Page 86 of Butterfly Effects

ANTIMONY

“I wasn’t planning on becoming a mother. My own mother didn’t give me very good examples to follow. But once I did, there was nothing I wouldn’t do to protect my children. No matter what, I was going to be a better person than my mother was.”

—Jane Harrington-Price

Buckley Township, Michigan, the basement of the Old Parrish Place

SWITCHING DIMENSIONS WITH SARAH AT the helm had been a traumatic experience, at least the one time I remembered it. She and Artie had both gone down before we could make the crossing, and when the spell had taken effect, it had been like all of reality was being compressed and forced through an opening the size of a garden hose. Not fun or pretty.

Doing it with Thomas taking the lead had been easier, just a ritual circle, some chanting, and then a light so bright it left afterimages on my retinas but didn’t cause any actual pain. And no one I cared about had been broken or unconscious at the time, making it practically pleasant.

Making the transition under the power of the Johrlac collective made the other two methods seem like child’s play. One moment we were standing in the box in the bullshit pantomime the Johrlac called a court, and the next moment we were back in my grandparents’ basement, all four of us, now with the sudden addition of—

“Artie!” I squealed, throwing myself at my cousin and locking my arms around him as tightly as I could.

He made a confused noise and embraced me back. “Annie? What the hell is going on?”

“Um,” I said, and paused, letting him go. I took a step backward, looking at him. He looked back, open and bemused and so utterly Artie that it threw every difference between him and Arthur into stark relief. They really weren’t the same person.

The thought awoke a pang of regret. We had Artie back, but where was Arthur? Certainly not here with us.

“Everything the Johrlac said was true, just presented in the worst possible light,” I said finally. “They abducted Sarah to make her stand trial for what they called her crimes, and they took Arthur—the other version of you—as evidence. We followed to try and get them both back. We got caught, and all wound up in their court.” I reached up and touched my aching temple. “Before you got deleted, when we left Iowa for a whole dimension full of shitty giant bugs, Sarah wiped herself from both our minds. Just snipped our memories of her right out of our childhoods. So nothing made much sense for a while, and I really only agreed to go to Johrlar because we needed to recover Arthur. I hope he’s okay.”

“And Mom?” Artie looked past me to Alice, desperation in his face.

She shook her head, her own expression going grave. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. There was nothing I could do,” she said.

Artie stared at her, slow tears gathering in his eyes. “Mom,” he said, softly. Then: “How’s Dad? Elsie?”

“They’re both fine,” said Alice. “Your father’s still very sad, of course, and your sister has been grieving in her own way, but she’s been preoccupied with trying to keep Arthur as stable as she could, and I don’t know how she is overall. Distressed by having a group of Johrlac appear in her house and snatch her brother away.”

“And who’s this?” Artie’s gaze shifted to Thomas, turning wary.

Alice smiled, bright as the sun. “This is your grandfather, Thomas Price,” she said. “I finally found him. He’s finally home.”

“You went jumping across dimensions until you found the love of your life, and then you brought him back to his family, even though it was dangerous,” said Artie. “Got it. So when do we leave?”

“Leave?” asked Sam.

“To get Sarah back,” said Artie. “I mean, we have a precedent, right?”

“It’s not that simple—” began Thomas.

“Pretty sure it is,” said Artie. “You got there once. You can get us there again, right? So when do we leave?”

I put a hand on his arm. “Artie, we just got you back,” I said. “You can’t really expect us to—”

“Save a member of our family? Do for her what she would do for any one of us? You heard her at the end there! She gave up in order to get us out! We have to go back for her!” He sounded borderline frantic. I couldn’t blame him for that. I would have had the exact same reaction if it had been Sam who’d been left behind.

I would have had the exact same reaction if it had been anyone other than Sarah. My memories were still sliding back into place, and until they were finished, I presumed she would keep feeling like a person I knew but didn’t have much of an emotional attachment to. I hated feeling like my world could be that easily manipulated, but what are we apart from collections of memories and experiences, all webbed together with emotional reactions? I loved Sam with all my heart. If someone started knocking out the experiences that had formed the foundation of our relationship, how long would that love be able to endure?

I didn’t want to think about it, and so I focused on Artie. “They let us go this time, because Sarah said she’d stay,” I said. “They’re not going to let us just walk away a second time. We don’t have anything to offer them in exchange for letting us have her. I’m sorry, Artie. I lo-loved Sarah, too. But we can’t.”

“If you’re not going to help me, I’m going to find a way to do it without you,” threatened Artie. He took a step backward, jaw set and hands balled into fists, clearly furious.

Honestly, I couldn’t blame him. He’d been gone for years. Now he came back, impossibly, wonderfully, and his mother was dead, while the woman he loved was lost in another dimension. This was a lot, even for one of us, and it was perfectly understandable that he wouldn’t be handling it well.

“You can’t cross dimensions on your own, Artie,” said Alice. “And I’m sorry, but we’re not going to help you right now. We just got you back. I can’t do that to your father.”