The next morning, before they left the house, Lacy stole a pen and a piece of paper from the kitchen. She jotted down a quick note, looking nervously over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't being watched, then went upstairs and hid it where she knew Mom would find it.

In her jock strap.

Lisa told her not to interfere with "the natural flow of time" but just this one time...the genius had no idea what she was talking about.

After a light breakfast of sugary cereal that Mom and Dad would never let her have in a million years in her timeline, Lacy, Mom, Dad, Lisa, and Lori piled into the van and drove to Oak Grove. "I have literally no idea why you keep making me take you to that spooky old house," Lori said from behind the wheel. Just like the old legends said, Vanzilla didn't hav A/C, so the windows were down, wind rushing through Lori's blonde hair.

"I like that spooky old house, as you call it," Lisa said, a defensive edge in her voice. She wasn't simply trying to put Lori off, she was honestly offended.

"Maybe you and Lucy can buy it one day," Lori said.

Lisa stroked her chin. "Hmmm."

Fifteen minutes after setting out, they pulled up in front of the house and Mom threw the sliding door open. "I'll be back in an hour," Lori said, "you better be ready."

"We will," Lisa assured her.

Everyone piled out and watched the van dwindle into the distance. When it was gone, Lisa slipped through the bars in the gate, and Lisa followed; Mom came behind and Dad brought up the rear. "I shouldn't need very long with the machine," Lisa said.

Inside, motes of dust swirled in the sunlight streaming through the windows and rats thumped in the walls. At least Lacy hoped they were rats. "Lori was right," Dad said and looked around, "this place is creepy."

"Yeah," Mom said, "Lucy would love it."

"I'm not bringing Lucy into the equation," Lisa said confidently.

In the basement, Lisa sat her toolbox down and got to work while Mom, Dad, and Lacy stood off to one side like a football team huddling up before a big game. "So...it kind of sucks that you have to leave," Mom said.

"Yeah," Dad added, "I was just getting used to being a father."

Lacy sighed. It did suck. In her timeline, the two most important people in her life were gone and her heart ached for them every second of every day. Part of her didn't want to leave...a big part. She liked hanging out with Mom and Dad. She liked seeing the world as it was twenty years ago, before technology got too crazy. 2021 was a simpler time, a more wholesome time. In 2041, everything was so political. Even cartoons spouted off about the patriarchy and white privilege. Today, kids could just be kids. It was probably her imagination, but the sun shone a little brighter here, too, and the air tasted sweeter. She would marvel at old, sepia toned photographs of Mom and Dad when they were younger and wonder what the world was like back then. Now she knew...and she liked it.

"You're an alright dad," Mom said and punched Dad playfully in the arm. "I'm actually kind of surprised. I was sure you'd fail."

Dad snorted. "You're the one who tried to pound our daughter into the ground the first day you met her."

"And she kicked my ass," Mom said. She slapped Lacy's back and Lacy stumbled forward, almost falling to her knees. "She's a chip off the old block."

That made Lacy proud.

"Just what I need," Dad moaned, "two Lynns."

"Oh, quit playing," Mom said, "you love us."

Dad rolled his eyes. "You're already giving me gray hairs."

Lacy giggled. "He says that in 2041 too."

"Let me guess," Mom said, "his hair is still snowy white."

"It is," Lacy said, "but you bullied him into losing the cowlick."

A look of relief crossed Mom's face. "Thank God, that thing's so annoying."

It occurred to Lacy that this could be the last time she ever hung out with her Mom and Dad, and her throat filled with raw emotion. Tears flooded her eyes and she blinked them back. She didn't want to cry. She could do that later. Right now, she wanted to enjoy all the time with her parents that she could.

And she didn't have long, for a few minutes later, Lisa's voice drifted from the tube. "Finished."

Well...that was short-lived.

Lacy walked over to the time machine and rubbed the back of her neck. "Do I, uh, have to leave? Can't I stay for a few more days?"

Snapping her toolbox closed, Lisa got to her feet and dusted her knees off. "My future self insisted that you return as soon as possible, and as she is the adult...and your legal guardian...you should really assent to her demands. You already disobeyed her once. From what she said, she nearly suffered a myocardial infraction when she realized what you had done, and hasn't had a moment of peace since."

Now Lacy felt bad. "Okay."

"Great."

Mom and Dad walked over, and they stood together in a big group. Lacy hugged Mom and Mom hugged her back fiercely. Tears welled in Lacy's eyes and there was no holding them back. "I love you," she said.

"I love you too," Mom said. She ran her fingers through Lacy's hair and they looked into one another's eyes. Something Lacy could not name or properly described passed between them. Lacy would call it a mother-daughter moment if she had to, but that didn't seem strong enough to convey what she felt.

Mom released her and she hugged Dad. He ran his hand comfortingly up and down her back like he did when she was a baby...or would when she was a baby. Time travel was confusing. Lacy clung to him, not wanting to let go, then pulled away.

Last but not least, she pulled Lisa into a hug. Lisa's blank expression faltered for one human second, and a ghost of a smile touched one corner of her mouth.

Just as quickly as it had come, it was gone again. She broke Lacy's hold and adjusted her glasses. "You'd better get going."

Lacy took a deep breath.

Yeah.

Better.

She stepped into the machine and faced her aunt and parents. Mom and Dad held back tears and Lisa darted her eyes to the floor, but not quick enough that Lacy missed the glimmer of emotion therein. Lacy committed every detail to memory, and as the door slid closed, tears overspilled her cheeks and she made a heart with her hands. Mom and Dad did the same.

The doors closed with a grim clunk, and at once, the machine started to him. The lights on the dash panel flashed and a low vibration ran through the floor. Without warning, the world dropped out from beneath her and she had the sensation of falling.

As Lincoln and Lynn watched their daughter depart, their hands crept into one another and squeezed. Neither one had looked at the other as anything more than a sibling, but knowing the future they would someday build together, they saw each other in a new light. Lynn watched her tearful brother from the corner of one watery eye and took stock of him. He was kind of cute, and he really was an awesome person.

And as time went on, her vision unblinded by Lacy's visitation, she would fall in love with those qualities.

Then, eventually, like a self-fulfilling prophecy, she would fall in love with him.


The shaking stopped, the lights dimmed, and the world solidified. Lacy creaked open one eye, hitherto squeezed shut, and checked the readout. February 3, 2041, 1:43:034am.

She had been gone less than an hour.

All of the emotions she had gone through over the past few days, from grief to jubilation, bubbled up inside of her chest and she laughed until she cried. One hour. That was all. Was it even real, or was it just a dream?

Did she really meet her Mom and Dad as kids? Did she really get one last bedtime story from her father? Did she really play football with her mother?

By way of answer, the doors slid open. Lisa stood there with her arms crossed. Her expression would have been severe were it not for the haggard look on her face. She reminded Lacy of a TV Mom waiting for her child to come home and torturing herself with the nagging terror that they were dead somewhere.

Lacy stepped out of the tube, and it was only then that she realized Lisa wasn't alone.

Mom and Dad stood on either side of her, Mom in a light red sweater and Dad in the same shirt he was wearing when he died. Lacy's step faltered and for a second, she thought she was hallucinating.

She wasn't.

Nuclear excitement detonated in her chest. "Mom! Dad!"

She flung herself at her parents. Mom knelt and held her arms out and Lacy hit her at fifty miles per hour, knocking a breathless umph from her chest. Dad knelt down too, and Lacy hugged him fiercely. She slipped one arm around Dad's neck and the oher around Mom's and turned to look up at Lisa, who watched the reunion with a quivering smile. "What happened?" Lacy asked. Even as the words left her mouth, she knew.

Reaching into the pocket of her lab coat, Lisa pulled out a piece of paper yellow with age and fixed Lacy with a stern look. "You disobeyed me and warned your parents what was going to happen. You affected the timeline." Here she broke out in a beaming smile. "But in a good way."

Lacy threw her arms around Lisa's waist and Lisa let out a merry laugh. "Twenty years ago, I told you to assent to my future self's demands. And you know what?"

"What?" Lacy asked.

"I was wrong."

Later on, as they walked to the car, Lacy held her parents' hands. The winter sun melted in the west and its heatless light colored the heavens a deep shade of orange. It was a beautiful color, the color of gold...the color of hope. "I missed you guys so much," she said. Her voice broke and she teared up again. "Never leave me like that again."

Dad laughed. "You're the one who left us."

"We didn't go anywhere," Mom said and nudged Lacy's arm. "You did."

The accident...Mom and Dad dying...had never happened. That, and not Lacy's time in 2021, was the dream.

And what a bad one it was.

"It was really cool meeting you guys," Lacy said. "Maybe next time we can go back and meet Grandpa and Grandpa when they were kids."

Mom laughed. "Let's not get carried away."

With that, they walked into the sunset…

...and their second chance at life.