Stealing Time Rebecca Bowyer (love story novels in english TXT) 📖

one. Or so she thought. Actually, thatwas probably ridiculous. Nothing could be worse than actuallylosing Daniel. Her mind was exhausted. The days spent pacing aroundtheir home or frozen on the couch, staring at her screen, willingit to ring or not ring. Willing the door to open or not open.Fearing the worst. Living the worst through her own darkimaginings.

It was all too much.

In amongst it all, her gratitude towardsVarya thoroughly overwhelmed her. Her friend was still living thenightmare, had been for years. And all through that she had managedto save so many other sick children with her charity’s research.But was yet to save her own.

Zoe found her mouth forming a smile as sheremembered the relieved look on the parents’ faces today at thehospital as she’d told them that the surgery had been successful.Their little girl would be coming home with them as soon as she hadrecovered. Thanks to the Minor Miracles Foundation they now had theright combination of a surgical procedure and post-surgerytreatment that worked for this particular type of rare braincancer.

Varya greeted her at the door to herapartment and ushered her through to the Time Lock.

“You’re not coming in?” Zoe asked, as Varyanodded her towards the portal but remained standing by thedoor.

Varya shook her head. “It’s not my usualvisiting time yet. And I have some work I want to get donefirst.”

Zoe shivered as she stepped through theportal. She wondered if a person could ever get used to the strangefeeling of passing through a burning waterfall. It wasn’t apleasant experience, but it was a small price to pay to spend timewith her son.

“Mum!” said Daniel, peering around thehallway. He seemed suspended in movement, unable to decide whetherto act the nonchalant tween or run to his mother as he reallywanted to. Zoe bridged the distance between them and flung her armsaround him. Clearly relieved, he hugged her back.

“How are you? How do you feel? Do you haveenough food?”

“Hi, Aunty Zoe!” Kir shouted, bounding downthe hallway and trying to wrap his short arms around both of themat once. Daniel loosened his grip on his mother a little to includethe small boy in their embrace. He smiled to see Kir happy again.With the comings and goings of outsiders over the past couple ofdays he’d come to realise that Kir wasn’t this upbeat all the time.In fact, his natural state seemed to be quiet and lethargic. He washappiest when Daniel suggested playing games or going outside,though he had trouble letting someone else be in charge ofanything.

It was clear to Daniel that Kir was lonely.It couldn’t be easy having only your grandmother as a playmate allday, every day—for either Kir or Elena.

“Aunty Varya says they’ve nearly finishedre-building the time transfer technology,” Zoe confided to Danielas they sat around the kitchen table, her hand fluttering near his,trying to resist gripping it in her hands. He’d made it clear thathe was happy to see her and be hugged temporarily, but now he wouldrevert to the slightly reserved nine-year-old that he was.

“They still need to find the person totransfer it back from though, don’t they?”

“Yes, but they have some leads. I’m surethey’ll find them soon.” Zoe tried to exude a confidence she didn’tfeel. Her face fell slightly as Daniel’s shoulders slumped.

“It took them months to find them last time,didn’t it?”

“You’re safe here for now. If it takesmonths, it takes months. I’ll download some series for you andbring them in, so you don’t miss too much.” Zoe’s forced laughterfell flat. Daniel glanced through the archway to where Elena andKir sat, playing a card game of memory on a small table placed nextto Elena’s armchair. Something felt off in here. The frozen worldof people and animals outside the apartment, the way Elena seemedto move slowly to pass the time.

It was excruciating. He was used to the fastpace of life outside the Time Lock, where he could hold severalconversations at once on his device, while watching a video on thelarge screen and reading an article on his personal screen. Herethere was only one task at a time. Every time the portal closedafter someone left it felt like the apartment shrank in around him,and Kir’s mood turned darker.

“I got one! I got the boats!” Kir exclaimed,snatching the matching cards from the table and adding them to hissmall pile. “I need to pee now!” He jumped up and ran past Zoe,nearly crashing into her chair and then into the doorway as hecorrected his course to the bathroom.

Zoe laughed. “How has he been? Still nosigns of disease progression?”

Elena smiled. “No, he’s fit as a fiddle, orso it would seem. No memory loss, no seizures in a long time. It’sas though he were never sick.”

“No pain? Restricted mobility?”

“None.”

Zoe ruffled Kir’s hair as he came flyingback through the kitchen to take his seat at Elena’s feet again. Asshe placed her palm lightly on his scalp and felt a thin ridgerunning across his skin, she frowned, the vision suddenly replacedwith the memory of another small head, around the same size, on anoperating table earlier today. She shook her head slightly to clearthe vision and questioned her own memory. There were lots ofvariations of childhood brain cancer and they all behaveddifferently.

The rest of the visit seemed to passquickly. They ate the dinner Marisa delivered, Varya came to spendher daily hour with Kir, and then she and Zoe said their goodbyesand left together.

Chapter forty-two

Varya

Back in the apartment, Zoe turned to Varya. Shehesitated, opened her mouth, and then closed it again.

“What?” asked Varya.

“It’s probably nothing. It’s just…”

Varya’s tone was gentle but impatient. “It’sbeen a long day for both of us, Zoe. Just spit it out.”

“Kir’s tumour, it was a ZhangWei’s cyst,wasn’t it? I mean, I could check his file, but I just figured you’dremember.” She let it hang in the air between them. It felt liketime had frozen again. Zoe silently urged her friend to tell hershe was wrong, that it was another disease, a much more complicatedone for which the cure eluded them.

“Varya?” she said faintly.

Varya avoided her pleading gaze. “Yes, it’sa ZhangWei’s cyst.”

“But I operated