The River of No Return

shitty system and there’s nothing we can do about it.” She smiled, her pleasure in her own brilliance shining from her. “Isn’t that awesome?”
    After a long silence, Miss Blomgren spoke quietly. “That’s very impressive, actually.”
    Peter opened her hands as if she were releasing a bird. “I know! I know, I know!”
    Miss Blomgren laughed and held out her arms, and Peter jumped into them and was hugged.
    Julia bit her lip, forgetting for a moment that Miss Blomgren was Nick’s lover. What would it feel like to have a mother who loved you? Who hugged you when you were clever?
    When Miss Blomgren pulled away from hugging Peter there was a smile in her voice. “You are an amazing creature, my dear. You and your friends down through time. Do they all dress like you?”
    Peter bristled. “Of course they don’t dress like me, God, Alva. They’re from different eras. When are you going to get it through your head that I look normal in my own time?”
    “You forget that I have been to the 1980s and I know you lie. Plus, I am driven by forces beyond my control to tease you about it. I think it’s because you bring out the auntie in me.”
    Peter clearly liked this scolding. “It’s okay.” She scuffed a heel back and forth.
    Miss Blomgren stepped away. “Good now, let’s try to figure out a story to tell these two young ladies about you when I start time up again.”
    “Wait!” The girl grabbed up the two flat wooden sticks and held them up to show that they were, in fact, one stick that had been snapped down the middle. “Just one more thing. This,” she said, her voice taking on a pedantic edge, “is a tally stick. This one’s from England but they were a really big deal in China, too. You notch it to show how much is owed, then you break it in half, and the borrower keeps one half and the lender keeps the other. It’s just like a symbolon, but it’s never about friendship—it’s all about debt. And guess what? It’s the precursor of paper money.” She grabbed up the slip of green paper and shook it at Alva. “Benjamins! Which in turn symbolize real gold, which is valuable because everyone agrees it is. Or rather, they do until 1971, when they get rid of the gold standard, and the whole thing just becomes fantasy! Get it?”
    “No.” Miss Blomgren glanced at Bella and Julia; she was clearly worried about how long she could keep time frozen and continue to concentrate on what Peter was saying. “You’re back in Never Never Land, Peter.”
    “But it’s back to emotions,” Peter said. “Don’t you see? Gold had this collectively agreed-upon value, so people with lots of money were like, ‘My paper symbolizes that gold and that symbolic relationship between my paper and that gold makes me feel rich.’ After 1971, when Richard Nixon is like, ‘Let’s just all admit money is a fantasy,’ people had to be like, ‘Dude, I just feel rich because I feel rich!’” Peter’s words tumbled from her mouth. “See? There’s no middleman for them to rest their fantasy on! Nixon was just like, ‘Oh, my God, I can make everybody’s feelings do the work, instead of gold! Everyone will just pretend!’”
    Pretend. That word. Julia was lost in Peter’s story, drowning in it—but she grabbed on to that word.
    Miss Blomgren sighed. “This is crazy, Peter. And what in the name of all that’s holy does it have to do—”
    “Nineteen seventy-one!” Peter shouted. “It’s after that, Alva! After that it starts getting hard to jump forward! By the twenty-first century it’s actively difficult and from there on out you have to be really talented to get anywhere. But it starts in 1971. That’s when the future starts turning into a big ugly scar!” She stopped talking and stood with her arms crossed, grinning at Alva.
    “Are you done?”
    “Yes, I’m done.”
    Alva shook her head. “You had me up until Nixon and the gold standard, Peter. I know you know everything about the late twentieth century, but you need to learn about 1815. There’s no gold standard right now, you ignoramus. When they aren’t arguing about the Corn Laws, the politicians are fighting over money, and how to make it have any meaning. There won’t be a secure gold standard for a few more decades.” Miss Blomgren crossed her arms and smiled triumphantly at the girl. “This, Peter, is why I think you should go back to America, go back to 1987, finish high school and go to college. Double major in economics