9 Tales From Elsewhere 4

by 9 Tales From Elsewhere

  “You’re all thirty four, they say? You look healthy. I can tell that much.”

  “Yes, so no worries about birth defects. You get a normal healthy baby. I don’t remember being colicky, but I am allergic to cat dandruff though. I still like cats though. Very much so.”

  “That’s a given,” Sandra said hearing her own mother’s voice in her own, “I am as well. Are you hungry?”

  +++

  They dined and talked and over the next couple of nights enjoyed each other’s company as George sought to understand the time period he now existed in. Sandra watched a week tick by and kept staring at George wondering who Wade was, and where did that chin of his come from?

  “Maybe I was sent here to make sure you two find each other?” George suggested out of the blue one evening.

  Sandra knew taking George to a bar would not aid her in finding her one true love, and her baby’s daddy. But he knew what Wade looked like. She introduced herself to more men than she’d care to admit, and if George hadn’t been there with her, a few might’ve taken her advances too far, just as she might’ve taken her own advances further if she wasn’t trying to find her one true love—George’s father.

  At the end of an unsuccessful night, George said, “My full name is George Alan Pace. Tomorrow I have to go in for more questioning and some kind of physical examination. Just in case they zap my brain and I can’t remember my name, it’s George Alan Pace.” He said it one more time, slower so that Sandra could hear it echo the rest of her life. She needed to meet Wade Pace.

  +++

  Her curiosity got her and she searched the social networks online and after that turned up no locals named Wade Pace she went to the archaic tome that everybody once had. She only found one at the fax machine at a Staples. There were three W. Paces in the area. She decided to go all the way out to Powhatan from Richmond, to see the first W. Pace.

  His house was nice and centered between trees and other nice homes layered with vinyl siding and the kind of peaceful neighborhood that made the city of Richmond seem to be more than just thirty minutes away. She waited a while before he saw a woman in her late forties come outside and fool with a lawn mower and then another with glasses, dark graying hair and a thick goatee. After struggling for a bit they called someone on their cell phone.

  But Sandra didn’t need to see anymore. This W. Pace looked in love and was not her man.

  The second W. Pace was a woman who worked at the Ukrops Deli, so that meant the third time would have to the charm.

  But her luck stalking the third was not in her favor. She returned home empty handed, wondering if she never found Wade, if George would cease to be and the whole event would vanish from her memory, like in the movies.

  Maybe that was the solution.

  ++++

  George called before he came over this time, saying the tests went well and he was granted a temporary visa status but would in fact have to undergo regular testing and other regulations.

  “It’s worldwide though, so it’s safe to say their hands are pretty tied up. If you come from a decent family background they let you maintain your rights as a citizen for the time being.” He seemed happy as he hugged her. She felt guilty for thinking about letting him never be. Was that the same as abortion?

  “Have you been to visit your father yet?” Sandra asked hoping for help.

  George laughed, “My father always said you two met by accident.” His grin was wide.

  “What?” Sandra asked trying to decipher him.

  “I’m just excited for you. It seems strange. I don’t think any child gets to witness his parent’s love story.”

  “Not unless you’re Marty McFly.”

  “Huh?”

  Sandra realized that film would over be 20 years old by the time George is conceived. She almost asked him if the future had the hover boards that that film had promised.

  “Did we ever tell you about this?” She waved her hands as if it meant his traveling back in time.

  “I think Dad tried to. I’ve had some time to think about it since I arrived.” George smiled. “Dad always said one day I’d understand.” I think he meant this. I think he meant why you two made sure I was happy and little things like he used to say ‘when I married your mother gas prices were nothing compared to this and we didn’t…” He paused. “I should tell you that I’ve agreed to be sworn to secrecy on future technology as it could benefit certain industries. The government made us all sign papers. Not that it makes any sense. It’s not like any of us know how to make that technology. It’ll be just as good as science fiction. Someone will still have to do the work for it. But you know, someone will share, maybe in China, maybe elsewhere and then suddenly a technological boom and where will the United States be? Still in 2016. They want us to talk—just to the right people.”

  “Can you tell me what you do for a living?”

  “Eh. I feel like if I did you might try and sway me in another direction as I grow up. Not that it’s anything you should worry about. I live as well as can be expected.”

  “Do they know why all the children came back?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe in 2050 they have a better idea than you or I do right now. Perhaps they figured it all out by then.”

  “Do you return?”

  “I don’t know. It’s strange. I know growing up we were always treated differently. People said the Children of 2016 were loved more. Maybe because we don’t. I don’t know. Dad tried to call all week before I realized we were here. I didn’t think too much of it at the time. No one told us the truth,” He said.

  “I will tell you.”

  George smiled.

  Sandra didn’t know if she loved her child yet. She felt sad at the thought that he might never return, that sometime in the future she has a child, watches him grow up and then at thirty four years of age he simple vanishes.

  “Should I prepare you?”

  “I think by the laws of time travel you should do exactly as you did. So don’t. Let me be a kid.” His smile was getting harder to fake. He did love his mother. He had spent the last thirty-four years of his life, looking up to her, grateful for her affection and sacrifice.

  He changed the subject and started asking about food and if there was anywhere really worth eating. They saw other children of 2016 when they went out. Some of them George recognized and exchanged waves to. They would’ve gone to the same school and been in the same grade, he would know hundreds of them.

  Had any of them had a hard time making sure their parents were going to conceive them in time?

  Sandra never imagined just a whirlwind romance or a shotgun wedding, not for her. Now she had to embrace it. She wondered if she should hit the night scene again. After all, A man’s life depended on it—her son’s life.

  George spoke with the other children of 2016 and their waiter returned with the check.

  “I hope you two enjoyed your meal, you have also been selected to participate in a survey where you could win a years’ worth of meals if you wouldn’t mind filling it out, and please mention my name when you do.” The waiter grabbed some plates and spun on his heals. He was gone as Sandra looked at the bill. The Cursive ‘W’ caught her eye.

  She spun in her chair unable to see the waiter disappearing into the kitchen, he had signed the bill, ‘Wade.’ She couldn’t remember if he had been cute, she was thinking about too much else already, but had she found him? Had George picked a chain restaurant on purpose? Had he lied and said they didn’t exist in future anymore but were well spoken of in comparison to the surviving chains? Was this the accident?

  She got up and headed to the kitchen. The restrooms where down the same hall and she just stood there and then finally said, “Wade?”

  He appeared bewildered. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

  “Do you have a girlfriend?” She blurted then recovered, “Can we get coffee sometime? Like as friends?”

  “I can’t help you win the survey.” H
e smiled.

  She had never asked a boy out in her life.

  “Yeah, sure, maybe. I work pretty late. Maybe lunch some time?”

  “Meet here?” she asked.

  Wade moved in closer. “Let’s not, between you and me, I don’t eat here… it’s not bad,” he corrected himself. “I’m just here a lot.”

  He gave her his number and she texted him and they set a date next week. Sandra knew this was the date. She had to conceive on this exact date.

  She still hadn’t processed what he looked like. Dark hair, brown eyes, high cheekbones, a thin neck on thin shoulders but an otherwise athletic build, maybe a runner. And the chin, the chin was close to what George had.

  She found George who had been waiting. She didn’t know if she could tell him. She felt embarrassed by her sexuality. She knew how uncomfortable the thought of her own parents procreating was.

  “I think I just met your dad.” She said in shock.

  “Great!” he patted his mother on her back. “That’s terrific, everything is working out, but they, well the government is calling us in again. Looks like their committee has gotten to work and figured out what needs to be done with us, Everyone I talked to is saying it’s a couple of weeks and we might be able to go home—not that. Mom, you’ve made this very nice. I would like to stay here with you, but I didn’t leave an empty nest...”

  “Trust me, I get it. Hanging out with your mom is not cool. Just kidding. You’ll be here. You’ll be growing inside me, and then I’ll be teaching you things and you’ll end up as you. It’ll all work out.”

  George didn’t seem so sure. He laid his hand on Sandra’s shoulder. “Are you going to be okay?”

  “Yeah, it’s probably the part you don’t want to be sticking around for.”

  “The mushy stuff.”

  +++++

  It was mushy.

  All of it.

  Everything about Wade seemed to match, if she were Dorothy she was greeting the tornado and excited to go to Oz. She never once made him wear protection that night, after all she knew what it led to, she knew everything worked out, except that thirty four years later their son would travel back in time for no apparent reason. But the rumors were there. The children of 2016 would be going home soon. All of them.

  Wade had no problem coming back to her apartment. Though it took some careful phrasing on Sandra’s part, as she didn’t want their first time together to start like a porno. But once he was threw the threshold, and sitting on her couch, she had to initiate everything. She started making out with him. When his hands didn’t work their way down her pants, she fingered herself, until she was turned on enough to unbuckle his belt. Her moans excited him, and he caved, writhing with her as she kissed the tip of him. From then on there was no fight in Wade, she took all he would give her. And when he was done, she kept at him. She worked him until he passed out.

  And Sandra glowed knowing she had done the right thing. You’re safe now, George.

  She was excited by the pregnancy test that awaited her in the bathroom. She couldn’t wait to wake up and read the directions on when she could first take it. Maybe Wade would tease her for being frivolous, since she knew George would be born. But she hadn’t told Wade anything yet. She didn’t want to come off like a psychopath on their first date.. Maybe she had to be sure she wasn’t creating an alternate dimension.

  She told Wade she loved him. Kissed his neck and ran to the bathroom.

  He was gone when he she got back. Gone from the bed, he was in the kitchen making her breakfast. He greeter her with a passionate kiss and asked her, “How do you like your eggs?”

  +++++

  When George came back, he looked weak and exhausted. He hugged Sandra and they talked. George said Wade was coming by. Sandra was excited. Had he known they were meant to procreate their first night together?

  George greeted his father at the door. Short, blonde, seashells dangling around his neck and a popped collar. This was not the Wade Sandra had been slept with.

  “Hey, remember me, we met at a house party last year,” he said and then sat down, bobbing his head. “So I’ve been thinking and I’m sure you know too, this is going to work out between us, no divorce, junior says we’re happy. Let’s go with it. You’re hot.” He popped a ring out of his pocket and dropped to one knee.

  Sandra couldn’t believe it. This was not the Wade she slept with. She didn’t even remember meeting him.

  “This is when it happens!” George clapped.

  “Okay.” Sandra says instantly succumbing to her fate.

  “Now, go along junior, we’ve got a future to make.”

  George laughed and shook his head. “I’m sure. This is very weird. I’m a little grossed out at what I know is going to take place, but I’m happy you two found each other.”

  After an awkward second in George’s absence, they talked and he seemed nice. He was truly excited about their future, all the things they get to share, nothing in their way.

  They made love because they were supposed to. Sandra laid her head on his shoulders afterwards, because they were supposed to. George had said so.

  When her first Wade texted she didn’t respond. He tried calling and she couldn’t answer. She was pregnant and it couldn’t be his. After all their lovemaking, and that’s what it was, it was the more surgical operation of her mating with the second Wade that produced George.

  George was elated. Wade was high fiving friends and buying cigars. By then the first births of 2016 had occurred, and the children of 2016 who had traveled back in time began to disappear, on their birthdays. One by one, gone. Nothing left behind, not the clothes on their backs, not a piece of hair. As if they had just stepped through a crack in time.

  ++++++

  Her first Wade finally found her and she explained she was pregnant with another man’s child. It was an ugly end to what had been beautiful. His last look was one of disgust. She could never eat at that restaurant again, or any of the restaurants they had dined at. She was tried to take joy in the fact that that particular chain would not exist in the future. She even got rid of her mattress, and refused to wear the clothing she had worn on their date. She was just as heart broken. But she had never paid attention to his last name, Knobloch. It wasn’t meant to be. Her son was a Pace.

  Wade Pace and George stood over her in the delivery room. She had gone into labor twenty minutes ago. She looked at the two men and couldn’t see any resemblance.

  She saw Wade Knobloch’s chin. She saw his neck and his hands. She realized for the first time that Wade Pace was not the father.

  “I should go,” George said.

  “No please, let me watch you go.” Sandra said. “Then I’ll know the baby is born and this will stop.” She winced. She knew she had hours of labor ahead of her.

  “Yeah, well this super gross. I’ll go call your parents,” Wade said, and he left the delivery room to use his cell phone.

  “George, come here.”

  He leaned in towards his mother’s beckoning finger.

  “That’s not your father. Remember I told you I met a Wade. You look just like him.”

  “I don’t’ understand.”

  “I think we lie to you. You say your father told you all these wonderful things but you’re not his.”

  “Mom, did you sleep with someone else? You did. You could destroy me? I won’t be me. It’s a time paradox! You destroyed me!”

  “No! You were always this other Wade’s son. You see. We lied to you. We lie to ourselves, and now I have to keep lying to myself, for thirty-four years. I have to play along with your future. Know that. Know that I’m willing to make you happy.” She screamed.

  “You don’t.”

  “I do, I do want to make you happy.” She said, as tears roared down her face.

  “No, you don’t have to make that sacrifice.”

  He walked away.

  “I want you to live!” she yelled at George.

  He paused in the
doorway.

  “They made us promise not to interfere. You died in child birth, mom.”

  No shot gun wedding, no years of longing for a Wade Knobloch, Just the pain of childbirth the exchange of lives.

  “You died during child birth, mom,” he said again. “I could’ve save you. I’m selfish. That makes me a murderer doesn’t it?”

  Her screams rose. She never saw George again.

  THE END.

  DUPED by Daniel Brock

  -Father-

  Time was a funny thing to Greg Walker. It always seemed to sneak up on him, slip out of his reach, or just flat out drop out of the sky dead. He'd always had this idea that Time was the ultimate practical joker, gifted with a knack for surprise and most often an extremely twisted sense of humor. His theory had never needed proving because in his eyes it was plain as day, but that afternoon in front of the bank on Lake Blvd made it obvious to him in a way that he would never forget.

  There was a bomb threat at Alton and Son Attorney and Greg had gone home early with everyone else. Though he sat in his car for five minutes before leaving in fear of turning the key and igniting something besides the engine, he was still secretly pleased that one of "Filthy" Frankie Buchelli's lackeys had gone rogue and placed a bomb in the building. It was his first half day in over ten years at the firm and it couldn't have come on a better day. His daughter was starring in the school play and he would actually get to make it this time.

  Even though her wig was MIA for ten minutes at home and even though he left without his debit card and had to stop at the bank to get gas money, it was still a great day. His daughter was beautiful and full of nine year old enthusiasm. She was going over her lines in the car, which Greg thought were incredibly clever for an elementary school performance of "The Cat that Climbed the Mountain." He chuckled every time he heard her say "Someday I'm going to scale that snowy slope." She had a slight lisp and he enjoyed the way she would whistle through the S sounds.