Into the Parallel: Parallelogram, Book 1

Chapter 11

11

I left Lydia and Will’s house pretty soon after that. No point in sticking around just to t*****e myself. Plus I really wanted to try to see Halli again. Maybe I could reach her before she fell asleep.

I set up everything the way it had been this morning: same clothes, same lighting, same position in my bed with the sheets pulled up over my legs.

But I knew the key was going to be relaxing my brain. Because if I couldn’t do that—couldn’t be as nonchalant about it as I had been this morning—I was never going to recapture those particular vibrations again. Even if Halli were on the other end of the line waiting for me.

And that was the big question: was she? It depended on a couple of things.

First, did she like me? I know that sounds sort of first grade—“Can I play with you? Will you be my friend?”—but I had to factor it in. Because I knew that I definitely wanted to spend time with Halli again, but if she didn’t feel the same way, why would she ever go to the trouble of inviting me back?

Second, if she did want me there, would she remember the steps she went through that brought me? Would she have to sit back on that exact same ledge—which might be unlikely there at 10:30 at night—and free her own mind the way I was going to try to free mine? What if she was as tense as I was, and couldn’t get the same vibration as before?

And last, even if she did want me, and she could tune her mind the way she had before, there was still the question of whether that was really the secret behind it all. So far that was only a hypothesis. What if my being there this morning had nothing at all to do with my particular methods or hers, but instead was just a random, unrepeatable event?

“Come on, Halli,” I mumbled as I settled into my pose. “Calling Halli . . .”

And eventually, there she was.