Free The Impossible Boy by Mark Griffiths

took a deep breath. He placed his hands behind his head and stretched his long legs comfortably. ‘I come from a different universe, a place you would call the fourth dimension. All
the different copies of me around Britain are actually all parts of the same being. Do you understand?’
    ‘Umm . . . not really. Parts of the same being? But how?’
    Chas considered for a moment. ‘Look down at the canal.’
    Gabby leaned forward and stared at the smooth glassy surface of the water. ‘I’m looking. Go on.’
    ‘Imagine you’re a fish living in the canal – a stickleback, say.’
    ‘OK,’ said Gabby. ‘Stickleback. Good.’
    ‘To you, Mrs Stickleback, the canal is your entire universe. You have no idea that there is a whole world above the surface of the water. You don’t even think of the water as
having
a surface, an edge. To you it’s just all there is.’
    ‘Right. With you so far.’
    ‘Now,’ said Chas, ‘a person comes along – me, for instance. I stick my fingers through the surface of the water – into the stickleback’s world. What do you
see, Mrs Stickleback?’
    ‘Your hand?’
    Chas held up a hand. ‘No. What a stickleback would see would be
five worms
.’ He wriggled his long fingers, wormlike. ‘The stickleback doesn’t know the five
fingers are all connected to the same hand. It just sees five worms entering its world at five different places.’
    Gabby nodded slowly. ‘Gotcha.’
    ‘So it’s the same with me. All the different copies of me are like the fingers of an enormous hand poking into your world from a higher dimension. All the Chases are really parts of
the same large creature.’
    ‘So you’re just a finger?’
    Chas laughed. ‘Yes, I suppose I am.’
    ‘So, why do you look like a person?’
    ‘If you wanted a stickleback to think your finger really was a worm you might paint your finger to look more like one. Same kind of thing with me. I’m in disguise.’
    ‘You’re a painted worm? Is that what you’re telling me?’
    He laughed again.
    ‘So, if all those hundreds and hundreds of copies of you are just parts of the same organism, your true self – how big are you really?’
    Chas whistled. ‘Pretty darn big, actually. It might seriously blow your mind if I told you.’
    Gabby snorted. ‘Like it could get much more blown. Go on, tell me.’
    He smiled. ‘My actual four-dimensional body is roughly twice the size of your solar system.’
    Gabby swore. Loudly. She clapped a hand over her mouth and shut her eyes. ‘Sorry!’ she mumbled through her hand.
    Chas chuckled. ‘No problem. I think you’re coping pretty well, all things considered. Is the truth starting to sink in yet?’
    Gabby shrugged. ‘I think so. I guess this would explain the tricks you can do. You reach through this fourth dimension and invisibly grab stuff or put stuff into it to make it
disappear.’ She rubbed her eyes. ‘Cor. I think my brain needs an oil change.’
    ‘There’s no such thing as a locked door to me,’ said Chas. ‘I can see inside everything, reach inside anything. Because your human senses can’t detect the fourth
dimension, you don’t realise that even a locked safe is open to me.’ He stood up and plucked a conker from a horse chestnut tree overhanging the bench. He showed its spiky case to
Gabby, holding it delicately between thumb and forefinger.
    ‘Watch.’
    In a single swift movement, he tapped the conker case with the forefinger of his other hand. A shiny brown conker dropped out. Gabby caught it. Chas handed her the case. It was completely
unbroken. ‘Open it,’ he said.
    Taking care not to spike herself, Gabby prised open the conker case. Its soft white interior was completely empty. ‘Wowsers,’ she muttered softly. ‘Is there anything you
can’t do?’
    Chas nodded grimly. ‘Yes. I can’t go home. You see, I’m stuck in your world. Trapped, like a man with his hand caught in some railings.’
    ‘But you’re as big as a solar