The Olive Theory ~ Adam Reed

8. Jealousy, Jealousy

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Hailey leaned against the door of the shed as she tried to convince Adam to open the door. "Oh, come on. Hey, Adam." Adam says as he walks up the door causing Hailey to move aside.

"Get out of my stuff and open the door. Put the drone down. It will kill all of us. Hey, look, you lost one fight. I figured you'd be used to that by now." Adam said as he stepped down the small stairs leading to the door.

"You guys coulda helped. You both just stood there." Adam said as he continued to mess with the stuff in his older self's bag. "Christ. You're so sensitive. I wanted to." Adam and Hailey said at the same time.

"Hey, you had to lose that fight. You had to. Trust me." Adam said as he turned around to sit on the steps. "You don't go from bein' you to bein' me without gettin' your ass kicked, a lot, all the time. I'm sorry if I went too far today. "Shouldn't have done that," Adam said looking down.

"Who's this?" Adam says as he holds up a picture of a woman. "She's gorgeous," Hailey said mesmerized by the photo. "Who's who?" Adam said as he turned around to look.

"Put that back. You put that back." Adam's voice changed into an angry and sad tone as he stood up. "As soon as you tell me who she is," Adam said as he lifted his head to present himself as confident. Hailey looked at the Adam next to her as he hesitated.

"That's my wife, Laura." Hailey's face dropped from curious to jealousy. "We have a wife?" Adam asked surprised but stopped when he caught the jealousy in Hailey's face. "No, we do not have a wife anymore," Adam said with his voice soft and quiet.

Hailey looked between the two Adams as the older Adam walked away. Hailey and Adam stared awkwardly at each other as he opened the door and followed after his older self leaving Hailey to her thoughts.

The next morning the three sat in the kitchen as they ate a meal together. The Adams both sat at the table while Hailey sat on the counter with her food in her lap and her legs crisscrossed.

"So you came back for your wife, Laura?" Adam asked. "We're not getting into that," Adam said as he stared at his food. "Hey, she's my wife too," Adam said offended.

"You know what? We should get into that." Adam said as he looked at his younger self. "Thank you." Adam nodded as he listened to his older self explain.

"Met in the academy. She was 20 minutes late to the wrong classroom in the wrong building. I offered to walk her to the right one, and..." Adam explained as he glance back and forth between his food and the two kids.

"Man, I was all in before we even made it outside. A couple of years ago, she didn't come back from a jump. They told me her jet broke up on reentry, but she was the best pilot in the program. She wrote the book on reentry. Didn't make sense." Hailey looked at Adam with a surprised and empathetic look.

"And you were trying to get to 2018 'cause that's where she went before?" Hailey asked as she jumped down from the counter she was sitting on. "Yeah," Adam said as he watched her wash her dish.

"What was she doing there?" Adam asked confused. "I don't know. They changed the jump logs. Somebody was hidin' somethin'. Maybe she saw something Sorian didn't want her to see." Adam mumbled as he took a bite of his food.

"Wait, "Sorian"? Maya Sorian, Dad's partner? She was always so nice to me." Hailey and Adam looked at each other in shock since both their fathers worked/works with Sorian. "Hmm. Yeah, trust me. She's no friend." Adam chuckled as he stood up with his plate.

"Nope," Adam said as he grabbed his plate from his older self's hand. "After Dad died, she got rich off of his tech." Adam began as he dropped his plate in the sink and grabbed his coffee mug from the table.

"Bought all the right people. Next thing you know, she has exclusive control over the most valuable resource on Earth, time." Adam said as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Wait a minute. You're saying Dad invented time travel?" Adam asked with a smile on his face. "Yeah. Not on purpose. The magnetic particle accelerator. Remember that?" Adam asked as he looked at his younger self.

"He called it The Adam Project," Adam answered reminiscing the memory. "Yeah, or as I like to call it, his favorite child," Adam said quietly. "So what happened to Laura?" Hailey asked as she leaned against Adam's chair.

"Mmm. Well, I think your nice friend Maya had her killed." Adam said casually as if hearing your family friend may have had your future wife killed. "What?" Hailey and Adam said in unison.

"Yeah. That's why I gotta get back to 2018 as soon as possible. The jet's almost ready. I'll lay low in the shed. I'll heal for a few more days until I can get a clean read and then fly out of your life." Adam said as Hawking's whining caught his attention.

"But going back to save her. Talking to me. Everything you're doing right now is just to rescue one person. You're changing the future. That's gotta be against the rules." Adam ranted as older Adam put his coffee cup down and looked at the front door.

"You'll feel differently when you meet her," Adam says as he grabs the bag full of things and sets it on the table in front of his younger self. "And when you lose her." Adam says as he shoves the "lightsaber" into his jacket.

"What?" Hailey asked as she walked behind Adam's chair. Adam shushes the two from talking as he slowly walked towards the front door. "Grab that bag. Get ready to run." Adam said causing Adam to get out of his sit and grab Hailey's arm.

"Why? What's happening?" Adam asked as he grabbed the bag from the table. "We're going that way. Be ready." Adam says as Hailey and Adam slowly walk towards the back door, holding hands.

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