The next morning, before I could check out of the hospital, they had to prepare a bunch of paperwork. The nurse said it could take a half hour. I propped myself up in the bed. My mom put a pillow behind me and used the remote control to make the top of the bed go up. Then she picked up some of the get-well cards people had sent me. We were looking at the cards together when there was a soft knock on the door. It was Zeke.
“Remember me?” he asked cautiously. When I smiled, he came in and gave me a high five.
“I don’t know where you would be right now if not for Zeke,” my mother told me.
I wouldn’t be in a hospital, I knew that. It was Zeke’s idea to go to the railroad tracks both times. But I didn’t say that. I didn’t want to get Zeke in trouble, and I didn’t want my mother to know anything about the cell phone.
Zeke and I looked at each other, sending a silent message to talk it over when my mom wasn’t around.
“You are so lucky,” Zeke told me. “You got to miss a whole week of school. And everybody’s gonna be treating you like a big hero when you get back.”
“Oh yeah,” I said sarcastically. “It’s great to be in a coma. Really clears your head. Everybody should have one.”
My mom pulled out her cell phone and took a picture of me. Then she took a picture of Zeke and me together.
“I’m going to go to the waiting room and tell everybody the good news,” she said as she picked up her purse. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
As soon as she walked out the door, I turned to Zeke.
“Okay, what happened?” I asked him. “I need to know everything. Tell me the truth.”
“Everything?”
“Yeah, everything.”
“It was a really stupid thing to do,” Zeke told me. “We were in the Freedom Tunnel down by the railroad tracks in Riverside Park. For some reason, the gate was open. So I said we should put some coins on the track to flatten them. Then, just as the train was coming, your shoelace got caught in the track. You couldn’t get it loose. At the last second, you dove out of the way and hit your head. And you’ve been in here ever since. I’m really sorry, man. I never should have suggested we do that. It was all my fault. I’m just glad you’re okay. I don’t know what I would have done if you didn’t wake up. And for what? For this…”
Zeke reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of flattened coins. He handed them to me.
“That’s it?” I asked. “That’s all that happened?”
“Well, yeah.”
“What about the second time we went to the railroad tracks?” I asked.
“Second time?” Zeke said, puzzled.
“What about the phone, Zeke?” I asked.
“What phone?”
“The cell phone!” I told him. “The flip phone!”
“Flip phone?” Zeke asked. “Dude, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I closed my eyes for a moment to clear my head. How could he not remember that we went back to the railroad tracks and crushed the cell phone I had been using to communicate with Houdini?
“Hey, are you okay, Harry?” Zeke asked. “Are you gonna be able to come to my birthday party? It’s gonna be cool. We’re going to an escape room.”
“What?!” I said, alarmed. “I already went to your birthday party at the escape room. Don’t you remember?”
“Harry, it hasn’t happened yet,” Zeke told me. “My birthday is on Thursday.”
He pointed to a calendar on the wall. The days I was in a coma had been crossed out with red marker.
“This coming Thursday?” I asked. Zeke nodded his head.
I had to sort it all out. Everything seemed a little foggy. The doctor had told me I might be confused a little bit at first.
“You mean…none of it happened?” I asked Zeke.
“None of what happened?”
“Houdini!” I said. “The flip phone! The text messages! I was hanging upside down in Kansas City and I had to get out of a straitjacket. I told you all about it, Zeke! Don’t you remember Metamorphosis?”
“Meta-what?” Zeke replied. “Harry, you’re scaring me. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“So I never communicated with Houdini?” I asked.
“Dude, you didn’t communicate with anybody,” Zeke insisted. “You’ve been out cold for a week.”
“You mean the last time I was awake was when we flattened these coins on the train track?” I asked.
“Yes! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
This whole thing was blowing my mind.
“But it seemed so real,” I finally said.
“I think you need to rest,” Zeke replied.
When my mom came back to the room, she took more pictures and kept hugging me like she didn’t want to let me go.
“Are you okay, Harry?” she asked. “You look a little pale. Should I call the doctor?”
“I just need to sit here for a minute,” I told her.
A lady knocked on the door and told my mom they would release me from the hospital as soon as she signed some paperwork. While she did that, Zeke collected up all the flowers so they could be given to other patients on the floor. I got dressed and then picked up the boxes of candy on the windowsill. As I was stuffing them into my backpack, one of the boxes fell on the floor.
I bent down to pick it up. It was a small box, about six inches by four inches. There was a red ribbon around it, but it was loose so it slipped off. I figured that after all I had been through, I deserved a piece of candy.
I opened the box.
No candy.
There was a cell phone inside.
Everything in this book is true, except for the stuff I made up. It’s only fair to tell you which is which.
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