Jack

Seattle, WA—Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition

Wednesday, July 28, 1909

THE SECURITY OFFICERS working the gate of the exposition waved me and Ruth through as we drove the cart in. They hardly spared a second glance for us anymore, but I still tipped my hat at them as we passed. It couldn’t hurt to be friendly.

“Maybe she doesn’t want to be found,” Ruth was saying. “If she left, then you ought to just let her go.”

I’d gotten back to the workshop the night I’d first kissed Wilhelm, giddy and eager to tell someone about it. I’d expected Lucia to be up and working, but instead I’d found her gone. All of her belongings were missing, and the note she’d left hadn’t explained anything. Not that an explanation was necessary. Evangeline had pretended not to care when I’d told her, but I knew better. I’d been trying to find Lucia for days since then, but she seemed to have vanished completely.

“I know,” I said. “But it’s been me, Lucia, and Evangeline for so long that it feels weird without her. I never thought she’d actually go through with it.”

“Looks like you were wrong.”

“I suppose there’s a first time for everything.”

Ruth cackled as she drove the cart toward the Beacon. “If I had a nickel for every time you were wrong, I’d be on a train out of here already. Hell, I could buy my own damn train.”

“Ouch.” I clutched my chest. “You’ve deeply wounded me.”

“When I wound you, you’ll know it.” Ruth shook her head. “People leave, Jack. You’ve got to get used to it. The day I’ve got enough money, I’m leaving.”

“Do you think Jessamy will want to go?”

Ruth blushed and turned her head, but she couldn’t hide her smile. “That woman confounds me, Jack. Half the time I don’t think even she knows what she wants.”

“But you obviously care for her.”

“I do.”

“Then I’m sure you’ll figure a way to work something out,” I said. “If you’re happy, that’s what matters, right?”

Ruth nodded, but she didn’t seem convinced. “Being happy is worth a lot, but people’s paths don’t always run together, even when those people care an awful lot about each other.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I guess it depends on whether you think your life is like a river or a railroad.”

“Come again?”

“If your life’s like a river, cutting through the earth, there probably aren’t a lot of ways to move its path. It’s going to go where it goes, and that’s just how it is.” I knew it was possible to change the course of a river, but it didn’t seem like confusing the issue would be helpful to Ruth. “But if your life’s like a railroad track, then you can lay those tracks down wherever you want. They can run beside other tracks, crisscross a few even, and if you don’t like where your tracks lead you, you can pull them up and lay some new ones.”

Ruth stared at me like I’d sprouted tulips out of my ears, and then she started to laugh. “That is either the smartest thing you’ve ever said or the most nonsensical.”

“Could be both. Sometimes the words just fall out of my head before I know what they are.”

“I definitely believe that.”

I nudged her arm. “Well? Which is it? Is your life a river or train tracks? Are you a boat or a train?”

Ruth shook her head and said, “Choo-choo.”

We reached the Beacon and unloaded the crates. Over the past couple of months, Ruth and I had developed a friendship and routine that I’d settled into. It was strange how much I’d grown to trust her. It was different with Evangeline and Lucia. I had to trust them. I put my life in their hands every time I stepped on stage. And they had to trust me. But Ruth had grown on me without me really noticing.

“You’re a really good friend,” I said.

“I know.” She leaned her head on my shoulder.

“And what about me?”

“What about you?”

“I’m a good friend too, right?”

Ruth sat up and clapped her hands together. “Enough lazing about. We’ve got work to do.” She tried to walk around to the front, but I caught her arm.

“Right, Ruth?”

“Don’t go fishing for compliments if you didn’t bring the right bait.” She almost kept her face straight, but a smile peeked out of one side of her mouth.

“C’mon. I’m definitely a good friend. You can tell me.”

Finally, Ruth cracked and started laughing. “You’re lucky you’re pretty, Jack. That’s all I’m saying.”

“I’m really starting to reconsider our friendship here.”

“Oh please,” she said. “You wouldn’t know what to do without me.”

And she was right. In the short time I’d known her, Ruth had become such an important part of my life. But I couldn’t ignore the reality that, like Lucia, one day Ruth would move on to chase her own dreams. And if I didn’t want to be left alone, I needed to figure out my own path forward. But before I worried about that, I had other problems to solve.

“If you were going to make someone sick, how would you do it?” I could’ve been wrong about Laszlo intentionally hurting Wil to limit his ability to Travel too, but I had a feeling I was onto something.

Ruth frowned. “Why would I want to make someone sick? And what kind of sick are you talking about?”

“I can’t say. But you’d want them weak, and you’d want to keep them like that for a long time.”

“How long?”

“Years.”

Ruth sat down on the steps leading into the Beacon. The space between her eyes was creased and she was looking at me like she was trying to decide something but couldn’t. “This is about Wilhelm, isn’t it?”

“I can’t—”

“Look, I haven’t asked about what happened the night George brought Wappy’s boys to church, but I know that liquor didn’t evaporate.”

When Ruth hadn’t asked about the incident the day after it’d happened, I’d considered myself lucky, because I’d had no idea how I was going to convince her Wil had had nothing to do with it. I should’ve known she’d bring it up eventually, and I should’ve used my time to think up an explanation, because I found myself tongue-tied now, looking at Ruth like she’d caught me with my hand in her pocket.

Ruth held up her hands. “I’m not even sure I want to know. Whatever you’re involved in, I can’t afford to get wrapped up in it too.”

I believed I could trust Ruth with anything. I believed I could tell her the whole truth about Wil and she would keep his secrets—she already knew Wil had been kidnapped and that Laszlo was holding him hostage—but his ability was bigger than that, and I didn’t think it was my place to tell anyone about it. I couldn’t betray Wilhelm like that. Still, I had to say something.

“Yes, it’s about Wil. I think Laszlo’s been making him sick, but I don’t know how.”

“I’m not a doctor,” she said. “Yet.”

“You’re the closest I’ve got.” I told her about his nausea and weakness. About the stomachaches and even that Laszlo used to bleed Wil when he was younger.

“I have got to get Jessamy away from that vile man.”

“What do you think?” I asked.

“Well, I think that whatever medicine he’s giving Wilhelm is probably what’s making him sick.”

“I thought that too, but I need to know for sure.”

“I can look in some books at the library and try to figure it out.”

I threw my arms around Ruth. “Thank you!”

I was so used to Evangeline’s coldness and Lucia’s aversion to displays of affection that I was surprised when Ruth hugged me back.

“I’ll do what I can, Jack, but I might not be able to figure it out.”

“At this point, I’ll take any help I can get.” That just left me to track down Lucia, rescue Wil, figure out how Laszlo was going to steal the gold, stop him while keeping him from harming anyone, locate Wil’s parents, and still find time to rehearse so that I didn’t have an accident and die onstage.

I was in way over my head. I just hoped I didn’t drown.