The Great Altruist

by Z. D. Robinson

  "I'm not sure. I mean, am I really in love with Katherine, or was I in love with her – three years ago?"

  Genesis was confused by his answer, especially after witnessing the evening’s affairs. It seemed to her that the day turned out exactly as James wanted. "Why the sudden change?"

  "Something happened tonight between us. The connection wasn't right. Maybe I'm here because I wanted it so bad."

  "And you don't want her now?"

  "I'm not sure what I want. I think I need to relive this day one more time and make sure. And if I still feel the same way tomorrow, I'll have my answer."

  "Are you sure about this? I mean, not that it hurts me in the least, but I want to make sure you’re happy with this decision.”

  "Trust me. I won’t go home until I’m sure I’m happy too."

  He ran upstairs to his room to meet her at his bedroom window. After letting her in, they disappeared.

  The following attempt was the most cavalier of the three, as James did little in the way of trying to impress Katherine. As Genesis remarked later, it appeared that James was behaving more like an interviewer with Katherine than a date. She wasn't far from the mark, since James was determined to find out, not whether he was right for her, but whether he should bother winning her back at all. He began to see why she left him in the first place: her gut told her they weren't right for each other. She didn't feel a connection, the same thing James felt now.

  When Katherine drove off that night, and without a goodbye kiss, James let out a deep sigh as she disappeared from view. Years more of his life could be spent reliving this day a hundred ways to make this night perfect, and he would undoubtedly come to the same conclusion she did: they weren't meant to be together. She just didn't have the heart to break his.

  "How do you feel?" Genesis asked, peeking out of her nook in his pocket.

  "Never better," he said.

  "Seriously?"

  He nodded. "She did the right thing. Leaving me the first time, I mean."

  "Are you sure about this? If you want to try again, we can. I'm in no rush to bring you home."

  "I know," he said. "I know. But I wouldn't be honest with myself if I kept trying to make this work. I just wish it didn't have to take reliving all this to realize what took her a few hours to see." He walked up the stairs to the front door and sat down on the porch steps.

  He looked down at her out of the corner of his eye and felt her shivering. "I'm so sorry you had to endure all this three nights in a row. Why did I pick the coldest night in April, right?"

  She giggled. "It's okay. I've been in far worse places."

  James sat still and thought long about his decision. The more time went by, the more certain he was of his choice. It wasn't long before Genesis fell asleep. She must be tired, he thought. He picked her up gently and carried her upstairs to his room. Once there, he laid her down on his pillow. She never stirred as he moved her around.

  As James lied on the floor and looked out the window at the moon, he pondered all that had happened to him over the past few days. Far removed from his mind were the troubles revolving his parents who he suddenly realized he had not seen at all while he was here. Thoughts of his past, present, and future raced through his mind as he fell asleep. With one notable exception: Katherine.

  Chapter 4

  The following morning, James awoke on the floor and sat up slowly, immediately looking around the room for Genesis. She sat comfortably on the windowsill and watched him with a smile.

  "Good morning," she said.

  "Where am I?"

  "In your bedroom."

  "What day is it?"

  "April 14th."

  "Oh," he thought aloud. "You didn't send me home?"

  She looked at him curiously. "No. Was I supposed to?"

  He looked around the room to find it was the same as when he fell asleep the night before. "No, I'm glad you didn't actually."

  "Was there something else you wanted to fix?"

  "Not exactly," he said. "I have a request."

  She jumped down from the sill and sat back down on his pillow. "Go ahead."

  "Last night, I thought about all that's happened to me over the last few days and – firstly – I wanted to thank you for helping me realize the truth about Katherine. I still don't know why you chose me to help, but I'm very happy he did."

  Her smile stretched from ear to ear. "I'm glad I'm here to help. Even if you didn't get what you wanted."

  "I got what I wanted. More to the truth, I got what I needed. But there was something else I thought about last night. I was hoping you would do me one last favor before we go home."

  "Sure."

  "Could we stay here one more day?"

  She looked at him puzzled.

  "I haven't seen my family while I've been here. And back home, things are kind of fouled up, especially with my parents. I'd like to hang around a bit, and spend some time with them, if that's alright? I hope I'm not taking advantage of you."

  "Of course not," she said. "We can stay here as long as you'd like."

  "Thanks. I just want to spend one last day with them when things were normal."

  "No problem."

  James and the time-traveller spent the bulk of the day talking about nothing in particular. Chit-chat mostly. Later in the day, he heard a car pull up in front of the house and ran to the bathroom window to see who it was. It was Becky, his mother, who just arrived home from work. Genesis agreed to stay in his room while he went downstairs to see her.

  She entered the front door and immediately worked on dinner. He didn't care what she made to eat. He was just happy to have a home-cooked meal, something missing in his own time for years. He was looking forward to enjoying a family meal.

  "Do you need any help with dinner, Mom?"

  "Yeah, if you want to set the table, that would be great," she asked.

  He set the table the way he remembered it was set when it was common for them to eat together. Now that he thought of it, he couldn't remember the last time they ate at the same table. Once Melissa began driving and found a job she was never home. The rest of the family followed suit. They all began eating their meals separately, and James couldn't help but wonder if never spending time together somehow led to the future he knew.

  When it came time for dinner, everyone filed to his or her semi-assigned place at the table. James's father was late from work and sat at the head of the table where he began serving himself without saying a word. Becky and Melissa served themselves as well and everyone ate in silence.

  James sat at the seat to his father's left as he normally had and heaped mountains of food on his plate. He ate quickly, shoveling unseemly portions into his mouth like he was facing his execution at midnight.

  "Slow down, James," his mother said. "You're in no rush."

  He relished her concern; it was a feature of her personality he seldom saw in his own time when problems overwhelmed her. He nodded and chewed a little slower, but not much. He happily watched everyone else eat dinner in silence. They seemed content, and the thought occurred to James that perhaps their future collapse was not set in stone. Perhaps things didn't have to turn out the way they did.

  "So what happened with that girl you were supposed to meet?" his father asked, spaghetti hanging out the side of his mouth. "The one from the Internet," he added with plenty of sarcasm.

  "Yeah, that isn't going to work out," James said.

  His casual tone surprised them. They stopped eating for a moment and looked at James for an explanation.

  His mother was the first to speak. "What happened?" she asked with a tinge of genuine concern in her voice.

  “Nothing happened. She came, we hung out, she left," he answered as he swallowed, trying to work on what Genesis told him about not talking with his mouth full.

  "But why?" his sister wondered aloud. “I thought you were in love with her.”

  "We just weren't a good match,” James said. “It's fine. I promise."r />
  No one in the family knew what to think. On the one hand, if James was being honest, then they were witnessing a real change in him since little he did was sensible. The James they knew would have ignored clear signs of incompatibility and continued dating her. Their assumption wasn’t far from the truth as James had done that very thing the first time Katherine left him. Nevertheless, James had already learned a valuable lesson on his journey: what he believed and reality needed to align. His family had begun to see a change in him, one that James hoped would leave its mark on the younger version of himself after he returned home. He may not have been successful in winning Katherine back, but maybe he could take the first step in fixing another mistake: winning the respect of his family instead of constantly losing it.

  "Then I must say, I'm proud of you," his father stated, finally having swallowed his food. "It's important you find yourself someone who complements you. I was afraid watching you these past few weeks that this girl was going to consume your life."

  "Nah," James said, though he was ashamed of how close his father's fear was to becoming real.

  "Remember, James," his father said, setting down his fork and pushing his plate away to make room for his elbows, "Don't just find the girl you can live with; find the girl you can't live without."

  He had grown accustomed to his father doling out nuggets of wisdom like that. Although never especially profound, his father still believed he had a knack for clever sayings. His mother and sister usually dismissed his proverbs without notice. This time, however, he witnessed a subtle exchange of glances between his parents he had never seen before, a look to his mother that said, ‘you’re not the one.’ Even his sister gave his mother a supportive look. Everyone at the table understood some hidden subtext – except James.

  The family finished the dinner without much conversation besides the usual "pass-the-salt" fare. What James noticed clearly were the looks of disgust and frustration that his parents and sister passed between them. It dawned on him – there was plenty of conversation going on at dinner, but in a language he couldn't understand. He had become so preoccupied with the course of his own life that he was completely unaware of the truth: the groundwork had already been laid for his family's destruction. The problems his parents later had in his own time were already in progress for years. I wonder if Genesis will let me fix my parent’s mistake, he wondered.

  When James entered the room later that night, Genesis stirred from her slumber but soon drifted back to sleep and began to snore. She obviously trusted him a great deal since she was out in the open and wasn't worried about being exposed.

  He lifted her and placed her further to one side of the bed and lied beside her. His mind drifted back to the scene at dinner and the mysterious comment his father made. Then he wondered if Genesis would even consider helping him save his family. After all, she came to help him with a mistake. Perhaps she would see the request as him taking advantage of their new friendship. Hopefully, she would remain asleep while he sorted his thoughts.

  "Did you have a good time?" she said suddenly, causing him to jump a little.

  He nodded. She looked drowsy still and he hoped that she would be satisfied by his response and go back to sleep. She was not.

  "What's wrong?" she asked.

  "Why do you think something's wrong?"

  She shrugged her shoulders. "Just a hunch. Do you want to talk?"

  "Not really. Why don't we get some sleep and we'll talk in the morning," he said.

  "Talk about what?"

  "Nothing. I'm tired. Let's just get some sleep right now."

  "I don't need to sleep," she protested with a smile. "I want to know what's on in your mind."

  He just shook his head 'no' and closed his eyes.

  She climbed atop his chest and lied on her belly facing him. "So, tell me: did something happen at dinner?"

  He didn't respond. He knew what she was doing. She was hoping that if she sat there long enough he would break. A few more minutes went by and the only sound in the room was of James’s breathing and of Genesis slowly rising and falling with the ebb and flow of his breaths.

  "Come on, James. Don't ignore me," she begged. "Tell me what happened."

  James lay silent for a moment. She didn't say anything else; she didn't need to. He had her complete attention.

  "I saw something odd at dinner tonight," he said finally.

  "With your family?"

  "Yes. They kept giving each other these strange looks."

  "Like what?"

  "Like they were keeping a secret from me or something."

  "Weird."

  "It was so strange. My father made this comment about me ending things with Katherine and..."

  "Wait! You told them?"

  He turned his gaze from the ceiling and looked at her. "Yeah. Why?"

  "No reason," she said. "I'm actually impressed that you did. You know it might change their perception of you, right?"

  He crossed his fingers and smiled. "Here’s hoping. And just because I didn't fix one mistake didn't mean I couldn't fix another."

  "Good thinking," she said. "So what did your father say?"

  “He said that I needed to find the girl I couldn’t live without. Then suddenly my mother gave him this stern look, as if he offended her or something. Then my sister glared at my Mom and it started off this flood of looks going back and forth around the table."

  "That is strange."

  "It was like they all knew something I didn't."

  "What do you think it is?"

  He shook his head. "I don't know. That's what I was thinking actually. I was wondering if you could do me another favor. Would you mind sneaking into my parent's room and listening in on them? I want to know what they were trying to hide from me."

  "Why?"

  "Because I think it might give me an idea of what sort of problems my parents are having. Shoot, even my sister seems to know what it is."

  "Then why don't you ask them?"

  "Because they would never tell me anything like this. They think I'm off in my own little world."

  She smiled. "And are you?"

  "I was. And it kept me locked away in my room dreaming about some girl."

  "And you think knowing about your parents will make things different somehow?"

  "No, but maybe it will prove that I can still save my family."

  “What do you plan on doing when you go home? In your time, your parent’s marriage is already collapsing.”

  “Then I have another favor to ask you. I know you came here to change a mistake in my life, but could you help me save my family?”

  She stood and flew onto the windowsill. She looked out the window at the ground below and shook her head in doubt. "It's too dangerous. I’ve been through this before. Fixing your own mistake can affect the people around you, and not always for the better. But trying to fix someone else's problems, no matter your intent, can ruin your entire life."

  "What do you mean?"

  “The things you do here in the past will filter down to your present. You already figured that out or else you wouldn't have told your family about Katherine. You knew it would change the way they thought about you."

  "I know," he said.

  “This isn't why I'm here." She looked up and saw James staring at her. "What would you do if you found out that something you did in the past led to the death of someone you loved?"

  "That happened to you?" he said.

  "I'm asking you, what would you do if that happened? Would you ever forgive yourself?"

  He shook his head. "No, I don't think I could."

  "There's too much at stake. It's too big a risk for you."

  “What could go wrong?”

  “You don’t even have a plan. What if the foundation of your parent’s collapse was built before you were born? In order to save their marriage, you would need to change events before your conception.”

  “I haven’t thought that far ahead.”

/>   “What would you do? Is their happiness greater than your own right to live?”

  James sat up and nodded. “Yes, it is.”

  “Why do I keep finding these do-gooders?” she said to herself. Fortunately, James didn’t hear her.

  "I need you to do this for me," he said.

  "But why?"

  "My whole life I've been acting as though the world revolves around me. I've never done a truly selfless act for anyone."