"It couldn't have been that long ago," John said. "A year? You'll remember soon enough."

"Yeah."

Prime peered out a small window. John could hear his father puttering out to the orchard on the tractor.

"What's up between you and your dad? Anything heavy?" Prime asked.

John took off his coat and handed it to Prime, taking his in return. John shook his head. "We talked last night about the Carson thing. He wanted me to write the letter."

"So that's it. What about your mother?"

"She was p.i.s.sed with me before. She still may be. We haven't talked since Thursday."

"Anything happening this afternoon?" Prime took a pencil out and started jotting things down.

"Nothing until tomorrow. Church, then ch.o.r.es. Muck the stalls. Homework. But I'll do that."

"What's due for Monday?"

"Reading for physics. Essay for English on Gerard Manley Hopkins. Problem set in calculus. That's it."

"What's your cla.s.s schedule like?"

John began to tell him, then shook his head. "Why do you need to know that? I'll be back."

"In case someone asks."

"No one's gonna ask." John pulled Prime's jacket on after struggling to get his arms through the right holes. Why were there no sleeves? he wondered. He used his binoculars to gaze out at the sun-filled orchard. "I'll watch from here. If anything goes wrong, you pretend to be sick and come back to the barn. You'll brief me and then we switch back."

Prime smiled. "Nothing's gonna happen. Relax." He pulled on gloves and climbed down the ladder. "See ya at lunch."

John's hands shook as he watched Prime walk across the barnyard toward the orchard. What had he gotten himself into? And yet the mystery of it was a magnet and he was the iron filings. He had to understand what this John was about. It was a conundrum.

Prime cast a glance over his shoulder and smiled, while John watched with his binoculars. He raised his hand and waved at John's father.

John's father barely glanced at Prime, and said something.

Prime nodded, then gripped a branch and pulled himself into the tree. His foot missed a hold, and he slipped.

"Careful there," John heard himself say.

Prime made it into the tree and began pulling apples. He said something and John's father laughed in reply. John felt a twinge of jealousy as he watched his father laugh. He wondered what Prime had said. Then John realized that if his father was laughing at Prime's jokes, there was no danger of being found out.

The precarious nature of John's situation bothered him. Effectively, Prime was him. And he was... n.o.body. Would it be that hard for someone to slip into his life? He realized that it wouldn't. He had a few immediate relationships, interactions that had happened within the last few weeks that were unique to him, but in a month those would all be absorbed into the past. He had no girlfriend. No real friends, except for Erik, and that stopped at the edge of the court. The hardest part would be for someone to pick up John's studies, but even that wouldn't be too hard. All his cla.s.ses were a breeze, except for Advanced Physics, and they were starting a new module on Monday. It was a clear breaking point.

John wondered what he would find in another universe. Would there be different advances in science? Could he photocopy a scientific journal and bring it back? Maybe someone had discovered a unified theory in the other universe. Or a simple solution to Fermat's last theorem. Or... But what could he really do with someone else's ideas? Publish them under his own name? Was that any different from Prime's scheme to get rich with Rubik's Square, whatever that was? He laughed and picked up his physics book. He needed to stay caught up in this universe. They were starting quantum mechanics on Monday after all.

"Here's lunch."

John looked up from the physics book, startled.

Prime handed John a sandwich.

"You went inside?" John asked, alarmed. "You weren't supposed to go inside."

Prime shrugged. "Your mom didn't notice either."

John took the sandwich. Prime looked different. He was covered in sap, there was a scratch on his cheek, and his clothes were grimy. "You look happy," John said.

Prime started. He looked down at himself, then smiled. "It felt good. I haven't done that in a while."

Around a bite of sandwich, John said, "You've been gone a long time."

"Yeah," Prime said. "You don't know what you have here. Why do you even want to go to college?"

John laughed. "It's great here for the first fifteen years; then it really begins to drag."

"I hear you."

John handed Prime his jacket. "What will I see in the next universe?"

Prime caught his eye. "So you're gonna take me up on the offer?" he asked.

John thought about it for a moment longer. He had to know whether Prime was a crackpot or the giver of a fabulous gift. If Prime was nuts, John had lost nothing and could go about getting rid of him. If Prime's device worked, the whole universe was open to him.

"Yeah, I think so. Tell me what I'll see."

"It's pretty much like this one, you know. I don't know the exact differences."

"So we're-one of us, I mean-in the next universe?"

"Yeah. I wouldn't try to meet him or anything. He doesn't know about us."

"Why'd you pick me to talk to? Why not some other me? Or why not all of us?"

"This is the most like home," Prime said. "This feels like I remember."

"In one hundred universes this is the one that is most like yours? How different are we from one to the next? It can't be too different."

"Do you really want to hear this?"

John nodded.

"Well, there are a couple types of us. There's the farm boy us, like you and me. Then there's the dirtbag us."

"Dirtbag?"

"Yeah. We smoke and hang out under the bleachers."

"What the h.e.l.l happened there?"

"And sometimes we've knocked up Casey Nicholson and we live in the low-income houses on Stuart. Then there's the places where we've died."

"Died?"

"Yeah. Car accidents. Tractor accidents. Gun accidents. We're pretty lucky to be here, really."

John looked away, remembering something. It was the time he and his father had been tossing hay bales and the pitchfork had fallen. Then John recalled the time he had walked out on Old Mrs. Jones' frozen pond and the ice had cracked and he'd kept going. And the time the quarry truck had run him off the road. It was a fluke really that he was alive.

"I think I'm ready. What's the plan?"

Prime lifted up his shirt and began unbuckling the harness. "You leave from the pumpkin field. Select the universe one forward. Press the toggle. Spend the day exploring. Go to the library. Figure out what's different. If you want, write down any moneymaking ideas you come across."

"I don't think so," John said. It seemed too much like cheating.

"Fine. Then don't. Tomorrow, flip the counter back to this universe and pull the lever. You'll be back for school on Monday."

"Sounds easy enough."

"Don't lose the device! Don't get busted by the police! Don't do anything to draw attention to yourself."

"Right."

"Don't flash your money either. If anyone recognizes you, go with it and then duck out. You don't want to make it hot for our guy over there."

"Right." John swallowed. What if it did work? What if...?

"Johnny, you look a little nervous. Calm down. I'll keep you covered on this end." Prime slapped him on the back, then handed him the harness.

John pulled off his shirt and shivered. He pa.s.sed the two bands of the harness over his shoulders, then connected the center belt behind his back. The disk was cold against his belly. The straps looked like a synthetic material.

"It fits."

"It should," Prime said. "I copied some of my materials for you in case you need them." He pulled a binder from his own bag, opened it to show John pages of clippings and notes. "You never know. You might need something. And here's a backpack to hold it all in."

Prime paused as he handed it over.

"What's wrong?" John asked.

"I haven't been away from the device in a long time. It's my talisman, my escape. I feel naked without it. You gotta be careful with it."

John realized how much trust Prime was placing in him. "Hey," he said. "I'm leaving my life in your hands. How about a little two-way trust?"

Prime smiled grimly. "Okay. Are you ready? I've got twelve thirty on my watch. Which means you can return half an hour past midnight. Okay?"

John checked his watch. "Okay."

"Toggle the universe."

John lifted the shirt and switched the number forward to 7534. "Check."

"Okay. I'll watch from the loft." Prime climbed the ladder, then turned. "Make sure no one sees you."

"Right," John said. What would someone think if he or she saw John disappear into thin air? He stopped himself; he was acting like the device would actually work. He'd find out soon enough.

John's foot landed awkwardly on a clump of dirt. The backpack shifted on his shoulders. He felt silly, suddenly. He'd look the putz when the device failed to send him across universes. Prime would laugh at him. Still he had to know.

He found his spot. His heart raced. This was it. He looked up at the barn window. Prime was there, watching. He waved.

John waved back; then he lifted up his shirt. Sunlight caught the brushed metal of the device.

John hesitated. Soon enough.

He pulled the switch and the world lurched.

John's ears popped and his feet caught in the dirt. He stumbled and fell forward, catching himself on his gloved hands. He wasn't in a pumpkin patch anymore. Noting the smell of manure, he realized he was in a cow pasture.

He worked his feet free. His shoes were embedded in the earth. He wondered if there was dirt lodged in his feet now. It looked like the dirt in the current universe was a couple centimeters higher here than in the old one. Where did that extra dirt go? He shook his feet and the dirt fell free.

It worked! He felt a thrill. He'd doubted to the last second. He'd expected the other John to suddenly yell, Tricked ya! but here he was, in a new universe.

He paused. Prime had said there was a John in this universe. He spun around. Cows grazed contentedly a few hundred yards away, but otherwise the fields were empty, the trees gone. There was no farmhouse.

McMaster Road was there and so was Gurney Road. John walked from the field, hopped the fence, and stood at the corner of the roads. Looking to the north toward town, he saw nothing but a farmhouse maybe a mile up the road. To the east, where the stacks of the GE plant should have been, he saw nothing but forest. To the south, more fields.

Prime had said there was a John Rayburn in this universe. He'd said that the farm was here. He'd told John he'd been to this universe.

John pawed up his jacket and shirt and tried to read the number on the device. He cupped his hand to shield the sun and read 7534. He was where he expected to be, according to the device. There was nothing here.

The panic settled into his gut. Something was wrong. Something had gone wrong. He wasn't where he was supposed to be. But that's okay, he thought, calming himself. It's okay. He walked to the edge of road and sat on the small berm there.

Maybe Prime had it wrong; there were a lot of universes and if all of them were different that was a lot of facts to keep straight.

John stood, determined to a.s.sume the best. He'd spend the next twelve hours working according to the plan. Then he'd go back home. He set off for town, a black mood nipping at his heels.

CHAPTER 4

John Prime watched his other self disappear from the pumpkin field and felt his body relax. Now he wouldn't have to kill him. This way was so much better. A body could always be found, unless it was in some other universe. He didn't have the device, of course, but then he'd never need it again. In fact, he was glad to be rid of it. John had something more important than the device; he had his life back.