Not Yet Forgotten

Chapter 14

His father had done it, really done it. His foolishness had lost the emerald ring, and now he had lost everything. Apparently his father had invested in a business. But he didn't have the funds for the investment, so he put down the title for the family plantation.

However, the business wasn't successful. It went bankrupt, and lost everything. That meant his family's plantation.

They had two weeks to try to find a way out of the contract his father had signed.

Jacob stared at his desk. His father had just left 30 minutes ago, but it felt like days. Now a document occupied the space on his desk. The document that would ruin his life. A glimmer from the corner of his desk caught his eye. It was the emerald ring.

He picked it up and rolled it around in his hand. His family was rich, but not rich enough to cover the thousands of dollars that the plantation was worth. But the emerald ring could have, though. It would have been so easy to have it over to his father to pay the debts.

But he couldn't. Unless he heard otherwise, it was Kristy's.

Would he ever see her again? He had sent her a message saying he wouldn't be attending their morning rides until further notice. He needed  to spend all his time, thought, and energy on saving the plantation. But after those two weeks, they'd lose the plantation and be forced to move away. How cruel life could be.

****

 One week later

GREEN. That is the name I finally decided on for my emerald ring time thing that I still haven't found. It's funny that I finally came up with a name for it when I don't even have it anymore.

Actually, I have come up with a way to return home. I got the idea from Back to the Future. It's simple, really. All I have to do is write myself a message. It would go something like this:

Dear self,

Please don't steal the antimatrium and please don't use it on the science project that you have been working on all summer. If you do, you'll end up creating a time machine and get stuck 1834. You'll meet an amazing guy there. You'll fall in love with him. You'll get everything you didn't get from your parents. But don't do it because you will never be able to return.

Love, yourself

Um, yeah. I really can't see that plan working out. Assuming that the letter would even reach my future self (or is it past self?), there is no guarantee that it would work. Knowing me, I wouldn't be able to pass up the mystery. I'd want to see if I really would meet a awesome guy and fall in love. As soon as I would read that I built a time machine, I'd probably do it just to see if I really did.

So there is no point in me even bothering to write a letter to myself.  It didn't work in Back to the Future, either. Oh well. I don't think I could forgive myself for passing up an opportunity to meet Jacob. Encountering him was the best thing that ever happened to me. Because of him, I've gone from a forgotten nobody, hiding in my parent's shadows, to Kirsten Russel. I think I'd miss Jacob even if I never knew him.

I find it surprising how quickly I've fallen in love with him. I don't even like guys with long hair, but somehow, it just works for Jacob.

Jacob. It's been so long since I've seen him. Okay, it's been a week, but it seems like a long time to me. Being in a house with nothing to do but needlepoint can really change one's perspective on time. There is a reason television was invented.

I wonder if something is wrong. Could Jacob be sick? Or maybe he has a girlfriend and didn't want to hurt my feelings. Oh I hope not. Or worse yet, maybe his parents had betrothed him to someone else and he was forced to marry them.