"No," Travis made a face. "And no I don't want to talk about it."
"Okay." Sky went back to her plate.
"I changed my mind," Travis muttered. "I do want to talk about it."
"You do?" Sky raised an eyebrow. She was acting nonchalant but she really wanted to know what was eating him. "I'll listen."
"A couple Sundays ago when I went to Amelia's..."
Sky snorted. "She is not that pretty, you know."
Travis paused and then started to laugh. "I beg to differ. She is very pretty, gorgeous even."
Sky clapped her hand over her mouth belatedly realizing that she had sounded like a jealous toad.
Travis leaned forward in his chair and looked at her intently. "Being pretty can only take you so far..."
"I know. I do…I don't know why I said that," Sky said stricken, her voice cracking. "It was totally out of line."
Travis chuckled. "It is kind of flattering that you are jealous, but Amelia and I are not a couple. I only went to her house to escape your friend Emma, and I am thinking that it is a good thing I did. I had a conversation with Amelia's brother. He's a journalist who is fascinated with my family..."
Travis sighed and tapped his fingers on the edge of his chair. "And I learned things about my family that I was too blind to see. With one conversation he changed my whole world."
"Oh," Sky put down her fork. "What did he say?"
"That, I am not ready to talk about." Travis shrugged. "It's still so raw and fresh."
Sky sighed. "If it is that traumatizing for you why don't you go back and reset it?"
Travis laughed harshly. "I wish."
"You can do more than wish." Sky frowned at him. "You can change your life."
"That is such a tempting fantasy." Travis sighed. "If that were possible there are so many things I would not do."
"Like what?" Sky folded her arms under her chin and watched him. "Say this wasn't a fantasy, what would you do, where would you go back to?"
Travis chuckled. "Where? Summer 1986. I was twenty-one, just graduated college with my first degree, despite the odds. I was a wild guy in college and a very poor student. I probably graduated at the bottom of my class and only because my father was a big donor to the university."
Sky gasped, "Really? A boy version of Emma! How did you get to be you now?"
"The accident that crippled me actually set me straight." Travis whistled. "I was in a coma for weeks. That helped with the detox. I was strung out on drugs that summer. I chain smoked marijuana, did some cocaine occasionally, drank beer like it as going out of style. Argued with my concerned mother and alienated my father. I was on a downward spiral that was alarming."
"So the accident was a good thing?" Sky wrinkled her brow contemplatively. "If you went back now and prevented the accident, you wouldn't be here now."
Travis nodded. "There is that. Maybe my parents would book me into one of those fancy drug rehab places and I would be okay again."
"Or maybe I should go back to the time when I took my first drink or tried my first cigarette or maybe I should go back to the time when my housekeeper's son started to silently manipulate me."
"He did?" Sky stared at him unblinkingly. "Why?"
"Because he is my brother and he wanted me to fail so that he could take my place. I don't even know when he found out that we were related. The irony is that I thought he was my friend."
Sky realized that this was what he found out. This was what was eating him.
She didn't need to talk now Travis was going full flow. She watched as he ran his fingers through his wavy hair and as his deep brown eyes darkened in pain.
"I feel so stupid." He hung his head.
Sky shook her head. "No you are not. You just didn't have foreknowledge. She went around to his side of the table and kneeled beside him.
"Hey, you know better than to beat up yourself about this. Besides, you can change it. My cousin Addi was a resetter and she changed our past. I made some decisions too that were beyond the pale and she came back and fixed it for me. She actually changed things for our whole family."
Travis stared at her while she was speaking, no expression on his face. She stopped abruptly.
"What is it?"
"You are so pretty." He caressed her cheek and then his hands fell away. "Believe it or not, Sky, this resetter story is actually a nice distraction."
Sky got up and shook her head at him. "It's not a story."
She started clearing the table. "Where do you keep your containers for leftovers?"
Travis shook his head. "I don't eat leftovers. You can dump it."
"My mother would be horrified." Sky smirked at him. "I eat leftovers, I am taking this next door."
Travis nodded. "Okay, bon appétit."
She scraped the food together and put them in a ceramic dish. While she did this she could feel the imprint of his fingers where he had caressed her face.
She snuck a peek at him while she was packing the food and he was staring blankly at the wall. She wanted him to take her seriously. She wanted to help him, but what could she do?
How could she make him believe?
"I am going home tomorrow," She said out loud. "Want to come?"
Travis turned around and smiled. "We had one meal together and you are asking me to meet the parents?"
Sky chuckled. "No, just going to collect a book. You might meet the parents because I have to say hi to them but..."
He looked like he was going to say no.
"I'll drive," Sky said before he could vocalize his refusal. "Your wheelchair can hold in the back of the car."
He opened his mouth to reply and Sky said hurriedly. "It's better than staying here and playing Dust In the Wind."
Travis grinned. "You have a point. I'll come with you. Want to watch a movie?"
"Depends." Sky grinned. "If you are into stuff that will depress me for days I'm not interested."
"Relax," Travis wheeled toward the living room. "The guy at the video rental shop said it was the most rented movie he had. I am sure it wouldn't make you cry."
Chapter Nine
They left out at ten the next morning. Sky was yawning so wide that she heard her jawbones crack.
Travis laughed at her. "You're sure you're up to this? Your eyes are still red and puffy from all the crying you did last night. The Lion King really did you in. I thought everybody had watched it but me. When it was released in '94 it was all the rage."
"I am sure I am up to driving and we didn't have a VCR when it was released in '94." Sky massaged her face and then started the car. "Don't act so flippant. I saw your eyes glinting when Scar murdered Mufassa. You were going to cry."
Travis chuckled. "Nope, I wasn't. I felt a twinge but I remained stoic throughout the whole show. It was a cartoon for crying out loud!"
"I think I am going to name my son, Simba and my daughter Nala," Sky said grinning. "It had that much of an impact on me."
Travis laughed and adjusted his dark glasses over his eyes. He looked relaxed today, much better than he had been looking in the weeks before.
"You comfy?" Sky asked as she slowed down over a particularly large pothole.
"Yep." Travis nodded. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"I don't know anything about your disability," Sky said carefully. "I have never seen you drive in anything but your van."
He turned to look at her. "What do you want to know about my disability?"
Sky flushed. She could feel her ears getting warm. What she wanted to know would take only the boldness of Emma and the kind of frankness that she would never develop in a million years. She went for the safe questions, the light ones. "I don't know. How bad is it? What happened?"
"Accident on a jet ski," Travis murmured. "I was racing a buddy of mine in Ocho Rios. We collided."
"Yikes." Sky glanced at him.
"We were both knocked unconscious. When I woke up I couldn't feel my legs, when he woke up he couldn't talk or remember name
s or feel his right side."
"Wow." Sky looked at his legs and then back at the road.
"Next burning question," Travis said softly.
She swallowed. This was her chance but she chickened out. "Er, I...what's it like to be in a wheelchair?"
Travis grinned. Sky had a funny feeling that he was on to her. He answered the question dutifully.
"Everything takes longer to get done, you can't just get up and walk to wherever or jump out of bed or use the bathroom quickly. It sucked at first but I passed the self pity stage ages ago.
"After I reached my fifth anniversary I accepted the situation. Walking was not going to happen for me again so I just had to live with who I was now."
"You gave up hope?"
"Nah, I became realistic. I did my masters and then the doctorate and started teaching. I focused my energies on something other than my disability. I learned to get around. I learned to live on my own. I accepted that life went on. Not to say that sometimes I don't feel nostalgic about using my legs again. Sometimes I dream that I am running and I wake up happy. Next question."
Sky nodded. "I wanted to ask about..."
"Restrooms?" Travis raised an eyebrow. "They can be a pain if the stalls are too narrow. I am very grateful for Mount Faith's restrooms for the disabled. I think as a country we really do not cater for people with mobility problems. We have tiny bathrooms and too many stairs."
"Oh," Sky bit her lip. "It never crossed my mind about how you er maneuvered yourself into and out of restrooms."
"So what crossed your mind?" Travis asked, a lock of hair fell over his shades; he really looked like a movie star.
"Nothing, my curiosity is cured," Sky said feeling self-conscious.
"Sex." Travis chuckled. "You left out the most obvious topic. Your friend Emma asked me about that the first day she came trotting by the pool."
Sky sputtered. "She did?"
"Yup." Travis grinned. "Now, admit you were curious."
"I was curious. I was dying with it. Emma kept telling me about sex in wheelchairs and all of that jazz. And I am officially mortified."
"I know this was a curiosity for you", Travis smirked. "Your stammering and blushing gave you away. What do you want to know about it?"
Sky groaned. "This is embarrassing."
"I would be curious too." Travis grinned.
He didn't say anything more after that. Which had Sky squirming in her seat in suspense.
Travis touched her leg briefly and she jumped.
"Relax," he pushed his glasses further on his head so that she could see his eyes. "When you are no longer my student, maybe we'll talk about it. Maybe not. But to give you a general answer, there are some people in wheelchairs who can have sex and who can father children.
"Being disabled gives you a sense of vulnerability, giving details about your sex life especially to pretty, young students is not something I want to do unless I absolutely trust you."
Sky swallowed. "That's fair."
"Tell me about your family." Travis changed the subject.
"We are not as exciting as yours." Sky shrugged. "I told you about them already. My mom is Mrs. Bucket from Keeping Up Appearances, remember that British Comedy? They shouldn't have cancelled it when they did."
"Yes I remember it, I am just now watching the reruns." Travis laughed, "You serious? Your mother is Hyacinth Bucket?"
"Well, she is a little like her. Everything has to be just right for my mother. She is a bit OCD about a lot of things." Sky chuckled. "On the other hand, my dad is a regular guy who drinks beer, watches an obscene amount of sporting events and is not afraid to bet on them. He is jovial, sweet and takes everything at face value. He is not particularly deep."
"He sounds like a nice guy to hang with," Travis glanced at her, "and the polar opposite of my dad."
"What's your dad like?" Sky asked turning at a crossroad. She honked her horn at a group of children who were playing cricket in the middle of the street.
Travis watched as they scampered for the safety of the side of the road before he answered.
"My dad is a businessman. He is intense and overly analytical. Everything has to have an explanation or he will drive himself crazy trying to get to the bottom of it. He was a science nerd in the seventies, a businessman in the eighties.
"He excelled at both. He did make an effort to be a good role model when I was younger and now he hates the fact that I am crippled. He can't handle anything less than perfect, so our relationship is pretty non existent now."
"And your mom?" Sky asked, "What is she like?"
"My mom is a nurturer," Travis chuckled, "with a magical green thumb that can bring any plant back to life."
Sky laughed. "Come on, really? Any plant."
"Yes, My mom's a botanist and a true plant lover." Travis smiled, I think I learned the scientific names for plants before I actually learned their common names."
"Cool." Sky looked at him with envy. "That's really cool and unusual."
Travis nodded. "Well, I was teased for it in high school. When you know information like what we call grass from the Poaceae family which includes edible grass like rice, wheat and barley, you tend to be looked at like a know it all."
Sky chuckled. "Yes I can see how that would happen. How did your parents meet?"
"My dad went to Trinidad to see her about a plant she was studying. She wrote a science journal article about its use to cure certain strains of influenza.
My father was studying the same plant for his now famous cough medicine. And as they say, the rest was history. They hit it off instantly. They didn't waste any time. They married within a month. Five miscarriages later they had me."
"Wow." Sky glanced at him, "so you are literally a momma's boy."
"Surprisingly, my mother is not that clingy. We have a healthy relationship." Travis laughed. "She has a lot to occupy her outside of my life. She keeps tabs on the research section of the business and she owns a garden center."
"That's where you got your pretty plants from?" Sky raised an eyebrow.
"Definitely." Travis nodded.
"Tell me about your dad's first wife. Do you get along with her?"
"Marla I hardly see her. She remarried twice after my dad. She is now single, I think. My sister, Milly, who is closest to me in age is usually the one who keeps me up to date on her mom but Milly is in no frame of mind to give me family suss now..."
"Sky was going to ask about Milly but she had a feeling that this would not be something he was willing to elaborate on, so instead she asked, "How did they break up? Your dad and Marla?"
Travis sighed. "They were teenage lovers. They had a shotgun marriage and three children later, they both couldn't stand each other and Marla left. My dad noticed she was gone a couple weeks after she left, thus making her point that she was superfluous to his life."
"Weeks?" Sky squealed. "You have to be kidding!"
"No." Travis chuckled, "Marla and my dad tell the same version of the story."
Sky whistled.
"How did your parents break up?" Travis asked curiously.
Sky sighed. "They cheated on each other. My mother was going to pay her lover to kill him. My cousin Addi time traveled back to '92 and foiled the plan. So that's why my dad is alive and remarried to Monica."
"Good old time travel, huh?" Travis glanced at her doubtfully. "You look so sane when you tell me these things."
"That's because I am sane," Sky said after a long contemplative silence. "One day you will believe me. One day you will get desperate enough to try resetting as a solution. When you do, you have to find me and tell me about it."
Travis laughed out loud. "Never."
"You know what they say," Sky shook her head at him reprovingly, "never say never. You just never know."
****
Sky debated whether she should drive up to Monica's place before she got the book; she slowed down in front of her house and looked over into the yard. Her uncle and au
nt were not at their house. She had a key though so getting the book from Addi's room would not be a problem.
The flowers at the front of her house were wilting and her father would not have the intuition to water them. Besides that, the place had an air of neglect to it that suggested that there was nobody living there.
"That's where you live?" Travis looked over into the yard curiously.
"Yes, I think that should be living, past tense. My childhood stuff is taking up space. My dad lives up there."
She pointed to the house on the hill.
Travis whistled. "Nice view and nice flowers on the hill. I can see why he moved up there."
"Yes." Sky smirked. "It really is a nice place. Monica said the name of the flowers in the driveway are Yesterday Today and Tomorrow."
"Or brunfelsia pauciflora," Travis said smugly.
"The problem with you telling me this, is that I have no idea if what you are saying is even right. I am just going to nod and pretend that I am impressed."
Travis laughed.
"Monica says her grandmother planted them like twenty odd years ago. She liked them because the flowers represented very distinct periods in our timeline. The first day they are purple (yesterday), the second day they change to a pastel lavender shade (today), and on the third day they change to an almost white color (tomorrow). You can just look at the plant and see where each flower is. I guess the whole time thing resonated with Miss Gwen because she was a time traveler."
"Good heavens." Travis covered his face. "Everybody in your life is a time traveler."
"I never met Miss Gwen." Sky shrugged. "Probably I did and was too young to remember. She was not in my life, though. She was my stepmother's grandmother. I wish you would stop mocking the resetting idea."
"Okay, okay." Travis looked at her lazily. "I will not say a word against your little time traveling theory again."
"Good." Sky tapped the steering wheel. "I guess I should drive on up there and say hi. It would look bad for me not to."
Travis touched her on the arm. "Your dad would like that."
"Maybe," Sky muttered. She took a deep breath and started the car. She drove up to the steep driveway and turned off the engine.
Never Say Never (Resetter Series Book 2) Page 6
