When I Find Her (11 page)

And for some strange reason, I feel like bawling.

He’s still looking at me, and I know it’s going to take more time to prove it to him. I’m going to give him all the time I’ve got.

We spot Jennifer returning from the bathrooms and go join her. We step over snakes of electrical wires. Simon trips on a cord, goes flying, but I reach out and save him from a fall. “You okay?”

He nods.

Jennifer turns and nearly bumps into a stroller. I pull her by the waist and thereby avoid her crashing into a baby.

“Whoa, thanks,” she says as I hug her from the side.

“Come on.” I step up to the Ferris wheel. “I’ll get us tickets.”

“I’m not sure.” Simon cranks his neck and peers way, way up. “I’ve never really liked that thing. It always stops at the top and wobbles.”

Jennifer giggles. “That’s the fun of it.”

“But stuck at the top, I always feel like I’m gonna fall off.”

“My friend Vlad fell out once,” I say.

“Really?” says Simon.

“Why’d you have to tell us?” says Jennifer, aghast.

“We were stopped at the top, and started to push it really fast on the spot. It kept swinging higher and higher, backward and forward. He fell over the bar and it unlatched–”

“Oh, no” squeals Jennifer.

“What’d you do?” says Simon.

“They stopped the ride and one of their guys came climbing up the grill, better than a monkey. He shoved Vlad back into the seat with a big arm, and latched it back up. Right in the sky, just like that.”

Jennifer groans and Simon laughs.

“They banned us from the rides, but that was two years ago and I don’t think they remember me anymore.”

Jennifer and Simon gasp as we near the ticket taker, waiting for me to get rejected.

Instead, the man rips our tickets in half, lifts the bar and ushers us into the seat. When he latches the bar, we lift off for a second and wait until the next people below us are seated.

“See?” I offer them a stick of gum. “He doesn’t remember me.”

Jennifer punches my arm affectionately. Simon accepts the gum.

I know my time is limited with them, then I’ll walk Jennifer home and take Simon back to ours. For the next two hours, though, we go on every ride there is. And as I watch them laughing and screaming, it’s one of the happiest nights of my life.

CHAPTER TEN

The following morning is one of the worst. I hate giving bad news to good friends.

“That damn Gary!” Vlad shouts while we’re standing on his backyard deck. It’s Saturday, real time. I said goodbye to Jennifer last night slightly before my six hours were up, had an uneventful sleep, and woke up two hours ago. I just explained what I suspect Gary did to Vlad’s shoe during the basketball game. Vlad’s livid. His face and neck bulge. “I knew he had something to do with it! He used his knife?”

“I saw it in his hand. I can’t prove it, but let me see your shoe.”

“I’ll get my gym bag.” Vlad stomps into his garage.

Time traveling might be taking its toll on me. My eyes strain. The ache in my ribs, which wasn’t with me last night when I time traveled, flares. I still haven’t told anyone about it. I press my fingers into my side and the pain subsides. I’m tired. And the dizziness…

Vlad returns with his gym bag and the sliced shoe. We examine the evidence.

“Right here,” says Vlad, “the threads are sliced. You can see it. He sliced the tongue to get it started, and the strain when I jumped to shoot must’ve ripped the shoe apart.”

Vlad kicks a deck chair. The cushion flings into the air and flops onto the grass. “What kind of a person does something like this? To his own teammate?” He blasts obscenities and leaps away to toss his shoe into the trees, but I stop him.

“Let me take some photos.”

“What for?”

“I don’t know yet.”

I pull out my cell phone and click. “How’s your ankle?”

“Fine, but he could’ve broken it with his cruel stunt.”

“I’m glad he didn’t.”

Vlad swears some more. His tirade goes on for five more minutes, and I don’t blame him. I sit on the deck. My ribs appreciate that I remain seated and quiet until he’s finished.

“What do we do now?” says Vlad.

“Are you calm enough to pay Gary a visit?”

The veins on his throat bulge. “If I saw him right now, I might kill him.”

“Oh, man. Okay, then eat something first.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Eat something. It always calms you down.”

Vlad runs his hand through his hair. “Should we talk to the coach about this?”

“That’s your call. But Gary first.”

Vlad slides open his patio door and we enter the kitchen. His parents aren’t home, they’re working. “Want some cereal?”

“Nah, go ahead.” I spot his laptop on the table as he makes himself a bowl. “Mind if I use this?”

“Go ahead. Boot it up.”

I sit down. My dizziness fades. The soreness in my ribs simmers to a light throb.

Vlad seems to notice that something’s not right. “You okay?”

“I’ll be fine. I found out last night that Jennifer’s mother knows someone in Hawaii. In Waikiki.”

Vlad’s eyes narrow at me over a box of
Vampire Chunks
cereal. “You were with her again last night?
Last year?
”

I shrug. It does sound crazy.

“What kind of medication do they give you when you’re in remission?” Vlad asks nonchalantly, but I know he’s serious.

“It’s not the meds,” I insist. “They don’t give me anything that affects my brain, okay?” I try to make a joke of it. “Not too badly, anyway.”

He doesn’t laugh.

“Do I look insane?” I ask.

“A little.” Vlad stares at me and takes a big spoonful of cereal.

I wave away his concern. I key in a few words on his computer – Waikiki and Jennifer Marks.

A newspaper article pops up. I skim it and blink. “Oh, hell.”

“What?”

The headline makes me queasy. “‘Girl Hurt in Car Crash.’”

Vlad drops his spoon. “Jennifer?”

My heart trips over itself as I race over the words. “Fifteen-year-old Jennifer Marks of Waikiki, passenger of a convertible her mother, Olivia Marks, was driving crashed into an embankment at eleven o’clock last night. The fifteen-year-old was rushed to hospital with a broken arm. No other injuries were sustained in the crash. Witnesses say the torrential rain made the road slippery.”

My lips are so dry they catch on my tongue. “That’s them. That’s got to be them. Oh, God, a broken arm?”

“Sorry to hear that,” says Vlad. He comes up behind me and finishes reading the article. “The girl is in stable condition.”

I stare at the photo of the crushed car. It makes me go cold. “I wish I’d been there. I should have been there.”

“What’re you talking about?” says Vlad. “You didn’t even know where she was.”

I imagine the sound of the ambulance and police cars. I envision flashing lights in heavy rain. “She must’ve been so scared.” Just last night we were at the carnival with Simon, laughing and screaming on the rides.

“She’s stable, though, that’s what it says. She broke her arm. She’s lucky that’s all.”

I wonder which arm it was. She’s right-handed.

“And look,” Vlad adds, “her mom wasn’t hurt.”

I nod, trying to find some solace in his words. I read the date. “November the second. That’s almost as soon as they got there. She moved away from here at the end of October.”

I do another quick search for her name and the city, her name and the hospital, and get no results. I go to the town’s current phone book and search for her and her mom’s name, but come up with nothing. “Why is there no other record of her?”

“She got better,” Vlad offers. “They don’t do articles on healthy people.”

“But there should be some record of her name or phone number.”

“It must be unlisted. Wow, I can’t believe you located where she lives. And you discovered this…last night?”

“See, I told you. I’m not crazy.”

Vlad tugs absently at his lip as he contemplates me.

“Now what?” I push back in my chair.

“I think we should go see Gary.”

I ignore him and key in more words linked to Jennifer but come up with no new information.

Vlad gently nudges my shoulder. “I think we should go see Gary.”

∞

Gary’s where he usually is on a Saturday morning in good weather. At his sailing club on Lake Ontario. Vlad and I get off the city bus across from the parking lot. Vlad’s mom wasn’t home so he couldn’t borrow her car, and I don’t have a driver’s license yet because I’ve been in treatment for the last year. It’s something I’m working on. Vlad’s carrying his gym bag and the evidence with him. I spot Gary through the chain link fence and fight the urge to run at him and hold his head underwater.

Vlad’s almost out of control. “He needs a fist to his ugly face.”

“Don’t do it.” I tug him back by the shoulder and as I do, my ribs pull. I wince at the pain and ignore it. I also have to push Jennifer out of my thoughts right now to focus on this mission. We approach Gary and his younger brother on the dock. They’re untying a small sailboat. The younger brother, Derek, is the slimy one who also beat up on Simon. The two brothers look similar – greasy dark hair, wiry build, skinny arms.

Gary looks up at us. The lake shimmers blue behind him.

Does he remember that I punched him last night when he was attacking Simon? I take pleasure in the memory of the time travel, but there’s no recognition in his eyes. How long does it take before pre-and-post time-travel memories blend together?

Gary straightens. “Well if it isn’t Loser A and Loser B.”

“Takes one to know one,” Vlad says with contempt. “Sticks and stones and all that. If you don’t have something good to say, don’t say anything. Who died and made you King? Man, you are one ugly, walking cliché. How about this one? It seems very timely – it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.”

Gary frowns in confusion. “What the hell do you want? You need change for the bus ride home?”

His younger brother snickers.

Vlad’s voice intensifies. “You know what’s worse than an asshole? An asshole who thinks everyone likes him.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” sneers Gary, to more of Derek’s laughter.

“We’ve come to show you something.” A bit out of breath due to my aching side and my fury at these two, I reach for Vlad’s gym bag.

Gary mutters and continues untying his sailboat. While he tosses a long rope to his brother, he appears to notice my shadow on the rippling water. “You don’t cast such a big shadow anymore, do you, Luke?”

The insult refers to more than just my weight loss. It’s about my loss of power on the basketball court. My loss of status with the scouts.

“He outshot
you
yesterday,” Vlad scoffs. “Even in recovery from a major illness, he’s twice as good as you.”

An artery in Gary’s temple pulsates. “You’re in remission?” he says to me. “That’s too bad.”

Vlad yelps and lunges for him, but I tackle Vlad before he hits Gary.

Gary hops out of the way and his younger brother whips the rope in his hands at our legs.

Vlad, recovering from my tackle, kicks the rope into the water.

Derek curses and jumps to the shoreline to retrieve it.

I clench my fists, itching to pound the living daylights out of Gary, but I hold back. “Like I said, we’ve got something to show you.” I reach for the fallen gym bag that contains Vlad’s broken sneaker. My ribs are pounding, but I try not to let Gary notice that I’m in pain.

When I left my sister last night, hopefully in charge of Simon’s protection for the next year, I can’t be certain that she was able to keep Gary away during these last eleven months. So, I’ve got to do something in this timeline now to ensure it
ends
. When her memories blend, I’m hoping Ivy will be protecting Simon in the past, and I’ll be protecting him in the future.

I’m about to take my best shot.

My hand secures over the shoe inside the bag. Gary throws another insult. “I’m not interested in your grandma’s needlework or whatever else you have in there.”

“Grandma’s needlework,” his brother repeats with laughter. “Good one.” He unties another rope.

I pull out the sliced sneaker. “See this?”

Gary glances at it and then away.

“See this?” Vlad shrieks. He grabs the shoe from me and demands Gary look at it.

“What?” says Gary. “Your hand-me-down shoe?”

“Funny that you know it’s mine,” says Vlad. “Because you cut the material. You used your blade on it.”

“You’re dreamin’.”

“Are we?” I say. “Take a look at these dreamy photos.” I slide my cell phone out of my pocket and turn the screen toward him. His brother suddenly gets interested and looks, too. I cycle through the shots. “Look at this one. Your pocketknife in your gym bag. Your pocketknife in your hand. And you standing there. Right at the scene of the crime. Who brings a knife to a basketball game? And this photo, here, a close-up of the material. Clearly shows it’s been sliced by a blade. And by the way, I made an extra copy of these photos on my computer. Vlad’s too.”

Gary’s speechless. His brother quiets.

“You can’t prove anything,” Gary spurts. “Coach won’t care.”

“Maybe you’re right,” I say. “Or maybe you’re wrong. Anyway, I don’t plan on taking these to Coach Thornton. You don’t have to worry about that.”

Gary exhales. His color returns along with his smirk.

Vlad furrows his brow, looking anxious at where I’m taking this.

“Not Coach,” I continue. “I’m taking the photos and the sneaker to the two university scouts.”

Gary’s ugly smile fades. His brother seems to sense danger, for his expression darkens.

I’ve got Gary’s attention now.

“What do you think the scouts would say?” I continue, with even Vlad watching me in surprise. “It’s one thing to sabotage the other team. It’s quite another to sabotage your own.”

Gary’s jaw tightens.

“What’d you do?” asks his brother.

“Shut up,” Gary replies.

“You know what those two scouts are looking for?” I say quietly. “Something you just don’t get. Team players. That’s what they want. Guys who can shoot, too, but most of all, good team players who’re devoted to helping the team win. The team. Not personally motivated.”