Saving Marlilyn

  Chapter 12 - The Aftermath

  Auggie was furious with Claire. More furious than she had ever seen him. As he prepared LOKI for a return trip, he was angrily talking to himself. “I ran into my grandfather,” he mockingly said with a snarl. “I just forgot to mention how I single handedly changed the world while I was out saving Marilyn,” he continued. Despite Auggie’s fury, Claire couldn’t help but admire how he was handling the situation. He never once yelled at her, never even raised his voice. He faced this dilemma like everything else in life, analytically. He stared the problem in the face, analyzed it, discussed it endlessly and came up with a plan to take it on.

  Claire would have to go back and right her wrong. And it was a wrong, Claire knew now. Auggie knew it before it even happened, but even Claire could no longer deny it. All of her aspirations were turned upside down. She thought she could save one single life and not cause too much trouble. Meeting her idol was a dream she had her entire life, but she never dreamed it would be like this. Marilyn was a sad, angry shell of what she once was. Could it be that dying young was the best thing that could have happened to her? Claire’s thoughts were interrupted by Auggie’s cold instructions.

  “Claire, if all goes well, this will put the timeline back where it’s supposed to be. That means I won’t remember anything about this time. I want you to promise me right here, right now that you will tell me the entire story.” Reading her trepidation, Auggie reinforced, “Claire if our marriage means anything to you, you’ll do this for me. I mean it. I want to know every detail.” Claire could only nod her head. She could barely look Auggie in the eye. How could he be helping her when she lied so badly? Her heart now ached to make things right, not just for Auggie and Matthew, but for Marilyn. Marilyn, who just couldn’t seem to get it right in either timeline, needed Claire. Claire wondered if there was a timeline out there where she did get it right. Just once.

  Claire changed back into her 1962 clothes and strapped on the arm unit. As she climbed up on the launch pad, she silently cried. Not just for Auggie, Matthew and Marilyn, but for the mess she made out of her own life. She was concentrating so much on someone who had passed long ago that she let a lot of her life get away from her. She wished she could just go back to her own timeline, before she had left for the past, and just destroy Loki. Auggie was right, timelines are fragile and no human should tamper with them. He took his place behind the control panel and asked if she was ready. “Claire? . . . Claire?” She was being pushed back into a reality she was trying to forget. “I’m ready.”

  “Do you know what you’re going to do?” Auggie asked needing assurance.

  “We’ve gone over it a hundred times, I know what I have to do” she said with the much needed assurance.

  The shaking sensation once again crept up on her as Auggie started LOKI up. The launch pad started to shake with the force of a large earthquake and Claire could see flashes of light, white, blue and gold flashed before her eyes. She felt as if she were being levitated for an instant and was suddenly thrust upon the hard earth in her grandparent’s side yard. She was back to August 4, 1962.