Page 27 of Not You Again
“Like, a tuition thing?”
“They thought I wouldn’t be able to do much with an astronomy degree.” Adam’s face burned hot. He didn’t realize how childish this all sounded until he was in front of someone who’d dedicated their life to doing exactly what he’d dreamed of.
“I mean, I can think of worse career choices, but to each their own.” She shook her head in disbelief. “What do you do now?”
He hesitated, then cleared his throat. “I’m a funeral director.”
She let that sit for a beat, then asked, “Okay, amateur-astronomer-slash-undertaker, what do you think is causing the shadow bands?”
“Me?” Adam knew the question was for him, but hadn’t he come to her for the answers?
“I’m not talking to the swings.” She smiled away her irritation.
Unfortunately, he’d just lowered himself onto a swing and felt quite juvenile. Still, he had to soldier on. “Well, we know that they occur just before and after totality. They’ve been recorded at a few seconds, up to forty. Each loop they’ve been lasting thirty-seven seconds, before and after.”
“I hear you reciting the facts,” she said. “But how do those tie to the cause?”
“I think the theory that they’re caused by atmospheric turbulence is compelling, but it doesn’t totally account for why they move the way they do,” he hedged.
“An old colleague of mind called themshadow snakes.”
“I’ve seen that term, too.” Adam clasped onto the metal chains of the swing. “Only, sometimes the shadows do undulate like snakes, but other times they’re just a straight line.”
“And here?”
He moved his hand in a pattern as he said, “More like a shimmering wave. There’s a thin sliver of light the total eclipse gives us, where the moon doesn’t completely reach the top of the sun. The shadow bands, if you ask me, are coming from that light source.”
“I agree. Go on.” She crossed her arms and he was renewed.
“The theories state that in order to have a total solar eclipse, all of the conditions have to line up perfectly. The same goes with shadow bands—to have them, the conditions need to be just so. But what if, during the eclipse, something was slightly off? Something that created a bend in time itself?” He wondered if this was what going to Caltech would’ve been like—discussing ideas and getting feedback.
But here was where Adam lost her, apparently, because she cocked her head and asked, “You think the eclipse caused the loop?”
He was anxious now as he answered. “What if the shadow bands caused a perfect ripple in time that we’re now trapped in?”
“Sounds like a cool sci-fi book.”
The small ember of hope he’d had in his theory extinguished. He was grasping at straws by believing that in solvinga scientific mystery, he could get them out of the loop. But she was right; this wasn’t a novel, this was the real world. And in the real world, he wasn’t an astronomer. He was the guy taking over his father’s business.
“Of course,” he said. “I just got excited because of the eclipse shortening.”
“Shortening?”
He swallowed down his apprehension. “I time the eclipse every day. For the past two days, it’s been ten seconds shorter, a full twenty seconds shorter now.”
“What did you say your name was?”
“Adam, Adam Rhodes.” He sounded way too eager, but he couldn’t help it. He’d given information that she seemed interested in. Maybe there was something to his theory after all.
“Amateur astronomer,” she said, then added, “I’m Heather, but call me Dr. Song.”
“Dr. Song,” he repeated.
“Let me know if you see more changes, all right?”
“I will,” he promised. And then he walked away, not feeling quite as dejected as he had a few moments earlier. Maybe he wasn’t such an amateur after all.
Chapter 11
