21. Twenty-Five Years Later
“Mothers and daughters are closest, when daughters become mothers.”
– Author Unknown
“Wake up, Kelli, wake up!”I inched my eyes open to find Will shaking me gently. “Guess what? We’re grandparents! Diora had a baby girl!”
I shot up to a sitting position. “Oh my God! A granddaughter? Oh, I’m so happy!” I flung my legs over the side of the bed and stood quickly, resting my hand on the bedside table momentarily to regain my balance. “How’s the baby, is she okay? Is Diora okay?”
“They’re both fine, although apparently Jason’s wand has been snapped to bits,” he chuckled.
“What’s her name?” I asked, eagerly rummaging through my wardrobe and pulling out a random pair of pants and a shirt.
“They wouldn’t say, said they wanted to introduce her to us properly,” Will replied.
“Oh, okay.” I imagined the baby holding out her tiny hand and saying ‘Nice to officially meet you, Grandma’, and then shook the absurdity from my mind. “I can’t wait to see her!”
“Me neither, but you better come and have breakfast first, don’t want you collapsing with low blood sugar at the hospital,” Will said. “Although, you couldn’t get a more convenient place, if that were to happen.”
I whipped him playfully with my trousers before stepping into them and wiggling them up and over my hips. “I’ll just get ready first, see you in the kitchen soon.”
Will wandered out, pinching his e-pad and pulling the virtual strand to his ear. “Hi, Mum, it’s me. She had a baby girl… I know!… yep… okay, so…” his voice trailed off.
I flicked on the light in the bathroom and splashed water on my face. Squirting a blob of moisturiser onto my hands I massaged it into my cheeks, circling the laughter lines that had deepened after many a fun night watching comedy movies with Will. Then I let the lotion glide over my forehead, seeping into the furrows that had developed from hours and hours of concentration hunched over my designing desk. I dabbed my ring finger in the jar of eye cream and patted the lines framing my eyes which had cried at the birth of my two children, then pressed lip gloss into the lips that had kissed many a sore knee after a fall at the park, and lips that had poured forth my love for Will onto lips of his own. As the moisturiser sunk into my thirsty skin, I rubbed lotion on the arms that had rocked babies to sleep and embraced my husband. I lifted my shirt to nourish the loose but resilient skin on my abdomen that had long ago stretched with the promise of new life, and adjusted the straps on my bra, supporting the breasts that had fed my two children.
My body was a living reminder of my wonderful life. It had done amazing, beautiful things and there was no way in the world I’d prefer to look like a twenty-something perfect beauty with a body untouched by life. Of course, I still valued my appearance, but as I dusted my face with mineral foundation I knew that if I chose not to bother anymore, it wouldn’t make any difference. My family would still be here, my friends would still love me and my business would still be the award-winning empire that it was.
I flicked the light off as I strode confidently from the bathroom and entered the kitchen where Ryan and Ben were sitting at the counter stuffing their mouths with cake. “You call that breakfast?” I asked.
Ryan shrugged, his cheeks bulging. “It’s got protein, carbohydrates and a little… okay, a lot of fat, but it’s still a balanced meal, right?” He flashed a hopeful smile and Ben nodded.
“Definitely. And it’s sooo good!” Ben shoved another mouthful towards his parted lips.
“Yeah, Elaine outdid herself with this one, didn’t she?” I pressed my finger into the frosting on Ryan’s piece of cake and licked it from my finger.
“Hey!” He slapped my wrist. “But yeah, this is the best one she’s done so far. I thought the lotus cake she made for my twenty-first was something, but now she’s raised the bar.” He lifted his hand to show a level above head-height.
“And didn’t she and Peter look great last night?” Will asked, placing a plate of yolkless eggs and steamed spinach in front of me.
“They did indeed. A very cute, albeit, spooky couple.” I swallowed a piece of egg, remembering Elaine’s floaty ghost costume and her husband’s skeleton outfit. Apparently he had to wear some kind of support band underneath to hide his beer belly, Elaine revealed, and we had a quiet chuckle about it while he’d been busy chatting to Will in the Bliss Garden last night.
‘So, do you feel fifty, Mum? Now that the excitement from the party has worn off?” Ryan asked.
Not as much as the first time. It had been much easier to gradually climb the ladder of age, as opposed to having it rudely shoved in front of me like an overpowering perfumed cardboard strip from a department store sales person. “I don’t know, I just feel… like me.” I smiled and wolfed down the rest of my breakfast, before standing and taking it to the instant dishwasher chute. “Oh, I’ll have to call Dad. Tell him he’s a great grandfather,” I said, raising my finger like a light bulb in the air.
“No need. Already called him. He’s going to meet us there,” my always efficient, totally organised husband said, then his e-pad rang. “William McSnelly speaking,” he said. “Yes, hello Mr Turrow.”
Ooh! Mr Turrow! I hope he’s –
“You are? Well that’s fantastic, we’re very pleased to have you as one of our valued clients.” Will flashed a winning smile at me.
Yes! Good thing I’d had twenty-five years to perfect my presentation, he practically felt like an old friend by the time he turned up at head office yesterday.
Will told Mr Turrow what the next steps would be, scheduled a video meeting for Monday, then ended the call, his arms scooping me up in the air with excitement. “KC Interiors is going global, baby!”
“Woohoo!” I exclaimed, as Ryan and Ben clapped their congratulations.
“Now,” he said, placing my feet back on the floor. “Are you ready to meet your grandchild?”
“Am I ready?” I replied. “I’ve been waiting for this day my whole life.”
Fifteen minutes later we were driving through the city. “Oh, bugger! I forgot to get flowers for Diora. Will, honey, can you pull into the shopping centre so I can get a nice bunch from Franco the Florist?” I turned my head towards Will who was driving, with Ryan and Ben in the backseat, a large teddy bear in a tartan jacket wedged between them.
“The hospital has a flower shop, we can just get some there,” he replied, his eyes on the road.
“Will, our daughter has just had her first child and you want to express our love for her with a shoddy bunch of carnations?” I said, a hand on my hip. “Franco will make up a beautiful piece of art for our darling daughter. I’m not prepared to go second best on this.”
Will laughed in defeat and pulled into the shopping centre car park, which was packed full. “There are no spots left, I’ll have to hover over here while you duck in and get them, okay?”
“Yep,” I said, getting out of the car.
“But don’t take too long,” he called out after me.
I waved my understanding and scooted into the refreshing cool of the centre. I did want to get a quality bunch of flowers, that was no lie, but there was something else I wanted to do – and no, I wasn’t about to run off and have a Better Than Sex facial if that’s what you’re thinking. I made my way to the New Age shop and entered, spying Liliana and Rosie in the booths. The one person waiting in line was ushered towards one of the other psychics and I took her place, resurrecting the queue.
I alternated impatiently from one foot to the other, until Liliana glanced with curious eyes in my direction. She excused herself from her client and walked out from behind the booth towards me. “Do I know you, dear?”
“Um… maybe,” I replied. “But I wanted to give you some of these.” I handed her a pile of business cards for FastForwardExperiences.com and on reading them her eyes bulged up at me.
“I’ve seen this website before, it’s fascinating! Is this actually your site?” she asked, and I nodded. “Oh wow, thank you. What a wonderful thing it is that you’re doing, spreading the awareness of this phenomenon.” She held tightly onto the cards. “Wait, does this mean that you’ve experienced a… fast forward?” She leaned close to me in an attempt to keep our conversation private.
I chewed on my bottom lip.
“You have, haven’t you? I can tell!”
Yep, one should never attempt to hide something from a gifted psychic. I nodded.
“Is your experience listed on the site?” she asked.
“Yes, it is.”
“Wait, don’t tell me! Give me a minute…” She closed her eyes, then opened them, flashing a cheeky grin. “Did you use the alias ‘Grumpy’, by any chance?”
I nodded, as an unstoppable smile crashed onto my face.
“Your story is amazing!” Liliana exclaimed, grasping both of my hands in hers. “But how did you know to give these cards to me? Did we actually meet… in your fast forward?”
I shrugged playfully. “Let me ask you a question, Liliana,” I said boldly. “How was your daughter’s engagement party last night?”
“Ah!” Liliana grasped my hands even tighter. “We did meet!”
I nodded again. “You were the one who told me about the website, but when I finally returned to the past, it didn’t exist yet, so I made it myself,” I explained. “You also passed on a very important message from my mother, so thank you.”
Liliana held a hand to her heart, then lifted it to her forehead. “Oh wow, this is totally amazing! How bizarre that you and I met in an alternate life and now here we are, meeting again in real life,” Liliana said. “Would you like to sit down for a chat, dear?” She gestured towards the booth where her client was impatiently fiddling with a piece of paper.
“I’d love to, but I can’t. My husband’s waiting in the car. We’re off to see our firstborn grandchild.”
“Ooh, how exciting. Well I won’t hold you up, dear. But listen, here’s my card.” She plucked one from a light sash that hung diagonally across her body and handed it to me. “I also do private readings, so if you ever need one, give me a call.”
“Thanks, Liliana, I will.” I took the card and put it in my back pocket, then waved as I walked out the door and dashed to Franco’s where he whipped up a colourful, elegant arrangement and even gave me a ten per cent discount as a congratulations gift.
On my way back to the car, I walked past a lingerie store and doubled back as something caught my eye. I shook my head and laughed at the thing that had the potential to make the female race an endangered species – the one and only SlimFX Magic Suit version 2.0. I was still laughing to myself when my e-pad beeped.
You have a new high priority email message. Press to view.
Oh my God. It was a submission form from the Fast Forward Experiences website. My eyes read through the submission as quickly as humanly possible and a weight lifted off my shoulders. It was from ‘Polly’, the politician turned journalist who’d been hanging about indefinitely in the future. She’d finally returned back to age forty, after her years of research uncovered the evidence required to expose a big secret – a trail of corruption in her political circle which she was then able to go back in time to report before it got out of control. She wouldn’t say what the implications would have been otherwise, just that they would have been huge.
I closed the message and smiled, glad this woman had finally found her way home, as I had. Life was as it should be again and even though my marriage was built on good communication, my fast forward experience was something that didn’t need to be revealed to Will. It was better that way. It was and would remain, my little secret.
As I slid back in the car to cries of ‘What took you so long?’ and ‘Geez, about time!’ my e-pad jingled again. This time with an incoming call.
“Hi, Selena!”
“Hey, hon, happy birthday for yesterday! Sorry you couldn’t reach me,” she said. “But I wanted to let you know I’m definitely able to fly in next weekend for a visit.”
“Oh great, I look forward to seeing you,” I replied.
“So, any ideas what we should do to make the most of the weekend?”
A smile made its way to my lips and I said, “Selena, have you ever thought about bungy jumping?”
Ten minutes later we walked through the hospital doors, this time as normal-looking human beings with no stained clothing or injured body parts. We followed the directions to the maternity ward and I peeked through the door to room five.
“Mum!” Diora called out with a smile as big as the room. “You’re here! You just missed Kasey and Max, though, they left a few minutes ago.”
I walked in to find Will’s parents, Beryl and Reg, standing next to the bed and my dad handing Diora a glass of water. Jason sat next to his wife on the edge of the bed and a tiny mound of skin protruded from the firmly wrapped blanket in Diora’s arms.
“Oh my God,” I whispered as I tiptoed towards my daughter and kissed her on the forehead, placing the flowers on the bed, their beauty paling in comparison to the angelic face of my granddaughter. Her little hands wriggled about the sides of her face and I held my finger to one of them. Transparent fingertips with paper-thin fingernails grasped at my finger and held on with a strength that transcended age.
“Mum, Dad,” Diora said. “I’d like you to meet Aurora.”
A hand flew to my heart and I glanced at Will who had a sliver of a tear running down his cheek. Even Ryan, half his body obscured by the giant tartan-clad teddy bear, had shiny eyes.
“Our little Aurora,” I said. “She’s absolutely beautiful!”
“She was born at dawn,” Jason said. “Which is what her name means. She’s our little Sunrise Goddess.” He caressed his daughter’s cheek as he spoke.
Diora looked up at me with loving eyes. “And her middle name’s Kelli.”
Right, that was the last straw. I couldn’t hold it in any more. My face scrunched itself up and warmth rushed to my eyes, spilling tears down my cheeks.
“Do you want to hold her?” Diora stood and positioned Aurora in my arms, and I placed a gentle hand behind the baby’s head.
I swayed gently from side to side and Aurora’s tiny eyelids slid open, revealing midnight blue eyes that seemed to be a universe of their own. I stared deep into them and silently thanked the amazing power that was responsible for allowing me to see the truth of what my life was all about. I’d been given a gift twenty-five years ago and it was still giving right to this day.
As I traced her faint eyebrows with my finger, I realised that my eyes were like hers – wide open and eager, ready to soak up new sights, new discoveries and new experiences. Aurora’s life was just beginning and even though I was fifty, it felt like mine was too. As far as I was concerned, the magic of my life was only just starting to reveal its true beauty.
THE END