Chapter 20
The next morning, Saturday, Mary burst into Darbi’s backyard. Darbi sat alone at the patio table eating her breakfast. Mary had waited to come over until after nine, knowing Jacqui would be at the store.
“Why haven’t you returned my calls?”
“Well, good morning to you too.” Darbi pointed to a bowl with scrambled eggs. “Run inside and get a plate.”
“Not hungry.” Mary pulled out the chair across from Darbi and perched on its edge. “Did you see my story on James?”
“Who’s James?”
“James, the singer. My friend. I saw him and he’s a mailman.” She brought up the video on her phone.
Darbi’s face tightened as she watched, and Mary’s feeling of dread intensified.
“Have I ruined his real life by being here? Maybe I should go back now before I cause other changes. To Dean and Kendra.”
Darbi’s cheek twitched. She looked at Mary for a long time without saying anything, her eyes glistening. “I really wish you had let me explain things to you before getting your wisdom teeth out.”
“What does that mean?” Mary’s entire body heated up, fearing Darbi was about to tell her she had permanently ruined the lives of the people she loved. Sweat pooled above her lips. She cranked the handle of the umbrella until it blocked the sun and the table was cast in shade.
Darbi sat without saying anything, chewing on her lip.
Mary’s phone rang. She saw the call was from the news station.
Darbi stood. “Answer that, and I’ll get you a plate.”
“No, I don’t want . . .”
She trailed off as Darbi disappeared through the sliding glass doors.
Mary pushed the green icon button on her phone. “We need all hands on deck,” Mitchell said. “There’s a big fire in the Back Bay. How soon can you be here?”
She didn’t want to leave. She needed to keep talking to Darbi, but she also knew she had to go, or she could kiss that promotion goodbye. “A half hour.”
Mary went inside to say goodbye. The house reeked of patchouli, and Darbi sat at the kitchen table, a bag of gummy bears in front of her.
“Are those—”
“Yes, they’re my magical chews.”
“Why are you having them now?”
Darbi sighed. “I told you. I don’t like talking about all this.” She gestured to Mary’s new young body.
“I have to go to work, but I’ll be back in the morning. In the meantime, can you look for Uncle Cillian’s letters again? Maybe he mentioned something about how being here changes things.”
“Jacqui will be home.”
“You come to my apartment then. Ten?”
Darbi nodded, but Mary had the feeling her cousin had no intention of showing up tomorrow.
When Mary got off work on Saturday night, she walked across the street with Kimberly to the Press Box, where Kimberly’s fiancé, Tyler, waited with his friend Reiss. At the entrance, Kimberly scanned the restaurant. At nine thirty, the place was mostly empty, with just a few customers sitting at the bar watching the Red Sox play the Yankees. In a booth by the windows, two men sat clutching their phones in a way that reminded Mary of toddlers clinging to their blankies. Kimberly set off toward them, and Mary followed.
A dark-haired man stood and kissed Kimberly hello. He waved at Mary. Images of other times some version of herself had hung out with Tyler and Kimberly flooded Mary’s mind: watching a Celtics game at the Garden, water-skiing on Sebago Lake in Maine, playing pool at a bar in Cambridge. Somehow she knew he was a good person.
“This is my buddy Reiss,” Tyler said, pointing to the redhead across from him. As Mary slid in next to him, Reiss nodded while he typed into his phone. She thought about ripping it from his hands or telling him he was being rude. The server came over with an appetizer sampler and Kentucky mules for Mary and Kimberly. “I figured you guys must be starving,” Tyler said. “Long day.”
“You’ve got that right,” Kimberly said. “How did studying go?”
“Great,” Tyler said.
Reiss glanced up from his screen. “Remind me why I want to be a lawyer again.”
“Why do you?” Kimberly asked.
“I don’t. I want to be a photographer, but there’s not a lot of money in that.” He looked down at his phone again. “Have you always wanted to be a reporter?”
“My parents say I came out of the womb holding a microphone,” Kimberly said.
“She was the anchor of our middle school and high school news,” Tyler said. “‘Good morning, Northgate students, I’m Kimberly Nash, and this is what you need to know today.’” He made his voice sound high.
Kimberly fake swatted him. “I didn’t sound like that.”
Mary reached for a mozzarella stick, trying to picture Kimberly as a little girl reporting the news to her classmates. The image made her uncomfortable. When she was in school, she’d had no idea what she wanted to be. That Kimberly always knew she wanted to be a newscaster made Mary feel like if she got the promotion, she’d be stealing it from her friend.
“Must be cool to be living your dream,” Reiss said.
“Not there quite yet.” Kimberly cut a potato skin into small bites. “Need to work for a major network first.”
Mary turned away from Kimberly and trained her eyes on the baseball game. She’d never thought about how much Kimberly loved their job. All she’d thought about was how much she wanted and deserved that promotion, but Kimberly wanted and deserved it just as much as she did. By being here, she was ruining everything for everybody.
The Yankees scored a run, and the few people watching at the bar booed. Mary took a long sip from her pewter mug. Maybe she should go back now, not wait for the promotion. On the other hand, she was so close, and once she returned to her real life, Kimberly would get promoted. She had to talk to Darbi tomorrow. Make sure the changes she was causing weren’t permanent.