The graduation ceremony was still a couple of hours away, but Nevermore Academy was already bustling with activity.
Groups of parents gathered for one last academic celebration of their offspring's accomplishments. Vampires, lycanthropes, faceless, sirens, gorgons and representatives of many other outcast groups present at the school filled the quad and outdoor courtyards. The entrance gate was kept open, giving way to a constant traffic of vehicles of all kinds.
One of which, a black hearse, stood out above the rest. Parents and students in the entrance area of the building watched with equal parts caution and curiosity. By now, there was no one who didn't know the Addams Family.
The hearse pulled up in front of the main gates of the academy. From the driver's seat, a giant, frakenstinian figure emerged, opening the rear passenger doors.
"We have arrived," announced Lurch, with a vocal cadence befitting an avalanche of slowed gravel.
The next figure to emerge was a short, portly man dressed in a black and gray pinstripe suit. A mustache adorned his smile as he extended his hand to help his companion out of the vehicle: a tall, almost supernaturally pale woman of cadaverous beauty. Gomez and Morticia Addams surveyed the walls and towers of Nevermore with a deadly combination of nostalgia and fondness.
"Ah, Nevermore!" exclaimed the Addams patriarch, "How I've missed you!"
"We were visiting the girls last month, mon chère," added Morticia, with a smile,
"Tish! That's french!"
What ensued next was a passionate spectacle that in other circumstances would border on public scandal, but which the last person to exit the vehicle had witnessed on so many occasions that by now it didn't even make him blink.
Pugsley Addams walked past his parents (who were lost in another of their amorous outbursts) unfazed, standing next to Lurch and staring at the Academy.
It was something they had talked about on multiple occasions over the past two years. The possibility of Pugsley moving to Nevermore to continue his studies and be near his sister, whom he sincerely missed. But in the end Pugsley had opted to stay in public school. To stand up to his bullies on his own and be the first Addams in multiple generations to finish high school among the normies. Pugsley didn't have the same homicidal impulses as Wednesday or the same capacity for physical aggression as she did. But he was good at building things. Like traps, or explosives.
And he was patient.
It was never immediate, never obvious, but little by little the various bullies trying to make his life impossible began to have peculiar and inexplicable accidents. And his classmates began to connect the dots and keep their distance. Only one or two, whom he might loosely call "friends," still kept in touch with him.
On the whole he could not complain. He had proven that he could manage without his sister. Proving that to himself before anyone else had been his main motivation for staying away from Nevermore, no matter how fascinating he found the place on his visits.
He allowed himself a smile. Little did he know that at that very moment, a young woman from another dimension was about to materialize in his sister's dorm room.
Sure enough, his attention was drawn to the figure that materialized in the air right in front of him, accompanied by a sound like a thud and something resembling musical notes that seemed to echo both in the air and inside his head.
Pugsley was not the only one to perceive it. Gomez and Morticia managed to get a few centimeters away from each other for an instant just in time to see the appearance of the newcomer. No one else among all the people milling about in the outer courtyard seemed to notice the event, and if they did they decided it was none of their business.
The newcomer was male, and young. Probably no more than seventeen years old. Tall and slender, with unruly dark hair and a fine shade of facial fuzz hinting at a future mustache on a face of pale skin and delicate features adorned by light blue eyes. He wore a black and purple plaid suit covered by a long black trench coat.
The young man had appeared with his back to the Addams family. When he turned and rested his gaze upon them, his eyes widened slightly and he raised one of his thin eyebrows questioningly. To a casual onlooker he would appear to be an almost expressionless or serene individual, but Pugsley recognized in that expression a reflection of those he had always seen on his sister's face, specifically one of surprise. Curious.
"This is unexpected," said the newcomer, in a monotone voice. His expression was still calm, but for an instant something like a hint of a smile formed on his lips as he rested his eyes on Pugsley.
"And who are you, muchacho?" asked Gomez rather briskly, his tone cordial but unable to conceal his curiosity, "You've just made a most unusual entrance on the scene, if I may say so."
The young man straightened up, his hands behind his back. He bowed his head slightly as a greeting, "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Theo Addams."
"An Addams!" exclaimed Gomez, elated, "Tish, we've found another Addams in the wild!"
"So it would seem, dear, but something tells me this young man is much more than that, am I wrong?"
Before the newcomer could add anything more, Pugsley made an observation, "He's from another dimension."
All eyes were glued to him. Pugsley merely shrugged, not being overwhelmed by the extra attention, "He has appeared in much the same way as Wednesday told us her variants did a few months ago. I don't know, it seems the most obvious thing to me."
This time the newcomer, Theo, didn't disguise his smile, looking at Pugsley with equal parts admiration and affection.
"Indeed," he said, "You've always been someone with sharp thoughts. That's why you're my favorite, Uncle Pug."
§§§
“My father is Eamon Sinclair."
That's what the girl... Pandora... had said. The name of her father, who apparently had the same scent as Enid.
Enid was no fool and it didn't take long to tie the ends together. Because the name had been another little shock, an almost forgotten memory of a childhood conversation with her parents before things went awry in her family.
A talk about the list of potential names Murray and Esther Sinclair had shuffled through for each of their children, leaving knowing their sex as a surprise for the last minute. So each Sinclair sibling would have had both a male and female list of potential names before their birth. And Enid knew, for so she had been told, that had she been born a boy the name most likely to be hers would have been Eamon.
She is my daughter, she thought with unusual clarity and certainty, Or at least the daughter of a version of me who was either born with another chromosome or is trans...
Her musings were interrupted by a cold, firm voice sounding from the classroom door behind Pandora's back.
"That has answered as many questions as it has raised many new ones," Wednesday Addams said, her silhouette outlined in the doorway by the light streaming in from the hallway.
Pandora turned, looking at Wednesday with a lost expression, "Mom?"
"Mom!? Eamon!?" exclaimed Yoko, "Holy shit, holy shit... Is this what I think it is?"
"I think she's mine and Wednesday's daughter, but not from around here," Enid mumbled quietly, still taking in the situation.
For her part, Pandora continued to focus her attention on Wednesday, with a resigned smile, "I didn't time travel after all, did I?"
"Dimension hopping, more likely," Wednesday explained, "From your meager words and the snippets of conversation I overheard coming here after you, you're the daughter of a version of me and a male version of Enid in another universe."
"Hells, Theo screwed up good with the spell...," Pandora growled as she put a hand to her forehead.
"Theo?" asked Enid.
"Her brother, I guess," said Wednesday, "She mentioned a brother before she rushed out of our room."
"Theophrastus Bombastus Addams," said Pandora, "But everyone in the family calls him Theo. Only in the family. And I guess you can call me just Dora too…"
"Uh... And why is your middle name E...?", Enid started to ask before being interrupted by Yoko.
"Your brother’s name is a mouthful," said the vampire.
"Mom likes alchemists, so...," Pandora began to explain before being interrupted by a funeral tune, Chopin's Marche Funèbre.
Wednesday frowned, reaching into her jacket pocket and pulling out her smartphone. The phone was the same one gifted to her by Xavier Thorpe two years earlier that had barely seen any use in its first few months as a possession of the Addams. It wasn't until her return to Nevermore and at Enid's insistence that Wednesday began to use the infernal object sporadically. The she-wolf insisted that she carry it at all times. For emergencies, she said.
"Enid, I am the emergency" was not considered a valid excuse by her paramour, so Wednesday always had the contraption with her. Over time, her contact list had grown, but the only ones with regular communication with her were Enid, Eugene and...
"It's Pugsley," Wednesday said looking at the phone’s screen. It showed the signal of an incoming call.
"What is that thing?" asked Pandora, looking curiously at the device in Wednesday's hands.
"A smartphone," replied the Addams. Enid and Yoko exchanged a glance. Thing made a nervous gesture.
"A smartphone," repeated Dora, almost as if savoring the word, "Is it like a cell phone? It looks like something out of Star Trek..."
"Dora... What year is it?" asked Enid. Pandora's initial reaction to the smartphone had raised her suspicions and she was pretty certain after that comment that she was right, but she preferred to make sure.
"Sorry?"
"Where you're from.... what year is it?", repeated the she-wolf.
"Uh, 1999... What, why do you ask?"
Yoko let out a nervous hiss, "Ooooh, man..."
"Pandora," said Wednesday, "Here it's 2024."
The dimensionally displaced Addams girl gaped for a few moments, before letting out a giggle, "Ha! We really did time travel after all. Sort of."
Wednesday did not ignore the temporal contrast between dimensions, taking good mental note of it. Holding the phone to her ear, she set about answering Pugsley's call.
"Pugsley. This better be an emergency...", she began, only to be interrupted by the murmur of her brother's voice on the other end of the line, "I see... I understand... Is he with you? Perfect..."
Wednesday hung up the call and put the smartphone back in her pocket. She fixed her gaze on Pandora.
"We're going to the quad."
"Uh... What's the quad?" asked Dora.
"The central courtyard," Enid replied, "It's a pentagon, though."
"Your brother's there," Wednesday continued. Dora's face lit up, with more vivacity than she had expressed so far. Her smile was identical to Enid's.
"You seem strangely tense, Addams," Yoko said, glancing at Wednesday over her glasses and with a smirk that showed one of her fangs.
"He's with my parents. Apparently exchanging all sorts of delightful family anecdotes," Wednesday said, closing her eyes. Her body trembled slightly, "The mere thought of what they might be discussing makes hairs stand up on my body whose presence I was unaware of."
Thing tapped his fingers rhythmically on the table in silent laughter.
NOTES
Translations:
mon chère (french): My dear, my darling.
muchacho (spanish): Boy, young man.
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