Chapter 77

Besides helping the Network, I have unfinished business. In Manchester there are labs to visit. I don't want to meet a copy of myself 260 years from now. I don't want the shell of Kara to have to go on. I need to be certain that there are no more. I have more business in Andover. I never thought much of cemeteries before, but maybe those are the real places of closure, not an office where your past is swept into a trash can. And then in Boston, before I find the person who needs my help, there are cab rides to take where I will share stories about Escape and a Bot named Dot Jefferson, a Bot who had dreams and hopes. I may have started out as part of a dusty forgotten inheritance, but like Dot, I have dreams and hopes too. I want to become more.

I travel light. My few possessions fit in the pack on my back, and I have a long way to go.

It's a journey, Locke. A long one. How was I to know how long it could be?

Jenna drives me to the station and walks me to the gate. She takes my hand and slips something into my palm. I look down at a piece of frosted green glass. "It's the other eye of Liberty," she says. "Lily said it was out there somewhere, and if we looked hard enough, we would find it. I think she'd want you to have it."

I close my fingers around the small piece of glass. "Now I just need to find the first one again, don't I?"

She smiles. Neither one of us can say more. She stands on tiptoe and kisses my cheek. I turn and walk to the platform just as the train arrives. I look back and wave. It's all I can do not to run to her. Her hand rises slowly and then closes into a fist, like she doesn't want to say good-bye either. But I know she's right. There's still so much I need to know, a world I need to live in, a life I still need to live.

Picture yourself five years from now, son. Where do you want to be? Remember that. Every day. That's how you'll get there.

Maybe in five years. I pat my pocket where my new ID is tucked away. She smiles and nods.

Focus on the goal.

I do. For Dot. For Bone. For Kara. For Miesha. For someone I haven't even met yet. Maybe even for my dad. And for me. A boy. A man. A something. I'm going to find out.

The wind of the train whips at my coat. I rub the worn piece of green glass between my fingers and tuck it into my pocket and then wave to Jenna one last time, maybe my last time ever. I can almost see Kara standing there beside her, waving back to me too. We held hands. We crossed a line. We made one another braver. They made me braver.

And I step onto the train.