Chapter 22
Adam
Adam was overwhelmed. He wasn’t used to the kind of excitement that comes from trying to solve a time loop, let alone bring
someone back from a potential wormhole. Particularly when that someone happened to be his ex-wife.
He very much wanted to get off the roller coaster that was his life. However, he had no choice but to secure his seat belt
and hold on to the safety bar at all times. He also had no choice but to follow behind the Caltech van as they headed into
town.
“At least we don’t have to ride in the panel van.” Carly tried to lighten the mood. “The only time I get into vans is if a
stranger offers me candy.”
He knew she was just trying to keep him calm, but he also sensed she was going through a lot. So he joked back, “Who knows? Maybe they do have candy in there.”
Carly bit her lip. “We don’t have to do this, you know. We could tell Rick and Heather to shove it and keep looking for Shireen
on our own.”
Adam knew she was right, but he also knew that he was desperate to fix this, since he felt partially responsible for whatever had happened to Shireen.
After all, he’d told her about the wormhole.
Maybe in doing so, he’d cursed her to be taken by it.
“No,” he said. “We’ll tell the town. We’ll see if anyone else is missing, and if there are any new ideas as to what’s going on. ”
Adam parked the hearse, got out of the car and held a hand out for Carly. Her palm was cool and steady, and he was grateful
to hold it. When they locked eyes, the world slowed and his breathing calmed, too. They would get out. They would solve this
puzzle.
The group began to walk toward Main Street and quickly saw that almost the entire town was out in the middle of the road.
“Mayor Franco?” Carly asked.
Adam gave a low chuckle. “Pretty sure she won’t be able to hear you over all this noise.” The sound from the road was deafening,
like being at an indoor concert and standing next to the amplifier. What was the activity today, an impromptu mosh pit?
“No, I mean Mayor Franco.” Carly pointed a finger above the crowd, and when Adam looked, there was Mayor Franco in a head-to-toe lemon-yellow suit.
She stood on a makeshift stage crafted out of boxes piled on top of each other like pancakes.
“Incredible,” Dr. Song said. “It’s like she’s cosplaying Big Bird.”
“Can’t argue there,” Carly said. “When we escape the loop and I become a famous screenwriter, I’ll miss her outfits the most.”
Carly almost looked hopeful at the mention of escaping. And Adam wanted that for her, too. He wanted Carly to be able to pursue
her dreams. But he was certain he wouldn’t be able to get her out until he brought Shireen back—if he could solve that, then
there was a chance.
“Hi! Hello!” The mayor said into a megaphone. “You all are being really loud right now, so I just need you to, like, chill. Okay?”
To Adam’s surprise, people did quiet down.
“Now, I called this town hall because, as I’ve already explained to most of you, the eclipse is getting shorter!” The mayor’s
excitement beamed out through the megaphone.
“Oh shit,” Carly said and clapped a hand over her mouth.
“The mayor figured that out on her own?” Rick asked. “Maybe the aliens got to her.”
“Not on her own,” Carly said through gritted teeth. “I may have told her when I was in my sad cheese-girl era.”
“What exactly did you tell her, again?” Adam wasn’t a dramatic person, but Main Street was beginning to feel like the fiery
depths of hell. Not only because Adam was worried about what the mayor knew, but also because someone had lit multiple trash
cans on fire and the flames really did heat up the space in an uncomfortable way.
“I think we should turn back,” Carly whispered into his ear.
But then the mayor said, “Our do-gooder friend, Carly Hart, told me all about how she and the spooky Rhodes kid have been
measuring this thing. Come to think of it, probably best if I let them explain. Carly? Adam? Are you here?”
Well, Carly had certainly made telling more people easier. And Adam had learned from life as a tall redhead that hiding wasn’t
an option. Sure enough, multiple sets of eyes landed on him. His shoulders hunched at the attention.
The mayor gestured to the piled-up boxes as if they were the steps that would lead them to accept a prestigious award, rather
than a march to implode the town.
Carly’s eyes went wide but Adam said, “We’re not going to be able to Irish goodbye at this point.
Come on, we’ll get it over with.” When he glanced around, the eyes of people he knew, didn’t know and vaguely remembered, met his.
He swallowed way too loudly, and the fact that he could hear himself clued him to the other fact that the space had grown quiet.
Everyone truly was waiting for them to provide answers.
Carly took the steps to the “stage” one at a time, and Adam hoisted himself up, too. The base was precarious at best.
“What is happening?” someone shouted from the crowd.
Heather and Rick had also climbed up, and Heather took the megaphone, a professor in her element. Heather looked out to the
crowd as she said, “Hello, my name is Dr. Heather Song, and I’ve been helping Carly, Adam and Rick try to understand the changes
that have been happening with the eclipse.”
“Isn’t that guy a scientist, too?” Spider-Man asked, pointing to Adam.
Adam wasn’t at all a scientist but found that someone calling him that made a little well of joy form in his chest. What if
he got to call himself that every day? What if—
Carly’s loud voice cut him off, “Hey, yeah, common mistake. Adam here may look like the redhead version of Bill Nye, but he’s
actually a mortician.”
“A statistician?” Spider-Man asked.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Adam rolled his eyes, then said, “A funeral director, actually! A mortician is different.”
“How?” someone called out.
“It’s kind of technical!” he shouted. “It involves different licenses, but the same dead people.”
“Oh,” Spider-Man said. “That’s gross, man.”
“Thanks for the feedback,” Adam replied.
And then, because he wanted to get this over with so they could go about finding Shireen, he decided to finally use his voice.
“The eclipse is something I’ve been timing since the loop began.
For 238 loops it consistently was four minutes and thirty-two seconds long.
Then it shortened by ten seconds, then another ten.
It’s now clocking in at two minutes and forty-seven seconds.
There is really no way to know what this means for any of us in a practical sense. ”
“The loop is ending!” a loud voice boomed from the crowd and then, like a chant at a football game, the town began to shout,
“Ending! Ending! Ending!”
There was a kind of elation in the air that was both exhilarating and unfortunate, because as Adam already knew, a happy ending
wasn’t guaranteed.
“Maybe we will get out of the loop and go back to normal, or maybe not,” Dr. Song said through the megaphone.
“Maybe not?” someone asked.
“Maybe not,” Heather said with a tense smile.
“Some of us have already left the loop!” Rick chimed in.
A stone of dread lodged in Adam’s stomach. This wasn’t how he’d expected this scenario to go, and he sensed that this information
dump wouldn’t be well received. Adam needed to get control if he had any shot of finding Shireen, so he grabbed the megaphone.
“We do not know what’s causing the eclipse to shorten,” he said. “We also know that Shireen Jamshidi, who some of you may
know—and who I was married to—did not reset today. She appears to be missing.”
He had to pause after saying the words out loud. She was missing. He took a breath. But in his pause, panicked mumbling began
from the crowd. “We want to understand what’s happening, but we need help. If you know of anyone else missing, please tell
us. If you have any ideas as to why the eclipse is shortening, we want to hear those, too. We came to ask for help, because
we want to bring Shireen back.”
“Are we going to die?” A panicked voice rose from the crowd.
Adam looked to Carly. He wasn’t ready to leave this world. He wouldn’t give up looking for Shireen, either. So he knew the
answer. “We’re not going anywhere. Not if we work together to solve this.”
And he believed those words; he really did.
Heather, though, stole the megaphone and quickly added, “If we’re just talking probabilities here, anything is possible. Including
death.”
Carly angrily yanked the megaphone from Heather and said, “I think what Dr. Song is trying to say is that yes, the eclipse
is getting shorter, but it could mean anything! Live life to the fullest! Carpe diem!” She tried to smile, but Adam knew it
was fake. She must’ve too, as she abruptly wiped it from her face. “You know what, fuck it. I’m going to be real with you
for a minute. Some of you might have met my dad, Bruce Hart? He told me he was going to pursue a lifelong dream of opening
his own movie theater just a few years ago. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, he was retirement age. He’d already worked on countless
movies. He’d lived the dream so many people wanted. But he had more dreams left, and he wanted to try to complete them. He ran The Last Showing theater
down the way. If you have a dream, go for it now. If you’ve been holding back, now’s the time to be bold. Let this information
change the way you’re spending each loop.”
Rick took the megaphone from Carly’s hands to add, “It’s like C.C. Bloom says in Beaches, ‘You’re not dead yet, so stop living as if you are!’”
The murmurs from the crowd suggested they were all deeply concerned. But now that everyone knew the truth, Adam hoped someone
or something would surface to shed light on Shireen.
“Right. Thank you, Rick,” Adam said. “Okay, cool, um . . . If you notice any other changes, feel free to let us know! Thank you, as always, Mayor Franco.”
Carly whispered to Adam, “We’ve gotta get the hell out of here.”
“Don’t threaten me with a good time.” Adam got off the box pile and held out his hands to help Carly do the same. As she came
next to him, he easily pulled her in close.
Any calm he’d felt quickly left as the mayor smiled brightly and said, “Okay, so Shireen disappeared. That’s spooky! Raise
your hand if someone you know has turned into a ghost.”
A few sharp jeers came from the crowd, not loving the tone of the mayor’s speech. Carly exhaled and then pointedly dragged
Adam away.
“Nobody else? Wow! Isn’t this fun? Like being detectives in a mystery book or something!” Mayor Franco’s enthusiasm didn’t
seem to be shared as Adam and Carly made their way back toward the hearse.
“Starting to think this was a mistake.” Carly cringed as the mayor started to play the Ghostbusters movie theme song via the megaphone.
“You think?” he said. “We can just pretend this part of the day didn’t happen. Carry on and—”
Before he could finish his sentence, a petite woman with thick hair and an oversize sweater stopped in front of them.
“My cat, Toonces, disappeared first day of the loop.” Megan Rae, a local aesthetician with glowing skin who Adam remembered
from high school, tearfully clutched a tissue to her nose. “Does that mean she’s a ghost now?”
“I don’t really think Toonces is a ghost,” Adam gently said. “I think there’s been a blip in the reset. I’m sure she’ll be
back soon.”
“What if she never comes back?” Megan pulled another tissue from her pocket. “What if she’s lost forever and I’m stuck here without her?”
Adam swallowed. He’d had a similar thought about Shireen. What if she was just . . . gone? And never returned?
“Megan,” he softly said. “This is not easy. It’s awful, actually.”
“Yes, it is,” she sniffed. “But it’s like that famous saying goes, ‘the best way to predict the future is to create it.’ That’s
why I leave out a bowl with fresh food every morning. Someday, Toonces will come back for dinner.”
The mention of the cat’s name sent Megan into hysterics, and Carly wrapped her in a hug. “Shhh,” Carly said into Megan’s hair.
She looked to Adam with a worried expression.
“Megan, I’m so sorry, but keep putting that food out,” Adam said. “Toonces will be back soon.”
“Keep us posted.” Carly gave Megan a helpful nod.
Adam pulled Carly into him as they continued the rest of the way to the car. And tucking her close felt easy. Easier than
anything else he’d done the whole loop. “I just realized we haven’t eaten all day, huh? Are you hungry? It’s about dinnertime
at the Rhodes house.”
“I am hungry, but what about Shireen?” Carly asked, but rubbed her stomach.
“Something Megan said resonated with me. ‘The best way to predict the future is to create it.’ Maybe in order for Shireen
to come back, we just have to act like she’ll reset with us tomorrow. Maybe, if I can let go of this anxiety, it’ll make room
for her to return to the loop.” What Adam was suggesting wasn’t scientific, but he still sensed there was something to it.
Carly glanced back to the crowd. “We’ve kind of done all we can here,” she said. “We can keep looking for her tonight, but a home-cooked meal from Bill and Sheila sounds good. We need to eat.” Carly craned her neck to look up at him, and he couldn’t help but bend down to meet her with a kiss.
How would he have made it through any of this day without her here?
He knew that just outside their bubble of two, an information bomb had been released on the town that would have a ripple
effect. But he couldn’t control how anyone reacted, or what they all did. What he could control was this moment with Carly,
and how he made her feel. And he wanted her to feel like she was home with him.