Never Too Late (Resetter Series Book 1)

by Brenda Barrett

  "So Josh, how on earth did you meet this Ellie girl? You were in the office all day." Vicky turned back to Josh. "Give us all the details."

  Josh smiled. "When I went to pick up lunch at Mack J's, remember? She is Mack's niece. She's been working with him for the year, part time. She is going to culinary school. She says she wants to be a chef."

  "You have two years left of university," Nate said gruffly, pointing his fork at Josh. "Finish school before you think of marriage and get to know this girl properly before you even consider getting serious."

  Josh nodded but Addi could see he was in the first throes of attraction. She had to do something to fix this and fast or her poor brother would get hurt again.

  ****

  Addi couldn't sleep. She always had an issue with falling asleep in a new place. This part of her life was so long ago she had completely forgotten how it felt. Her bed had springs and squeaked and the pillows were over stuffed and the sheets itchy. And there were little noises around the house that made sleeping difficult—like the lizard croaking outside her window and the sound of the wind moving through the trees.

  There was a willow near the front and she could hear the haunting whoo hoo noise that it made as it played with the wind. She looked at the clock. It was fifteen minutes after twelve and it was chilly.

  She had forgotten how cool it was even in the summer. She went in the closet for her sweatshirt and socks and tried to make herself feel comfortable but it wasn't happening.

  She opened her door and looked outside. The lights were off. Only the glare from the side light on Uncle Stan's house reflected in the living room.

  The hall clock's ticking sounded loud in the stillness of the night and she could hear the dripping of the tap in the kitchen. She headed to one of the settees and almost jumped out of her skin when she saw a silhouette sitting in the settee.

  "Just me," Randy whispered holding up a glass of water in his hand. "Not a ghost." He was dressed in a track suit bottom and a matching long sleeved heather gray top.

  "Oh," she walked around the settee and sat across from him. "Can't sleep?"

  "Not a wink." Randy chuckled. "New bed. No sleep. What about you?"

  "Same." Addi shrugged.

  "You are still sticking to your time travel story, huh?" Randy grinned she could see his teeth in the half dark.

  "Yep," Addi murmured. "Because it's true and I can make a pretty accurate prediction as to why you can't sleep tonight and it has nothing to do with being in a new bed."

  "Okay, I bite. Why can't I sleep?" Randy put his glass on the center table and leaned toward her. He was humoring her.

  Addi decided to shock him.

  "You are a scholarship kid. You got a B on your calculus exam last semester and you are not sure if you will be considered for the scholarship next year. They are strict about the grades and decision time is coming up."

  Randy was frowning now, his mouth slightly agape. He was holding himself like somebody who was not sure what to say.

  "Your grandmother will call here tomorrow to tell you good news, so you can stop worrying."

  "There is no way you..." Randy stammered. "How do you know this?"

  "I am a time traveler. A resetter. I have lived this summer before. I had this same conversation with you before. Only difference between now and the other time is that, in the other time, we were at dinner. You told us how anxious you were before your grandmother called and how elated you were that you did get the scholarship for the next school year."

  Randy rubbed his hand over his face. "Addi, you are so imaginative it's frightening. I know Josh must have made some of this slip. I told him about the grade and the scholarship."

  "Did you tell him about the birthmark on your lower back three inches to your left near your butt cheek?" Addi chuckled, "or the fact that your first time was with a woman named Freda, your grandmother's neighbor. You enjoyed yourself but you are still not sure it wasn't rape because she was fifty and you were just thirteen...."

  Randy snapped his head up to look at her. "How the hell…?"

  His question was harsh almost loud in the silence.

  "Nobody knows that." His hands were trembling. He actually looked a little afraid of her.

  Addi felt remorseful at her shock tactics. She was using private, confidential conversations they had and was laying it bare in the open. She doubted that he had told anyone else this. They had been so close.

  She sighed. She needed to get over her anger at Randy. This Randy hadn't hurt her yet. He wouldn't get the chance to this time around. This Randy hadn't even met Kenya. This Randy was barely a man. He was just a second year university student who was coming from a tragic background, who was trying to get through life like anybody else.

  She closed her eyes. "Sorry Randy."

  "How do you know these things, Addi? The Freda thing was a secret. I mean, I never told a soul about her. Not my parents nor my grandmother..."

  "I know these things because you told me all of it."

  "I have never met you until yesterday and you can't be a time traveler," Randy whispered. "That is not possible. Time is linear, there is no jumping around in it."

  "Say's who?" Addi challenged him," somebody told you this and you believed them."

  "It doesn't make sense," Randy argued. "If it were possible why isn't everybody doing it."

  "Because only resetters can go back in time, resetters are special people with a T in their palms. They can't go forward in time only back in their lifetime," Addi said patiently. She understood where he was coming from with his argument, she was there too just a day ago. "And they can only travel if they encounter specific pathways."

  "Resetters... pathways." Randy sighed, "So where are these pathways?"

  "There are only a few left in Jamaica or at least that's what I heard," Addi said. "One happens to be on our land. Amazing isn't it?"

  "Yes." Randy nodded. "Very."

  He wasn't believing a word she was saying. There was silence for a while as he sipped slowly on his water. Addi admired him in the half-light. She couldn't decide who was more appealing young Randy or older Randy.

  He was and always would be a gorgeous man but the younger version of him had an air of innocence that was somewhat appealing. Maybe it was that earnest way he had of talking now. Earnest. Eager. He had lost that, gotten more serious and measured and mature.

  "How did you know about my birthmark?"

  He asked the question out of the blue.

  "We were lovers for a long time, I know about your birthmark and more." Addi yawned. "I could write a book on Randall Vassell."

  "You really are imaginative." Randy got up and stretched.

  "That may be true," Addi said sleepily, 'but what I said tonight will haunt you. How could I possibly know the things about you that I do? And tomorrow when your grandmother calls and gives you the news about your scholarship you'll be even more confused."

  Randy pushed his hands into his pockets, rocked back on his heels and regarded her for a while. "Goodnight, Addi."

  "Night." Addi snuggled closer into the settee cushions. The couch was more comfy than her bed. She closed her eyes, finally succumbing to exhaustion.

  ****

  "I aced the POB exam!" Sky entered her room with a bounce to her steps. "I killed it. I did it in thirty minutes. I might have to reconsider business as a career. The principles of business is easy peasy."

  Addi grunted, she hadn't left her room all day. She was eagerly running through her mother's box of old romance novels, trying to avoid Randy. She knew his grandmother had called to tell him about the scholarship, she heard when the phone rang and then the knock on her door. She didn't answer. She was feeling somewhat remorseful. If she should have revealed her time traveling to anyone it should have been Sky. She was the one who practically sent her back here.

  She looked up from her book when Sky threw herself across the bed, still in her uniform.

  "Now what are we going to
do for the summer," Sky said turning on her back and looking up into the ceiling. "What can we possibly do in this boring slow corner of country that we live in?"

  "I have no idea," Addi said in awe. "I never thought of how utterly boring this time in my life was."

  Sky turned her head to look at her. "You lived another life, Missy?"

  "Yes Missy." Addi chuckled. "I did."

  She looked at Sky whose face was as open and honest and innocent as it could be. She was just fifteen years old.

  She wouldn't get this.

  But she was the one who begged you to go back to '92. The voice in her head screamed. She said she was broken and had secrets. Sky was the reason she was even here.

  What kind of secrets could she have had that she had never wanted to be revealed?

  Addi turned around and looked at her cousin fully. "What kind of secrets do you have?"

  Sky laughed. She spun over on her belly and hit the bed.

  "You are acting very weird." Sky finally finished laughing and then wiped her eyes. "I tell you everything."

  "No, you don't." Addi frowned. "Tell me about Rusty."

  "Rusty Brown?" Sky grimaced. "There is nothing to tell."

  "Nothing?" Addi asked skeptically. "Nothing at all?"

  "I like him, okay," Sky mumbled. "I mean I dream about tongue kissing him like they do on Dallas."

  Addi snickered. "You do?"

  "Yes." Sky wagged her finger at her, "and you are not to tell anyone."

  "As if I would." Addi raised an eyebrow. "So that's the big secret?"

  "It's huge." Sky widened her eyes, "he is like old. He is twenty-two."

  "Ah," Addi nodded.

  "And he works for Dad and Uncle Nate."

  "There is that." Addi looked up at the ceiling.

  "And he has a girlfriend," Sky muttered. "He lives with her. I hate that."

  Addi glanced at her. She hadn't known that Rusty lived with his girlfriend when he killed Uncle Stan, just a mere two months from now in the old timeline. She couldn't remember anything much about his background except that he had a payment dispute with Uncle Stan and it got out of control.

  "His girlfriend's name is Precious," Sky spat out the name, "and she is pregnant. That means they did it." Sky turned her woebegone face to Addi. "I wish it were me."

  Addi coughed. "What? Are you crazy?"

  "Probably," Sky said forlornly. "We'd live together and he'd work for Daddy and Uncle Nate for a while..."

  Addi snorted. "You are crazy!"

  "Stop acting old, Addi," Sky said dreamily. "You have never heard Rusty sing. He sounds a hundred times better than Tevin Campbell. And do you realize he looks a little like him. He is just a lighter version?"

  Addi wished she remembered details of how Rusty looked. Her last mental picture of him was that of a tall, slim, light skinned guy with a goatee being handcuffed and shoved into a police car.

  If she was going to prevent him from killing her uncle, it would be in her best interests to get to know more about this Rusty. And most of all she needed to convince Sky about her time traveling to accomplish this.

  Addi looked at her cousin and contemplated how she would approach it. She had messed up her approach to Randy. She shouldn't have told him anything in the first place. She couldn't afford to mess up her approach with Sky.

  She cleared her throat loudly.

  Sky looked at her. "What?"

  "I have to tell you something." Addi sighed. "I am not joking, okay? You need to take me seriously."

  Sky raised herself on an elbow. "I am listening."

  Addi frowned. Sky didn't look serious enough. She had a dreamy expression as if she hadn't quite gotten her head out of her Rusty world.

  " Okay, let's go." Addi got up.

  "We are going to look for Monica next door. You heard it from her once and believed her. You should hear it from her again."

  "Monica?" Sky frowned. You mean Miss Campbell? The lady that works at the bank? I have never spoken to her. What are you talking about, Addi?"

  "Let's go." Addi got up. "I hope she is home."

  "I heard she is kooky—has a screw missing." Sky sniffled getting off the bed. "She is an old lady who has issues."

  "Forty is not old!" Addi looked at Sky in horror. "Aunt Ivy is forty-one, Mom is forty. I am..."

  "Forty?" Sky chuckled. "Don't tell me you were going to say forty. And our mothers are ancient. Old school. Don't go defending them. What are we going to talk to Miss Campbell about?"

  "You'll hear." Addi growled, pushing her cousin through the door.

  Chapter Seven

  Monica was on her way out when they trudged up the driveway. She was dressed in her bank uniform. A briefcase was at her feet. Her hair was jet black, and her face younger than she remembered.

  Addi closed her eyes and then opened them and stared at Monica. Twenty-five years in a couple of days. Time traveling had its disorienting moments. Addi stopped and stared at her for so long that Sky had to end up pulling her up further to the veranda.

  "Why are you staring at her like that?" Sky muttered from the side of her mouth.

  "She looks so young and sophisticated," Addi whispered back.

  Sky snorted. "You need your head examined, ASAP. She's an oldie like the parents."

  "Hello Ladies," Monica smiled at them. "How are you?"

  "We are fine," Addi quickly said. "I was hoping you had a moment to talk to us."

  "Sure, anything for the Porter girls. You won't remember this but I used to baby-sit Sky back in the days." Monica smiled, "come on in."

  She pointed to the chairs on the veranda.

  They sat down.

  Addi cleared her throat and decided just to get along with it; she had already done the stammering bit with Monica. "I am a resetter."

  Monica who had just sat down across from them froze. She looked at Addi as if she hadn't heard right. "Say that again?"

  "I am a resetter. I was here two days ago, in 2017, talking to you and you told me that your grandmother was a resetter and that resetters had to make contact with pathways and then think about the date they wanted to go to and then they would appear there in their old bodies with their consciousness of their past lives in tact."

  Sky gasped and started coughing. Addi ignored her.

  Monica had a wide smile on her face. "You dear girl. How extraordinary, apart from grammy I have never met a resetter!"

  Addi exhaled. "So you believe me?"

  "Of course," Monica said eagerly, "What is 2017 like?"

  "The world is still spinning." Addi sighed, "I don't want to spoil it for you."

  "Please don't." Monica grinned, "unless of course I have a medical problem I can avoid or..."

  "You looked fine to me." Addi sighed. "However, you did ask me to warn you off marrying Walter Sparks. He is not straight. You wasted five years of your life with him. Oh and you want to have a child. Apparently twenty five years from now you are broody."

  Monica laughed and clapped her hands. "Husband? I married Walter Sparks? Imagine that. Gay? You sure?"

  "That's what you said." Addi shrugged. "I have no idea who he is."

  " Thank you for the warning," Monica said somberly. "Thank you so much."

  Addi nodded. "You are welcome."

  Sky jabbed Addi in the side. "What are you talking about? What is a resetter?"

  "I'll tell you later," Addi said and then turned to Monica. "You told me that you'd give me your grandmother's diary. Your brother cleared out the room where it was and destroyed it in 2005."

  "He did?" Monica frowned. "Well then, I will give it to you as soon as I get back from work. Thank you so much, Addison."

  Addi stood up. "You are welcome."

  She and Sky headed down the drive together. Sky was giving her suspicious glances. "You ready to tell me about all the nonsense you just talked about with Miss Campbell?"

  "Yes." Addi inhaled deeply and stopped.

  "Go on," Sky urged when Addi was
trying to put her thoughts together.

  "Remember when you saw me yesterday morning at the rock?"

  "Yep." Sky nodded. "You were acting strange."

  "The rock is a pathway."

  "A pathway." Sky repeated. "A pathway to what?"

  "The past." Addi cleared her throat. "I was in 2017 and I thought about coming back here and here I am."

  Sky looked confused. "Explain."

  They sat on the wall at the entrance to the houses while Addi again tried to explain to Sky what was going on. It took her the better part of an hour to explain it again. Sky was equal parts astonished and equal parts unbelieving.

  "You are telling me you are coming from a time that is further than Back to the Future 2 where Marty McFly went to the future."

  "Yes," Addi said with a sigh. "What time was it again? I haven't seen that show in so long. It's a bit of a classic in 2017."

  "They went to October 2015," Sky said her voice faint, "Were there flying cars?"

  "No," Addi muttered.

  "Self tying shoe laces?"

  "Yes but not popular or anything." Addi frowned. "I really need to see that film again."

  "So what was I like in 2017?" Sky asked. "Was I married to Rusty?"

  Addi inhaled noisily. "No, you weren't."

  Uncle Stan drove up to the house and he wound down his window. "Addi, Sky."

  "Hello Uncle Stan."

  "Hi Dad," Sky said.

  "How was exam?" He asked Sky.

  Addi didn't listen to their conversation, she just watched her uncle in awe. He was the lighter skinned version of her father—same features. They were obviously brothers, could be twins. Uncle Stan was beefier though and his cheeks fuller but the resemblance was stark.

  Another thing she had forgotten through the years. Most of the pictures of him were old and faded. After the first year of missing him terribly in 93 the memories had slowly dulled at the edges.

  He had faded in her mind's eye. Twenty-five years was a long time to remember somebody sharply, but here he was, alive and in living color. He was a ruggedly handsome man who always had on a ready smile.

  He had loved Sky to the point of spoiling her. For Addi and Josh he had felt like a second dad.