“Shut up, Albert, that’s none of your business,” Corey said with a growl in his voice.
“No, that’s all right,” Mrs. Hudson said. “It is his business on some level.” She then looked at Albert with an unflinching gaze. “Vincent and I had some good times together, but people change. I wanted a different life than he did. Different things. I wanted my family. There’s nothing quite like family, wouldn’t you agree?”
Albert looked away and shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I’m an orphan.”
“Me too,” Mrs. Hudson said.
Albert looked surprised by this. “You are?”
Mrs. Hudson simply nodded but didn’t explain further. It was her trying to bring her parents back that had caused their deaths in the first place. Just one paradox of time travel.
“Captain Vincent said he would bring my parents back,” Albert said, lifting his chin a little. “Maybe if you hadn’t betrayed him he would have done the same for you.”
Mrs. Hudson smiled gently at Albert. “Maybe. But I wouldn’t ask for that.”
Albert looked confused. “Why not?”
“Because I’ve come to find it’s dangerous to always focus on the past. Even if you can change it, even if you do get what you want, there will always be regrets. There will always be something you wish you could change. I’d rather focus on the present and the future. That’s where all the possibility is. Right here and now. It’s where I found my true family.”
Matt couldn’t help but think of what Ruby had said to him the night before. The present is the only time we have real control over.
Albert considered this for a moment. He took another bite of his oatmeal and chewed as though he were chewing on his thoughts. “Captain Vincent plans to take you back, you know. He’s going to change the past so you and him don’t end up together.” He nodded toward Mr. Hudson.
Mrs. Hudson stared at Albert, unblinking, but Matt saw a vein in her forehead pulse.
“What does he intend to do?” Mr. Hudson said softly, calmly. “Kill me before we meet?”
Albert shook his head. “That’s what Brocco suggested. He wanted to just go back in time and shoot you before you two met, or your mother before you were born.”
Gaga let out a little whimper and clutched at her chest. Haha put a hand on her shoulder.
“But Captain Vincent doesn’t think that’s good enough,” Albert said. “He said there’s still ways it could go wrong. He intends to make it so you don’t exist at all, so no one can even remember you.”
“He can do that?” Ruby asked in a small voice. “He can just . . . erase people, and everyone’s memory of them?”
Albert nodded. “Yes. It took him some time to figure out. He had to get some help, but he can do it.” His eyes flickered to Matt. Matt wondered if he was referring to that man with the case, the one whose identity he refused to reveal.
“But . . . ,” Ruby said, “if our dad doesn’t exist, then we won’t exist.”
“You and I won’t,” Corey said. “Matt’s safe.” He didn’t even look at Matt when he said it, but he could hear the bitterness in his voice.
“Matt may still exist,” Albert said, “but he won’t be Matt anymore.”
Matt stiffened. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just what I said. You can’t be Mateo Hudson if the Hudsons don’t exist, can you? So, you’ll become someone else. Your whole life will be different.”
Matt felt an icy chill come over him from the top of his head, traveling down to his toes. He started to tremble. He thought maybe he would have a seizure when suddenly Ruby grabbed his hand and squeezed it until it hurt. She must have done the same thing to Corey because he gasped. Matt could almost hear Ruby’s thoughts shouting straight into his brain. We have to stick together! Don’t let go. Matt glanced at Corey, but he kept his gaze down.
“So now you know,” Albert said. “I’d prepare if I were you. You don’t have long.”
Mrs. Hudson let out a breath. She went to the kitchen and started to wash dishes. Mr. Hudson followed her, leaving the rest of them at the dining table with cold oatmeal and somber thoughts. Albert went on eating like nothing had happened. Matt wanted to dump his own bowl of oatmeal on Albert’s head, but then he really didn’t want to have to wear the “get-along shirt” with him. Corey seemed to be having similar thoughts. At least they still had that in common. They could be unified in their mutual hatred of Albert. But he was guessing that wasn’t going to be enough.
11An Eye for an Eye
Nowhere in No Time
Santiago was starving. The well of hunger seemed to be growing bigger inside of him. When their chase on the Hudsons was finally over, he scurried to the pantry and ate and ate and ate. He ate a bag of cheese puffs, three Twinkies, and six packages of peanut butter crackers. The salt made him thirsty. He found a can of that syrupy brown drink on the shelves. He climbed up and swiped the can with his tail so it fell to the floor. It sprayed and bubbled everywhere, all over the walls, the floor, and his fur. He licked up the bubbly, sticky stuff, allowing it to fill in the cracks of all the food he’d eaten. And still he felt empty.
More, more, more.
He hadn’t felt hunger like this since before. Before he’d met the captain and he’d been just a regular rat living on the shipping docks in San Pedro Bay. His memories of that time were hazy. There wasn’t much to the life of a rat, but he remembered one thing quite clearly—he was always hungry, always scrounging for scraps of food, fighting over them with the other rats or cats or seagulls. And that was his life day in and day out, until those three children, the Hudsons, appeared out of
