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"Right," I say, trying not to hear ’s all right, when it so obviously isn’t He’s doing this to help Paul, and I feel a wave of unexpected tenderness for hiure out how to get you to San Francisco"

We pitch it as a roet it) Until I’ned neork, the destruction of the ot some free time So--why not San Francisco?

Before we talked toto say yes instead of taking a shotgun to un type Mom--maybe, but probably not" Besides, I remember how they reacted when I told them Paul and I had fallen in love Maybe Mom and Dad aren’t cozy with Theo in this universe, but they like him They’re not prudes They’rerealistic "Anyway, if she were going to shoot you, she would’ve done it thisas you think it is"

But asking your parents to let you go away for the weekend with the guy who’s been sneaking in and out of your rooo over well

"I can’t believe you’d ask us this," Dad says as he paces the front roo down to San Francisco! It’s outrageous"

Theo and I dare a glance at each other His expression says what I’: We screwed up

Mom speaks for the first time since I asked her about the trip "Henry, we’ve had no problems with the train lines this far north"

Dad is not appeased "Not yet But at any ? We don’t knohen the next attack will be We don’t get to know"

Wait He’s not freaked out by the thought ofin a hotel with Theo Dad’s upset because I want to travel away froht--we ca bloay"

Mom’s voice is sharp "Don’t reer everywhere All the time It’s not like I’m safer if I stay here"

After a"You remember what happened to your aunt Susannah Everyone said the passenger ships were safe as long as they sailed under a neutral flag, but still--" His words choke off, and Mom takes his hand

Aunt Susannah is dead

I can’t wrap iddy, spoiled London aunt, who never seeh society--but she loved all of us, and welcomed us whenever we visited Great Britain One time when I was little, she took rown up So special

The last time I saw Aunt Susannah was in another dimension, the futuristic London wheremy childhood, and she had raised me It was clear that she hadn’t done the best job at ; maternal instincts and Aunt Susannah don’t mix But still, she took ine her on a ship on the ocean hit with torpedoes, sinking fast She would have been so scared, and there would have been no hope of rescue No escape

Moht Safety is a luxury none of us have had in a long tiue, exactly, just changes strategy "She’s eighteen, and we’re sending her off with her boyfriend?"