Thirteen
Every single hair on my body stood on end as a wave of pure fear washed over me like a cold shiver, freezing me on the spot. I looked at my licence in his hand and my mind raced with all of the possible ways that everything was about to go wrong.
“Gwyn, I can explain,” I said, though I had no actual idea how I could and I left the statement hanging there without anything to back it up. I tried to reach out to him but he moved his arm away from me like he no longer knew who I was anymore.
“What even is this?” he asked, trying to bend the plastic card between his fingers. “Why does it say you were born in 1971, Tom? And all these other dates…? They’re years from now. I don’t understand what this is?”
He waved the card at me and then threw it at my chest, getting angrier the longer I went without explaining myself.
“You wouldn’t understand. It’s hard to explain.”
“So, you’re not even going to try?”
“I don’t know what to say, Gwyn. You won’t believe me and even if you thought that I was being truthful you’d still think I was mad. You should just go.”
I didn’t want him to leave but I had no way to explain myself and in a return to form it felt easier to push him away than to just be honest about things.
“I’m not going anywhere until you explain yourself,” he said. His voice was getting louder, though he did reach out and put his hand on mine which gave me an element of relief. My heart was already racing and I didn’t think I could handle seeing him get mad at me as well.
“I don’t even know where to start.”
“Anywhere, Tom. Start anywhere. Just be honest with me.”
“I’m not from here,” I blurted it out, deciding to just be truthful with him and deal with the consequences later.
“Well, I know that.”
“No, I’m not from here,” I said, waving my arms all around me. “This time, this year. I don’t know how I got here. I was born in 1971. I was living in 1998 and then I woke up one day a few months ago and I was here, in Wales, in this time, with no idea how I got here.”
“If you’re not going to tell me the truth then I’ll leave,” he said, reaching for his clothes.
“Look,” I said, shoving my fingers into the back of my wallet and pulling out a photograph. “This is me with my brother and sister and my parents.” I held up the photograph taken years earlier, in full colour and replete with eighties hair and clothing. He took it in hand and studied it, looking between the photograph and my face as if trying to confirm it was really me.
“I don’t understand,” he said, rubbing a hand across his eyes.
“I swear to you it’s the truth. I was out with my brother and I’d had a bit too much to drink. I passed out and when I woke up I was in your field. I thought my brother was playing a prank or I’d wandered off, but then I met your sister and saw your house…”
“But how?”
“I don’t know.” I reached over to the cubby, grabbed the ring and held it out to him. “I’m fairly certain it was this.”
“That’s Jack’s ring. I’ve seen it before.”
I contemplated for a second about how much I should reveal, but I figured having come this far I may as well just get it all out.
“Jack hasn’t run away with Elinor. At least I don’t think so. I think he travelled forward to my time. Well, to some time before I was born. And then he met my mother…” I trailed off and he looked at me, eyes widening. I held out the photo of my family again for him to see. “He’s my father.”
“Jesus!” he said, raising the photograph close to his face and studying it. “It looks just like him. Older, but just like him.”
“Not just like him. It is him. He died a few months ago, in 1998, when he was 63 years old. I found this ring in his belongings and when I put it on it started glowing and I ended up here. Elinor had a necklace that was made of the same thing. I think she might have gone through time, too.”
“This is too much,” he said, rubbing his brow. “How? Wait, so the Hopkin’s are your grandparents?”
“Yes. I didn’t know at first, I swear. I saw a photograph in their bedroom and my father was in it. That’s why I was running the other day when you came and found me in the top field. That’s when I found out.”
“And that’s what you said I wouldn’t understand?”
“Exactly.”