Parallel (Travelers Series Book 1)

Parallel (Chapter 27 - final chapter!)

Chapter Twenty-Seven
Family

Aunt Maggie insists that everyone settle in the kitchen while she makes a fresh pot of coffee. It’s obvious she’s beside herself about agreeing to let me spend the night over at Jaime’s. I reassure her that Oliver would have gotten to me eventually. Then she makes a quick call to April, asking her to come over immediately.

Now that everyone is here, it’s a full house: me, Aunt Maggie, Cooper, dad, and April. We all gather around the kitchen table. Despite everything that’s happened the last couple of hours, I look around the table and I’m floored over with emotion. I realize that I’m happy for the first time in my life. Here I am, surrounded by people who care about me—well, the jury’s still out on April. She still looks annoyed.

It’s clear no one wants to be the first to speak up, so I go first. “Am I finally going to get some answers around here?”

“I suppose I owe you an explanation,” my father starts off. “But first, I’d like to hear from this young man. Why did you bring my daughter back?”

Cooper clears his throat. “I’m a traveler sir and yes, the Council is responsible for her return. Oliver kicked off a chain of events that made it imperative that I bring Etta back. Without her, we have no chance in changing the course of events.”

“What do you mean, without me?” I ask.

“Let me start of by saying that when the Council decided to bring you back, it never occurred to them that you would be in any real danger here in this reality,” Cooper began. “In my reality, Oliver succeeds in using your powers to his advantage. That’s why it was important for us to have you back here.”

“So what is Etta’s role in all this?” My father, with good reason, seems genuinely concerned.

Cooper looks over at me and takes in a deep breath. “Well, sir, Etta is the leader of the Council and—”

“Wait, hold up there,” my father interrupts. “Now, I’m very familiar with the Council and Etta is certainly not—”

Now it’s my turn to interrupt. “What’s the Council?”

Before Cooper can answer, my father explains. “The Council oversees a faction of travelers. We do not have a Council here in this reality, but they are prevalent where Cooper comes from.”

“There’s a little bit more to it than that, but yes, the travelers from my reality have banded together to overthrow Oliver and his regime,” Cooper says.

“And I’m their leader?” I ask.

“Yes,” Cooper says. “Without you here in this reality, you never find out about Oliver and help lead the resistance against him in our dimension.”

“Wicked.” It’s kinda scary, but cool to find out your the head of a council of travelers. “Why me?”

Cooper hesitates. “Because you feel responsible.”

I guess he doesn’t really have to explain further. I suppose I would feel guilty if I was the cause of Oliver’s power trip.

My dad shakes his head. “I’ll admit I messed up when it came to my research and how best to protect it. But my biggest failure is with regard to you Etta,” he says. “You shouldn’t have to carry the burden for my mistakes.”

“Well, after everything that went on this last week, I’m just glad I’m back, no matter how or why I got here. I still don’t understand everything that’s happened or is supposed to happen, but I have a family now,” I reassure them. I look over at Maggie and I can see tears in her eyes. I’m pretty sure she’s happy to have me back as well.