The Other Side

She was sitting in darkness, sweat profusely dripping from her brow.

“What am I doing here?”

She clasps onto her necklace, a heart-shaped locket that her dad gave to her before he disappeared.

“I can’t remember how I …”

Jeanette was in a military bunker. The room was made of wood, fortified with scraps of metal, and there were boxes of ammo against the sidewall. She only knew that’s where she was because she’d seen something like this in the movies that she and her dad would watch together. He was a military man who fought in the Vietnam War and he loved films that honoured his fellow “countrymen and their contribution to the nation of America,” as he would often say.

The last thing Jeanette could recall was getting on her knees to pray beside her bed, something she did every night and all of sudden, she was here.

“Open up, quick!!” A man shouted as he banged against the metal door.

Gunshots can be heard from outside and what sounded like missiles whistled overhead.

She hesitated not knowing what to do. “What if he’s dangerous? What if he kills me?”

“Jeanette, where are you?!” The man yelled urgently.

“What?” “How does he know my name?”

Shocked and in disbelief not knowing who could possibly know her in this strange place, she replies with a loud voice amidst the chaos,

“Who are you??”

“It’s Papa!! Papa!! Open the door!!” He responded.

“What?! Papa??” She said as she rushed to the door before another thought crossed her mind and pushed the large barrel lock open.

It was her dad, but he looks different. He’s much younger than he was when she saw him last.

“What took you so long, Jeanette? I kept on calling you. Are you alright?”

“No Papa, I’m not alright. I don’t know where I am or how I even got here. I just remember praying and I heard a loud sound, so I opened my eyes and I was here! What is this place?”

“This is the future, Jeanette. The necklace I gave you must’ve taken you here.”

“The necklace?" She held it again tightly with her right hand the way she often does.

“But that doesn’t make sense…how? And how are you alive?”

“Oh, they found a way to bring me back. Things work differently in the future. They had need of more soldiers and gave me something that would make me feel and look like I did when I was in my prime.”

“Are we in a war?” asked Jeanette.

“We sure are baby girl, but I’m going to make sure I get you back home. Don’t you worry.”

“How did you know I was here, Papa?”

“It was your time Jeanette. When people come through to this side, it’s never by accident. It happens for a purpose, but your time over there isn’t over yet, so you’ll get to go back. I’ve been watching over you since I was taken here. I’ve missed you so much…”

“I miss you too, Papa.”

She said, tears flowing down her face.

“…I’ve really missed you.”

Her dad put his arms around her and held her saying,

“I’m never far Jeanette, and we’ll always see each other again.”

“Now now, let’s wipe those precious tears. I want to take you somewhere. There are people you need to meet.”

Her dad then takes her to the wall where all the ammo was and he pushes in a brick. A hidden door opens.

“Come, we don’t have much time.” He said to her with a soft smile.

She took him by the hand, remembering when he would take her on long walks around the neighbourhood because it was “good for the heart.”

She hated exercise, but never minded it when it was with her dad.

“Is this the "short cut,” Papa?”

“It sure is!” He said with a chuckle.

The door led to a pathway that became darker and darker, but her dad held onto a device that with a press of a button emits holographic fire. It lit the way as they moved with both urgency and caution. There are many doors along the path, but some are not meant to be opened. Not right now, at least.

“There are always new doors being added. I’ve been studying the patterns of where they lead to.” Papa says.

There was the sound of trickling water in the distance and along the path a quiet, shallow stream. They finally arrived at a door, which was gold in colour, but it was very old and covered in dirt.

Papa mumbled something under his breath and immediately, the sound of a latch opening.

“Let’s go.”

He pushed the door open and they walked into an ornate room. Jeanette had never been in a place this extravagant before.

“They’ll be so excited to meet you, Jeanette. I know it may be a lot at first, but I’ll be with you the whole time.”

A woman strolled into the room.

“Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! Is this your little girl?!”

“Haha, yes Marge.” He replies.

“Well, Hello Jeanette! It is really lovely to meet you and welcome to my humble abode!” Marge said bubbling with joy.

“Hi…” Jeanette replied sheepishly.

“Wow, she looks just like you!” Marge said as she lifts up her monocle to get a closer look.

“She sure does, doesn’t she?” He said proudly.

“Oh well, now that she’s here, let’s not waste another moment!” Marge said eagerly.

“Yes!” Papa agreed in excitement.

“Where are the others?”

“They’re in the Great Green Room,” Marge said.

“That’s perfect!” He replied.

Jeanette hadn’t let go of her dad’s hand since they left the bunker and she shook it gently asking, “Why is that perfect Papa, what’s the Great Green Room?”

“It’s the meeting place for those who are willing to lay down their lives in this last war. It’s for soldiers like your Papa.” He said again with the same soft smile.

They walked over together. The house is enormous, like the kind you would get lost in without a map.

“Who is this woman, Papa? Why does she have such a big house?” She asked.

“Isn’t it something? I never saw anything like it either until I arrived here. And that’s because she’s the Governess.” He replied.

He bent down low and whispered in her ear.

“But she’s one of the good ones. We can trust her.”

“You mean like undercover, Papa?”

“Just like undercover.” He said.

They arrived and outside the doors was a golden plaque that said “Great Green Room.” There were two doors made of a light gold and they’re open wide. The floors were carpeted with a beautiful green and gold design. The walls were green and in the middle of the room was a large rounded table encircled by velvet chairs which were also green and gold. The room was truly great and it was definitely green.

Men and Women were all about the room having conversations, but all of them stopped the moment she walked in. At first, Jeanette thought it must’ve been because of Marge, but no. They had been waiting for her.

“Could it be?” Some were asking themselves. And Marge, as if knowing what they were thinking in their hearts, made eye contact with them and nodded her head.

You could instantly tell they all wanted to rush over but did not want to overwhelm the young girl. They looked over at her dad and he said, “This is my daughter, Jeanette!” They all cheered and many of them came over to greet her as quickly as they could.

“We’ve heard so much about you from your dad!” One man in a suit said.

“There’s so much we want to share with you.” Another one added.

“Let’s settle down and share with Jeanette about what’s happening now. We don’t have much time left and she has to go back soon.”

Everyone took their places around the table. Her dad sat beside her and he turned to her and said,

“Jeanette, everyone here has someone back home, a wife, a son, a little girl like you. The world is going to come to an end sooner than we anticipated. Wars are breaking out in every nation, one against another, and there are far and few refuges like this one. Even so, there are spies everywhere and our actions are being monitored. We do not live in fear, but we constantly need to stay hidden under a facade. Thanks to the Governess, our conversations are being recorded with different words so they can’t hear what we’re really telling you.

I’m telling you this so you can carry a message for us back home. Tell them about what you’ve seen and heard in the time you’ve been here, all of it. Tell them about who you’ve met. And tell them about what’s to come. If they only knew, they can be prepared. Where we are, when we are is too late, and many people have died because we weren’t ready and chaos swept in like a flood. Remember the movie we watched that one time, The 5th Wave?

There was something out there that we didn’t understand. Beings out there beyond our earth that we didn’t see nor did we seek out and we are paying a price for that now. We were brought back here because the world is desperately in need of survival. Most of the men and women you see in this room have passed on many years before me, some even generations. But for whatever reason, we are here now for such a time as this and if we’re going to live, then we will live on the side of justice, and fight for hope and a future that is worth laying down our lives for.

And I can speak for everyone in this room when I say…we have counted the cost.”

A sobering silence fell upon the room.

After a moment, the Governess broke the quietness and said to Jeanette,

“The greatest resource that you have at your disposal in your generation is knowledge. Share what you know and learn about what you don’t.

You are the first of many that will come over to this side and see what will happen. We don’t know how it all works. But now that we see you, we have hope and confidence that this will happen again. Something from your world has become a tether from this point in time to the one you live in. We originally thought it was an object, but we’re starting to suspect that it isn’t.”

Jeanette said with tears welling in her eyes,

“My necklace. My dad gave me this before he left and we didn’t know where he went. Every night I would pray that I would see him again, just once. I told God I’ll never ask for anything else again.”

Then a woman from the other side of the table spoke up,

“And we are here praying that we would see our loved ones again too.”

Another hush came over the room, but this time as if the company of men and women had arrived at a revelation.

And Jeanette’s dad said to her,

“It wasn’t the necklace… It was your prayer and mine too. The access was in the agreement from both sides.”

He leaned over to his daughter knowing it was time and held her tightly as the room began to fill with light.

“I love you so much, my precious girl.”

Jeanette opens her eyes. She’s back in her room lying on the ground next to her bed in the same place she had been kneeling. She gasped, realizing what just happened and put her hand on her chest to see if her necklace was still there. It was, but it was unlocked and she took it off her neck and opened it, the heart-shaped locket and she remembered everything.