Your One & Only(84)
“Huh,” Jack said. It was an interesting thought. “Does it feel like communing?”
“No,” Althea said, turning toward him with a slow smile. “But we do have our own ways. The others can learn those ways, too.”
They moved on day after day. Heavy rains slowed them down sometimes. On a steep cliff, they lost a mule to a broken leg, and a broad rapid-strewn river forced them to make a wide detour for a safe place to cross. The map Althea had brought poked from her pocket, though she’d looked at it so often now, she no longer needed it.
“We should be getting close,” she said one night.
And they were.
By the end of the next day, they reached a stretch of land that spread before them, vast and green. The late orange sun warmed Jack’s face, while far below, from beyond the foot of a round hill, a score of neat cottages clustered together beside a rushing creek, thin plumes of smoke rising from within, and fields of crops—corn, rice, and bananas—stretched into the distance.
Looking down at this place, Jack didn’t know what they’d find. Would the people here have only one face, or many? Would they be kind? Were they clones, or human, or something else . . . something new?
He’d already lost so much. He didn’t know what was to come, and suddenly, after so many days of walking, he couldn’t move his feet.
Then Althea stood beside him and her fingers closed over his.
They made their way hand in hand, with steps thoughtful and slow, up and over the green blossoming hill until music, soft and joyful, met them on the wind.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to my wonderful agent, Adam Schear, at DeFiore and Company. Without him, Your One & Only would not exist. From our first conversation, Adam understood my characters and stories, and his insight and attentiveness made this book infinitely better.
I am so grateful to Sarah Landis for choosing this project, and for her knowledge, professionalism, and amazing work in getting my book ready for the world. I loved working with her, and I am proud that she made me part of the HMH team. I am also immensely pleased that her last great service was to put me in the excellent hands of Lily Kessinger, her successor as editor, whose expertise, enthusiasm, and support have been equally invaluable. I am humbled by all the wonderful people at HMH who have dedicated their time to making Your One & Only the best it can be, with special thanks to Amanda Acevedo, Harriet Low, Linda Magram, Michelle Triant, Emily Andrukaitis, Mary Wilcox, Catherine Onder, Maire Gorman, Christopher Moisan, Karen Walsh, Mary Magrisso, and Lisa Vega.
I have endless gratitude to my friends and family for their support. Thank you to Caitlin Finlay, Leigh’Ann Andrews, Jordan Andrews, Jill Briggs, Catherine Dent, Ashley Grummel, Peg Keller, Rachel Morgan, Matthew Weedman, Dan and Teresa Schraffenberger, Jonathan Schraffenberger, Carolyn Harlow, Kirsten Faucher-Harlow, and Constance Finlay for offering their thoughts, critique, and excitement. Bill and Rhonda Morgan provided the Powell Mountain roundhouse as a beautiful setting for creative work, and Cup of Joe in Cedar Falls, Iowa, always had a table available and a cup of tea ready.
A special thank-you to Cynthia Bechhold Hawkins, a brilliant writer, reader, friend, and badass unicorn. You are missed.
Many people made this book better than I could have hoped, but if there is a single word in this story that is not the precise right word in the right place, it is only because my father, Robert Finlay, lost a long and contentious argument. He is also the only person a writer could hand an entire book to and get notes back within hours. I’m sorry I didn’t always heed them, but I couldn’t have asked for a more vigorous and attentive editor.
Ginny and Hattie are my inspiration and joy, my two little people who brighten every single day in their own special ways.
Finally, thank you to the brilliant poet J. D. Schraffenberger for the countless conversations and brainstorms, for the encouragement, and for making me forget why it is we ever needed words for this art. I love you.