Auntie Matters (short story)
Auntie Matters was a short story set in the Parallax Universe and featuring recurring characters from that setting.
Contents
Plot
One day Eric found an unfamiliar woman in the hall outside his apartment carrying a strange device. He tried to engage her in conversation (and find out more about her toy); she told him that she was looking for her niece, who “has been here, or she will be. It’s hard to tell with her.” Observing that the woman was a tall blonde, he made the incorrect guess that she was looking for Kim and sent her up to apartment eight. Eric loitered one floor below, listening, until the visitor was bodily knocked down the stairs. She scrambled away fast enough to avoid Kim, who paused long enough to tell Eric to warn Jenny and David that “a Nowhere is here!”
When Kim came down the stairs the Jenny Nowhere shot her several times, but was struck hard enough to project her out the door onto the sidewalk. Things were going badly so the intruder ran for her motorcycle and tried to escape, only to find Kim pursuing her on foot. She was then tackled from the side by a man she’d not seen coming, spilling her onto the street. Realizing that she was outnumbered, she opened a dimensional portal and shifted away.
David remarked that it was all very dramatic and Kim gave him a brief explanation; they both agreed that none of this should be going on in broad daylight on a public street. As they tidied up, they noticed the bike had a license plate from no place in their universe.
Worldbuilding
Jenny Nowhere
- This Jenny Nowhere once agreed not to harm her niece, but still carries an ongoing grudge against her sister. (PROSE: Family Business)
- As described by Professor Awesome, this Jenny Nowhere “was a tall blonde white woman, with a magazine model figure, who was wearing dark sunglasses on a not very bright day.” The similarity to his neighbor Kim is coincidental, but make his guess reasonable.
Universes
The story takes place in the default universe of Scott Sanford's Jenny Everywhere stories.
Continuity
- Kim and her Jenny met a different Jenny Nowhere earlier, explaining her rather vigorous reaction to this one. (PROSE: Parallax.)
- Jenny Nowhere says her niece has been, or will be, in the building. This is consistent with events reported in other stories. (PROSE: Preludes and Knick-Knacks, etc.)
- The motorcycle has Wintlevania plates; character dialog reveals this is not a place in their universe.
Behind the scenes
Read online
The story is available on the author's Dreamwidth website.
