Now That You're Here (Duplexity, Part I) Read Online Free

and he mumbles, “Everything is wrong.”
    “Who took you? What happened?”
    “I don’t know,” he says. “I’m not me. This. This isn’t…” He motions at Mom’s house, the street. “Where are we?”
    “Phoenix? United States? Earth?”
    He shakes his head. His eyes look desperate.
    “Okay.” I hold up my hands to try to calm him down. “Let’s take this slow. You’re Danny Ogden, right?”
    “Right, but I’m—”
    “Just yes or no.”
    “Yeah. In here.” He touches his temple.
    “You live in Phoenix.”
    “Right, but—”
    “You’re still in Phoenix.”
    “No,” he says. “No. I was at the mall. And there was a huge explosion. I hit my head and next thing I knew I was in that class.” He balls his fists over his eyes and shakes his head. “Oh God. What about Germ?”
    I step toward him. “Danny, did you take something?”
    “No. I was—” He holds his right hand out, palm up. “I was there.” He flips it over. “And then I was here.” He looks up. “This can’t be Phoenix. What about Spectrum?”
    I shake my head.
    “Cameras? Compliance? Where is all of that?” He wipes a hand over his face. “You have to believe me. I have no idea how I ended up in that classroom.”
    “You walked in late, just like you do every day.” The events replay in my mind. “Then you fell asleep, like you do every day. And then you ran out, which I have to admit was something new.”
    “Right!” He points at me with both hands. “I ran into the neighborhood, but I got lost. So I went back to the school. To the nurse. She called someone and this guy showed up, and he drove me to a house and dropped me off. He told me not to let this happen again.”
    “Let what happen?”
    “Make him leave work? I don’t know. He was pissed. Really pissed.” He moves the hair out of his face and I see the swollen purple skin under his eye.
    “Then he opened the truck door like nothing happened and drove off.”
    “What did you do?”
    “I found a key in my pocket that fit the lock.” He takes a step toward me. “Eevee, I’ve never seen that house before. Whoever those people are, they aren’t my parents.”
    “Why did you go in?”
    “I thought maybe there’d be some answers in there. And I was starving.” He tucks his hands in his pockets. “There were pictures on the fridge. One was of me.” He swallows hard. “I think it’s a foster home.”
    I don’t know what to say. He really seems to be in trouble, but what can I do to help? All I come up with is, “That’s really strange.”
    “It doesn’t make sense. I live with my parents. Always have.”
    “You said you tried to find your house?”
    He nods. “I wandered around, but everything is so different. I got lost and didn’t know what to do. I went back to the school and hung around until I saw you leaving. After I knew where you lived, I made it my home base. I tried to find my house, but I couldn’t. By the time I got back here, you were gone.”
    “You could have said something to me at school.”
    He looks away. “I was scared, I guess.”
    “Of me?” I laugh.
    “I wasn’t sure what you…you know…thought of me. After.”
    Clearly, I’ve missed something. “After what?”
    “The museum.”
    I shake my head and he looks at me like I’m the crazy one. He reaches into his back pocket. “I kept the brochure.” But instead of a brochure, he pulls out a wallet and turns it over in his hands. “This isn’t mine.” He crouches down and dumps out the contents on the grass.
    Mom sticks her head out the door, startling both of us. “You two need anything?” She sees Danny sorting through the odds and ends, and whispers, “Is he okay?”
    “He’s having problems at home,” I whisper back.
    “What kind of problems?” We watch him mumbling to himself.
    “He’s scared.”
    “Of?”
    I try to make my face convey the obvious. When Mom doesn’t get my drift, I say, “I don’t think it’s safe for him to go back