Fusion (21 page)

“Guess you’ll have to come up with a convincing story to account for the time you went missing—one that doesn’t include time-travel portals.” I laughed. “Have you guys discussed it at all, yet?”

“I snuck down the hall while you were in the shower. My parents are talking to your mom at the moment. I just saw them through the glass door to the pool area, but I assume that’s what they were talking about. They weren’t smiling or laughing. It looked pretty intense.”

“Don’t you hate it when they plan stuff behind our backs like we don’t count? I say we march down there and demand to be included in their discussion. Someone needs to keep them grounded.”

She jumped up. “I like the way you think. Snap to it, and throw on some clothes! Let’s drag Kellan and Harry down there with us.”

We were on our way within minutes. Ariele smeared some lip gloss onto my lips to get me to hurry. We knocked on the door to the boys’ room and opened it.

“Hey!” Kellan sat up in bed. Harry didn’t move. He merely waved at us.

“Get up, and come with us!” Ariele said sharply, getting Harry’s attention.

“What’s up?” he muttered. “We’ve got half an hour before dinner.”

“Just come. The oldies are discussing our destiny. I think we should help them.”

He didn’t look convinced but got up. I grabbed Kellan’s hand and tried pulling him up as well, but he jerked my hand toward him, and I stumbled, falling right on top of him, meeting his lips full on.

“Good grief! Nuff already,” Ariele shouted. “Let’s go.”

“You bet,” Harry muttered.

“We better do as she says,” I whispered into Kellan’s ear and then kissed him before we followed them out the room.

All conversation stopped as we flung open the glass door and walked to the poolside where Mom, Dr. Fox, and Ariele’s parents huddled around the fire pit. We walked right up to them and squeezed in beside them. I stifled my snickers at their befuddled faces. They were clearly not used to a bunch of teens seeking their company. Mom looked over at Dr. Moreau and raised her eyebrow.

“Don’t mind us,” Ariele said. “What were you talking about?”

“Oh, nothing,” Dr. Moreau said. “How are you kids doing? It’ll be dinnertime soon, but you could go for a swim later.”

“Mom, stop,” Ariele said. “
What
were you talking about? It looked pretty serious.”

I noticed the blinks between Mom and Dr. Moreau.

“Actually, we were discussing what would be the best plan for the three of us. We’re not going back, so we need to move on from here and transition into our regular lives.”

“Except your regular life no longer exists,” Mom pointed out.

“That sucks big time.” Ariele scowled.

“One option would be to start again, here, under different names and—” Dr. Moreau started to propose.

Ariele interrupted her. “No way! See, this is why I wanted to be here!” She looked over at me.

I had to agree. That plan seemed ridiculous. What the heck was the point in moving back here, then? They might as well come back home with the rest of us. At least over there, they had
a
life.

“We may not have any choice,” her mother replied.

“We do. We just have to get back into our lives again, and deal with all the crap from the fallout of what Dr. Darley did to us.” She sent my mom a venomous glare.

Again, I couldn’t blame her.

“Enough, Ariele. Go back to your room. Your dad and I will decide what’s best.”

Ariele jerked to a stand, pushing her chair back so it fell to the floor with a clank. “
Fuck
that!” she shouted, and stormed off.

I got up and followed, catching up with her in the bedroom. She stood by her bed, beating her pillow against the headboard. I let her get on with it, quietly watching her. She beat the poor thing again and again, until it started to break up. Feathers flew all over the place. She finally flung the remaining piece of pillow hard against the wall and sat down on her bed. Her mascara was streaking down her face, sobs heaving from her chest.

I reached out and held her hand, letting her take her time.

“We’ll go, just you and me,” she finally whispered through the sobs.

“What do you mean?”

“To Princeton. I have to get back there. After what we saw during our last visit to Princeton, I need to see that nothing has changed here in this dimension—that my friends are still there.”

“Our last visit?”

“Yeah. Still a blank?”

“I guess.”

“The last time we went was in the other dimension, so not surprisingly, everything was different and unsettling. I need to see for myself that we’re back in the right dimension this time. For real. Who’s to say that we’re not still where we started off? That whole pod thing could have been a hoax.”

A hoax? “Why would Mom do that?” I asked, bewildered.

“To keep us where she wants us.” She scowled.

“No way. Dad wants us in this dimension to keep us safe—that’s the reason we’re here.”

“Well, I’d like some proof. We have to get to Princeton. You want to go anyway to see your doppelganger, so let’s go.”

I nodded, wondering how we were going to pull that off.

A soft knock on the door brought back Ariele’s anger. Her face clouded over in fury again as she marched over and flung open the door.

Kellan stood on the other side. “Dinner is ready, ladies.”

“Fuck dinner.” She pulled him into the room. “Sit.”

He sat down beside me, grinning at Ariele. “Yes, ma’am.”

“What went on out there after we left?”

“Not much. Your mom was pretty upset. She left right after you did, followed by your dad.”

“What about the rest of you? Did you talk about me?”

“Not you so much as the situation. Dr. Darley and my dad were trying to come up with some suggestions on what to do. My dad can get your mom a job at Ames, either as herself or with a new identity. The problem with keeping your own identity will be coming up with a story that everyone will believe.”

“We’ll just say that we lost our memories and that we don’t remember anything.”

“Won’t wash,” Kellan said. “You’ll probably have to undergo psych evaluations if you say that. The trick is to do this while raising as few questions as possible, which is going to be tricky since the press got so involved when you first went missing. They are going to be all over it when they find out you’re back from wherever.”

“This just sucks. All I want to do is go back home and hang with my girls.” Ariele sat down, looking deflated again.

“Look, I’m sure among all of us—including our parents—we’ll come up with a plan, but in the meantime, I need to eat. So, let’s go.”

“Yes, come on, Ariele. I’m starving,” I agreed.

Dinner was in full swing when we arrived in the dining room, which, unlike the rest of the house, was painted a deep red. A chandelier illuminated a large oak table covered with sizzling plates of grilled steak, baskets of warm biscuits, colorful bowls of salad, and a variety of platters, all full of delicious-looking foods.

“Ah, there you are!” Celia said cheerfully. “Sit down and dig in.”

I sat down between Kellan and Ella, who had her mouth full of steak but somehow still managed to say, “This is delish, Arizona!”

I took a deep breath. “Everything smells so yummy and looks so awesome. Thanks, Celia.”

“That’s Mrs. Pope to you.” My mom smiled.

“Sorry, I didn’t know your last name.”

“Think nothing of it, and Celia is fine with me. This is my husband Greg, or Mr. Pope.” She put her hand on the shoulder of a tall, slim, gray-haired man.

“Pleased to meet you,” he said in the same accent as hers. “Welcome to our home.”

About halfway through dinner, we realized that Ariele’s parents weren’t going to show, which I thought was totally rude, but I guessed they had an excuse. Their absence helped Ariele relax, though, and she was back to being herself in no time. Gone was the seething anger, replaced by excited chitchat about her life in Princeton. So much of it centered around her best friend, Arizona.

I could see the confusion in Celia’s—Mrs. Pope’s—eyes. “You mean you were friends in Princeton before Ollie moved to California?”

“Yes,” Ariele said slowly, probably realizing that she was talking about my doppelganger as just another person. She shut up after that, letting Ella run the conversation as usual.

“All right, let’s move out to the pool. Anyone want to swim?” Celia asked after dinner.

The unanimous shaking of heads answered the question. We all sat back in our seats looking like beached whales. Swimming wasn’t really an option. Plus, it was time for Ariele and me to make plans to head to Princeton.

R
elationships that don’t require nurturing and stand strong in the tides of life are few and far between. Celia and Olivia had that kind of friendship. The connection they shared didn’t need rekindling in the form of birthday gifts, Christmas cards, or even occasional phone calls. It simply existed.

Olivia changed into her pajamas and joined Celia in her private den, a basement room underneath her bedroom, accessed by a spiral staircase in her closet.

“This is wonderful!” Olivia said enviously, wriggling her bare toes at the flames from the wood fire.

“Yes, it’s my favorite place in the whole world, plus it serves as a safe room. That was the hook for Greg to let me build it.” She laughed. “Here,” she held out a glass of Champagne for Olivia. “And now, spill! What is going on? I was so surprised when you called.”

“Oh, Celia, where do I start?”

“How did you get here?”

“That one is easy. Through that Portal I told you about. I guess the last time we had a proper chat was when I had just completed it and was getting ready to leave?”

Celia nodded slowly, looking slightly tentative.

“It’s been a long time,” Olivia agreed. “And I’ve not been able to contact you.”

“So you did it? Hooked up with Rupert?”

“Yes. Quite something, right?” She smiled.

“No kidding. Are you happy with your decision? Leaving Dillboy and all that?”

“I am,” she said so vehemently that she surprised herself. After all that had happened, she would normally have second-guessed herself.

“Wonderful! What’s life like in the other dimension?”

Olivia thought about it for a while. Only one word came to mind. “Complicated.”

“That sounds like a Facebook status.” Celia giggled. “Explain.”

“Well, you know all about the Portal and stuff, which is complicated enough. However, wait for this.” She launched into babble about Wanderers, kidnappings, and global terrorism. By the time she was done, they had finished the bottle of Champagne.

“Did you have anything to drink before we started on this bottle, Oll?” Celia crunched up her nose.

Olivia chortled. “Nope, not a drop. And, no, no drugs either. I am not making this stuff up. It’s for real, like the teens say.”

“Shit. Complicated is an understatement. If anyone else told me this, I’d have them shipped off to the loony bin. But you, Oll? I don’t know. I can get my head around most of it… but Wanderers? Come on!”

“I don’t expect you to buy that, not right away. You’re one of my closest friends. I have never lied to you, and I wasn’t going to start now by making up a whitewashed picket-fence perfect American family story for you. It’s far from that, but we are happy.”

“Well, let’s move on to Glenda and Pierre for a while.”

“In a minute. It’s your turn first.”

Celia’s face dropped. “I want to share what happened, but it’s so difficult. Sarah was my life.” She stood and picked up a frame from the mantle. “This is Sarah, just months before the accident.”

Olivia looked down at the photo of the glowing young blonde, a carbon copy of her mother. The last time she’d seen Sarah, she’d been a young child. Celia had given birth to her when she was only seventeen. Luckily, her family had jumped in and helped to raise her daughter until she met and married Greg, who had become a father to Celia’s daughter. “I am so sorry, Celia. Are you able to talk about it?”

“No, not really. Not without bursting into tears. She’s just gone, you know? It’s so hard.”

“I am so sorry, Celia,” Olivia repeated, leaning over to hug her friend.

“Let’s get back to talking about you instead,” Celia said. “My life is pretty boring now that I’ve moved to Mountain View. Greg will live anywhere he can find good curry houses, and there are plenty near his work. I’d like to move to San Francisco, but we’ll see. Now, tell me about Glenda. She seems a bit… tense? She was one of your profs at Imperial, right?”

“Yes, and she took a position at Princeton University before we moved to New Jersey. I’ve always admired her and kept up to date with her quantum research. Her daughter Ariele is friends with my daughter, or was before we moved.”

“How did she end up in the other dimension? Through the Portal, of course, but why?”

“I needed her. Her brains, anyway.” Olivia proceeded to tell Celia what she’d done.

“No way!” Celia gaped. “You transported her without her permission? The whole family? Have you lost your mind?”

“Seems like it. I was so invested in the project that I lost sight of everything else. I truly believed the work would keep Glenda so challenged that she’d happily deal with the change.”