Infinite(18)

Dr. Brier let all of that sink in. She took a sip of water from a bottle on the stool placed in the middle of the stage. Before she began to speak, I saw it again. Her eyes shifted to the balcony.

She stared directly at me.

“Or can you?”



After her speech was over, I waited in a long line to meet her. This whole event was about selling books. She’d written a self-help book, using the hook of the Many Worlds, Many Minds theories to give it a sexy twist. The idea was to teach people to lead better lives by showing them how to “visit” the alternate choices they’d made in parallel worlds.

Still wondering if you should have asked your college girlfriend to marry you? Imagine the version of yourself that’s living in that world.

Trying to decide whether to take that new job? Somewhere in the universe, you will. What does that life look like?

I understood the appeal of the theory. I was drawn to the idea that there was a universe right now where I hadn’t driven into that river. Somewhere, either in another world or buried inside my head, Karly was still alive, and I was still with her.

Believe me, I would have done anything to have that life for myself.

But that was a different Dylan. A Dylan who made better choices.

I could see Dr. Brier on stage as the guests trooped across one at a time to get her signature, along with a smile and a photo. She was attractive, eloquent, and persuasive, the way all cult leaders tend to be. I kept staring at her face and trying to remember where I could have met her, but I came up blank. It had to be a mistake. Somehow, Tai had misunderstood what she said.

Finally, it was my turn. I walked across the stage, leaving the line of people behind me. I had the copy of the book I’d bought in my hand. Dr. Brier’s eyes watched me come closer. I reached the table where she was seated by herself, and I could feel myself enveloped by her aura. I stood over her and handed her the book to sign. She took it, but her smile looked forced.

“Hello, Dylan,” she murmured. “I saw you in the balcony. I didn’t think you’d come. It’s not such a good idea, you and me being seen together.”

Her words threw me off balance. “I’m sorry, do you know me?”

She froze before she signed the book. Her almond-shaped brown eyes bored into mine. “Is that a joke?”

“No.”

“I don’t like this game, Dylan.”

“I’m sorry, Dr. Brier, but you must have me confused with someone else. As far as I know, we’ve never met.”

“I see.” She glanced at the people still in line on the other side of the stage, and then she swept her long hair across her head. She signed the book with a flourish, added a little note, and then handed it back to me across the table. As she did, her fingertips grazed mine.

“My mistake,” she said. “Enjoy the book.”

I walked away in a daze. I glanced over my shoulder to see if she was watching me, but she’d moved on to the next person. I left the ballroom and found a bench near the elevators, where I sat down and opened the book.

Below her signature, she’d added a note.

The fountain. 1:00 a.m.





CHAPTER 7

Three hours later, I walked into Grant Park with a cold lake wind blowing into my face. I kept my hands in my pockets and my head down. Every few steps, I looked back at the lights of Michigan Avenue to see if I was being followed. I didn’t feel his presence now—my presence—but that didn’t mean my doppelg?nger wasn’t here.

I crossed over the railroad tracks and continued beside the green lawns of the park. Traffic was light, and I jogged to the other side of Columbus to get to the Buckingham Fountain. Its water cannons had been stilled until morning. Beyond the fountain, the dark swath of Lake Michigan filled the horizon. I stood by the pond for a while, near the sculptures of the seahorses, and then I found a bench on the south side of the plaza to wait.

I wasn’t alone. I saw a homeless man wrapped in a blanket on one of the benches near me. From behind me, I heard the sultry breaths of a couple having sex in the shelter of the trees. Near the fountain, two silhouettes whispered to each other, and I saw something pass from one hand to another. Drugs.

Dr. Eve Brier arrived exactly on time. I checked my watch, and it was one in the morning on the dot. I saw her coming, still in black, with a dark trench coat waving like a cape behind her as the wind blew. I stood up as she approached, and she came up and put her arms around me, an oddly intimate gesture that took me aback. Her perfume rose off her skin like a bouquet of roses. To anyone watching us, we must have looked like two lovers meeting, but I felt her hands exploring my back and then my chest, patting me down.

“What are you doing?” I asked her.

“Making sure you’re not wearing a wire.”

“Why on earth would I do that?”

“I don’t know, Dylan, but none of this makes sense. I’d rather be careful.”

We sat down next to each other on the bench. I could feel an incredible tenseness radiating from her. She was scared of something. Her head swiveled, surveying the shadows to see if we were being watched.

“What was all that about in the ballroom?” she asked me.

“What do you mean?”

“Pretending not to know me.”

“I don’t know you.”

“Stop it, Dylan. You’re scaring me.”