The Curious One

Trouble with Time

Ella was sitting at the kitchen table, gazing out at the apartment's back yard. An open book rested face-down on the table, titled Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck. Freya had left, again. She had been doing that a lot lately for some reason.

I explained to Ella what I saw in Kelli's memories, and she listened calmly. At the end of the story, she glanced briefly towards the living room. Two tears streamed from her eyes, one from each. She made no sound and no additional tears fell, nor did she attempt to wipe them away. The young woman seemed as if she was at a moment of unpleasant understanding, and she looked at me with anxiousness in her eyes. It could have easily been terror, but being so composed as she was bravery was more prevalent.

"Things have not been normal these past few weeks." She waited for my response, staring out of the window, still frosted with snow.

"No, they haven't." I agreed. "I fear we have overlooked multiple important details. We all are keeping something from one another, and that has to stop. Kelli shared her story, and now I will share mine." Ella looked at me, giving me a quick smile before resting her hand on her overturned book.

"After I helped Nick, we were walking back to his apartment. I was . . . pondering telling him the truth." I paused, waiting for a comment from Ella, but she just patiently waited for me to resume. "I didn't, though, because before I said anything I saw, well, his . . . ghost . . . silently screaming out to me. It was yelling 'no', and I screamed and had to tell Nick it was just a fox or something. A skunk, actually. Now we find out this thing about Kelli, and you and Freya both have been more distant lately, and I just don't know what to do!"

I was starting to get very flustered, but Ella removed her hand from her book to place it on mine. Suddenly, I felt ripped from my location, not only in place but in time. I was in a car, and there was . . . a dog? The vision started as soon as it ended and I was back in the kitchen. Ella had her eyes closed in concentration and both hands were placed firmly upon her book. The frost on the windows seemed to thicken, if at all possible.

"You . . ." I was still in shock of what just happened. "We . . . were just pulled back in time, weren't we? To that book?" I pointed to the novel on the table.

She nodded, slowly opening her eyes. Ella hugged the book to her, after quickly skimming a few of the pages.

"The past, it's trying to claim you," I tried to reason out what was happening, but with care, she attempted to fill in the blanks.

"Luna, you know that sometimes our abilities can become a bit . . . off-kilter. But never at the same time. At first, I thought it was just me. I had to delve into my reading of the past most of the time or I would be completely pulled into it." I shook my head. That would be terrifying. "But then, just yesterday, I walked past the bathroom when Freya was there. She had become more stressed and persistent than before, and I was worried. Well, I was apparently right in worrying. She never wears makeup, but she was putting it on yesterday, a lot of it. She had left the door ajar, and inside I could see that she looked very different. She looked . . . older, a lot older. Luna, her hair was turning gray."

"Geez, Ella. That's really scary. Like, her being focused on the future was wearing her down."

Ella tightened her grip on the sixty year-old book. "She didn't see me, but I told her anyway. We were going to wait it out and see if anything else happened. There wasn't much we could do about it anyway. Then, someone from Kelli's past reappears and you have that occurrence? Something is obviously happening, and it is going to happen today. I can tell something is wrong, just look outside." The window was now completely frozen over, but she continued. "You're the least affected by it because you have power in the present. I align with the past. Freya can look to the future. Kelli is less definable, but she is my sister and therefore is the nearest to the past."

"Wait," Terror rose up in me, my heart was beating quickly. "Is that all Evan is, a figment from the past? It he not actually alive?"

Ella surprised me by looking straight into my eyes confidently. "I have no concrete idea. Nevertheless, I will do my best to keep my sister happy. I will not let her become devastated by something that should not have even happened. What happened to her should have been the same as what happened to you, a warning. It must have been his show of affection towards her that caused such a thing to happen." I opened my mouth to speak, but Ella serenely lifted a hand. "I know what you are about to say. You wonder if this is a condition for her or for all of us. Again, I do not know. It may be because she is a siren, an unfair trick played on her. She could choose any man she wanted, but she could not actually be with them. None of the rest of us have had our own Evans, so there is no way of knowing the terms of such a condition."

"Ella, is something big happening to us?" I now couldn't help but look at the mysteriously frosted windows.

Before she could respond, there was more knocking at the door. Looking at each other, we hurried out to the door. As we passed Kelli, still holding onto Evan's hand, she looked at us with alarm.

"Guys, who is that?"

We ignored her question and slowly opened the door. Outside was none other than Nicolas himself, shivering in the sudden cold.

"Do you think I could come in?"