Read Forty Leap for Free Online Page B

obviously wrong.
    He led me out of the building, not interested
in any explanations. Why should he be? As we moved down the stairs,
he radioed his superiors. Based on what I could decipher from the
garbled radio talk, I was suddenly being considered a suspect. Two
other police officers rendezvoused with us in the staircase. I said
nothing to them, realizing the futility of trying to explain my
condition. My medical records would back up my story, although I
didn’t know how many days I had missed this time and how truly thin
the concept of “blackouts” had become.
    The street outside was empty of pedestrian
traffic. There were police cars and bomb squad vans. I was rushed
away from the building, but the police were keeping a close eye on
me. Then I caught sight of my boss at the corner and I called out
to her. I couldn’t believe the look on her face once she recognized
me, which she didn’t do immediately. She spoke to a policeman by
the barricade and he let her through.
    “Please,” I said, suddenly a little bit
frantic. “Tell them I work here.”
    “Worked here,” she corrected.
    “It’s happened again,” I explained to her.
“Look at my watch.”
    She could plainly see the time and date, but
did not lose her cold demeanor.
    “I just went to the bathroom. Morty will tell
you.”
    Here expression went blank. Even the police
officers saw it. It’s amazing how the change in one person can
butterfly out to affect all of the surrounding people. Just the
mention of Morty’s name had triggered something in her to which her
psyche was not prepared to react.
    “What?” I asked, even though I already knew.
“What is it?”
    So she told me and that made it true. Morty
was dead.
    Upon hearing that news, the oddest thing
happened. I blacked out. The news of Morty’s death shocked me
something awful. Less than ten minutes before, I had answered his
concerns with absentmindedness. But he had experienced some unknown
amount of time in those ten minutes and died as a result of it.
What’s more, I was suddenly beginning to understand that the
effects of these time jumps, which were still increasing in length,
were broadening at an exponential rate. In the time I was gone, the
life of someone I knew had ended. A shock from which others had
recovered was now new to me. The pain was intense, like a great
squeezing of the fabric of my own consciousness. I must have fallen
because I came to as I hit the curb.
    “Are you okay?” one of the policemen was
asking me.
    “No,” I replied, still woozy. I looked up to
see my boss’ icy gaze and found, much to my surprise, that I was
angry. My anger was clearly directed at her, but I couldn’t say
why. As I stood from the curb, though, there was a hard edge to my
tone that I had never heard before. “When? How?”
    There was no sympathy to be found. “He was
hit by a bus more than two weeks ago. You’re supposed to be his
friend.”
    It was an indictment and I didn’t like it one
bit. “ How would I know about it?! ” I spat back at her. And I
mean spat. Globs of spittle and mucus flew from my rabid mouth and
washed over her. This, finally, drew a reaction. Whatever meekness
I had displayed throughout the course of my life fled in the face
of this tragedy and this insolent bitch that dared to make light of
its impact. I did not back down nor did I apologize for spitting on
her. I met her gaze full on and dared her to challenge me.
    And she did not.
    But it was a limp victory at best. Morty was
dead. I couldn’t believe it. Literally, I couldn’t believe it. The
police had no evidence on which they could base a charge so I was
released without ever being formally arrested. I did not bother to
stand around and see the drama through to its conclusion. My job
was someone else’s and my friend was gone. There was no longer any
need for me to be there. Marching through the crowd, I met the
gazes of my former co-workers and found, much to my surprise, that
they looked away