What if . . . you could redo it all?
The novella. #3 TimeTravel.
If you could go back in time and redo one thing in your life, what would it be?
Anaya, a disillusioned, thirty-five-year-old doctor, has been looking after Gregory, a retired watchmak...
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2003, Fifteen Years Backwards
On the ride back home after dropping off the girls, Anaya sat in the back. The view outside the window didn't do much to cheer her either. The wind was strong and dusty, kicking up sand and darkening the sky into an almost Mars-like hue.
Her mother interrupted the silence. "You'll be together again soon, honey. Time never feels like it goes fast enough when you're young."
"That would be nice."
Misinterpreting Anaya's lack of vivacity as a sign that she missed her friends, her mom carried on. "You'll be back at JBU in two weeks. Is much going to change in the second half of your course?"
"I'm not sure."
"What's on your mind, kid?" her dad asked. "I'd try to guess, but I'm focusing on driving straight." He was a sharpshooter like that. Bullet straight to the heart.
Her friends had been bruised, but not maimed. They were happy, and they wanted her to be, too. Her eyes met her dad's in the rear-view mirror. "When did you know Mom was the one?"
"Ask a silly question... Didn't I just say that I'm trying hard to concentrate on getting us home in three pieces?"
How her mom stayed sane with the two of them, she didn't know. But her mother bubbled up anyway, "This I gotta hear."
"The number you have called cannot be reached." He paused for dramatic effect.
"What do you mean, oh wise swami?" Anaya knew better than to refuse to play along. She'd never get anything out of him if she didn't.
"Just that. We'd been dating for a year when she relocated for her break at a relatively new company back then called Microsoft. I phoned her one morning and got that recording. No matter how many times I tried, I got the selfsame. By the time I finished work, I couldn't take the not knowing anymore and drove for five hours straight to get to her. She finally decided to call just as I was pulling up outside her apartment. Two words were all the explanation I got."
"I'm pregnant." Her mom tried her best to raise her pitch to sound twenty-one again.
"Thank you, voiceover. I gave her two words of my own." Pause again.
"I'm outside." Her mother used a low, throaty voice this time.
"I preferred it when you didn't know the ending." He rolled his eyes at her mom. "Anyway, we're no perfect match, but I realized during the drive I'm better with her. And having you redeemed my misspent youth."
"I understand now, Mom. You must have been seized by his copious charm."
"Rendered positively paralyzed." Her mother beamed at her father and reached out for his hand on top of the gearbox. "So, is the verdict in on Matt yet?" She wasn't one to mince her words.
"Yeah," her dad said. "Is it two to five years? Or more like a life sentence?"
He might have tried to play it out like he was on Matt's side, but Anaya knew her dad better than that. He'd wring his neck if he hurt her. "I've decided to have the hearing today. Could you drop me off at his house so I can notify him, please?"
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Hi all! Thank you for reading! What did you think of this chapter? Anything you would like to see more of? Please do let me know what you think in a short comment below. I'd love to hear from you. Thanks so much, G.
