Chapter 4
Rating/Disclaimer: See chapter 1
Author's notes: Sorry about the gap in between chapters, but it's going to continue for at least a month. This will probably be my last chapter before I move, and then I won't have access to the Internet at home for about a month.
Thanks: Everyone who's reviewed this story, especially Jacks, who braved the ff.net guard dog to review one chapter twice. This one's for you!
*****
New Year's Ever was a time for wild parties, fancy dress costumes, and behaving so badly that you couldn't wait for the New year to ring in, so you could promise never to behave that badly again.
Or so some people said, in the times of fable and when you still believed in the tooth fairy and Easter bunnies. Rocky DeSantos, however, knew the truth about New Year's Eve. It was all an evil plot to make him babysit his younger relatives while the rest of his family partied the night away.
He had had great plans for this evening, go out, get drunk and do all the things which he would end up regretting. Luckily for him (he had too many regrets already), his mother had enlisted his services at the annual family get-together every New Year's Eve.
"But, Mama," Rocky had protested down the telephone lines. "I already have plans."
He didn't really. Just an excuse to get away from the thousands of relatives who either avoided him like the plague or asked embarrassingly insightful questions into his personal life.
"You have more important plans than coming to see your family?" Carmella DeSantos asked pointedly. "We hardly ever see you anymore. You wouldn't even recognise Isabella any more, it's been so long."
Rocky grdgingly gave his mother the first point of the match. He hadn't even seen his younger sister for three months, and at the age of six...
Anything could happen.
Rocky pushed the thoughts of children growing up out of his mind, and responded,
"Si, Mama, but you know I'm working almost all the time now in my new job. When I'm not at work, I'm sleeping."
"Or eating," she remarked acerbically. "So, we'll expect you at seven-thirty? You'll have to come, or we'll all be eating leftovers for the rest of the decade."
Two barbed comments in one, and three-nil to his mother. Was there really any point in protesting?
"Alright. I'll see you at seven thirty."
*****
Later on that day, Rocky found himself sitting in the downstairs den of his parents home with seventeen sleeping children. His normal job at this time of the year... babysitting the kids.
"At least some people appreciate my jokes around here," Rocky muttered softly so as not to wake any of his mini-relatives up from their restful slumber. "Even if they're not exactly the harshest critics around."
He sighed and settled into his armchair, normally his father's favourite haunt. "So, Rocky, how did you spend your New Year's?" he asked himself, in a suitably appropriate interviewing tone.
"Well, spent it observing the future presidents, scientists, professionals, and generally clever people of the next generation," he replied. It sounded so much better than merely babysitting.
Sweeping a glance around the room to make sure all the children were safe and secure, his gaze rested on Isabella, his eight year old sister and youngest sibling.
Rosa would be eight now... he recollected, then wondered where that had come from. He hadn't thought of her for quite some time...
"Where are you right now?" he mumbled to himself, completely disregarding the noises coming from the celebrations upstairs. "Would I recognise you if I walked past you in the street?"
"I could answer that for you. You've walked past her - without her mother being there, of course - and you didn't even bat an eyelid."
Rocky turned to face the stairs that led to the basement of the house, and came face to face with Alice.
Although she didn't appear to be Hispanic, Rocky had many relatives who weren't of his descent, and even more whom he did not recognise.
"So who are you related to?" Rocky asked, not heeding her opening comment, not taking it in.
Alice shrugged, taking care to speak quietly so as not to wake any of the sleeping children. "No-one you'd know."
"Oh," Rocky mused, puzzled by her statement. "So why are you here? People don't normally come to family reunions unless they're, well, family."
"Because it's New Year's Eve, silly," Alice laughed, making Rocky feel as though he was the stupidest person on the planet for not realising why she was in his house when in fact, he had no clue.
"That helps me," he said sarcastically.
"I make it my policy to go to new places on the last day of the year," she told him, as though it was the most normal thing in the world. "I decided to come here this year."
Rocky decided to play along with her little charade. "Do you know anyone here to invite you?"
"I know you. At least, I know of you," Alice said. "You and some of your friends are currently the hot topic of conversation among me and my comrades."
"So who exactly are you? And why do your friends care about me and my friends?" ocky enquired, grateful for this interruption, even if he was finding it somewhat bizarre.
"My name is Alice, and my friends... well, you don't really need to know about them. Not yet, anyway. But we've all been taking great interest in you over the last couple of months. And now I'm here to talk with you in person. Maybe somewhere where we don't have to be so quiet?"
"There's a laundry room.."
"Next door to this room, I know. I've been scouting around this place before tonight." She turned and left the room abruptly, leaving Rocky to follow her wake. Despite Alice's introductory spiel, he still had no idea who she was, or what she was really doing in his house.
Entering the laundry room warily, he found Alice sitting on the rickety old deckchair his father had kept in the basement since Rocky was two or three years old.
"You want to be careful on that chair," Rocky advised. "It's a classified antique, or at least it should be."
Alice smiled. "I'll be fine, don't worry."
There was an awkward silence between the two as each tried to think of an appropriate comment to start their conversation. Rare was the day that Rocky was stuck for words, but it seemed to have arrived at last.
"Rocky... would you believe me if I told you I was an angel?"
Rocky's first reaction to Alice's outrageous comment was to laugh out loud, but something stopped him from doing that, although he didn't know what. Instead he took his time, and thought about whether he truly believed in angels, and if so whether Alice qualified to be one. Finally after what seemed like hours of continuous thought, he nodded his head and said sagely,
"Yeah. yeah, I think I would. You've got that... I don't know, some kind of inner light. Like the elves in Lord of the Rings. Plus the fact that no-one human could possibly want to spend time with this family on New Year's Eve if they weren't part of it. You must have been sent on some sort of divine mission."
Alice laughed merrily, all awkwardness dispelled. "I guess that's one way of putting it. But you're right, we do have some sort of etheral quality, us angels. That's what makes us so distinctive in a crowd."
"You'd make an excellent tour guide," Rocky joked. "All your tourists would be able to see you wherever you go."
"Maybe one day... Rocky, do you have any idea why I'm here?" Alice asked.
"Can I be perfectly honest and say that I don't have a clue?"
Alice sighed. "You and you friends are going to drive me insane; this is the third time I've had to explain my presence in the space of thirty minutes. Don't ask, I'll tell you in a minute-" she warned, seeing Rocky open his mouth to enquire about whom else she had visited that night. "I am here to offer you the chance to go back into the past, maybe rewrite some wrongs you regret, maybe relive the best day of your life. But it can only be for a maximum of 24 hours, and then you'll have to make the biggest decision of your existence. Whether to stay in the new life we created, or to come back to this life because you don't like the consequences."
"Like I'd really want to come back to this life," Rocky scoffed, but Alice cautioned,
"I wouldn't be surprised. Not all the changes in your life are made for the better."
"So, 24 hours, yeah? No more, no less?" he questioned.
"Barring any heavenly screwups, that's right. Any thoughts on your feet as to where you want to go will be gratefully appreciated, I still have 2 more people to see before the clock strikes midnight," Alice pressured.
There was no doubt in his mind. Not with the random thoughts that had been spiralling in his mind during his babysitting stint that night. Thinking about Isabella, and how much she looked like Rosa. About how he'd shirked his responsibilities when he was younger.
And now he had a chance to see whether he could make things better. Be a better person...
"I want to go back to 1994. I want..." Rocky took a deep breath, then somewhat shakily continued his sentence. "I don't want to abandon my daughter again."
Alice raised an eyebrow, but said nothing about the revelation. Being an angel, she'd already known where he would want to visit, and what he would want to change.
"Any particular time you want to go to, or anywhere in 1994?"
Rocky sighed, trying desperately to think when would be the best time to visit. "Um... anytime, really. Just... make sure it's after she's arrived, not before."
Alice stared at him, a strange expression on her face, then finally said, "Okay then. I'll see what I can do... just drink some of this orange juice and you'll be right there... wherever 'there' may be."
She procured the now-famous bottle of orange liquid, seemingly out of nowhere, and gave it, along with the spoon she had never given back at the hospital, to Rocky. "Drink up."
"Are you sure this is fresh?" Rocky asked, looking at the liquid resting like an ink blob on his spoon. "It looks to me like it's been marinading for centuries."
"I said it was orange, as in the colour, and I said it was juice, which it is, of sorts anyway. I never said it was freshly squeezed and made from the finest Florida citrus fruits."
He made a face, but drank...
*****
24th August, 1994
Stone Canyon
Opening his eyes after a seemingly restful night, Rocky noticed many things about his new surroundings.
a) He was back in his old, 15 year old's self, bedroom.
b) His mother was outside the door, screaming at him in Spanish to get up and come downstairs for breakfast.
c) He had no idea what to do with his second chance.
Some may have found it strange that Rocky, typical blabbermouth, had kept his daughter a secret for so many years, even from Aisha and Adam, his so-called best friends. It had been remarkably easy when push came to shove, however.
His girlfriend Emilia hadn't gone to Stone Canyon High. She hadn't gone to a High School at all. She was the sister of his older brother's girlfriend, and they'd met, strangely enough, at the family reunion which was held every New Year's Eve.
_I'd almost forgotten that,_ Rocky reflected. _Nine years ago today...well, today in the real world. If there is such thing as a real world anymore.. oh god. What am I supposed to do now?_
*Well, getting your lazy self out of bed would make a nice start to the day,* came a voice from somewhere inside his head. *Your mother's been calling for ten minutes, and even jet lag won't be a popular excuse as she saw you go to bed last night.*
Rocky perked up at the sound of Alice's voice. _Alice? You're inside my head? Can you tell me where my dressing gown is?_
Alice, from wherever she was in the vast universe, rolled her eyes. *It's hanging on the hook of your door, which you would know if you bothered to open your eyes and look for yourself. Now go on, scoot!*
_I'm going, I'm going. But... before I do, any advice you can give me? You know, with regards to my second chance?_
*No. I'm not allowed... now go!*
Rubbing his eyes which were filled with sleep, and making a somewhat half hearted attempt to tame his sticking-up hair, Rocky put on the errant dressing gown and stumbled down the stairs. He really wasn't in the mood for a family breakfast, or indeed a family day. From the shining sun outside he would hazard a guess that Alice had placed him slap-bang in the middle of summer, which meant no excuse of school to go and try to find Emilia. And Rocky seemed to recollect that his mother wasn't exactly happy about the situation he had found himself in...
*****
*4.30pm*
Almost half the day had passed, and no opportunity whatsoever to escape the wrath of his mother and try to find Emilia and Rosa. None whatsoever.
First there had been the "You got yourself into this mess, go and mow the lawn."
Then there was washing the dishes, sweeping the floor, and basically carrying out all the chores that his other siblings had avoided over the past, well, decade. And what worried him the most, was that Alice wasn't responding to any of his urgent mind-messages.
_One more try for good luck couldn't hurt,_ he thought to himself while polishing the steel cutlery. _ALICE?? Are you there?_
*Of course I'm, here, where else would I be?* she asked, disgruntledly. *And what do you want this time?*
_You weren't there the last 50 times I tried to call you. That's what.*
*Hang on... Rocky, what time is it where you are?*
Rocky, worried by Alice's sudden turn of panic, checked his watch. _4.35pm, why?_
*Oh, no.... something's gone wrong with the time! It's 11 in Trini's time, 2pm in Tanya's and 4pm in yours! You all transported at pretty much the same time...*
Rocky let out a sudden yelp of fear. _So you mean I could be stuck in this world forever until you figure out what's wrong with this whole time-turning system? I always knew I shouldn't have trusted you._
*I'm going to have to check with my boss. Keep cleaning the cutlery, and don't panic. Just take any chance you get to escape and find Emilia! I don't know how long you've got left.*
Rocky felt a sudden 'pop' in his head, and realised that Alice's guidance had left him. What was he going to do now?
He cleaned a few other items of cutlery, then threw them down. Even if he didn't look it, wasn't anything more than a teenager in this world, he was still an adult where it counted, inside. He was just going to have to find Emilia without his mother's permission.
"Mama? I'm going out. Expect me when you see me.."
*5.30pm*
Without wheels to transport him on a hot summer's day, Rocky had found his pace getting slower and slower as he approached the northern side of Stone Canyon, where Emilia and Rosa lived. There was that, and the thoughts that were rumbling in his head, which slowed his pace.
His mother had wanted Rocky to take Rosa into the family and raise her as if she were her own. His father, however, objected to that idea, reasonably pointing out that Carmella hadn't been pregnant for eight months (Rosa had been a month premature) and people were bound to have their suspicions when a baby arrived home.
So that idea went out of the window. And Emilia had taken Rosa back to their family home.
The date today was August 24. Roughly speaking, it had been two weeks since Rocky had seen Emilia last. He had given her money, but she had told him tersely that she didn't want it.
"You're only a little boy Rocky, you're younger than me and you don't know what it is to be a father." The younger part was true, she had been eighteen to his fifteen. But he knew how to look after babies, hadn't his family got enough of them?
"I can give you money..."
"We don't need money. We're earning enough to get by."
Even allowing for use of the royal 'we', Rocky seriously doubted that Rosa was being put to work just yet. So there had to be another guy in the picture.
There was, it turned out. A man who was living his life, thinking merrily that he was the biological father of Rosa.
And now, the confrontation would begin...
Rocky knocked on the front door of the Dominguez family home. He had never been particularly well received here, and after finding about the 'other man', he knew why.
And although he knocked for what seemed to be hours, there was no answer. No sign of movement inside the house, no twitching of the curtains.
The dead giveaway was the lack of Rosa's crying. Whenever Rocky had knocked on the door before (which, granted, had only been at the most, four times,) Rosa had started crying as though she were a foghorn that never intended to stop.
_Alice? Where are they? Where have they gone?_ Rocky asked desperately.
He could hear her sighing. *I'm sorry Rocky.... we've screwed up, big time. They moved house sometime last week, and I have no way of getting you to where they've gone. Not with my limitations as they are, trying to sort out the times... I'm really sorry.*
Rocky continued to gaze at the empty house. Finally, he gained enough composure to ask a question of Alice. _Why didn't she tell me? I would have... I don't know what I would have done, but this way I'm sat here doing nothing at all. I don't like it._
*Because her boyfriend still believed that Rosa was his, and she didn't want to lose him, as a father to her child,* Alice said gently. *Do you remember when I said you'd already seen Rosa but hadn't recognised her? She was with her father, walking down the streets of LA when you were there on business earlier this year.*
He sighed, coming to terms with the fact that he was going to have to put this life behind him. That his daughter was, once again, out of his reach, and this time probably for good. _So, fix-it angel girl, what am I supposed to do now that we've screwed everything up?_
*I really am sorry, Rocky. I wish we could have got you there.... but as for now, just go home, and I'll try to get you back home while you're sleeping. If, of course, that's what you want...*
Rocky sighed, and started walking, finally peeling himself away from the house where once his daughter had lived.
_Sometimes second chances really don't work... I shouldn't have been so hasty when I said I wouldn't want to return to my old life. One day I'll have another child, and I swear I'll get it right this time..._
Rating/Disclaimer: See chapter 1
Author's notes: Sorry about the gap in between chapters, but it's going to continue for at least a month. This will probably be my last chapter before I move, and then I won't have access to the Internet at home for about a month.
Thanks: Everyone who's reviewed this story, especially Jacks, who braved the ff.net guard dog to review one chapter twice. This one's for you!
*****
New Year's Ever was a time for wild parties, fancy dress costumes, and behaving so badly that you couldn't wait for the New year to ring in, so you could promise never to behave that badly again.
Or so some people said, in the times of fable and when you still believed in the tooth fairy and Easter bunnies. Rocky DeSantos, however, knew the truth about New Year's Eve. It was all an evil plot to make him babysit his younger relatives while the rest of his family partied the night away.
He had had great plans for this evening, go out, get drunk and do all the things which he would end up regretting. Luckily for him (he had too many regrets already), his mother had enlisted his services at the annual family get-together every New Year's Eve.
"But, Mama," Rocky had protested down the telephone lines. "I already have plans."
He didn't really. Just an excuse to get away from the thousands of relatives who either avoided him like the plague or asked embarrassingly insightful questions into his personal life.
"You have more important plans than coming to see your family?" Carmella DeSantos asked pointedly. "We hardly ever see you anymore. You wouldn't even recognise Isabella any more, it's been so long."
Rocky grdgingly gave his mother the first point of the match. He hadn't even seen his younger sister for three months, and at the age of six...
Anything could happen.
Rocky pushed the thoughts of children growing up out of his mind, and responded,
"Si, Mama, but you know I'm working almost all the time now in my new job. When I'm not at work, I'm sleeping."
"Or eating," she remarked acerbically. "So, we'll expect you at seven-thirty? You'll have to come, or we'll all be eating leftovers for the rest of the decade."
Two barbed comments in one, and three-nil to his mother. Was there really any point in protesting?
"Alright. I'll see you at seven thirty."
*****
Later on that day, Rocky found himself sitting in the downstairs den of his parents home with seventeen sleeping children. His normal job at this time of the year... babysitting the kids.
"At least some people appreciate my jokes around here," Rocky muttered softly so as not to wake any of his mini-relatives up from their restful slumber. "Even if they're not exactly the harshest critics around."
He sighed and settled into his armchair, normally his father's favourite haunt. "So, Rocky, how did you spend your New Year's?" he asked himself, in a suitably appropriate interviewing tone.
"Well, spent it observing the future presidents, scientists, professionals, and generally clever people of the next generation," he replied. It sounded so much better than merely babysitting.
Sweeping a glance around the room to make sure all the children were safe and secure, his gaze rested on Isabella, his eight year old sister and youngest sibling.
Rosa would be eight now... he recollected, then wondered where that had come from. He hadn't thought of her for quite some time...
"Where are you right now?" he mumbled to himself, completely disregarding the noises coming from the celebrations upstairs. "Would I recognise you if I walked past you in the street?"
"I could answer that for you. You've walked past her - without her mother being there, of course - and you didn't even bat an eyelid."
Rocky turned to face the stairs that led to the basement of the house, and came face to face with Alice.
Although she didn't appear to be Hispanic, Rocky had many relatives who weren't of his descent, and even more whom he did not recognise.
"So who are you related to?" Rocky asked, not heeding her opening comment, not taking it in.
Alice shrugged, taking care to speak quietly so as not to wake any of the sleeping children. "No-one you'd know."
"Oh," Rocky mused, puzzled by her statement. "So why are you here? People don't normally come to family reunions unless they're, well, family."
"Because it's New Year's Eve, silly," Alice laughed, making Rocky feel as though he was the stupidest person on the planet for not realising why she was in his house when in fact, he had no clue.
"That helps me," he said sarcastically.
"I make it my policy to go to new places on the last day of the year," she told him, as though it was the most normal thing in the world. "I decided to come here this year."
Rocky decided to play along with her little charade. "Do you know anyone here to invite you?"
"I know you. At least, I know of you," Alice said. "You and some of your friends are currently the hot topic of conversation among me and my comrades."
"So who exactly are you? And why do your friends care about me and my friends?" ocky enquired, grateful for this interruption, even if he was finding it somewhat bizarre.
"My name is Alice, and my friends... well, you don't really need to know about them. Not yet, anyway. But we've all been taking great interest in you over the last couple of months. And now I'm here to talk with you in person. Maybe somewhere where we don't have to be so quiet?"
"There's a laundry room.."
"Next door to this room, I know. I've been scouting around this place before tonight." She turned and left the room abruptly, leaving Rocky to follow her wake. Despite Alice's introductory spiel, he still had no idea who she was, or what she was really doing in his house.
Entering the laundry room warily, he found Alice sitting on the rickety old deckchair his father had kept in the basement since Rocky was two or three years old.
"You want to be careful on that chair," Rocky advised. "It's a classified antique, or at least it should be."
Alice smiled. "I'll be fine, don't worry."
There was an awkward silence between the two as each tried to think of an appropriate comment to start their conversation. Rare was the day that Rocky was stuck for words, but it seemed to have arrived at last.
"Rocky... would you believe me if I told you I was an angel?"
Rocky's first reaction to Alice's outrageous comment was to laugh out loud, but something stopped him from doing that, although he didn't know what. Instead he took his time, and thought about whether he truly believed in angels, and if so whether Alice qualified to be one. Finally after what seemed like hours of continuous thought, he nodded his head and said sagely,
"Yeah. yeah, I think I would. You've got that... I don't know, some kind of inner light. Like the elves in Lord of the Rings. Plus the fact that no-one human could possibly want to spend time with this family on New Year's Eve if they weren't part of it. You must have been sent on some sort of divine mission."
Alice laughed merrily, all awkwardness dispelled. "I guess that's one way of putting it. But you're right, we do have some sort of etheral quality, us angels. That's what makes us so distinctive in a crowd."
"You'd make an excellent tour guide," Rocky joked. "All your tourists would be able to see you wherever you go."
"Maybe one day... Rocky, do you have any idea why I'm here?" Alice asked.
"Can I be perfectly honest and say that I don't have a clue?"
Alice sighed. "You and you friends are going to drive me insane; this is the third time I've had to explain my presence in the space of thirty minutes. Don't ask, I'll tell you in a minute-" she warned, seeing Rocky open his mouth to enquire about whom else she had visited that night. "I am here to offer you the chance to go back into the past, maybe rewrite some wrongs you regret, maybe relive the best day of your life. But it can only be for a maximum of 24 hours, and then you'll have to make the biggest decision of your existence. Whether to stay in the new life we created, or to come back to this life because you don't like the consequences."
"Like I'd really want to come back to this life," Rocky scoffed, but Alice cautioned,
"I wouldn't be surprised. Not all the changes in your life are made for the better."
"So, 24 hours, yeah? No more, no less?" he questioned.
"Barring any heavenly screwups, that's right. Any thoughts on your feet as to where you want to go will be gratefully appreciated, I still have 2 more people to see before the clock strikes midnight," Alice pressured.
There was no doubt in his mind. Not with the random thoughts that had been spiralling in his mind during his babysitting stint that night. Thinking about Isabella, and how much she looked like Rosa. About how he'd shirked his responsibilities when he was younger.
And now he had a chance to see whether he could make things better. Be a better person...
"I want to go back to 1994. I want..." Rocky took a deep breath, then somewhat shakily continued his sentence. "I don't want to abandon my daughter again."
Alice raised an eyebrow, but said nothing about the revelation. Being an angel, she'd already known where he would want to visit, and what he would want to change.
"Any particular time you want to go to, or anywhere in 1994?"
Rocky sighed, trying desperately to think when would be the best time to visit. "Um... anytime, really. Just... make sure it's after she's arrived, not before."
Alice stared at him, a strange expression on her face, then finally said, "Okay then. I'll see what I can do... just drink some of this orange juice and you'll be right there... wherever 'there' may be."
She procured the now-famous bottle of orange liquid, seemingly out of nowhere, and gave it, along with the spoon she had never given back at the hospital, to Rocky. "Drink up."
"Are you sure this is fresh?" Rocky asked, looking at the liquid resting like an ink blob on his spoon. "It looks to me like it's been marinading for centuries."
"I said it was orange, as in the colour, and I said it was juice, which it is, of sorts anyway. I never said it was freshly squeezed and made from the finest Florida citrus fruits."
He made a face, but drank...
*****
24th August, 1994
Stone Canyon
Opening his eyes after a seemingly restful night, Rocky noticed many things about his new surroundings.
a) He was back in his old, 15 year old's self, bedroom.
b) His mother was outside the door, screaming at him in Spanish to get up and come downstairs for breakfast.
c) He had no idea what to do with his second chance.
Some may have found it strange that Rocky, typical blabbermouth, had kept his daughter a secret for so many years, even from Aisha and Adam, his so-called best friends. It had been remarkably easy when push came to shove, however.
His girlfriend Emilia hadn't gone to Stone Canyon High. She hadn't gone to a High School at all. She was the sister of his older brother's girlfriend, and they'd met, strangely enough, at the family reunion which was held every New Year's Eve.
_I'd almost forgotten that,_ Rocky reflected. _Nine years ago today...well, today in the real world. If there is such thing as a real world anymore.. oh god. What am I supposed to do now?_
*Well, getting your lazy self out of bed would make a nice start to the day,* came a voice from somewhere inside his head. *Your mother's been calling for ten minutes, and even jet lag won't be a popular excuse as she saw you go to bed last night.*
Rocky perked up at the sound of Alice's voice. _Alice? You're inside my head? Can you tell me where my dressing gown is?_
Alice, from wherever she was in the vast universe, rolled her eyes. *It's hanging on the hook of your door, which you would know if you bothered to open your eyes and look for yourself. Now go on, scoot!*
_I'm going, I'm going. But... before I do, any advice you can give me? You know, with regards to my second chance?_
*No. I'm not allowed... now go!*
Rubbing his eyes which were filled with sleep, and making a somewhat half hearted attempt to tame his sticking-up hair, Rocky put on the errant dressing gown and stumbled down the stairs. He really wasn't in the mood for a family breakfast, or indeed a family day. From the shining sun outside he would hazard a guess that Alice had placed him slap-bang in the middle of summer, which meant no excuse of school to go and try to find Emilia. And Rocky seemed to recollect that his mother wasn't exactly happy about the situation he had found himself in...
*****
*4.30pm*
Almost half the day had passed, and no opportunity whatsoever to escape the wrath of his mother and try to find Emilia and Rosa. None whatsoever.
First there had been the "You got yourself into this mess, go and mow the lawn."
Then there was washing the dishes, sweeping the floor, and basically carrying out all the chores that his other siblings had avoided over the past, well, decade. And what worried him the most, was that Alice wasn't responding to any of his urgent mind-messages.
_One more try for good luck couldn't hurt,_ he thought to himself while polishing the steel cutlery. _ALICE?? Are you there?_
*Of course I'm, here, where else would I be?* she asked, disgruntledly. *And what do you want this time?*
_You weren't there the last 50 times I tried to call you. That's what.*
*Hang on... Rocky, what time is it where you are?*
Rocky, worried by Alice's sudden turn of panic, checked his watch. _4.35pm, why?_
*Oh, no.... something's gone wrong with the time! It's 11 in Trini's time, 2pm in Tanya's and 4pm in yours! You all transported at pretty much the same time...*
Rocky let out a sudden yelp of fear. _So you mean I could be stuck in this world forever until you figure out what's wrong with this whole time-turning system? I always knew I shouldn't have trusted you._
*I'm going to have to check with my boss. Keep cleaning the cutlery, and don't panic. Just take any chance you get to escape and find Emilia! I don't know how long you've got left.*
Rocky felt a sudden 'pop' in his head, and realised that Alice's guidance had left him. What was he going to do now?
He cleaned a few other items of cutlery, then threw them down. Even if he didn't look it, wasn't anything more than a teenager in this world, he was still an adult where it counted, inside. He was just going to have to find Emilia without his mother's permission.
"Mama? I'm going out. Expect me when you see me.."
*5.30pm*
Without wheels to transport him on a hot summer's day, Rocky had found his pace getting slower and slower as he approached the northern side of Stone Canyon, where Emilia and Rosa lived. There was that, and the thoughts that were rumbling in his head, which slowed his pace.
His mother had wanted Rocky to take Rosa into the family and raise her as if she were her own. His father, however, objected to that idea, reasonably pointing out that Carmella hadn't been pregnant for eight months (Rosa had been a month premature) and people were bound to have their suspicions when a baby arrived home.
So that idea went out of the window. And Emilia had taken Rosa back to their family home.
The date today was August 24. Roughly speaking, it had been two weeks since Rocky had seen Emilia last. He had given her money, but she had told him tersely that she didn't want it.
"You're only a little boy Rocky, you're younger than me and you don't know what it is to be a father." The younger part was true, she had been eighteen to his fifteen. But he knew how to look after babies, hadn't his family got enough of them?
"I can give you money..."
"We don't need money. We're earning enough to get by."
Even allowing for use of the royal 'we', Rocky seriously doubted that Rosa was being put to work just yet. So there had to be another guy in the picture.
There was, it turned out. A man who was living his life, thinking merrily that he was the biological father of Rosa.
And now, the confrontation would begin...
Rocky knocked on the front door of the Dominguez family home. He had never been particularly well received here, and after finding about the 'other man', he knew why.
And although he knocked for what seemed to be hours, there was no answer. No sign of movement inside the house, no twitching of the curtains.
The dead giveaway was the lack of Rosa's crying. Whenever Rocky had knocked on the door before (which, granted, had only been at the most, four times,) Rosa had started crying as though she were a foghorn that never intended to stop.
_Alice? Where are they? Where have they gone?_ Rocky asked desperately.
He could hear her sighing. *I'm sorry Rocky.... we've screwed up, big time. They moved house sometime last week, and I have no way of getting you to where they've gone. Not with my limitations as they are, trying to sort out the times... I'm really sorry.*
Rocky continued to gaze at the empty house. Finally, he gained enough composure to ask a question of Alice. _Why didn't she tell me? I would have... I don't know what I would have done, but this way I'm sat here doing nothing at all. I don't like it._
*Because her boyfriend still believed that Rosa was his, and she didn't want to lose him, as a father to her child,* Alice said gently. *Do you remember when I said you'd already seen Rosa but hadn't recognised her? She was with her father, walking down the streets of LA when you were there on business earlier this year.*
He sighed, coming to terms with the fact that he was going to have to put this life behind him. That his daughter was, once again, out of his reach, and this time probably for good. _So, fix-it angel girl, what am I supposed to do now that we've screwed everything up?_
*I really am sorry, Rocky. I wish we could have got you there.... but as for now, just go home, and I'll try to get you back home while you're sleeping. If, of course, that's what you want...*
Rocky sighed, and started walking, finally peeling himself away from the house where once his daughter had lived.
_Sometimes second chances really don't work... I shouldn't have been so hasty when I said I wouldn't want to return to my old life. One day I'll have another child, and I swear I'll get it right this time..._
