“If you say so.” He shrugged. “What’s your name?”
“Rachel.”
“Nice name.”
“I like yours better,” she told him.
Duncan turned his cap around. “Well, see ya later.”
You can count on that. “Bye, Duncan.”
Rachel watched as he once again took off haphazardly on his bike down the sidewalk and onto the street as though not a care in the world.
At least not till he’s a senior in high school and must decide whether or not to go to college or work for his father’s landscaping business.
Not to mention make up his mind regarding if he loved her or was just stringing her along till someone better captured his attention. Admittedly, she had to decide the same thing about him. Assuming she got that chance.
Rachel found herself wondering if she would ever see the Duncan she knew again. The weirdness of this meeting in time made her once again question just what she—or the watch—had gotten her into.
Would she somehow be able to find her way out of it and still maintain her sanity?
“I see you didn’t get very far,” Rachel heard the familiar voice say. She turned around and saw Brooke standing there. Rachel was thrilled to see her, even though she felt a little defensive considering the less than sisterly love she had gotten from Brooke before being dismissed from their lives.
“If you’re here to harass me again about breaking into the house and pretending to be Rach—”
“I just wanna talk,” Brooke said nervously.
“So talk.” Rachel simply wanted to enjoy every possible moment with her sister, not knowing if and when it would all end. Given the date, she feared it would be soon unless she could find a way to somehow prevent what happened.
“Not here. There’s a deli on Greenfield around the corner. We’ll talk there.”
“Okay.” Rachel couldn’t resist sharing a future tidbit. “It’s going to be converted into a pizza place in eight years.”
Brooke raised a brow. This was going to be a lot harder than she thought.
* * *
They sat in a booth near the back of this popular student hangout. It was virtually deserted as most students were on family vacations, traveling abroad, working summer jobs, or elsewhere. That worked out fine for Brooke. The last thing she needed was to run into some of her friends and be forced to try to explain to them that this girl might actually be her younger sister visiting from the future. Especially when she had trouble believing it herself, not convinced it was even possible.
Yet the more Brooke looked at the girl, the more she saw an older Rachel, crazy as it seemed. As it was, she’d had to lie in telling her mom she needed to go out for a couple of hours to fulfill a promise made to babysit prior to being grounded. Then Brooke called Natalie and asked her to cover for her. She’d agreed, since it was her two bratty brothers Brooke often babysat while Natalie hung out with her boyfriend of the week. It was something Brooke often did to earn a few extra bucks and as a favor to Natalie.
Brooke sipped her milkshake while sizing up the girl. Now for the hard part.
“You left your bottled water in the attic—” She pulled it out of her bag and slid it across the table.
Rachel looked at the bottle and suddenly felt deflated. She had hoped they would talk about something more important than a stupid bottle of water. Suddenly it occurred to her that Brooke must have examined the bottle and saw—she looked at the back of it herself to be sure—the expiration date.
“You know, don’t you?” Rachel flashed a hopeful look.
Brooke was noncommittal, knowing the expiration date could easily be a mistake. Or even an exaggerated suggestion that the water has a very long shelf life. To think otherwise required a real stretch of her imagination.
But she sensed this was something more than a mere stunt or the ravings of a homeless girl. There seemed to be nothing to gain at this point by sticking to her story. Unless Brooke was missing something. But what?
“Let’s just say you’ve got my attention,” she told her uneasily.
Rachel considered that a step in the right direction. Now she had to keep her from slipping away. “So what do you want to know?”
Brooke brushed aside a stray hair from her cheek. What didn’t she want to know? How does one carry on a normal conversation with someone who claims to be your sister from the future who’s now also sixteen?
Perhaps getting to the root of her mysterious appearance would give Brooke a better understanding of just what—and who—she was dealing with.
“Why don’t you start by telling me again how you ended up in the attic?”
Rachel went over it exactly as she remembered. “And that’s when you came in,” she finished, hoping she was coming across as credible, even if it probably sounded just the opposite.
Brooke was still skeptical, but couldn’t come up with a good enough explanation to refute her incredible tale outright. She’d heard the music herself and found the girl in the attic just as she said. But did that really mean she had just popped in from the future?
“Isn’t there some rule in the laws of nature against two identical people occupying the same space in time or whatever?” Brooke had read something to that effect once on a sci-fi website. It made sense to her.
She had phoned Rachel before Brooke left, as if to reassure herself that her little sister was still safe and sound at their Nana’s house. Rachel was there and talking up a storm as always, which made this all the more confusing and left Brooke still feeling very cynical about the girl’s claims.
“You’d have to ask my boyfriend about that.” Rachel couldn’t even begin to understand how this was happening any more than Brooke could. “He’s the science whiz. And it might even be more than he’s capable of answering. All I know is I’m here right now just like this—unless we’re both in my dream...or yours—”
Brooke sighed. I’m fully awake and she’s not a figment of my imagination. “Okay, if you’re really from the future—and I can’t believe I’m even saying this—why are you here?”
Rachel stared at the question. She had a theory and could no longer keep it to herself under the circumstances. Not when it could make the difference between life and death.
“I think I’m here to save you—”
“Save me from what?” Brooke asked. This she had to hear.
Rachel closed her eyes and took a deep breath, never imagining in a million years she would be discussing this frightening scenario with her dead sister. “A car accident—”
“Wait...are you saying—?” the words stuck in Brooke’s throat like a chicken bone.
“You died today, Brooke.” Rachel’s lips twitched. “I mean, you will die in a car accident today unless we prevent it from happening.”
Now Brooke was totally freaked out. Did this girl claiming to be Rachel really expect her to believe she’d traveled back in time to prevent her death? Even when she wanted to get up and walk out of there—more like run—Brooke couldn’t. Not when she had so much at stake, just in case every word the girl said was true.
Nevertheless, she rolled her eyes in disbelief. “So when is this accident supposed to happen?”
“I don’t know.” Rachel wished she could pinpoint it to the second. “I’ve always known the date, but not the time or place since I was at Nana’s when it happened. I’m really sorry, Brooke. Well, actually I’m not sorry—not anymore. If I can save your life today, then I’ll get my sister back in my own time.” That was the whole point of this time traveling experience, wasn’t it?
“Ten years from now?” Brooke looked at her, mouth open, still trying to come to grips with this startling revelation and its dire implications.
“Yeah.” Rachel nodded. She wished there was more to say that didn’t sound so creepy. But what?
Brooke suddenly lost her taste for the banana shake. She had come looking for this girl expecting to get some logical answers from her. Instead, things h
ad gotten even more unsettling. Brooke tried to imagine what it would be like if her six-year-old sister had to deal with her premature death. It would be so unfair for Rachel to grow up without the person who cared for her more than anyone in the world outside of their parents.
Studying the girl across the table, Brooke wondered if was possible she really could be her little sister now nearly an adult at sixteen. Was this her angel, sent back in time to prevent her from dying way too young?
Or am I crazy for even thinking against all logic that she might actually be telling the truth?
“In the attic, you mentioned dad...your father,” Brooke corrected, “and stepmother. If you’re really my sister from the future, tell me what happened with mom and dad? Do they get a divorce?”
Though this was something Brooke dreaded to hear, she would not have been surprised if her parents had gone their separate ways in a decade. Most of her friends’ parents had split up long ago, as though it were fashionable. She knew her parents did not have a perfect union. Far from it. They looked great together and provided for her and Rachel, but they hardly ever saw one another and seemed happiest when doing their own things apart.
I could live with having two sets of parents, if that’s what the future held. Brooke assumed her mother had probably remarried as well. It might even be fun—as long as she lived to see it.
Rachel was reluctant to share this part of the future with Brooke, knowing how painful it would be. But how could she keep it from her when she was trying to establish a trusting bond between them? Just like the bond they shared before Brooke’s untimely death.
Brooke sensed the girl was hesitating. Was this where her whole story fell apart? Or was she scheming to embellish it that much more?
“Well, what is it?” Brooke gave her a look of impatience.
Rachel could feel her pulse racing. “Mom and dad didn’t get a divorce.”
“So what then?”
Rachel met her steady gaze. “In two years, mom’s going die from cancer.”
“You’re lying!” Brooke raised her voice a full octave, refusing to believe this on top of her own predicted death.
Rachel shook her head. “I wish that were the case, if it meant mom would live to a ripe old age.” She paused. “I’m sorry, Brooke, but everything I’ve told you is the truth.”
“Why should I believe you?” Brooke asked pointedly.
“Because I’d never come here to hurt you,” Rachel insisted. “You’re my sister and I love you. If there was a way to—”
Brooke cut her off, having heard enough. “You’re a phony and so is everything you’ve said! I don’t even know why I bothered to listen.” She jumped to her feet, glaring at the Rachel imposter. “I never want to see you again! Ever!”
Brooke stormed out of the deli, and Rachel, terrified she would lose her sister all over again, ignored Brooke’s verbal lashing and ran after her.
* * *
Rachel saw Brooke walking down the sidewalk at a brisk pace. Then she looked to her left and spotted a vehicle approaching at a high rate of speed. Something told Rachel the driver was about to lose control and run right into Brooke! Her sister’s back was to the traffic, so she had no warning to get out of the way.
Panic seized Rachel as she realized this had to be the moment when her future and Brooke’s would change forever. Unless Rachel was able to successfully alter the course of history. She started to run after her sister.
“Brooke, the car... Get out of the way now—!”
Either Brooke didn’t hear her with the traffic, or was too peeved to care, but Rachel felt it was up to her to do what she must have been sent to do—even in a second chance dream—save Brooke’s life.
Over her shoulder Rachel could see the car gaining speed, swerving past an idle car, as the driver tried to overcorrect before heading on a beeline right at Brooke.
At the last possible moment, Rachel dove onto her sister and both went flying against the side of a building. The vehicle zoomed onto the sidewalk where Brooke had been walking and back onto the street, before crashing into a parked car.
Rachel’s pulse raced as she lifted off Brooke, ignoring her own scrapes and bruises. “Are you all right?”
Brooke was slightly dazed from the sudden fall, but otherwise okay. “Yeah.” She caught her breath and looked at the girl in disbelief. “How did you know?”
“I didn’t know the where and when, only the day and how,” Rachel explained. “I can’t take credit for being in the right place at the right time. Seems like other forces beyond my control made that possible.”
Though grateful she was there to change the course of history, Rachel couldn’t help but wonder if she had somehow been responsible in a weird way for what nearly happened to Brooke. After all, if she hadn’t been running away from her, Brooke might never have been on a collision course with the car. But that still made no sense to Rachel, as she was only preventing what had already occurred. She wouldn’t second guess that, especially now that her sister was alive.
“You saved my life—” Brooke cried, not able to comprehend everything that had happened. Including the timing in leaving the deli when she did, only to put herself in jeopardy. Instinctively she knew the car was supposed to hit her. She hadn’t wanted to believe she’d been so close to death. But an angel had somehow known all along and saved her, incredulous as it was.
An angel from the future...
Caught up in the moment and the ecstasy that Brooke was alive, Rachel barely noticed the music playing. It was coming from the clockwatch, which had managed to remain fastened to the chain around her neck during the spill. She opened it and saw that the date inside now read June 26, 2011.
Oh no. She sensed it spelled the end to her unexpected journey.
“No, please not yet!” Rachel cried desperately.
“What is it?” Brooke gazed at her with concern. “What’s happening?”
“I’m not sure...” Rachel had a pretty good idea, though, and there seemed to be nothing she could do to stop it. Her head suddenly began to spin like she might pass out at any second. There was so much more she wanted to say to Brooke. Now she might never get the chance. “I’ll always love you,” she managed to say.
Brooke watched with utter amazement as, before her very eyes, Rachel disappeared like she’d never been there in the first place.
A chill came over Brooke, as a gust of wind seemed to sweep down on her from nowhere. She struggled to her feet as others began to gather around. Apparently only she had witnessed Rachel’s disappearance.
The whole thing left Brooke shaken to the core. As bewildering as it was, she was now convinced a future version of Rachel really had traveled through time and gave her a second chance at life. Now she would take that life and see what else there was in store for her.
As she walked away from the near fatality, all Brooke could about was whether or not she would see the sixteen-year-old Rachel again someday.
CHAPTER SIX
Rachel felt groggy, her thoughts still on Brooke and the fact she was out of danger now and would live to see the future. But before they could celebrate, Brooke began to fade along with any further chance they had to communicate.
Rachel heard voices all around her, getting louder. Then one voice stood above all others.
“She’s coming to—”
It sounded like her father. Rachel opened her eyes and saw him looming over her. “Dad...”
“Yeah, honey, it’s me.” Edwin’s features were strained with anxiety.
Rachel realized she was in a hospital bed surrounded by her dad, Virginia, and a woman in a white jacket.
“I’m Doctor Stetson,” she said. “How do you feel?”
Rachel’s throat felt dry, as if she’d been in the desert, and she had a splitting headache, along with some aches and pains. There was no need to complain about that. Right now her concerns were with Brooke.
“Fine.”
The doctor smiled softly. �
�That’s definitely a good sign.”
“What happened?” Rachel looked at her father.
“You must’ve fallen and hit your head in the attic,” he explained. “Virginia found you up there lying on the floor.”
“You’ve been out for nearly an hour,” Virginia said. “Thank goodness that hard head of yours protected you from serious harm.”
Rachel frowned. “You mean it didn’t really happen?”
“What are you talking about?” Her father looked confused.
“I saw Brooke and mom,” she told him. I was even nearly run over by a younger version of Duncan on a bicycle. “I saved Brooke from being hit by that car—”
She watched as Edwin flashed Virginia a concerned look.
“It would have been nice if you had traveled back in time to rescue your sister from...that awful incident,” he said. “But it was only a dream, honey.”
“A dream?” That was hard for Rachel to comprehend, as it had seemed so real.
“Afraid so. I’m sorry.”
No one was sorrier than Rachel, feeling really foolish. How could everything that happened have been a dream? Was her mind truly capable of manufacturing such a detailed and thought-provoking scenario where she, Brooke, and their mother reunited?
The doctor seemed to provide the answer. “It’s not uncommon to have strange dreams when you have a slight concussion,” she said. “Probably something you were thinking about before losing consciousness. The important thing is that you’re back with us and well on the way to being as good as new. Even those scrapes and bruises you must’ve sustained when you fell should heal completely.”
“Can I have some water?” Rachel asked, still coming to terms with being back in her real life, apparently having never really left it.
“You sure can.” She wrote something on a chart. “And even a little snack before we discharge you.”
Rachel closed her eyes; saddened that any chance Brooke might still be alive had been all but dashed. It was replaced by the painful truth they would never see each other again. Not in the land of the living anyway.
While drinking the lukewarm water, Rachel touched her neck, expecting to find the chain holding the gold watch. It was not there. Had she only been dreaming this, too? It made sense. After all, it was the clockwatch that was responsible for mysteriously transporting her through time.
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