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“But the physics of it,” Bryson countered. “I mean, how’d you balance?”<br />
This set Michael off again, his face and chest hurting from laughing so much. He hadn’t<br />
felt this way since before Kaine had started haunting his life.<br />
“I think we’ve dwelled on this subject long enough,” Sarah said. “It’s Michael’s turn.”<br />
She shifted against his cot, and the faint light coming from outside illuminated her eyes.<br />
“How’re you going to top those two stories?”<br />
Michael had been leaning on his one elbow for way too long, and it hurt. He pulled up<br />
his legs and folded them beneath him, rubbing his shoulder. “I don’t know. Let me think a<br />
second.”<br />
Silence settled on the friends, and Michael realized how long they’d been talking and<br />
laughing. There was an awkwardness in that silence, and Michael knew exactly why.<br />
“It’s weird to think back,” he said. “I mean, I don’t even know what’s really a memory.<br />
Who knows if a lot of it wasn’t just programmed into my history?”<br />
“Forget that crap,” Bryson said. “Your life is your life. Now tell us a good one before I<br />
fall asleep over here.”<br />
Michael wrapped his arms around his knees, still thinking.<br />
Finally, after a good several minutes, he announced, “Got it! The time my dad almost<br />
killed me with a rock.”<br />
6<br />
It was weird, telling the story. Since finding out that he was a Tangent, it had gotten to the<br />
point that he couldn’t trust even things most people took for granted. What his eyes saw.<br />
What his fingers felt. What he tasted, what he breathed, what he smelled. How could he<br />
ever know if any of it was real? Or ever had been?<br />
But as he sat there on that cot in the darkness, the sounds of Gerard’s snores like a<br />
sound track in the background, he remembered. He remembered his life as a little boy,<br />
and nothing could ever take that away from him.<br />
“My dad loved camping,” he said. “Loved it. Especially since we lived in the smoggy city.<br />
About once every other month, he’d gather up a bunch of gear, run around the house like<br />
a giddy little kid, then haul us into a truck, even Helga. Always Helga. She was as much a<br />
part of our family as any of us.”<br />
“Where’d you usually go?” Sarah asked.<br />
“Somewhere along the Appalachian Trail, up in the mountains, as remote a place as he<br />
could find. Sometimes we’d drive for hours and hours. It was before I was allowed to Sink<br />
into the Sleep, so I loved it just as much as my dad. It was an adventure.”<br />
He paused, picturing it all in his mind. “I can smell the campfire—that was always the<br />
best part. The crackles and the popping and the glowing coals. My mom didn’t enjoy<br />
roughing it too much, but she endured it because I think she could see how happy it made<br />
me. And my dad, obviously. And Helga totally got into it. She was like a forest ranger out