Emily grabbed two handfuls of stuff from the shelves and plopped her ass back down on the floor. She began shoveling a mixture of the sandwiches into her mouth, then planned to tear into the takeout food next.
Item number two on the post-jump list. Food: check. Just need to finish. Eating for two now, so can’t stop yet.
She leaned against the base cabinet and let the food settle in her stomach for a minute, catching her breath. Deep inside, the sense of warmth that she’d identified as ‘happy’ returned in full force.
“Food. More. Me. Please, Mommy. More,” the baby said, suddenly expanding his vocabulary. She could feel his mental presence digging into her thoughts and emotions, absorbing them one engram at a time. He must have been learning from her on his own, getting smarter and more aware with each passing hour.
She pulled off the top of the Styrofoam container, dipping into what looked like potato salad with two fingers like a shovel. She didn’t realize that Chinese restaurants served potato salad, but cool. She was hungry and so was her child, so it didn’t matter. She crammed two loads into her mouth and swallowed them before noticing something she hadn’t seen before—a torn receipt stuck to the bottom.
She pried it off and read it. The date was from two months earlier.
Shit!
She checked the torn slip of paper again. It didn’t say potato salad. In fact, all it had was the date and a total of $35.72. She crumpled the receipt in her hand and slumped backwards. She didn’t want to face it. Spoiled food? How could she have been so careless?
She put the container to her nose and took a whiff. It smelled okay. Maybe it wasn’t rancid? She thought of her baby, then herself, before saying a silent prayer, hoping she wouldn’t get sick.
Emily had been so preoccupied with the pain of the jump, finding food, calling Duane for help, and the voice—no, the child inside her—that she’d forgotten to take things one step at a time and think everything through.
Dumb, Em. Dumb.
“Hungry. Starving. More. Send more, please,” came the voice. The emotions coming from her baby were powerful and much stronger than before. In fact, the emotions she was getting from him seemed to be escalating.
She didn’t know why this was happening and it was making her worry even more. He was calm for a minute and now he was the opposite. Like she’d triggered something. If that was true, then it must have been her worry about eating spoiled food. But she didn’t remember sending those thoughts or emotions across the link.
Oh no, she told herself after a new idea entered her mind.
Her emotions, especially negative emotions, must have always been affecting those of her child. Even when she didn’t purposely send them. That meant they were constantly tethered to each other emotionally. Sending emotions as part of a telepathic message wasn’t always needed, not unless she was feeling something different than what she wanted to send to her son.
Her anxiety and worry became his anxiety and worry, and somehow the two of them together must have been amplifying both sides of the emotional link. That’s why her son’s emotional state appeared to be intensifying. So was hers. It was almost like their shared emotional states were bouncing off one other and raising the intensity each time a wave of emotions crossed the link.
What if the two-way bouncing process became a runaway event? If it did, it might send her into another powerful jump through time, and that couldn’t possibly be good for her baby. Especially as he got older.
She needed to get a grip, and do so right now. Emily cleared her mind, thinking only of bunnies—cute little fluffy bunnies with cotton tails—something sweet and adorable, instantly changing the mood in her heart. She took a deep breath, knowing she needed to be extra careful, because every thought, every emotion, and every action from this moment forward would affect her son.
Then her thoughts turned to Derek. Her mind played a vision of his beautiful face and adorable smile. She scanned the memory and recognized where they were at the time—the master bedroom at Nora’s house. She remembered the scene well. It was from their one and only night together—a special, magical night—the night she became a woman . . . and got pregnant!
“Ewww,” the baby said across their link.
Emily’s mood changed again, this time to one of concern. If the baby could sense and feel everything she did, then how could she ever be in the throes of passion again with the love of her life? It’d be like having sex with her baby watching.
“Oh my God,” she said out loud, realizing nothing in her life would ever be the same again. Ever. Emily cringed.
Now she needed to constantly deal with two people’s needs, whether or not a time jump was involved. It was all a little too overwhelming. She didn’t know if she could handle any of it, making the tears come. They started slowly at first, but then a torrent of emotions broke through, bringing with them a flood that soon covered her face and hands, running down her neck and dripping onto the floor.
Inside, the baby was crying, too, in his own way. She connected with his emotional state and realized she was hurting her son and teaching him pain, sorrow, and anguish. Emotions she didn’t want him to know—at least not yet. Not until he was much older and could deal with them.
She needed to stop the tears and return to happy thoughts, but her attempts at putting a halt to the waterworks weren’t working. Then she remembered something from her past: Master Liu and his meditation techniques.
Master Liu—the kindly old martial arts teacher who’d helped her in a much earlier time period between jumps. It seemed like a lifetime ago when she’d gone to him to learn self-defense and self-control. Her teaching master never asked a single question about her past while training her in Wing Chun kung fu, a style of fighting that allowed small fighters to use speed, coordination, and agility to overcome bigger, stronger opponents. Master Liu also taught her breathing and meditation exercises, which she’d learned were just as valuable as the self-defense techniques.
Emily decided to use one of the breathing and meditation exercises now, one designed to lower her heart rate and stave off panic attacks—attacks which she’d learned could trigger a jump.
She closed her eyes and took a series of slow, deep breaths, focusing on a new soothing image. It wasn’t furry bunnies this time; it was the loving and tender face of her long-lost mother, Candi Heart.
Her anxiety soon subsided, and so too did the discontent and agitation coming across the link from her son.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Derek ran out of his bedroom and down the hallway to the bathroom for privacy. He tapped the phone icon in the upper right corner of the text message screen, initiating a call to Jim Miller.
“Hey Derek. How’s it hangin’?” Miller said in an upbeat voice, answering the call on the first ring.
“She’s back?”
The tone in Jim’s voice changed to one of sarcasm. “Well, hello to you, too. So I take it you got my text?”
“No shit, Sherlock.”
Jim laughed.
Derek continued, feeling his face tense up. “Yeah, of course I got your text. That’s why I’m calling. Seriously dude, Emily shows up and all you do is send me a two-word text? Are you kidding me?”
“Easy now. It was a little too early to call, so I decided to text. I know how you young people like to sleep until noon. Besides, Emily’s—”
“Where is she?” Derek interrupted. “Is she with you? Can I talk to her?”
“No, that’s what I was trying to tell you. Emily’s not here. Apparently, when she got back, she called Duane and asked for Nora.”
“Nora?”
“Yeah, Nora. Go figure. But regardless, Duane said his wife is on her way now to Emily. He just called a little bit ago and told me the news.”
“What else did he say? Did Emily ask about me?”
“Sorry, Slick. I really don’t know. Duane didn’t say one way or the other.”
“Is she hurt? Where is she?”
“Supposedly somewhere in North Scottsdale, but we don’t know her condition. Not yet anyway. But I’m sure Nora will call as soon as she gets there.”
“What the hell is she doing way out in Scottsdale?”
“That’s exactly what I asked,” Jim said, laughing again, though it sounded a little forced, like he was purposely trying to keep the call light and friendly. “I have no idea, but that’s where she is, though.”
“Holy crap, Jim, what the hell happened to her? Where has she been? It’s been like two years.”
“I know. It’s been a long time, but all we can do right now is wait. I’m sure Nora will take good care of her. Then we’ll know more.”
There was a long silence on the line as Derek wondered about his girl—her sudden disappearance, and now, her sudden reappearance.
“You still there, Sport?” Miller asked a minute later.
“Yeah, just give me a minute,” Derek said as his mind flashed a scene from his memories. It was from two years ago, right after Emily disappeared.
Jim and Duane had sat him down and told him what they assumed was happening to her and why. They had no real proof, only conjecture. They’d told him that Emily was a time jumper and it happened when she became too emotional. They figured she’d been doing it for almost thirty years, which meant she was born sometime in the 1970s.
Even though Derek knew some of what they were telling him already based on hints and facts Emily had dropped along the way, he still had a hard time believing everything they were selling.
But that all changed when Jim produced a battered old leather document case with dozens of photos in it—all of them Emily. Apparently, Jim had been collecting them over the years and that’s how he and Duane had come up with their time jumping theory.
Derek could still see the photos in his mind, remembering how Jim pulled them out one at a time and laid them on Duane’s kitchen table.
The first photo was Emily’s freshman yearbook picture from Dysart High School in the 80s. Jim followed that image with a still shot that had been lifted from a parking lot security feed some ten years later, plus a few more from the early 2000s.
Then he finished his reveal with a series of video prints from the shootout in the Italian restaurant—the same night Derek had first met Emily, the enchanting redhead with a heart of gold. The one girl in the world who accepted him, for him. Flaws and all. No questions asked. The same girl whose face never seemed to age in any of the photographs.
“What can I do to help?” Derek asked Jim, breaking his silence.
“Nothing right now. Let’s wait until we hear back from Nora. Not much else we can do.”
Derek couldn’t sit still. Not now. Not after what he’d just learned. “Nah, I think I’m gonna head over to Duane’s. Wait for her there.”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“Why?”
“Because Emily called Duane and asked for Nora—a registered nurse. Emily didn’t call me or you, so it seems pretty clear something’s going on with her. Health-wise, I mean. So you and I need to stand down and wait.”
“But I need to see her. It’s been—”
“Look, I’m sure she wants to see you, too, but Em needs a woman around right now. Not a bunch of men. Why? I don’t know, but we need to give her some time to sort whatever this is out. Nora will take good care of her; you know that. Emily’s in good hands.”
Derek hesitated, waiting for his breath to slow a bit before he spoke again. Jim was right, even though he didn’t want to admit it. “Yeah, okay. Sure.”
“Duane said he’d call as soon he knows more. Shouldn’t be too long. If you want, you can come to my place. No reason to wait there alone.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I think I’m gonna just chill out here for a while.”
“Fine, I’ll call you as soon as he calls me.”
***
Emily hid outside the vacant house, crouching behind the unruly bushes lining the front, while she waited for Nora to arrive. Most of the homes she could see across the neighborhood were enormous. She guessed they were all at least five bedrooms each, judging by their size. Most had colorful accent lighting in their front yards—little floodlights placed under shrubs, pointing upward, illuminating the front as if to say, “Look at how expensive I am. Don’t you wish you lived here?”
“Cold. Me,” the baby said, breaking her concentration.
“I know, honey, but it won’t be long now. Nora is coming to help us. She’s a good friend. Someone we trust. Someone who’s gonna help me take good care of you.”
“Okay. Nora friend. Me. Happy. You. Happy.”
“Yes, Nora is a friend and she makes us both happy.”
Emily practiced sending comforting images to her child as she kept a close watch on the deserted street. Her logic was helping her get the hang of the new communication protocol with her baby. It seemed to work best when she used a repeating, threefold approach to teach her son something new: word, image, emotion. Over and over she’d send the stream, until she got an answer back. Each time, she’d expand the word phrases, hoping her son would be able to grasp how vocabulary worked. If he could attach the words to emotions, he would remember them better.
She knew the baby was always there listening and learning, even when she didn’t want him to. That was the hard part—always being on her best behavior and always being under emotional control.
Positive thoughts only, Em. Happy thoughts.
It was going to be an exhausting nine-month ride until baby arrived. That was assuming, of course, it would take nine months. Nothing about her mind or body was normal anymore, not after the night of The Taking. Whatever they did to her on that ship had clearly altered her genetic makeup.
At this point, she couldn’t rule out a short, one-month pregnancy, or perhaps an excruciatingly long two-year term. Anything was possible and she needed to be ready, regardless. She had a motherly job to do and only she could do it.
So far, in the time since the jump, she’d learned that the boy growing inside her liked burps, soda, and cookies. What kid didn’t? They were also her favorites, so no surprise there.
Like mother, like son, she thought. A match made in heaven.
Emily’s heart started racing when she heard a car coming down the street from the right. The whine of its engine reached her ears first, echoing off the houses along the street. Then she heard the roll of its tires creeping across the asphalt, getting louder by the second.
She waited and watched the vehicle drift closer in partial darkness. Then she recognized it—Duane’s Chevy Impala. A huge grin erupted on Emily’s face.
A few seconds later, she spotted Nora behind the wheel. Emily would recognize Nora’s tight, knotty dreadlocks anywhere. Emily scanned the interior of the Impala but didn’t see anyone else. Nora had come alone—just like she’d requested.
“Nora’s here, son,” she whispered while looking down at her belly. She rubbed the area around her navel with a gentle, smooth hand, sending a stream of happy thoughts.
“Nora. Friend. Mommy. Friend. Me happy. Me cold,” her child shot back.
“Mommy is more than a friend. Mommy loves you,” she said, sending a warm, loving scene of her holding the baby in her arms while singing a soft melody.
The Impala drove past the house and then made an abrupt U-turn before cruising back at an accelerated pace. Nora pulled the Impala into the driveway, coming to a full stop halfway up the cement. Emily saw Nora lean across the seat and push the passenger door open, then the headlights flashed twice.
Emily stood from her hiding place and ran, throwing herself into the car the moment she arrived.
Nora was wearing her trademark green hospital scrubs and a look of deep concern on her face.
Emily tried to lock her second sight onto Nora, but the link came up dry.
“Thanks for coming to get me,” Emily said, holding back tears. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you right now.”
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Emily threw her arms around Nora’s neck, not waiting for a response. A moment later, her emotions cut loose, sending tears from her eyes.
Nora hugged her back, holding her tight as Emily cried into her shoulder.
“Shoosh. Shoosh. Shoosh. Everything’s going be okay, Em,” Nora said, rubbing her back. “You’re safe now, dear. I’ve got you and I’m never letting go.”
A short minute later, Emily managed to stop the tears. Nora pulled back from the hug, motioning to the back seat. “I brought you some clothes. There’s some bottled water for you as well. Just help yourself, child.”
“Thank you. I didn’t know who else to call.”
“I’m glad you did. You know Duane and I are always here for you, no matter what. You know that, right?”
Emily nodded, sniffing twice before wiping the tears from her cheeks. She reached over the seat and grabbed the neatly stacked pile of clothes sitting in the middle of the back seat.
The first item was a cute navy blue top. Its label indicated it was from the Gap and was a size small. She slipped it up and over her head, pushing her arms through first, before pulling it down over her naked chest.
Nora put the car in reverse and pulled away from the house as Emily continued getting dressed.
“Now, I’m not going to ask where you’ve been, ‘cause I figure you’ll tell me when you’re good and ready. In the meantime, I have to say something is different about you. I can sense it. So I have to ask, what’s going on, young lady?”
Emily waited while Nora swung her head around, put the car in drive, and stepped on the accelerator. She wanted to tell Nora everything. She wanted to blurt out her whole story on the spot, but she was terrified.
She paused, trying to find the words. When they finally came to her, she answered in a cautious voice, her hands trembling. “I don’t want you to be mad at me, Nora, but something happened. Something really scary and totally wonderful at the same time.”
Glassford Girl: Boxed Set (Complete Series) (Time Jumper Series) Page 43
