Belamie sat up very suddenly.
Matt stopped his humming. “What’s wrong?”
“What is that?”
“What’s what?” He sat up and looked around, thinking she must have seen or heard something in the dark that looked suspicious or threatening.
“That melody you were just humming.”
“Oh.” Matt suddenly realized what he’d been humming to himself. “You—my mom, I mean—used to sing that to me. When I was little, whenever I had a nightmare, she’d sing it.”
“My mother sang that to me,” Belamie breathed. She looked at him, held his gaze. Matt could almost hear her singing those words to him now in her low, warm voice.
When you feel lost and all alone
Look to the sky and you’ll find home
He saw just a flicker of the mother he knew, and maybe a bit of recognition for her as well, but it was gone as soon as it came.
She clammed up. Her face became a mask. “It’s a fairly common song, I think,” she said, and she lay down again.
Matt lay back down, pulled his blanket up to his chin. That burning ache returned to his chest. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out those scraps of time tapestry. Another thread pulled away and disappeared, and again Matt felt something unravel inside of him, like a corresponding thread in his own soul had just disintegrated. The feeling was gone in an instant, though, and he clutched the fabric tightly in his fist until he finally fell asleep.
Matt woke to gray light and a roaring engine. He jumped up from his sleeping place on the ground, thinking it must be the Vermillion and Captain Vincent. His mom must have thought the same because she was on her feet in an instant, searching for the source of the engine. Albert, too, scrambled to his feet, tripping over his blankets.
“I’m sure that’s the Vermillion,” he said. “Captain Vincent’s come to rescue us!”
But it wasn’t the Vermillion. It was a military tank, rolling through the wrecked city. A soldier was sticking out of the hatch with a loudspeaker. “All persons in the city are to report to the pyramid! Food, supplies, and fresh water will be distributed. Medical treatment is available.” Another soldier popped up and repeated the words in Spanish, then French, Russian, Chinese, and a host of other languages, including Greek and Latin. Clearly, they knew they were dealing with unusual circumstances.
“At least there’s some kind of order in this chaos,” Gaga said, wrapping her knitted blanket tightly around her shoulders. Matt was glad to know that something was being done to help all these displaced people. They were all time castaways now. He wondered how many more there were throughout the world and all of time. Maybe his dad and Corey and Ruby hadn’t really disappeared, but had been discarded into another time and place, and they only needed to find them. But when he thought about the way they had disappeared, how they had seemingly come unraveled, he felt whatever had happened to them was altogether different than what had happened to these people. He closed his eyes, and the images of Corey and Ruby surfaced in his mind, each of them clinging for life, Ruby begging him not to let go. But he couldn’t see their faces. Not clearly, anyway. They were distorted somehow, like they were underwater, and when he reached for them, they disappeared. He only heard the echo of Corey’s words.
Your fault.
Your fault.
Your fault.
He opened his eyes, looked down at his clenched fist. The scraps of their time tapestries were still there, but it looked as though they had faded. Or maybe they were just dirty. He didn’t want to let go of them, but maybe he shouldn’t be touching the tapestries so much. He folded them back up and slipped them in his pocket.
“I think we’d better leave now,” Belamie said. “We don’t want to get swept up in all of this.” She gestured to all the people around them who were now starting to make their way toward the pyramid, holding on to what few belongings they had. It was like a dozen rivers of humans all flowing toward the pyramid.
They packed up their things and cleaned up their general camp area. Matt thought it hardly mattered, given the state of things, but Gaga was insistent that they not be “litterbugs.”
Uncle Chuck distributed more granola bars for breakfast, and Haha brewed some coffee for the grown-ups on the little gas stove in Blossom. With a cup of hot coffee in her hands, Belamie warmed toward Haha a little.
“You remind me of someone,” she said, studying Haha’s face. “We haven’t met before this, have we?”
Haha looked a bit awkward. “Don’t think so. You’re probably thinking of my son. We look a lot alike.”
“No, we don’t,” Uncle Chuck said. “I take after Mom.”
“I meant my other son. Your brother.”
“Oh. Right. My brother.” Uncle Chuck shook his head a little. “Brother . . .”
After everything was picked up and stowed away, they all piled inside of Blossom. Albert hesitated at the door. He kept looking around, clearly hoping the Vermillion would appear and rescue him, but there was no sign of the ship or the captain.
“Get in, Albert,” Jia said. “Time to go.”
Albert frowned but got inside and shut the door.
Somehow it felt more crowded inside Blossom, even though they were fewer in number. Maybe it was because they weren’t as comfortable with each other. They had to shift a few things around a bit, and Matt felt a small pang when his mother tossed one of Ruby’s sneakers aside and muttered something about how hideous the future fashions were.
Uncle Chuck sat in the driver’s seat with Gaga in the front passenger seat. Haha was crouched in the spot between them. Albert and Jia sat in the back seat, on opposite sides, leaving Matt and Belamie to sit together at the small table. Matt pulled the compass out from under