Timepiece (Hourglass 2)

“I won’t feel safe until we get back to the hotel.” Her hands went to the small of her back, and then she moved them to her waist, stretching and twisting from side to side.

“You okay?” I asked, mesmerized by the movements.

“Yes. I wanted to make sure everything was secure.”

Everything looked secure to me.

“I want to be able to run again if we have to. I’m so scared I’m going to drop this thing.”

I shrugged. “Maybe if you do, it’ll pop open.”

“Not the time for sarcasm.”

We stepped back into the flow of the crowd like migratory birds, wayward ducks falling into alignment.

The bird fetish was rubbing off on me.

“Kaleb.” Lily’s eyes were wide. “Look.”

I took a step back, trying to figure out what was off. The crowd was twice as big as it had been two seconds ago.

There were rips.

Everywhere.

“None of the scenery has changed,” Lily said in a shaky voice. “It’s just extra people. There were fifty people setting up, I blinked, and then there were a hundred.”

“The French tourists are here.” They were chattering away, checking out the Memphis skyline and the reflective surface of the Pyramid. “And they don’t seem to see the rips.”

The bodies occupying the crowded space were sharing features, like multi-limbed demigods. They were in the same air space, possibly even in the same cell space.

“So instead of a whole scene, we have a whole crowd. That’s freaky,” I said under my breath. Facial features blurred like out-of-focus photographs as the living blended with the dead. “That’s way too freaky.”

Lily’s hand tightened on my arm. I didn’t know what it would feel like for a rip to walk through me, and I sure as hell didn’t want to find out.

A mother, father, and two young boys stopped beside us, posing for a family photo. An elderly woman held up a camera and counted to three. It was all very vacationlike and innocent, unless you saw the man standing with them.

Although the more accurate term was in them. One leg rested solidly in the dad, the other, in the mom. His hand was visible on one side of the youngest boy’s neck, his elbow on the other side.

“That’s too much. I’m going to be sick.” Lily closed her eyes and turned toward the breeze blowing off the river, inhaling deeply.

“Stay there and keep your eyes closed. I’ll take care of this.” When the family finished posing, they turned and headed toward the parking area. I rushed to tap the man on the shoulder, expecting him to disappear.

He jumped, startled. “Can I help you?”

The family had been part of the rip instead of the man. Their Memphis Grizzlies jerseys should have clued me in. “I’m so sorry, sir. No.”

“Kaleb?” Lily waited for an explanation.

“My mistake. It’s okay.” I stayed beside her and scanned the crowd, trying to find someone who was obviously out of place. “The rips don’t see us. It should be easy to find one.”

“Just like it was a second ago, right?”

Doubt. Fear. More like terror.

“I bet she’s a rip.” I pointed to a woman wearing white Reebok high tops with fluorescent pink laces. I called out to her. “Ma’am?”

“Yes?” she answered.