by Beca Lewis
Taking a deep breath, Connie said, “There’s more to this, Bill, but I am not sure how to explain it to you. It’s entirely possible that you will think that I am crazy. But I do know that Theo does this to many, many women, and eventually kills one, which starts him off on a killing spree.”
“How could you possibly know that, Connie? Yes, what he did to you makes him a monster, but you can’t know what he does in the future.”
“This is where I am afraid you will think I’m crazy.”
At that moment, Bryan showed up and sat beside Bill. Bill couldn’t see him, but she could, and Bryan knew it. He was there to support her, remind her she wasn’t crazy, and that she had a job to do.
“Well, we won’t know until you tell me,” Bill said, giving her a wan smile. “If you know something that will punish him for what he did to you, and stop him from hurting others, you have to tell me.”
Connie leaned back against the red backrest of the booth and took a moment to look around the restaurant. She thought nothing would immediately change once she began, but just in case she wanted to remember how things used to be.
She took a deep breath and said, “I know things, Bill. Because I am not the Connie you knew in 1968. I am a different Connie.”
Bill snorted and started laughing. He laughed so hard, his face turned a bright red, but when he noticed that Connie wasn’t smiling, he stopped.
“You’re not joking? But it is 1968, and you are sitting right there. I know you. We’ve been friends for years.”
Connie sighed. “Yes, I am still Connie, and yes, we have been friends for years. But I am a different Connie. I am a Connie from the future. Quite a distant future, in fact. One where you and I are old. One in which I died.”
Connie had whispered that last part. Bill had leaned in to hear her.
Bryan had moved to sit beside Connie, and she appreciated his nearness and took his hand under the table. She could almost feel it. Bryan was becoming more real in this lifetime. She didn’t have time to wonder if that was a good thing or not before Bill whispered back, “You’re not kidding, are you?”
Connie shook her head, no.
Bill stood, took another five dollars out of his wallet, and smacked it down onto the table.
“Come on, we are getting out of here, and you will do everything you can to convince me you are telling the truth, and you haven’t gone crazy.”
As Connie followed Bill out of Denny’s and into the world, she was happy that everything looked the same. So far, nothing had changed here, except Bill’s mood. On the other hand, she had no idea what it had done to the future.
Forty-Eight
Rachel felt a shiver as if an icy wind had passed through her. She was once again sitting on the park bench. It was one of those beautiful spring days when everything is right with the world. Every shade of green was the backdrop for the diverse mix of flowers that edged the park walks. Birds sang in the trees, and a light breeze rustled her hair.
She had been on her way to the coffee shop when she saw Johnny leaning back on the park bench with his eyes closed, the sun on his face.
Although she had just become friends with Valerie and her sons, Rachel had known about them. You couldn’t live in as small a town as Doveland and not know who everyone was, even if you never met.
So she had watched Johnny change the past few years from the boy with piercings and all-black clothes getting into trouble, to this quiet and thoughtful young man.
Rachel knew it was mainly the result of Ava and Grace and their friends directing him down a different path and taking him and his family under their wing. Now she was under their care too. It felt wonderful.
As she sat down beside Johnny, he said, “Hi, Rachel,” without opening his eyes. “Something is changing. Can you feel it?”
It was then that she felt the shiver and Johnny sat up, opened his eyes, and said, “Hm. Interesting.”
Then, as if he was alone and only talking to himself, he leaned back and closed his eyes again.
Rachel waited for him to say more, and when he didn’t, she asked, “What’s changing. What’s interesting? And since you were waiting for me, what is happening?”
Johnny sat up and turned to Rachel. “Sorry. It’s interesting to watch Connie try to prove to her friend Bill that she is from the future. She appears to be succeeding. He’s skeptical but willing to trust her, which is changing things. So far, nothing major.”
“I don’t get how that works,” Rachel said.
“No one does, really,” Johnny answered. “On our part, it is often trial, and sometimes error. But I think there is something else keeping the changes contained.
“Maybe someone else. I don’t know. But I think it has to do with what the intention is that drives the changes. Or maybe we are constantly moving to alternative universes. It’s a mystery.
“But I have a belief that it turns out for good. If that was the intent in the first place, and that definitely is Connie’s intent. And yours, for that matter.”
Seeing Rachel staring at him, Johnny laughed. “Oh. Sorry again. I appear to be stuck between talking too much or not at all.
“Anyway, I wanted to see you to let you know that I am also watching over the situation, so if you or Bryan need help, I’m here.”
Rachel looked out over the park and wondered how many worlds, or parallel universes, were going on right where they were, and how many people moved around them that she couldn’t see.
“The parallel universe question, I don’t know the answer to. But about how many people, I can see about ten of them right now. Sometimes there are more, sometimes less. Mostly they don’t see us though, so not to worry.”
“Wait, how did you know what I was thinking? Are you doing that all the time? To everyone?”
“Heard you thinking. I am practicing getting better at it. I don’t do it all the time. That would be wrong. Only when I am already having a conversation with someone, or need to check in on a situation.”
Seeing Rachel’s face, he added, “I know it might sound like a marvelous thing, but when I was a kid, it wasn’t. I honestly thought I was crazy. So I acted crazy.
“Then I learned from Ava and her friends that it is a gift. And like all gifts, it is sometimes good, sometimes hard, often overwhelming. I struggle not to feel responsible for fixing the things I see. But I now recognize that it is a gift, and one that I am learning to be grateful for.”
Rachel nodded. “I’ve always been the normal person—the one who didn’t make waves or ask for what they wanted. So I didn’t think I was crazy. I felt like my life was insignificant.
“Since Bryan’s mom died and opened that door for him, and then that kid Eddie appeared and told me I would be Bryan’s lifeline back to the present and the physical universe, things are entirely different.
“But even when I was normal, or what passes for normal, I still struggled. Maybe everyone does. But now that I am getting a glimpse of my gifts, I worry even more about what I am supposed to do.”
“Well,” Johnny said, “What works best for me is concentrating on one thing at a time. And trying to remember that I am not in charge.”
“So the one thing you are concentrating on right now is what’s going on with Connie? Did Grace and your mom ask you to do this?”
“Yes, and yes!” Johnny said. “And that means we get to go to Pittsburgh and see Bill.”
“See Bill?” squeaked Rachel. “Bill is still alive?”
“Of course, he is. And will remain so if we can get the information we need about Theo to the past Connie and Bill as soon as possible. And since Bill is the one still alive, he’s the one we’ll see. Oh, and you’ll be driving, and yes, my mother knows what’s happening.’”
Rachel realized there was no point in not doing what Johnny wanted. After all, she was the one who didn’t know what wa
s going on. As she stood, she turned to see Grace coming towards them, holding two brown bags.
“I packed you both a lunch, in case you are hungry. You have Bill’s address?” Grace asked, addressing Johnny.
“Yep. And the GPS will take us right to his door.”
“Wait, shouldn’t I tell Bryan where we are going? What if he needs me?”
“We’ll both keep tabs on him as we go. I’ll watch while you drive.”
Grace added, “I’ll go see him later and bring him food and let him know what you two are up to.”
“Okay, that settles it,” Rachel said, heading toward her car parked across the street.
She wondered if she could put all these things together in her head and decided she couldn’t. But she could get them to Bill’s house, and once they were there, obviously Johnny knew what to do.
“Well, I don’t yet,” Johnny said, “But I’m working on it. It’s what I mean about taking one right step at a time.”
Pulling a laptop out of the bag he had been carrying, Johnny added, “Thanks to Dan, our police chief, I have access to files that might help us.”
Rachel started to ask why the police chief would give Johnny access to files and then remembered some stories she had heard about Dan working with Ava and Grace in the past. He must know about what they could do.
“Oh, he does,” Johnny mumbled as he typed. “Not all of it, but enough to know that helping us is a good thing.”
And for the next ninety minutes, Johnny typed and grumbled and talked to himself, as Rachel drove with the soundtrack from Guardians of the Galaxy playing in her ear. It kept her thoughts away, which was just what she needed.
As they pulled up in front of Bill’s house, Johnny closed his laptop and said, “Excellent choice on the soundtrack. In a way, we are the guardians of this tiny piece of the galaxy.”
“Well, if you could hear it the whole time, why couldn’t I have played it out loud?”
Johnny laughed. “That would have been too loud. Through your head, it was just right.”
Rachel quelled the desire to punch him in the arm and then laughed. This was much more fun than sitting at home alone, wondering what to do with her life.
Johnny linked arms with her as they headed up the walk, “Yes, it is, isn’t it?”
Rachel wondered if she would ever get used to him listening in on her thoughts, and as he rang the doorbell, Johnny said, “Probably not.”
Rachel had no chance to fume. The door opened, revealing a tall thin man with white hair and very blue eyes.
“I’ve been expecting you,” he said.
Forty-Nine
Rachel and Johnny followed Bill as he shuffle-walked through the hall to his living room. He gestured to the couch and then settled himself into a lounge chair.
A man carrying a tray with four glasses of what Rachel assumed was ice tea came into the room, and Bill introduced him as his husband, Terrance Laing.
Rachel and Johnny said hello to Terrance, and each took a glass.
“You know it’s been such a brief time since I could casually introduce Terrance as my husband and have people just as casually acknowledge it, that I brace myself every time. But you aren’t here to talk about that, are you? You’re here to make sure I do something for Connie.”
As Rachel and Johnny exchanged glances, Bill added, “Oh, don’t worry, Terrance knows what’s going on. He knew Connie then, too. And Connie knew that Terrance and I were together. Even then.”
“You’ve been together that long?” Rachel exclaimed.
“Yes,” Terrance answered. “We were young men together, and now we are old men together. It’s the together part that makes life worthwhile. So yes, I met Connie a few times. But she left and kept away from all of us not long after I met her, so I barely got to know her.”
“And,” Bill continued, “We know now that she recently died. But the odd thing is, we didn’t know about it until we got a letter from her, saying she died. How can that be?”
Rachel and Johnny waited.
“Anyway, the letter said she had died and that you two would show up. And then I should put what you are bringing me, and the package that arrived with the letter, in my safe in my office. This is quite the mystery, don’t you think?” Bill asked with a twinkle in his eye.
Terrance added, “But we are not supposed to ask you what it is all about. We are just supposed to do it.”
Rachel and Johnny looked at each other, before Rachel asked, “Are you willing to just do it knowing nothing?”
Bill leaned back and then reached over to hold Terrance’s hand.
“When I first met Connie, she looked at me and saw me. She was the first person in my life who had ever done that for me. Not only did she see me, but she didn’t think I was strange, or different, or evil. I don’t know how she did that, but it was because of her I thought I might survive being me.
“Yes, when I got the courage to tell my parents, they were accepting too. I know now that I should have told them sooner. But I didn’t have to tell Connie. She knew. That’s how she was. She knew things.
“I don’t understand why she left and why she didn’t return when Edith and then Eddie died, and then my parents died soon after that. I know she loved my family. So she must have had a good reason for not being there.”
Bill brushed tears away. “Sorry, so many years have gone by, and I still can’t get over missing them.”
He took a deep breath and continued, “But I could have visited her, too. I had a private investigator look for her. Amazingly, she didn’t live that far away. But I was a coward. Terrance kept urging me to go, but I was afraid. Afraid it wouldn’t be the same Connie, and she wouldn’t know me anymore, or worse, reject me.
“So, I stayed away. When I learned that Connie had a daughter, I assumed Connie left because she was pregnant and didn’t want us to know.
“It still breaks my heart because we wouldn’t have cared that she wasn’t married. Now that this mystery thing is happening, I am wondering if there was more than that. Is it something you know? Is it something that you can tell me?”
When neither of them said anything, Bill added, “Please. Just tell me why she never came back.”
It was Rachel who answered, “It won’t unbreak your heart Bill if we told you, but if we can do what Connie has asked of you, perhaps you will know the answer for yourself.”
“Putting these papers in my safe will change what happened? That makes little sense. But I don’t see how it can hurt.”
Terrance looked at Rachel and Johnny and asked, “But it might? Because this will change the past somehow, won’t it?”
“Yes,” Johnny said, trying not to explain more.
As Bill stood, he asked, “So if it changes the past, wouldn’t that change the future? Wouldn’t that mean that our lives will be different? How do I know it will be better? I don’t want to lose Terrance. Can you promise me we will still be together?”
Rachel and Johnny stood too as Johnny answered the question.
“No, we can’t. All I know is that our intentions and Connie’s intention in asking you to do this are good. Sometimes that means that things can still go wrong, but if you don’t do this, I know that some terrible things happen.”
Terrance turned to Bill and said, “It’s okay. We’ve had a wonderful life together. And if by doing this it means we don’t, but it will help other people, then you know you have to do it.
“And Connie, bless her heart, knew you well, Bill. She knew you would help her now, as you would have helped her then. But she never asked. After all these years, we have a chance to help her. We can’t turn her down now. She trusted you to do the right thing.”
Bill touched Terrance on the cheek and then turned to Johnny.
“One last question,” Bill said, “Why doesn’t she want me to se
e what’s in the package?”
Rachel put her hand on Bill’s arm, “I think it is because she loved you, and reading this will break your heart even more.”
Bill nodded, tears running down his face, and led them into his office. “Is this going to work because this is the same house I have always lived in?”
Johnny shrugged. Bill nodded, “Well, I will pretend that’s why, and be grateful that we stayed put.”
As Bill put his package in the safe, and Johnny added what he got from Dan, Johnny tried to suppress the fear that rose in him. What if doing this changed who he was, his life, his mother, Rachel? What if he was no longer himself?
None of those questions could be answered, and even if life was different, would he know? For all he knew, they had done this before, and this life was a result.
Too many questions, no answers, just do what you have to do, he said to himself, half expecting the world to shift under his feet as Bill shut the safe and twirled the lock.
Fifty
“Will you stay with me?” Connie asked Bryan.
Up to now, Bryan had remained, not only as a voice in her head but as a form she could see.
She was grateful that no one else could see him, although she had a brief scare when a little girl on her way out of the restaurant with her mom said, “Hello,” and looked straight at Bryan. Bryan had smiled and said hello back.
The girl kept tugging at her mom’s hand, keeping her eye on Bryan the whole way to the door. Thankfully, the mom thought her daughter had said hello to Connie and thought nothing of it.
“I need to rest for a minute,” Bryan answered, dissolving away. She barely heard the words, “I’ll meet you at Bill’s,” before he was gone.
“Who are you talking to?” Bill asked.
Connie shook her head, “It’s not important. Well, it is important, but maybe we should save it until we get to your house?”
“That’s where you want to go?” Bill asked.
“That’s where we have to go. That is if you want answers.”