Faces in Time (24 page)

“It’s you! Oh, my God, it’s you with a bad haircut.”      “I know. I know. Just keep your voice down, please. We don’t want anyone to hear you.”

She nods her head, but her mouth remains open.

Chester says, “If you want me to tell you everything, maybe you should go lie down. It’s a lot to take in.”

“You were telling the truth? Chester, is it true?”

“I think you better lie down, and I’ll tell you everything.”

“I’ve wanted this more than anything in my life. I mean not the sex, but loving you—having you love me back and being together. But, maybe we should wait. Take it slow. Do it all right.”

“You’re waiting till marriage, Chester?”

“No, I’m not a virgin. Well, I guess most of the women I’ve been with have never been with me now that I’ve gone back in time, but I still have the memory. I wish I didn’t, and it’ll fade. It’ll all fade next to you.”

“Well, then why not now? It feels right to me.”

“You feel right to me too. But, I’ve already waited a lifetime, Rhonda. All this time for you. I don’t want to mess it up now. Every other relationshitarts this way—well, nearly all of them do. Most of them fail. Let’s make this special; I don’t want us to fail. I want to be with you forever.”

She puckers and unpuckers her lips.

“I know that scares you; I can’t blame you. There’s no way for you to feel everything that I do so quickly.”

“It’s not that it feels wrong—just feels scary.”

“I’m thrilled that it doesn’t feel wrong—I love that I feel right to you. That’s enough. That’s more than enough for now. That could’ve taken much longer. I’ve never felt that way about anyone before you.”

She smiles and tucks her head into his shoulder.

“That’s why I think we should wait. I want you to have time to feel things out, for us to grow.”

She nods her head into his flesh.

With a tone that sounds more like a little girl than he’s ever heard from her, “Never had a guy turn me down before.”

“I’d believe that. My body’s pretty furious with me right now,” he says with a quiet chuckle.

“Oh, yeah?” she says with a laugh, tempted to make a bawdy joke, but letting the urge pass.

“Yeah, I promise. If all I get to do later in life is to be with you, I’ll be the luckiest guy on Earth. Way luckier than I deserve.”

“So, why did you come back?”

“For you.”

“Why didn’t you just come after me then—in the future?” poking his ribs, “Am I not a pretty older lady?”

“No, of course not, you’re gorgeous then too.”

“Gorgeous, huh?”

“As long as you’re you, yes, you’re gorgeous.”

She smiles; he can feel her eyelashes on his chest. Eyelash fluttering halts, and the smile drops back to normal.

“What aren’t you telling me, Chester? Why didn’t you go after me then?”

Sigh, “Are you sure you want to know?”

“I want to know everything that’s important about us.”

“First time around I never went to that party. I never went to the premiere either. I actually didn’t know that you went. Maybe you didn’t do the premiere the first time around either. But, you met Dane at the
Most Hipness
party, started dating, and got married.”

“Eww!” she pauses, taking it in, “Eww, I couldn’t have been happy. Was I happy?”

“No. If you were, I would’ve left you alone.”

Propping herself on an elbow to look in his eyes, “You would’ve, wouldn’t you?

“I’d be a monster not to.”

“No, you’d be someone other than Chester not to.” Putting her arms around him, she asks, “Children?”

“Yes. A boy.”

“What was his name?”

“Tristan.”

She sits up suddenly, ruffling sheets and knocking a pillow to the floor.

“Chester, what about him? Tristan? What about him now that you’re back here? Is he never going to exist?”

“I don’t know, Rhonda,” he says as he sits up to join her.

“How could you come back here without thinking of the consequences? I’m glad you’re here for me, but what about the rest? Is he dead now?”

Seeing his face is somber and that he’s waiting for her to come down from her rush of emotion, she breathesdeaply.

“What is it?” she asks.

“He committed suicide. I’m sorry to have to tell you this.”

“Oh, God, that’s terrible. Oh, my God.”

“Yes. It was the only time I ever contacted you. I sent a letter to say how sorry I was about it, but I didn’t put my name on it.”

“Why? Why did he do it? Was I a terrible mom?”

“No, of course not. Dane was a terrible dad. Abusive alcoholic. He made the divorce long and ugly. It was in the papers. He told Tristan a lot of things that weren’t true. Your mother took his side in the divorce. Thought you should stay in the marriage anyway and make it work even though he was hitting you and your son.”

“Good ole, mom,” she says putting her hands over her face and crying.

He pulls her to him and says, “They said you were moody and mean at that time. I never believed it, Rhonda. Your doctor had been giving you pills to deal with the stress of the separation to calm you down. Turns out it was a prescription that makes some people angry and moody.”

Her head shakes, still covering her eyes with her hands.

“I never believed you could’ve been that bad, even with the stupid pills. I still can’t imagine it. But, the doctor was a friend of Dane’s before you started going to him. Could’ve been done on purpose. Dane was fighting you for custody.”

“Did he win?”

“No. His police record outweighed any reported moodiness on your part. But, the whole country was watching your case. The news gets nastier by then. Much nastier. The judge felt like he had to make an example out of you two for the rest of the country. He made you take public parenting classes—classes for delinquent parents. The reporters loved showing pictures of you going in and out of that building. That made me so angry; you were crying beneath sunglasses in most of them.”

“When…when did it happen?”

“About six months later. You took a half year off work. You actually turned down a role in a thriller that wound up being the biggest movie of the year. It made a no-name actress a star. I felt so sorry for you. After the six months were up, you left him with your mom to film a guest spot on a TV show. The courts ordered Dane to have a court appointed supervisor or he couldn’t see Tristan anymore. However, they did let him call whenever he wanted. He called late while you were gone—knew you were gone and that Tristan was at grandma’s. No one knows what he said, but after he got off the phone, Tristan hung himself in the garage. He didn’t leave a note.”

She sobs for about five minutes. He caresses her, keeping her hair out of her face, and rubbing her forehead.

“I’m sorry for having to tell you all of this. It’s not right to hear years of trouble in a few minutes. It’s not natural; we’re not built to withstand this.”

Lifting her head, “But, in a way, you prevented all this,” sniffling, “Dane will never hurt me now or a son. Not my child anyway. I won’t have to go through that nightmare…How long were we married?”

“Thirteen years. Tristan was born about a year before you married.”

“My God, he was fourteen? Fourteen when he died?”

“Yes.”

Her brow is burdened, but no more tears flow.

“Thank God that that horrible death will be prevented.”

A few minutes of silence.

“Chester, do you…do you think that if I had a child it might end up to be the same child as Tristan? Like a second chance?”

“His DNA will have to be different, but I always got the impression that he was a lot like you and nothing like his father.”

“Keeping Dane’s DNA out of any child sounds like a miraculous improvement…I shouldn’t be so hateful; the things he did haven’t happened now, right? Can you hate someone for something they would have done but didn’t get the chance?”

“I don’t know. I guess you’d have to hate me too for not taking the chance the first time around, for not coming after you then and telling you how I felt.”

“You’re raising questions that I don’t think we were meant to think about. But, it seems like it all working out,” pauses, “Were you afraid that it wouldn’t work out?”

“Of course. Afraid I’d end up somewhere else: the wrong place or the wrong time. Afraid of causing the world a lot of damage; giving information to someone who could hurt people with it. If someone found my device, they could gain so much power, hurt so many people whether they meant to or not.”

“So, that’s why you gamble?”

“Yeah. How can I get a job writing, even under a fake name, when I already know what is going to be popular for the next two decades? I have every good idea and know every misstep to avoid. It’s not fair.”

“So, what made you decide to come back? What was the final straw?”

He lets go of her and scoots back against the headboard, “You don’t want to know this one.”

“Maybe so, but have to.”

“No, you really don’t have to; you really don’t want to. Please, trust me on this one.”

“Is it really that bad?”

“Worse.”

Pressing and unpressing her lips while fidgeting with her shiny nails, she says, “But if it’s not going to happen now, because I’m never going to be with Dane or live that same life, then it’s just a story. It’s made-up. It won’t ever be the truth.”

“I guess, but it’s not pretty.”

“Well, you have to hear a sad story to appreciate a happy one.”

“I don’t know about that, but I’ll tell you since it’s not going to be now.”

She maneuvers herself directly in front of him and looks into his face as he begins to speak.

“Dane kept you from taking roles with popular leading men. If they were attractive, he was threatened, and he told you that you couldn’t do the movie. I don’t know how or what he did at home, but it couldn’t have been nice and it worked. You turned down a lot of roles after you had already been cast because of who they named as your costar. The movies th do td act in lacked a popular costar, so they usually weren’t very good. Eventually you stopped getting cast. You were a wonderful actress, but you were always a great spot in a lousy production. Before long people associated you as the common factor in a lot of bad movies. But, you were always great; I promise you.”