Sidestory
by Caroline
The Letter
Becky sat in the small office of one of the teachers at the
orphanage, silently staring down at a blank piece of paper and
tapping a pen on the edge of the desk. She was so close to them
that she could almost imagine herself just teleporting back home,
running to Toby, wrapping her arms around him and just hiding
her face in his chest until none of it mattered anymore and everything
was okay again. But it wasn't okay. No matter how fine it all
seemed so long as there weren't any problems in the area, it always
ended up in them arguing when there were. Why couldn't she fix
it? Why couldn't she change it? Why couldn't she make it all better?
Did he think that not wanting to change time for Daniel's sake
meant that she didn't care about him? A part of her wondered if
he did. But he couldn't understand how much it tore her apart
knowing that Daniel was ill and that she could do something about
it but wouldn't. Shouldn't. She had made a promise to herself
and she hoped that one day Daniel could understand that. She hoped
that one day Toby could.
With a sigh, she lifted the pen and slowly started to write:
"I know you're not going to understand why I have to go
and I can't even tell you how long I'll be gone or when I'll come
back. I love you, Toby, but I'm so tired of justifying myself
to you whenever something like this comes up. I'm sorry I wasn't
there for you when you got ill I should have been, just
like I should have been there for Dan. Maybe I'm just not as good
a friend, girlfriend, as I should be. Never mind, I know I'm not
what sort of friend runs off like this?
Tell Libby and Maeve I'm sorry too. I know I should say good-bye
in person; I know Libby'll be hurt that I haven't but I need to
do this and I know that if I see anyone, if I talk to anyone,
I won't be able to let them go. And how do I explain it anyway?
I don't think I can even really explain to myself why I need to
do this. But I do.
I just need time to think. I need to get away from all the problems
and arguments and worries. I need time by myself. I need time.
Maybe I'll find something out there and I'll come back and everything'll
be okay. Maybe I'll come back one day to find none of you even
want to talk to me anymore. It's funny three years ago,
I was so afraid of having to do exactly this leave all the
people I cared about and go back to being on my own like I always
was but now it feels like this is exactly what I need. And
"
She paused for a long moment and then, wiping a tear from her eye, crossed out the beginning of what she was sure would have turned into a long sentence saying how much she loved him and didn't want to lose him she was running away from him after all, what right did she have to try and hold onto what they had?
"I guess there's not much else to say really. I wish so
much that I had never told you about my time-travelling ability
it might well have avoided this moment...but I guess that's
just burying my head in the sand it would have come out
eventually. And I think this is for the best anyway I need
to deal with what I can do I thought I had but if that were
true then it wouldn't hurt so much when I kept to the decision
I'd made not to influence anything. If it were true then everything
that happened to you and Maeve and Dan and Libby...it wouldn't
make me feel so torn apart.
Good-bye, Toby. I will come back one day although whether that
reassures you or just makes you even madder or more upset than
you already are, I don't know. I'm writing another letter for
Dan to have, I know how upset he must be and I regret that just
as much as I hate doing this to you. Please make sure he's alright
while I'm gone.
Love,
Becky x"
Her letter to Daniel was much easier to write in a lot of ways
she said how sorry she was and how much she'd miss him and
that she'd be back as soon as she could. She told him to behave
in school and not to make any trouble while she was gone. She
didn't tell him why she was leaving, except to say that she needed
some time away like that time three years before when she had
left and first learnt Buddhism. She had taken him with her that
time so she wasn't sure if that was the best example but she hoped
he would understand that she just needed some time on her own.
She finished the letter saying how much she loved him and then
silently folded both sheets of paper into one envelope.
She had already talked to her boss at the orphanage, telling her
that she was going away and wouldn't be able to work there anymore,
so everything there was sorted, although she was going to miss
all of the children she had grown to care about there. That meant
that all she had to do was deliver her letter.
With a weary sigh, she teleported out of the orphanage only to
reappear in Toby's bedroom. The guard she had asked about him
had said that he had been holed up in her house with Daniel while
he was ill and she could tell that he probably hadn't slept in
his own bed much at all since she had left. She had been nervous
talking to that guard because she was sure that it would eventually
get back to Toby that she was asking about him it can't
exactly have seemed normal to the guy that she was asking him
about her own boyfriend. But she had needed to know that he and
Daniel and Libby and Maeve were all okay. She had been so relieved
when the guard had told her that the flu virus had gone.
For a moment, she hesitated as she moved to place the letter on
Toby's bedside cabinet. She dropped to her knees and pressed her
head into his pillow, trying to pick up what was left of his scent
on the material. Her chest ached with the thought of never waking
up with him beside her again. With the thought of never seeing
him smile at her. With never being a part of his life.
The ache in her chest moved to her throat and she started to cry,
her tears soaking into his pillow as her body was wracked with
sobs.
"God, why do I do this to myself?" she groaned through her tears.
But then suddenly she heard a sound coming from downstairs
and she jumped to her feet, knocking a photo of herself and Toby
to the ground and accidentally standing on it as she stumbled
away from the door. She looked down at the shattered glass obscuring
hers and Toby's smiles with a look that could almost be seen as
terror her misery tinted eyes seeing nothing but a cruel,
cold omen for the future. She dropped the tear-stained pillow
to the ground and the letter along with it and then she did what
she was sure Toby felt that she was an expert at by now
she ran away.
On to Tuesday, May 19, 1931 (AIM two-player)
On to Wednesday, May 20, 1931
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