by Inmon, Shawn
“Nicky!” Emily whispered in his ear. “This place must be so expensive!”
“Why do you think I’ve been working all summer?”
“I can’t believe you worked so hard just so we could come blow it in one night!”
“You’re worth it.”
They were seated halfway to the back of the restaurant, at a table up on a slight riser, so they were able to look out at all the other diners.
“I’m not sure I know which fork to use for what!” Emily said, looking at the array of cutlery spread out in front of her.
“Just don’t use your knife to eat your soup, or your spoon to cut your steak, and you’ll be fine.”
Dominick ordered for both of them, because he knew Emily would order whatever was least expensive on the menu.
Not tonight, Em. Tonight, we splurge.
After they worked their way through the crab cocktail appetizer, clam chowder, and filet mignon, Dominick ordered Bananas Foster for them.
“I’m not actually sure what Bananas Foster is, but I guess we’ll find out!”
To the surprise of both of them, it turned out to be not only delicious, but also cooked right at their table, including a flaming finish.
Dominick had been nervous all evening, not because of their surroundings, but because of the small black box he carried in his suit pocket.
Emily pushed her dessert plate away with half her Bananas Foster left and said, “I will never eat again. Are you trying to fatten me up?”
Dominick didn’t answer. His mouth felt too dry to speak. He slipped out of his side of the booth and realized that because they were sitting on a riser, there was no place to kneel. He shrugged, stood close to Emily, and produced the box.
Emily’s eyes grew wide. She said, “Oh.” Her hands went to her mouth.
This is where everything went sideways last time. Please, God. If you can answer one prayer for me in this string of mixed up lives, let it be this one. Let her say ‘yes.’
“Emily Esterhaus, I know we’ve only known each other for a year, but I can’t imagine ever finding someone as perfect as you are. Will you marry me?”
Tears spilled out of Emily’s eyes. She smiled and reached for Dominick. Her hands were shaking. “Yes.”
It was all she needed to say. Dominick’s head dropped, and he said a silent prayer of thanks.
Dominick leaned toward her and kissed her, softly at first, then like he meant it. When their lips parted, he realized that they were both crying.
The tables around them had turned to watch the drama play out. A man at the booth next to them said, “Well, what did she say?”
Dominick flashed a thumbs-up to him, and all the tables around them burst into applause.
He leaned in close to Emily and whispered in her ear, “I guess even rich people appreciate a good love story.”
Chapter Fifty-Six
After much back and forth, they decided to get married the next summer, after school was out. Emily wanted to give her parents and friends from Wisconsin enough warning so they could travel for the wedding. Dominick briefly lobbied for a date in December—their original wedding date—but changed his mind and let Emily pick the date. She wanted to be a June bride, and who was he to stand in her way.
A time for everything and everything in its time.
They were new to Middle Falls so they planned a small wedding. Still, Emily managed to talk her two best friends from college—Sandy and Melody—to fly out and be her co-Maids of Honor. Dominick was proud to ask Joe to stand up with him as his Best Man, and Sam to be his only groomsman. Sam had grown up in the years Dominick had been away. He had a good job, and he even brought a girl to the wedding, giving Laura dreams of being a grandmother on three fronts.
It was that odd sense of déjà vu that Dominick never got used to when he met Melody and Sandy for the first time in this lifetime. They were exactly the same, just a little older. The first thing Melody said was, “Oh, he’s a cute one. Are all the Oregon boys this cute? I might have to move out here!”
They held the wedding at Middle Falls park, right next to the actual falls, which weren’t spectacular, but were nonetheless the town’s namesake. The wedding was small. Including Connie and her new fiancée, Charlie, Sam and Belinda, his new girlfriend, Harvey and Louise Esterhaus, and all the Middle Falls teaching friends, there were still less than fifty people in attendance.
None of that mattered at all to Dominick. To him, he and Emily could have eloped to Reno, or gotten married at the local Justice of the Peace. After so many years and lifetimes of waiting, he just wanted it to happen.
Emily was highly spiritual, but not religious, so having the priest from the local Catholic Church perform the wedding was impossible. Instead, they asked their friend, Glenn Mobrey, the History teacher at Middle Falls High, who was also licensed to perform weddings, to do the honors.
Dominick, Joe, and Sam wore charcoal gray tuxedos. Emily’s bridesmaids wore yellow dresses that would undoubtedly hang in their closets unworn until they finally donated them to Goodwill in five or ten years. Emily wore a high-necked bridal gown and matching bridal hat. She was the very picture of a late-eighties bride.
At the appointed hour, Glenn Mobrey said, “I wrote a little speech today,” and here he took a thick sheaf of papers out of his jacket pocket. The crowd groaned inwardly. “But it’s a little hot out here, so I’m going to give you all a break and not deliver it.” There were a few chuckles and a smattering of applause.
“Seriously, though, I feel blessed to have the opportunity to help join these two shining spirits together in matrimony. Dominick did ask me to read a short verse, from Corinthians, so I will do that.
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up.
“Today is definitely a day when we are joining together and building up. I have only known Dominick and Emily a short time, but they have both made an impression on me with their love and the way they have become such an important part of our local community. Dominick and Emily have written their own vows. Dominick?
Dominick took a deep breath, blew it out, and smiled nervously at his bride. “Emily, all my life, I knew something was missing. That day I saw you and Mrs. Bilas carrying those books across the parking lot, I found out what it was. I was missing someone who I could trust completely, with all my life’s secrets, knowing they would hold them deep in their heart and keep them safe. I was missing someone who I just had to tell about my day, all the good and the bad. I was missing someone to plan a future with, someone I could be myself with, and someone who would love me through all my life. That very first day, I knew you were all these missing pieces and more. With you beside me, I never need to look backwards. Together, we can spend the rest of our lives looking forward. My vow to you is simple. I give you my life.”
Behind Emily, Melody sniffed a little. Under her breath, she said, “Beautiful.”
Emily wiped a tear away and said, “From the first moment I saw you in this life, I knew we would always be together. You are my heart. I give you my life.”
Mr. Mobrey smiled at both of them, and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time anywhere, may I present Mr. and Mrs. Dominick and Emily Davidner.”
Dominick laughed. Not exactly the first time anywhere, but I’ll take it.
He and Emily walked down the aisle, through all their friends and loved ones, and into the sunshine.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
The next ten years were not a carbon copy of their first life, and that was a relief for Dominick, too. Over the years, the stock he had bought in 1986 blossomed, and by 1996, his original 250 shares had blossomed into 4,500 shares, thanks to stock splits. At some point, Dominick realized he was a millionaire. It wasn’t quite drop dead money,
but he was certainly more comfortable than he would have been budgeting on two teacher’s salaries.
He had told Emily about the Microsoft stock almost as an afterthought on their wedding day. She didn’t believe him, but when he promised to put her on with his stock broker in Vegas the next day, she was convinced,
He was sure that the stock would continue to go up, at least until 1999, so he didn’t want to divest or cash in too much of it, but he did sell enough shares that he was able to pay off his parent’s mortgage, so Laura could stay home, and Joe could cut back his hours. He also cashed enough to put a down payment on a house. The rest they tucked away, hoping for more stock splits.
Life at the Davidner house was good, if not perfect. No marriage is perfect, even one as freighted with love and meaning as Dominick and Emily’s. They still argued from time to time, and they were both disappointed at their ongoing inability to get pregnant. Both Sam and Connie had two children each, which eased the pressure from Laura and Joe, but not from Harvey and Louise, and not from themselves.
Still, their love never wavered, and they never said anything so horrible to each other that an apology couldn’t heal it up.
In 1998, Dominick celebrated his tenth anniversary teaching at Middle Falls Elementary. On the first day of that new school year, he welcomed his freshman English class. He looked up to see Gerald Fleischer sitting in the back row. Dominick flashed back to that day he had stormed his class a gun in each hand and needed to sit down.
I guess I knew he would show up one of these days.
Dominick had been given decades to think about and worry what had happened at the end of his first life. Now, sitting twenty feet away from the boy who had murdered him, Dominick was still unsure.
What pushed him over the edge? Being bullied? Bad home life? Or, is he just a sociopath?
Dominick had no one he could talk about it with. He talked with Emily about everything else, but he had never found a way to tell her about his multiple lives. Maybe she would believe him, and it would be a relief to be able to talk with her about it. In the final analysis, he knew there was no way he could prove the truth, although he could give her a lot of circumstantial evidence. If he told her and she didn’t believe him, where were they then? Very likely with a huge wedge between them. They were on much more solid ground than when he had blurted the truth out in Sheboygan two lives ago, but the downside was so much greater than the upside, that he held his own counsel. As his father had once told him, “Some things you just need to keep to yourself.”
And now, here he was, face to face with his killer, and still no plan in place to deal with him.
He didn’t bring the guns to school until December a year from now. I can’t count on things happening the same way, but maybe I can make a change in his life.
At lunch that day, Dominick took his brown bag lunch to the teacher’s lounge, just like he did every day. Emily had packed him some left over spaghetti and pasta salad. He popped the spaghetti into the microwave and sat down while it heated.
Zack Weaver was already sitting at the table, reading a book. Zack was a bright guy, but he wasn’t a bookworm, so Dominick craned his head to see what he was reading. The title on the front showed the face of a frightened young boy. The title read, The Unusual Second Life of Timothy Wallace. The author’s name at the bottom was Thomas Weaver.
“Relative of yours?”
“Yeah,” Zack said. “My brother, actually. He’s an attorney here in town, but in his spare time, he wrote this book, and he got it published.” He took a bite of his sandwich and chewed it thoughtfully. “It’s actually really good. Who knew?”
“What’s it about?”
“It’s about this kid who accidentally kills his older, very good looking brother. I’m pretty sure he based that character on me.”
“You’ll never have self-confidence issues, Zack.”
Ignoring him, Zack went on, “Killing his brother really messes him up, and he has a pretty terrible life, so he kills himself, then wakes up back in his teenage body, but he can remember everything that happened in his previous life.”
The microwave beeped, but Dominick wasn’t paying attention. “What?”
“I know, it sounds weird, but it’s really pretty interesting. It’s like he took our lives and threw them into a blender with a bunch of hallucinogenic drugs and this story came out.”
“Hang on, hang on. Did you say he died, then woke up back in his own body and remembered his old life?”
“Mmm-hmmph” Zack said around a bite of peanut butter and jelly.
“Where can I get a copy,” Dominick asked, trying not to seem too eager.
Zack, engrossed in the book, didn’t notice anything. “He’s doing a signing at the bookstore in town tonight. Local writer makes good and all that, you know. It’s kind of weird reading things that I remember happening and finding them in a book years later.”
Yeah, that’s kind of weird. What’s weird is, your brother Thomas has to be someone like me.
He pulled his spaghetti out of the microwave and slipped it back into the bag, then walked out of the lounge and into the sunshine. He grabbed his Nokia phone from the pocket of his khakis and pulled the antenna up. He held the 2 down a few seconds, and it dialed Emily.
“Hey, hon,” she said. “Surviving the first day of school with your new set of monsters?”
Surviving. Yes, so far.
“So far, so good. Hey, I was just talking to Zack in the lounge. His brother wrote a book and he’s signing it at the bookstore tonight at six. You wanna go?”
“That would be fun, but they’ve called a mandatory meeting for all of us.”
“Nice thing to do on the first day.”
“Yes, the new principal is not very popular at the moment.”
“Okay, I think I’m gonna go. I want to read this book.”
“K, hon. If I get home ahead of you, I’ll heat up some of last night’s leftovers.”
“If I beat you there, I’ll do the same. I love you, Em.” That’s the way he had said it to her every day since he had first told her. It was always “I love you,” not “Love ya,” or a rote “Love you too.” On the day he was killed, his last words to her were another smart aleck quip. This life, he made sure that wouldn’t happen again—whenever their last goodbye was to be, she would have heard, “I love you, Emily,” that day.
Dominick went back into the teacher’s lounge and stashed his uneaten lunch back in the refrigerator and returned to class. He did his best to focus the rest of the day, but his mind swirled with the possibility of finally finding someone he could talk to.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Dominick arrived at the bookstore, called The Story Emporium, at 5:30. There was a table set up at the front of the store, with a few rows of chairs. It didn’t look like they were expecting a huge turnout. There were stacks of the hardback he had seen Zack reading on the table, but no one was around. Dominick plucked one off the top of the stack, then wandered the store, looking for something for Emily.
Gift giving had been easy for the first nine years of their marriage, because he still had memories of what she liked and didn’t like. Getting tougher, now. I am going to have to start getting creative again.
He picked up Bag of Bones, Stephen King’s new book, but put it back down. That would be two for me and none for Emily. No good.
He saw Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier on a top shelf and pulled it down to read the back cover. Hmm. A little history and romance combined. Ladies and Gentlemen, we’ve got a winner.
He took both books up to the register and paid for them, then took up a seat in the back row of chairs at the front of the store. He cracked The Unusual Second Life of Timothy Wallace open.
The dedication page read, simply, “For Carrie."
The opening chapters of the book were set in 1976, and Dominick was immediately engrossed. He had lived through 1976 four times himself, and he remembered it well.
“You kno
w, it makes new authors uneasy to see someone actually reading their book, right?”
Dominick jumped a little, then looked up to see a middle-aged man smiling down at him.
“Oh. Oh, is this yours?” Dominick asked, holding up the book.
“Sure is.” The man held out his hand. “Thomas Weaver.”
“Oh, hey. I’m Dominick. I’m actually a friend of your brother. We both teach at Middle Falls. I saw him reading it today and he mentioned you’d be here signing copies tonight, so I thought I’d swing by.”
There. That’s casual enough, right? I can’t just blurt out, ‘I’m a time traveler too!’
Dominick never would have pegged Thomas and Zack for brothers. Zack was tall and lean, with the kind of casual good looks that were destined to improve with age. Thomas was shorter, a few pounds overweight, and with a face that disappeared in a crowd.
I suppose most anyone comes off poorly if you compare them with Zack, though.
“I appreciate it. The girl at the register said the last local author they had in only had one person show up, so you make me at least equal with her. Take that, Edna.”
“Zack said the book was a mixture of fact and fiction. It’s about time travel, though, so I guess that’s the fiction part, right?”
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
“Dominick. My name’s Dominick.”
“Yeah, I know. That’s Shakespeare. One of the horribly pretentious things authors do—quoting the Bard.”
An elderly woman who had a large bag with her took another book off the stack on the table.
“You’re doing land-office business, Thomas. I guess Edna can suck on your fumes.”