Chapter 3

"Mom, is Dad home?"

The words were out of me almost before I saw Thelma. I needed to know, right then.

"He is, he is! Come in, come in."

Her eyes moved past me to Marlin, and they went red at the rims. She rushed forward and threw her arms around him.

"Marlin! I thought I'd never see you again."

"My sweet boy. These years must have been so hard on you."

His eyes reddened in an instant too, and he held her tight.

"Mom, I missed you and Dad so much."

He steadied her and looked over at me.

"Let's get inside. Better not let Carrie see Dad out here first, or she'll be all worked up inside."

So he knew everything.

My chest went tight as I met those laughing eyes of his.

He knew I suspected him. He knew I was desperate to confirm Dad's condition, to test whether he was really Marlin.

I bit down hard on my teeth, until I tasted the sweet, metallic tang of blood.

In the living room the TV droned on, and faintly I could hear Colin and Marlin chatting.

"Carrie, what's wrong?"

Thelma's face was still bright with the joy of the whole family back together. I clenched my jaw and said quietly, "Mom, I don't think this man is the real Marlin."

She stopped and looked at me, suspicious. "What are you talking about? How could he not be Marlin?"

"After he came back, I checked the code we agreed on before, and he couldn't answer it. And he eats scallions now."

She waved it off. "It's just a code. Maybe he forgot. Three years have passed. It's perfectly normal for his tastes to change."

"He went through so much to save us. Can't you stop being so paranoid?"

My heart sank. She didn't want to look any deeper, that much was clear.

Waiting wears a person down. For three years Marlin had sent no word, and she had lived every day in fear and dread.

More than once she'd called me in pieces, saying she'd dreamed of Marlin lying on the ground covered in blood.

She said she'd already lost her husband. She couldn't lose her son too.

Thelma carried a dish out. Through the clear glass door I watched the three of them inside, cozy and happy.

That "person" sitting in Marlin's place, smiling, soaking up Colin and Thelma's care and love.

I drew in a breath and went out.

Just then Marlin suddenly looked up and asked me, "Carrie, I hear you suspect I'm not Marlin?"

One short sentence, and it hit me like a bolt from a clear sky.

I looked at Thelma, whose eyes darted away, and I understood at once. She had gone and told this man everything we'd just said.

For that instant all I could feel was my heart slamming in my chest.

"You never used to eat scallions."

I lowered my gaze to hide what was in my eyes. The man smiled.

"It's been three years, after all. And the mission was brutal. Forget scallions. At the worst, when I was starving, I even thought about slicing off my own flesh and boiling it to eat."

"How could I be picky about anything after that?"

So he still didn't know about the safety code.

Thelma's face filled with pained sympathy. She lifted a piece of meat with her chopsticks and set it on his plate.

"It's all our fault. If it weren't for us, you'd never have had to suffer like that."

"Carrie, stop being so paranoid. If it weren't for Marlin, you'd still be lying half-dead in a hospital bed!"

She stared at me and spaced out every word. "Marlin finally made it home, and you're saying things like this."

"You haven't had a change of heart, have you? Saying all this because you want to be rid of him?!"

"Mom!"

I stared at her in disbelief. Beside her, Colin chimed in too.

"This is post-traumatic stress in Carrie, that's why she's so paranoid. Son, now that you're back, spend more time with her."

Before I could get another word out, "Marlin" gripped my hand tight.

He looked at me, pitiful. "Carrie, I'm just having trouble adjusting, suddenly back in the modern world from ancient times."

His fingers stroked lightly against my palm, and in that instant my skin crawled.

Swallowing down the nausea, I asked, "Just adjusting, and your tastes changed?"

He nodded, smiling.

So he still didn't know about the code between me and the real Marlin.

Seeing that I didn't press any further, Colin and Thelma both relaxed at the same moment, and the room warmed up at once.

This time he even ate the things he used to hate right out in the open, and Marlin's parents still only watched him with faces full of love.

They fussed over him, asking after his every comfort, as if they wanted to make up for the three years of love he'd missed.

I stole a careful glance at the man, and I didn't miss the smugness and contempt in his eyes.

That night I tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Then I heard the door being pushed softly open.

The next second, the blanket beside me was pressed down hard, a burning body pressed up against me, and a hand slid in under the covers.

"Carrie, I've missed you so much."