Come Down In Time (A Time Travel Romance) (6 page)

Tommy walked Jamie home every day
at the end of the day. They walked through the forest path, stopping
off at the lake. Tommy had found a blanket and kept it in a plastic
garbage bag, which he placed under a large flat rock in the overhang.
When they stopped at the midpoint on the lake, beside the big willow
tree that was bent over craving the water, they pushed the willow
branches aside to get into the overhang. No one could see them there,
if anyone happened to walk down the path, which was very unlikely.
Tommy pulled out the blanket. He spread it on the ground. They were
in their own private world.

They kissed, but their kisses had
gotten intense. It was much more than kisses they were doing out
there in the overhang on the blanket. They were exploring each
other’s bodies, rubbing their hands all over every part of
themselves. They kissed long and passionately. They put their hands
down each other’s pants. Tommy unhooked her bra and rubbed her
breasts and nipples. And then, one day in June, Tommy told Jamie that
he had gotten some condoms.

“
I don’t know what you’re
thinking,” he said to her. “But if we’re going to do it, then I
want to be prepared. I’m not gonna lie to you. I want us to be
together, but only if you want to.”

Jamie thought about nothing but
doing it with Tommy. It’s all she wanted to do in the entire world.
She was relieved he had bought condoms. She didn’t know where he
got them—surely not anywhere near their hometown—but she was glad
he got them. She was ready to move to the next step with Tommy. It
felt right.

“
I’m ready,” she said. She
kissed Tommy again. He had already removed her jeans and panties. His
jeans were already unzipped and Jamie had been rubbing him for
several minutes. Tommy pushed his jeans off and rubbed against her
while they kissed. He stopped then and put the condom on. Jamie was
on fire with anticipation of what was to come. She couldn’t believe
that she was actually going to have sex, and she welcomed it. She
loved Tommy.

“
Are you sure?” Tommy said as
he rolled over onto her. Their bodies were close, melded together. He
was ready.

“
I’m sure, Tommy,” she
said. “I’m sure.”

He guided himself into her, and
there was a sharp stab of pain at first. But then Tommy was filling
her and she moved against him. It was everything she wanted. It was
more than she thought it would be. “I love you, Tommy,” she said,
her voice thick with passion.

Tommy got his license in June
when he turned sixteen. When the weather turned cold, he and Jamie
started going out in Tommy’s mother’s car. They went to the
movies or out to eat at a diner on the edge of town where other high
school kids hung out. But at the end of the night, Tommy found a
place to park where they could be together. He knew of secret paths
off dirt roads where no one would find them. Jamie and Tommy grappled
in the confined space of the backseat, which was more difficult for
Tommy and his tall frame, but they always managed to get where they
wanted to be. They always managed.

But in the warm months, when the
days were warm and long, they went to the overhang, their first
place. Their best place. They were always careful, always used a
condom.

When they were in the fall of
their senior year, and they were in the overhang because it was still
warm enough for that, Tommy said, “My parents want me to go to
college, but I’ve told them I don’t need to. I know what I want
to do. I’m doing it.”

Jamie was still lying on the
blanket, but she sat up. “I know you are,” she said.

“
I don’t want them to spend a
bunch of money they don’t have to send me to college. I don’t
need it. It’s not like I’m some country bumpkin that doesn’t
know how to read. I read all the time. But I don’t need to go to
college.”

Tommy sat up beside Jamie. “But
you might want to go to college,” he said.

“
My parents want me to go, but
I don’t want to. If I go to college and you stay here, then we’ll
be separated. There’s no telling what might happen. I wouldn’t
want anything to happen, but I don’t know.”

“
I don’t want to keep you
from doing something you might want to do,” Tommy said. “You’re
super smart. You’ll get scholarships. I don’t want to hold you
back.”

“
Tommy,” she said gently. “I
don’t want to leave you. I want to be with you.”

“
I need you to be sure about
that,” he said.

“
I’m sure. Why would I want
to leave you? I love you.”

“
I know we’re young,” Tommy
said. “But I feel like I’ve found the person I want to be with
forever.”

“
Me too,” she said touching
his arm. “I want to be with you forever.”

“
Then I want us to get
married,” Tommy said. “I want us to work for our future as a
couple. I want to have children together.”

Even though they were only
seventeen, they only wanted each other. They wanted their life to be
together.

That was the day they decided to
get married, but they didn’t tell their parents until their senior
year was nearly over. They decided on a wedding in Tommy’s garden,
and no matter what either of their parents said about college, they
were determined. Finally, all of the parents gave in. They were up
against a force of love that none of them had ever seen. Jamie and
Tommy would be married in June, two weeks after they graduated from
high school. They would live in the cottage near Tommy’s
grandparents’ farmhouse. Everything was set.

And then Tommy died.

Chapter
Five

Nate walked into the supply room
while Jamie was gripping the edges of the countertop.

“
Hey,” he said with concern.
“Stacie said you left the room and she was worried. Are you okay?”

Jamie took a deep breath and
turned to look at Nate. Her heart melted when she saw the concern on
his face.

“
I’ve got a splitting
headache,” she said. “I’ve had it all morning, but it’s
getting worse.”

Nate put his arms around her. “I
think you need to go home,” he said. “I’ll give you something
for the headache.”

Jamie breathed in Nate’s clean
smell as she put her head on his chest.

“
I don’t want to leave you
and Stacie here to handle everything. I think if I take something, I
might be all right in a while.”

“
No,” Nate said. “We’ll
be fine. I want you to go home and sleep it off.”

Jamie accepted. She really did
want to get out of the clinic and get home so she could try to deal
with what Darma had said.

“
Okay,” she said. “I won’t
argue with you.”

Nate handed Jamie some samples of
painkillers. “Call me later,” he said. “When you wake up.”

Jamie rushed home. She needed to
feel solid, connect with her house, her current mind. She needed to
stop thinking about Tommy, the past, her ruined life. What she didn’t
need was a painkiller, because she had no headache.

It was only two in the afternoon,
but Jamie poured herself a glass of wine and sat on the couch. Why
did Darma say those things? How could Darma possibly know anything
about Tommy? How could she know that Tommy loved her? And what did
she mean when she said, “He’s waiting.” What did that mean?
Waiting where?

She had wanted nothing more than
for Tommy to come back to her somehow. After he died, Jamie had
prayed deeply. She had been so desperate for Tommy that she had found
incantations online to reach the afterlife. She had bought a ouija
board and tried to contact him. She had visited a palm reader with
her friend Rayna. But nothing brought her back to Tommy or Tommy back
to her.

Tommy had been dead for three
days when he first visited Jamie in her dreams. “Tommy!” she
screamed. “You’re dead.”

“
I am?” he said. “Why am I
dead?”

“
You went over the cliff,”
she said. “But I don’t know why. No one knows why you went over
the cliff.”

Tommy had faded out from her
dream then and she had awakened thinking he was there. It took her a
moment to realize that Tommy wasn’t there. Tommy was never going to
be there again.

Now, Jamie sat on her couch with
her glass of wine. Eventually, she got off the couch and walked out
her back door to the garden. All of the flowers she had planted along
the back of the house were starting to bloom—petunias and
cornflowers, marigolds and Queen Anne’s Lace. The dogwood tree in
the corner of the backyard was near the end of its bloom time with a
lacework of white flowers covering the tree. Jamie had planted a
small plot with herbs that were big enough to be snipped for supper.
She knew how to grow plants. She had learned that from Tommy.

Jamie sat on the back porch for a
while. A gentle breeze blew in, caressing her face. She had a hard
time getting Darma’s little serious face out of her mind. It had
been so long since she had seen Tommy. So long since he had died. She
was happy now, with a new life. She was falling in love now with
Nate, and she was sure that he was falling in love with her. He was
going to be telling her he loved her any day now. Or she would tell
him first. But it was a real love. She wanted a life with Nate and
his passion to help people in need. She wanted to live in the cabin
he was going to build up in the hills. She wanted Nate. She loved
him.

When the sun went down, Jamie had
decided that she was going to tell Nate she loved him the very next
time she saw him. They usually spent every night together, but
tonight was different. She had gone home sick. She went inside and
undressed. She pulled the covers back from her bed and got in.

Tommy appeared in her dreams, for
the first time in many years. “Tommy,” she said. “I planted
some flowers and they’re doing good.”

Tommy laughed. “I guess you
were paying attention,” he said. His face loomed over hers, as she
lay in the bed.

“
Come on,” she said. “Get
in here with me.”

Tommy crawled in the bed beside
her. She kissed him. He kissed her back.

The dream felt real and not like
a dream. Jamie somehow knew it was a dream, but it felt real, too.
Tommy was real. His body moved up next to hers and she felt it.
Really felt it. He smiled at her, and it was his warm smile.

“
I love you, Tommy,” she
said.

“
I love you, too,” Tommy said
back. “I’m glad you got some flowers.”

“
When are we getting married?”
Jamie asked him, holding him close to her.

“
Soon,” Tommy said. “Very
soon.”

And then Jamie woke up. Her heart
was pounding. Tommy was in her mind in a way he hadn’t been for a
long, long time. Tommy was real to her again. Her heart slowed, but
Tommy was still real.

Jamie knew she had to call Nate
and let him know how she was feeling. She picked up her phone and
pushed in his number. It was seventeen minutes after ten.

“
I’ve been worried about
you,” Nate said when he answered his phone. “How are you
feeling?”

“
I’m all right,” she said.
“I’ve been sleeping. I think I’ll just keep sleeping.”

“
That’s the best thing,” he
said. “I’ll see you tomorrow at the clinic.”

“
Okay,” she said.

“
I missed you this afternoon,”
Nate said. “It wasn’t the same without you there.”

“
How is Darma?” she asked,
ignoring Nate’s comment. She didn’t know what to say to that. She
had been so caught up in thoughts and dreams about Tommy, she
couldn’t actually say she had thought very much about Nate.

“
She’s fine,” Nate said.
Stacie told me she said some weird stuff to you, but she couldn’t
remember what it was. Did she?”

“
Did she what?” Jamie said.

“
Did she say weird stuff to
you? Stacie said you seemed upset by it.”

“
Oh, she was just talking
little girl stuff. It didn’t mean anything.”

“
Okay,” Nate said, but he
didn’t sound convinced. “You get some sleep. I’ll see you
tomorrow.”

Jamie ended the call and fell
back asleep in a few minutes.

When she woke up the next
morning, Tommy seemed very far away. She felt like she was in her
real life, the one where she was a doctor and she was in love with
Nate. Jamie had no idea what had happened the day before, she didn’t
know why Darma had said those things, but it was behind her now. She
showered and dressed for work.

The first time she saw Nate that
day was in the supply room. It had been a busy morning with allergies
and colds, mostly. The pollen was thick around the mountain. Nate
walked into the supply room and closed the door.

“
You okay?” he asked her. “I
missed you last night.”

“
I’m better than okay,” she
said, kissing him. “I feel great.”

“
Can I come over tonight after
work?” he asked.

“
Definitely,” she said. “I
want to see you.”

Nate came over around seven that
night. Jamie had started cooking as soon as she got home from the
clinic. She roasted Cornish game hens in pepper and lemon juice and
made rice and steamed asparagus. They sat on the back porch after
supper. It was dark by then and Jamie lit a lantern on the table
between the wicker chairs.