“Man,” I gasped. “Chasing. Mirror.”
“Come on,” said Peggy.
As they pulled me through the hedges, I looked back, but I had lost him in the woods.
Only when we got inside the carriage house did I notice that the two of them were carrying large suitcases.
“What is this?” I said.
“Never mind,” said Peggy. “What are you running from? What man?”
“Prince Harming maybe. I think it’s a man who’s supposed to be dead. I don’t know.” What to do now? We couldn’t all just jump into the mirror, could we? Physically, of course, we could. If Lilly went in, she could pull us all back to 1937. If I went, I could take us in the opposite direction to Anthony’s time. But that would leave the mirror unprotected. What if Beckett took it and sunk it in the lake just as the other man had?
We had to do something.
It was Peggy who took charge. “Come on, then, help us up the stairs with these. We’ll talk once we’re through in Lilly’s time. I suppose we can find something to do with you.”
When she said “these,” I saw that she had a lot more than just the two suitcases I had seen them heaving through the door. Smaller overnight bags, a makeup case, and three pillowcases that looked stuffed with clothing and all sorts of knickknacks covered the floor.
“No,” I said. “We have to go.”
“Hold your horses, charley horse,” said Peggy. “Who’re you rushing? I have a lot of important things in these, and I’m not leaving them behind.”
Leaving them behind? I shook off the strangeness of the remark. “Look, whoever’s coming, it’s probably bad,” I said. I looked to Lilly for help.
“I think we should listen to him, Peg,” Lilly said after meeting my gaze for a moment. “Just—let’s get in what we can. Come on.”
I grabbed one bag to show my willingness to help, and herded them up the stairs, each of them carrying a suitcase.
The mirror and the sofa I had been sleeping on for the last three weeks were at the top of the stairs. Just being on the same floor as the thing calmed me a little. Whoever this man was, he didn’t seem to have it all together. We had the mirror and we knew the mirror. While Lilly and Peggy each lugged a suitcase into the mirror, I ran to the hayloft window. The hedges were shorter now, and over the top of them I could see the thin man. He was standing in the yard of the main house, looking around. I ducked back down and returned to the mirror in time to see Lilly and Peg come back out.
“What is this?” I said again, looking from one to the other. Lilly pursed her lips worriedly and looked to Peggy.
“What do you think it is?” said Peggy, fixing me with a stare. “Aren’t you the one who told me I’m disappearing?”
“But it’s not … it’s not until … ”
“Not until September, right? The hell it isn’t. You think I’m going to wait around for that? I’m not disappearing, I’m escaping.”
“But where will you … ?”
Lilly cleared her throat and gave me a shy smile. “She’s coming to stay with me, Kenny. We’ve talked about it and made a decision. Her parents are horrible, you know? They can’t make peace and they won’t stay apart. They insist on using Peg as a sort of cattle prod to stick each other with. If she’s going to disappear anyway, I’d rather take her with me.”
“But it’s not September,” I said.
“I have an idea about that,” said Peggy. “Mother went off again last night. Might not come back for a month. All it takes is for Father to not report me gone for a few weeks. Maybe he’ll think I’ve gone with her.” Her mouth twisted bitterly. “Maybe he won’t even notice.”
“Kenny!” came a shout from outside. “I just want to talk.”
Peggy narrowed her eyes at me. “Do you know who this man is?”
I shook my head. “He’s using the name of someone who died thirty years ago.”
“Come with us,” Lilly said. “I don’t know what we’ll do, Kenny, but it turns out Peg’s thought this through. She’s found a few investments my parents can make that will bring them some money. We both want to be nurses, and what with the war coming as Peg knows it is, she says there’ll be work for us. I don’t know how we’ll fit you in, but we must.”
“No.”
It’s funny about yes and no. I think I figured out that day that you make yourself who you are by what you choose to say those two words to, and maybe no is the one that really makes you. I had been saying yes just about all year long. Yes to going into the mirror. Yes to other kids’ plans.
Peggy had already begun her migration. She got Lilly to shove her hand in, opening the mirror up, and began moving the large suitcases inside. “Come on, kid, there’s no time for this. I guess Lilly’s right.”
“No,” I said. “What if he sinks this mirror in the lake? Then I won’t just be cut off from 1967, I won’t even be able to get back to now. I’m not going any further back. I’ll go see Anthony and at least be closer to home. Just go. There’s no time.”
Lilly opened her mouth to say something, but Peggy cut her off. “He’s right, Lil. Say goodbye.”
Lilly closed her eyes and nodded. “Goodbye, Kenny. We’ll watch for you. We’ll miss you.”
“Me, too,” I said. “But you have to go.”
I was practically pushing them through. At our best forward thrust, it took a good six seconds to make it through the slowly expanding Silverlands and out the other side, and that was without heavy suitcases. Just as Lilly’s trailing foot went through, the door to the carriage house opened.
The thin man stepped forward, staring right up the stairs as though he had known I would be there. “Please stop running,” he said. His neat clothing was mud-splattered from his trip through the creek. He held up his hands as though to show he was harmless. “I’m not chasing you. I just want to make sense of it. You’re the boy from the future, aren’t you?”
I didn’t say anything. It was all I could do not to run into the mirror after the girls.
“I have so many questions,” said the man. He sounded so reasonable, I started to have doubts. Was I wrong about him? He stepped farther into the dusty light, but tentatively.
“Don’t come any closer,” I said. “What’s your real name? What are you doing here?”
He raised a hand and ran it through his hair. “It’s all real, isn’t it?” he said. “I know it is, but it’s hard to keep that in my head sometimes. I can’t remember it all. Ten years this way and that, right? Kenny, it’s me. It’s so strange to see you after all this time. It’s bringing back memories. Was—there a baby?” He reached a trembling hand up and wiped his brow. “I have so many questions. So much happened. What don’t I remember, Kenny? You know it’s me, right? Look at me. Kenny, don’t go away this time. Everything worked out okay. You always seemed so sad, but it worked out okay.”
I grabbed my backpack and tensed myself to climb up onto the dresser and push into the mirror. Would I get through in time? Six seconds. Was he a mirror kid? Could he follow me?
Clive Beckett. CB. Rose Hollerith’s boyfriend? Clive Beckett was Prince Harming? How old must he be? When was he born?
He took a step forward. That was all the encouragement I needed. I almost threw myself at the mirror. “No, Kenny!” he shouted. “Wait. I want to tell you how it all turns—”
His words were muffled by the Silverlands. I pushed in harder than ever, ignoring the pain. It wasn’t like I’d be stopping to check if anyone was in Anthony’s basement before I stumbled in. I strained against the hot molasses of uptime travel, expecting any second to feel a hand on my collar or the punch of a bullet against my back.
My plan was to jump out in 1957 and head for the stairs. Halfway up, I could assess whether or not I needed to make an escape.