Keishin clamped his hand over a gasp. “My god.”
“Let me guess,” Hana said. “You are currently trying to think of ways to do this in your world.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t help it. This is incredible. I can’t wait to see the exhibits. Are the galleries upstairs?”
“This is the gallery. The cranes are the Kyoiku Hakubutsukan’s prize exhibit. All of them are crafted by the museum’s origami artist.” Hana whistled and extended her hand. A crane swooped down and rested on her wrist. Hana examined it closely. “This one is from a ship called theTitanic.Do you know of it?”
“TheTitanic? Yes, of course.”
“This crane is fifteen seconds of the life of one of its crew masters. He was replaced at the last minute before the ship set sail. This is the exact fragment of time where, in his hurry to leave the ship, he neglected to turn over the keys to the locker where the ship’s binoculars were stored. Because of this, the crew master who took his place failed to see the iceberg theTitaniccollided into. Fifteen seconds cost one thousand five hundred people their lives.”
The crane flew away. Hana whistled for another one. A second crane burst from the clouds and perched on her shoulder. Hana scooped it up and weighed it in her hand. “This is a lot heavier than the first one. Thirteen minutes. They belonged to a man named Georg Elser. He attempted to assassinate someone called…” Hana squinted at the crane as though trying to read something in small print. “Adolf Hitler. Have you heard of him?”
“I have,” Keishin said stiffly.
“Elser planted a bomb at a beer hall where Hitler was speaking, but Hitler cut his speech short and left early. The bomb exploded thirteen minutes later, killing eight people and injuring sixty-two others.”
“What kind of museum is this, Hana?” Keishin said, his jaw tight.
“The kind that collects the tiniest moments from your world, seconds and minutes that shifted the course of your history.” Hana pointed to the clouds enveloping them. “These are part of the exhibit too. It saved one city and caused the destruction of another.”
“How?”
“A bomb was supposed to be dropped on the city of Kokura on August ninth, 1945. But because of the heavy clouds overKokura, the plane carrying the bomb decided to drop it over the city of Nagasaki instead.”
“Why…” Keishin’s voice caught in his throat. “Why put such things on display?”
“The Shiikuin built this museum, and everything they have curated serves a single purpose: to show everyone what happens in a world that is free to chart its own course, and to remind us that the worst thing about choices is…” Hana bit her lip.
Keishin remembered the softness of her mouth. “Is what?”
“Is having to live with them.”
—
The clouds thinned, revealing a thick bamboo grove at the top of the museum’s steps. Tall green stalks swayed in the breeze and filled the silence between Keishin and Hana with the rustling of leaves. Keishin stared at a crane that had followed them up the stairs. He watched it fly into the grove without speaking.
“Bringing you here was a mistake,” Hana said. “It has clearly upset you.”
“I’ll admit that it’s unsettling, but I’m glad you took me here. It’s one thing to read about these events in history books and quite another to come face-to-face with the very seconds that made them.”
“I apologize. I neglected to consider how the museum might make you feel. In this world, this museumisa history book, a cautionary tale from a place that, for most of us, does not even feel real.”
“It’s not your fault. It’s not even the Shiikuin’s. Every single second on exhibit in this museum was spent, squandered, or forgotten by my world. It was our time, and we did with it aswe pleased. I’m not angry that your world has a place like this. I’m saddened that my world does not.” Keishin took Hana’s hand in his. “I don’t want to make the same mistake.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t want to waste another second of my time here hiding what I need to say.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Come with me, Hana.” He closed his hands around hers.
“What?”
“After we find your father and the missing choice…come with me.I know that my world isn’t perfect, but you’d be free. You don’t belong here, Hana. You can have a life. A real one.”
“With you?” Hana said quietly.
