Getting Up: Finding My Way Back in a Flash, 2011-2014

Time Travel and Love Undone

The Mirror That Shook

The oval mirror stood fixed. The rip passed over and cracked the lead glass like a gunshot. It transformed into a pane of water. The dark liquid shimmered and shook out shapes like a cloudy crystal ball.
Mark reined in his horse and watched from one side of it. The tropical winds whipped across the Outer Banks and kicked up shells and pebbles. He saw his wife, Jane, sleeping on the other side in her room. The sound of a jet plane roared across time and made his horse whinny and rear backwards.
Jane bolted upright, and a gust of wind and rain blasted through the family heirloom. She clamped her lips shut to stop a scream. Mark yelled for her to come to him over the wind and held up a leather pouch.
Jane's heart tripped hard over the sound of fury in her bedroom. Her bare feet touched floorboards. Her cream-colored nightgown with tiny white straps and a small flower sewn at the V swished around her ankles. She inched towards the mirror.
Mark slid down and undid the string on the pouch. He counted out twelve pebbles and arranged them into an arrow. The marked the point of exit and possibly the point of return.
Jane stared at his photo on the dresser. He was sitting in the pilot's seat of a Blackhawk. The Air Force said a surface-to-air missile had shot him down from the sky.
Jane pushed two fingers through and stepped back. The static electricity coming through the rip made her hair stand up on her arms. Mark waited. Jane swallowed and the rip began to recede. Mark shouted for her to jump. The pane of water whirled faster. Jane hesitated. Mark screamed for her hands. The mirror began to shake all over and water sloshed at her feet.
Mark howled. "Please Jane...Don't leave me here alone!"
Jane crossed her heart and shoved through. A baby cried out somewhere in the distance. The mirror slammed to the floor.

***

A Leak in the Hourglass

The asphalt cracked open. A wraith with a blackened chatelaine extended its bony fingertips over the edges of time, screaming up from the ground. The driver shrieked at the apparition, turned the wheel too sharp, and the city bus climbed the sidewalk on the two wheels. A small boy named Frank clutched his bunny to his chest as the bus' right front wheel hit him. Uncle J.T. jumped off of the bench and wailed in horror. In front of God and everybody walking upright on that dingy, newspaper-cluttered block, the wraith tucked Frank under a suspended armpit, hissed at J.T., and flew back inside the hole. J.T. used the curb like a springboard and dove through the narrow space after them.
J.T. swam in a submerged kaleidoscope. The water was bathtub warm. Little Frank loved to play whale with Uncle J.T. at the Y because he hold his breath so long. He still had his chops from his service days, but even he could feel his lungs start to burst. He saw a shaft of light to his right and kicked his legs harder. The light got stronger and little sparkles directed him through another hole, until he pushed up and emerged. He gasped for air. He coughed. He could feel the dryness in his throat and the ache in his lungs.
He was in a swimming pool. Eight little boys lay face down around him. The wraith screamed overhead. He could see time leaking through another hole in the top of the chamber. Tears streaked down his face. He flipped ever child over, paddled to the steps of the pool, and placed them on the cement together. He heard collective breathing as he worked to save their lives. One after one transformed into light.
The roughest, toughens SEAL in the United States Navy sat back on his heels sobbed. "Where's Frank?"
The wraith floated in front of his face and pointed toward the deep end of the pool. Time had run out.
He watched the babysitter put Frank into the bathtub alone with the water running.
J.T. climbed the board and dove in. Frank waited for him at the bus stop with a smile.