Forever Layla: A Time Travel Romance (19 page)

Chapter 18

January 3
rd
, 2003

Layla

“BLOW THEM OUT AND MAKE a wish,” I said and stepped back from lighting the candles. DJ had his dad’s dark hair and my brown eyes. He leaned forward and blew the six candles out until the last flame was extinguished. The dancing bear at the pizza arcade led us all in their official birthday dance.

I grabbed DJ up in my arms and gave him a huge kiss on the cheek.

“Mom! Not in front of my friends.”

I put him down. “I’m sorry. I just had to kiss you.”

He ran off and gathered with the other kids while I watched and swallowed back the lingering sadness.

David brought me a stack of paper plates and a knife. I took them from him and gave him a quick kiss too. “What was that for?”

“Being the best husband in the world. Every day, you two are the best part of my life. I want you to always know that.” I choked back the emotion.

“We need to cut the cake now. Maybe later you can show me how great you think I am.”

“Deal.” I took the knife and started slicing cake as David handed them out to the kids and his family. Mandy had brought her boyfriend. It was hard to believe she was old enough to date. This was the first birthday Grammy Taylor had missed. She’d gotten too frail to leave the home now. I handed out the last of the cake and looked around at the table. David and DJ wore matching Spider-man t-shirts, and I had to smile at my geeky men.

I thought of the years that had passed so quickly
, and all the changes that had occurred. David now held a PhD and had gotten a grant to do more research at a college in the lower part of the state. My name hung over the insurance office, and I had three agents under me. We’d purchased the house that we’d rented for so long. David had wanted to buy a newer house, but I couldn’t leave that one just yet. It’s where all the magic of my life had happened, and I wanted to stay there and pretend there was more magic to come for me.

I saw a figure in my peripheral vision and turned to
find a man watching us from across the room. He had graying hair, but I knew him instantly. I made my way to my David and whispered in his ear. “I think I left some of the party favors in the car. I’ll be right back.”

He nodded
, and I headed for the door, knowing the other David would soon follow. I stepped out the door and over to the side to wait for him. He followed me, and I continued around the back of the place before I spoke. I couldn’t risk anyone seeing us.

I still didn’t turn to look at him. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see you.” He sounded older than I’d ever heard him.

I did look up then. His hair was quite silver
, but he was still handsome. Maturity suited him, but that only made me bitter—this David would never be mine. “You need to move on. Re-marry. Have a life again. You made it work, you’ve seen me again. Move on and stop living in the past. What year are you from anyway?”

“2026. I can’t move on.”

I folded my arms in front of me and leveled my glare. “Why not?”

“Because we were supposed to grow old together.”

“No, we aren’t. Stop trying to make me wish for more.” I shook with emotion. This was why I swallowed it down and kept it all deep inside. When I felt the depth of it, it was too much.

“I came so you could have someone to talk to today. I didn’t know then… but I know now. This da
y had to be hard for you… it’s your last birthday with him.”

I turned away,
walked to the brick wall, and leaned my forehead against it. The bricks were cold and rough as I hid my face with my arms. “What do you want me to say?”

“I know this is hard. I didn’t want you to face it alone.”

I pushed away from the wall and spun to look at him. “This is the last birthday party I will ever have with our son. I know it will happen soon.”

“Do you know how?”

“No, and I don’t want to. I don’t even know the exact date. I just know I don’t make it to see 2004.”

David moved closer to me.
I tried to move back, but he was too fast. He pulled me into his arms and surrounded me with them. “Let it out. You don’t have to hold it all inside.”

“Yes
, I do.” I let myself weep, and my fingers dug into his shoulders. I breathed in the smell of aftershave, Cheerwine, and David. With his arms around me, I felt safe for just a moment, like he could save me from it all.

“Not right now anyway. I’m here. I wish you had let me in more, to help you. I wish you didn’t always think it was all on you.”

“It is all on me.” I held him closer, and I let myself have a nice ugly cry. Something I never did. All the pain that I always swallowed had permanently settled in my gut, always churning, always aching—but I never told anyone. And it all came out in a rush. Tears streamed down my cheeks until there were no more to cry. I clung to him, and for once, let him be my strength.

When
I’d finished, David reached in his pocket, pulled out a tissue, and handed it to me. “Want to know where I’ve just been?”

“Where?” I sniffled as I wiped my eyes and nose.

“Myrtle Beach 1994 where I watched a goofy kid meet the girl of his dreams.” He pulled me closer, and I let him keep his arm around me. “We’ve had the most beautiful life together.”

I smiled a halfhearted smile at him. “Yes
, we have.” I moved away from him. “I need to get back in there now.”

“Until we meet again, either on earth or in heaven.”

I nodded at him and dried my eyes as I headed back around to the door. It was time to get back to my life and finish living it.

*

THAT NIGHT, I HELD DJ close to me as I read one of his comic books to him. I kissed the top of his head and breathed in his scent. He still used the tearless baby shampoo. I loved that smell. I squeezed him closer. He was losing that baby softness though, little by little. “I love you, my little man. Did you have a good birthday?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

I kissed him again. “I’m going to my room now, but I’m going to miss you so much.” I always said that as I walked to the
switch and turned off the light. I stepped into the hall, closed his door, and rested my head against it.

I made my way to my room and climbed in bed next to David. He was reading a science journal.

“I start my classes in Conway next Monday. I’ll be going down every other week for a couple days each week. Do you think you guys will be okay?” I asked.

“We’ll be fine. We’l
l eat junk food and stay up late. DJ will love it,” David said.

“I’m sure he will.” I leaned closer to him. “It will be good for you to take care of him alone some. Good for both of you.”

David leaned in and kissed me. “But we will miss you.”

“And I will miss you.” I grabbed him around the neck and pulled him to me, kissing him again with all that was in me. He dropped his journal to the floor and rolled onto me with the kiss. There wasn’t enough time left, but what I had would be full of as many beautiful memories as I could create.

Chapter 19

March 3
rd
, 2003

David

I SLIPPED SOUNDLESSLY INTO THE dim hospital room, not wanting to wake her. I swallowed back the tears as I took a seat beside her bed. It couldn’t be true. Layla was too young to be dying.
Cancer.
It was one of those far off ugly words that belonged to older people. Not young healthy women with young children. Not my Layla. Other than when she was pregnant, she had never gone to the doctor.

I bowed my head and stifled the cries as best I could, but they came anyway. This wasn’t part of the dream. Layla and I were meant to be together. We were supposed to grow old together. I was supposed to discover time travel and get rich and pay her back for all the years she supported my dream. I was working so hard to get to that place with her.

Time travel seemed like a ridiculous childhood dream next to this. I should have been gifted with formulas to cure cancer. I needed a way to save my wife…to save my son’s mother. A child needs a mother. My body shook with the effort to keep the emotion in, while the cry of anguish rattled inside me like an animal in a cage, demanding release.

“Shhhh… please
don’t do that.” Her voice was barely a whisper.

I glanced toward the bed. “I’m sorry I woke you. You need your rest. Go back to sleep.”

“I’m about to get plenty of sleep. I think I want to spend the time that I have left awake as often as possible. It’s all we have.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? You knew. All this time you knew.”

Layla shook her head and swallowed. “Why did we both need to suffer? Besides, I couldn’t change it, and I couldn’t live a life dwelling on it. I tried to live your dream with you and act like this day wasn’t coming.”

“Those occasional nights I caught you crying in your pillow. The way you put DJ to bed at night and always said, ‘I’m going to miss you so much.’ You weren’t talking about going to bed in the next room.”

She turned her head and faced the other wall. “I…what was I supposed to do? You know where I came from. You know what my task was—to support you, your gift, and the visions you had, and make them real. There is another me who is still out there growing up, and she is going to hear stories of you and Layla. And those stories are going to set her heart afire. They are going to make her daydream of a life with her mad scientist prince working with all his might to create time travel so he can once again see his Layla. My death is part of the catalyst for the discovery.” She turned to face me, her eyes rimmed red from tears. “And some more important ones to come.”

“That’s what finally fuels my breakthrough? I’m trying to get back to you?”

She nodded. “And you will.”

“How do you know?”

“I just know.”

“Have I visited you, from the future?” I asked as my eyes widened at the thought.

Layla nodded.

“
Then this isn’t the end.”

“
You’ve read the Bible. You know this isn’t the end either way.”

I crumbled over onto her bed, crying into her neck. “How am I supposed to say goodbye to you?”

“Don’t say goodbye. Say ‘until we meet again, either on earth or in heaven.’ It’s a farewell with a promise.”

Layla tried to push herself up
, but I didn’t let her. “Please rest.”

“
I need to tell you—I’ve known this was coming, so I’ve made some arrangements for you. I have been putting money away and purchased as much life insurance as I could without looking suspicious. I also purchased another house for you and DJ.”

“Another house?”

“Duke didn’t just leave me the business– he left me his house, his money, and everything. I used that money to buy the house near your new college down in Conway.”

“Why didn’t you tell me
?”

“I needed you to live normally. It’s where I’ve been going every other week. I couldn’t risk changing anything. It was all on me to save everyone else. I did the best I could. But the house,
it is a gift for you guys. It’s full of things to help you remember and set up to make new memories.”

I was about to tell her she was wrong when someone knocked on the door and entered. A pair of doctors stood in the door. One was a silver
-haired doctor who looked to be in his late fifties next to a dark-haired doctor, much younger. They both smiled politely. They looked familiar, but I couldn’t remember if they were the doctors I’d spoken with the day before or not.

“We are here to check Mrs. Foster. Could you step outside for a bit?”

“Yes.” I moved closer to Layla’s bed. “I’ll be just outside.”

“When was the last time you’ve eaten?”
she asked.

“I can’t remember.”

“Go get something to eat and bring our son here. I want to see DJ.”

I nodded. “Okay
, I will.”

I drove to Mom’s house in a blur. Just the day before all was well until Layla collapsed. Why hadn’t she told me about her chronic nausea? Why did she feel like it was all on her? In a day
, she went from being a healthy, young woman to having stage IV stomach cancer with cancer in the lymph nodes, liver, and pancreas. It was too late for treatment.

I parked and lumbered up the steps
, trying to come up with something to say to DJ. How was I going to prepare him for this? I opened the door and Mom ran to me and threw her arms around me. Dad soon joined her in the hug as I wept.

I finally pulled away from them. “I’ve come to get something to eat and take DJ to see Layla.”

My mom turned away from me, covering her mouth, weeping as my dad put a hand on my shoulder. “The hospital just called looking for you.”

I checked my cell phone in my pocket and saw that it was dead. “What did they want?”

“I’m sorry son.”

I looked up at him, trying to make sense. “What?”

They both just stared and cried.

“No!” I pointed my finger in my dad’s face and said it again,
“No!”

I turned and marched out of the house and into the yard down to my truck. I opened the door only to slam i
t shut again before kicking it. I took my fist and slammed it into the side of the truck, feeling my skin give way on impact. I crumpled on the ground as a sharp, numbing pain sliced through me.

Mom c
ame and knelt beside me. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Does DJ know?”

“No. I left that for you, but if it’s too much, I will.”

I stood and stared at the house. “No, I’ll do it. I’m all he has left.” I headed for the house
, trying to think of how to tell a six-year-old boy that his mom was gone.

*

DJ SAT SILENTLY ON THE church pew beside me, kicking his legs. At six, he knew his mother was gone from us, but didn’t completely comprehend it all. I stared at the urn at the front of the church completely numb as the lady by the piano sang "Amazing Grace." A pot of ashes was all that was left of my wife. Those doctors had sent me away, and I never saw her again. She’d arranged everything to spare me, but it only made me angry. Had she always seen me as the stupid boy she had married? Could she not see me as a man—her husband she could lean on and turn to? I didn’t need to be shielded from everything. The mixture of loving her and missing her and being so very angry at her with no way to tell her...the muddle of emotions I’d lived with for days now.

The music stopped
, and we all filed out as a family and were taken to the fellowship hall where a meal was prepared for us. Mom took DJ and made a plate for him, but I wasn’t hungry. I stepped outside and paced back and forth, alone in the spring air. There was still a chill, and I’d left my jacket inside. I spun suddenly and punched the brick wall. My knuckles made a thump while the skin over it gave way and blood poured.

The door opened
, and Michael came out and saw me. “Man, what have you done?” He stepped back inside before showing up again with a roll of paper towels and a bag of ice. He started to wrap my wrist, but I snatched it all from him.

“Let me do it. I’m not a kid.”

Michael’s hands went up in surrender. “I didn’t say you were.”

“I’m sorry, man. I’m just not myself.”

He pulled me over to a set of picnic tables, and we had a seat. “I can understand that.”

“Thanks for coming. I’m sorry I haven’t kept up with you much since the band split up. Life got busy.”

“I get it. You had a wife and a kid, and I was still living the free life. But I’m still here for you.”

“Thanks. What are you doing these days?”

“Sales. I sell quality meats to high-end restaurants. I’m doing pretty good. Lots of travel.”

“I’m happy for you.” I stood. “I need to get back in and check on DJ.”

Michael stood and patted my back. “I’ll go in with you.”

We walked back in together as I prepared myself for another round of people telling me how sorry they were. Moving suddenly sounded like a great idea. A chance to be away from people who would constantly ask me how I was doing.