“It’s just a scratch,” he assured her. “A little owie. Listen, you should probably—”
One of the mothers, a chubby woman not much older than Theo himself, hurriedly scooped the girl into her arms. She shot Theo a glare of nervous judgment, as if he were holding a fishing rod with candy on the hook.
With a jaded sigh, Theo turned his gaze back to the augury service. He wondered if people were all that friendly here in Altamerica.
Hannah rested in the comforting shade of a sugar pine tree, her mind even more exhausted than her legs. All throughout her trek, her thoughts had run circles around her. I wish I knew what Azral was wow I bet every cop in the state is looking for Christ I really broke their fingers when damn we’re all gonna starve if Amanda can’t Jesus what did she do to those policemen?
By the time she’d reached Ramona, she couldn’t conjure anything more than a few impure notions. David stood bare-chested against a nearby elm tree, staring off into the distance like a high-fashion model. For a teenage genius who didn’t eat a lot of protein, he sported a surprising amount of muscle tone. The skin on his chest was hairless and glistening. To the women of the park, he was the thing to look at. He wasn’t just the group’s David anymore. He was Michelangelo’s.
“What are you thinking about?” Hannah asked him.
He continued to gaze at an empty patch of grass as he absently tapped his wristwatch.
“David?”
He shook his head and blinked at Hannah. “I’m sorry?”
“Just checking up on you. You look so lost.”
“Actually, I was scanning the local past in my head. I can’t help myself. Everywhere I go now, I nose through history like a curious dog.”
“Yeah? See anything interesting?”
“Oh yes. Every year, around October, they host a candlelight vigil in this park. Everyone wears white robes and masks, and no one says a word. It’s quite eerie. There was also a gruesome murder here about five years ago. Some poor woman got stabbed in the neck.”
“Ewww. God. Why would you even look at that?”
“Guess I’m just in a grim mood.” He grew a sheepish smile. “Though I admit I keep coming back to a sunbather who was here last weekend. She’s . . . quite nice to look at.”
Hannah was sure the girl would feel the same about him.
“You probably think that’s creepy,” he said. “It is creepy. I should stop.”
“Sweetie, you do whatever makes you feel good.”
Mia sat alone at a nearby picnic table, forcing her anxious gaze at her journal. For the fifth time in four minutes, she lost the fight against her teenage id and drank David in. In the corner of her vision, she caught Hannah smirking at her. Mia suddenly grew hot with humiliation and anger until she took a second glance and saw that the actress wasn’t mocking her at all. Merely empathizing.
Mia reeled with guilt. She kept misjudging Hannah, even after everything that happened today. While Mia had to be rescued from her attacker in Terra Vista, Hannah saved herself. While Mia couldn’t handle her one simple job of keeping Amanda in the van, Hannah did everything that was asked of her. She took on armed policemen with just a nightstick and set her friends free.
Too tired to find the right words, Mia shined Hannah a look of warm regard, and then quietly resolved to think nicer of her in the future.
The future . . .
She focused on her journal again, scanning all the hints and warnings of her elder selves. If the notes were right, then Mia was due to visit the rebuilt New York (“So beautiful, it brings me to tears”) and ride a flying taxi (“Holy @$#%!”). She was supposed to meet a man named Peter, who was either great or untrustworthy, depending on which of the two contrasting notes she chose to believe. And of course the prophecy remained that Hannah would one day save her life. Mia no longer had trouble envisioning that scenario.
On the second page of her notations, an old message jumped out at her.
If you see a small and creepy guy with a 55 on his hand, run. That’s Evan Rander. He’s bad news.
Mia had originally filed the warning away as a distant concern, as none of the physicists matched the description. Now it merited some thought. She decided to wait a bit longer before burdening the others with this information. They were all running on shattered nerves right now. She feared one in particular was dangerously close to snapping.
—