The Harder I Work, the Luckier I Get

by Amber Lynn

When I’m aware of my surroundings again, I’m in a bedroom that looks like Nate’s half of our bedroom suite. Standing there looking at Nate sitting on the bed, I have no clue how I got there. I look around and nothing looks like it has changed. I suppose that’s a good sign.

  Nate’s clothes are different, but if days had gone by like the last time I’d been knocked out, I didn’t blame him for changing. I’d probably end up thanking him for giving my nose a reprieve.

  “Why Avery? Why did you have to leave?” I hear Nate say.

  “What are you talking about now, Malik?” I ask, walking towards the bed. When he isn’t making sense, I revert to his original name.

  He’s looking down at a picture, paying no attention to me at all. I look at the picture and see it’s of me and him smiling. He’s in a suit and I’m in my wedding dress. The wedding dress I’m supposed to be wearing the next day. I would have to say I’m in the future. Well, that’s a new twist on an old story.

  I raise my hand to try to touch his face, to get him to look up at me, but my hand goes right through him. Oh crap. It’s usually not good when you can’t make contact with another person.

  “Hey, Dad, are you coming? The kids are getting a little restless,” a grown man says as he walks in the room.

  If he’s calling him Dad, I’m guessing this is my son Zain. Just seeing him and putting a face to a name brings back my memories of him. It’s not like the other times where I flashed through all the moments of that person’s life with me. I just remember everything about him, including the day he gave me the sea shells from my shoebox.

  Whether that’s a good or bad thing, I don’t know. My concern is the fact that I don’t appear to have a body. In all of my trips to the past I’d been at least visible.

  “Yeah, Scott, I’m coming right down,” Nate says, putting the photo down on the table next to the bed. Thankfully our son isn't calling himself Phoenix anymore.

  “It’s only been five years, Dad. She may still come back to us,” Scott, or Zain as my mind recalls, tells him.

  “I wish that was true, but I can already tell this time is different. I feel even more lost than before, like something has been ripped out of my body. When that knife went in your Mom, it took part of me with her,” he replies.

  “I’m so sorry, Dad. I can’t imagine what life would be like without Megan. At least we were able to defeat the warlock, even if she sacrificed herself to do so. The world would be even darker if we hadn’t. I know it’s really dark for you now, but you promised your three littlest kids a trip to the ice cream parlor, and I really don’t want them to be disappointed again,” Scott tells him.

  “I know, and I really need to thank all of you older kids for helping out. I love Aine, Aisling and Aidan very much. It’s just as she gets older, little Aisling is looking more and more like her mother. It’s makes things difficult for me,” Nate says.

  Scott looks at him with pity for a second. It must be hard to see his father this way. It’s excruciating for me to witness. I’m really hoping this is like the book A Christmas Carol and I’m just viewing the world with the ghost of Christmas future. If we ended up having our triplets, that should mean that I haven’t really died yet.

  “Dad, try to hang on for a couple centuries, then you’ll be free to join Mom. We don’t know that it’s possible, but if it is, I know you’ll find a way to do it. For no­­w though, you’re still the ruler of the uniques and the parental figure for those three young children.

  “They’ve known since the moment they were born that their mother would be missing from their lives and their father would spend most of his ­time grieving. Combined, they’re a very strong oracle, so we can’t keep a thing from them. Try to keep it together, so they can at least have a halfway normal childhood,” Scott lectures Nate.

  It sounds like this is a speech he probably hears often. I knew if I died trying to secure the future for the people on the planet, it would be rough on him. He even told me I came before anything else, but it’s sad to see what my dying would really cause.

  “Enough talk. Let’s go get some ice cream,” Nate says with a sad smile.

  It hurt to see him in pain. I want to assure him that he hadn’t really lost me, but I can’t be sure whether the statement is true.

  They head downstairs and I follow along behind them. The house doesn’t look too different. I guess no one felt the need to remodel in the five years since I’ve been gone. When we get to the living room, I see my brother sitting with three small children.

  They’re all adorable. They share the same brown hair, but one of the girls has blue eyes and the other two kids have brown. I can tell that the blue-eyed girl must be Aisling, because she does look just like me at that age. Seeing my children, and knowing I’ll never be able to hold them makes my eyes start to water.

  I’m happy to see they were conceived. That can only mean Nate had made great use of our honeymoon, or Eva was better at her job than I thought.

  “Hey angels, how’s your day going so far?” Nate asks them.

  “Very well, Daddy,” the little girl who I’m guessing is Aine replies.

  While she’s studying her dad, hopefully buying the smile Nate is doing a poor job of displaying, Aisling turns and looks in my direction. She cocks her head to one side in question, and then focuses back on the other people in the room.

  I feel chills run up my spine. I don’t know why, but I’m certain she knows I’m in the room. The look lasted only a second, but a connection oddly formed in that second.

  “Are we going to go get ice cream, Daddy?” she asks.

  “Of course, my dearest angel,” he replies going over to her, picking her up for a hug. “Why don’t we head to the store now?”

  “Yeah!” three little voices scream in unison, and the kids run out the door, once Nate lets go of Aisling. Scott hurries behind them, while Rick stops Nate. I’m so focused on the kids that I barely notice he’s in the room.

  “I recognize how horrible you feel. Not only was she my twin, so I feel a loss because of that, but she also died saving me. If she only knew I wasn’t really in danger. I relive the moment every day and hate myself for living instead of her,” Rick tells him.

  I know I’ve had a vision of Rick being killed in the battle, and I’ve vowed to make sure that didn’t happen. Evidently, I made sure of that, but I must have forfeited my own life to create that reality. I suppose that’s one way to get things done.

  “We wouldn’t have been able to stop her from doing everything she could to save the rest of us. She always said she would do this battle alone if she could. Your sister was the best of the best, and will be greatly missed for millennia to come by those whose lives she touched,” Nate says, being strong for Rick.

  I imagine these two spend a lot of time commiserating over the good ol’ days. I can see they’ve tried to support one another the best they could, when both have had trouble finding the will to go on.

  “Let’s go get the kids some ice cream. That will make everyone feel a little better, at least for five minutes,” Rick says with a smile that doesn’t live up to the ones I’m used to seeing on his face.

  They head outside to join the kids in a vehicle I don’t know by sight. I see the Chevrolet emblem on it, but being five years in the future, I’m not sure the model. Everyone climbs in the car, and I just kind of follow behind as they make their way to Longford’s. The kids jump out of the car the second it’s in park and run to the door. The adults have to hurry behind them to make sure they don’t cause any trouble.

  They should’ve brought more than just the three adults. The kids exude energy and I don’t see the matching amount coming from the guys.

  They were already starting to order as I enter the building. Walking through space without encountering resistance is a strange feeling, and I hope that it doesn’t last long. I try closing my eyes quickly, to see if it helps get me back to real life, but nothing happens. It was worth a try, but I didn’t expe
ct anything.

  “We need three single scoop cones, in what flavors, guys?” Nate asks the children.

  “I want rocky road,” Aine replies. She hops up and down as she speaks, a sign she doesn’t really needs any sugar in my book.

  “Mint chocolate chip for me,” Aidan orders. Obviously my children didn’t pick up my distaste for chocolate.

  “I’d like pistachio, please, Daddy,” Aisling requests with a small smile. Okay, maybe one of them did. Not only that, but she picked my favorite kind of ice cream.

  Nate glances at her, and then turns back to the man behind the register. I imagine if he has problems being around her because her looks remind him of me, the fact that she orders my favorite ice cream, has to be pretty hard on him. It makes me wonder if she did that for other foods.

  The ice cream cones are made and handed out. My family then heads over to a table, where the grown-ups can watch the kids enjoy their ice cream. I want to grab all the napkins I can in preparation for the mess I’m sure is about to occur, but I settle for standing by and watching.

  “Daddy, do you think we can go to the zoo today?” Aidan asks. I can tell he’s pushing for any time he can get with his father.

  “I wasn’t planning a trip into the city today. How about if we try to do that tomorrow,” Nate replies.

  “Promise, Daddy,” little Aine pipes in.

  “I promise, sweetheart,” he answers.

  “Daddy, could we maybe go to the park after our ice cream?” Aisling asks. “It isn’t far away, and us kids would really love for you to take us. Our uncles are great, but we rarely ever get to go out with you, Daddy.”

  This kid doesn’t sound like a five-year-old. I’ve always heard people say they have an old soul, but I really have to believe Aisling is something special. It may have been the connection I felt with her, but there’s something a little eerie about her.

  “I think we’d all enjoy that. Finish your ice cream and we’ll head over to Flint Park to play for a little while. We can’t spend all day out, but I’d love to play with you guys for an hour or so,” Nate replies.

  “Yes!” Aidan and Aine scream. The specific decibel they hit echoes in my ears.

  Aisling just smiles. It’s one that told me she knows something no one else does. It makes me wish I had a voice even more. I want to know what she’s thinking.

  They finish up their ice cream cones, magically not making a mess of everything. I can’t believe no napkins were necessary.

  “All done,” Aidan announces. “Time to go to the park.”

  “All right then, let’s go,” Scott says, standing up and helping the kids out to the car.

  Nate looks over at Rick, and doesn’t have to say anything before Rick speaks up.

  “I know. She acts way to much like my sister sometimes. You’re sure she somehow isn’t Avery reincarnated? That would be weird if she was your daughter and wife, but there has to be an explanation.”

  “There are no sparks, so yes I’m sure. Like you said, that would be weird if that was possible. It’s almost like Avery left her with us so we wouldn’t miss her being gone as much,” Nate replies.

  “It sounds like something she’d do. Trying to ease the pain anyway she can is what she’s good at.”

  “I don’t think she realized how much harder it’d be on me,” Nate says, walking towards the door. “Enough sadness for a few minutes, let’s go try to have fun at the park.”

  They walk out the door together and get in the car as I do whatever it is I’m doing.

   

  CHAPTER 12

  After so many children, you should really be committed