43
Adam fell through the air, shrieking with pleasure, as he hit the river and plunged to its soft bottom. He gazed up through the tannic water, rippling with sunlight, and thought—as he did every time, lungs straining—I’m not going to make it. But he did, bursting into the air, flinging water from his hair and mouth as he heard Danny and JJ laughing… Except that wasn’t Danny he heard laughing; Adam heard himself, and shuddered with the sense of divergence.
But then something shifted—he was shaken loose—and Adam was somewhere else, someone else. He was with the boy, Aaron. His eyes were shut in a stupor that felt both reassuring and wrong, like the moment you begin to realize you’ve eaten too much candy and are going to be sick. Because with the boy’s eyes closed, Adam couldn’t see anyth
