Laid 2 Rest Two Halves of a Whole (22 page)

“I’m so sorry. How rude of me? I’m Jasmine,” I said, holding out my hand for her to shake.

She placed her hand in mine as her facial expression softened as my name sank in. “Of course, I’m Lillian. His wife. Luke has told me so many nice things about you, Jasmine. It’s a pleasure to finally be able to put a face to the name.”

“You can’t believe everything you hear,” I said worried.
Were there even nice things he could say about me?

“Only that if it weren’t for you, he never would have followed his dreams and became a psychiatrist. It was you that started it all. You influenced him to become the man that he is today. I owe you my thanks,” she said, smiling sweetly at me.

“I don’t know about all that,” I said back, embarrassed by the sheer thought of such an absurd idea.

Damn, was I that freakin’ crazy that I drove this man to become a Shrink?

“Honey, you’re embarrassing her. Look, you even made her blush. Jazz, this is our daughter, Hope,” Luke cut in.

Turning my attention to the little girl who had been jumping around with Jasmine only a few short moments ago, I gathered myself. Hope was simply precious and took after her father, I noticed immediately. How did I not see that before?

OMG… Where is my brain at?
Suddenly remembering the other people in
my
party. Leaning back, I introduced Jasmine and Jay to them. I held back giggles as they started stuttering when they realized exactly who Jay was.

As the parade came to a close, our two parties parted and went our separate ways. I could not wrap my mind around the fact that Luke was all grown up and was now a happy family man. The changes I made to my past had altered his whole future… I never ruined him for all other women.

Phew… what a relief!
The world wasn’t short a good guy anymore and I could definitely live with that.

On our last day in Florida, we got an early start exploring the animal park since later that evening, we were scheduled to catch separate flights home. Me to New Mexico and Jay and Jasmine back to California. Therefore, we made the best of the last couple of hours we all had together. We took safari rides. We touched as many animals that we could get our greedy little hands on. We even rode on an elephant, but the day-ended way too fast and it was time to go.

The cab ride over to the airport was somber. No one wanted to be apart from one another and it was going to be hard to let each other go. I leaned down to comfort Jasmine. “You take care of your daddy for me, okay. You be a good girl for him and I promise to come visit you soon, sweetie. I love you.”

“I love you too, auntie,” she said with fat tears running down her face.

I pulled her into my arms and wiped away her tears with my hands. “It’ll be alright, you’ll see. We’ll be together again before you can even miss me.” I pulled away from her gently and redirected my focus on her father.

He looked just as sad as his daughter did. I stepped closer to him and placed both hands on his face, drawing his eyes into mines. “My heart will always be with you, no matter how far away my body is!” I reassured him. He hugged me tight and we promised each other that we would see one another again soon and then they were gone.

Once finally seated on my plane, I made myself comfortable against the window, and fell fast asleep. This time, I was sucked out of the body of the plane and was teleported into the bathroom at my parent’s house. I was floating in midair again as I watched my younger self walk in only to shut and lock the door behind her as she carefully balanced a big folded off-white towel in her left hand. Setting her bundle down gentle on the sink counter, she turned robotically to start the water in the bathtub.

I flailed my limbs with no avail, fully aware of what was about to happen. I was going to be forced to relive the darkest day of my life. The day I sold my soul to the devil by aborting my unborn child... the very day, I, myself… should have DIED.

Helplessly, I watched as she unfolded that towel to reveal a huge knife inside. It was the biggest and sharpest one in the house. With a thick white handle for easy gripping, it had been my dad’s favorite. She rested her hands on the sink counter, steadying herself by drawing in a deep lungful of air. To my complete horror, she proceeded to look up at herself in the mirror for just one split second. I couldn’t help but choke on my own spit when I saw her face.

Did I really look like that… back then?

I was barely eighteen years old, but I looked like a zombie, the epitome of death itself. Everything about me was lifeless… my eyes, my skin, even my hair. This poor girl did not intend to ever come out of this bathroom alive.

How could I have done this to myself… to my family, I thought, but I knew that my younger self was too blinded by the unbearable amount of regret weighing down on her at that moment to even care. My heart split right down the center from just looking at my broken self. I could see that she had no fight left in her. She had lost the will to live. I cringed as she placed the sharp blade against the delicate skin of her inner left wrist
.

I couldn’t bear to watch anymore,
when both of us were suddenly startled by a ringing telephone. My younger self was baffled as it echoed as if it was coming from inside that very room… but how could it? She hadn’t brought the phone in there with her.

I was relieved to watch myself set the knife back down on the towel to find the cordless phone lying on the little shelf above the toilet, inside a small wicker basket that held dozens of my hair scrunches in it. She cocked her head to the side as she read the caller ID, sighed, and then decided to answer the phone instead of putting an untimely end to her young life.

I woke up on the plane, hysterical. I wiped back my tears the best I could and tried to regain control of my breathing. It was Tyce on the other end of that line. I never found out how that phone got in there in the first place, but I was beyond grateful that it was. He managed to call a heartbeat before I planned to take my own life. He had saved me from myself. I would not be alive today if it weren’t for him.

He had no idea how close I was to actually putting myself out of my misery that day. If he had called a second later, I would have already drawn blood. If his call had come in a minute later, I would have been bleeding out in that tub already, waiting for death to claim me.

However, he had interfered, altering my life forever with one simply phone call. Could he sense my distress from hundreds of miles away?

I know now that Tyce was just the vessel used to stop me from making an even stupider mistake. I believe that I was spared that day. That I must still have unfinished business here on earth and wasn’t meant to die on that particular evening. How else could you explain it? Was it just a coincidence? It couldn’t have been… his timing was way too perfect.

Besides, if it would have been anyone else other than Tyce calling, I really don’t think that they would have been able to talk me off the ledge. In fact, I don’t think I would have even bothered to answer the phone at all. I would have simply followed through with my original plan as scheduled.

Oh, Tyce…
why did you save me that day?
How did you know I needed you? That was the number one question on the top of my unanswered questions list.

My husband, Diego stood waiting for me at the airport. I sure did come back with a lot more luggage than I had left with, but he never questioned it. He was glad that I was home, when all I wanted was to be anywhere he WASN’T.

A couple of days went by, but I was still a mess from having to relive that awful night in the bathroom. Then to make matters worse, I continued to have more and more flashbacks of my time together with Tyce. A school dance, playing tennis at the park, even a limo ride to the Santa Monica Pier on Maya’s 16th birthday. I couldn’t stop them and they seemed to be becoming more and more urgent.

Lying down on the couch to watch TV one night, it happened again. This time, I couldn’t begin to tell you where I was. There was an old man sitting in a worn armchair in front of a cozy fire. A little boy came running into the room towards us and jumped into the man’s lap, causing a thick gold ring on a long chain to fall out of his collared shirt. The boy lifted it up and studied it carefully. “Grandpa Tyce, Who’s Jasmine?” he asked him curiously.

“Ah… Jasmine was someone I knew a long time ago. Someone very special to me. Therefore, I keep a part of her close to my heart. Always,” Tyce replied back, dreamily.

My jaw went slack and touched the floor. Tyce was an old man… with a grandson or great-grandson no less.

Bloody hell. I’m in the future!

As shocked as I might have been by this turn of events, one thing, did not escape my attention. Tyce had my ring! The one that I felt still belonged to him. There was only one reason on earth that my ring would be in his possession after all this time.

I died.

I have strict instructions in my will that it be returned to him… upon my DEATH.

Crap!
Crap! CRAP!

I sat up immediately and headed to my computer the moment I returned to my body. New determination filled my soul. I had to try to track Tyce down and reconnect with him somehow, but where do I start. I wasn’t 100% sure, if he was still a recruiter for the Army or not. The last time I had spoken to him, he was working out of the Burbank office in California.

Too stubborn to ask anyone I knew back home if they had seen or heard from him lately, all because… that would be…
way too easy.
I calculated out my solo plan of attack. Besides, I didn’t possess the patience to answer hundreds of different questions, allowing people all up in my business, while trying to spin a web of lies about why I was searching for him to begin with.

Therefore, the only real chance I had on finding him without involving our peers was to make a trip out to California myself and poke around a bit. My husband was a little unhappy with my decision since I had just returned home, but frankly,
who gives a shit what he thinks!

I was reliving these moments with Tyce for a reason and if I found out what those reasons were exactly, then maybe the flashbacks would finally stop.

I think I might have rented the last freakin’ car from the airport
.

Was it my imagination or did a lot of people have the need to fly into California today! The rental parking lot was deserted, except for one lonely, looking silver 4-door sedan. Guess I had no other choice but to take it, seeing how I had no other options available to me. I wasn’t about to catch a cab and I sure didn’t have any desire to ride the bus or walk across town.

Since I had flown into the city of Burbank, I made a quick stop at the mall there so I could check to see if Tyce still worked out of that particular office. No such luck, but the person there said to try the Santa Clarita office instead.

Cool beans. That’s not far away
.

The next morning, I planned my day strategically. There were a couple of recruiting offices in that area so I would just have to try them all until I found my next lead.