Karen D. Badger - Yesterday Once More (46 page)

Jordan looked around desperately for an easy way down the cliff and spotted a worn trail about thirty yards away. She scrambled to her feet and made her way along the edge of the cliff until she reached the path. Clumsily, she began her descent, falling several times along the way on the slippery downhill slope. Jordan was terrified that she was already too late. “Maggie, baby, please hold on. I’m coming. Please hold on.”

It seemed like an eternity before Jordan finally reached the bottom. She struggled to climb over the rocks and boulders that lay in her path and slipped several times on the ice-covered obstructions. Finally, Maggie was but a few feet away. Jordan called out to the injured woman as she closed the distance between them. “Maggie, Maggie, talk to me, sweetheart. Say something, please.” She could see the woman’s labored breathing rise from her mouth in a cloud of steam as her chest rose and fell unevenly.

Finally, Jordan reached Maggie and knelt by her side. She took special care not to move her, in order to avoid further injury to her neck or back. Instead, she gently brushed the curly locks from Maggie’s brow and gently held Maggie’s face. She leaned forward so that she was but a hair’s breadth away. “Maggie, I’m here. Hold on, my love. Please don’t leave me. John will find your horse. Help will be here soon. Please hold on.”

Maggie’s green eyes fluttered open.

Jordan gasped and fought back the sobs as renewed hope filled her heart. She took Maggie’s hand in her own and brought the bloodied appendage to her lips to kiss it tenderly. Jordan’s eyes never left Maggie’s.

Maggie smiled. “Jordan,” she rasped.

Jordan leaned down so she could more clearly hear what Maggie was saying. “I’m here, love.”

Maggie took a ragged breath and her brow furrowed in pain, but her eyes remained locked with Jordan’s. Finally, she spoke once more in a low, raspy breath. “Jordan, I love you. I always have... through all time.”

Jordan’s throat was nearly closed with emotion as she held back a sob. “I love you too, Maggie. I always will. Please don’t leave me. I need you, my love. Please don’t leave me.” Tears fell from Jordan’s eyes as she lowered her face to Maggie’s and tenderly kissed her lips. As she raised her head, she watched the life ebb from the beautiful green eyes below her. Still holding Maggie’s hand, Jordan fell back onto her knees. Her head fell back and a long, painful wail escaped her.

“No!”

* * *

Jordan’s heart was shattered as she crawled out from beneath the workbench in the tack room and slowly made her way to the other end of the barn. She stopped several times to steady herself when the sobs made it difficult for her to breathe. Finally, she reached her destination and fell to her knees on the dirt floor. It felt as though an eternity passed before she found herself floating along the tunnel.

“She’s back,” Andi said as she watched Jordan’s form appear on the platform. It was obvious from Jordan’s body language that she was in a great deal of pain. Andi waited for the rings to become still before she reached into the sphere and helped Jordan climb down from the platform. Jordan immediately wrapped her arms around Andi while heart-wrenching sobs tore through her.

“It’s okay, Jordan. Cry it out,” Andi said as she rubbed her friend’s back. “Sweetie, we missed you so much!”

Kale approached the pair after powering down the machine and wrapped his arms around both women. The trio of friends stood in their embrace for several long moments while Jordan regained her composure. Finally, she was able to speak.

“I failed,” Jordan began. “I was so close. I rode after her, but I was too late.” Jordan looked at Kale with haunted eyes. “What will it take, Kale? Why is this so hard?”

Kale inhaled deeply. “Jord, I know you don’t want to hear this, but maybe you can’t save her. Maybe she was supposed to die when she did.”

Jordan shook her head vigorously. “No. I won’t accept that. I need to try again.”

“Well, the first thing you’re going to do is have something to eat and then tell us what happened while you were gone. Maybe we can learn something from it to get the timing right the next time.”

* * *

While Jordan picked at the salad Andi prepared for her she relayed her heartbreaking account of why she was too late to save Maggie.

“I overslept. Do you believe it? The love of my life died because I overslept. I was exhausted after filling the well in the north pasture, that’s why. I was being selfish, thinking only of myself, and now Maggie is dead.”

Andi reached out to cover Jordan’s hand with her own. “Don’t think that way.”

Kale shook his head. “I warned you about playing with the time continuum. Everything you undo in the past has the potential to affect thousands, if not millions of lives in the future. Hell! Just you being there is displacing molecules that weren’t displaced before. Your presence alone can change the course of history, never mind you intentionally changing something that happened back then. That’s the primary reason I’m worried about you trying to save Maggie. Her not dying when she was supposed to could have significant consequences.”

Jordan put her fork down and removed the napkin from her lap. “All I know is that I have to try again. Forget what I may or may not have changed in previous visits. I need to go back again, and this time, do things differently. And as far as not saving Maggie is concerned, that’s not even an option. End of discussion.”

Andi patiently listened to the conversation between Jordan and Kale while trying to stay neutral. She understood that Jordan was approaching things from an emotional angle and couldn’t quite grasp the technical points Kale was making. Andi saw an opportunity to inject her own opinion when Jordan sat back and crossed her arms before her in a gesture of defiance.

“Jordan, I know how you’re feeling and I realize how important it is for you to do what you can for Maggie, but Kale has some valid points. You’ve already gone back three times, and each time you’ve had an impact on that time frame. From what you’ve told us, the first two visits were relatively harmless, mostly because you didn’t come in contact with anyone, but this last time is another story. You interacted with people, built relationships, and yes—you changed history.”

Jordan frowned as she listened to Andi. She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted.

“Before you say anything, let me finish. My biggest concern about sending you back a fourth time is that since you spent five months there this last time, there’s a very good possibility you’ll actually run into yourself this time. That would not be a good thing.”

Jordan’s eyes suddenly opened wide. “Run into myself? Oh, my God! I think that’s already happened.”

“What do you mean?”

“The second time you sent me back, I was exploring the barn on what turned out to be the morning Maggie died when I heard footsteps running from the house to the barn. I hid in the tack room so I wouldn’t be seen, but about ten minutes later, a woman rode a horse through the barn like a mad woman. When I stepped out of my hiding place to watch her ride away, I remember thinking that she looked just like me. Are you saying it was me?”

“It’s not only possible, but probable that it was you from the third and last time we sent you back,” Andi replied.

“How can that be?” Kale asked. “I mean, how could the third time we sent Jordan back create the chance encounter that she’d meet herself from the second time we sent her back? Wouldn’t she have been gone already from the second visit?”

“No, because the time frame we sent her back to the third time overlapped the time frame from the second time.”

Jordan rose to her feet and began to pace the floor. “Wait a minute here, guys. When I go back again, it will also overlap the time from my last visit. Are you saying I have to avoid myself when I get there?”

“Yes and no. You see, the laws of physics dictate that the same matter cannot occupy the same physical space more than once at the same time. You can’t be standing here in more than one form in the very same place at the very same time. Physics also dictates that you cannot occupy the present and the past at the same time nor the present and the future at the same time. A problem could occur if you run into yourself in the past because you already exist there. The only way to get around that is to avoid yourself or somehow avoid touching your past self.”

“This is creepy. I mean, I guess I can avoid contacting myself physically when I go back, but what would happen if I did?” 

Andi shook her head. “I don’t really know. I would assume that since it’s an impossibility to exist twice in the same space then both of you might cease to exist altogether. That’s only a guess. This stuff is based on scientific theory more than anything else.”

“What about the other Jordan?” Kale asked. “Will she know what’s going on?”

Andi frowned. “I’m not sure what you mean.” 

Jordan pointed to herself. “Well, this Jordan right here will obviously know what’s going on, but I would assume the Jordan from the last transfer won’t, right?”

“Correct. You see, this Jordan has already lived through what the previous Jordan has, and she’ll go back once more with knowledge the previous Jordan doesn’t have. In effect, this Jordan will have the ability to actually change the previous Jordan’s future. She’ll be able to influence the outcome of events differently,” Andi said.

Jordan stopped pacing. “I’ll be able to influence what happened during the last visit? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Essentially, yes.”

“Then I know what I have to do. Kale, I need to go back.” Jordan yawned loudly as she completed her statement.

The next morning, Kale and Andi sat at the kitchen table waiting for Jordan to wake up. Andi had set the second pot of coffee to brew when she commented on Jordan’s absence.

“Maybe we should check on her. It’s nearly ten o’clock. It’s totally unlike her to sleep past seven,” Andi said.

“You’re right.” Kale rose to his feet and headed to Jordan’s room. He stopped in front of her door and called her name.

“Jordan? Jordan, you’re going to sleep the day away if you don’t get your lazy butt out of bed.”

Kale listened for a response, and became alarmed when none came. By this time, Andi had joined him in the hallway.

“She isn’t answering me,” Kale said. He reached for the handle and pushed the door open. Inside, Jordan lay in the same position she had fallen asleep in when they left her the night before. He frowned and approached the bed.

“Jord?” he said. She didn’t reply. He glanced at Andi helplessly.

Andi touched the side of Jordan’s face with her palm. Jordan’s skin was warm, but not hot. She leaned in closer.

“Jordan. Sweetie, wake up.” She gently patted the side of Jordan’s face. “Come on, time to get up.”

Jordan turned her head to the side to escape Andi’s touch.

“Oh, no you don’t. You’re not getting off that easily,” Andi said. “Come on, wake up,” she repeated, patting the side of Jordan’s face again.

“No,” Jordan moaned. “Go away.”

“Not a chance. The day is almost half over. We have work to do.”

Jordan brushed Andi’s hand away but Andi persisted. Finally, Jordan pushed herself into a seated position. “Okay, Okay, I’m up. Sheesh! Can’t a girl get any sleep around here?”

“We woke you because we were worried. You’ve been sleeping for over twelve hours.”

Jordan looked at him. “Are you serious? What time is it?”

“Nearly 10:00 a.m.,” he replied.

Jordan threw herself back onto the bed and covered her eyes with her hands. “Why am I still so tired?” She sat up once more. “All right. I need to get up.” Jordan swung her legs over the edge of the bed and placed her feet on the floor, then leaned forward to stand up. She rose halfway and then grasped her thighs. “Oh, my God!”

Kale and Andi were immediately by her side. Kale wrapped his arm around her back. “Sit,” he said

“No, wait a minute. Just let me hold on to you for a minute,” she replied as little by little, she forced herself to stand erect.

With one hand on Andi’s arm and the other on Kale’s, she took a tentative step forward and grimaced. Her eyes suddenly flew open.

“What is it?” Andi asked.

“It hurts,” she replied. A grin split her face. “It hurts! My legs actually hurt.”

Kale stared at her intently. “Are you telling me you feel pain in your legs?” he asked.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.” Kale frowned. “That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

“A year from now, it would be a good thing. Two weeks after the implant surgery, I’m not so sure. It’s too soon for the implant to be working.”

Jordan released her friends’ arms and walked gingerly across the room to her bathroom. She stopped at the door and looked back. “I, for one, refuse to look a gift horse in the mouth. Give me a few minutes, and I’ll join you for coffee.”

Kale and Andi interpreted the dismissal for what it was and left Jordan’s room. On their way back to the kitchen, Kale was deep in thought.

“Are you okay?” Andi asked.

Kale shook his head. “Something about this isn’t right. Her injury is sixteen years old. There’s no way the implant could restore synapse connection after only two weeks. Hell, even if the injury were brand new, it would take longer than that.”