"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" Dolly asks Liz.
Liz shakes her head, and it practically causes her whole body to shake because of the tight cloth.
"What makes a person want to go back to Earth early?" Dolly asks.
"What do you mean?" Liz replies.
"I mean, it's all life, isn't it? Why are you in such a rush to get back?"
At that moment, the sun appears in the sky. The ocean splits in two, and the River is revealed.
"Sunrise," says Dolly. "Time to go. Well, have a good trip!" Dolly gives Liz a push down the River.
Curtis Jest cannot sleep. He tosses and turns in his wooden cot. Finally, he gives up on sleeping and gets out of bed.
Curtis hitches a ride across town to Liz's house. He knows Liz is living with her grandmother. He decides that he must inform this woman about Liz's decision, even if it means breaking Liz's confidence. For the first time in ages, he laments losing his rock star status. (Rock stars always have fast cars.)
At 6:15 a.m., he rings Betty's doorbell.
"Hello, I'm looking for Lizzie's grandmother," Curtis says. He stares at Betty. "Good Lord, you wouldn't be her, would you?"
"Yes, I'm Elizabeth's grandmother. And you are?"
"I'm " Curtis begins. For a moment, he completely forgets his name and his whole reason for coming. Instead, he considers what color you would call Betty's eyes. Gray-blue, he decides.
Gray-blue like a foggy morning, like the water in a stone fountain, like the moon or maybe the stars. Betty with the gray-blue eyes. That might make a good song "Yes?" Betty interrupts his reverie.
Curtis clears his throat, lowers his voice, stands up straighter, and resumes speaking. "I am Curtis Sinclair Jest, formerly of the band Machine. I am a trusted confidant of Elizabeth's, which is why I come to you at this hour. I must tell you something very urgent about Lizzie."
"What about Liz?" Owen asks, walking up behind Curtis from the driveway. "I need to talk to her right now."
Curtis says, "Lizzie is in trouble, Betty. We'll need your car."
Betty takes a deep breath. "What's happened? What's happened to Elizabeth?" She gives up trying to disguise the terror in her voice. "I want to know what's happened to my granddaughter!"
she yells.
Curtis takes Betty's hand. "She's headed back to Earth, and we've got to stop her."
"You can't mean she's sneaking?" Owen asks.
Curtis nods.
"But it's already dawn!" Betty exclaims.
The three look up at the jaundiced sky, which grows brighter with every second.
"My car's faster," Owen says, running back down the driveway.
"God help us," Betty whispers before following him.
As she is pulled faster and faster toward Earth, Liz begins to think of Elsewhere and of all the people she's met there. She thinks of how those people might feel when they discover she has taken her leave without even telling them.
She thinks of Thandi.
She thinks of Betty.
She thinks of Sadie.
She thinks of Paco, of Jen, of all the dogs . . .
And she thinks of Owen.
But mainly she thinks of herself. Continuing down the River will mean, for all practical purposes, the end of Liz. And when she looks at it that way, she suddenly wonders if she hasn't made a colossal mistake.
And then she wonders if it's too late to correct it.
Because it wouldn't be for Owen or for any of them that she would return to Elsewhere. With or without Owen, almost fifteen years was a long time. Almost fifteen years was a gift. Anything could happen here in Elsewhere, the place where Liz's life had supposedly ended.
If I interrupt this life, I will never know how my life was supposed to turn out. A life is a good story, Liz realizes, even a crazy, backward life like hers. To cling to her old forward life was pointless.
She would never have her old forward life. This backward life was her forward life when she really thought about it. It isn't her time, and her desire to know how the story will end is too strong.
And besides, Liz thinks, what's the rush?
In the water, the swaddling fabric is stiff like plaster. Liz rocks back and forth trying to rip it. The motion does not free her, but it does turn her 180 degrees until she is facing into the current. All around her, babies float by.
The waves smack her exposed face. Salt stings her eyes. Water gets into her lungs. Liz feels her legs beginning to sink.
She leans her neck forward and tries to tear at the swaddling clothes with her teeth. After much effort, she succeeds in ripping the tiniest of holes, which allows her to rotate her shoulder over and over again. It hurts like hell, but she finally frees her left biceps, then her left forearm, then her hand. She reaches her hand above the surface of the water.
She struggles to pull herself out of the water with her free hand, but it's too late. Too much water has filled her lungs.
She sinks. It's a long way to the ocean floor. It gets darker and darker. Liz hits the bottom with a thud. A cloud of sand and other debris forms around her. And then she passes out.
When Liz wakes the next morning, she cannot move and she wonders if she is dead. But then she realizes she can open her eyes and her heart is beating, albeit very slowly. It occurs to Liz that she might be trapped at the bottom of the ocean forever. Neither dead nor alive. A ghost.
"Look, man, I'm sorry, but it's too late," Curtis says to Owen. "She's gone."
"I just don't believe Liz would do something like this," Owen replies, shaking his head. "It just doesn't seem like her at all."
Betty shakes her head, too. "I can't believe it either." She sighs. "She was very depressed for a while when she first got here. I thought she was over it, but I guess she wasn't after all."
"I'm going after her in my boat," Owen says.
"She's gone. The launch nurse confirmed it. There's nothing we can do now." Betty shoots Curtis a dirty look, and he looks away.
"I'm going after her in my boat," Owen repeats.
"But " Betty says.
"She might have changed her mind. And if she did, she might need our help," Owen says.
"I'll come with you," Curtis and Betty say at the same time.
For two days and two nights, they search all along the coasts of Elsewhere in Owen's little boat for any trace of Liz. She is nowhere to be found. On the second night, Owen tells Curtis and Betty to go home. "I can do this myself," he says.
"There's no point, Owen. I hate to say it, but she's gone. She's really, really gone. You should go home, too," Betty says.
Owen shakes his head. "No, I'm just going to give it one more day."
With heavy hearts, Betty and Curtis agree to return home.
"Do you think we should have stayed with him?" Curtis asks Betty in her kitchen back at the house.
Betty sighs. "I think he's trying to make peace. I think he wanted to be by himself."
Curtis nods. "I'm sorry I didn't come to you on Saturday night. We quarreled about it, and she swore me to secrecy."
"It's not your fault. I should have known something was wrong. I only wish she had come to me."