Chapter 23
Carly
The sun had set, but the sky retained a warm orange glow as they parked in front of Adam’s house. Not quite night, not quite
afternoon. Carly loved this point of the day in Julian, when the air cooled but hadn’t lost all its light.
Maybe it was the view, her intense hunger, or the blur of the day, but she didn’t notice Adam get out of the car until he’d
opened the door for her. He held out his hand and she took it.
When Adam unlocked the front door of his parents’ house and opened it wide, they were immediately met by a singsong chorus
from the kitchen.
“Dinner’s ready!” Bill shouted.
“But we finished the wine!” Sheila called out.
“Maybe don’t mention Dean, or Shireen, or most of the day,” Adam said in a low voice. “I just don’t want them to worry any
more than they already are.”
“Okay.” Carly’s eyes shifted around to the framed family photos, the squirrel figurines. Adam’s parents were welcoming them
into their home, offering dinner. Something about lying—even a little white lie—felt off. “But I thought you were being honest
with them?”
Before Adam could respond, Bill came in wearing an apron and brandishing a whisk. “Come, eat!”
And so they did. Adam and Carly joined his parents to eat around the small breakfast nook that overlooked the forest. There
were mashed potatoes and a roast chicken and some kind of rosemary bread that smelled freshly baked. The whole thing felt
normal in a way Carly hadn’t realized she needed. While time was literally standing still in Julian, here, in a home that
time had preserved, maybe there was something to be said for consistency.
“Nice that we’re still all here, huh?” Sheila took a sip of wine. “I’m afraid to ask, but anything new with the eclipse?”
Carly’s eyes went wide as she looked to Adam. He’d told her not to say anything, but would he be able to look at his parents
and lie?
“No, the time stayed the same today,” Adam said, which was the truth.
“Oh, well, that’s good news, isn’t it?” Sheila perked up and looked from Bill to Adam. Adam gave a tight nod and shoved a
bite of potato into his mouth. Turns out, he’d found a lie loophole.
“What does your scientist friend think of all this?” Bill waved his fork around the air for emphasis.
Adam stopped chewing, wiped his mouth with the cloth napkin and wouldn’t meet his parents’ eyes. Something in the room had
shifted, but Carly wasn’t certain what. There was a tension between Adam and Bill, though, so she tried to ease it.
“Adam and I haven’t given up on finding a way out of the loop,” she said.
“You’ve turned my son into an optimist.” Bill gave her a weak smile.
Then he refocused on Adam. “Your mother and I were talking about this as well. We’d really love the opportunity to speak to this expert you met.
We could bounce some ideas off her. Just get a better understanding of what’s happening here. ”
“I think we’d feel better with more information,” Sheila said.
Carly understood this need of wanting all the details of a situation. She’d felt that way when Adam first told her the eclipse
was shortening. She’d gotten those answers from Adam, though. But she wondered what exactly Adam told them about the eclipse.
“Dr. Song wouldn’t be looking at the eclipse at all if it weren’t for me,” Adam said. “I’m the first person who noticed the
changes.”
“We know that.” Sheila reached a hand for Adam. “But this is all new for us, honey. We’re just trying to make sense of it.”
“So ask me,” he said. “Why are you so fixated on her when I’m the one whose been studying this the whole time?”
“Because you don’t talk to us.” Bill unexpectedly slammed a fist on the tabletop. “All you ever seem to say is everything
is fine, when it clearly isn’t. You never open up.”
Carly shouldn’t be here. This was a conversation between Adam and his parents. She began to slide her chair out from the table,
but Adam grabbed on to her wrist and gave her a pleading look. “Please don’t go,” he said.
“Okay,” she quickly said and eased back into her seat. If Adam wanted her to stay, she’d do that for him.
“I’m asking Carly to stay because, if anything, she’s the one who’s helped me open up more.”
Carly swallowed down a nervous lump. Now she was being roped into the family drama, and she wasn’t sure that would end well
for her. Nevertheless, he carried on talking.
“I don’t talk to you because any time I do, you tend to shut me down,” Adam said.
“What?” Sheila leaned across the table, as if she hadn’t heard him correctly. “You said you needed space to grieve Shireen. We gave that to you. You asked to be left alone all day every day. We allowed it. Your dad and I have been nothing but accommodating.”
“You didn’t give me space to grieve, though.” Adam ran a hand through his hair as he gathered his words and, Carly assumed,
courage. “You gave me my old room, yes, but then every other loop you told me it was time to move on. I needed to get on with
my life. I needed to forget about Shireen. You never stopped to ask me how I was feeling. You never told me that it was normal
to feel like my heart had been ripped out of my body. All you wanted was for me to get over it.”
“That’s not true,” Bill countered. “I’ve asked if you wanted to talk about Shireen.”
“You’ve asked, yes,” Adam admitted. “But historically, I’ve learned that whenever I tell you what’s on my mind, it’s never
what you want to hear.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sheila crossed her arms.
Either the room was warm, or all the rage was heating the space up. Carly fought the urge to fan her face with her hand. Instead,
she put her palm on Adam’s back as a show of support. She wished she could hit a pause button to hug him.
“I never wanted to go into the family business,” Adam said. “I wanted to go to Caltech, but you made it clear that wouldn’t
be acceptable. Carly is the only person who asked me what I want to do with my life, with my career. I’ve only known her for
a short time, but she’s been more supportive of what I actually care about than anyone else.”
“You’re blaming us for you not going to Caltech?” his dad asked incredulously. “I’m sorry if you feel like we stopped you
from that but, Adam, you stopped yourself.”
Adam cleared his throat and straightened. “What are you talking about?”
“Yes, I wanted you to take over the family business because it would be a secure job. I told you that so you could have all the information. But we never, not once, told you not to go to Caltech, or to pursue a career you wanted.” Bill’s voice shook with some emotion he was holding back.
Adam, too, seemed to want to avoid his feelings as he studied his hands. Eventually, he said, “You didn’t have to directly
discourage me. You made it clear when you repeatedly asked how I’d make money and what I’d do for work.”
“Correct, we’re your parents and of course we’re going to ask you questions,” Bill said. “Are you seriously blaming me for
where you are right now?”
“Are you seriously saying that your lack of support has nothing to do with where I am?” Adam quickly replied.
Carly had thoughts. The first being that she may not have pursued screenwriting if her father had discouraged her from it.
She’d sought his approval for most of her life decisions. But she also knew some of what Bill said was fair—Adam was his own
person. An adult. If he wanted to go to Caltech, he could apply.
But that was Adam’s nature, wasn’t it? He was more cautious. He cared deeply about what his parents thought. He was like his
dad, in that sense.
Carly’s dad had always charted his own course. Even when Carly disapproved of his moving to Julian, he’d gone ahead and done
it anyway.
“I can’t listen to any more of this.” Bill stood from the table. He gave Adam a hard look. “We’ve given you everything, Adam.
I don’t know what more you want.”
Bill left the room, and Adam pushed his chair out, maybe ready to follow. But Sheila held up her hand.
“Adam, remember the last loop you were here, and we talked about your dad wanting to paint a mural in town?” Sheila asked.
Adam nodded.
“Caltech is your mural,” she continued. “You and your dad suffer from the same kind of paralyzing fear of failure. You’re
right that we were not one hundred percent supportive. We had questions, because we only know what we know. And the world
you wanted to explore is one we have no experience with. I’m sorry if our concerns stopped you from pursuing your dreams.
But honey, unless you want to end up like your dad, you have to own your choices, too.”
Adam’s chin began to wobble, and Carly instinctively rubbed slow circles across his back. Her heart broke for how hard it
must’ve been for him to say any of this to his parents, and for how they’d reacted. What would the right reaction be? She
wasn’t sure, but none of this made her feel great.
“All I can say is that I hope you do figure a way out of this loop so you can finally follow those dreams. I’d love to see
you happy,” Sheila added. “That’s all we ever wanted for you. And we thought moving on from Shireen might make you happy.
That’s why we kept pushing.”
Carly gave Adam a look. This was the moment when he had to finally come clean about everything to his parents. Shireen had
been their daughter-in-law, after all. She wasn’t sure if Adam would see this as a good deed, but she decided to force him
to be honest.
“Adam,” Carly finally said. “You need to tell your mom about Shireen.”
He looked off into the dark woods as Sheila leaned across the table. “What about Shireen?”
Carly waited in an Adirondack chair on the back patio and stared at Smarty Squirrel. It’ll all work out, Carly girl, you’ll see, Bruce had told her about the move to Julian. She tried to channel those words for this, too. But she couldn’t ignore Sheila
and Adam’s clutched hands and the worried lines that creased their mouths. Would it all work out?