Chapter 1
“I’m way too old for this.” Sean muttered as they
stood over
the control console and the machine sputtered to life. He’d always been on the short side, and now
in his eighties he begrudged every millimeter of height he lost with
advancing
age. My own hands were as wrinkled as
his while I pushed the appropriate buttons on the computer console. The familiar sound of a magnetic resonance
imager
spinning to life filled the small room.
“I can’t believe this specific machine has been
used as a
regular MRI for twenty years without anyone knowing it was really a
time
machine.” I muttered and Sean chortled softly before pushing another
button and
inserting the small flash drive into the correct slot. Five seconds later, the program was being
loaded.
“It’s always best to hide things in plain sight.”
Sean
muttered a very familiar mantra and I nodded my agreement. “The time bubble is now active. We’re
safe as long as we remain in here.”
“No one can come in?” I asked, although I already
knew the
answer. It was a sign of how nervous I
really was.
“You know that.” Sean smiled. “We’ve got plenty of power for what we need
to do, but not much more than that. The
bubble will keep people out, and it’ll keep the radiation out as well.”
“That’s good or we might not live long enough to
do this.” I
said unnecessarily. We both knew the
dirty bomb that had gone off thirty minutes ago was killing millions
outside
the bubble. That was why we’d been sent
down here, on direct orders of the President.
President David Jones Sr. had passed away many
years ago,
and while the man who currently held that office was of a different
political
party, the legacy of knowledge about time travel had been passed to the
current
President. Every President since Jones
had known about the ability to go back in time, but none had given in
to the
temptation until now.
“The program is uploaded.” Sean said with a hint
of
excitement. Both of our hands were
shaking as our eyes met and I nodded. He typed in the execute command,
and the
machine on the other side of the room began to whir faster. There was no one inside it, but the
components that sent a person’s memories back in time were active,
sending out
the program that Sean and Brandon had developed a decade ago.
“It’s working.” Sean said as he nodded with his
head towards
the television in the corner. It had
been showing static, but now it showed a newscaster talking about some
report
regarding the War on Terror. “That’s
still going on?”
“It should be over by now.” I muttered, shaking my
head as
Sean turned up the volume and we listened to the report about the
forty-year
old war.
“The fucker died in bed?” Sean growled angrily.
“How much time do we have before the bubble runs
out of
power?” I asked.
“If we don’t use the machine to go back, we could
survive in
here longer than we have food or water.” Sean answered. “If we use the machine, it depends on how far
back we go. The program worked, by the
way.”
“I figured that.” I answered with a gruff voice
and a shake
of my head. They were gone, my husband
and partner, our sons, our grandkids were all erased along with every
instance
of time travel in the history of humanity. Our orders were not to go back, but to run the program, erase
time travel
and all the possible timelines it had created, and then shut down the
machine
so that we were erased as well. We would
pass out of existence, and with us the knowledge of time travel would
be gone
forever, or at least until someone else invented it in the far future.
“Any luck connecting to the Internet?” I asked and
Sean
started cussing.
“All the wireless signals are encrypted and I
can’t get
around them.” He muttered. “They must
use some type of system our timeline never invented.”
“That’s a pain in the ass.” I agreed with his
sentiments. We’d hoped to use the Internet
to make sure this timeline was free from nuclear bombs, gas attacks,
and all
that crap. “I take it we’ve just got
broadcast television, not cable or satellite?”
“Just broadcast.” Sean muttered.
“Let’s see what we can find.” I said, moving to
change the
channel. Eight hours later we were both
thirsty and had to relieve ourselves in a corner of the room. It now
smelled
like urine, but we barely noticed based on the things we’d learned.
“Amazing how much you can learn just from watching
television.” Sean groused as he switched off the offending machine. “
“They were all wrong.” I muttered with a shake of
my
head. “The world wasn’t necessarily a
better place without the interference of time travel.”
“Plan B, then?” Sean asked and I nodded.
“Do we have a choice?” I asked. “How much power do we have left?”
“Enough to send one person to 1986 and that’s it.”
Sean said
after he looked at the display panel. “You know it’s not going to be easy. There won’t be any other time travelers now, just whichever of
us goes
back this time. Plus, we don’t know
every little detail of this future or how to fix it.”
“We know how to be in place when the time comes.”
I answered
with a heavy sigh. To be honest, I was
looking forward to dying in my old age. My life had been a good one, and if not for this one last
incident, I
could have died a happy man without time travel messing up my life
again. “You want to go, Sean?”
“Don’t be an idiot.” Sean growled with a grimace. “I am plenty happy to die when the bubble
collapses and leave you to carry the responsibility alone.”
“Fine, let’s do it.” I muttered and Sean nodded
once with a
hint of understanding in his eyes. It
took another hour for the preparation to be made and I was laying on
the table
waiting to be inserted into the machine. Sean was sticking a needle in my arm, injecting the drugs that
would
slow my brain function and highlight the necessary memories stored in
my
brain. Then the machine would scan them,
record them, and send them back in time to my younger body.
This would be different, because the program we’d
run hours
earlier had ‘jammed’ the signals of other time machines, effectively
stopping
the transmissions of earlier time travelers. The 1986 I was about to enter was pristine, unchanged by the
meddling of
other time travelers. Ronald Reagan was
President, I lived in
So much would be gone, so much of the world I had
loved for the
past sixty years would be gone forever, and I’d have to build a new
life with
my love, who wouldn’t even be a friend in this original timeline. Would he remember me at all?
Could I convince him he was better off with me
than with
where his life would lead otherwise?
We’d have decades, well years, to try and make it
work
before anything would need to be done. The history of previous time travel taught that making big
changes would
only backfire, that small changes yielded the best results. Even with the dirty bomb that had gone off in
It had only been bungling by several of the
Presidents who
took office after him that had created a situation where so many people
had
died in needless conflict. The old saying was that Pride Goeth Before
the Fall,
and the pride of the men and women in that office had been high, too
high. As always, it had been the common
people who
had paid the price for the pride of their leaders, and at the last,
even the leaders
had seen their errors.
“You ready?” Sean asked as the drug began to take
effect. Really, kind of late for that
question wasn’t it, but he knew what Sean was doing. He could die now, never having to go back in
time, and Sean would remove his body from the table and go back himself. The burden could be placed squarely on Sean’s
shoulders this time, instead of his, but he remembered how painful
Sean’s
teenage years had been in the original timeline, the timeline he was
preparing
to go back to, and he shook his head. Sean smiled with tears in his eyes as things began to go grey
for
me. “Thank you.”
Those were the last words I heard as everything
went
black. How long things were black, I
couldn’t tell, but eventually I was able to open my eyes. It was still dark, and I was on my back, in
bed. It took a few minutes for me to
stumble out of bed. My entire body felt
different, moved different, and as I reached the light switch and my
eyes
squinted in the sudden brightness, I let out a sigh of relief.
My vision was clear, no need for those damn
glasses. The back of my hands were smooth,
with no age
spots or wrinkles, and when I ran them over my body, I could feel how
tight and
smooth it was as compared to my sixty-odd year old body I had just left. My room wasn’t that different than what I had
expected and I let out a sigh of relief. Sure, there were difference,
like the
picture on my desk, but they weren’t shockingly strange. A glance at the clock showed that it was
nearly time for me to be up anyway, so I opened my door and proceeded
to the
shower.
It was good, being in my young body again, I
decided as I
finished the shower and let out a sigh of relief at the dirty deed I’d
just
finished along with my cleaning. The
images of my husband in his youth had been fresh and clear in my mind
as were
the images and memories of our lives together. Fifty plus years had passed by in the last timeline, and we’d
spent them
with each other and our children and their children. That should be more than enough for most
couples, and it had been, but now I was wondering what another fifty
years
would be like, and I had a wistful smile on my face as I wrapped the
wet towel
around my waist and exited the bathroom, only to run into my father.
“Brian, what are you doing up?” He asked with
surprise and I
had to resist the urge to hug him right away. I was fairly sure that, even as good of a son as I was, my
father wasn’t
use to hugs from his sixteen-year-old son. He’d died ten years ago in the last timeline and I had missed
him almost
as much as I’d missed mom, who died five years later.
“I thought I’d go for a run.” I answered and he
gave me a
look like I was half-crazy.
“You’re still grounded, remember?” He had a
warning tone in
his voice and I winced. Grounded? What had I done to be grounded? “I don’t care if it was New Year’s Eve,
coming home at six in the morning with alcohol on your breath and your
girlfriend in the car with you is not behavior I expect from you.”
“I… I’m sorry.” I said with shock.
“You’re damn right you’re sorry, Brian.” My dad
fumed as his
anger started rising. Oh fuck, he was
really mad. Then again, he had a right
to be. I had been a father, and remembered
Richie doing something like that when he’d been seventeen. We’d grounded the boy for two months. The
thought of my son, who was dead and gone
now, brought tears to my eyes. Dad
looked at me with some surprise. “Are
you progressing to fake tears now?”
“No.” I said hoarsely. “No, I’m just… you’re right. I
could have killed both of us driving after drinking, and you’re right,
it
wasn’t right to bring her here. I should
have taken her home.”
“Well, finally you’re showing some sense instead
of talking
back or giving me the cold shoulder.” Dad said with a nod of his head. “Don’t think you’re un-grounded though. That stays; you’re grounded until your
birthday. No car, no friends over, no
girlfriends over, and no parties. When
school
starts, we’ll let you drive your car to school, but you have to come
straight
home.”
“Can I at least go running in the mornings?” I
asked. “I promise, I won’t use it to meet
up with
friends or anything, just go running, by myself.”
“What if you just happen to run into a friend
along the
way?” Dad asked with a frown.
“I’ll tell them hello and that my evil father
grounded me
and I can’t talk to them until school starts.” I said with a half-grin
that I
knew always softened him up. He actually
laughed before giving me a strange look.
“Son, I don’t know what happened overnight, but
it’s like
you finally grew the fuck up.” My dad said with a shake of his head. “I like this Brian a hell of a lot better
than the one that told me I was an idiot before he went to bed.”
“I’m sorry about that too.” I said, horrified that
I would
have ever said something like that to my father. He’d
always been a good father, one I could
tell anything to, or at least he had been in the last timeline. This man didn’t seem all that different than
the one I’d known, so I had to wonder if it had been me that had been
so
different?
“You can go for your run.” He said after looking
into my
eyes. “I don’t know what changed
overnight, but I’m willing to trust you this much. Don’t screw it up.”
“I won’t, dad.” I said, giving in to the urge to
hug
him. He looked surprised, but returned
the hug after a moment. Then it was time
to go back to my room, find a pair of sweats to put on, and to stretch. Old age had put an end to my daily runs with
Davey, but we’d still gone for walks each and every day we were both
home. Once he’d had his stroke and
couldn’t walk
anymore, I’d pushed him in his wheelchair around the park across the
street
from our home. In the last few months,
he’d been able to speak a little bit and his constant announcements of
how much
he loved me had assured me that the stroke may have taken away a lot of
things,
but it hadn’t taken my Davey away from me.
It was refreshingly cold outside as I began my
run, and I
almost considered going back for another sweatshirt. There was no need though as I began to sweat
with the pace I started, trying to see just how my younger body reacted. Running was good not only for my body, but
because it allowed me time to think about the situation I was now
experiencing.
I personally had no memories of this timeline. Everything I knew about it was from what I’d
been told by Davey and by Sean. Fortunately, thanks to how time travel worked, I had perfect
memories of
those conversations. Rather
unfortunately, neither of them had been entirely forthcoming about this
timeline. Both of them viewed it as a
‘dark’ timeline for them personally and had been reluctant to share
details.
Still, there were some details that I did know and
as I ran,
I went over them carefully. All my life,
I had known that I wasn’t nearly as smart as either Davey or Sean. They could take in any situation and find
solutions to problems like it was no more difficult than breathing. In law school, I’d learned that I could also
solve problems, but it took me longer. I
had to do a lot of research, and have time to properly prepare what I
learned. Then I had to take more time
preparing my arguments, figuring out the counter-arguments, and then
the
counters to those counter-arguments. Davey could do it in the flash of an eye whereas I took hours
and hours,
but eventually I’d come up with the solution. Sometimes, when the solution required a lot of research and
preparation,
Davey would flounder while I eventually solved the riddle of the
problem.
That would be my greatest asset in this situation. I only had pieces of the puzzles that led to
the problems off in the far-future in this timeline. For the closer future problems, such as how
to win Davey over, I had less time and just as few pieces of the
puzzle, but I
did have time to think things through and find some solutions.
Time was both my enemy and my ally now.
President Jones was a key figure in figuring out
how to win
Davey in this timeline. Not in the sense
he might have been if this was 1981, but in the sense of what was going
on
now. It was our junior year of high
school, and Davey had given me several clues as to what was going on
with him
now. Just thinking about what he was going
through made me stumble and lose my pace.
Here, in this timeline, Davey and I had never
really been
friends. We were more like ‘friendly
acquaintances’, to use his term, when we were in our freshman year of
high
school. He’d moved away that year, to a
place called
The thought of President Jones being capable of
doing such
an evil thing caused me to shudder, and I resumed my earlier pace,
enjoying the
brisk winter chill, my foggy breath steaming out of me, and the heat
being
generated by my body as I continued to run.
I knew that when they moved back to
When Davey had gone back to
There was much more I didn’t know. Where did he live? Would he still
find me interesting? I knew he was already
having sex, but then
apparently so was I with my ‘girlfriend’, whoever that was in this
timeline. Did the fact that we were both
already sexually active make it impossible for him to love me the way
he did
before? No, those were personal
insecurities that I’d always felt, and I refused to let them stop me
from
gaining the love of Davey Jones.
Another question I’d have to deal with eventually
is what do
I tell Davey, and my other friends, about time travel? The secrets of how to build a time machine
were dead and gone, and I didn’t know nearly enough to help build
another
one. Nor did I think we should. That thought made me stop for a bit,
breathing heavily into the cold air as I pondered if I was being a
hypocrite. I was thinking time travel
should die
forever, but I’d used it to correct a situation.
No, I couldn’t lie to myself. I was far to old to
shy away
from the truth. Some part of me had
known in that last world that Davey and I had never been a couple and
I’d come
back to change that. Back in the time
bubble, I hadn’t even thought about it directly, but down deep I knew
the great
love of my life had never happened and I couldn’t stand to let things
stay that
way. The excuse about ‘fixing’ the events
of this timeline forty-odd years from now was just that, an excuse, to
do what
I really wanted.
“Hey, Brian!” Trevor’s voice surprised me and I
turned to
see my old friend jogging up the sidewalk towards me. He had a broad smile on his face and stopped
when he reached me. “So, you tricked
your old man into letting you out after all?”
“No.” I answered a little more harshly than I
intended. Some part of me had forgotten
how handsome
Trevor was at this age. His brown curly
hair practically gleamed and while he was a good four inches shorter
than me,
his body was perfectly trim and in shape. “Sorry, but I promised him I wouldn’t use running as an excuse
to get
out of being grounded.”
“Dude, what’s wrong with you?” Trevor snorted and
gave me a
look like I was crazy.
“Nothing.” I said as I turned and started to head
back to
the house. “I’ll talk to you in school,
Trevor.”
“You’re insane!” Trevor shouted. “Did you forget I was supposed to take you to
Missy’s?”
“Tell her I’ll talk to her in school!” I shouted
back.
“She’s going to go apeshit!” Trevor shouted but I
was far
enough away that he didn’t bother trying to catch up. That had been another shock; that the me of
this timeline had planned to sneak out just like this, but unlike me
hadn’t
intended on keeping his word to dad. What the fuck was wrong with this timeline?
“You’re back.” Dad said as I walked through the
front
door. He was wearing an old pair of
jeans and a t-shirt as if he was preparing to do some work around the
house. I could hear Mom in the kitchen,
probably fixing breakfast from the smells that were wafting around the
house.
“Yes.” I answered him and he nodded.
“Your mother will have breakfast ready soon.” He
said. “I’ll need your help in the garage
after
breakfast. The dryer’s squealing.”
“It’s probably the motor belt.” I said and he just
looked at
me. “I’m going to take another shower,
okay?”
“That’s fine.” He said and I headed into my room. I noticed the pile of school books on the
desk and wondered if I had homework left to do. In my own timeline I’d have been confident that I’d already done
them,
but there was a nagging bit of doubt in me that the “me” of this
timeline would
probably have just ignored them during the holiday break from school.
As I showered for the second time this morning, I
wondered
what I would find when I went back to school. This should be the Saturday morning before school started, if
the
machine had worked the way it was supposed to in sending me back here. I could feel my heart racing as I thought
about what I would find when I went to school. Would he be there? Would he be in any of my classes?
For that matter, what classes would I have and in
what time
periods?
“Good morning, honey.” My mom said as I entered
the dining
room where she’d already set three places for breakfast. It was nice seeing her so young again, and
she smiled when I gave her a hug before sitting down. Dad just watched me in silence while we
started eating. Part of me wanted some
of the coffee they were both drinking, but I settled for the glass of
orange
juice to go with the waffles, sausage and eggs. I’d dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt, similar to dad’s, so
that I’d
be ready to work with him as soon as breakfast was done.
“Did you see anyone on your run?” Dad asked me
after a few
minutes of silence.
“Yes, Trevor was running too.” I said calmly,
watching him
as he raised an eyebrow.
“Is that why you came back so early?” He asked and
I
nodded.
“I told him I was still grounded.” I informed him.
“Good, because you are.” He said sternly and that
killed all
the remaining conversation until we’d finished eating. As I worked with him on the dryer, I knew
things were not okay between him and I in this time, and I debated with
myself
on how to change that. In the end, I
decided it would just take time.
“Thanks for your help.” He said as we listened to
the dryer
run smoothly about an hour later.
“No problem.” I replied.
“Your homework done yet?” He asked me and I shook
my
head. “Well you have plenty of time
today and tomorrow to work on it.”
“Thanks.” I said, taking that as a dismissal and
heading
inside. After washing my hands, I went
into my room and began to look through the books and notebooks
scattered on my
desk. Twenty-three minutes later I
wasn’t a happy camper. The classes I was
in at school weren’t what I expected. They weren’t exactly idiot-level courses, but they weren’t the
advanced
placement courses I’d taken in my own timeline. To make matters worse, the notebooks seemed to be filled with
stupid
notes between Trevor and I about the physical and mental attributes of
girls in
our classes. There weren’t even notes
about our assignments. I had no idea
what I was supposed to be doing. Giving
up in disgust with myself, I got up and went to find one of my parents.
“Hi mom.” I said as I found her in her sewing room. She at least smiled at me.
“Hello Bri.” She said as she stopped the machine
she was
using to sew together a dress. “What is
it?”
“Is Dad here?” I asked.
“No, he’s gone over the
“Oh, I was going to ask him if I could call
“
“I think he has one of my notebooks in his
backpack.” I said
while trying not to wince at that.
“Your dad has your assignments listed from your
teachers.”
She informed me and this time I wanted to groan. “After
your awful grades he got them from
your instructors.”
“Oh, then I don’t need to call someone.” I said
softly. “Do you know where it is?”
“Yes.” She said, giving me a sharp look. “You sure you still don’t need to make a
call?”
“Yeah, I just need the assignments.” I told her
and she
shook her head.
“I almost believe you.” She said as she stood up
and went
into their bedroom. When she came out,
she handed me two sheets of paper with all the assignments written on
them. The bad news was that there was a
lot listed there, but the good news was that the classes were so easy
I’d be
able to breeze right through them.
“Thanks mom.” I said with a smile.
“Don’t forget your father will want to look over
them
tomorrow.” She warned me and I just nodded.
Several times during the youth of our last
timeline, Davey
had commented on how doing high school work again was both easy and
difficult
at the same time. For the first time I
really
understood what he’d meant when he said that. Math was easy, especially this basic algebra crap I was taking
now. The English essay I had on a reading
assignment was just as easy. The book
was even an old favorite of mine in the last timeline, so I just had to
skim
through certain parts of it to make sure my recollections were correct.
History was difficult.
It wasn’t difficult because I didn’t remember what
the
importance of the Magna Carta was, but because most of the assignment
was about
the memorization of dates. Instead of
asking why the provisions of habeus corpus were so groundbreaking, it
asked how
many of the King’s nobles participated in forcing him to sign the
document and
what year it was done.
Bah!
“You want some lunch, honey?” Mom asked several
hours later
as she poked her head in my door. Apparently I was not just doing assignments over the break, but
make-up
work to get my grades up a bit. They were
barely enough to keep me eligible for sports, and if I was right in my
guesses,
that was all my younger self was caring about right now. Maybe there was some truth to what Davey and
Sean had always said about this timeline.
“That’d be nice, Mom.” I said with a smile. She came back a few minutes later with a ham
sandwich that I ate while I continued doing math problems with one hand. For a while she just stood there watching me
with a little smile on her face. Part of
me wondered just how mean this timeline’s Brian had been to her.
“How is the homework coming?” My dad asked from
the doorway
three hours later.
“I’m halfway to being caught up.” I told him
honestly. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to
work out a
bit, take a break, and then maybe work on the rest after dinner.”
“How about we go out to a movie tonight and you
finish up
the rest tomorrow?” Dad offered and I raised my eyebrows in surprise. He smiled at me. “It’s
been a while since we did anything as a
family, and you’ve been working hard today.”
“That’d be nice.” I said and he nodded before
shutting the
door behind him as he left.
By Sunday night, the night before school started,
I’d
confirmed that my relations with my parents were strained at best. I wanted to curse the Brian of this timeline
that had apparently made several bad decisions, but that was impossible. He was as gone as if he’d never existed. Now I just had to pick up the pieces of that
life. By the end of the weekend, I felt
that I had made a good start, although I almost ruined by starting to
ask mom
about Uncle Rich.
He’d lived to the age of seventy-three in the last
timeline,
but I’d forgotten that he’d be dead of AIDS in this timeline. He’d died right before Christmas in 1981, and
when Dad had brought up the idea of selling his apartment in
They were surprised by my ‘sudden change of mind’.
“Here are your keys.” Dad said early on Monday
morning, as I
got ready for school. He was looking at
my clothes with a hint of approval. I’d
chosen my clothes carefully, picking a good pair of jeans, penny
loafers, a
dark blue V-neck sleeveless sweater, and a blue dress shirt under that.
“Thanks, Dad.” I said as I took the keys to my
re-built
mustang. I’d only looked at the car so
far, but I knew that Brian Breckenridge of any timeline would love to
have that
car.
“Remember, you’re to come right home after
school.” He reminded
me sternly and I just nodded, hefting my backpack with all my books and
completed homework assignments as I left the house. I’d already kissed mom goodbye for the
day.
The Downey High student parking lot was the same
no matter
the timeline, and I pulled into the first spot I found, glad that it
wasn’t
full yet. To my relief, Brandon and
Trevor were waiting in the usual spot near the front entrance. Some things didn’t change, at least.
“At least you dressed up for her, but where’s
Missy?” Trevor
asked after we nodded at each other.
“What do you mean?” I asked him with a furrow of
my
eyebrows.
“Dude, you fucking ditch her on Saturday after
sneaking out
from being grounded, and now you don’t even pick her up like you do
every
morning?” Trevor snorted. “You better
get your ass to pick her up or she ain’t gonna put out for you again!”
“Oh shit.” I muttered, turning back towards the
parking lot
before I realized I didn’t even know whom the girl was or where she
lived. I started to turn around, but a
familiar
figure caught my eye as he passed by us on his way inside.
His familiar blond hair was long and shaggy,
looking like
he’d not had it cut in the last few months. It was still that familiar shade of dirty blond though, and his
crooked
nose stuck out like it always did. I
couldn’t see his eyes from this angle, but I took in the faded jean
jacket,
worn jeans with holes forming, and sneakers that looked like they’d
been too
close to a fire all with a single glance. He was also a little heftier than I remembered him ever being,
but there
was no mistaking him for anyone else in the world.
“Hey, Davey!” I called out, leaving my two friends
to follow
the sixteen, almost seventeen, year old version of the man I loved more
than
life itself. He turned at the sound of
his name, and looked at me as if he didn’t recognize me. That was like a knife through the gut, but I
put a smile on my face anyway. Davey
stood there, silently looking me up and down, and then at the hand I
was now
sticking out to him. “You’re Davey
Jones, right? Didn’t you play on the
freshman team before you moved out to…um…”
“
“Yeah, so you’re back in town, huh?”
“Um, yeah, we moved back last year.” He said. “I’m in the same history class as you.”
“Oh, um, well I kept on trying to remember where I
knew you
from and I just realized it was from freshman football.” I said
quickly,
wishing I was as good at him when it came to dancing with words on the
spur of
a moment. “Say, you remember Trevor and
Brandon, don’t you?”
“Yeah.” Davey said as I tried to steer him back
towards
them. He looked like he was struggling
with wanting to leave and wanting to stay, but Trevor ruined the moment.
“Hey, Brian!” Trevor called out. “You better hurry or your girlfriend is going
to dump you!”
“I’ll see you later.” Davey said as he turned and
headed
inside the school, hanging his head as he went. His shoulders were slumped forward as he walked, and I wondered
what
would make my Davey walk like that. I’d
always known him to stand tall. Even
after his stroke, his first struggle had been to hold his head upright
and he’d
fought and fought until he could hold his head high on his own.
Yes, I realized as I turned to talk
This story brought to you by a lot of hard editing from Emoe, and
beta-reading by Trebs.
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