“Just sit. Let’s talk.”
He remains pressed against the stairway for a few more seconds. Then, instead of doing what his grandmother asked, he bolts for the front door. But as his hand reaches for the knob, a voice calls out from the kitchen hallway. “You should sit.”
It’s easy to guess what goes through Kane’s mind as he freezes, hand in midair. The voice is familiar. Too familiar. A voice that should never be talking to him.
Slowly he turns back to the room, and looks at the man standing in the entrance to the hall. A man who looks exactly like him.
“Please, Vincent,” Lidia says, motioning to the couch again.
“This is…this is some kind of trick,” the Kane at the front door says.
The other Kane steps into the living room. “No trick. I’m you. Or, rather, you’re me, since I’m a few months older.”
“A few months…” This additional information is too much. Younger Kane falls against the door and slides down to the hardwood floor.
Older Kane and I go to him and help him over to the sofa. The senior grandson then goes into the kitchen and returns with a cup of water.
Today is April 4, 2015.
It’s the day Kane witnessed his much younger grandmother grab me near the pier in San Diego and disappear as she initiated a jump. And at that moment, he realized the stories written in the journal he’d found—Lidia’s journal—were true.
In the timeline lived by older Kane, he returns this night, shows her the journal, and describes what he saw in San Diego. Though she tells him he should forget it, this is the night he decides to use the instructions in the journal to save his younger grandmother.
Since I mapped out how I would reverse all the problems Lidia caused, I’ve known I needed to return to this very day. It would be the best point to stop Kane and ensure there’s no chance the problem will ever repeat. Bringing older Kane with me was a last-minute alteration, but one that’s already paying off.
We arrived in the afternoon, while younger Kane was in San Diego. I went inside the house first, hoping Lidia would be receptive to my presence. I needn’t have worried. Though she didn’t quite greet me as an old friend, her smile had genuine warmth and regret for her past treatment of me. I brought in older Kane and told her the same story I’d told him. I even let her know about the many versions of her I left stranded on Lidia Island and the two times I had to take her life.
She had no doubt I was telling the truth, and was both angry and ashamed at the actions of her younger self. These emotions, though, were balanced with relief that I was able to restore everything.
Younger Kane sets his now empty glass on the coffee table and looks at me. “I just saw you.”
“You did, but that Denny’s almost two years younger than I am.”
He huffs as if I’ve told him a joke.
“Is it so hard to believe? You saw your grandmother today, too, and she was, what, sixty years younger that she is now?”
“Almost seventy,” Lidia says.
“All right. Sure. I-I-I guess that makes sense. What I don’t understand is why you’re here.”
Lidia leans forward and touches the arm of the sofa since she can’t reach her grandson. “Oh, honey. They’re here to keep you from doing something stupid.”
For the third time, I tell my story, older Kane confirming the parts he knows, and Lidia doing the same about the mental state she was in after I’d banished her to the past.
When we’re done, younger Kane looks at his grandmother. “You don’t want me to go back and change your destiny?”
“My destiny?” She laughs, and then whispers to me, “Help me up.”
Gently, I help her to her feet.
She shuffles over and sits next to younger Kane. “Sweetheart, you’ve already changed my destiny. If you go back and give…her the chaser, I’ll never see you grow up. I’ll never hold your hand while your mom pulls a sliver out of your finger. I’ll never make Christmas cookies with you. I’ll never watch you graduate from high school or college. I’ll never have you here to take care of me when I’m older. You’ll take the best years I’ve ever had. This is my destiny.”
I don’t think anyone notices when I slip out of the room. What I do know is, my problems with Lidia and her grandson(s) are over for good.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
JOVAN SITS ON a fallen tree, eating an apple.
He cocks his head when he sees me. “What took you so long?”
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” I say, smirking.
From his perspective, I’ve been gone only five minutes.
“Are you done this time? Or is this just another visit?”
“Almost done. But you can come with me for the rest.”
His smile fades a little. “Is…is my time gone?”
I nod.
Though he’s known it would happen, and said he’d be fine with it, the true loss is hitting him now. Everything he knows is gone, and soon he will be almost as clueless in my adopted world as I was in his.
But at least he’ll have me around to guide him.
__________
I CAN NOW no longer ignore the problem I’ve been avoiding since I decided it best to deal with 1952 Kane at Owens Lake. Actually, I’ve been avoiding it for longer than that, since I first started thinking about how I would fix everything.
How am I going to reunite with Iffy and my sister?
The logical time to do it would have been back in 1952, when I could have popped into Lidia’s house right after she jumped with me into the past. Iffy would have been there waiting for me to come back. Kane would have been there, too, but he wouldn’t have been a problem because he’d have just tossed the younger me the slaved chaser so I could follow Lidia.
The issue would’ve been Leonard, Lidia’s giant of an assistant, who’d have been none too thrilled about being left behind at the last moment. Maybe I could have figured out a way to get the advantage on him, but it would’ve been so easy for something to go wrong.
No, the smart play was to get Kane at Owens Lake. I told myself I’d worry about getting back with my girlfriend later.
It’s later now, and I still don’t have an answer.
Iffy here in 2015 has a Denny with her already, and neither of them knows anything about Kane or young Lidia’s plan. I’ve removed that obstacle from their timeline. What am I supposed to do? Walk up to the younger me and say, “Hey, sorry, man, but you need to get lost because you’re in my place”?
I could try the meld theory—jump to someplace other Denny jumps at the same time and hope we become one. But I don’t know if that would work, and even if it does, whose memories survive? Both of ours? Only one? Which one?
Over the next few weeks, Jovan and I spy on younger me and Iffy as they go about their days. It’s strange observing their relationship like this. Their love for each other is evident even from my hidden vantage point. The looks they give each other that their partner never sees. The casual way they touch each other. And, perhaps most of all, the way they laugh, carefree and easy.
What if, in my attempt to regain my place, I ruin it all?
Finally I admit what has been building inside me all along: I would rather live with the heartache of not being with Iffy if I know she’s happy with my younger self.
It’s time to move on.
__________
A MONTH. TWO months. Half a year.
Jovan and I explore the globe together.
Wanting to put as much space as possible between myself, Iffy, and her Denny, we do this in 2018, since that’s as far forward in time as my life years will allow us to go. Yes, Iffy and her Denny are here, too. I’ve checked just enough to know they’re still together, and that my sister is cancer-free now. The three-year difference, despite the fact I haven’t actually experienced them, helps ease the heartache.
Jovan is a good companion, and he’s learned enough English to get by on his own when he wants to. He’s actually becoming decent
at multiple languages, since his native Gaulish is related to several here.
Though it’s easy to journey with him, we get sick of each other, too, and occasionally head off on our own for a few days or weeks.
It’s on one of these solo trips, at a stop near the Guadalquivir river in Spain, that a thought hits me. It’s sparked by a mention in a hotel brochure that the river is where Magellan began his voyage around the world, an event I witnessed during my training. I’m probably deluding myself again, but what could it hurt to check?
__________
JUNE 20, 2015, right before three p.m. I have just walked onto the Santa Monica Pier.
The warm afternoon is mellowed by an onshore breeze. In the middle of the pier, the amusement park is in full swing—music blaring, children laughing, and ride patrons screaming in delight.
I purchase an ice cream at a shop near the roller coaster and spend much of the rest of the hour wandering around. When four o’clock approaches, I find a spot where I won’t be seen and watch the crowd move down the walkway toward the far end of the pier.
At four minutes before the hour, I see them.
Iffy and other me. This is the Denny who is only a month or so past defeating Lidia the first time, and the one, with Iffy’s help, who has just moved into an apartment with the still ailing Ellie in San Diego.
They rush by and don’t look in my direction. They’re trying to get to the end of the pier by four, the appointed meeting time. I stay where I am.
4:00 o’clock.
4:05.
4:10.
4:15.
I see her at 4:23.
She walks slowly through the crowd toward the end of the pier, always making sure someone is hiding her approach. I let her get several feet past me before I move into the crowd.
I, too, do what’s necessary to keep Iffy and other Denny from seeing me.
The woman and I are still about fifty yards from the end of the pier when I move directly behind her and say, “You’re running late.”
She stops and turns to me.
I smile. “Hello, Marie.”
My old instructor chuckles as if she’s not surprised. But it isn’t long before her look of amusement turns to concern.
“What happened to you? You look…older.”
“Over two years.”
She raises an inquiring eyebrow.
Instead of giving her more, I nod toward Iffy and other Denny. “Come on. They’re going to start walking soon, and it’s better that they don’t catch us.”
“Don’t want him to know what he’ll be doing in the future?”
She’s joking, but when I put my arm around her back and start leading her down the pier, I answer sincerely, “I’m not his future.”
This provokes another look of surprise.
A few seconds later, I say, “Do me a favor and check if they’re back there.”
She glances over her shoulder and quickly looks back. “Oh, crap. They saw me.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
“I was him, once. We should pick up the pace now.”
I guide us through the dense crowd into the amusement park area, and pull us into a nook near the entrance.
A few moments later, other Denny runs past holding Iffy’s hand, searching for the woman he thinks is Marie. This is the time and place he told her to meet him if she could escape the original timeline before he erased it.
When they’re out of sight, I relax.
“They’re not coming back?” Marie asks.
“No.”
“Perhaps now would be a good time for you to tell me what’s going on.”
“Perhaps, but I think we could figure out someplace more suitable, don’t you? I know a cafe along a river in southern Spain I’m betting you’ll like.”
“I’m sure I will.”
We find a dead spot behind one of the rides where no one can see us. We link arms, and I press my chaser’s go button.
I am Denny Younger.
I am rewinder.
I am destroyer of worlds.
I am survivor.
But don’t fear me. For I am also, now and forever, protector of this world.
Time, you see, is on my side.
Thanks for joining me on Denny’s adventures. I hope you’ve enjoyed them as much as I have.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brett Battles is a Barry Award-winning author of thirty novels, including the Jonathan Quinn series, the Logan Harper series, and the time-hopping Rewinder series. He’s also the coauthor, with Robert Gregory Browne, of the Alexandra Poe series. You can learn more at his website: brettbattles.com
ALSO BY BRETT BATTLES
THE JONATHAN QUINN THRILLERS
Novels
BECOMING QUINN
THE CLEANER
THE DECEIVED
SHADOW OF BETRAYAL (U.S.)/THE UNWANTED (U.K.)
THE SILENCED
THE DESTROYED
THE COLLECTED
THE ENRAGED
THE DISCARDED
THE BURIED
THE UNLEASHED
THE AGGRIEVED (coming Spring 2017)
Novellas
NIGHT WORK
Short Stories
“Just Another Job”—A Jonathan Quinn Story
“Off the Clock”—A Jonathan Quinn Story
“The Assignment”—An Orlando Story
“Lesson Plan”—A Jonathan Quinn Story
“Quick Study”—An Orlando Story
THE REWINDER THRILLERS
REWINDER
DESTROYER
SURVIVOR
THE Excoms Thrillers
THE EXCOMS
THE LOGAN HARPER THRILLERS
LITTLE GIRL GONE
EVERY PRECIOUS THING
THE PROJECT EDEN THRILLERS
SICK
EXIT NINE
PALE HORSE
ASHES
EDEN RISING
DREAM SKY
DOWN
THE ALEXANDRA POE THRILLERS
COWRITTEN WITH ROBERT GREGORY BROWNE
POE
TAKEDOWN
STANDALONES
Novels
THE PULL OF GRAVITY
NO RETURN
MINE
Novellas
MINE: THE ARRIVAL
Short Stories
“Perfect Gentleman”
For Younger Readers
THE TROUBLE FAMILY CHRONICLES
HERE COMES MR. TROUBLE
SURVIVOR Copyright © 2017 by Brett Battles
Cover Design by James T. Egan, www.bookflydesign.com
All rights reserved.
SURVIVOR is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
For more information about the author, please visit www.brettbattles.com.
Survivor (Rewinder Series Book 3) Page 20