Chapter 22: Home Sweet Home?
A/N: Wow, this is so hard! I really love this story, but it's really hard to finish. I am going to finish it. It's mostly school work getting in the way. That, plus lack of inspiration. Now I'm blowing off school work to write. Aren't you proud. Enjoy the chapter, after this, only the epilogue, then over.
The spinning took a while to stop. It took me a while to get myself oriented. When my feet hit solid ground again, I nearly feel over. I saw Aidan and Melinda stumble beside me. Cautiously, I picked myself up and looked around. It was the same old living room, just as I had known it. After nearly a month, we had actually done it. We were home! Well, Aidan didn't live here, but our adventure was over.
Just to make sure I was in my own time, I checked out the framed photos hanging on the wall. I saw pictures of myself and Melinda that were taken just recently. Other pictures included my sister and the rest of my family. It was the right time alright. Next to me, Melinda and Aidan were brushing themselves off. "When are we?" Aidan asked looking around. He was so stupid sometimes. Too bad he was also so cute.
"Our time doofus", Melinda said, punching him in the arm. Those two would never get along. I didn't answer them. I didn't know if they were feeling like I was, but it was indescribable. It was like a tingling of excitement throughout my whole body. The time I had spent in the passed seemed like part of a different lifetime. It was surreal to finally be back, with all my family.
Speaking of family, I felt a familiar presence up in the attic. I hadn't felt it for a long time, but I still knew who it was. My mother was up in the attic. I was bursting with anticipation. "Stay here", I said to Melinda and Aidan. I made my way slowly to the stairs leading up to the attic.
I knew that I should tell them where I was going, but it suddenly wasn't very important. During my time in the past, I had learned a lot about myself and everyone around me. One thing I was sure of was that I needed my mother. I had also become even closer to my cousin if possible. I didn't know about Aidan, but I knew that I still wanted to get to know him in the present day.
I telepathically sent a message to Melinda saying," I'm going to see my mom. I need some time alone." She didn't come after me or anything. She understood, being the wonderful person that she was.
As I walked up the stairs, I tried to imagine the joyous reunion with my mother. What would we say to each other? I had been gone so long, I didn't even know if she was looking for me anymore. I hoped the reunion would be happy. We didn't really have much to say to each other before I had been pulled into the past. Still, I wanted things to go back to the way they were before.
My intention had been to burst through the attic door and announce myself. It never occurred to me that my mother had been doing anything important in the attic. I had reached the door, then I stopped. What I saw froze me in my tracks. I was in shock.
My mother was in the attic, just as I had sensed. She was doing magic. On an alter was a photo of me. It was my most recent school photo, and I looked horrible. In front of her was a large bowl we used for gathering potion ingredients. I stepped closer, and she still didn't see me. That's when I saw the blood.
There was a deep cut on her palm, and by the knife beside her, I knew she had done it herself. What was going on here? Then I heard her chanting, and immediately I understood. "Blood to blood I summon thee, blood to blood return to me." She thought I was dead.
"Mom?" I said softly. I knew she would think she had seen a ghost. I should have figured out that she would have lost hope of ever finding me. My heart broke for her. She turned around to see me. She looked at me, and even though she had been doing the spell, she looked stunned. Slowly, she got up and walked towards me. Her hand was still bleeding a lot, but she didn't seem to care.
Her eyes were still red and blotchy from crying, but I saw her smile. It looked like she was about to hug me, but she stopped. "I'm not a ghost mom, I was never dead", I told her. I didn't even need to read her mind. She didn't ask me any questions. I knew that at least now, questions weren't necessary. She had quickly changed from the utterly defeated woman I had seen when I walked in the door.
"We…we had a funeral for you and Mel", she said. She was crying again, but this time, I was pretty sure they were tears of joy. I couldn't even imagine what it would have been like for her or Aunt Piper. It must have been devastating for the rest of the family as well. We were back now, so thing's would be better. Everything was going to be okay, wasn't it? "What about Mel…and that boy?" my mother asked all of a sudden.
"They're downstairs", I said brightly. I didn't know why, but things were suddenly awkward between us.
She followed me down the stairs where Melinda and Aidan were still waiting. My mother squealed in excitement when she saw Melinda. She wrapped my cousin in a hug, and began talking very fast. "Oh my god! I'm so happy to see you Melinda. Piper's going to be thrilled. I have to call her. Everything's going to be okay now", she said all at once. I found it pretty amusing. I was happy to see her be hapy again.
Aidan was standing a back a little awkwardly. I guess it must have been a little weird for him, being in the presence of the mother of your sort of girlfriend. My mom would never let him off the hook. "Who's this young man?" my mother asked coily. I liked that she could still talk as casually as this, after thinking her baby was dead. I suspected that she was still in shock.
Aidan of course didn't answer, being the wimp that he was. I answered for him. "This is Aidan, he's my friend", I said. I left it at that. I didn't want to get into anymore details. However, my mother understood more than I wanted her to. She wasn't even telepathic. How is it that mothers know everything? My mom winked at me, and Aidan caught it. Nothing burst into flames, which mean he was getting better.
"So, where is everyone?" I asked my mother. My cousin Melinda was staying very quiet. I couldn't say I was surprised. I had always been the more outgoing one, and we had been through a lot. I was used to my house filled with people, and noisy. The house had probably been like that for a hundred years. It was weird that only my mom was home.
"Well, actually…" my mom began. She sounded very awkward, and it was like she was hiding something. After all this time, she could still read her mother like a book. She wondered if her mother could do that too.
"Come on mom, tell me", I said gently. I put a comforting arm around her shoulder. She had lost her upbeat demeanour from mere moments ago. Now she looked as if the world was going to crumble around her. I had been naïve to think everything would just be okay. No one could disappear for a month, and come back and expect nothing to have changed. I just wished that we could pretend that it never happened. I knew that would never work.
"It's your funeral…both of yours." She said. Then she sank down onto the armchair. I felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me. It was a surreal feeling. How would we explain this? It was one thing to be missing, but to have a funeral, and then explain it away. We had to stop that funeral. If it was me, I would have fainted in shock. I wanted to call them right away. They had to come home, and then we would be a family.
Melinda, who had been quite, finally decided to be the voice of reason. "How is there a funeral if there's no bodies?" she asked. That made a lot of sense. Anyways, I thought since we were in the past where our parents had seen us, that they would have some memory of our interference. I guess that didn't happen. Thinking of time travel made my head hurt sometimes. How someone could even spend a month in the past was very confusing.
'I guess Grams modified their memory', I said telepathically to Melinda. I wasn't sure why I didn't want my mother to hear, but I didn't.
'She did that a lot. I'm surprised that they didn't get brain damage or something', Melinda said with a smile.
There was a silence that seemed to last forever. It was very awkward, and I hated it. The awkwardness was broken by a small fire that sprung up from the carpet. I guess Aidan felt more uncomfortable than even I did. " Aidan, put it out", I said to the corner of my mouth. He concentrated, and the fire disappeared.
"Well, that was hot", my mom said with a smile. It was a lame joke, but I couldn't help but smile. Anything to fill the awkward silence between us. I looked to Melinda, but she didn't say anything. I guess it was up to me to say something again. I thought of something, anything that I could say. I came up blank. Thankfully, I didn't need to think of anything.
My mother went to the phone. "I have to call them now. They're going to be shocked", my mother said. That was the understatement of the century. While she was on the phone, I tried to figure out what was going on. It was hard since I was only listening to my mother's side of the conversation, but I think I got the gist of it.
First, it seemed as if Aunt Piper didn't believe her. Then from the excitement in my mother's voice, I figured that she had gotten her message across. When my mother hung up, I heard that Aunt Piper and the whole family would be over in about an hour. I couldn't wait to see them all. I was so excited.
"Well, she was a bit doubtful, but she can come here and see this for herself", my mother told me. I was very happy that I was going to see my Aunt Piper. I also wanted to see my sister and all my other cousins. Melinda was excited too. I'm sure she had missed her mother as much as I had missed mine. She had always loved being around her two older brothers. Then my mother said, "Of course, you'll all have to tell us where you were."
I had been happy until she had said it. I had been dreading her saying that. It was over now, and I never wanted to speak of it again. I hoped that in this case, at least Melinda would help me out. Aidan was still standing there awkwardly. " I'd…um…I'd better go", Aidan said quickly. Just as quickly, he was out the door. I was kind of happy to see him go, at least for now. It was really weird having him there.
I was going to say something else, but then the events of the past month got to me all of a sudden. Since I had gone to the past, I don't remember having one good night's sleep. I was tired, but I didn't want to show it. I was too excited to see my family again. I yawned, being unsuccessful at stifling it. Melinda yawned to. Unfortunately, my mother caught it.
"You must be tired", she said. Again, that was an understatement. I was exhausted. "You have to take a nap", my mother said. Normally I would argue. It's not like I'm five years old. I was just so exhausted.. Melinda didn't argue either. We just took a couch each and lay down. We didn't even talk. In mere moments, I was sound asleep.