Page 49 of Parallel
I must be missing something. There’s absolutely no way that can apply to my family. I have two living female relatives atmost.
“So how do you choose who gets it?” Nickasks.
Rose yawns, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. I wonder where she’s from and what time it is there. “That’s like asking how you choose eye color,” she says. “You’re just born with the mutation, or you’re not. And it would be unbelievably rare, but if four people were born with the mutation in one family, then that’s one too many, and the weakest one just…dies. Usually the oldest, unless there’s someone like Quinn, who’s allowed her spark to fade outearly.”
“I don’t see why that would lead someone to kill her,” Nickargues.
She shrugs. “Think about me and my sister. It won’t happen, but let’s say my sister gave birth to two time-travelers. Then there’d be four of us, and one of us would die. Killing me would ensure that she and her kids were safe,right?”
Nick scrubs a hand over his face. “There’s no…I don’t know…penalty for that? I can’t believe I’m even asking this question, but isn’t there some authority who keeps you from doing that to eachother?”
“There are penalties for a lot of things,” Rose replies, aimlessly pushing the remaining fries around on her plate. “But not for that, if all the stories about it are true. In theory, if you do it in just the right way—stab a family member with the spark in the heart—it will strengthen yours. It might even heal Quinn’s tumor. Or it could be some crazy old wives’ tale. I’ve never done it, obviously, so I have noidea.”
My fingers tap restlessly on the seat beside me. We are wasting precious time on a line of discussion that couldn’t possibly be relevant. “Look, there’s just no way this can apply to me,” I interject. “I have no immediate family left other than my mom, and she obviously isn’t time traveling. But this weird jumping thing I’m doing—why is it so limited? Every single memory is about Nick and things related to him. I don’t remember my parents or my friends or my classes…it’s like my entire life is a blank slate aside fromhim.”
“Limited?” she asks with a sharp laugh. “Jumping between timelines the way you are—it’s unheard of. I have no idea how you’re doing it and how it hasn’t completely fried your brain, but I guarantee you wouldn’t be sitting here right now if you were letting inmore. For you to be doing it at all… there must be something there you want super badly, is all I can say. Enough that you’re willing to die forit.”
I flush as Nick’s eyes meet mine. I’m fairly certain we both know what it is I want so badly from those previous timelines. He leans in, his forearms on the table, hands clasped. “So is there any way you can helpus?”
“Like what?” she askswarily.
“I don’t know,” he says, staring at his hands. “Maybe you could undo something. Or time travel forward and see if they’ve developed a way to bypass the amygdala so we can reach Quinn’stumor.”
“I’m fifteen,” she says. “You’re really going to trust what I tell you so much that you’ll cut into her brain based onit?”
His mouth twitches. “Probably not. Especially since you said you were sixteen a minuteago.”
She grins. Her smile reminds me of someone, but I can’t place it. “I’ve jumped back and forth all day. Maybe it scrambled my math alittle.”
“Convenient,” says Nick, restraining a smile of his own. “What about going backward to fix things? If someone died, and you knew how to cure it or change something, could you dothat?”
I feel a lump in my throat. He’s thinking of his brother, I’m sure, and I wonder once again how devastating it must have been for Nick to lose his twin. I’ve never even met Ryan in this lifetime, yet somehow the fact that he’s dead is hard for evenme.
“Like, could I go back and assassinate Hitler and stop all those deaths in World War II?” she asks. “No, for a variety of reasons, but most importantly, it wouldn’t do any good. Once someone is gone”—she averts her eyes—“they can’t come back. Otherwise, I’d have gone back to save my mom.” For a moment, she looks young, and heartbreakinglyfragile.
“Which reminds me,” she says, throwing her napkin on her plate, “I have to get home to mysister.”
I exchange a panicked glance with Nick. I’m not done. Rose is the key to solving this, I feel certain of it. “Is there any way for us to get ahold of you?” heasks.
She smirks. “Sure, if Quinn finally learns how to time travel.” She thinks for a moment, rubbing a finger over her lower lip. “Look, I really have to go. But I can come here tomorrow morning, if you want. Early, though. Like, seven. Just bring mystuff.”
With that, she slides under the table. And all that remains behind are herclothes.
22
QUINN
Nick and I sit alone, staring at each other inshock.
“Dammit,” he says. “I just wish she’d stayed five minuteslonger.”
“Well, there’s still tomorrow.” I look at my watch. “It’s already after midnight though. You should go home. I’ll get a hotel up here somewhere and see what she has to say in themorning.”
His jaw sets. “No way. We’re in this together. We’ll stay up here and come backtomorrow.”
My heart flops in my chest like a dying fish. It’s one thing to go get a second opinion with my gorgeous doctor in tow. Jeff wouldn’t have liked it, but it felt justifiable. As did driving to Baltimore tonight. But staying here with him? There’s no stretch of imagination by which that is okay. And yet here I am, nodding inagreement.
We get in Nick’s Jeep. “I’ll go on Expedia,” I say, pulling out my phone. He’s doing all this for me and I can’t possibly let him pay for his own room, but my stomach sinks at the cost of one room, much lesstwo.