Book 3- 1967 (Michael Jackson)

Chapter 22- A Disappointing Cruise Trip

I nearly jumped out of my own skin. "Whoiad- Who's that?!"

"Michael, chill out!" Kayla shouted. "It's just the Tom Cruise- I mean, Cruise!"

My heart rate calmed down. "Oh... Alright." A million thoughts were buzzing around my head. Well, why could Cruise be here? Can we feel hunger in Heaven? I remember just how Tatum O'Neal looked in Paper Moon. What was the name of that fine lady who guest starred in 'Full House'? I was born in 1958, right?

"Michael?!" Cruise asked, taking small steps towards me. "You were born in 1958. Why would you ask such a question? Are you, are you alright?"

"I think Michael's fine," Kayla added, taking one of her sneakers off. She held it up by the aglet as she stated, "He just looks a little pale, but that happens sometimes. I remember one time..."

Cruise blinked several times. "Shut up, Kayla." He turned to me, his brows wrinkling. "Michael, you do seem to be a little sickly. Have you been, I dunno, having any problems that you know of on Earth? Is there anyone not acting normal?"

"What? Other than Kayla and I?" My eyes averted to the ceiling, as if the answers were right above me. "No, not that I'm aware of. I mean, Johnny hasn't been engaging in a lot of... conversation, I guess you could say, and Milford left much later than he did in my first life..."

There was only one other thing I found to be out of place. "Oh! Well, this is much less recent, but.... we were renamed the Jackson Five four months after we should have been. You know, in December of 1965, rather than my birthday." I cleared my throat, staring at the ground. "However, I thought that was unimportant. I figured that Kayla would be some sort of variable in this case."

"Yeah, same here," Kayla stated, twirling in place as quickly as she could. 

Cruise gawked at Kayla. "Uhmmm... I guess that would be enough to do it. It that all?"

"There're probably more..." Kayla chimed, grinning wildly. "But I can't remember them. I'm not responsible for that, I don't think."

"Is something wrong with the two of us?" I inquired, anxiety coming back. "I really don't want to start over. We've been through a lot."

"No, no... I don't think you need to start over, but you two need to pay attention to detail. The littlest difference can set off your entire future. Your effect should wear off after a couple more visits, but remember a couple things for me, okay?"

I nodded, while Kayla pranced in the background. Annoyed, I screeched her name and waited for her to come. A dopey expression was plastered to her face as she nodded dimly. "Atcha service!" she called, saluting military-style.

Cruise facepalmed himself. "Agh, Kayla... The deepest of teenagers in Heaven, and you're acting like this."

She grinned foolishly, creating her own 'bunny ears' with her fingers.

"Continue, please," I begged. I was getting annoyed by Kayla and her childish actions.

"Um, okay." There was a long pause before Cruise carried on. "You two must remember that the world is a balance. If even a little weight is taken off one side, everything becomes imbalanced. Your lives were specifically designed to get you two past your previous life. If either of you goof off too much, or do something too out-of-character, you two could both be in jeopardy."

"So, that means two things." He took a deep breath, and turned to Kayla. "You need to know when to speak up. If you feel something is wrong or will affect your lives for the worse, your instinct is probably right. Say something, even if it's to your biggest fear."

He situated himself in front of me. "And Michael... You need to pay attention to detail, as I already said. Point things out, even if you seem like a total smartass while doing it. Trust me, this'll help you two more than harm you."

Kayla giggled. Leaning over to me, she whispered loudly, "He just said smartass."

I frowned, not entirely getting where he was going with his mini 'pep talk'. "But Cruise," I said, "I'm confused. What if I don't know-"

"You will know," he confirmed. "I promise, you will know. It's going to be pretty darn hard to miss, with our pointers from up above."

"Up above? Pointers? What are you talking about? How come I-"

"Michael!" Kayla yelped. "Look at what I found! A ladybug! I didn't know they were here, in Heaven! Ooh, and it's green! An ugly green, kinda like the rug at my place, but it's green. Wanna see it? It's a cutie!... Ugh, and it stinks, too!"

"Kayla, stop it," I scolded, turning to her attention. "We need to focus. What did he say to you?"

"Tom Cruise told me to speak UP!" She screamed gaily. She fell to the floor, spewing with jovial laughter.

I turned back, not wanting to deal with her. "Cruise, one last thing-" I started. But when I looked back, I was conversing with nothing. All that was left in the room was a pebble.

Curious, I reached for the baby-sized stone. It was oddly-shaped, having strange cylindrical points protruding from the top, bottom, and sides. There seemed to be strange lines or stripes in the stone that branched off into other lines... sort of like roots.

Or veins.

"That looks to be like a heart," Kayla chirped, actually standing still for a couple seconds.

"Glad you could join me," I muttered, shaking my head. "Calmed down enough?"

"What do you mean?" She asked, narrowing her eyes. "I'm fine. You should be chilling out, Grumpy." She cocked her head, wearing a scornful expression.

I didn't focus on her remark. In fact, I didn't speak back to her again. I took a deeper look into the rock, instead. Sure enough, Kayla was right. It did look like a heart. In fact, it had all of the parts; the arteries, veins, aorta, chambers... everything.

"Here, lemme see it." Kayla snatched the rock from my hands. "This really does seem to be- whoa, Michael! Look at this!"

Alarmed, I turned back to see what was going on. Kayla had her hands cupped over the heart stone, as if it were God's treasure. I peered closer, wanting to see what she was gawking at. I wanted to see what was so amazing about that rock.

"Here, I want to-"

Bloop.