That could prove to be a problem. Whatever the Doc’s been telling Dad has already made him distrustful of me. If he piles a bunch of pills in Mom’s hands, I’m sure she’s going to try to make me take them.
I know this is the officials’ doing. They can’t alter my perception, so they’re trying a different tactic—they want to drug me into submission. I should warn Ryan that they might try to drug him too.
“When you get back,” the Doctor continues, “Dr. Rivers and Mr. Minh will be gone. They’ve concluded their investigation into Sofía’s death and the school’s practices.”
“Gone?” I repeat.
Dr. Franklin nods.
“They’re just . . . going to go away?” I ask, still not believing it. They have total control of the school. Why just . . . leave?
“Their work is done. They’re issuing a report to the board, and the school may change based on that, but it’s all pretty much over.” His voice is a little sad.
Outside Dr. Franklin’s window, an old-timey ship bobs on the waves in the ocean. When I blink, it’s gone.
And so am I.
I’ve been pulled back into a different time. Snow and frost crust the windows, and the radiator rattles in the corner. No one else is in the Doc’s office. I stand up from the blue plastic chair, slowly turning around, looking for a clue. The door starts to open, and I dive behind Dr. Franklin’s filing cabinets.
Dr. Franklin walks into his office, but it’s the Doctor from sometime in the past. I’m not sure when. Not too long ago.
He goes immediately to his desk and sits down. I stand motionless. How did he not see me? I’m not that well hidden.
A knock at the door, a quiet, hesitant tap.
“Come in,” the Doctor says, and the door to his office widens a little more.
Sofía walks in.
She looks right at me.
But it’s clear she doesn’t see me. Neither of them do. I may as well be invisible.
This doesn’t make sense, I think. I can travel through time, but it’s still me. My body. They should be able to see me.
“Let’s talk,” the Doctor says kindly.
Sofía fiddles with her necklace—a silver chain with a dolphin charm.
“What’s wrong?” Dr. Franklin says when Sofía doesn’t speak. “Can you tell me about it?”
Sofía doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t shrug or dismiss the Doctor; she’s just still and silent.
I creep closer, looking at her, really looking at her. Sofía was very good at going unnoticed even when she wasn’t invisible. But I look now, and I see the dark marks under her eyes. I see the way her lips are chapped and dry. I see the way her skin lacks its usual glow.
I see the way she sits on the edge of her seat, her eyes pleading with the Doctor’s, begging him to see that something is wrong with her. Hoping he can understand. That he can help.
“You have to talk to me,” Dr. Franklin says, and I notice desperation in his voice. “I want to help, but I can’t do it without you.”
I sit down beside Sofía, in the same seat that I was occupying before I slipped back in time. Neither of them acknowledges my existence.
The Doctor waits a long time for Sofía to talk, but she remains silent.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, even though I know she can’t see me. “I didn’t realize.” I still don’t realize. I just know that something is wrong, something important, and I didn’t see it before. She needed me, and I didn’t see it.
“Everything’s okay now,” Sofía tells the Doctor in a soft voice that still holds a note of steely determination. She sounds as if she’s made a decision.
And then she turns to look at me. Her irises are invisible. They always were the first things to go.
“You need to wake up,” she says, staring at me.
“Can you see me?” I say. “What’s going on? Why can’t Dr. Franklin see me? And what do you mean?”
“Wake up!” she shouts, the last word drowning into a scream.
I jerk back, stumbling out of my chair.
“Bo?” the Doctor asks.
I’m back in the present.
“Is something wrong?”
I stare at the empty chair beside me. “No,” I say slowly. “No, everything’s okay now.”
CHAPTER 41
I sit cross-legged on the cool sandy soil in front of the ruined remains of the chimney at the edge of the marsh. I’m so still that an observer might think I’m meditating.
But I’m not. I’m waiting.
I stare at the timestream, concentrating on the areas that are leaking around me. Not all of the times and places breaking through are connected to the island, but most are. The Native American tribes I catch glimpses of look like the ones that lived here before the first European settlers, and the Pilgrims I see could be from any of the colonies, but it seems likely that they live nearby. The kids from the sick camp are obviously from around here.