The Return
Page 23
“I’ll keep it with me forever,” he said. “But I want more than that.”
“What do you want?”
He smiled and looked her in the eyes. “I want to see for myself why they call you ‘goddess.’ I want a miracle.”
She stared back at him for a moment without saying anything, and he feared she was going to say what she’d always said, that her power was beyond his abilities to comprehend.
But she didn’t this time.
Instead, she smiled.
There was a small, round elevated platform in the center of the room, and she stepped onto it and motioned for him to join her. He walked over and got on, as well, and then it suddenly began to rise, extending upward from the floor. He looked up at the dome ceiling above them, and the retractable shutter began to open up, revealing the stars. The two of them continued their ascent until they had passed through the opening and were outside, at which point the platform stopped ascending and kept them in place, level with the top of the dome.
They stood there, wordlessly, surrounded by the night sky, and the night sky was like nothing Leland had ever seen. In every direction, there were glittering masses of colorful interstellar dust and gas, nebulae, magical and kaleidoscopic, and there were star clusters everywhere, like pink and blue and yellow and green snowflakes, and spiral galaxies all around that looked like giant neon Frisbees.
In the far distance was a dark gray cloud of what he assumed to be gas, and she was staring at it with the most intense expression he’d ever seen on her or anyone. Suddenly, as if by magic, the cloud began to move, to swirl, collapsing in on itself and taking on an increasingly circular form as its gravity pooled more and more gas into the great whirlpool of its center.
And, as he watched, that swirling center began to visibly heat up, the colors of the gas moving about inside of it shifting from black and gray to orange and yellow.
Andrew Leland, world-famous physicist, knew very well what he was seeing even if he couldn’t quite believe it. The heat was now going to reach eighteen million degrees, and the hydrogen atoms would combine and form helium.
Nuclear fusion.
He turned to look at her, standing so still in her brilliant violet robe. Her green eyes, trancelike, remained fixed on the events taking place within the center of the collapsing cloud. He knew that she was controlling everything. Whether by sheer will or some other way far beyond his innately human ability to grasp, she was making all of this happen. He turned back to the cloud just in time to witness the inevitable cosmic explosion of nuclear energy and the birth of a brand-new shining star.
He didn’t try to fight the tears. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. Soon, he knew, the gas and dust from the former cloud would begin to spread out and away from the star, giving it space, clearing the way for it to shine brightly and freely for the next several billion years.
He turned back to her, and now she was looking right at him. That trancelike expression was gone, her eyes were suddenly soft, and her only focus was him. He opened his arms and let them enfold her, and she put her arms around him, as well.
They knew that he should be going, that every second counted now. But they continued to hold each other. They could both already feel the distance of the light-years that would soon separate them and the even greater distance that would exist between who they each were. And so they didn’t want to let go.
In a universe of infinite time and space, they never should have come together to begin with, this strange and unlikely pair. But they had, a goddess and a man, though in this moment, really no more than two lonely souls, clinging to each other amid a great and mighty storm of moons and stars and worlds, untold secrets and mysteries, desperately trying, for just a little while longer, to keep it from pulling them apart.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Although it would be impossible to individually thank everyone who helped with this book, this comes close. First, thanks to my editor, the insanely talented Brendan Deneen, who believed in this story when it was a three-line idea and expertly guided it into becoming an actual book. Thanks, as well, to my associate editor, Nicole Sohl, and the entire team at St. Martin’s Press, including Thomas Dunne, Kenneth J. Silver, and Cameron Jones. Kudos, also, to my eagle-eyed copy editors, Sara and Chris Ensey, and to David Curtis on his spectacular cover design.
I’m incredibly fortunate to be represented by the amazing and dedicated MacKenzie Fraser-Bub of Fraser-Bub Literary. Many thanks to her, and thanks also to the folks at Trident Media, especially Scott Miller and Chelsea Grogan.
In developing this story, I harassed countless people for feedback, but benefited especially from conversations with Murray Young, Jeffrey Helmreich, Joshua Halpern, Ronen Verbit, Ronn Blitzer, Joseph Fruchter, Mordechai Juni, Elliot Schimel, Brandon Gold, Esther Friedman, Leo Helmreich, Charlotte Wendel, Alessandro DiGiovanna, Kalman Honig, Jessica Schechter, David Steiner, Rivka Schwarcz, Joshua Werber, Leora Botnick, Daniel Friedman, Joshua Saidlower, Paul Marcus, Nathaniel Fintz, Elana Lehrer, Ari Gilder, and Vinnie Rothberg. I’m particularly indebted to the following early readers: Robert Knepper, Diane Kolatch, Greg Starr, Ryan Pliner, Alexandra Elbaum, and especially Deborah Halpern. I’m also grateful to Yonah Lemonik, Adam Solomon, Lt. Col. Yaakov Bindell, and Rebecca Weiser for their technical expertise, and to Bernard Velinsky and Jill Silverman, early literary mentors. A special thanks goes to Terry Steiner, Nadja Rutkowski, Yvette Mang, Myrna Gabriel, David Tse, and everyone else in the wonderful TSI family. And I could never have made it to the finish line without the uninterrupted peace provided by The Writers Room.
Last but not least, thanks to two more early readers of the manuscript: William and Helaine Helmreich, great writers and even better parents, whose love, support, and endless encouragement were indispensable in the writing of this book. Love you guys!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JOSEPH HELMREICH has contributed writing to Every Day Fiction and New York Press and is the coauthor of Warring Parents, Wounded Children, and the Wretched World of Child Custody. He is a graduate of Rutgers University, where he studied philosophy and film, and spent his early twenties working or interning on film and television projects, such as Garden State, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, before becoming a script-reader for the Weinstein Company, an experience that helped inspire him to become an author. In addition to his writing, Helmreich is also a voice-over actor, illustrator, ventriloquist, and member of the alternative folk duo Honeybrick. He lives in New York City and works in film distribution. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Acknowledg
ments
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.
THE RETURN. Copyright © 2017 by Joseph Helmreich. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.thomasdunnebooks.com
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by David Curtis
Cover photographs: man © Paolo Martinez/Arcangel Images; beam of light © Shaunl/Getty Images; treeline © Jannis Tobias Werner/Shutterstock.com; glass © Antonov Roman/Shutterstock.com
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-05219-3 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-5350-8 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781466853508
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First Edition: March 2017