(Back to the future...)

The glass elevator hovered over the grass a few inches, then landed gently. Willy and Rose stepped out, turning on their flashlights, and Rose walked over to a very large oak tree. Willy hadn't been in this neighborhood in years. He could barely remember it, but looking around he was able to pick out some of the houses that families he once knew lived in. That had been a long time ago.

Rose took three giant steps from the tree, and Willy couldn't help but laugh. She looked so funny, and for a brief second, it looked like she was going to fall over. He walked over to her, handing her a shovel and stuck his in the ground.

"I'll be amazed if we can find it again," he muttered.

"We will. No one else knew about it did they?" He shook his head and they started digging. What they were looking for had been burried a lot deeper than they remembered, and it was about a half hour before they finally unearthed it. A wooden box, clumps of dirt still caked on it, and they pulled it out, setting it on the ground. "I told you it was still here," she said, looking up at him with a smile. He smiled back and watched as she turned to open it. They were about to open it when there was a crack of thunder, followed by the downpour of rain. Both of them hurried into the glass elevator, and they took off, stopping when they were about fifty feet up from the ground and they stayed in midair, sitting on the glass floor and opened it.

The first thing she pulled out was a baseball cap that didn't fit her anymore. "My hat!" she said smiling. "And your dinosaur," she added, pulling out the small green figurine. He took it and looked it over. He had completely forgotten about it!

"And your necklace I got you for your birthday," he said, pointing to it. She smiled, pulling it out, and held it up to get a better look at it. A silver one with a dog tag that said 'Best'. There was an identical one that read 'Friends'. In all honesty she didn't remember who had owned which, but decided to take his word for it.

"Oh man," she said pulling two small photos out. "Here we go, Will. Our seventh grade school pictures."

"I don't know if I want to see that," he muttered as she handed him his, and he nearly gagged. There were those awful braces that still gave him nightmares. And his school uniform was dreadful. Oh, how glad he was that those days were over! Rose's picture wasn't much better. Her hair was very messy and she had chocolate all over her mouth. It almost looked like an elementary school picture.

"I did that on purpose, remember?" she said. "I refused to dress up for that stupid picture, and my parents nearly killed me." She laughed and he smiled. She looked so different in that picture, and it wasn't because her face was a mess. It was her eyes. They didn't look so... sad in the photo. In fact, it was nearly impossible to recognize her from that picture. He had changed a lot too, but he liked his changes more than hers.

"What's this?" she asked, pulling out a tape recorder.

"I... don't remember," he muttered, looking at it. "Play it." She pressed the button then turned up the volume for them to hear.

"Okay," said a much younger Willy. He smiled at the sound of his young voice, and secretely admitted that Rose was right. His voice hadn't cracked yet. "Today's September 28, 1981, and this is a time capsul. My name's Willy Wonka-"

"And I'm Rose Parker," cut in another voice. Rose laughed and Willy smiled. They sounded so much younger on that tape. Were they really that old? "Why are we doing this, Will. It's so cheesey."

"Yeah, in about twenty, thirty years from now when we go back and dig it up, it'll be so cool to us."

"Whatever. I just can't believe you're putting your favorite dinosaur in there."

"Trust me, it'll be so awesome when we dig this up." Willy smiled to himself, and looked over at Rose. She was smiling, but looked like she was holding back tears.

"What do you think our lives'll be like in twenty or thirty years?" asked the younger Rose.

"I'm going to be a candymaker like I said I would, and you'll become a writer like you want to." Rose snorted. Boy had he been wrong! "And we're going to get married too. And have a family." They both froze and looked at each other.

"You really think we will?" little Rose asked, her tone saying she doubted it.

"Of course we will. Isn't that what always happens to friends like us? We grow into highschool sweethearts, and then twe end up getting married."

"I guess so," said the younger Rose, and the tape stopped. Rose set it back in the box, and neither of them could speak. Willy saw her face change, and for once it was like he was looking at the Rose he had known and grown up with. For once, he recognized her.

"Wow. That was kinda weird," muttered Willy, looking up at her. She nodded and forced a smile.

"Funny how things turn out, right?" Her fake smile didn't hold, and she looked away, her eyes staring out the glass. "What happened to us, Willy?" she asked softly.

"We changed," he said, half sighing. "Things change when you're not around, Rose."

"Will, I..." She looked at him as if trying to find the words to say, but couldn't, and looked down. "I never wanted to get like this... you gotta believe me. I was young, and I was so scared. One thing led to another, and... and... I just became a person I didn't want to be, and still don't."

For a moment, he felt bad for her. But it still didn't excuse some of the things she did... even the murder he had tried not to remember until now. "Rose, I have to ask you because I need to know the truth," he whispered. "Why did you kill that man?"

Her head snapped up at him, searching his eyes, then she turned her face to the glass again. "It was an accident," she whispered. He looked at her confused and she took in a deep breath. "He was driving me to the airport, and about halfway there I saw these cops driving behind us, following us. I knew they'd seen me, and he pulled over to this gas station and had a look on his face. He told me he was sorry, but he had no choice, and parked the car. That was when I found out he had known all along, and had gone to the police behind my back.

"I was so scared, so I pulled a gun at him. It wasn't loaded of course, but he didn't know that and I forced him out the car so I could drive. When he was out, I told him I was sorry, and started to drive out. He ran in front of the car in an attempt to stop me, and I didn't have enough time to slam on the brakes..." Her voice trailed off and she placed a hand over her mouth. "I didn't mean to hit him," she whispered. "And I would have stopped to make sure he was okay, but I didn't have enough time to so I drove off. The next day was when I found out he had died... that I had killed him."

She was shaking, and looked up at him as if looking for forgiveness. "I never wanted to hurt him. He was so kind to me, and even when he told me he had ratted me out to the cops, I wasn't angry. I understood completely, and I was trying to get him out of there before the cops came to save him. I never wanted it to happen like that." She shrank away miserably in the corner of the elevator, reliving that horrible day that she'd been forced to live with for the rest of her life.

He believed her though. He didn't know why, and knew he probably shouldn't, but the pain on her face was genuine, and he knew she would never purposely kill anybody. It still hurt him to think that she had killed someone, but seeing her like this hurt even more. He wanted to comfort her, just wrap his arms around her like everything was going to be okay, but there was no guarantee of that and he knew it. So he sat there and watched as she slowly disappeared into herself again and looked up at him.

"C'mon," he said softly. "We'd better get to the hospital"
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