Map: Part XIX (The End)
At that moment, looking into Rosie’s warm brown eyes, Aaron didn’t even think about being embarrassed about the tears drying on his cheeks.
All he could think of was what had to happen next.
And she knew it, he could see it in her face: the hard set of her jaw, the slight pull in her eyebrows, the firm press of her lips.
Who knows, maybe another version of him had already told her.
“Have you already done all of this?” he couldn’t help but ask, still swimming in her eyes.
She blinked at him and took her hand back. “Not this.” Her gaze flickered to the journal in his hand. “Everything’s different. After you read that, you got up and threw the book down. You were so angry, yelling things. I guess something’s different this time around.”
Aaron was puzzled by this. Apparently he had acted completely different, yet the circumstances were nearly identical.
A moment passed where neither of them said a thing.
“You know you have to reverse everything. All of it,” Rosie said finally.
Aaron had been staring at the ceiling, thoughts whirling in his mind. “My dad. Is he the worst dad in the world, or the best?”
Rosie laughed mirthlessly. “Your dad’s the best. He loves you.” She looked away, her eyes hardening.
“I’m sorry,” he said, realizing that it was a stupid question. Even after, and possibly especially after, reading the journal, Aaron knew that his own dad was still a better father than Rosie’s.
She gave him a tight smile. “You shouldn’t be.”
Aaron drew his legs up, hugging his knees. Both of them were still.
“Rosie?”
“Yes?”
Aaron’s eyes caught on the pocket watch, which she had set on the floor next to them. “What if we could change your dad?”
Rosie’s features changed so fast he could barely register them.
She stood, towering over him, eyes widening, mouth falling open. It was indignation, astonishment, and confusion. “We can’t…He’s unfixable! How do you propose—You can’t possibly think this stupid watch could force a man to take care of his daughter?” Her voice had started out raised, furious words tumbling out, but by the end her words had lost their edge.
Aaron stood to meet her, eyes searching her face. He was surprised that she hadn’t turned away yet, hadn’t hidden behind her hair.
“He’s a drunk, Aaron. He never loved me. I’m just a waitress to him, a personal servant. Even magic couldn’t fix that.”
In every version of Aaron imagining finally speaking to Rosie about her father, all of them had involved tears, which had always been a pretty good motivator to never bring him up. But now Rosie spoke in a low, matter-of-fact tone, and that was more terrifying than anything.
She had accepted that things were the way they were. After years of hiding out in Aaron’s house or the library, she knew that when she got home it would always be the same.
She couldn’t fight back; she was a child that needed a parent. If she lost her dad, she thought she’d have no one. And when Aaron abandoned her as a friend, she really did have no one.
“Listen,” Aaron said quietly. She eyed him warily as he took a slow step towards her. “You know I’ve never been good at this. I’ve let you have your space, and I never pried about your life or your dad. But I wanted to be there. I made up those little adventures because they made you smile.” Rosie looked down at her shoes, but Aaron kept going. “When we drifted apart, I didn’t mean to never hang out with you again, but I felt like I needed an excuse to. And I constantly wish that I’d made a different decision, that I’d stayed your friend, that I’d confronted your dad.”
“You really don’t want to do that.” She glanced up and let out a choked laugh. She looked back down as soon as his eyes met hers.
“You don’t understand, Rosie, I’d do anything for you. Maybe I’m just like my dad, because I’d do dumb things for you.”
He was close to her now, close enough to hear her rough breath, and when she looked up again, her eyes were shiny with unshed tears. “Don’t say that. Don’t say any of it,” she whispered.
“I’ll say it. I’ll say it even if you won’t remember it,” he told her. And with a little sway forward, he kissed her.
It was nothing like he’d ever expected from her. It was desperate.
She ran a hand through his hair, her other hand cupping his face. His own hands held her hips lightly, as if she was just a mirage, and too much pressure would make her disappear.
She pulled away, her eyes closed.
He felt an ominous pool of uneasiness settle in his center, but still, he smiled.
Her eyes opened, and they were dark. Her lips curved into the smallest of smiles, and her hand was still on his cheek. She slowly took her hand back, their eyes unbreaking.
“Can we do it again?” Aaron whispered.
She just laughed and stepped away. A real laugh. “Not now, Torres.”
He sighed loudly but couldn’t keep the grin off his face.
x x x
“You know what you have to do,” Rosie said with a sad smile. She reached down and picked up the watch off the ground, holding it out to Aaron.
He put his hand on top of it but didn’t take it. “But you’ll forget everything,” he stated. They both knew this, and his heart sank.
She nodded and stepped closer to him, and her hair fell in front of her eyes.
Aaron brushed the hair away, conscious of how her breath stopped when he touched her face. He let his hand linger, let his fingers brush against her skin. “You should do it,” he tried.
“You’ll just want to find the treasure again. I don’t even have to know about it. You have to reverse everything.”
She was right, so he took the watch, dropped his hand from her face. He’d thought about this hard, and so had she. Of course they couldn’t bring the watch with them; it was too dangerous. And they needed to reset the puzzles to keep it safe, keep it hidden. Fernando Buchante was right; no one else should know about the watch.
Aaron’s eyes flickered to Rosie’s. I’ll miss you, he thought at her. She shifted on her feet, arms crossed. She acted impatient, but her eyes were still sad.
“Let’s do this,” she said.
Aaron took Rosie’s hand one last time. This version of Rosie, the one that knew. “Goodbye,” he whispered.
He opened the watch, click.
And then he watched time undo itself.
x x x
The sun was shining, the trees were swaying in the breeze, and the air was crisp. It was morning.
Aaron felt the same wave of nausea he’d experienced the first time he’d used the watch. It was worse this time, which he suspected was from traveling further back. After a minute, the feeling passed, but everything still felt wrong.
He could barely believe that it worked. He was steps away from the bench in the park, which meant he’d reversed to his intended spot in time. He looked around and down, noting his palm. The cut he’d gotten at the very beginning of their adventure was gone. He felt strangely sad to have lost it, and traced where it had been with his finger.
Suddenly, his stomach flipped as he remembered that Rosie would be coming soon. How could he look at her after what they’d been through? Warmth spread through his inside, then up to his face.
The Rosie he had kissed: gone.
x x x
He was still standing there, thinking, when he heard her footsteps.
She looked the same as she had when he had first seen her walk up this path. But this time, he felt queasy.
“You know why I’m here,” she said. She was still weary and detached.
He just stared at her, trying to think of something to say. Would could he possibly say?
She shook her head angrily, and her dark hair fell in her face. She rolled her eyes. “Ugh, come on, speak. What is this, a prank?”
He wanted to touch her hair, whisper to her as he once had.
“I’ve got a map to a time machine!” he exclaimed instead. He flopped down on the bench, telling himself to act natural.
She eyed him suspiciously. “Uh-huh. Listen, there are a lot of other things I could be doing, Torres.”
“I have a project, Rosie,” he said, mimicking what she had said to him in the library. God, that felt like it was years ago. Aaron patted the bench, and grudgingly, Rosie sat next to him.
She leaned her head back and squinted at the sky, just like she had before. He pushed away the ache in his chest.
“You know I don’t have anything else to do. You’re using me.”
He laughed this time. “You came here. I didn’t do anything,” he said with a grin in her direction. She made a face at him, but he wasn’t deterred. “You know what we’re going to do today? We’re going to go explore. The whole town, anywhere, wherever you want.”
Rosie sat up and gave him the weirdest look. “You do realize we haven’t spoken extendedly to each other in years… and now you want to hang out? What is up with you?”
Aaron shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. “I guess it’s kind of weird, but I just want do something fun. An adventure.”
“And I thought I read too many books,” he thought he heard her mutter.
He stood and stuffed his hand into his jacket pocket, quickly pulling the sheet of folded paper out of the book before revealing The Deadly Princess to Rosie. “Let’s go! Also, here’s that book, if you still want it.”
Her eyes flickered over him, dark and unyielding. She was going to say no; he had really messed up. But then he saw that telltale spark light up in her eyes, and she pushed herself off the bench.
Nimbly, Rosie swiped the book from his hand and began walking slightly ahead of him, as if daring him to catch up. She leafed through the pages, and he thought he heard her chuckle. “I wasn’t going to check this out,” she called over her shoulder. “This book looks like crap. I just wanted you to go away.”
Easily, he caught up and fell in step beside her, and he saw the flicker of her smile before she let her face fall back into aloof annoyance. “And look where you are now,” he said with a little laugh.
He ignored the map in his pocket, burning like a dark secret.
A rueful smile played on her lips, and she repeated, “Look where I am now.”
Read Part I: https://theprose.com/post/243841/map