Chapter Thirty-Six

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When Julian entered the parlor the next evening for Professor Carlton's group meeting, he carried a single round cracker. Carlton had invited him to stay after the session again and break fast together. Julian hadn't eaten since he'd had that feeling of inescapable joy; it had long faded, but even thinking of it brought a smile to his face.

There were only two people visible in the room so far, and neither one was Idabee. This would be their first time seeing each other since he'd cruelly mocked her across the dinner table, and that recollection brought the opposite of joy. Trying to anticipate where she might sit, his heart beat faster. There were two red indicator lights in the corner of the room besides his own; was she lurking, waiting to see his decision first, so she could avoid him?

Julian had learned so much about Idabee—or an alternate version of her—thanks to the journal. Who was CJ married to? An enamored Idabee offered explanations to a CJ who woke up as a subject of their corporate overlords. She'd purchased the necessary travel permits for their trip to Philadelphia, where they found Delroy and received the journal. Idabee held CJ as he wept for the terrible world his predecessor had inadvertently created. CJ fell for her even before she tracked down her great-aunt Charlotte and helped him persuade the civil war widow that time travel was possible.

Who was CJ married to? Idabee was radiant in the wedding photos the National Archive scraped from his long-expired website. Soon, that was all he'd have left of her, and he didn't want to spend those weeks avoiding her.

After setting his cracker on an end table, Julian plunked himself in the middle of the couch, across from the middle-aged man who'd announced he was taking cold showers. The man introduced himself as Diego and laughed when Julian asked how his experiment was going. "By the third day, I couldn't put it off any more. It was freezing, but I got through it, plus a few more since then."

"I'd never seriously thought about taking one voluntarily until you mentioned it a few weeks ago," Julian confessed. They'd been an occasional necessity growing up—practically a rite of spring—when unpaid gas bills culminated in a shutoff of hot water.

"My survival technique is pretty simple: avoid the water to the fullest extent possible," Diego explained.

Idabee oscillated into substance by his side, and relief flooded over him. She offered up a brief smile to Julian before addressing Diego. "You're still fighting, as if it were something to be endured," Idabee told the man. "Open yourself up to the experience; let yourself be uncomfortable. I promise, it won't kill you." Diego agreed to try.

Julian welcomed Idabee, and she turned on him with a mischievous expression. "Hey, Julian," she said, "it's good to see you. Can we talk afterward?"

It would give him the opportunity to apologize in private. "Of course," he agreed. Something was on her mind; her look reminded him of the honeymoon pictures. The white sands of Playa Pilar in Cuba looked beautiful. Had she learned of the marriage independently?

Adon and Faith were the last to arrive; Julian's quick wave got a thumbs-up reply from Adon, who appeared enthused at the prospect he'd worked things out with Idabee.

The rest of the parlor filled up, and Professor Carlton called things to order. The septuagenarian stroked his beard and scanned the room before settling his gaze on Julian. "Julian, would you lead us in reciting the Preamble?"

Even though Idabee had cautioned him to expect this, Julian's pulse quickened as all eyes in the room swiveled toward him. Taking a deep breath, he began: "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Idabee was beaming as he finished the last few words.

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