Page 3 of Meet Me on Greenwood

"He’s losing it," Martin said, his hands already moving to the control panels.

I removed my hand from my pocket, now closed around a knife.

"Henry!" I cried, putting on a headset. "Come back. Come back now."

"Gemini, no!" Martin yelled.

"He can’t hear us. I’ll be back," I said, before using the ORI to enter the simulation.

Suddenly, I was standing on the sidewalk where he’d once stood the day this happened—except now Henry was the one crossing the street, walking toward the couple like I once had. The couple remained oblivious as he crossed the street in their direction.

"Henry!" I called. He didn’t turn. Straying too far into the past was risky, as the tether to the real world weakened to a point where you could lose yourself entirely. We'd never lost anyone before, and I'd be damned if we did today of all days. "Henry! You have a lot of witnesses. You know the repercussions of changing your timeline. Are you really going to throw your life away?"

Now Lily and the man noticed us. He froze mid-step, then pulled Lily behind him, his hands curling into fists as he squared himself toward Henry.

Henry stopped, and I ran up behind him to pull him back. He spun faster than I expected, the knife scratching my forearm, but I didn't let go. I hit the abort button on my phone with my thumb and held on to him.

The intersection dissolved into static, then the white of the ceiling of the lab. My arm throbbed even after being ejected from the simulation, a thin real line of blood welling up beneath torn skin.

"Are you okay?" Martin asked, holding up my bleeding arm.

"It is just a scratch. Get me something to wrap it," I said.

Around us, the monitors hummed like an old refrigerator, cables snaking from Henry’s temples to the blank screens on the wall. This was the whole operation, one converted room, second-hand lab chairs and machines held together with more hope than warranty. Henry coughed as he awoke from the simulation, sitting up much quicker than I thought a sixty-three-year-old man could manage. Sweat covered his bald head as he tried to calm his heart, but the monitor beeped loudly behind him. Henry’s heart-rate stayed elevated as he turned his chestnut brown eyes to look at me. A squint drew his graying eyebrows together until he realized Martin was wrapping my arm with a dark brown bandage.

"Dr. Cross, I—"

"It’s a scratch," I said. "Don’t worry about it."

He put his face in his hands. "I failed again, dammit!"

"I’ve told you many times, Henry. Just because we haven’t made it all the way through the memory doesn’t mean we failed."

He shrugged. "But it’s been months. And this time I got violent. What if it had been more than a scratch? What if next time I don’t stop?" He put his face in his hands once more. "What if I hurt Lily?"

Once Martin had my arm wrapped, I walked over to offer Henry some comfort.

"We are making progress. I learn something new each time. You are doing great work, and this is a prototype. It is not perfect yet. We will try again," I said with a calmness he needed to hear. "Martin will set your next appointment. Sit in the grotto before you leave. It’ll help."

He nodded, though looked unconvinced. It wasn’t his fault. I hadn’t successfully gotten anyone all the way through a simulation yet, and the worst part about today, was that I had a whole audience to see how much it didn’t work. I’d prayed the United States government would give me what I needed to make this operable. We were so close, but the money had run dry.

There was a tap on the window from above, where there was a thin strip of observation glass, the kind that let the board watch without ever having to smell the antiseptic or hear the machines struggle. I groaned at the sight of the Chief Financial Officer, Tina. I imagined the sound of her voice; oh, how it grated on me as she pointed to her watch. The session with Henry had gone on longer than I’d intended.

I hung up my lab coat and pulled on my sweater. There was no time to hit the showers, but I probably had time to put on a fresh shirt before I had to face the board. Checking the mirror, I reapplied my lipstick, a deep red that complemented my umber skin. I needed every bit of armor I could muster.

Unfortunately, I’d sweat out my edges, so I put a headband on to hide them, and pushed through the doors, buttoning my sleeves, bagel I’d stashed away from this morning between my teeth. Everyone turned and stared, including General Bradley, the man who could single-handedly save my company or sink it.

Maise, our board president, and also my best friend, cleared her throat and handed me a napkin, as if I needed the reminder to set my bagel down like a human.

"As I said, she is ready to discuss the progress of Organic Remory Interface with us. Take it away, Dr. Cross."

I wiped the crumbs from my mouth, trying to summon the tiniest bit of moisture. "Yes, ORI. Things didn’t go as we wanted today, but hopefully you were able to see the potential. The results look even more promising with Subjects 110 and 112—"

"I’m going to stop you right there," General Bradley said as he re-buttoned the top of his uniform. "We will take it."

My eyes widened, and my stomach , thinking of what that meant. "What? Does that mean you will invest?" The board around me began to murmur in excitement.

The General replaced his hat and stood. "No, but we will do you one better."