Come Down In Time (A Time Travel Romance) (9 page)

“
He’s not complaining too
much,” she said. “I made salmon tonight and he liked it. I’m
going to cook some things tomorrow for them to have after I’m
gone.”

“
When are you coming back?”
Nate asked.

“
I think I’ll stay until
Sunday,” she said. That would be three days from then.

“
I don’t know if I can stand
it!” Nate said. But he laughed. “I know you want to do this—you
need to do this—for your parents. I understand. But I do miss you.”

“
I miss you, too,” she said.
“More than I can say.”

Jamie fell asleep as soon as she
ended her call with Nate. She went into the kitchen early the next
morning, before her parents were even up, and put the whole chicken
in a big pot to boil. She chopped onions, carrots, and celery and put
them aside in a bowl. When the chicken was done, she pulled it out of
the hot water and put it on a tray to cool. That’s when her mother
walked in.

“
Oh, I’m sorry, Mom,” Jamie
said. “I’ve been so busy, I didn’t make coffee. Let me get that
going.”

“
I can do it,” her mother
said, taking the carafe and filling it with water. Her mother
measured the coffee into the filter and poured the water in. The rich
smell of coffee filled the house in a few minutes.

“
Is that coffee I smell?” her
father said in the doorway of the kitchen.

“
Yes,” Jamie said, laughing.
“You go watch the news. I’ll bring you some breakfast.”

Jamie cooked some turkey sausage
in a skillet while her mother made scrambled eggs with the olive oil
margarine Jamie had bought at the store. When the whole-wheat toast
popped out of the toaster oven, Jamie spread it with the margarine
and sugar free jam. She made all of them plates of sausage, eggs, and
toast and set them on the TV trays. Her mother poured cups of coffee
for everyone, and they watched an early-morning talk show while they
ate.

“
I’ve got to get back to my
cooking,” Jamie said when they were finished. She cut up the cooled
chicken and started a pot of chicken noodle soup, using half of the
broth she had made. She added half of the onions, celery, and carrots
to the pot. When they were cooked, she added whole-wheat noodles. Her
father would never know the difference.

Then she started a pot of lentil
soup, using the broth and vegetables, and adding a can of cut up
tomatoes. She seasoned it with some oregano and dried basil.

“
I’m going to let these soups
cool down before I put them in containers,” Jamie said. “You can
eat any of it, of course, before then. I think I’ll take a walk
while it cools down.”

“
Honey,” her father said. “If
it took me having a heart attack for you to come back home, then it
was worth it.”

Jamie felt tears sting her eyes.
It
had
taken a heart attack to get her home again. She was
going to make it up to her parents.

“
Before I go outside,” Jamie
said, “I want to tell you something. I’m engaged.”

“
Engaged?” her mother said.
“To who?”

“
To Dr. Abbott at the clinic.
Well, Nate. I don’t call him Dr. Abbott.” She blushed feeling a
little foolish.

Her mother got off the couch and
her father stood up from his recliner. They both walked over to her
and gave her a hug.

“
We’re happy for you, little
girl. We just want you to be happy,” her father said.

Jamie cried softly as her parents
encircled her with their arms.

“
Thanks,” she said. “He’s
the first person I’ve met since Tommy that I want to marry.” She
held out her left hand to show them the sapphire ring.

“
That’s gorgeous!” her
mother said. “I can’t believe I haven’t noticed it.”

“
You’ve had other things on
your mind,” Jamie said.

After a moment, Jamie said, “I
guess I’ll take that walk now.” Jamie could see that her mother
and father were both teary-eyed. Her father towered over her—he was
well over six feet—and her mother was shorter than her. Her father
turned his face so she wouldn’t see his emotion. She vowed that she
would be the best daughter anyone could hope for. She was strong now,
and it was because of Nate. She felt she could face anything now,
even the walk she was about to take.

Chapter
Seven

The screen door shut behind her
as she walked out onto the back porch. She glanced to the right and
saw that her mother had planted a garden. Not the huge garden she had
grown when Jamie was growing up, but a garden with tomatoes and
squash, eggplant and cucumber and green beans. All good vegetables
for her father to eat on his new diet.

She walked through the yard, then
the pasture, and headed for the opening in the woods. It was the
beginning of the path that led straight to Tommy’s house. She
stepped through the opening and started walking. It was very
overgrown now and Jamie had to move overhanging bushes and branches
to proceed. But the path itself was clear and unchanged. It had been
there for a long time. Tommy had said the Indians made the path.
Soon, she saw the lake to her left, the lake that was jointly owned
by her family and Tommy’s family.

After about three minutes of
walking, Jamie stopped. She had arrived at the center point of the
lake. The afternoon sun shone down on the lake. The willow tree
draped its branches in the water. She walked down to the lake, then
moved the willow branches and bent over to crawl into the overhang.
She sat down on the dirt floor of the cave, because it was like a
cave. The large flat rock that Tommy had put the blanket under was
still there.

Jamie crawled over and moved the
rock. The plastic bag was still there. Inside was the brown blanket
that Tommy had put there so many years ago. The blanket they had made
love on so many times.

It was hot and humid in the May
afternoon, but Jamie pulled the blanket out and put it around her
shoulders. She smelled the blanket, expecting it to be musty, but it
wasn’t. She sat and looked at the willow branches covering the
entrance to the overhang. It was a cozy, private place. She felt all
of her old feelings about Tommy that she had tried to push away over
the years. But she needed to feel those feelings. She needed to make
peace with everything before she married Nate.

“
Tommy, why did you have to
die?” she said out loud. “Why did you leave me?”

Jamie dropped the blanket from
her shoulders and laid it flat behind her. She lay down on it. Her
eyes were heavy. She kept trying to keep them open, but she couldn’t.
She was drowsy in the May afternoon, and finally her eyes shut and
didn’t open again.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Jamie sat straight up from the
blanket, gasping. The afternoon was turning into twilight and she
needed to get back home. Her hair brushed her arms, but she didn’t
notice that right away. She would very soon.

She carefully folded the blanket
and put it back in the plastic bag. She lifted the rock and placed
the bag under it. The willow branches covered most of the entrance to
the overhang, but she could see the late afternoon sun glinting on
the lake. She pushed the braches aside and stepped out.

As she walked away, she felt a
sting of pain in her scalp. When she turned around, she could see her
long dark hair caught in the willow branches. Her heart began to
pound and she thought it would explode in her chest. She didn’t
have long hair anymore, but there it was, caught in the branches.

She looked down and saw she was
wearing jeans and a gauzy blue shirt that looked familiar. What the
hell is going on? she asked herself. She must be in a dream, a very
real dream. She closed her eyes and counted to ten. When she opened
them, she was still wearing her old high school clothes and her hair
was still tangled in the willow tree. She pulled her hair around in
front of her and carefully removed it from the branch.

Jamie walked up the bank of the
lake and stepped onto the path. It was dark in the woods, too dark.
She reached in her jeans pocket for her iPhone. It had a flashlight
on it. But she pulled out a flip top phone, like the one she had
years ago. No flashlight. Jamie was scared now and began to moan
softly. Tears filled her eyes. She didn’t know what to do, where to
go. But she knew one thing: she had to get out of the woods.

It was a long walk, but she kept
putting one foot in front of the other, hoping that when she emerged
in her own yard, this nightmare would be over. She finally saw the
opening and ran for it. She ran all the way through the pasture. When
she got close to the house, she noticed her mother’s vegetable
garden was lush with leaves and fruit.

Her mother stood at the stove
frying chicken in a cast iron skillet.

“
Mom!” she screamed. Her
mother turned to look at her. She was younger, her hair with no trace
of gray.

“
What is it, honey? You don’t
have to shout.”

“
Why is my hair long?” she
asked desperately.

“
Because it’s gorgeous?”
she said. “You’ve always worn it long.”

“
No, I cut it years ago. It’s
not supposed to be long.”

Her mother turned off the stove
and walked over to Jamie with a look of concern. “Are you all
right?” she asked. “Why are you talking like this?”

“
Something’s happened,”
Jamie said. “I went to the lake and fell asleep. When I woke up, I
wasn’t me anymore.”

“
Of course you’re you,” her
mother said. “Are you getting sick?” She felt Jamie’s forehead.

“
I’m not sick. I must be
dreaming, but it’s the most real dream I’ve ever had. Everything
seems so real.”

“
Everything is real, honey.”

Jamie heard her father in the
den. “Turn it down some, son,” he said. She could hear the war
sounds of a video game. She walked into the den. Bobby was playing a
game on his PlayStation; her father was in his recliner reading the
newspaper.

“
Bobby?” Jamie said.

“
Yeah?” he said. He didn’t
look up from his game.

“
How old are you?”

“
That’s a dumb question,”
he said. “You know I’m thirteen.”

“
Jamie, I think I need to call
the doctor,” her mother said behind her.

Jamie looked at her, then back at
her father and Bobby. She was caught in something, but she didn’t
know what. A dream? It must be.

“
No, Mom,” she said. “I
just need to lie down. I’ve got a headache.”

“
I’ll bring you something,”
her mother said.

Jamie walked slowly up the stairs
and opened the door to her room. Her mother had made her bed and
smoothed out her pink rosebud comforter. Jamie took her shoes off and
lay back against the pillows. She was frightened. Maybe she
should
let her mother call the doctor.

A few minutes later, her mother
came in with some Advil and a glass of water. Jamie sat up and took
the pills, then lay back down.

“
I’m worried about you,
honey,” her mother said.

“
I’m okay. I don’t know
what came over me,” Jamie said. The last thing she wanted to do was
worry her mother.

“
I ironed your gown. It was so
wrinkled, I couldn’t stand it.”

“
What gown?” Jamie asked.

“
Your graduation gown, silly,”
her mother said. “You do remember that you’re graduating
tomorrow, don’t you?” The worry came back on her face.

Graduation! Tomorrow! The day
Tommy died. She was going to live that all over again.

Unless she changed it.

“
I need to get there extra
early since I have to speak,” she said. “Can I take your car?”

“
I thought Tommy was picking
you up,” her mother said.

“
He is, but there’s no reason
for him to get there that early. I need to call him.”

“
That reminds me,” her mother
said. “He called earlier looking for you. Said he couldn’t get
you on your cell phone.”

After her mother left the room
and closed the door, Jamie flipped open her phone. There were three
missed calls, which must have been from Tommy. That was good, because
she couldn’t remember his phone number. Her hand trembled as she
pressed the call back button.

“
Where have you been?” Tommy
said when he answered. Jamie started to cry when she heard him. She
had forgotten his rich, lazy voice.

“
What’s wrong, sugar?”
Tommy said. He always called her sugar. How could she have forgotten
that?

“
I can’t believe I’m
hearing your voice after all this time. I know I’m in a dream right
now, but your voice sounds just like it did.”

Tommy was silent for a moment.
“Are you playing a trick on me?” Tommy asked. “Because it’s
not very funny.”

“
I’m sorry,” she said. “I
went to the overhang and fell asleep out there. I’ve got a
headache. But what I want to tell you is that I’m going over early
to the school tomorrow so you don’t need to pick me up.”