Free So Close to You (So Close to You - Trilogy) by Rachel Carter Page A

in my mom’s things. A great-aunt. Her name is …” My mind goes blank. A random name pops into my head and I grasp at it. “Julia Roberts.” I wince, but they’re both unfazed, waiting for me to continue. “Julia Roberts is my great-aunt.”
    I have an out-of-body feeling, and it’s as if I’m floating on the ceiling, no longer connected to the words that are coming out of my mouth. “I found an address for her in Montauk. When I got off the train, I asked someone where it was and they said it didn’t exist.”
    “What was the address?” Dr. Bentley asks.
    “Oh, um, behind the Deep Hollow Ranch?” I give them the vague location, knowing that it’s not too far from Camp Hero.
    “But there are no other houses over there!” Mary exclaims.
    “That was the only address I had, so when I realized there was nothing there, I just started walking. It must have been the … grief that led me out here. It hit me all at once … that my mom is gone. I don’t remember much after that. Then I had no shoes, and … Lucas was there.”
    Dr. Bentley’s face is soft and sympathetic. If I ever make it out of here I am definitely joining the drama club.
    “But why were you in those clothes?” Mary wrinkles her nose at the thought of wearing jeans.
    Good question. I get a sudden flash of the Rosie the Riveter poster, with her fist curled up and her bandanna pulled tight.
    “I was a factory worker. In the city. For the war effort. I was a riveter.” Not that I have any idea what a riveter does, but luckily they don’t push it. “I quit to come here.”
    “Don’t you go to school?” Dr. Bentley asks.
    Should I tell him I’m about to be a senior? Or will that just complicate things? “Not anymore. I’m seventeen, but I graduated early so I could work in the factory.”
    “What are your plans for when you leave here?”
    “I … honestly don’t know.” They feel like the only true words I’ve said all day.
    Mary clasps her hands together, her eyes shining. “You’re like a character out of a novel!”
    “Mary, hush.” Dr. Bentley stands up. “It sounds like this has been a very trying time for you. Is there anything else you need right now, Lydia?”
    Access to a time machine?
    “No thank you, you’ve been so kind already.”
    He smiles. “We’ll leave you to rest then.”
    “But—” Mary starts.
    “We both have patients. Rest now, Lydia.” He gently takes Mary’s arm and pulls her out of the room.
    As soon as they leave, I flop back onto the bed and stare up at the ceiling. It’s made of interlocking wooden beams. A spiderweb covers one corner, the silver strands glistening in the sunlight. Was it just yesterday I was looking up at the ceiling of my own bedroom? It feels like a lifetime ago.
    I think about Mary’s question— What are your plans for when you leave here?
    I wish I had a good answer.
    The only way to get home is to find the time machine. But the idea of going back into the underground labs fills me with dread. Am I ready to face those white corridors, those pounding footsteps again? Guards who would kill me if I was found?
    And what about Wes? Who is he? He moved so quickly and so deliberately, like a soldier. Normal people don’t move like that. He had training. And he also had a key to the concrete door.
    So why did he help me? And where is he now?
    My mind stops on another missing person: my grandfather’s father, Dean Bentley. Only he’s not missing in this time. He’s somewhere in Montauk right now, alive and well. He might even be at Camp Hero. I might meet him. The realization is startling. What will he be like?
    A knock at the door interrupts my thoughts. “Come in!” I call out.
    It’s Lucas. His eyes are soft and concerned, and he holds his cap in his hands.
    I sit up and pull the blankets closer around my body, painfully aware that I’m only in a thin nightgown.
    “I just saw Mary.” He fidgets with the brim of the cap. “She told me what happened.” He comes