“This so totally makes me miss going to school,” Jamie said, turning to Henry.
A moment passed before Henry responded. “Yeah, I know. But I was kind of looking forward to checking out high school.”
“Seriously?”
“Kind of.”
Nikki held back from commenting and felt thankful that, for once, they didn’t include her. The fact was, not long ago—at least from her perspective—she’d also been looking forward to attending a new school. That she’d died shortly after gaining acceptance to a school for the arts had left her bitter for a long time. She’d been so excited at the prospect that she’d been thinking of little else at the time. In fact, she’d only been half-aware of her surroundings on that day when she’d veered her bike—
“Anyway, what do we do now?” Henry said.
Which was one of the things Nikki loved about Henry—he only looked back when it mattered. Other than that, he pushed on.
“Well, Martha did mention that it happens three days from now,” Nikki said. “She also said we could possibly see some of the future.”
Neither Henry or Jamie responded as they continued to gaze down at the students slogging through the rain. Was it the girls holding their attention? Nikki wondered how that was possible given you could barely make them out through their coats, hoods and umbrellas. She darted ahead of Henry and Jamie. She threw out her hands. “So, here’s an idea. Why don’t we figure out how?”
Henry and Jamie hit the brakes and stared back at her.
“Should we have asked Martha?” Jamie said.
Henry shook his head even as Nikki said, “Well, she can be kind of conservative on these matters.”
“As in, she totally tries to stop us,” Jamie said.
“With our own best interest in mind,” Henry said. “Pretty sure on that one.”
“Totally,” Nikki said. “Sometimes I get the feeling they only tell her so much.”
“Who’s the ‘they’ and why don’t they tell her more?” Jamie said.
“I don’t think we’d understand,” Henry said. “Not yet.”
“Why?” Jamie said.
“Maybe because we’re stupid?” Henry said.
Jamie laughed and Nikki couldn’t help laugh too. The fact was, she’d been on this side long enough to know she barely knew anything. Looking back to her last life, it amazed her how many people thought they’d had the whole thing down when they’d barely scratched the surface of life, love, commitment, any of it. Both realms were completely different but they definitely had one thing in common—just when you thought you understood how it worked, you were sure to find out you were mistaken.
Ian entered one of the buildings below and they followed as he walked down a hall, climbed a flight of stairs and took a seat in a classroom. They waited as more students drifted in and the room continued to fill. Finally, a woman took her place in front of the class. She was slim and fit, probably in her late thirties, with brown hair to her shoulders. Nikki wasn’t sure where she’d seen her before but she seemed familiar.
“Good morning.” The professor smiled as she looked out at her students. “I have complete confidence that all of you will do well on the exam today. This has been a great class and I want you to know how much I’ve enjoyed the semester.”
Suddenly, Nikki realized why the woman looked familiar. It didn’t seem possible, but a glance at Henry told her this wasn’t some sort of illusion.
“Wait, isn’t that Bethany?” Jamie said.
Henry took another moment to recover. “Yes,” he said, his eyes starting to fill. “That’s definitely Bethany.”
Nikki wasn’t sure what had made Henry finally decide to stop crossing over, but she knew he’d stopped checking in on his sister—as well as his parents and brother—at some point. That choice had been hard for him but he’d wanted them to keep progressing with their lives without feeling his presence.
Jamie spoke softly. “She looks great.”
Jamie was right. Nikki could hardly believe that the young woman she’d last seen recovering in the hospital was the same woman now standing confidently in front of this class. Time had been good to Bethany. She exuded health and happiness that showed in the shine of her eyes. Nikki wondered how Henry felt seeing her now that she was nearly forty, while he remained just shy of his fifteenth birthday.
If that part bothered him, it didn’t show. He smiled proudly, gazing down at his sister. “She really does,” he said. “She looks just like I’d have expected her to.”
“Do you think it’s a coincidence?” Jamie said. “I mean, that she’s here in Seattle and she’s Ian’s professor? What are the odds of that happening?”
When Henry didn’t say anything, Nikki reached over and touched his arm. “Are you okay?”
“I’m good,” Henry said, his gaze meeting hers. “For now, we need to focus on Ian. At least, I think that’s the best way to go. We can talk about the rest later.”
They watched as Bethany instructed her students how to log in and access the exam while Nikki wondered what they were supposed to do now that they were in this realm again. How could they even attempt to impact Ian’s future? Under the best of circumstances, they could barely be noticed on this side and, even with their abilities, usually only by those who had a certain level of sensitivity most didn’t possess.
As if in response to her moment of doubt, a feeling suddenly came over her—a sense of certainty she hadn’t expected.
“Martha said we’d be able to see some of Ian’s future,” Nikki said. “We need to jump forward. We need to experience what’s going to happen.”
As if he’d woken from a dream, Henry turned to face her. “How?”
Nikki reached out instinctively and took hold of his arm. She did the same with Jamie. “Hang on while I read him. I can’t explain it. I just have a feeling. Trust me on this, okay?”
Nikki closed her eyes and merged her mind with Ian’s. She tried to ignore his present thoughts and concerns, willing herself to project his consciousness forward in time while taking hers along with it. Soon she felt a sensation almost like wind blowing past and she envisioned a tunnel of swirling light. Nikki held on, trusting her instincts, until the sense of motion bumped to a stop and the lights she saw inside her mind dimmed.
When Nikki opened her eyes again, their surroundings had completely shifted. Ian now walked with Lisa through an airport terminal, the two of them holding hands as they made their way through the bustling crowd catching flights for holiday destinations.
“Where are we?” Jamie said. “He was just in that classroom.”
“I think the question is, when are we?” Henry turned to Nikki. “Did you just jump us forward?”
Nikki nodded, not sure what to think. Still, she felt pretty sure she’d accomplished exactly that. She’d never done anything like it before. All she knew was that she had to stay centered on Ian’s mind, reading him in a way she never had anyone before. Nikki just barely let herself break off concentration, fearing she might disrupt a type of connection she’d never established before.
Jamie picked up his pace, following after Ian, at times walking directly through people in the airport terminal. “Seriously, we’re in Ian’s future?”
“I think so,” Nikki said, trying to avoid what Jamie barely seemed to notice. She couldn’t just pass through someone without a moment of connection. Sometimes good, sometimes not. Either way, too distracting. “Let’s just watch and see what happens.”
“What are we watching for?” Henry said.
Nikki had to admit it was a good question.
“Something bad,” Jamie said. “That’s my guess.”
Simply put but definitely true. Nikki didn’t know any more than that either. “I guess so.”
Jamie pointed. “Who’s the girl?”
Right, they hadn’t been dropping in on Ian. Spying, as Jamie had put it. Nikki’s face grew warm. “Ian’s girlfriend. The hand-holding might have tipped you off.
Just saying.”
Jamie laughed. “I guess it just sort of surprised me to see Curtis with a girlfriend. He was always such a loner.”
“But Curtis isn’t Curtis anymore,” Henry said. “He hasn’t been for a long time.”
“Crossing over always messes me up,” Jamie said.
“As opposed to spending twenty years playing video games and skateboarding?” Nikki said.
Jamie shrugged. “Yeah, exactly. But that’s Earth time so don’t judge.”
Fair enough, but Nikki wasn’t about to concede so she kept walking. They followed as Ian walked Lisa to where the halls split off for departure gates. Ian wrapped his arms around her and the two of them closed their eyes, then kissed.
“This is just weird,” Jamie said.
“Yeah, maybe a bit voyeuristic. Plus, I’m not getting that anything is wrong here. Stay close.” Nikki grabbed onto Henry and Jamie again. A moment later, they hovered in the air as Ian parked his car in front of a house on a tree-lined street.
“Very impressive,” Henry said.
Nikki smiled. “Thanks. It seems I might just have a knack for this.”
They watched as Ian entered his house and called out a hello. A moment later, he hugged his parents in the front hall and his sister tromped downstairs, realizing her brother had come home. They continued to watch as Ian spent time with his family, gathering in the kitchen and catching up on each other’s lives, setting the table and then sitting down to dinner.
Nikki sensed that Henry had something on his mind. “What is it?”
Henry continued watching Ian’s family, a smile spreading across his face. “Curtis told me about his parents on the day he jumped back in again. Josh and Clara. They were really young then—not much older than Ian is now. They seemed so happy to have found each other again. You could totally tell they really loved each other. They still seem that way, all these years later.”
“That’s really cool,” Jamie said. He waited a moment before adding, “But I’m thinking this is safe, unless the house gets hit by a meteor or something.”
For Nikki, it wasn’t just that everything seemed safe for Ian. You never knew, of course. A house could catch on fire, someone might trip down a flight of stairs. More, she felt it somehow—everything was fine here. “Agreed,” she said, reaching out to signal that it was time to move on again.
This time, Ian sat in a restaurant sharing a pizza with the two guys Nikki saw that night when she’d made her presence known through the Ouija board. Thankfully, Jamie spared her any more feedback about her little stunt while she told them what she knew about Ian’s friends.
“Ian’s life really seems to be going great,” Henry said.
Silence followed between the three of them as Henry’s words resonated.
“Which is exactly why we’re here,” Nikki said. “Let’s keep moving.”
Another sudden shift—a gray morning as Ian crossed through the doors of a shopping mall, the inside brightly lit and decorated for the holidays. The cheerful, familiar music contrasted totally with the chill Nikki felt rippling up the back of her neck.
“I think this is it,” she said. “We need to pay attention.”
“It looks like he’s just shopping,” Jamie said. “Not likely he’s going to—”
“Just watch.” Nikki glared at him.
At the same time, she suddenly found it harder to hold the three of them there. She felt like, if she broke her concentration, they’d be pulled right out of there again. As if the connection she’d established was ready to snap. She thought about what Martha had said before—that they’d only be able to experience Ian’s future events up until the moment of his death. She checked to see if Henry and Jamie had picked up on anything like the buzzing tension she felt vibrating through her but clearly they hadn’t. If anything, they seemed slightly bored, looking around at the people shopping.
A moment later, Nikki recoiled against the ear-splitting wail of an alarm going off. Like everyone else, Ian stopped in his tracks to see what was happening. Within seconds, a kid raced around the corner—dark hair and eyes, legs pumping as he bolted toward the doors Ian had just crossed through.
“Stop!” Behind the kid, a security guard struggled to keep up. He barked something into the radio on his shoulder.
The doors behind Ian opened and a cop ran inside, gun drawn. He spotted the kid immediately. “Police! Stop now!”
The kid stopped running, head swiveling as he searched for escape, his eyes full of panic. Nikki saw something else in his eyes—a complete lack of hope, as if he’d known all along this moment would come.
“Drop your weapon!”
It all happened so fast. Nikki just now saw the gun in the kid’s hand.
“Drop it! Do it, now!”
Nikki had no idea what set Ian in motion. But something compelled him to run directly into the line of fire. In that same instant, the kid raised his gun.
A blast clapped like thunder. People screamed.
Ian catapulted backward.
The connection broke.
~~~
Nikki, Henry and Jamie stood in front of Halfway House, eyes wide, breathing hard, as if collectively waking from a nightmare.
It took a moment before anyone spoke. Nikki’s legs trembled, like she might drop to her knees. Finally, she found her voice. “Please tell me Ian’s life doesn’t end that way!”
Jamie shook his head, disgusted. “It’s just so unfair. How old is he now, maybe nineteen?”
“He just turned twenty last month.” Nikki couldn’t bring herself to tell them that she’d actually witnessed Ian’s birthday celebration with his friends—another time when she’d crossed over to reassure herself that Ian’s life remained a happy one.
“How old do you think that kid was?” Henry said. “The one with the gun.”
There hadn’t been much time but Nikki wondered the same thing. He’d looked young—maybe fifteen or sixteen. She wanted to hate him but couldn’t forget the terror in his eyes. In that moment, he’d already known the magnitude of his mistake. Still, he’d raised that gun. Why had he done it? The instinct of a trapped animal, Nikki supposed. Fear and desperation.
Henry started walking, without saying where he was going. Nikki and Jamie fell into step alongside him. Before long, they walked that familiar path they hadn’t been on since they’d been trying to figure out how to save Bethany. So, they were going to Henry’s pond rather than whatever new place he went to alone these days. It made sense to Nikki that Henry would associate this place with the need to face a troubling issue. It was his place to form a plan. It felt strange to think how much more mature Henry seemed than when he’d first arrived, but what he’d been through had forced that to happen.
A few minutes later, they stood gazing out at the water. Henry picked up a stone and threw it. They watched as the stone splashed into the water and ripples spread.
“Maybe we should talk to Martha again,” Jamie said. “She might have some ideas.”
Nikki shook her head. “She’ll tell us to let it happen, to accept what’s meant to be. I know she has our best interest in mind. She really does want us to move on but…” Nikki let her words trail off, stopping herself from adding how she felt. What was the point of moving on if it meant you lived one life and died miserable at seventeen followed by another cut out from under you when everything seemed perfect?
“The problem is Martha’s probably right,” Henry said. “She knew we barely had a chance last time. And we almost failed to stop them. If it hadn’t been for that cop, Bethany probably would have died. Think how much worse it would have been if we’d tried that hard and the same thing still—”
“Bethany!” Jamie said. “You could speak to her. I could emerge. Obviously, she’d know we were telling the truth about what’s going to happen!”
Henry didn’t react the way Jamie expected, or the way Nikki expected either. He plucked another stone from the dirt and threw it into the air, follow
ing the arc of its flight with his eyes. When the stone hit the water, he said, “Yeah, I thought about that. I’m just not sure.”
Nikki thought back to that moment when Henry saw Bethany, how his eyes had gone misty. Clearly, it really had been a long time since he’d seen her. “Did you know she was teaching at the same school where Ian’s taking classes? Did you even know she lived in Seattle?”
Henry shook his head. “I haven’t crossed over since Bethany got married. That was thirteen years ago for them. But Bethany’s husband is from the Northwest.”
“Why was that the last time?” Jamie said.
A moment passed before Henry said, “Because she knew I was there. She always knows somehow, even if I don’t speak to her. I guess the link we established when she was abducted just stayed strong. But on her wedding day, it wasn’t like that was a good thing. It took everything I had to convince her to not tell everyone, that she should just enjoy her moment. In the end, she did, but she was also sad and I felt really bad about doing that to her. So, that was it.”
No one spoke for a few moments.
Finally, Jamie said, “Still, it can’t just be a coincidence, her working at the same college. Right?”
Henry turned to face them. “The strange thing is, I think it is just a coincidence. I have a really strong feeling about it. To be honest, if it wasn’t, I’d almost feel like someone was messing with us. With me, definitely. And I don’t want to feel that way.”
Nikki supposed it could just be a coincidence, after all. Certainly, stranger things had happened. Way stranger things. And Henry did have a really good point. What would it mean if circumstances had fallen together like that? She hadn’t thought of it before but it would definitely be enough to make you paranoid. No wonder at least part of Henry didn’t want it to be true.
“But we have to try, don’t we?” Henry said. “We don’t have much time.”
Nikki felt for him. She really did. It couldn’t have been easy for him to stay away from his family for so long, especially when they’d accepted that he could actually talk to them. Now, after all this time, he was going to make contact with Bethany about this tragic event in someone else’s life. At the same time, Martha had told them that what they’d just experienced was only three days away.
Memories from a Different Future: Jump When Ready, Book 2 Page 6