Good morning, loves!
Thank you to Mel and Pamela!
XIV
BELLA
12 June 2007
Dupuyer, Montana, USA
Bella had been in Dupuyer for two months, one of the longest stretches she'd ever had in one place.
The town was too small for her to hide, and when she'd shown up in the middle of a field one April morning, everyone in the town's limits knew about her by lunch.
She'd been able to trade with an older couple—her help around the farm in exchange for lodging. The townsfolk all thought she was a runaway, and she let them continue to believe that about her. It was easier than the truth, anyway.
Phil Dwyer and his wife Ramona were kind, though strict. They'd raised four boys and three girls, and when Bella had stumbled into their lives, they'd picked her up as another dependent, even though their youngest child was thirty now and she was still a teenager.
Phil and Ramona had set Bella up, taught her how to milk the cows and care for the chickens. They clothed her, fed her, and got her enrolled in high school.
Bella—who had never been to school before in her life—knew it was likely she'd travel again before she ever stepped foot onto campus, so she never once complained about it.
But that first Monday had rolled around, and Ramona drove Bella to the high school, giving her a rambling pep talk about how just because Bella was a runaway, it didn't mean she had to throw her life away.
Bella didn't respond to the lecture, too focused on the experience pending before her.
High school was better and worse than she expected. It was asinine, and most of the information she was supposed to learn seemed more than useless, but she liked the chance to meet other kids her age. Or, what she thought was near her age anyway. Bella had lost track of exactly how old she was. She just knew she was somewhere around eighteen. Probably.
The transition had been hard, but Bella had figured out how to adjust to her new life and new responsibilites, and soon, Bella was actually enjoying herself.
She had a group of new friends, she was in school, and even the Dwyers were good to her.
Then of course, there was Peter.
Peter had been the first person she met at school, a boy with a wide smile and a cowboy hat perpetually covering his brown hair. He tucked his button down shirts into his denim jeans and wore a brown leather belt and tan cowboy boots; all things that felt foreign to Bella, but somehow worked on him.
He was generous and kind, and Bella, in her youthful naivete, fell hard and fast. He was the first crush she'd ever allowed herself, and with each passing day that Bella woke up in the Dwyer farmhouse, she felt herself fall just a tiny bit more.
What was perhaps the most astonishing part to Bella was that it seemed that Peter returned her affections. He walked her to class, held her books between lessons, and even started driving her around in his old beat-up truck.
He lived three farms over from the Dwyers', and Bella wanted to spend all her free time with him.
So that was what she did. She and Peter went everywhere together, even doing some of her chores for Ramona and Phil, just so they could spend the time with one another.
Peter was too good of a person to betray any trust Ramona and Phil placed in the kids, and though Bella was nowhere near ready to jump in bed with the boy and risk falling pregnant, she did like to think sometimes what would happen.
What if, her mind would wonder. What if this is meant to be it?
Maman had told her that there were no words to explain how she knew it was time to stop traveling; it had just come to her, like an instinct. She told Bella that one day, she too would know, but so far, Bella had had nothing remotely close to that sort of instinct pop up in her life.
All she knew was that she was happy, and there was a boy she really, really liked.
It was the night before graduation. Bella had managed to pull together enough credits to convince the school to let her graduate, and Peter had asked Bella out. Everything in her life was perfect.
She dressed for her date in her one jean skirt and a button down blouse. It wasn't the best outfit, she admitted to herself, but it was all she had.
Peter drove to her house, came to the door, and brought her flowers. They were yellow and bright as sunshine, and Bella nearly swooned over them as Ramona helped her find a vase.
With promises to be back before curfew, Bella and Peter left the Dwyers' house in his pickup truck.
Peter held her hand while he drove, and Bella felt her heart flutter as he sang along to the country songs coming from his radio. She didn't know any of the music, but she liked to hear him sing.
The sun hadn't set yet when they finally pulled off the highway. Peter had a picnic basket packed in the bed of his truck, along with a few blankets, and he parked in just the right spot for them to watch the sun set below a vast meadow edged by towering purple mountains.
Bella had never seen anything quite like it.
They ate food Peter's mother had prepared, and while Bella quietly marveled over something as extraordinary as homemade bread, Peter talked.
"There's a whole world out there," Peter said, his head tilting toward the horizon. Bella nodded, savoring the buttery sweetness of the homemade bread keeping her sandwich together.
"There is," she agreed.
"A big old world, full of hardships and problems, and not enough kindness to go around."
Bella turned to watch Peter's profile. He was frowning, his head tilting as his thoughts grew more troubled.
"There's a lot going on out there," she agreed quietly. She wasn't sure what else to say. If she told him half of what she knew, he'd probably leave her in this meadow, calling her crazy as he drove off.
Instead, Peter nodded, reaching for a bottle of pop. He took a long swig before looking at Bella.
"I wanna be the one to fix it," he told her.
Bella's hands faltered around her sandwich. "What do you mean?"
Peter smiled that wide, easy smile. "I'm going to be president one day," he decided.
Bella choked, reaching for her own bottle of pop. "What?"
Peter shrugged, leaning back and tilting his head up toward the sky. In the dimming evening, he looked like he was glowing in golden light.
"I can do it," he said confidently. "I've been taking the classes I'll need. I've been accepted for college in the fall. I can make a difference in this world; I know I can."
Bella gaped at him. She'd never known anyone so confident, so sure of themselves or their place in the world. It was as terrifying to hear him declare all this as it was thrilling.
"You're serious," Bella said softly. She tried desperately to recall all the American presidents, but there were so many of them, and after a while, they had blurred together. Could he make it? Could he actually succeed?
Peter turned to her, his hands motioning in front of him. "I've got it all planned out," he told her. "I know my path, know the stances I'm going to take on everything. I may be a simple country boy, but I know this world. I can fix it."
Bella saw something in him, something she hadn't seen in many other people before. Peter had conviction, not only in himself, but in his beliefs.
At that moment, Bella fully believed he would do it. He'd find a way to be president.
She didn't know how, nor when, but one day, this simple country boy would lead a nation.
She could almost see it.
Peter and Bella laid in the bed of his pickup truck, counting stars while he told her about his plans, how he would save the world. The more he spoke, the more Bella trusted in him. He could do it. He could really, really do it.
True to his word, Peter got Bella home before her curfew. They shared a kiss on the Dwyers' front porch—Bella's first—and as she started inside with a promise to see him tomorrow for graduation, Peter smiled at her and left her with these parting words: "Tomorrow, Bella. Tomorrow it all changes. Tomorrow, we change the world."
Bella didn't know what her role in this new world would be, but she was swept up in Peter's dream.
But tomorrow never came. Bella woke up the next morning in a jungle in Vietnam, three hundred years before Peter would ever be born. It wasn't until she traveled again, three weeks later to 2156 Denmark that Bella learned what had happened to Peter.
A drunk driver had killed him on his way to graduation the next morning. His family, devastated by the news, fell apart, and the small town of Duyuper, once possibly destined for greatness by being the birthplace of a president, faded into obscurity, becoming nothing more than an inconsequential blip on the map.
Bella swore to herself that she would never fall for someone else's dreams again.
Again, if it was unclear, this chapter happened in Bella's past, not her present. See you next week!
