20. Making Sense of it All
Disclaimer: We are no longer in AWE territory! I'm continuing with the original story. I just hope this chapter isn't too confusing. I'll do my best to explain everything!
"Hi! This is Lindsey calling from Clearwater Swimming Pools! You saw us at the Brook Place Mall last week and I'm calling to schedule your backyard survey," I say to the customer on the other side of the phone.
"Great! I'm free this week," they reply.
"Excellent. I have a time slot in your area open at noon on Tuesday the 24th," I say as I scribble their information down on the slip of paper. "Great! So we'll see you then, take care,"
I hang up the phone and check the clock behind me. Ten till the hour. I sigh and sit back in my chair, waiting for my work day to end. I decide to make a few more calls to fill up my time.
At 5:00 in punch out and leave the office. The summer heat hits my face hard as I exit the building and walk to my car; another 9-5 day over and done with.
As I drive home, I think to myself at how oddly things have turned out. It's been one month since I'd woken up in the bath tub. I still can't quite put my finger on the situation—how it all happened and how things are the way they are. The last time I was home in Massachusetts, Jack had been with me. I shake my head to rid thoughts of him from my mind.
When my mother and I left for the Caribbean that summer before I started college, I was 18. I was 18 when we arrived in Jamaica, and I was 18 when I somehow magically appeared in Colonial Jamaica and met Will, Elizabeth and Jack. When Jack and I arrived in Massachusetts, things were just as I had left them when I left my aunt and uncle's house that night I disappeared. My mother was still in Jamaica and not a single minute had passed since I had left 2005. I came back and it was still 2005. How is it that now that I'm back once again, it is no longer 2005? Things just don't make any sense at all.
At home, I glance at my license and notice the year is 2008. How is it 2008? In theory based on last time, it should still be 2005. How was time elapsed without my being here? I really am 21. How did I loose those two and a half years in my world while I was living those two and a half years in Jack's world?
And my mother—my poor mother, who I thought was scared to death of my absence hadn't been scared at all. She claimed I had been here the entire time. Confused, I felt it best not to tell her that I had been in Colonial Caribbean for that entire time. How was it that I was in two places at once? I have no recollection of living those two and a half years here—only the recollection of my living in the Caribbean as a pirate on Jack's ship and the adventures we went on—the adventure and journey I never got to complete with the song. Maybe that song is the reason for this confusion. Maybe since I had the song and never returned it to the island is my punishment.
I sigh and continue to sit on my bed thinking of all these things. Well, it is the summer before my final year in college—the college I have never actually been to. How am I supposed to begin classes in the fall again and pick up where I left off in the spring? I was never there to begin with! I chuckle inside as I pick up the list of my grades.
"I did really well. Whoever has been me all this time is doing pretty well for me—four A's and a B—a 3.7," I say aloud, getting off my bed. I still can't believe I've been home for a month. A month since we defeated Lord Beckett and we let Elizabeth go. A month since I last saw Jack.
"Mom! I'm going to the movies!" I call out finally as I gather my things and walk through the house.
"Okay! Will you be home for dinner?" she calls back from down the stairs.
"Yeah!" I call back as I head out the door. I get into my car and pull out of the driveway.
Once on the highway, I roll down the windows, letting the wind whip through my hair. I turn the radio up high and belt out the song that's on the radio
"Some days I just pray to God of sex and drugs and rock and roll!" I belt out at the top of my lungs as I cruise down the highway—the sun setting hot and low in the sky to my left.
"No I won't do that!" I continue to belt, ignoring the exit to the movie theatre. I decide to keep driving. The wind in my hair reminds me too much of being on the Pearl, sailing in the hot Caribbean.
"Don't do it, luv!" a familiar voice exclaims from what sounds like behind me. My heart jumps at the sound and realize that it is all in my head.
"No, luv! I mean it! Don't do it! Yer drivin' so fast!" Jack exclaims. I whip my head around quickly and see a fully decked out Captain Jack Sparrow sitting in the backseat of my car.
"JACK?!?!?!?!?!??????!???!?" I shriek.
"LUV—Look out!" He screams. I whip my head around and slam on my brakes, slowing the car down so to avoid a collision with the asshole in front of me.
"JACK?! What the hell are you doing here?! You are really here, aren't you? I'm not going crazy am I?!" I exclaim.
"I'm really here, dahling," he says as he climbs into the passenger seat, nearly making me swerve off the highway into a ditch.
"What?! How?!" I exclaim in astonishment.
"How did ye get to me world when ye did? I'm here," he says, his voice low and calm.
"But how did you end up in my car?!" I ask, glancing behind me at the backseat to see if there were any sign of a portal. "I didn't even notice anything! You just appeared here?!"
"Seems like it," he says with a grin.
"How the fuck did I not notice someone from another century appearing in the back seat of my car!?" I ask frantically. I look over at him finally, no longer able to divert my eyes. He looks exactly the same—the overcoat, leather tri-corner hat, dreadlocks and beads decorating his hair…they sexy eyeliner. It is all there—everything.
"You look good, Jack," I say finally, quickly averting my eyes back to the road.
"Ye do too, luv," he says, winking at me, his gold teeth flashing in the setting sunlight.
"So what now?" I ask, my nerves calmed down now, though I can still feel my hands shaking and my heart beating rapidly. I can't believe Jack is sitting in my car.
"I came t' get ye," he says finally, his voice proud sounding.
"You came to get me? Bring me back to your century? Jack—it's been a month since I've been gone!" I exclaim, angry that he waited to long to get me.
"To be fair, I didn't know ye disappeared back to yer century—I first thought ye had fallen overboard. Naturally, I dove into the water t' rescue ye, but lo and behold, ye were no where in the ocean. I then told Gibbs we had t' find ye. I figured ye must've been taken somewhere else in the Caribbean—lo and behold again, we searched the entire Caribbean and didn't find ye. Then I thought t' meself, maybe she's in Singapore. We sail t' Singapore and once again…yer not there. It wasn't until we searched Singapore that I realized 'Jackie, she's in her world—she's nowhere in yers!' So I found a voodoo worker in Singapore and told 'er of me situation. She said she could 'elp me find ye and so she did," he explains slowly and with purpose.
"You didn't get here by the song like I did and like we did that time after the gallows?" I ask, looking at him with a confused expression.
"No, I did get 'ere that way. I told 'er about the song and she knew exactly what I was talkin' 'bout! She used the song 't get me 'ere," he says with a smile and with excitement in his voice.
"This is incredible, Jack. We have to figure out the mystery behind the song. It seems like more and more people know about it and what it can do," I say finally.
"So will ye come back 'th me?" He asks finally.
"Mr. Sparrow—I'm very happy with my life here," I say, grinning on the inside that he came to get me.
"Luv! Ye always wanted freedom—ye can't have freedom here. Only I can give that t' ye," he replies, winking at me.
"Jack! I have plenty of freedom here! I have a full tank of gas, a job and my car. I can go anywhere I want whenever I want," I retort as I speed down the high way.
"Luv, yer not free here like ye are with me," he states truthfully as we approach a cop car sitting on the side of the highway shooting his radar gun at the traffic. I quickly slow down as we pass him. My heart sinks knowing Jack is right.
"Jack, I can't go back. It's been so long and too much has happened. Will's captain of the Dutchman, Elizabeth is gone and I'm here trying to make something of myself," I say sadly, my heart sinking further into my stomach.
"A lot 'as changed and 'appened, dahling—but nothing we can't fix," he says with a strong and sly smile.
"What are you talking about Jack? Will is Captain of the Flying Dutchman—something he's bound to—and Elizabeth wants nothing to do with sea—surely she's too heart broken to go back to sea on another journey!" I exclaim, knowing how she must feel since I too felt I lost Jack for eternity.
"What if I tol' ye there is a way t' get both of them back?" he asks, his expression still sly.
"How do we get them back?" I ask, my attention piqued.
"Ye need t' come back with me, luv," he says finally.
"That's not a way…" I say, but stop and then look at him. There is no way I can fight it. "How do we get back?" I ask finally.
"The same way we got back b'fore," he says, smiling, his eyes wide.
"The song?" I ask.
"The song," he replies grinning and with a nod of his head.
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"Okay so basically, we need to tell my mom," I say finally to Jack parked in my driveway.
"Yer mum?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, 'me mum'" I mock his accent, rolling my eyes.
"Tell 'er what?" he asks, not really understanding.
"Tell her everything, Jack—tell her about the song and how I've been gone and such," I say.
"She doesn't know ye were gone?" he asks, his eyes widening.
"No! That's the weird part about this whole thing, Jack! In the very beginning when my mom and I went to Jamaica for the summer, I was eighteen years old. We went to my aunt's house to visit and then I discovered the song, somehow got into your century, met you, Will and Elizabeth and then you and I ended up back here in my century after the gallows, remember? Well the odd thing about that is that when you and I arrived here, no time elapsed here at all since I left. No time at all—it was as if time was at a standstill,"
"Well then shouldn't it be the same now? She didn't notice ye were gone because nothing 'appened while ye were gone, right?" he asks.
"No, here's the confusing part. So when the four of us got back to your century and traveled and such, I had my twenty-first birthday on board the Pearl while we were looking for you in the Locker. It has been two and a half years since my mother and I went to Jamaica that summer for our vacation—I know this because I have lived through it all. You know that it's been two and a half years since we met, right?"
"Aye, it 'as," he agrees with a nod of his head. "Go on,"
"Well, in theory with what happened before, when I somehow left the Pearl a month ago, when I got back here, technically, no time should have passed since we were last here, so it should technically still be 2005 and I should technically still be eighteen here, right?" I ask.
"Right," he says, slowly, gathering the information.
"Wrong. It's the year 2008 currently and I am still twenty-one, which makes sense for me since I have lived those years to get me from eighteen to twenty-one, but what doesn't make sense is how time could stand still that one time when I was away, and how time kept going the second time I was away—AND that my mother didn't notice I was gone the second time as time moved on without me. She claims I had been here all along, Jack," I say, a chill going down my spine.
"Hm, that is curious, pet," he says cautiously.
"Any explanations for me?" I ask, a bit irritated with the confusion of the situation.
"I think I may 'ave a clue as to why," he replies finally.
"You do?! Do explain then," I exclaim almost sarcastically.
He sits there for a moment gathering his thoughts.
"I 'ave a feeling the death of Davy Jones might 'ave something t' do with it," he says finally.
"No, see I thought that too, but that happened recently. It would have had to have happened like, a year and a half ago," I reply, rubbing my face in agitation.
"Aye. Then it must 'ave been yer Doppelganger, luv," he says.
"My what?" I ask, raising my eyebrows.
"Yer Doppelganger," he replies.
"And that is what?" I ask, crossing my arms.
"Yer Doppelganger is yer twin, pet. But ye can never see each other, or else the universe will end," he replies with wide eyes.
"You know, I think I've heard of those," I respond slowly putting it all together in my head. "But I don't think it could be a doppelganger because those are usually signs of illness and death. I've read that if someone sees a doppelganger, it's not for a long period of time. My mother's been acting as though I've been here the entire time," I reply.
"This is tough, pet," he states finally.
"Maybe it's a twin of me from a parallel universe!" I exclaim suddenly excited at the possibility of parallel universes actually being true, with parallel twins etc.
"Huh?"
"A parallel universe! Aside from the first time I traveled time, maybe to keep the space/time continuum consistent with the "current" time whatever it may be, a parallel universe twin takes my place to keep anything destructive from happening in the universe while I was gone!"
"Sure. Makes enough sense to me," he says finally with a shrug.
"So do you think there's a parallel Jack in your century right now?" I ask with a grin.
"Let's hope so, dahling. I can't imagine a world without me in it!"