Faces in Time (40 page)

“Wait a second—wait a second. If you got there before me, how am I still here? Thought you must’ve shown up right after me, not before.”

“I don’t know—you popped up about a minute after I got there.”

Rubbing his brow, “What’d it look like?”

“Like I was going crazy. There was nothing—just this field. Then, you were there with your back to me. It was instant. Wasn’t even like lightning. Like magic. Not ral. A trick.”

“That’s it!” says Chester.

“What’s it?”

Chester steps closer to Elise, pulling Rhonda with him, “Any sign of time travel means things are happening over again—a reset. When you came back, at first I didn’t come back. There was no way for me to get back. It was just my original past self running through his regular life, ending up in a home and eventually, twenty years later, coming back in time to get to you, Rhonda. That’s me. That’s the only history that I remember. I don’t remember Elise and I being friends—I remember being alone in the home. But when I came back for you, I came back one minute or so after she got here. All she remembers is me popping up right after her, but she lived a whole life for twenty years just like you did, Rhonda. She doesn’t remember any of it because it all got reset the moment that I came back.”

“Woah,” Elise says, “So this is my third—no fourth time doing today? My first was when we later became friends at the home, my second was the reset when you came and saved Rhonda and then me, the third was when I came back, and the fourth is now—when you reset things
after
I came back?”

“Yep.”

Rubbing her temples, “Too weird. Makes my head hurt.”

“Yeah, it does that. Don’t think about it too much; it drove me nuts once. But…”

“But what?”

“We do know one thing about your time back here before the reset.”

“What’s that?”

“You didn’t end up at the home with your ex-boyfriend coming after you, or I would remember it now. I remember all of my life from before the last reset, because I’m the one who came back and reset it. And I know neither you or your past self ended up there—I didn’t have any friends at the home. But, maybe both of you had a much better life.”

She smiles. After a moment, she asks, “Rhonda, what’s it like being in love with the smartest man in the world?”

“Pretty unbelievable, but that’s not what I love most about him.”

“Grandpa’s pretty smart, but different. Sometimes there’s naturally smart—smart about life and people. My Grandpa didn’t know anything about how I got there or how there could be two of me, but he knew it was me. Knew I was family. Believed me.”

“Two of you? You’re both living with Grandpa? Your past self knows too?”

“Sure, she lives with Grandpa.”

“So, a fifteen-year-old knows her future self has gone back in time? Teens are famous for their secret-keeping abilities. Why didn’t you just run out and tell the F.B.I.?”

“What did you want me to do? I came out looking like I did when I was eighteen, which is a lot like a fifteen-year-old, with nowhere to go and thirty-two dollars in my wallet. Hell, my past self might even look a little older than me. Of course, I went home. Long walk too, let me tell you. Fifty miles down the shoulder of the interstate is no picnic.”

After a pause, she continues, “Besides, without this,” holding up the device, “there’s no proof. She won’t say a word, but even if she does, no one will believe her.”

Letting go of Rhonda’s hand and grabbing Elise’s hand gently, he lifts it to her eye level and says, “Except for this. You have the same fingerprints. She could prove it.”

“She won’t.”

“How do you know?” he asks letting her hand free.

“Because I’m the answer to her prayers. I knew back then that Grandpa wouldn’t be around forever. I had no idea how soon he’d go though. Every night I prayed for my mother to come back and live with us. Guess it’s better that she never did, but I wanted it more than anything else at the time. Now, I’m filling that spot for her. I’ll make sure she keeps it secret. We’ve been becoming friends since I’ve been back. Great friends. She seems more like my sister than myself. Weird we look so alike but are so different inside—I’ve lived more than twice the life she has. Gonna make sure she doesn’t make any of the mistakes that I did.”

“And Grandpa?”

“He’s been eating healthier since I’ve been there; I’m seeing to that. It’s hard to argue with future facts—he’s already been to the doctor, and on top o’ that, he’s promised to go back every month. We’re gonna prevent that heart attack from ever happening.”

“That’s wonderful, but I meant:
will he talk?<”

“Of course not. He doesn’t understand—hell, I barely even understand it, and I’ve watched it all happen—been through it firsthand. He’s not gonna tell anybody about what makes no sense to him. Never runs his mouth about things he don’t know. More important than that, he knows it’d hurt me, and he’d never let anything hurt me. He’d die before he’d say anything to harm me.”

Chester sighs, “I don’t know.”

Rhonda pulls on his hand and says softly, “Chester, you told me your secret when you came back.”

“Rhonda’s right. You told her everything. You and me are the only two people who’ve traveled through time, but you told her about it,” Elise says.

“Had to. I tell her everything.”

“Me too. Grandpa’s it for me. Never had anybody else to tell. And my past self, well, she’s me. Can’t do nothing else with that.”

His face grows troubled.

Elise says, “You trusted me with your secret when you sent me back here in the first place; you must’ve had a good reason. If you trusted me that much then, isn’t that enough to make you trust me now?”

“Yeah, I guess so…just so scary to think other people know…I’m sorry—I guess you didn’t ask for any of this anyway. Sounds like I dumped it on you.”

“You still saved me. I’d be dead without your help, and to be able to come back here, see Grandpa again, be the friend I never had…”

As she starts to cry, Rhonda steps forward and hugs her, patting the back of her black hair, she says, “I know, I know. He saved me too, Elise. He saved me too.”

Smiling, Elise wipes away her tears and says, “Thank you, Chester. Thank you.” Looking back to Rhonda, her face crumbles into worry, “Oh. Oh, no.”

“What? What is it?” asks Rhonda.

“Chester came for me by himself. Said you didn’t make it, got in a car accident driving to Riverview to visit Chester’s parents. He said it didn’t happen the first time around.”

“When?” asks Chester, “When did it happen?”

“A few years before you saved me, I think.”

Anguish infects Chester’s face, and Elise says, “I’m sorry; it was just a story when I heard it, and I wasn’t sure if you were insane or not. Never thought Rhonda’d be real. Much less ever meeting her. I’d’ve paid more attention if I knew.”

“It’s okay. It’s enough.”

Rhonda looks to Chester with stirred up eyes, and he hugs her and kisses the top of her head saying, “We’ll never drive to Riverview during the next twenty years. Hell, we’ll never drive there ever. There are trains and planes. Better yet, we’ll fly my parents out here to visit us.”

She looks up at him, still worried.

“Rhonda, it didn’t happen the first time around. It doesn’t have to happen at all. We know enough; we can avoid it. I’ll take care of you; I promise.”

Her expression begins to relax.

“Because of Elise coming back here, we can stop it now. We’ll be together for many more years. Knowing this isn’t something to be sad about; it’s a gift, a blessing. My God, a web through time is an incestuous one.”

Elise says, “Chester, I have a question for you about there being two of me here.”

“Yeah. What is it?”

“So, the note, your car, that shirt, you, and me—all of this is here but made from nothing that is here now. The material used to make that shirt still exists here in the world and the shirt does too?”

“Yeah. The whole untouched cow and the steak taken from it exist at the same time. The tree that was used to make the paper for the note you brought with you has probably not been cut down yet, and even if it’s never cut down, this note will still exist. It won’t fade away because our history has changed—its history will stay the same no matter what happens to the tree it came from.”

“Chester, you know, if people only knew what you’ve done, you’d be the most famous person on earth.”

“N one can ever know. It’s too dangerous. Don’t know if the world’ll ever be able to handle it,” he pauses looking at the electronic marvel that she holds, and reaching out his hand, he continues, “In fact, we have to fix all of this. Give me your device.”

“What’re you going to do with it?”

“Give it to me, and I’ll show you.”

She raises her hand to him as if the weight she holds has suddenly grown much lighter.

He takes it from Elise. Looking to Rhonda he says, “Sweetheart, I’m going to need your purse.”

She hands him her oversized purse, which he quickly unzips and dumps its contents on the grass at their feet. He drops Elise’s device inside, and digging his own out of his pocket, he puts it next to hers and zips up the handbag.

Walking briskly down the hill to the nearest tree, he grasps the purse body like a ball. Violently, he smashes the bag against the trunk. His hand pulls back and continues the crushing motion eleven more times, breaking and cracking the contents inside.

Walking back up the hill to the girls, he says, “We’ll burn what’s left when we get back home.”

Elise asks, “So, no one will have any way to travel again?”

“I could build another one. All those years of work are still too fresh in my mind. Won’t do it unless the world gets itself into such a mess that it’s the only way out. Won’t do it for any other reason.”

“You won’t, will you? Even though you could be the most famous man who ever lived?”

“Of course I won’t,” turning to look into Rhonda’s face beaming warmth into him, green shimmering beneath red hair blowing in the fall breeze, “I have everything I’ve ever wanted. All the rest can fade away.”

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