Mrs. Hudson nodded. “Wait here,” she said to Matt and the rest. She pulled out her dagger and went inside.
Mr. Hudson took one of Mrs. Hudson’s swords off the living room wall and held it like a baseball bat as they proceeded to search every room, under every table, chair, and bed, and behind every curtain and cupboard. When they at last deemed it safe, the rest all shuffled inside like weary soldiers coming home from battle. All except for Albert. He stood on the edge of the entryway, as though he were on the edge of a cliff.
“Albert, either come in or stay out, but shut the door, please,” Mrs. Hudson said. Albert quickly stepped inside and shut the door. He then stood in the hallway like a helpless lump. It looked like he was waiting for someone to greet him and take his coat. Matt wasn’t about to try to make him feel comfortable. It wasn’t as though Albert had gone to any lengths to make him and Corey and Ruby feel welcome on the Vermillion.
Matt looked around. Everything in their apartment was as he remembered it—the furniture, the photos and paintings, mementos, and knickknacks. His mom’s swords and knives on the wall (minus the one his dad had taken down). The only major difference was the blank wall above the dining table, where the map used to hang. The empty frame was on the floor, leaning against the wall. Mr. Hudson was looking at it like a loved one who had just died.
The apartment felt strange to Matt for some reason. Off. Even though it looked the same, it almost felt like a replica of their home, and not their real home at all. A set in a play. Maybe it was because they had been away for so long, and so much had happened since the last time they’d come here. So much had changed. Matt had changed. When had that happened, exactly? Was it in a moment? Or had it been a gradual thing? How much more would he change before this was all over?
Corey went to the living room and turned on the television.
“Corey, no television right now, okay?” Mr. Hudson said.
“Wait just a second,” Corey said as he flipped through the channels. “I want to see what they’re reporting on the news.”
“I’d like to see that myself,” Haha said.
“You probably won’t be able to get the news in this mess,” Gaga said.
But they could. Corey landed on a news channel with a blue banner that read NYC’s Dinosaur Crisis. It showed footage of the Statue of Liberty, closing in on the crown where a grouping of pterodactyls had nested. So Matt had seen pterodactyls on top of the Statue of Liberty!
“Cool!” Corey said. “The dinosaurs are back! Do you think we got a T. rex?”
As if the news had heard Corey’s questions, next they reported dinosaur sightings in other parts of the city, including a herd of velociraptors wandering the subway tunnels, and a female Tyrannosaurus rex that had taken over Yankee Stadium and was now laying eggs. “All games have been canceled for the foreseeable future,” the anchor stated, “and citizens are advised to keep away as the female T. rex is particularly volatile while nesting.” The footage showed a Tyrannosaurus rex roaring and tearing its teeth into the seats of Yankee Stadium, flinging them over the field. Helicopters were circling.
“Wahoo! Go, T. rex!” Corey shouted until Ruby gave him a look. “Sorry, but it is kind of exciting.”
“It’s all fun and games until someone gets their head bitten off,” Ruby said.
“Hey, how are the Mets doing anyway?” Haha asked. “What did I miss? We were shaping up to be a pretty good team when I left.”
“We won the World Series in 1986,” Mr. Hudson said.
“No way!” Matt couldn’t get over how alike his dad and Haha were, both in looks and sound. It was seriously weird.
“We were there!” Corey said. “We went to Game Six.”
“Isn’t that a little before your time?”
“We time-traveled there,” Matt said, remembering with a mixture of emotions the night that he’d almost caused the Mets to lose the World Series, but in the end was basically the reason they’d won, because he’d caused a glitch in the timeline with the stone in his bracelet, which, unbeknownst to him, was actually the Aeternum, the very powerful object Captain Vincent had been looking for all along. It had gotten him out of a couple of tight spots, actually, before he and Quine activated its full power and gave it to Vincent.
“One of the greatest games in history,” Mr. Hudson said. “You really should have been there.”
“Could we, though?” Haha asked. “I mean, with your time-traveling thing?” He nodded to Matt’s compass.
Matt shook his head. “Not a good idea. Overlapping with ourselves could cause some serious damage. We already caused a glitch overlapping with Dad.”
“We can find all the games on YouTube,” Corey said.
“YouTube? That a video store?”
“Sort of.” Matt suddenly realized there was a lot more to catch Haha up on than just their lives and baseball.
Next up, the president has declared a state of emergency . . .
“Corey, turn that off,” Mr. Hudson said. “We don’t need any more news today.”
Corey switched off the TV, and quiet settled over the apartment.
“Gloria,” Mrs. Hudson said. “Why don’t you go lie down in our room? I’ll bring you some tea.”
“Tea?” Gaga said. “Oh, no, I think I’ll need something stronger than tea.”
“I don’t think we have any wine in the house, Mom,” Mr. Hudson said.
Gaga waved him off and went to the kitchen, teetering a little. She was clearly still off-balance from their travels, and maybe a little off mentally as well, because she opened the freezer and stuck her head inside.
“Mom?” Mr. Hudson asked. “What are you doing?”
Gaga didn’t answer. She rifled around in the freezer. A few packages of frozen vegetables fell to the ground, and then Gaga emerged with two pints of Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey.
“Hey! Where
