Back Through Time With You (SEQUEL of Ttewy)

9

I sit in silence on the drive home with my aunt Helen. "Who is that boy?" she asks me. I can sense the sternness of her voice. "what do you mean auntie? ...remember he's from school, Russian school" I quickly catch myself to see if she ponders. I can tell she's thinking she's squinting her eyes on the road.

"He is? I don't remember him but maybe that's just because I have an old brain, you know how we get when we're old, poor thing doesn't have any parents on file, if you don't have any parents on file then how did he attend school with you?" she asks me as I quickly catch her saying he was in foster care but it seems that he's been in some accident that caused him to lose his memory. "auntie we can't leave him to the foster care system he's moved around so many times it's just gonna kill him even more especially since he has hemophilia." I tell her "Hemo what?" She repeats.

"Hemophilia it's a genetic disorder where the blood doesn't clot properly. It comes from having from having a narrow- or small gene pool from your ancestors. It's a genetic disorder and he's struggling with it probably that's why he was put into foster care please auntie needs a place to stay please let him stay with us." I beg her.

We stop at the house as she parks in our driveway. She shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath. "My morals tell me to take him in but I don't know how your grandmother will react to this. We will talk about this during dinner." she opens her pale green eyes and looks at me. Hope and joy swirl around in my stomach.

I lean in and hug her tightly, "You are the best" I say before getting out of the car and going inside. I go straight to my room and pull out my old phone. My heart races as I plug it into the charger. I'm in my bed waiting for it to turn on as the anticipation fills me I'll get to see what all of my old peers are up to what my friends are up to. I'll see them grow up, I don't know if I'm ready.

Out of the corner of my eye I see the bright screen flash on signifying the phones turning back on. I swallow all the saliva building up in my mouth and pick up the small device and I try to open it, I put in my passcode and I see all of the notifications come up thousands and thousands of notifications. I don't click on any of my social media's I don't click on anything socially related I go straight to the search engine and look up the Romanov family.

I click on the recent news button and find so many new articles written hours days prior to findings. The headlines all say two new remains found. I click on the first article and start scanning through as it says, " two new remains found in a pit nearby the original mineshaft it is unsure of who at least to members are but it is known that these remains were exhumed and now being kept in the lab they'll be processing his DNA seeing if it's related to the Romanov remains. Could this be the missing Tsarevich?"

My heart pounds there's no one else that could be with Alexei if it isn't me my old remains my old body. I keep scanning through the article and find that after the remains were taken out some kind of weird water filled up the hole. As of for now it's being left alone.

This is all so complicated, so confusing I don't know how or why. I close the laptop and lay down on my bed. This all is making my head hurt. I feel my whole brain exhausted emotionally from today. So many emotions, so many questions, so much to understand. I find myself falling asleep.

***
I feel someone gently wake me up. "Wake up darling it's time for dinner" I flutter my eyes open to find aunt Helen In front of me. I rub my eyes and stand up as a follow her out into the dining room we have spaghetti for dinner I sit down as aunt Helen and grandmama sit across from each other and we start eating in silence together not much conversation is made actually none at all I still haven't been speaking to my grandma so we all sit in awkward silence I know aunt Helen wants to bring up Alexei and I want her to but I don't wanna be pushy I don't wanna ruin my chances of getting him to live with us I need aunt Helen to start this off.

" so we ran into a classmate of Vanya's at the hospital" aunt Helen says breaking the silence as she spins her spaghetti on the fork. " Poor thing,
what for?" Grandmama asks. "hemophilia" I mention as they keep looking down at my plate. "Hemophilia? The Royal illness?" My grandmama says taken aback.

"He doesn't have an family, he is orphaned" my aunt speaks up looking at grandmama. They make long eye contact before grandmama stands up with her empty dish and walks to the kitchen. "Do not fret Vanya I'll speak to her about this a little later"

I nod my head as she takes my plate and goes to the kitchen. I go upstairs and collapse on my bed. I take my phone and the sticky note on my mirror with Nikolai's number and text him.

Hey it's Vanya.

I send the message before putting my phone down. I stand up and pace around my room trying to clear my mind before I hear my device go off and I rush to my phone immediately. I see that I am getting a call from Nikolai. My heart races and i pick up the phone. "Hello?" I say immediately.

"Vanya I am so proud of you" his warm voice rings through my ears.