10.14: Past, Present, Future

NOTE: This is the *single tear drips down my cheek, from the corner of my right eye* last chapter of The Janes Legacy. The final chapter...

   "You found something? Please, Vance, say that you've found something." I gazed at him, my eyes wide, as he inhaled sharply.
   "Rye..." He trailed off, staring at the illif. "I cannot find anything. There's nothing about us, about a child, about time travelers. I have no idea how Eristlew was able to learn anything."
   "We should have asked him." I murmured, anxiously playing with my nails, scraping off the forest green paint.
   "You know that we can't." We had escaped his home; he'd wanted us to stay hidden, for he was horrified that if he was caught, that eed would occur, that he would be humiliated and exiled from society. The government, based on his paranoid ramblings, were willing to do anything to protect the future and prevent the space time continuum from being destroyed by reckless time travelers.
   "Vance, I'm scared."
   "I know, Rye." He whispered, standing up, hugging me. "We'll... We'll figure this out."
   "Will we? We can't go home, I can't see my family, I'm pregnant with a child who is supposed to prevent the future from being saved, I... Dammit, what do I do? What do we do?"
   "We'll figure it out, Rye, I know we will. Eristlew will protect us until we figure something out."
   "We can't rely on him forever, Vance. I-I- Why'd we get back together anyway?" I spat, distraught. I was pregnant with a fetus that he and I had created, a fetus that wasn't supposed to exist. A fetus that caused time travel to be banned. Why had this happened; what was I supposed to do? Sit idly by in Eristlew's guest bedroom, while the past and future crumbled, colliding?
   "Rye, take a deep breath-"
   "No! Don't you dare tell me what to do." I spun around, as he grabbed onto my shoulder. "Let go of me Vance." His hand slid down my arm, holding onto my hand.
   "Please."
   "I'm going back to Eri-"
   "Pardon me." An elderly voice spoke to us, her tone hushed. "Eristlew, are you talking about him?"
   "Yes." I curtly replied, turning to face her. "Why?"

   "Who are you?" Vance asked.
   "Sheiaj, the illif keeper. Eristlew, he, he came to me, he said that he had time traveler's in his presence. He asked for me to give him the forbidden files, I... I didn't believe him at first. I was hesitant to give him such vital information, but he convinced me, he-he-e said if I were to ever venture into the presence of a Vance and a Ryelynn, I was to show them the files, as well."
   "How can we trust you?" My words hung in the air, solemn, as he glanced from me, to Vance, to me again.
   "Can you afford not to?" Her question was left unanswered, as she gestured for us to follow her. We went through tall shelves of illifs, towering above us, containing the records of the world, the history of society, as she hummed a melody I was unfamiliar with. When we reached a shelf, a shelf taller than all the others, she hummed louder, began pressing different illifs. Her incantation led to shelves parting, as what appeared to be a computer was revealed. "Here. Here is what you need."
   "What do we-"
   "Hush, you cannot mention that I showed you this to anyone. Search for the story of the Janes, it will reveal your family's past, your family's future."
   "Thank you." Vance and I said, simultaneously, as I stepped forward, searching for the story of my family on the machine. Sheiaj turned, leaving, shutting the passageway, gesturing to a hatch in the ceiling and a hover board that we could use for our escape from the room.
   "Ryelynn, I don't feel good about this. It's eerie, it's too well planned out."
   "Can we afford to not go along with these plans? We have no knowledge of this society, we would not be able to blend in... Besides, aren't you curious as to who my ancestors are? Aren't you curious about your child's ancestors?"
   "I... Yes." He replied, gently patting my stomach. "Do it."

  "Just a little, innocent girl who loved to play with her dolls and create stories in her head. That's all she was. The little seven year old girl in second grade who was friends with everyone. The teachers loved her imagination and intelligence. Life was happy and joyous for everyone that met her; My Little Ray of Sunshine, her father would call her. Her life was shielded and safe; the pains of the real world were unknown to her. Until now." I began reading, as a picture of a small, blonde girl who was playing with dolls in a bedroom, a bedroom whose walls her painted with a pink floral pattern, appeared.
   "Who is that?"
   "Umm..." I read on, read as her father left her mother, read as she moved to Bridgeport. "Alyce Janes. My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother. She was the most instrumental member in my family; she caused the Janes family to be the way that it is."
   "Do we have time to go through a family tree that extensive?"
   "We have to."
   "If we're going to be here awhile, then there's something I want to say, before I lose my courage."
   "Why would you need courage?" I chuckled. "Vance, it's me."

   "That's why, because you're you. Ryelynn, you're intelligent, you're attractive, you're humorous, you're kind, and you're the largest nerd I've ever met."
   "W-"
   "Shh, please hold all questions until the end."
   "Fiiinnee, if you insist." I rolled my eyes, smiling, as he chuckled.
   "There was a time, a time close to a decade ago, where I would have sworn I'd never do this. If you'd told me that I'd me here, in the future, with you, with you carrying our child, I would have laughed. I broke up with you because I thought you were selfish, I thought that you only cared about the nerdiness and not me, not the other sides of me... I went to college, I've done all these things and I cannot, no matter where I go, England, Japan, Brazil, no matter what country, no matter what time zone I'm in or what currency I'm using, I cannot stop thinking about you."

   "Vance, what are-" He pulled out a box, a navy blue, velvet box that was too small to be holding a necklace, too small for a bracelet.
   "I've been left by my fiancee a week before our wedding, I've  been in an Irish pub and had everything beaten out of me, I've been to funerals, I've lost my thousand dollar computer, been told that I'm unlovable, yet none of these have pained me more than the idea of me not being able to spend the rest of my life with you. I know the circumstances are not ideal, I know it seems like everything's falling apart, I know that you're perplexed- I am, too- I know that you're an amazing woman who I want to spend the rest of my life with, who I want to spend the rest of my life getting to know."

   "Ryelynn Janes, I want that, when you get to you, when you read the story of you on that computer, it ends with us, living happily ever after, together, with our baby. Will you marry me?"
   "I... I." I paused, staring at the diamond, as my mind slowly processed everything that he had said. "Wait you've had a fiancee." His cheeks blushed, as I bit my lip. "Not the point, the point is..." I took a large breath, as he stared up at me, his eyes wide, like an eager doe. "Yes. Yes, I will."
   'Thank you." He said, as he slid the engagement ring onto my finger.

   "Can you do something for me?" He whispered in my ear, as we pulled away from our kiss. Our first kiss as an engaged couple.
   "Anything."
   "Will you see if the story of the Janes has updated?"
   "No... I don't want to know how our story ends. I want to read it, one page each day, and see how it slowly unfolds."
   "I like that plan better."
    I smiled. "Vance, I want to spend everyday learning a bit about my family's past, while I live through the future with you, as we raise our baby, and work on returning home."
   I didn't know how marrying Vance would change the future, I didn't know how having our baby would change the future, I didn't know when I'd see my family; I didn't know so many things. It was alright, though, because I didn't have to know everything, I cold take a deep breath, smile, and hold Vance's hand as we attempted to make it through this crazy future together. Alyce Janes didn't know what she was starting when she moved to Bridgeport and I didn't know what I was starting when I moved to the future. I could look at my family's history, see how my story ended, or I could live through my life, not knowing. There are somethings better left unknown. The future's one of them.