Coin #2 - Quantum Coin (34 page)

“That's not what I meant.”

“I don't want to ruin the surprise.” Nathan grinned.

“I've had enough surprises.”

“You'll like her.”

“Now I'm really nervous.” Ephraim leaned forward and peered through the windshield. He saw his own reflection looking back at him in the glass, but when he refocused, he could see Jena's house ahead of them. He pulled over in front of it. Her parents' car wasn't in the driveway. That should make this easier.

Nathan turned his camera around to record through the windshield.

“So do you have a plan?” Nathan asked.

“Of course,” Ephraim said. “Come on.”

“Are you planning to come up with a plan?” Nathan asked.

“Busted. But we have to start somewhere.”

“Maybe we should consult a physicist like Michio Kaku or Reed Richards.”

“Reed Richards isn't a real person,” Ephraim said.

“In every universe?” Nathan asked.

“Yes.”

“Sue too? She's invisible—you can't be sure she doesn't exist.”

“I'm pretty sure.”

“Do you think Jena will help us? She doesn't know anything about this.”

“I just need something from her,” Ephraim said. “I shouldn't be long.”

“You came here for a booty call?” Nathan swung the camera around and zoomed in on Ephraim's face. “That should help relieve some of the stress of saving the multiverse.”

“You really haven't changed at all.” Ephraim smiled. Though he'd often encouraged his friend to act more mature, at the moment he appreciated something being constant in his life. “Wait in the car until I come out.”

“I'll try not to cohere
or
decohere while you're gone,” Nathan said.

“Just keep rolling tape,” Ephraim said.

“As if you have to tell me.” Nathan pointed his camera toward Jena's house. “If she starts undressing, try to get her over to the window.”

Ephraim shook his head and got out of the car.

The analog of Jena who greeted him at the door had red and blonde streaks in her hair, which was longer in the front than the back. A small silver bar pierced her right eyebrow, and she had a silver loop through one nostril. She was wearing a cut-off white T-shirt over a black lace bra and black denim shorts. And she had green eyes.

“Uh,” Ephraim said. “Hi.”

“You're late,” she said. “OMG, what happened to your face?”

“I'm getting tired of that question,” he said.

“You've been fighting?” she asked.

“Sort of.”

“That's so hot.” She grabbed Ephraim by his belt buckle and pulled him into the house. She closed the door behind him and pushed him against it.

She leaned close and touched his raw cheek gently with a cool hand. “Does this hurt?”

He winced. “A little.”

She kissed it gently. Then she rose on her toes and kissed his eye.

“Wait,” he said. “I can't—”

“Shhh,” she said. She kissed him on the lips. A moment later, he discovered she had a third piercing.

He jerked away and bumped the back of his head against the door.

She laughed. She stuck her tongue out and wiggled it at him. Silver glinted on the end of it. “I just got it today. I wanted to surprise you.”

“I'm surprised,” he said. He squeezed past her.
“So
surprised.”

“You're freaked!” She clapped her hands with delight. “Can you imagine how my dad will react?”

“You should find a different way to tell him,” Ephraim said.

“Ew,” she said. She tilted her head. “Although I
am
his type.”

“Ew,” he echoed. He moved toward the stairs and put one hand on the banister.

“Guess what? I have a surprise, too, Jena,” he said.

“Is it that you hurt your head and have selective amnesia?” she asked, hands on her hips. “Because I remember telling you never to call me that again.”

He paused. “Zoe?” he asked.

“Good. Your memory's coming back,” she said. “Now I don't have to kill you.” She smiled.

“Zoe, I'm not who you think I am. I don't have time to explain. But I'm not the Ephraim Scott you know.”

“So who are you, then? A clone? Doppelganger? Time traveler?”

“You forgot shapeshifter,” he said.

“Right. You could also be an android.”

“Long-lost twin,” he said.

“Recipient of scientifically implausible facial reconstruction surgery.”

“A wizard did it,” he said.

“Or one of us is hallucinating.”

Ephraim frowned, thinking about his father's analog, who was clearly mentally disturbed. A moment later she realized her mistake.

Zoe put her hand on his arm. “Sorry. I guess I'm the one with selective amnesia. It's all fun and games until someone puts her foot in her mouth.”

“Don't worry. He isn't really my father.”

“I know exactly how you feel,” she said. “We both got a raw deal in the daddy department.”

He folded her hands in his. “Zoe, I'm from an alternate universe. I'm a parallel Ephraim from another dimension that is starting to merge with yours. And time is of the essence.” He flinched. “Did I really just say that?”

“Very convincing,” she said.

“I just came over here for one thing,” he said.

“Oh, good,” she said.

“Keep your pants on,” he said. “Please. I need to borrow your grandfather's old ham radio.”

She blinked. “Huh? What do you want with that old thing? How do you even know about it?”

“Like I said, I'm from a parallel universe.” He retrieved his wallet and pulled out Jena's senior picture, the same one he'd shown her grandfather in 1954. He handed it to Zoe.

“Did you have Nathan Photoshop this?” she asked.

“This is real. Your double in my universe,
Jena
Kim, gave it to me last week.”

“Uh-huh. And she's your girlfriend?”

“She was, but we just broke up.”

“If you're trying to dump me, this is a shitty way to do it, Ephraim.” Zoe turned away.

“No, no! I'm not dumping you.” He sighed. “We were never together. Not you and me. That's what I'm trying to say. I've never seen you before today. I'm a different Ephraim.”

“That's impossible,” she said.

“‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,’” Ephraim said.

“Where'd you hear something ridiculous like that?”

“From Jena. Quoting Sherlock Holmes.”

“She sounds like a geek.”

He smiled. “Completely.” He turned and headed up the stairs.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“Attic,” he called over his shoulder.

“Ooh, we've never done it in the attic,” she said.

“We've
never done it anywhere,” Ephraim said. “And we aren't going to.”

“You're in a very strange mood today,” she said.

“It's been a very strange day.”

Zoe followed him up to the attic door. “I haven't seen the radio in years. Dad probably sold it. We had a big garage sale a couple of years ago.”

Ephraim groaned.

“I'll get one on eBay for your birthday,” Zoe said.

“I need that specific machine.”

Nathaniel had said he needed to use the same ham radio, because they were all connected with each other on some quantum level.

They went into the attic. Zoe turned on the light, a dim bulb in the middle of the ceiling. The ceiling sloped at an angle the deeper you went, and the cramped space was warm and musty. Dust coated everything like a fine gray snow.

“It would probably be in the back,” Zoe said. “The older stuff is farther in.”

She shoved a box of Christmas ornaments aside. Ephraim picked up another box to move it out of the way. It was too light to hold the radio, but he lifted the flap to check the contents anyway. It was filled with shiny, colorful clothes. He touched the bright-blue shirt on top. It felt smooth like silk but stiff like a heavily starched collar.

“Those are Grumps' old Korean clothes,” Zoe said.

They worked side by side to excavate disintegrating boxes of books, videocassettes, and a broken air conditioner, making a narrow path toward the back of the attic. He had to crouch on the far end because the ceiling was so low.

“This isn't my idea of a fun date, Eph.” Zoe wiped her hands on her shirt, leaving grimy handprints over her breasts.

“Too dirty, or not dirty enough?” Ephraim grinned.

She made a face. She turned and knocked a small box from the top of a stack of cartons, and he heard glass break. She leaned over to pick it up.

“Uh-oh,” Zoe said.

“What?” he asked.

“I think I found the radio. Most of it.”

He helped her clear the pile of boxes out of the way so he could get to the ham radio. It was in an open carton, caked with dirt. The lid was loose and wires spilled out of it. Zoe blew on it, and a cloud of dust rose around them.

“It looks like Dad cannibalized some parts,” she said.

Ephraim found another box of radio components near it, with bits of wires and vacuum tubes. He grabbed everything that he recognized from Zoe's room and piled them into the carton with the radio.

“You think it still works?” she asked.

“I'll make it work,” he said. He tried to lift the box. It was heavier than it looked. “Can I borrow this?” he grunted.

“You can have it,” she said.

“I thought it was like a family heirloom.”

She gave him a funny look. “It's only junk.”

He dragged the cardboard box toward the door. Zoe pushed from the other side, and it went more quickly. The two of them managed to carry it downstairs. They rested by the front door.

“Ugh. I need a shower,” she said. He watched her chest rise and fall as she caught her breath.

She caught him staring. “Care to join me?”

He shook his head.

“You're really going to leave?” she asked.

“I have what I came for,” he said. “Thanks, Zoe.”

“Sure,” she said. “But you owe me.”

She put her hands on his shoulders. She was quick, just her lips brushing against his lightly. At the same time, she pushed the right sleeve of his T-shirt up to expose his bicep.

“You aren't my Ephraim,” she said.

“What made you believe me? The kiss?”

“The kiss. The fact that you usually can't keep your hands off me. You couldn't carry that radio by yourself. And you don't have a tattoo.”

Ephraim rubbed his bare arm. “What was the tattoo of?”

“My name.” She pulled the neck of her T-shirt lower. He saw a word written in calligraphy just above her left breast.
Ephraim.
“We both got ambigrams. The word looks the same in a mirror.”

“If that's all it took to prove it…” He sighed. “Why did you kiss me first?”

“I didn't think you'd let me later.” Zoe opened the door for him.

“I'll get Nathan to help me carry this out to the car,” he said.

Nathan was exactly where he'd left him, in the car playing recorded footage on his camera's tiny screen.

“You were in there a long time. Get what you came for?” Nathan waggled his eyebrows.

“Yes. I need you to help me carry it to the trunk.”

Nathan was disappointed when he saw the radio. “This is really what you wanted? An old radio?”

“It's vintage,” Ephraim muttered. “Where did Zoe go?” He'd wanted to say good-bye, but she wasn't in the foyer.

He heard a TV in the living room though. He poked his head in and saw an old man thumbing through the Tivo listings. The man jumped when he saw Ephraim.

“Who are you?” he shouted. He reached for his walker.

Ephraim put up his hands. “Calm down, Grumps. Dug. Mr. Kim.” It was shocking to see the man with wispy white hair and so shrunken, wrinkled, and hunched over after meeting him in his twenties.

“How do you know my name?” Dug Kim asked.

“We've met before. Almost sixty years ago.”

“Nonsense.” The man scrambled up from his seat.

“I'm a friend of your granddaughter, Zoe,” Ephraim said.

“I don't have a granddaughter,” Dug said.

“You live here alone?” Ephraim asked. “What about your son? John?”

“Get out of my house!”

“Ephraim?” Nathan came into the living room. “What's going on?”

“Don't hit him!” Ephraim said.

“I'm not going to hit an old man.” Nathan looked scandalized. “But we should get out of here before he calls the cops.”

Dug was already dialing on an old cell phone that looked a lot like the controller in Ephraim's pocket.

“Okay. Er, sorry to trouble you,” Ephraim said.

He and Nathan grabbed the box from the foyer and hurried out to the car. Ephraim's arm muscles burned with fatigue, and a tiny splinter of broken glass had worked its way into the palm of his right hand. He picked it out carefully and wiped his bloody hand on his jeans. Nathan popped the trunk, and they heaved the box inside.

Ephraim started the car. “We have to fix the radio and set it up. Not at my place. My dad might be there.”

“My house,” Nathan said. “Mom's making her famous kugel. And Dad has every tool we could need in his workshop.”

Ephraim examined the ham radio in the Mackenzies' garage. The glass facing was cracked and one of the knobs was loose. He shook it. Something rattled inside, but he hoped it wasn't anything important. This radio was over half a century old. They built stuff to last back then, didn't they? He really needed it to still work.