Page 49 of The Midnight Frequency

Maggie snapped closed her notebook, sighed, and looked at me.

“Isn’t the point of radio… connection?”

“At times.”

“Don’t you want to connect?”

“To what end?”

“To feel rooted in this world as it is right now. Not floating through it as it changes around you.”

“Yet it will continue to change around me.” Though, at the end of the day, human nature was frustratingly similar all throughout time.

“Yeah, of course. But don’t you miss feeling in the world? Connected to the people, places, mindsets, and culture of this time?”

“Do you feel in the world?”

She slow-blinked at me for a second.

“Sometimes.”

“Why only sometimes?”

“Well, when I’m here, I’m very much rooted. This is my circus; these are my clowns. But when I go home, I am kind of in my own little world. With books and baking and, when she’s not busy, Tess.”

“So you aren’t always in this world.”

“No, but I also didn’t get to live a hundred years ago. So when I’m reading a book set in that time, it’s like experiencing it. You already have. So why not experience this now? Before it’s gone?”

She wasn’t wrong.

The longer I lived, the more quickly each phase of human existence seemed to pass me by. I could blink, and a whole generation had disappeared—all of their quirks, passions, dreams, and hopes gone, never to be experienced firsthand again.

If I were feeling introspective, I would admit to myself that it was likely what was to blame for the detachment I’d been feeling for longer than I could remember—this relentless sensation of disconnect.

That was what led me back to radio in the first place, wasn’t it? Whether I liked to admit it or not: the desire for reconnection.

“Very well,” I said, shrugging. “I shall attempt to be more patient with the callers.”

“Great.” Her smile made her eyes spark gold. I needed not to notice things like that.

“So, we’re all settled then?”

“Settled?” she scoffed. “No. I have a whole list of… sixteen bullet points.”

“I’m afraid those are gonna have to wait, Maggs,” Jack said, making his way into the office as he took a large bite out of a meat stick. “We’re on in five.”

“Already?” she asked, checking the time, then deflating.

“We can meet again tomorrow.”

“I guess we have to. Just… try to be, you know, kind. I know you’re capable of it.”

With that, she gathered her things, nearly knocking her chair over in the process if I hadn’t reached out to steady it.

“Well, have a good show, Silas.”

“I will do everything within my power.”