for her own good.”
Jonah scowled at him.
“What about the paint jars you left in that hut?” Katherine said. “What was that all about?”
“Well… John White can use the paint, because some of his was damaged by the seawater,” Second said. “But, mostly, the way those showed up made Jonah so mad at me that he was determined to get off Roanoke Island, no matter what, even if he had to carve a canoe himself.” Second chuckled, not very kindly. “Teenage boys really are very easy to manipulate.”
This made Jonah even angrier. If it hadn’t been for the paint jars, he would have thought more about whether or not it really mattered to keep John White with his tracer. He would have thought more about the big picture, himself.
Second probably predicted that I’d be mad now, Jonah seethed.
He forced himself to at least try to appear calm.
“There’s still something weird about all this,” Katherine muttered.
“Yeah… What about the way Antonio came back in time?” Jonah said. “When he… fell on me. I bet that wasn’t something JB knew about, or approved, or wanted to happen. That was wrong, wasn’t it?”
“Not wrong, exactly,” Second said. For the first time, his gaze seemed shifty; he wouldn’t look Jonah in the eye. “It was a bit unconventional… just a little risky… Okay, that kind of re-entry had never been tried before. It’s called a time smack. And it was the only way to stretch time just enough for the shift, to loosen the connection between Brendan and Antonio and their tracers…”
I don’t trust their tracers, Katherine had said, only the night before. She’d been right. They weren’t trustworthy. But it really wasn’t their fault.
“So I caused one little time smack, along with the time shift. Why does that give you the right to put me on trial?” Second asked. “This is all good! John White gets to meet his granddaughter! It’s a happy ending!”
“Is it an ending or-just the beginning?” Katherine asked.
“Oh, very good!” Second was beaming again. “You are so right. There are so many possibilities, even from this one little change… With his granddaughter at his side, John White has a reason to live now. To heal. And he’ll keep drawing pictures. In just seven years, English settlers are going to try again, at Jamestown. What if John White’s new drawings get to Jamestown and then back to England? What if that changes how everyone in England views the Americas? What if John White and Virginia Dare go and help out at Jamestown, bridging the gap between the English and the natives much better than a bunch of trigger-happy, starving soldiers? What if there’s finally some respect between the two sides?”
Jonah glanced toward Andrea and the others once again. He gasped.
“And what if your wonderful time shift ruins everything?” he asked.
He pointed.
Andrea was still bent over her grandfather, her hand gently touching his face. Brendan and Antonio still hovered nearby, staring solemnly at the reunited pair. This wasn’t so odd. The four of them might have been so awed by the moment that they wanted to stay in the same position, without moving, for a long time. But it wasn’t just them staying so still. Dare’s body arced above the canoe, frozen mid-leap. A bird flying overhead was suspended in mid- air, its wings outstretched but unmoving. Even the waves beyond the canoe had stopped lapping against the sand, the crests and valleys of water locked in place, unchanging. It was impossible, but true: Except for the little cluster of Jonah, Katherine, and Second, the entire world had stopped.
42
“Oh, that,” Second said. “It’s temporary. See?”
He rubbed the surface of the thing Jonah had thought was a stopwatch. Once again Jonah heard the pounding of the surf against the sand. The bird soared out of sight. Dare landed on the sand at Andrea’s side and brushed his head against her leg. The dog looked up at her as if he expected to be petted.
Brendan, Antonio, and John White laughed.
“Our canine friend admires you,” John White said.
Jonah turned his attention back to Second.
“That’s an Elucidator you’re holding, isn’t it?” Jonah asked, gesturing toward the watchlike object. “You can stop time with an Elucidator?”
“Not really,” Second said. “That’s just how it looks to the uneducated eye. In reality, I pulled the three of us out of time. It’s like-you’ve gone into time hollows with JB, haven’t you? And the time cave? This is the same kind of thing, except easier. Not so much travel and wear and tear. We just hide in between the nanoseconds.”
Jonah was only half-listening. He was keeping his eye-educated or not-on the Elucidator. After a moment, Second slipped it back into his pocket without pressing it again. He shrugged.
“We might as well watch what happens next,” he said.
In the canoe, John White was shaking his head at Andrea.
“I have been confused these many days,” he said. “I have dreamed of you, my child, dreamed of your voice…”
Andrea did not say, You mean, because I’ve been talking to you for two days, but you’ve been too out of it to really listen? Or to open your eyes and see me? Instead, she flipped her braids over her shoulder and said, “I’ve dreamed of you, too, Grandfather. My mother used to tell me stories of you. She promised you would do everything you could to come back.”
“I did,” her grandfather murmured. “I have.”
“Amazing,” Second whispered beside Jonah. “Even with the time shift, time can still adjust itself. The human mind can adjust itself. John White will never again wonder why he sort of remembers hearing Andrea before-he’ll always think that was just a dream. Because time would never have allowed him to see and hear her for real, to recognize her without her tracer…”
“I thought he was unconscious and couldn’t see or hear her because you put a sedative in his food,” Jonah said. “And because of his head injury.”
“You don’t think time could have caused his head injury?” Second asked.
“Time’s not a person,” Jonah objected. “Time can’t make someone hurt his head.”
“Can’t it?” Second asked.
“But-” Jonah began.
“Shh,” Katherine interrupted. “Argue later. I’m trying to hear.”
In the canoe, John White was clearing his throat, peering down awkwardly at his hands, then back up at Andrea.
“I fear to ask,” he began. “Your mother, my Eleanor. And Ananias, your father. Are they…”
Andrea was already shaking her head.
“Their spirits took flight,” she said. “Five summers ago, when the sickness came…”
John White had tears glistening in his eyes, but he spoke gently.
“And you, child. Who takes care of you?”
“The Croatoan tribe is kind, those few who are left,” Andrea said. “They count me as one of their own. We have moved in with distant relatives…”
“Kind?” Antonio interrupted. “They sent you, a girl, alone, to an evil island? You call that kind?”
Andrea frowned.
“That is not their fault,” Andrea said. “The sickness has come back, and many are weak again. I chose this myself, as a way to make peace with the evil spirits. I thought if I could bury the dead, bury the animal bones, it would show that the Croatoans are worthy people… worthy to live on, not die, not all die out…”
Her voice was thick with grief.
The fresh grave, Jonah thought with a jolt. That’s the explanation! It was Andrea-or, Virginia Dare, rather-she was burying all the skeletons of the dead Croatoans from some plague from years ago. Maybe she put them all in one grave, or maybe there were other fresh graves I didn’t see…
Katherine turned her head to whisper in Jonah’s ear.
