David, Anna, and Jamie huddled around the computer, trying to make sense of the graphs. They brought up timelines of various occurrences in Pine Valley, and the lifelines of various Pine Valley residents. Each had a confused expression and knit brow.
"There must be a formula-- a formula that Erica knows-- to figure out how people in PineValley are aging-- some quickly, some slowly... and if you know it, I bet you can manipulate this somehow... to avoid the appearance of aging..." Anna's voice tapered off and the lines on her brow deepened.
Jamie shook his head. "I'm usually pretty good with computer stuff, but this is beyond me."
Anna shook her head.
David shrugged.
Babe sat on the couch and blew on her freshly painted nails to dry them.
"Well, it's kinda like math, isn't it?" she said. "I'm not good at math. Do you know anyone that's good at math?"
Anna shook her head. "This is far too complex-- you'd need a computer program of some sort just to--"
Jamie cut her off. "Babe, you're brilliant!" he said.
"I know," Babe said cheerfully, waving her fingers rapidly.
"I know just how to solve this," Jamie went on. "But... Hayward... you'll have to get rid of those red blankets.. and anything else red in the room..."
Forty minutes later, Jamie returned, a tall blonde teenager in tow. Her hair was tousled, and her eyes moved dartingly about the room, taking in everything but the people.
"You know Lily, Anna," said David, extending a hand to indicate the girl. "Jackson's daughter." He glanced at Jamie curiously,
wondering why he'd brought in Lily.
Lily flinched ever so slightly at the motion of David's hand. "I don't like to touch people," said Lily matter-of- factly, looking
over David's shoulder to the mantelpiece.
"Hello, Lily," said Anna cautiously, quietly checking to see if her cell phone was turned off.
"I remember you," said Lily, still staring at the mantelpiece. "You came to my school."
"You did?" David asked Anna quietly.
"Mmm-hmm" Anna answered. "And I know Lily is very good at math."
"And how exactly will that help us here--" began David darkly. He and Anna were speaking quietly, but Lily caught the words, glanced for the slightest second at David, then back at the mantle. "If you raise that 1.729 degrees then you won't have to balance the frame of that picture against the wall like that. It will stand by itself."
"Over here, Lily" said Jamie. "It's a puzzle. We're having trouble solving it."
"Oh, I'm good at puzzles, " said Lily, a smile widening on her face. She sat down at the computer and studied the screen a moment, hand on the mouse.
Anna leaned over and whispered to David. "Wow... I don't remember her talking like this. Jackson's made a lot of progress with her..."
"I help Aiden with puzzles." Lily went on. "I'm his very good partner."
"Maybe too much progress," Anna said almost under her breath, causing a small smirk to flicker over David's face. She was silent a moment. "I'm going to have to have a talk with my nephew."
David, Anna, and Jamie watched Lily totally absorbed with the information on the computer. She tapped a few numbers on the keyboard, gave the mouse a few clicks. Despite his skepticism, David began to study the screen. All the figures made sense, but how on earth could Lily calculate all those variables?
Babe was trying to get the tilted picture on the mantelpiece to stay up. It kept slipping over.
"I said you need to raise the mantle 1.729 degrees." said Lily, not looking at Babe. "On the left side," she added . "Then it will
stand up. You can't make it stand without leaning it unless you change the mantle. It's probably because the house has settled." She clicked the mouse a few more times, and smiled suddenly. "Here it is." she said simply.
"You figured out Erica's age?" said Babe suddenly, coming over to the computer.
"No. Do you want Erica's age? I can get that for you in a minute. But here's why the house has settled so much on that one side. See? The time is different there, in that corner."
"What?" said David incredulously.
"Yes-- just there. Actually, time moves pretty slowly in here."
"That explains a lot" muttered Anna under her breath. She moved closer to Lily, leaned in, and looked intently at the computer. "Yes- - yes." She said. When Lily flinched a little, she drew back. "Lily," she went on, "Can you explain this to me? This ... map.. you put over the other map of Pine Valley?"
"Yes," said Lily. "It's really simple. It's a map of temporal anomalies going through the town." She pointed at one green
line. "See that? These are like waves, but they are time waves. In different parts of town, time speeds up or slows down. There is a pattern. And there..." she pointed to one area. "That's Wildwind. A big thread of fast time just went through there." She knit her brow. But not through all of it..."
Jamie leaned over. "Yeah, I see that now!" he said. "I think it just went through Maddie's bedroom."
"Lily," said Anna sweetly, smiling at the girl, whose eyes darted nervously to her face and away again. "Can you figure out this
pattern? Do the time waves have any pattern at all?"
"Yes, " said Lily. "If you give me a minute I can get you the formula"
"And--" said Anna. "If someone had this formula... could they figure out a persons timeline? How old they would be?"
"Yes," said Lily. "If you know where the person was and what they were doing, you can figure out which threads were moving, you ought to be figure out how old they are. I can do this puzzle. I'll find the formula." A little self pleased smile flashed over her face, but her eyes remained intently on the screen.
"See," she went on. "I put me in there. There aren't any of the time disturbances where I went to school and my line is pretty
straight."
"Can you put Jamie in?" asked Anna.
"Yes, here. See? A couple of big waves went through there... see the lines? His timeline is longer than mine, even though the actual calendar time in Pine Valley is the same. So there was some fast time in his timeline."
She stopped, her eyes widened, and she broke into a big smile. "I'm older than Bianca!" she said.
"What about Erica," said David suddenly.
Lily clicked the mouse a few more times. "Here. I can write down the formula for you, and you can figure out anyone's age," she said. "Erica's... hers is just like the song."
