Never Too Late (Resetter Series Book 1) Read online

  Addi suppressed a sigh and got into the vehicle. "Thank you," she said when he started the car.

  ****

  Monica Campbell was in her early sixties but didn't look it. She had gotten plumper from what Addi remembered of her. She still had that elegant way to move her body as if she were an unhurried lady of the manor.

  She was tall and dark with long relaxed hair dyed in a purple tint, it rippled around her shoulders whenever she moved her head.

  She was sitting on the veranda when they drove up, a box of plant cuttings at her feet.

  She greeted them warmly enough, offered them a seat on one of her padded chairs and sat across from the two of them, a grin on her face.

  "You two look the same!" She announced looking between Addi and Josh with her eyes sparkling. "I would recognize you both anywhere and I haven't seen you since you were children."

  Addi smiled. "Well, teenagers...the family left Jamaica when I was eighteen."

  "Yes. I remember." Monica nodded. "Your father waited until you finished high school. And Josh was already married."

  She smiled at Josh and asked innocently. "Where is your wife, what was her name again?"

  "Ellie," Josh said abruptly. "We are divorced."

  "Oh." Monica looked sorrowful. "I am so sorry to hear."

  "It was ages ago." Josh shrugged like it didn't matter but he was holding himself stiffly in the chair like he was ready to bolt any minute now.

  "So, what can I help you with, Miss Addison?" Monica turned to Addi.

  Addi inhaled and then stuttered, "This is going to sound strange. Well this is er a..."

  Monica raised her eyebrows at every hesitation.

  "Sky, remember Sky?"

  "Oh yes." Monica nodded, "Of course I remember Sky. Last year when she came to Jamaica we had a long chat."

  "You saw her last year?" Addi squeaked.

  "Yes," Monica said thoughtfully, "she had a lot of questions about..."

  Monica pursed her lips. "Sky was here for the release of that young man, Rusty from prison. She came here quite distressed after speaking to him. How is she now?"

  "She er," Addi cleared her throat. "She is dead."

  "Oh," Monica froze, a shocked frozen look on her face. "That's...I don't know what to say... "

  "She said you knew about time travel and the blue stone in our yard." Addi stopped speaking…she sounded ridiculous.

  Josh was looking at her and shaking his head, like he couldn't believe that she had really brought it up with Monica a perfectly sane looking woman.

  "Ah," Monica nodded. "I wonder if...."

  She shook her head as if to dispel that thought, "Yes. I told Sky the legend of the pathways. She asked me about it."

  "The legend of the pathways?" Josh repeated the cynicism was rolling off his tongue.

  "Oh yes," Monica was unperturbed by his attitude. "Since the beginning of time, there have been special babies born with a mark in their palms.

  "A simple cross, a 'T' if you will. These human beings are capable of going back in time, never forward.

  "Always back and only once. They can reset the timeline, change what they want to change if they can, but they can only travel in their lifetime and only if they can find the pathways to connect to. My grandmother referred to these people as the resetters.

  "When a resetter finds a pathway all they need to do is picture the time they want to go back to, place their palms on the pathway and sure enough they will be there, in their younger bodies. For a time they will retain memories from the timeline they are traveling, but the longer they stay in the new timeline the more memories of the old one will fade until they can barely remember the things that went on before. It will be like a faint, fuzzy dream. Resetters definitely have to move fast if they are going to accomplish anything. I guess it's the kind of like having a vague feeling that you've lived a life before or been some place before."

  Josh made a coughing sound.

  Monica continued. "The pathways are usually made of stone. I don't know why. Maybe because some of the stones we so casually pass by have been around since the beginning of time."

  Josh coughed again and looked at Addi.

  Addi tried to ignore him.

  Monica smiled. "I see Josh is not a believer."

  "Neither am I to be honest," Addi said gently. "Monica, I liked your story. It sounds very er..."

  "Sensational." Monica chuckled. "I understand. I wasn't a believer either when my grandmother used to tell us her stories."

  "But you are a believer now?" Addi asked cautiously.

  "Yes," Monica smiled. "I gradually accepted that it is possible. My grandma had a diary in which she recorded research she had done on resetters throughout the years."

  Josh got up and stretched. "I am er going to sit in the car. It was lovely to see you again, Monica."

  Monica smiled. "And you too Josh."

  Addi and Monica watched as he walked away.

  "Sorry about his rudeness." Addi sighed. "Today was a bit overwhelming for us. I scattered Sky's ashes by the blue stone as she requested."

  "I can imagine so." Monica clutched her hand. "Can you do me a favor, Addi?"

  "What?" Addi looked at where their hands were joined.

  "When you go back, come and find me. Sky said she was asking you to go to the summer of 92?"

  "Yes." Addi didn't know why but she felt a shiver of fear. "Were you the one who put her up to this, Monica? Were you the reason she...She...?"

  "No!" Monica looked at Addi in horror. "She believed the stories I told her. She was the one who asked me about time travel. She seemed very distressed at the time. My stories did seem to calm her down.

  "But I had no idea what she would do...I didn't tell her to go and kill herself and force you to reset things. I wouldn't do that!"

  Addi nodded. She believed Monica. Her eyes begged her to believe.

  Addi exhaled. At any rate she knew Sky. Nobody could convince Sky to do anything that she didn't want to do.

  "I'll give you my grammy's diary to read when you go back to '92." Monica inhaled shakily. "A couple years ago my brother cleared out her old room and threw away everything. Remind me when you go back to not let him clear out her room."

  Addi shook her head, "Monica..."

  And remind me of this, Monica said her expression intent, on August 5, 1995. I will marry Walter Sparks. Warn me not to do it. He is not straight and had no business asking me to marry him. He is a lonely man trying to do the right thing and I got caught up in his mess. Warn me, Addi. I wasted a good five years of my life."

  "Monica, this is crazy!" Addi whispered fiercely. "This is a fairytale fantasy madness."

  Monica held Addi's hand and looked at the two lines in her palms. "You are a resetter. It's obvious. You can only go back once. Make it count, Addison Porter. Remember the date, I asked you about. And warn me about Walter. I would like at least one child. I always regretted not having any children. Prompt me to get moving on that, okay."

  Addi pulled away her hand and walked toward the car. "Goodbye, Monica."

  Monica nodded. "There is no harm in trying this fairytale fantasy, Addi. Put your palm on that blue stone, picture the summer of 92 and relive your life."

  Addi went into the car.

  "I am starving," Josh said. "Want us to stop at a fast food place before we head into town?"

  "Yes. Sure." Addi nodded. "I er want to give the place a last look over though."

  She got out of the car when Josh drove up to it. "This won't take a minute."

  She reassured him, his long-suffering expression was cracking and he was practically scowling at her.

  "I'll soon be back." She grabbed the book with her that was addressed to Sky. If for some reason this resetting business worked and she could time travel she wanted to take the book with her.

  She tucked it firmly under her arm.

  Josh growled. "Don't be long."

  Addi walked to the rocky overhang, she fi
tted her right palm into the blue rock and with her other hand she pressed the book on and her other palm on the rock.

  She closed her eyes and pictured the beginning of summer 1992. It was the day after her final exam and she was lying in her bed staring up at the ceiling and wondering what she would do with that summer. She remembered that day so vividly.

  The rock started feeling warmer, there was a tingling in her fingers, she almost drew them away in shock but the world around her was losing focus and she felt a floating sensation.

  Chapter Four

  "Addi, you okay?" Josh's voice sounded concerned.

  She was still at the blue stone with her hand in the groove, clutching Sky's book.

  "She is taking up my bad habits." Sky's voice said before she could turn around. "I like that spot."

  Addi slowly spun around. The book fell from her hand with a thud.

  "I wanted you to meet my friend from university," Josh said pushing his hand in his pocket. A young Josh. Tall, thin, clean-shaven. No lines in his face. No paunch around the waistline. No droop to his mouth. Handsome.

  And Sky, she was standing beside him in a jeans shorts and a blue t-shirt with fringes all around it. The words Miami Vice splashed across the front. Her brown hair was in two fat plaits crisscrossed in a crown style on her head. Sky had hated that her hair was that color. Addi had forgotten entirely about it looking that way.

  Good heavens. What was this? A dream of some sort?

  Sky's pretty round face was scrunched up in curiosity as she looked at Addi. It was uncanny the details she could observe in this dream. Her cousin's honey brown skin was flawless except for the gathering of freckles on the bridge of her nose. She was gloriously alive and glaring at Addi because she was not responding.

  "What's that?" Sky pointed at the book at her feet.

  Addi swallowed.

  Her feet.

  They were encased in some ugly plastic jelly pink slippers with a bow on the top. She was wearing an acid wash shorts and a neon green shirt. Can't Touch This, MC Hammer blazoned across the front.

  And she was skinny! And flat chested!

  She closed her eyes again and inhaled, any minute now she would awaken from whatever dream this was.

  She opened her eyes again and then looked from Sky to Josh. "What year is this?" Her voice, it was different, squeaky, childish.

  Sky sniggered and then turned around. "Unlike you, I have my last exam tomorrow. I am going to study. If by any remote chance somebody wants to rescue me from boredom I am in my room. By the way, Josh your friend is cute. Really cute. You should see him Addi."

  She made a swooning motion and then headed to the back door of the other house and closed it.

  Josh was left looking at her strangely. "You remember Randall? I told you guys about him."

  "Yes." Addi inhaled raggedly, she walked toward Josh and then stopped, looking down at herself. This was the outfit she had met Randall in the first time. Back then the date was June the twenty second, nineteen ninety-two. Maybe it was that date again.

  She had time travelled!

  She looked in her palm surreptitiously and gasped. She no longer had two lines; she had five and some other lines criss-crossing her palms.

  They looked like regular palms!

  "What's wrong with your hand, Addi?" Josh was getting impatient with her. Undoubtedly, because she was acting weird.

  "Nothing." Addi looked over at him. "I am going to use the bathroom."

  "You are leaving your book," Josh said pointing at the book. "When you are done come out and meet Randall. He is going to be doing some accounting for Dad this summer so he'll be staying with us for three months. He's in the office."

  "Sure. Yes." Addi turned back to get the book and then hurried past Josh and into the house. Everything looked familiar and strange at the same time. She almost stumbled as a sense of nostalgia hit her as she walked into the living room. It had red velvet settees, a breakfront with her mother's fake flowers, and gold figurines of angels.

  She had forgotten how much she hated dusting off the little angel pieces every Friday. A chunky television sat in the middle of the breakfront, no remote in sight. A white telephone sat beside it with the letters JTC printed ontop in large fonts. JTC...Jamaica Telephone Company.

  Addi couldn't resist picking up the receiver and hearing the dial tone. It was like looking at a relic. She used to make prank calls with this phone.

  She put down the phone in the cradle and looked around at the walls. Her mother had a fetish for Air Jamaica Calendars. She still did. She kept it up until the airline was sold. Addi rubbed her temples.

  There were some of them now, framed and hanging on the walls. Free gorgeous art. She hadn't appreciated them before. She did so now. She wished that she had collected the Air Jamaica calendars from the nineties.

  But wait, she was in the nineties. She was in the nineties! This was no dream. She had really time traveled.

  She heard a sound in the kitchen area and she swung around.

  The kitchen was at the end of the living room, before that was an alcove with the dining room table, beyond that was the kitchen, a door from the kitchen led to the back and to the office.

  "I thought you said you were resting today." Her mother appeared at the kitchen doorway.

  "I was. I am," Addi stammered. Her mother looked young! With jet-black hair! It was still processed and cut in a thick bell cut that swung when she walked.

  Her mother had been a seriously attractive woman. Not that she wasn't in the future but in the past Addi had not appreciated how good-looking she was.

  This convoluted time traveling business was going to take some getting use to.

  Addi took her mother in fully. As usual she was dressed immaculately, this time in a charcoal grey suit. She was the manager of the family hardware store that was started by her parents and left in her capable hands when they migrated ten years prior.

  That hardware store had gone up in flames in 95, a year before they left Jamaica to be with the grandparents in the States. It was one of the reasons why they left.

  Addi moved toward the left of the house. On that side of the house was her and Josh's old bedrooms. They had shared a bathroom.

  On the other side were her parents' room and a guest bedroom.

  "Oh, Addi." Her mother stopped mid-stride and looked around at her. "A reminder, Randall Vassell is here for the summer. He'll be staying in the guest room. He arrived a while ago. Where were you?"

  "By the stone." Addi swallowed. She didn't want to meet Randall for the first time dressed like a clown down on her luck.

  " At lunch time I'll take something for you two to eat. What do you want?"

  Addi shrugged. "Chicken something."

  "Okay." Her mother nodded. "Be good. We will have to discuss what you are going to do for your summer."

  She headed toward her bedroom and Addi walked towards hers. The door had on a picture of the Hip Hop duo, Kriss Kross.

  Addi grimaced. She had been a typical teenager. And that song Jump was still in heavy rotation in this time.

  She opened the door and was greeted by chaos. Books and papers and clothes and posters were strewn everywhere. She had been a slob.

  She groaned as she looked at the mess. This was one thing that she had outgrown. Her apartment in Manhattan was tidy, thanks in part to her cleaning service but she had developed a latent neat streak in college after sharing room with a horrendously untidy girl who had literally forced her into acting like her mother.

  She headed to the closet and paused at the mirror before opening the door. She examined herself closely. She looked absurdly young.

  She turned the closet glass toward her as she sat on the bed. Spring bed. It made a squeaking sound when she sat on it. She made a face at herself and then laughed at her reflection in the mirror.

  She looked good.

  Pure unlined medium brown skin that had never gone through the acne stage. Her cheeks looked a lit
tle plumper than they would look in a couple of years, her eyebrows as usual were too thick for her liking—and her hair.

  Good Lord! She had forgotten about her hair. It was long and it was huge. She unraveled it from the single ponytail it was in and laughed. She had forgotten her Rudy Huxtable hair. It was almost to her waist.

  By the time she had hit thirty it was barely longer than a finger joint. She had dyed, processed, and abused it to literally within an inch of its life. Now here it was in all its long and thick, natural unfettered glory.

  This time around, she was keeping this lusciousness. She had years of watching youtube videos and visiting hair sites drooling over the length of other people's natural hair. She would do twist outs and braid outs and wash and go's, the hair style experiments were already under her belt.

  She could vaguely remember a fascination with having a bang. That was six months in the future. It had been an unmitigated disaster.

  If she was reliving her life. Forty was not going to find her hair the same as it was before.

  Oh no. This do-over, she was going to be different. Her hair was just the beginning.

  She stood in the mirror and turned from side to side. She had a completely flat belly and if her memory served her right she had eaten any and everything her mind told her to eat.

  Oh to be young again. She felt a niggle of delight. She was enjoying this.

  She rifled through her closet and in her chest of drawers. She had very few pieces of sober looking clothes. She was a fan of bright neon colors at this age. She made a face at the blouses in the drawer.

  She vaguely remembered being a fan of the Fresh Prince of Belair and their clothing styles. The show was probably a year old now.

  She found a jeans skirt and a white snug fitting top and she plaited her hair in two and slicked some of her gel at the edges to make it look wavier and then she headed to the back of the house to meet Randall for the first time—again.

  "Here she is, my baby sister," Josh said when she pushed the office door open and eagerly walked into the office. She barely registered the interior of the place she wanted to see Randy again, to exult in the fact that after twenty-five years she would be immune. She was not going to be young and naive where he was concerned again. She had seen this man in all his stages.