Free Multiversum by Leonardo Patrignani Page B

conversation with Alex, Jenny had given up and gone home. She’d stood there waiting for another ten minutes or so, but then she realised that stubbornly holding out would serve no purpose.
    The Graver home was enveloped in silence when Jenny got back. As she took off her jacket, she reached out her right hand, groping at the wall until her fingers found the light switch by the front door. The lights in the hallway illuminated a pair of Impressionist prints, a wrought-iron umbrella stand, an antique chest, the carpet she was standing on with its picture of two border collies embracing, and the steps leading upstairs.
    Why? she wondered as she climbed the stairs, heading for her bedroom. Once she was in the safety of her room, she slammed the door behind her and took off her boots. Then she sat down on the side of her bed.
    Tears were already starting to roll down her cheeks. Jenny crushed a pillow against her face, and then hurled it furiously against the cupboard door.
    â€˜None of it’s real! I’m an idiot! Nothing but an idiot!’
    As she shouted, she saw her schoolbooks piled on the desk. She had a series of tests coming up in the next few days, but Alex’s imminent arrival had made her forget about everything else. So now she was behind in her studies, convinced she had wasted far too much time on a foolish dream, and, worse, completely unprepared to start back at school.
    I never want to hear that voice again.
    Jenny leaped up, grabbed her diary, and stormed out of the room. A few determined strides took her to the top of the stairs. When she got downstairs, she walked into the kitchen and flung her diary into the recycling bin.
    â€˜I’ve had it!’ she shouted. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying.
    Over the past several days, she’d been too easily distracted at school. She had been scolded the day before for looking dreamily out the window while her maths teacher was explaining an important equation. And Jenny had received a C on her history test — a C, from a straight-A student.
    Might as well throw myself into my schoolwork , she thought as she sat down at her desk. It’ll take my mind off the fact that I’ve become a sad little mental patient who hears voices and thinks they’re real.
    Before opening her maths textbook, Jenny took one last look out the window, up at the sky.
    â€˜How could I have ever believed that it was real …’ she said aloud, as she watched the clouds piling up and becoming dark and threatening.
    She couldn’t imagine that, outside the window overlooking the street, the cool Melbourne air was the same air that Alex was breathing.
    Multiverse. When Marco uttered that word, Alex hung up as if by reflex. His hands were shaking, and the tangled mass of information was stubbornly resisting all his attempts to order his thoughts. The only thing he knew for sure was that he had travelled halfway around the world to be stood up for a date.
    He started walking along the Esplanade as the wind picked up and shook the branches of the trees lining the beach. With his hands in his pockets, he walked along briskly, heading nowhere in particular. He’d travelled all that way just to prove to himself that Jenny really existed, and now he had to accept the fact that she lived in a parallel dimension.
    â€˜Of course she does!’ he exclaimed, and then stopped short to catch his breath. A few passers-by eyed him curiously. The expression on his face was a clear snapshot of the confusion that reigned inside him at that moment.
    Then, a second later, his vision suddenly clouded over.
    â€˜My mum gets angry whenever I talk about us …’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜I don’t know. But I love you .’
    â€˜I love you too .’
    â€˜I can’t wait to grow up .’
    â€˜Will you come and get me ?’
    â€˜Of course, Jenny .’
    Alex opened his eyes wide, finding himself face to face with an astonished old man