At first, Mandy simply hadn't come to work.
Coworkers couldn't reach her by phone. Her close friends contacted Mandy's parents—no word from them either.
This went on for days.
So some coworkers went to Mandy's apartment. The door was opened by Mandy's boyfriend. That tall guy. Only then did they learn that three days ago, Mandy had suddenly packed a suitcase and walked out. No word since.
Coworkers wondered if Mandy had come to the neighboring city to find me, but I couldn't reach her either. Phone and WeChat—dead silence on the other end.
I bought a train ticket home, pressing my coworkers for any other leads. One of them seemed to remember something and told me that her boyfriend said Mandy had left saying she was going back to her original universe. He said she'd seemed a bit unstable.
I put away my phone and watched the night scenery streak past the window.
I still remembered how Mandy had described parallel universes to me so many times. Calm, matter-of-fact. Like sharing a secret she'd long since come to terms with.
When she talked about it, she couldn't possibly have been in any kind of unstable state.
Her boyfriend was lying.
Why would he lie?
XVI
Back in the city, at 505, I met her boyfriend. The tall guy.
He invited me in warmly. I pushed past him and stormed through the apartment. Ignoring his protests, I searched every corner.
Nothing.
His warmth faded. He looked at me coldly and said: "What do you think I did?"
I said: "Where's Mandy?"
He said: "I told you, I don't know."
An ordinary night. Mandy suddenly grabbed her suitcase, said she was going back to her original universe, walked out of 505, and vanished.
That was the only thing he'd told me since.
XVII
I reported her missing and put up flyers. But Mandy remained unreachable.
To find her, I went to her hometown.
I went to the small grove she'd described.
The grove was just as she'd described—lush with foliage. I even found a patch of dry grass with a shoeprint, as though she'd visited recently.
I went to her school and found her old homeroom teacher.
From the teacher, I heard about the UFO all over again.
The teacher told me a lot—how the UFO had been discovered, what it looked like when the townspeople found it.
That UFO was still here.
I froze: "What?"
The teacher took me to see the UFO.
Yes, that evening in 1999, she really had witnessed an unidentified flying object.
And in the morning of 2012, she packed her suitcase, walked out of 505, and truly intended to go back to her original universe.
XVIII
I returned to the city and stood once more at the door of 505. This time, no matter how I knocked, no one answered.
That was when I noticed the half-torn ad on the door.
A locksmith's ad.
The locksmith opened the door. The tall guy sat in the living room, looking at me in terror.
After sending the locksmith away, I closed the door behind me.
He threatened to call the police. I smiled: "Go ahead. The nearest station is twenty minutes away. Twenty minutes is enough for me to do a lot."
A series of muffled thuds. He howled in pain, slumped on the floor, and finally confessed the truth about Mandy's disappearance.
It was not an ordinary night.
He had a habit of domestic violence. He knew it was wrong. Every time, he'd apologize sincerely to Mandy. He'd even kneel on the ground and bow.
That night, after hitting her, he apologized and wanted to be intimate with her.
Mandy refused to accept his apology. She said no.
This enraged him. So he forced her, pinning her by the neck, and made her do it.
The next morning, she packed her suitcase to leave. He knelt on the ground again, begging her to stay. But Mandy said: when he was choking her, he looked just like the alien she'd seen in the grove.
Mandy said she had to go back to her own universe.
After that, he genuinely didn't know where Mandy had gone.
In the living room, I crouched on the floor, staring at him expressionlessly. He was battered and bruised. I looked worse than him—cuts and bruises everywhere. But I kept staring, and I saw fear creep into his eyes.
I said: "Get out. This is my and Mandy's apartment. You're not welcome here."
XIX
As for where Mandy actually went—I knew he was still lying.
In the trash, I found takeout orders for two.
If he hadn't still wanted to apologize to Mandy, to seek her forgiveness, to make this incident blow over easily—he would have moved out of 505 long before my first visit.
I stood at the door of 506. I used the key I'd found to open it.
Pushing open that door was like pushing through the barrier of a parallel universe.
In the bare concrete apartment, Mandy was huddled in the corner, looking up at me.
I still remembered that time working overtime at the office, when she'd said that for a moment, I looked like the alien she'd seen. Then I didn't anymore.
I hadn't understood at the time.
There was a lot I still didn't understand, right up until today.
Why seeing a UFO and an alien meant she'd entered a strange parallel universe.
Why going back to her original universe meant she had to smoke and hang out with tough girls.
Why her boyfriend choking her and forcing himself on her would make her think of the alien in the grove all over again.
Why she insisted on the delusion of UFOs and aliens.
Why she had to live well, even in a strange world.
I stood in 506, facing Mandy.
She wept and said: "Sam, I want to go back to my own universe so badly. I really want to go back to my own universe."
I said: "I'll stay with you from now on."
At her old school, the UFO that the homeroom teacher showed me was on a magazine cover. It was the cover of a 1999 issue of "Science Fiction World."
They'd tracked down the owner of the magazine. A migrant worker who'd come to the area for labor.
That evening in the grove, the flickering light had been the glow of the migrant worker's cigarette.
Mandy was such a silly girl. The UFO she'd seen was a magazine that the migrant worker had tossed onto the dry grass after undoing his belt. She was pinned to the ground. The flying saucer on that cover looked half the size of a school building, glowing blue.
But I didn't want to tell her that.
"In 1999, you saw a UFO—which was a real UFO." I held her and said it like that. A genuine UFO.
"If any more UFOs come to Earth, I'll shoot them down for you."
With a cannon.
With a rocket.
With my fists.
On December 21, 2012, I held Mandy in my arms.
The end of the world never came.