Rewrite Redemption (54 page)

He came down the stairs carrying a ruby-red guitar. His fingers danced over the strings even though the guitar was unplugged. He was looking down at his hands as if he was practicing a cord. His black tee shirt fit snugly over his broad shoulders and chest. His hair was a little longer. It was bizarre. Another Constantine. A Constantine I didn’t know…who didn’t know me. I didn’t quite know what to make of it. But I was determined to see it through, no matter what it took. I was doing this for
my
Constantine.

When he got to the bottom of the steps, he looked up. He seemed surprised. His fingers stopped dancing across the guitar strings. “You’re looking for me?” he asked. He pulled the guitar over his head and set it on a chair.

I knew I needed to avoid eye contact. Or maybe that didn’t matter as long as we weren’t touching. I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t want to complicate things more than they already were. I figured Lex could handle most of the talking.

“I’m Lex,” she said, jumping right in, “and this is A.J. We have a message for you.”

I felt his energy reach out…and then hesitate.

“Do I know you?” he asked, arching his dark eyebrows.

No you don’t
, I thought. Quickly, I glanced up at the guy who looked exactly like the guy who almost died in my arms.
You don’t know me at all.

“Um, can we come in?” Lex asked. “This is kind of complicated.”

“Oh right, sure, come on in.” He led us into a high-ceilinged living room—the one with the full wall of glass. Bookcases lined the side walls, and a telescope stood in front of the glass window. A baby grand filled a chunk of the room, and two large brown leather sofas stood on either side of a worked-metal coffee table. Art filled every bit of wall space that wasn’t glass or books. Lex immediately got lost in front of a huge, surrealistic painting. She pulled herself away reluctantly when Constantine waved his arm at a sofa.

 “Have a seat,” he said. “Can I get you a soda or something?”

“No, thanks, we’re good,” Lex said. 

I glanced up quickly again as I dropped down on the sofa. His dark hair was messy and he hadn’t shaved for a couple of days. But his eyes lacked that sadness I’d seen only minutes ago back at the tree house. He looked happy and healthy. That was what he wanted, his life in Seattle. That was what I’d give him no matter what I was going to lose.

“So what’s the deal? Do I know you?” He ran his hand through his hair and sat down on the sofa across from us.

“Do you
think
you know us?” Lex pounced. “Do you recognize—?”

I elbowed her. “Okay, no, you don’t know us…not really…well kind of…in a way,” she said.

“Are we alone?” I asked, trying to move things along.

“Yeah, well, except for Claire, but she went back downstairs. What’s this about? Who are you? Are you from the…the Guild?” he said the last word in a whisper.

“Do you think we’re—?”

I elbowed her again. “Quit playing games!” I hissed under my breath. “No,” I said, forcing the words out. “You don’t know us. We’re from…we’re from your future. We have a message for you
from
you.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.” I reached out and handed him the phone along with the earbuds.

When he touched the phone, I felt a jolt up my arm. He felt it too and jerked his hand back. “What the…? Who
are
you?”    

“It will all make sense if you just listen to the message,” I said. This time I just tossed the phone on the sofa beside him.

“Hey, this is my phone. Wait…?” He dug in his jeans pocket and pulled out an identical one. “Oh, no…I thought—”

“It is your phone,” I said, “just from the future. Use the earbuds.” 

Lex rolled her eyes. Since she wasn’t going to get to hear the message, she got up and resumed looking at art.

“Just do it,” she said, from across the room. “You’ll understand once you hear it.”

“We’ll leave as soon as we’re sure you understand,” I said, making that perfectly clear.

“This is really strange,” he said. He popped in the earbuds and held the phone in front of him. Then for the next few moments he just listened.

Since he was focused on the phone, I watched him.

“Say
what
?” he said out loud without looking up from the phone. And then he looked at me and then back at the phone and then at me again. He tossed the phone to the side of the sofa, threw out his hands, and leaned forward. “So you’re from my future. This is for real.”

I nodded.

“And you’re like me. I felt you as I came down the stairs. I thought someone from the Guild was here, although they don’t come to the door. But you’re not from the Guild?”

“No, you called me a Shadow. You’re the only one who knows about me.”

“Seriously?”

“Pretty cool, huh?” Lex said, coming to join us. “We know you in a different time and place. In fact, we just left you back in Boulder, Colorado. You got shot—”

“I got
shot
in Boulder, Colorado?”

“No, no…you got shot in the olden days,” Lex said. “You went there to rescue A.J. It’s a long story. But that doesn’t matter now. What matters is that you can’t skip chemistry because you’ll get caught, then you’ll get grounded, and then it all goes bad from there. Oh, and don’t show Devon how to play music on the roof.”

 “This is bizarre,” he said.

“No duh,” Lex said, “how do you think
we
feel? We didn’t even know about Shadows and Oreon until you clued us in.”

“I told you about Oreon? I can’t believe…there’s no way—”

“Way. You found out that A.J. was a Shadow. You wanted her to fix your screw-up when you messed with your own timeline. Devon got paralyzed, and now he’s lying in a hospital in Boulder waiting for your parents to pull the plug. The Constantine in our timeline is on the balcony. It’s up to you to make sure he doesn’t have to jump. Think you can handle that?”

He nodded.

“It’s vital that you don’t skip chem,” I said. “That’s what started the chain of events that lead to the accident. It’s what you called a pivotal causal effect. That’s why we’re here, to change that.”

 “You gonna behave yourself?” Lex asked. “It isn’t like we’re asking you to commit murder or win the Nobel Prize. You just have to avoid screwing up. Study tonight, take the test tomorrow, and then you get to go to the M83 concert. No harm, no foul. You have the tickets?”

“Well, yeah, but—”

“We’re your friends, just seven months from now. How could we fake this? It’s you on the message, right?”

He nodded. “Yeah, but this is crazy. Besides, a
Shadow—”

“Man-up,” she said. “We’ve had our reality stretched way more than this little scenario. It’s simple, really. You screwed up royally by messing with your own timeline. You were a baaad boy. Have you told Devon yet about playing music on the roof?”

“No—”

“Good,” she said. “Never,
ever
tell him about it. Never do it again. Did you forget the chem test tomorrow?”

He nodded.

“Well helloooo! You’re the one that screwed up.”

“Got it,” he said, shaking his head and letting out a sigh. “So we’re friends…all of us? I’d love to talk a little, find out who you are; find out what happened in a little more detail. This getting-shot thing is a little alarming. So is the thing about my brother. You want a soda or something?”

“We have to get back,” I said quickly, before Lex could accept. “You don’t need to worry about the details as long as you do what he says in the message. My…our…
the
Constantine in our time is in bad shape. He’s counting on you.”

“I better give it one more run,” he said, cueing the phone, “make sure I got it all.”

Again he glanced over at me every few seconds. I tried to avoid his eyes, but I couldn’t keep them off him completely. He didn’t look at Lex much, just me. I didn’t know what that meant. I figured my Constantine told him about the olden days rescue, and he was trying to make sense of it. He ran his fingers through his hair and put the phone down on the coffee table.

“New Guy…umm Constantine…tick tock. We’ve had a long day. We need to bounce.” Lex had finally noticed my supreme discomfort. “This has been nice…old home week and all. But we have school tomorrow and you have a test to study for.”

“So, you live in Boulder, Colorado? You go to Boulder High?”

“Yes,” I answered.

“A.J. Jones and Alexandra Archer?”

 “Right,” I said.

“Tick tock,” Lex said, getting up. “Chem test tomorrow, right?”  

“Absolutely,” he said.

“Promise?” I asked.

He nodded. “You can count on it. You sure you have to leave? Because I—”

“You need to study,” Lex said. She walked over and opened the door. “We need to get back and deal with our own mess. But it’s been nice knowing you. Good luck on your test.” She walked out the door. I was a few yards behind her.

 “A.J., wait!” Constantine grabbed my shoulder and spun me around to face him. “A.J., look at me. Look at me just once.” He put both hands on my face and tipped it up gently.

I closed my eyes. I couldn’t do it. This wasn’t
my
Constantine.

“Look at me,” he said, “please.”

I took a deep breath and then I caved. What the heck. Maybe he wasn’t my Constantine, but I wanted to see those incredible, blue eyes one more time. I opened my own eyes and looked up at him.

The was a second of stillness, and then it happened…just like the hallway at school. Just like that night in the tree. It was slow and sweet at first. Then it was dancing like the buzz from a high. Then, a sharp ache down my core, as if he’d plunged into the deepest recesses of my being and...

…and then it began to
grow
.

My knees buckled and I gasped. He caught me to keep me from falling. I felt his energy, my energy, swirling, mingling, and singing. Eyes locked on mine, he moved his face slowly towards mine. Softly, he touched my lips with the briefest of kisses. A shock whipped down my body, plunging deep in my core. I went limp in his arms, but he held me tightly against him. My own arms were dangling, and my feet no longer touched the ground.

And then he kissed me again, this time for real, this time deep, probing, and long. Every cell in my body tingled with life and I—

Something snapped and for a second I lost all control. I reached up, tangling my hands in his silky hair. I moaned softly…kissing him back. He swept an arm beneath my knees and picked me up. Then he slammed the door with his foot. He carried me across the room, still kissing me. He set me gently on the sofa, and he knelt beside me, taking my face in his hands. I was shaking and tears were streaming down my cheeks.

The doorbell rang.

“Who
are
you, A.J. Jones?” he asked tenderly. He wiped away my tears with his finger. He ignored the doorbell. “I’ve never felt anything like…I…”

I closed my eyes, struggling to stabilize. I needed a tree! This was wrong! This wasn’t
my
Constantine. My Constantine was leaving, and why was I teasing myself with something I couldn’t have?

“Are you okay?” he asked. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I didn’t mean—”

The doorbell rang again.

“I need to go,” I choked out. “I can’t do this!”

The doorbell screamed without stopping. Claire ran to open it and let Lex back in.

“The hell?” Lex yelled, eyeing me, disheveled on the sofa. She ran to me, shoved Constantine aside, and then she turned and glared at him. “
What
did you do?”

He threw up his hands and backed off. “I just—”

“Nnnothing,” I stammered softly, grasping for Lex’s arm. “He didn’t do anything. I just got disoriented. I’m okay now. Let’s go.”

She pulled me up and we scrambled out the door. I took one quick look back to see a very confused Constantine standing in the living room, running his hand through his hair. It was all I could do to keep from rushing back and throwing myself into his arms. Luckily, I had Lex dragging me away from the house and down the hill to the tree. I collapsed against it, breathing heavily, trying to make sense of what just happened.

“WTF?” Lex asked, dropping down beside me. Sitting down, we were hidden from the windows by all the bushes and vines that blanketed the hillside.

“You don’t want to know,” I said, with a heavy sigh.

“Of course I want to know!” She looked at me as if I was crazy. “Have you met me? When did I ever
not
want to know?”

“I…I just need a minute,” I pleaded with her. “He kissed me. I’ll tell you when we get home. I can’t think about it now. I need to concentrate so I can get us back. Let me just sit here for a few seconds.”

“No problem. I’m in no hurry. I was just trying to get
you
out of there.” She pulled a phone out of her pocket. It was his.

“How’d—”

“Hey, it’s not like it was that Constantine’s phone. He has his. It will probably just disappear anyway.” She stuffed the earbuds in her pocket.