Page 12 of The Paradox Club

“Are you feeling warmer?” asked Marie, sliding down next to Tess and putting an arm around her.

“They drowned,” said Tess, tears leaking out of her eye. “I just know they drowned.”

“Nobody drowned,” said Marie. “Your father saved you.”

But Tess could feel the blood in her veins again and the whole scene reappeared before her—the lights coming toward the lake and then into the lake.

“No,” said Tess in frustration, jumping up and throwing off the blanket. “They did drown. They must have drowned.”

“Tess, honey, calm down,” said Marie.

“You’ve got to go!” cried Tess. “You’ve got to go find them!”

“Find who, sweetheart?” said Harry.

“The people. The people under the water.”

It hadn’t been people under the water. Just one person. Tess finally managed to explain through her hysteria what she had seen, why she had jumped into the lake. While Vivian and Marie tried to calm her, Harry phoned the police and then jumped into the tiny outboard motorboat and raced toward the landing. They all knew he would either find a wet, shivering motorist who had narrowly escaped death, or a body strapped into a vehicle. Tess felt certain it would be the latter. She watched as the flashing red and blue lights arrived twenty minutes after Harry landed on the far shore. An hour later, he would return with the news, but Tess already knew. Someone had died and she had watched it happen.

Later that night, though she had been banished to bed, she heard Harry talking to Vivian and Marie. A teenager had driven a pickup truck into the water, apparently without even slowing down. He had been wearing a seat belt, and the windows had been rolled down. Tess had never heard the word suicide, but it didn’t take her long to figure out what it meant. What happened on the lake that night hadn’t been an accident.

When she finally fell asleep, Tess dreamed of lights—of a giant red light that swallowed up the earth and of two white lights that disappeared into the water. And the next day, the voices began.

TESS AND HARRY ON THE DOCK

“What is light?” asked Tess on a night when the stars shone particularly brightly.

“Scientists have been asking that question since…well, since the beginning of science,” said Harry.

“And do they have an answer?”

“Remember when I told you about waves?”

“Radio waves?”

“That’s one kind, yes. And do you know what particles are?”

“Little pieces of stuff?”

“Exactly. Now, some scientists believed that light is made of waves because it acts like a wave.”

“So light is made of waves like radio waves.”

“But wait—other scientists thought that light was made of particles, because it behaves like particles.”

“But waves aren’t particles.”

“No, they’re not.”

“And particles aren’t waves.”

“You’re catching on.”

“So, which is it?”

“Both.”

“But it can’t be both. Because neither one is the other one.”