“Uh…,” was all Marie managed to say.

“Welcome,” the older Marie said with open arms. “Take a minute to get your bearings. Yes, I am you in your future. I am 48 years old.” The older Marie let that fact sink in.

“Oh.” Marie looked at every gray hair and laugh line on her future face with disbelief. Finally, with a renewed sense of stability, “Why did you bring me here?”

“Good. You’re taking it well. I figured you would. My friend Jack, our friend actually,” she gestured to Marie as she talked, “brought you here so I could tell you a few things.”

She paused with a concerned look. “I know, I’m meddling with time, but I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t believe it was something I had to do.”

“What are you talking about?”

“If I’m remembering right, it’s around your current time when you start visiting the future in your sleep, am I right?”

“Uh, yeah,” Marie said with hesitation.

“And about now is when Selena…,” she struggled with the words.

“Selena murders that boy,” Marie finished her sentence.

Older Marie took a deep breath and answered, “Yes.” She turned to Jack, “See Jack? I’m right on the money.” She grinned.

“Never doubted you, sweetheart.” He smiled again and dimples popped on his cheeks.

“So, here’s the plan,” said older Marie turning back to Younger Marie. “It’s easier to go to the future than to go back in time. Just trust me on that. I’m going to help you hone your time traveling skills and you are going to be-bop into the future and stop her from doing that.”

Marie processed that thought and then laughed, “Sounds easy enough, right? But what about Allen and his dream? What was that about?”

“Allen’s dream?” Older Marie asked.

“Yeah, he got all mixed up thinking I was Selena in that moment and somehow took over her body and killed the guy. In a dream. He doesn’t think it’s real, but there is too much coincidence here for that to have been nothing.”

Older Marie looked at Jack and you could see the wheels turning. “This is a mess.”

“Oh, and if it’s harder to go back in time, how am I going to get back from…, when is this?”

“2018,” older Marie mumbled while distracted by her thoughts.

Marie tried to wrap her brain around that thought.

“Where’s Allen now?” Marie asked just noticing he wasn’t here.

Older Marie looked at her with a wrinkled brow. “Allen is stuck. Thats why you have to do this.”

“Stuck? Stuck where?” Marie asked horrified.

“Not where, sugar. When. You nor I will see him again in our lifetime if we can’t fix this.”

(Read the next chapter here.)

*** By the way, Between Time, the ebook version, is available to download on Amazon! Read the novel of what happened before this short story!