Mr. Hudson’s hands trembled a little. They all knew how much he loved this map, what it meant to him. To all of them. It was the thing that had brought their family together.
“I’m sorry,” Corey said softly.
“No, it’s okay,” Mr. Hudson said, his voice a little hoarse. He carefully folded up the torn map and slipped it in his back pocket. “Better destroyed than in the hands of Vincent. He can’t track us now, at least.”
Albert, standing a ways off from the group, snorted.
“Is there a hog on board?” Corey said, looking around. “Oh, no, it’s just Albert.”
“Corey,” Mrs. Hudson warned.
“Call me whatever names you like,” Albert said. “Captain Vincent doesn’t need your silly map. He’ll track you down in other ways.”
“Well, he’s not here now, is he?” Corey said.
Matt silently had to believe Albert was right, though, and by the looks on the rest of his family’s faces he could see they felt the same. But no one said it aloud. That was too much.
They were sailing around Battery Park and out toward the Statue of Liberty. Matt saw those large birds again on top of the crown. Still there was no sign of Captain Vincent or the Vermillion, though Matt’s heart raced whenever he saw another boat or ship.
“Hey, where’s my sword?” Ruby was frowning at her empty scabbard.
Matt suddenly remembered that he’d dropped it on the Vermillion, after he’d chopped off Captain Vincent’s hand. “I’m sorry,” Matt said. “I took it. I was trying to stop Vincent, and I lost it.”
Ruby frowned. “What are you talking about? I would have remembered if you had taken it.”
“Stop Vincent from what?” Mrs. Hudson asked at the same time.
Matt wasn’t sure how to explain. He was still processing everything that had just happened, and he was still woozy and weak from all the travel. But he could see he would have to try his best because everyone was staring at him like he was deranged, including his parents. Never a good sign.
“When Blossom was a train,” Matt explained, “just before we came here, Vincent stopped time. Everything stopped. The train, all of you, even the rain was frozen in midair. That’s what I was trying to explain earlier. The rain became still and turned hard, like shards of glass. It hurt when you touched it. Anyway. you were all just frozen like statues.”
“But you weren’t?” his mom asked, looking at him with a creased brow.
Matt shook his head.
“How come?” Corey asked.
Matt shrugged. “I don’t know. I just wasn’t.” Matt did his best to explain what had happened, but it was very jumbled, and he could see by the looks on everyone’s faces he wasn’t making much sense, but the worst part was when he tried to explain what the captain had done to Mr. Hudson.
Everyone gasped. Mrs. Hudson paled. “What do you mean he pulled something out of his throat?” Mrs. Hudson inspected her husband right away, searching his throat for a wound. There was none.
“It wasn’t like he was pulling out organs or anything,” Matt said. “It was something I’ve never seen before. He called it a—”
“A time tapestry,” Albert supplied, clearly unable to hold back his knowledge. “Captain Vincent can pull it out of anyone, and change things as he wishes.”
“And he did that to me?” Mr. Hudson said, putting a hand to his throat.
“I stopped him before he could do anything,” Matt said. “I used Ruby’s sword and I . . . chopped off Vincent’s hand.”
“You chopped off Vincent’s hand?” Corey said. “And I didn’t get to see it? That is so unfair!”
Matt did not think it was nearly as cool as Corey thought it was. If there was anything cool about it, it was the part where Captain Vincent regrew his hand right before his eyes, but he never got to explain that part.
“Well, there doesn’t seem to be any harm done,” Mr. Hudson said. “I’m fine. I still remember my ABCs and one, two, threes.”
“Let’s check, just to make sure,” Corey said. “Recite ’em.”
Mr. Hudson obliged, and then they all took him through a series of questions.
“What’s the capital of Alaska?” Ruby asked.
“Juneau.”
“How did I get this scar?” Corey asked, pointing to a thin scar beneath his chin.
Mr. Hudson laughed. “You jumped off the top of a playground because you thought you were Superman.”
“Most disappointing moment in my whole life.”
“Where did you go to college?” Ruby asked.
“Undergrad at Columbia. PhD at Oxford.”
“What day did we get married?” Mrs. Hudson asked.
Mr. Hudson looked at her, confused. “I never got married. Who are you, anyway?”
Mrs. Hudson paled. Mr. Hudson started laughing.
“Oh, that is so not funny!” Mrs. Hudson slapped him on the chest, but he just wrapped his arms around her.
“August 7, 1999. Best day of my life.” He kissed Mrs. Hudson.
“Gross. No PDA, please!” Corey said, but Matt didn’t mind it so much, he realized. Watching his parents, the way they looked at each other, made him feel safe. All was right with the world as long as they were together. They were the most unlikely pair, centuries and continents apart, but they belonged together. They were lucky. Matt hoped one day he’d have what his parents had. He automatically glanced over at Jia, but she wasn’t paying attention to
