Remember Yesterday

38

“Wait a minute. Who says you’re going?” Preston steps forward, tripping over the IV stand. Nimbly, Tanner catches the bag before it yanks the tube out of Callie’s hand and hangs it back in place.

“Of course I’m going.” My mind was made up the moment I understood the plan. “Who else would you send?”

“Me,” Tanner says, sticking out his chest. “It was my idea. I should be the one to go.”

The anger inside me flares to life. I should be grateful he’s willing to risk so much to save my sister. And I am. Sort of. But a bigger part of me—the part that’s still reeling from his betrayal—snaps.

“You don’t know her. You don’t care what happens to her. You just want full and complete credit for this theory. You’ll probably write up the results for your core thesis.” I curl my hands into fists. “Well, you know what? This isn’t one of your lab experiments. Nobody’s interested in your ego. We’re not sending someone who’s completely indifferent to Callie’s welfare.”

He raises his eyebrow. “If this is just about impressing the admission officials—which it isn’t—then you should want me to go. Nobody wants to get into uni more than I do. Besides, I understand the physics of time travel. I’m the one most likely to be successful.”

“Doesn’t take much scientific expertise to recite a nursery rhyme,” I retort. “Callie is way more likely to remember my words ten years later. I’m her sister, remember. Her twin.”

Preston claps a hand on both our shoulders. That’s when I realize I’m facing Tanner, my hands on my hips, my feet a shoulder’s width apart. The universal battle stance. I’ll throw down with him, right here, right now, if that’s what it takes.

“This would be a moot point if I could go, being a scientist as well as Callie’s father,” Preston says. “But I can’t. The moment I leave this time, my connection to her would be severed, killing her instantly and defeating the purpose of the trip.”

He pauses, as though carefully choosing his next words. “May I say, Jessa, that Tanner has a point? I agree that Callie’s more likely to absorb what you say, but should something go wrong, he’s more likely to figure out how to come back to the present.”

I back away, so that his hand falls from my shoulder. “You just don’t want me to go.”

“True. Selfishly, as your father, I can’t bear the thought of losing either of you.”

“Dad, you don’t understand.” The name slips out, and we both go still. I didn’t do it on purpose; I wasn’t trying to be manipulative. But now that the endearment is out there, now that I have his attention, I’m not going to squander it.

“Callie changed the future in order to save me,” I say. “All my life, I’ve wondered if I was worthy of her sacrifice. Well, here’s my chance to prove it. She gave up her life to save mine, and now, ten years later, I have the opportunity to give her life back to her. Please, Dad. Give me this chance.”

He gnaws his lip, and I hold my breath. Neither Tanner nor I can do anything without his permission. Preston’s the one who’s traveled through time. He essentially invented the technology, at least in North Amerie. If one of us is going back to the past, we need the father of time travel guiding us.

Preston exhales. “How about a compromise? What if you both go? Both your arguments are valid, and although it’s twice as risky to send two of you, I think it’s twice as likely your mission will succeed. What do you say?”

Tanner and I eye each other. If this were about only me, I wouldn’t go to a Meal Assembler café with him. But there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to save Callie, even if it means working with the boy who betrayed us both.

I nod reluctantly, and then Tanner nods, too.

“Great,” Preston says, but he doesn’t sound great. Instead, his voice cracks, and beads of sweat gather on his forehead. “The next thing we have to do is…uh, contact your mother.”

“Mom?” My eyebrows climb toward the ceiling. “What does she have to do with anything?”

“You know what.” He swallows a few times before he can get out his next words. “Twenty-three years ago, I asked your mother to act as my anchor. You see, time travel is so difficult because space and time need to be precisely coordinated. The earliest travelers flung themselves into time without thought to location—and perished in the deep reaches of space because the Earth was continuously moving. We can solve that problem, however, with an anchor. Someone who’s resided in the same place, from the target date of your travel to the present, so that she’s psychically attached to the location.”

He twists his fingers together. “Your mother has lived in the exact same spot since I left her. Let’s hope she’s continued the practice of recording her memories every night, so that she can recall a particular date. If so, I’ll be able to send you to any day you’d like in the last twenty-three years.”

So that’s why he’s so nervous. That’s why he looks like he’s about to faint.

“You’ll have to see her again,” I say. “In order for this to work, you and Mom will have to come face-to-face.”

“Yes. I’ll have to see Phoebe again.” A fine tremor runs through his body as he says her name. No matter how hard I try, I can’t figure out if her name is a prayer or a plea.

Probably both.