SKIPPING TIME

Chapter 19.5

                 

Cacee didn't know why Ray looked so shocked. She'd figured out this was his fault within about thirty seconds of meeting him. But she stayed quiet as he covered his face and muttered, "God. How could I be so stupid? I already knew."

"What do you mean?"

He didn't come out from behind his hands. "Your eyes. Our eyes."

She frowned as her stomach did a slow roll. "What about them?"

"How many people comment on their unusual color?" 

Not liking where this conversation was headed, she reluctantly answered, "A lot. Why?"

Ray lowered his hands, but he didn't look at her, "My eyes used to be a nice, boring, hazel-blue. Then we tried something new with the JETT. I went catatonic and spent a week in the hospital ward.  When Pete finally woke me I was fine, except my eyes had this purplish tint."

This time, she covered her face. She was trying to be mature and accepting of everything, but her eye color being the result of a botched science experiment really brought home her abnormality.

Her words came out muted. "I don't want to be mean, Ray but how did it not occur to you that this might happen? Why didn't you take precautions? You were careless and now I'm paying for it."

Ray gently pulled her hands down. "I wasn't careless, Cacee. We used birth control. I wanted to be thoroughly evaluated before having kids. The JETT might have caused it to stop working. Or maybe you were just meant to be."

She mumbled, "I'm guessing it's Door A."

Ray laid his hands on her shoulder. "When you were born, I wanted so badly for you to be fine. I convinced myself the JETT didn't change anything but those pretty eyes. All these years, I never saw any reason to believe otherwise. Until now."

She twisted a loose button on her sleeve. "I wonder if my mom realized what she was risking—if she wouldn't have had me."

Ray shook his head, "Don't say that. It's too horrible."

Her voice came out frail. "I'm dangerous, Ray. You must see that.  I almost killed Jess by randomly skipping here with him. It might have been better --."

Ray leaned in and hugged her. "Don't, sweetheart. Don't do this to yourself. You're beautiful and perfect and the world is a better place with you in it. I swear, I'll fix this. You're going to be fine."

He leaned back and looked at her anxiously.

She wanted to be convinced. She wanted to trust him. But her voice still trembled as she said, "You can't be certain. What if this keeps happening?"

He shook his head. "There was definitely some kind of trigger. I'll figure it out. I promise. In the meantime, later on I'll teach you how to use a JETT. After you go home, I'll get my extra one and give it to you.  If you somehow skip again you'll be able to get back. All that is precautionary though. I'm almost positive you'll be fine from here on out."

She looked at him in surprise. "Why?"

"You said Jess is moving, right?"

She nodded.

"Well, there it is. You can't skip without a partner. I'm bouncing around a theory that you somehow draw people or animals with this signal to you, if they're anywhere within your vicinity. That would explain a lot. So you drew the ki--"

"Do not." She pointed her finger at him.

Ray sighed but didn't pretend he didn't understand. He continued, sounding a little grouchy. "So you drew Jess to you and something happened to trigger this power..."