Self Help

This is just a short story I wrote for a competition that I decided not to enter

SELF HELP

Jane knew she was nearing the end of her life. She was 82 years old and had short silver hair that only just curled past her chin. She had aged well, and her wrinkles still sat where they sat when she was 30. When people heard her age, they were genuinely shocked. She had always been "a looker". What I am about to tell you is all about her in more ways than the obvious one because Jane had lived an interesting life up to this point, but she was going to change it in ways she didn't fully understand yet.

It was a rainy Wednesday, she had just gotten back from her sister’s grave, she had died 3 years ago and though Jane would never truly get over it she did feel at peace visiting her today. Today was possibly the most relaxed she had felt in a while, which is why she had to do it now before her mood dropped like it always did.

Her best friend was a scientist and she had worked wonders making things that, to Jane, must have been magically powered. One of those things was a contraption that was able to shift people backward through time, forward was apparently a lot trickier to figure out. Her dear friend passed a year ago and left her the last working model, that wasn't in a museum or lab being worked on. She had been working on this plan since the second she received the gift. It was a spark of excitement in her lonely life.

Now, like I said before, this tale is about more than this Jane, it's about me too. My name is Jane Sutcliffe, I am 18 years old and 2 years ago an unexpected guest landed in my bedroom and changed everything, including her past.

She set up the contraption, it was the basic shape of a watch except it had time setting of years instead of hours and months instead of minutes. The only bad thing was that it didn't go back more than 70 years which was a kink her friend was working on. She decided that she wanted to save herself, but it was too late now, so she decided she would just go back to when it happened and lend herself a hand.

Back in 2016, Jane was happy, her life was basically perfect. Well, perfect except for the fact that sometime that year a building will collapse and take the lives of 300 office workers, including her parents. This will leave her effectively homeless as she is only 16, has no other relatives and can't live in her house alone. She is then put into foster care and her life goes drastically downhill from there. 

She turned the dial pressed all the necessary buttons and the room began to spin. Her head got lighter and for a second she wondered if her friend had checked this contraption worked at all and wasn't about to rip her to shreds. Then suddenly and all at once she disappeared, and she could feel it, like suddenly in the world she knew, she was nothing. 

Her eyes open in a melancholy household that, at that moment, was holding a funeral wake. Jane remembers this day perfectly, in fact, right now she is almost certain she would find herself crying in the downstairs bathroom. At that moment, future Jane was stood in her childhood bedroom, but she began to make her way out and down the stairs. She spotted people she recognizes but they gave her a look like she was causing them to have Deja Vu but before it happens, like they remember that someday they will see someone that looks exactly like her. She found herself outside the bathroom that she knew young Jane was in. She knocked but young Jane just continues to sob. It was completely understandable her parents have left her all alone.  She knocked again and this time the door slowly opened. "So sorry, do you need the bathroom, I'm sorry": young Jane immediately started apologizing. Future Jane just smiled back at her and then went in for a hug, it was a weird hug for both of them as at this moment the younger Jane had no idea who this woman was, and the older Jane was just a little bit weirded out, if she was being honest. "I'm sorry, did you know my parents?" Young Jane asked.

"Well, yes. This is going to be difficult for you to believe but I've brought some stuff with me to prove what I am saying is true, can we go somewhere a little less crowded?"

Young Jane nodded.

Both Janes began walking towards the swing set in the back garden and simultaneously they both turned to each other saying "follow me" which cause more weird tension between them.

They reached the swing set, young Jane sat herself on one of the wings and looked at the other Jane expectantly. Future Jane reached into her pockets and took out the letter she wrote to her parents about what she wanted from them for her birthday, which was today. Young Jane was confused and reached into her pocket pulling out the same letter, but it looked cleaner and less wrinkled. " I kept this to myself for 66 years and always carried it with me. I never got myself any of these things in the end. I didn't think I deserved them. Jane, this is going to be hard I believe but my name is Jane Sutcliffe, I grew up in this house with my two parents and I always wanted to be an explorer, on the list in your hand you asked for a telescope, a compass, a pocket knife, and a backpack. let's be real the pocket knife was unrealistic: who would trust us with any kind of knife," she chuckled to herself, young Jane just stared at her, "I came back to help you. I know you think you will be okay and the people dealing with where you are going to live are going to find someone who wants to take you in but that's just not true. We are alone, but I am an adult and I can live in this house with you and help you. I am here for you."

Young Jane thought for a while "what happened to you... us, after they died?" Future Jane had a sadness in her eyes " I don't want you to be worried about that, it isn't going to happen to you. I won't let it." Young Jane hugged her tight, she still had a lot of questions and they ended up staying there till the wake ended and then, when the social workers came to the door, Jane supplied the will that in her past, no one had been able to find. It explained that "the woman Jane was named after" will be taking care of Jane and living in the house if that is what young Jane wishes and young Jane made it very clear that that was exactly what she wanted. It was surprisingly easy to sort this mess, she expected more of a struggle then she got but she wasn't about to jinx it. She had done what she came here to do, and she was going to keep herself safe until she died.

They lived together for 2 years, of course, there were arguments, would you agree with your 16-year-old self if you were 82? Teenagers can be dumb sometimes and so can the elderly. Also, who can spend that much time with themselves and not go a little bit crazy? In the end, though, young Jane was thankful, future Jane later told her everything that happened to her and young Jane basically owed her everything: she saved her life. She died on her 84th birthday, on June the 5th 2018, while young Jane was now turning 18 and could live on her own. it took her a while to be happy about this and her biggest fear was that she might not grow up to be as amazing as that Jane was, but older Jane would tell her she already was. A week after her death she realized there were reminders left on her fridge, and someone was turning off the lights when she accidentally left them on overnight. It seemed that Jane never left her, and she was now just a spirit.

I still talk to her and she still helps around the house and when my roommates ask me who I am talking to, I find comfort in the fact that I can easily reply "oh sorry I am just talking to myself again." Sometime later I found a wrapped present in my wardrobe from the other Jane, inside the box was a compass, a telescope, a backpack, and a note that read: "not even I would trust us with any kind of knife".

Author's Note

any constructive criticism would be appreciated

Reviews

[Riddhi]

Ah..I indeed liked it Cathbee..The entire plot was so interesting and it was indeed different from those mainstream stories..I loved every single bit of it and not for a single moment I got bored because indeed the plot and your ideas were interesting..I just want to tell you that sometimes the way you express things gets complicated and clumsy but the rest was nice...I just want that the way you execute and express your ideas needs some improvement but the rest seemed perfect to me....
Well done and this is one of my favourite stories here on writers cafe...
Keep on writing...