The Aspen Experiments

Chapter 13

I stared at him.

"I don't want to do any of those things," he added, "it's troublesome and I have better things to do with my time. Like finding out if you or Ava can solve my problem."

"How did you know I was leaving?" I asked, thinking furiously.

"I locked Ava in the bathroom and bugged both your rooms. Those locks are handy."

"You - you. Oh God." I wasn't swearing, I was praying. He'd bugged my room, that night we'd been locked in the bathroom. He'd heard me call Carly. What else had he heard? More importantly, if he would go to those lengths, what else would he do?

"You didn't - you didn't give her anything yet?" I asked, looking at the grape sucker he had in his hand.

"Ava?"

"No! Gracie! What did you give Gracie?!"

"Nothing yet. Just a little display of how mothers trust doctors without question. It's funny." His face was the opposite of funny. "Of course you could tell your sister I'm not trustworthy. Then I'd have to get creative."

"So, you just want me to go back with you?"

"John as well. I've heard some interesting things about him this week."

My mind spun out like a car on gravel. He knew about John too. For a moment I looked at the screens above me. The Milwaukee flight was delayed. Not important, I told myself, you have to focus!

But my mind was reeling. I knew I could make a scene and probably get Ringer detained for a little while, but then he would come find me later. Or he would find Gracie. What can I say? My family is sacred. Surely John and I could find a way to deal with Ringer when we were away from Carly and Grace.  I caved.

"What excuse should I give my sister?" I asked.

"How should I know? I'm sure you'll come up with something."

"I'm blank," I said. "She already knows something's wrong at school. She won't let me go with you."

"Think harder," he said.

"John! John!" I heard my sister shout. And then, "Dara! Dara? What's going on?"

I swung around the pillar, scraping my elbow on the brick, and looked into the lobby.  John lay on the floor convulsing. Jerking my arm out of Ringer's grasp I rushed over to John. His limbs thrashed violently, one of his legs was tangled under a row of chairs. The whole row shook with his movement, while his head thudded against the thin blue carpeting over and over. I couldn't even get close to him. The few other people in the lobby were gathered around. They looked shocked but sleepy. A woman gestured vaguely toward the pay phones, but we all just stood there in shock.

Until Mr. Ringer took over. He told Carly to go call 911, and she ran away toward the phones with Gracie in her arms. Airport security came running up and I heard Ringer say:

"These are my students, I'm a doctor at their school. Obviously he's not in any condition to fly. I need to take him back to our infirmary, if you'll get me an ambulance."

"But -but -we can't," I managed to say. I was still focused on John's seizure. Would his head be injured? Could he break a bone this way?

I was so worried that I didn't notice my growing nausea until it began clawing at my insides like a rabid squirrel. There were metal trashcans at the end of each row. I exploded into the closest one. No one would be using the ashtray on the top of that trashcan for a while.

But now I knew what was happening to John. We'd done this only a week ago. He was traveling in time again, back to his own body in the future. John was still convulsing when I stumbled back to him. The security guys looked horrified.