Feeling sick and demoralised, Patrick climbed up the hill behind the camp. He had to stop a couple of times and rest, and try to stop himself retching since there was nothing left in his stomach. He hadn’t even drunk the tea he had made in his haste to get out of there, unable to stand the arguing.
He had been tricked. Kath had deliberately tried to make him eat meat, to do something he had chosen not to do. It took a lot to make him angry, but he was angry about that. And upset that he had fallen into her trap, that even if he hadn’t eaten the meat itself, he had eaten food that had been cooked with and contaminated by meat. He had been a vegetarian for many years and never had anything like this happen before. It distressed him.
It was a peaceful evening. The sun was close to setting, but there was still plenty of light. Tired, angry, ill, betrayed, upset, unhappy, he continued to climb, searching for solitude and to settle his whirlwind of emotion.
Near the top of the hill he found a cave. Looking carefully and quietly into its depths he sidled into the entrance and allowed his eyes to adjust to the darkness before going on. It didn't look as though the cave went too far back, but there might be some animal lurking in the dark. He edged forward carefully, but tripped on the uneven floor and almost fell. The noise of his stumble seemed loud in the night-quiet of the cave. He froze and listened. A couple of bats flew towards the cave mouth, passing close by his face, but nothing worse seemed to be roused by the noise. He relaxed and moved deeper into the cave.
It didn't go very far back, only a few metres from the rock face. He felt his way along one wall to the back of the cave, then across to the other side. Here the rock was less smooth. There seemed to be a passageway or cave within a cave leading out of the side of the main cave. Cautiously he felt his way into it. It was dark, and seemed quite narrow for a few steps, then suddenly he was on the threshold of another cave. Looking to his right he could see the cave entrance. The evening light streamed in. Funny, he though. I don't remember seeing another cave next to the one I went in. But it can't be far away. He went to the cave entrance and looked out over the island.
He could see almost the whole island from up here. He looked down at the way he had climbed, at the forest, the beach, the rocks. And then he looked more closely, suddenly worried. He should be able to see the camp from here. But it looked deserted. There were no shelters, and none of his friends were visible. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. Everything had gone. There was no one there. What could have happened in the short time he had been away?
He hurried out of the cave and began to run down the hill back towards the camp. But before he had gone very far he stopped. Something was odd. There was no real path up the hill, but he was sure he remembered those rocks on his left being on his left when he climbed up...which meant they should be on his right now. He looked around again. And those trees...surely they should be over there?
He retraced his steps and climbed all the way to the top of the hill. This was very odd. The island appeared to have changed shape since he last looked out. The rocks that used to be on the west side of the island were now on the east, clumps of trees had uprooted themselves and moved across the island, the whole shape of the forest had changed. Was it the effect of the storm? No, surely he had been up here since then. And yet it didn't look new; there was something familiar about it...
Suddenly he worked it out. The island was a mirror image of how it had looked when he last stood here. The shape of the coast, the trees, the landmarks, had all moved into positions opposite to where they had been.
He looked down to where the camp would be if the island he had crashed on were seen in a mirror. He could see a dark spot that might have been the ashes of the fire, and a few piles of debris, but the shelters had gone, and no one was visible. But there was just enough to suggest that it might have been a camp, once.
Slowly he went down to the cave entrance. There should have been two caves next to each other, with the connecting passageway at the back. But there was only one. He searched in the rocks nearby. There was no other cave.
He went back into the cave, and found the passageway at the back. He felt his way through it and back into the first cave- the one he had originally entered. From the entrance to that cave he stood and looked out at the island once more.
Everything was back to normal. Nothing had moved, the rocks and trees were all in the right places. Best of all, the camp was clearly visible and he could see several of the others around the fire. He looked for a second cave, but he could still see none.
He went back through the passage once more. Now everything was round the wrong way. The truth, unbelievable at first, was beginning to dawn on him. He returned to the first cave, and everything was back to being the right way round. Yes, there could only be one explanation, unless he was going mad.
The cave was a doorway into some kind of alternate universe.
The story continues...
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