For the next three days, I stayed with Jason and his family and it was bizarre yet wonderful. His brother and sister were beyond thrilled to see him again, especially his younger sister, Melanie.
It turned out that Melanie had idolized Jason, which was a detail he hadn't remembered, and wished that she could be in the time travel agency, that was until they had brought the news that her brother was dead. Now that he was back, she was thrilled, but certainly to ready to forgive them. She told us that she hoped we gave them hell.
"Melanie! Language!" her mother exclaimed, as if Melanie was a child instead of the 19 year old college student that she was.
I just gave Melanie a smile, which she noticed and returned. I liked her. She had a lot of spunk.
Jason's brother was more reserved, but he seemed to have his moments, too. He had a dry sense of humor that I appreciated and felt lightened the mood. It seemed to annoy his mother at times, but in the end it was all in good fun.
Jason's family asked a lot of questions that neither of us could answer, but some that we could. Jason told them all about his life in the past and how they were the one thing that the agency couldn't take away from him. "They took my life here, my future, my career, even my girlfriend," he said, glancing at me before he looked back at his family, "but they couldn't take all of you from me." His mother made an "ah" noise and I saw a tear in his father's eye.
We asked them questions, too. Jason wanted to try to remember what he had forgotten, but it was hard. Little bits came back, but we ultimately found that it was best to live in the moment and enjoy what we had. That was what made those three days wonderful, but then, at weekend's end, Jason shared with us all what he had decided he had to do. "This has been great," he said, "but its made me realize too how much I've missed. The agency took time and history from me and replaced it with a lie. The lie wasn't really that bad, but the truth was better, and I want to get it back." He looked at me. "I want to go back to the agency," he said, "but not to sneak in like we planned before. I want to talk to Maria. I want to confront her for what she's done and get her side of the story."
I heard his mother gasp and his brother ask, "Are you sure about that, man?"
Jason nodded, but didn't take his eyes off me. "I'm sure," he said, "but I can't do it alone."
"I'm there," I said. "You trusted me. You came with me. I'm going to see this through." Then I glanced at Melanie and with a grin said, "And maybe raise a little hell, too."
"Righteous!" Melanie exclaimed. "Can I come, too?"
"Nah, Mel," Jason said, attempting to give a lighthearted laugh. "It won't be as exciting as you think." I knew that what he really meant was it was way too dangerous.
Melanie saw through this and frowned as she said, "Well you be careful."
"Always," Jason said.
They shared a family hug and as they pulled away, I saw his mother wipe a tear from her eye.
"Are you sure about this, son?" Jason's father asked. "The last time we saw you off was the last time we saw you before... well..."
Jason put his hand on his father's shoulder. "I know, dad," he said. "I don't remember what sort of good-bye I said back then, but I'll tell you now that if anything does go wrong, and if this is another last good-bye, that I love you all and its been amazing getting to know you all over again. I know that's too simple and there's so much more I could say, and I'm going on this quest, for lack of a better word, because I want to have more to say."
That prompted another round of hugging and tears before Jason and I walked out hand in hand.
"Well," I said.
"Well," he said.
"You're sure about this?"
He smiled, probably thinking about just how many times I had asked him that over the past couple years of our time line. "I'm sure," he said. "Let's go talk to your folks and then we can go find some answers."
My parents, like Jason's, were nervous but supportive. My mother did make one request before we went. She wanted to paint a picture of me and Jason together. She wouldn't have time to make it perfect, she said, but she wanted a rough sketch. "I wish I had done this before," she said as she set up her materials, "but I didn't know that I would need to. They might be able to alter our minds, but I'm going to hide this away somewhere they'll never find. No matter what happens around us, art always lives on."
We sat for a little over an hour, hand in hand, while my mom worked on the outline and then sent us off to occupy ourselves while she worked on it. She had told me in the past that with her most heartfelt art she felt like a little piece of her soul went into what she did and she wanted to be alone when that happened. I was sure this was one of those times.
I took the opportunity to take Jason into my studio room and show off some of the art I had done. That now infamous painting of the elephant, which my mother had brought up and I had told him about shortly after we came here from the past, was not there since it was at my apartment and I wasn't about to go there for fear Maria would find me. Yet, there were plenty of other things I could show off to him. I was surprised when he said a few of them felt familiar to him, but they were the ones I had painted seven or eight years ago, so I figured I had shown them to him before, back during the time that had been altered or wiped for both of us.
"They're really beautiful," he said, looking at one I had painted of a lion licking his paw with a mouse in the foreground.
"I'm not sure I'd call that one beautiful," I said, "but there is a story behind it."
"Aesops fables," Jason said.
"Excuse me?"
He looked over at me. "The fable about the mouse helping the lion get a throne out of his paw."
I nodded. "Yeah, something like that. You said Aesop?"
Jason laughed. "Yeah, he's the one who wrote the fable, I think. You don't learn about him anymore."
"I mean, I must have," I said, "but I didn't remember the name."
"It's strange to have the common knowledge of a time before I was born," he reflected. "I wonder how they pulled that off."
I stepped up to him and slipped my hand into his. "Two more days, and we're going to find out," I said.
He simply gave a nod, and let me guide him out of the room.
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