The following day, Connie kept watch from her kitchen window for the gate to swing open on the backyard fence. To help pass the time, she positioned a stool near the window so she could sit and read while waiting for the signal that Arden was situated.

Finally, mid-morning, the gate opened. Arden seemed to look a little better, more relaxed. He had a broad smile. When he saw Connie, his eyes welled, and he wiped at the tears. "Sorry," he said.

And then her tears fell.

"We have to stop meeting like this," she blubbered.

He laughed, a generous, warm laugh as they continued wiping their eyes. "Are you a little less angry with me today?"

"A little less. You might even be growing on me. Are you feeling better?" Connie was trying, not very successfully, to find her everyday tone.

"Yes, I am. Quite a bit. Thank you. I should be back to normal in a few more days. I've asked them to stay inside while we talk," he gestured with his head toward the house. "Eneko will come out and get me in a little while. They're being overly protective, but I'll let them do that for now. Pria told me she started to tell you about Dahria. I'm guessing you're finding the idea of Dahria somewhat preposterous."

"That would be putting it mildly. But I'll try to suspend my disbelief, at least for a while, and hear you out. It's actually quite fascinating, even if it is a fairy tale."

"I thought that today, I'd let you start. If there are any questions you want me to answer, I could start there rather than rambling on. I have a reputation of being long-winded at times," he grinned.

"Pria talked about the Rivening, she called it, when Dahria was formed. And said it happened around the time when the size of human settlements started accelerating, and all that brought with it in some places. That's about where we stopped. What does that have to do with Dahria? I hear you're the big expert."

"First, to be precise, Earthside and Dahria were formed at the same time. It was a splitting of the life that began on our planet billions of years ago. It was a dividing, not a creation of one or the other."

Connie shook her head, "So plants, animals, people, everything was duplicated?"

"Yes, and all that is inanimate as well."

"Mountains? Oceans?"

"Yes, of course. I know. Hard to grasp."

"So Dahria looks the same?"

"Yes. The big pieces do like oceans, mountains, canyons, lakes, rivers are largely the same, though we haven't controlled the rivers as much as you have. Much less farmland, and Dahria has no large, dense urban settlements, no tall buildings. We estimate that we have maybe 1/100th of the population of Earthside."

"What?!? Really? Why is that?"

"After the Rivening, the two realms evolved differently. Tradition has it that Dahria became a haven for enslaved people fleeing from Earthside who wanted lives without warfare or overlord hierarchies. Over time, their ways became the dominant Dahrian culture. Some of our most popular myths involve peace-loving Dahrians kidnapping and dragging any warmongers through a passage and dumping them one at a time on Earthside. How much that happened, I don't know. But a kind of ethos formed around the idea..."

Connie broke in, and spoke sharply, "But wait, wait. I still don't get it. One, one hundredth of our population!?! What's that? Like 80 million people in total around the world? What do you do? Prevent women from having babies?"

Arden smiled, "No, Connie. If anything, it's been the opposite. About 100 years ago, our global council realized populations were starting to shrink. Now we keep a closer track so that doesn't happen. And most of the domains seem to have found a good equilibrium."

"Really? No big families anywhere?"

"Sure. But what defines a family is different in most places in Dahria. It's not just based on bloodlines. Our cultures are more fluid. We move around a lot, especially in our younger years. Children have many mothers and fathers. And, of course, women's situation evolved VERY differently."

"Ah, so not the same pressures to breed children to work the land."

"Exactly. Or to ensure hereditary bloodlines."

"Wow, okay. That's all interesting to contemplate. So how does Dahria work? Everyone still hunting and gathering and living in caves?"

"Hardly," Arden chuckled. "You will find life quite comfortable in Dahria, but the human footprint is tiny compared to Earthside."

"So, all New Age-y, back to nature."

"We never left nature. I'm not sure what New Age-y is but I'm sure you'll probably find some Dahrians who are. We have all sorts."

"Flush toilets? Showers?"

"Yes, Connie. Though slightly different technology."

"But why the big secret?"

"Much of Dahria remains pristine. We do work with metals, but not like here and with so many fewer people, mining has been minimal. If Dahria was known, all those deposits of precious metals still sitting readily available would see hoards clambering to get in from Earthside. There's no doubt that life in Dahria would be rapidly over-whelmed and destroyed."

"And climate change? I guess that's not an issue."

"Not in the least."

"Oh, wow. And I suppose everyone is all peace-loving in Dahria?"

Arden sighed, "Ah, I wish. We're still human after all."

"Okay, if this wonderland of Dahria does exist - and I remain on the fence about that - I still don't get how you've kept it such a big secret all this time."

"Moving back and forth through the passages is not easy. I assume that early on there was equal knowledge of the passages on both sides. But it's likely few people actually traversed between the realms. Eventually, especially on Earthside, the passages to Dahria became guarded knowledge. The purview of a select few. And Dahrians would have encouraged this secrecy."

"Hmm, well, I guess it's entertaining to speculate that could be the genesis of some of the sacred mysteries that have floated around. Portals to spirit worlds and all. But really, Arden, this sounds as wigged out as those ridiculous conjectures that the Nazca Lines in Peru were laid out by ancient aliens. Even pretending that what you say is true, it's still pretty far-fetched that Dahria's existence would become unknown on this side."

Arden nodded. "I get it, and it might have turned out differently if Dahrians hadn't figured out how to close the passages and were careful not to share this knowledge with Earthside. Eventually, maybe 2,000 years ago, only Dahrians knew the locations of the few passages that remained open."

"And only Dahrians went back and forth?"

"Eventually, yes. A long time ago, the crossings that Dahrians made to Earthside became somewhat 'institutionalized' you could say. Younger Dahrians, who have an easier time traversing, do short stints Earthside in order to keep an eye on what's going on and hopefully pick up on any threats to Dahria."

"And that's how you met my mother. Spying on us."

"That's right. And her notebook? It doesn't look like you brought it. I'm sure she was careful, but I want to know what she wrote, what exposure there might be about Dahria. It's important because if your stepfather read it and maybe others..."

"I will. Sorry, I forgot. Things came up yesterday afternoon. My neighbor, Jean, on the other side, had a stroke. Her daughter called me. Jean's stable now. I'm going to visit her this afternoon."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Are you close to her?"

"Not close close. We've become friends in sort of a beginning way. I want to help her however I can. She lives alone and her daughter lives on the other side of town. I know Angie and Nic will look after her. But I'm right here and can keep an eye on her place."

Arden glanced toward his house. "Eneko is waving. I feel fine. Do you want me to send him back and we can talk longer?"

"No, let's talk tomorrow. You should let Eneko take care of you. But I want to ask you one more thing. Is Eneko older or younger than me?"

Arden turned away from Connie, then looked back, "He's older. I don't know your birthday. But I'm guessing Eneko's about a year older than you."

"You do get around, don't you?"

"Connie...I know in everyone's eyes it was wrong of me to get involved with your mother. I lied to many people about it for a long time. But it wasn't wrong for Ida and me."