4-Out in the Trees

It's not here. After Elise woke up and Mabel had taken her out for a long walk and some girl talk, Dipper had ransacked the attic. Journal 3 was . . . gone.

Mabel had told him straight-out that she didn't recall his finding the hidden book. So that meant . . . wait, he couldn't remember it either. Yet he clearly saw in his mind an image of the maroon-bound book, the brass corner reinforcement, the odd six-fingered hand shape on the cover . . . because . . . um. Grunkle Ford had six fingers on each hand, of course he did.

So how do I know that?

I don't. WE do.

What was it called when a person had lots of different people in his head? Or when he didn't know who he was? Or which person he was?

It's called crazy. I feel like I'm losing my mind!

At six, he asked Wendy, "Do you have time to help me look for something?"

"Yeah, I guess so," she said genially. "Dad's off on a job, and my brothers can take care of themselves. 'Course tomorrow I'll have to clean the place top to bottom."

"I'll help you," Dipper blurted. "If you'll help me with this."

"Deal!" she said.

"Wait, let me look at your eyes."

"Huh?" She smiled. "Lean in and look close."

From three inches away he gazed into her beautiful green eyes. No sign of Cipher in there. "Beautiful," he said.

To his shock, Wendy put her palms on his cheeks and pushed in to kiss him on the lips. He pulled away and said, "That was great and all, but I'm—"

"Too old for me, I know," she said with a smile. "Let me change out of my scrubs and then we'll do whatever."

While she was doing that, Stan caught up with Dipper. "So what are you doin' now, kid?"

Dipper said, "Don't ask me that if you're really giving me the weekend to show you I'm telling the truth. Please."

"Ugh. I don't know the meaning of that word!"

Dipper looked him straight in the eye, too. "OK, so the Journals are books about this size by this size. A kind of reddish-brown color, brass corners, and the one I found has a brass-colored symbol of a hand with six fingers on the front—"

"Show me and maybe I'll believe you." Stan crossed his arms over his chest and scowled.

"I can't," Dipper said. "Not right now. I, uh—I think I haven't found it yet."

"Yeah, right. Ya got until Monday, kid. If you can't deliver some proof, then bye-bye. You're goin' straight back to your parents. And you know what that means."

"Uh—no."

Stan snorted threw his hands up, barked, "Kids!" and walked out.

As Wendy and Dipper set out from the Shack, Zeus called from the parking lot: "How'd she drive, Dipper?"

"Fine, man," he said.

"Good to hear!" Zeus drove away.

It was a fine bright afternoon, with a couple hours of clear daylight left, and then a lingering twilight. "Where are we going?" Wendy asked as they passed a round wooden platform.

He pointed. "What's that?"

"Huh? Oh, there's like a big old sinkhole there and Stan capped it off under there."

"The bottomless pit," Dipper said.

"That's what Stan called it, but you know, that's like impossible for it to be bottomless."

"Right," Dipper said. "Uh, you asked where we were going. I want to go into the woods."

"Cool! I love the woods." She took hold of his hand. "Uh, is this OK? I mean, sometimes the going is rough in there, and I don't want to stumble."

He held her hand, so warm and soft. "It's OK," he said. "So long as you don't expect, you know, romantic stuff. What we're looking for is a fake tree."

"Say that again."

"It looks like a tall pine, but it's made out of steel, I think. It's pretty close to the trail, not right against it, but not far. I mean, you can see the trunk from the trail, and that's why . . . um. I didn't nail up any signs in the woods this year, did I?"

"That first day? I remember Stan wanting some CLINIC THIS WAY signs put up with arrows to point the way. I didn't want to do it, and Mabel would have, but she gets lost, so Zeus went out with 'em."

"There's one," Dipper said, pointing to a tree that had a blue arrow sign tacked to it. They waded through the underbrush. "This is a real tree, though, and the sign's just nailed to it. It'll be a tree like this one."

A quarter of a mile along Wendy said, "Come to think of it, Dipper, that tree over there looks kind of fakey."

When they reached the trunk, Wendy knocked on it with her knuckles. It clanged. "You're right, man!" she said. "This is an imitation tree!"

"There's another one further in the woods," Dipper said. He frowned. How did he know that? Oh, yeah. In some other reality, they had . . . found . . . the Shapeshifter. He shivered a little. He wasn't ready for that yet.

Dipper ran his hands over the bark-like surface. "There's a hidden hatch somewhere. Help me find the outline."

They half-circled the trunk, their palms pressed against the tree. Dipper found what looked like a knothole. "I think this is where it opens. Push on the bark on that side."

Wendy leaned her weight onto the tree and moved inch by inch toward Dipper until they both heard a click. "Whoa! Something happened, man! I felt it give!"

"Got it!" Dipper pulled hard, and the compartment door creaked open on rusty hinges. As the hatch swiveled, dust sprinkled down and cobwebs swayed. They bumped heads as they leaned to look inside.

"Ow! Sorry, man!" Wendy said. "What is that? An old-timey radio or some biz?"

Dipper reached out and began to click the silver toggle switches. "One of these—"

"Over there!" Wendy said, pointing. "Like a trap door in the ground!"

They ran there and fell onto their knees on the grass. "This is it," Dipper said, reaching down to retrieve the dust-covered Journal 3. Bugs scuttled off it, and Dipper held it to the side to blow a cloud of dust off it.

"How'd you know this was even here?" Wendy asked.

"Somewhere in my head I remembered finding it the first day Mabel and I got to the Falls," he said. He closed his eyes. "Only in that memory we were both twelve and I had to go in the woods and nail up the signs. It makes me feel dizzy just to think about it!"

"What do we have?" Wendy asked.

Should I tell her? What if that screws up THIS time line?

After a moment, Dipper said, "This is an encyclopedia of all the weird stuff here in Gravity Falls. It's by an unknown Author, and this is just Volume 3. There are at least two more . . . somewhere. The point is it may give me a way to get out of this dimension and back to the one where I belong."

In turn, Wendy was quiet for a long time before finally, softly, she asked, "If you do that, will—will our Dipper remember—stuff?"

Dipper just stared at her. She looked . . . well, forlorn. "You mean about how, uh, you—and me, I mean—" he swallowed hard. "Wendy, I have to tell you something." He set down the Journal and reached to take both her hands in his. "The truth is that, no matter which dimension we're in—even ones where you don't think anything of me except as a friend—I guess that in every single one, I'm in love with you."

She threw herself forward and before he knew it, they were hugging tightly. "I won't let you forget," she said in his ear. "I know you're going to college in the fall and moving away from home, but no matter where you go or how long it takes, I'll find you and I won't let you forget me."

"I don't think I could ever forget you," Dipper said, feeling both their hearts beating fast. "And even if Grunkle Stan kicks me out, I'll come back to Gravity Falls every summer, and one day I won't be too old for you. I promise."

"Gonna hold you to that."

For a few moments Dipper and Wendy were a bit preoccupied. Then Dipper said, "Listen, will you do something for me?"

"Practically anything," Wendy said. "Just ask."

"If one day soon I . . . don't remember any of this, well—this is really important. Please, please make sure that I get this copy of Volume 3 back. It's going to be vital to me—to Mabel and Grunkle Stan and everybody, before the summer is over. And I think this weekend I need to go to another place in the woods, but it's dangerous, so I'll do that on my own—"

"You will not." They had risen from the grass and were sitting side by side on a fallen log. "I don't know what's going on, or why everything's so weird right now, or what's gonna happen, but I know I won't let you go into anything dangerous on your own. I'm your partner now."

"Couldn't ask for a better one," he said. He glanced at the sky. "I think we still have enough time. If you're not afraid, let's see if we can find the other fake tree. We'll need this book to get into it."

"What's this one gonna be?" she asked.

"It's called the Bunker," he said.

They found the second tree without too much difficulty. Dipper pointed upward. "That limb there, see? It works kind of like a lever, but getting up to it—"

"Dude, I can do it," Wendy said. "Wish I had my climbing belt and maybe an axe. Could we do this like Saturnsday? After the clinic hours end at noon?"

"That's the day after tomorrow, right?" Dipper asked. "Um this sounds nutty, but what are the days of the week?"

"For real?"

"Yeah. Please."

"Sunsday, Moonsday, Tuesday, Wenensday, Durbsday, Saturnday. Why?"

"See, in my head the only one of those that sounds the way I'm used to hearing it is Tuesday."

"Weird."

"Gravity Falls."

"What now, man?"

Dipper sighed. "Now . . . I need to read the Journal."

A little later, Wendy got on her bike and told him she'd see him in the morning, Dipper stood beside the porch and watched her ride away. When she paused before turning onto the highway to wave a goodbye, he felt a painful lump in his throat.

What am I doing? It can't work out. If I'm stuck here as an eighteen-year-old, inside I'll still be too immature for her inside my head. If I get to go back to where I'm twelve, she's still fifteen there, and . . . I'm too immature for her. Whatever happens, it's gonna hurt. Please don't let it hurt her.

Inside Dipper found Elise and Mabel chowing down on a pizza. "Bigbro!" Mabel said through a gooey mouthful of melted, stringy mozzarella. "El and I are gonna sleep over in the attic, so you can sack out on the sofa, OK?"

"Whatever. Can I have some pizza!"

"No!" A second after saying that, Mabel laughed like a loon. "Psyche! Yeah, before Grunkle Stan left, he got us two large, can you believe it? We got cheese, mushrooms, and olives and cheese, pepperoni, and sun-dried tomatoes."

Dipper took a soda and a paper plate for himself and sat down. "How are you feeling, Elise?" he asked as he helped himself to a slice of each pizza.

"Scared," Elise admitted. "Mabel's been trying to cheer me up." She smiled, then whispered, "But I feel so lost."

"I'm working on it." He munched a slice of pizza and thought, I don't like tomatoes! Uh . . . do I?

It seemed that his body didn't, but his spirit, or whatever, did. He finished off that slice and then one of the mozzarella, mushroom, and olive pizza. "Where'd Grunkle Stan go? It's nearly dark out."

"Nn-oh," Mabel shrugged, working on another slice. She swallowed. "I think he's looking for some kind of special medical herbs that you gotta pick at midnight or something. He said he'd get his supplies and wouldn't be home until like three o'clock."

"Oh. OK."

Dipper yawned. "If you girls are finished, I'll put the rest of the slices in the fridge for tomorrow."

Mabel did an air-punch. "Yay! Pizza for breakfast! Hey, El, let's go up to our room and you can try on more of my clothes!"

"No loud music!" Dipper said as they started upstairs.

Mabel stuck out her tongue. "How else are we gonna dance? Just plug your ears with cotton!"

"Keep it down, anyway," Dipper warned.

"Yeah, I hate it when the cops stop by to warn us," Mabel agreed. "I won't turn the tunes up past eight."

As soon as they had gone upstairs and Dipper had disposed of the pizza boxes and tomato-sauce-stained napkins, he took the Journal and went into the waiting room. Nervously, he tapped the code into the vending machine. Would it even work here?

The machine swiveled open. Dipper felt on the wall and flipped the light switch in the stairwell. He took a long, deep breath.

Part of him didn't know what lay at the foot of that stair. Part of him remembered disturbing things. Another part dreaded Saturday, when he and Wendy—no, don't let her go, too dangerous—but we've got to have two to get through the walls-closing-in trap room—

Oh, man. If he was going to get home, he'd have to get past the Shapeshifter first.

As he got halfway down the stair, behind him the door quietly closed and clicked.

It sounded so final.