“Where’s Gloria?” Haha said. “Have you seen her?”
Matt shook his head. Maybe she had disappeared too. He didn’t want to say it though.
“She was in Blossom, wasn’t she?” Jia said.
“Yes,” Uncle Chuck said. “Where’s Blossom?”
They looked all around. Matt wasn’t sure he could even say which direction the car had been parked. Maybe it had been carried away in the storm, disappeared like so many people and things. Then Matt noticed the Alice in Wonderland statue from Central Park. It was lopsided and half-buried in the side of a hill, but Matt remembered they had parked Blossom somewhere near that statue. He looked all around until he spotted it. At the top of one of the newly formed hills, about fifty feet high, was Blossom, her front wheels dangling precariously over the edge.
“There,” Matt said, pointing.
“What the beetle juice?” said Uncle Chuck. “How did Blossom get up there?”
The side door of Blossom slid open. Gaga poked her head out. “Henry?” she called. “Anyone? Help, please!” Her voice echoed over the ravaged city. Some people stopped and looked up at the old woman in the bus on top of the hill, but no one seemed obliged to help her.
“Don’t move, Gloria! I’m coming!” Haha said.
“Me too, Mom! Be right there!”
They both stumbled over fallen trees and rubble and started to climb the hill. The dirt was loose, and Uncle Chuck slid down a bit, but Haha caught onto him and helped him up. When they finally reached Blossom, they carefully helped Gaga out. The release of her weight caused Blossom to tip. The bus teetered for a few seconds then rolled down the hill.
“Oh no!” Gaga cried.
“Look out below!” Uncle Chuck called out in warning. People screamed and ran out of the way as Blossom barreled down the hill. When she reached the bottom, she rolled to a stop in front of a giant stone sculpture of a lion. Matt recognized it as one of the stone lions that stood at the entrance of the New York Public Library, either Patience or Fortitude. It had to have been flung halfway across the city to get to this spot. It certainly showed evidence of a journey, with a cracked mane and a missing bottom half.
Matt heard a groan. He searched for the source of the sound and found a woman curled up on the ground half-buried in branches, bits of glass and broken marble, and hailstones the size of golf balls. His heart nearly leaped out of his chest.
“Mom!” Matt shouted, rushing to her. “Mom, are you okay?”
Jia helped him move the debris away from Mrs. Hudson and gingerly lifted her to a sitting position. She had a gash on her head. Blood trickled from her hairline down the side of her face.
“What happened?” she said, looking around. “Where am I?”
“There was a storm,” Jia said. “It’s over now. Don’t worry, it’s going to be okay.”
“Where’s Vince?” Mrs. Hudson looked around. “Where’s the Vermillion and my crew?”
“Vincent isn’t here,” Matt said. “We haven’t seen him.”
“Of course he’s here,” Mrs. Hudson said irritably. “I’m here, so why wouldn’t he be? And who are you two? Have we met before?” Mrs. Hudson gazed from Jia to Matt, and then her eyes lit up with recognition. At the same time Matt’s breath caught.
“You,” she said. “I’ve seen you before.”
“Of course you have,” Jia said. “That’s Matt. Your son.”
Mrs. Hudson placed a hand on her bleeding head and winced. “Son?” she said. “What are you talking about? I don’t have a son.”
16Mom-Not-Mom
Matt took a few steps back. The woman before him was not his mom. This wasn’t Mrs. Hudson. This was Belamie Bonnaire, younger than Matt’s mom by at least twenty years. She looked almost exactly as Matt had seen her that day he’d traveled to the Vermillion and found her fencing with a younger Captain Vincent. She was even in her Mets jersey. How did this happen? No one else seemed to have gone back in time. Gaga and Uncle Chuck looked their same old selves, and Haha his same young self. This must be some kind of glitch from whatever just happened, a repercussion from Captain Vincent changing the past.
“You.” She spoke sharply, glaring at Matt like he was a rat. “I just saw you. You are that boy who snuck onto my ship.”
Matt’s mind whirled. She was talking about the time he’d first time-traveled. He’d gone to Chicago and found himself inadvertently on the Vermillion when his mother had been captain and possessor of the Obsidian Compass. His mother had no idea who he was, had no memory of him except a vague instance of him sneaking onto her ship. Whatever Captain Vincent had been trying to do, he’d done it. He’d broken time. He’d broken his
