“Good.” Jo freed her hand and held it back over the touchpad.
“What you need to dois—”
Before he could finish the thought, her fingers were moving. Home was crisp and clear in her mind. Jo didn’t even know what numbers or letters she depressed, but her fingers moved with certainty. There was that same hiss of pressurization, the click of the door opening, and then—light.
Chapter 9
Not Real
SHE FELT TUGGED alongside Wayne,drawn from her navel as if by some magic umbilical cord pulling her back toward the real world, a world that she’d been born into just nineteen short years ago. Jo raised a hand up to her eyes, guarding them from the suddenly all-too-oppressivesun.
The door spit them out on a side street connected to her mother’s neighborhood. Jo instantly recognized the squat houses and modest lawns. It wasn’t a long walk from her home, maybe ten minutes. She should be glad to be so close, but Jo’s anxiety had already kicked into overdrive and she found herself wishing she’d had just a bit longer to composeherself.
“So, where’s home?” Wayne looked around, hands in hispockets.
“Texas.” Jo followed suit, beginning to lead theway.
“The mighty Lone Star Republic doesn’t look like what I’d expect,” hemumbled.
“What would you expect?” She latched onto the conversation as an opportunity fordistraction.
“It to look a lot moredifferent.”
“Different than what?” She gave him an up and down look. “No one has dressed like that in America for over a century, youknow.”
“More than fashion, doll. When a country is invaded and then split up. . . I just thought it’d look a lot different isall.”
“Texas has always been Texas. It’s not even like this is the first time it’s been its own country, even.” Jo shrugged. “I’m surprised you even know about the outcome of World WarIII.”
“I haven’t lived in a hole.” There was mock offense in hisvoice.
“Just outside time,” shecountered.
“And even there you can’t escape the talking heads on thetelevision.”
“Really?” Jo arched her eyebrows. “You get news in themansion?”
“How else would we keep up with theworld?”
She merely hummed and kept wondering why people who existed beyond time would even need to “keep up with the world.” Jo looked at the sky; it was already turning a dusky color with the beginnings ofsunset.
“I was born in 2038, a full twenty-three years after the war ended. Can’t say I know what the old America even looked like to compare. Plus, most of the fighting stayed on the coasts. America surrendered before any of the bombings gothere.”
“For the best, as they say.” Wayne’s voice grew distant as he pulled into his ownthoughts.
Jo nodded in agreement. The war had been hard and costly in both life and finances. But history was a topic her mind withdrew from when they rounded the corner of her street—or rather, the street that once marked home. Down at the end of the cul-du-sac, her family home crept into view—still small and square-shaped, a one-story affair painted in a rich terracotta that her mother got to keep after the divorce. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed that it looked exactly like she remembered. It was almost too similar, eerily so, and Jo had to keep reminding herself that this was a house that she had now never visitedbefore.
“Come on, dollface,” Wayne pulled her out of her thoughts, one hand on the back of her neck as the other fiddled with his coin, flipping it up and down. “You were rallying to come here. How’s about you give me the nickeltour?”
Jo hadn’t realized her feet had stopped moving at the edge of the driveway. She took a breath and nodded, walking up the concrete with renewedpurpose.
Her mom’s car wasn’t there, so it was unlikely that anyone was home—unless this was now a universe where her father was a stay-at-home husband. Unlikely, even in a world of magic. Jo thanked her lucky stars, not quite sure if she’d have been able to handle that. Knowing the woman who had been everything to Jo wouldn’t be able to hug her, probably wouldn’t even recognize her? Even with her ability to go unseen, she didn’t think she had the heart forit.
They walked up to the keypad on the garage door. Jo raised a hand, hooking the cap to open it. When it didn’t budge, Wayne caught herwrist.
“Just a sec,doll.”
“What?”
