her joy , she thought , had sprung a leak . her seemingly chilly stare was probably because she was shell-shocked and terrified . time , she explained , does n't flow in a line with the past on one side of the present and the future on the other side . i should have trusted him enough to know that he would have never asked me to come with him if he was n't certain that it would be a safe thing for me to do . he shifted his grip on the lever and threw his whole weight against it . 