Eternal Youth

by Julia Crane

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Callie cut in, trying to find some kind of familiarity in the conversation. “Who is Mary? And what’s this about a family?”

  “He hasn’t told you?” Josie gaped at Callie before pressing a hand to her forehead. “Dear God, Alaric, you told me you wanted to spend the rest of your life with this girl and you haven’t told her about your past?”

  “What about it?” Callie demanded, shaking his arm. She felt an insane urge to punch him for not telling her anything about his life in the real world.

  Alaric leaned against a tree and closed his eyes, but not before Callie saw the pain in them. “I was married, Callie. I was married at eighteen to a girl named Mary. When I took the trip with Josie, my wife was pregnant. She would have had my child about the time our ship arrived in Aionia.”

  The information hit Callie like a wrecking ball. Her knees crumpled beneath her and she sank to the ground, all the breath rushing from her body.

  “Callie!” He moved to reach for her, but Emma stopped him with a shake of her head.

  “You were married. And a dad.” Callie didn’t feel like the words were even coming from her. The real Callie felt like she was drifting aimlessly somewhere fifteen feet above her head, gazing down on the scene with a kind of detached amusement.

  “I’m sorry.” Alaric’s voice broke. “I know I should have told you, but it’s so hard…”

  “I understand.” The words came before Callie had even given them thought. Because she did—she thought of her dad and how difficult it was to remember life with him as opposed to without him. It must have killed Alaric to know he would remain forever young and trapped in Aionia, never knowing his child. She really did understand.

  “Can you ever forgive me?” He crouched in front of her and met her eye.

  Callie gave him the only answer she had. “I don’t know.”

  “We’re running out of time,” Emma said after a pause. She turned her gaze to Josie. “If you’re going to stop us, let me know now. If not, then we’ll be going.”

  “I’m not going to stop you.” The statement must have been directed to Emma, but as she said it, Josie was looking at her brother. “I’m going to help you.”

  Callie blinked. “Oh.”

  Josie took a knee next to her brother and said, “Alaric, get the hell out of here. Be happy again. I love you. So much.” She gave him a quick kiss on the forehead, and then swiftly stood. Her shout rocked the silence of the forest. “Trouble at Port David!”

  The group stared, astonished, as she winked and took off at a sprint. From all around, shouts began to arise and the thud of running footsteps filled the trees. Josie’s country twang sounded again from further away, “All hands, I repeat, all hands to Port David!”

  “Where is Port David?” Emma asked absently.

  “Miriam Harbor,” Charlotte answered, awed. “I have a copy of the soldiers’ manual.”

  Nailah’s jaw dropped. “That’s all the way on the other side of the island.”

  “She gave us an out.” Emma burst out laughing. “Isn’t that something?”

  Callie roused herself, getting to her feet. She smiled at Alaric as his attention shifted to her face from the direction in which Josie had disappeared. She motioned towards the boats and said brightly, “We’re on the move, people.”

  There were no shouts as they hurried to the docks because nobody was around to raise an alert. Alaric led them straight to the boat—a small, wooden schooner with the name “Brilliant Pearl” painted in white on the hull. Charlotte and Amelia didn’t even hesitate—they raced up the plank without glancing back.

  Callie turned to Nailah and tried desperately not to cry. “This is goodbye.”

  “Maybe it’s not.” Nailah embraced Callie, squeezing her waist. “It’s only ‘goodbye’ if you make it ‘goodbye’.”

  “If that’s the case…” Callie stepped back and brushed away a tear before Nailah saw it. “I’ll see you later.”

  Nailah gave a succinct nod, her dark eyes full of unshed tears. “See you later.”

  Emma gave her a quick hug and a peck on the cheek. “Take care of Gran, will you, baby?”

  “I will. Always.”

  Callie moved to follow her mom up the ramp, but turned one last time to her best friend. “I love you, Nailah.”

  “I love you, too.” She tugged at the end of her favorite scarf where it was knotted around Callie’s neck. “Friends forever.”

  “Forever,” Callie agreed, and then walked away, shoving her emotions as deep as she could so she could focus on getting out.

  She realized Alaric wasn’t behind her about halfway up the ramp. She whipped around to find him on the dock staring blankly at the ship. Her voice shook when she said, “Alaric?”

  As if awoken from a dream, Alaric shook his head and looked up at her. “I can’t.”

  Callie’s heart sank and almost ceased beating. She crossed her arms over her chest and swallowed her sadness. “What happened to wanting to marry me? To spend forever with me?”

  He let his face fall into his hands and groaned. “Callie, what if we make it across and I just suddenly age? My body might try to catch up with the years in a matter of seconds.”

  Callie shook her head, taking a step backwards and up the ramp. “I doubt that will happen.”

  He looked into her eyes. “If it did? Could you handle it?”

  “Could you?” she retorted. She shook her head bitterly and said, “I love you, Alaric. Even if you don’t love me enough to take a risk I would be willing to take.” Turning on her heel, Callie grasped the strap of her satchel and ascended the plank onto the ship.

  Before she crested the ramp and stepped off onto the boat’s deck, Callie heard Nailah’s wry voice say, “You’re an absolute idiot if you don’t get on that boat.”

  The boat was a simple wood structure. A single mast soared above Callie’s head, the white canvas sail already open to the wind. As Charlotte rushed past, Callie reached out and grabbed the woman’s arm. “What can I do?”

  Charlotte paused just long enough to say, “We’re done. Ready to go. I’m heading for the wheel.” And then she smiled and hurried away.

  “That was fast,” Callie said to her mother.

  Emma was tying off a heavy rope on the railing. She shrugged. “Charlotte knew what she was doing. Are you okay?”

  “I will be.” Callie took a couple of breaths to stem yet another tide of tears and gave her mother a fake smile. “When we get home, I’ll be just fine.”

  “Help me get the ramp up!” Amelia called from behind them.

  Callie rushed across the deck, her sandals slapping on the wood. She took hold of the other side and began to pull, ignoring Alaric’s form—just a shadow beneath them.

  The boat began to pull away from the dock, startling Callie. She almost dropped the plank and had to catch herself on the edge of the boat.

  “Are you okay?” Amelia asked breathlessly, carefully maintaining her grip on the ramp.

  “Yeah.” Callie heaved again and felt the plank move an inch.

  “Wait!” His yell was almost desperate, and Callie watched in shock as Alaric launched himself from the dock. There was a moment when he seemed to be suspended in mid-air, and then he fell heavily into the water with a noisy splash.

  “Alaric!” Callie stared at the water, waiting for him to surface.

  Amelia punched Callie in the arm and yelled, “Callie, help me hook the plank down so he can get up!”

  It took a minute for the girls to get the plank hooked back into place, and it fell against the side of the boat with a jarring bang. Callie leaned over the railing and sighed in relief as she saw Alaric’s blond head cutting through the water—he was swimming for the ship.

  “What in the world is that boy doing?” Emma appeared at Callie’s side.

  Callie smiled. “Coming with us.”

  Emma’s brow wrinkled. “Is he even going to be able to climb that thing
?”

  Amelia chuckled as she surveyed her battered palms. “He’s a boy in love. Of course he can. I’m going to see if Mom needs any help.”

  Callie didn’t even see her walk away; her attention was on Alaric as he drew up to the hull and reached for the ramp. Arm over arm—and painstakingly slow—he climbed the wood until Callie and Emma could pull him to safety.

  “I’m sorry. I’m an idiot.” The words came from him in a rush. His chest heaved from the effort of his swim and climb—he clung to Callie as his knees gave out. They sank to the deck. “I wasn’t sure you even wanted me. Did you mean it?”

  He was cold and wet with ocean water beneath her arms, but Callie didn’t care. He was there with her. “Mean what?”

  His beautiful eyes met hers, pleading. “Do you love me?”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake!” Callie laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. She pulled back until they were nose to nose and murmured. “I love you so much.”

  They kissed. Callie wrapped his soaked hair in her hands and lost herself in the movement of his mouth on hers and the ship beneath them. The saltwater on his lips was tangy.

  “I will love you forever,” he whispered against her lips. “I didn’t have a choice about leaving my family, Callie, but I have a choice now. And I choose you. Something divine gave you to me. I’m here, even if it means my life will end as soon as we leave Aionia. I’ll die happy.”

  “Don’t be stupid. You’re not going to age and die.” Callie bumped his forehead with hers, her heart doing a dance at his sweet words.

  “Callie, Alaric…” Emma’s voice cut in, subdued. “We’re almost to the barrier.”

  Callie helped him to his feet and walked forward to join her mother at the railing. Above them on the steering deck, Charlotte and Amelia had their eyes on the horizon.

  “You know, if we’re wrong about the time, this could kill us. Like those people who sailed off when we first arrived in Aionia,” Callie said, her heart hammering. The ship drifted closer to the unseen barrier as Alaric wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders.

  “I know.” Emma took a deep breath and let it out, then patted her daughter’s face. “But, I’m with you. Nothing could make me happier. It’s just one more adventure.”

  The sweet tone in her mother’s voice brought tears to Callie’s eyes. She didn’t have any words to express to her mom how much it meant, so she just tugged playfully on her mother’s satchel.

  The bag was heavy.

  “Mom, why does your bag feel like it’s got rocks in it?” Callie asked suspiciously.

  Emma smirked, flipped open the satchel, and pulled out a glass jug full of clear liquid. “A little eternal youth for the road.”

  “Oh my god, Mother, you didn’t.” Callie burst out laughing.

  December 19, 2012

  San Diego

  Another new journal.

  I was kinda sad to write the final entry in my Aionia journal last night. So much went into that journal in the year that’s passed since we crash-landed in Aionia. But I think it’s time to move on.

  Even now, a year later, it still scares me to remember the leap. We hit the barrier and it was just like… BAM. Nothingness. I don’t know how long it lasted, but I couldn’t see anything, or feel anything. I didn’t even KNOW anything…as if we just no longer existed. I remember thinking we must be dead.

  Then it was over, and the black was replaced by blinding sunlight. We floated on the ocean in the middle of nowhere. No land in sight. We tried to catch a wind but it was just DEAD. Luckily, the ship had just enough food and water for us to ration it and survive.

  Alaric’s fears about aging were irrational. Nothing happened to him or Charlotte or Amelia, though for a minute there I thought we’d made it out of Aionia only to die adrift on the freaking ocean. We floated for three days until someone found us.

  Being at sea for so long gave us plenty of time to perfect our story. Mom, ever the optimist, was certain we’d be rescued, and she said we needed to be ready to explain where we’d been. Mom told us that pirates still exist, though they ARE pretty hardcore now and never leave anyone alive. Our story: We decided our plane had gone down in the ocean, and we were the only survivors. We were found by pirates who were going to kill us until we escaped in a raftboat. We then found the ship floating empty, and came on board (Mom said “ghost ships” were common in the Bermuda Triangle—she is a freaking wealth of useless knowledge).

  When the fishing boat found us, Charlotte, Amelia, and Alaric feigned amnesia, though Mom and I were “able” to tell the fisherman our companions’ first names. Over the course of the next few weeks, they were basically proven to not exist in the police’s system, so they were given new identities with the hope they would be claimed by relatives in the coming weeks.

  Duh. No relatives alive to claim them.

  Of course, Braden and Avery know the truth of the crash. We came back without Gran, bringing word she hadn’t survived the plane crash—how could we let Braden think she really was dead? Surprisingly, they both took the information pretty easily considering the two months they’d thought us all dead. I guess an alternate dimension where the Fountain of Youth actually exists is much easier to come to terms with than your family dead.

  The weirdest thing out of ALL this? What a NORMAL year it’s been since we got home. Mom enrolled me in high school! I tested into junior year with no problem—my mom is an awesome teacher—and now I’m almost halfway through my senior year. I get to graduate with Avery!

  Mom got a job teaching the third grade. Yeah, we’re still living off Dad’s revenue and we probably always will, but my mother just can’t sit still. And I guess I always knew this, but neither can I. We went to Mexico in June, and then we spent two weeks in Scotland in October (Mom let me miss school!). We’re leaving tomorrow to go to Argentina for a week and a half. Seems like all those years of traveling just can’t be purged from a girl’s system. Maybe I AM my mother’s daughter after all.

  Braden is engaged. When his dad died in February, he went through a really awful time. He drank a lot and barely left the house. One night, we made him shower and get dressed, and we all went to see a play downtown. He struck up a conversation with the pretty blonde girl that sat beside him in the theater, and that was that. Her name is Marla, and they set a date for next May. I REALLY like her. She did my hair for junior prom and went with us on every vacation. We had lots of girl time to shop and hang out. She asked me to be one of her bridesmaids because according to her, I’m Braden’s sister, not cousin, and I’m going to be her sister, too. :)

  It wasn’t too long after Marla came into our lives that Zach did. Zach is a sports announcer for ESPN and he’s ridiculously good-looking, like a golden-skinned surfer dude with a better vocabulary. Seeing him and my mom together is like looking at a really awesome painting of love. His daughter Abby was in my mom’s class last year—his wife died from cancer three years ago, so he knows what Mom and me went through when Dad died. I love both him and Abby, and I hope there are wedding bells in Mom’s future, too.

  She hasn’t touched the stash of fountain water she brought home with her since they started dating. I’m glad—it’ll be good backup for anytime someone gets sick. Seriously, it’s just like her to steal a gallon of eternal youth.

  Why was the way out of Aionia kept secret? No clue. But, I have a couple guesses. Maybe to protect their perfect little society, to keep it exactly the way they wanted it, or to protect the location of the Fountain of Youth. Can you imagine how many people would try to crash land in the Bermuda Triangle simply to gain eternal youth? Yeah. Insane.

  I think about Nailah and Gran a lot, but not as much as I used to. Back in January, I cried all the time and I worried about them every day. But, it’s like mourning a death, you know? The more time that passes, the easier it is. Anytime I get down, I just try to remind myself that at least they’re alive, and I’m pretty sure they’re happy. I bet Nailah
is married to Marcus and Gran’s shop is running like a dream since she’s got Harrison helping her with the hard parts, and I know they’re taking care of each other.

  Mom is researching a way back in to Aionia. Am I surprised? Nah. Mom will never give up on reaching Gran and Nailah again. Once she decides to search for something…I mean, she does it all the way LOL. She’s positive that if there’s a way out, there must be an easier way in, too.

  For the first time EVER, I agree with her. We’ll find it.

  It took a long time for Alaric to adjust to life in this dimension. For the first couple months, he jumped every time my cell phone rang, and he froze any time we got in the car! And after a hundred years of Aionia’s cotton clothes, he was kinda weirded out by blue jeans. He was a little like a kid, learning the world with fresh eyes. Mom told him to take as long as he needed to acclimate before he tried to get a job, so he did. He’s been taking classes at the community college, and he just picked up a paid internship with the National Park system. He wants to be a Park Ranger, and I think he’ll make an awesome one.

  Not too long after we got back, we took him to Pennsylvania. We found the graves of his wife and daughter. Mom helped us do a bunch of research (she’s so good at digging up stuff), and we found out that Mary remarried several years after Alaric disappeared. She went on to have three more children and died of natural causes later in life. His daughter was named Alara—presumably after Alaric, right?—and she ended up spending her life fighting for women’s rights. She married a lawyer in her twenties, and they had two daughters, Maura and Patience—Alaric’s grandchildren. Alara passed away twenty years ago, but her daughters are both married with grown children. Can you believe it? All these years later, Alaric’s family still exists. He didn’t want to try and meet them, and I understand that. That boat sailed long, long ago—literally. But, he got to see them, and he got to see his great-grandchildren. I think it really gave him the closure he needed.