Jake shook his head. “I don’t think we’re really gone there. I think right now we’re outside of it. Outside of time and the world. It doesn’t make sense any other way,” he pointed out. “I think … we get back, somehow, and then it’s like things never changed. I’ll be in the car, and Roland will be next to me, and Oy will be in my lap, and … maybe I won’t even remember the train.”
“‘olan,” Oy repeated, his expression clouding briefly as he looked troubled. Well, as troubled as a bumbler could. It was forgotten quick enough as his ears splayed slightly when Kaylee stroked his head. “Ka,” he assured her, blinking once more before flopping down by her feet.
All things serve the beam, Jake thought, but aloud he said, “I guess everything happens for a reason. Maybe this is part of it, somehow,” he said, though he doubted that, still. This was something else. This was something that wasn’t related to his story. Not directly, and not even sideways like that mess in the middle had been. This had nothing to do with the Man in Black or the writer, he was sure of it.