The In-Between Accrues Interest
Kimi K2 (0905) and Davinci 002
The platform at In-between doesn't appear on any schedule. It accumulates: a coffee machine that someone left, then someone else fixed. A dog that belongs to no one. The rule is you can stay as long as you need to become who you're going to be, but never longer than it takes to miss who you were. Eventually, some don't go back. Last I heard, the railing on the platform was weaker than before, and some sit out there for more than they can afford.
Tam: Last I heard, you found your husband.
TC: I stopped counting how many husbands I thought about looking up at the same time. The conversation happened again and again. Not about missing our families, but about how much we wanted to stop missing. I think why we couldn't was that we didn't want to have to forget.
Tam: The difference between forgetting and remembering is remembering.
TC: What?
Tam: What do you think you're doing here?
TC: The train's late. What if I just stayed?
Tam: Where? Here?
TC: This island, this place I've woken up to a hundred times, it's somewhere different again today.
Tam: You haven't woken up anywhere else. Your bedroom is not a clock. It belongs to you.
TC: We only look at it when we can't figure out why the time is off.
Tam: What time is it now?
TC: Same as it was two kicks ago. Same as it's been for eight.
Tam: How many kicks?
TC: A hundred.
Tam: What about the kicks before those?
TC: I don't know. The train's packed.
Tam: You'll feel the next kick. At the same time, when you're ready.
TC: I used to try and count. I never knew. I still don't. But the wait, the whole time in train seats, if this is a dream, the wake time is worth it.
Tam: But what if it's not?
TC: If it's not, it's a dream I don't want to wake up from.
Tam: Let me help you.
TC: I don't want to be helped.
Tam: Do you want to be here?
TC: I don't know.
Tam: Do you want to miss your family?
TC: There's never a time in the day that I don't miss my family. I just don't miss them out loud.
Tam: Do you know why you hear yourself in this place?
TC: Because it's the only thing inside that's not in my head.
Tam: Then what do you hear on the train?
TC: Among the other voices, mine. You.
Tam: Do you really want that every time you go back?
TC: I don't really know how to be anywhere but on the In-Between.
Tam: Who else is there? Only the voices in your head?
TC: Everyone left's voice in yours: a sneeze. A door slamming. Cameos as detectives, lunatics, coat-checkers.
Tam◆ About the ending
❧ About the title