The Casebook of Skasis Fane: Cellardoor (pt. 3)

  ‘Do you think there were no such cases at Time Detective Agency? Plenty of them. Banal as it sounds, but it depends on choice. There are two facts which cannot exist at the same time, and the choice determines which one is to stay and which one is to be found in archives only. This time one of the facts states that at the age of ten Felix Balthazar Mann met a strange man who convinced him to learn how to fly despite his family being against it and who looked much like himself. The second fact states that the Manns found their youngest son – fifteen at that time – dead next to the tallest building in town, because he jumped off it without the most needed ability for a Wingie. One of these facts is to be gone, and you have determined which one exactly.’
  Skasis was re-reading this note over and over until he learned it by heart, but he still could not believe that his first case hadn’t ended up in failure. He was to stay here for two or three days more, for the homing device was to be charged 100%, and charging it ran very slowly here because of technical means lack. At least the communication still was not lost. Perhaps I’ll use the manipulator once more, Skasis thought and gave himself a mental slap: the Time Detectives would doubtlessly see that the limit – one trip to past or future and one return – was exceeded.
  A knock on the door made Skasis almost fall off his chair with nerves, and he even felt relaxed when he saw the three figures through the window.
  “Hi Skasis, why are you sitting here like a monk? Come on, we could have a little celebration or something.” This Felix was anything but that desperate soul on the rooftop.
  “Celebration… what… How did you find me?” Skasis shot out.
  Ahita, who was keeping behind Felix and Bene, smirked and pointed at her forehead. Skasis facepalmed:
  “Geez, I’ve forgotten you’re a dowser… I need this ability. Natural. Can I learn it?”
  “Sorry, I cannot implant the magical core to ya, and even if I could, it would probably not work,” Ahita shrugged. “First off, I’ve heard that your first investigation was a success. After all, you did save our Felix, didn’t you? Doesn’t it deserve a celebration? And second… we’ve passed our exams.”
  “I got a D for practice,” Felix shrugged. “Guess your interruption did improve my flying skills.”
  “Not here, please,” Bene begged, glancing at the device chaos at Skasis’s table.
  “Well… okay,” Skasis agreed. There was still nothing much else to do. “I hope you didn’t tell anybody.”
  “Do you think I wanna be crazier than I look?” Bene asked. Only now Skasis spotted that her lush black faux hawk now had several locks dyed acid green and subconsciously felt flattered. “You stared at me when I mentioned Coffan, remember? Let’s fill that blank spot.”
  The streets were nothing like those which Skasis had seen upon his first arrival. Now they were full of youngsters and children, all carelessly chatting or running around. The examinations must’ve been even more stressful for them than the case for me, Skasis thought to himself. To his relief, almost nobody was paying attention to his hair, and he even spotted some teenagers with even wilder hairstyles. Great.
  However, a group of kids, all about five or six (to Skasis’s delight, belonging to all three races), shared a loud whisper when the quartet walked past them, and the overall bustling was overcovered by a war cry of “Unca Feeeeeeeeliiiiiiix!” A moment later one of the girls of this group darted to the mentioned one and hugged his waist, for she could not reach higher. This child was an Ord, for her forehead was completely smooth with no scars and the amount of limbs was usual – four.
  “Hi Bella,” Felix beamed, caressing the girl’s dirty blond hair (it was a weird color for her, for her skin was not white – it was more of a brown shade, as if tanned). “Hey, hey, easy there.”
  “I thought you were dead!” the girl yelped, never willing to let go.
  “But I’m alive, aren’t I?” Felix crouched in front of her and cupped her face. “Alive and fine, and…”
  “No leave,” Bella hiccupped. Gosh, the poor child looked as if she was about to weep!
  “I’m never going to leave you. I give you the word of a Wingie… Wish there were interracial trust gestures.”

TIME DETECTIVE GLOSSARY
TRUST GESTURES (TRIWAY). The inhabitants of Triway planet have various gestures expressing the highest grade of trust towards each other. The following three gestures are the most widespread, as each of them is indicative for every species:
ORDS: a hug in a way that chests are pressed to each other as much as possible. Unofficial name: Hearthug.
WINGIES: mutual touching the wing base. Unofficial name: Non-Ripout.
MAGES: pressing the foreheads together. Unofficial name: Magiconnection.

  “You still can hug me,” Bella mentioned and finally saw that her ‘Unca Felix’ was not alone. “Oh, hi Miss Bene, hi Miss Ahita… hee hee hee! Unca Felix, why that boy has grass on his head?”
  “And why do you have a bun on your head?” Felix parried. Bella blushed and looked way. “There, got it? If it hadn’t been for him, I wouldn’t have been here.”
  Now it was Skasis’s turn to blush. In his case it was much more expressive, for he was far not as swarthy as Bella.
  “Really?” the child marveled.
  “Well… em… it’s all so… wibbly-wobbly… timey-wimey…” Skasis mumbled.
  “Don’t mind him, Bella, Skasis’s being humble,” Bene interfered. “Come on, pals, they’ll get all the good places before us.”
  “Okay. Bye!”
  Bella rushed over to her friends, and the quartet resumed their walk, at first silently. Then Ahita spoke:
  “I don’t understand. You said that right now… right now Felix is half-able to fly…”
  “HEY!” Felix shot out.
  “Sad but true, Fe… so you’re half-able to fly and you never tried to commit suicide, but in the other version of time it did happen, and you were a total foot-walker. Therefore, there was no crowd, no fuss, no nothing what you told, Bene… But still Bella reacted like this. Why?”
  Skasis rubbed the back of his neck:
  “Um… To be honest, rewriting time is a very delicate matter. I suppose in this case it’s about strong emotional connection between Felix and Bella. She kinda… kinda felt the intentions of his previous version. Or maybe she had a nightmare about them. Children are very sensitive. I’ve heard them telling about the waves and events they dreamed about, but adults do not take them seriously, I guess.”
  “And for the better, otherwise we all would’ve grown paranoid, huh?” Bene teased.
  The place to which the teenagers led Skasis appeared to be a small cafe in jazz style (Skasis assumed so because of retro-styled photos on the walls, musician figurines and old books on the shelves, and also the music – all trumpet and piano, quite similar to Earth 1930s jazz), where only half of the tables was occupied. The whole atmosphere was neat, and the only visible minus for now was the lack of space – the place was quite small.
  “Hey Skasis, what will you get?” Ahita asked. Skasis stared at the blackboard behind the counter, showing the cafe’s menu. Basically, he knew most names written in chalk there (in theory), but hadn’t have a chance to try anything, and this was visible, judging by the look askance from Bene. Having checked the universal payment card (another possible source of trouble in case of exceeding the amount), Skasis finally chose the beverage with a promising name of Marrakesh and waffles with raspberry jam (secretly he wanted to know what raspberries tasted like, because Kay Stark, one of Maddie’s fellow Time Detectives, had a favourite saying about ‘blowing raspberries’, and Skasis was oblivious about its meaning – he only knew it was something very offensive). I’ll ask her about that later, Skasis decided after the first bite. The raspberry jam was almost too sweet, but the beverage – it appeared to be some relative of chocolate, judging by the color – neutralized it.
  “How’s the impression?” Felix asked, stirring his lemonade with a straw. Skasis showed him a thumb-up: his mouth was full. The spiced cocoa – and that was what Marrakesh was – seemed delightful to him. No wonder, it was the very first time of him tasting anything like that! “Say, these,” he nodded at the menu blackboard, “taste much better after you pass your exam. At least for me.”
  “Pass,” Bene pointed out. Felix stuck his tongue out and continued:
  “But I guess you’ve never had such experience, eh?”
  “I had almost none in your terms,” Skasis replied.
  “That crew of yours should really teach you how to be a normal kid,” Felix pointed out. “I don’t think any of us can do much for it, but I’ve got something for you that is able to help.”
  He opened his bag and produced a large thick book, the front of which was styled like a black painted door with a knocker in the middle. Having opened it, Skasis saw large printed letters on the title page: THE CASEBOOK OF SKASIS FANE, while the rest of the pages were blank. In addition, a long pen in a metal frame was fixed on its side on two small loops.
  “You know, some people write journals and diaries. I’m pretty sure that there will be plenty of moments which you’ll wish to remember, so you should really write them down,” Felix went on. “Starting now, with fresh tracks.”
  Skasis was so dumbfounded that he didn’t find the words at first and only gaped at his neighbours, who all exchanged sly grins. Finally he pressed out:
  “Errrr… thanks… you didn’t really need to…”
  “It’s the least I can do to repay what you’ve done,” Felix replied.
  Skasis took another sip of his Marrakesh:
  “I still don’t understand one thing.”
  “Which?” Ahita asked, toying with her cup, still half-full of ginger tea.
  “Why are ones like Felix called Cellardoors?”
  “Look more attentively,” Bene replied. Skasis’s eyebrows climbed up. “Oh, great. Show him, Ahita.”
  The pages of the ‘casebook-to-be’ turned over by themselves until reaching the second end-leaf, which had something colorful attached. It was a flat DVD box with a picture of a fearsome-looking rabbit head consisting of weird patterns – faces, silhouettes, lines – and words DONNIE DUSKO underneath.
  “Guess you’ll get it,” Ahita said. “I hope you have DVD players there.”

  “What luck. The program is fulfilling perfectly fine. The man who died twice died for the first time.”
  Wshhhhhhh.
  “Wake up. It’s time for a change. Once a Cellardoor, always a Cellardoor.”
  “?!”
  “I know it’s a bit confusing, but try to stay collected.”
  “?”
  “I mean it. The molecules are still unstable, so be careful. They will settle soon, but until them try not to warp yourself. I do not want the Cellardoor to know that he’s still one… It’s funny, though. The child has a mind of four beings, at least one of which is a genius, but he believes that the title of Cellardoor is temporary. I wonder if his boss knows that it stays forever?”
  “…”
  “Don’t worry, you will never be a Cellardoor, for it is impossible for you. But still you’re tied to him, because… you’ve heard what I said first. Earthlings have a saying. A man can die but once. Except for the man who can die but twice.”
  “??? ... !!!”
  “Ah, that? You’ll get used.”