After (Parallel Series, Book 4)

by Christine Kersey

  After Billy left for Tasco’s house I helped Mom make dinner, worried about what she would say when she learned of our plans. It wasn’t until the dinner dishes were washed that I got up the nerve to tell her. “Mom, can I talk to you a minute?”

  She smiled. “Sure.”

  Dad was trying to get the boys involved in a game at the kitchen table, and Amy was reading on the couch. “Can we go into my room?”

  Mom followed me upstairs and I sat on my bed. She sat next to me and looked at me expectantly. “What’s up?”

  Not sure how to begin, I dove in. “So, you know how I told you that Billy wants to see what his parents are like?”

  Tilting her head, she said, “Yeah.”

  “We, that is, Billy and me, are going to go tomorrow.”

  She straightened and her eyebrows rose. “Going where exactly?”

  “We just want to see what their house looks like. We’re not going up to the door or anything.”

  She was quiet for a moment. “How are you going to get there?”

  “We’re taking the bus.”

  “Wouldn’t you prefer for me to drive you?”

  I hesitated. “Have you told Dad about this?”

  Lips pursed, she stared at me. “I haven’t had a chance to, but you know I’m not going to keep any secrets from him.”

  “I know. I was just wondering.” I paused, and my voice became quieter. “I’m just not sure he believes us.”

  She didn’t say anything for a moment. “Regardless, I’ll be telling him eventually.”

  “Billy and I can get there by ourselves, so you don’t need to tell him anything yet.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “I guess I thought if you didn’t have to take us, then you wouldn’t have to tell him yet.”

  “I see.”

  “So is it okay if I go?”

  She frowned. “I’m glad you’re telling me, but you know I’m not thrilled about you guys going.” She sighed. “I understand why Billy wants to though.” She paused, like she was thinking over whether or not to allow me to go. “How are you going to keep his . . . parents . . . from seeing him?”

  “Well, we were going to put together kind of a disguise, but now he’s just going to wear a hoodie and put it on over his head.”

  “Uh-huh.” She was clearly unimpressed.

  “Don’t you think that will work?”

  “If all you’re doing is walking past the house I guess it will be okay.”

  Frustrated, I said, “Maybe you should drive us.”

  “I’m sorry, Morgan, but between your two brothers, both your dad and I will be busy tomorrow taking them to soccer games, and then Zac has a birthday party to go to.” She smiled. “Maybe if you postponed this trip?”

  I knew Billy was ready to go and wouldn’t want to wait. “Billy wants to go tomorrow morning and I’m not going to let him go by himself.” Warmth toward my best friend washed over me. “Especially after all he’s done for me. I can’t let him do this by himself.”

  Mom put her hand on my arm. “I know, Morgan.”

  Chapter 21

  Billy

  Nervous for the trip Morgan and I were taking, I woke early on Saturday, but forced myself to stay in bed until six thirty. In my mind I imagined different scenarios—the dad catching me walking past his house and calling the police, the mom throwing her arms around me with joy, both of them yelling obscenities at me for daring to impersonate their son.

  When I couldn’t wait any longer, I rolled out of bed and showered, then went down to the kitchen to have breakfast even though I wasn’t hungry. I forced myself to eat since Morgan and I would be doing a lot of walking and I wanted to make sure I had plenty of fuel to keep myself going.

  “Morning,” Tasco said as he wandered into the kitchen still in his pajamas. “I didn’t know you were such an early riser.”

  Sleeping in had never been something I’d had the luxury to do, so I didn’t really know if I could do it. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

  “What do you have planned today?” he asked, then he smiled. “By the way, I’m going to get that part for the lawn mower so you can finish fixing it.”

  “Okay. I’ll work on it later, but Morgan and I are hanging out for a while today first.”

  His smile grew. “She’s a cute girl. I can see why you like to hang out with her.”

  He had that right, but I wasn’t about to discuss my feelings for Morgan with him. “Yeah.”

  He poured himself some coffee. “I’ll be in my office if you need anything.”

  I nodded and took another bite of cereal, then after I cleaned up my breakfast dishes I headed to Morgan’s house. As I waited for someone to answer my knock I wondered what, if anything, she’d told her parents about our plans. I knew she couldn’t just leave for hours without telling them something.

  “Hey, Billy,” she said as she held the door open for me.

  “Hey.” I walked inside and she closed the door.

  “Are you hungry? My dad’s making pancakes.”

  I hadn’t been hungry when I’d eaten the cereal, and now that we were getting closer to being on our way, the thought of food made me nauseous. “No thanks, but go ahead.”

  She grabbed me by the hand. “Come sit with me at least.”

  “I can wait in the living room.”

  “No. Come on.”

  I let her drag me into the kitchen where her entire family sat around the table, except her dad, who stood in front of the stove.

  “Good morning, Billy” Her dad expertly flipped the row of pancakes cooking on the griddle.

  “Hi.”

  “You’re here bright and early. What do the two of you have planned today?”

  I looked at Morgan. Hadn’t she already told them something?

  “We haven’t decided yet,” she said, then glanced at her mom.

  Huh? I thought we were about ready to walk out the door, but I didn’t say anything. These were her parents, so I had to assume she knew how to handle them.

  “Have a seat, Billy,” her dad said. “I make the world’s best pancakes.”

  “I’ve already eaten,” I said. “But thank you.”

  “They’re really good,” Brandon said, as if his dad’s claim was in question.

  I smiled at him, noticing he wore a soccer uniform. “I’m sure they are.” I sat in an empty chair. “Looks like you’re going to play soccer. Isn’t it a little cold to play outside?”

  “We play indoors,” Zac said.

  “Yeah,” Brandon added. “And then when it warms up, we get to play outside.”

  “They have to leave in just a little while,” Morgan said.

  When I caught her eye, I thought I understood her plan. Wait until her parents left, and then we’d go. I nodded and she smiled.

  Twenty minutes later Morgan’s dad and Brandon left. The moment they were gone, Morgan spoke quietly to her mother, then walked over to me and smiled. “Ready to go?”

  At the realization that we were really going to do this, my heart began to pound. “Uh, yeah. Sure.”

  She picked up a backpack. “Okay. Let’s go.”

  We walked out the front door and toward the street. “Did you tell your mom where we’re going?”

  She smiled. “Yeah.”

  “And she didn’t object?”

  “No, because I told her we were only going to walk past their house and not go to the door.”

  I nodded. “Right.”

  A few minutes later we reached the bus stop, and after a short wait it arrived. Once we reached town, we changed buses for the longer ride. As we headed toward the town where my parents lived, I clutched Morgan’s hand, my nerves stretched tight. “What do you think they’d do if they saw me?” I asked.

  Her grasp on my hand tightened. “I think they’d be too shocked to do anything.”

  I looked out the window at the passing scenery. “Yeah, I guess.”

  When we reached ou
r stop we climbed off and started walking. “How far is it?” Morgan asked.

  “A couple of miles.”

  We walked in silence for most of the way, and when we reached their street I made sure my hoodie was pulled forward enough on my head to hide my face.

  “What’s the address?” Morgan asked.

  I told her from memory, then glanced at the number on the house we were passing. My gaze went to a one-story blue house with white trim that was several houses away, but across the street. “I think we’re almost there.” My gaze stayed locked on the blue house.

  “Is this a different house than the one you lived in? You know, in your world?”

  “Yeah. Just like your family lived in a different house than they live in here.” We continued in silence. “That’s it,” I murmured as we got close enough to the blue house to see the numbers affixed above the garage door.

  “All the curtains are closed,” Morgan said. “And I don’t see anyone around.”

  A feeling of disappointment swept over me, although I don’t know what I’d been expecting. At this time of year most people stayed indoors. At least I could stare at their house without fear of being seen.

  The grass was mostly green, though beginning to go dormant for the winter. A large tree stood in the middle of the yard, though all the leaves had long since fallen to the ground. In fact, leaves were scattered throughout the yard, obviously in need of being cleaned up. An empty flower bed lined the space between the grass and the porch.

  A white Toyota Corolla was parked in the driveway and I wondered if another car was parked in the garage or if that was their only car. My parents had only been able to afford one car, but maybe the financial circumstances of these people were different.

  We stayed across the street as we passed the house, though we slowed our pace so I could get a good look. I wondered what they were doing in there, and for a moment I was tempted to knock on the front door and reveal myself. Then I pictured them calling the police to have me arrested and I felt myself pulling inward, especially when the memory of my parents bringing me to a F.A.T. center so they could get the reward money flashed in my head.

  “Are you okay?” Morgan asked.

  “No. Not really,” I said, because I knew I could be honest with her.

  When we were thirty feet past their house I stopped and turned and took one long last look at the house where my parents in this world lived, and in my heart I said good-bye, because I didn’t think I would have the courage to ever come back there again.

  Chapter 22

  Billy

  Once we left my parents’ street it felt like a weight had been removed from my shoulders. I’d wanted to see where they lived, and now I had. Almost giddy, I pulled out the paper that gave us the directions to the cemetery. “Are you ready for another long walk?” I asked Morgan.

  She laughed. “If Mr. Muscles could see me now.”

  I laughed with her as I thought about the man who ran the gym at Camp Willowmoss. “That guy was such a jerk.”

  “Yeah. I’m glad I don’t have to see him again.”

  “No kidding.”

  “Do you want some water?” she asked as she pulled the backpack off of her shoulders.

  “Sure.” We each took a bottle, I put the backpack on my shoulders, and we continued on. Forty minutes later the cemetery came into view. “There it is,” I said. I didn’t see anyone around as we walked through the open gates. “How are we going to find where . . . he’s . . . buried?” The whole concept of finding this world’s version of me was surreal.

  “I don’t know.” Morgan looked at me. “Why are we here again?”

  I chuckled. “Really, I have no idea. But think about it. If the other Morgan was buried here, wouldn’t you be curious to see her headstone?”

  She was quiet for a minute as she thought that over. “Yeah, I guess so. But that would be so weird.”

  “Yeah. Now you know how I feel.”

  “Okay. Yeah,” she said. “I get it.”

  We walked along the road that ran through the cemetery. “Do you think anyone’s around who can show us where he’s buried?” I asked.

  She looked around. “I don’t see anyone.”

  “Let’s check out that building.” I pointed to a small structure a short distance away.

  When we reached the building we found a doorway, and inside was a map of the cemetery along with a listing of people who were buried there.

  “Here we go,” I said as I began thumbing through the pages. It didn’t take long to find out where Billy Foster was buried. I looked at the map, then figured out where we needed to go.

  “I’m not even going to bother trying to figure it out,” Morgan said with a smile. “Not with my sense of direction.”

  Her nonexistent sense of direction had ended up being a good thing as it had kept her from divulging exactly where Jack’s house was. “Yeah,” I said with a laugh. “I’ll be in charge of directions.”

  “Fine with me.”

  Once we had the right location, it didn’t take long to find Billy’s burial plot. I frowned as I stared at my name and birthdate engraved on the gray stone. Birds softly chirped, and I found the sound comforting.

  If I’d stayed in my world, would I be dead now? Had coming to this world changed the path I was on?

  I liked to think I was where I was supposed to be, but I had no way of knowing if that was true.

  Morgan’s fingers found mine, and I knew that at least she was real, she was next to me, she was there for me. Maybe that was all I needed to know. At least for now.

  The sound of a car’s engine broke the silence and I looked toward the entrance to the cemetery. A white Toyota Corolla was just driving through the gate. A car that looked just like the one that had been parked in my parents’ driveway. “Come on,” I said to Morgan as I tugged her in the opposite direction from where the car would most likely go.

  “What is it?” she asked, then she followed my gaze and her eyes widened. “Are those your . . . I mean, Billy’s parents?”

  “I think so,” I said as we hurried to a headstone quite a distance from Billy’s.

  “Pull on your hoodie,” she said.

  “Oh, yeah. Thanks.” I tugged the hood over my head, pulling it forward to hide my face.

  We stopped next to a tall headstone that nearly hid us from view and watched as my parents parked their car along the road near Billy’s gravesite. A man who looked just like my dad climbed out of the driver’s side.

  My gaze was riveted to him, and as I watched him, hatred poured through me. I heard his voice in my head demanding the reward money and remembered how helpless I’d felt, flat on my back, paralyzed by the effects of the taser.

  He walked around the car and opened the passenger door. A woman who looked just like my mother climbed out, a bouquet of flowers in her hand. The man put his arm around her shoulder, and together they walked toward Billy’s grave.

  From where I stood I had a clear view of their faces and I couldn’t miss the woman’s shaking shoulders as she sobbed, or the stream of tears that coursed down her face. Everything around me seemed to fade to nothingness as I watched this couple who seemed so saddened by the loss of their son. Even the man’s face was contorted with grief as they reached the headstone.

  The woman set the bouquet of flowers on the ground in front of the headstone, then fell to her knees. Her whole body shook as she was overcome with sobs, and the man knelt beside her and pulled her against him.

  They stayed like that for several minutes until finally the woman reached out and placed her hand against the headstone. Then her husband helped her to her feet and they made their way back to the car where he held the door open for her. A few moments later they drove off.

  I blinked and the sound of birds once again filled my ears. My face felt cold and I realized it was damp with tears. Quickly wiping them away, I cleared my throat, then began walking back to Billy’s grave. I heard the soft sound of Morgan�
��s footsteps as she followed me across the grass.

  The stark contrast between these people and the people I’d known in my world staggered me. My parents in my world, after kicking me out, had taken the time to track me down when I’d become a wanted person, and then delivered me to the authorities so that they could receive the reward money.

  The people in this world seemed genuinely devastated by the loss of their child. With the display of emotion I’d witnessed, I couldn’t imagine them kicking their child out because they didn’t want to have to take care of him. And then basically selling their child to the authorities? That didn’t match with the unmistakable sorrow I’d seen. And it certainly hadn’t been for show. I didn’t think they’d even noticed Morgan and me, let alone known that a new Billy stood nearby watching them.

  I stopped in front of the grave and knelt on the grass, then reached out and touched the beautiful flowers that the mother had so tenderly set on the ground. I could feel Morgan standing beside me, but I focused on the emotions racing through me.

  Maybe these people were different. They’d certainly shown feelings I’d never seen my own parents show. Even so, I couldn’t imagine appearing on their doorstep, their deceased son now living and breathing, expecting to be welcomed with open arms. That didn’t seem right either.

  I slowly stood, my heart heavy with the realization that reuniting with this world’s version of my parents was not something that could happen. The thought made me feel exceedingly forlorn, as it was clear that they loved their son—something I would never have the chance to experience. Still, I was glad I’d come, glad I’d seen how they felt about their son.

  Once more the feeling that I didn’t belong in this world grew within me, and I doubted my decision to follow Morgan back to her world. A gentle touch on my shoulder pulled me out of my thoughts and I turned to Morgan with a sad smile.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  I gazed at her, envious that she was where she belonged, and that she had a family who not only loved her, but knew she existed. Her mother even believed our story. “Yeah,” I finally said, though I knew it would take me some time to come to grips with my reality.