PORTAL
by Tom Leveen
© 2022
The four of us skid our bikes to a halt at the same time, skidding a little on the wet blacktop.
“Holy shit!” Paulie shouted, because Paulie loves pretty much anything to do with swearing.
The sun had gone down an hour ago and we were all late getting home. Well, all of us but Paulie, but it’s not like anyone said anything about it. Paulie could do whatever he wanted, and his dad would never say a word. That might sound cool when you’re 12, but trust me, it’s not.
“Okay, so, I’m not the only one seeing that,” I said to everyone, but I was looking at Kaney.
Kaney Usagi tightened the band around her pony tail in that way she always does when she’s deciding what to do next. I had a pretty good idea what she was thinking, because Kaney is way, way too predictable.
“Let’s go through it,” she said, retuning my look.
Yep. Just what I thought.
I shook my head, not because I didn’t want to ride my bike right through that big black tunnel, but to let Kaney know I knew she would say that. She just grinned back at me in that beautiful way she does.
I mean, people say she is beautiful, that’s all I mean. I’m not saying I think that, I’m saying there are people who say that, that’s all.
Shut up.
Squire, who’s bigger than the three of us combined, frowned and stared at the giant black circle in front of us. Squire’s hard to read, and he doesn’t say much, but for every type of trouble Kaney inevitably gets us into, I’m always glad to have a kid like Squire around who looks like he could pull the ears off a gundark.
Squire caught me looking at him and shrugged. He was always ready for anything. We all kind of have to be, if we’re going to be friends with Kaney.
“So let’s go!” Kaney said, and put one foot on a pedal of her Roadmaster.
“Whoa whoa whoa,” I said, lifting a hand. “You guys, seriously. There’s no tunnel here. So what he heck is this thing? It just showed up out of nowhere.”
Nobody argued, because I was totally right.
We were on 56th Street, headed toward our neighborhoods, and there are no tunnels there. As a matter of fact, as I stood there staring at the giant black hole about fifty yards ahead of us, I couldn’t think of any tunnels in our area. The nearest was maybe an underpass downtown, unless you counted like drainage pipe type stuff.
The black circle in front of us had no real border that I could see, but it had to be the height of a two-story apartment building, and it was as wide as the two-lane street. It reminded me of the portal in Stargate, except there was no giant structure, and no shimmering waves or anything. Just a giant black circle.
“And maybe,” I added as we all stared at it, “it’s not even a tunnel. I mean, look how dark it is. Maybe it’s solid.”
“Well let’s go see.”
That was Kaney, of course. Without waiting, she pushed off and rode right for the circle.
“Kaney!”
That was me. I probably shouted her name ten times a day, just before she did something reckless.
But, like always, us three boys followed right behind her.
“Where is everyone?” Paulie said as we pumped our legs.
He was right. Once we turned on to 56th about a block ago, it got real super quiet. No cars had passed us, and I couldn’t hear the usual city traffic behind us on the main road.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m not digging this.”
“But here we are, following Kaney like always,” Paulie said. “Why do we always do that, huh? Bastian, any thoughts on that topic?”
Man, he had a tone. I didn’t answer him because I didn’t want to. I guess maybe I sort of knew.
Kaney got to the black circle and stopped. Before the rest of us could even think about stopping her, she put her hand into the darkness.
“Kaney!”
That was me again.
The three of us rolled up to her and braked. Kaney’s arm had disappeared up to her elbow. She pulled it back and wriggled her fingers in front of her face.
“What’s it feel like?” I said.
“Like nothing,” Kaney answered. “It felt like air. It’s not colder or anything.”
Squire, still sitting on his bike like the rest of us, used his feet to roll close enough to the edge of the circle and nudge his front tire into it. He rolled it back out, looked at it, and shrugged. The tire didn’t look any different.
“Anybody got a light?” Kaney said.
There was a click, and Paulie raised a tiny flashlight. I don’t know if Kaney knew he’d have it or just guessed, but Paulie was like Inspector Gadget with all the stuff he carried around with him.
Paulie shined the light toward the circle, and that’s where things got even weirder.
“Uh, guys?” he said quietly.
We all nodded.
Paulie shone the white circle of light against his other hand. We all saw it. Then he shone it against the street. We all saw it.
Then he pointed it right at the circle of darkness, and we didn’t see jack. Whatever this thing was, it sucked up the light from Paulie’s flashlight entirely. It didn’t illuminate anything further in, it didn’t reflect any light back.
“Okay, that’s impossible,” I said. For some reason, I hadn’t been real nervous before, when we’d first seen the circle just sitting there in the middle of the road, on its edge like a balanced quarter. Now I was nervous.
“Look, it won’t hurt just to check it out,” Kaney said, and stepped off her bike.
“Technically we don’t know that,” Paulie said. He sounded as nervous as I felt. “It just hasn’t yet.”
“Well I’m going.” Kaney let her bike hit the road. She didn’t have a kickstand on it. “You guys wanna stay here, be my guests.”
She looked at each of us, ending with me. Even though it was dark out, I could see into her eyes just fine. She was daring me.
Daring, and maybe . . . I don’t know.
Asking, too?
I got of my bike. Kaney could get me to do anything.
“All right, but like, we just step in and step out, okay? This can’t possibly be safe.”
Squire cleared his throat. His voice was totally deeper than any of ours. “Can we go around it?”
Duh. I should have thought of that. I put my kickstand down and walked to the left edge of the circle. Paulie got off his bike and walked to the right edge.
We peered around it at the same time.
I could see him, moving like he was looking around a corner.
I could also see Kaney and Squire, who were looking at where we were . . . but not through the circle.
From here, the circle either didn’t exist, or was totally invisible.
“Whoa whoa whoa,” I said, which it turns out, I said a lot.
I shifted slowly from left to right and back again. The circle would appear when I moved far enough to the right, then disappear when I moved far enough to the left. Like, just gone. I couldn’t see anything even remotely indicating that it had any thickness.
The giant black circle was nothing more than a shadow. Totally two dimensional.
Except, of course, for the fact that from the front, we could move forward into it like Kaney and Squire had done.
“This is so bad,” Paulie whispered.
“This is so cool!” I said. I’m kind of the science nerd of the group. “Guys, this should not be here. This shouldn’t exist. But it’s totally a portal to another dimension!”
My friends stared at me. Then laughed.
“Well it is,” I muttered.
“Whatever it is, we found it, and we need to investigate,” Kaney said, still giggling. “So who’s with me?”
“I’m not going in there!” Paulie said.
“Fine, stay behind, see where it gets you.”
“It gets me alive!”
Kaney sniffed. “Sure. And bored.”
Paulie scowled.
Squire nodded slowly. “I’m in. If you guys are.”
Kaney swung her head to look at me. “Well, Bastian?”
I sighed. “Fine.”
All of moved to stand in front of the circle. Even Paulie. He always talked a tough game, but also always gave in to whatever we were doing. Pranks on teachers, pranks on our parents and siblings, exploring neighborhoods, climbing fences and investigating things . . . thanks to Kaney, we did stuff like that all the time, and Paulie always came with us.
“Should we, like, hold hands or something?” I said, and felt sooooo stupid the second I did it.
But then Kaney grabbed my hand, and Squire’s on the other side. I don’t know if it was the dimensional portal or what, I thought I felt like this light electricity pass from her to me when our skin touched.
I’m sure that’s what it was. The portal thing. Had to be.
Squire and Paulie traded looks, then Squire just reached over and grabbed Paulie’s hand. Paulie scowled some more, but like, kind of because he had to, not because he actually cared.
“Okay,” Kaney said. “Baz, you count us down?”
I took a deep breath. “Right. Okay. We do this together though. Whatever happens. Just like always. Right?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Kaney snapped, but was smiling.
“Copy that,” Squire said, staring straight ahead into the darkness.
“Paulie?”
“Right, fine, whatever.”
“All right,” I said. “Here goes nothing. On three. One . . . two . . .”
“Three!” Kaney shouted, and stepped in, taking the rest of us with her.
Well, whatever happened next . . . at least we’d be in it together.
THE END
SORTA
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