The Meridians(99)

Scott shakes his head, thinking of the other-Kevins, the ones he and Lynette have seen overlapping their Kevin, the ones who have delivered important messages in this long night. He opens his mouth to ask about them, but before he speaks Kevin does. "You want to know about the other versions of me?"

Scott nods. "If you are the only one who can travel the dimensions, how come they appeared to us?"

"They weren't doing that. I was. Or rather, your Kevin was. Using his power to bring across other versions of himself, versions who had seen things in the other dimensions that they - not being autistic in their timeflows - could tell you about. So they could lead Lynette to save you, could tell you Mr. Gray was coming. The nexus between worlds is very thin around Kevin, so it's possible for things to be communicated like that. Even," he adds, laughing a bit, "a bit of my karate knowledge goes through to Kevin on occasion."

Scott is silent, thinking about the perfect kicks that Kevin has placed from time to time. His mind is reeling. "All so...what?" asks Scott. "Why all the work, the suffering? Just so you can survive? Is that why my wife and child had to die? Just so I could be in the right place and time to protect you?"

Kevin shakes his head. "I've told you. They die no matter what. All that I did - will do? - was alter things so that you survive, and can protect me. And believe it or not, that's a pretty important item. Not just because I'm rather attached to living, but because it turns out that it's critical that I survive. The world is in pretty bad shape in fifty years or so, and the only thing that keeps it from completely melting down is my ability to bring back certain things - technologies, mostly - from other dimensions that help us to survive. The survival of the entire world in my dimension - and in yours - literally depends on my being alive, and being cured of autism, and being able to travel the dimensions."

Scott begins to weep. It is more than he can stand. His family is gone, and will never be back. And perhaps they had died for a good cause, perhaps they had gone so that billions could live, but still....

"I hate you, Kevin," he says.

Kevin reaches out and touches him lightly on the shoulder. "I know. But you won't forever. Not even for very long, in fact."

Scott looks at Kevin. "How can all this be possible? How can I go back and have a life now, knowing all this?"

Kevin sighs. "Because you have to, Scott. Because there's more to life than life. There's more to you than you. Billions of people do depend on your decisions, on the life you will decide to lead." Then he smiles. "Besides, I have one more thing to show you."

He again touches Scott on the wrist, and this time when the world disappears around them, it is different somehow. This time, Scott sees nothing. He is in a place that is timeless, shapeless, without form or substance that he can perceive.

And yet, at the same time, he knows that he is not alone. He feels comforted in his anguish. He feels hope in the midst of despair and loss.

He turns, and Kevin is with him. Smiling.

"Where are we now?" asks Scott, and feels himself smile as the feelings all around him come pouring into his heart. Then he is weeping again, but this time not for pain or anger, but for relief and joy. He feels as though a great weight has come off his heart, leaving it free to fly and soar, unlocking it from a cage of grief and anger in which it has been hidden for eight years.

"Heaven," says Kevin simply. "Or at least, one small neighborhood of it."

"Heaven?" Even in his euphoria, Scott cannot believe this.

"Just a dimension. Just a place, like the place I live, like the place you come from."

Scott wants to disbelieve this. But he can't. The evidence his heart presents him is too strong, the feelings that assail him are too real. "There is more to life than life," Kevin had said. And this, Scott realizes, is what he was talking about. There is more. There is more.

Kevin puts out a hand, and Scott wants to shout to him, to plead with him not to take them away. But he does. The world disappears, and they are once again next to the car.





***





56.

***

Scott was still crying. "So beautiful," he said. Then said it again. It was all he could say.

Then he looked at Kevin. "You die!" he shouted.

Kevin smiled, a melancholy smile that looked to Scott as though he were trying not to cry. "I know," he said.

"Can't you stop it?" asked Scott.

Kevin shrugged. "Nope. I don't know how it happens. All I know of the future is what you tell me as I grow up, and so I don't know what mistake I make that kills me. I just know that it will happen, and it has to happen because I have to save you." He smiled that half-smile again, and tried to laugh. It didn't work. "Don't you worry about it, Scott. Just take care of Lynette. Just take care of my other half. Just take care of Tina. Just take care of yourself."

And with that, the familiar rushing sound came. Scott's ears popped, and he blinked with sudden, sharp pain.

And then Kevin was gone. Or at least, the old version of him was.

The young version was still inside the car, waiting for Scott.

Waiting for a father. Waiting for a family.

Scott got into the car. Tina had been freed. She was sitting curled in Lynette's lap, her back to the door through which her father's body could still be seen. She looked so small, so fragile. But Scott could also see the strength in her, the wit and kindness that would lead her to find a cure that would change a world - that would save a world.