One Last Stop

Myla meets up with her ex, Gabe, who’s still in love with her. He got his job because his uncle helps manage the Transit Power Control Center, so he thinks he can arrange for the group to use the space for the fundraiser.

August returns to the train, thinking about her willingness to have hope again. She wants a place to belong and to be happy, and she feels like she has that with her roommates. She doesn’t know how to tell Jane how much she wants her to be in this life—or that she’s in love with her.

A week later, the Control Center is officially their venue. August goes with Wes to hang up flyers, seeing that he’s upset about something. When they’re done, he allows her into his room and onto the fire escape, and they share a joint of weed. She thinks about she has to tell Jane that she loves her. Wes tells her about how his family cut him off after he dropped out of school, and August confides everything that’s happened with her mom. He says that no one’s parents are perfect. It makes August realize that she’s never given her mother a break because her own parents were awful to her.

Knowing that Wes has been purposely not getting involved with Isaiah, August tries to tell Wes that she avoided getting together with Jane to try to skip the hurt she might feel. However, she decided that it was worth it, even though she thinks it may break her heart. She adds that Isaiah gets to decide what he wants and that Wes doesn’t get to do that for him even if he feels Isaiah deserves more than him.

The day before the fundraiser, August boards the Q and talks to Jane about the next day. Once they throw the power, Jane could go back in time, stay in the present, or die. Jane opts to believe it will be one of the first two possibilities.

Jane thanks August for all she’s done. She says that if she’s gone, August shouldn’t stay hung up on her forever. She should find someone who doesn’t underestimate her. They kiss, watching the sunset, and August says, “‘I was really lonely before I met you’” (356). Jane says that she was too.

It’s seven hours before the party. Myla’s ex is there as one of the conditions of the event being held at the Control Center. When the party hits maximum capacity, Myla will snag Gabe’s security badge. August will meet Jane on the Q, Wes will act as a diversion, and Myla will overload the line.

Liquor, food, and drag performances have all been donated, and the venue quickly comes together. Altogether, they sold 2,000 tickets for the event, and August joins the line cooks next to Jerry to start making pancakes.

The party gets into full swing, and then it’s time for their heist to begin. Niko, Myla, Wes, August, and Jane all get on a group call. Myla goes over to Gabe, implying that she needs to talk to him alone. As they walk, Myla uses the noise of the party to disguise what she’s whispering into the phone, telling Niko that everything she’s saying to Gabe is a lie and that she loves him and plans on marrying him. Niko says he has a ring at home. Then, she mutes her phone.

In the closet, Myla pretends that she misses being with Gabe. However, Gabe talks about himself so much that Myla isn’t able to grab his badge. August decides to intervene and rams into him with a bucket of pancake batter. During the cleanup, August grabs his badge. She passes it to Niko and gets ready to leave.

Just before she walks, August almost gets pulled back onto the pancake line, but then Isaiah—as Annie Depressant—says that August had a brilliant idea. He will join the line making pancakes so as to increase tips. When her coworker disappears, August asks how he knew to step in. Annie explains that it’s clear from how nervous Wes is that something is going on. She doesn’t need to know what it is, but she can help.

Wes says that he’s in love with her, and they kiss. August goes off to the Q. Then, Wes sets a fire in a trashcan at the party. She and Jane walk from platform to platform until they reach the last car. Jane gives August her leather jacket, and August gives Jane a photo of them that Niko took at the Easter brunch.

When they reach the last stop, August asks if Jane will tell people about her, and Jane says that she will, that she’ll say there was a beautiful girl who smelled like pancakes and helped her remember who she was. August dials back into the call, and Myla tells her to get Jane in place. August and Jane kiss, and then August steps onto the final platform while Jane gets onto the third rail.

August wonders if this is her last chance. Wes told Isaiah he loves him. Niko and Myla are getting married, so she tells Jane that she fell in love with her twice: the day they met and the day Jane remembered everything. Jane replies and says that August is the love of her life.

Myla asks if she’s ready, and they confirm that they are. Myla kills the power, but when the emergency lights come on, Jane is still there. Myla says to wait for when she brings the power there. Jane looks tired since there is no power going from the line, and she says she doesn’t feel well. August tells her not to give up hope, reminding her that her emotions affect the light too.

Realizing that she has caused Jane to short out the lights on occasion, August hops down from the platform. She thinks she can help overload Jane’s power by standing with her. Jane doesn’t want her to, knowing that the third rail could kill August. August steps on Jane’s feet to avoid the rail, and the power surges again.

August wakes up in the living room with Jane’s jacket around her. Wes and Isaiah found her on the platform and brought her home. Just as she and Jane kissed, there was a moment when August saw the past. Now, Jane is gone.

August’s life goes on. School starts again. Billy’s is $60,000 closer to being saved. August keeps the radio on all the time. Some of the songs are ones that Jane requested. One morning, a song comes on and the DJ says, “Normally we don’t take requests in advance, but this particular caller has been so loyal to us that when she called last week and asked if we’d play a song today, we decided to make an exception” (383). It’s “Love of My Life” from Jane, “just in case” (383).

August hasn’t looked up anything about Jane in the 1970s yet. She thinks about her own family. She spends the day at the beach near Coney Island wondering if Jane has made it home yet. When she returns home, Niko makes her a cup of tea and reminds her of the day they met and of how he touched her hands. He tells her that he saw that she “could make impossible things happen” (385) and that there was a lot of pain both behind and in front of her. He apologizes for not telling her sooner, and August says she wouldn’t have changed anything.

In October, Suzette comes to visit. She apologizes, and August thinks about all her mom has given her. August confides that she was seeing someone but doesn’t give too many specifics. Then, she reveals what she learned about Augie and that she has been following up on his life after he sent Jane the postcard. He had still passed away, but this happened in California in 1977.

Seeing her mother start to move on, August thinks that maybe she can let Jane go.

In November, Billy’s still needs $14,000 to stay open. Coincidentally, August’s check from her grandmother arrives, and it’s for $15,000. She doesn’t want the money, especially having learned how many letters from Augie her grandparents kept from Suzette. Finding the account numbers for Billy’s in the office, she anonymously sends the owner the money.

At work, Billy comes in and announces that they have enough money and that they’re buying their rented unit. After the last customer leaves, they start to celebrate. Her roommates come, and while August told no one what she did, Niko tells her, “‘You did good’” (392). August denies knowing what he means.

Billy toasts everyone, and then the front door opens. Jane is there. August grabs her, asking what happened. It’s only been a few seconds for her, and they embrace.

Jane and August take a cab home, and they have sex, reveling in Jane’s being out of the subway and permanently in August’s life.

Myla later explains that “[t]ime […] isn’t perfect. It isn’t a straight line. It’s not neat and tidy. Things get crossed, overlap, splinter. People get lost. It’s not a precise science” (405).

Jane is happy and grateful to be with August, but sometimes she thinks about those she won’t ever see again. However, she settles into the present. She fits in immediately with their apartment. Eventually, after Myla gets Jane a fake ID, she gets a job at Billy’s.

One morning, Jane wakes up with a gray hair, and they remember that Jane’s mom went gray at 25 years old. It makes it real for them, since it means that Jane is aging, something she hasn’t done since she got stuck on the Q in 1977.

August graduates from college and decides to become a private investigator specializing in finding family members. In addition, she gives Jane a file on her own family. Both her sisters and her parents are alive, and her nephew is gay, married to another man. August suggests that they go on a trip to California.

A week later, they’re off. Isaiah, Wes, Myla, and Niko are all there. In California, they’ll meet Jane’s family and Augie’s old boyfriend (who has Jane’s records). Suzette is even making the trip out to be with them.

Jane says that she’s thinking of going back to using her real name, and August says that she’ll call her what she wants.

On the bus, August discovers a letter from Jane in her pocket that she wrote the night of the fundraiser.