Getting Home

Part 30

The Civic slid right up to the edge before stopping.

"Oh my god," I breathed.

It took a few seconds to process what had happened—then I very shakily, and very carefully, put the Civic into reverse, slowly backing away from the edge.

Henry could only look at me.

We got out of the car, tentatively getting as close to the edge as we dared—which meant not very close at all. Ever since I could remember, being near ledges always gave me the weirdest feeling... there was terror, but something more... something hidden in the mix of anxiety and faintness.

A scary, crazy urge to...

Jump.

The length to the other side of the giant, bottomless ravine wasn't too far away—probably only like four or five car lengths to the other side. The giant chasm split the planet right in half in front of us, the ledges for both cliff-sides going off in either direction forever. The black chasm in front of us was enormously deep—I could the sharp black line on the opposite cliff-face where the bright light of the day transitioned down to the massive, infinite pit of pure black below.

If you fell into that, would you land somewhere?

Or would you just fall forever?

I noticed something as I tried not to vomit—the ground over there on the other side of the Giant Valley of Terror looked the same as it did over here, but...

It looked lower.

Our side was above, the other below—like the other half of the entire planet had shifted our side up, while the other half had been sunk down.

I could see the Path continuing straight on the other side—and something glittering far, far away on the horizon.

"Holy cow, Ava," Henry whispered, standing behind me. "What are we going to do?"

My eyes traced down the cliff lines—they went out in both directions with no ends in sight. Maybe if we drove along the edge of the cliff, we'd come across a bridge just a few miles away?

The planet had reconnect together again somewhere, right?

But what if it doesn't?

What choice did we have?

We had less than half a tank of gas. The Caretaker had said traveling took months—but he also didn't have a car. We could look for alternatives for a little bit, but if we didn't find a way across pretty quick...

It didn't matter, anyways—I felt the truth in my gut.

There was no way around.

"Ava?" Henry said.

The other side was like right there—I could peer down and see the colors of the Path over there side swirling and changing colors. Maybe if we had some kind of rope in the car, we could—

"Henry, can you jump across that?" I asked suddenly.

He looked at me, eyes fear-stricken. Just that reaction told me everything I needed to know... but I had seen what he could do back home. Maybe here, he was even more special. After all, the Caretaker had called him God.

For all I knew, maybe he could even fly.

"Let's see," I said. "Try jumping up and down right here, Henry. Can you fly?"

His fear-stricken look instantly changed, his head cocking as he squinted—looking like someone had just asked him literally the stupidest question he had ever heard.

I burst out laughing.

"Just try it," I said.

He gave a little hop.

"No," I said. "You have to really try."

"Ugh," he said. He crouched down, taking a deep breath, readying himself before leaping up in the air—

And barely getting his sneakers off the ground.

"Oof, Henry," I said. "I can jump higher than that."

His scowl of indignation was quite possibly the cutest thing I had ever seen up to that point.

Could he throw me across? That just seemed like a bad idea, though. What if he got up to super fast running speed? I studied the difference in how much higher we were than the other side of the chasm—maybe if he got a running start? If he backed up like way further past where the Civic was, could he possibly run fast enough to make it?

It reminded me of one time when Sean and I were kids, and he—

Oh no.

I knew.

"No way," I mumbled to myself. "No." The dread I felt was instant, drilling and sinking deep down into my guts. No.

"There's just no way," I said. "There has to be another way around."

"What?" Henry suddenly peered closely at me, slowly coming near. "What is it, Ava? You know how to get over there?"

"Yes," I said.

"That's good, right?" he said. "How?"

I nodded behind us.

"The Civic," I said quietly. "We can jump across the gap with the Civic."

His eyes went wide. "No, Ava. No way. Don't say that. Maybe you're right, maybe I can jump it, if I try and—"

"No, Henry," I said. "I don't think you could make it... but the Civic could." I suddenly felt like I was going to throw up. "That's not the hard part."

"Hard part?" His irises began to spin faster. "If that's not the hard part... what is?"

My throat clicked dryly as I tried to swallow.

"I think..." My voice barely came out. "I think we have to jump it going backwards."