Page 15 of Just in Time
I felt everything around me slow to a halt. I’d successfully paused the present. Now Brody’s fade wouldn’t progress any further. I couldn’t keep it paused forever, obviously, but it would buy us some time while I found the holes I needed to fix.
We’d be the same age as we were now. No older, no younger. And when we returned, it’d hopefully be within a few minutes of when we’d left.
I found Brody’s edge first, clinging to the back of mine. I clutched them both together and found his lifeline, picking the point in September 1987 that I’d found before, aided by the date I’d decided on earlier.
We zipped off along the line, Brody gripping my head and my hands the faster we went.
I felt Brody inhale sharply as I stopped, our feet hitting down on the hardwood floor of our apartment. But our apartment from 31 years before.Notour apartment now.
In retrospect, I probably should have at least taken us over into the next county before I sent us back, but hindsight was twenty/twenty, wasn’t it?
I opened my eyes and looked around. It was empty. Full of dust and cobwebs.
“What’s going on?” Brody asked, looking around the familiar, yet not familiar room.
“The bar was empty before Jolene bought it,” I explained. “She must have acquired it after 1987. Shouldn’t be anyone here until later, but we should still be quiet and go out the back window…” I replied. “Is there anyway you can shift into like… asmalldog or…”
There was a rustle of clothing and a small yelp from beside me as I glanced down at Brody. A tiny, yippy Yorkie with two missing front paws was sitting beside me in a pile of Brody’s clothing, turning around excitedly as I knelt to scoop him up in my arms. I carefully folded the clothing and put it in my bag. “This works,” I said softly, tucking him under my arm as I crept toward the back window. There was an easy way to get down to the ground from here. But I’d have to be careful with Brody the Yorkie in my arms.
I made it just fine, tucking Brody into my arms to hide the absence of his front paws. “C’mon, babe. We gotta find a ride…”
The sun was just starting to rise in the east, so I must have taken us back to a morning. All the better, because we had to find a way to get to Brody’s hometown. Abernathy, VA. One county over.
Wecouldwalk, I supposed, but…
I started walking westbound on the sidewalk, marveling slightly at how the town looked the same, but so much newer too. The paint wasn’t peeling from a lot of the older buildings yet. It looked like someone had taken a sponge and soap to almost everything.
Even the bus looked newer.
As I sat my Yorkie boyfriend in my lap, I decided to ride the bus westbound as far as we could.
“I gotta think of a way to get to Abernathy…” I muttered. “I forgot to bring money. And even if I did, I wouldn’t have currency from this time period…”
I wished I’d taken the time to plan this better, but with Brody literally fading away before my eyes, urgency had trumped preparedness.
The other people on the bus glanced at me funny after we got on. It took me a full minute to realize why.
My clothes.
Shit. I really need to think this stuff through…I thought to myself. I kept staring straight ahead, hoping no one thought much of me.
The stuff I was wearing in no way blended in with what the other women were wearing.
A pink sweater and dark wash skinny jeans. The sneakers couldpossiblypass for being from the 80s, but my bag was definitely a late-aughts tote that had fallen out of style at least ten years before. So like… twenty years after 1987. Give or take.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
The bus dropped us off at the last stop, and I got out with Brody, wondering what we could do. I started walking west along the only road out of town, and Brody started barking. He barked so much, I veered off into some bushes so he could shift back into himself. “What?” I asked, fully aware of my amazingly hot shifter boyfriend’ completely nude form in front of me.
“You can’t go walking into Abernathy with a tiny little dog under your arm. They’ll eat you alive.”
“What do you suggest?” I asked.
He smirked. “Thought you’d never ask, babe.”
He bent down, placing his non-hands onto the ground as he shifted once more, this time into a palomino horse, tall and sleek. Whinnying. Sans front hooves, but hopefully we wouldn’t run into anyone who would notice.
I was never so happy to have been forced into horseback riding as a kid than I was now. I’d have to send Momma a thank you card or something. Or maybe just some good vibes. If I gave her a card, she’d know something was up and probably find a way to wheedle details out of me. And then she’d have another reason to ‘worry’ about me.
