“Wyatt, don’t be such a dork.”
You’re the dork, North.
“We can’t hold on much longer. We need you, Wyatt. We need you back. We need you
said, do you want to be here?”
Who are you?
“Wyatt, do you want to be here?”
Yes.
“Do you miss them?”
Yes.
“Do you want to be here with your mom and your dad and North and all of your friends?”
Yes.
“They need you.”
I’m here.
“Show us you’re in there, Wyatt. Show us
I’m here.
It hurts.
“WYATT!”
Mom.
“WYATT!”
It really hurts. It really hurts.
I want
to breathe.
“What’s happening?”
It’s okay, North.
It’s okay.
A
Day 6142 (continued)
“Is he alive?” Nathan asks.
“He’s breathing,” North says.
I am standing there over them, standing as if he’s still in my arms. I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything scarier than the moment he went from struggling to completely slack, like a rope that had just been cut from the ceiling.
Wyatt’s mother cries out.
He’s opened his eyes.
She says his name over and over again.
He coughs. “Mom?”
He is covered with sweat. Shaky. Breathing hard.
“It’s like he had a heart attack,” Nathan says.
“Only his heart returned,” I say.
“Let’s hope.”
I see the look in his eyes as his family hovers over him, crying.
I see the look in his eyes, and know it can’t be X.
“I think he’s gone,” I tell Nathan. “X is gone.”
“Or did he just jump into another body?”
I shake my head and tell Nathan, “I don’t think a person can live without a body. Not even for a second.”
I really think he’s gone.
* * *
—
Nathan sends a text, and a minute later there’s a knock on the door.
“Is it okay for me to come in?” Rhiannon asks.
“Yeah,” I tell her. “It’s safe now.”
* * *
—
Wyatt has no idea where he is, or why. His family asks me to explain.
I try.
I’m sure it took a lot of convincing from Nathan and Rhiannon to get them here. I imagine that they didn’t really believe it, but were willing to do whatever it took to get them back to their son. Now they’re in a different kind of state of disbelief, one in which they know what they now know, even if it doesn’t make sense with the rest of their world.
Wyatt is still stunned and disoriented, so I’m not sure how much of what I say sinks in. He doesn’t remember anything from the past week—doesn’t remember talking to me, doesn’t remember beating up Nathan. (Both he and his parents wince when that’s brought up—but I bring it up because I hope it was the most visceral, memorable act that X did while he was in Wyatt’s body.)
I entreat Wyatt and his family not to tell anyone about this. Mr. Giddings actually laughs at that, and assures me that the secret is safe. As he says this, I start to see the shame creep into Wyatt’s consciousness. Nathan and Rhiannon must see it, too, because they jump in and say they’ll be happy to talk more to him about it, and about what it’s like.
“You’re going to think nobody understands,” Nathan tells him. “But that’s not true. We understand.”
Wyatt nods at that, but I think he’s still trying to figure out who we are.
“How did he pay for this room?” North asks, looking around.
“It wasn’t him. X, inside him, had his own means.”
“Looks like he was loaded.”
“Maybe.”
For a second, I wonder if there’s a way to get the billing information from the front desk. To track down X’s accounts.
Then I think: No. You do not want that.
I look at the table next to the couch where Wyatt’s lying down, and I see the ginger ale just sitting there. My mind starts to feel like it’s being pulled to a dark place. As evil as X may have been, he was always nice to me. And now I’ve made him disappear. I’ve killed him.
“Maybe we should leave you alone for a little bit,” I say to Wyatt and his family.
“Yeah,” Rhiannon says.
Mrs. Giddings protests, but not too vehemently. I think they all need to catch their breath a little.
“Okay, then,” Nathan chirps.
I’m not sure where we’ll go; I just want to get out of that room.
While we’re waiting for the elevator, Nathan says, “That was awesome.”
And I lose it.
“No!” I yell at him. “That was not awesome. That was us erasing someone from the face of the earth. That was us saving someone, but it was also us making someone else vanish. I know it was the right thing to do, but it’s not a cause for celebration.”
Nathan’s backed up, and it takes a moment for me to realize I’ve grabbed his shirt in my fist. I let it go.
“Sorry,” I say.
“No, no—I get it,” he replies. “But maybe, you know, I’ll stay here and get a ride home with them, okay? I’m sure you two have a lot to catch up on anyway.”
I’m about to apologize again, but Rhiannon interrupts and says, “Yeah, sounds like a good plan.”
The elevator arrives. Only two of us get on it.
* * *
—
We’re quiet for a few blocks, as if we both know we need some time in our own heads. Then I start to tell Rhiannon what it was like, all of us with our arms wrapped around Wyatt so fiercely, telling him what was going on and urging him to help us, even as X screamed and howled and resisted. North, smart, had gone for his legs, so even when X lashed his arms free for a moment, he didn’t have anywhere to go.