Meanwhile, the small holographic man continued his climb. He wore spiked boots and held two curved spikes that almost looked like extensions of his arms. He’d swing one back behind him and catch it in the ice above him, then step up with one of his spiked boots. Then he’d swing the other arm, drive that spike in, and take a step with the other leg.
It was slow going, and I felt a little hypnotized by the steady motion. He made it look so easy. But then suddenly he slipped. One of the spikes he’d just swung didn’t stick, and then suddenly he lost his balance, and his boots were scrabbling against the ice, and he was just hanging there by one arm. I could hear some of the low commentary in the background—something like, “...incredibly dangerous, Mike, especially if he…”—and then I couldn’t make out any more.
I was watching the whole ugly scene, worrying for the miniature climber who was about to plummet from the ice onto something not nearly as soft as the bed he was hovering over, when suddenly I remembered my own spikes: the ones on the graph Dr. Rios had shown me. I probably wasn’t helping my stress level by watching this disaster unfold. And even though the man just then got one boot planted, then the other, and finally his one swinging arm, I knew I needed to watch something more calming.
Laura still hadn’t come back, so I was on my own. I swept my thumb down the device, vertically, and for the first time ever since taking over Halli’s life, one of the devices in her universe worked for me! A new image formed above my bed—a man who looked oddly familiar—and I settled back to try to remember who he was.
“Hmpf, that’ll put you to sleep now, won’t it?” Laura said when she returned.
“Do you know who it is?” I asked.
“It’s one of those old scientists, isn’t it?” she said. She reached for the device and increased the volume.
“...come to my second law of motion. The greater the mass of an object, the greater the force needed to act upon it for acceleration...”
“Is that...Sir Isaac Newton?” I asked. The person looked vaguely like the pictures I’d seen of him, and since he was the one who first defined the three laws of motion, it made sense. But he lived in the 1700s, so unless someone in Halli’s universe had invented holographic recording back then, it had to be an actor portraying him.
“Who knows,” Laura said. “I’ve always hated this channel—puts me back in school. Fancy a look around?”
She changed to another science channel, this one showing a woman who looked considerably more modern.
“...bacteria found within the well of an active volcano...”
Laura had no patience for that, either.
She passed by several more channels: World History, Art History, and finally came to rest on Celebrity History.
“There now—look familiar?” she asked. “They must play this every other hour, I’ve seen it so many times.”
It was Halli—the real one. Stepping up on some platform and waving to a crowd. And stepping up beside her, Ginny Markham. Looking like my Grandma Marion, but much fitter and younger and happier.
Halli looked younger and happier, too. Maybe fifteen years old? I tried to think when I looked like she did.
“Turn it up!” I said.
“...just returned from their successful expedition to Antarctica,” a British narrator was saying. “Within a year, Ginny Markham was dead, and Halli Markham left to carry on alone.”
The scene then cut to a distant 3-D image of Halli outside her house in Colorado. There was snow on the ground. Halli carried in an armful of firewood. She paused as if she heard something, then looked directly into the camera. Then she scowled, hurried back into the house, and slammed the door.
Then a more recent scene.
“...captured by a customer at a florist’s in London. Mystery man revealed now to be Daniel Everett...”
I stared in fascination. It was Daniel and me. Talking in between two rows of plants. And even though the customer’s camera hadn’t recorded what we were saying, I knew. I could almost read Daniel’s lips as they formed the words that had burned into my brain:
“You’re not the girl I’m in love with. And I’m willing to do anything to get her back.”
I would have loved to stay there, savor that moment in the image hovering above my bed, maybe even play it back again if I knew how, but whoever had put that program together was already on to something else: me being rushed into an ambulance, chaos all around me. Red trying to follow. The medic kicking him. Jake jumping into the ambulance.
Then the camera shifted to a young man sitting off to the side, being tended by another medic: Daniel, his face bleeding.
Then cut to another house I recognized: Daniel’s family’s.
“...history producer Sam Wheeler, his wife, archaeologist Francine Everett, daughter Sarah, son Daniel.”
Then Sarah—dear Sarah!—coming out of the house and hurrying toward a waiting car. In answer to the shouts directed at her, she yelled back, “I have nothing to say. You vultures can return to your nests. This is our private business.”
“Miss Everett!” one of the reporters tried again. “Are your brother and Miss Markham in a relationship?”
Sarah stuck her hand on her hip and frowned. “As if I’d tell you! Mind your own business and leave our property at once.”
Then she hustled into the car and it took off.
Then cut to a different location: outside a school somewhere, young men hurrying down brick walkways between classrooms.
And suddenly another face I knew: Martin. Daniel’s friend—the one I met hiking with Daniel and Sarah in the Alps.
“No, I told you, he fancies the other one—the cousin,” Martin said, sounding exasperated. “Now stop bothering him—and me.”
Martin huffed off, and the camera found another target: Daniel again, this time from afar. He didn’t seem to know they were watching him. He walked along, head angled downward, a very serious expression on his face.
Poor Daniel.
Someone called to him, and he turned, giving the camera a better look at his face. The picture froze there. Daniel’s kind, handsome face hovered above my bed.
“He is a nice looking bloke, isn’t he?” Laura said. She smiled at me. “Nice fella, too. Very polite.”
“You met him?”
“First day I was on shift. But then not after. Once he was on ‘The List,’” Laura said dramatically.
“I know,” I said. “But Dr. Rios said he can come back and bring my dog. So I’m hoping he’ll be here today.”
“That’ll be lovely,” Laura said. “Both of them here.”
Then she shushed herself so we could listen to the rest.
“...Mr. Everett continues to refuse to comment,” the narrator said. “But sources say there is no evidence of any cousin in Miss Markham’s family tree. So who is this mystery girl? Or is she a fabrication? Why would Halli Markham’s friends lie to protect her?”
The narrator answered that question for himself by showing the next two hovering heads: Halli’s parents.
“Could it be that the titans of hydroenergy do not approve of their wayward daughter’s choice?”
“Wayward daughter...?” I repeated.
“Is there a suitor they’d perhaps prefer?”
Then Jake’s face, smiling. Smiling at me, as a matter of fact. It must have been film taken by that reporter Bryan Stewart when he was following us around. I didn’t know he’d filmed us at that moment, but I remembered exactly when it was: Jake and I had just secretly sneaked off for another one of our quick makeout sessions. We’d just come back looking rumpled and guilty.
My life—Halli’s life—really was looking more complicated by the moment. No wonder they were so interested. A celebrity like Halli, with potentially two hot young suitors? I’d probably watch that show.
Then back to the frozen image of Daniel looking toward the camera.
“What really happened in the upper room at the History 14 Studios?” the narrator asked. “Is
Daniel Everett responsible for the mental and physical breakdown of Halli Markham?”
“What?” I answered back. “I haven’t had a breakdown—”
“...Why is our strong, courageous, resilient Halli M. currently lying in a hospital bed, comatose and unable to communicate? Anonymous sources—”
“I’m not comatose!” I yelled at the holograph. “And I’m communicating—see? You big fat liar.”
I could feel something, something far away, and I tried to ignore it. But I knew: drugs were seeping into my system again. Too much stress.
“...will, of course, update you as we receive more information,” the narrator continued.
Calm down. Calm DOWN.
“Nurse!” came the voice from the doorway. “Why are you letting her watch that?”
43
Jake raced over to Nurse Laura and snatched the remote control device from her hand. Within seconds, Daniel’s head disappeared and the narrator’s relentless lies were gone.
“Are you all right?” Jake asked me. He peered intently into my face.
“I’m fine,” I said, feeling irritated, but also...a little relieved. He was right. I shouldn’t have kept watching that once I knew how bad it was.
Jake sat on the edge of my bed and reached out to smooth away a section of hair lying limply against my face. “Halli, you need to be careful—always. Didn’t the doctor tell you that? She told me.”
“I’m not a child.” But the second I said that, I knew I sounded like one. “I’m perfectly fine,” I tried again. “Aren’t I, Laura?”
“Perfectly,” she agreed, her mouth pinched with disapproval. Anyone could see she didn’t like being spoken to or treated the way Jake just had.
He saw it, too.
“I’m sorry,” he said, “but obviously my first concern is for Halli. You know what the doctor said about triggering her headaches.”
“Do you have a medical degree?” Laura asked.
Jake could have continued the fight with her, but he had the good sense to defuse it. “Like I said, I’m sorry. I probably overreacted.”
Laura sniffed and turned her back on both of us while she checked the monitors behind my bed. Jake and I exchanged a glance. He smiled that way he has of smiling at me.
At Halli.
“Everything in order,” Laura reported. “As I expected,” she added for emphasis. “I’ll leave you to it, Miss Markham, unless you need anything else?”
“No, but thank you, Laura. You’ve been great. Thanks for the shower especially.”
She smiled at me, frowned at Jake, and bustled out of the room.
Jake reached for my hand and brought it up to his lips. “Mm, you do smell good.” Then he leaned forward and took a good whiff of my neck and my hair. “Very good.”
It was hard to think straight when he did things like that, but I had someone else on my mind. When Jake went in for the kiss, I shifted so he landed on a cheek.
Which was a good thing, because in the next instant a mass of yellow came barreling toward the bed and jumped on top of me.
And Red’s escort stood in the doorway staring at Jake and me.
“Interrupting something?” Daniel asked.
Jake answered, “Yes,” just as I answered, “No,” and practically pushed Jake away.
Daniel looked...great. I don’t know how else to put it. If someone had been looking at my stress graph right now, I’m sure they would have seen it plummet to the bottom. It was just such a relief to see him standing there. So solid and safe and steady. I locked eyes with him and gave him the simplest of smiles. He seemed to relax then, too.
Laura stood triumphantly behind Daniel. “You know Dr. Rios’s new rule,” she told Jake, obviously pleased to get back at him after he’d yelled at her that way. “One visitor at a time. Plus dog.” She swept her hand behind her like she was inviting him to the door.
But Jake wasn’t easily intimidated. He leaned forward and brushed his lips against Halli’s ear, then whispered, “See you soon,” loudly enough for Daniel to hear. Then he took his time striding toward the doorway and out past Daniel and the nurse.
Meanwhile, a certain someone demanded my attention.
“Yes, boy, yes, I missed you, too,” I told the wriggling, overjoyed Red. He had been crawling closer to me by the second, until now his face was level with mine and his tongue lapped at any skin it could find. I held him tightly around the neck and felt the bed shake with each thump of his tail.
I stole another look at Daniel. It was hard not to openly stare. He just looked so...great. Not because of what he wore or how good-looking he naturally is, but just because it was him. There in the flesh where I needed him. But still standing too far away.
I glanced over at Laura and caught her grinning at me. I smiled back. Then I buried the rest of my smile in Red’s neck fur so I wouldn’t make such a fool of myself in front of Daniel.
“Oh, listen,” Laura said, theatrically holding a hand to her ear. “I hear someone calling. Best be off then.” She winked at me before closing the door behind her.
Then Daniel was to me in three quick strides, and I sat up and reached for him, and he pulled me into his arms and held me so tightly I almost couldn’t breathe. I squeezed him back with the kind of strength I didn’t know Halli’s arms had anymore. I could feel his heart beating against Halli’s chest and I was sure he could feel hers. And for the moment it felt like that heart was mine.
“Audie, are you all right?”
“Now,” I said.
I choked back a cry I didn’t realize was there. But it felt so good—so right—to be with him again. Like being back in my own body for even a short time after all that time away. If you want to know the science it was chemical. Biological. And as much a mental as a physical fact: Daniel was the one for me. I would never doubt that again for a second.
But I wasn’t the one for him. Not anymore and not yet. I still had work to do. I had to get her back.
“Tell me everything,” Daniel said. He sat on the only section of my bed not currently occupied by a blissed-out yellow Lab.
“No, you first. Mine is boring—I mostly just lie here and sleep. Have you found out anything?”
“Perhaps,” he said, in that proper British way of his. “My parents know someone at Oxford—a professor there. We visited him yesterday.”
So they really were there for me—it wasn’t just my egotistical imagination.
“What did he say?” I asked.
“He wants to meet you. To speak with you. I tried to explain as best I could, but obviously you can do it much better. So as soon as you can leave here...”
“Whenever that is,” I said. “I don’t know, the doctor said maybe next week.”
“Next week isn’t soon enough,” Daniel said.
“I know—it’s driving me crazy to be stuck in here.”
“No,” Daniel said, looking at me with a grave expression on his face. “I mean next week might be too late.”
44
“What do you mean, too late?” I asked. My nerves suddenly felt very cold.
“He thinks the longer you stay here, in Halli’s body, the greater the risk of...deterioration.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. At all. “What kind of deterioration?”
“Mental. Physical. All aspects.”
Daniel and I stared at each other.
“So what you’re saying...”
“You could die,” Daniel said. “Halli, too. If we have any hope of reversing the process, it needs to happen soon. Quickly.”
I swallowed against a dry mouth. My heart was fluttering, and not in a good way.
“I could die.”
“You both could,” Daniel answered.
Red snuffled into my neck just then, reminding me of other times when I’d relied on petting him to help calm myself. Right now I didn’t think any amount of petting would do the trick.
“But...how does he know, this professor?” I asked, hoping it
was just speculation. Maybe it was just a wild theory that wouldn’t prove true in my case.
“He said he’s seen something like it before.”
“What?” That seemed impossible. “When?”
“It’s a long story,” Daniel said. “It would be better if he told you himself.”
Daniel looked behind him to make sure we were still alone.
“Audie, I can’t stress enough how urgent this is.”
“No, believe me, I get that.”
“I’d take you out of here right now if I could.”
“Well, can’t you?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Your parents—sorry, Halli’s parents—have forced the hospital to institute certain measures. Your tracking is linked to a security system. If you leave, everyone will know.”
“So what?” I asked, my face suddenly feeling hot. “I’m sick of this. There’s nothing wrong with me—” Considering what he’d just said, though, I knew I had to change that. “There’s nothing wrong that they can fix here. Do you really think that professor can help me?”
“I don’t know,” Daniel said. “But I also don’t know of any other alternatives at this point.”
“Well, if I can’t go see him, can we at least call him or something?”
“We could, but the man is ancient. He’s practically deaf. We’d have to shout, and even then I think it would be difficult.”
I could just imagine that: the Oxford professor’s head hovering above Daniel’s tablet, and the three of us shouting back and forth about how it was I came to be stuck in Halli Markham’s body and what I was going to do about it now. Anyone listening outside my door would get an earful.
“I feel like a prisoner,” I said.
“You are one,” Daniel said. “For the moment.”
We both sat in silence while the truth of that settled around us.
“Maybe I can try something,” I said, saying it out loud before I’d really thought through a plan. “My doctor—Dr. Rios—she’s the one who let you come here today. Halli’s parents didn’t want that, but she overruled them. So maybe if I can think of some way to convince her to let me go...”
Parallelogram Omnibus Edition Page 62
