a hotel in Manhattan, being killed in some kind of deprivation tank.
Is this real?
Is this happening?
It can’t be, and yet it feels exactly like living.
He opens the door and steps out into the autumn evening.
If this isn’t real, it’s torture of the worst possible kind. But what if what the man said to him was true? I’m about to give you the greatest gift of your life. The greatest gift a person could ever hope to receive.
Barry slams back into the moment. Those are questions for later. Right now, he is standing on the front porch of his house, listening to the leaves of the oak tree in his front yard twittering in a gentle breeze that also moves the rope swing. By all appearances, it is, impossibly, October 25, 2007, the night his daughter was killed in a hit-and-run. She never made it to Dairy Queen to meet up with her friends, which means this tragedy will happen in the next ten minutes.
And she already has a two-minute head start.
He isn’t wearing shoes, but he’s wasted enough time already.
Pulling the front door to the house closed, he steps down into the lawn, leaves crunching under his bare feet, and heads off into the night.
HELENA
June 20, 2009
Day 598
Someone is knocking at her door. Reaching out in the darkness, she turns on the lamp and climbs out of bed in pajama bottoms and a black tank top. The alarm clock on her desk shows 9:50 a.m.
As she moves through the living room and toward the door, hitting the button on the wall to raise the blackout curtains, she’s gripped by a powerful sense of déjà vu.
Slade is standing in the corridor in jeans and a hoodie, holding a bottle of Champagne, two glasses, and a DVD. First time she’s laid eyes on him in weeks.
He says, “Shit, I woke you.”
She squints at him under the glare of the light panels in the ceiling.
“Mind if I come in?” he asks.
“Do I have a choice?”
“Please, Helena.”
She takes a step back and lets him enter, following him down the short entryway, past the powder room, and into the main living space.
“What do you want?” she asks.
He takes a seat on the ottoman of an oversize chair, beside the windows that look out into a world of infinite sea.
He says, “They tell me you aren’t eating or exercising. That you haven’t spoken to anyone or gone outside in days.”
“Why won’t you let me talk to my parents? Why won’t you let me leave?”
“You aren’t well, Helena. You’re in no state of mind to protect the secrecy of this place.”
“I told you I wanted out. My mom’s in a facility. I don’t know how she’s doing. My dad hasn’t heard my voice in a month. I’m sure he’s worried—”
“I know you can’t see it right now, but I am saving you from yourself.”
“Oh, fuck you.”
“You checked out because you disagreed with the direction I was taking this project. All I’ve been doing is giving you time to reconsider throwing everything away.”
“It was my project.”
“It’s my money.”
Her hands tremble. With fear. With rage.
She says, “I don’t want to do this anymore. You have ruined my dream. You have blocked me from trying to help people like my mom. I want to go home. Are you going to continue keeping me here against my will?”
“Of course not.”
“So I can leave?”
“Do you remember what I asked you the first day you got here?”
She shakes her head, tears coming.
“I asked if you wanted to change the world with me. We’re standing on the shoulders of all the brilliant work you’ve done, and I came here this morning to tell you that we did it.”
She stares at him across the coffee table, tears gliding down her face.
“What are you talking about?”
“Today is the biggest day of my life and yours. It’s everything we’ve been working toward. So I came up here to celebrate with you.”
Slade begins to untwist the wire holding the muselet to the bottle of Dom Perignon. When he gets it off, he tosses the wire cage on the coffee table. Then, gripping the bottle between his legs, he carefully pops the cork. Helena watches him pour the Champagne into the glasses, carefully filling each flute to the brim.
“You’ve lost your mind,” she says.
“We can’t drink these yet. We have to wait until…” He checks his watch. “Ten fifteen, give or take. While we wait, I want to show you something that happened yesterday.”
Slade takes the DVD