I heard that! the Bird Lady said in his mind. SA She was his boss. MONTHLY MAGAZINE Ugh. And psychics.? They made him want to drink. A glass of whiskey appeared in Bobby’s hand. What the what? He sipped. Nice. He could get used to that. Why are you there? Bird Lady chirped. To get drunk? No, Bobby was there to get in touch with himself. Literally. He unfocused his eyes. Several years working against the Time Police had given him the skills to reach into the void. He’d never been to the White Room, but he knew how to use it. The space around him was an enormous white expanse, but if he let himself see them subtle shifts in the white drifted like snow on an ice-covered lake. There he was. Bobby Decker, age 16. Had he ever been so young? Not what we’re after. The Bird Lady chirped. Bobby squeezed his eyes tighter. He twitched his head to the right and the scene scrolled and whirled. Dozens of Bobbies streamed past.
57 Stop! she squawked. The image came to rest on a sixteen-year-old Bobby Decker in a different timeline who’d apparently just come out of the shower. The other Bobby stood in Grandpa Olive Oliver’s house making body builder poses.
By the time the older Bobby had reached sixteen, Grandpa Oliver and his house had both been reduced to ash. That’s why we’re here, the Bird Lady reminded him. We need to help the Danny Decker who lived. Danny. Bobby’s little brother. Taken as an infant and given to this timeline, where he wouldn’t die as a casualty of war. And now Bobby had to help the little brother he’d never met, who believed this other Bobby was his real brother. The one who spent way too much time in the mirror.irror.