But Robbie had one it to save her, so the blame was partially on her soul, though it felt much heavier than that.
“You all right?” Carol said.
Jolie nodded.
“It’s a bit of a shock,” she said.
You have no idea. Carol herself, who had already been through the accepting phase of dying when she had cancer, could relate to how Jolie was feeling. She remembered the heartbreak, the shaking of the fist up to the heavens, asking God, why out of all the bad people and the good, she had to be the one who was slated for an earlier expiration date. Why her? She was a good person, did nothing wrong, and yet she had been judged and sentenced.
But this time was a little different. Before, there had been no one to blame, as the many cries to God often went unanswered. Robbie was much easier to blame, which, based on the yelling Carol heard in the main room, she felt was justified. It was a mistake made out of love, and what could really be wrong with that? Robbie hadn’t intended all of this. Carol had been slated to die weeks ago or to still be in that semi-useless state, with sitcom after sitcom, no one being able to hear or understand what she felt. This new reality was a paradise to the one that came before.
But there were the kids to think of, and that’s really all Matt and his gang of friends were. Kids.
Jolie looked at her and burst into tears. Carol embraced her, an odd thing considering their difference in height, and waited. She heard the yelling in the other room stop, followed by the slamming of the front door.
Eventually, Jolie was able to tell her everything; that she was pregnant with Matt’s child. It had been a couple months by then, and the talk of abortion was off the table. They were going to wait a year before going to college, or maybe not go to college at all.
But then the NaU happened.
Carol comforted the girl and told her everything was going to be fine. She didn’t think they would be fine, but it was better to lie and make someone feel better than tell them the horrid truth that both of the women in the McCarthys bathroom at the time could see.
Carol embraced her, and she felt genuine love for the young girl. She and Matt were going to get married; Carol could imagine the grandkids coming over for the holidays, all of it.
The two of them stayed in the room for what felt like an eternity to Carol. Eventually, Jolie calmed down and left. Carol walked out to find Robbie.
She found him on the porch.
The backyard was covered in dead leaves, and the trees were bare. There was a slight breeze to the air, but not the kind that someone would find uncomfortable, or even intolerable.
“I’m guessing Nigel didn’t pull his punches,” Carol said.
Robbie didn’t turn.
“Come on,” Carol said. “The two of you always fight.”
“This time was different,” Robbie said.
“How so? Because the two of you could literally tear the house down if you wanted to?”
“No, no,” Robbie said, turning to her. His eyes were red, and his face torn.
“He was right this time.”
“About what?”
“About all of it. Usually, when Nigel gets going, I can more or less tune him out. The man has a talent for annoyance and shooting bullshit from his mouth better than any politician I have ever met.
“But this time was different—this time what he said was true. I’ve doomed all of us, every single person who was near you that night. I doomed them.”
“You’ll come up with a cure.”
“Thank you for the confidence,” he said, leaning up against the railing. “But let’s be practical here. I don’t know why the NaU reacted the way they did. When I injected them into your heart all those months ago, I did so because I hoped that they would bring you back from being unconscious. I didn’t expect them to bring you back from the dead with complete motor functions, nor did I plan on having them be released and then going out and burrowing themselves into the cells and DNA of those around you at that time. I have tried to figure out how the NaUs work, but I’m as lost as everyone else. They made different powers in each person, and along with that, they have different problems as well.”
The two of them stood there for a moment on the porch. Squirrels ran to and fro on the leaves around them, running this way and that. The old maple by the edge of the forest was still just as burned as it had been the day that Carol shot her breath at it, or rather how it had been reflected that way. Robbie and Carol had seen what the limits of their powers were. Robbie could redirect any energy being thrown at him, and that meant Carol’s NaU. So, rather than hit him, it was shot to the side and almost destroyed that tree. She hadn’t shot her breath at him since.
Robbie walked forward.
“At least we know for certain that Becca won’t have to deal with any of this.”
“We don’t have to talk like that,” Carol said.
“But we do,” Robbie said, “We do. Where is she going to go after the NaUs have killed us, or we’ve killed ourselves?”
Robbie always brought up Rebecca like this, as though the two of them only had one child, which was partially true. As much as Robbie had been a good, if not mediocre stepfather for Matt, biology runs deep. Carol noticed it, even if her husband hadn’t. Nigel and Robbie might be different on a whole plethora of issues, but when it came to loving their own kid over the other, they were dead in the same.
“You’ll come up with something,” Carol said, “I know you will.”
“I hope you’re right,” he said, not
