Gerry's Family Fun Zone

Chapter 5

Did you go there?

I've never told anyone this. No one. I can't believe I'm telling you right now. Will and I haven't talked about it since it happened.

Wow, really? It's okay, we don't have to keep going.

No, no, it's fine. It's just...

Seriously, Caroline, I'm not trying to psychoanalyze you or ruin your marriage by making you dredge up terrible memories. That's not what I'm trying to...

It's okay. I want you to know. (pauses) I want you to know. It wasn't supposed to be there. It just wasn't. What happened was Will was going to go there first to make sure it was safe. And I'd meet him there later on. And I did. I followed the directions perfectly, down all of these forgotten dirt roads that used to be real roads. Right turn at a rock the size of a Volkswagen, go three quarters of a mile and take a left at the pine tree with the downed limb, stuff like that. All landmark stuff. But the directions were perfect. I drove what felt like forever down this bumpy road, and it just ended. Nowhere else to go. And there was Will, standing at the side of the road next to his car, hands jammed in his pockets. And he had this look in his eyes...he just looked...different. It's almost like, after that night there were two Wills. The first Will who had worked on the story, helped me research and held my hand in the library...he was so sweet. Just so shy. Tender, innocent. But after that night, he'd changed forever. Like, he never looked at me the same way again. And we've been married now for nine years, and together since...junior year of college, so thirteen years? And he's never looked at me the way he looked at me in the basement of the library back in high school. It was that night at the Fun Zone that changed him. I know it. It was that night.

Caroline...

Have you ever thought about us? Like, what if our parallel universe had fully intersected forever with the real one? And we were together?

I haven't. Look, I think I should stop recording.

Please, don't. It's just...me and Will, nine years, no kids. No babies. And he just doesn't look at me like he's supposed to. He's supposed to give me a baby, and we're supposed to be living this love story, but...something went wrong. And it all started that night.

What happened? On that night, I mean.

I pulled off to the side of this dirt road that no one had driven on in probably decades, and, like I said, Will just seemed different. I asked him if he'd found it, and he said that it was there. Uncle Gerry's Family Fun Zone was there. Will grabbed two flashlights from his car, and we followed a path through some brush. Then it kind of emerged before us, nestled in the trees. The barn, the silo, everything. It was so strange. It was almost like it materialized, if that makes sense.