She swallows. “Must’ve locked that away, too.”
Bebe nods at the black windows. “How about you and Kojo unlock all your memories and wake up so we can talk?”
“I guess,” Asha says, looking shaken. “Is he a relative too?” She points at Valerian.
Kojo frowns. “You don’t recognize him, either? That’s Valerian, our friend from childhood. I mention him all the time.”
Her jaw firms. “You’re right. I’ve locked too much away.”
Bebe and Kojo exchange a knowing look, then Kojo says, “We’ll be out in a few.”
Clasping his wife’s hand, he leads her to one of the black windows, and as they disappear into it, Bebe jolts everyone awake.
Back in the real world, I wipe sweat from my brow.
Maxwell stands up, looking equally devastated. “That didn’t go as I expected.”
“What did you expect?” I ask.
Bebe also gets to her feet. “Give them some time. In fact, why don’t we wait outside the building?”
I let them herd me out, my mind still spinning from everything that happened.
Once outside, I pace until the door creaks open, and Asha and her family step out. Here, in the real world, she looks a little bit older, her body a little rounder than mine. Stepping up to me, she touches my face, like a blind person.
Not sure what to do with my hands, I touch her face too, my heart thudding with bittersweet pain.
“All I remember is what Kojo and Bebe told me about you,” she whispers, staring into my eyes. “They said our mother stole you away. I don’t doubt we’re sisters, but I still don’t remember you and I don’t know why.”
My mouth feels as dry as the Sand Domain. “I don’t remember anything either. All I know about our childhood is what I’ve seen in other people’s memories.”
She drops her hands and steps back. “Did we lock it away?”
“Not through a black window,” I say quietly. “At least none that I’ve found.”
She faces our father. “They said you were Overtaken.”
Maxwell winces. “I beat it. I’m sorry I didn’t come back. I made myself forget everything. I now see how much of a mistake that was.”
Asha’s face looks just like mine does in the mirror when I’m on the verge of a mental breakdown. “What about our mother?” she demands. “Did she beat it? Is she here too?”
“She’s on my side of Soma,” Bebe says.
For the first time, I realize no one is making Asha and her family think Soma doesn’t exist, and they’re okay with it.
“You know about the real world?” I ask my sister.
Bebe stands up straighter. “Asha and her family aren’t your typical Escapists.”
“We let ourselves recall Soma and the rest of it when we’re awake,” Asha says. Looking at her daughter, she sternly adds, “And we tell no one about it, understood?”
“Yes, Mommy.” Chloe winds a curl around her little finger. “I’ve never told anyone anything and never will.”
“That’s a good girl.” Asha looks back at me. “Why didn’t our mother come with you?”
“She couldn’t.” I dampen my lips. “She’s in a coma.”
Asha’s eyes widen.
“How about we explain more on the way to the medical bay?” Bebe says.
No one objects, and we head in the direction of the nearby forest.
“Valerian, can you make Asha and her family invisible to the guards?” Bebe asks. “Still don’t want those questions.”
Valerian—who’s been talking in hushed tones with Kojo—nods and presumably does as Bebe asks.
Maxwell chats up Chloe while Asha and I fall back a little.
“Tell me about your life,” we say in unison.
After a chuckle, we say, still in unison, “You first.”
I stay silent this time, but she does as well.
We both laugh.
“You’re a guest here,” Asha says, finally breaking the strange synchronicity. “I’ll go first.”
I listen greedily as she tells me about her life as far back as she can recall.
She and our grandmother lived in an apartment on the Escapists’ side of Soma. In the beginning, my sister would visit their dream world without the use of drugs and machines—mainly to kill the time as she waited for our grandmother to come back from her business on the other side of Soma.
At some point, Kojo started visiting. Our grandmother arranged it so that he was one of the few people on Soma who didn’t believe Asha dead. With time, she and Kojo found the Escapists’ world a fun getaway and spent more and more time there, eventually using all the methods to extend the stay, just like the rest of Escapists.
When they were old enough, they got married, and sometime later, their love gave them Chloe—who Asha thinks is the brightest and cutest being in the universe.
“That sounds like a charmed life,” I say. “Like a perpetual honeymoon.”
Asha agrees but reiterates the difference between her family and “normal” Escapists. She and Kojo don’t permanently forget everything about their pre-Escapist lives; they do it selectively, and only when asleep. Also, they visit the other side of Soma on occasion, with the help of a Bebe-approved illusionist who makes them invisible.