“Why didn’t he just contact him over in yours?”
“He died a few years ago.” An easy lie. I was ready for that one.
Daniel leans his head into his hands for a moment and tries to process everything I’ve just told him. I’m processing it, too, aware of all the many holes in my story and all the ways Daniel can trip me up if he keeps asking too many questions.
“I have no idea if this Dr. Venn guy is the right one,” I say. “This whole idea may be pointless and a waste of time. But I have to do whatever I can—it’s for Audie, you know?”
“Yes, of course—of course,” Daniel agrees, and that seems to stop him from any further analysis. “Obviously I’ll help you in whatever way you need.”
“Good.” I breathe out a sigh. “Thank you.” I’m tempted to reach over and squeeze his hand, but I don’t think Halli would do that. They got to know each other pretty well up in the mountains since Halli was taking care of his ankle every day, but I’m not really sure how close they were.
I can think of one way to find out.
“My turn,” I tell him. “What’s yorking?”
“Pardon?”
“Why did Dr. Venn call you and Professor Lacksmith ‘yorkers’? What does that mean?”
“Well … technically,” he says, “a yorker is one way of delivering the ball in cricket.”
“Cricket?” That wasn’t what I was expecting. “Do you and Professor Lacksmith play cricket?”
“No … I’m afraid this is a long story, and look—the car has arrived. Shall we?”
He gets up from the table with a satisfied sort of smirk, and I shake my head to let him know he hasn’t gotten away with it. “We’ll come back to this,” I tell him.
“I’m certain we will.”
As he and Red and I head down the walkway toward the street, I just can’t let it go. “So you don’t play cricket, but you still won something for yorking?”
“As I said,” he answers, “it’s a long story.”
“Perfect. We have a long ride to Oxford.”
“I’ll tell you one day,” he says. “I promise.”
Somehow I don’t believe him. Although I bet Audie could have gotten it out of him by now.
“Good morning, Miss,” the driver says as he opens the door for us. Jake waits until Red has hopped into the back seat before he lowers his window to say hello. Coward. Red would rip only a little hole in his face.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know your name,” I say to the driver. I’m willing to be strangers with someone I’ve only met once or twice, but now it’s become uncomfortable. This man was my driver last time I was Halli, too, so I’ve seen him about six times by now.
“It’s Wilkinson, Miss. Happy to be of service.” He closes the door after Daniel and Red and me, then returns to the front seat where he presses a button, starts up the car, and goes back to drinking his tea with one hand and holding his tablet to read the news with the other. He doesn’t even bother looking up at the street as the car pulls out and drives on.
I still can’t get used to that, visually. It makes my stomach feel a little queasy. It just strikes me in my gut as wrong.
I see Jake put a button-shaped item inside his ear. He points to it.
I shrug, because I have no idea what he wants.
Daniel flips up a lid on the door closest to him and removes two buttons just like it. He hands one to me and inserts the other one in his ear.
“I talked to your mother again this morning,” Jake says. I can hear his voice coming through the earpiece. Red can’t hear it, though, and continues sleeping peacefully next to me with his head resting across my lap.
I try not to tense up for his sake.
“Yes?” I say.
“Dr. Markham suggested that your time would be better spent moving on to the next facility you want to tour. She recommends the one in Finland. She isn’t paying for her pilot and the jet to sit around idle while you indulge some fantasy about being admitted to Oxford just because your grandmother said you could. This is the real world, and spoiled celebrity rich girls don’t get everything they want. Miss.”
Jake smiles innocently. I think he’s waiting for the steam to start pouring out of my ears.
“That’s what she said?”
“I may have shortened it a bit,” he admits.
I hear a sound to my right and turn to find Daniel trying hard not to laugh. I glower at both of them.
I calmly take the button out of my ear and hand it back to Daniel. He removes his, too.
I still haven’t said anything. Right now I don’t trust myself with words.
“Halli?” Daniel says quietly.
I calmly pet the dog.
“You’re not alone. No one likes that woman.”
I let out a trapped breath. He’s probably right. And it does make me feel better.
“The thing is,” I tell him and remind myself, “I’m not even trying to get into Oxford. That’s just the excuse. But she makes me so crazy, I just want to prove her wrong. Right now I’ve never wanted anything more than to get into Oxford.”
As I finish saying it, I can’t help but laugh. Daniel is laughing, too.
And whether Halli would do it or not, I reach over and clasp his hand. “Thanks, Daniel. I really appreciate everything you do.”
Daniel’s gaze softens. He looks at me with a tender kind of smile.
What am I doing? I jerk my hand away and turn to look out the window. It doesn’t matter how much I want it—I can’t take even a step down that old road. I actually sit on the offending hand so it won’t do that again.
“Halli?” Daniel says. “Is everything all right?”
“Mm-hm.” As long as I don’t look at you or touch you or think about you too much.
Audie 1 had it easy.
Audie 3 has work to do.
12
“Miss Markham, if I might say so,” Wilkinson says as he opens the car door for me, “I believe in you. Far as I’ve seen, you can do anything you put your hand to.”
I don’t know how to react at first, but then I realize he heard Jake’s part of the conversation in the car about all the horrible things Halli’s mother said about me.
“Thank you, Wilkinson. I really appreciate that.”
And I do. So much, in fact, I can feel myself starting to tear up. Although I think that has more to do with the fact that we’re here now, and I’m about to find out my fate.
I could see from a distance the domes and spires and the tops of buildings that look like castle turrets. I thought the Columbia campus looked beautiful in pictures. But this place.
There’s something about being someplace really old. You feel it. You feel the people that came here before you. The scholars and teachers who walked these streets. The fantastic minds gathered together in one place, starting hundreds of years ago. The scientific discoveries and the literature—
“Watch it!” a bicyclist shouts as he nearly runs me over. I forgot that I need to look the opposite way here before crossing a street: right, left, right.
“What time will you be done?” Jake asks me. He’s crossed the street with Daniel and me, but he knows he’s not invited any further. The deal is he can be in Oxford for the sake of his tracking, but he has to leave me alone.
“I have no idea,” I tell him. Dr. Venn said he has to nap at noon, but I don’t know if that means he’ll give me more time this afternoon. “Let’s say five o’clock for now. If it’s any earlier …”
Jake hands me a small metallic card. “Page me.”
I accept it as if I know what to do.
Daniel points to the closest clock tower. Quarter to ten.
“We should hurry,” he says.
My heart agrees. It’s already starting to pound.
What if Dr. Venn isn’t the right professor? What if he is? What’s he going to say about my chances for survival when the last time it didn’t work out so well?
“Through here,” Daniel says, c
utting through an archway into a courtyard carpeted with yellow leaves. There are trees everywhere, showing off the last of their autumn colors. There are benches under most of them where people can sit to study or talk or just look out on the beauty and enjoy it.
“Over here,” Daniel says, leading toward a different path.
Halli loves her maps, but I’m relying on Daniel for this one. “He’s in a dark corner of a minor college,” he told me this morning. “That says something of his prestige.”
Suddenly Daniel comes to a halt. “There he is.”
That’s Dr. Venn, all right—I recognize the head. As for the rest of him …
It’s hard not to gawp. But nobody else seems to give him a second glance. They must be used to the sight of Dr. Venn rolling along the path. Encased in something that makes him look like a giant purple robot.
“Easy, boy.” Red doesn’t like that thing at all. A low, dangerous growl vibrates in his chest. I put my hand on his head to steady him.
The machine is like a wheelchair, only it’s tall, and holds Dr. Venn in an upright position. The purple casing around his arms and legs undulates every few seconds and looks like a bread machine kneading dough. The purple casing along his back is doing it, too.
It reminds me of the cuffs the nurses put around my legs while I was in the hospital. They felt like they were filled with gel, and they covered my legs from the ankles to the thighs. Every few seconds the cuffs would pulsate and squeeze different parts of my leg, one section at a time. It felt strange but also relaxing, and I’m sure it was to help my circulation after being stuck on my back for so long.
I suppose a hundred-year-old man might need a little help with his circulation, too.
I keep thinking we should probably go up to him and introduce ourselves, but I can’t bring myself to do it. I just stand here and watch him make his slow progress toward the building where we were headed.
“Let’s wait,” Daniel murmurs, as if reading my mind. Or maybe he’s feeling intimidated, too.
Suddenly I’m aware of the dog. Knowing how unreasonable he is around Jake, I’m not so sure I can trust him around a man who looks like a robot. That has to be at least as bad as a five-headed dragon.
I wish I brought Sarah after all. She could have entertained the dog.
I kneel down in front of him. “Red, I’m begging you. Please, please be nice to Dr. Venn. Please. I mean it.”
The dog wags his tail and licks my nose. I’m not really sure we communicated.
“If there’s a problem, I’ll take him outside,” Daniel promises. “Don’t worry. Shall we go?”
Dr. Venn has made the turn and seems to be moving toward his far dark corner. If we walk slowly we should get there about the same time.
“Daniel …”
“I know.” He reaches down and holds my hand. An unexpected and very kind gesture. I don’t care what I told myself before—I need this. I weave my fingers through his, but don’t dare look at him. I’m starting to feel choked up again.
“Knowledge is better than ignorance,” he reminds me. “If there’s something he can tell us that will help you and Audie …”
I nod. “Right.”
When I still haven’t moved, Daniel gives my hand a squeeze.
“Be normal,” I instruct the dog. And the three of us set off in search of some knowledge.
13
“Well! Who do we have here?”
A huge smile splits Dr. Venn’s face as he holds out his arms to Red.
Daniel and I exchange a look. This is not the man we met in 3D yesterday.
Red approaches with his body in full wag. Dr. Venn already compressed his tall purple contraption down into a chair before we got in here. Now he detaches his arms from the cuffs of it, then reaches into a box on his desk. He hands Red two small dog biscuits.
“I have a schnauzer friend who goes on walkabout every day,” Dr. Venn tells us. “He visits me in the afternoon for tea and biscuits. What is this fine fellow’s name?”
“Red,” I say.
“Hmm?”
“RED,” I shout.
Daniel holds out his hand. “DR. VENN, I’M DANIEL EVERETT AND THIS IS—”
Dr. Venn holds up an index finger. “Wait. Sit.” He points to the two chairs in front of his desk.
Daniel and I sit down. Dr. Venn roots around in a pile of debris at the edge of his desk, and pulls out a trapezoidal device about the size of a dinner plate.
Meanwhile, Red is looking up at him expectantly.
“Yes, of course,” Dr. Venn answers cheerfully. He runs a gnarled hand over Red’s head. Then he fishes out another biscuit and feeds it to his new friend.
I secretly poke Daniel in the leg. He secretly pokes me back.
“Are we still supposed to wait?” I mutter to him.
“I think so,” he whispers.
Dr. Venn opens a drawer of his desk and pulls out a big silver microphone. “Sometimes old technology is still the best technology. Plug that in,” he tells Daniel, pointing to our side of the trapezoid. Next he retrieves a set of huge earphones, pulls them over his head, and holds out the cord to me. “It’s too small,” he explains, holding up his arthritic hands. “If you please.” He points to a hole on his side of the unit.
“Speak,” Dr. Venn tells Daniel.
“SIR, I’M—”
Dr. Venn’s hands fly to his ears. “Not so loud! I can hear you now. Please, your regular voice.”
What a relief. I thought we were going to have to shout the entire day.
“I’m Daniel Everett and this is Halli Markham.”
“Are you Lacksmith’s student, too?” he asks me.
Daniel passes me the microphone. “No, sir.” My hand is shaking a little, I notice.
“I apologize for yesterday,” Dr. Venn says. “I get calls sometimes. People who … don’t wish me well. I’ve learned to be very cautious.”
And mean, I think, but I don’t say it.
“But if Lacksmith sent you …”
“To be honest, sir,” Daniel says, taking the microphone back, “he didn’t send me. I know of your work because of him, and I believe you might be able to help us.”
“Help you.” It’s a statement, not a question. And Dr. Venn doesn’t exactly look thrilled. “What is it you think I do, young man?”
“I believe you’re a philosophical physicist, sir.”
“And what do you think that is?” Dr. Venn asks.
“As contrasted with a mechanical physicist,” Daniel says. “I believe you pursue questions that may not have answers in the physical universe as we understand it at the present moment.”
Dr. Venn considers that for a moment. “Fair enough. I’ve heard longer descriptions that are more accurate, and of course there are the shorter ones like ‘freak science’ and ‘useless’ and ‘fantasy physics’ and ‘fringe’ …”
I’m glad Francie only called it fringe to me and didn’t mention that in front of Dr. Venn.
“And you,” he says, turning to me. “Halli of the headaches, death, and parallel universes.”
“Yes, sir.”
I don’t bother repeating the lie that my grandmother knew him. We’re past that now.
“Forgive an old man his paranoia,” he tells us, “but I have to ask: has anyone put you up to this? Lacksmith, Curtis—anyone?”
“No, sir,” Daniel says. “I don’t know any Curtis, but the answer is still no. We are here entirely on our own behalf.”
“Excuse my paranoia, too, Dr. Venn,” I say, “but I have to make sure you’re the right person to talk to. If you’re not, we won’t waste your time or our own.”
“Fair enough,” he says.
I take a breath. I spent a lot of time as I lay awake last night, thinking about how to put this. I don’t want to alarm Daniel, but I have to give Dr. Venn enough information to go on.
I decided the best thing to do was to describe the same kind of scenario Daniel and his parents would have when t
hey met with Dr. Venn the first time.
“Suppose someone came to you,” I say, “and told you a friend of theirs had discovered a parallel universe. She even found a version of herself over there. And the two of them learned how to travel back and forth to each other’s worlds.”
Dr. Venn is studying me with a very intense look. Maybe the fact that he hasn’t already shouted, “What?” and thrown us out of his office is answer enough—that he’s the right man. But I have to be sure.
“Everything is fine for a while,” I continue, “but then … things start to go wrong.”
“Wrong, how?” Daniel asks me.
I can’t look at him. I have to keep going. “And one of them starts to have these really violent headaches. So bad that she ends up in the hospital. So these friends of hers come to you and ask you if you can help her. Would you … believe them?”
“Oh, yes,” Dr. Venn answers without any hesitation at all.
“Has something happened to Audie?” Daniel asks. “Halli, answer me.”
“No, it happened to me,” I say. A good solid half-truth.
“Are you all right?” he asks.
Dr. Venn can only hear my side of it through the microphone, but anyone can see that Daniel is agitated. Dr. Venn barks at him, “Quiet! Let her finish!”
There’s the Dr. Venn we met yesterday.
I can feel my hand shaking again. “Would you know what to tell them?” I ask him. “Would you know how to help?”
“I might,” he says. “I’d need all the facts.”
All the facts. Right.
I hate to do this, but I have to. “Daniel, I promise I’ll tell you more later, but right now I have to talk to Dr. Venn in private. Can you go out—”
“No,” he says. “Absolutely not. I’m the one you need to speak to privately. Dr. Venn, will you excuse us for a few minutes?”
Then without waiting for an answer, Daniel gets up and leaves.
I’m a little speechless. “I’m sorry, sir, he’s not usually like that.”
Dr. Venn looks irritated. “Tell me the rest, now.”
“Just … can you wait a second? I’ll be right back.”
I turn back at the door. Red looks perfectly content lying at the base of Dr. Venn’s chair. I slip out before he notices.
Parallelogram Omnibus Edition Page 73
