Page 89 of The Good Part
She kicks the machine, trying to jolt it to life. ‘Is it broken?’
‘I suspected this might happen,’ she says, bowing her head slightly.
‘What? What’s happened?’
‘You don’t want it enough.’
‘I do. I do want it! I want to go back,’ I shout at the machine, ‘I want to go back!’
‘It only works if it’s withallyour heart. Some of your heart is here now.’
‘So I’m stuck?’ I ask, panic bubbling in my chest.I doubted I could fly.
‘Maybe you do need to say your goodbyes,’ she says kindly, but then taps the machine and consults her pocket watch again. ‘You don’t have much time though. The longer you are here, the harder it will be to leave. When you truly feel this life is yours, more memories will return, and when the blanks have filled in, the window to leave will close.’
‘What? There’s a time limit now! Why is there a time limit?’ That seems like a needless plot device to add stress to my already incredibly stressful situation.
‘Everyone needs a deadline,’ she says, clicking and unclicking a button on her watch. ‘Go, say your goodbyes, but be back and ready to leave before the picture fills in.’
Right, so go back home, say goodbye to everyone I love, and then emotionally detach enough to come back here and try again – all before the amnesia wears off and the magic portal closes. When I explain all this to Felix, it’s going to blow his little mind.
Chapter 33
‘I knew it!’ says Felix, jumping up and down on his bed. ‘I knew there would be a portal. I can’t believe it was there all along.’
‘I know.’
‘Do you think I can go through the portal? Do you think I can go to Mars?’ Felix asks.
‘Why would you want to go to Mars? You’d die, there’s no air.’
‘I could wish for air; I could wish for a whole colony. I could rename Mars, Felix-Is-a-Bad-ass. How cool would that be?’
‘Felix-Is-a-Bad-ass,’ I say, smiling. ‘Something tells me the wishing machine doesn’t deal in those kinds of wishes.’
Felix nudges his head into me, and I wrap my arm around him. ‘What will happen here if you go? Will old Mummy come back?’
‘I’m not sure. But yes, I imagine everything will carry on like before.’
‘But if you go back, and you change something, I might never exist – that’s what lady Yoda said.’
‘I know, shit. Why would I change anything though?’
‘Shit happens.’
‘Don’t swear.’
‘You said it first!’
We grin at each other. ‘If I stay, she said my memories will come back. I’d be your mummy again.’
‘You’re already my mummy,’ Felix says, hugging closer into me. ‘Just messier and swearier.’
I blink back tears.
Sam pokes his head around the door. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Mummy’s upset because I’m going to be a cosmonaut,’ says Felix.
