An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

Over the next few months, April becomes what she hates most: a professional pundit who cares about being good on TV. April admits to the reader that she isn’t proud of the months leading to July 13, which the reader is probably anticipating. April outlines the events of the next few months through vignettes, starting with a tweet posted that day.

In February, April tries to write her book, “My Life with Carl.” Putnam tells April she loses her credibility if Peter continues being a bestselling author while she doesn’t. Though April wonders if ghostwriting is okay, Robin tells her it is not something April May would do and offers to find her a great editor. April meets with a few editors before deciding on Sylvia Stone, who points out that her story is too big and not over. April narrows her story to her desire for people to believe the Carls are a good thing rather than a nightmare, and Sylvia makes an outline for what will become a manifesto.

In March, Robin books April for an appointment at a day spa, where she hears a woman complaining, saying how disgusting it is that April discusses international relations despite being a child. April wonders about the thousands of people who hate her and have similar conversations every day.

Later that month, after April submits her book to copy editors, Peter calls on his followers, known as the Defenders, to collect data from the Dream to control the outcome, and April, Andy, Robin, and Miranda realize that none of them had been spending time in the Dream. There are 4,096 pieces of hex code that can be compiled into a vector image. They search the Wikipedia page for the completed puzzles to find a Dream expert they can trust; April admits that Maya might be “ThePurrletarian.”

She goes to see Maya, who admits that she solved four sequences the first night she had the Dream, making her a bit of a celebrity. She explains that Petrawicki can’t be in control because all complicated clues require collaboration. The Dream shows a detailed understanding of human culture, and the Defenders aren’t very culturally aware. The Dreamer community is already working on messing with the Defenders. Maya likes it because people from around the world with different worldviews work together for a common goal. She encourages the group to build their appreciation of the Carls by spending time in the Dream and going through solved sequences. That night, April works through the Arby’s puzzle. Instead of turning in the passcode, she walks until she reaches the city’s abrupt end at a field of grass. Though the grass seems infinite, she hears and sees a jet plane landing. It is the first moving object she has seen, and she follows it until she wakes up.

By the month of April, there are millions of active Dreamers who keep track of sequences and seek those with specific skills. Maya suggests that since they have the attention of more Carl aficionados than anyone else, as well as a ton of cash, they should make a platform for the Dreamer community. Miranda understands coding, the vision, and the practicality enough to lead the project. They create the Som, an app where Dreamers share their skills, projects, theories, failures, and successes, and Miranda becomes the CEO. Within weeks, the Som becomes the most-used hub for Dreamers. People from the Som continue messing with Petrawicki’s plan.

At the end of the month, April flies out to Tom’s wedding. Halfway through the rehearsal, news breaks that the US found out that the Dream passes through people like an airborne disease, and the infection spreads physically and changes people’s brains. Trying to be a good sister, April ignores her phone. When she finally picks it up, all hell has broken loose, and Defenders criticize her silence. She asks Robin to prep some talking points, wanting to change the narrative.

In May, April stands in a Barnes & Noble looking at her published book; the cover looks abstract but is a close-up shot of Carl’s shoulder. In June, April starts her book tour with Miranda, Andy, and Robin. They enjoy it until one particular incident in Michigan. Though most questions are about the Dream or crackpot theories about the Carls, a 12-year-old girl asks April about the weirdest thing that has happened to her in the Dream. When April mentions that the plane always catches her off guard, there is shuffling in the room. By a show of hands, no one has seen a plane. Then, one man asks April how it feels to be a traitor to her species for a few dollars and notoriety. Though confrontations occurred before, people start yelling, and it gets out of hand. When things show no sign of calming down, Andy and Miranda drag her off the stage.

The book tour is cancelled after the debacle, and April returns home. She is horrified because people have called the NYPD dozens of times claiming to be hostages in her apartment. To avoid nightmares, April stays in the Dream all night. Miranda adds a subscription to make the Som self-sustaining, and April’s book sells more than a million copies. Though she can retire, April doesn’t want to let the harassers win and is infatuated with her fame.

She calls Maya to discuss the incident with the Dream plane. Maya tells her that nothing in the Dream moves unless you move it, and everything is exactly the same for everyone. Maya is excited because this discovery will help them solve the Dream’s last puzzle, but she is also frustrated because April doesn’t need another sign that she is special. Maya advises April to run to the plane, look for anything unusual, learn about airplanes, and look for any broken repetition. Last but not least, she can’t try to do it on her own—it’s clear that the Carls want them to work together. That night, April finds the plane and notices the landing gear isn’t down and the plane is floating. She sees an unfamiliar logo, a gray horizontal bar with a lighter gray circle overlapping it. She tries climbing the plane and wakes up after slipping.

In July, April attends a red-carpet party after being interviewed for a documentary. On that same day, the final Dream sequence is solved. Back in her hotel room, April calls Miranda to discuss the 767 sequence. She knows that hooking up with Miranda will make life more complicated, but she is terrified of the aching loneliness. Miranda mulls over the airline logo, thinking it feels like two symbols, possibly Morse code. When they end up sleeping together, Miranda can’t believe she hooked up with April as they are all just satellites in her orbit. Then, Miranda suddenly remembers that the dot and bar resembles the Mayan numeral system, in which it would represent the number six.

By July 12, every Dream sequence except April’s secret one has been solved. People keep trying to make the hex code into something useful, but it spits out meaningless squiggles. They are missing a bit of code that unlocks the entire thing, and no one knows where it is. April is miserable because of her inability to solve the 767 sequence and can’t bring herself to share its existence. Though she is now rich and famous, April suddenly has no friends. She made everything weird with Miranda, Andy is suddenly distant, and things are rocky with Maya. She turns her frustration onto the Defenders, fighting them on social media. Putnam convinces her to have a one-on-one debate with Petrawicki on CNN. Though it is a terrible idea because he is better at talking, Putnam thinks people will still be on her side.

The debate starts with whether the Carls are dangerous. When April admits that she is fine with practicing care, Petrawicki blames her for being the reason Carl woke up and invaded their minds. April demands to know why he scares people. Petrawicki explains that they aren’t afraid; they are only asking for some common sense. April suggests that though he invokes the common sense of some, many still disagree with him. Petrawicki attacks her sexuality, asking why she has been lying about being bisexual. Having lost control of the conversation, her thoughts compete for attention like a flash-bang, and she goes catatonic. The most forgiving perspective is that she is a kid in over her head and a bully took her down, which makes neither Petrawicki nor April look good. When the presenter pushes them to commercial break, April walks outside the building and starts to cry.