Unhappenings (37 page)

“Give me a week,” I said. “I have a lot to work out.”

“Understood.”

“Do we need to set a meeting place?” I asked.

She tapped her left forearm. “I’ll find you.”

“Of course. See you in a week.”

She nodded. “See you in five seconds,” she said, and then she was gone.

wo days went by with no contact from Helen. The last thing she said before abandoning me at the museum to find my own ride home was that she needed time. She had also just kissed me, which I considered a mixed message at best. Nevertheless, I gave her time. In truth, I needed time myself. I had just learned something awful about her possible fiancé, and had no idea how, when or if I could share it with her. If I read Athena’s intentions correctly, it might never be necessary. I hoped that was the case. Otherwise, I would end up bearing the weight of a truth I could never share with Helen, and I didn’t know if I would have the courage for that.

On day three, I decided to break silence. If nothing else, Helen had an appointment with Athena in a few days, and she needed to be made aware of it. I walked out of my lab in the middle of the day, to find her at the library. Part of me feared she would not be there, perhaps already on her way to Paris for a life of splendor with her Adonis. Another part of me feared she would be there, and this would be the day she cut me out of her life for good.

I found her at her desk, and knocked at the open door before entering.

“Hey,” she said warmly. “Come on in.”

“I wasn’t sure how long you wanted me to stay away,” I said, planting myself in the seat next to her desk.

“The afternoon would have been fine,” she said.

“Oh. I was waiting for you to call me.”

She laughed. “Likewise. I probably should have been clearer when I left.”

This seemed much too easy. “How long have we known each other?”

“Stingrays,” she said without missing a beat. “How were your last two days? Did I shake everything up with that kiss?”

“You sure as hell did,” I said, with what was probably obvious relief. “Fortunately, nothing unhappened to go with that.”

“I told him no,” she said.

“Oh.” I hadn’t prepared for that possibility, having assumed she would either have said yes, or not decided yet. It took a second or two for the idea to fully settle in my head. “How did he react?”

“Hard to say. I did it over vid, which didn’t feel great. He was a perfect gentleman about it, and we always knew this was a possible outcome. We both promised it would be on good terms, if it came to that. But…” She shook her head. “But I don’t know for sure.”

“I’m sorry.”

She glared. “Don’t you dare be sorry. I am a big girl. This was never about you, this was about me. So there,” she added.

“It wasn’t an apology,” I said.

“Oh. Well, thank you then.” She sighed and her face softened. “It still wasn’t about you. At least, I don’t think it was. The whole arrangement was starting to wear me down. I needed to be out of that tangle. And I think he was coming around to the same place anyway. What little time we had together was getting strained. Even the sex was getting more distant.” She winced. “Oh, crap. Sorry?”

I laughed. “Not at all. I’m a big boy.”

“Okay,” she said with a sad smile.

“So… are we…?”

She shook her head. “Not yet. I need a little more time to feel free first. It matters to me that this isn’t just me leaving him for you.” She rested her chin in her hands, and gazed at me. “But yes, soon.”

I smiled. “Good. Meanwhile, are you ready to meet Athena?”

Helen perked up greatly at this. “She said yes?”

“She said yes.”

“When?” she asked with a little giggle.

“Four days from now. My place. I think it will be mid afternoon, but we should probably take the whole day.”

Helen’s joy at the prospect of a new wonder was, as always, enchanting. My fears that this would be a terrible day allayed, I managed to convince myself, at least for the time being, that everything was going to be fine.

And then I caught myself, and braced for the backlash.

tried to go home from the library. I say “tried,” because when I got to my apartment building, there was nothing there. Well, okay, not nothing per se, but rubble does not make for a particularly comfortable domicile. The quantity of brush overgrowth in the ruins indicated the building had been in this state for some time. It wasn’t even clear that it had been the same building. I picked through it for ten minutes before I gave up looking for anything identifiable.

I went to pull out my tablet, assuming that “home” would be programmed into the GPS, but it wasn’t in my jacket. Figuring I must have left it in my car, I returned to the street to find it gone. Not the first time I had lost a car to an unhappening, to be sure, but usually with the result of another in its place. I went up and down the block looking for a familiar plate, and attempted to signal the chime with my key card. Nothing spoke to me. I did still have a key card, which meant I must have a car, but it was not in range.

It was a long walk back to the lab. An hour later, cranky and exhausted, I entered a building that was familiar in only the broadest strokes. The construction project that had manifested in my last batch of unhappenings was either finished or irrelevant. The entire layout of the building had changed, as had the décor and the personnel. One familiar face did stand out, but not in a reassuring way.

“Graham?” said Andrea. She was sitting at an indoor picnic table that I had never seen before, eating a bagel from a café that had never been part of my workplace. “What are you doing here?”

I flopped down in the seat next to hers, vaguely hoping we were still friends.

“If I ask you something insane, can you promise me just to answer it on its face without questioning it?”

“I… guess so,” she said. “Are you okay? You look awful.”

I ignored the observation.

“Where am I supposed to be right now?”

Her eyes bugged, and she leaned very close to me.

“Graham,” she whispered, “are you traveling through time?”

I had no idea if this was an out, or a horrible risk, but I rolled with it.

“I asked you not to question it,” I said kindly, but sternly.

“Oh my God,” she said with a bit of a manic smile. “You lucky son of a bitch.”

I rolled my eyes. “Please answer the question.”

“Right.” She composed herself. “Sorry. These days you are working out of a lab in your home. It’s February 19
^th
, 2146, if you’re curious.”

“2146?” I said with my best mock surprise. “Shit. Thanks.” I got up to go.

“Graham,” she said, “if you see yourself when you get home, tell you I said hello.” She was clearly holding back laughter. I politely snickered, and left.