I felt the strength sap from my body. "Is that supposed to comfort me? He's still dead."
Diana nodded. "Yes, he is still dead."
I waited for a moment, and as the swirling mists enveloped the fountain, I started to cry again.
"Can you send me back again?" I asked, just as Diana began to fade from my sight as well.
"My child, not many people get a second chance, and fewer still get a third."
"But can you?" I asked, hope filling my voice.
Diana snapped back into my vision. For the first time, she looked less confident. "I can never send you back to the time that you just visited. However..."
"You can send me back again," I finished her sentence. She paused. There was clearly something keeping her from sending me back. "I have to go back again."
She smiled, but there was clearly pain behind her words. "Words did not persuade Tony last time. What makes you think that he will listen to you at another time?"
"If you can do it, I have to go. I have to try."
Another pause. "I can send you back, just one more time." Elation filled me, but she quickly added, "There are some... complications, though."
I smiled through my tears. "I don't care. Please send me back."
She still looked stern. "Before you go, you must listen to what I have to say. Once I send you back, I can no longer rescue you. The future will be set in stone. In addition, the task has become harder now. I will send you back to the date that you are most likely to succeed."
"The date I'm most likely to succeed?" I frowned. "I thought the last day we were together was the best day."
Diana gave me a gentle smile. "No. On the day he left you, the threads of time were tightly woven. The fabric was already set. On the date that I send you to now, there is a possibility for a new design."
A glimmer of hope began to flicker, raising my spirits and stopping my tears. I had another chance. A better chance.
"Unfortunately, that also means that there is a greater risk to you." Diana peered at me with her magic green eyes. I could feel the weight of her words. "If the pattern can be changed, then you can be taken out of it as well. You could change all other timelines as well. Do you still wish to continue?"
"Yes," I answered without hesitation. "I would do anything for him."
"Then good luck to you, child," Diana whispered. I closed my eyes as she kissed my forehead, and I felt the mists of time swirl around me once again.
Chapter 12
August 1, 1990
For the second time
I woke up in a room that I hadn't been in for over twenty years; my first apartment in Los Angeles. My eyes shot open, and I sat up quickly, making myself dizzy with the movement. The room was exactly as I remembered it, but without the veneer of memory. The room was barely bigger than a broom closet. I laughed a little to myself, thinking how it was even smaller than I had remembered it. In fact, I remembered it as far more glamorous.
The mattress was on the floor with unpacked boxes scattered throughout the small space. Water stains on the walls that hadn't bothered me in my twenties disgusted me now. The paint was peeling off the ceiling, and I could hear the hum of traffic through the wall. Now that I had lived in a nice apartment, the glamor of simply being in LA was gone for me. I missed my future apartment already.
I could hear the TV through the thin door, the voices of the news punctuated by my roommate's one sided conversation and laughter as she talked on the phone. Letters from Tony sat open on the box I was using as a nightstand. The ink was still dark and the paper white. I had read them so many times since this moment that I was used to them being yellow and aged. These were fresh and new.
I stood up slowly, expecting my h*ps and knees to protest from rising from the floor. But my twenty-two-year-old body made the motion easily. I ended up almost falling over because I was overcompensating and expecting pain. The ease of it all made me laugh.
Youth really is wasted on the young, I thought to myself with a giggle. I glanced at the mirror leaning against the wall and ran my hand through my blonde hair. It was tangled from the night of sleep, but I still looked good. I stretched my hands overhead, enjoying the way my body moved and responded.
I opened the door to the main room where my roommate had the TV on full blast and was still chatting on the phone. I nearly laughed again as I realized she was talking on a corded landline. I had forgotten that cell phones weren't around yet, let alone the thin little smart phones I was used to. I was rather glad to know that particular technology was on its way.
The newscaster on the TV had on a terrible '90's style dress coat with big shoulders and a haircut that made his head look two sizes too small for the coat. I shook my head a little at the fashion sense of the time. I remembered thinking it was fantastic back then, but with a modern perspective, we all looked neon and overdone.
I took another look at the TV screen, noticing the box in the corner said it was seven in the morning on August 1st. I started to laugh uncontrollably as I realized I knew what I was going to do. I knew why the fountain had sent me here, and I really should have asked to come here the first time. I knew the future on this date. I knew things that no one else could because I had been here already.
"What are you laughing at?" my roommate asked, holding her hand over the phone receiver. I managed to keep a straight face at her ridiculous puffy mullet hairstyle and neon pink wind-breaker outfit. I grinned at her, feeling almost giddy. I really could convince him this time. I was going to save my Tony.
"I'm going to need a ride to the airport," I told her. She looked at me like I was crazy, but I didn't care. I was going to see Tony.
***
"Here's Fort Sam Houston, miss," the taxi cab driver said, slowing to a stop in front of an impressive looking gate. I could see a guard in the booth checking I.D.s. I took a shaky breath. Now that I was actually here, actually about to go see Tony and tell him I was from the future, I was nervous.
I had hopped on the first flight I could find. It was actually rather nice traveling by plane pre-9/11. I was able to bring a bottle of water and I didn't have to take off my shoes in security. Some things really were better in this simpler time, I had thought to myself.
I handed the driver his fare and opened the car door. The sweltering heat of Texas in August hit me like a fist in the face. I grabbed my backpack filled with all the clothes I could stuff in it. I had everything with me that I would need to disappear. I just hoped that, after tomorrow, I would need it.