Raymond's Colette

Chapter 2: Epiphany

"When is he coming home?"

"Colette, travelling from one country to another is not as easy as you think. He's busy, for heaven's sake! Let. It. Go." Colette groaned, "I miss him, okay? I miss the time he used to spend with me, and all the games we used to play together and... just hugging him. I miss it. And Herald does too. And Henry didn't even recognize him the last time he came. Fathers should spend time with their kids."

"You are not the one who decides what parents should do."

"Well I can, if I love him and he doesn't notice us anymore."

"That is not true."

"Well, obviously there's something you guys are hiding from me. From us." She folded her arms in front of her as her mother remained silent, searching for words. Colette knew she had hit the spot and so she continued, "Not calling for long intervals,"

"Colette."

"Making stupid excuses for not coming back-"

"Colette stop-"

"He even cancels my calls sometimes."

Her mother now clearly seemed worried, "Col."

"I haven't seen you talking to him since ages. I've even started doubting if all that affection back in those days was real!"

"Listen,"

"Mum," Colette gritted, her eyes watering "What's the matter?"

Her mother seemed hesitant. She walked up to her daughter sitting on the kitchen counter and embraced her in an awkward and uncomfortable hug. Colette's mother was skinny and she never really was a hugger, anyway. Except if she ever hugged her daughter, Colette knew immediately nothing was okay. "I cannot tell you right now. Look, it's complicated, okay?" Colette pushed her mum away, her eyes widening. She shook her head. "Mum, I'm not dumb, Goddamnit! Do you think I wouldn't figure it out? He doesn't want to be with us anymore!" She yelled. Colette breathed a few times, trying to push back her tears "Just answer one thing. Is he ever coming back?" She asked almost in a whisper. Her mother stood there like a statue for what seemed like forever.

Then she shook her head no.

Colette grabbed her phone, and despite her mother's pleads and calls, dashed out of her house. She blinked back her tears as the cold air blew at her face. She recalled her last encounter with her father, which was more formal and distant than ever.

"Is everything okay at school?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"And your grades?"

"Perfectly fine. Cody helps me in math, and sometimes in physics."

He adjusted his glasses and looked up from his tablet, "Are you still friends with him?"

"Um, yeah?" he nodded thoughtfully at that.

"Don't hang out with friends too much and concentrate on school work. I don't like that kid."

"Who, Nerd egg? Naw, He's cool. And awesome as heck in studies, too."

Raymond shook his head. "You swear a lot, too, Colette. I don't like that."

Her phone buzzed, breaking her thoughts. It was a message from Nerd egg: 'Cheetos. Meet me under the creepy bridge ASAP. I have something AWESOME to show you.'

There was a poop emoticon with it. Why was there a poop emoticon with it? Was he going to show her something shitty like that crappy piece of metal again? That's the disadvantage of being friends with a nerd; they find chemistry and physics in everything.

But she couldn't be anywhere else this late and going back home after what just happened was not an option. Colette texted him: I'm on my way.

She was rewarded with another poop emoticon.

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"Eeeek!"

Colette's shriek of disgust echoed in the old tunnel as she stepped on a piece of garbage. She looked around desperately trying to find her stupid friend. "Cody, you dumb brain! Where are you?" She called, choking on her words. She couldn't even breathe in the disgusting place. After a while, his voice came from the other side of the tunnel "I'm here!"

She groaned.

By the time she reached him, he was typing away on his laptop like a crazy scientist, sitting on a broken chair. In front of him, connected to different wires and stuff, was the crappy metal they left as a useless thing a long time ago. "Cody!" She gasped, "Oh my God you really have gone crazy."

"I haven't cheetos. This is my chance to prove I'm not just a stupid nerd. We can prove time travelling is real. And we both will be the first volunteers!" He placed the laptop in front of him. The machine still seemed pretty useless, connected to the wires and all. The only thing that was blinking was the laptop; nothing else seemed to be working. And as it appeared to Colette, Cody's brain was among those things as well.

He stepped forward, "Colette, whatever I've found out about time machines is present in this box. Trust me!"

"Cody," She started worriedly when he stopped her. He grabbed her shoulders, "Cheetos, please." He pleaded desperately, "Imagine, if it works, we will be known in history!"

Eyes wide, said girl shook her head disbelievingly. But then she looked at the machine and noticed all the effort he had done. It was his dream to do something big after all. And plus, it looked like a good distraction from her current problems. Friends helped each other, right? And he never back away from helping her. Why should she then?

She nodded. Cody beamed, "Thank you so much, cheetos."

"Just great. If anyone sees me down here namaste-ing in front of a metal box, my reputation will be more rotten than the leftover food in the garbage." She frowned "I hate you."

Cody smiled, "You know you love me."

He pushed her to sit down in front of the machine, and sat down on the opposite side "Let's see..." He turned towards his laptop, "What date do you think we should try?" Colette sighed, but decided to play along. She thought for a while, and then said, "How about 28 years back? 29?" He nodded. Colette curiously peaked at his Laptop "Are we going to show up in the same place?"

"I don't know."

"Then how did you make it work anyway?"

"I just followed the info in the sci-fi movie."

"Oh, sweet potato salad..."

"Shush, I think it's working." He said as he pressed ENTER. They both sat still and stiff, waiting for some electricity to zap out of the machine or for the laptop to explode or something. In all honesty, Colette imagined those weird sounds of gears turning that keep on increasing to an incredibly high and horrifying scale until something big happens. But that wasn't the case. Everything was perfectly quiet. Even the laptop wasn't playing any suspense music. They just sat there Indian style.

Nothing happened.

"That's weird." Cody said as he scrunched up his nose. He started typing on the laptop again. "All of this is weird, Cody." Colette said. He chose to ignore her. Colette sighed, exhausted. She hadn't realized but she was feeling sleepy and wanted nothing else but to sneak into her room and throw herself on her comfy bed. After a while, Cody slumped in defeat. "I really thought it would work." He sounded so defeated and saddened that Colette felt sorry for him. He was just trying to cheer her up.

"Hey Cody, It's okay. Maybe we should try thi-"

A bright flash blinded her eyesight, and before she could even gasp in surprise, Colette blacked out.

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