A Grateful Heart (ONC 2023; manxman)✅

Chapter 17

Before Teddy arrived in 2023, certain details should have been worked out. For example, Teddy McDonough died in World War II. Who was Teddy Maillet? Did he have a birth certificate or social security number? Did he even have a high school diploma?

Teddy couldn't survive on love alone.

We both yearned for answers. He was up until two a.m., trying to remember how he got here and who got him here.

As I got ready for work, Teddy twirled strands of his hair around his finger, a sign he was anxious or worried about something. Staying home today wasn't an option for me. Because I was up with Teddy most of the night, I overslept. Now I was running late and had no time to spare. "I'll be home around four," I said, kissing him goodbye.

"Eric," Teddy stopped me on my way out of the room. "You're not a rich man. You can't support me forever. What we're doing... what I'm doing... it won't work. I'm nobody. I have no identification to prove who I am. I have to make money. I can't do anything. I'm trapped."

I returned to him, realizing Teddy needed more consolation than I'd already given him.

"It was easier for me, huh? There were no social security numbers in 1935."

"You never intended to stay there forever."

I patted his back, wishing I didn't have to go to work. "We'll figure it out. I gotta go. We'll talk later, okay?"

He nodded, accepting another goodbye kiss.

If he had a phone, I would have called or texted him in between classes. When I left this morning, he looked lost, even sad. Before coming home, I bought him a dozen roses, hoping to cheer him up.

As I entered my house, a delicious aroma wafted in my direction. Teddy was at the stove, stirring spaghetti sauce. It smelled too good to be jarred sauce. "I didn't know you could cook," I observed.

"Neither did I," he said. "I was bored, so I used that google thing on the computer. I typed pasta sauce recipes in the box and a bunch of recipes showed up. I've never had ground turkey breast before." He must have found the package of turkey breast in the freezer. "Aww, you got me roses?" he asked with a smirk. "That's so modern."

"Does it freak you out?"

"No, they're beautiful. Thank you."

Teddy discovered he had a knack for cooking. Since he had nothing else to do, he explored and tried different recipes. In his day, women did the cooking, so this was a new role for him. He even walked to the nearest grocery store. Although Teddy didn't like sushi, he discovered he enjoyed Thai food. He made shrimp pad Thai once and it was one of the best I ever had.

But Teddy didn't just research recipes. He researched EVERYTHING he missed over the past eighty years. In addition, he watched movies such as Dunkirk, The Great Escape, Bridge over the River Kwai, and Letters from Iwo Jima. He even watched Schindler's List. He never discussed anything or expressed any emotion, keeping everything inside. He hadn't yet discovered Saving Private Ryan. He became obsessed with The Longest Day, a 1962 movie based on Cornelius Ryan's 1959 non-fiction book about the Normandy invasion in France.

"I should have been there," he said minutes after the movie ended.

"But wouldn't you rather be here and alive?" I responded.

"I'm not alive, Eric. I'm a ghost."

"I don't believe in ghosts. You feel alive," I said, poking his arm, attempting to make him laugh. He almost laughed.

Behind his once playful eyes was an emerging sadness I'd never seen. It wasn't just sadness. It was guilt, although he'd never admit it. Researching and watching movies exacerbated his survivor's guilt. Millions died while he lived, saved for reasons we didn't understand.