Page 12 of Before the Summer He Found Her

“Let me get this straight,” Sasha deadpans, as we all stand in the basement next to the device, back where this all started. “You think you believe me now and that this device is real. And the person you visited in the past with my machine—a person into the paranormal—admitted seeing a ghost who, like you, enjoysStar Trek.Thiswas enough for you to believe she heard you speak to her? Do you realize how many people likeStar Trek? It’s fuckingStar Trek! And she talks to ghosts!”

“Khan!” Jeff bellows, holding up his beer.

“You don’t understand,” I say, ignoring my obnoxious friend. “I have afeelingit’s me. I just know. And Channah told me to trust my feelings.”

Sasha grins. “Very scientific, Pisces.”

Smirking, I cross my arms over my chest. “Hey, I’m starting to believe in your machine, aren’t I? There must be science that can back me upsomewhere.”

She rolls her eyes. “Look, it’s hard for me to believe what you’re suggesting.”

“You created a machine straight out of a sci-fi movie,” I say, “and you think what I’m suggesting is ludicrous?”

“We need more evidence to support your claim,” Sasha says. “That’s what science is all about, as you know. Not hunches. Not intuition. Hard facts.”

“You want hard facts?” I ask, my mouth moving faster than my brain. “There must be a way to prove I’m right. Let me go back in.”

It’s only once the words have left my mouth that I realize what I’ve said. As if the pull of time, and my potential future of seeing Channah in the past again, guided me more than my own volition. Beyond this, I have to admit something else, too: while messing with time isn’t the wisest choice, am I not messing with time by not visiting Channah again?

In response to my request, Sasha focuses on the machines and inputs a few items into one of the apps on her tablet. She taps the bridge of her nose, clearly thinking things through. My phone buzzes in my pocket again. A quick peek reveals it’s my sister, and not Scott, which squashes some of my anxiety. I’ll call Scott back once I’m out of here, since I didn’t have a chance to return his call on the way over. This is the first time I’ve ever waited to call him back—so I kid myself he’ll be understanding and whatever it is can wait. Even though I’m well aware this will turn into an ordeal, even if he simply called for idle chitchat.

Right now, I don’t care—even though tomorrow I most certainly will.

Clearing my mind, I focus on the task at hand.

Sasha’s silence motivates me to ask a follow-up question.

I raise a brow. “What do you see when you go in there? Has anyone ever reacted to your presence?”

“I’ve seen everything from the age of antiquity to my mother’s passing,” Sasha muses, a sad tinge to her voice. “Not once has anyone ever noticed me.”

I hear the envy in her tone.

“I’m sorry,” I say.

She waves a hand in the air. “Let’s see if what you’re saying is true. I want us to find a way to prove it.”

“Right. But how?”

Sasha nods. “That’s the conundrum. Because the way I understand time, it’s not fluid—what happens is set in stone. Which means if you have in fact visited Channah in the past, you were always going to visit her in the past. My instinct initially was to ask you to go back in time tome, and I could simply interact with you in the past, and that would be easy enough for us to prove what you’re saying. But that won’t work. We are not supposed to handle it that way, and I know becauseI’dalready know it’d happened, and I don’t. Unless, of course, your idea that you can interact with the past is wrong. I don’t want to take that chance in case you’re right. From what you’ve shared, if this is true, you’ve visited Channah multiple times. Visiting her again is less risky.”

“So, what do you propose?” I ask.

“Channah’s your coworker, right?”

“I’m her boss, yeah.”

“I’ll send you in for ten minutes this time. Should feel like about an hour to you. That’ll give enough time to tell her something you can confirm she heard in the future, right?”

“Tell her something?” I scrunch my nose. “Tell her what exactly? I had a hard enough time confirming with her last time without giving myself away. I shouldn’t tell future Channah the full truth, right?”

“No. Never tell her. If what you’re saying is true, that would be catastrophic.” Sasha shakes her head. “Fine. Find out about her, then. Something concrete you can confirm in our present. Something other than her ghost friend likesStar Trek, yes?”

“I get it,” I say, settling into the chair for the second time.

Sasha gives me a funny look. “Ez, if you can prove this is right, we’ll need to somehow find out from Channah how many times she spoke to this ‘ghost friend.’ You’ll need to go back in to match that. You’ll mess with the flow of time if you don’t.”

“Yeah, let’s see what I find out,” I sigh, slipping the headset over my eyes and hoping I’m woefully wrong. Even though I know I’m not.

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