Chapter Twelve #2
Clara dialed her grandmother’s number instead. As absurd as this was all going to sound, she needed to tell someone, and Grams was probably the only one who could help her make any sense of it. Instead of a ringtone, she got a recorded voicemail greeting.
Hi, you have reached Phyllis Jenkins. I am currently on vacation in Paris and won’t have cell coverage in the meantime. Please leave me a message, and I’ll return your call when I get back in a few weeks.
Clara scratched her chin. She remembered what Grams had said the other night about going to Paris next Christmas.
Was that this Christmas? She went to Paris without her?
Leave it to her grandmother not to spring for an international phone plan just when she needed her most. She rubbed the back of her neck.
At least her parents had cell coverage, and they would be with Grams. She dialed the number for her mom, and it went straight to voicemail too.
The same happened when she tried her dad. She let out a heavy sigh.
She stared at her phone, not knowing where to go next for information.
This wasn’t exactly a situation she could google.
Clara clicked on her social media app and instantly noticed that she was logged out.
She blew a stray hair off her forehead as she typed in her password.
Access denied. She tried again and received the same error message.
She clicked on the button to indicate she had forgotten her password.
A security question popped onto the screen.
What is your most valuable possession?
Clara tapped a gloved finger against her lips. That was strange. She couldn’t, for the life of her, think what her most valuable possession would be. She wondered why she had chosen that security question in the first place. It was so vague.
She entered in family. She supposed her family wasn’t exactly a possession. Even so, she couldn’t see putting a tangible item above that.
Access was denied.
She quickly tried again with phone.
Also wrong.
She glanced back at the school. It made her think of the toys she’d had as a child. It was the last time she could remember having possessions she truly valued. Clara decided to send a quick text to her mom, knowing it was more likely to get a response than a missed call.
Hey, Mom, quick question . . . do you remember what my favorite toy was as a child?
She knew better than to expect an immediate answer.
She loved her parents, but with them spending so much time traveling internationally lately, it was becoming increasingly hard to communicate with them.
They were usually asleep when she was awake, and vice versa.
She couldn’t help but get frustrated with the communication delays, even though she knew it wasn’t their fault.
Clara closed the social media app and decided to give Lily a call instead. She answered after a few rings.
“Hey, Clar.”
Clara could tell from Lily’s gravelly voice that she had woken her up. “Lil, I’m sorry to call so early, but I need to ask you something.”
“Sure.”
“Where have I been for the past year?”
“Uh . . . what?”
“When was the last time you saw me?”
Lily cleared the morning voice from her throat, probably realizing this wasn’t going to be a quick call. “Well, I saw you the other day at Buddy’s.”
“Yes. At Buddy’s . . . right after you got engaged.”
“Um, no. I got engaged last year. I’m talking about this year, as in, a few days ago.”
A long silence followed.
“Clara, it was just the other day. We talked all about Brent coming home, remember? Speaking of that, how did it go? Was it super romantic, like those military homecomings you see on the news?”
She squeezed her eyes shut at the reminder. “Well . . .”
Lily was silent, obviously waiting for her to continue.
Clara bit her lower lip. “He proposed.” She braced herself for the reaction she knew was coming.
“What!? Clara, that’s incredible.” Her best friend was clearly fully awake now, her voice brimming with enthusiasm. “Congratulations!”
Clara cleared her throat. “Thanks.”
Lily paused. “I mean, that’s great, isn’t it?”
She didn’t say anything in return.
“Uh oh,” Lily said.
Clara knew Lily was able to interpret that silence in an instant. She tried to recover. “No, sorry, I was drinking my tea,” she lied. “It’s great. So great.” She continued to chew on her lower lip.
“Okay, what’s up? Why aren’t you more excited? It isn’t like you to be playing it so cool with a huge announcement like this.”
“I know, it’s just that—” She wasn’t sure how to finish the sentence.
“Clara?”
“I mean, I like Brent and all, but—"
“Like him? You’re crazy about him.”
“I am? I mean, I am. Of course I am.”
Lily let out a sigh. “My dear friend, you’ve talked about nothing but Brent for the past year.
All I’ve heard lately is how much you love him and can’t wait for him to get back.
He comes home after all this time away, proposes to you, and you’re not ecstatic?
And you talk about me holding back my emotions. ”
“I said I loved him?” she asked, then immediately regretted it. “No. Of course I’m excited. I guess I’m still getting used to the idea.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Clara, is there something else going on?” Lily asked, her ever-present patience coming through in her voice. Clara could imagine her using that voice on her students.
“It’s complicated,” she said. As nurturing as Lily could be, Clara was not one of her third graders. She was a fully grown adult in a very adult situation.
“Clar, what’s the matter? You’re not sounding like yourself.”
With her eyes still closed, Clara blurted out the truth before she could chicken out. “Lil, I think I time-traveled.”
Lily was silent.
“Are you there?” Clara asked.
“Yeah. Um, what are you talking about, exactly? Are you getting philosophical on me again?”
Clara balled up a fist in frustration. “No. I actually time-traveled. Listen, I know this sounds nuts, but I made a wish the other day—well, technically, last year—to skip over a year. You know, so I could skip over that whole deployment thing. And it worked. I’m in the future now.”
Lily snickered. “Okay, Clar. Well, that sounds fun.”
Clara pinched her lips together. “I’m serious, Lily.”
“Hm. Well, you’re obviously up in your head about this engagement.”
Clara swallowed, the frustration building.
Lily exhaled, probably realizing her best friend was off her rocker.
“Listen, I realize whatever is going on is stressful for you. Why don’t you come over later and we can talk more about it.
You probably just need some time to get used to Brent being back.
But I’m going to need to wake up and have some coffee before I can properly help you through this one. ”
Clara blew out a slow puff of air and shook her head. It was useless. None of this made any sense at all. Of course Lily wouldn’t believe her. How could she?
Clara gave an unconvincing chuckle. “Never mind. I think I’m tired too. I’m still a little overwhelmed from yesterday and haven’t processed everything. I probably woke up too early. I just need to go back to bed and reset. Forget I said anything.”
“But Clar—”
“I’ll call you later.” Clara hung up before Lily could say anything else.
It did sound crazy. She sounded crazy. If she couldn’t explain this to her best friend, there was no way she’d be able to explain any of this to Brent.
She looked down at her phone to see she had missed a call from her mom while she’d been talking to Lily. She clicked on the voicemail message.
Hi, sweetie. I hope Brent got home safely.
We hate that you can’t be with us for the holidays this year, but we completely understand.
We hope you two have a great Christmas together, and I can’t wait to hear about everything.
We’re in London now, but we’re about to take the train to Paris.
I’ll call soon. Oh, and your favorite toy was that Magic 8 Ball, remember? Love you!
Clara hung up, annoyed with her family for all being together without her.
She knew it wasn’t rational. Why shouldn’t they be enjoying a European holiday together?
Even so, she shook her head in frustration.
Clearly, not much had changed with her parents over the past year—still traveling the globe and having a great time.
She could feel the miles between her and her mother now more than ever.
She wanted to tell her everything that was going on.
To ask her about everything she’d missed over the past year.
Instead, as usual, she’d have to wait. Once her parents got to Paris and met up with Grams, she was sure she’d get this sorted out. She just needed to explain everything to her grandmother. Grams would help her figure out this whole mess.
Clara wrote back a simple text message in reply.
Have fun!
She tried again to log into her social media account, entering Magic 8 Ball this time.
She scoffed. Wasn’t it just like her to want a magic ball to fix her problems?
Some things never change, she supposed. Still, no access was allowed.
She threw the phone back into her pocket.
It may as well have said what that ball used to tell her back then: reply hazy, try again.