December 27, 2:26 p.m., in front of the Laser Quest.

Rafael was walking up and down the sidewalk in the vain hope of warming up. He had been waiting for his uncle for almost thirty minutes and the cold had slowly penetrated his clothes to the point of freezing his bones. He glanced at his cell phone for the umpteenth time with no more success than before. No message, and when he tried to call Leonard, it went straight to voice mail. The battery in his uncle's phone must have run out again, he had always been absent-minded.

Rafael could have waited inside, of course, but the appointment had been given outside, in front of the Laser Quest. He had always been reluctant to go back on his word, even for such minor things. The others usually didn't realize how consistent he was, not to mention imitating him. In another time he would have been called a man of honor, in today's world, he wasn't much more than a plain stubborn.

At half-past two, a laughing gang of young people passed by him and rushed into the building. That was too much! Leonard would not show himself. He must have been lost in an old book, or rewriting his damn thesis from cover to cover...

Rafael grabbed his motorcycle helmet and slammed it down on his head. He straddled his bike, revved the engine, and headed home. He had gotten this Honda Roadster the year before, when he had just passed his motorcycle license. A gift for his eighteenth birthday. He loved the thrill when riding it, especially when there was a girl behind to hold onto him. He pushed that thought away as quickly as it had come. Do not think about her!

He was still cold, but having a destination kept him from dwelling on that feeling. He sped through the city, slicing through the air like a knife, zigzagging between cars. It didn't take him long to get to the house he shared with his parents.

Once the motorcycle was safely in the garage, he hurried to the kitchen with only one thought on his mind: a good hot chocolate. He was greeted by the smell of cinnamon and ginger, his mother and Tiffany were making gingerbread. The first ones were already baking, and the two women were now working on a second batch. Rafael wondered who they were going to fatten up with so many cakes... they certainly didn't imagine that he and his father would eat all that?

"What are you doing here?" his mother Alice asked as she noticed him. "Weren't you supposed to go to Laser Quest with your uncle?"

"He wasn't there," Rafael replied. "And I couldn't get him on the phone."

His mother raised her eyebrows in surprise. "It's not like him to miss an appointment, something must have happened..."

Rafael shrugged indifferently, his annoyance already forgotten now that he was back inside. "He must have stumbled upon an old -revolutionary- book," he said as he grabbed the chocolate powder. "He'll call me back in a day or two to apologize."

Alice shook her head with authority. "No, I don't like that. It's been months since he's visited, so much so that I didn't even think he'd show up for Christmas! Besides, I thought he looked pretty pale... You should go to his apartment, bring him some gingerbread and see what's up with him. I'll give you the spare keys just in case, maybe he's sick."

Rafael opened his mouth to protest, then closed it soon after. He didn't want to go out again, but, when his mother had that tone, arguing with her was like banging his head against a wall. At least it would keep him from brooding about his ex in his room.

Meanwhile, Tiffany had just put on oven mitts to take the first loaf of gingerbread out of the oven. They looked delicious and Rafael couldn't help but salivate.

"Look at that," Alice said, proud of her niece. "A true cordon bleu! This young lady will make a man happy you can believe me."

Tiffany responded to the compliment with a shy smile, but Rafael thought she seemed more embarrassed than flattered. It was understandable, one could not say that she had had a good example with her parents... He snatched a slice of gingerbread, filled himself a mug of hot chocolate, then headed for the living room table. "Give me a moment to do quality control on these cakes and I'll check on Leonard," he answered finally.

Rafael's mother laughed. "It's not even three o'clock in the afternoon. You're just like all men, you have a hole in your stomach!"

Thirty minutes later, Rafael was warm and full. Ready to face the winter cold again.

The women had just baked their third and final batch of gingerbread and were busy cleaning the kitchen when Rafael's phone started to ring. He greeted the sound with gratitude, it must have been his uncle. That meant he wouldn't have to travel to his apartment. Rafael grabbed the device to take the call without checking who it was.

"Hello, Rafael?"

"Ah, it's you..." blurted Rafael. It wasn't Leonard but Jay, his best friend from high school.

"Hey, hide your joy. What's the bother, are you with a girl?" returned Jay.

"No, of course not," Rafael said with a frown. "You know I'm not seeing anyone right now."

"Perfect." A clattering sound. "Uh, I mean, how about hanging out then?"

Rafael thought for a moment before answering, "I have to stop by my uncle's apartment, let's meet up there. We'll have a drink afterward."

"Okay, great." Jay's voice grew more hesitant. "Uh, you told me Tiffany was spending the vacations at your house, right? Do you think she'd want to come?"

Rafael held back an amused smile. Jay had never said it openly but he'd had a soft spot for his cousin for a long time. His friend had been unlucky so far. With Tiffany's family problems, circumstances had never really allowed him to make a move.

"Okay buddy, I'll talk to her about it," Rafael promised.

"Great, you're the best," Jay exclaimed. "I knew I could count on you!"

"I'll send you the address and we'll meet there in half an hour," Rafael replied with a smile.

On the other end of the line, he heard the crash of a chair hitting the floor, followed by the rustle of someone whispering.

"Jay? What's going on? It sounds like you're not alone..."

No answer. The communication had already been cut off and Rafael was talking in a vacuum.

Weird, I hope he doesn't have problems with his father again.

Jay didn't have the easiest of home lives. His parents were Muslim and had emigrated from India to escape the violence against them. His father had opened a successful restaurant but he had never come to terms with having to leave his country, nor had he been able to adapt to Western culture. He had always been a devout Muslim who followed the Koranic prescriptions to the letter, except that he started to drink... a lot. This made him violent, and Jay and his mother were often the victims.

Rafael wanted to help him, but he didn't know how. He felt powerless. Jay would have had to find a job in order to move out. Easier said than done, studies took up most of their time. Moreover, it was almost impossible to find a job without a degree these days, even a low pay one.

There was still one thing he could do for him though. Rafael stood up and headed to the kitchen, "Hey Tiffany, that gingerbread was tasty!"

"Thanks," his cousin replied with a smile that showed her dimples.

"How about a ride on the motorcycle? You'd be doing me a favor. I don't want to go to Leonard's by myself, he might knock me out with all his shamanism talk."

Tiffany hesitated and turned to Rafael's mother to question her with her eyes. Alice nodded: "Yes, of course my dear. It will do you good to get out of the house, and you can give the gingerbread yourself. There's nothing wrong with being flattered when you've cooked well."

"Okay then," Tiffany replied. "You won't go too fast, okay?"

"Don't worry," Rafael reassured her, "you'll love it!"

December 27, 4:04 p.m., in front of Leonard's building.

Rafael was impatiently walking up and down the sidewalk. He had left too early again. Yet he knew that Jay was always late! No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't help but arrive five minutes early. It was almost a disease. He hoped he wouldn't have to wait half hour once more...

Tiffany, leaning against the wall of the building, was waiting with an Olympian calm. She had wrapped herself up warmly with a scarf and mittens that she knitted herself from fancy wool. It was Rafael's mother who had taught her.

The motorcycle trip had gone well. After the first moment of fear, when Tiffany clung to Rafael with all her might, she relaxed and enjoyed the ride. Of course, he hadn't been able to see her face as they rode, but she'd come down with a smile and shining eyes. That was all he needed to know.

It was ten past four when Jay finally turned the corner. He was a little shorter than Rafael, but also more muscular. Black hair, brown eyes, Indian type, he wore a t-shirt that proudly proclaimed "professional gamer" and an impressive beard given his age.

Jay flashed a smile at Tiffany and waved at Rafael, "Sorry man, the bus was late..."

Rafael barely listened to what he was saying, all focused on his friend's face. He sported a black eye, and his left side was all swollen. "By all the gods, Jay, what happened to you?" shouted Rafael.

Tiffany rushed over to him as well and put her hand on his cheek as if her touch could soothe Jay's wound. Perhaps it did, for the young man suddenly seemed more serene, and his gaze tender.

"It's nothing," Jay said in a falsely casual tone. "A dumb accident, in a week it'll be fully healed."

"Your father's the dumb one," said a feminine voice from behind him.

A young woman had just turned the corner in her turn. She sported a slightly disgusted pout that, along with the shine of her copper-blond hair and a light touch of makeup, made her look like a supermodel. Despite the cold, her cleavage revealed a triangle of velvety skin and the birth of a well-rounded chest.

Ilona!

"One day, you might end up in the hospital," added the pretty blonde. "You should report him to the police..."

Jay shook his head in denial. "So my mom and I end up on the street? Believe me, if I could do otherwise I wouldn't hesitate."

Rafael snapped out of his momentary torpor. It was Ilona, his ex-girlfriend, the very girl who had left him at the beginning of the fall without bothering to offer any explanation. He took a deep breath, repressed the tumult of his feelings that threatened to overwhelm him, and asked as firmly as he could, "Ilona, what are you doing here?"

Jay moved closer to him to whisper in his ear, "Sorry, man. She just showed up at my house out of the blue. She wanted to see you again. And you know how hot she gets when she wants something, so I didn't want to get in the way..."

Rafael let out a sigh. With everything his friend was going through from his father, he didn't want to throw the stone at him, but really... he would have been fine without seeing his ex. He had enough trouble forgetting her as it was!

Ilona did not answer him. She just stood there, a few steps away from him, looking embarrassed. As if she had not expected him to ask her this question and that she did not know the answer herself. Rafael's eyes unintentionally lingered on the curves of his ex's body. He had always been sensitive to her beauty. Who wouldn't be? But then his reason returned. She had left him, abandoned him like a piece of shit. He couldn't forget her betrayal.

"Well," said Tiffany to break the heavy silence that had set in. "Shall we go upstairs?"

No one objected. They entered, took the stairs, and the four friends soon found themselves in front of the door of Leonard's apartment.

Rafael knocked, then rang the bell, but nothing happened. Finally, he took out the spare key his mother had given him and opened the door himself.

"Uncle Leonard?" he asked loudly as he walked down the hall.

Only silence answered him. He continued and entered the main room.

"Uncle?" he asked again.

Rafael was getting worried. He had really thought he was going to find his uncle here, with his nose buried in an old book. He would have apologized for missing the appointment, and everything would have been over. He went to look in the bedroom, in case Leonard was asleep, or sick as his mother had assumed. He wasn't there either, so Rafael returned to the living room.

His friends had entered after him and were now exploring the main room. There was a lot to see! The furniture, and even the floor, were covered with a jumble of dusty books, flyers, and newspaper clippings. The table was buried under a mountain of papers of all kinds, the only thing emerging from this ocean was an old bright red rotary phone.

Rafael had a strange feeling in his stomach, it was not normal. He took out his phone and tried to call Leonard again. It went to voice mail once more. His eyes roamed the room, not knowing where to land. What to do? What could have happened to his uncle?

"No news?" asked Jay.

Rafael shook his head in dismay.

"Let's search the room, we'll surely find some clues," continued his friend whimsically.

He seemed to enjoy playing detective. And, after all, why not? Maybe they'd find something that would help them find his whimsical uncle. Other than going to the police, who would do nothing, he didn't know what else to do. Rafael nodded at Jay who immediately began to examine the shelves through an imaginary magnifying glass, which earned him a laugh from Tiffany. Ilona shrugged her shoulders, glanced enigmatically at Rafael, then walked over to a pile of old books.

Doing his best not to think about the pretty blonde, Rafael grabbed a paper at random and started to read. Nothing interesting. A flyer for a Christmas charity event at the local church. He didn't know his uncle still practiced. He had never struck him as a devout Catholic... Rafael put the flyer down. As he did so, he spotted a flash of light near the telephone. He lifted the sheets that were blocking his view and discovered a beautiful brass mirror pendant. His uncle must have brought it back from one of his trips. It looked very precious.

He examined the jewelry more closely and felt a vortex, a force of attraction that sought to suck him in. He instinctively resisted and the phenomenon disappeared immediately as if nothing had happened. Rafael looked in the direction of Jay and the girls, but they hadn't noticed.

Too weird.

Disturbed by the idea of leaving such a precious object lying around, Rafael discreetly put the pendant around his neck, and under his clothes. He could spend more time examining it later. Suddenly, Jay's voice startled him: "Hey, what's that?"

Rafael turned around abruptly with a guilty look on his face, but Jay wasn't looking at him. He had found a picture frame with a photo showing Leonard and a tall, brown-haired woman in it. Rafael's uncle had a smile up to his ears and an arm around his companion's waist.

"You didn't tell me your uncle was such a seducer," Jay laughed. "She's not half bad for her age."

"Hmph, boor," grumbled Ilona.

"Don't worry girls," Jay added, completely oblivious. "You're way hotter than she is."

Ilona rolled her eyes in exasperation and ostensibly turned her back to him. Tiffany, for her part, didn't seem to know how to feel. She blushed at the compliment but managed to look offended at the same time.

"That's Paulina," Rafael replied, "I've seen her once or twice, she's a colleague of my uncle's. They go on trips together sometimes. He has a big crush on her, but I don't think it's mutual."

"Ah, too bad," Jay quipped, glancing thoughtfully at Tiffany. "I guess being an ethnologist isn't the best to attract girls."

Rafael ignored his remark and grabbed another paper, a newspaper clipping this time. It was an interview with a Nobel Prize winner in physics, Serge Bawberg.

- Hello, Dr. Bawberg. You are a physicist and you work in a particle accelerator. Can you tell us more about your job?

- Hello, so first of all this is not just any particle accelerator. This is a state-of-the-art collider! It allows us to test our hypotheses on string theory, and thus to advance our knowledge about relativity and quantum mechanics.

- It all seems very complicated to me. Could you simplify your findings for our readers?

- Of course, in essence, we can say that we are studying the nature of reality. Realities, in fact, because our experiments have recently provided evidence that there are several dimensions parallel to ours.

- Really? It's like being in a science fiction book! Does this mean that we could travel to parallel worlds through some kind of portal?

- Well, maybe. For the first time, we have been able to use a collider to tear apart the very fabric of our reality and connect to another dimension. This has allowed us to discover a new particle that emit previously unknown radiation. This is a real revolution that turns our conception of space-time upside down and which will undoubtedly lead to new fundamental equations. It is too early to say how we could access these other worlds, it would indeed be great to create portals. Only time, and a lot of work, will allow us to discover if this is possible.

- This is all very fascinating, Dr. Bawberg. This is without a doubt the greatest discovery since Einstein's theory of relativity and I can't wait to see the practical applications.

Rafael raised his head. The greatest discovery since the theory of relativity? It sounded familiar... but no, it didn't make sense. His uncle was an ethnologist, what was he doing with quantum physics articles in his apartment?

"Find anything?" asked Jay, who had just popped up beside him.

"Nothing at all," replied Rafael, "I think we'd better..."

A shrill noise interrupted him. All eyes suddenly turned to the same spot on the table. The four friends held their breath, waiting motionless until the same shrill noise sounded again.

"Damn it," Jay exclaimed. "You're not going to tell me it's in working order?"

It was the red rotary phone ringing.