Caught in the Parallel: Parallelogram, Book 2

Chapter 4

4

Red couldn’t be happier. There’s water to swim in, a strong guy with a good arm to throw him a stick—although whenever I catch sight of Halli’s arms I’m pretty sure she could hurl a shotput out there, she’s so much more muscular than I am. But I’m happy to let Jake do the dirty work, since Red keeps bringing him back the stick, shaking off all his water onto Jake’s legs, then standing there panting, ready for the next throw.

“So,” Jake says to me.

“So,” I say back.

“What do you think of them?” Jake asks.

He picks up the stick again and throws it for Red. I use that time to try to read his face. I can’t tell if he’s testing me, or just making conversation, or pumping me for information.

The real question is, can I trust him?

He seems like a nice guy, but that’s really all I can say. I don’t know him. And if he’s lived here for ten years, and works for Halli’s father, and has never met Halli before, then it’s safe to assume he feels more loyal to Halli’s parents than to her—no matter how nice he’s being to me.

I decide it’s best to be cautious.

“I’m sure they’re both very good at what they do,” I say, even though I’m not really sure what that is.

Jake gives me a look like he knows I’ve just avoided his question.

“What do you do here, exactly?” I say.

I mean Halli’s parents and the company they run, but Jake thinks I’m asking about him.

“I’m apprenticed to your father,” he says.

“Oh. Doing what?”

“As a chemist,” he says.

I wasn’t expecting that—at all. Jake is a chemist? Halli’s father is one, too? She never told me that. Of course, she also never told me her parents own their own island, so I’m guessing there are a lot of things she left out.

Jake tosses the stick again. Red plunges in after it.

“I met her once, you know,” Jake says.

“Who?”

“Your grandmother.”

“You did?” I say. “When?” I probably shouldn’t act this excited, but I always loved it whenever Halli would tell me stories about Ginny. She only told me a few, because they seemed to always make her sad by the end, so I’m ready for anybody else to tell me as many stories about her as they want.

“I was young,” Jake says. “Eight.”

I do the calculation as we walk down the rocky shore. Will—and therefore Jake—is the same age I am. So that means he met Ginny nine years ago—a year after he said he first came to live here.

“I liked her,” Jake says. “A lot. She was tough and angry with your parents—you know how she could be—”

I nod, even though I don’t know.

“—but when she saw me hanging around, she told me to bring us a couple of horses, and then she took me riding the rest of the afternoon. It was . . . memorable.”

I bet it was. From everything I’ve heard about Ginny, I know she was a fearless, adventurous woman. She brought up Halli to be the same way. I only wish Ginny could have lived long enough for me to meet her.

Although if she had, Halli wouldn’t have been on that cliff a month ago, meditating in such a way that our vibrations exactly matched up. I’d never have found a way to slip past the barriers between our two universes, and end up bodily in this one.

And maybe Halli would still be alive if I hadn’t.

Or maybe she would have died because I wasn’t there to save her.

If I did, in fact, save her. If I didn’t just push her out of this body and take it over, leaving her no place to go.

“Halli?” Jake says. “You all right?”

I’ve got my hand to my forehead, my eyes closed. I can’t keep having these thoughts. They won’t help. They just make me feel hopeless.

“I’m fine,” I say, forcing myself to act normal and keep walking. “Go on. I want to hear your story.”

“She told me about you,” Jake says. “I already knew who you were from the histories, but she told me some stories I’d never heard.”

“Like what?”

“Like the time she lost you in the jungle, and you sat down and cleared a circle around you so you’d be able to see if any snakes crossed it. She said you never cried, you never called for her, you just waited. When she found you, there was some kind of poisonous snake hanging right above you, but you never saw it. And she never told you.”

“Huh.”

I want to ask him how old Halli was when Ginny took her into the jungle, but I can’t, because I should know that. At least I know she was younger than eight, since that’s when Jake first heard the story.

Which is just so amazing to me. How does a little girl have the kinds of experiences Halli had, and not turn out completely different from the girl I am? Halli was always so great and accepting of me and my frailties compared to her, and now I’m just even more grateful for that.

I miss her. I didn’t even realize how much. Please let her be alive.

I clear my throat. “What else?” I ask Jake. “What else did Ginny say?”

“Well, she told me about the time you broke your arm—”

I look down at Halli’s arms, trying to guess which one.

“—and how you broke your ankle—”

They both feel fine to me now.

“—and that your favorite fruit was strawberry, your favorite color was red, your favorite horse was named Samson, and you hated taking a bath and would only do it once a week, and only if you could wear your dive mask and snorkel.”

Jake tips back his head and laughs. I c***k a smile. Even though I’m supposed to know all this about myself already.

“By the end of the day,” Jake says, “I’m sure your grandmother knew she’d made me fall in love with you. Poor kid—heart lost to the famous girl explorer. I’m sure I wasn’t the first.”

He laughs at himself, and our eyes meet for just a moment, and I see something there, and Jake probably knows it.

Because he quickly bends down for the stick and throws it out into the ocean, then stands there staring at the dog splashing in the water instead of looking back at me.

And I have an ache here, a pain, right where there’s a fresh wound to my heart. It’s like an indentation—like a thumbprint in the middle of a cookie. Or like someone plunging his pointy-tipped flag into the earth at the top of a mountain: Jake Demetrios was here. Mark it.

“I’ve waited a long time to meet you,” he says quietly, still gazing over the water.

“I . . .” And then my voice trails off. Because if Halli were here, I’m sure she’d be just as touched as I am by what he just said. And I’m sure she’d know what to say back. But unfortunately that response isn’t programmed into the body I’m wearing, so I just have to stand here frozen and mute.

And then Jake has to make it worse. He turns his head slightly, locks eyes with me again, and gives me that half-smile.

And adds, “I’d have to say you were worth it.”