by Various
“You have to get out of here,” he said. “It isn’t safe.”
With eyes of calm, cool blue like still water, she approached him. “My house is right over there.”
“Run!” His head whipped around as he searched for the threat.
“Come with me,” she said. “You’ll be safe.” She smiled. “I promise.”
Desperate for a place to hide, he followed the pretty girl to her house. It was a white two-story with beige trim, and for some reason, the sight of it put him at ease. They went inside through a back door that led to the kitchen. The room was small but clean. As if by mutual consent, he sat at the round table while she fixed a sandwich for him. She added a glass of ice water and smiled down at him as he dove in with the feeling he hadn’t eaten in a long time.
He glanced around, nervous.
Reading his mind, she said, “It’s okay. My parents are out.”
He frowned. “You shouldn’t bring a stranger into your house and then tell them you’re alone. I could be a psycho.”
She turned her head and swallowed a laugh, but he heard it anyway. The girl was probably nervous, too. He’d just reminded her that she didn’t know him and he could be crazy. Real smart move on his part. What if she wanted him to leave? He didn’t have anywhere to go.
The girl grabbed his plate and glass when he was only halfway through the meal and gestured for him to follow her. They went into a slightly larger area, the living room, and sat on the floor in front of the couch. He continued to eat while she put a record on. The scratchy sound of an often-listened-to song began to play. A familiar feeling came upon him. Before he could label it, she began to dance around the room with soft, flowing movements.
He swallowed the building lump in his throat. “What’s… what’s your name?”
“Sophie.” She stopped dancing to stare at him in open curiosity. “What’s your name?”
“Du… I don’t remember.” He held his aching head in his hands and groaned. “Why am I so confused?”
She shrugged. “I’ll call you David.”
“All I remember is someone was chasing me, and I was scared. I don’t know who or why. I just remember being chased.”
“Are you hurt?”
He winced. “My head feels like someone is trying to screw the top off.”
“I’ll get you some aspirin.”
As soon as she disappeared around the corner, he was on his feet. He went up the foyer stairs and walked down the hall. Somehow, he knew where to go, which room he wanted to open. It was the last door on the left. He pushed open the door and froze on the threshold.
The bedroom belonged to a boy. Trophies were lined up on the dresser, and there were pinups of cars tacked to the wall. He went to the dresser to examine the trophies more closely, but his reflection in the mirror caught his eyes. So, that was what he looked like. He’d forgotten everything about himself, including his physical appearance.
His age surprised him the most. Why did he feel so old when he was obviously only sixteen or seventeen? Then, his gaze dropped to a photograph on the dresser, and his entire world flipped upside-down.
A startled gasp behind him almost made him drop the framed family picture. He spoke to his new friend without looking at her. “This isn’t your house, is it?”
“No.” Sophie crossed the room to take the photograph out of his hands. The picture was of him and what he was sure were his parents. She carefully restored it to its rightful place. “It’s yours, but I used to hang out here with you all the time.”
He turned and looked at her, and it was like seeing her for the first time. A veil lifted from his eyes. Stroking her face, cheek to chin, he smiled. “Sophie. You’re my girlfriend.”
Tears misted her eyes. “We were young and in love and naive to think it would last forever.”
“Were?” Cold fingers touched his heart. “What are you saying? What happened?” When she didn’t answer, his gaze flicked to the window. “Do you know who’s chasing me?”
“Don’t rush the memories.” A single tear slipped down her cheek. “Trust me. Everything will be fine if you don’t push yourself into remembering. Let’s go back downstairs and—”
“Downstairs!”
Before she could stop him, David ran through the house and down to the basement. Excitement rippled across his nerve endings. A huge machine, something out of a science-fiction movie, sat on the cement floor like a monster waiting to gobble up unsuspecting children. His memories began to return at the sight of the monster.
“I remember this!” He glanced over his shoulder at Sophie as she made it to the bottom stair. “My father is a scientist, and he invented a time machine. We used to spend hours down here working on it together, and he told me how it worked and how it was going to change the world. I know it sounds crazy, but—”
A flash of memory returned with stabbing pain. It was only a flash, and then it was gone, but he’d seen enough to know it was of him running through the house, desperate to escape.
More of his memories returned.
“We wanted to run away together,” he said, “because your parents were forcing you to move to the other side of the country. They didn’t want us to be in love, and my father was too busy with his work to care. No one understood how much it hurt when I wasn’t with you. An hour without you seemed like an eternity of pain. I couldn’t imagine month after month of feeling like my heart had been ripped out.”
Sophie took a backwards step up the stairs. “We shouldn’t be down here.”
The thought of being without her still hurt. “I love you, Sophie.”
“I love you, too.”
“Why aren’t we together?” He joined her on the stairs, one step below her. “And why is someone chasing me?”
She shook her head. “You’re living on emotion from that night. Let’s go back upstairs and listen to music.”
“If we made it to the time machine, why aren’t we together?”
She tried to walk away, but he grabbed her hand. Her gaze lowered to it. She looked at him, at what he knew must be desperation in his eyes. Instead of telling him the truth, she snatched her hand away and shouted.
“No more questions! Please!”
“What are you afraid of?” His hands went to her arms. “You’re shaking.”
He wrapped her in a warm embrace and walked upstairs with her in the hope it would make her feel better. They returned to the living room. She immediately went to the turntable to put a new record on. He tried to force his memories to return, but they stayed just out of reach.
“Will you tell me why you’re so afraid?” he asked.
She smiled at him, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I just want to spend time with you. Let’s enjoy this while we can.”
***
Hours later, the pizza she’d ordered was almost gone, and their laughter filled the air. Sitting on the floor in front of the couch, they continued to play the Remember When game. Her idea. At first, he’d resisted, but the longer they played the more relaxed he felt. In the end, he was hoping the game would help him remember what had happened to them.
“Hey,” she said, laughing so hard that she almost couldn’t speak. “Remember when we dressed up like aliens for the costume party at Alan’s house?”
“You were cute in green.”
“Remember that time you were showing off for me on the skateboard and you broke your arm?”
It was ironic that Remember When was helping him remember everything but what he wanted to remember the most. With a heavy sigh, he tossed his last piece of pizza into the cardboard box and ruined everything. “Where is my dad? Why isn’t he here?”
Her smile died, and she looked at the far-off wall.
When it became apparent she wasn’t going to answer, he said, “I want to tell him I’m sorry for the things I said. I didn’t mean them. He was a good dad after Mom died, and I didn’t really blame him for what happened to her. I love him.”
He
r eyes glistened with fresh tears. “He knows that. We both do.”
She checked her watch yet again.
“Why do you keep looking at the time?” he asked. “Is my dad coming home soon? Are you worried he’ll be upset at finding us together?”
Her shoulders sagged. “We’re running out of time, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
“I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me.”
“The plan was simple. We were supposed to meet in the basement, sneak down there when no one was looking, but your dad figured it out. I was already down there waiting for you.”
David’s memory returned with a slow slide instead of a painful thrust. He continued where she left off. “I ran from him, down the stairs, almost fell, but I made it to the basement, and I saw your face when you realized he was going to stop us. The machine wasn’t ready, but you stepped into it anyway. I couldn’t stop you.”
Sophie began to cry softly in the background while he relived that night.
“My dad tried to get you back, but he couldn’t find a way to save you. He told me you were caught in a loop. Instead of going to a specific time, you were on a repeat-play sort of thing where you just kept reliving the same moment over and over.”
She cried harder.
“Is this your loop?” David asked.
“Your father was working on a way to bring me home. He kept trying, but you gave up on him. You didn’t wait for him to save me.”
“I wanted to save you.” David nodded as it all came flooding back. “I thought if I used the machine, I could find you.”
Sophie gestured to the window. “It doesn’t matter if it’s raining or snowing or whatever—I sit on that bench and wait for you. When you appear, we spend a few hours together. Then it’s over until the next time.”
“I’m the one stuck in the loop.” Did the room just run out of oxygen? Feeling lightheaded, he thought about all the ramifications. “Why doesn’t my dad help me like he helped you?”
Her face paled, and her mouth worked up and down for a second before words emerged. “I’m sorry, David. Your dad died.”
“What happened to him?”
“Old age caught up with him.”
So he was stuck in limbo forever, reliving this one night in an endless cycle. He sat up straight. “Then you need to leave this house and get on with your life.”
“It’s my fault you’re stuck. I’ll find a way to save you.”
“There isn’t anything you can do. You aren’t a scientist.”
Her chin wobbled. “I’ll find a way.”
***
David disappeared without warning. It always happened that way. The second he vanished, old age once again sat on her bones with all the subtlety of an elephant. She caught sight of her reflection in the mirror and cringed. He thought she was being a saint, waiting on him to visit. The truth was she didn’t know anymore if she waited out of love, loyalty, or selfishness. It was amazing to feel sixteen again, even if only for a handful of hours.
Her granddaughter clunked down the stairs and rushed into the room. “That was amazing! It happened just like you told me. He was cute, Grandma. You had awesome taste in boys when you were my age.”
Sophie stared at her granddaughter, the spitting image of herself. She hobbled over to the couch and collapsed on it. Her health was failing her, and she was afraid she didn’t have much time. Patting the cushion next to her, she said, “Come sit with me, dear.”
“What happens when no one is here to meet him?”
“He only shows up on the anniversary of the night he stepped into that infernal machine. I was hoping you would—”
Tracy gasped. “You want me to come back here every year and pretend I’m you. Seriously?”
“I will leave you the house in my will, just like David’s father left it to me, but you don’t have to live here.”
“Don’t talk like that, Grandma. You aren’t going to die any time soon.”
Sophie stared deep into Tracy’s eyes. “I want you to promise me you will be a friend to him. Don’t let me down. No matter what the circumstances are at the time, you show up here for that one night.”
“Have you ever tried not being there for him?”
“Yes.” Tears pricked the backs of her eyes. “He was so scared, so confused. I watched from an upstairs window, watched until I couldn’t bear another second. It ripped my heart out to see him in so much pain and all because of me.”
Tracy took on a stern expression. “You shouldn’t blame yourself. His father built the machine, and he was the one who got in it.”
“He did it because he wanted to save me.”
“That still doesn’t make it your fault.”
Sophie thought back to the fateful day of their time machine talk.
***
“You are insane,” David said.
They were sitting on his bed, trying to figure out a way to be together. She was desperate. Her parents were going to drag her to another state, and she wouldn’t see David again. “If you love me,” she said, “you’ll do it.”
“It could be dangerous.”
“You told me your father has already tried it out, and it works.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Do you love me or not?”
He stared into her eyes. “I love you more than anything.”
“Then do this for me. Get your father to tell you how the machine works so we can use it to escape from my parents. Promise me you will.”
“I promise.”
She kissed him quick on the mouth before running home, joy in her heart for the first time in months. They were just like Romeo and Juliet… without the whole dying part. She was going to be with David forever, and no one would be able to stop them. No one.
***
Years later, it was a warm evening when she sat on the bench and waited for him, but she was covered in goose bumps. What if he didn’t show? Tracy glanced at her watch again. How long was she supposed to wait on him? She looked over her shoulder at her grandmother’s home, her home now. A man stood in the upstairs window and watched.
He was a scientist who specialized in the theory of time travel, just like David’s dad had. She’d found him on the Internet last year. It had taken a lot of convincing to get him to fly down to take a look at the time machine. But now he believed her, and he was willing to help David escape his strange prison.
She only wished her grandmother was still alive to see it happen.
What if he didn’t appear? This would be his first visit since her grandmother had died. What if they were connected in some crazy way, and her grandmother’s death meant death for him, too?
If he didn’t show up soon, she was afraid her scientist would think she was crazy. He might walk out on the project and refuse to help.
Then he was there with a flash of light.
David was on the ground on his hands and knees, looking dazed.
She rose up on legs that felt like rubber.
He stood and looked around. When he saw her, he ran straight to her. For a second she thought he might have recognized her as Sophie.
“You have to get out of here! It isn’t safe.”
She pointed at the house. “I live right there.”
“Run!” he shouted, and it was clear he was about to take off in the opposite direction.
She grabbed his hand.
When he looked at her, confused, she said, “Come with me. You’ll be safe. I promise.”
A strange glimmer entered his eyes, and she realized he trusted her.
She smiled up at him as they walked to the house, hand in hand. He didn’t know it, but she was about to save him from a terrible future. She hoped the scientist would be able to help him soon. As she gazed into David’s beautiful eyes, she realized he was going to be her first love, and she would wait for him forever.
If you enjoyed Romeo & Juliet for Infinity, you should check out Crushed by: Kasi Blake.
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