “I mean it,” he said gently as she slept, “I’d run away with you any day.”

* * *

Again, the bird—still the only sound of the forest—called them bright and early. This time, Rhett was on it instantly. “Saturday. We stayed in Saturday, or I guess we slept until Sunday and slid back to Saturday. You were right!”

“I was right,” Alyce said quietly. “So…so we can go back. One more night, and we’ll be back in our own timeline.”

Rhett nodded silently. “I need a walk. I’ll be back in a few minutes. I just…it’s a lot to comprehend…to handle.”

An hour later, he came back to the clearing, his face still showing that there was something on his mind. “I love you, Alyce,” he began. “I know this is a lot for you. And I just want to be supportive. We’ll figure it all out with your parents. I want to be patient and…”

He stopped. The glint in Alyce’s eyes told him something big was coming. She turned and pointed at the pile of logs behind her. “Let’s do it.”

“What are you talking about? Do what? Wait a minute…where is the ship?”

He followed her finger, still pointing to the stack. In her other hand, she held a book of matches.

“You mean it?” he asked in disbelief.

“Let’s run away together.”

“I don’t think there’s any turning back,” he warned her.

She struck the match and held it to the dried grasses she had placed below the logs. “I don’t want to turn back. I want to be with you everywhere…and everywhen.”

They held hands as the fire slowly consumed the ship, their only means of return.

When it was over, Rhett held his hand above the ash. “It’s gone,” he said. “I guess this is our new life.”

Alyce reached for him. If they had looked up, they would have sworn the red bird was smiling down on them as they walked arm in arm into the forest, lost to all but themselves.

Bio: Kevin Hogg is a high school teacher and forest therapy guide in British Columbia's Rocky Mountains. He holds a Master of Arts degree in English Literature and likes to incorporate magical elements into his fiction. His website is https://kevinhogg.ca.