A Quill Ladder (52 page)

“
Yes. I guess here I
’
d be the past Caleb. To me I
’
m just the present Caleb.
”

“
Then you can do something about Russell. You can stop him. Please, promise me you
’
ll stop him.
”

“
I don
’
t know. I don
’
t even know what he
’
s doing. Right now I
’
m on an important errand. But I can come back and talk to you and figure out if I can help, in like an hour or so? I
’
ll come back, I promise.
”

“
What exactly are you doing?
”

“
I have to go find my mother. She
’
s at a hospital here. Remember, she was sick.
”

The woman
’
s voice got softer.
“
I remember.
”

“
I have some friends with me. They
’
re just downstairs.
”

“
Do I want to know how they got there?
”

“
Probably not.
”

“
All right. Just go. Come back and talk to me if you can. But if you can
’
t, please, please stop Russell. Whatever he
’
s doing, it
’
s dangerous. I don
’
t know if he knows that.
”

“
I
’
ll talk to him.
”

Caleb opened the door and beckoned to Ian, Abbey, and Mark. The woman at the other end of the counter stood watching them. Abbey would recognize that ivory skin and lustrous raven hair anywhere, even on a woman twenty years older than the girl she
’
d been the last time Abbey had seen her. Anna Andrews. Russell
’
s younger sister.

Anna said nothing as they left, and they made their way out of the shop into the street. Abbey looked back at the red brick fa
ç
ade. The sign above the window read
“
Abbott
’
s Apothecary
”
in large cursive script, with the words
“
Heritage Building
”
just beneath it, which Abbey supposed was probably why it was one of the few buildings that was almost at street level, instead of half underground.

“
Why were you acting so weird around Anna?
”
Abbey said.
“
Why did she recognize you right away? Are you and she friends?
””

Caleb marched down the street at a breakneck pace, his hands thrust deep into his pockets. People were starting to stare at their jeans and winter coats.
“
None of your business. Do you figure you can break into that locker of Sylvain
’
s?
”

“
You think we should get jumpsuits?
”
Abbey said.

“
It might be easier.
”

“
It was a key lock,
”
Abbey said.

“
No worries,
”
Ian said.
“
I
’
m an expert lock picker.
”

Mark sulked on the train to the hospital. He had wanted to go immediately to Kasey
’
s, but Caleb and Abbey had told him he had to come to the hospital with them first. The card Abbey had left in the locker was gone, and there were only three jumpsuits, so Ian had agreed to
“
fade into the woodwork
”
with Farley and see if anyone
“
important
”
was about. He said he would meet them back at the Apothecary at five o
’
clock.

Mark had a hard time seeing where Ian was going to find any woodwork, and how a man dressed so vibrantly with an overly familiar Chesapeake Bay Retriever was going to fade into anything. And who was he talking about? Selena and the two extremely bad men? Sylvain? Dr. Ford? Mark had no idea. Mark thought he might have caught a glimpse of Selena and the two extremely bad men at the train station, but he decided not to say anything, as that kind of thing tended to excite everyone and might interfere with him getting to see the map (which at this point was of paramount concern).

They found the hospital in the southeastern part of town
—
potentially, Mark decided, in the precise spot where the hospital in present-day Coventry was located. Geography was like that. It tended to have a permanence, with culture after culture rebuilding the same types of buildings on the same sites, until nobody remembered who built it first, and ruin after ruin was layered one on top of the other like a modern architectural midden.

Mark had hoped to remain outside the hospital, as the prospect of future germs was even more terrifying than present germs. Who knew how bacteria and viruses could mutate over the course of twenty years? But Abbey and Caleb insisted that he come in with them for safety
’
s sake. So while Abbey and Caleb tried to find what room Ms. Beckham might be in, Mark studied the architecture.

This hospital was lower to the ground than the one in present-day Coventry, with a warren of floors extending underground. Mark suspected it was to lower heating and cooling costs and protect against storms. Even in the middle of winter, the warmer temperature of this future was evident, and today, the cumulonimbus clouds hovered ominously on the horizon. Mark could see the sky clearly as he followed Abbey and Caleb down a hallway illuminated by skylights. Hospitals of the future definitely had less stressful lighting.

A handsome dark-haired man rose from a chair as Abbey and Caleb ran into one of the rooms. Ms. Beckham lay pale and thin on a hospital bed, and was hooked to an IV. The dark-haired man greeted them, and the three of them spoke in low tones while Mark cast about looking for a place to focus, as he was clearly unwanted in the conversation. The dark-haired man smiled and gave a little wave at Mark, then went out into the hall, shutting the door firmly behind him.

Abbey and Caleb went to the bed, and their mother took one of each of their hands and reassured them that she was fine. Then Abbey and Caleb said a lot of things quickly about Ian, trolleys, the swamp, stones, excavators, Mr. Sinclair, and Selena, and Mark had a hard time following. Ms. Beckham sat bolt upright, and asked a lot of sharp questions, especially about Mr. Sinclair and Selena. Then she squinted her eyes and lay back down on the bed.

Mark felt more uncomfortable than usual, but he wasn
’
t totally sure why. There was some pointing at him and mention of Kasey, and explanation of why it was important that they see the other map, and Mark became hopeful that they would leave soon. He was glad Ms. Beckham was okay, of course, but he really needed to see that other map. But Ms. Beckham seemed to feel strongly that they should all just go to a tea shop across the street and wait for her with Simon. (Mark did not understand how Simon was going to get here.)

Mark was just beginning to get quite agitated at the prospect of not seeing the map, when Caleb suddenly grew white and had to go and sit in the corner chair in the room. The dark-haired man returned and reported that Ms. Beckham would be ready to go in two hours, and then there was a bit of excitement and loud talking when the dark-haired man saw Caleb slumped over in the corner. He immediately escorted Caleb out of the room and down the hall. Abbey told Ms. Beckham, in a rather hurried voice, that they needed to go help Simon with Caleb, and that they would come back to pick Ms. Beckham up in two hours.

Then Abbey started to push Mark out of the room.

Mark shook his head, but Abbey shook her head back and half dragged him into the hall. Mark would normally have resisted, but something about Abbey
’
s demeanor suggested that he should not.

“
We
’
re still going to get the map,
”
she said through clenched teeth.
“
Come on. We need to go find Simon and Caleb.
”

Mark blinked at the name and the change of plan. Simon? He hadn
’
t even considered that the dark-haired man could be Simon (although he supposed that he should have). He didn
’
t understand what exactly was happening, and decided he wanted to have a bit of a breakdown, but Abbey
had
said they would get the map, so he managed to pull himself together (although it was a rather creaky and precarious sort of together).

The dark-haired man
—
Simon
—
came striding back up the hall toward them. He looked so intense that Mark darted a look behind them to see if there was someone else he was coming for. When Mark turned his head, he caught a glimpse of a redheaded man with a beard lying in the bed in the room next to Ms. Beckham
’
s, but his view was cut off by Simon
’
s tall form.

Simon curved his hand through Abbey
’
s arm and led them down the hall.
“
Caleb feels better now that he
’
s outside,
”
he said.
“
He tells me you
’
re looking for a map. Please, please be careful. I
’
ll have Mom out front in two hours.
”

“
Can
’
t you tell us anything about Dad, Si? What
’
s he doing? Is he okay?
”
Mark noted that Abbey didn
’
t mention that Ms. Beckham had suggested the tea shop instead of the map.

They had reached the entrance to the hospital, and Simon pressed the knuckle of his forefinger against his lips before shaking his head.
“
I
’
m afraid to tell you anything, in case I make things worse somehow. Like I told you last time, things are changing in strange ways. Once when we traveled to this future, we arrived the day after a municipal election. A man named Abraham Dunham had just been elected mayor, and people were celebrating in the streets. But even though we visited that very future, that will never happen now
—
because Abraham Dunham was murdered six weeks ago. And that
’
s just one example; there are other things, too. I don
’
t know what we
’
ve set in motion. I don
’
t want to make it worse by telling you too much. I don
’
t even know if the timeline as I experienced it will be the same as the one you experience. Maybe my memory has been wiped clean, over and over, to accommodate an ever-changing past. I lie awake at night worrying that I
’
m going to get up in the morning in a different house, with a different wife and different children, and I won
’
t even know that it
’
s all different. I don
’
t know whether to tell you to go home and do nothing, or to carry on doing what you
’
re doing. So I
’
m not going to tell you anything, other than to try to stay safe.
”
Then he gave Abbey a strange and stiff hug and hurried away, back toward Ms. Beckham
’
s room.

Caleb was standing on the sidewalk outside the hospital. His skin had a pasty green undertone that didn
’
t meld well with his freckles and red hair, but Mark was too anxious to get to Kasey and the maps to give it much thought.

Kasey had given Mark his home address after Mark had given him the map photocopies, and had said it was only a couple of blocks off the Southwest Spoke train. Kasey had also informed Mark that he had Saturdays off, and so, since presumably it was also Saturday here (although they agreed that they should have checked this), they decided to try Kasey
’
s house first. As they made their way down the street past the sunken houses toward the train station, Caleb seemed to recover some of his energy.

Outside Kasey
’
s house, they discussed the best strategy for approaching Kasey, but in the end, they decided they should just all go in. After all, Kasey had clearly realized that Mark was on the spectrum
—
it should have been apparent after their stilted attempts at conversation last time
—
and therefore Kasey would probably accept Abbey and Caleb
’
s presence as his helpers.