Page 26

“But you knew that I was talking about mysterious music—oh. I remember what happened,” I said. “The day after you came down to talk about my note, we went running together. You were a lot nicer and I didn’t understand why.”

“I watched for you at my window and then I caught up to you,” he admitted.

“You suggested that we could go out together again. Then you helped me, by driving me around. Was it because you wanted to get information from me? Find out what I knew about the music?” I asked.

“No, nothing like that. I wasn’t planning a spy mission.”

“You just said that you waited for me at your window so we could go running together. You must not have liked looking down because of your acrophobia but you did it anyway.”

He flushed a little. “That’s true, but you have to understand that I wasn’t coming at this in a very clear way. I’d already been questioning myself and my life, and then, suddenly, my showerhead turned into a speaker and so had the faucet when I brushed my teeth.”

“You figured it out faster than I did. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from at first but then it seemed so obvious. Every time I flush the toilet, I hear it.”

“I’m sorry that I didn’t say anything to you about it before,” Oliver said. “You have to admit, it’s very disconcerting to believe that your mind is tricking you.”

“Yes, I agree,” I told him. “I’ve been disconcerted for a while now. I got a therapist to try to figure it out.”

He leaned forward eagerly. “What did she say?”

“We’ve talked about my history a lot to see if it might have been stemming from trauma, or—but now I know that it isn’t. It isn’t just me and my mental state! You also hear it.”

“This morning, I saw some glittery stuff in the air.” He rubbed his eyes.

“I see it, too.”

“It’s hard to believe. It’s very disconcerting,” he repeated.

“We could have been dealing with it together, if you had told me before,” I pointed out.

“You were a stranger and I thought that I was hallucinating. I wasn’t going to bring it up.”

“So instead, you decided to be nice to me so that you could spy. I understand that but I’m not thrilled,” I said.

“It wasn’t only spying. Damn.” He rubbed his eyes harder. “Can we get out of here? I don’t like to spend a lot of time in this place anymore.”

“Ok, I guess,” I answered. My mind wasn’t on running.

We went silently down to the sidewalk and he started checking his watch before he reached into his pocket. “I brought these for you.” He showed me a pair of thin gloves. “I got them for myself but they’re too small.”

I put them on and found that they were genius at blocking the wind, much, much better than the heavy mittens that I usually wore. I left those behind the planter in front of our building. But even as I thanked him, I wasn’t thinking much about my cold hands, either.

“What the hell is going on?” I asked. “What’s happening to us?”

“I wish I knew.” The words sounded a little desperate.

At the moment, my own primary emotion was relief. Yes, I had told the therapist what was happening, but she didn’t understand. How could she have? But Oliver did. He did, because it was happening to him, too. I was sorry that he had to deal with it, but…

We went for a while before he spoke again. “The obvious explanation for this is mental illness.”

“Both of us? At the same time, the same exact delusions?”

“It’s impossible,” he agreed. “But clearly, this is a shared experience. We’re connected by it.”

We were. I ran to the end of the block and my steps felt a little lighter. It was still weird and unsettling but now, I wasn’t alone.

Chapter 6

There were several ways to go. I just had to make a decision.