Chapter 1

Cynthia Johnson eased into her seat hoping to be noticed, but terrified of becoming the center of attention. Her shoulder length sandy hair, complete with bangs that nearly covered her eyes, was cut to blend in with the hair styles worn by hundreds of other coeds on campus. She wore simple clothes, plain blue jeans that weren’t tight and a slightly overlarge sweatshirt. Everything about her was selected to look average. Shy by nature and plain by intent, she managed to disappear into the background.

From her seat in the back corner of the room, she watched the door waiting for ‘Him’ to arrive. Even in her thoughts, there were quotes around the word him. As far as she was concerned, Sid was the sexiest man she had ever seen. His military posture conveyed a manliness that took her breath away. His Mediterranean features and excellent physique caused a reaction between her legs that spoke of sexual desire. When he answered a question in his intense manner, she wanted to faint.

It was easy to tell when Sid entered the classroom. The other women in the class raced to the desks around the one where he normally sat. Almost as one, they all turned their heads to watch him move through the room. Cynthia lowered her head as if to examine her desktop. From the corner of her eye, she watched him enter and take a seat. Her heart raced at the sight of him, but she cursed her shyness. This was as close as she was going to get to him.

Sid looked around the room and examined the women crowded around his desk. There were fewer women fighting for seats near his than a week ago. Apparently, a number of his admirers didn’t appreciate his description of his ideal woman. At least the ones sitting near him were not showing off their navels with metal piercings. He sighed and thought of Sally Caretaker. Three more weeks before he could see her again.

Professor Susan Smith entered the classroom carrying a stack of papers and stood in front of the class for a moment. Rather than call the roll, she handed out the papers without saying a word. Sid accepted his paper and stared at it. There was a grade of A-plus and a single comment written across the top, ‘I completely disagree with your conclusion.’ Puzzled, he watched her hand out the rest of the papers wondering why she disagreed with him. Sid focused on the lecture putting the strange comment out of his mind.

The class passed quickly and without incident. The lecture covered the topic of the paper, contrasting the Wife of Bath with Queen Guinevere of King Arthur fame. She made all the same points in her lecture that he had made in his paper. After making the next assignment, she dismissed class.

Sid waited for the classroom to clear before stepping over to the desk. Standing at parade rest, he looked at the instructor and asked, “Was there a problem with my paper, Professor Smith?”

“I had a question about it,” replied the woman as she studied her favorite student. His paper was the best she had ever received from a student, but she was confused by his conclusion. It was the first time one of her students had argued that Guinevere was a total failure as a wife. Very puzzled, she looked up at him and asked, “Was Guinevere really that bad of a woman?”

“Of course,” answered Sid as though shocked that someone could argue otherwise.

“Why?”

“She failed her duties and responsibilities as wife and queen,” replied Sid surprised that she didn’t understand why he answered in the manner that he had. He added, “She was the reason Camelot fell.”

Professor Smith sat back and thought about his answer. It had the kind of absolute judgment about duty and honor she had come to expect from the young man. She asked, “What about her love for Sir Lancelot?”

“What about it? She should have sought out an alternative solution to her love that wouldn’t bring down the kingdom,” answered Sid.

“She had no choice,” replied Professor Smith. Changing tactics, she asked, “What about Lancelot?”

“He was just as derelict in his duty to king and country,” answered Sid with his back straight and jaw thrust forward. The idea of the knight undermining the authority of his king by putting him in a position of cuckold was far more repugnant than he could express. In many ways, he blamed Lancelot for his actions more than he blamed Guinevere.

“They were driven to their actions by love. They had no choice.”

“There is always a choice,” answered Sid. The behaviorists talked about fight or flight as the two fundamental choices of all animals when faced with danger. Humans with their desire for perfect solutions often forgot that the majority of solutions to problems were imperfect. An imperfect solution was not necessarily an unacceptable solution and an acceptable choice did not necessarily mean happiness.

“You believe that?”

“It’s the sixth Fact of Life,” replied Sid with a curt nod.

“Name one choice that she had,” charged Professor Smith expecting him to name the trivial choice of doing nothing about her love for Sir Lancelot.

Sid was silent as he considered the number of choices that she had. Finally, he said, “She could have told Arthur of her desires. He loved Sir Lancelot, and would not have stood in their way. He might even have invited Sir Lancelot to share their bed.”

His answer surprised Professor Susan Smith. She did not think that Sid was the type who would think that a reasonable solution. She asked, “Are you saying that they could have had a threesome?”

“Why not?”

“And you would have a better opinion of Guinevere if she had done that?” asked Susan.

“Of course. All three of them could have upheld their duties and responsibilities to each other and the kingdom,” answered Sid. With a smile as he thought about his answer in context of the story, he said, “Of course, it would have been a very different kind of story.”

She thought for a moment about his previous answer. Earlier in the semester, he had stated the first and second facts of life. Now, he had stated what he called the sixth fact of life. Curious about what might be the third fact of life, she asked, “What’s the third fact of life?”

“Physics rules the universe and biology rules life,” answered Sid.

Wondering where he had gotten his Facts of Life, Professor Susan Smith chose not to pursue the topic. She decided it would be a better topic for another time.

Instead, she said, “Thank you.”

Professor Susan Smith watched Sid leave the classroom with interest. Once he was gone, she opened her notebook and wrote down his facts of life. He was the first individual whom she had met who viewed the facts of life as something more than a lecture about ‘the birds and the bees.’ The semester wasn’t even half over and she was contemplating inviting a student to her house.

After leaving his English class, Sid went to his American History I class. For the first time, he went into the class anticipating the lecture rather than viewing it as a necessary duty that had to be performed. His single experience in Chaos had given him a much deeper appreciation of a subject that had been a burdensome requirement.

He listened to the subject matter with a new perspective, namely one that focused on how people worked and lived. The mention of pottery reminded him of the clay field that he had seen worked while on Chaos. He wondered if he had made a mistake by taking American History 1 rather than World History 1. The latter course covered an earlier period of human history and probably dealt with technologies closer to Chaos than the former.

After his history class ended, Sid went to the student center to eat lunch before he was to work in the library. Grabbing a burger and fries, he went over to a table and sat down. Opening his notebook, he read his notes from class while eating. He had been assigned another paper in history and he considered what would be necessary to address the assigned topic.

Concentrating on his notes while absently eating his fries, he was not immediately aware that he had company at his table. His visitor, Cynthia Johnson, couldn’t believe that she had actually gathered the necessary courage to sit down at the table with him. This was so unlike anything she had ever done in her entire life.

Summoning the last of her courage, she said, “Excuse me.”

Surprised to learn that he had a dining companion, Sid looked up at the plain woman. His eyes flicked over her face, down to her body, and back to her face without recognizing her. He couldn’t help but wonder what she could possibly want from him.

In as polite of a voice as he could muster, he said, “Hello.”

“I want to be like her,” stammered Cynthia, the words tumbling out of her mouth. She couldn’t believe that she had actually managed to get the whole sentence out. At his confused expression that crossed his face, her cheeks turned red. In an attempt to clarify what she was talking about, she added, “You know, her, the one you told us about in class.”

Still not sure what she was talking about, he cautiously replied, “Okay. I’m glad to hear that. What is it that you want of me?”

“I want you to teach me how to be like that perfect woman,” said Cynthia in a very soft voice. She had reached the end of her courage and looked around the student center for a second preparing to flee the table.

“I don’t know if I can,” replied Sid surprised by the request once he realized what she was asking of him. His eyes flicked over her trying to imagine the plain woman dressed and acting like Sally. She would never be the same as Sally, but there was potential present in the woman.

“If you can’t, then maybe she can,” countered Cynthia.

“I don’t think that is possible,” said Sid thinking about the possibility of taking the woman to Crossroads. He wondered if he had been unwise in describing Sally Caretaker to the class. He recalled the gossip about his uncle and his references to Elizabeth.

The idea that Sid thought it was impossible for her to become like his ideal woman was crushing for poor Cynthia. At the thought of how he must view her, a sudden flood of tears filled her eyes. Deciding that she had made enough of a fool of herself, Cynthia stood and fled the room leaving behind a very startled Sid Jones.

Sid had no idea that his reply to her request to have Sally help her had been misinterpreted. Her sudden flight forced Sid to consider how difficult it had been for her to approach him. He understood that she was shy. She was, in her own way, a damsel in distress. Her plight touched his heroic side and he wondered what he could do about it.

As Sid sat eating the rest of his meal, he wondered about the rules concerning Crossroads and if they were as restrictive as Sally had told him. Then he realized that he didn’t really know the rules of Crossroads. There were a lot of things that he didn’t know. Why were the women so willing to risk their lives on Chaos? Why had Jennifer and Sally been so happy about the pregnancy? Why had Jennifer had to leave so suddenly? Thinking about it, he realized that the next visit was going to be spent getting answers to his questions about Crossroads.

Sid returned home from school and wandered around the house feeling frustrated by his thoughts about Crossroads and Chaos. Entering the study, he recalled the notebook that had been in the safe with the letter instructing him how to enter the portal. Curious about the information contained within it, he went to the safe and removed the notebook.

Sitting down at the desk, he proceeded to examine the journal very carefully. It appeared as if it had been constructed from three different notebooks that were bound together to form the journal. Each part utilized a different texture paper with different distances between the lines. In a few places, pages had been ripped out as though his uncle had chosen to destroy them rather than allow others to read what he had written.

The first part of the journal described how Gerald had been engaged in a brutal firefight with Japanese soldiers on Kwajalein Island and how he had killed a particularly brave man. The man had gone down protecting his fellow soldiers in a desperate last stand at the naval base. On searching the body, Gerald had found a diary and, deciding that he wanted to know more about the brave fellow, had kept it. It took him a year to decipher the writing, but what he discovered had amazed him. Inside the diary were detailed instructions on how to create a portal to another world.

The instructions for creating the portal were deceptively simple. On a sheet of glass in a door frame of sufficient size to step through, the builder was to place thin films of various metals electronically isolated from each other. The layers were to be of gold, aluminum, tin, platinum, copper, and zinc in that order with a final layer to be made of electrum. According to the diary, passing through the frame with a blue sapphire of sufficient size would send a signal through the ether to the machinery of a distant planet. The machinery would cause the immediate transferal of the individual passing through the frame to the distant planet.

The instructions were sketchy and lacked a scientific explanation of how it worked. The journal did say that the glass could be mounted inside of an appropriate cover to be hidden from view. Curious, Sid went to the closet door and examined the entry to the closet carefully. From what he could see, it was clear that Gerald must have put the glass frame inside the door frame.

The middle part of the journal described a set of experiments that Gerald had performed in trying to transport things with him to Crossroads. All of his attempts to take weapons across the portal failed with Gerald ending up in Crossroads and, as he discovered on his return, the weapons remaining on the floor of the closet. He had been able to take his clothes and papers, but nothing mechanical, metallic or electrical in nature. Sid did notice that his uncle had never tried to take another person through the portal with him.

In reading the journal, Sid was surprised to learn that there had been occasions when Gerald had not been able to go through the portal. Most of these occasions were when he was ill or became ill within a few days of the attempt. This convinced him that the original inhabitants of Crossroads had put in a failsafe to prevent the spread of diseases across the planets. The other time had been after Gerald took a prescription with the side effect of erectile dysfunction. When his ability to perform sexually had returned, he was allowed through the portal without a problem.

There was also a warning that attempting to stay in Crossroads would have very nasty consequences. Gerald described how trying to stay even a few minutes after the damsel had left had resulted in difficulty breathing, headaches, nausea, and cramps. Staying more than five minutes was too long. On one occasion, Elizabeth had to push him through the portal because he was unable to make his way on his own.

Sid had not been aware of the need to leave so quickly on his last visit. He had left feeling a little unsettled at how abruptly Sally had sent him on his way. The realization that it was a rule of Crossroads rather than a desire on her part was very comforting. It confirmed his belief that the relationship developing between them was more than just a passing thing.