Page 49 of Not You Again
“Hard to forget where someone is buried when you start every day looking at their coffin,” Carly said, going for sarcasm. “Sorry, I have to have my jokes or things get dark real fast.”
Adam sat on the grass and patted a spot next to him, which she took.
“We didn’t get to talk about this wormhole thing without Dr. Song,” Carly said. “And by the way, what the hell is her deal—to not even ease into the ‘We all might be about to die!’ subject with something a little lighter? I mean, she kind of scared the fuck out of me.”
Carly looked to Adam. This was the part where he was going to reassure her that Dr. Song was being a catastrophist, and they really had nothing to worry about. He was going to say that a wormhole meant they’d return to normal in a few short loops.
“You’re right, we didn’t.” Adam let out a sigh as he picked at a long blade of grass. “I know you’re like this goth optimist—”
She cut him off. “Excuse me,goth optimist?”
Adam ignored her and carried on. “I can’t paint you apretty picture, because we just really don’t know if what’s coming is bad or good. I wish I could tell you different.”
She wanted to scoot closer, but now she was getting scared, too. “Do you think she’s right about the loop being a wormhole?”
He looked out across the field, then said, “Ifwormholes exist, they would appear round, like a black hole, much like our eclipse. Einstein said that space and time work together, and space is elastic. So maybe, somehow, a kind of wormhole opened up in Julian and trapped us here. It’s possible.”
A wormhole. The idea of that felt so absurd, and not only because the wordwormholewas mildly funny. But how could something that scientists didn’t even fully believe in just suddenly happen in this random town?
“Okay, so let’s say that this scientific theoryisreal and it happened here. My question is, how?” Carly splayed her fingers in front of her for a little extra oomph.
Adam gave her a weak smile. “From what I’ve read, wormholes are caused by exotic matter—which just means a substance science hasn’t yet encountered. That exotic matter has something called negative mass, which makes antigravity. Andthatis what keeps a wormhole open. So, basically some exotic matter had to have entered Julian to cause a wormhole to pop up here. The negative mass is what’s keeping the loop going.”
“But the loop is shortening.” Carly felt like she was following but needed Adam to confirm.
“Yes. If this is a wormhole, it’s closing because gravity works to pinch wormholes closed. Basically, there’s not enough negative mass to keep it open. So, now it’s closing.”
Okay, that all made sense. Maybe she was better at science than she originally thought. “But how do we get out before it closes on us? Or how do we keep it open?” she asked.
“To keep it open, we’d need to add more negative mass—but finding that exotic matter in time would be impossible at the rate we’re going.” Adam pursed his lips.
“But it might not be a wormhole.”
“It might not be.” He scratched at the scruff on his beard.
Carly erred on the hopeful side and offered, “Maybe a plot twist will come in act three to save us all.”
Adam pointed to her knee, which she hadn’t realized had been bouncing from anxiety. He gently placed a hand on top of it.
She muttered, “So what do we do now?”
“I don’t think there’s much to do. If the pace keeps up, then we only have a handful of loops left. We just have to make the most of that time.”
“You’re giving up?” Carly went on bouncing her knee again. “What about the rest of the town? Shouldn’t we tell them what’s happening?”
“Maybe? But I don’t feel great about any of this. It’s sort of like going to a psychic and she tells you when you’re going to die, and then you have to pretend like everything’s normal.”
“There’s a lot to unpack there. First, you said the wordpsychic, as if you’ve been to one, but more importantly, you think we’re going to die?” Carly could feel her brows pinching themselves together from the disbelief of this conversation. She and Adam had been a team only a few hours ago—working tirelessly, and sexily, to stop the loop. But now he was suggesting they enjoy their last moments and give up?
“I...” He licked his lips, started again. “I honestly don’t know. Anything is possible.”
Carly chewed on her lip so hard she was afraid she might draw blood. They sat there for a long time and said nothing. Her thoughts jostled from one thing to the next.
Maybe Adam and Dr. Song are wrong.
Maybe we can find more exotic matter.
Maybe it’s time to go eat alllllll the cheese wedges.
