Chapter Two: Dream Over

I awoke from my dream of the things that are supposedly to come. It was really a twisted dream. Only showed the bad things. My dreams are always negative. I hated the dreams for that reason. I awoke to the noise of the horn of a runaway train. Correction, a runaway train that I was currently on board. I shoved the covers off me, and got up from my makeshift bed to look out the windows.

The horn went off again, and the exhaust from the horn clouded my vision. With the train tracks noisily being run over, I couldn’t hear the people behind me coming up to push me off. The tracks started to grow higher and higher off the ground as a bridge started to form, following a hundred-foot drop into a large river.

I turned around, afraid of falling out of the train car, when I felt two pairs of hands searching for bugs. Then another person, dressed in black, closed the door and gave me water.

“You Lee?” He asked with a raspy voice deeper than the Atlantic Ocean. I nodded. “A Time Agent?”

“Ex- Time Agent,” I corrected him. The man shuffled his feet and moved to the opposite corner. “Who are you?”

“You don’t need to know who I am,” Black replied, “But you will still answer our questions.”

“If I don’t know who you are, what makes you think I’ll tell you anything?” I asked Black.

He sighed, looked at the other people, a man and a woman with blonde hair, then looked at me. Blonde turned to me and answered for him. “You’ll answer all questions given to you or you’ll be thrown off the train.”

Right when she said that, the train screeched to a stop, over the bridge and river. I held my breath, terrified. I reached for my time manipulator, but it was gone. I searched my person, glanced over the room, but couldn’t find it.

“Looking for this?” Black asked, holding up my Manipulator. “Stolen property, Lee. You could be arrested just for having it around you.”

“Not stolen, given,” I replied, “There’s a difference. They chased me out of a building while it was around my wrist. You know who I am, now who are you?” All I got in return for asking a question was blank looks, waves of rushing water beneath us, and crickets of silence. “Tell me, or I will jump and you’ll never know the answer to any of the questions you want me to answer.” Still nothing. I waited at least two minutes before asking again. “Tell me, now, or I will go down!” Thirty seconds passed, and I got up, slowly walked to the door, reached down to open it, when they finally saved my life.

“We are the Russian Time Agents. We’re trying to take down your agency as well as ours.” The Blonde replied.

Without looking up, I asked my next question. “What makes you think I believe you?”

“Because we are family.” I looked up to look the Blonde in the eyes. She moved out of the shadows and into the light where I can see her features pretty well. She was my mother, Alexandra Eleanora Lee. A younger version than I remember. She must’ve been in her twenties. “Of course, I don’t know to what extent we’re family. Perhaps you know. Yes, by the look of your face, you know who I am. You’re surprised that we’re Russian though, right?” I said nothing. It’s time to return their favorable silence. “Not going to answer me, are you? You definitely are related to me.” She chuckled, the others gave her dirty looks. “The truth is we’re not Russian. We are Americans, but we work for the Russians, pretending to the Russians that we are Russians. Does that make sense to you?”I still didn’t say anything. I  hope they like their own medicine. “Oooh, we definitely are family,” she laughed then continued, “Yeah, not only the resemblance but also her actions, Dad.”  She looked at Black.

“Yeah, she sure is, Nora,” My grandfather said. I looked at him in awe. I never met him before; he died before I was born. “She looks extremely surprised. Perhaps we haven’t met.” He stepped closer to me, extending his hand. “I”m Nora’s father, Nick Olson. Something tells me you know that name.” He paused for a second, to read my facial expressions. I gave him my best poker face. “But something tells me that you don’t want us to know your connection between us.” He took a step back and Mom took over.

“How about this, an answer for an answer,” Mom inquired.

“Fine. I’ll start. Why is the American Time Agency after me?” I asked. Mom looked down. Nick looked away.

“We’re not sure. We only got wind of your troubles last week from your boss. He’s doing as much as he can to get leway for you. Unfortunately, he’s under survalence right now, so we can’t communicate with him often. He’s our mole, that’s why he helped you escape from the agency. He also put a block and time scrambler on your device, but we’re not sure how long it’ll be before they decode it.” The person in the corner replied for Mom and Granddad.

Nick looked at me, then asked the most terrifying terrifying question he could ask me. “Who are you in relation to us?” It was my turn to look down. I didn’t know if I should answer that. I didn’t know if I could answer it.  “Please, it’s driving me crazy. Us crazy. Just answer.”

I took a breath, and looked at Alexandra and simply answered, “I”m your daughter.” Mom looked shocked and taken aback.

“What?” She asked. “When?”

“Mom, you of all people should know how dangerous foreknowledge is. I can’t answer any more questions of that type.” I looked at Nick and Nick looked at Mom.

“She’s right you know, Nora,” Nick told her.

“Ok, why is Tom your source at the Agency? Why would he help us?” I implored, taking my turn.

“Damn, she’s down into business,” Nick remarked. The others chuckled. “We don’t know why he’s doing it. We also don’t know if we can completely trust him. When you’re on the run, you can’t exactly trust anybody. Not even your own family, sadly.”

“Yeah, I’m kinda figuring that out,” I remarked, mostly under my breath. Only mom seemed to hear.

“How long have you been on the run?” Mom asked, genuinely concerned.

“About two days... I guess. I mean, I pretty much spent the first day time jumping,” I replied.

Nick chuckled, “She’s smart. If she time jumped enough, they really can’t keep track. It’ll take them a longer time, if we’re lucky.”

“If we’re lucky?” I asked, “What do you mean if we’re lucky?”

“I mean, we don’t exactly know what their strengths or weaknesses are. Tom can only tell us so much without being revealed as a mole. You weren’t there long enough for us to know their weaknesses or their strengths are. So we don’t know how long it would take them,” Nick told me. I rolled my eyes.

“Your strength is that you are physically strong, but emotionally, you’re ruled by Meredith and Mom. You can hold your feelings in line, but you can’t explain them. You’re no good with technology or silence. You can’t think with excessive silence or excessive noise. You would work best in a Starbucks listening to... Western music, right?” I explained to Nick, shocking him. “I have a masters in psychology. I think I know people’s strengths and weaknesses, Nick.”

They looked at each other bewildered. “Damn, you’re right,” Nick swore. “Or do you know me that well?”

“Foreknowledge is a dangerous thing, Nick,” I replied.

“Yes, but I should know this. Did you get to know me very well?” He asked.

I hesitated, trying to decide whether I should tell him that he died the year before I was born. “How old are you?” I asked him.

“Forty three. Why do you ask?” I calculated how much longer he lives.

“You died before I was born, Nick. I never got the chance to know you,” I told him straightly, “I’m sorry.”

He laughed, then said, “In our business, we have to say sorry a lot, don’t we?” We laughed along with him and murmured an agreement. “Well, I’m glad to have met you now, and see you as an adult, even though we are all on the run.” He smiled at me, then looked around the room. He stopped at the door, where a pair of shadows matching a pair of shoes appeared under the door. We all fell silent,  and gradually stepped closer to each other, and hovered our hands over the time manipulator. Mom whispered, “Siloam Springs, 1947.” We all nodded our heads in agreement.  

The door bursts open, and many armed soldiers shuffled into the room. We all pressed the Manipulator and disappeared into the clouds. We started spinning like the boot portkey scene in Harry Potter. s

Thinking of Siloam in 1947 was a bit hard. I walked through the Siloam museum, but it doesn’t do it justice. The museum is too small, too underfunded to compare to the vibrancy and extraordinary uniqueness of this little town in ‘47. I landed on my feet in my favorite park in Siloam, Twin Springs Park. The river was still being constructed,  but the fountain looked beautiful. It had stones the color of snow covering the bottom, with layers like a wedding cake stair-stepping to the top. At the top of the fountain was a bird probably a her. nThis is the first time I saw the fountain actually working. I’ve only seen the new one working, or the old one with green algae water. . The fountain was about thirty feet from the constructing river. They haven’t even built the bridges y.

I walked towards the house on Gunter only to find a big plot of land. I looked around, confused. Suddenly, Mom came hurtling out of the sky, and landing face first on the grass. I ran over to her, and rolled her over so I could see if she needed support. I shook her, but she didn’t respond. I checked her pulse, stupidly. I knew as a Time Agent, that when you travel in Time, the traveler doesn’t have a pulse. You can’t have a pulse. I listened for her breathing, nothing. I started performing CPR on her. She can’t die here, I know that she can’t die here. She’s my mother! She can’t have died here.

But I could hear Tom in the back of my head saying, “Time can be rewriten.” Well this can’t, because if she dies, then I fade away into the darkness. She can’t die here.

Out of the shadows of the trees thirty feet from us, Nick walked towards us. When he saw she was lying on the ground, he yelled, “STOP! You’re going to kill her if you perform CPR!” I looked at him confused, but quit as he instructed. “Open her mouth, Sandra.” I did as he instructed, and he shoved a black coal lump-looking thing down her throat. She started shaking uncontrollably. I lifted her head, and tried to calm her.

I looked at Nick, “What did you do?” I yelled.

“Just keep holding her, she’ll be okay, Sandra, but only if you keep holding her.” I stared daggers at him, but kept holding her.  A few seconds later, after her shaking, she started choking. “Hold her up, in a sitting position!” Nick barked at me. I did as told, but I started wondering what he knew that I didn’t. After a few seconds of wheezing and coughing, she was done and woke up.

“Did it happen again?” Mom asked Nick and I.

“Did what happen?” I asked, at the same time as Nick replied yes to her question. They traded glances, but didn’t answer my question. Instead, I got worried looks. “Don’t give me blank looks, tell me what the hell just happened!”

“Don’t use language like that with me, young lady,” Mom told me. I stared daggers at her. “I have seizures. I get them fairly often. Nobody seems to have the cure for them either, which sucks. The thing that Dad made you through down my throat relieves them, but only for a short while. I’ve gone to doctors in the future, to tribal medicine people, but nothing fixes them. I’ve had x-rays, cat scans, MRIs, you name it, I’ve done it. It’s incurable, Sandra. And I’m pretty sure that it’s hereditary.”

“I’ve never had them. And you haven’t had them when I was growing up, Alex.” I told her, showing my disbelief.

“I’m good at hiding things, Sandra,” She merely replied. I shook my head.

“Not from me. I knew your lie about when dad left.” I told her. I stopped for a second, wishing I could take that back. “I also was a psychology major. Stop trying to lie to me, when you know that I will be able to tell.”

“Maybe there is a cure, or I just suddenly stop having them,” She said, looking at Nick with a touch of hope in her eyes.

“Maybe we haven’t gone to the right doctor in the future,” Nick told her. “Maybe we haven’t gone far enough into the future to get the treatment you need.” I could tell that Nick was starting to blame himself.

“Don’t blame yourself,” Mom and I said at the same time. I looked at her, smiled, and said, “Jinx, you owe me a coke.”

“Fine, I’ll buy you one later.” I don’t think she got the joke, so I quit smiling, kind of sad that she didn’t remember our inside joke.

“Why are you frowning?” Alex asked. I didn’t realise that I was frowning.

“You didn’t remember our inside joke,” I replied.

“Too early in the time-stream, remember? I don’t know a lot about you, only of what I’ve observed this last day.” I looked away, feeling foolish.

“Where’s the other person?” I asked.

Nick and Mom both looked around, then at me. “Who? There wasn’t another person.”

“There was another person, with straight brown hair and black clothes,” I replied. They both looked scared.

Mom stood up suddenly. She walked closer to me, and stared at me. “You saw Anastasia?” She questioned me firmly. I forgot how frightening her firmness can get. It could turn away a Roman legion at the height of their conquering power.

“Who?” I asked, “Who’s Anastasia?”

“Anastasia is my sister. She chose to stay Russian. We chose to leave them, and disappear. A month after we left, they killed her, getting back at us. You can’t have seen her. She’s dead!” Mom informed me.

“Wait, I was seeing Aunt Ana?” I asked. “She died?”

“Yes, she did. Don’t tell me you know her,” Nick picked up that I called her Aunt Ana. He started to lose his temper. “How can you know Anastasia when I’m dead?” Nick demanded.

“Good question, Nick. I don’t know. I didn’t even know that Aunt Ana died. Apparently, there’s a lot you guys have kept from me,” I said, trying unsuccessfully to restrain my annoyance and anger that they kept things, important information, from me.

“The question still remains, how did you see Anastasia?” Mom asked, to cover my anger. “And how did you know her, when she’s dead?”

Reviews

[Calypso]

Nice dialogue!