Darius squinted up into the sunlight. He was lying on his back, his shoulder blades pressing into something hard on the ground.

His shoulderblades? He had shoulderblades!

A dark shadow blotted out the sunlight, and he looked up at Brock, who was standing over him and offering him a hand.

“Hey, buddy. It looks like she had it all figured out. Did that hurt?”

Darius grasped Brocks's hand and climbed to his feet. He was standing on home plate, that old piece of soft plywood that had been pressed into the ground. The water tower of the Grandmother’s canyon loomed behind Brock.

Darius turned in a circle as he tried to dust the dirt from his back, and Brock helped. He took everything in around them. The water tower, the old barn, and the cliff walls that framed the blue sky above. Darius realized he was patting his baseball jersey. The one from the night of the game, the night of the explosion. He could feel the roughness of his baseball cleats through the soles of his feet.

“No. It didn’t hurt.” Darius reflected for a moment. “I didn’t really feel anything. Just this blue light, then I was here.” He realized he was grinning at Brock. Brock was wearing the same clothes the night of the explosion, too. He had been trying out the new black baseball uniform with the padding and built-in armoured pieces.

“I guess she did figure it out. It’s good you’re not hurt.”

Darius looked down at his shoes, and then up at the water tower. “But one thing I know,” and he pointed at the water tower, “When I was in there, floating around by myself calling out for you guys, I slipped my shoes off. My shoes should still be in there…”

He now felt the wooden plywood of home plate through his stocking feet. He looked back down.

“My shoes. My shoes are gone.”

“Oh no you don’t smart boy!” Suddenly, Nova was between them, and from the shove she gave him Darius staggered backwards. “You think too much. Hypnotize. You both idiots! Stop this talk right now!”

“Ya. Maybe don’t over think this too much. Look around again. We’re here.” Brock added.

“Brock right for one time. And tell me. Why am I wearing?”

“What?” Darius squinted at her. Her white-blonde hair was brilliant in the sun, gleaming with brightness.

“Hey, there, Nova. Give the guy a moment. You just shot him, remember?”

“No. Didn’t shoot. Electrocute. Now tell me why am I wearing?”

“What?” Darius asked again, “what,” he said.

“He means… you mean ‘what am I wearing’, not ‘why am I wearing,’ And the answer would be, a dress, Nova.”

“Brock, I kill you. Shud-up. I ask question. I tell what I wearing! I know I wearing dress! I have never wear dress before Darius. NOVA HAS NEVER WEAR DRESS! This some type joke you make? Right? Cuz I electrocute? I want to know why am I wearing it.”

“Ya, she’s right Darius. ‘Why’ actually works.”

“Brock.” Nova jabbed a finger at his face.

“Relax Nova, at least were not still birds. And now you don’t have to worry about anybody seeing you go to the bath…”

“Brock. If you int-rupt me one time, I think I kill you. Dead. Just dead.” Brock closed his mouth and blinked at her. She turned her angry finger onto Darius.

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“Darius. I. Nova. Never. Wear. Dress. Why am I wearing dress now?”

“Um.” Darius took in everything slowly. He looked at Nova, then Brock, and then around them and back at Nova. He raised his hands in a gesture of complaicancy. “I don’t know, Nova. I really couldn’t say.”

“Night of pool you in base ball uniform not even change from our game. Brock in new special uniform. Night of pool I wearing black leggings, moccasins and big comfy grey sweater. My favorite sweater. Is old. Comfy. Grey. Favorite. Did I say favorite?”

She jabbed her finger against his forehead.

“But now. Nova. Wear. Dress. I look like old-fashioned little women from Little House. You brain do this.”

“That’s two different things, actually,” Brock said. “Little Women and Little House on the Pra…,”

“Brock!”

“But you know, like, you’re not wearing enough. What you’re wearing is probably what they would sleep in, like an old fashioned night dress.”

“Darius, change it now.”

“Nova. I don’t know how to do that. I don’t even know how I got us here.”

“How I got us here, is I get you out of drone by electocute.” She said.

“But. I don’t understand how, and I don’t know how to change stuff. I sure don’t feel like some type of magician or something. I’m just me. You're going to have to give me some time.”

“Maybe the others are here. We ask them.” She said.

“Ya. Or the diner. There used to be sweatshirts and t-shirts at the diner.” Darius added.

“Ok. Let’s go find clothes.”

“At least you have the moccosins,” Brock said, looking at her feet. “It’s a bit of a hike up there.”

“Brock. I… - You I electrocution next. I first chance! Zap! Electrocute!”

The Grandmother’s cottage was just as it had been the last time he left it. It felt like he had just been here yesterday. He took his friends up the wood plank stairs and across the porch and knocked as he opened the door. There was no answer and he felt that he already knew she wouldn’t be here. As he stepped inside the familiar sound of his cleats on the linoleum sounded once again, just like the morning he woke up here. He looked down at his feet, his hand still on the doorknob.

“My baseball shoes are back.”

“Ignore. Look around Grandmother cabin. Maybe they stay.” Nova said. “Maybe my favorite sweater come back too.”

In the cottage, nothing had changed. They were met with the familiar smell of lavender and floor wax and one of her notes on the red Formica kitchen table. It was leaning against the white vase that held dried flowers with the chip in its rim.

There is porridge in the crock pot in the oven and berries in the freezer. You and your friends make sure you have a good time. Met your friend Badrik, a nice gentleman. We were able to get the bridge put back. See if your friends will help you with the Diner. I’ll be around.

Love Gran.

“Let’s keep going,” Brock said, and Darius slipped the letter into the pocket of his uniform. “I’m kinda curious to see if we’re really back here.”

“Yes. And see if clothes at diner so can stop wearing dress.” Nova added.

He led them up the hill and through the narrow rock canyon. They walked single-file, just like they had the first time, with Nova in the lead and then Darius with Brock following.

They found the footbridge was back to it’s old self. Chaos had turned it sideways and then destroyed it, but now it looked all back to normal.

Old rusted water pipes spanned the dark break in the ground below them. The narrow chasm seemed to be silent, motionless, and bottomless hadn’t existed in his childhood. But it was there again as a barrier, a construct between his mind and somewhere else. It was the footbridge made out of the rusted water pipes, the sun-dried boards and planks that allowed them to go to the diner. As they crossed the bridge, he noticed the sign that read ACE PULL CHAINS – BE BETTER BOUND was back in its place as part of the floorboards. That sign had reminded him Chaos owed him something. That reminder was how he was finally able to get over the bridge and away.

The wooden handrails of the bridge were smooth and warm in the sun. As they neared the far end they could begin to make out where the old garage lay in a ruin of scattered tin. They left the footbridge and picked their way through the wreckage. Glass, boards, shingles, and roofing tin and siding were scattered all across the flat high plateau where the diner had once stood. They continued to pick their way through the mounds of rubble.

“Someone has been here,” Nova said.

“How can you tell?” Darius asked.

“Shoe marks. They have been moving things. Drag marks. Sorting this junk.

“Hey, look. The old gas pumps are still standing.” Brock said as he rounded a pile of rubble.

“It is the car.” Nova said.

“Ya. The limo beside the pumps.” Darius watched as the slender form of Dr. Joy stood up from her work under the hood of the black stretch limo.

Juro emerged from behind a pile of lumber and plucked his floppy hat of his head and waved it at them, a wide grin on his face. Behind him he was dragging the diner signboard. “Slinger’s Grill”

“I think we’re ok.” Darius said, smiling and waving back.

“Be better when not wear dress.” Nova said.