Page 16 of Time for You
“Blame Reagan,” Ellie said with a hand wave. “Almost everything is his fault nowadays. Anyway, Helen’s,” she said firmly, and fixed Daphne with a look. “It’s empty, and we know it will be empty for a while. It’s just across the hall, so we could keep an eye on him, and we have the key. And there would be a locked door between him and us when we’re sleeping.”
“I object to the insinuation that you need protection from me. I am a gentleman, after all.”
Daphne ignored him. “We promised Helen we would water her plants. This is not plant watering.”
“She did say if we needed anything, we could help ourselves.”
“I’m pretty sure she meant like, we could borrow a broom. Not store a whole-ass man from the nineteenth century in her apartment for god knows how long.”
“Do you have a better idea?” Ellie asked.
Daphne sighed. “No. But what do we do in a month?”
“We hope we’ve sent him back home by then? Somehow?”
“I thought you said time machines don’t exist,” Henry said.
“They don’t, but whatever brought you here has to go both ways, right? We just find whatever wormhole you slipped through and shove you right back where you came from. You know I’m right, Daph.”
Daphne fixed Henry with a stern look. “If you steal anything from Helen, I don’t care when you’re from, I’ll hunt you down.”
Henry nodded seriously. “I wouldn’t dream of it. You have my word, as a gentleman.”
“Oh, well, if it’s your word as agentleman,” Daphne snarked.
Now it was Ellie’s turn to be defensive of Henry. “Jesus, Daph, don’t be such a dick. He’s really far from home, and it’s gotta be scary as hell.”
“Are all women in this century this prone to vulgarities?”
“Yes,” Daphne and Ellie said together, and Daphne sighed. “Okay, so we discharge him, and we take him to Helen’s. And then?”
“I dunno. We figure it out.”
“How?”
“We’re smart, and so are our friends.” Ellie shrugged. “If we can all get into med school, we can probably fix this.”
Henry nodded as if this were an acceptable plan. “If you’ll kindly return my clothing, I can join you shortly at this Helen’s.”
“How are we getting home?” Ellie asked.
Daphne shrugged. “I was going to RideShare, but—light-rail? Wait, Henry, you know what a train is, right?”
He sighed. “Yes, I know what a train is.”
“Okay, then we take that. Less freaky for you. We’ll work your way up to being in a car.”
“And what, pray tell, is a ‘car’?”
“That thing that freaked you out and made you trip over the newspaper stand,” Daphne explained.
“We’ll explain later. Just get dressed, and we’ll get going,” Ellie said, and Daphne was relieved that—for the moment, at least—Ellie was in charge.
Because this was officially the weirdest day of her life.
Chapter Seven
“What are the odds we walk in there and he’s like, broken everything?” Daphne asked as Ellie pulled out the key to Helen’s the next morning.
