Nanowrimo 2015-11-10

When the dizziness passed, as it always does, I took stock of my surroundings.  There were trees, quite a lot of trees, but no people to be seen, so I continued on with my fake hike through the forest and out onto the trails.  I did pass a few other people as I descended into the park area.  They smiled and nodded at me and I smiled and nodded back.  I wonder if they would have been smiling had they known there were the parts to a sniper rifle in my heavy-laden backpack.  I looked down at the note with the address I was supposed to find, got out my era-accurate cellular device that they had sent with me, and started on my way.

The place they had me staying wasn't too bad, but it wasn't as nice as when I had stayed here a year before.  Well, it was a year before in my timeline.  It was five years before in the global timeline or universal time line or whatever you'd want to call it.  But of course, they only expected me to be here for a couple days at most.  The mission was so simple:  Just kill the guy and get on home.  I smirked to myself just thinking about it as I unpacked my bag.  What kind of monsters had I been working for?  I vowed I would not become one of them no matter what.  I considered disposing of the gun right then, but I feared I might still need it, perhaps as a bludgeoning weapon if things got bad.

That night, I sat on a ratty couch, ate a can of cold pasta, and watched the stars come out over the city.  They were hard to see, but they were still there.  They would always be there.  Even if we did blow ourselves up, if mankind was obliterated, the stars would remain.  I fell asleep that night thinking of the stars.  Strangely enough, this was the one night I didn't dream about Connor.

Maybe the reason I didn't dream about him was because I no longer needed to.  I knew I was going to see him soon enough, and this would be the moment of truth.  This would be when I found out for sure if the agency had truly trusted me with this mission or not.  I knew it was possible they had not, and that someone else would be there to assassinate both of us.  This thought really hadn't dawned on me until I was actually traveling back here, but even though I would have never dreamed of such a thing a few months ago, it certainly seemed extremely possible now.  I knew I had to be careful and alert if I was going to pull all this off.

So I decided to put my rifle together after all.  I would give as much of a look like I was going to carry out my mission as possible.  Then, maybe if there was someone following me, they would be more relaxed, more expecting that I was going to do my job after all.  So I perched myself in an old building near Connor's apartment and waited.  While I was waiting, I looked around through the scope, but I saw nothing suspicious.  I was just starting to think that maybe every thing really would be fine when I saw Connor emerge.  There were some other people nearby, so I wouldn't be able to get a clear shot even if I had wanted to.  But then, he stopped to talk to someone and I had him right in my sights.  Now was the moment.  This would be when I was going to pull the trigger if I was going to do this at all.  I didn't pull the trigger.  Instead, I spun my sights all around looking for someone else threatening to do my job for me.  No one was there.  But that didn't mean they wouldnt' be.  It just meant Connor and I were safe for now.  But only I knew we were in danger.  He was completely in the dark.

I looked back down at the street and saw him crossing and then going into a neighborhood grocery store just a block down.  I wiped my rifle down (not that my finger prints would match in this decade, but better safe than sorry) and hid it in another room where I could retrieve it later if necessary.  Then I decided it was time for some grocery shopping.

I tried to take my time walking towards the store, hoping that maybe I would end up bumping into Connor as he was coming out.  Turns out I timed it pretty much perfectly.  I wasn't sure if he would remember me, but when I literally bumped into him as he was walking out, it quickly became clear that he knew exactly who I was.  Or at least, he knew exactly who he thought I was.

"Jenna!" he exclaimed.

It actually took me a moment to react.  I had nearly forgotten that had been my name when he met me.  It was strange that I remembered his real name so much more readily than my fake one.

"Jenna Jones!" he went on, conveniently reminding me of my last name as well.  "How the heck have you been?"

He must have thought I looked confused because then he added, "Do you remember me?  I'm Connor Harris.  We took that teaching class together?"

I decided to take the gift and go with it and feigned remembering what I already knew, "Right, of course.  How have you been?"

"Pretty good," he said, nodding."Still teaching, but taking some business classes.  Thinking of starting something up."  He sighed and started to look a little nervous as he said more softly, "I never thought I would see you again."

"Yeah," I said, trying to give a shy grin, "Listen, I'm really sorry I shut you down last time.  I was in a... a weird place."

"It's okay," he said.  "No worries."

I was a bit surprised by how cool he was being about this whole weird running into someone you asked out who shut you down five years later thing.  But then again, I wasn't totally versed in the dating culture of his time.  I was also a little surprised at how mature he looked and seemed.  I mean, he had almost looked like a kid when I met him.  Now, he was a good looking guy.  I realized he would actually be about my age now.

As if he was also taking closer note of my appearance, he said, "You look really good, by the way."

I felt my face growing warm.  I must have been blushing I was surprised I was blushing, but it actually worked nicely with what I knew I needed to do.  "I really am sorry about before," I said.  "If you don't mind, I'd like to make it up to you.  Maybe, coffee sometime?"

He practically beamed.  "Sure yeah, that would be great," he said.  "Do you mind giving me your phone number?"

My heart nearly skipped a beat as I realized I didn't actually know the phone number for the device I had been sent back with.  I was really making mistake after mistake on this mission.  It was really pretty frightening.  But I did my best to think quickly and said, "Why don't you give me yours and I'll give you a call."

I was a little concerned that might have been too forward for his time, but it clearly wasn't because he smiled all the more and said, "Yeah of course," and then gave me his number.

"Thanks," I said, after I had entered it in.  "I'll be sure to give you a call."

"Or a text," he quickly added.  Then he shrugged and said, "you know, whatever."

I couldn't help but smile.  He had just shown a bit of that "kid" he had been five years ago.  Though "kid" was a strong word.  Really, he was kinda cute, but in a good way.

"Anyway, I'll see you around," he said, clearly trying to not seem too excited.

"Yeah, see ya," I said.  I almost turned and walked down the street until I remembered he had run into me entering the store.  So I went in, bought a soda just for show (and because carbonated beverages were so rare in my time), and then went back to retrieve my rifle and go back to my whole for the night, hoping and praying that however changing the past really worked, it worked in such a way that those left behind wouldn't realize I hadn't done what they sent me off to do.