BROCK

My dad frowned as he looked at the radiation reader. "It couldn't be broken, right?"

I shake my head. "It was working slightly before, and slightly after she disappeared. I'm thinking it could be the cause of her disappearance."

I can practically see the wheels turning in his brain. "Wouldn't the radiation have affected the rest of us? Losing our hair and everything?"

I shake my head. "It only spiked for less than a millisecond. It wouldn't have affected anyone long term at that short of an interval."

"So what are you planning to do about this information?" Judging by his tone, he already knows I have something in mind.

     "I..." I hate to sound like I'm nerding out, but I know he won't mind. "I think that if you replicated that exact amount of radiation, that there might be a way of communicating with her. So, if my phone was enclosed in an area that had that exact amount of radiation, and someone sent a message on it, it might go through to her phone."

    "You're thinking of going to the lab?" My dad cuts to the point, and I nod.

    "I'll just tell them it's for a late school project." I explain, looking at my radiation reader absently, focusing without meaning to on the spike of radiation that it recorded.

    "Alright. It's at least worth a shot." He smiles, and slaps my back, standing up. "You know how to get there? Or do you want me to come with you."

"I can get there."

    "Then I hope it works."

    The drive to the lab is silent, and I keep running the plan through my head. It's very short, which means I can go through it about a thousand times before I reach the lab.

    The radiation lab that I'm going to is relatively small, mainly for the purpose of demonstration. It has extra security to prevent radiation leaks, so that students from the surrounding schools can visit it. For some reason, the government decided that students needed to be more informed about radiation, so thus this lab was built. And the study of radiation was integrated into the school science program a lot more than it had been.

As I walk up to the building, I see Jared, a guy I've talked with before when I visited here. He waves as he recognizes me.

"I thought school was out for the summer!" He calls out as I get closer.

"It is. Just need some help." I say, pulling my phone and reader out of my pocket. "I need your help."

        I hand him the reader. "Look at what it read a couple days ago."

He scrolls through it, and I can tell he reached the day Lea disappeared when his eyebrows shoot up into his hairline. "Woah."

"But it was only for less than a second, which explains why none of us felt it." I point at the time line at the bottom, showing what time it spiked.

He nods. "And you need the lab for this?"

I hesitate, debating whether to explain to him what I saw. Would he believe me? Or if he didn't, would he at least let me try?

"I'll explain if you promise to let me try something."

"Depends on what you wanna try, kid. Radiation is serious stuff. No messing around with it."

"I just need to put my phone in an area with the exact amount of radiation showed on this reader, and try to send a message." I say it quickly, and his eyebrows look like they want to raise again.

"Alright, that shouldn't be difficult to manage. Now, time to explain."

The longer I talk, the more shocked Jared looks. Still, he doesn't look nearly as shocked as I thought he'd be. He almost looks like he knows something about it. Like a knowledgeable shock.

When I finish talking, he doesn't say anything, wordlessly accepting the phone and reader. I show him Lea's contact, and he gets into the message I have with her. One sided, as it's only been the last few days that I've tried texting her.

"I'll try it. I can see where you're getting this idea from, but who knows if she'll be able to communicate back in the other dimension."

My jaw drops, and I stare at him. "Wait, what?"

Jared acts pretty casual as he ignores me and starts to head inside, but I can tell he knew that he just said something he wasn't supposed to.

"Jared!" I call out, but he doesn't turn around, if anything speeding up until he reaches the doors and gets inside. My head is spinning. Dimension? Lea's in another dimension?

It's almost two hours later when Jared comes back out, and hands me the phone and reader. "Sorry for the wait. Any items that come into contact with radiation have to wait a while before they can be around people again."

"Okay, no big deal," I answer, before saying what I really wanted to say, "Jared, what did you say about Lea being in another dimension?"

"Hm?" He asks, looking confused.

"You said she might not be able to answer from the other dimension." I say slowly, waving a hand in front of his face. "Remember?"

Jared shakes his head. "Must have misheard something, kid."

No, I didn't. I want to say, but give it up as a lost cause. If Jared isn't going to say something, he isn't going to say something.

The whole way home, I keep checking my phone for a response. The message Jared had sent was simple, and straight to the point: If you can read this, respond immediately.

When I got home, I let my dad know what happened, also telling him what Jared had said. He looked just as confused as I had been. I went into my room, pulling out the book Mrs. Ladlien had given us, and skim through the index of the book, trying to find anything about dimensions.

I don't see anything, but it doesn't quench my interest. There has to be something about it. He didn't just misspeak, or he would have corrected himself.

I look it up on the internet, but can't find anything. Frustrated, I shut my laptop, glaring at it, as if that was the problem.

The only thing I could hope is that I got a response from Lea.