Chapter 1: A New Beginning
Basic Storyline: This follows the movie plot instead of the book. This fanfiction picks up where the movie left off. Jesse is at Winnie's grave site.
Disclaimer: I do not own Tuck Everlasting, just thought I should mention that
Jesse looked at the headstone with a million thoughts going through his mind. Had he waited too long to come back for her? He had said he would come back for her and he did, but what if she had taken Tuck and Miles advice? Was he selfish for wanting her to wait over 75 years for him to come back?
"She's been dead for four years," he thought to himself.
"Amy!" Jesse heard someone call from the house when he began to walk away.
He turned around to see something he had missed in the trees before. There was a girl in the tree. Well, not a girl really, but a young woman, about his age maybe a few years older. He chuckled to himself. "My age, there is no human being on the planet as old as I am."
Amy jumped down from the tree careful to step around the grave and all the flowers surrounding it. She knelt down by the grave and said, "Gram, I know you would have wanted to be here, Andrea is getting married and well we all miss you, but we know that it was time for you to move on." "I.. I am crazy for talking to a headstone like this," she muttered to herself.
Amy turned around and was shocked to see a blond in a leather jacket.
"Can I help you?" Amy asked nervously. She had never seen this guy around before, but it was hard to keep track of all of Andrea's friends because she was quite popular, but this guy looked to young. Andrea was almost 25 and this guy couldn't be older than 18.
"Just coming to see an old friend, but it seems she passed away," Jesse said quietly.
"She was 100 years old, how could you be an old friend?" Amy asked quietly.
He looked up at her and gasped. He hadn't noticed just how much Amy looked like Winnie. Not an exact match obviously, but the brown curly hair and the eyes had been passed down. The face looked a lot like Winnie's as well but there were obvious variations. She was also wearing a dress of a similar make to under dress that Winnie had worn the day he had taken her swimming and that night by the fire when she had learned the secret of the Tucks. He shook himself out of his daze. He would certainly draw attention to himself if he kept gawking at her.
"It's a long story," Jesse finally managed to say.
"Amy!" a middle aged blond woman shouted coming down to get her. "What are you doing here? You are going to get that dress dirty hanging out here and you're sister's wedding is starting soon."
"I'm sorry mom," Amy said. "I just needed some time with Gram."
"Amy, we've been over this a hundred times. She's dead, just because you come out here every time you have a chance doesn't mean she is ever going to come back," Amy's mother said completely ignoring Jesse who was trying to slip away.
"Who is this?" Amy's mother pointed towards Jesse. "Is this your date?"
"I told you, I don't have a date," Amy said quietly now blushing.
"Well, then who are you?" Amy's mom asked directing her apparent rage toward Jesse.
"Jesse Tuck," Jesse said. What was the harm of telling this woman his name, she would never remember him as soon as he left.
"You sound familiar are you from around here?" Amy's mother asked.
"You could say that, I'm sort of in and out of town," Jesse said.
"Ah, well I would kindly ask you to stay off of my property if you are not a friend of the family," Amy's mom said.
Amy scrunched her face. She shot an apologetic stare towards Jesse and said, "Sorry I didn't recognize him before, he is a friend of mine, just an old one that I haven't seen in a while. His family moved when I was young. Nice to see you again Jesse."
"Pleasure to see you Amy," Jesse said. "Maybe I will see you some other time when you aren't so busy?"
"Maybe," Amy said.
"Well Jesse, we are having a wedding today so unless you are my daughter's date I suggest you come back another time," Amy's mother said flustered.
"I would be pleased to accompany Amy to the wedding," Jesse said. "If she will allow me."
Amy stood there for a moment. She didn't even know this guy for all she knew he could be a creep. Her mother had been right when she said his name had sounded familiar. She had heard it somewhere before.
In Amy's silence Amy's mother answered for her daughter. "I'm sure Amy would like that, it will give you two a chance to catch up."
Amy's mouth formed the words no toward Jesse, but Amy's mother was already pulling them into the backyard so the wedding could begin.
The wedding took little time and soon the reception began. Amy walked over toward her "date" and said, "I'm sorry, I really don't know you and I'm not quite sure what you are doing here."
"I did know your grandmother," Jesse said still in shock about her death. "You look a lot like her."
"She wasn't my grandmother, she was my great grandmother." "You're not the only one who thinks I look like her though," Amy said quietly. "It was as if my father wasn't even present during my conception. I look nothing like him, though I didn't have much time to find out, he left my mother a long time ago." Amy said.
"I shouldn't have said that," Amy said a few moments later after an awkward silence.
"Would you like me to go?" Jesse asked.
"I don't know," Amy said. "But I know if we are going to be able to talk we should step out otherwise we will get no privacy," Amy said motioning her eyes toward her mother and a few other chattering woman who kept looking over at her standing with Jesse.
"I agree," Jesse said.
Amy led him out of the house and into the woods again. "Sorry about the stares, I just don't have much time for relationships so my mother thinks I'm a little too serious and that I will be some kind of spinster."
There were a few more moments of silence before she said. "I don't know why, but I just feel like talking to you, and saying things that are obviously very revealing for someone I just met and know nothing about."
"What would you like to know?" Jesse asked.
"Where are you from?" Amy asked.
"I wasn't lying when I said I was from around here," Jesse said staring her straight in the eye.
"How is it that I never saw you around though?" Amy asked. "I've lived here all of my life."
"My parents are old fashioned and they home schooled me." Jesse lied.
"Oh, well I guess that makes sense," Amy said.
"I have a few questions of my own, if you wouldn't mind answering them that is," Jesse said.
"I guess we could just go back and forth then," Amy said wanting to know more about Jesse. He fascinated her.
"That is fair. How old are you?" Jesse asked.
"19," Amy said.
Jesse nodded. He had guessed that she looked older than he did. "I guess that it is your turn," Jesse said.
"Hmm, how old are you?" Amy asked back.
Jesse almost cringed but held himself back. He didn't want to give himself away, especially since he didn't know much about Amy. "18," he lied. He might as well be out of school; that would make this lie easier if he were ever to talk to her again. He had to admit that he liked being around her already, perhaps because she reminded him of Winnie, but it was nice to be able to look into his past a little bit.
"Oh, hmm," Amy said thinking. "How many siblings do you have?"
"Just one brother," Jesse said.
Amy nodded. "I guess you already guessed that I have one sister. "What is your brother's name?"
"Hey, that's two questions," Jesse said. "It's my turn."
"Oh, my mistake," Amy said blushing again.
"What do you want to do with your life?" Jesse asked looking straight into her eyes.
Amy glanced down not wanting to meet his intense eyes. She wasn't sure how to answer that question. "I never really thought about that I guess. I have goals, but what I want to do with my life overall?" she said thinking deeply.
Jesse waited patiently until she finally answered. "I guess I would like to do something that helps other people," she said quietly. "I'm not sure what exactly I am going to do, but I guess that's my overall goal."
"What about you," Amy finally said after many moments of intense silence and staring. His eyes were too deep, she was afraid if she kept staring into them she would get lost. She had never understood that phrase until this time.
"I want to live a good life and then," he said taking a breath. " And then, I want to die."
Amy looked at him strangely. That was something that most people chose for themselves. There was something strange about Jesse Tuck. It was as if he was stuck in the wrong time period and the wrong age. He sometimes talked as if he must be a wise old man, but that was ridiculous because he was year younger than she was.
"I have to go," Jesse said. "It's getting dark and your family is probably wondering where you slipped off to."
Amy looked up at the sky. "I suppose you are right." "Have a safe trip Jesse Tuck."
"I hope to see you again Amy…" he said.
"Jackson," Amy answered as he mounted his moped.
"Jackson," he said remembering Winnie's tombstone.
Jesse pulled away and sped off on his moped. He drove far into the outskirts of town before finally finding a small house that the family was going to stay in for a few years before they had to move again. The times were changing and as soon as Miles had learned to use a system similar to the witness protection program they could safely stay in the same place for a while. They had to change their names often, but decided, being back home that it was safe to use their original names.
Mae and Tuck were waiting for Jesse when he came home. They both seemed to be concerned.
Tuck looked out the window at the setting sun, "Please don't tell me she drank the water."
"She didn't drink the water," Jesse said solemnly.
Mae hugged her son and said, "It was for the best Jesse, no one should have to live the way we do."
"I warned you Jesse," Miles said coming into the room. "No human in their right mind would drink from the spring of their own knowledge."
Jesse turned to give him a dirty look, but he didn't have the energy for it. He knew that Miles was right, but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt all the same.
"Were you by her grave all this time?" Tuck asked.
"No," Jesse said. "I went to a wedding."