Someone shook him a little, patted his cheek.
“Matt! Matt!” someone cried. “Wake up!”
Matt gasped and sat up. He looked around, hoping that what he had just seen was only one of his nightmares and his family would be standing all around him, making sure he was okay. But they weren’t there. Only Jia stood before him. He saw no sign of his family. He had to go back again. He had to save them. He moved for his compass again, but Jia grabbed his arm.
“Matt, stop,” she said. “It’s no use.”
Matt jerked his hand away. “I have to save them!”
“Matt . . .” Jia’s eyes filled with tears. She trembled as the tears spilled over her cheeks. “Oh, Matt, I’m so sorry.”
And it was her tears that broke Matt, that finally made him realize that he couldn’t save them. There was nothing he could do except make it all worse. He’d failed.
Jia wiped her tears and sniffled. She had welts on her face and arms from the hail, a few scrapes on her face. Her vest was torn and dirty. One of the pockets had been ripped off completely. It was a weird reaction, but he looked on the ground for whatever tools of hers she might have lost. He should like to recover something. But as he searched he finally became aware of the destruction and chaos all around him. It looked like another world, a different planet. This surely couldn’t be Earth, let alone Manhattan. He didn’t see any sign of his home, not any of the buildings with which he was so familiar, not the dry cleaner’s, or the drugstore, or the bakery. He couldn’t see the Met, not even Central Park. There were sudden cliffs and mountains jutting up between unfamiliar and very random buildings. In one place there were little grass huts jumbled together, and next to those what looked like half of an Egyptian pyramid. A more modern building stood behind Matt, and it took him a moment to realize that it was his own apartment building, miraculously still standing, though half the front had been ripped away so it looked like a doll’s house. He counted up the levels and could see where his apartment was. This was the scene he’d been viewing when he’d traveled to the future. And now he knew it was his fault.
Your fault.
Your fault.
Your fault.
He closed his eyes and saw Corey and Ruby, the looks on their faces just before they’d unraveled and disappeared.
“Oh, Matt, look!” Jia said. Matt opened his eyes. His chest flared with the smallest hope that Jia had seen someone in his family, but she was pointing down at his hand. He was holding something and hadn’t even noticed, probably because it was weightless and felt like little more than air. It was a couple scraps of those shimmery, translucent threads he’d been so desperately grasping for.
“What is it?” Jia asked.
“I think it’s a bit of Corey and Ruby, or their time tapestries, anyway,” Matt said. Somehow he’d been able to hold on to them.
“That’s good, then, isn’t it?” Jia said. “It might be able to help somehow.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
Matt held up the bits of tapestry to catch the light. He saw no images within them, only faint shadows. One of the threads fell away and disintegrated before it hit the ground. Matt almost felt like something had shriveled and died inside of himself. He wasn’t sure what, a feeling, an essence of something, and then that faded too, and he was left with a blank space. He carefully folded the pieces of fabric and tucked them inside his pocket.
A movement caught the corner of Matt’s eye. He looked up to see Albert approaching them, walking from their dilapidated apartment building. He was completely unharmed. He must have stayed inside the building the whole time. He must have known there was nothing they could do to get away or stop what had happened. The sight of Albert filled Matt with a sudden rage. All reason and sense left him. He growled and charged at Albert. Albert squealed and tried to run away, but Matt tackled him and took him down.
“Where did they go?” Matt shouted as he pinned Albert to the ground. “Where did Vincent take them? What did he do?”
“I don’t know!” Albert said. “I don’t know anything!”
“Liar!” Matt shouted. “You are nothing but a dirty, rotten, pigheaded liar!” He punched and slapped Albert.
“Matt, stop!” Jia cried. “It isn’t his fault!”
Matt could barely hear Jia. He kept punching and clawing at Albert until someone pulled him off, someone a lot bigger and stronger than Jia.
“Whoa there, Matty.” It was Haha. He spoke to Matt like he was some wild animal that needed to be contained. Maybe he was. He was growling and spitting like one. Haha held on to him until he finally stopped thrashing and he slumped in his grandfather’s arms. Haha wrapped him tightly in a hug.
“It’s okay. It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”
But it wasn’t okay. Matt buried himself in Haha’s chest. When Matt finally pulled himself away, Haha still held on to him, just in case he flew off the handle again. Albert scooted away from him on the ground. His lip was bleeding, and his glasses were twisted and cracked. Matt felt a small amount of satisfaction, but it faded quickly, swallowed up by despair.
There was a coughing sound. Uncle Chuck emerged from behind a fallen pillar. He was dusty and had a few scratches on his face but otherwise looked okay. “Geez Louise, I thought this place had gone to pieces before, but it’s really in shambles now, isn’t it?”
Shambles wasn’t a strong enough word, Matt didn’t think. The city was unrecognizable. It was a smorgasbord of time and space. Where there had been buildings
