by Jill Cooper
But for now I play with Molly’s hair and I squeeze Mike’s cheeks.
“Get off your sister and please come to the table.” Mom stands by the wall, a dishcloth in her hand. Her eyes are lined red and it stops my heart to see her so distraught.
The twins scamper off and I pick myself off the floor. “Mom?”
“I’m okay. Just been a long day.” She gives me a soft smile and swings her arm me. “You have a good day?”
“The best.” I can’t hide my smile.
“Good.” Mom pinches my chin. “I want your life only filled with the best days.”
At the table, Jax is surprisingly missing.
“Where’s Jax?” I serve myself chicken and salad, but don’t miss how Mom’s face drops when I mention his name.
“He’s up in his office. Catching up on work. You can bring him some food when we finish up, all right?”
I stiffen. Is Jax no longer welcomed at family dinner? “All right.” If we were alone, I’d ask her but the twins are there. Molly guzzling juice and Mike rolling peas around on his plate with a look of disgust on his face.
“Mom,” Mike whines, “I don’t like peas. Why do you always make them?”
“Because they’re easy and they’re good for you.” Mom sips her iced water, but the corners of her lips look tense.
“It’s okay, Mike.” I try to be gentle with my words even if I feel stressed. “Just try them.”
“I don’t want to try them. Mom—.”
“Enough!” Mom screams and slams her glass down on the table. The ice clinks together and water sloshes onto the table.
I’m frozen in shock and Mike’s face scrunches with devastation. Molly’s fork hovers near her mouth. “I like peas.”
Mom sighs and rubs her face. “I’m sorry, Mikey. I’m…I just can’t do this.” She throws her napkin down onto the table and slides her chair back. Mom goes into the kitchen without another word.
“She didn’t ask to be excused.” Molly says with a look of distain in her eye.
“Not now, Molly.” I hurry into the kitchen. I want to call her name, but I find Mom sobbing over the sink, gripping the basin with her fingers and just crying like she can’t stop.
“Mom?” I creep up behind her.
“Lara, just go. Please.”
I place my hand on her back. “I don’t want to go. I want to be here. I want to help.”
“Somethings we can’t help, baby.” Mom turns and places her hands on my face. “But you’re here. You’re happy and that’s enough for me.”
“I want you to be happy too.” My lip puckers into a pout.
Mom laughs and kisses my cheek. “Oh thank you, sweetheart.” She hugs me and she laughs, but I don’t know why it’s so funny. Maybe it just matters that she laughs. “I’ll get through this. I promise. And we’ll all be stronger because of it.”
I like the sound of that.
“Call your father when you’re done, he wants to tell you about his job interview.”
“Did he stop by? Is that why you’re crying?” My lip twists as I consider it.
Mom disregards what I’ve said with a wave of her hand. “Of course not. Your father is welcome to stop by here whenever he wants.”
I know she says that, but I know it can’t be easy. I don’t remember much about my parents being together because I was so young, but I remember music and laughter. It can’t be easy to have him back in her life, even if she won’t say it.
“And you and Jax? Are you guys going to be okay?”
Mom takes a deep breath and turns from me. She picks up the sponge and starts cleaning the spotless sink. “Just, bring him some food for me. I’ll figure it out, just not tonight.”
I don’t want to make things harder on her so I nod. I go into the dining room and make a plate for Jax. The twins are still seated but no longer eating.
“Clear the table, okay?”
Mike rolls his eyes and Molly starts whining.
“Not tonight.” I bend down and instruct them, meeting both their eyes. “Mom’s had a really bad day, okay, and she needs our help. Clear the table and promise to be good. Promise.”
I extend my finger and their fingers wrap around it. “We promise.”
“And brush your teeth without complaining.”
Molly’s eyes widen and Mike sighs, but he answers for the both of them like he often does. “We promise, Lara.”
“Good.” I smile and ruffle their hair.
Upstairs, I balance the plate on one hand and knock on Jax’s office door. “I brought you dinner.” I creep inside.
Jax is sitting at his desk, but he’s staring up at the ceiling and not doing any work. It breaks my heart to see him so upset. I slide the food onto the desk in front of him and lean on the corner.
“I hear if you’re trying to work, it helps to look at your computer.”
“Hmm?” Jax makes eye contact. “Oh hey, Lara. Oh dinner, great. Thanks.” He searches for the utensils.
I hold up fork and knife wrapped in a napkin. “First you’re going to have to be straight with me. What’s going on with you? Mom?” My chest tightens. “Is it over?”
Jax rubs his jaw. “Not over. Not by a long shot, as far as I’m concerned. But when the trial’s over, your Mom…I mean we, want some space.”
It’s the things nightmares are made of. Tears flood my eyes even though it’s stupid. Jax isn’t my dad, but I feel like he is sometimes. He raised some version of Lara Crane and we’re together, intermingled in my head. “I don’t want you to give us space.”
Jax takes my hand and gives it a hard squeeze. “It might be for the best. Your dad is back. He’s in your life and I’m…like a spare tire.”
“No!” It comes out stronger than I mean it to and Jax flinches, shock on his face. “I don’t feel that way about you. Maybe I did once, when I was younger and rebelling, but—I spent two years in a cage. I know what I missed. I know what I didn’t have. Dad, Mom, the twins. But you too, Jax. I don’t want you to go away.”
He stands and wraps his arms around me. I think he was scared his words might be true. That I didn’t need him anymore. I rest my chin on his shoulder. “I’m sorry this I so messed up. I’m sorry I messed everything up so bad.”
“Never.” Jax kisses my forehead. “None of this is your fault. You’re fixing things I should have fixed long ago. For that, I’m sorry. I was afraid of losing you and your mother. I guess, I’m losing you anyway.”
I shake my head and my curls bounce. “Not me.”
“Alicia called.” Jax clears his throat. “The security tapes from Dunkin Donuts show you there just when you said you were. Even had your signature on file for the credit card slip.”
“That’s good news, right?” I start to feel a flicker of hope.
“Police have cleared you.” Jax breaks out in a grin. “You’re no longer a person of interest.”
I squeal and hug him tight. “Thank God!”
He pats my back. “Thank God is right.”
Hopping down from the desk, I pause. “That night you and Mom ran off and took the twins. I set that all in motion. You saw Rex here. You saw him here with me. I had a gun.”
Jax’s eyes flicker to the door to make sure it’s closed. “That secret your mother and I will take to our graves, Lara. We’ve never talked about it. I don’t know if she’s just in denial or something else, but I’m never going to tell anyone.”
I’m relieved. “Okay. Do you,” my chin quivers, “hate me?”
“No. God no.” The answer comes fast and the truth of it is evident in his eyes. “I should have taken care of him long before you did. I’m sorry he hurt you so bad. I’m sorry for everything he stole from you.”
I nod. “If you knew what would happen, I’m pretty sure you would have.”
Jax’s jaw presses together firm. “For my mistakes, I’ll never stop feeling sorry. I just hope one day it’s enough. Now get out of here and go be a kid, or something.”
> “I’m going to call my dad and give him the good news. He had a job interview today.”
“Oh that’s great. Good for him.” I don’t think Jax means to sound bitter, but he does. “Sorry, I didn’t mean…I am happy he’s pulling himself together.”
“Me too.” My hand on the doorknob, my head throbs with a sudden headache. I grunt and grab the temples.
“Laaaaraaa?” Everything is slowing down to half speed. When I turn and see Jax over my shoulder he’s walking slow. Slower than I’ve ever slowed time down before.
Then a moment later everything snaps into place.
“You okay?” Jax asks.
“Sure,” I answer and pull open the door. Mom is on the other side looking severe and drained.
“This was delivered for you.” She’s white as a sheet as she hands me an impressive side envelope with the seal of the U.S. government on it.
“Whose it from?” Jax asks as I scan the papers.
“Congress,” I whisper, light on my feet, and I fight the urge to faint.
Epilogue
Time marches on.
A little fast, a little slow, and sometimes it even freezes.
I take the steps into the witness stand and face the crowd. I’m wearing an all business suit and my curls are pinned at the nape of my neck in a bun. The courtroom is full of people, but my eyes only fall on the court officer as I raise my hand and put the other on the bible.
“Do you solemnly swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but?”
“I do.” I slide my hands to straighten my jacket as I take my seat. Gazing out, my eyes fall on Patricia James.
She’s in a suit and looks just like a politician with coiffed hair. Perfect in every way, but her eyes are tired. She’s looked better.
Our eyes meet and I smile. I’ve won and she knows it because she turns her head, her eyes on the floor.
“State your name for the record.” The prosecutor. Hector Wilkins, buttons his jacket as he approaches the stand.
I lean toward the microphone. “My name is Lara Montgomery.”
Maybe it wasn’t always true. Maybe I didn’t always feel like a Montgomery, but now? I think I’m both.
Coming up Next in Time Scape,
Lara fights to retain her freedom as the US Government makes a power grab for the technology inside her head. To beat them at their own game, she may have to go to the one place she hasn’t gone before.
The Future.
Read Chapter One from Time Scape below:
Chapter One of Time Scape
I’ll never have a normal life.
I go about my day. I pretend. But inside my head is a tug of war. The ability to freeze time, to change time, wars with the constant need to be normal. To move on with my life.
“And it was then that Patricia James and her associates killed Joyce Meyers?”
I lean forward, toward the microphone and struggle to hold eye contact with the congressman on the panel who asked the question. “Yes.”
Every day is a struggle. Every day I lose the battle a bit more than I did the day before.
I’m Lara Crane.
“We have more than enough proof, Congressman that Senator James was covering up illegal activity at the Rewind Agency. Now it’s just a matter of what do about Rewind. Their corruption knows no bounds.” Senator Marcus O’Reily says and I’m grateful to have a friend. Being on Capitol Hill isn’t exactly a tropical vacation and it’s only increased my anxiety.
How can I be normal when I know so much? I spent two years in captivity that never happened. Not anymore, not since I changed the past.
Doesn’t change the fact I was a prisoner. Violated.
Senator Thompkins raises a finger and I know he’s going to address me. I sit up straighter and lick my lips as I wait for his question. “We’ve all seen what you can do. In person and on video. Some believe you’re a miracle. Some believe you’re a monster. Some want to stop you, while others want to control you.”
“Is there a question in there somewhere?” Senator O’Reily asks and his anger creeps into his voice. We’ve been allies for a year and friends even longer, if you consider the time travel.
I know him and I’ve come to depend on him.
He knows my secrets.
“The question is how can we turn our back on time travel as a way to fix a broken system, a broken society? You can go back and change things before wars are started before murders are committed?”
His question kills me. For two years, I’ve fought to expose Patricia James. My spirit and mind were broken and I’m still haunted by those who held me captive, pinned me down, and forced their will upon me. I changed time so those events never occurred, but the scars they left behind won’t heal.
It’s an itch I constantly scratch. .
A scab that can never be left alone.
Mostly because the politicians won’t let it. They won’t let me go.
The cage was easy compared to living like this, under a microscope.
“What Senator James did,” the anger in my voice struggles to break free. My vision is marred by streaks of red that blacken and obscure.
Time slows down around me. Those on the committee flip the pages in their hands at half speed. I take a deep breath and time skips a beat to catch up.
“Was wrong.” Thompkins is oblivious to what I’ve done. What I can barely stop from doing. “Clearly her methods and her moral compass were skewed. But the results…How do we put what you are back in the box and forget about it?”
“I didn’t suffer for two years so Rewind could get a pass. They’ve lied, hurt people. They can’t be allowed to continue.” I clench my jaw and beneath the table, my hands grip each other hard.
Time ticks by. I’m aware of each passing second. My mind is now like a clock, keeping them all in order, but sometimes they jumble. Sometimes I do things without meaning to.
The senators glance at one another and my resolve wanes. They aren’t going to listen to me. They are going to do whatever they want with Rewind, be damned the consequences. Patricia James might be in some prestigious all women’s prison, but her legacy remains.
And the U.S. government is going to run with it.
My brain surges with pain from a sudden headache. I suck in my breath and stroke the back of my neck without thinking about it. My finger pokes the metal port on the back of my neck that I still live with. I had been modified as if I were a freak experiment; it’s the only thing that has kept my brain from disintegrating into a pile of goo.
Except now, the technology that I was plugged into that soothed my brain hasn’t been invented yet.
I’m a ticking time bomb.
“Whether we like it or not, Ms. Montgomery, the new global arms race is time travel. Countries want what you have. Not only does that make the decision for us, it puts you in grave danger.”
My heart deflates. “It took me fifteen minutes to go in the past and save my mother’s life. Fifteen small minutes, it changed the course of not only my life, but also the lives of people I don’t even know. The course of the country changed, in ways, I’d never even thought of. What if countries use time travel to win wars? Assassinate leaders?” I shake my head and can’t even fathom what they’re all thinking, but I see it in their eyes.
They are practically foaming at the mouth.
“I’ll never be the same. I might never fully recover. Every time the effects grow harder to cope with.” I promised myself I would never admit it, but I can’t stop myself any longer. “My brain is evolving; it isn’t just time travel anymore. It’s pausing. Freezing. You really want an army of people like me walking around, unable to control what they’re doing?”
“Clearly we would need to work out the logistics. But an army? No. A squad? A few singular time travelers?” Thompkins glances at the panel before he nods his head. “Thank you for your time.”
Boom.
I’m dismissed.
Just like that, everything I say, eve
rything I’ve gone through has been discarded. Thanks for your service, Lara Crane, but you’re no longer needed. Wanted.
I slide my chair back and stand. The agents are behind me, the ones that are there for my protection. The senators were right when they talked about my life being in danger. Those that don’t want to control me, fear me.
The agents are there to protect me, but also to protect the interest of the U.S. government. I can trust them to do their job, but trust them to tell me the truth. Not on my life.
“This way Ms. Montgomery.” They usher me through the back of the senate and into a closed-door room. I go inside, sit down and they pour me a glass of water. They say something, but I tune them out.
Instead, I stare out the window at the bright sun over DC. Spring is coming again and that at least lifts my spirits. The warm sun on my skin will be a welcome change and makes me glad I’m free of the cage. The Earth is still spinning; the seasons are still changing, so maybe—just maybe, there’s hope for us after all.
I sip my water and listen to the time tick by, but instead of coming from a clock, it comes from my mind. Always keenly aware that time is passing by; it’s a struggle to walk through time like someone normal. My brain won’t stop changing. And one day when I can’t control it anymore?
Maybe there’s no future for me. Maybe I should be stopped before I can’t control it. Before I destroy things that can never be put back together.
And the future?
It isn’t something I even want to think about.
The door opens. My heart skips a beat and my head snaps up before it swings all the way open. In slow motion, Marcus steps through and I breathe a sigh of relief. The world speeds into real time as the door shuts behind him.
No one notices the time shift but me. I rise to greet him as he offers me his hand.
I shake it and stare into his blue eyes. I can still remember meeting him when he was a college boy and now, even though he’s thirty-two, he’s still handsome. “Marcus.”
“Ms. Montgomery,” Marcus says with a wink. “Leave us alone for a minute, would you?”
The agent blusters. “Sir, we have our orders.”