That summer, Adeline and her mother were virtually inseparable.
They painted the nursery, shopped for baby clothes at Goodwill, and stayed up late into the night assembling the crib.
“Really, you can go home,” her mother said. “Once I start something, I get a little obsessed with finishing it.”
Adeline knew the feeling. And now she knew where she had gotten it from. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The floor was covered in pieces, as if a wooden treehouse had exploded in the room. The direction book lay flayed open, and her mother was following every step to the letter.
“Confession,” her mother said. “I waited until Sam left to do this.” She tilted her head. “I love him to death, but he’s not very handy around the house.”
Adeline laughed.
“He’d probably starve to death if left alone in the woods.”
The smile faded from Adeline’s face. “You never know. People are capable of a lot more than we might think—when life requires.”
As Adeline said the words, she knew they were half for her own sake. Since she had seen him disappear in the Absolom machine, not a day had gone by when Adeline didn’t think of her father and wonder how things had turned out for him in the Triassic.
Most of all, she dreaded the event she knew would come in nineteen years: she would have to stand in that room all over again and watch him slip into the past.
The events she was certain of, however, concerned her the least. Her focus now was the secrets in the past. The details that might help her save her father. Because she was going to get that chance. And she had nineteen years to prepare for it—assuming she could control the past. If things didn’t happen as they had, there would be no future to save.
*
In June and July, the financial world slipped into chaos.
Federal regulators seized IndyMac Bank, making it one of the largest bank failures in US history.
The Fed extended credit lines to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and later took them over in September, around the time Lehman Brothers failed and the Troubled Asset Relief Program was announced.
Adeline rolled some of the proceeds from her credit default swaps into tech stocks with strong growth potential.
Closer to home, life assumed a routine. By day, Adeline helped her mother with summer school. In the afternoons and evenings, they worked on preparing the small bungalow in Menlo Park for the arrival of Sam and Sarah Anderson’s first child. A child who, in a strange twist of fate, had returned home after nineteen years.
One afternoon, while grading papers in her office on campus, her mother said, “Are you going back to school in the fall?”
“No.”
“Any particular reason?”
“I think the education I need is out in the world, not inside a classroom.” Adeline looked up from the pages. “No offense.”
“None taken. College isn’t the right path for everyone. I’m glad you have a sense of what’s right for you—and are brave enough to go after it.”
Adeline felt a pride rise inside of her she had never known. She had doubted before, but in that moment, she started to believe that maybe there was a larger force at work here, that this life gave and took and surprised, and that just maybe it all added up to something truly wonderful.
*
As the baby grew inside of her, Adeline’s mother became more fatigued. Her projects around the house grew less ambitious.
In the second half of summer, they spent most of their time sewing. As a child, Adeline had thought her mother’s hobby was the most boring thing ever invented. Here and now, at almost twenty years old, in the presence of the mother she had already lost once, she relished every minute of it.
In the corner of the small family room, they sewed baby clothes and toddler outfits that Adeline’s younger self would soon wear. Finally, after all this time, Adeline saw what her mother loved about sewing, the joy of making something from scratch, the serenity of the motions, of creating something your child could enjoy, and doing something to help provide for your family. Like building a life, sewing was much more than knitting pieces together.
As summer came to an end and the first hint of fall descended on Palo Alto, their afternoon and early evening projects were cut shorter, and increasingly they found themselves sitting on the couch, watching TV, her mother grimacing as the child inside of her kicked relentlessly at night.
They watched the first three seasons of LOST, and Adeline and her mother both cursed the world when they learned the fourth season wouldn’t be out on DVD until Christmas. They agreed that it was so, so unfair.
The idea of people being stranded on a strange time travel island made Adeline think of her father on Pangea. Except, of course, he wasn’t battling a smoke monster and finding things buried on the island.
*
One night, during a game of Scrabble, her mother said, “Speaking of spelling things, I wanted to ask you something.”
Adeline raised her eyebrows.
“Your name. It’s so pretty. Sam and I have really struggled to find one we love. I wondered if you would mind if we named our daughter Adeline.”
“Not at all. I’d love that.”
*
Adeline’s investment accounts continued to swell that summer, but she didn’t spend much of the money. She did, however, buy a used Camry that had just gotten off a corporate lease. She needed reliable transportation for what was about to happen.
On Monday, September 8, 2008, around lunchtime, Adeline was sitting in the nursery, unboxing the baby monitor, when her mother called from the master bathroom, through the bedroom across the hall.
“Adeline!”
She ran in and found her mother clutching her bulging stomach. “I’m having contractions.”
“Just breathe. They might pass. How close are they?”
*
An hour later, Adeline was behind the wheel of her car, driving her mother to the hospital.
The expectant mother had her eyes closed, whispering. “She’s over a week early.”
Her phone vibrated, and she answered it. “Sam. She’s coming.”
*
But he didn’t get home in time. Adeline, however, was there to see her mother holding her infant form, the glow on her face, the twinkle in her eyes. It was the happiest thing she had ever seen.
Adeline knew it was about time to go. She made a deal with herself: she would stay one more night.
Her mother’s eyes were still closed the next morning when she leaned over the hospital bed and kissed her on the head. She lingered a long moment over the bassinet, staring down at herself, thinking about what an unexpected life awaited that young child.
As she was walking out the front door of the hospital, her father was rushing in, gasping for breath, his clothes disheveled. Geneva was nine hours ahead. He must have caught the red-eye.
The LHC would go live later today. He had missed both births, but his life was about to change nevertheless.
In the used Camry, Adeline drove to Draeger’s Market on University Drive, at the corner of Santa Cruz, and made her way to the bakery section. The woman behind the counter spotted her, set down a pastry bag, and wiped the excess icing on her hands on a white apron.
“What can I get you, dear?”
“I’d like a birthday cake.”
The woman plopped an order pad on the metal counter and clicked a pen, ready to take notes. “Size?”
“The largest you have.”
“Would you like a name on it?”
“Yes. I’d like my own name on it.”
The woman looked up, surprised.
“It’s my birthday today.”
“All right. What’s your name, dear?”
“Daniele. You spell it with one N and one L.”