Sleeping Jenny (23 page)

“Miraculous, isn't it?” Martha settled beside me on the couch.

I swirled the tea around with a tiny spoon. “And their plans for the future…”

She nodded, her wispy purple-gray hair like a cloud on her head. “Scouting for planets to start over. Just the thought fills an old lady like me with hope.”

“I'm sure they'd enjoy your visit.”

“Nah… I'm too old to help with anything, I'd just be a burden. Besides, I couldn't leave Jumbo alone. He'd tear up my antique couch with separation anxiety.”

I ran my fingers over an elaborate snowflake-patterned doily on the armrest. “Can't have that.”

“No. You go. Find out all you can. Help them bring back animals so Jumbo can have a friend.”

It was an empty hope, like talking to someone with a life sentence about the vacation they'd take to Hawaii if they could. The time it would take to travel to Paradise 15, inhabit it, set up laboratories, and birth new species was way beyond Jumbo's almost-spent lifetime. Still, I played along. “He'd probably claw their eyes out.”

Martha laughed and her tea rippled in the cup. “Only until he got to know them.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes, Jumbo rubbing against the wall. I ran my finger over the golden rim of my teacup, feeling a chip in the porcelain under my skin. “Thank you for telling me about the Timesurfers. I know it could have put you in danger…”

“Nonsense. You're a special girl, Jennifer. I knew from the moment you walked in here you were destined for greatness.”

“I don't know about that. More like destined for clumsiness.”

We laughed together, her sipping her tea and me lifting the cup up to my lips and pretending. She'd changed from a miserly skeptic to a sweet old lady in the short time I had known her, and I wondered how much of that change was because of me. I might have been over-crediting myself, but still I didn't want her thinking I abandoned her. “I'm not going to be able to visit you anymore. I can't say why, but I want you to know it's not because I don't want to.”

Martha sighed and her frail shoulders slumped forward. “I had an inkling. There's an eagerness in your eyes, like a child at Christmastime.”

If only I could tell her about my upcoming adventure. I didn't want to endanger her with information people would kill for. It wasn't like Martha would tell anyone except for Jumbo, but who knew what devices they had these days for listening in on conversations?

I checked the time on my miniscreen. Pell would be home in less than an hour. I took a long gulp of bitter tea and stood up. “I'm sorry. I have to go.”

Martha placed her cup on the armrest and struggled to get up. “Oh, these old bones…” She walked over and gave me a hug. I held onto her, missing my grandmother.

She pulled away and wiped at a stain on the couch that must have been there for the last forty years. “Maybe my second chance wasn't for nothing. Maybe I was supposed to be here to tell you about the Timesurfers so you could go on and do the work I wanted to do.”

The urge to tell her welled up inside me, and I tightened my lips and wiped my eyes. “I'll certainly try.”

I looked back one more time.

Martha winked, a sparkle in her eyes. “Have a safe trip.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Last Day

T
he
cold froze the marrow of my bones, and stillness held my soul until I couldn't remember what it was like to feel the sun on my skin, or the heat trapped under a blanket. All I saw was the curved lid of the cryotube through a glassy substance that could only be preservation liquid
.

Wait a second. I'm supposed to be asleep
.

Panic filled my throat. I tried to scream, but my breath wouldn't release. My lungs were full to bursting, yet at the same time a suffocating feeling of drowning came over me. This wasn't like the last time I went under. I lay encased and alone, fully aware but unable to move. Numbness tingled through me and I couldn't hear, feel, or touch. Only stare at the tiny crystals in the liquid and, through them, the lid. Only think
.

My thoughts raced. Would I suffer like this for the next two hundred and fifty years? Imprisoned with only my thoughts to keep me company? No! I'd go crazy without a way to sense the passing of time, with no visual stimulus to keep me distracted
.

I wanted to crack the ice and break through the frozen liquid to claw at the underside of the lid. Anything to get out into the fresh air. To breathe again. Maybe the ship hadn't taken off, and I could get someone's attention
.

My mind pushed against a brick wall as I struggled to move. Light flickered above me. The lid had a triangular box of clear glass just above my head. Faces stared down at me, middle-aged men with the cold, clinical eyes of scientists. I screamed my thoughts at them. Their lips moved and I made out the words. Procedure successful. Or maybe it was my imagination telling me my greatest fear
.

Fingers tapped on the glass and the men disappeared, leaving me staring at nothing as the light flickered out
.

I bolted upright in bed, shivering so hard my teeth hurt. What day was it? How long had I been out? My muscles ached and my bones creaked like my real three-hundred-year age had finally caught up to me. It seemed I'd been asleep for centuries, but when I checked my miniscreen, it was Thursday. The mission was leaving on Friday. I had one day left. My last day.

What would I do?

I couldn't stay home all day. I'd go crazy pacing back and forth, thinking of all the reasons why I should go and the few illogical reasons I should stay. Checking the time, I still had twenty minutes to dress, down some soycakes, and catch the last bus. Sure, I could lie to myself that going to Ridgewood was a good cover and would keep my mind off the mission, but the true reason sat like a rock in my heart. I wanted to see Maxim one more time.

“Jennifer!” Pell shouted from the table as Len dished out the soycakes. “You're feeling better.”

“I am.” I straightened out my rumpled tunic and took a seat next to her.

“That's wonderful.” Len handed me a plate. “How many soycakes do you want?”

“Load it up.” Thinking about the dream, I felt like I hadn't eaten anything in years. You're not supposed to eat for a whole twenty-four hours before cryosleep, so I had to pig out now.

Len sat at the table beside Valex. “We're proud of you for getting up today, for going back to school.”

I felt like every pore on my face screamed
leaving on a mission to Paradise 15!
I swallowed a mouthful of soycakes and tried to play it calm. “I had to get up sometime. I can't stay in my room all my life.”

Pell giggled. “You'd get pretty bored.”

I made a goofy face at her. “I'd start eating my socks, like a sock monster.”

She laughed so hard that a piece of soycake flew across the table. I thought Valex and Len would be angry, but they laughed. For a moment, we felt like a real family. A family I would leave. In one moment, I saw my life if I stayed on Earth. I'd attend all the events in Pell's life I'd missed in Timmy's—her prom, her graduation, the first day at college, a visit to her new job in the recycling factory, her wedding day.

What would I do with my life? That part of the vision remained fuzzy. I didn't see a place for me in this futuristic world. My heart panged with a sharp pain, and I pushed the thought of the mission from my mind. I needed to enjoy breakfast together one last time.

Pell sat with me on the hoverbus as always, and we talked about her new pink slippers, her math homework, and how Rainy said she looked like one of the pixies on Pixie Swap. When her ride came to an end, she gave me the usual peck on the cheek. I almost burst into tears.

Remember, Jenny, you can't follow Pell around her whole life. You have to have a life of your own. You have to do this for yourself
.

Everyone had their place in this world, and mine was on that scout ship. I knew it like I knew my name. That didn't stop the melancholy from dripping in like some old, sour sappy sauce coating my heart.

I got off the hoverbus, and Ridgewood seemed so familiar now, like my old brick high school with trees and Angela and Chad was some useless dream. I scanned the crowd for Maxim. It would be much easier to talk to him without Exara breathing down my neck. A sea of beauties and hunks towered over me, but I couldn't find him in all the pretty faces. My best bet was homeroom. Maybe he was already sitting at his screendesk, waiting for me.

The classroom lay empty besides Mrs. Rickard, who adjusted the brightness of the wallscreen.

“Good morning, Jennifer. It's nice to see you back.”

Back from where? My heart jump-started. I hadn't even left yet. Oh, right. I had been out for the last three days.

“Thanks. It's good to be back.” I took my seat behind my screendesk.

This was it. The last time I'd see Maxim. I remembered the first day, when my eyes fixated on his perfect features and my heart somersaulted in my chest. I thought someone like that would never even speak to someone like me, and just a few days ago he sat with me on my bed, holding me in his arms. Comforting me from the world. If only I could go back in time.

Now we were as distant as when we first met. Exara would sit in front of me, like some prison guard, and Maxim would pretend nothing had happened between us. Tears brimmed in my eyes.

Why had I come? It would have been much easier to stay home.

The techno jingle rang and students filed in. A backpack dropped by the screendesk in front of me, jarring me out of my trance as I stared at the front door.

“So you finally decided to come back?”

I looked up and Exara's sparkly tunic almost blinded me. She'd curled her auburn hair in perfect ringlets cascading around the curve of her breasts. I wondered how long it took her to get ready for school. I wasn't about to explain the sad turns of my screwed-up

life. “Why? Miss me?”

She snorted in disgust. “Just trying to weed out the truth.” “People get sick, don't they?”

“That, or they're afraid to face their mistakes…” She gave me a meaningful stare.

What?
Could she have found out about Maxim hugging me on my bed? I gave her a questioning look, and she turned around all smug like she'd just won in a mind game. Great. My last day and I had to deal with her attitude.

Principal Hall's face flashed on the wallscreen and an alarm wailed in my chest.
Wait! Not everyone's here yet
. It can't be time for announcements.

Maxim's screendesk was empty.

To make the morning worse, Exara whirled around and narrowed her icy eyes. “I'll deal with you later.”

I stifled a feeling of dread. It took all of my patience to sit through the morning announcements and wait for the techno jingle. Once

Exara strutted off, I approached Mrs. Richardson as she typed on her miniscreen. “Where's Maxim?”

“Maxim Fairweller?” She sighed and patted her fingertip on the touch pad. “He's out for today.”

She resumed her typing as if those four words had no meaning to me.

“Out for the day? Why?”

Mrs. Richardson gave me a sly glance. “I'm not allowed to share other students' information.”

My heart felt as empty as the room. I'd come to school for Maxim and now I had to suffer through the long day without him. Leaving school early would bring more attention to me, so I had to lie low and pretend life was normal.

The seconds ticked by like hours. Was Maxim okay? Was he sick? Was his family in trouble? Had Exara thrown him out on my account? Or worse—had those mercenaries trying to steal the Timesurfers' technology abducted him to get close to me?

Okay, that last thought was a long shot, but it still flew through my mind, making anxiety eat away at my stomach.

By the time lunch rolled around, I was more likely to chuck my food than digest it. I sat alone in the corner with my lunch container unopened. A little voice inside me said to at least recycle the food so Len wouldn't get suspicious, but I couldn't even bring myself to unlatch the plastic snaps.

Shadows hung around me, and I glanced up. Exara, framed by her lackeys on either side, arrived in a Barbie parade. She stood with both arms crossed, pushing her chest up like two melons below her chin. “What's this I hear about you joining the fencing team, just to steal my boyfriend?”

Oh, that's it?
I inwardly sighed with relief. That was
so
last week. For a girl of the future, she was way behind.

I rolled my eyes, trying to look like this Barbie mob didn't bother me. “I'm not trying to steal him.”

She pressed her sharp-nailed finger into my chest. The scent of fake bubble gum choked me. “Go find your own guy and stay away from mine.”

“Listen, after today, he's all yours.”

She pulled her finger away with a shocked look on her face. “Is this some sort of trick?”