When All is Null and Void

Chapter Thirty-Six

Danielle skipped her classes the next day to see Caleb. The day before Christmas break she wouldn't be missing anything. At seven, Danielle drove again to the boys' house and pounded on the front door for a solid minute before the two opened it up. The pallor sleep still clung to them. "Good morning!" she said brightly, walking in without waiting for an invitation. The sun still hadn't risen, and the cool air and tiny flurries of snow chased her through the door.

"What are you doing here?" Alexander yawned widely and ran a hand through his hair, which was sticking up every which way. He glanced at his watch. "It's not even 7:30."

"I'm sorry," Danielle said. "I just... needed to talk to Caleb."

"When I said I'd answered your questions..." Caleb trailed off. "Wait, did you ever go to sleep?"

Danielle shrugged. "I had coffee." She sat at one of the barstools in the kitchen and tapped her hands restlessly on the countertop. She'd been up almost the entire night, though it hadn't all been about Caleb being a time traveler. She'd been working on a twelve page research paper for her college that was due in a few hours.

"Do you want anything to eat?" Alexander asked. He walked into the kitchen and started to pull ingredients out of the cabinets and refrigerator. "Pancakes?"

Her stomach growled. "I don't want to impose," she said, though she definitely did.

Alexander leveled his eyes at her. "Waffles?" His eyebrow quirked up.

"Cinnamon waffles?" She was a little antsy with the amount of caffeine she'd taken in. Having been so determined to make it to the house, she hadn't even had a bowl of cereal.

Caleb sat down next to her at the barstools, and she noticed his shirt was inside out. He must have rolled out of bed. "I thought you guys got up at five to run?" she inquired.

Caleb lay his ringed hand on the counter. "We had an incident," he replied. His ring finger was tinged an angry red, puffed and shiny.

"What happened?" She also glanced at Alexander who was whistling while he stirred the batter. Danielle jerked her head his way and mouthed, "Does he know I know?"

"I do know," Alexander said, though he didn't look at them.

"How did you know—"

"It got too quiet." The griddle sizzled as Alexander measured globs of viscous material onto the melting butter. He turned around to face them and smiled. "I also have eyes in the back of my head."

Danielle squinted. "Is that true?"

Caleb laughed. "It's just an expression. Don't you have that in this time?"

Danielle glanced at Caleb and then Alexander. "I wasn't sure if that was some time traveler thing..."

The room delved into silence, and Danielle forced herself not to yawn as Alexander set a plate of fluffy Belgian waffles in front of her. He set syrup down as well, and she doused them in it. "Fanks," she said, mouth full.

"Caleb, do you want any?" He was already pouring more batter onto the griddle, anticipating the answer.

"Is that even a question?" Caleb said, then seemed to think it was rude. "Please," he added.

"I'm going to go on a run after I finish these. I'll let you two talk."

"You don't want to be here?" Caleb asked. He was inspecting his finger with the purpled skin.

"I expect I'm not supposed to know." Alexander said. He set a plate in front of Caleb. "When you're done, can you clean up?"

"No problem," Caleb said.