Dianne Salerni - The Eighth Day

Jax immediately ran upstairs to check the storage tub in his room. His father’s dagger was still in its box, where it belonged. It had a five-inch blade and a cast-metal handle engraved with the Aubrey family crest. The carving on Riley’s knife was different, but the weapons themselves were very similar.

Seeing the two daggers, Jax had to accept that his father and Riley really had known each other. His dad had often shown this dagger to Jax, implying that it represented membership in a club. Jax assumed he meant something like the Masons or the Elks. He couldn’t imagine Riley as a member of one of those clubs, but clearly he and Jax’s father had shared some secret.

Today, Jax closed the case with a snap. He had his own secrets now. Briskly, he returned everything to the storage tub—except his father’s Rolex, which he wound up and strapped to his own wrist.

He didn’t intend to lose track of time again.

Jax consulted the watch frequently. Days went by with no hiccup in time, and if it hadn’t been for the items in his closet, he might have convinced himself it had never happened.

Monday after school, Riley dumped a stack of books on the desk while Jax was working on his computer. “Are you going to the library?” Riley asked him.

Jax picked up the book on top. It had a girly cover—flowers and a sunset and a woman in a fancy dress. “What, are you dying to read the sequel?” He looked up at Riley. “I didn’t even know you could read.”

Riley crossed his arms. “Did you tell Mrs. Unger you were going to the library this weekend?”

Yes, he had. Jax looked at his dad’s watch. He hadn’t skipped over time; he’d just been so worried about his secret day that he’d forgotten his promise. He didn’t like letting the old lady down, but he liked Riley pointing it out even less. “Is her ghost complaining?” he asked crankily, slapping the book down on the pile.

“Her ghost?” Riley asked sharply.

“Mrs. Unger is a little . . .” Jax made a twirly finger next to his head.

Riley glared at him. “Are you going to exchange the books or not?”

Why do you care? Jax wanted to say—or better yet, You do it. But Jax didn’t want to see Riley doing good deeds for Mrs. Unger. He preferred to think of Riley as a jerk. “Yeah, I’ll go tonight.”

“Make sure you do,” Riley said gruffly, which made Jax wonder why he did care.

Unless he counted Riley’s interest in Mrs. Unger’s reading habits, nothing weird at all happened for the better part of the week. But on Thursday morning, when Jax’s alarm clock didn’t wake him and the watch on his wrist didn’t tick, he sat up, alert. He guessed what he was going to see even before he pulled back the curtains on his window.

The sky was a pale purple, and no cars passed on the street.

This time, instead of panicking, Jax made an effort to observe everything carefully. His clock was frozen at 12:00 a.m., and it didn’t blink or respond to the push of any buttons. The bedroom lights didn’t go on when he flicked the switch, and his father’s watch had stopped at midnight. Downstairs, the microwave and the refrigerator didn’t work, but oddly, the gas stove did. He shrugged and made himself a breakfast of instant oatmeal.

Afterward he biked through the town, which was as empty as last time, and out to the interstate. Just when Jax thought the highway, too, was empty, he spotted a vehicle in the oncoming lane. With an excited whoop, he waved both hands over his head to signal it, but the car wasn’t moving toward him. He coasted to a stop near the stationary SUV and hopped off his bike. The driver’s seat was empty, which gave him a chill. He reached out to open the door, and a spark leaped from the metal handle to his hand. Using his shirt as insulation, he tried again, but every attempt to touch the vehicle resulted in a shock.

Jax leaned as close as he dared to the driver’s window and peered inside. He didn’t know what he was looking for until he saw it. The gear shift was set to drive. This car wasn’t in park; it was supposed to be moving.

He had planned to bike to the next town and see if the same thing was happening there, but this car answered the question for him. If it wasn’t the same every place, there’d be traffic on the highway, and this car would’ve gotten where it was going with whoever was supposed to be inside.

So instead he headed home. Inside one of the moving boxes that had come from his old house, he was pretty sure, there was a camera. He hadn’t used it in years because he had a camera on his phone, but his phone didn’t work today and the camera might.

Now that he knew everything would be back to normal tomorrow, Jax was excited. He was going to document this craziness and share the photos with Billy. He leaped up the front steps of the house, threw open the door, and crashed right into Riley.

“JAX!” RILEY GRABBED JAXby his T-shirt and hauled him into the living room.

After his first gasp of surprise, Jax felt a surge of disappointment. This fascinating world wasn’t his alone. He had to share it with Riley Pendare.

Riley shoved Jax into a chair and unclipped a two-way radio from his belt. “I was so sure you were a dud,” Riley said, then spoke into the radio. “Melinda, you copy? Over.”

A woman’s voice answered. “I’m here, Riley. Over.”

Jax sat up. He and Riley weren’t the only ones here.

“False alarm. It was the kid. Let the others know. Over.”

“Copy that.”

“Who’s she?” Jax demanded when Riley clipped the radio to his belt. “What others? There are no people here! I looked everywhere! Last week, too.”

“Last week?” Riley narrowed his eyes. “This isn’t your first time?”

“This is the second time. But you weren’t here last week. Nobody was!”

“I was here. I just wasn’t at home .” Riley crossed his arms over his chest. “I thought your birthday was next week.”

“It was last Wednesday.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve been looking out for you if I’d known.”

“What does my birthday have to do with it?” Jax demanded. “What is today?”

Unexpectedly, Riley grinned. “Today’s Grunsday. Well, that’s not its name, really. That’s just what Crandall’s dad calls it, and the name kind of stuck with us.”

“Crandall’s dad ?” Jax repeated. “Who’s us ? Was that A.J.’s mother on the radio?”

“No, that was Melinda.” Riley sighed. “I wasn’t expecting this, but you’re here now. Let’s set up the generator. You don’t want to spend the day without electricity, do you?”

Jax followed him out of the house and into the shed at the back of the yard. “Are you saying A.J. knows about this, too? Or just his dad?”

“The whole Crandall family.” Riley wheeled his motorcycle out of the way, then threw a canvas tarp off two generators and half a dozen gasoline containers. “This is the eighth day of the week—an extra twenty-four hours between Wednesday and Thursday.”

“No way.” Jax looked at his father’s watch, stuck at twelve midnight. “Time is stopped?”

“It’s not stopped. The sun still moves across the sky, doesn’t it? We’re just living through a different timeline.” Riley shoved a moving dolly under one of the generators.

“But I saw a car frozen on the highway.”

“Objects traveling at velocity during the moment of change look frozen from our perspective, but they’re moving normally in their own timeline. It all depends on the observer.” Riley unbuckled a wristwatch from his arm. “Here. This is a watch I wind only on Grunsdays.” Jax leaned close enough to confirm that it was ticking. “Take it,” said Riley. “I’ll get another one. As long as you only wind it on the eighth day, it’ll work in this timeline.”