his mouth in a big gummy smile. It lit up his whole face, and I couldn’t help smiling back. “Robby. Robby. Robby.” I bounced him each time I said his name, and he laughed, the sound so happy I laughed, too.
“He never laughs,” Kelly called out. “Great. The dead chick is a better mother than me. Big fucking surprise.”
Her brother ignored her. “Dad?” Aaron called. “You here?”
“Just a minute!” Mr. Chee sounded the same as the last time I heard him, and when he came down the hall into the kitchen, he looked the same, too. Well, the time I had seen him before I’d seen him in the time shift. His hair was still thick and glossy, and he had a tall, proud bearing. When he saw Kelly holding a cigarette, he wrinkled his nose. “Outside if you’re going to smoke.”
Gaze on his, Kelly stamped the cigarette out on a dirty plate. “I’m going out for a while.” She stomped out the door, seemingly uncaring that a virtual stranger held her baby.
Robby stared up at me, the smile gone, so I bounced him again. “That’s okay,” I said as I bounced. “We’re fine.”
“Lacey Madison.” Mr. Chee spoke my name, and I tore my gaze from Robby’s.
“Hey,” I greeted, and then because this world was pretty messed up and I didn’t have time to make this pretty, I went on, “Um. You fucked up big time.”
He crossed his arms, staring at me as if such a thing were impossible, but I merely lifted an eyebrow. The proof was in the pudding—or standing in his kitchen—so to speak.
“How did you get here?” he asked.
“You,” I replied. “This?” I held the baby with both hands, so I circled my finger. “All this mess is you. You—not the you standing here—but the you I left behind—decided to travel through time and kill Erdirg. Because you did that, you created this reality. This super horrible reality where everyone I love is miserable.”
He scoffed. “I don’t think that’s true.”
The front door opened and shut, and Oliver strode through. He stared at me holding his nephew and then his dad. “What did I miss?” His face was sweaty, but he didn’t look like he was about to puke anymore.
“Our father was just telling Lacey how happy everyone in this reality is.”
Oliver snorted. “Oh yeah. I’m just living my best Oprah Winfrey life.”
“Hold on.” Their father looked around. “We need to start over here. What happened?”
I took a deep breath, and knowing I might need to be really adamant here which would require my hands free, I handed Aaron the baby. “In my reality, where I’m not dead, I got rid of Erdirg. Not you. Then I left. It was a decade before any of us would see each other again. Things did not go well with you and your kids, but they went on and lived very wonderful lives. Did big things. No one went to jail or took up cancer causing habits.” I shot Aaron a look. He grimaced. “Kelly does have kids, but she’s very happy. I guess you’d been obsessing over this for some time and decided that the moment it all went badly was the moment that I was the one who put the demon to sleep. You altered things. There was a time maneuver. You used these.” I put my hands out toward him so he could see the rocks. Or whatever they were. I didn’t really care about details right then.
He stared at them and his mouth fell open. “Fuck.”
I could see he recognized them. Oliver walked up and past him, grabbing a beer from the fridge. “Where’s Mom?”
“Doing yoga.” His father had still not taken his eyes off the stone-things. “I really did this. And here you are. I guess that’s a good explanation.”
Little hands clutched at my shoulder, and I turned to find Robby reaching for me. I took him and repositioned the baby, who nuzzled my shoulder. I had next to no experience with babies, but this one was going okay. He smelled really good. Although, I guessed that would change pretty fast if he pooped. Ugh, the thought. Why couldn’t we be born just using the toilet?
But I was getting off topic here. “We need to fix this.”
He winced. “I don’t know how to do that or if I want to. This is my life. Why would I want to change it?”
“Well, you don’t know that you will, right? No one knows what will happen. This