Come Down In Time (A Time Travel Romance) (13 page)

“
I don’t remember that.”
Her mother sat down at the table that Jamie now realized was not the
same glass-topped table from her childhood. It was a sleek verdigris
iron table with a beveled glass top.

“
Honey, you’re saying things
that don’t make sense, and I’m worried.”

“
I’m sorry, Mom. I guess I
didn’t get enough sleep last night because of that nightmare. I’m
fine, I promise.”

Her dad walked into the kitchen
and straight to the coffee pot. “I need some coffee,” he said.

“
Your oatmeal’s ready. I’ll
get it for you,” her mother said. “Hon, what do you want me to
make you for breakfast?”

“
I’m good, Mom. I’ll make
something myself in a little while.”

She left the room and headed for
the stairs. “Did I put that soup up that I made?” she called to
her mother.

“
I put it up because you were
so late getting back,” her mother said.

So, Jamie had still made the
soup. One constant in a world that felt wishy washy and unreal. She
hurried up to her room and put on her jeans and a t-shirt. She put on
her sneakers since she would be in the woods. Jamie knew she had to
get back to the overhang. That’s where the magic was.

“
I’m going to take a walk,”
she told her parents as she headed for the kitchen door. She walked
outside and her mother’s garden was in the half-grown state it had
been in when Jamie first arrived on that May day, months ago. It was
still May.

She ran through the pasture to
the opening in the woods. She ran down the path, pushing branches out
of her way. She slid down the embankment of the lake and pushed aside
the willow branches. She crawled inside the overhang.

The blanket was still there,
untouched for all those years. Jamie pulled it out of the plastic bag
and spread it out behind her. She sat down. She waited.

No matter what Jamie did, sleep
would not come to her. She lay back on the blanket but she couldn’t
turn her mind off. Somehow, she had gone back to 2013, but it was a
different 2013 than the one she had left. Everything was different,
and she was lost. She wasn’t even sure if she worked at the clinic
in Grahamville. If she couldn’t get back to Tommy, she didn’t
even know where to go.

Jamie sat there on the blanket
for hours. When the sun started to go down, she realized she was
going to have to leave. She got up and moved the willow branches. Her
hair did not get caught that time. It was much darker in the thick
woods and she used her iPhone flashlight to guide her down the path.
When she walked into the kitchen, her mother was not making fried
chicken. She was roasting a chicken and making brown rice on the
stove.

“
Mom, do you know where I
work?” Jamie asked from the doorway.

“
You work at a clinic in
Grahamville,” she said. “You know I know where you work! I’ve
been there to visit you!”

“
I wasn’t sure if you knew
the name of it, that’s all,” Jamie said sitting down at the
table. “In case you can’t get in touch with me or something.”

“
I guess I don’t know the
official name of it,” her mother said. “But I’m in touch with
you all the time. We email, we text, we talk on the phone. We’re in
touch all the time, honey.”

Apparently, in this 2013, Jamie
had not abandoned her parents. She was in touch all the time. She
must have made visits over the years.

“
How’s Bobby?” she asked.

“
He’s good. He likes his job.
I can’t believe he’s getting married.”

“
When is that?” Jamie asked.

“
August 17. You know that,
honey. Your memory’s as bad as mine.”

“
And where is it going to be?”

“
Over in North Carolina.
Winston-Salem. Where Cathy is from. I guess it’s good we just have
to show up. I don’t know how I’d handle it if I had to plan a
wedding from here.”

Her mother sat down at the table.
“You are going to be able to come to the wedding, aren’t you?”
her mother asked.

“
Of course. I’ll bring Nate
with me.”

“
You mean that nice doctor you
work with at the clinic?”

“
Yes.” Jamie realized that
her mother knew nothing about her engagement to Nate. Jamie clearly
hadn’t told her about it. And she had no ring to prove it.

Jamie helped her mother with
supper and the three of them sat down in the dining room to eat. Her
mother had brought out the fine china.

“
I want it to be special since
you’re leaving day after tomorrow,” her mother said. She was
leaving! But she couldn’t leave. She had to get back to Tommy and
their cottage. She had to get back.

Jamie cleaned up the kitchen and
then told her parents good night. They were watching a movie, but
looked up at her. “Don’t you want to watch the movie with us?
It’s
Lincoln
and it’s good,” her father said.

“
I’m tired,” Jamie said.

Upstairs, she put on her gown and
got into bed. She prayed that when she woke up, she would be back
with Tommy. Sleep did not come easily for her, but finally she began
to drift off. When she woke up the next morning, she immediately felt
her hair. Shoulder length. She cried jagged tears, calling out
Tommy’s name.

Jamie stepped into the hot shower
and shampooed her hair. She blew it dry, looking at herself in the
mirror. She didn’t know who she was anymore. The brown eyes that
looked back at her were filled with pain and uncertainty. Her eyes
were puffy from lack of sleep and crying.

Jamie dressed in jeans and a
t-shirt and put her sneakers on. Her parents weren’t up yet, so she
crept silently down the stairs. In the kitchen, she found a bottle of
sleeping pills that had been prescribed for her father. She opened
the bottle and shook several out into her palm. She put them in the
little pocket in front of her jeans. She grabbed a bottled Sprite out
of the fridge. She wasn’t taking any chances today in the overhang.

She crossed the pasture and
entered the opening in the woods. This time, when she got to the
midpoint in the lake and the overhang, she leaned her drink against a
tree and kept walking. She walked for several minutes until she
reached the opening at the other end. The opening to Tommy’s farm.

She stood and looked out over the
land. The rows and rows of corn were growing tall. She heard the
chugging of a tractor in the distance. The sound of the tractor got
closer and closer. Jamie didn’t move. She looked to her left and
saw the tractor moving down the outside of the rows of corn. She
stood there watching, waiting. The tractor was moving closer. In a
few seconds, it would be right in front of her.

She couldn’t see yet who was
driving the tractor. It inched by and she saw a bearded man looking
over at her. The tractor stopped abruptly. It was completely silent
then. She stared at the man. He got off the tractor and walked around
it, toward her.

“
Jamie?” he said. His face
looked so different with a full beard. His hair was long, almost to
his shoulders. But his hazel eyes were the same. Tommy’s eyes.

She wanted to run to him, throw
her arms around him, kiss him. It had only been a two days since she
had been with him, in their marital bed in the cottage. But she knew
this world was different.

“
Tommy,” she said.

“
What are you doing here?”
Tommy asked her in an incredulous voice. “Why are you standing
here?”

“
I don’t know,” she said.
“I came home because my dad had a heart attack. I guess I just
wanted to see everything.”

“
Well, you see it’s pretty
much the same,” Tommy said, sweeping his arm out toward the fields.
“Only it’s all organic now.”

“
Yes,” she said.

Tommy kept looking at her, but he
didn’t say anything else. She realized that in this world, she had
left Tommy, divorced him. He must have been so hurt. He didn’t need
her around screwing up his new life.

“
I just want to tell you,
Tommy, that I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left like I did. I should
have stayed where things were good. I should have stayed with you.”

“
Jamie, that was a long time
ago,” he said. “I’ve moved on now. I’ve got two kids and
another one on the way.”

“
I know. Mom told me. I’m
happy for you.”

Tommy walked up the little hill
to stand next to Jamie. He put his arms around her and hugged her.
Jamie could smell him, Tommy’s smell, a mixture of shampoo and soap
and sweat. She hugged him back and didn’t let go.

But he released her.

“
It’s good to see you,
Jamie,” he said walking back down the little hill. He got on his
tractor and started it up. The chugging sound filled the air. “Good
luck,” he shouted. He waved as he drove down the outside of the
rest of the field.

I love you, Tommy, Jamie thought.
Beyond all time and space. Forever and ever. When she couldn’t see
the tractor anymore, she turned back to the path and walked to the
midpoint. She got the blanket out in the overhang and spread it on
the floor. She sat down and opened the Sprite. She dug the pills out
of her pocket and took two of them. There was no way she wasn’t
going to sleep with that much. The sun shone down on the lake. Jamie
sat and stared at the water through the willow branches. She sat
until she began to nod off. Then she lay back on the blanket and fell
asleep.

It was late afternoon when she
woke up. “Tommy?” she said. There was no Tommy. She felt her hair
and it was shoulder-length. Jamie cried then for a long time. She
knew she needed to get back home, but she needed to cry for every
lost life she had experienced. Finally, she crawled out of the
overhang and walked down the path toward home.

“
Honey, where have you been?”
her mother asked when she walked through the door. “I was getting
ready to call the police. You didn’t answer your cell all day.”

When would Jamie learn to stop
worrying her parents? It seemed that no matter which life she was
living in, she was worrying her mother.

“
I fell asleep down by the
lake,” she said. “I’m just not very rested these days.”

Her mother put her hand on
Jamie’s forehead. “You don’t feel like you’ve got a fever,”
she said. “Jamie, are you ever going to tell me what’s going on
with you?”

Jamie wished she could tell her
mother, but she knew if she did, her mother would want her to seek
psychiatric counseling immediately. Her mother could never understand
what Jamie had been through. Jamie didn’t think anyone could
understand it. Or believe her.

“
We’re having broiled salmon
tonight with asparagus and brown rice,” her mother said. “Your
last supper here. I wish you could stay longer, but I know you need
to get back to your clinic work.”

Jamie nodded, but she didn’t
know what getting back to the clinic meant. She had not tried to call
Nate because she didn’t even know what her status was with him in
this 2013. She clearly did not have a sapphire ring in this world.

Jamie watched
Argo
with
her parents after supper. Apparently, in this 2013, her parents
watched a lot of movies. Her mind was whirling and she couldn’t
concentrate on it. But she stayed anyway. It was her last night with
them.

She noticed for the first time in
this new world that her comforter was a paisley print and the room
was painted a golden color. Her mother had redecorated and Jamie’s
pink rosebud spread was gone. She missed it. She wanted to bury her
head in it and cry herself to sleep. She changed into a gown that she
didn’t recognize and went to bed. She prayed for the second night
in a row that she would wake up in her bed with Tommy.

But she didn’t. She woke up and
her hair was short and the room was gold and the comforter was
paisley. At least the blue tiles in the bathroom were the same. She
took a shower and dried her hair. She packed her suitcase with
clothes that she didn’t recognize and walked downstairs. Her
parents were in the kitchen laughing and drinking coffee. Her mother
jumped up and poured Jamie a cup and added a little cream, the way
Jamie liked it.

“
I’m sorry I have to leave
today,” Jamie said. “I wish I could stay longer. I can stay
longer if you need me.”

“
We always need you,” her
mother said. “But you’ve got your own life and you need to get
back to it. I’m sure they’re missing you at the clinic.”

“
I’m only two hours away if
you need me,” Jamie said. “And I’ll be back soon to visit.”

Jamie stood up from the table and
her mother and father stood then, too. They followed her out the
front door to her car. Jamie put her suitcase in the back seat and
turned around to hug her parents goodbye. “I love y’all,” she
said.

“
We love you, too, honey,”
her father said. “Thanks for coming to take care of me. Be careful
on the drive back.”

Jamie got in her car and backed
out of the driveway. She waved at her parents, who still stood in the
driveway. She headed down the road, past the spot where Tommy had
been killed, past Tommy’s family’s house and farm, and then she
was on the road to Grahamville. She had no idea what to expect when
she got there.