He took off as soon as they got close to him.
Sky stood with her hands akimbo. "No way am I running, walking, or crawling up there. That's steep."
"Come on," Randy joked. "Where is your sense of adventure?"
"Gone," Sky sniffed, "about two miles ago."
Randy walked behind them and pushed them up the hill. "Now go," he said as he heralded them up the path.
They eventually started walking on their own but really slowly. Randy jogged ahead of them and then slowed down for them to catch up with him. That continued for a while until they met up on Josh nearly at the top of the hill. He was sitting at the side of the road his head in his hand.
"Ha," Sky laughed. "You bit off more than you could chew didn't you, Mr. Fitness."
Josh looked up at them dazedly. "I er there is er..."
"I am going to the top," Sky said gleefully, "doesn't seem as far and because we slowly walked it up I have the energy. Let's go, Addi. Let Josh, the hare, see that the race is not for the swift but that tortoises that endures to the end."
"No!" Josh shouted. "No!"
"Why not?" Addi was beginning to get concerned. Josh was acting off. Weird.
"Because…" Josh inhaled.
"Aunt Ivy?" She asked slowly.
Josh looked at her sharply. "Yes. How did you know?"
"I wish I could tell you time travel," Addi glanced at Sky and Randy, "but Myrna said she saw them together couple evenings ago."
Sky widened her eyes. "My mom is up there with some man?"
"Yes." Josh stretched out his legs. "This guy, works for us, I think his name is Rusty. They were going at it in the car. When you think about it, this is a nice spot. It's private. It's hardly visited. I think some developer is going to make this into a nice area, the view up there is really nice."
Sky sat down where she was standing in the middle of the dusty red dirt. She looked at Addi and Randy and then closed her eyes.
"Sky?" Addi asked gently. "You just said you were over Rusty."
"I know," Sky muttered. "I just can't process this..."
"Maybe we should go talk to her," Addi said, "let her know we are on to her."
"No." Randy shook his head. "We should leave."
Sky shook her head. "I don't think I can move now. I don't think that I can get up."
Randy hauled her up and she leaned on him. All her energy was sapped. Addi hated to see her that way.
"Sky," Addi held her around the waist to the other side of Randy and they walked down the hill with Sky propped between them like a rag doll.
She finally regained her strength after they hit the road. The tears started when they were half way home.
It didn't let up even when they solemnly entered the yard. Sky didn't even head for her home she made a beeline straight for Addi's room.
****
It was a quiet dinner that evening. Everyone seemed preoccupied with their own thoughts. Vicky declared in the middle of a prolonged silence that she was going to host Sunday dinner this week.
"You should take your girlfriend, Josh. Last Sunday you didn't take her to Ivy's. This Sunday no disappearing on me."
Addi sighed inwardly. Her mother was going to try to outdo Aunt Ivy's previous weeks dinner and more than likely something would go wrong. Whenever her mother tried to show off, something always went wrong.
"I thought that since the four of you went running this evening you would all have a large appetite," Vicky looked at them.
Sky was pushing around her food morosely. Josh was eating slowly almost absently and Addi wasn't even pretending. She didn't want any food.
Sausage and baked beans and rice was not her dream meal. Besides, future events were weighing on her mercilessly.
She took a token bite under her mother's watchful eye and then tried to pass some over to Randy. This wasn't his family that was falling a part. He had a perfectly good appetite and he seemed to love the dish.
After the long tedious dinner Sky excused herself and went into the study with her blank book. Addi and Josh washed up the dishes in near silence.
Randy was on the phone with his grandma.
Josh looked at her after a while. "You can't time travel. It's fiction."
Addi nodded. "Yes, I can, I have."
Josh nodded. "Say I believe that you are really a time traveler. What is it that you know about Ellie and me in the future?"
Addi felt her heart pick up speed. Was he seriously asking her? Would he believe?
"You sure you want to know?" She almost whispered the question.
"Yes." Josh exhaled. "I'll hear you out. I won't get upset."
"She gets pregnant sometime in August."
Josh swallowed.
"You two get married in December. She has a son, you named him Nelson, but he's sickly. Your blood types don't match when you volunteer to give him blood. You divorce in 96."
Josh wiped his hand on the cloth hanging by the stove and then leaned on the counter and looked at her.
"So she is cheating on me, now?"
"Yes." Addi nodded. "With a married man. I know that now only because Randy and I went to spy on her two weeks ago. She receives money from a married man every Monday. The man who delivered the money to her asked her why she didn't leave the boss and be with him."
Addi cleared her throat.
"That man works for Porter Brothers."
Josh flinched as if he had been slapped.
"You asked for it." Addi sighed. "By the way, you get that scholarship to MIT that you applied for, and you didn't bother to take it because she had a difficult pregnancy."
Josh nodded. "Anything else?"
"If you take a different route this summer," Addi said carefully. "There is nothing I can tell you about your future. This summer is a reset point for your life."
"A married man? Dad or uncle?" Josh wiped his hand down his face. "I suspect that something is off. I wouldn't have been so suspicious if it weren't for you and your warning a while back when we were painting your room.
"You had me looking into the way we met. It was real fishy. I have always gone to Mack J's for lunch and I've seen her, but she has never spoken to me, though she's worked there for a year,
"All of a sudden three weeks ago she is into me. I think we are moving too fast. She wants to get intimate too soon. This is not the way I operate."
He glanced at Addi. "I always do the chasing. Not to say I don't like how aggressive she is but...you spoilt it for me."
"I did?" Addi widened her eyes. "Thank God! I thought I wasn't getting through to you. I thought that history would repeat itself."
Josh shook his head. "Not for me."
"What made you suddenly decide to believe me?" Addi asked puzzled.
"I overheard you," Josh said quietly. "I overheard your conversation with Randy this evening. All of it. You think that Uncle Stan is going to be killed. You think that Rusty did it. You were telling him that he was the only one you could rely on to believe you. I could hear the truth in your voice. I could hear it when you said that you just wanted to help your family and put things right.
"And then I got to thinking. Since that day when I saw you outside with the book in your hand. I could sense that you weren't the same.
"Your hair, your clothes, your room, your cooking. Josh shook his head, the study. You've been changing them. You talk different. Like you are more mature. I think everybody has picked up on that. Your knowledge about my favorite artistes dying believe it or not was not that convincing."
Addi chuckled. "Yes I can see why."
Then she sobered up. "What are we going to do about the Ellie issue?"
Josh winced. "Invite her to dinner. It will be our last dinner together. If she is seeing my uncle the invitation should make her uncomfortable. She wheedled out of Aunt Ivy's invite last week. Now I know why."
"And Aunt Ivy?" Addi whispered. "What about her?"
Josh shrugged. "I don't know."
"And Uncle
Stan?"
"I would prefer to kill Rusty first."
Addi sighed. "I didn't come back to save you from Ellie and then have you end up in jail."
"We will think of something." Josh patted her arm.
Chapter Nineteen
Addi was half a sleep near midnight when Sky came into the room.
"Addi," she whispered loud enough to jerk Addi out of her half slumber.
"Mmmh," Addi mumbled.
Sky flipped on the side lamp. "I have a few pages!"
She was almost hopping with excitement. "There are some places where I press really hard with a pen. And the outline is easy to make out. There are places where I have stuff in captions. Mainly titles. Want to hear?"
"Of course." Addi made room for Sky on the bed. "Didn't you go home?"
"No," Sky muttered. "Told the cheating witch that I was sleeping over here."
"Sky, you can't go calling your mother a cheating witch."
"Yeah, right." Sky snorted. "Listen to this:
Hi Sky,
I know that this will be shocking to you if Addi makes it back with this book and you are actually reading this. If you are reading this and it is July 1992. You owe Addison Porter your life. She is the best person in the entire world.
So without further ado, let me tell you. Your future life sucks. You live in a huge modern apartment in Manhattan. You are the boss in a large corporation. People scurry to do your bidding. You are Miss Bitch but you are so unhappy. And you can't take it anymore. Why the deep unhappiness?
Well, there was Rusty, in the summer of 92, July 25th to be exact, you had sex with him on a hill side in the middle of nowhere. Don't do it. For the love of Jesus, don't do it. He is not worth it.
He is a user. You are not in love. You are a crazy teenager under the influence of some serious chemical imbalances.
That brings me to this, he killed Dad. Pushed him off the second story of the apartment of a site he is working on. The date August 15th, two weeks after you've had sex with the slime. That is what he has used to tie you to him for all these years and made you feel guilty about your own father's death,
His reason for the incident, is that he told Dad that he wanted to date you and they had a fight and he pushed him.
That's why you supported him through the years, visited him in prison and took care of the child he fathered with Precious. In general it is the reason you carried Rusty's burden for your whole life because you thought it was your fault that your father died.
Sky stopped reading.
Addi looked at her. "Go on."
"I had sex with him?" Sky grimaced, "in the same spot he did it with my own mother? Can you say massively gross?"
"Just read the thing," Addi said impatiently.
Sky looked back down on the pages.
Well you had no reason to be carrying that stupid burden all of these years. Rusty is not worth it. He was having an affair with Ivy Porter who I will not dare call my mother anymore.
She paid Rusty fifteen thousand dollars to get rid of Dad. Yes, that's right. She paid that rotten piece of filth, money to kill your father and then had the nerve to cry at his funeral. Every year she put a flower on his headstone, like a true grieving widow.
But Rusty told you all of this a week ago. He finally came clean on the day that he released from prison. He has served his time. You have served yours. You have been wracked with guilt for all these years. You have allowed that event in 92 to rule your life. Trust me, Sky, you have never had a happy day since. If Addi managed to go back before any of this happened. Please, stop it. Do not let any of this happen.
Sky folded the book close to her after closing it.
"Anything else?" Addi asked, her voice trembling. She felt a cold, shivering sensation when she thought about it.
Her aunt Ivy had paid Rusty to kill Uncle Stan?
"Yeah." Sky muttered, "She...well me...there are some stock tips and share prices and a long list of don't do this, don't do that, sort of thing. There is a piece in there titled Addi."
"Me?" Addi squealed. "You shaded it yet?"
"Yes." Sky handed her the book.
Addi took it and read.
Tell Addi, that I know about her life long affair with Randy. Tell her she needs to make the most of this time with him again. Tell her that light blue is really a good looking color on her.
Tell her that this time around she should explore her artistic side. Tell her to live a little and to stop over thinking things. Tell her to stop and smell the roses. The nineties were our good old days before the beginning of the technological explosion, before we got too busy for people.
Tell her don't lose touch with Julia and Annette, they were actually good—solid friends.
The following stocks and shares for her to invest in and build a healthy portfolio. If she is going to live her life again there is no rule that says that this time she shouldn't do it comfortably. The stocks are attached.
Addi laughed. "Only you."
Sky took back the book. And looked thoughtful.
"My mom paid Rusty to kill my dad?"
"She hasn't done it yet," Addi said determinedly. "And she is not going to get a chance to do it. Let's get some sleep."
Sky eased herself under the sheet and turned off the lamplight.
"Thank God, you haven't had sex with Rusty," Addi muttered. "Now go to sleep."
"I will never," Sky whispered in the dark. "Especially not after today. Thanks for resetting me, Addi."
"You are welcome." Addi mumbled as sleep threatened to overtake her again.
"Tell me about you and Randy," Sky whispered when the fringes of sleep were on the verge of taking over.
Addi just grunted. "There is no me and Randy."
****
Vicky was in full hostess mode on Sunday. The competition was on. Addi could see from the set table that it wasn't going to be an ordinary competition either, her mother had set the table with her best China. The smells from the kitchen were too scrumptious for words.
Everybody was still in their Sunday best, sitting around as Vicky flitted in and out of the kitchen and gave them staccato orders.
"You, bring me some thyme." She pointed at Sky.
Sky got up hurriedly and went toward the thyme bush at the side of the house.
"You," she pointed at Addi, "have you set the table for Ellie?"
"Yes Mom." Addi nodded, Josh had gone to pick up Ellie. Randy and her father and uncle were watching English premier league football.
Her dad and uncle were quite oblivious to the dinner preparations. They were so caught up in the game that it would probably take lightning to rouse them from the game.
Addi looked at the two of them and shook her head. For the past couple of days they had mini meetings in the study to discuss the way forward—to plot strategy.
They hadn't agreed on what to do yet. Whatever they did the family would be in trouble. Nobody wanted that to happen. But everybody agreed that today had to be significant.
Whatever happened, it would not end up being a fairytale. Not one bit.
Aunt Ivy came over soon after Sky returned with the thyme.
She sat on the settee gingerly and looked around, a look of distaste on her face and then her eyes settled on the framed calendars.
"I really like these pictures," She finally said.
Addi nodded. She forced herself to assess Aunt Ivy. She looked so innocent. Her hair was combed back in her favorite bun style, her eyebrows plucked a little bit too high, her mouth thin, her eyes darted around the room as she reluctantly admired Vicky's pictures.
Why set up someone to kill her husband though?
Why not just leave him?
Now Addi knew why Ivy had avoided them at all cost in the future. Why she had locked herself away for months after. She was ashamed to face them knowing what she had done.
It was ironic how time and knowledge had thrown her aunt's behavior in a different light.
"So, Addi, d
o you know why my daughter is avoiding me like the plague?"
Addi jumped. She was so deep in thought. She looked at Sky who was hovering around the kitchen area and then shook her head.
"She was avoiding me the other day too. Sky is just weird."
"I'd say." Ivy looked over at Sky. "Honey, come here and sit down."
Sky shook her head. "No, er thanks. I am going to help Aunt Vicky carry out the food."
Ivy sighed. "Very well. So, Nate, how are you? Maybe I should ask my husband the same question too. I hardly speak to either one of you these days. I feel as if I live on another planet."
"I am good Ivy." Her father reluctantly dragged his eyes from the television. "Work. Busy."
Ivy snorted in disgust.
Uncle Stan didn't look at her, he continued watching television as if she had not spoken.
Ivy sighed loudly. "Football is the mistress."
Neither brother reacted.
"Maybe I should go and give a helping hand to Victoria, I know how she always mangles the sauce."
"No thanks." Vicky called from the kitchen. "I will soon be out. I didn't do anything fancy…just fried fish, curried goat, jerk chicken and some baked mac and cheese and sweet potato salad and of course potato wedges, white rice and tossed salad. Of course I also did bread pudding and ice cream."
"Good lord," her father muttered, he glanced over at Addi and grinned.
Addi moved her face into the semblance of a smile. Nobody in this house was going to be smiling for much longer.
Josh arrived with Ellie after her mother came to the doorway and announced that dinner would be ready in five minutes.
Ellie's arrival was anticlimactic.
Both her father and uncle greeted her absently. There was no special and lingering look. No indication of which one of them had an affair with her.
Ellie sat beside Addi and was engrossed in the sport just like the men, offering off hand comments and generally acting like one of the guys.
Ivy was obviously poised for conversation with her but was shut out.
Josh absented himself to his room for a while. Randy who was looking at the Sunday Gleaner with interest was the first one to jump up when dinner was announced.
Never Too Late (Resetter Series Book 1) Page 15