Page 413 of A Matter of Time

All my life people had been saying I was crazy. And I could take the teasing just as well as anyone else, but this wasn’t funny, because Calhoun had gone further and told people who didn’t know me that when they caught up with me, I needed to be restrained. I had issues with even the idea. Sitting in shackles or sitting in a rubber room with a straitjacket on was not my idea of fun. I think it was especially scary since I’d always wondered if maybe it wasn’t going to happen at some point. After my grandmother died, it seemed like there was an endless number of people saying how weird I was, how strange, how crazy. That I was delusional and disturbed, manic and incompetent.

“Love?”

“I’m on the right track, Sam, I promise you.”

“I have no doubt you are, but we can do it together. Just go get a room and lie low and I’ll get there and pick you up.”

“I just have one more thing to do,” I told him. “Please trust me.”

“Honey, it won’t be about me trusting you if law enforcement shows up. You know Calhoun is a federal agent. They will do what he says.”

Caleb’s face suddenly came to mind.

“Sam, please let me call you back.”

He sighed heavily. “What choice do I have?”

Once I hung up, I headed toward campus to find Gwen. I walked down through the quad and saw her waiting for me right where she had said she would be. I was maybe ten minutes late.

“Hey.” She smiled and waved. “I thought you’d ditched me.”

“No.” I smiled back. “Just got hung up at the office.”

She stood up and put her arm through mine. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

“No.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, leaning her head on my shoulder. “Maybe we should call Jeremy and see if he knows where anything is.”

Her brother Jeremy, the oldest until Dane appeared out of thin air three years ago.

“No, I don’t think so. But I found a key—I think it’s for a security door.”

“Huh.” She shrugged. “I dunno, babe. Maybe we should just call and ask her.”

“Let’s eat first. I’m starving.”

“Sure,” she said, patting my arm.

She had invited not just her boyfriend, Casey, but also three other friends. They all seemed nice, they all thought I looked like I could still be in college, and they all had suggestions about what I should have for lunch. I decided to go with Gwen’s idea since it was spicy.

“So, Jory,” Casey said as the others started talking. “That’s a cool name. I don’t hear it a lot.”

I shrugged. “Probably for good reason.”

He chuckled. “Self-deprecation—nice.”

“I try.”

“When are you going back to Chicago?”

“Tomorrow probably,” I told him.

“Huh. What are you gonna do after lunch?”

“Look for a building.”

“I’m sorry?”