A month or so later, I had all but forgotten about Yuno. I still felt guilty that her death hadn’t made me sad, and that kept me from going back to Mom’s house.
On that particular day, I was hanging out at the lab daycare like always. No one else was there, and I was bored of reading the same old books, so I decided to turn the TV on. But as I was flipping through channels, I suddenly stopped. There, on-screen, was a big golden retriever who looked just like Yuno. Before I knew it, I was invested.
It was a news feature about dogs who helped people in different ways. A seeing-eye dog aiding its blind owner, a search-and-rescue dog finding survivors after a natural disaster, a sea dog towing a boat back to shore with a rope in its teeth, a loyal dog waiting endlessly for an owner that would never return, a Soviet space dog who was sent on a test flight… With tears in his eyes, the news anchor praised the courage of each and every one of them, speaking passionately about “man’s best friend.”
And as I watched the show, I found myself growing more and more furious.
What was I angry at? I wasn’t sure. Heck, I wasn’t even sure what I was feeling was really anger at all. Maybe I was just bitter. But if so, why?
With no answers to help me, my eyes grew hot. I didn’t even know why I was crying.
“What’s wrong?”
At the sudden voice, I looked up in surprise. I thought I was alone in here, but the next thing I knew, I was joined by a pretty girl with long, straight black hair cascading over her white dress. She looked to be about my age. Was she some researcher’s daughter? I had never seen her here before.
“You’re crying. Are you hurt somewhere?” she asked as she walked up to me with concern on her face.
I was embarrassed to be caught crying in front of a girl, so I wiped my eyes roughly with my sleeve. “I’m not crying.”
“Yes, you are! What’s wrong?”
“I’m not!”
Annoyed by her persistence, I glared at her. But…for some reason, those clear, innocent eyes reminded me of hers…
“I just…want to see Yuno again,” I murmured unconsciously.
That was it. I wasn’t angry or bitter—I just missed my dog, and because I could never see her again… I was sad.
“Who’s Yuno?”
“My grandpa’s dog.”
“Why can’t you see it again?” she asked.
“Because she died.”
The instant those words left my lips, it finally sank in: Yuno was dead. Gone. And it made me so incredibly sad.
“She died… And I’ll never see her again…!”
Before I knew it, the dam had burst, and all the tears I never shed at her grave came flowing from my eyes. I cried so hard, it no longer mattered that a girl was watching. Nevertheless, to preserve the last dregs of my pride, I clenched my teeth to keep from sobbing audibly. That way, no one else would have to know I was crying. Sure, this girl may have been witnessing it, but…for some reason, I decided I could live with that.
She stood beside me the whole time, waiting for me to finish. And once I was calm again, she offered me a spotless white handkerchief.
“No thanks,” I said.
It felt like a crime to tarnish something so nice and clean, so I wiped my eyes with my sleeve again. She kept holding it out for a while, but I continued to ignore it. Eventually, she gave up and put it back in her pocket. Then, out of nowhere—
“Come with me.”
“Wha—?!”
She grabbed me by the arm and started running with me in tow.
Today was a Sunday, so there weren’t as many employees around. The few who did show up mostly left early. The whole building felt deserted in its silence…save for our footsteps as the girl led me down hallways and around corners.
“Hey! Where are you taking me?!”
“Be quiet or my mom will catch us!”
Was she waiting for her mom to finish work the same way I was waiting for my dad? Clearly, she spent a fair amount of time here if she knew her way around so well. Normally I did as I was told and never poked my nose anywhere it didn’t belong, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t interested in exploring. Where did this hallway lead? Or that door, or those stairs? It was that curiosity that compelled me to follow this girl’s lead.
At last, she arrived at a door and opened it. The sight of what was inside made my heart race.
“Wow… What is this place?!” I exclaimed.
At the center of the room sat something that looked like a cockpit from a mecha anime, connected to all sorts of cables. Sure enough, through the glass door, I could see that the interior was designed for a person to fit inside.
“Mom said if you climb inside this pod, you can visit parallel worlds,” the girl explained as she stroked the glass.
“What…?”
Parallel worlds? That was the same thing Dad was always talking about—how this world was a big bubble that split into two, and the other bubble was a parallel world to ours, complete with a parallel version of each one of us, living different lives…
“Don’t you want to see Yuno again?”
“Yeah…?”
“Well, maybe there’s a parallel world where she’s still alive!”
This was a tempting proposition. Her death had come out of nowhere, so I couldn’t even remember the last time I saw her. Did I play with her? Did I pet her? I had no recollection. So if I could see her one last time…
“…Okay, what do I need to do?”
“Get in.”
At her prompting, I opened the glass door and climbed into the pod. My heart began to race. All of a sudden, it felt like my life had turned into some kind of anime or video game.
Once the door closed behind me, I started to hear some clicking noises, so I sat up to investigate. Through the glass, I could see the girl standing at a console with tons of buttons, dials, and switches. It didn’t look like she knew how to operate this thing at all. As far as I could tell, she was fidgeting with them at random.
“Hey, are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
No answer. Instead, she kept on pressing, twisting, and flipping with a stern look on her face. What was she so stressed about? I somehow doubted anything she was doing over there was going to send me to Yuno.
“Do you need help?”
“I’m fine! You just lay there and focus!” she called out.
“On what?”
“I don’t know… Try praying or something, like, ‘I wanna be in a world where Yuno is still alive’!”
“Does that even count as praying?”
“My mom says the most important part is to believe. Only those who never stop believing have the power to change the world.”
I didn’t really get it. She kept going on and on about her mom, but I didn’t even know who her mom was. That said, she appeared to be dead serious about whatever she was doing at the console…so I decided I would try to pray.
Take me to another world. A world where Yuno is alive.
I thought about Yuno—the way she bounced around when she was alive. I thought about the small grave in the backyard, and the news feature about dogs who died helping humans. I thought about the way the commentary made me so inexplicably angry. At first I wasn’t really trying, but the more I thought about her, the more serious I became about seeing her again. So I closed my eyes and prayed even harder.
Take me to a world where Yuno is alive—!