—And there in front of me, my mother was crying.
“Huh?”
This was such a drastic change in scenery that my brain couldn’t keep up. The most I could do was focus on identifying everything I could see, one after another. My crying mother, the dining table, and…Grandma? Yeah, Grandma. Also crying.
I looked around. I was no longer inside the mecha cockpit, and instead was now in a room I recognized. Specifically, it was the living room at my mom’s house. I was last here a month ago when I came to visit Yuno’s grave. And I was very, very sure I wasn’t here a second ago.
So why was I here now? What happened to that girl? Or the pod I was in?
Oh, right.
That was when I remembered what I was doing—the whole reason I climbed into that pod to begin with. Could this be…?
“Hey, Mom?” I began timidly.
But just then, as if to answer the question I hadn’t yet asked, I heard a sound from outside. A very familiar bark.
I jumped to my feet and ran outside like a bat out of hell. And when I ran around to the backyard…
“Yuno…”
That was where I found her—the dog that was supposed to have died a month prior. But here she was. Alive.
“Yuno… Yuno!”
I ran up to her and threw my arms around her big, fuzzy body. When I petted her head, she jumped up on me with her tail wagging, just like usual.
I never thought it would work, but somehow it did. This was a parallel world—a world where someone who died was very much still alive. Did all that random switch-flipping actually send me here? Was it my prayers? Either way, I was unmistakably here. My prayers were granted, and I was reunited with Yuno one last time.
She rolled over onto her back, and as I gave her belly rubs, I stared down at her. In my world, she died, but here in front of me, she was alive. Here she was warm, but in my world, her body was cold and lifeless under the earth.
Then I remembered that poem Grandpa always recited to me. “When you have a child, get a dog… With its death, the value of a life.” Was the warmth I felt against my palm “the value of a life”? If so, then once I returned to my world and went back to Yuno’s grave, I’d probably understand it for real.
Fighting back tears, I showered her with lots of pets, then contemplated my next move. In my world, she died after being hit by a car. What if I warned Grandpa to keep her away from the road? Surely that was better than nothing. With this new objective, I went back inside the house.
In the living room, Mom and Grandma had stopped crying, but they still looked devastated. What in the world had happened to make them so upset? I wanted to ask, but it was too risky. If I asked a question my parallel self already knew the answer to, they’d get suspicious. I needed a safer question…
“Hey, Mom? What’s the plan for tomorrow?”
By my estimation, my mom would interpret this however she saw fit. And sure enough, my gamble paid off…mostly. Her answer contained a word I hadn’t learned yet.
“Tomorrow we’ll be holding a wake for Grandpa.”
“A wake? What’s that?”
“Well, when someone passes away…”
And that was how I learned that in this world, my grandpa had died. I could now count three major differences between this one and my own. Here, Yuno was alive, Grandpa was dead, and instead of my dad, I had chosen to live with my mom after they got divorced.
As I spoke with her, I learned more and more. Apparently, she and my parallel self lived here in this house with Grandma and Grandpa—but Grandpa had passed away this afternoon. The instant I processed this, I started bawling hard.
First everything with Yuno, and now Grandpa… It was all too much for my little heart to take. As I cried, Mom pulled me into a gentle hug. Back in my world, it had been years since the last time she was around to console me, so I clung to her and wailed.
Once I finally regained my composure, however, a new concern rose to mind… How was I going to get back home? That girl in the white dress wasn’t around to send me back the way I came. Was there some other way to go back? Or did I have to wait for her to hit some more buttons?
No amount of thinking would lead me to a conclusive answer. There was nothing I could do on my end except try to hide the fact that I was from an alternate universe. But while I was here…
“Mom? Could I sleep in your bed tonight?”
Surely it wouldn’t hurt, I thought to myself. After all, once I was back in my world, I’d probably never have another opportunity to cuddle with my mom… She looked surprised at first, but nodded right after that.
That night, I played with Yuno one last time, since there was no telling when I’d go back home to a world where she was gone. Then I said my goodbyes to her and climbed into bed with Mom.
✦ ✦ ✦
The next morning, when I opened my eyes, I was lying down alone.
“Koyomi? You awake now, boy?”
I was greeted by a wizened old voice I knew all too well.
“Grandpa…?”
“It’s me, all right. Good morning,” he said.
“Morning…”
I didn’t understand why he was here. It felt like I was still dreaming. Did I sleep over at Mom’s place last night? I was fuzzy, but I tried to review the events from yesterday. As far as I could remember, she told me Grandpa—
I flung the blanket off and bolted upright. “Grandpa?!”
“Full of energy, are we?”
“You’re alive…?”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Don’t scare me, now!”
It was really him—but wasn’t today supposed to be the day of his wake? So if he was still alive, then…that could only mean…
I ran out of the room, out of the house, and out into the backyard. There, in an empty corner, was a small mound of dirt. Yuno’s grave.
“Yuno…”
I pressed a hand to the earth. Unsurprisingly, it was cold to the touch—no trace of the warmth I felt before I went to bed last night. Was this difference the “value of life”? It felt like the answer was on the tip of my tongue, but I was missing the final piece of the puzzle. What, if anything, was I supposed to learn from this contrast?
Frustrated by my inability to understand, I turned away from the grave. Then, to bury my shame, I started thinking about something else.
Apparently, I returned to my home world while I was asleep. I wasn’t sure why, but I was relieved to be back. That being said, what was I doing here? Last I remembered, I was in a pod at the lab. My body didn’t walk all the way here on its own, did it?
Then, it hit me. When I was sent to that world, maybe that me was sent here to my world!
So I went back into the house, found my grandpa looking at me suspiciously, and asked casually, “Hey, Grandpa? I forget—what time did I get here yesterday?”
“Hm? Good question… Ah, that’s right. Your mother went to pick you up from the lab at just past six in the evening, when my wrestling show was on.”
Mom went to the lab to get me… Now I was sure of it: the whole time I was off in that world, the other me had to have been here in my world. He must have woken up in the pod, gotten confused, and called Mom to come get him. Did he meet the girl in the white dress? What did they talk about? Come to think of it, who was she anyway?
Now I had a new objective: to find her and ask what happened.
“I will say, it’s been a long time since I last shared a bed with my favorite grandson. That was nice of you.”
“Yeah…”
Now that I thought about it, my parallel self had traveled from a world where Grandpa was dead to a world where he was still alive, so he must have been even more confused than I was. Part of me wished I could ask him about it. But hey, at least the only person I inconvenienced was myself—my other self, anyway.
“By the way, Grandpa, are you feeling sick?”
“Hm? No, not at all.”
“Good, good. Don’t die yet, okay?”
“What’s this about? I’ll have you know, I’ve got plenty of years left in me.” He ruffled my hair with a bright smile, and I could feel the warmth of his hand. But maybe that warmth would be gone in a few years’ time, like in that other world.
“I’ll come by more often,” I promised, and sincerely meant it.
“Great! I hope you find that key too.”
I never did figure out what those parting words were supposed to mean.