The man who opened it was older than my father, but he clasped his palm over his mouth the minute he saw me, his eyes watering behind his glasses. I stepped closer to Dr. Pritchard, using both of my small hands to hold one of his.
“Now, now,” he said to me warningly. “This is Mr. Masterson. He’s your grandfather.”
I looked up at the man in the doorway, and I knew he wasn’t my grandfather. My mother told me a long time ago that all of my grandparents were already in heaven, and when she was in the hospital bed, she whispered that I shouldn’t be scared for her. I shouldn’t be scared because she was going back home tohermother. And that she’d take care of her.
The man in front of me looked kind, and I did my best to smile. At that moment, a woman joined him, and she moaned when she saw my face.
I tried to hide behind Dr. Pritchard, nervous, but he put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me forward. Put me on display.
“It’s uncanny, isn’t it?” Dr. Pritchard said, and the older woman nodded her head. The man next to her couldn’t look at me anymore.
“She’s perfect,” the woman said, shaking her head slowly. There was a soft flinch in her mouth, a twitch. “How did you find her?” she asked.
“She was one of many candidates,” Dr. Pritchard told her kindly. “But I think she’s the best choice.” He looked down at me again, warmly. I didn’t know what he was talking about.
“I want to go home,” I whispered, and my lip jutted out. I wanted to see my father. My room. My dog.
Dr. Pritchard tsked, but the woman stepped forward, holding up her palm. “It’s okay, honey,” she said to me. “It’s okay.”
Her voice was soothing; I’d always wanted a grandmother—a sweet one. She squatted down in front of me and ran her palm over my arm, trying to comfort me.
“You look just like her,” she said like I should be proud.
The woman gently pulled me into a hug, and the second I was close, she started to cry into my shoulder. I hated watching adults cry. My father had cried every day since my mom died.
But last night, after he tucked me into bed, he told me that he loved me. It was the first time he’d said it in a really long time. When I left for school in the morning, his car was already gone, and I walked to the bus alone.
“I want to go home,” I repeated louder. The woman pulled back, brushing my hair, nodding like she understood. And then she looked up at Dr. Pritchard, and they were both quiet, staring at each other.
The old man behind her walked back into the house. And the woman, my grandmother, leaned close to me and whispered, “You are home, Tatum.”
•••
My eyelids flutter open, and the scene of the apartment floods in. There’s a buzz deep in my head, and Marie tells me not to move.
“They kidnapped me,” I say out loud, and my breath hitches.
“What happened after that?” she asks.
But I don’t want to go further into the memory, don’t want to obliterate everything I know about my grandparents. My eyes well up, tears spilling over.
“I can’t,” I murmur, a dam inside of me breaking and flooding me with warm water.
“You have to,” Marie says.
“Please,” I hear from behind her, knowing it’s Sloane. “Please don’t let him die. Don’t let any of us die.”
She doesn’t even know if I’m really the cure, but we’re desperate, all clinging to this possibility. I can’t let them down. I have to try. Even if it means destroying Tatum Masterson.
I close my eyes again, and Marie hits a key, causing a vibration in my temple. The room dissolves around me.
•••
I didn’t stay at my grandparents’ house that night, although I wasn’t allowed to go home, either. Dr. Pritchard brought me to a place he called the grief department. In the back, there were toys, a small bed. I was the only one there.
I took off the bracelet that my mother had given me and kept in my pocket, scared they’d take it away.
I cried myself to sleep the first night, hugging a stuffed dog to my chest. The entire place smelled like rubbing alcohol, like the hospital where my mother had died. I didn’t mind the daytime at first, playing alone. But at each therapy session, I would dread going into the white room. Sitting with Dr. Pritchard as he told me about my life. About my grandparents.
