“What do you think you’re doing?” A feminine figure of pure light blocked the galactic path that my consciousness traveled. I couldn’t see any distinct features on the lady’s face. She might as well be sculpted brass. Somewhere at the end of the condensed, tubular path of pinprick stars amongst clouds of blue and purple galaxies waited a body for me to borrow.

I stalled before her despite the push coming from the link tethering me to my body. “Who are you?” I wished my brother was here to see this. I never heard we could encounter someone on the path.

“None of your business,” the shining woman snapped. The inside of her mouth shone as bright as her eyes. “How dare a world hopper try to interfere with one of my worlds.” The deity floated effortlessly towards me, light billowing behind her like a dress. I tried to send a telepathic message back that I might need a good shove or retraction as she reached for my face.

Hot fingers curled around my face, almost to the point of burning. “You want to poke around my business? Fine. I’ll give you what you desire and more. So much more. You will live three lives, and since you don’t believe in happy endings, if you don’t find your happily ever after with a true love, I will ensure you never experience happiness again.”

“Excuse me? I think you’re mistaken. I’m not messing with anything. You have the wrong idea about me—” I tried.

I spotted the hint of a cruel smile in her face of light. “Three lives. This time you’ll be the lab rat, the one being examined, poked, and prodded. Next time you’ll leave the other worlds alone, or at the very least mine, or face my unleashed wrath,” the deity snarled.

I sent mental pings of abort, abort, abort, but nothing happened. I remained fixed in place as compressed galaxies wafted up and down around me. “I’m very, truly sorry for this misunderstanding. I’ll go right back and I assure you none of us will go anywhere remotely near your world. So, if you could kindly let me go, I would very much be indebted to you, forever grateful, really.”

The deity released my face and I put my fingers to the sensitive area. Had I been burned? Did her fingers leave marks that would carry over to my actual body? Why wasn’t the team tugging me back already?

“This will teach you lot a good lesson. I am not to be trifled with.” The deity drifted to the side and my body gave a little lurch forward. I struggled to brace myself as if to not go down a waterslide, except nothing in this path was tangible, besides the deity.

I snatched at her sleeve of light. Pain flared like my hand was melting, and I released it with an anguished cry.

“For that, I’ll be withholding your memories.” The deity burst into a thousand sparks and the path suctioned me onward. My pinwheeling arms and mental messages did nothing to stop this.

***

Incoherent sounds woke me numerous times between bouts of nothingness. People peered down at me from time to time and sometimes held me in their arms. I reacted not as myself, in such a daze like I was hardly there at all.

My mind became more and more clear in each moment of almost alertness until I finally remembered myself, well not exactly myself, but certainly knowing more than any other baby.

As my mind sharpened enough to be aware, I feared it to be a fleeting moment, instinctively bracing myself to slip away. When I didn’t immediately fall back into a daze, I used the opportunity to take notice of my surroundings. I wrapped my attention on sounds of babbling around me and the boy peering down at me from my crib.

“Mom! She’s smiling at me!” the little boy shouted with unbridled enthusiasm. His attention snapped back to me and he strained to reach down to caress my chubby arm. I assumed he must be standing on a stool to even see me. “Hello Madeline! It’s me, your big brother Theo! Oh, you’re so adorable, aren’t you?” He looked over his shoulder past what I could see. “Mom! She’s staring at me longer than she has ever looked at me before! I think she likes me!”

“Of course she likes you. You’re her big brother,” a female voice said. Steps approached as my focus sapped away. All I got to see was the four wood walls of my crib, a log roof, and my brother before I drifted back into my dazed state.

***

A few instances later after little hiccups of narrow, uneventful moments, a man watched me from a woman’s gentle hold. My wet cheeks and watery eyes clued me in that I must have been crying. She rocked me with serenity despite what I imagined happened only seconds ago.

I looked up at the woman that I knew must be my mother. She had her black hair tied back into a braid. She smiled warmly at me and tapped my nose with her finger. “Look who decided to calm down.”

With a better view of my room, I placed us in a cabin. And despite not having much control of my frail, little body, I moved my head enough to get a good study of the man who must be my father. He had a bushy beard and a full head of brown hair. He smiled brightly at me from his place on a wooden rocking chair. He bobbed two fabric dolls around in the air for my entertainment. His sleeves were rolled up over thick arms. A lumberjack came to mind.

A wooden stool rested beside my crib. A window let me view green trees in the low light of early morning.

Theo scuttled into the room, his brown hair a mess.

“Did Maddie wake you?” Dad asked as Theo leaned to look into my eyes.

“Did you have a nightmare?” Theo patted my head softly. “Don’t cry. I’ll fight all the monsters to go away. Like this!” He spun around to swat his arms and kick his little legs around the room with a ridiculous amount of sincerity. My heart warmed.

I didn’t know where I had been before being born into this family, but I was grateful to be in a loving home. It was odd that I felt such clarity at times like this, instinctively knowing things like cabins and what might wait outside this room. Animals, mountains, castles, and more.

Was this normal? Perhaps I learned subconsciously from stories and overhearing my family talk, or perhaps I would lose this wisdom only to have to gain it back.

Theo came close again with the eagerness of having just shown off. “See? No monsters will ever get you. Mom, can I hold her? Please?”

“Not until you are a little older,” Mother said with a smile.

I tried to tell her thank you for saving me from his rambunctiousness, but only a burble of noises escaped me.

Her nose wrinkled happily and she brought me higher to rub her nose against mine. My little hand reached for her as she lowered me. My tiny feet kicked in frustration at not being in full control of my facilities.

Theo grabbed one of my covered feet and wiggled it gently. “I got your foot! I got your foot!”

My hand reached towards him and his eyes widened. He released my foot to let my fingers curl around one of his fingers. He smiled, full of tenderness. A giggle burst out of me and his shoulders scrunched up in full joy.

Father came over, kneeling beside Theo. He smiled warmly at each of us and wrapped his arms around Mother and Theo.

Feeling loved, a tired breath escaped me and I found myself falling asleep.

***

“Who’s this ugly thing?” a snippy voice brought me to awareness. Theo and another little boy stood by my crib.

“That’s Madeline and she’s beautiful,” Theo said affectionately.

I wanted to ask who the sneering boy he had invited into my room was, and order him to go.

Theo patted my arm while the boy didn’t so much as have his hands set on the lip of the crib.

“Is she supposed to stink so much?” the boy asked. He frowned down at me before turning his head away and pinching his nose. “Ew, gross.”

My feeble attempt to wiggle my arms and legs stopped as I became aware of the warm, squishiness at my bottom.

I had never been more grateful for the dazed state from saving me from having to be aware of such constant humiliation.

My eyes squeezed shut and a wail exploded out of me. I cried, heightened emotions unchecked by my rationality.

“Elliot! You made her cry! Apologize at once!” Theo ordered.

I heard a scoff as I wailed. “Apologize to a baby?” He couldn’t sound more unbothered. “Like she can even understand a word we’re saying. And it’s her fault for stinking, so shouldn’t she apologize to me?”

I wailed my lungs off until Mother bustled into the room and picked me up. “What happened?!”

“Elliot called her stinky and then she started to cry!” Theo tattled, pointing at Elliot.

Mother repositioned me into a more comfortable hold as she bounced me. The warmth of her motherly love and the rhythm of her movement helped my turbulent emotions to settle. My cries came to a stop and I tried glaring at Elliot. He didn’t like me? Well, I didn’t like him. So there.

Wow, real mature.

But who cared? I was a baby after all.

“She doesn’t like you. You can’t visit her anymore. Or me either!” Theo folded his arms with a “Hmph!”

“Don’t be dramatic. Babies cry all the time. She probably just wants her diaper changed.” Mother said with a quick check of my bum. “Why don’t you boys go play in your room, Theo?”

Could I fade away now? Any moment now, would be helpful.

Mother laid me on a changing table that was also fashioned out of wood. Mortification. I could spell it.

M. O. R. T. I. F. —