Home in Time for Christmas

by Heather Graham

  “Like being sawed in two,” Jake said.

  “Wow. You two really did grow weirdly into being nuts about each other, huh?”

  “I suppose that’s one way to put it,” Jake said.

  “Come on, let’s head down. Maybe we ought to throw a bit of whiskey into that hot chocolate.”

  Jake thanked Keith again for the sketch. They started out of the room, and he winced.

  It was almost as if he could feel her near him.

  Maybe it was something he would feel all his life. An “almost.”

  A life that might have been…

  12

  Melody had drifted off, though she had been certain that she wouldn’t do so. Serena nudged her, and she leaped up with a start.

  “It’s just about sunrise,” Serena told her.

  “Time to get ready. What do I do?” Melody asked.

  She was going home. All right, so she was home, but she was going home. And she longed to be there because of her mother and father and Keith, and yet she hated to leave this place that had everything to do with Jake.

  It was oddly like walking to an accepted execution.

  Nothing like! she assured herself. It was what it was. It was what had to be.

  “You’re bundled up—good. It’s cold out,” Serena said. She had a cup waiting on the mantel, and she handed it to Melody to drink.

  “Just what is it?” Melody asked.

  “Eye of newt, toe of frog,” Serena said.

  Melody almost spit it out.

  “I’m joking, I’m just joking,” Serena said. “It’s herbs. Rose hip, that’s one of the main ingredients. Seriously, it might help you make it through a sickness. There’s nothing evil in it. I believe it’s the same brew your mother is making now.”

  “It’s—just delicious,” Melody lied.

  “Grab one of the lanterns. They have to be set on either side of the old well.”

  Melody picked up one of the lanterns. They went out into the crisp, cold winter’s day. Melody looked around. Dead tree limbs seemed to drip with a ghostly appeal in the pale gray light. It was beautiful and eerie. There was no one near them, though she heard a horse neighing from the small stable next to the house.

  A stable which in her time was long gone.

  The lanterns were set precisely—Melody could see that Serena was very careful as she set them down. “You must be exactly between them,” she told Melody.

  “All right,” Melody said. She felt just a bit awkward. She walked over to Serena, then decided that if the woman thought she was foolish it wouldn’t matter—in only moments, they wouldn’t even be living in the same window of time. She gave Serena a fierce hug.

  It wasn’t awkward. Serena hugged her in return.

  “Now, get between the lanterns,” Serena said, moving back. She looked up at the sky. “It’s almost time.”

  They had gathered in the backyard, waiting.

  George and Keith brought the wave machines back out and situated them.

  Jake stood between them.

  He took Mona’s hands. “I’ll write. I’ll leave books where you can find them. I promise you, we’ll finish the history of the family, and I’ll see that you can find everything. Thank you, Mona. Bless you.”

  Mona nodded, tears stinging her eyes.

  She touched his hair and his face. “I do need my baby back,” she said.

  “I know.”

  He shook George’s hand solemnly. And hugged Keith.

  The potion was waiting to be swallowed down, set in the snow at the spot he must stand.

  Jake looked up at the sky. The winter’s morning came out of a field of shadows, but the sunrise was coming, and even in winter, there would be pink and yellow and gold streaks, and then a sudden burst of pure light. There were no clouds in the sky this Christmas morning, and there was no threat of snow. Coming…coming…coming…any second.

  “Hit your switch, Keith,” George told his son.

  The wave machines hummed to life.

  Jake walked toward the line between the wave machines and reached down for the potion. To his amazement, he was suddenly shoved.

  Mark was there, reaching down for the cup.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Jake demanded.

  “I can go back for you,” Mark said, his grip on Jake strong, his eyes intense. “What?”

  “I can go back,” Mark said. “I have nothing here. You do.”

  “I am not letting you sacrifice your life for my commitments!” Jake said incredulously. They were fighting for the cup, but he managed to get his mouth on it and swallow some of the potion.

  “You’re not paying attention!” Mark said.

  “Hey!” Keith called out with concern. “What’s going on with you two? The sun is almost up, the door will open…what is going on?”

  “Keith?” Mona cried, worried.

  “Mark, give me the damn cup!” Jake insisted.

  “No, don’t you see, I’m the one going back. It makes no sense for you to go back. It makes all the sense in the world for me to do so. Your sister needs someone—but not you. She needs a life. If you go back, you will wind up going back to fight and with your luck, you’ll probably get yourself killed—”

  “Excuse me!” Jake interrupted.

  “Sorry, but it’s possible. If I go back to be with Serena, I’ll be with her. I’ll be there for her night and day. I can write, too, Jake. And with my knowledge of the future, I can write amazing articles for your time. I can even try to give some hints of what to watch out for—I can’t change things such as the Revolution, nor can I stop the Civil War or any other war. But maybe my writing can save a few lives.”

  “This is preposterous, Mark,” Jake said. “You don’t belong back there. This is your world. Your world—with cars and computers and cell phones. You won’t be able to make it if you try to go back in time. You saw one aspect of the past, my sister. It’s a hard life in comparison. Mark!”

  Mark was moving the cup, bringing it to his lips.

  “Hey, Mark, get the hell away!” Keith shouted.

  But Mark didn’t.

  The sizzle, the ripple in the area began. And a sound like thunder, as if there had been some kind of a terrible break in the door.

  “Wait!” Jake heard Mona cry.

  But there was no waiting.

  It was as if they moved a trillion light-years in less than the blink of an eye. And he and Mark were still bursting through darkness and flashes of light together. In a split second, he saw Melody’s face, seeming to speed toward them, as if from another galaxy. He saw her expression as she saw his face, the hope, the smile, the pain…

  They were passing in time.

  Except that they didn’t. Perhaps there was some kind of corridor, and the corridor was just too small for three people.

  He felt the impact as he and Mark together rammed into Melody. Then suddenly, the world was dark and they were all falling, falling, falling together.

  “Melody?” Mona said hopefully. “I saw her face for a moment, I know I saw her face. But she isn’t here, George, she isn’t here!” she cried desperately.

  “Mark!” Keith said, shaking his head.

  “Mark!” George said furiously.

  “Dad, Dad, he was trying to do what he saw as the right thing. But I think…”

  “Melody!” Mona said as she sank down upon the back steps, burst into tears.

  “Mom, we have sunset. We have sunset, it’s going to be all right,” Keith tried to assure her.

  She looked up at her son, eyes tear-streaked, indignant. “That’s what you said before!”

  “How did I know—how could any of us have known that Mark wanted to be some kind of hero?” Keith demanded.

  “I’m so afraid. I’m so desperately afraid…if we don’t get it right this last time, the door may very well close again for hundreds of years, or whatever. Oh, my God, I can’t bear this!” Mona said.

  George sat on the step next to her, set
ting an arm around her shoulders. “Mona, we’re going to bear it, we’re going to get through it. Because we have no choice. Yes, things have gone pretty wrong so far. But everyone knows that this might well be the last chance. We all know it. Before sunset, we’ll have it all figured out.”

  “She’s coming home, Mom, trust me, she’s coming home,” Keith said, taking his mother’s hands. “Melody loves her family, and she knows how much we all love her. She will come back.”

  Mona stared at him bleakly. “She loves Jake, too. Oh, yes, I know he just fell into her life. But I can see it in her eyes. She probably didn’t want to love him, I mean, let’s face it, she thought he was crazy. She’s always thought I was a bit crazy, she just loved me anyway.”

  “Hey, Mom, we don’t choose who we love, and who we love never turns out to be who it should be if you go by things on paper. No one knows what we’ll feel when we’re close to one another, when we get to know one another…but I do know this. We all bitch, we all whine, and sure, Melody and I complain about the two of you to each other—I mean, get serious, that’s what kids are supposed to do—but she’d probably deck anyone else who wanted to mock either of you in anyway. Trust me, Melody will come home,” Keith said.

  He smiled at his parents.

  Then he mentally applauded himself for his own acting ability.

  And he prayed his words were true.

  Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.

  The quote from the Wizard of Oz seemed to scream through Melody’s mind as she felt herself land hard in a huge pile of snow again. It had all been so surreal. Like blinking and being one place and then another, or, even, for a split second in time or in the dream of time, floating through a field of stars at warp speed.

  Beam me up, Scotty.

  But flying into what had appeared to be Mark and Jake engaged in some kind of wrestler’s hold had been real, physical and damn hard. It had knocked the breath out of her.

  They had collided.

  Collided through time.

  She was afraid to open her eyes. Memories of H. G. Wells and The Time Machine crashed into her mind along with Toto and Dorothy and Captain Kirk.

  Who knew fear could manifest itself in myriad movie references?

  Okay. Focus. Where was she? Had they fallen into a different century altogether? Would she open her eyes to find dinosaurs? Ridiculous, she’d never heard of dinosaurs in the snow.

  Oh, God, what if they’d gone further back? Into the days of the infamous witchcraft trials. They would be snatched up and brought to trial and oh, God, that would change history and—

  “Dear God! What have you all done?”

  Melody dared to open her eyes at the sound of Serena’s voice. She said a little prayer of thanks. Okay, she hadn’t made it home, but at least she had made it back to Serena.

  “Melody, Melody!”

  Jake was suddenly on his knees, hunched over her where she lay in the snow, staring down at her, his eyes filled with the deepest concern.

  “You know, an ‘excuse me’ might have worked,” she said, trying to speak lightly. “I could have tried to step aside, let you guys past me.”

  He touched her face. His hands were cold; he wore no gloves. And still, they warmed her.

  “Mel?” she heard Mark’s voice.

  “Oh, this is all just dreadful!” Serena said.

  “You are all right?” Jake whispered.

  She nodded.

  He pulled her to her feet, but then he left her, walking over to his sister, looking at her a long moment, smiling, and pulling her into his arms. For a long moment, they stood that way.

  Jake pulled away from her. “You saved my life.”

  “It was a life worth saving,” she assured him. But then she stepped back and looked at the three of them, one by one.

  “What on earth were you thinking?” she demanded.

  “Hey, I was here with you,” Melody reminded her. And the thought suddenly made her reel. “Oh, no! Mom, Dad, Keith!”

  “What were you thinking?” Serena persisted, focusing the whole of her stare at the two men.

  “I was coming home,” Jake said, “where I belonged.” He stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’ll let Mark tell his story.”

  Mark looked at Serena, but then looked away.

  “Jake could just go get himself killed. And what—you can be there with a bowlful of rose petals every time he gets himself into a scrape with the British?” Mark asked.

  Serena frowned. “Jake…Jake will simply have to stay away from the war.”

  “That would be desertion,” Jake said quietly.

  “You can’t desert when you’re already supposedly dead!” Serena said. “Dead means that you didn’t desert!”

  “But, people will know that an escape was somehow miraculously managed,” Jake told her.

  “I rest my case!” Mark said.

  But Jake spun on Mark. “Look—you don’t need to be any kind of hero here. You think I’d be killed by the British? You’d probably pass out the first time you had to cut wood for the winter.”

  “Oh, I really resent that!” Mark said. “Three times a week, my friend, I spend two hours at the gym. They say we look alike? Well, you’re puny next to me!”

  Melody looked over at Serena.

  Serena looked at Melody.

  “I don’t believe this!” Melody said.

  “Neither do I. Want some tea? Something stronger, something warm? It’s cold out here. And we have hours and hours to wait for sunset.”

  “Yes, let’s go in. I am quite cold,” Melody agreed.

  “Puny—oh, yes, indeed, Mark. Puny. Because I’m raw muscle while you’re walking around with a layer of twenty-first-century fat encasing your body.”

  “Fat?” Mark said. “Why—”

  Melody didn’t make it into the house. She stopped, turned around and raced between the two of them. She knew that neither would strike her.

  She pushed one man, and then the other.

  “What the hell is the matter with you two? Stop it, stop it now! Or, go ahead. Beat each other up in the snow. That will be great, and oh, so helpful!”

  The men fell silent. Then Jake said, “Mark. I know what you were trying to do, and it was a noble effort. Time has been brief, but you have been a friend. We just have one chance left now, from what I understand. Sunset tonight. And so, we can have no more mishaps.”

  Mark let out a long breath. He grimaced to Melody and stepped around her. He offered Jake his hand. “Sorry. You’re not really puny. I’ll bet you made one hell of a soldier.”

  “And you don’t have a layer of fat encasing your body,” Jake said.

  “All right, gentlemen, good, very good,” Serena said. “You may stop now, before I’m tempted to pull out the violin and start playing. I’m freezing! May we please go in? I do have a lovely Christmas dinner planned—I’d had high hopes that someone would be with me, though I didn’t exactly plan on three guests. But, for now, the more the merrier. Come in. We can all catch our breath, and then get started.”

  They all filed into the house.

  Jake immediately decided to tend the fire, which was burning low. He added logs and stoked it to a tapering burn, then warmed his hands before it. “I’ll cut more logs,” he said briefly.

  “I’ll help—hey, honest, I can cut wood. I did grow up in Massachusetts,” Mark said.

  “I can even cut wood, and I’m telling the truth, too,” Melody said, looking at Jake. The way that he looked back at her…her heart jumped. But they weren’t alone here.

  And the atmosphere was simply tense. They were waiting for sunset.

  She was seeing him again—when she thought that she would never do so.

  But it was just a tease.

  Still, he smiled at her and smoothed back his hair, and she felt the warmth of his smile suffuse her, and it was difficult to rue the fact that she was here.

  Except that she was terribly worried
about her parents. And Keith, of course, who was left behind to try to keep them sane.

  “Oh!” she said. “Serena, I’ll be back down in a minute. I have to write my mother….” Mark hadn’t made it out the back door yet. “Mark—you got our letters, right?”

  “Yes,” he said and looked at Serena.

  Melody was too distracted to pay him much attention. She hurried up to Jake’s desk and found paper and a pencil and sat down.

  Mom, Dad, Keith. It’s really all right, don’t panic, don’t cry and don’t be afraid. I think we all really have it down now; only two can traverse the corridor. This is really all fine; it’s wonderful to see Jake back with his sister. I think it’s been remarkable for me, as well, for it’s made me realize everything I have—including the most precious gift in the world, of course, my family. I mean…well, we all know that Mark and I can never be a couple, but I do want us to be very kind to him, because he doesn’t have a family like ours, and I think I understand now why it’s so important for him to be the dad, the husband, the provider. It’s Christmas, and I will come home, I will be home in time for Christmas!

  Love you, Melody.

  She looked at her letter. She started out of Jake’s study and down the stairs, and then paused. Serena and Mark were close together, and Mark was speaking earnestly

  “I am so sorry. I do believe that it was my interference that caused the three of us to be here—which is not bad, really. It’s a delight to again be in your company. But Melody must go home. She has parents.”

  “I know, I understand. I barely remember my own parents, but Jake’s mother and father were like my own. I was never made to feel like the adopted child. They were so loving. I can only imagine that Melody’s family is very much the same,” Serena said. “You mustn’t be sorry. I know that you meant well.”

  Mark touched her face. “I think that it is very fine to be here. I can chop wood, I swear it. I don’t mind hard labor. Of course, I do love to write—fictional stories. But it might be a challenge and something incredible to see the people here, know about life during the war, and write about it.”

  “I’m sure you would be a wonderful Patriot!” Serena told him.