This Time Tomorrow(26)

“What did you get?” Alice asked, even though she knew the answer. She felt like she should close her ears, like she was a teacher who had just walked in on these girls, and if she wanted to, she could get them all thrown out of school. They shouldn’t be saying any of this in front of her—sometimes, in her real life, Alice would walk to the corner and see some of the high school students smoking a joint and she would spin around and go the other way.

“Birthday surprise,” Sam said, and kissed the air. “Thanks, Pheebs. We’ll meet you out there, okay?”

Phoebe nodded, as serious as a marine. She would get expelled in the spring, and vanish for a decade before resurfacing in the Catskills as a potter who charged her crystals in the moonlight.

When the door clicked shut, Alice took a deep breath.

“What’s up? Did you talk to Tommy? He’s coming tonight, right?” Sam asked. They moved out of the shower stall to the sinks. Alice shook her head slowly. “I can’t believe we have to do this stupid class, it’s so annoying. And on your birthday!”

“Can I tell you something that is very strange and will sound like I’m making it up?” Alice asked.

Sam shrugged. “Obviously.”

Alice watched them in the mirror. Even in the unforgiving fluorescent light of the bathroom, she and Sam looked glorious.

“I came from the future.” Alice looked at Sam when she said it.

“Sure, okay.” Sam nodded, waiting for the rest. Once, when they’d shared a six-pack of Zima, Alice had told Sam that she felt like her head wasn’t actually connected to her body, like they were totally different organisms that just happened to be roommates. Another time, on a field trip to Rye Playland, Sam had told Alice that sometimes she had dreams that she had a twin sister but ate her when they were small children. It was important to have friends who could listen to you say what you needed to say and not burst into laughter.

“Not, like, the distant-distant future. Not, like, two hundred years in the future. But when I went to sleep last night, it was the night before my fortieth birthday, and then I woke up on Pomander Walk, looking like this.” Alice chewed on her thumbnail. “You know, like Peggy Sue?”

Sam leaned back against the wall, whirring the automatic hand dryer awake. “Shit!” she said, and repositioned herself with her back to the lip of the sink.

“I know it sounds crazy, and it is crazy, but that’s what happened. So I’m me, but I’m like, this me.” Alice put her face in her hands. “I know, it doesn’t make any sense.”

Sam crossed her arms. “Did you take drugs, Alice Stern, and not tell me?”

Alice shook her head. “No, Sam. I know how it sounds, but that is what happened. I think! I mean, I don’t know! I thought maybe I was asleep, but, like, it’s been a while, now, and I don’t really think I am. I mean, I am here. Right? Like, you’re real, right? And so I have to figure out what the hell is going on. And I have to figure out how to get back to my regular life, if that’s a thing that still exists. Because I’ve seen enough episodes of Time Brothers to know that shit is not supposed to last.”

“Or like in Back to the Future. You could erase yourself.” Sam was nodding. She lifted a finger to her lips and tapped it there, thinking.

“Well, I think that happened because Michael J. Fox was messing up his parents’ relationship, which then made him and his siblings potentially not exist, which is not the same, but yes, I take your point.”

Sam crossed her arms. “Alice, are you fucking with me? Are we on Candid Camera? Because honestly this is kind of creeping me out.”

Alice thought about it. “I get it.” When the Time Brothers rocketed around, they never had to tell people. They showed up in their time-traveling car and helped housewives in the 1950s, or medieval princesses, or space women of the future living in a moon colony. They never went back two and a half decades and had to look at their own friends and family and say, Hey, guess what we can do? It sounded objectively unhinged.

Sam nodded. “But listen, if that’s what we’re doing today, then okay. I can’t say that I totally believe what you’re saying, but I want to be supportive, especially since it seems like you don’t totally believe it either? Is that a fair assessment of the situation?”

Alice wanted to burst into tears. “Yeah.”

“God, and you still came to SAT class?” Sam rolled her eyes. “If I thought that maybe I had time-traveled, I think I would skip the SATs. Like, even the actual test. Do you have children? Are you married? Am I married? Oh my god, I don’t want to know. Do I want to know?” Sam put her hands on her stomach. “How do I look? Am I happy? We’re friends, right? Still?” She quickly closed the gap between her and Alice and hugged her tightly. “I still don’t actually believe you, but just in case.”

“Yes, Sam,” Alice said. “That’s why I told you. And yes, you’re married, and you have kids, and you’re happy, and we’re friends. But no specifics, okay? I don’t want to Michael J. Fox you or your beautiful family. But can you help me?” Alice felt herself tear up. “I just, you know, haven’t been sixteen in a while and I don’t really remember how this goes, and I just need your help.” Sam smelled like herself, like Love’s Baby Soft and cocoa butter and Herbal Essences shampoo.