AUNT CORA
© Elliot Richard Dorfman

When Patrick Hershey became eighteen, he was released from a drab residential facility in Upstate New York for orphaned boys.

So far, his young life had been rough. He never knew his father, who had died fighting toward the end of the Gulf War, and at eight years old, his beloved mother, Jennifer, was savagely murdered by some unknown assailant coming home from work. Having no other relatives to care for him, the boy was shifted from one foster home to another until finally placed in a residential institution. Now he was left to fend on his own. Resourceful and bright, the youngster immediately got a job at a Walmart store in the area and found a three-room apartment on the second floor of a neglected old house located at the outskirts of town where the rent was cheap.

Handsome and full of charm, it could have been easy for Patrick to have a lively social life, but that would have meant spending the money he was saving it to eventually take some college courses that would further advance him. The only interest he did indulge in was drawing. On his day off, when the weather was suitable, Patrick would take a large pad and go out into the fields and sketch the natural surroundings that he loved so much.

Returning home on a beautiful Autumn day, Patrick noticed a chubby woman, with dark brown hair and gray streaks sitting on the porch near his door. As he approached her, the woman's blue eyes sparkled with excitement as she rushed over and gave him a big hug.

"At last we meet," she excitedly said. "I'm Aunt Cora. Your dear departed mother was my kid sister."

Patrick looked puzzled. "Aunt Cora? I don't remember my mother ever mentioning that she had a sister."

Cora looked sad. "I guess Jennifer was still angry at me for disapproving her decision to take a test voyage that was developed by the scientific company she worked for. Even though my sister was brilliant and very accomplished for a woman so young, I felt she was embarking on an extremely dangerous task. Unfortunately, my assumption turned out to be right."

Patrick was more confused than ever."I never knew Mom worked for any scientific company. What kind of dangerous voyage did she agree to take?"


"Let's go into the house where can discuss it more comfortably," Cora suggested.

"What I have a lot to tell you will certainly surprise you."

The woman looked sincere, so Patrick nodded and took her upstairs into his living quarters. As soon as she sat down on the sofa, Aunt Cora took out a photograph. When he looked at it, he saw a younger image of his mother standing with her. What amazed him was how the three-dimensional picture looked so lifelike.

"This photo was taken just before your mother left. She meant everything to me. I raised her after our parents died in a freak accident when she was twelve, never got married myself, "Cora explained.

"So, what kind of trip did she take?" he asked impatiently.

"She came to observe earth from another world in a parallel dimension that is far more advanced than here."

Patrick got up. "What are you, some kind of a nut?"

Cora vehemently shook her head. " Believe me. It's all true."

 She snapped her hands and suddenly he seemed to be standing in a futuristic city with slender, tall gleaming cylindrical skyscrapers that were proportionately placed in beautiful parks. It was nothing like he had ever seen on earth. A minute later, he was back in his room, trying to grasp what he had just experienced.

"Are you convinced, or do you want more proof?" she asked.

"No, it's okay, I believe you," Patrick said, Shaking, he sat down on the sofa.


"Well, as I was saying," his Aunt continued, "For some unknown reason, as your mother learned, you can't leave this dimension once you're here. The situation was very perplexing, but at least Jennifer could still communicate with us. She quickly adapted to her life on earth. After getting a job at an electronics company, she fell in love with your dad, who was a military man, and married him.

Unfortunately, shortly after giving birth to you, your dad tragically was killed while serving in Kuwait. After that tragedy, Jennifer focused her entire life on you. Then ten years ago, all communication abruptly stopped. I immediately volunteered to find out what happened by coming to earth, but the scientists felt it was too dangerous to send me. Refusing to take no for an answer, I persistently badgered them for years until they finally gave in."

"You sure have guts, Aunt Cora."


Cora sighed. " Well, I felt it was my duty. Arriving on earth, I immediately made lots of inquires and was grief stricken when I learned Jennifer was murdered. My immediate objective then became to find you. Luckily, the scientists of my world gave me many newly developed tools which made it easy to trace you and avoided having to go through the laborious formalities of the authorities. Oh, how I wish I could have arrived here sooner to have helped you."

Tears began falling from the young man's eyes. " So do I, it's been kind of tough being on my own."


Aunt Cora hugged him again. "Well, my darling nephew, you're not alone anymore. You've got Aunt Cora now."

Happily, with all of my awesome new tools, I can make life much easier more pleasant. The first thing to do is get you out of this dilapidated place." She took out a small black object and held it up with her right hand. Instantly, they were standing in a beautifully furnished living room, not that far from the old residence."

"What's happened?" Patrick asked in amazement.

"This is your new home. Go take a look around. I know you'll like it."

And did he ever! It was spacious and beautifully furnished. His bedroom even had a portion set up as art studio, equipped with all kinds of tools and supplies.

"Well, dear, I'll go into the kitchen and start dinner. I'm sure you haven't had a good meal in a long time. Relax in the mean time. There is an entertainment center in the den that you might want to check out. By the way, this Monday, you'll be starting as a full time Art major in the local college. I know how much you have had your heart set on going there, so I arranged everything."


"But how?" Patrick asked in wonder.

Cora smiled. "Oh, I have various ways to alter things in your world."

***

At first, Patrick was uneasy with all the unusual changes that had come into his life, but soon became comfortable with it. He became extremely devoted to Aunt Cora, whose whole existence was now geared to making him happy and secure. In college he excelled in all his studies, and was even told that someday he would become a great artist.

The year passed quickly. With all the good things that were happening to Patrick, Cora still noticed there was something bothering him. Then one night in April he came out with it.

"Aunt Cora, the authorities never found out who killed mom. That's always bothered me. Do you think there's any way we can check it out and get some justice?"

Aunt Cora had not yet got the chance to delve into this matter. Her top priority had been to help her nephew in anyway she could. Now that it was being accomplished, there wasn't any reason why she couldn't succeed in finding the fiend that got away with killing her sister, especially with the aid of her advanced tools.

"Your summer break is coming in only a few weeks," she told him. "We'll start then."

Patrick happily nodded. "Fantastic! Thanks, Aunt Cora."

But Cora got a head on the investigation when Patrick was taking his last college exam. First she went to the cemetery where Jennifer was buried. It was over140 miles away. That was no problem for Cora who had a transporter which zapped her there in seconds. Sticking a small tube into the grave, it tunneled down and got a DNA sample of the remains.

Returning home, she placed the specimen in a silver rectangular shaped instrument, then typed in some information about her sister on a small keyboard attached to it. Within moments, a small built-in monitor would show what happened to her sister and identify the killer. However, what came up, shocked her.

"The DNA sample is from not Jennifer Delyle Hershey," it read.

Could the machine have made an error? But Cora knew it was too accurate for that, The body found had been horribly burned, and perhaps the forensic findings had been wrong. The point was, the body in the grave was not her sister. Could there be any remote chance Jennifer was still alive?

Cora remembered that Patrick had shown her a small brush which had belonged to Jennifer. It was in the bottom draw of his bureau. Getting it, she removed a strain of hair that still clung to the bristles and placed it in the evaluator. This time the results were positive. Jennifer was not dead. She had been abducted by some distraught handyman named Ralph Smith. He had followed her out of the office building where she worked. On the corner, he hit her in the back of her head then carried her into his nearby car. When Jennifer regained consciousness, she had a bad case of amnesia. Smith took advantage of the situation by persuading the helpless woman that she was his longtime girlfriend. From then on, they traveled from one town to another - never staying too long in one place. Cora's machine indicated Jennifer was presently living in the Midwest.

Later that day, Patrick came in smiling. "Thank goodness the exams are over. So, Auntie, when do we start checking out what happened to Mom?"

"Brace yourself, Patrick, I already did some investigating. Your mother is not dead. " Aunt Cora then proceeded to tell him what she found out.

"We've got to rescue her, '" he cried out.

Cora nodded. "We're going to do that right now.

There was a flash, and they were standing in a seedy looking trailer park in the Midwest.


"What a dump," Patrick commented with disgust. "That Smith is going to get what he rightfully deserves."

"We've got to be careful. Smith is dangerous." Cora pulled out the rectangular device from her bag and pressed a button. A screen lit up. "We're lucky. Right now, your mother is alone in the camper to the right of us. Let's get her out of here before he returns."

Cautiously, they went to the camper and knocked on the door. A frail, but attractive woman in her forties opened the door and stepped out. It was Jennifer!

Patrick gasped. "Mom!" Emotionally, he rushed over and took her around.

Panicking, the woman broke away from him.

"Please, don't hurt me!" she begged, but then her eyes widened and she let out a scream. "Patrick, is it you? Oh my gosh, I 'm starting to remember everything!"

Cora gently took her hands. "Calm down, Jennifer. You're safe now, but we must quickly get you out of here."

Jennifer grabbed her sister. "Cora! I don't understand, how did you get to this dimension?"

"I'll explain as soon as leave here," Cora anxiously said. "We must hurry. Time is running out."

She pulled out her transporter just as a tall scruffy looking man came running over from the path.

"What do you people want?" he asked, pulling Jennifer away from them.

Cora's face became flushed as she angrily pointed her index ring at him.

"What we want is to give you your just reward, worm!" she said. 

A ray of blinding white light sprang from the center of a gold pendant she was wearing and encompassed him. Almost instantaneously, he was  transforming him into a crawling worm which a nearby robin swooped into his beck and flew away.

***

Jennifer's reappearance was a big news item, so it took a while for everything to return to normalcy.  Of course the investigators never found any traces of Ralph Smith.

"It's like the earth swallowed him up," they discouragingly said.

"You mean a little bird," Aunt Cora mumbled.

__________________________________

Elliot Richard Dorfman taught in the New York City School System for more than three decades, as well as giving private vocal and piano lessons. He founded Suma Play Productions, Inc., and was artistic director of the American Youth Repertory Company, Off Broadway. After retiring, he moved with his family from the borough of Brooklyn to Johnstown, New York. Among his successful former students are American tenor, Daniel Rodriguez, character actress, Kelly Wolf, and Broadway stage manager, Ira Mont. Mr. Dorfman, a former member of the NY Dramatist Guild and Associated Music teachers League, has appeared and written for radio and television. His plays (dramas and musicals) have been presented on the professional stage, schools and centers. Since the fall of 2007, over fifty-six stories have appeared in the following magazines: Delivered, Twisted Dreams , Bewildering Stories , Golden Visions , Static Movement, NVH, The Tiny Globule, Perpetual, Paradigm Shift , Black Petals, Blood Moon Rising , Demonic Tome, Short Story Library Magazine,Stories That Lift, M-Brane Science Fiction, Coffee Cramp eZine and Infinite Windows. Five poems have appeared in Falling Star, Orange Room Review, Debris, and Golden Visions.
For more detailed information go to: elrite.webs.com