Page 47 of The Backtrack
“I think youdoknow.”
Sam sipped her coffee and brought the cup up far enough to hide her eyes.
“What else is wrong?” Rachel asked. Then she gasped. “Oh, shit, you found the CD player, didn’t you?”
“What?” Sam didn’t sound convincing, though. “No, I—”
“You found it, and you listened to another song.” She shook her head. “I shouldn’t have hidden it where there was sugar—that was my mistake, but I didn’t have much time. And those massive headphones don’t fit many places easily.”
“Yes, okay?” Sam slammed a defeated fist down on the table. “I found the CD player and saw fucked-up visions and now it’s messing with my head even more. And all I want is to listen toanothersong. Is it bad for me? Maybe. But if you saw a different version of your life, wouldn’t you want to know how it all ends?”
Rachel blinked. Many times. “What happened in the visions?”
“Teenage hormones on blast and then my high school graduation and...” Sam didn’t really want to believe that she wasn’t valedictorian in her alternate life—something she was genuinely so proud of—but that was what she’d seen. “I don’t know. I wasn’t valedictorian. And maybe not going to flight school.”
The dismayed expression on Rachel’s face was impossible to miss. “Not valedictorian? No flight school?”
“Yeah,” Sam said.
“So you and I never meet in your alternate life? That’s so...” Rachel bit the tip of a nail. “That’s not right.”
“I know. It’s not.”
Rachel drummed her fingers on the table and looked off. She sighed deeply. “Well, you have to listen to another song.”
Sam wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly. “I do?”
“I’m heading back to Atlanta this afternoon for my next flight. They’re predicting a tropical storm, and I need to get out of here before it hits. And I also need to know if you’re my best friend in this other life, or if I’ve found a different copilot.”
“You better not have.” The thought of that was genuinely upsetting.
“Well, you never know, maybe the person I fly with doesn’t hog all the baked goods. Maybesheshares.” Rachel raised a brow, like a challenge.
“Fine. I’m getting the CD player.” Sam pushed herself up from the table, and Rachel closely followed.
Having someone else in the room as Sam put on her headphones was...different. Maybe a little unsettling, because what if the Walkman only worked when she was alone? Sam wanted to have a vision just to show Rachel that she wasn’t lying. But she also wondered if Rachel would see an alternate world if she listened to a song.
“Do you want to try it?” Sam asked.
Rachel’s mouth opened, then closed. “Doyouwant me to try it?”
Sam thought about the possibility that Rachel could listen to a song, and nothing would happen. Which might confirm that Sam needed to go seek help but, ultimately, wouldn’t that be better to know?
“I think you should, just to see.” Sam held the player out to Rachel, who hesitated before eventually taking it.
Rachel placed the player on her knees and adjusted the headphones to cover her ears. Then her finger tapped the play button. Then the back button. But the screen remained blank. “It’s not working,” she said.
Rachel took the headphones off, and Sam grabbed the player, more than a little concerned it had somehow broken. But when Sam had the player in her lap, it lit up. “Guess I fixed it,” she said.
Sam handed the player back to Rachel and, as she did, the screen went black again.
“Oh, no.” Rachel stilled. “Make that ahell no.”
Rachel passed the CD player to Sam like a game of Hot Potato, and the screen once again lit up when Sam opened and closed the top.
Rachel stood and tripped over the purple blow-up chair Sam had found and resurrected. “Okay, that’s freaky. It doesn’t work for me, but works for you.”
Sam looked up at her friend, whose expression had shifted to terrified. “They say we learn something new every day.”
